Traveller-digest    Wednesday, September 8 1999    Volume 1999 : Number 1072



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

e: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)
OT:  Technology Demographics
Re: Roger Sanger?
RE: request for URLs with Traveller pictures
Re: SciFi Becoming Science Fact:  Holodecks
Re: Technology Demographics
Re: The Big RED Button (was Re: The Big Button)
Re: Backwaters
Pocket Empires
Re: Imperial Millitary and PR
Re: meaning of GT
RE: Backwaters (was Re: Jump Horizons of Stars)
Re: 5FW: fleet #1?
Re: Photographing starship miniatures
Re: Roger Sanger?
Re: Re Technology Demographics
Re: Travart: Plantary maps.
FW: [Traveller-Culture] Re: Idea: Multiple Projects
FW: Re High Pressure Areas
Re: Jump Horizons of stars
Web Site on the move
Re: 5FW: fleet #1?
Re: Imperial Military and PR
Re: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)
Merc Equipment

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

Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 18:07:16 -0700
From: "David P. Summers" <summers@alum.mit.edu>
Subject: e: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)

Tue, 7 Sep 1999 21:30:32 +0100, SD Mooney <dom@cybergoths.u-net.com>
>Anyway, this put me to thinking about gamers. People who play games with
>established backgrounds (Traveller, Glorantha, etc) seem to worry less
>about rules than the style of the game. People who play games in generic
>systems (D&D to an extent, GURPS) sometimes seem to care more about the
>rules. This is only natural, as in such systems the rules are the game,
>whereas in Traveller etc. the setting is the game. All IMHO of course...

My experience is, if anything, the opposite.  Those who use generic systems
tend to be flexible in how they are applied while having a rules set folded
in give the impression they need to be applied _exactly_ as written.

[Note, I most certainly don't consider D&D to be a generic system]
______________________________
summers@alum.mit.edu
(This is the net.  My e-mail address may be in Boston, but I'm in California.)

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

Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 19:11:47 -0700
From: "Jesse DeGraff" <fenris@slip.net>
Subject: OT:  Technology Demographics

[snip incredibly large selection of serious hardware]
> Plus another 20 low end Pentium's and 486's that I could put together with
> all the parts laying around (not including monitors) and a half
> dozen or so
> low end laptops....(Wife is threatening to leave me if I don't get rid of
> some stuff soon.) Mmmuuuuuuuwwwwwaaaaaaahhhh
>
> Thom


:P  [grin]  About the only GOOD thing I can say about all that is that I'm
not jealous enough to hunt you down and steal the Alphas as my version of
Lightwave is for a WinTel platform :)

ObTrav:  Nope, but it's fun.

Jesse

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

Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 22:09:22 EDT
From: GypsyComet@aol.com
Subject: Re: Roger Sanger?

At 02:47 PM 9/7/99 PDT, you wrote:
>[This question came from something posted on the Traveller-Culture
list.  I 
>asked the same question there, but in case the answer is better
found 
>here...]
>
>I apologise for my ignorance of something which is obviously sensitive, but 
>all the Internet references I could find to Roger Sanger do not explain the 
>vilification directed at him.  The TML FAQ and other sources (including MWM) 
>sound very carefully polite in talking about his holding the DGP, Seeker, 
>and FASA copyrights, but no source explains what's going on to cause anger.  
>What's up?
>
>If he holds all three sets of copyrights, why are only the first off-limits 
>to SJG?  If it's just that there's no Canon coming out of Seeker, what about 
>FASA?

 A fair amount of the rancor comes from (mostly forgotten) claims made by Mr. 
Sanger around the time of his acquisition of DGP that:

 -he would be reviving the material "any time now," 
 -he planned to sweep Traveller aside with something of his own,
 -he planned to complete and release A.I. (the non-Trav project DGP was 
planning when it went under),

 and several other sweeping announcements promising great things, none of 
which ever materialized. A couple of these happened early enough that his 
announcing acquisition of DGP was an immediate cause for dread on the TML, 
never mind his later dealings...

 The sad truth is that the DGP material gets less valuable the longer he sits 
on it...

 As for FASAs stuff, I know that Far Frontiers was written by a group of 
people scattered across time and space. Several subsectors appeared in FASA 
adventures, but the rimward half of the sector appeared in article form in 
Ares magazine, written by Dale Kemper. This was later reprinted in The 
Traveller Chronicle (#2 and later). Then I did the rest of the sector (the 
coreward half) for The Traveller Chronicle. Not my best work, but it'll do.
 The upshot is that the lockout of FASA material would not harm Far Frontiers 
particularly. Old Expanses and Reaver's Deep material was backed up by 
subsequent references and partial reprints in various places, and frankly 
amounts to little enough material stuffed into (by GDW,  MWM and SJG 
standards) remote corners of the universe that being de-canonized isn't an 
issue.
 Loosing the once-official write-ups of Deneb, Reft, and Trojan Reach (all 
DGP material) is a much greater blow, since these border on the all-important 
Spinward Marches and are therefor more likely to be overwritten by subsequent 
works. Their starmaps will stand, since they were printed in a GDW product 
(Atlas of the Imperium). Everything else is subject to change...

GypsyComet

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

Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 19:51:22 -0700
From: "Jesse DeGraff" <fenris@slip.net>
Subject: RE: request for URLs with Traveller pictures

It's gotten to the point where I almost hate modeling at home because of the
extra real estate the 21" monitor offers.  [Sigh...]  One of these days I'll
have one at home as well :)

Jesse

p.s.  Thanks for the comment :)




> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
> [mailto:owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com]On Behalf Of Benyamene'
> ZeAbe' Akella
> Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 3:35 PM
> To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
> Subject: Re: request for URLs with Traveller pictures
>
>
> > Well, if you're going to start collecting the demographics ;)
>
> I was looking more for desktop /size/ though, Jesse, and you're cheating
> anyway. You are *making* major product for all us fans, I know *you* have
> badass equipment. I'll bet those twenty-one inches hold a whole lotta
> pixels.
> ////////////////////////////////////////
> 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: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 22:38:26 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: Re: SciFi Becoming Science Fact:  Holodecks

>ObTrav: This could be the beginning of the CT TL15 "virtual
>presence" systems described in some the works by DGP.
>Can't remember the exact publications though; possibly the
>Imperial Encyclopedia?

Great! As a GURPS Traveller heretic I always figured GURPS Ultratech Virtual
Reality systems were among the forbidden technologies. Nice to see I can add
it to my list of "not quite authorized non-cannon".

Terry C

All that is Gold does not glitter
Not all who travel are lost

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

Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 21:44:12 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: Technology Demographics

"Joseph R. Dietrich" wrote:
> 
> >> "Jesse DeGraff" <fenris@slip.net> started:
> >>
> >>Well, if you're going to start collecting the demographics ;)
> 
> I'm not quite sure what this has to do with Traveller, but:
> 
> Home: Intel Celeron 500, 128 Mb SDRAM, 19" monitor, Win'98 2nd
>       AMD K-6 233, 128 Mb EDO RAM, no monitor, Win'98
>       Intel Pentium 133, 32 Mb RAM, 15" monitor (given to papa), Win'95
> Work: Power Macintosh G3 300, 128 Mb RAM, 20" and 15" monitor, Mac OS 8.1
>       Power Computing 604e, 64 Mb RAM, 20" monitor, Mac OS 8.1
> 
> I suppose if you put them all together, you'd get a Model 1 or 2 Traveller
> computer.
> 
> I wouldn't trust any of them to operate equipment where lives might be at
> stake, however. Applications that crash on the Mac OS tend to take down the
> whole system, and now -- in a marketing and technology triumph -- the same
> seems to be the case with Windows 98 2nd edition (woo hoo!). This could be
> a bad thing in, say, a combat situation, a docking situation, a landing
> situation, etc.

OTOH, if you put them all together, but have them run in parallel (IIRC,
the Space Shuttle has several computers, running in parallel), the ones
that don't crash can pick up the slack for the one that does, until you
can reboot.

Besides, I already established a few months ago (I don't have the
original post, since it was from my old, moribund machine) that one CPU
slot on a Traveller computer was equal to at least 250 Pentacle-IIs
running at (IIRC) 333 MHz (based on required volume for "slim-line" PCs,
compared to the volume of CT computers).  (That was during the brief,
humorous side-discussion about using PDF as an acronym for Point Defense
Fire, leading to comments that one should run Adobe Acrobat to shoot
down missiles.)  >;-)

<<snip>>

- -- 
AuricTech Shipyards Journeyman Gearhead
"Gold-Plated [tm] solutions for copper-plated problems!" (r)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9776

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

Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 21:46:32 -0500
From: Black ICE <wombat@premier.net>
Subject: Re: The Big RED Button (was Re: The Big Button)

"Joseph R. Dietrich" wrote:
> 
> Leonard Erickson inquired:
> 
> >What? Are they bringing out a *fourth* (or is it fifth?) edition of
> >Gamma World?
> 
> IIRC, Jim Butler has written on one of the Gamma World lists that WoC is
> going to do a Gamma World sourcebook the Alternity game. This would be the
> fifth edition.

Given the convoluted history of publishing rules for the GW setting,
shouldn't that be the "Nth edition", as in the Nth Interstellar War(s)? 
;-)

- -- 
AuricTech Shipyards Journeyman Gearhead
"Gold-Plated [tm] solutions for copper-plated problems!" (r)
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9776

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

Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 22:57:57 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: Re: Backwaters

In alphbetical, not map coordinate order, I believe the names of Core's
subsector are: Ameros, Apge, Bunkeria, Cadian, Cemplas, Chant, Chnaar, Core
(Sylene) , Dingtra, Dunea, Kaskii, Mekee, Perite, Sanches, Saregon, Shrinkan

Terry C

All that is Gold does not glitter
Not all who travel are lost

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

Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 22:21:04 -0500
From: Alex Ingram <ingram@airmail.net>
Subject: Pocket Empires

Does anyone know where I might be able to purchase a copy of  "Pocket Empires"?

Alex Ingram

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 00:03:50 -0500
From: "John Majer" <jsmage@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Imperial Millitary and PR

<snip>
> The Imperium would have to do a lot of tracking just to find out that
> the spread was *deliberate* rather than natural.
>
> Short of censoring all mail (very obvious) and taking steps to prevent
> people from talking about what they'd seen/heard on the last planet
> they were on, you *can't* stop info from spreading.
>
> Heck, consider the fact that the Nazi Concentarttion camps were well
> known long before they were discovered. It was just that nobody
> *believed* that they could *really* be that bad.
>
> There's no *need* for a "Y-boat" network when *gossip* can spread info
> just as fast, if a trifle less reliably.

So, I'm going to try and tie this back to where it all started.  As I seem
to recal it was over the issue casulaties in the Rim War and how much
spin/propoganda the Imperium could put, in specific or general, over a
topic.  The prevailing answer seems to be that they couldn't, or rather that
there is enough of a non-offical media/gossip circut going around that they
couldn't engage in mass deception, unless it was a "too fantastic to be
belived" scenario, as opposed to the distance school of uncaring.
Unfortunatly at this point the conversation slid into real world examples,
and I can't pull anything back together again.  No matter, no mind.  I think
that the point was that the Imperium is also bound by popular perception and
opinion, at least as much as a massive star-empire can be.
- -J.S.

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 00:16:34 -0500
From: "John Majer" <jsmage@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: meaning of GT

> One of our BITS demonstrators at GenCon had a nightmare encounter - an
RPGA
> GURPS GM ruleslawyer . The demo was GT using GURPS lite and the
ruleslawyer
> decided to take apart his reffing and try and use rules from the Advanced
> etc sections in GURPS BASIC. Personally, I'd have told him to shut up or
go
> and play his own game, but our man was much more diplomatic...

Personally, I'd be with you.  My strongest sympathies out to the guy who had
to deal with it.  A GURPS rules-lawyer, in a demo?  Shouldn't paradoxes like
those just vhworp their way out of the universe?
>
> Anyway, this put me to thinking about gamers. People who play games with
> established backgrounds (Traveller, Glorantha, etc) seem to worry less
> about rules than the style of the game. People who play games in generic
> systems (D&D to an extent, GURPS) sometimes seem to care more about the
> rules. This is only natural, as in such systems the rules are the game,
> whereas in Traveller etc. the setting is the game. All IMHO of course...
>
> Dom
Right behind you good sir, it's an environment as opposed to an instutution.
- -J.S.

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 01:43:49 EDT
From: Clifford N Linehan <cnl.rubicon@juno.com>
Subject: RE: Backwaters (was Re: Jump Horizons of Stars)

Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 18:16:13 -0400 From: Thad Coons
<Sapience@compuserve.com>
<Snip>

>(Does anyone have subsector names for Core sector?)

<Snip>

Sub-Sectors: A: Apge; B: Perite; C: Ameros; D: Shinkan; E: Sanches; F:
Mekee; G: Core; H: Kaskii; I: Bunkeria; J: Cemplas; K: Chant; L: Dingtra;
M: Cadion; N: Ch'naar; O: Dunea; P: Saregon


Clifford Linehan
cnl.rubicon@juno.com
One man's magic is another man's engineering.
IMTU tc+ tm+ ?tn- ?t4- tg++ ?tt to ru+ ge 3i+ c+ jt au st+ ls pi+ ta he+
kk hi as va dr so zh+ vi da sy

___________________________________________________________________
Get the Internet just the way you want it.
Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!
Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 01:43:49 EDT
From: Clifford N Linehan <cnl.rubicon@juno.com>
Subject: Re: 5FW: fleet #1?

Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 13:47:26 -0600 From: Erwin Fritz <efritz@GLJA.com>
>My PCs are currently on Dinom/Lanth, at the beginning of the Fifth
Frontier War.
>I was looking at the game 5FW, and noticed that the fleet disposition
maps have
>the Dinom region covered by a fleet numbered simply "1".
>
>Does anyone know what fleet this is? I can't find references to it in
the text
>of the game.
>- -- 
>Erwin Fritz
>Gilbert Laustsen Jung Associates Ltd.
>http://www.glja.com

Year: 1116
Sector: Spinward Marches
Sub-Sector: G: Lanth
Fleet: 018th
Reserve Fleet: 1018th

Clifford Linehan
cnl.rubicon@juno.com
One man's magic is another man's engineering.
IMTU tc+ tm+ ?tn- ?t4- tg++ ?tt to ru+ ge 3i+ c+ jt au st+ ls pi+ ta he+
kk hi as va dr so zh+ vi da sy

___________________________________________________________________
Get the Internet just the way you want it.
Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!
Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.

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

Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 22:39:58 -0700
From: tasegeal@juno.com
Subject: Re: Photographing starship miniatures

One of the tricks I learned in photoshop
back in high school with a 35mm SLR like
the Pentax  is to focus the standard lens
(usually a 50mm) on infinity, adjust the f-stop
to maximum (for depth of field), take your
exposure reading (for setting shutter speed),
remove the lens from the mount and hold it 
in place backwards against the camera
body.  You have to manually activate the
f-stop (with the button on the rim).  With
strong lighting this gives you some leeway
with focus.  With a litle practice you can
move in quite close and get some
pleasing results.

My .02

MikeJ

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

Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 23:17:24 -0700
From: shudson@lightspeed.bc.ca (Steven Hudson)
Subject: Re: Roger Sanger?

>Subject: Roger Sanger?
...
>Sorry for asking, but I've found no source to answer my question.

  FWIW, 2300 AD fandom reviles him as a vapourware merchant; reasonable
or no (he does own the rights after all), it irks many that a damned good
game remains OOP apparently because he wants to make a big profit on the
re-issue of said books. That doesn't mean that the criticism is valid*.

  * OTOH, take a look at what he sells used stuff for...

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

Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 23:57:49 -0700
From: Evyn MacDude <wmacdude@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Re Technology Demographics

Will the anwser alot help?

Or
K6 400 box
Mac 8100
Dell p50 box
Mac 2si workstation (When it was new)
PB 100
And a casio winCe thingy.

At least that is what is up and running and not talking to
each other.

Got a few more in bits.

- --
Evyn...
Wish I was a better person...   with more control...
Turn the other cheek...   and when the punch comes, roll...
Wish I was a kinder person...   could see the others pain...
Not over react, not judge...   and shrug off the spreadin' stain.
Damaged, by John Shirley/Donald Roeser, BOC, Heaven Forbid 1998.

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 00:10:44 -0700
From: Evyn MacDude <wmacdude@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Travart: Plantary maps.

Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella wrote:

> > A calculator
> > that adds up Hydro% on a texture map for 3d sphere.
>
> Ever try http://www.lysator.liu.se/~johol/fwmg/fwmg.html ? Very nice world
> generator.  It seems to get a lot of traffic, so you may occasionally get
> "The Server is either unavailable or too busy. Please try again later.", as
> I just got. But when it's accessible, it's great.

Yep, not what I'm looking for.

This more a art app. Making your own.

- --
Evyn...
Wish I was a better person...   with more control...
Turn the other cheek...   and when the punch comes, roll...
Wish I was a kinder person...   could see the others pain...
Not over react, not judge...   and shrug off the spreadin' stain.
Damaged, by John Shirley/Donald Roeser, BOC, Heaven Forbid 1998.

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 20:11:30 +0800
From: "Antony Farrell" <Skaran@bigpond.com>
Subject: FW: [Traveller-Culture] Re: Idea: Multiple Projects

- -----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Zeitlin [mailto:jzeitlin@cyburban.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 8 September 1999 6:36
To: Traveller-Culture@onelist.com
Subject: [Traveller-Culture] Re: Idea: Multiple Projects


From: Jeff Zeitlin <jzeitlin@cyburban.com>

On 7 Sep 1999 10:51:46 -0000, Kenji Schwarz
<schwarz@fas.harvard.edu> wrote:

>I was thinking, seeing how much more involvement there was on this list,
>that it might be useful to start thinking, if not actively working, on a
>second similar project.  In doing conlang projects I often come up with
>equally spiffy but mutually exclusive ideas, so having two irons in the
>fire at a time lets me use both without losing steam.  In the same way, it
>seems that some of the ideas we're "discarding" here are still good, just
>not congruent with the rest of what we want for Vland.

>What do people think about starting on a similar sourcebook-type project
>for some other place/species in Traveller Land(tm)?  Maybe something
>nonhuman?

If we can get enough people involved, as contrasted with lurking,
this is a good idea, and one that I wholeheartedly endorse.

Without necessarily suggesting a specific direction to go in, I
will note that we probably have the most flexibility with respect
to the Vargr.
- --
Jeff Zeitlin
jzeitlin@cyburban.com

Well I've being doing some work recently on the Aslan language, mainly
because I am detailing the Banners sector which had two Aslan states within
it which were apparently not imperial client states - or had not been since
the Solomani Confederation arose, and not Hierate clients either.

Antony Farrell

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 20:11:26 +0800
From: "Antony Farrell" <Skaran@bigpond.com>
Subject: FW: Re High Pressure Areas

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
[mailto:owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com] On Behalf Of Michael
Houghton
Sent: Tuesday, 7 September 1999 20:21
To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
Subject: Re: Re High Pressure Areas


Howdy!

Antony wrote:
>
> Well on one of the worlds in MTU the cooling fins for an antimatter
reactor
> were buried beneath the surface, they were quite large and operated below
> red heat, but the heating of the ground produced a persistant updraft
above
> them hence a high pressure area.
>
Actually, that would be a Low. Rising air is found in low pressure areas
(leading to cloud formation as the air rises and subsequent precipitation).

yours,
Michael

Thankyou for that, I knew it had to be one or the other.

Antony

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 13:27:09 +0100
From: Phil Kitching <postmark.design@btinternet.com>
Subject: Re: Jump Horizons of stars

At 09:20 07/09/1999 -0700, Anthony Jackson <ajackson@molly.iii.com> wrote:
>GypsyComet@aol.com writes:
>
>>  I ran that set of numbers using Book 6 (for the Stellar Radii table) and 
>> found *in general* that K and M stars' jump horizon is beyond the habitable
>>  orbit, G stars are a tossup, and the younger stars (O,B,A & F) rarely if
>> ever  reach the habitable orbit. This generalization applies best to Type V
>> stars,  but can be used for nearly any of them in a pinch...
>
>Actually, it should be true for all stars; the life zone is at a constant
radiant energy density.  That density is (constant for temperature) *
(surface area of star) / (surface area of sphere at orbital radius).  If
you have a 10x larger star with the same surface temperature, the life zone
will be 10x further out.

But the stars *don't* have the same surface temperature.

Indeed, the OBAFGKM scale is a scale of decreasing surface temperature.

Phil Kitching
- --
  http://www.btinternet.com/~salvo/
  Postmark Design Bureau, Emerging Technologies Division.
 "Microwaving half-baked ideas from across the Galaxy"

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

Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 00:50:46 +1200
From: "Andrew Moffatt-Vallance" <a.vallance@netaccess.co.nz>
Subject: Web Site on the move

Due to some... uhmm... "ongoing issues" with my ISP, my Traveller
Website is on the move. The nice people at Downport have graciously
offered it a home and it has just completed it's relocation. The new URL is

   <http://www.downport.com/amv/index.htm>

Thank you to Downport.


Andrew etc
http://users.netaccess.co.nz/amv/
    Listening to way too much Dave Brubeck

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 07:37:16 -0600
From: Erwin Fritz <efritz@GLJA.com>
Subject: Re: 5FW: fleet #1?

Clifford N Linehan wrote:
> 
> Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 13:47:26 -0600 From: Erwin Fritz <efritz@GLJA.com>
> >My PCs are currently on Dinom/Lanth, at the beginning of the Fifth
> Frontier War.
> >I was looking at the game 5FW, and noticed that the fleet disposition
> maps have
> >the Dinom region covered by a fleet numbered simply "1".
> >
> >Does anyone know what fleet this is? I can't find references to it in
> the text
> >of the game.
> 
> Year: 1116
> Sector: Spinward Marches
> Sub-Sector: G: Lanth
> Fleet: 018th
> Reserve Fleet: 1018th

Thanks. I wonder why the author didn't just put '18' there.

- -- 
Erwin Fritz
Gilbert Laustsen Jung Associates Ltd.
http://www.glja.com

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 07:36:44 -0600
From: cos 90 <cos90@powersurfr.com>
Subject: Re: Imperial Military and PR

>Real world example. In the US in the 50s, Disney aired a "Davey
>Crockett" (or was it Daniel Boone?) series on TV. Kids quickly came up
>with a parody of the theme song.

I remember the old Daniel Boone television series (with Fess Parker
in the lead role, if I recall correctly...), and the parody version
of the theme song. Or at least, *a* parody of the theme song. In fact,
the parody lyrics are the only ones I know.

"Daniel Boone was a man,
 Yes, a big man,
 But the bear was bigger..."

There are two more lines, but I'll stop here because the next line
includes a word that is by contemporary standards a rather nasty
ethnic epithet...


     Glenn St-Germain  Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 
cos90@powersurfr.com  http://plaza.powersurfr.com/glenn
        "There is no longer any normal to be"
                                 -- Gary Numan

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 09:46:19 -0400
From: "Chris Seamans" <semo@pil.net>
Subject: Re: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)

- -----Original Message-----
From: SD Mooney <dom@cybergoths.u-net.com>
To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Date: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 4:53 PM
Subject: Re: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)


>Anyway, this put me to thinking about gamers. People who play games with
>established backgrounds (Traveller, Glorantha, etc) seem to worry less
>about rules than the style of the game. People who play games in generic
>systems (D&D to an extent, GURPS) sometimes seem to care more about the
>rules. This is only natural, as in such systems the rules are the game,
>whereas in Traveller etc. the setting is the game. All IMHO of course...


I'm not sure I would agree. Attracting such undesirables as rules lawyers is
simply a factor of how popular the game is. They're a type of roleplayer and
they *thrive* off of being able to lord their "vast knowledge" of a game
over other players and GMs. There's a much greater chance that they will be
attracted, like like flies to... um... you know, to the more popular
systems.

If Traveller had a fanbase the size of GURPS or AD&D, I'm sure there'd be
rules lawyers among us. Just IMHO... ;)

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 09:46:54 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: Merc Equipment

A question to the list regarding the equipment of mercenary groups:

I have always assumed that mercs are responsible for the purchase and
maintainance of their own personal weapons and equipment (gun, armour,
commo, etc.).  Is this reasonable?  What about mercs who opperate more
expensive equipment such as a plasma support weapon or MRL?  Artillery?
AFV's?  I cannot imagine individual soldiers paying for a grav tank, but a
HMG might be reasonable.  Perhaps the group has a "lay-away" plan so that a
merc can pay in installments.  What about ammunition?  Spares?  Repairs?
Any constructive comments would be welcome.

Peez

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1072
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