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From: owner-traveller-digest@mpgn.com (Traveller-digest)
To: traveller-digest@Phaser.ShowCase.MPGN.COM
Subject: Traveller-digest V1996 #777
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Traveller-digest      Friday, December 20 1996      Volume 1996 : Number 777



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Re: Central Supply and Aliens Archive in stores
Niven correction
Re: High-tech Interrogation
Re: RCES LBD
Re: Starships - questions and more comments from a newbie
Tech and Starports
Re: Jumpspace and Psionics
Re: Jumpspace.
CORE SCHEDULE FOR 1997 ONWARDS
Re: Cold ?
TRAVELLER 4 HAS HOPE YET!
Re: Imperial Naval Spending 
Re: Babylon 5  (Was Re 3-siders)
Re: Tech and Starports
Re: Announcement of interest to the group
101 Cargos [Long - for me anyway]
101 Plots

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 20:53:46 -0800
From: "Peter J. Miller" <PeterMiller@youngmerlin.com>
Subject: Re: Central Supply and Aliens Archive in stores

JOhn,

Sounds like ALiens in better than Starships.  But, it doesn't have other
major races' stats in it?  We can't play them yet?  I was under the
impression that major races stats would be in it?

/\___________________________Peter John Miller____________________________/\
||           "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night..."          ||
||     Traveller, IG materials and the Home of the Imperium Games FAQ!    ||
||            On Peter's World - http://www.dragonfire.net/~pm/           ||
\/------------------------------------------------------------------------\/
   Great graphics, and the LOWEST prices on the net - www.youngmerlin.com

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 21:01:54 -0800 (PST)
From: Craig Berry <cberry@cinenet.net>
Subject: Niven correction

> Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 19:29:39 -0500
> From: Neveron@aol.com
> 
> A newbie reply: I feel like somebody's granpappy saying this but the effects
> of high tech on civilization is the core of many a Larry Niven story, except
> his ringworld weirdness. Look for "All the myriad ways", if you can find the
> bloody thing anyplace, for his apt discourse on matter transport's effect on
> society. 

"All the Myriad Ways" was about the effect of parallel-universe travel on
society.  "All the Bridges Rusting" was about the effect of matter
transport on society, a theme continued in numerous other Niven stories. 
I highly recommend both of these stories, but particularly "All the Myriad
Ways" -- best kicker ending of any Niven story, and he's good at them. 

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
   |   Craig Berry - cberry@cinenet.net
 --*--    Home Page: http://www.cinenet.net/users/cberry/home.html
   |      Member of The HTML Writers Guild: http://www.hwg.org/   
       "Every man and every woman is a star."

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 22:45:53 -0800
From: "Rich Ostorero" <stormhvn@inreach.com>
Subject: Re: High-tech Interrogation

> 
> > a combination of
> >  drugs and sensory depravation 
> 
> That would be "deprivation."  Sensory "depravation" is something that I
don't
> believe is allowed to be discussed on a PG-13 list. :-)

Not on the TML -- it's a family list! 

Maybe the newsgroup "alt.sex.fetish.traveller.foss-art.die.die.die" can
host such a deprived discussion.

- --Rich
stormhvn@inreach.com

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 16:09:51 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: RCES LBD

In mail you write:

> Hi, Leonard.  Now, I'm assuming that on the ground there would be a kinds of
> steam as the outer surfaces of LH2 containers are much colder than the air
> around them, right?  Makes for great visual at a starport refuelling area.

Only "temporary" storage tanks will do that. Because if the outside is
much colder than ambient, that means you are losing "cold" (actually
gaining heat) through the insulation. And you want that to be
minimized! 

You will see some fog and frost around refueling hoses, and around tank
vents.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 16:24:25 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Starships - questions and more comments from a newbie

In mail you write:

> Then I started to look at the travel formulae for starships in the basic
> rules (page 115) since I wanted to get some idea of how fast this little
> ship really would be.  The section on interstellar travel mentions that
> the transit time for a ship with 1G acceleration from a size 8 world to
> 100 diameters is about 5 hours.  This value obviously was not calculated
> with the travel formulae on that page (size 8 world: 12800km, jump
> position at 12800 * 100 = 1,280,000km; T = 2 * square root(D [in meters] /
> A) = 2 * sqrt(1,280,000,000 / 8) =~ 25298 seconds =~ 7 hours).  Thus my'd
> TL12 8G acceleration ship would need longer than a 1G acceleration ship.
> Do these formulae only apply to travel between worlds?  Even then I can't
> see the reasoning?  What's my mistake?

The value of A is not in gees. It's in meters per second per second. 1
g is 9.8 m/s^2. 8 g is 78.4 m/s^2.

So at 8 g it takes 2 and a quarter hours to get to the 100 diameter limit.
And you'll be moving at 634 km/sec when you reach it!

That formula applies to *anything* moving at a constant acceleration.
It's real physics. 

> Another problem I had with the SSDS itself (maybe it's just my approach) 
> is this: rather late in the design process I discovered that I nearly had
> used up all the space (volume and surface area) available for a 100t
> displacement ship, which either would force me to start over with a larger
> ship or force me to forfeit some nifty equipment.  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)?

Not really. This is how things work in the real world. You often find
that you *can't* cram all those nifty goodies into the size package you
want.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 19:02:21 +1100
From: "Phillip McGregor" <aspqrz@curie.dialix.com.au>
Subject: Tech and Starports

Starports and why Planetary TLs are meaningless

Some of you will remember my comments to the effect that, with interstellar
cargo transport costing a mere 1000 Cr per ton, there is absolutely *no*
relevance in what a planetary TL *supposedly* is - they simply import (as
do LDCs on Terra today). The *only* relevance may be cost (increased - not
hugely over the going rate on the planet of production, but significantly
more in terms of the *local* per capita income in all likelihood), the
difficulty of maintenance (all spares have to be imported - and local techs
may not really understand what to do beyond replace whole subsystems ...
hmm, sounds like *here and now* techs, eh?!).

Anyway, whether you agreed with me then or not (and no one, IMNSHO, gave
any really good reason for not doing so), then perhaps you need to consider
this - which may be considered the final nail in the coffin, so to speak,
of any oppostion -

All Starships need "Routine Maintenance" once per year, right? Two weeks at
any A or B class Starport, correct? The key word here is *any* A or B Class
Starport - *not* "any A or B Class Starport of an equal or higher TL", but
*any* such Starport.

Note that, as the rules stand (TL Table on pg. 134) it is possible to score
a Type A Starport on a minimum TL7 world and a Type B on a minimum of TL5 -
though obviously in those cases *all* the tech must be imported!

However, consider a TL9 world - just barely starfaring - with a Type A
Starport. What happens when your TL12 Sylean Federation Scoutship wants an
overhaul there (or your TL15 Third Imperium Scoutship, for that matter). Is
there any delay? Is there any increased cost associated? *NO* to both!!!

Obviously such Starports import all their technology *and* the costs must
be negligibly more than if it were produced locally - after all, we are
told (pg. 7) that "everything is driven by economics" - otherwise costs
would be greater!

So, this means that any world with a A or B Starport (at the *very* least -
I would argue that any world with an A, B, C, or even (barely) a D class
would qualify) has easy access to the maximum available TL of the Milieu in
question!

Sure, we all know that its really because Marc wanted something simple. But
it's there, and its a glaring hole in the rules - as are the costs of
interstellar cargo transport, anyway.

Like I said, this makes my thesis 100% sure, there is *no* reason why local
TL means anything more than what they could (theoretically) produce if they
*had* to - it has nothing to do with what they *actually* have available!

Phil McGregor

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

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 09:11:05 -0800
From: Harald Budschedl <Harald.Budschedl@mag.linz.at>
Subject: Re: Jumpspace and Psionics

Douglas E. Berry wrote:
> 
> At 01:12 AM 12/20/96 +1100, you wrote:
> 
> >  Has anyone given any thought to using Psionics for Intersteller travel?
> >Or even using telepathy to communicate from star system to star system?
> 
> I believe it's been stated several times, both in background material and
> the rules themselves that interstellar psionics is impossible.
> 

...and if you need some sort of pseudo-scientific explanation:
"The brain can't bring up enough neural energy, aka. Psi-Power"
[Dr XY. from planet ZZ] ;-)

CyA
Buddy
- -- 
# Disclaimer: All opinions stated are only MY OWN.
# Harald.Budschedl@mag.linz.at 
# ADV - Anwendungsentwicklung
# Graphisch Technischer Bereich

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 00:35:05 -0800 (PST)
From: Wes Payne <n9548326@cc.wwu.edu>
Subject: Re: Jumpspace.

[I goofed up and sent this right to Daniel first, rather than the list]

>        Hello to all Traveller fans.  I have a question so to all you Jump
> space buffs.  I was in a campain a few years ago (MegaTraveller) and we were
> near the end of an adventure.  We had manage to get on to the baddies star
> ship just before it went to Jumpspace.  Anyway, we were getting our butts
> kicked, so we jumped into the cutter (or whatever it was) which didn't have
> a jump drive.  We un docked from the ship and floated of in to Jumpspace.
> The Ref didn't have any Idea what do do here, so he kinda made some rules
> up.  Could someone out there please tell me what should of happened?  Also
> could someone tell me what jumpspace is supposed to look like?

In a nutshell:  When the cutter contacts the jump field, it's time to 
roll up new characters.

Nobody's actually seen jumpspace and lived to tell the tale, really.  
What a person sees during a journey through j-space is the protective 
'bubble' formed around the starship to protect it from the strange 
physics on the other side.  Essentially, a jump drive pinches off a tiny 
pocket universe around the ship and flings it through j-space on a 
trajectory that'll result in the ship emerging in normal space parsecs 
away from where it entered.  My source for information on jump space is 
DGP's "Starship Operator's Manual."

To answer your other question:  Looking at the bubble is like looking at 
a grey, pulsing nothing.  You'll probably suffer hypnagogic 
hallucinations if you stare at it too long, kind of like staring at a TV 
tuned to a dead channel after you've been awake for 48 hours.

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wes Payne, known to you as:  n9548326@cc.wwu.edu
Western Washington University -- Bellingham, WA -- The Great Northwet!  
"What is FUN?  Why is it usually colored BRIGHT PINK, and where does
 it go when JESSE HELMS comes around?" 
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 10:27:15 +0000
From: Andy Lilly <a.s.lilly@nortel.co.uk>
Subject: CORE SCHEDULE FOR 1997 ONWARDS

aboulton@cix.compulink.co.uk (Andrew Boulton) asked:
>Subject: Re: CORE: ADVANCED CHARACTER GENERATION - Tell Us All!
>> >I'd like to see a whole book with nothing but character classes, both 
>> >new ones and those from the main book, using the one year method from 
>> CORE is currently planning out a series of such books. 

>Is there anything CORE *isn't* planning?!

Nope. We're going to do everything. The first 136 book set of CORE
supplements will cover everything in Traveller down to the specifications of
the screws used in the Kinunir class ships (as well as taking up 7 feet of
shelf space). That's for 1997. In 1998 we intend to have raised enough cash
to run for President. In 1999 we shall establish the first moon base and
start testing our prototype jump drives. Around November 15th year 2000 we
expect to make contact with the Vilani exploration vessels at Proxima.

At CORE we like to set ourselves challenging but achievable goals.

Sorry, my Hiver friend just reminded me - by 2010 we intend to be the
dominant race in this arm of the galaxy.

Andy :-)
Chief Pencil Sharpener and Guardian of the Holy Eraser at:
BITS (British Isles Traveller Support)
CORE (Traveller Product Development Group)

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 00:55:15 -0900
From: Peter Newman <pnewman@alaska.net>
Subject: Re: Cold ?

> From: "William F. Hostman" <aramis@lunatic.asylumbbs.com>
> Subject: Cold?
> 
> designed for the periods of extreme temperature fluctuations one gets   in the temperate zones of the world(as I found out today...Brrrrr. 28 
  degrees (F) as I rode in to work. Yes, I know, I'm just another 
  whining desert rat, so shut up already ;-)
>>
> >        Try -5 degrees F, plus a few knots or so of wind chill... <G>
> 
> - -5 F? that's moderate temperature round here... try -20 F (Yes, 20 below) BEFORE wind chill.
> 
> OB Traveller: just some references based upon personal experience on 
> how to judge relative temps (Sorry bout the F references, that's the 
> only scale I'm not metric-comfortable in (yes, pun intended)).

> +35 F   Snow will "stick" -- stays visible on ground    =2 C
> +32 F   water will freeze  = 0 C
> +15 F   Snow starts to Crunch when you walk on it = -9 C  
> + 0 F   Snow starts to squeak when walked upon= -18 C
> -10 F   Facial hair collects frost after short duration (15 minutes+)
>         exposed Skin feels "tight"= -23 C 
> -20 F   facial hair collects icicles after duration (30 minutes+)
>         Seldom need to worry about frost on vehicle windows at this 	  temp or lower
= -29 C
> -30 F  Snow ceases to squeak, goes back to crunching; still air 	
>  	  stings nose and eyes almost instantly= -34 C
> - 40 F  problems with eyes freezing open or shut (I've had it happen 	
>	  at -35F)= - 40 C
All conversions are accurate to 1 degree C 

> One other cruel thought/reminder to gm's: the biggest health risk from
> "extreme" cold (-10 C or colder, according to EMT training in Alaska)    is DEHYDRATION!!!
> It means that you lose moisture with every blink, breath, and word...
> and your spectacles catch enough to get hard to see through at those 
> temps, too!

	When you have charecters make Survival skill Rolls for cold 
temperature survival remember that the true test of survival is knowing 
what to wear in the first place.  An average test of Survival & INT 
might be required (in T4 terms) to wear the right clothing to begin 
with.  If this fails you can require tests of the lowest of Perception, 
Medical, or Survival to notice that there is a problem before they 
freeze to death.... This may seem cruel but is actually pretty realistic 
- - lots of people who should know better are found dead from exposure 
later.  As an added option for referees who want to torture  (er I mean 
challenge :) ) the players you can rule that fashion requires certain 
garments (especially for nobles) and that these garments are_not_suited 
to the weather.  I am reminded of the true story of a high school girl 
in Fairbanks AK who wore plastic mesh jam shoes to school when it was - 
46 F (-43 C) and lost 2 toes to frostbite while waiting 10 minutes for 
the school bus...

	Remember that the ability of cold to harm the individual is 
based on the conduction of heat away from the body.  As the atmosphere 
gets thinner it cannot suck as much heat out of you & you will not 
suffer as much, conversely a thicker atmosphere will suck heat out of 
you faster.  Not being a meteorologist/doctor/chemist I will not presume 
to guess say how great an influence this will be.  As a very rough fix 
we could assume that perceived temperature will vary with the cube root 
of atmospheric pressure.
	Thus if the actual temperature is -50 C (70 degrees below a 
human optimum of 20 C) and the atmospheric pressure was 0.5 atmosphere 
(thin) it might be perceived as being -36 C ( 70* cube root of 0.5 
(aproximately 0.79))= 55.6  (20-55.6) = -36.  The same fix can be used 
for wind chill calculations.
	Does anyone with real world data care to comment on this.  
Remember that human beings are warm blooded so we can not just use 
phyics formulas for heat conduction, etc.  Alternatively we can just 
make it up as seems appropriate.

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 10:48:21 +0000
From: Andy Lilly <a.s.lilly@nortel.co.uk>
Subject: TRAVELLER 4 HAS HOPE YET!

"William F. Hostman" <aramis@lunatic.asylumbbs.com> said (about guess which
recently-released T4 book?):

>Poorly laid out, lots of wasted space in the layout. I'm waiting for alien
>archives and Psionics. If they don't meet my quality standards, IG can
>bugger off, and I can make a little back off of my (unwisely purchased) t4
>books.

Obviously we won't see it over here for a short while, but having proof-read
the Aliens book a month or more back, I think I can honestly say that it was
quite good. It's difficult to know if it has changed since I saw it, or what
they'll do for pictures, etc. but it Tim Brown has managed to generate some
interesting aliens.

As for CSC, I would like to think that Greg Porter has a sufficient
reputation that he wouldn't contribute a dud book - certainly the small
excerpts I've seen of this looked very promising.

So, don't write off T4 just because of the first two books (which, let's
face it, were rushed out - yes, starships was very late, but it still
appears to have been a rush job).

Aliens and CSC seem to have a good basis, that is their text is good and
there's plenty of it. So hopefully there's not much anyone can do to screw
them up!

Oh, and if we're lucky, The Long Way Home from CORE will be published by
Imperium Games in the near future so those of you who don't want to pay the
extortionate airmail costs will be able to get hold of it soon!

Andy

* Recently promoted to: Chief Speaker in charge of cocking up voice-overs
for company videos

* All praise the 'beep' function for removing unwanted swear words when the
out-takes are shown at company functions... :-)

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 01:40:40 -0900
From: Peter Newman <pnewman@alaska.net>
Subject: Re: Imperial Naval Spending 

> From: Wes Payne <n9548326@cc.wwu.edu>
> Subject: Re: Strength of Aslans and Domain (and now Vargr)
> 
> Thus spake "Edward Swatschek" <edjs@mindlink.net>:
> 
> [I don't have TCS -- waaaah!  How much of a navy does it say a planet can  build?]
> 
> > TCS defines the yearly Naval budget of a world as Cr500 x Pop *
> > GovMult, with the GovMult ranging from 0.5 to 1.5.  10 times this
> > amount is how much you can spend on your initial fleet (based on
> > maintenence being 10% of the ship's cost per year).
> 
> So, basically, a world can commit 250 to 750 credits per head, per year to its navy?

> But that doesn't bug me as much as the budget figure named.  Unless the citizens of the Imperium, as a majority, live in more opulent 
splendor than I'd ever imagined, I don't see where they can afford such 
incredible taxes. 
> Consider the average Cr30,000 per year earning Imperial citizen.
> Admittedly, I'm pulling that figure straight from my keister (only one or two crewmembers on the ship the players run in my current campaign 
make anything near this figure, and they work on the bridge).

	In Sriker (Book 2 pg 38) the per capita GNP figures of worlds at 
various Tech Levels & Trade charecteristics are given (see below)

	Tech	Base 		To find per capita GNP multiply the     
 	 5	2,000		base GNP at that tech level by any 
	 6	4,000		modifiers.
	 7	6,000
	 8	8,000		Modifiers
	 9     10,000		Rich			x1.6
	10     12,000		Industrial		x1.4
        11     14,000		Agricultural		x1.2
        12     16,000		Poor			x0.8
	13     18,000		Non-Agricultural	x0.8
	14     20,000		Non-Industrial		x0.8
	15     22,000


  If we make some scientific wild-ass guesses about how much taxes 
he/she/it pays (based on what's 'average' for a late twentieth-century 
Earthling in an industrialized nation), we figure Uncle Cleon gets 
around Cr5000 to Cr7500 a year.  Now, we can only guess as to which 
percentage of this goes to the planetary military.  In the Yoo Ess, the 
military gets less than 10 percent of total outlays, so applying such a 
figure to the above gets us Cr500 to Cr750 paid to Uncle Cleon's 
military each year.  Now, despite what the Department of the Navy might 
want to tell you, the Navy isn't the entire military, and doesn't get 
the entire defense budget, but the figures cited above (way, way above) 
are perilously near the S.W.A.G.ged figures I just came up with.

	Striker says
	
	Military Spending: The average expenditure of a nation or world 
is 3% of its GNP; this may range between 1% and 15%.  The total must be 
divided between the army & the navy (and COACC and wet navy). The 
portion allocated to the army averages 40% on most worlds (leaving 60% 
or less for the navy) but army allocations average only 6% on vacuum 
worlds.  On Imperial worlds, roughly 30% of the total military budget 
goes to the Imperium for maintenance of the Imperial military.

	With this date we can calculate how much money the average 
Imperial citizen can contribute as follows.

	Base GNP 12,000 	(TL 12 = Average Stellar)
		  x1.00		(no Trade Class modifiers)
		  x0.03		(3% of GNP military spending)
	          x0.70		(30% of military spending goes		
  				 to the Imperium)
	12,000 x 1.0 x 0.03 x 0.70 = Cr 252

	Of this CR 252 40% goes to the army & an unspecified percentage 
to COACC & wet navy.  Even if we assume army includes these branches 
this leaves only 60% left.

	CR 252 x0.60 = CR 151 per capita per anum local naval spending

	We can calculate the average payment to the Imperial military 
per capita as follows (same assumtions as before).

	Cr12,000 x 1.0 x 0.03 x 0.30 = CR 108

	We do not know how much of Imperial military spending goes to 
the Navy, the Marines, the Army & the Scouts.  I have always assumed 
that the Navy gets most of it but this still means that the average 
Imperial citizen contributes a little less than CR 100 per capita to the 
Imperial Navy.
		
	These formulas may also provide a clue as to why the Vargr were 
able to overrun the Corridor sector in the Rebellion.  If we assume that 
the average Vargr planet spends 15% of its GNP (not 3%) on military 
spending then they will be fielding a force 5 times as large.  This will 
 help them a lot.  When you consider that the Vargr are not giving 30% 
of this figure to the Imperium the advantage in planetary forces goes up 
to 7.1 to 1.  Further Vargr forces will tend to be designed with a MUCH 
higher percentage of Jump capable forces than Imperial forces because a 
successsful raid will_get_you_Charisma !!  Therefore Vargr planets will 
have more to throw at the Imperium.

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 02:00:53 -0900
From: Peter Newman <pnewman@alaska.net>
Subject: Re: Babylon 5  (Was Re 3-siders)

> From: aboulton@cix.compulink.co.uk (Andrew Boulton)
> Subject: Re: 3-siders (well actually d6 with 1-3 twice...)
> 
> In-Reply-To: <199612180632.BAA07610@Mithril.MPGN.COM>
> 
> << > I bought three in Lansing MI, and plan on buying 3 more....Babylon Project uses 6d3 for it's task system (or will if it 
ever comes out!
> 
> Well, I could wait for B5 and buy that...maybe it'll come with the 6d3's in it. <g>  Of course, that could be months! <bg> >>

	No the Babylon Project RPG will ship as a book only.  It is 
supposed to be $21.95 US for 190+ pages w/ lots of art.  If you want to 
buy 3 sided dice I reccommend you buy them now !  When B5 comes out (Jan 
97 ?) It will be very popular & game stores everwhere will sell out of 
the dice.  I work for a game store & a games distributor & ordering 
games is what I do for a living.  Game stores have_not_been told that 
the Babylon Project RPG will need 3 sided dice & I predict a vast 
shortage of them.

	Insert shameless plug here.  I work for Boscos Games in 
Anchorage, Ak (907) 274-4112 & we have 3 sided dice in stock right now 
for $0.40 each for opaque numbered 16mm dice in assorted colors (black, 
red, blue, green, etc)  We would love to mail order them to you but the 
postage will probably be more than the dice cost so I suggest you look 
locally first.	Please do not complain that I am useing this list for 
commercial purposes I have not said anything for the last week or so & I 
just wanted to help my fellow Traveller fans find 3 sided dice.

> Actually, they've tried to get it into the shops four times already - the first three times the printers burned down, and the fourth time the 
crates holding the books disappeared from the warehouse the day before 
it was due to go on sale...

	ROTFLOL : )

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 11:30:58 +0100
From: Timothy.Collinson@solent.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Tech and Starports

Phil McGregor

said:
>Like I said, this makes my thesis 100% sure, there is *no* reason why
local TL means >anything more than what they could (theoretically) produce
if they *had* to - it has >nothing to do with what they *actually* have
available!

          But haven't we known this all along?  Or am I missing something in
          your thesis?  I thought the whole point of TL was what they could
          (theoretically) produce but that you would still be able to find items
           of higher tech kicking around.  Albeit it at greater cost.

          tc

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 20:54:23 -0500
From: "Christopher Weuve" <chrisweuve@usa.net>
Subject: Re: Announcement of interest to the group

Greg Porter said:
> The first batch of the updated 3G^3 went out to distrtibutors on 
> Friday, so it should be in some stores around the end of the week. 


My friendly local game store, Game Parlour in Chantilly, VA, had it today.

- --Chris Weuve

caw@wizard.net     (home)
caw@intercon.com   (work/daytime)
chrisweuve@usa.net (permanent)
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept
the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money."  [author unknown]

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 12:46:00 +0100
From: Timothy.Collinson@solent.ac.uk
Subject: 101 Cargos [Long - for me anyway]

As a festive "cheer-you-up" after all that 'Starship' bashing (still not
seen it yet, so can't comment), I thought you'd like some really good news.

Little Black Book supplements are back!  And back with avengeance.  (Only
they're not 'black' any more, they're quite natty colour things that are
representative of what is fast becoming the BITS style: slightly
mechanistic but colourful and evocative [1]).

Yes, BITS has published '101 Cargos' and '101 Plots' and I thought you'd
like to know about them.  (Having just received my copies in the post a few
days back).  Both books are very much in the style of the old GDW
supplements both in physical size and concept.

I'll concentrate on '101 Cargos' here and do plots later if that's alright
with everyone.

'101 Cargos' is by Jo and Lesley Grant, 36 pages long and divided into five
sections and an introduction.

The first section is 6 pages of new rules on generating "instant adventure
links".  I must say that I thought this chapter had escaped from the
'Plots' book until I studied it more closely and realised that the links
were all cargo related.  The tables provide easy ways of working out who's
doing what to whom - or rather who's doing what to who's cargo (and why).
The layout is clear, the system appears to work well (though I've not
destructively tested it yet) and the results should provide harried refs
with many instant hooks for adventures.

The second section is another six pages, this time a scheme for designating
Standard Shipping Codes (SCC) for cargos.  This alphanumeric string details
*container* requirements, *cargo* requirements and any additional hazards.
It's not difficult to work out and will add flavour to all those previously
non-descript boxes PCs spend a lot of time acquiring/shipping/selling.
Certainly by the time I'd read through some of the hazard identifiers I
would take *much* more care over just exactly what was in the container!
Scary.

The next section contains the 101 cargos divided into natural resources,
processed resources, manufactured goods and information.  Aiming to be as
generic as possible across any edition of Traveller, you're only given a
title and lot size (e.g. Rare Plants (living), Minor Lot' followed by a
paragraph describing the cargo.  The description is orientated towards
role-playing rather than technical descriptions which makes the contents of
this book that much more usable in a Traveller game in my opinion.  If I
had any complaint it is that no SCCs are provided for any of these cargos -
even as an example.  Having developed a very usable system, it would have
been nice to see it used.

The fourth section is a two page glossary.  Not quite long enough to be
described as 'Library Data' these entries simply provide brief notes on
some of the "entities, institutions and lifeforms" mentioned in the
preceeding section.  These are easily generic enough to be adapted to any
particular campaign and add just enough detail to make the cargos seem
useful, relevant and interesting.

The fifth section contains 5 pages of tables for generating cargos randomly
based on the trade classification of worlds.  Again these are easy to use,
well thought out, and well designed.  My only criticism of them would be
that they don't bear much relationship to the possibilities given in the
main Traveller rules.  This would appear to make them 'alternative' rather
than complementary to the main book.  Of course, this may not be a bad
thing.

In summary, this is a definite must for referees; certainly if their PCs
ever have anything to do with trade.  The caveat to that is that players
might well want to steer clear of the book.  If they don't want their sense
of wonder/surprise to be spoiled by knowing about the cargos they might
encounter in advance, don't let them near this.  Nowhere does the book
state it is for referee's eyes only, but certainly the middle section of
cargo descriptions contains information players shouldn't know in advance.

An admirable addition for Traveller referees from any era, full of nice
touches, occasional humor and lots of bright ideas.

tc

[1] And most certainly 'travelleresque'.

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 13:26:18 +0100
From: Timothy.Collinson@solent.ac.uk
Subject: 101 Plots

Well, having used much of my lunchtime on '101 Cargos' I may as well
sacrifice the rest to it's sister publication.

The generic remarks in the previous 'review' apply for this volume too.
I'd only add the following: While both the '101' books were produced as
'quickies', you certainly couldn't tell that from the quality of the books.
They might not have a large graphic content but if that's the price to pay
for the otherwise excellent production values, it's fine with me.  Besides
these are 'only' supplements!  The book is again by Jo and Lesley Grant
(they must have been busy!) but this time is 40 pages long.

'101 Plots' is a book no referee should be without.  The implied warning
there is that players might want to steer clear of it for obvious reasons.
It doesn't say it's for referees only (like some of the early GDW books
did) but PCs could well spoil things for themselves reading this.  On the
other hand, if they just want to be inspired by the sheer inventiveness to
be found in this volume perhaps it should be up to the referees to change
things round - I'm sure they will anyway!

As has been mentioned on TML the book claims to actually have 134 plots, in
fact I can reveal that there's 135.  (Yes I am a sad person.  Perhaps
there's somekind of Jump Space distortion going on here).  However many
there are, what you get ranges from Patron encounters just like GDWs '76
Patrons' supplement, to personals which are briefer more for fun.  Let's
have a quick look at them:

32 Patron encounters - the usual format of a briefing paragraph followed by
(up to) six outcomes.
15 Introductions - basically 2 or three paragraphs providing a way of
getting PCs to *meet* people.
24 Job Advertisements - the actual text of the advert followed by
descriptive paragraphs relating to the work.
17 Red Herrings - patterned on the Job Ads but the work involved is not so
worth-while!
20 Information Notices - similar to the job ads but leading to info that
may (or may not) be of use to characters.
12 Personals - from the obscure and cryptic to the Valentine 'sickies' -
fun and just *might* lead to something!
15 gimmicks - 2 to 3 paragraph descriptions of imaginative oddities.

There's also a brief glossary with very short entries briefly describing
various things mentioned in the book and there's even a page for notes to
keep track of where you've used what plot.

Without quoting any of the items to you (and thereby spoiling the fun),
it's hard to say much more.  Each of the items is titled which gives you a
quick and informative reminder of which one's which (an index might have
been useful but would have been quite a lot of work to very helpful) and
the entries are imaginative, geared towards role playing and occasionally
down right fun.  I can't recommend the usefulness of this book enough as it
provides more than a few 'ideas' of just the sort that are hardest to come
by when writer's block has set in and the well of imagination has run
(however temporarily) dry.

Have fun, enjoy these books, and above all don't fear that Marc Miller's
Traveller won't survive.  If BITS has anything to do with it based on their
first three publications, you don't have to worry yet.

tc

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

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #777
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