Traveller-digest    Wednesday, September 8 1999    Volume 1999 : Number 1074



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Dustbin clarified
Re: Dustbin clarified
RE: Merc Equipment
Re: Dustbin clarified
Re: Roger Sanger?
Re: Roger Sanger?
Re: Acceptable Battle Losses (was: Re: Safety of low berths)
Re: FW: Re High Pressure Areas
Re: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)
Re: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)
RealLife(tm) Nanite Technology Breakthrough
RE:Merc Equipment
Re: Merc Equipment/Recruitment
Re: Technology Demographics
Re: Roger Sanger?
Re: Technology Demographics
Re: Technology Demographics
Re: Dustbin clarified
Re: Roger Sanger?
Re: Merc Eqipment
Re: dustbin
r e: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 15:19:41 -0500
From: "Robert Eaglestone" <eaglesto@nortelnetworks.com>
Subject: Dustbin clarified

Howdy all,

Here's a clarification.  One member is a competetive pain in
the patookus.  His role playing skills are zero, and his idea
of an enjoyable evening is finding a weak spot in the referee's
game rules knowledge and exploiting it to do what he wants.
To top it all off, he doesn't admit any dissatisfaction about the
game rules or game play.  The group won't survive long while
this continues, and the others agree with me; so out he goes.

This is a face-to-face group.  I told him that the game is
suspended; actually, we have more or less finished off the
current campaign.  We are going to work out aspects of the
rules and roleplaying in a new campaign, without this other
guy.

Anyone ever had to do this?  Any advice, observations,
suggestions, or experiences?

Thanks all,
Rob

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 15:52:35 -0500
From: ehenry@newberlin.org (Eric Henry)
Subject: Re: Dustbin clarified

< de-lurking >

Seems to me the guy is fired.  In that case there should be a world of
experience out there.

If you don't want to work with the guy then say "we don't want to work with
you."  If you are concerned that this might hurt his feelings then don't get
rid of him.

- -----Original Message-----
Subject: Dustbin clarified


>Howdy all,
>
>Here's a clarification.  One member is a competetive pain in
>the patookus.  His role playing skills are zero, and his idea
>of an enjoyable evening is finding a weak spot in the referee's
>game rules knowledge and exploiting it to do what he wants.
>To top it all off, he doesn't admit any dissatisfaction about the
>game rules or game play.  The group won't survive long while
>this continues, and the others agree with me; so out he goes.
>
>This is a face-to-face group.  I told him that the game is
>suspended; actually, we have more or less finished off the
>current campaign.  We are going to work out aspects of the
>rules and roleplaying in a new campaign, without this other
>guy.
>
>Anyone ever had to do this?  Any advice, observations,
>suggestions, or experiences?

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 16:42:48 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: RE: Merc Equipment

Jim MacLean writes:
>I think the most effective way to run a merc outfit would be as close to
>a regular military unit as possible.  This means the merc company pays
>for all the equipment and gives the troops their share of the left-over
>money.

	I can't argue with that.

>1) This prevents incentive incompatibilities between doing what is in >the
unit's best interest and in doing what is in an individual trooper's
>financial best interest.  For instance, if you're pinned down and need
>help, you don't want the artillery boys skimping on fire support because
>they're trying to save money on ammo.

	OTOH, the folks who are financing the unit may worry about
	military yahoos wasting resources.  Still, I tend to agree
	with you.

>2) If everyone has their own gear, logistics become more difficult
>because nothing is the same and you have to bring many types of spares,
>ammo, etc.

	Only if everyone has different kinds of gear.  It would be
	possible to require certain weapons, or even have the unit 
	sell them to the mercs (possibly at a discount).

>3) I'd think it would be bad for unit discipline and planning if
>individual troops decided what sort of equipment to buy and then the
>commanding officers had to figure out how to fight with the resulting
>hodge-podge.

	See above.  I could see some merc units run by pencil-
	pushers insisting on the mercs buying their own stuff,
	but I'm beginning to see that the better units would 
	provide all necessary equipment (only charging mercs
	who, say, get drunk and trash the unit's air raft).

Peez

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 14:26:35 -0700
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@pharmacy.arizona.edu>
Subject: Re: Dustbin clarified

Robert Eaglestone wrote:
> 
> Anyone ever had to do this?  Any advice, observations,
> suggestions, or experiences?

Urk. IME this kind of player has to be told point-blank "We don't want
to play with you anymore. It's not fun, and everyone feels this way."
and _everyone_ has to say that. Sort of an intervention, though more of
an _out_ervention

Unfortunately this leads to other problems if you have to deal with the
person IRL, because if they're that immature at game playing, they're
usually as immature IRL.


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

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 17:37:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Prior <robert_prior@sympatico.ca>
Subject: Re: Roger Sanger?

>The other thing you'll regularly hear is that DGP still owes alot of
>contributors money, although whether these debts were inherited from the
>Fugate
>regime or generated after the licenses changed hands is not clear to me.
>
>--
>Mark Watson, markw@antares.demon.co.uk

DGP still owes me money. I had a deal with Joe that I would accept payment
in product (as I was buying everything anyway). When AI was delayed I
decided that I trusted Joe enough to wait - and I still think that Joe
would have paid me in the end.

Roger was willing to deal, as long as that involved me writing more
material for DGP (once he bought it). When I mentioned the earlier amounts
owing he stopped answering my letters.

Seeing as I was never paid, however, I figure that the only material of
mine that DGP now owns is the bit of Starship Operators manual they paid
for. The Sydkai, and all those equipment sheets (such as grashfalt - I
think I coined the term) are mine again.

I suspect that the same situation may apply with other parts of Travellers
Digest and MegaTraveller Journal, too.

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 17:57:26 -0400
From: Jeff Zeitlin <jzeitlin@cyburban.com>
Subject: Re: Roger Sanger?

On Tue, 7 Sep 1999 20:51:38 -0400 (EDT), "Jim Moss"
<jkmoss@hotmail.com> 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?

Seeker and FASA have been non-canonical for a while; the quality
of both was IMO significantly inferior to what DGP put out, and
there is little if any present interest in it.  The DGP material
- - the absolute best non-GDW stuff from the GDW era - is not
available, essentially because R***r S****r <spit> won't
re-release it (and if he said he was going to, nobody would
believe him; he's failed to follow through on similar projects
before), and the implication of statements made here was that he
expected anyone that wanted to take on the job of re-releasing it
to make him independently wealthy for the privilege.  Thus, the
DGP material sits unused, and unusable (_I_ wouldn't want to get
into a copyright micturition competition over it), doing _nobody_
any good.

- --
Jeff Zeitlin
jzeitlin@cyburban.com

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 22:49:42 +0100
From: Matt Clonfero <Matt-C@aetherem.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Acceptable Battle Losses (was: Re: Safety of low berths)

RASFranzen@aol.com wrote:
>Dear Matt, 
>you are not as good in military history/armchair admiralship as you think you 
>are ;->
> Matt-C@aetherem.demon.co.uk wrote:
>
><< OTOH, a Shorts Sunderland flying boat (with a
> defensive armament of around 8 .303 calibre mgs) held off five Ju-88s.
> Attacking a late-model B-17 with 13 .50 calibre mgs wasn't an easy
> proposition.>>
>
>The Ju 88 was a light/medium (dive)bomber and not built to attack other 
>planes.
>It surely lacked agility for that.

The Ju-88 was also used as a night fighter, and as a long-range fighter
(hence the meeting between them and a flying boat - IIRC the encounter
was well out of range for a Bf109).

> .  With far fewer fatalities, the US Navy
> >achieved a far more decisive victory at Midway than the German High Seas
> >Fleet achieved at Jutland.
> 
> The Germans were tactical victors at Jutland? Being chased from the
> field; losing one battleship outright and having a modern BC flood so
> badly that it couldn't make harbour is wining? The Grand Fleet reported
> that it was at 24 hours notice for sea after Jutland. The High Seas
> Fleet couldn't sortie for months. Your point would probably be better
> made by looking at RN losses - higher than the Germans, in terms of both
> ships and men. But which fleet then stayed in port until 1918 and then
> mutinied rather than sortie again?
>
>Ever heard about the difference between strategy and tactics?

Jutland - tactical victory for the RN - the enemy fleet fled the area,
returning to a friendly port.

Jutland -strategic victory for the RN - the enemy fleet was no longer
disposed for further combat operations.

Ever hear about the difference between tactics and logistics?

>To get back to Traveller: The Solomani or Zhodani or Aslan may have had the 
>better soldiers at the Imperiums heyday, but that would not ever have been 
>able to give them more than tactical victories due to the tech/size advantage 
>of the Imperium. Only when the Imperium butchered itself were strategical 
>victories possible ... until an imperial strategic project ( Virus) became 
>the great equalizer.

Probably because the delta in capability between the units wasn't great
enough to offset the delta in numbers. To link this to an earlier
thread, see NATO, Warsaw Pact, and first use of tactical nuclear
weapons.

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: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 17:07:17 -0500
From: Eris reddoch <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: FW: Re High Pressure Areas

Antony Farrell 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).

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

But it would mean if you forced rain here it might cause other places
to be drier than normal and that is the effect I was looking for.

Eris

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 19:06:23 -0300
From: Michel Vaillancourt <misha@empire.atlantic-online.ns.ca>
Subject: Re: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)

At 05:48 PM 08/09/1999 +0100, you wrote:
>"Chris Seamans" <semo@pil.net> writes:
>>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... ;)
>
>Don't we call them gear-heads? <g,d,r>
>
>Hang on, that covers me too. Ooops. Nah! Let's not call them gearheads...
>
>Dom
>

        Y'know, Dom, that is *exactly* what I thought....  =)

        --Michel
	-+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+-
	Michel R. Vaillancourt	misha@atlantic-online.ns.ca
				ICQ # 31172292
	"Reality Error in Progress....
			....Do Not Adjust Your Penguin"	
	-+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+-
	Into Cyberpunk?  Check Out:
		"http://www.atlantic-online.ns.ca/cp2020"
	Into Traveller?  Check Out:
		"http://www.atlantic-online.ns.ca/traveller"
	-+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+-
	***REMEMBER - Always virus-check your emails ***
	-+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+-

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 17:16:42 -0500
From: Eris reddoch <eris@pcola.gulf.net>
Subject: Re: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)

SD Mooney wrote:
> 
> "Chris Seamans" <semo@pil.net> writes:
> >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... ;)

What, you don't think they *are* amongst us?

> Don't we call them gear-heads? <g,d,r>

Nooo!
 
> Hang on, that covers me too. Ooops. Nah! Let's not call them gearheads...

Better! <g>

There are ruleslawyers lurking around for every game system.  In my
experience they *do* seem to be more common in some systems...AD&D,
Champions, and GURPS come to mind, but that could just be my personal
experience.  

<joke> I have more trouble with the Traveller
settinglawyers..canonists...that rules lawyers. </joke>

Eris

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 17:20:20 -0500 
From: "Smart, David J (David)" <dasmart@lucent.com>
Subject: RealLife(tm) Nanite Technology Breakthrough

For those of you who want to detail a little nanite tech in
Traveller, below is an excerpt from an article posted today
by the BBC.


- --- quote ---
Scientists Make Molecular Motor

By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse

It has just 78 atoms, took four years to build and it has a
spindle that takes hours to rotate but it could be the
forerunner of a revolution. 

Attempts by scientists to produce molecule-sized
machines have produced a toolbox of parts, gears,
rotors, switches, turnstiles but no one has produced a
molecular motor, until now.

<snip>

The diminutive motor consists of 78 atoms arranged in
two molecules, a three sided spindle composed of
star-shaped molecules and a base plate molecule on
which it rests.

<snip>

- --- end quote ---

The full story can be found at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 18:18:40 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: RE:Merc Equipment

>I have always assumed that mercs are responsible for the purchase and
>maintenance of their own personal weapons and equipment (gun, armour,
>commo, etc.).  Is this reasonable?  What about mercs who operate 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

I would expect this to be a direct result of the quality of the merc.
Soldier of fortune types will almost certainly provide their own equipment.
I would expect that they would be employed as bodyguards, thieves or
enforcers.
An organized mercenary force will almost always supply their contract
soldiers with equipment. This is absolutely necessary for reasons of
logistics.  The larger the force the more necessary this is. Officers will
probably have more leeway as to side arms. Personal gear, like knives and
survival gear might be supplied, or might be up to the individual to
procure.

Terry C

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

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 18:13:21 -0400
From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd@gate.net>
Subject: Re: Merc Equipment/Recruitment

For certain situations where lower tech will do I see official government
relationships akin to the Gerka (sp) Regiments of the 19th, 20th and dare I
say 21st century British army.   Say "Wild Woofer Regiments" recruited from
just over the fringe.  Perhaps at higher tech the French Foreign Legion
really could be a good model.   You've read the novels, Hammer's Slammers
etc. most of the equipment belongs to the unit and if I remember correctly
everyone gets paid in shares depending on their responsibilities.  A
non-military model of such would be how profits were historically divided
from whaling voyages.  Just my two credits worth for what it is indeed
worth.

Dan

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 18:18:29 -0600
From: "David J. Golden" <goldendj@pcisys.net>
Subject: Re: Technology Demographics

At 12:17 PM 9/8/99 -0500, you wrote:
>I recently tired of messing with my cheapo 19-inch monitor, and
dropped the
>proverbial wad on a 21-inch Trinitron.  So put me down in the 1280 x
1024
>column.  (I couldn't be happier, although I was reduced to
peanutbutter &
>jelly sandwiches for the next month paying for it!  :)
>
>Another point that started this thread was the idea that TMLers, as
presumed
>math and science types, would tend towards high-end equipment.  The
only
>counterpoint I would add, is that I can easily imagine an
engineering type
>looking at a old 8088 and seeing a Neat Toy ("I can use this to
reprogram my
>dishwasher!").  Whereas I (a GUI programmer) would have induced
flashbacks
>of CS-101, compiling UCSD Pascal code from floppies, and beg
somebody to
>haul the sad boat anchor off to the museum.  :P

	I've still got my Timex/Sinclair 1000 around ... I hope to do
something with it once I get settled in!

>some of us have little use for computer games.  But graphics
workstations

	I don't ...

>Primary box (Prometheus) - Celeron 300A overclocked to 450 Mhz, 128
meg ram,

	Primary box (Mycroft) - PII-400, 128M, 8GB HD (not counting the
unused Linux partitions ...), 17" 1152x864

	Secondary box (Junior) - P-100, 48M, 6GB, 17" 800x600 (loaned out)

	Tertiary box (Maximillian--mobile unit) - P-100 laptop, 40M, 1GB,
800x600 256 color

	Quaternary box (unnamed) - 486

	Quintenary box (unnamed) - 8088, 256K, 2x360K 5 1/4", 7" B&W (IBM PC
Portable!)

	Sextenary box (unnamed) - Z80, 16K

	
- -- ------------------------------------------------------------ --
   Dave Golden                  http://www.pcisys.net/~goldendj 

   Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they 
   did it by killing all those who opposed them.

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 18:24:23 -0600
From: "David J. Golden" <goldendj@pcisys.net>
Subject: Re: Roger Sanger?

At 05:57 PM 9/8/99 -0400, you wrote:
>into a copyright micturition competition over it), doing 

	What, now he's bought the copyright to p****ing too?!? And I bet
he'll sit on that too, the dirty rotten scoundrel. I don't know how
long I can hold it ...
- -- ------------------------------------------------------------ --
   Dave Golden                  http://www.pcisys.net/~goldendj 

   Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they 
   did it by killing all those who opposed them.

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 15:29:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kiri Aradia Morgan <tiamat@tsoft.com>
Subject: Re: Technology Demographics

On Wed, 8 Sep 1999, David J. Golden wrote:

> 	I've still got my Timex/Sinclair 1000 around ... I hope to do
> something with it once I get settled in!
> 
You're the first person other than my favorite ex husband (we'd prolly
still be married, but he's gay) that I know that still has one.  (He had 2
when we were married and has prolly got more now... he loves those things
and gets 'em at yard sales, etc.)

Kiri

******************************************************************************
Kiri Aradia Morgan                                  93!  Thou Art God
tiamat@tsoft.com

"If time passes, everything turns into beauty
If the rains stop, tears clean the scars of memory away
Everything starts wearing fresh colors
Every sound begins playing a heartfelt melody
Jealousy embellishes a page of the epic
Desire is embraced in a dream..."              -- X-JAPAN 

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 23:12:25 +0100
From: Matt Clonfero <Matt-C@aetherem.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Technology Demographics

Phil Kitching wrote:
>Here's my claim to the obscure computer market:
>
>At home:
>
>Acorn Risc PC, 200MHz SA/100MHz 586, ram 34MB, disc 4GB + 420MB, 24xCD,
>4XCD/MO, RICS OS3.8, 17" Monitor usually running 1280x1024x256.

Ha! I've still got an old Arc. 420/1 loafing about here - my `emergency
use only' machine for when the PC breaks down.

(Btw - can you still get Risc PCs / STRONGARM machines?)

Main home machine: PIII/500, 128Mb. 15" Monitor.

Work: A range of worthless PCs. Of course, the mathematical modelling
team have somewhat more powerful toys...

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: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 15:41:08
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Dustbin clarified

At 03:19 PM 9/8/1999 -0500, you wrote:

>Anyone ever had to do this?  Any advice, observations,
>suggestions, or experiences?

The best way is to upfront and honest.  Explain cleary why you and the
group now longer wish to play with this person.  Be firm.  Odds are, he'll
claim that he'll change.  Trust me, he won't.

I've had to deal with a couple of players who just didn't get the campaign
theme, it's always difficult to get rid of them.
- -- 

Douglas E. Berry       gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html

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

Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 15:55:38
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Roger Sanger?

At 06:24 PM 9/8/1999 -0600, you wrote:

>	What, now he's bought the copyright to p****ing too?!? And I bet
>he'll sit on that too, the dirty rotten scoundrel. I don't know how
>long I can hold it ...
>-- ------------------------------------------------------------ --
>   Dave Golden                  http://www.pcisys.net/~goldendj 

Dave, your last name provided the capper for that one.. you owe me a new
keyboard.
- -- 

Douglas E. Berry       gridlore@mindspring.com
http://gridlore.home.mindspring.com/index.html

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 17:54:37 -0500
From: "John Majer" <jsmage@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Merc Eqipment

> 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
For MTU, there are a general set of assumptions that I run with to try and
deal with it.  First, most merc groups are either attached or incorporated
with merchant groups, partially to have a potentially loyal force for the
merchants, as well as an "investment" to turn some money on the side.  They
provide most of the fiscal support for the mercs, in terms of having an
expert group of people to  run the numbers for the people who know how to
kill things.  All the other mercs are doomed by this to be somewhat small
time.  Which doesn't mean there isn't anything for them to do, alone try and
get hired by one of the corps.  Second, while it can be overestimated, there
is also the aspect of pilliaging or scrounging rights after a successful
battle.  It is possible to end up with a piece of equ. far better than you
ever anticipated, as long as you have sharp eyes and a good tech.  You can't
take this too far, but there is some validity in it, especally for a plot
thread (go easy on the grav tank everybody, I want it)
- -J.S.

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 18:17:05 -0500
From: "John Majer" <jsmage@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: dustbin

> Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 10:44:45 -0500
> From: "Robert Eaglestone" <eaglesto@nortelnetworks.com>
> Subject: Dustbin
>
> Howdy folks,
>
> Opinions and experiences solicited: I am trimming dead wood
> out of our Traveller group, and I'm wondering if anyone out
> there has ever had to boot a member from their group?
>
> Rob
Never an enviable position.  Just as a question, why?  The main reason that
I have had to is because of "inter-player" conflict, which had the bad
tendancy to boil over.  (can you say, plasma rifle in enclosed air raft?)
One other time it was a matter of someone who turned unreliable after he
started dating someone who didn't understand the life (ironically enough his
last SO had been the one that the above quote refered to).  What I try to do
is give them a graceful out.  Wait 'till there's a hiatus in storyline
coming up, break 'em the news that the group can't take what they're doing,
and then try to devise a meaningful sort of good-by for them to engage in,
something which fits with their character and the plot.  It's a best of all
possible worlds scenario, but it's worked for me in the past and managed to
kick people out of my group without too much hard feelings.  On the other
hand, you could do this without telling them, but that'd be mean.  But
sometimes necessary.  Alot of it, IMHO, really depends on why you want them
out and what your out-of-game relationship is: there's stuff that requires
immedate action, and there's stuff that you can take the "pretend we quit"
routine.
- -J.S.

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

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 16:21:52 -0700
From: "David P. Summers" <summers@alum.mit.edu>
Subject: r e: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)

>Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 17:41:50 +0100
>From: SD Mooney <dom@cybergoths.u-net.com>
>Subject: r e: meaning of GT (was "Cannons other than...)
>
>"David P. Summers" <summers@alum.mit.edu> writes:
>>[Note, I most certainly don't consider D&D to be a generic system]
>
>But first and early second ed (A)D&D provides a pretty okay generic fantasy
>RPG. It's not, for example, like RQ/Elric where the rules are flavoured to
>emphasis a setting. Admittedly the magic is Vancian.

They used setting assumptions, that mages wouldn't wear armor, that
Clerics wouldn't use edge weapons, the only theives stable people in
the back, etc. to balance the rules.  You basically had redo the combat
numbers from the to-hit tables on up if you wanted to play a character type
from a new  type of setting, etc.  The only think "generic" is that it
didn't come with a game world, but many of the world assumptions were
all there and not optional.  Not, in my book, even close to even "generic
fantasy".
______________________________
summers@alum.mit.edu
(This is the net.  My e-mail address may be in Boston, but I'm in California.)

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1074
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