Traveller-digest       Friday, August 20 1999       Volume 1999 : Number 986



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

The dreaded Black Globe.
Re: Experience System
Re: Odd Lights in the Sky!!!! 
Re: Experience System
Re: Grav deck plates.
Re: Hal Clement... 
Re: Insulting Leonard
Re: Experience System
Re: The dreaded Black Globe.
Re: Experience System
Re: Experience System
re: Grav Deckplates
Re: Hal Clement...
Re: Poul Anderson...Hal Clement...links...
Re: Starship Combat Question...
Re: Flame bait
Re: Vilani Language
Re: Fast Food
Re: Experience System
Re: Asterisks
Re: Fast Food...
Re: Flame bait 
Re: Hard Science

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 11:05:51 -0700
From: "Thing" <gduke@orca.esd114.wednet.edu>
Subject: The dreaded Black Globe.

Hi,

I thought I would continue my trend of asking questions that have probably
been hashed to death before by asking about Black Globes.

The books talk about black globes absorbing energy from energy weapons, but
what do they do to matter & kinetic energy.  If you fired an unarmed/dud
missile or a mass driver at a ship protected by a black globe set full, no
flicker would it.

Strike the black globe as a solid and smash?

Strike and bounce off elastically?

Stop dead in space with it's kinetic energy absorbed? (And if so how much
energy would this put into the capacitors, or would it be inconsequential
for a non near C projectile.?)

Be absorbed?(I doubt this in that matter to energy conversion would probably
create way to much energy for capacitance.  Also the reference to the first
person turning on a black globe being cut in half and from then on learning
to do it with a stick.  They never mention the black globe absorbing/
interacting with the planet/research station/ whatever.  Off course, black
globes when activated small behave a little different, like being stable.)

Something else?

G.D.D.
======
"They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday."  -Robert Heinlein

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 11:08:41 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Experience System

> Once the throw is made, whether successful or not, all pips are lost.

 Ouch! How about half the pis, even rounded down. All of them lost is
brutal. IMHO
BZA
////////////////////////////////////////
Akella 0609 C654474-6 S kk+ hi++ as+ va+ dr+ da+ so@ zh- vi+  A523
IMTU tc++ ?t4 ru@ 3i+(-) c+ jt au@ st- ls+ pi+ ta@ he+

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 14:13:54 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: Odd Lights in the Sky!!!! 

> >>Any thoughts on that odd light? A new type of quasar the guy said?
> >>And only one? Odd, very very odd.
> >
> >Ah! The ship reached turn-around and is now decelerating.
> 
> So, how long until the invasion fleet arrives here?

OK, guys, *NOBODY* tell him we're already here!!!

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 13:16:57 -0500
From: Kenneth Bearden -- Walker Jane Productions <dreamer@brokersys.com>
Subject: Re: Experience System

Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella wrote:

> > Once the throw is made, whether successful or not, all pips are lost.
>
>  Ouch! How about half the pis, even rounded down. All of them lost is
> brutal. IMHO



How else would you skew a PC so that he improves about 1 skill level per
game year--like character generation?

Kenneth.

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 11:28:09 -0700
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@pharmacy.arizona.edu>
Subject: Re: Grav deck plates.

Keven R. Pittsinger wrote:
> 

> 'Grav pong', I think it's called.  Set 1 plate for 2G, the next plate on the
> floor at -2G, the third plate for 2G, so there's about 4 G shear at the
> edges.  <grin>  They waddle over the first plate, get slammed onto the
> ceiling, walk across it for a bit, then get slammed back onto the floor.  Fun
> stuff, always good for a few laughs & broken bones.

Amateur! The _proper_ way to do grav pong is to CYCLE the plates from
+2/-2 G continuously so they actually never know which way they're going
to fall. Or when.

In TNE the plates cycled fast enough that you could probably play
Breakout with the poor boarders.

And that's nothing to turning the grav _sideways_ ;-> suddenly that
hallway is a 15M shaft and you're at the top. EEEEEEEEyyyyyyooooowwwww
splat! Then you switch it the other way. EEEEEEEEyyyyyyooooowwwww splat!
You can continue, but it's just a different sounding SPLAT! after that,
they don't say much.

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

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 14:36:32 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: Hal Clement... 

> > >> a pretty grim Merc to blow away a cute, adorable little fuzzy critter.
> >> Or somebody who's seen Return Of The Jedi.....
> >Oh, come on, Nick.  I *LIKED* that movie.
> 
> 
> Oh, I loved the *movie*.....
> 
> The ewoks, the the other hand.....

They weren't *terminally* cute, like the Osmonds...

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 11:41:32 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Insulting Leonard

>> Leonard was always condescending.
> 
> That is a very foolish thing to say.
<snippage>

I posted that under Hypercleats. Please leave my roomie out of any
forthcoming flames, as he is not responsible. We both use the same terminal
to get online and sometimes I forget to change the senders account. I am the
one to blame for this highly defensive post.

That's all, sorry for the inconvenience.
BZA
Son of the Right Hand
The Ravenous Wolf
Patriarch of Clan Hendricks
Prince of the Undeclared
Warder of the Sacred Herb
Steward of the Garden Eternal
Lord of House Akella
High Epopt of the Brotherhood for the Abolition of Temporal/Spatial Reality
and the Unification of the Shekinah

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 11:53:26 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Experience System

> How else would you skew a PC so that he improves about 1 skill level per
> game year--like character generation?

Does it need to be exact? I suck at math, especially when we get into
averaging probabilities over long streatches. No, my idea won't work for
that without tweaking it. I don't know how much. I think the easiest would
be to increase the target number required to suceed in the training. You
will of course have limits on the quantum of success, and individual results
will vary, with an average result hopefully high enough on the bell curve to
make it "standard". I see you are asking for something a little trickier
that I first thought, I rarely concern myself with achieving identicle
results from alternative generation systems, it would give me migrains I'm
sure.

BZA
////////////////////////////////////////
Akella 0609 C654474-6 S kk+ hi++ as+ va+ dr+ da+ so@ zh- vi+  A523
IMTU tc++ ?t4 ru@ 3i+(-) c+ jt au@ st- ls+ pi+ ta@ he+

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

Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 20:13:17 +0100
From: "Nick Bradbeer" <nickb@ndirect.co.uk>
Subject: Re: The dreaded Black Globe.

>Be absorbed?(I doubt this in that matter to energy conversion would
probably
>create way to much energy for capacitance.  Also the reference to the first
>person turning on a black globe being cut in half and from then on learning
>to do it with a stick.  They never mention the black globe absorbing/
>interacting with the planet/research station/ whatever.  Off course, black
>globes when activated small behave a little different, like being stable.)


Speaking, as I am wont to do, as one whose first  and most pervasive ideas
of Traveller came from TNE, I work mostly from the writings in FFS. There's
a pretty clear reference in FFS to the effect that a globe contacting a mass
tries to drain all the kinetic energy of the mass, effectively trying to
cool it to absolute zero. (Second Law of thermodynamics be damned...)  I
take this to read that BGs don't annihilate matter.


Nick
- --
(Although if they did, think of the potential of a high-speed drone missile
with a black globe, fired at a planet. You wouldn't see it coming, and it
would act as a total conversion bomb on contact with the atmosphere. Who
needs near-c rocks?)

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

Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 20:15:14 +0100
From: "Nick Bradbeer" <nickb@ndirect.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Experience System

>How else would you skew a PC so that he improves about 1 skill level per
>game year--like character generation?
>
>Kenneth.


Personally, I wouldn't. I can't speak for anyone else, but game years pass
pretty slowly in the games I've played in (except Ars Magica). I tend to
want my PCs to improve faster than that.

(Okay, that wasn't a lot of help.)

Nick

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 14:36:53 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: Experience System

Nick Bradbeer wrote:
> 
> >How else would you skew a PC so that he improves about 1 skill level per
> >game year--like character generation?
> >
> >Kenneth.
> 
> Personally, I wouldn't. I can't speak for anyone else, but game years pass
> pretty slowly in the games I've played in (except Ars Magica). I tend to
> want my PCs to improve faster than that.
> 
> (Okay, that wasn't a lot of help.)
> 
> Nick

First thing we would need is a baseline in your campaign.  On average,
how many gaming sessions does it take for one game year to pass?
- -- 
AuricTech Shipyards Journeyman Gearhead
"Gold-Plated [tm] solutions for copper-plated problems!" (r)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9776

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 16:05:25 -0400
From: Walter Smith <SmithW@HARTWICK.EDU>
Subject: re: Grav Deckplates

The following is entirely IMTU (In My Traveller Universe), YTU will
hopefully vary...

I never liked the idea of an engineer sitting at his control console, 
bouncing pirates and marines into bloody pulps with a flick of the
grav plate switch. With this use of technology available, some staples
of heroic space opera fiction don't happen, like any real kind of
shipboard battles.

IMTU, I just made it take a while for grav plates to build up "charges".
Not a long time, a matter of minutes for the usual 1G to tens of
minutes for the heaviest plates (which weren't that heavy). 

I also had the field a little limited - say, two or three meters above the
field, and an area a little bit around the field. Thus two grav plates right
beside each other, one set to zero G and one set to 6G, would have
a couple of feet of transition between them, and a 6G plate at the
end of a 50 meter corridor wouldn't turn it into a deadly pit trap.

The idea of a grav plate at the far end of a corridor being effective at
turning the corridor into a deadly pit always struck me as a little wrong
anyway. How is a grav plate the size of the corridor going to project
effects tens of meters away, when the usual floor-section sized
grav plate only effects its section of one deck?

Walt Smith

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 12:31:02 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Hal Clement...

In mail you write:

> Why *not* a Fuzzy chief engineer?  All he'd really need is the
> training, and by the books, they're pretty bright.  They just don't
> have much in the way of technology.  Which supports the 'castaways'
> theory; they're *MUCH* too smart to be native stone aged beings.

Excuse me? Members of stone age socities are *not* stupid. They merely
lack the *knowledge* of how to make better tools. It takes a *lot* of
time for such small populations to stumble across a new "trick". Once
they do, they usually exploit it to the hilt. 

But going by Piper's books, Fuzzies *aren't* as intelligent as humans.
If they *were* as bright as humans, then the court rulling that gave
them "minor children" type status was a travesty.

Still, there's room for doubt. 

> Also, the fact that they needed a trace metal that was only found in
> one source locally.  If something would have happened to those 'land
> crabs', the Fuzzies would be an evolutionary also-ran.
  
We need vitamin C. Unlike many creatures, we can't produce our own.
It's thought that the trait was lost while our ancestors were tree
dwellers, with a diet that was high in vitamin C. Thus, the accidental
loss of the gene wasn't a problem. 

Fuzzies were just unlucky that whatever *common* species or group of
species they formerly preyed on and that also concentrated Titanium
died out. Heck, it could be that they developed in an area where some
*plant* was the source. But it doesn't grow outside a limited range. 

>> And I bet they'd do just *fine* at lower ranks in the Army and Marines.
>> Especially for scouting and some types of special ops.
>
> Scouts, definitely.  Special ops, depends on the op.  But I doubt
> they'd make good regular grunts.  They're too small and fragile for it.

Small has advantages. For one thing, given how small they are, they
should have a *much* lower terminal velocity.. Thus they can survive
falls from much greater heights than humans. So if you need something
climbed, send the fuzzy. :-)

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

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 12:43:08 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Poul Anderson...Hal Clement...links...

In mail you write:

>> In mail you write:
>> 
>> > On Mesklin, yep, maybe it wouldn't work, but who knows if we'll ever
>> > get jump drive! The way I run things, most of my players are more in
>> > it for the action and adventure, rarely have I ever gotten a player
>> > that has questioned the "science". So, we just accept the wacky
>> > planets I've thrown in and go with the flow (heck, they've even
>> > encountered the Well World and Tekumel at various points, along with
>> > Jack Vance's "Planet of Adventure" and others...)
>> 
>> If one of *my* characters wound up at Well World, you can be sure that
>> unless I was sure that we were with Nathan Brazil or Mavra Chang, I'd
>> "accidentally" fumble a roll and get killed *quickly*. Heck, even if we
>> *were* with either of those too, "opting out" would be *real* tempting.
>
> Two things.
>
> 1.  It would take a major handwave to get back from the Well World, 
> basically a readjusting of the equations that define the universe.  This is 
> pointed out in the series.  *BOTH* series.  <grin>  And I'd *shudder* to 
> think of what TL it would take to *BUILD* the Well World.

I was assuming that we'd gotten there by *ship*. 

> 2.  No *WAY* would I, as a GM, allow *any* Markovian holdout like Nathan 
> Brazil to be a player character.  NPC, mebbe.  But not a *player*.

Just remember that Mavra Chang started out as a PC. :-)

>
> And I'll add a 3rd thing:
>
> 3.  It would be *MUCH* more fun to dump the PCs into Flux on World and see 
> how well they adjust *there*.  <grin>

???

I've not read any other Chalker.

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

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 12:55:32 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Starship Combat Question...

In mail you write:

> I'll look at the ranges involved and decide on an appropriate
> modifier.  I'm sure we'll be looking at automatic hits at this range
> after what I've heard here on the list.

It just occurred to me that at normal ranges, ships are essentially a
"point" target. 

When you get close enough that a ship subtends multiple *degrees*, the
aiming software may not know *where* to fire. I'm told that some
missile systems have had this problem. 

So the "automatic" aiming software *might* just have a nervous
breakdown, or at least sit there dithering about what *part* of the
target to aim at. 

So players might have to take manual control and do the equivalent of
"firing over open sights". That should makes hits not *quite*
automatic. 

But this is *definitely* a matter for each ref to handle on his own.

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

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 13:02:47 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Flame bait

In mail you write:

> John Buston wrote:
>> 
>> >Kenneth.
>> 
>> Is this clif resubscribing under another alias?
>
> Better that you should mention the name Hastur than that one....
>
> (Waitaminit.  Did I just mention "Hastur"?  Yes, I did indeed type
> "Hastur"....)
>
> *sound of unspeakable horrors popping my soul into a toaster oven for a
> light snack*

I have vague memories of a D&D campaign where someone either found a
scrap of parchment with "that name" on it, or where it was a bit of
graphitti on the wall (in an obscure alphabet). 

Either way, the idea was to see if the players would be dumb enough to
read it aloud. :-)

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

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 13:09:25 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Vilani Language

In mail you write:

> In a message dated 8/19/99 7:08:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> dom@cybergoths.u-net.com writes:
>
> << f the Vilani were appropriated and uplifted (effectively) by the Ancients,
>  shouldn't their tongue to closer to the Droyne language structure than the
>  Terran / Solomani version? IIRC We know the Ancients used them as menials
>  etc... so how did they talk?
>   >>
>
>     Since it is over 300,000 years between Ancient meddling and "modern 
> times" the Vilani language would have absolutely no resemblence to anything 
> the Droyne might speak.   That amount of time is absolutely immense in 
> linguistic history terms.  Remeber that only 5000 years ago Hindu, English, 
> Russian, Latin and Greek (among others) were all the same language.


Also, there's a moderate amount of evidence that *some* aspects of
human language are "hardwired". If so, they obviously *can* be
overriden, but it'd still tend to make the languages tend back towards
something "more human" in such a time span.

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

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 13:14:08 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Fast Food

In mail you write:

> Does anybody have any experience with those spear chucking thingies? Atlatl
> or something?

Atlatl is a name in one of the "Mexican" languages (Nahuatl?).
Australian aborigines call them woomeras. Mostly, from the few antro
types I'ver talked to, they seem to use "spear thrower" as the generic
term. 

From the description in a few texts, they sound like they aren't *too*
hard to use. Still need a lot of practice though. 

> I was thinking of making one.

As I recall, there's a pretty good description in one of Jean Auel's
books. Not "Clan of the Cave Bear", but one of the sequels.

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

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 17:01:57 -0400
From: Ethan Henry <egh@klg.com>
Subject: Re: Experience System

Kenneth Bearden wrote:
> 
> Haven't played the CofC system, but this is the original idea I had on this
> experience system.
> 
> I thought that every night I'd award points (pips), and these points would
> basically be percentage points.
> 
> Ex:  If you had one point in a skill, you had a 1% chance of going up.
> Ex:  If you've got  42 points in a skill, you've got a 42% chance of going up.

The only problem with this is that it's as easy to go from Pistol-33 
to Pistol-34 as it is to go from Pistol-1 to Pistol-2. Traveller's
lack of a skill level ceiling makes it difficult to judge which
of these two things should be harder.

One way is to say that skills should be harder to improve as the levels
get higher, as you need more and more knowledge/experience as you go up.
Electronics-6 could be an order of magnitude more knowledge/experience
than Electronics-5.

The opposite view is that since going from skill-1 to skill-2 is a 
100% increase in skill level, it should cost more than the skill-33 
to -34 progression, where it's a question of whether you're 
able to shoot just a grape or a grape _and_ a raisin off the head 
of the Emperor from 12 parsecs (i.e. negligible difference).

> Players could roll to see if they go up at the start of each session.  They will
> have a low chance at first, but the more they use the skill, the more likely they
> can go up (and, you don't loose the points once your try--each game session, you
> can try everything that has a chance to go up).

At what point do the pips get cleared out? When the skill goes up?

> Of course, there are two problems with this:  (1)  It's not becoming of Traveller
> rules to be thrown on anything other than six sided dice.  Percentage dice just
> aren't Traveller.  (2)  Doing percentage points that way makes for a long, long
> time before anyone goes up.

Well, multiply pips by 5 then. Though I agree about the six sided die issue.

My suggestion:

Every time a character successfully uses a skill, that skill gets a "check".
At the end of the session (easier to remember then a week later at the 
beginning of the next session), roll the skill level or higher on 1D for 
each checked skill. If successful, the skill goes up. 

The problems with this are that a) skills will top out at level 5, which is 
not necessarily a bad thing and b) skills will go up way too fast at first.

So, how about this: if the roll succeeds, add 1D divided by 10 to the 
skill level, rounding all skill levels down. This means that on average,
each skill will need 3 successful rolls to go up a full level, which will 
probably take more than 3 successful uses. At absolute best (worst?), it 
will take a minimum of two sessions with all rolls coming up 6 to get the 
skill up a full level. IMO, you have to make sure that the skills actually
do go up once in a while, otherwise the experience system is just a big
frustration for players.

This is sort of the CoC system "scaled". Of course, it doesn't allow for
people to get new levels in skills they don't already have. Which again,
is not necessarily a bad thing. I would have a hard time justifying how
someone could go from no Engineering skill to Engineering-1 after 
whacking a jump drive with a spanner a few times and making a few lucky rolls.
(Although, come to think of it, that was kind of how _I_ got through
engineering school... hmmm...)

In CT there was a distinction where some skills could have zero levels 
while others couldn't... for example, you could allow people to have
Vacc suit-0 but not Astrogation-0. If you successfully use a zero level skill,
I'd allow the player to roll to see if it goes up, but since there really 
isn't any way to successfully use a skill without a zero level, it would never 
increase either.

Hope this helps,
Ethan
- --
Ethan Henry                                            egh@klg.com
Java Evangelist, KL Group                       http://www.klg.com

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 13:01:12
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: Asterisks

At 01:04 PM 8/20/1999 +0100, you wrote:

>After years of reading the TML, I'd got to the point where I just ignored
>all the "*" that littered peoples messages.

Since I can't underline, use italics, or wave my hands in email (at least
not using Eudora); the asterisk has become the standard method of showing
emphasis.

Maybe Leonard over-uses them, but that's hardly cause for the abuse shown
him by Mr. Bearden.
- -- 

Doug Berry             dberry@hooked.net
http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/index.html

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 13:08:41
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: Fast Food...

At 06:03 PM 8/20/1999 +1000, you wrote:

>> Bowmen and crossbowmen get sent to sniper school.

>I also recall a Purnell publication, reading that British Commandos used
>crossbows on a handful of raids to noiselessly eliminate enemy guards at a
>safe range?

The US Army has experimented with crossbows for Ranger teams doing recon,
as a method to eliminate enemy soldiers who wander to close to the wrong
set of bushes.

Don't know if anything ever came of it.  But I do recall finding the NSN
(National Supply Number) for compound bows and arrows while working in a
supply room.
- -- 

Douglas E. Berry   Templar Agent at Large.
dberry@hooked.net  http://jump.to/SyleaDownport

TravGeekCode: 
tc+ tm+ !tn- t4@ ?tg+ tt@ to(CORPS)++ ru@ $ge++ 3i
ii+ au st+ ls+ pi kk+ so(++) va++ dr+ zh+ sw++ ?da
         

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 13:10:29
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: Flame bait 

At 02:01 AM 8/20/1999 -0400, you wrote:

>I used to like those books, until I *met* MZB at a con.  I never bought 
>another book of hers since.  *shrug*

MZB has good and bad days.  She currently lives with a couple of friends of
mine, and her health has declined badly in recent months.

The only time I got to meet Heinlein he was pretty scary, kept forgetting
where he was.
- -- 

Doug Berry             dberry@hooked.net
http://www.hooked.net/~dberry/index.html

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

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 13:26:31
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
Subject: Re: Hard Science

At 09:27 AM 8/20/1999 +1000, you wrote:

>I have read a book by Ben Bova (from the top of my head "How to write Space
>Sci Fi', but the book is at home so I can not get the name right). He had
>an interesting point. In one of his stories, he mapped out exactly how his
>spaceships worked. Yet he did not use any of this information in the story.

Ben Bova writes for and edits the Science Fiction Writing Series for
Writer's Digest Books.

>Why? They where not needed to progress the story.

But it's important so that your technology remains constant.  Otherwise,
you get a "Star Trek:TNG" environment where every other menace is solved by
manipulating particles or forces that never get mentioned again, despite
the world-shattering nature of the solution.

My favorite example of this is "Rascals", where Picard, Ro and Chief
Bartender Whoopie are reduced to adolescence by the ubiquitous transporter
malfunction.  Later in the show, they figure out how it happened, and
restore the characters to their proper ages.

Examine this for a second:  The Enterprise just discovered practical
immortality!  Age regeneration without *any* loss of memory or brain
function!  I could endless go from 28 (when my cancer presented itself)
back to 14 or so, and live forever with a working immune system!  But we
never hear about this marvelous discovery again.

Having your technology set as hard as possible keeps the abuses down to a
minimum.  If you have a transporter that can do the tricks shown in
_Rascals_, your society is going to be very different (add in the "pattern
buffer" trick from _Relics_ and you have a race of immortal
twenty-somethings who aren't afraid of death, because they have spares in
the Life Center pattern buffer.)

<snip>

>If you want to have a game of Traveller that is based on real science, it
>is your right. People who like myself enjoy the sense of wonder imagining
>are universe where humanity and aliens regularly laugh at the laws of
>gravity, design vessels which make the Concorde look like a biplane, and
>fight wars of senseless carnage.

Yes, but we define just what it takes to defy the laws of gravity.  Not so
much in theory, but in terms of how many kg of CG gear will it take to
propel mass x at velocity y.  That's the hard "gearhead" science, a
coherent set of design rules that follow that internal consistency.

Make no mistake, I love scooting across solar systems at ridiculous
velocities, arming my ships with grav-focused lasers, and carrying
unlicensed nuclear reactors on my back.  I just enjoy having it all make a
little sense.

- -- 

Douglas E. Berry  dberry@hooked.net
http://jump.to/SyleaDownport

TML Great Old One
Plague of the Traveller Riders of the Apocalypse
Chant "Gridlore" thrice to summon.

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #986
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