Traveller-digest      Wednesday, June 25 1997      Volume 1997 : Number 1476



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Latest Vote Count, 25th of June
Re: Corsair deckplans
Re: Why the MT system is not a good choice
Re: TL of ramshackle empire
Re: Coreward Maelstrom... a Vargr threat scenario
The Great Task Debate. (Long)
Re: Excuse me?
The MT task system was *FAR* from perfect...
Re: Minimum TL for dirigibles
Re: T4 Task Rationale
Re: Coreward Maelstrom... a Vargr threat scenario
Re: Character Generation Pages in WFW95
Re: New mailing list member...may I introduce myself?
Re: Deckplan Question?
Alternative world generations rules, with proper attribution!
Re: New mailing list member...may I introduce myself?
Re: Deckplan Question?

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 17:30:23 MET
From: "Volker A. Greimann" <GREI5001@uni-trier.de>
Subject: Latest Vote Count, 25th of June

Voting for T4.1 with revisions or variants thereof:
Marc Miller
A.S.Lilly
Phil Kitching
Tim Reynolds
Simon Turner
Andrew Vallance
Mike Lee
Leroy WL Guatney
Suzette Dollar
Stuart Dollar
Allen Shock
Bill Prankard
J.P.
Joe Walsh
- -14
( some of these state that it can't stand as it is though)


Voting for KBv2.0 (or other KB variants or similar systems) were:
- -12
Kenneth Bearden
Peter Miller Dedly
Richard Hough
Kelly St.Clair
Jeff Norton
VolantZep
James W. Lindsay
SD Mooney (willing to Accept KBvXX, prefers MT)
dmckinne                 (ditto!)
Michael Galligan
Glenn Grant
Martin FC Pickett

Voting for a system along the lines of MT 
(or variants thereof):
(or just preferring it!)
- -31
Volker A. Greimann
Carlos Alos Ferrer
Andrew Akins
Nick Munn
2drapers
Dave Scott
RFXn
PA Harris ("Harry")
Erwin Fritz
Erik Riley
Steve Brengard
DJ Golden
Douglas E. Berry
Gypsy Comet
Rob Prior
Franklin Cain
Vanya
John Snead
David P Summers
Ryan Dooley
SD Mooney
Bob Sanders
Ola Agren
dmckinne
Andy Brick
Stephanie Hostman
Roy Martin
Nik Whitehead
Andrew Boulton
Steve Charlton
Victor Holzrichter

TNE-like D20 system
- -3
Harold Hale
R. Boleyn
DJ.Golden

Other votes generally in favor of change (no specific system)
- -12
Jeffry Miller
John Wood
jwbrewer
Mark Ayers
Neil McGurk
Michael Peters
Paul Owensby
Marc Bradley
Scott Ellsworth
William F. Hostman
Eris Redoch
Glenn Grant
Victor Raymond

72 votes tallied!
MT taking an impressive lead by now! Anybody cited wrong or left out 
mail me and i'll change the list!


Ad Astra,
V.A.G.       
- ------  Volker A. Greimann, also known as: Grei5001@uni-trier.de  ----
- -- Am Weidengraben 86,C6 - 54296 Trier - Germany - T+F: +49651148846 -
- ------- check out: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/4061 --------
- ---- Student of Law, Gamer, Illuminatus Primus, Slayer of Windows95 --

- -----  "Don't hold me up: I am just barely ahead of insanity!!!" -----

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:31:08 -0600
From: Erwin Fritz <efritz@glja.com>
Subject: Re: Corsair deckplans

Mark Seemann wrote:
> 
> The deckplans are fairly datailed and my players are quite happy about it.
> Would people be interested in seeing them?
> 

You bet! I collect deckplans like dogs collect fleas!

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 16:28:23 GMT
From: "J." <Jonathan@hccm.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Why the MT system is not a good choice

I'd like to see a return to the MT task system, but a change now would cause 
great confusion to anybody new to traveller with one task system in the rule
book another in the revised rulebook and mentions of alterations that never 
happened in books like PE and PI. 
Fixing the current system is probably the best way forward,
But I can always dream of a return to the MT way........... :)

I think Kenneth presented an unfair view of the MT task system, it does have 
it's problems but most of these are easily fixed. Here goes......

"Kenneth Bearden" <dreamer@weck.brokersys.com> wrote:
>Problem #1:  The Stat Problem
>In MT, both characters have the SAME chance to succeed.  Because of 
>MT's stat division, both will have a target number of 8+.  Both have 
>a 41.67% chance of success.

This is an extreme example of the problem of dividing stats by 5 and rounding
down. But you are right it is still a problem. Any system that divides stats 
will suffer this problem, the more it divides by the bigger the problem.
To reduce the problem the problem just divide by a smaller number.

William Hostman suggested dividing stats by 3 and increasing the target
numbers
to keep the difficulty levels about the same. If you prefer you could
divide the
stat by 4 or anything. You can place as much emphasis on stats as you feel 
necessary in your game (just remember to chamge those target numbers :)

>Problem #2:  Spectacular Success Problem.
>There is a problem with it when using the system in conjunction with 
>T4.  Under the MT system, SS is rolled when a number is rolled that 
>is 2+ points higher than the target number.

This is a problem, but is easily solved make SS 3+ points higher,
or even more if you think SS should be that difficult.

>Problem #3:  Regular Success
>Our doctor has a target number of 3+.  The Medical-1 NPC has a target 
>number of 5+, and this is how it should be.
>For our doctor to roll regular success, he needs to roll a 4 exactly. 
>For the NPC to roll regular success, he needs to roll a 6 exactly.  

Close, the doctor needs a 3 or a 4, and the NPC needs a 5 or a 6.
Rolling the exact number was a success. Marginal success rules were only used
for ranged fire in combat (The hit only did 50% damage), not in the main task
system.

>Our doctor, who is much more skilled than the NPC, has a 8.33% chance 
>of pulling off regular success.
>On the other hand, our NPC character, who needs a higher number to 
>pull off regular success, has a 13.8% chance of rolling regular 
>success.

You are talking about regular success and excluding exceptional success.
The chance of success of any type is 91.7% for the doctor and 83.3% for the
NPC.
the doctor has higher medical skill and a higher chance of success.

>Second, the system is not complicated at all.  I'd posit that it is 
>simpler than MT, and I can express it in one equation:
>Target Number = Attribute + Experience
>where  Experience = Skill x 3
>That's not math that is done in combat.  You do it once, write it 
>on your character sheet, and then you use that figure to add to your 
>attribute--whatever it's current combat value.

MT is simple (IMHO):

2D6 + Skill + (Stat/5)

And that only took me one line!
Stat modifiers can be calculated and written down on the character sheet
and theres no changes during combat because MT's damage system
assigns damage to stats after the fight has finished.

MT is also easily modifiable to the individual referees needs,
change the target numbers for various difficulties, change the number required
for exceptional success or change the amount by which a stat is divided by.
none of these required you to change any other part of the rules.

I'm not trying to say that returning to MT tasks is the way to go forward with
T4, but it's not as bad as Kenneth is trying to make out.

J.

p.s. I guess that means I vote for a return to MT.

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

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 02:36:32 +1000
From: Darryl Adams <dadams@tig.com.au>
Subject: Re: TL of ramshackle empire

At 08:43 25/06/97 +0100, you wrote:
>Someone asked about the canonical max TL achieved by RoM and I knew I had
>seen it somewhere, it's in the Megatraveller Referee Companion and it is
>rated at TL 12. The book also has some facts about the 

One of the things I loved from the DGP book Worldbuilders handbook (or
something like that, I cant grab the book from here), had different Tech
Levels for different Technolagy.

I would argue that the Terran Conferacy would have wildly different tech
levels, but lets face it, the ROM was a vilani government with a veneer of
Terranism over it.

Darryl 

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:36:13 -0700 (MST)
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU>
Subject: Re: Coreward Maelstrom... a Vargr threat scenario

On Tue, 24 Jun 1997, James Lindsay wrote:

> Anyone care to wager how much of a threat they would be to the Domain
> of Deneb *if* the Vargr could all get along together (for longer than
> a few months or so, anyways)?  I'm considering running a campaign
> taking place around 1125 where just such a thing might be possible (I
> haven't figured out exactly how, yet).  Even proof of such a possible
> threat might be good enough for what I have in mind.

Given the constraints on Vargr society that canon establishes, it might be
possible, but it wouldn't hold together very long. 

Rebellion Sourcebook discusses (IIRC) a technology that was widespread in
the Vargr extents, sort of 'synthetic' vargr, in entertainment tapes, who
could be tailored to fit their audience quite well. Once that's done you
can influence them, quite well. If you have several thousand different
manifestations of the 'same' vargr riling things up, you could probably
mount such a large scale invasion. They don't need lots of capital ships,
since they would probably still run an enormously decentralized campaign;
the invading forces would just flow around big fleets. Sort of a
Vargr-wave/blitzkrieg attack.

If they were riled up to go plunder deep in the Domain, then you could
potentially overrun the domain pretty badly.

How long they'd stay in control is another thing entirely.

But, (hee hee hee) Non-Vargr pulling the puppet strings of Empire from th
back of the pack, so to speak, could provide the strategic direction and
cohesive loyalty to a single leader. Hmmm, who might be pulling the
strings ;->  

But, at the risk of sounding barking mad, I think the Vargr could give the
Domain a very ruff time if they were organized into such a large pack, and
could hound the Imperial fleet to the very ends of the Domain, treeing
them among the cats, rimward. Ok ok, I'll stop, I know this was completely
gratuitous.

Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs

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

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 02:31:00 +1000
From: Darryl Adams <dadams@tig.com.au>
Subject: The Great Task Debate. (Long)

I have generally stayed out of the whole task debate mainly because I dont
have the time to sit and calculate odds and standard deviations and what not.

I do think we are going arround this the wrong way.

Stats represent the nateral aptitude of the person, while skills represent
copentacy in a skill.

Take the old hory chestnut medicine. In Australia , a person needs to be in
the top 1% of the HSC (Leaving certificate or High School Deploma
equivelent), do 8 years of training and university , then intern in a
hospital for a period of time before he/she is legaly allowed to practice
medicine (or apply for a specialty this is where it gets screwy , so I will
leave off here).

So this means by default, the person would have a high EDU, proberbly high
INT (but not nessasary, the criteria here is the abillity to past tests,
not for thinking.) [Sorry Med students]. At the end of his/her training, a
doctor would have a skill level of 3.

A nurse however has an easier time. He / she has to pass the HSC at a
reasonable level, go to Uni for 3 years and get licenced. A nurse can (and
generally does) learn a massive amount of medical knowledge over time (My
father is a Director of Nursing who hasent work a ward for over 20 years,
but he can still diagnose people from rudamentry information and generally
be right). But a nurse can not do certian things that a doctor can,
becauser of legal , ethical and poltical reasons. 

In Trav Terms , a nurse can have any EDU and INT she/he cares for, (higher
the better though, as they too have to past tests). It doesnt mean swat.

So, lets look at the old CT skill levels, where 1 was basic cometency, 3
profesional and 6 was guru propellorhead.

A doctor with INT 10 and Med 3 and a nurse with INT 13 and Med 2 both have
a person sick before them.

Both can make a diagnosis (and in Traveller, with the technolagy of M0, it
should be as simple as entering data into a calculator).

Say the person person had a protrusion in the skull. A Nurse would only be
allowed to either prevent further injury, proscibe pain killers or "assist"
in the removal. Even though he/she has Med 2 , he/she can not do more. If
he/she did, he/she would risk everything (including her job , and most of
he/her assets and her licence) 

A doctor can remove it, and is protected laws to do this (he/she may be
able to over ride the next of kin or whatever). The octor would laso have
financial protection and would generaly only risk his/her job if she riped
the stake out and bludgeoned the patient with it.

So, when we do the nerw task system, lets have some guidelines on what the
skills represent, so that we dont have the Medical 1 vs Mediacal 3 debate. 

Maybe we can have a part in Advanced Chargen listing licences (ie Drive,
Pilot, Medicine, et al) , where a character can be reconided in the
imperium to be able to legally practice those skills, whith lesser skills
representing hobbies, and other things.

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 12:41:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: CardSharks@aol.com
Subject: Re: Excuse me?

In a message dated 97-06-25 06:06:49 EDT, you write:

<< I reject the notion that there is "One, and only one, true way to play
 Traveller."  >>

So do I. I can count four official ways (CT. MT, TNE, and T4) a;lthough some
are no longer supported widely. Gurps is going to do the "Emperor wakes up,
slaps his forehead, and says it was all a bad dream! thing" and even some of
my groups go off on a tangent sometimes with strange rules they want to try.

Marc

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:48:42 -0700
From: Chris Griffen <cgriffen@cisco.com>
Subject: The MT task system was *FAR* from perfect...

Kenneth Bearden wrote:

>Many of us (me included) look back fondly on this system for the many
>hours of enjoyment it gave us back in the MT days.  But if you look
>at the system with a discerning eye, you will see that the system is
>no better than T4 or T4.1.

Kenneth is right. I've snipped out his reasons, but each of them,
especially #1, "the stat problem," are true. The MT task system did not
account *at all* for stats.

Don't make your choice based on nostalgia. The MT task system, while a step
up from CT, was far from perfect.

The best solution is either KBv2.0 or some facsimile thereof that weighs
stats/skills equally or somewhat in favor of skills.

Finally, I've written a brief addendum to Kenneth's list of problems:

Problem #4
==========
If you are highly skilled enough at certain tasks, say Gun Combat, you can
achieve impossible tasks that simply should not be possible. For instance,
you have good marksmanship skill, say Combat Rifleman-5. If you roll high
enough on your task roll, using a gauss rifle or whatever, you can
penetrate battledress and wound or even kill its wearer with one shot or
burst.

This should simply not be possible. TNE accounted for this and T4 needs to
find a way or it defies reality too much.

Best,

Chris Griffen

===================================================
Keeper of the Flame. Traveller player since 1980.

http://www.cris.com/~Cgriffen/traveller/deneb.shtml


- --------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Griffen                      Phone: (408) 527-7189
Cisco Systems, Inc.                      Fax:   (408) 527-0452
NMBU Technical Publications              cgriffen@cisco.com

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:42:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Craig Berry <cberry@cinenet.net>
Subject: Re: Minimum TL for dirigibles

> Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 14:17:37 -0700 (MST)
> From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU>
> 
> Alcohol fuel, OTOH is available at quite low TL's, as all it takes is
> knowing the fundamentals of distillation, and wood alcohol (methanol) or
> grain alcohol (ethanol) are very easy to make this way.
> 
> Ethanol gives you the added benefit of being an instant trade good, too
> ;-)

One of my favorite aspects of Niven's _Ringworld_ series is the Machine
People's alcohol-fuel economy.  Theirs is pure ethanol, and they're
forever helping their clients get past the social crises that ensue when
people discover they can drink the fuel supply...

On the low-tech airship question, I strongly recommend John Barnes's
_Washington's Dirigible_, sequel to _Patton's Spaceship_.  It's set in the
context of a cross-timeline war, in which each side interferes with
lower-tech/past alternate worlds trying to 'grow' powerful allies for the
real fighting up around AD 2800.  In this particular novel, airship
technology is introduced circa 1770 (TL 3ish, IIRC, though rapidly being
manipulated into 4+ in this timeline).

The lifting gas used is "producer gas."  Apparently, if you pass water
vapor over furnace-hot coals, a chemical reaction ensues which yields a
mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas.  This mix is a fairly good
lifting agent, as both gases are lighter than air (though CO not by much).

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
   |   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: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:30:26 -0700
From: Scott Ellsworth <Scott_Ellsworth@alumni.hmc.edu>
Subject: Re: T4 Task Rationale

At 02:14 AM 6/25/97 GMT, James Lindsay wrote:
>Yes, but is that training that grants "skills" or training that grants
>"stat bonuses"?

I usually play that you should get both, in roughly the ratio that they
affect the target number.  After all, people are very familiar with what
works in the real world, at least in aggregate.  If one class helps a lot,
but three are not that much more helpful, you end up with a lot of people
with one class in a subject.

Since I use T=Stat+Skill*3, most of my players who play my (modified)
college career come out with +1 EDU, +2 in major, +1 in minor skill, with
honors adding up to another skill and another EDU.

Scott
Scott_Ellsworth@alumni.hmc.edu   http://users.deltanet.com/~fuz
"When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment 
results" - Calvin Coolidge, (Stanley Walker, City Editor, p. 131 (1934))
"The barbarian is thwarted at the moat." - Scott Adams

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:14:45 -0700
From: Scott Ellsworth <Scott_Ellsworth@alumni.hmc.edu>
Subject: Re: Coreward Maelstrom... a Vargr threat scenario

At 09:27 PM 6/24/97 GMT, you wrote:
>Anyone care to wager how much of a threat they would be to the Domain
>of Deneb *if* the Vargr could all get along together (for longer than
>a few months or so, anyways)?

Big.  Very big, imho.

...
>Do they possess navies capable of standing up to those of the Imperium
>(details from the Frontier Wars are sketchy at best)?  Since larger
>ships (which generally survive longer in combat) require much time and
>resources to construct, do the Vargr even have such large capital
>ships?

As I understand it, supplemented by the Traveller Adventure, very few Vargr
bands had anything like a decent destroyer, by Imperial standards.  (A
major point of that was a vargr band about to make the jump from minor
player to major force was building the equivalent of a light cruiser or
large destroyer, and was hunting up weaponry for it.

The corridor fleet, in my universe, was mostly carriers.  Small fighters
and gunboats are usually acceptable for patrolling a system if you have a
tech advantage or if the average target is a civilian or paramilitary
vessel.  As soon as something with decent point defense shows up, you are
doomed, but this is not a common experience.

Scott canon begin: This all changed in 1116 - yes, many Vargr bands started
raiding, but many more saw the implications.  With the Imperium in turmoil,
Vargr could capture systems along the fringes, and possibly even keep them.
 This required capital ships, and thus an accelerated building program
began among certain major clans.  These ships took a good five years to
finish off, but some clans had already started such construction over the
previous decade or so, but had not finished.  This meant a steady stream of
ever larger threats by ever nastier vessels, meeting ever smaller resistance.

Where they fall down is in support vessels.  It is very hard to build a
fleet in a society like that, but it is not that hard to build a single
nasty unit.  Thus, a well run fleet can still expect to flatten a similar
sized Vargr collection of independent ships, but each ship will tend to be
fought pretty well, and quite aggressively.

In my universe, the Vargr could have been run out of Deneb in a fairly
short campaign early on, but they have since had a chance to get
established, so even if you could smash their capital ships, they would
have significant populations left on many planets in Deneb, and most
leaders other than Lucan are a bit loath to start a black war that they do
not have to.

Scott
Scott_Ellsworth@alumni.hmc.edu   http://users.deltanet.com/~fuz
"When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment 
results" - Calvin Coolidge, (Stanley Walker, City Editor, p. 131 (1934))
"The barbarian is thwarted at the moat." - Scott Adams

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:22:44 -0700
From: Scott Ellsworth <Scott_Ellsworth@alumni.hmc.edu>
Subject: Re: Character Generation Pages in WFW95

At 07:03 PM 6/24/97 -0400, Marc Miller wrote:
>I'm looking at severely crunching down what levels of Edu mean... Attached
>text from the Chargen tables.

>MENTAL CHARACTERISTIC EQUIVALENTS
>Value	Int	Edu

I like this kind of table a lot.  If you include a similar one for the
other stats, as well as one for the various levels of skill, I will be
quite happy.  Having a table like this in the rules is a great idea.

Now, on to the specifics of what is in the table.

I have a minor quibble - the average 18 year old character is going to have
an EDU of 7.  Something like 30% of them have an EDU of >=9.  Is this what
we want, or should there be a corresponding change in the determination of
EDU?

This brings up another idea:  perhaps should EDU start out low, like 1D6+1,
and then get raised according to chargen and background skills, with EDU
being a possible background skill.  One of my players brought this point up
- - regardless of background, it is pretty likely that a Sylean will have a
higher EDU than any person from a TL9 or less culture.  The resources it
costs to give  every Sylean the equivalent of a modern day PhD in
information is likely too trivial to notice - witness the section on
poverty - they all have wallscreens, and have been using databases to look
stuff up for a very long time.

Scott
Scott_Ellsworth@alumni.hmc.edu   http://users.deltanet.com/~fuz
"When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment 
results" - Calvin Coolidge, (Stanley Walker, City Editor, p. 131 (1934))
"The barbarian is thwarted at the moat." - Scott Adams

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 10:01:12 -0700 (MST)
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU>
Subject: Re: New mailing list member...may I introduce myself?

On Wed, 25 Jun 1997, Harold Hale wrote:

> JumpSix@aol.com writes:
> 
> >Ya know I am REAL happy to see Traveller alive and well. I was just looking
> >at material I used to use when I started playing in high school (1979 or so)
> >I thought Id hit search on the internet and found yall! 
> 
>    Fresh meat!  Somebody get the charcoal, I'll get the Weber and the
> lighter fluid.  :-)

Harold, would you STOP teasing the Vilani on the list!!! ;-)

Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:49:15 -0700
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: Deckplan Question?

At 07:26 PM 6/24/97 -0600, Glenn Hoppe wrote:

>On 1997-06-24 15:55 thus spake Bruce Johnson:

>>Amazing what lugging around useless oxygen will do!
>
>Useless? What the heck do *you* breathe? :)

Maybe he's a Jqd-Il-Jaqd in disguise....
- --
+------------------------------------------------+
|   Douglas E. Berry         dberry@hooked.net   |
| Gearhead & Planetologist, Traveller since 1977 |
|         http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/         |
|************************************************|
|    "Traveller assumes a remote centralized     |
|   government (referred to in this volume as    |
|    the Imperium)...                            |
|       -Introduction, Book 4: Mercenary (1978)  |
+------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:59:35 -0700
From: Scott Ellsworth <Scott_Ellsworth@alumni.hmc.edu>
Subject: Alternative world generations rules, with proper attribution!

A few days ago, I credited Jeff Zeitlin with inspiring me to do my own
world generation rules, as long as I was fixing data anyway.

Inadvertently, I did not credit everyone listed in the credits.  The page I
was thinking of was:

http://www.missouri.edu/~ccjoe/traveller/house/altWorldGeneration.html
Alternative World Generation systems

And the authors listed are:

By Jeff Zeitlin <jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com>
Jim Vassilakos <jimv@ucrengr.ucr.edu>
Derek Wildstar <wildstar@moeng2.morgan.edu>
Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
Bruce Pihlamae <pihlab@hhcs.gov.au>
Steve Bonneville <bonn0015@gold.tc.umn.edu>

I suppose there are advantages to being the first listed author.

Scott

Scott_Ellsworth@alumni.hmc.edu   http://users.deltanet.com/~fuz
"When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment 
results" - Calvin Coolidge, (Stanley Walker, City Editor, p. 131 (1934))
"The barbarian is thwarted at the moat." - Scott Adams

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:55:30 -0700
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: New mailing list member...may I introduce myself?

At 12:24 AM 6/25/97 -0400, Harold drooled:

>JumpSix@aol.com writes:
>
>>Ya know I am REAL happy to see Traveller alive and well. I was just looking
>>at material I used to use when I started playing in high school (1979 or so)
>>I thought Id hit search on the internet and found yall! 
>
>   Fresh meat!  Somebody get the charcoal, I'll get the Weber and the
>lighter fluid.  :-)

Vilani Beach BBQ!!!!!

- --
+------------------------------------------------+
|   Douglas E. Berry         dberry@hooked.net   |
| Gearhead & Planetologist, Traveller since 1977 |
|         http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/         |
|************************************************|
|    "Traveller assumes a remote centralized     |
|   government (referred to in this volume as    |
|    the Imperium)...                            |
|       -Introduction, Book 4: Mercenary (1978)  |
+------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 09:59:01 -0700 (MST)
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU>
Subject: Re: Deckplan Question?

On Tue, 24 Jun 1997, Glenn Hoppe wrote:
> >
> >Amazing what lugging around useless oxygen will do!
> 
> Useless? What the heck do *you* breathe? :)

Oh, about 70% Nitrogen, 20% Oxygen,some CO2, and few piddling other things
for flavor, depending on where I live. Higher Oxygen concentrations can
harm or even kill me, depending on the situation. We NEED that nitrogen
for a diluent, even though it's toxic, too, at higher pressures. Running
pure O2 at low pressures isn't toxic but it's one heck of a fire hazard.

The oxygen is 'useless' in that unless the ship is carrying great hulking
tanks of nitrogen or helium with which to generate a human friendly
atmospheric mix, the excess oxygen is merely a waste product that
generates a severe fire hazard. 

We had a fire in southeastern Arizona a couple of months ago, when a
truck carrying a tank of LOX caught fire in a residential neighborhood.
The truck pretty much melted, as did the 5 or 6 houses surrounding. 

You REALLY want to lug that kind of stuff with you during jump?

Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs

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End of Traveller-digest V1997 #1476
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