Traveller-digest      Wednesday, August 4 1999      Volume 1999 : Number 918



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

FW: Yet more filk
Getting Around the Reality Checks
Re: First In
Re: Yet more filk
Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (new in TRAVELLERT ) 
Re: First In
Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (new in TRAVELLERT ) 
More First In
First in subsector listing
[BITS] Website Update 3rd August 1999
Re: Yet more filk
Re: Xenobiology 101 : Ecology, Environment, and Evolution
Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (new in TRAVELLERT ) 
Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (new in TRAVELLERT ) 
A bit of a delay
Re: First In
Re: Gen Con UK
Re: Yet more filk
Re: Spacedocks
Re: Traveller World Settlement (Was:  Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #915)

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 18:26:57 +0800
From: "Antony Farrell" <Skaran@bigpond.com>
Subject: FW: Yet more filk

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
[mailto:owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com] On Behalf Of
AveNelso@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, 4 August 1999 9:54
To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
Subject: Re: Yet more filk


In a message dated 8/3/99 6:17:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
travelleri@home.com writes:

<< 
 Dice AND feet! you guys had it made! We walked on stumps to get odd
 shaped rocks and had to paint the pips on 'em ourselves!
  >>

    Oh we would have been in paradise if we only had paint for our pips.

            Dave Nelson

What is paint? 

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 07:10:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: "William F. Hostman" <aramis@gci.net>
Subject: Getting Around the Reality Checks

>
>ObTrav:  How do other GM's get around this problem?  There are military
>grade turret weaponry in a warehouse that *have to be loaded from there* a
>few cliks from the Starport and smuggled out.  The activity will draw
>attention and by the worlds laws, gives a high chance of being caught.
>Therefore the only option is to sneak past the sensors and land, load and
>sneak backout...
>
>- -- The Roc

IMTU, at least, and based upon the few worlds shown in detail in _The
Traveller Adventure_, _Knightfall_, and the CT numbered adventures, many
worlds either don't have or cannot afford all-inclusive monitoring.

Why might they not have the comprehensive monitoring?
1) Lack of interest
2) Political fears of "Big Brother" on the planet.
3) Religious Prohibition
4) Lack of Technology to support and maintain (See also Psaydi, in _TTA_)
5) political &/or military corruption/inefficiency/ineptitude

Land based sensor systems also have one other drawback: many of the smaller
pop worlds will have their populations all near a single center of
population. In such cases, it would require putting monitoring stations
around the circumferance of the planet to maintain 360x180 degree
monitoring; not practical unless you have a credible threat to something
you value. So, unless something on the wrong-side IS of value to the
locals, they aren't going to pay too much attention. Note that value here
is not a tightly defined term, and so can include any number of rationales.

Additionally, Earth has extensive Air and surface monitoring coverage for
several reasons, including (but not limited to) balkanization, lack of
trust, and imminent threat. Most worlds in the marches don't have this.
They do have one thing we don't: interstellar and interplanettary traffic
with significant sensors on a regular basis. Most worlds need not rely on
ground based or orbital sensor platforms if they have a customs "fleet" (4
ships in a tetrahedron {d4 shape} formation can cover all the orbital and
beyond to the limits of their sensor ranges around a sphere)...

IMTU, monitoring is generally limited to approaches to the planet and (from
orbit down)  to the major urban areas... except on ExtLaw or HiPop worlds.
If there is a high port, it generally handles orbital assignments....

Blind spots exist because the "Credible threat" is not sufficient to
warrant the long term deployments of men and materiel to prevent them. Or,
rather, the threats are not sufficiently high that full-time full-up
systems are used.

And, despite the touting of some of our "Sky-watch" capabilities, we can't
even track how many chunks of rock atually fall into the troposphere each
year...

I live near one of the most powerful radar systems in the world (The US
DEW-line), and know for a fact that Russian aircraft frequently were
detected after crossing the DEW-line, rather than being detected by the DEW
system it self.... It's amazing what you learn just by hanging out on an
active interceptor base... so few GI's realize how much they let slip.

Speaking of slips, that's another way around security... just find out the
"Ignore me, I'm nobody" codes from some drunk (or drugged) GI. The
automated systems then think you are a friend.

William F. Hostman
Mailto:aramis@gci.net http://home.gci.net/~aramis http://www.alaska.net/~mhaa
ICQ:14640742          AIM:AKAramis	ARM 1.0: 3 R H++ P+
IMTU 1.0: tc tm++ tn t4- tt+ to- ?tg ru+ ge 3i+ jt-() au+ st+ ls ls- kk+
as+ hi+ dr+ va++(--) so+ zh++ vi+ da++ sy- ge- pi+
"Smith & Wesson: THe original Point and Click interface!"

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 04:00:51 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: First In

In mail you write:

> I'll see if I can dig it up if people are interested (and Jon doesn't
> object.)  IIRC, it does not use the Bode Law spacing scheme, which is also
> a good thing, because Bode seems likely to be an accident rather than a
> law.  

Oddly enough, back in the 70s, there was an article in Analog that made
a good case for a slightly modified "Bode's Law" working for the
satellite systems of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. 

I'v never had it and the voyager/pioneer data on the "new" satellites
in the same place, so I can't say how it stacks up now. 

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

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 04:03:50 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Yet more filk

In mail you write:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sword Worlder <swordworlder@clinic.net>
> To: <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 7:33 AM
> Subject: Re: Yet more filk
>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Nick Bradbeer <nickb@ndirect.co.uk>
>> > >You kids.. when I was your age we had to carve our own miniatures, and
>> use
>> > >low-impact polyhedrals that we bought from Lou Zocchi's little store on
>> the
>> > >corner!
>> >
>> > Yeah, and walk to the games shop. Barefoot. In the snow.
>> > Uphill there, uphill back.
>> > <g>
>>
>> Oh no, it was much worse than that!  We didn't even have e-mail, never
> mind
>> the Web.  We had to actually _go_to_the_store_ to find out if a new
>> supplement had come out (you'd never be impertinent enough to phone them).
>>
>>
>
> And we only had steam powered computers and the web was what a spider built
> on the back!  I remember many an hour shovelling coal to get mine working!
>
> -- The Roc

Ok, I've *had* it. I'm going to do the unforgiveable. Tell the truth...!

Back before 1980 I did my figuring for all these grandiose schemes
on a 4 function calculator (with no memory) using a 60 row *abacus* to
store intermediate results. 

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

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 04:08:14 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (new in TRAVELLERT ) 

In mail you write:

> 'You can't be serious stranger. Guano and charcoal! I'll not have any of
> your damned war machines that are powered by bird effluent!' See, I'm pretty
> sure I got that wrong too.

Actually, you usually take aged manure, fermented urine, and a generous
amount of wood ash (*not* charcoal!) and mix in a barrel over a fire
tto extract the saltpeter. (I've got more accurate directions if you
*really* want them).

You also need sulfur and charcoal for gunpowder. Or you can mix sugar
and saltpeter to make a decent solid rocket fuel. 

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

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 08:10:23 EDT
From: SciFiFan56@aol.com
Subject: Re: First In

In a message dated 8/3/99 8:45:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time, igor@truserve.com 
writes:

> 
>  The problem is, from a Traveller standpoint, there just aren't too many
>  liveable planets. The vast majority of planets generated appear to be
>  airless rockballs, no water - including worlds in the lifezone. While this
>  may be realistic, it doesn't _feel_ like Traveller.
>  
I think you are confusing Traveller with Star Trek, I do not think that there 
is a overly large abundance of Earth-like worlds in the Traveller system 
(regardless of version). Look at the spinward marches for example. It would 
be interesting for some one with a spread sheet to show us the break down of 
various types of worlds are in the most canon of all sectors, the Spinward 
Marches. I really do not think that there are that many truly "Earth-like." 
Lots of terrestrial, but few truly standard atmosphere, standard gravity, 
etc. Of course I could be wrong, but most of the worlds I remember fell short 
of being truly "human-friendly", if memory serves most seemed to require 
special life support apparatus to move about freely in. 

Have I misunderstood your point? 

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 08:55:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: William Prankard <cmdrx@magicnet.net>
Subject: Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (new in TRAVELLERT ) 

>Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 14:26:08 +1000 
>From: "Hughes, Michael" <Michael.Hughes@cbr.defence.gov.au>
>Subject: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (new
in TRAVELLERT ) 

>Has anyone done a CYIKAC esque scenario, ie. High tech person stranded in
a
>low tech environment (without any said tech) who then uses his/her/its/??
>more advanced knowledge to prosper. I know Pocket Empires had guidelines
on
>this stuff, but it was more Macro in nature (plus I'm pretty sure it
assumed
>that high tech products could still be acquired). 

I have done something similar in which the PC's ship misjumps and they
wind up on a primative world.
At least at first it seems primative.  It's fun to watch the PC's waste
their ammo on thugs and highwaymen and get a false sence of security.

What the PC's don't realise is the fact that "magic" exists on this world.
They soon see that when they encounter their first 'wizard'.

The 'magic' is of course high technology and psionics.

I have used this scenario many times at conventions, with interesting
results.  Got the idea from an old issue of Challenge.  Can't remeber the
issue number, but the article was called "Just Like Magic" or something
similar.

Another fun thing to do is the reverse of the Conneticut Yankee, that
being the case in "The High Crusade".
In this case the 'primative screwheads' are about to be invaded by a high
tech society but end up taking over that high tech society!  Imagine
midaeval soldiers using catapults and trebuchet to lob tactical nukes.

Hmmm, maybe there's a reason why most low tech wolds are interdicted? ;-)

\\  // Commander X
 \\//  CEO X-TEK Industries of Deneb, LIC
T E K  Military & Civilan Starship Contractor
 //\\  High Energy Weapons Research
//  \\ http://www.magicnet.net/~cmdrx/xtek/xtek.htm

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 99 13:36:37 +0000
From: igor@truserve.com
Subject: More First In

Some possible errata, maybe?

On page 60, the Planetoid Belt Value table - its impossible to roll 18 (and get 
Motherlode) because all dms are negative.  

Also, is there any technical reason why Planetoid Belts and Terrestrials have different 
resource tables (and possible values) - thought PBs were made up of the same material 
as Terrestrials - just broken up and strewn about. I'm toying with the idea of giving 
Terrestrials the Planetoid Belt table and see how the numbers pan out.

Andy 

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Andrew Akins                                                           |
| Home: igor@truserve.com - www.truserve.com/~igor/ - AOL IM: Iowa Akins |
| Work: andya@cms-gt.com - http://www.cms-gt.com/ - AOL IM: CMS AndyA    |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IMTU: tc++(**) ru+ ge 3i+ jt- au+ ls+ kk+ hi+ as+ va+ dr+ so+ zh+      |
|       vi+ da+                                                          |
| Geek: GCS d- s+:+ a- C++ W++ w+++(-)$ PS+ PE t- 5++ X+ R+++ tv+        |
|       b+++ DI+ D-- G e+ h---- r+++ y++++                               |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 99 13:47:23 +0000
From: igor@truserve.com
Subject: First in subsector listing

In the tradition of Classic Traveller, my First In program can generate listings of 
subsectors. Below is my proposed listing format - and an example. I present it for 
comments:

0000-111111111111111-22222-3333-44-5555-66-7-888-999-A-BB-CC-D-EEEE-FFFFFFFFF-GH

Where:
0 - Hex number
1 - System name
2 - Mainworld diameter, or Belt, or Barren (for unihabited system)
3 - Atmospheric pressure
4 - Atmospheric composition (blank, Co, Ex, Ox, Po)
5 - Hydrographic percentage
6 - Population rating
7 - Population value (population = value * 10^rating)
8 - Starport
9 - Political type
A - Control Rating (public safety)
B - Tech level
C - Allegiance
D - Bases
E - World Trade Number
F - Trade Codes
G - Number of gas giants present (+ if greater than 9)
H - Number of planetoid belts present (+ if greater than 9)

Example (note this also shows, a bit, the non-earthlike trend of First In, that I 
mentioned before. Also, please note that all of the stats are for GURPS, thus the 
difference in some fields)

0101 Unnamed system   2000 0.00      0%  4 6  II Bur 4  9 Im    3.0 NiVa      10
0102 Unnamed system   6400 0.25 Co   0%  2 7   I Cln 0  7 Im    1.5 DeLo      42
0104 Unnamed system   2400  Trc      0%  4 2   I Crp 0  9 Im    2.5 NiVa      52
0105 Unnamed system   4800 0.43 Co   0%  1 9 III RDm 1  6 Im    1.5 DeLo      11
0106 Unnamed system   6300 0.22 Co   0%  4 1   I Bur 6  8 Im    2.5 DeNi      42
0108 Unnamed system   2000  Trc      0%  6 8  IV Mer 5  9 Im    4.0 NaNiVa    30
0109 Unnamed system   2600 0.22 Co   0%  1 6 III Olg 0  8 Im    1.5 DeLo      12
0201 Unnamed system   3500 0.00      0%  5 6 III Tec 2 10 Im    3.5 NiVa      32
0202 Unnamed system   3200 0.14 Co   0%  5 3 III Mer 4  8 Im    3.0 DeNi      33
0203 Unnamed system   2800 0.00      0%  4 7 III Tec 2  8 Im    3.0 NiVa      40
0204 Unnamed system   7100 0.34 Co   0%  8 3  IV Mer 6 10 Im    5.0 DeNa      21
0205 Unnamed system   5500  Trc      0%  3 1 III ADm 2  9 Im    3.0 LoVa      31
0301 Unnamed system   2800  Trc      0%  8 8   V Olg 6 11 Im    5.0 NaVa      30
0304 Unnamed system   3100 0.00      0%  6 7  IV Cap 6  9 Im    4.0 NaNiVa    31
0305 Unnamed system   1200 0.00      0%  2 9  II ADm 2  8 Im    2.0 LoVa      12
0308 Unnamed system Barren                                                    51
0310 Unnamed system   2900 0.00      0%  3 8 III Mer 6  9 Im    3.0 LoVa      42
0402 Unnamed system   4200 0.13 Co   0%  3 7 III Ana 0  9 Im    3.0 DeLo      22
0404 Unnamed system   2400 0.00      0%  6 7  IV Cap 4  9 Im    4.0 NaNiVa    32
0406 Unnamed system   1800 0.00      0%  3 1 III ADm 2  9 Im    3.0 LoVa      31
0408 Unnamed system   4800 0.48 Co   0%  6 7 III Tec 3  9 Im    4.0 DeNi      31
0409 Unnamed system   7800 0.54 Co   0%  6 6 III RDm 4  9 Im    4.0 DeNi      50
0504 Unnamed system   2200 0.00      0%  5 8 III Crp 2  9 Im    3.5 NiVa      31
0505 Unnamed system   1800 0.00      0%  4 1 III Cln 0  8 Im    3.0 NiVa      22
0508 Unnamed system   6200 0.32 Co   0%  4 6  II ADm 0  8 Im    2.5 DeNi      21
0509 Unnamed system   6500 0.60 Ox  87%  4 5   I Cln 0  8 Im    2.5 Ni        41
0510 Unnamed system   2600  Trc      0%  6 8 III Ana 4  9 Im    4.0 NaNiVa    31
0602 Unnamed system Barren                                                    41
0604 Unnamed system   4100  Trc      0%  3 8 III RDm 2  7 Im    2.5 LoVa      22
0606 Unnamed system   4800  Trc      0%  8 3   V Dic 6 10 Im    5.0 NaVa      42
0608 Unnamed system   1200 0.00      0%  6 9   V Tec 5  9 Im    4.5 NaNiVa    51
0609 Unnamed system   1000 0.00      0%  3 3 III RDm 3  7 Im    2.5 LoVa      51
0702 Unnamed system   2000 0.00      0%  2 3  II Cln 0  7 Im    2.0 LoVa      41
0703 Unnamed system   5200 0.00      0%  4 9 III ADm 0  8 Im    3.0 NiVa      31
0704 Unnamed system   3700 0.00      0%  5 2 III RDm 3  8 Im    3.0 NiVa      33
0706 Unnamed system   1800 0.00      0%  3 7  II ADm 1  8 Im    2.0 LoVa      22
0707 Unnamed system   5000  Trc      0%  6 8 III Olg 2  9 Im    4.0 NaNiVa    51
0709 Unnamed system   1800 0.00      0%  4 1 III Crp 1  8 Im    3.0 NiVa      51
0805 Unnamed system   1000 0.00      0%  2 7 III Cap 6  7 Im    2.0 LoVa      51
0807 Unnamed system Barren                                                    01
0810 Unnamed system   4000 0.00      0%  2 6 III RDm 3  7 Im    2.0 LoVa      21

Andy

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Andrew Akins                                                           |
| Home: igor@truserve.com - www.truserve.com/~igor/ - AOL IM: Iowa Akins |
| Work: andya@cms-gt.com - http://www.cms-gt.com/ - AOL IM: CMS AndyA    |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IMTU: tc++(**) ru+ ge 3i+ jt- au+ ls+ kk+ hi+ as+ va+ dr+ so+ zh+      |
|       vi+ da+                                                          |
| Geek: GCS d- s+:+ a- C++ W++ w+++(-)$ PS+ PE t- 5++ X+ R+++ tv+        |
|       b+++ DI+ D-- G e+ h---- r+++ y++++                               |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 14:47:36 +0100
From: SD Mooney <dom@cybergoths.u-net.com>
Subject: [BITS] Website Update 3rd August 1999

BITS - British Isles Traveller Support

The BITS website http://www.bits.org.uk/ has been updated as follows:

- - GURPS Traveller Shipyard for MacOS v1.3.0 added (products page -->click
on icon)
	This upgraded version of Rob Prior's excellent software package
includes the modules from First In, Far Trader and Star Mercs, plus some
bug fixes. As ever, the package includes space for a number of user
designed modules. The demo is free to download, and upgrading from previous
versions is at no cost (just contact us).

- - T4 Gunsmith v2.0.0 added (archive page)
	This is an upgraded version of Andrew Moffatt-Vallance's excellent
Excel 5 spreadsheet for designing T4 compatible FFS2 weapons.  Now
included: CPR artillery, grenades and mines. Windows and MacOS version
available - zipped for PC and stuffed for Mac.

- - Conventions
	Details of Claymore 99 added. GenCon UK - only 27 days to go....

- - Ordering page
	Following requests we have amalgamated the various contacts/methods
for buying BITS products on a single page. Also, a number of minor bugs
have been fixed.

- - Running in less than 800x600? Then click on the BITS logo in the left
hand frame to open the Index page...

Dom (BITS Webmaster)


- -------------Dom Mooney---webmaster@bits.org.uk----------------
                 BITS - British Isles Traveller Support.
 http://www.bits.org.uk/              mailto:bits@bits.org.uk
Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
GURPS is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games, Inc.
BITS and CORE are trademarks of BITS UK Limited.
All rights reserved.

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

Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 10:07:31 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: Re: Yet more filk

Paul Schirf writes:
>> Paint and Stumps! You had it made. We had to carve the pips in 
>> the rocks using are finger nails and move around by tying are selves 
>> to what ever moved!!
>
>You had pips and something to tie with?  You really had it made. 
>We simulated random numbers by spitting on one side of a rock and
>tossing it to the ground.  Wet side up was good, dry side bad.  If we 
>wanted to move we had to pretend like we were carrion and hope 
>that a scavenger would pick us up in its mouth and carry us somewhere!

	Luxery! We didn't have enough water to spit, and we used to
	dream about having rocks. We had to chop off one player's head 
	to use as a die, and we did't have carrion: we had to wait for
	continental drift!

Peez

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

Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 10:17:07 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: Re: Xenobiology 101 : Ecology, Environment, and Evolution

Leonard Erickson writes:
>Peez writes:
>> Robert O'Connor writes:
<snipped>
>>>Producers can be further divided into point and area subgroups. Point
>>>producers are typically single large organisms (trees, creosote bushes),
>>>area producers groups of many small organisms (grass, bacteria). This
>>>division is a consequence of scaling laws and niche competition (see 
>>>below).
>>
>>         I don't follow this distinction. Any organism may be large or
>>         small, may be solitary or live in groups, etc.
>
>The idea is that the "point" producers produce their chemicals at a
>relatively small point, and the chemicals have to diffuse outwards.
>Area producers produce chemicals fairly evenly over a large area. 
>
>This sort of thing *does* make a difference.

	I'm not sure what you mean by chemicals, but if we look at
	trees or creosote bushes growing in natural systems, I
	believe that we would find water use, photosynthesis, detritis
	production, O2 generation, etc. would be just as diffuse as
	it would be in a natural system of grass or bacteria.

Peez

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 08:33:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jetrock <jetrock@emrl.com>
Subject: Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (new in TRAVELLERT ) 

On Wed, 4 Aug 1999, Hughes, Michael wrote:

> Personally speaking, being of the humanities strand I'd know I'd be well and
> truly... in a bad place. But as for you science types , you'd probably be
> kings/queens/kinueens/royal ?? in five years flat.
> Um, I guess that's it. Thanks in advance guys.
> 
> 'You can't be serious stranger. Guano and charcoal! I'll not have any of
> your damned war machines that are powered by bird effluent!' See, I'm pretty
> sure I got that wrong too.
> 
> Lousy Arts degree.
> 
Look at the bright side--your odds of being burned as a witch are
considerably lower. Besides, your social-sciences degree will prepare you
better for genteel interactions with the locals, which can be as helpful
in such a situation as knowledge of how to make gunpowder. The best-suited
to such a situation would be a non-specialist, with a high
Jack-of-all-Trades skill...

- --Rev. Jetrock, founder of UBERKUNST, Freelance Digital Appliance Healer
http://emrl.com/~jetrock for UBERKUNST and MONSTER ATTACK information!

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 08:40:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jetrock <jetrock@emrl.com>
Subject: Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (new in TRAVELLERT ) 

On Wed, 4 Aug 1999, William Prankard wrote:

> I have done something similar in which the PC's ship misjumps and they
> wind up on a primative world.
> At least at first it seems primative.  It's fun to watch the PC's waste
> their ammo on thugs and highwaymen and get a false sence of security.
> 
> What the PC's don't realise is the fact that "magic" exists on this world.
> They soon see that when they encounter their first 'wizard'.
> The 'magic' is of course high technology and psionics.
> I have used this scenario many times at conventions, with interesting
> results.  Got the idea from an old issue of Challenge.  Can't remeber the
> issue number, but the article was called "Just Like Magic" or something
> similar.
> 
more like "Indistinguishable from Magic", as in, "a sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from magic," which is Clarke's Law, and
applies perfectly to this sort of scenario.

- --Rev. Jetrock, founder of UBERKUNST, Freelance Digital Appliance Healer
http://emrl.com/~jetrock for UBERKUNST and MONSTER ATTACK information!

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

Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 08:42:57
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: A bit of a delay

My ISP is having issues with the FTP server, so it'll be a little bit
before the corrected Traveller Saga is up at Sylea Downport.
- -- 

Douglas E. Berry  dberry@hooked.net
Yfirmaur, Konunglegur Gramm Floti
Srstakur Vitsmunir jnusta
Sameina Her: Rm, Sver Verld Sambandsmyndun
http://Jump.to/SyleaDownport

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 12:06:16 EDT
From: JFZeigler@aol.com
Subject: Re: First In

Sorry I haven't picked up on this -- I just moved and my phones
and modem only started working today.

I'm aware of the problem Igor has pointed out, although I don't
entirely regard it as a problem. . .I don't expect that people who
are trying for classical Traveller feel will use the First in rules for
fully random generation of star systems.  If you do that, Earthlike
worlds will indeed be rare.  People committed to Classic Traveller
feel may want to use First In more to fill in details for systems that
already "exist."

A few suggestions, if you want to tinker:

Page 47: There's an alternate method for generating primary star
spectral type if you know there's an Earthlike world in the system.
Use that method for almost *all* stars, and ignore the "realistic"
distribution which generates a lot of red dwarfs.  Red dwarfs are
extraordinarily unlikely to harbor Earthlike worlds.  Yes, I know
that Book 6 generated lots of red dwarfs too.  I suspect most
Traveller referees won't miss them.

Page 52: Ignore the age of the primary star, thus throwing out the
possibility of a star system that's too young to harbor advanced life.
For other steps which make use of the age, assume the system is
(say) 5 billion years old.

Page 54, sidebar: If you want, widen the life zone by tinkering with
the constant factors in the formulae for the inner and outer edge
distances. 0.7 for the inner edge distance and 1.6 for the outer edge
distance are a reasonable match for the assumptions that were made
a few decades ago (those values would place Venus and Mars inside
the solar life zone, barely).  If you do this, you may have to fudge the
given formulae for surface temperature -- the over-wide life zones in
Book 6 were why so many "habitable" worlds turned out to be iceballs
or ovens under those rules.

I'm working on a system for placing planetary orbits that doesn't mimic
the Bode sequence and will allow you to start with a planet placed
where you want.  The reason a similar system was dropped from the
draft is because it didn't work very well for some systems -- the innermost
planets turned out to be right on top of each other.  When I'm done with
that I'll put the semi-official rule on my web site and post to this list too.

Speaking of which, I am building a web site for First In as time allows.
I intend to collect all kinds of variant and additional world-building rules
there, so if you've got any suggestions, let me know.  I've been getting
a fair amount of material already (including from SF author Steve White,
of all people :-).  Can't make any promises, but I may be able to put the
site up for use by the end of this month.

- ----------
Jon F. Zeigler: Mathematician, computer geek, amateur historian, freelance
writer, occasional scribbler of bad poetry
"For any statement, no matter how innocuous, there exists a nonempty
set of people who will take offense at it."

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 17:09:30 +0100
From: "Peter L.S. Trevor" <ptrevor.trisen@zetnet.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Gen Con UK

Not a regular poster here hut ...

Nick Bradbeer wrote:
> Day passes are 5 pounds a day, accomodation starts at 25 pounds
> a night (youch!).

I'm going to be there from Wednesday (with a group  from  Luton).
Based on past experiences the  only  difference  between  "Basic"
accomodation and "Standard" accomodation  is  that  there  is  no
garentee of a sink in ever room with Basic.  Last year a dozen of
us went "Standard" and got run-down moldy accomodation on the far
side of the campus ... 20 min walk from  all  the  events!  There
were people in "Basic" who's rooms were better quality  and  much
nearer.  This year (unless the organisers screw up)  we  have  an
entire floor in one of the towers all to ourselves.

Therefore, don't be suckered into paying premium rate "Standard",
go "Basic".

(Oh, yes: don't bother with local B&Bs ...  most  don't  want  to
know or have a 11pm shutout.  Last year we were playing pool with
guest star Claudia Christian at 1am :-) ... she cheats!!!)



See ya there ...

Regards PLST
"Rome wasn't burned in a day."

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

Date: Wed, 04 Aug 1999 09:50:13 -0700
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@pharmacy.arizona.edu>
Subject: Re: Yet more filk

The Roc wrote:
> 

> And we only had steam powered computers and the web was what a spider built
> on the back!  I remember many an hour shovelling coal to get mine working!

Luuuxury. I had to chop wood for three hours to get it working...and my
IP address was 5.


- -- 
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

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

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 18:14:19 +0100
From: Matt Clonfero <Matt-C@aetherem.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Spacedocks

Phil Kitching wrote:

>In ST, the Federation has the Argos array that can, from within its
>own borders, get a clear enough picture of someone on Romulus so that
>he can be identified - even though he's a well known personage who has
>been disguised well enough that a Romulan standing next to him won't
>recognise him.

Longbow III ?

Aetherem Vincere
Matt
- -- 
Matt Clonfero: Matt-C@aetherem.demon.co.uk    | To err is human, To forgive
My employer and I have a deal - I don't speak | is not Air Force Policy.
for them, and they don't speak for me.        |   -- Anon, ETPS.

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

Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 18:38:28 +0100
From: "Nick Bradbeer" <nickb@ndirect.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Traveller World Settlement (Was:  Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #915)

>    The UWP gives us just the raw data, we still have to do the work.  Take

<SNIP>

Well, as fair as I can see, this thread is pretty analogous to the two
schools of character generation;
a) You generate all the stats, a la CT, and the fun part is creating a life
story about thos stats, or
b) You roleplay through the life (the fun part) and assign stats along the
way. (Often used for TNE).

Just as both of the above are equally valid, so both ways of creating worlds
are valid. I have feeling we're going to see the same arguments stated and
restated on both sides without reaching a conclusion. Don't worry about it,
there's really no conclusion that needs to be drawn.

Nick
- ---
With two cents less in his pocket.

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #918
**********************************

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