Traveller-digest      Saturday, June 28 1997      Volume 1997 : Number 1497



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Naval Academy
Re: Battledress and Heroism
Re: Battledress and Heroism
Re: T4 Task Rational
Re: Imperial Bulk Carrier
Re: Chargen Revisions for T41
Re: Task System, Game Design, etc.
Re: Twilights Peak
Re: Re: Task System Blues
Re: Re: Space Combat Probabilities
Re: Hardware and O/S (off topic)
Re: penetrating battledress. (long)
Task List
Traveller: Beyond The Pale... Episode 3

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 20:48:02 -0400
From: Tom Trelenberg <tomt@scri.fsu.edu>
Subject: Naval Academy

> School prerequisite for Naval Acadamy has been increased to Int 9+ and Edu
> 5-.
>

I went to the Naval Academy (US that is).  I can tell you INT played a
very minor roll......what mattered was (DEX/n)+(SKILL*m) in athletics.
8-p      {where the values of n and m are adjusted to whatever task
system is in current favor in Task Wars...)

Sorry, I couldn't resist.....I got precluded from 13 too many "easy"
proffessors by Navy athletes...my turn to get my jibes in .....

TT

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 97 17:37:22 -0500
From: eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)
Subject: Re: Battledress and Heroism

On 06/27/97 at 06:24 PM,  jlindsay@direct.ca (James Lindsay) said:

>It wasn't a joke.  It was part of an actual transcript between a US naval
>vessel and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October,
>1995 (I happen to have the article right in front of me... what a
>coincidence).

>US ship: "Please divert your course 0.5 degrees to the south to avoid a
>collision."

>Canada: "Recommend you divert /your/ course 15 degrees to the south to
>avoid a collision."

>US ship: "This is the captain of a US navy ship.  I say again, divert
>/your/ course."

>Canada: "No.  I say again, divert /your/ course."

>US ship:  "This is the aircraft carrier USS Missouri.  We are a large
>warship of the US Navy.  Divert your course NOW!" (you can almost /feel/
>the arrogance)

>Canada:  This is a lighthouse.  Your call.

Now, James! ;->  If you were quoting the article then it *was* a joke. The
USS Missouri is a battleship, not a carrier, and in 1995 had been recently
decommissioned.  I rather suspect this is just another "urban myth", but it
*does* sound like naval officers I've known over the years. ;->

Eris
- -- 
- -----------------------------------------------------------
eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 21:05:14 -0400
From: "Paul D. Owensby" <pauld@athens.net>
Subject: Re: Battledress and Heroism

>   Chris, you are obviously missing the Tanker's Lesson.  Tankers can not
>stay in the tank all the time.  They have to get out sometime.  When they
>get out to empty the honey bucket or grab a bite of hot chow, the sniper
>then blows their head off.  This is why tanks don't operate without
>infantry.  This goes double in non-armor friendly areas such as cities.
>Too many rat holes to hide a rocket launcher.  The rocket doesn't have to
>penatrate the armor.  Just blowing a tread off is enough to cost the tank
>it's mobility.  Pillboxes are easier to destroy than tanks.

The movie _The Beast_ is an excellent example (and a wonderful movie)
about just how desperate and paranoid a lone tank/jump trooper/mech/etc.
is when it's lost and alone deep in enemy territory.


**********************************************************
Paul Owensby (pauld@athens.net)                   
CEO and Chief Bottle Washer of ValuJump Lines
"So Economical, You'll Think You're Part of the Crew" (tm)
Pan-Imperia: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Paul_Owensby/

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 18:10:38 -0800
From: "David P. Summers" <summers@alum.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: T4 Task Rational

Fri, 27 Jun 1997 08:51:50 -0600, "David J. Golden" <goldendj@pcisys.net>
> At 12:00 am 06/27/97 -0700, you wrote:
>         I repeat: If you give me a task system where a very bright first-year med
> student (Med-1, Int-12) is a better doctor than an average MD (Med-4,
> Int-8), it reflects not at all reality.

Again, you are missing a point here.  The differnce you are
talking about is that a first year med student shouldn't
be able to do open heart surgery _no matter his skill_.
Yet if you let Medical-1 people roll to do heart surgery
they only have a modestly small chance (-2 to roll) than a full doctor
(skill-3).  The problem here isn't that stats are overvalued.
It's that you are letting someone roll when they aren't trained.

The solution is not to deny that a talented person with Medical-1
will be better at Medical-1 appropriate tasks than a less talented
person.  It to not let _any_ Medical-1 people (regardless of
target number) roll against Medical-3 tasts.
[repetive stuff snipped to wind this down...]

> >That's why you don't allow some rolls unless you have at
> >least some level of skill above 0.
> 
>         Every version of Traveller prior to T4 has allowed ANYBODY to take a shot
> at a task. Lack of skill simply means you don't have much chance to do it.

Um no.  GM's in Classic Traveller do not have to allow rolls
against skill-0.

>         I don't have a problem with Stat-8 Med-1 trying heart surgery. But Stat-12
> Med-1 doesn't mean he's more "talented" at medicine than Stat-8 Med-4.

I don't agree.  A person with Stat-12 Med-1 will be better at many
things that a Stat-8 Med-4.  I've seen this before.  A young
talent starts learning and as soon as a subject is covered
he's doing better than it than a mediocre hack who never really
understood it in the first place.  So you don't let him
roll against things he hasn't trained yet (ie heart surgery
is a Medical-3 proceedure) but you don't just deny that
he _can_ be better at more basic proceedures than the 
hack with more training.

>         If you really would prefer a first-year med student to treat you when you
> come into a hospital, that's fine. I'll go with the licensed MD...

Well, I would rather have a talented nurse put an IV in me
than untalented doctor.

> >It was gratuitous because you could have just refered to them
> >rather than listing every one out.
> 
>         I was trying to make a point. Obviously that point was missed.

No.  I got it.  It was just expressed in a bandwidth wasting method.

>         I'm not automatically negating new ideas for the game, or I wouldn't be
> bothering to discuss it. I could equally fling out the irrelevant charge
> that other people are automatically accepting anything new and different as
> good, which is just as ridiculous.

I don't expect that.  I just want people to realise that this
oppositoin to stat+skill as "broken" is hardly a universally
accepted idea.

>         It's obvious we want different kinds of games here. In your game, skills
> aren't really important.

Um no.  In my games _both_ skilsl and stats are important.

>Players would be much better off concentrating on
> increasing their stats, with low skills (you're the one who claims Int-11
> Med-1 is better than Int-8, Med-4). Why waste time trying to get more than
> skill-1 in anything?

I have agreed that, for game balance, stat increases should be
harder to get.  After all, this is a more fundamental aspect
of your character.  I just think both talent and skill need
to be equally expressed in the skill resolution.

>         Other games also have different feels. Traveller generally has not had the
> "Ultra-Heroic" feel of the Lensman series, where a single character could
> do everything well simply because of characteristics, while another average
> (note: don't twist average to mean moron or clumsy, please) character could
> never hope to match him. And there are very few people in real life who can
> do everything well.

Actually, stat+skill does _not_ equal "heroic".  Gurps is one
of the more realistic games and it uses stat+skill.
 ______________________________
 summers@alum.mit.edu

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 21:56:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: John H Bogan Jr <jbogan@pipeline.com>
Subject: Re: Imperial Bulk Carrier

At 10:46 AM 6/26/97 -0400, Lewis Roberts wrote:

>The ship is a cylinder, with two engine pods mounted on small
>outriggers, at the front of the ship.  The bridge, living quarters and
>jump drives are all mounted on the front of the cylinder, almost all of
>the cylinder is taken up by cargo and fuel. 

As an additional note, the "nosecone & outriggers" 
section pictured in Rebellion Sourcebook looks
suspiciously like a cargo carrier from CT book
Fighting Ships. Can't @*%!-ing find FS at the 
moment, but I think the ship in RS is too big
to be the same one. However, if it follows the 
same principle, the cylindrical section is a
standardized, detatchable, and interchangeable
fuel tank/cargo pod.

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 97 20:21:20 -0500
From: eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)
Subject: Re: Chargen Revisions for T41

On 06/27/97 at 03:12 PM,  "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net> said:

>At 03:48 PM 6/27/97 -0400, Marc brought forth even more stone tablets:

>>Heroism is a separate roll availabl;e if you roll 5- on Injury.
>>The Edu scale has been wrenched downward.
>>School prerequisite for Naval Acadamy has been increased to Int 9+ and Edu
>>5-.
>^^^

>This fits in with my thoughts of both the Naval Service, and its Officer
>Corps.  Inbred louts, the bunch of them.  Or did you mean 5+?

HA! I like that. ;->  

>>Int Pre-Req of 9+ added for Medical School.

Yes, Ok, that's reasonable.

>>Int PreReq of A+ added for Technical school.

It seems high that you need higher Int to get into a Tech school than a Med
school.  I'd drop this one to 8+, like regular University.

>>Prereq for Univerrsity, Mechant Academy and Military Academy is now Int 8+
>>and Edu 6+.

>These all sound good.. makes Chargen a little more realistic.

It makes it more varied, which is probably even more important for a *game*
than realism.  ;->

>>Business is allowed as a major in University.
>>Business Major and Merchant Degree are BBA.
>>Grad School allows Business as a major and MBA as a degree.

This is good!  I've got a couple of players in my game that could have used
a Business or Merchant major.

>>At Grad School, no degree is granted unless Major skill level is 4+ (6+ for
>>Ph.D).

>Tres Bien!  I can play burned out, bitter grad students now!

Hee!  Or even too busy living to finish, grad students. ;->

>>At Medical School, now 5 years, automatic Med-1 each year, plus one skill per
>>year. No degree uless Medical 6+.

>Sehr Gut! (yes, I'm tired of typing "that's good") training doctors does
>take a long time.  I will now make my final pitch to have Medical skill
>split into a cascade of First Aid (or Trauma), Diagnosis, and Surgery.

Marc, I'll second Doug's request.  I'd *really* like to see Medical
*officially* become a cascade.  I already do it like this with 4 skills
cascading as follows:

 Medical
    First Aid - the skill of EMT's and trauma care specialists
    Diagnosis - the skill of figuring out what's wrong
    Surgery - the skill of cut and paste
    Pharmacy - the skill of preparing and administering drugs

>Could somebody get a copy of this from Marc and translate it into
>something that Word 6.0/Win 3.1 can read?  (With Marc's permission, of
>course..) I would really like to see a copy.

I've got a copy of Word 6.0, and I think it can read the Word 95
format..isn't that what Marc has the draft in?

Anyway, I'd like a copy too.

Eris
- -- 
- -----------------------------------------------------------
eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 20:47:42 -0600 (MDT)
From: "P. ENGEBOS" <pengebos@NMSU.Edu>
Subject: Re: Task System, Game Design, etc.

On Fri, 27 Jun 1997 CardSharks@aol.com wrote:
> Indeed, the CharGen pieces I have posted all assume that characters get 1
> skill (or slightly more) per year. No one has said, let's go back to 1 skill
> per 4 years; they want the higher skill levels.

What I like with this isn't the higher skill levels, its the ability to
get more skills.  My SF visions have always been of characters with a
broad range of competence.

Peter Engebos				<pengebos@nmsu.edu>
T'Sarith, Lord deGaalth			<tsarith@io.com>
		http://web.nmsu.edu/~pengebos/

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 22:38:26 -0400
From: Daniel Poulin <pould@netcom.ca>
Subject: Re: Twilights Peak

At 16:11 27/06/97 -0400, Thomas Walter Trelenberg wrote:
>I would like to pose a question to the colletive TML brain:
>
>I am looking over Twilights Peak to modify and run in my campaign.  When
>we played it before (oh so long ago) I remember we had a question that
>now one in our group could answer well...so I would like to hear how
>some of you dealt with it.  The question is:  what is this "ancient"
>base doing at the end of some tunnels under one of the octagon
>buildings?  The base was built long before the building was even there. 
>So did the builders stumble upon the "big metal door" while they were
>digging to put in the well...wouldn't it have been worth a lot more
>money to the Octagon society to sell off the location of an ancient base
>(to further their cause) rather than to just build the structure and
>move on.  Did some previous resident (without all his marble stumble
>across the door while digging near the well and brick it up and put in
>the secret doors in the octagon building.
>
>Its not that I'm knocking TP.  Its long been one of my favorite
>adventures....and not half bad just or a good read.  I just wondered
>what some of the opinions were about this.
>
>Sorry to distract you from the GTB (great task debate)....well not
>really too sorry. :->
>
>Tom
>
I have finally found another group to play Traveller with (we're playing
MegaTraveller - all the other ones pale in comparison (I guess I just
expressed my opinion on the GTB)).  Interesting that you mention that since
my first group (a long time ago in another city) said exactly the same
thing.  I have decided to make it differently this time.

If you read the story found at page 55 of the book, I have decided to make
the room with the buttresses at the eigth corners a different room than the
rest of the building.  I have decided that the original crew, by putting
down the fusion heater (again page 55), caused the floor to collapse and the
rooms below to appear.  As to the bones and the altar, I believe they might
have been left by Droynes that were not in the base when the war ended and
simply died away.  the bones are those of the human servants who have since
gone instinct.  As to the Droynes, they either left or simply vanished
without a trace.  What do you think?

Daniel Poulin
pould@netcom.ca

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

Date: 28 Jun 1997 03:11:50 GMT
From: Rob_Prior@nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
Subject: Re: Re: Task System Blues

>The main thing is your
>players go home thinking "That was a great game, I can't wait for next one."
>and always has been.

Sorry, Somin, but I think you're wrong.  The main thing is your players go
home thinking "That was fun, I want to ref the next one." so that you get to
play once in a while :-)

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

Date: 28 Jun 1997 03:08:07 GMT
From: Rob_Prior@nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
Subject: Re: Re: Space Combat Probabilities

>>are we talking about 30000km range bands?
>
>No, we're talking about the 5000km/50000km/500000km "official" range bands
>that seem likely to be enshrined in T4.1 space combat.

Uh, yuck!  Exponential range bands may be OK for a quick&dirty system, but I
prefer something with actual distances for gaming out a situation.  As soon
as Azhanti High Lightning came out I dropped the CT range bands and never
looked back.  

In fact, range bands are one reason why I haven't converted to T4 rules yet. 
Is there a way of finding the effective/long/extreme ranges of the weapons in
Emperor's Arsenal?  I dislike the granular range-band system for T4, but
can't use these weapons with MT/TNE rules (my current house system for
combat).

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 23:54:22 -0400
From: Jon Fuller <foxonetwo@geocities.com>
Subject: Re: Hardware and O/S (off topic)

Bruce Johnson wrote:



> Cool! I saw a Kaypro 3 at the swap meet (giant organized permanent garage

> sale sort of thingie) for $15 the other day. Unfortunately, my wife was

> with me too, so I got dragged away at high speed, hearing something like

> "No you CAN'T have ANOTHER useless old computer in the house!"



Yeah, the Kaypro rocks.  It weighs enough that you're left strongly

suspecting it's radiation hardened and battlefield ready after you lug

it between your car and house a few times.  I got mine from a nearby

church that wasn't using it anymore, and it came with gobs of manuals,

three different forms of basic, wordstar, as well as the neato old

astrotraders game (in which you take on the role of an interstellar

megacorporation!).  Also has a built in 300 baud modem (I did most of my

early surfing on that baby...).  Nice keyboard, too (and readily
detachable, so you could fend off muggers :)



Ah, the good old days...



.JF.

foxonetwo@geocities.com

http://pages.prodigy.com/fuller/

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

Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 23:52:00 -0400
From: Jon Fuller <foxonetwo@geocities.com>
Subject: Re: penetrating battledress. (long)

Douglas E. Berry wrote:
> 
> At 06:13 PM 6/27/97 GMT, James W. Lindsay wrote:
> 
> >Modern tanks don't have holes.  They are completely sealed to combat
> >the use of chemical and biological weapons.  They do have armoured
> >periscopes for manual viewing, but these are armour plated and even a
> >.50 calibre round will not be able to pierce the bullet proof glass,
> >ricochet around inside the periscope body (which contains even more
> >bulletproof glass, I believe), and enter the tank through the eye
> >piece.
> 
> Ah, but I'll render that periscope pretty useless by shattering the outer
> lens.. Try driving a 60-ton tank by braille.
> 

Um, I thought the driver had a lens to see thru, as well.  Not to
mention various anti-personnel aiming ports (for the coaxials atop the
turret).  You'd have to make a heck of alot of lucky shots to destroy
the crews only means of directing their vehicle.  Best to use with a
recoilless rifle and take the entire thing apart...

BTW, I just found this *great* passage regarding powered armor (aka
Battle Dress) in one of the old 'Sten' books by Allan Cole and Chris
Bunch (a good series, if you can find them).

begin quote

"You will _all_ learn about the fighting suit," Lanzotta said. "Chances
are, some of you will even die in one.  And you will discover, as I did,
that the suit will kill you faster than the enemy, more often than not."
"I am particularly fond of this subject," Lanzotta continued. "In fact,
I have made a personal study of the suit.  Because it was in this piece
of equipment that the technicians reached the absolute height of
absurdity."
Sten looked over the suits, and for once, he didn't have to fake
interest.  Many of them he recognized from the war feelies.  They were
huge, armored things shaped vaguely like humanoids.  Some had what could
pass for arms, but were track-based.
The first thing he noticed was they all seemed to be graded by size.  At
the beginning of the rack, they were small and flimsy-looking.  From
there they got larger and larger and more complex-appearing, until about
two-thirds of the way down the line.  Then they got smaller again, but
with a more durable look about them.
"The larger the antipersonnel weapon," Lanzotta continued, "the more the
Techs loaded on the armor.  Until, finally, with this suit we could take
anything.  Lasers, nukes, bugs, null bombs, you name it, we were just
about invulnerable."
Sten was starting to get the drift of what was wrong with the suit.
"About fifty years ago, I had the great pleasure of testing this suit in
action.  Myself and about two thousand comrades in arms."
Lanzotta laughed.  And it was instant tension time for the recruits. 
Should they laugh? He obviously though he had made a funny.  But
Carruthers and Halstead were stony-faced.  They didn't think it was
funny.  Lanzotta ended their agony by not noticing anything and going
on.
"Our orders were to put down a rebellion on a godforsaken planet called
Moros.  Besides the troops, we were supplied with everything known to
modern military science--including the latest fighting suit."
Sten studied it more closely.  It was the largest, non-tracked piece of
equipment on the rack.  There were tubes and wires, minividscreens, and
knobs and bulges everywhere.
"I love this suit," Lanzotta said.  "It can do anything."
"It's AM2-powered and psuedo-muscled.  Anyone inside it would be equal
to thirty beings in strength.  A small company dressed in these could
advance through any kind of fire the enemy threw at them.  It's
impervious to almost anything and you can live in it for months without
outside support."
Lanzotta shook his head at the wonder of it all.
"Of course, no one thought to brief the natives on Moros.  They weren't
told what brave and fierce warriors we were.  They didn't even know the
word technology, so what could they think?"
"We landed and they ran into the jungle.  We advanced under fire--mostly
spears and blowguns--and burned their villages.  They one day they grew
tired of running."
"What they discovered was this: Yes, we were big strong soldiers with
the fire power of a small tank.  But we couldn't manuever.  And we were
cut off from our environment.  So they worked out this simple little
trick.
"They dug pits, camoflauged them, and then fled before our advance.  Of
course, many of us fell in.  The pits were lined with nets that tangled
us up."
Lanzotta wasn't laughing.
"And while we were struggling out of the nets, they'd run up to the pit
and stick a big long spear through the suits waste vent.  The spear made
large holes in the trooper inside.
"Naturally, the excrement was carried into the body.  The wound festered
so badly that the medpaks froze up--and many of us rotted to death."

end quote

While this is a fictional example, there is a great deal of truth to it.
Your enemy will _find_ a weakness, a gap in your coverage, even if, to
your own perception, no weakness exists.

.JF.
foxonetwo@geocities.com
http://pages.prodigy.com/fuller/

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 21:26:27 -0700
From: "Brad Urwiller" <ravyn@ptw.com>
Subject: Task List

Perhaps we should consider another
alternative.  Many individuals wish to use
fewer dice.  I myself find it easier this
way.  In order to have skills count more we
must either reduce the value of attributes
when rolling or increase skill values. =20

I would propose as system that was a
composite of the original CT system and the
task system from TNE.  While I haven't
worked out the specifics I would imagine it
could work something like this.

Take the Attribute*DM involved and then add
Skill Lvl.
The result would be a number that would have
to be rolled LESS than on 3D6.  (Although a
different set of dice could be used).

The difficulty MOD would increase with
difficulty. =20
Thus:  A more difficult task is more
difficult to succeed by natural talent
alone.  Not impossible just more difficult.=20
Thus an easy task could be accomplished by a
relatively untrained individual.  However,
anything of real importance would be
accomplished more readily by a trained
individual. =20

Note the would be only 1 modifier keeping
things simple. =20
As far as actual tasks each task would be
accompanied by a # this would be a DM.=20
While there could be a suggested difficulty
scale the actual #'s could very to the GM's
tastes. =20

I haven't calculated any #'s (anyone up for
this?) but a difficulty scale could go
something like this.

Easy		2
Difficult		1
Formadible	.5
Impossible	.25

I will point out that this system becomes
VERY difficult VERY fast.  I won't pretend
its the best system but it couldn't hurt to
explore this idea.


_
 \\=20
)=3DO-8>  "Nevermore!" quoth the ravyn and
nothing more...
 //
 =AF

Brad Urwiller
ravyn@ptw.com

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

Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 00:31:19 -0400
From: Roderick Darroch Elliott <rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca>
Subject: Traveller: Beyond The Pale... Episode 3

	Just ran the third session of my latest campaign, titled Traveller:
Beyond The Pale.  Here's the post-game summary:

The Cast:

Amr Santayema: a young and clever merchant, played by the TML's own Ross
Coburn, who after long experience in my campaigns, has decided that his
character is not leaving the ship come hell or high water.

Lt Kehaaarl: An Aslan ex-marine.  Visualize Catbert, Evil H.R. Director, on
steroids and bad acid with a big gauss rifle:
<purrrBANGpurrrBANGpurrrrBANG...>.

Sir Loreni Vilash: Vilani merchant from a poor family whose trading acumen
led him to a knighthood.

Dame Iliana Berek'san: a prominent chanteuse; tall, pale, beautiful,
dressed in the cutting edge of Sylean fashion, with a blue & purple topknot
reaching down to her knees, coloured contacts, and a Famille Spofulam
Fashion Accessories designer laser pistol to match, who's slumming it in
the company of...

...Perlis Dalal: a muscular female ex-scout.  Played by the TML's Glenn Grant.

They're joined this week by:

Elo Lezaar, a highly geeky Vilani ex-Navy sensors and electronics tech,
who's Dame Iliana's stage manager.  He mumbles, collects meditation rugs
and keeps bees, and is played by Sebastien Normandin, who will be joining
the list shortly.

	This bunch of intrepid adventurers is presently assembled, along
with a growingly large number of fellow fortune-seekers, on Mishegaan III,
an LSP mining colony, waiting for an Imperial interdict to lift on a nearby
cluster of main-sequence stars.  In the first game session they
incorporated Quintana Speculative Ventures LIC and bought all three Jump-3
ships on the planet; last session they went on a fruitless chase after some
revolutionaries who stole their cargo of Fusion+ generators from a
spaceport warehouse.  Upon their return to the spaceport, the investigation
having been taken over by Ling's security forces, they recieved a call from
Liontzel Huutzaa, their lawyer and Ling's CLO. He informed them that Ling
had just lost contact with the security detachment sent out to chase the
revolutionaries, a hefty percentage of their total forces on-planet.
Huutzaa informed them that he was to be moving on-board as things were
looking dicey in the colony.

This week:

	Hanging around the spaceport concourse after seeing Dame Iliana's
concert gear offloaded from a shuttle, Elo witnessed the rest of the
party's return, their ship (the Locust-class Frontier Trader, which Ross
still hasn't posted.  He should; it's a great design: J3, 300 td, armed and
profitable) scarred by a SAM hit on the port bows.  They disembarked,
discussing their plans and the preceding events in great detail, much to
the interest of passerby in the crowded concourse (rumour mills kicked into
high gear, but they didn't see this happening).  Elo joined up with the
group and was introduced more-or-less by Dame Iliana.  Fortunately for the
group, before they could finish discussing the chase after the
revolutionaries and their business plans in public in great detail, and
move on to discussing their no doubt highly colourful sexual preferences,
Huutzaa and his luggage showed up and convinced them to continue the
converstation in private, on board ship.

	Discussion in the lounge on board the Locust-class eventually
turned to the group's choice of ship.  They decided to hold a shareholder's
meeting.  Much bickering and discussion ensued, which, summarized, involved
deciding to keep the Recollet-class Exploratory Trader (FSY's last THUDDD
entry) and selling the Locust and Lalemant-class vessels.  After
discovering that "Recollet" was a word from the Terran language French,
they decided that a French name would be a good thing and settled on
"Versailles" (ghod only knows why) after a cursory language database search
(I tried to steer them towards calling it the "Poodle", after the dreaded
breed of fierce war-dogs, but they didn't bite).  Crew details were bashed
out.  Huutzaa then left, to discuss the purchase of the Lalemant-class ship
with the captain of the bombed-out Far Trader (Huutzaa had taken advantage
of his position to expedite his insurance settlement under the Imperial
MegaCorporate Insurance Claims Settlement Mutual Assistance Agreement; he
also rushed through Sir Loreni's claim <since Sir Loreni hadn't filed it
yet, this was somewhat irregular>).

	After a long and trying day, they then all tucked in for the night.

	The next morning began with everyone shifting personal effects on
board the Versailles.  Dame Iliana took charge of selecting the interior
decor, and had her manager look into the possibility of staging a concert
locally, that evening.  She then recieved a call from the secretary to
Vought Hendaar, Ling's colony chief XO, inviting her to dinner.  She
accepted, and proposed an additional meeting earlier that afternoon, to
discuss the possibility of a concert.

	Sir Loreni concluded the sale of the Lalemant-class vessel to the
captain of the blown-up Far Trader, making a healthy 12% profit.

	Elo began his day with a diagnostic inspection of the Locust-class;
it proved to be in good health, so he moved on to repairing the missile
impact dent on its bows with some TL-12 BondHex Multipurpose Starship Body
Filler.  He then went to inspect the Lalemant.  This ship was in much worse
condition, not having recieved annual maintenance for several years, so he
began to see what he could do about tuning it up so that its purchasers
wouldn't be too upset.

	Meanwhile, Lt. Kehaarl, having moved on-board, recieved a comm call
from Huutzaa, asking him to do some bodyguard work overseeing the loading
of some sensitive cargo that he wanted moved from Ling's administrative
offices to the ship for safe-keeping in the event of a revolution.  Kehaarl
agreed, and shortly thereafter Perlis recieved a similar call.

	Kehaarl, not being a stupid little Aslan Death Machine, then
informed Sir Loreni of this; Sir Loreni called Huutzaa, who asked him to
meet with him and Perlis and Kehaarl at the entrace to the tunnel
connecting the spaceport to the colony, as it was too sensitive to discuss
over a comm link.

	Perlis, Kehaarl, and Sir Loreni met Huutzaa at the tunnel entry.
In response to Sir Loreni's inquiry as to the nature of the cargo, Huutzaa
informed him that it was some administrative records and the colony's cash
reserves, which he wanted stored somewhere the authors of the imminent
insurgency couldn't get their hands on.  He was convinced that a revolution
was imminent; the remnants of LSP's security forces were hard pressed to
guard both the worker's dormitories (all miners were confined to quarters,
but a large number were still unaccounted-for) and the minehead.
Therefore, he wanted the colony's books and cash reserves secretly removed
to the ship where they could be whisked away in case of revolution.

	Sir Loreni, smelling a large rat at the vocal insistence of several
players whose characters were not even present, insisted that the material
be given to the spaceport authorities for safe-keeping.  Huutzaa
acquiesced.  Sir Loreni thus mollified, Huutzaa then proceeded to drive
Perlis and Kehaarl into the Ling colony.  Taking a side maintenance
passage, they entered the huge, stadium-sized minehead and took a cargo
elevator to the bottom, where they found that many of Ling's remaining
security personnel were entrenched protecting the various elevators and
such.  Huutzaa spoke to the officer in charge, who let them drive through
the security cordon.  After driving through various mine corridors, they
came to a cleverly concealed passage connecting to the colony's massive
main ventilation shaft; riding up a maintenance elevator nearly to the top
of the shaft, they entered a side duct, which proved to lead over the
colony's administrative sector.

	Stopping at one floor vent grill in particular, they met up with
two individuals in Ling uniforms, who placed a ladder underneath the vent.
Descending, they realized that they were in the front room to Ling's main
vault.  While his flunkies installed a ceiling hook and chain hoist in the
vent, and wheeled a dolly into the room, Huutzaa opened the vault, with
Perlis and Kehaarl  standing guard.  The inveitable happened while the
dolly was being loaded up, and an explosion, gunfire, and screams were
heard nearby... at which point, being an evil GM, I cut to Dame Iliana.

	Dame Iliana was picked up on time by a grav limo, and was driven up
to Hendaar's quarters up on the uppermost level of the colony.  Waiting for
Hendaar to arrive, she enjoyed the view out over the spaceport and crater
floor (the colony, if you recall, being built right into a large crater
wall overlooking the spaceport.  Hendaar arrived shortly thereafter,
looking like everyone's nice old fascist grandfather; greetings took place,
and Dame Iliana broached the topic of her throwing a concert in the colony.
As Hendaar was waxing rhapsodic over the idea of fleets of starships taking
flight into the unknown, to boldy exploit where no man has exploited
before, to the tune of heroic arias to the glory of the Imperium, a large
explosion took place at the main entrance to his quarters, blowing debris
into the living room.

	It being late, we called the game there.  We'll be playing again in
two weeks.  Will Perlis and Kehaarl save the colony's cash reserve?  Will
Dame Iliana escape the hordes of rampaging disgruntled Rye-Ben miners?
Will Amr and Sir Loreni space the lawyer?  Tune in next time!

R.D. Elliott <rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca>

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

End of Traveller-digest V1997 #1497
***********************************
