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From: owner-traveller-digest@mpgn.com (Traveller-digest)
To: traveller-digest@Phaser.ShowCase.MPGN.COM
Subject: Traveller-digest V1996 #772
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Traveller-digest    Wednesday, December 18 1996    Volume 1996 : Number 772



(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Starships armour and fuel
Re: Toilets & Showers on Deckplans
Re: TCS construction times, HG ship design
Deckplans for T4 supplement
Re: Ken Whitman's "Advice"
Re: Traveller: Tastes Good, Hard to Digest
Re: Hull Shapes...
T4,Starships et al
What would happen if ....
SSDS
Re: "Special Offers"
Re: Deckplans for T4 supplement
Re: Fleet Repair Ship
Re: Jumpspace.
Re: What would happen if ....
Re: Deckplans for T4 supplement

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 18:02:15 -0500
From: Doug Sinclair <diemos@io.org>
Subject: Starships armour and fuel

I've only been on the list a few days, so this may have already been
discussed.  First off, an erratum in the Starships book.  On page 75, in
the armor section, it reads "Convert the armour value chosen using the
USP Conversion chart below."  I believe this should be "Multiply the
armor value by the ship displacement in tons and convert this using the
USP Conversion chart below."  This seems to work for the hulls given in
the QSDS.

Now a question.  What is with the fuel ratings for small craft?  The
starship fuel ratings mostly make sense, figureing them to be in tons. 
However, the small craft ratings conflict with the design notes and with
common sense.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 10:11:48 +1100
From: "Phillip McGregor" <aspqrz@curie.dialix.com.au>
Subject: Re: Toilets & Showers on Deckplans

> Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 13:30:25 +0000
> From: Andy Lilly <a.s.lilly@nortel.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #763
> 
> Eric Freitas <edf@atlantic.net> said (about deckplan designs):
> 
> >Don't forget the bathrooms either!!!
> 
> The cabin design I use for the Lintula Sunrise has a composite
shower/toilet
> cubicle in one corner. I can't remember off the top of my head how much
> detail I wrote into TLWH about it, but the toilet is a
fold-out-of-the-wall
> minimalist design. EVERYONE is expected to sit down at it, not stand (for
> safety reasons and to allow a simple suction system [or something like
that]
> to remove the results). One could envisage long suction hoses being used
for
> certain purposes but I think after the first few law suits for damage to
> sensitive organs (over-suction, blow-back, etc.) that these might be
> discontinued! :-)
> 
> Covering things like this is a constant problem. The number of deckplans
and
> floorplans I've created 'on the spot' for my games and then realised that
> there are no toilets, or that the hotel's dining room is on the opposite
> side of the building from the kitchens, or...
> 
> Andy :-)

For those of you who have been off in Siberia or somewhere equally remote
from the TML, Dark Star #2 is now available - and, guess what, one of the
articles included is on the Ila'u ("Lucky") Class Modular Scout-Courier ...
and included as part of the design are standard High and Middle Passage
Cabin layouts that show the placement of all internal fittings ... yep,
*including* space for a shower/toilet (or bathroom, if you're a yank) and
closet space. Suffice it to say that the rooms are *nothing* like as
spacious as the one depicted in DG's "Starship Operator's Manual", but
*are* fitted into the 3 ton displacement space listed in all iterations of
Traveller (and allowing for one ton of personal baggage as well).

These are drawn with a cheap little "Home Floorplan" layout program that
gives rather nice results - and shows *exactly* to scale all the likely
fitments.

Cost is 5stg to the UK, US$7 to the US (you can send cash, a Bank Draft or
Postal Money Order ... assuming your Post Office hasn't abolished them! -
but *no* personal checks on your local bank ... it costs more to clear than
the amount you'll send. No subs are available as DS is a *fanzine* and not
necessarily all that regular - other parts of the world check with me -
that's for the print-on-paper version (and there are still over 20 of the
30 printed left! :-(

It is *also* available as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file for electronic
transmission - check with me for costs.

They make a great Xmas present - though you wouldn't get them in time for
Xmas, unfortunately, as it's rather latish (unless you live in Oz, of
course!)

Phil
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip McGregor | aspqrz@.curie.dialix.oz.au
Have Game Designer, Will Travel

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 18:43:57 -0500
From: Michael Nutt <misha@crossrds.com>
Subject: Re: TCS construction times, HG ship design

Thad Coons and I have been bandying about thoughts on High Guard ships and
construction times....
>
><snippage throughout>
>
>> Hmmm... but how are you going to determine the number of "shipyard
>> production workers", to coin a phrase? Just by referee fiat?
>
>As a matter of fact, I hadn't worked that out yet. The best I could do
>anyway is to suggest maximum probable limits. A world's UWP can suggest its
>potential industrial capacity, but whether it builds starhips or asteroid
>mining equipment or somesuch else is up to the referee.
>Come to think of it, "shipyard production workers" is a bad term: "Starship
>construction industry workers" is better, but that's still a mouthful. 

<grin> true, it is a mouthful... although accurate. I do think that
starships (and particularly military ones) will *be* major products for
worlds with TL 15 and an A class starport, and the worlds in my games
reflect this. Still, if a world  has 10 *billion* folks, a certain amount of
capability in every industrial area is going to be a given, I'd say.

>> Well, I can see your point here, but the rate you mentioned earlier 
>> was awfully darned slow, IMO ("1-2 MCr per hundred production workers
>> per month", as I recall). If it takes 100 guys 1 month to install one
>> light laser turret, then the shipyard must have hired them away from
>? the Highway Department, where eight guys stand around watching one guy
>> swing a pick every 60 seconds.  :)    I'd be much more inclined to cut
>> a break for civilian vessels on the time required. 
>
>Maybe four guys could *install* the laser turret in half a day-- but where
>I come from, weapon's turrets don't exactly grow on trees. Somebody has to
>build the things. Many of the starship's components will be manufactured
>elsewhere by different people, and then assembled. By the time you get to
>the components of the components, you're talking about a noticeable
>fraction of the whole planet's industrial base. That sounds better to me
>anyway.

Well, Instellarms *is* one of the thirteen megacorps in the Imperium, after
all...and weapons are also going to be standardized for a Navy production
contract. I still think that rate mentioned above is too slow.

>> However, I don't follow your last sentence quoted above... what
>> "benefits" are we talking about here?
>
>The "benefits" of a military vessel are, of course, its ability to break
>things and hurt people. What can a 17 trillion credit heavy battleship do
>that 350,000 armed scout craft at 50 MCr each can't? Maybe bigger is
>better, maybe not.

<grin> And here we get to one of the key points in the High Guard
construction sequence for military ships. It's been over ten years since I
ran the numbers out, so I don't have them at my fingertips, but the *best*
way for a military starship to inflict damage is with a spinal mounted meson
gun, and you can only put in one of those per hull, no matter what size the
hull is. Also, if you look at the damage done by a really *big* meson gun
(factor N or greater), it'll produce enough damage to put any ship it hits
out of action until dockyard repairs can be effected, if it just doesn't
eliminate it altogether. And hull size doesn't help *here*, either, except
for saving you from some additional critical hits.

What this *means* is that the 500kton DN that gets hit by a factor R meson
gun, let's say for example, gets put out of action *almost* as often as a
40kton CA, with the small difference being due to the *extra* critical hits
due to the size of the ship. This monster DN, though, costs just as much per
ton (assuming the same capabilities... same armor, jump, maneuver, agility,
and so forth... which are all strictly proportional to size).
Cost-effectiveness suggests that spending the same amount of money on a
squadron of twelve CAs as opposed to the one DN provides *vastly* improved
firepower (12 spinal mounts, as opposed to only one), and a lot more
survivability, as twelve hits are required to put the entire squadron out of
action, as opposed to only one for the DN. The additional strategic
flexibility in having 12 hulls available as opposed to just one is simply
another major perk.

Where am I going with all this? Well, contrary to the canonical "Fighting
Ships"... I don't think the Imperium *ought* to build big DNs at all. At J3
a wonderfully capable CA can be built on 40 ktons, and at J4, an
equivalently capable ship can be built on about 70 ktons. Anything bigger
should be an auxiliary of some sort, a CVA or tanker or troop transport, for
instance. Bigger is *not* better, and is demonstrably worse, IMO. Packing
more stuff inside a bigger hull just gives you more stuff to be destroyed by
a meson gun hit, that's all. Your best defense is giving the enemy more
hulls to shoot at than he's got meson guns to shoot with.

>IMO, The heaviest battleships the imperium can build should be roughly
>comparable to WWII battleships or modern nuclear aircraft carriers.
>There are only a few of them, and once lost, they can't be replaced
>overnight. Maybe only one or two worlds in an entire sector can even build
>the biggest ones at all.

Well, the shortest times I've seen anyone mention here have been something
on the order of two years for a CA, and lots longer for bigger ships, which
isn't anywhere near "overnight". You can cross the length of the Imperium
and come back in all that time. "Only a few of them"? Look at the US Seventh
Fleet, in 1945... once the US got cranked up for full production, there were
carriers all over the place! I don't think the WWII model fits on all points
to Traveller, either, BTW, as you mention above. And as to just a few worlds
building them... how many TL 15, class A starport worlds do you run across
with enough population to do any significant shipbuilding? In the Spinward
Marches, for instance, there are four... Mora, Trin, Glisten, and Rhylanor.
Pallique is TL 14... and that's about *it*.

Michael
"When marriage is outlawed, only outlaws will have in-laws."

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 15:42:00 -0800 (PST)
From: "John R. Snead" <jsnead@netcom.com>
Subject: Deckplans for T4 supplement

Hi-

I'm writing a T4 supplement for GoldRush Games.  The supplement is about 
a small confederation of worlds, and in it will be two deckplans for
small, locally-made ships. 

I'm checking opinions here to see if the following format would be 
acceptable:

1) The USP

2) A brief description of the ship (300-400 words)

3) Crew rooster (usual and minimum)

4) Deckplans on the order of those in Traders and Gunboats, but 1.5 m squares,
and numbered rooms.

5) Descriptions of each number room


I could do 1 or 2 m squares, but 1.5 is the closest thing to standard
Traveller has and 0.5 m squares give too many lines for my taste. 

Comments greatly appreciated-


- -John Snead jsnead@netcom.com

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 17:12:02 -0600 (CST)
From: Joseph "Chepe" Lockett <jlockett@io.com>
Subject: Re: Ken Whitman's "Advice"

Quoth William F. Hostman:
> one last thjought: censorship, imposed or customary, self or external, is
> the death of what we call freedom. I'm not talking about "naughty words";
> censorship is about IDEAS. Mr Whitman has asked us to keep our thoughts to
> ourselves; had we done that, would Marc Miller have even tried to do t4?

Yet another flagrant misunderstanding of the meaning of the term "censorship."
Prohibition of self-censorship is a worse infringement on freedom: would
you force WalMart to carry all CD's ever produced?  Must the 7-11 in rural
Gopher Junction, South Dakota carry smutty magazines?  Should newspapers
print Holocaust revisionism advertisements?  This is just a poorly-thought-
out straw man.  Which is to say, it makes no sense.

As Bolie Williams so aptly pointed out, self-censorship is common and
necessary in all people but the insane.  Often it goes by the name of
"tact."  Which this list lacks in astonishing variety (see the above re:
'insane"?), and is all that Ken Whitman was asking for in the first place.

For that matter, I suspect Marc Miller would have produced T4 with our
without this list.  We helped shape it, certainly.  But don't arrogantly
inflate your own importance: viz. previously posted comparisons of the
size of TML vs. IG's worldwide sales, which bring to mind previous
comparisons between the size of a scout/courier and a dreadnought.

ObTraveller:  Doesn't sodium pentathol work by removing rational self-
censorship, in order to make victims babble on and hopefully divulge
useful information?  Might a more tightly-focused version (perhaps, say,
making the victim shut up but then say everything he thought when verbally
prompted?) appear at higher tech levels?  How does high-tech questioning
and interrogation go about?

- ----------------------------*------------------------*------------------------
 Joseph L. "Chepe" Lockett  |"Nullum magnum ingenium | GURPS fan, Amiga user,
http://www.io.com/~jlockett | sine mixtura dementiae | Shakespearean scholar,
  Email: jlockett@io.com    | fuit." -- Seneca       | actor and director.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 18:19:07 -0600
From: John Kovalic <muskrat@msn.fullfeed.com>
Subject: Re: Traveller: Tastes Good, Hard to Digest

Glenn Hoppe <starcity@eagle.wbm.ca> said (among other useful things):

- - -- - -- - --

IG needs an Art Director. I don't think they had a *real* Art Director
working on T4. A good Art Director has some knowledge of typography and
layout. S/He knows what is easy to read and how to communicate
effectively. S/He knows the difference between effective and
constructive art, which *enhances* the text, helps illustrate a point,
or provides setting and background for the information presented, and
pure "fluff".

A good Art Director isn't _just_ an artist. In fact, an Art Director
doesn't even _have_ to be an artist! (just look at me :-) But an Art
Director knows the art must serve a purpose.

- - -- - -- - --

Yes, a thousand times, YES.

 I didn't think IG had an art director in the simple fact that they were
only working with two artists. A good art director will probably also
assemble and oversee a team of freelancers. Unfortunately, art and art
direction is often one of the first things a publisher sees as a "luxury."
Look how quickly art direction in the final GDW releases plummeted. From
the poorly designed covers (the elements are good, but not used to their
greatest potential) to the interior art (poorly used, whether you like or
dislike it), to the typefaces, this is one area IG *really* needs to shore
up.

 But then, as a graphic artist, I may be biased. :-)

John Kovalic



********************************************************
           "This must be Thursday. I never COULD get the hang of Thursdays"
                                                     - Arthur Dent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*                                 "Wild Life": a Web comic --
*
*              MUSKRAT CENTRAL: http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/muskrat/
*
********************************************************

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 00:39:27 +0000
From: Garry Ward <Garry.E.Ward@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Hull Shapes...

At 08:49 PM 12/18/96 +0000, you wrote:
<snip>
>> 7.  Open Structure -- Any sort of weird splayed-out shape, like the
>> Enterprise.
>
>NO! The original Enterprise would be probably classified as a cylinder.
>Just because it has warp nacelles tacked on, doesn't make it an open
>structure, imho.
>
>An Open Structure means an open *framework* with no enclosing outer hull
>covering the entire thing. There may be enclosed parts, but an open
>structure means the framework is on the *outside*. Like the proposed
>space station Freedom, forex.
>
>-- 
>

High Guard had a hull type of 'Dispersed Structure' rather than open
structure, which does describe most any of the Star Trek ships.
Except the original, seen only once in Classic Star Trek, Romulan Bird of
Prey, which was a semi disk shape.

Open frames and Dispersed structures are not the same thing. As noted above,
the open frame is a basic grid work to which interchangable modules can be
attached as needed. A dispersed structure is one where different parts, of
different shapes are connected together as suits the purpose. The Discovery
of 2001 is a dispersed structure becase the reaction drive, powered by a
fission reactor had to be separated from the living area to prevent
contamination. The Enterprise design put the primary living quarters into a
separately detachable module, the saucer, apart from the Warp Drive and the
associated potentially unstable Matter/Antimatter fuel supply, the lower
cylinder plus nacelles. Makes jettisoning runaway powerplant easier.

Garry

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 16:43:58 -0500
From: "John J. Long" <jlong@wilmington.net>
Subject: T4,Starships et al

Friends,

Soapbox Mode On:

Having played Traveller since the "Black Book" days,  I can honestly say
that with each new "edition/incarnation" of Traveller there has been
something, if not many somethings that I have not "liked, or felt could
have been done better" about each item.  But, as I did, if you don't like
it then change it in your game.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Traveller (as designed,without GM
input) cannot be "All things to All Traveller Fans" and that we should
accept and work with the system to make it what we want it be.  Whether
this means changing ship designs, combat systems etc.

I am a firm beliver in CONSTRUCTIVE criticism!!,  I feel that it, when
used/stated with respect and tact, can be one of the most helpful forces in
the design process.  While no doubt exists that as end consummers we should
have a larger voice in the "Constructive Criticism" area we must always
remember that without the efforts of the designers we'd still be playing
the "Black Book" era. 

Well now that I've spouted these personal opinions for all to see, I await
the flames!!

But lets try to remember that everyones opinion matters/counts it's just in
how you state that opinion that will affect how it is recieved and replied
to.

Soapbox Mode Off: 
John Long   jlong@wilmington.net
Player/GM of
Space 1889, The Morrow Project, Traveller

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 19:39:44 -0500 (EST)
From: matth@homer.njit.edu (Matthew Harelick)
Subject: What would happen if ....

Hi: 

Here is a question, 

A Starship with about 300 tons of cargo space is carrying say a Far Trader. 
The Starship is currently in Jump Space. The Far Trader powers up its 
engines and jumps. 

What happens? 

If the Far Trader doesn't misjump, then where is it? 

Matthew


- -- 
Matthew Harelick  matth@homer.njit.edu	http://hertz.njit.edu/~msh9848
Real-Time Computing Lab		       http://rtlab12.njit.edu/welcome.html
New Jersey Institute of Technology     http://www.njit.edu

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 19:41:36 -0500 (EST)
From: John Macpherson <john35@wharton.upenn.edu>
Subject: SSDS

Thomas Biskup said:
) I decided to
> rewrite the SSDS for more clarity and a little more brevity.  Since I'm
> coming from a mathematical background I'll also junk tables whenever
> possible and will replace them by nice and short formulae. 

	Congratulations Thomas, you have just recreated FF&S.  SSDS was written in 
response to all of the people who wanted to design starships but didn't want to have 
to trudge through all the dreaded formulae in FF&S.  So we (mostly Dave Golden, 
Merrick Burkhardt and others but I like to think I helped) created a simpler version 
of FF&S with lots of plug-in components from tables.  In fact all of the values on the 
SSDS tables were created with and are totally compatible with FF&S.  If you want the 
formulae, you can simply get the book; this is also likely to be more accurate than 
trying to reverse engineer them from the tables.
	An updated, and hopefully clarified version of FF&S for T4 called the Naval 
Architect's Handbook, is being designed slowly but surely over on the beta list.
 
> This leads to a question: how do I subscribe to the GDW-Beta list?
	gdw-beta@qrc.com with "subscribe" in the subject line should do it.  New folks
are added by hand by the list admin, Derek Wildstar, who I gather is busy right now, 
so there might be some delay. 

>  Since
> rules discussions for new supplements seem to take place there I'd like to
> see what they are doing before (as far as I am concerned; no insult
> intended) the jug breaks again, if I dare say so :-)

	For those who are less than satisfied with SSDS, let me just point out that the
system was designed by a group of volunteers taking time out of their _personal_ lives
and that Don Perrin gave us only a week to give him the completed product.  Given that
Don and IG then sat on the design system for another 5 months of their _professional_
lives to produce a set of ship designs and deckplans which don't even all conform with
SSDS, decide for yourself where the "jug broke" as you put it.
	Yes, there should be more detailed text and descriptions of what everything
does, yes, there should be a good design example, and if we had had more than a week
all those things would have been included.  As it was, we delivered an almost errata
free product on time.
	*Please Note*  I am speaking only for myself here, not for anyone else on the *
*SSDS/QSDS design team.  I haven't even discussed this with them so I have no idea how* 
*they feel about it and I don't want anyone on the TML or at IG thinking I am putting *
*words in their mouths.                                                               

(/rant mode on)
	If I sound a little bitter it is only because we could have made the Starships
book a whole heck of a lot better and we were willing to work for *free*.  In fact,
we're not alone.  I hope that IG does publish The Long Way Home and other CORE products
as official IG material, and I hope that they begin tapping the incredible stream of
creative output available absolutely free from Traveller's many devoted fans.  IG could
do a lot worse than simply farming out the development of supplements to groups of fans
and merely checking them for appropriateness before publishing them. Yes, it all needs 
to be consistent and have a good Traveller feel, but with the volume of output from 
Traveller fandom, even if only 10% was any good, they'd have a complete line for each 
Milieu.
(/rant mode off)

>  What the heck is a  
> G-tank and what are its effects?  What is the meaning of the second table?
> What meanings do the different G-values in that table have?  As far as I
> can see form the table I won't be able to have full compensation for 8Gs
> at TL12... so what are the game effects of 'excess G values'?

	G-tanks are fluid filled tanks in which crew or passengers sit which help 
negate the physiological effects of excess accleration.  A g-tank negates 1G of 
acceleration but has no effect on Gs due to evasion.
	The effect of excess Gs is game system dependent.  Since we had very little 
idea what the T4 rules or task system would look like we didn't want to make up 
something that wouldn't be compatible.  Furthermore, we figured that IG would create 
its own rules for this sort of thing.  Apparently they didn't.  My suggestion is that 
for every uncompensated G greater than 2 (for strapped in crew) or 1 (for non-strapped 
crew), every task difficulty is increased by one.
 
 
> Is there any more
> intelligent approach other than just trying and starting again and again 
> until one has figured out the best possible configuration (especially
> the size)?

	Ship design is inherently iterative.  I suggest that it is easier to 
over-estimate the size hull you'll need and then shrink it to fit than vice-versa.

> I never liked Fire, Fusion & Steel
> (maybe that's my basic problem) since all the math never did seem to yield
> any realistic results and thus for me was not worth the trouble -- maybe
> that's my basic problem :_)

	If so, then you might as well make up your own rules because the ship design 
system for T4 is based on FF&S.

> What's the use of EMM?  The text doesn't seem to mention this.  What's the
> difference between basic and standard life support?  How is stealth used?
> What use is the artifical gravity/inertial compensation table?

	The combat system should tell you what the effects of EMM are.  EMM stands for
Electro-Magnetic Masking, if that is what confused you.  Stealth is a low-tech version
of EMM which works against radar and HRT sensors but not PEMS or AEMS.  Basic
life-support is for short trips (<12 hours) and includes air, water, a little food, and
a tank for waste.  Standard life support is for trips of weeks length and recycles air,
water and (maybe) food.  The inertial damper table tells you how many Gs the inertial
damper equipment can cancel out for each TL. 

Happy Travelling.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 16:42:52 -0800
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: "Special Offers"

At 07:21 AM 12/18/96 -0600, you wrote:
>On Wed, 18 Dec 1996 BrianMays@aol.com wrote:
>
>> That was me, Joe.  And thank you for the info.  Perhaps some of my friends
>> will be getting belated Christmas presents . . .perhaps I'll just get them a
>> Hickory Farms Sausage Sampler and keep all the Traveller goodies to myself!
>>  AH HAHAHAHA!!
>
>I'd skip the sausage sampler if I were you, unless you can find a store 
>that also has the Errata Pak.  I hear they left out the pig snouts... [G]

HICKORY FARMS?!?!  Heretic!  Usenger's from Milwaukee!  Used to be the
highlight of Christmas, getting that huge box of sausages, and
brautwurst,and... excuse me, I gotta go eat now.....

+----------------------------------------------+
| Douglas E. Berry          dberry@hooked.net  |
|     Professional Driver - Traveller Guru     |
|        http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/        |
|**********************************************|
| "Life's a journey, not a destination."       |
|                                   -Aerosmith |
+----------------------------------------------+

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 16:42:54 -0800
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: Deckplans for T4 supplement

At 03:42 PM 12/18/96 -0800, you wrote:

>3) Crew rooster (usual and minimum)

Woah!!  Did I miss a table in SSDS or something?

+----------------------------------------------+
| Douglas E. Berry          dberry@hooked.net  |
|     Professional Driver - Traveller Guru     |
|        http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/        |
|**********************************************|
| "Life's a journey, not a destination."       |
|                                   -Aerosmith |
+----------------------------------------------+

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 16:42:56 -0800
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: Fleet Repair Ship

At 02:01 PM 12/17/96 -0800, you wrote:
>Douglas E. Berry wrote:

>> Actually, I'm designing a battalion sized drop ship to be named the "Matthew
>> Ridgeway".
>
>Ridgeway was a US general, WW2 and Korea. He commanded all US forces in
Korea at one 
>point or another. 

Also commanded the 82nd Airborne during WWII.. Always wore two hand grenades
on his web gear.

>>  Following soon after will be the "Kenneth McCoy" Marine patrol

>Not Real, by reason of elimination.

>"Richard Marcinko" Special Operations Lander.

>"Rogue Warrior." Real human. Got a "Red Cell" team of NPCs in my game.
Imperial Navy 
>_hates_ these guys. ;)

>> A cookie to anyone who can ID all three names.. hint: one is fictional.
> Can't ID McCoy, but I know he's the fictional one.
>
>Half a Cookie??

2/3rds.

+----------------------------------------------+
| Douglas E. Berry          dberry@hooked.net  |
|     Professional Driver - Traveller Guru     |
|        http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/        |
|**********************************************|
| "Life's a journey, not a destination."       |
|                                   -Aerosmith |
+----------------------------------------------+

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 16:43:02 -0800
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: Jumpspace.

At 10:56 AM 12/17/96 -0800, you wrote:

>Now, the *details* of what kills you are again open to debate.  My own
>homebrew description is that normal matter tossed unshielded into
>jumpspace basically "misjumps" on a particle-by-particle basis, with
>partial conversion to energy in the process.  In other words, you wind up
>turned into a collection of subatomic particles and extremely high-energy
>photons, scattered over a 36-parsec radius.  Pretty thorough death,
>that...

And an interesting way for the mob to get rid of embarrasing bodies.  Way
back in highschool, I had a player insist on abandoning ship midjump.  I
allowed it, had him float out to the jump field and...

         **************ZOT!*************

He woke up in the middle of the utterly moronic AD&D game a dimwitted friend
was running every few weeks.  The horror.  It was then that I got my
reputation as a sadistic bastard.

>> Also could someone tell me what jumpspace is supposed to look like?
>
>Again, not much canon to go on.  For my own purposes, I've swiped Larry
>Niven's "blind spot" effect -- a window looking out into jumpspace simply
>disappears, the windowframe contracting down to a point, so to speak.  For
>this reason, most ships keep windows covered while in jumpspace.  This is
>a psionic effect; a photograph of the same window will show utter
>blackness outside.  This concept makes a nice piece of "color," I think. 

"Psionic Effect"?  Hmmmmmm.. might explain why the Zhodani haven't expanded
any farther than they have; perhaps something about jump space causes them
concern.

+----------------------------------------------+
| Douglas E. Berry          dberry@hooked.net  |
|     Professional Driver - Traveller Guru     |
|        http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/        |
|**********************************************|
| "Life's a journey, not a destination."       |
|                                   -Aerosmith |
+----------------------------------------------+

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 16:46:23 -0800
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: What would happen if ....

At 07:39 PM 12/18/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi: 
>
>Here is a question, 
>
>A Starship with about 300 tons of cargo space is carrying say a Far Trader. 
>The Starship is currently in Jump Space. The Far Trader powers up its 
>engines and jumps. 
>
>What happens?

Well in my game, the GM looks at you, checks his watch, and says: "Cool,
'COPS' is on in a few!" 


+----------------------------------------------+
| Douglas E. Berry          dberry@hooked.net  |
|     Professional Driver - Traveller Guru     |
|        http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/        |
|**********************************************|
| "Life's a journey, not a destination."       |
|                                   -Aerosmith |
+----------------------------------------------+

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 18:51:55 -0600 (CST)
From: Joseph Heck <ccjoe@showme.missouri.edu>
Subject: Re: Deckplans for T4 supplement

John R. Snead said:
> I'm checking opinions here to see if the following format would be 
> acceptable:
> 
> 1) The USP

When you write up the USP, consider mentioning wether or not the ship is
Streamlined, Airframe, etc. 

I've personally always liked the 1.5m square, but then I used it for
snapshot and enjoyed that system too. Sounds great otherwise.

- -- 
 joe                          (573) 882-2000
 ccjoe@showme.missouri.edu    http://www.missouri.edu/~ccjoe
 PGP Fingerprint: E3 3F DF 08 BE 3E 44 A0  EE A9 80 7E 22 99 CD DF
 "with a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and
 impenetrable fog!" -- Calvin

------------------------------

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #772
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