Traveller-digest    Thursday, September 30 1999    Volume 1999 : Number 1144



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Re: Shipboard vs. Groundbound salaries
Re: Citizens of the TML
Re: Hi there!!!
Re: GURPS First In System Generation Rules
Black Curtain (was: Curiosity question!!!)
Fw: Curiosity question!!!
Linux question
Fw: Military pay
Fw: Shipboard vs. Groundbound salaries
MT and TNE designs
Re: falkenbergs legions firing into civilians
Re: Traveller in Oregon?
Re: TMLer Con Attendance (was: Archon- Anyone Attending?)
Re: Location of "The City"
Palm Traveller
Re: software data formats
Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED RE TML Doomsday Census
Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1143
RE: Location of "The City" (and brief RE: Military Spending and Taxation)
Traveller Player Roster
Re: Curiosity question!!!

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

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 23:27:53 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: Re: Shipboard vs. Groundbound salaries

>    A small amount of hazard pay is a legitimate requirement and a
>good amount of hardship pay as well, but I still don't see these two
>items doing anymore than bringing shipboard pay up to the equal
>of ground-based salaries, if that.

>    The provision of room and board, IMO, should be around a 50%
>decrease in salary.  Hazard pay of 10% (the risk isn't normally THAT
>great) and hardship pay of 30% would still leave a 10% loss. YMMV.
>    And no, I've never lived aboard ship, but after 21 years in the U.S.
>military I've lived more than once under conditions that the U.S.
>courts have said constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" for a
>convicted felon, but are perfectly acceptable for volunteers...grin.
>So I do have SOME idea whereof I speak.
>

And as a twenty year Navy veteran so have I. And I would imagine that
members of the IN and IISS would also be underpaid.  IRL merchant seamen,
even those on convenience flag ships, make much more than they could working
ashore. Your typical merchant mariner makes significantly more than a
military sailor. Those third world sailors on ships flagged in Liberia and
Panama make an even higher multiple of pay than their shore based
counterparts, especially for non-technical skill labor like cooking or food
serving.

You just can't overlook the hardship of transient living.  The lack of
ability to accumulate stuff, raise a family, etc.  Don't forget that even
when you lived for months in a tent somewhere you had a house, or an
apartment or a barracks room that, at least in the late twentieth century,
was very near the level of an apartment. Even today most military sailors
who are not married still live in bunk rooms.  A merchant marine type gets
his own room, usually, but only officers get to bring their wives along.

A space crewman from a world like Regina, which is RI, will be giving up a
lot to work aboard ship.  While a tramp won't be able to pay much, only the
wingnuts are going for those jobs anyway. You know PC's. Normal people will
take that job with Tukera hoping to make enough to settle down after a
career with a nice nestegg. They'll want extra money to make all that time
away from home worthwhile.

Terry C

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

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

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 20:56:05 -0700
From: shudson@lightspeed.bc.ca (Steven Hudson)
Subject: Re: Citizens of the TML

>From: "James W. Lindsay" <jlindsay@home.com>
...
>haven't played a game of Traveller in over ten years, but *still* an avid
collector

  You mean _rabid_ - you traded for my copy of T4 Starships, remember? :)

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

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 23:16:16 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Hi there!!!

> I'm looking forward to the release of the Classic
> Edition (my stuff is pretty worn), and even
> though it won't be in LBB format, I figure I'll
> support the game which has brought me so many hours
> of fun.

Hello! It may not be LBB, but I think it is going to be BBB (Big Black
Books). Speaking of CT, my page is getting polished up, and looks quite CT
now. I finally did go for a white background and black text on the content,
but figured out a cool set of tables to put a red border and lots of black
in there too. Check it out!

http://www.sierratel.com/aum/BZAT/index.html

////////////////////////////////////////
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: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 23:29:13 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: GURPS First In System Generation Rules

> Sinothy Belt/Regina has large chunks of antimatter in it.

Antimatter? Is this plausible? Or is Yaskodray to blame?
////////////////////////////////////////
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: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 02:55:17 EDT
From: GypsyComet@aol.com
Subject: Black Curtain (was: Curiosity question!!!)

"Christopher Duden" <dude@citilink.com> asks Curiously:
 
>Okay- I've got just a few items from TNE,
>and one of the things that has always bugged me
>is on pg79 of the Mark 1, Mod 1 edition of the
>rules-- there is a map of known space as of 001-1201
>and on the right side (covering Fornast, Core, and
>Ley Sectors) there is this HUGE black splotch, labeled
>"The Black Curtain".
>
>What the H$ll is it???!?!
>
>
>I don't play TNE, but, like I said, this has been
>bugging me ever since my buddy conned me into purchasing
>the rule book....
>

 The only thing we really know is that the area bounded by the Black Curtain 
is so saturated with Vampire Ship activity that no current data exists 
because nobody who ventures in ever returns. It is ...............

minor TNE spoiler below (minor because most people playing in the TNE-RCES 
setting will have learned this one already)




.............. one terminus of a long "Vampire Highway" linking the Curtain 
with (aparently) the planet Cymbeline in the Solomani Rim; Vampire activity 
is much higher on this path than anywhere else in the former Third Imperium.

end spoiler....................

That help any?

GC

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 14:56:00 -0700
From: "Antony Farrell" <Skaran@bigpond.com>
Subject: Fw: Curiosity question!!!

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Duden <dude@citilink.com>
To: Traveller <Traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 8:05 PM
Subject: Curiosity question!!!


*grins* Like there is any other kind.

Okay- I've got just a few items from TNE,
and one of the things that has always bugged me
is on pg79 of the Mark 1, Mod 1 edition of the
rules-- there is a map of known space as of 001-1201
and on the right side (covering Fornast, Core, and
Ley Sectors) there is this HUGE black splotch, labeled
"The Black Curtain".

What the H$ll is it???!?!


I don't play TNE, but, like I said, this has been
bugging me ever since my buddy conned me into purchasing
the rule book....


I cannot remember if it was canon but I think the black curtain is the
approximate location of a huge virus empire, the black curtain description
was like a black hole, nothing that passed through it ever came back.

As an aside can you imagine what virus would evolve into if it got into the
computer banks at Reference, think about it almost the entire knowledge base
of the 3I in handy networkable computers.

Antony Farrell

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 20:15:50 +1200
From: "Andrew Moffatt-Vallance" <a.vallance@netaccess.co.nz>
Subject: Linux question

I making a version of my Pocket Empires sheet for Linux. At the moment
I've converted it to StarOffice on my PC, but I don't know what compression
formats linux will support. Anybody got any suggestions, and will a PC
file translate to linux?


Andrew etc
Homepage http://users.netaccess.co.nz/amv/
Traveller http://www.downport.com/amv/
 "What do you expect from a species who's females are
 always in heat" Ko of the Ilui clan on Humans and honour

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 15:04:10 -0700
From: "Antony Farrell" <Skaran@bigpond.com>
Subject: Fw: Military pay

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Lyle Youngblood <lyley@gte.net>
To: <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 3:45 AM
Subject: Military pay


>
> >From: Matt Clonfero <Matt-C@aetherem.demon.co.uk>
> >For a real-life example, a Leading Hand (about an E-4 in US parlance) in
> >the Royal Navy earns about 16-18000 UKP - about the same as a Graduate
> >Engineer in the civilian sector. A typical person in a manual trade with
> >no higher or further education will be lucky to match the enlisted man.
>         Jesus, Mary, and Joseph did _I_ ever enlist in the wrong service.
> My background is U.S. Army and we don't get paid anywhere near this
> generously.  Our typical problem is retention as people come in, get the
> training and/or experience, and then leave as soon as possible for much
> better-paying civilian jobs.  To equal the "entry-level" positions
available
> to a graduate engineer in the U.S. military you'd probably have to be
> an E-7/E-8 or at least an O-3 on the officer side.
>                                                         Lyle
>
We have the same problem with retention in the RAAF (Royal Australian Air
Force), our best fighter pilots now fly airliners for QANTAS or Ansett
Airlines

Antony Farrell

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 16:23:01 -0700
From: "Antony Farrell" <Skaran@bigpond.com>
Subject: Fw: Shipboard vs. Groundbound salaries

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Lyle Youngblood <lyley@gte.net>
To: <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 3:07 AM
Subject: Shipboard vs. Groundbound salaries


> >Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 06:25:23 -0400
> >From: Christopher Thrash <thrash@io.com>
> >Subject: Re: Shipboard vs. Groundbound salaries
>
> >The ship's crew that lives aboard with no other fixed address has to be
> >something of a rarity. It may well be one of the romantic stereotypes
that
> >gets fixed in the (non-spacefaring) public's imagination, but I sincerely
> >doubt it accounts for a significant fraction of even free traders' crews,
> >let alone corporate-owned liner ships.
> >The reason is simple: most people want to have families, and families are
> >terribly difficult and uneconomical to maintain aboard. Traveller
> >characters, just by virtue of the character generation system, are almost
> >to a one single, never married, and over 30 years old. How many of those
do
> >you know personally? They make great adventurers, but should not be
> >regarded as typical by any means.
>     Well, I am one such myself and I know several more.  I'll point out
> that,
> while MOST people want to settle down and have families, there still
> remains a sizable minority of those of us with no such interests...and
that
> this population is more likely than most to be attracted to space service
> for some of the same reasons that make us uninterested in "normal"
> lives.  Also, I'll point out, service on a tramp freighter is likely to
> attract a
> large proportion of the population who are, in psycho-babble, "poorly
> socialized".  My experience with PC's would lead me to believe that
> that includes the majority of them....<grin> or at least mine and my
> players.
>         I expect that the family-man-gone-to-space is strictly a corporate
> entity with regular routes and schedules.  The typical tramp freighter
> crew will be a collection of loners, or not too infrequent couples, with
> little interest in raising a family until AFTER they make their "big
score".
>
>
> >[In the real world, salary rates for merchant marine crewmen aren't
> >significantly higher than shore-based positions that require the same
> >qualifications and experience. The difference is overtime: salaries are
> >calculated on a 40-hour week. Standing watch at night? Time-and-a-half.
> >Ship still at sea on Saturday? Double-time. Can't get into harbor because
> >it's a holiday? Triple-time. And so on. The officers of the S.S. Empire
> >State told me that they make three to four times their nominal salary in
> >overtime on a typical voyage.]
>         Now this is a horse of a different color and I will have to change
> my mind on this issue .  IMTU, the reduction of the work-week has led to
> one typically of  3 days or so.  Aboard ship, OTOH, I imagine "work" is
> both a daily thing and for a longer "day" than the typical groundling.
This
> would drive the shipboard position's salary up several degrees, at least
> equaling and, most likely, significantly exceeding that of the equivalent
> groundling role.
>
>
> >I'm sure that there are ships with families aboard. They are likely to be
> >cargo-only operations -- who wants their children to share their home
with
> >strangers? CJ Cherryh's Merchanters are a good model for this type of
crew,
> >as is a /dreskay/-run Droyne ship. But how many of these have ever been
> >detailed in canon? None, that I know of.
>         I expect that they'll be a rara avis indeed.  Tramp freighter crew
> (whether partner or employee) is a high-risk role.  Most end up badly,
> bankruptcy more likely then death or imprisonment, but that happens too,
> but those who hit, tend to hit big.  The people who keep following such a
> path into their 30s and beyond are rarely the family type.
>
> >[Lyle, I'm not picking on you specifically -- yours was the most
convenient
> >lead-in.]
>         I don't see that you're picking on me at all.  Your points were
> thoughtful
> and well-presented, even the ones I disagree with.
>
> Lyle
>
Though not a great film the trader in Alien Resurrection seemed to me to be
typical of the low end free trader, perhaps more so as at the start of the
film it identifies the ship "Betty" as unregistered.

Also in the old CT adventure Annic Nova this oddball vessel was carrying a
family, though they all perished prior to the start of the adventure.

Antony Farrell

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 15:14:05 -0700
From: "Antony Farrell" <Skaran@bigpond.com>
Subject: MT and TNE designs

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

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While going through my old Traveller Campaign materials I came across =
hundreds of MT ships and vehicle designs (mostly TL7 to 13) as well as =
TNE versions of other vessels like the Regal class battlecruiser. I =
don't think I have room on my web site to put these on, but if anyone =
wants them drop me a line.

Some of the TNE designs on my webpage are actually conversians from =
lower tech MT designs.

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<BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>While going through my old Traveller =
Campaign=20
materials I came across hundreds of MT ships and vehicle designs (mostly =
TL7 to=20
13) as well as TNE versions of other vessels like the Regal class =
battlecruiser.=20
I don't think I have room on my web site to put these on, but if anyone =
wants=20
them drop me a line.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Some of the TNE designs on my webpage =
are actually=20
conversians from lower tech MT designs.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

- ------=_NextPart_000_0070_01BF0B56.6F738D40--

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 01:49:58 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: falkenbergs legions firing into civilians

In mail you write:

>> From: john michael bush <saxguy@u.washington.edu>
>
>> One of the scarier scenes in military SF was in one of Pournelle's
>> Falkenberg's Legion stories. They've got thousands of people trapped in
>> a stadium (would-be revolutionaries). 
>  
>> And they start firing volley after volley into the crowd. Brrr.
>
> SNIP STORY
>
> Hmmm... would fit *perfectly* in a Vilani world. Efficient way to end 
> the revolution.

I won't spoil the story, but I will say that (as usual) Falkenberg and
his men were cleaning up a mess the politicians had created.

The Falkenberg stories are a great source.

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

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 01:56:49 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Traveller in Oregon?

Anybody else going to be at Orycon in November. It's an SF con, but
they do have some gaming space. 

If you haven't bought a membership yet, it's probably too late. They've
got a membership cap. Last year they hit the limit around noon on
Firday. I got in after that, but only because someone had canceled.

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

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 02:01:25 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: TMLer Con Attendance (was: Archon- Anyone Attending?)

>>May I suggest that, in the future, folks on the TML post any cons they
>>intend to attend?  This will help in organizing K'kree barbecues and the
>>like....

ORYCON, Portland, OR
Nov 11-14

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

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

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 00:06:41 +1200
From: "Frank Pitt" <frankie@mundens.gen.nz>
Subject: Re: Location of "The City"

> When most people say London they mean "Greater London" which is a
> conurbation.  Greater London is made up of the  City  of  London,
> City of Westminster, etc.  Since the City of London is  the  home
> of the main financial district (with the  Bank  of  England,  the
> various financial markets, merchant bank head offices, etc),  and
> most players in the financial world believe they are  the  center
> of the universe "the City" has  become  a  common  term  for  the
> financial district (along with "the square mile").

No, no, no.

"The Square Mile" is the name of a pub crawl in Christchurch, New Zealand
that consists of drinking one pint (or one 7oz glass for the wusses) in each
alcohol selling establishment within a square mile of the centre of the city
in a single afternoon/evening.

It used to be OK back when there were only fourteen-odd pubs, but with the
introduction of micro-breweries and a whole damn street full of licensed
cafes, the Square Mile is now goddam suicidal

Frankie

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 08:25:17 -0400
From: "Scott Spieker" <scspieker@ncweb.com>
Subject: Palm Traveller

Hello,
    I have been reading some of the threads.  A little while back I remember
reading some post that someone had created some Traveller Character records
or NPC database info or something similar.  If there is a few items or
someplace to find such animals, I would be very appreciative if someone
would point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance,
Scott Spieker

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

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 00:30:11 +1200
From: "Frank Pitt" <frankie@mundens.gen.nz>
Subject: Re: software data formats

> > When it comes to choosing an extensable language to base it on I
> > would think that it might be easier to use XML on a microsoft
> > operating system than for other operating systems to find a way to
> > access the proprietary microsoft INI format.
>
> What "proprietary"? The INI format (which is also used by OS/2) is a
> relatively *simple* TEXT format.

It's proprietary because the format was designed and is owned by Microsoft.
The OS/2 format is actually slightly different and was also written by
Microsoft but owned by IBM.

Also, it's obsolete and no longer directly supported by Microsoft, except
for backward compatibility, and will probably be dropped entirely from
future versions of Microsoft operating sytems

> [section header]
> tag=value
>
> You search for the section headers you recognize, and in those
> sections, you process the tags you recognize.

However, being simple, it only allows a single level hierarchy, and does not
handle aggregation or inheritance at all. This is why Microsoft dropped it
in favour of the registry.

You can not model the data for anything with a multi-level hierarchy, such
as a star system, using the ini format without forcing the reader of the
data to know the _specific_ format of the file, rather than the generic ini
format.

XML allows an XML tool to read _any_ data format, because the format itself
can be described.

Frankie.

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

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 00:33:02 +1200
From: "Frank Pitt" <frankie@mundens.gen.nz>
Subject: Re: SEC: UNCLASSIFIED RE TML Doomsday Census

> >>Verily M'lord, my income is but 3/8th a pig a year.
> 
> >Being a boring old staid librarian (yeah, right) I'm not one to
> >splutter tea all over my keyboard - but this, after all the roster
> >entries and the taxation thread, was simply delightful.
> 
> I am NOT doing the Doomsday book! <g>

Well, if you finish it before Y2K, it might _be_ a doomsday book. 

Frankie

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 14:32:36 +0100
From: "Stuart Ferris" <stuart.ferris@virgin.net>
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1999 #1143

Basically my problems stem from the fact that I trying to incorporate the
facility to select GURPS FI system and world building rules into my
Traveller World Builder Deluxe program. My aim is to allow the user to
select any system generation rules i.e. CT, MT, TNE & GURPS and select any
world generation rules i.e. WBH, WTH & FI. In order to do this I have to
base the input data on UWPs and canonical data which I feel is a better way
to detail worlds than the system used in GURPS.

>In any case, you have my authorial permission to cheat like a card sharp
>when it comes to the world-design sequences in First In.  If you follow
them
>closely from start to finish, what you get will be fairly realistic, but it
>won't
>give you results that feel like Classical Traveller.  But once you've run
>through
>the sequence a couple of times, you should start having a feeling for where
>you can fudge things to match the canonical data, and where you can safely
>drop the canonical data entirely for your own purposes.  Think of the book
>as a worldbuilding manual, and feel free to improvise.

I've now managed to create a routine which fudges the results.

>I can assure you that I don't participate in any Nefarious Plot To Force
>Everyone To Buy SJG Product.

I just get a little annoyed about the fact that Traveller is now onto its
sixth (including 2300) version. T4 was lucky to last a year. AD&D is only
about to release its third version. I just want someone to create a stable
Traveller version and for that to be around for several years. It isn't a
problem with the core rules. What the players need is are decent
sourcebooks. There was absolutely nothing wrong with CT rules and MT rules
were superb. Call me cynical, but the versions since then just seem to me to
be publishers cashing in on the success of Traveller.

Stuart Ferris
stuart.ferris@virgin.net
http://freespace.virgin.net/stuart.ferris/index.htm

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 14:16:25 +0100
From: "Trevor, Peter" <Peter.Trevor@rb.cwplc.com>
Subject: RE: Location of "The City" (and brief RE: Military Spending and Taxation)

Merrick Burkhardt wrote:
> > So when someone refers to "the City" think Wall  Street  ...  but
> > bigger and more international.
>
> More $$ changes hands there than Wall Street? Wow. I guess US has
> stuff in Chicago too though. Wouldn't have thought that...

I don't have all the figures any more, but here are some from the
mid '90s to give you a flavour ...

- - Forex (foreign exchange) Market:  (Currency swapping.)   Global
  turnover USD 1400 billion  *per day*.  5%  trade  related,  95%
  speculation.  London transacts 35%.

- - Government Bond Market (UK government  bonds  called  "Gilts"):
  London worth GBP 214.5 billion ... which makes it  6th  largest
  in world, or 4% of total.  US was  37%  but  that's  difference
  between US and Euro markets - Americans like  bonds,  Europeans
  like equity.

- - "Eurobond" Market (bad  name,  is  actually  for  international
  bonds): worth USD 402 billion.  London has about half, I think.

- - SEAQ (similar to NASDAQ): Turnover is GBP 650 billion domestic,
  GBP 7906 billion international.

- - LIFFE (London International Financial Futures Exchange): ?

- - Commodities Markets: ?

London also has international insurance  business  ...  including
Lloyds of London.  Lloyds is an insurer of last resort,  that  is
when a major disaster occurs that would wipe out  a  high  street
insurance company, Lloyds steps in and covers the short fall (for
a percentage of the premiums, of course).

In total the City generates approx 10% of the UK's GDP.  Not  bad
for a square mile.



ObTrav:  What would the Regina markets be like ...

- - Forex: Regina has a global currency  so  the  only  real  trade
  would be between that and Crimps.  So I suspect the  market  to
  be relatively tiny.  Say 60% trade related and 40% speculation.
  Anyone know Regina's import/export volumes?

- - Bond markets: A recent TML thread discussed Imperial  taxation,
  but what  about  public  borrowing?  Does  the  Imperium  issue
  bonds/T-Bills?  How about  sector  and  subsector  governments?
  Planetary governments may do (depending on government type)  so
  I  suspect  the  Regina   government   does.   Local   economic
  fluctuations would average out over the Imperium  as  a  whole,
  but  locally  could  cause  temporary  short  falls  in  public
  spending.

  There would definately be corporate  bonds.  (Example:  General
  Shipyards needs to retool its factory to make L-Hyd drop  tanks
  ... it would be easier to borrow  funding  for  that  from  the
  local market than send to head office for a money transfer.)

- - Stock Market: Sure.  Canon (a pre 5FW TAS story) says that even
  megacorporations are traded on the Regina Exchange.  This could
  only be achieved if megacorporations exist as  a  hierarchy  of
  companies, each one registered to one  of  the  many  exchanges
  across the Imperium.  (Example: General Shipyards (Regina)  Ltd
  is a subsidiary of General Shipyards (Spinward Marches) Holding
  Corporation, and those shares in public hands are on the Regina
  Stock Exchange.  Thus, as far as shares are concerned,  General
  Shipyards (Regina)  Ltd  is  a  different  company  to  General
  Shipyards  (Rhylanor)  AG.   So  General  Shipyards  LIC  is  a
  majority holding company based on Sylea.)

  Meanwhile,  Regina's  domestic  stock  market  would  be   more
  conventional.

- - Futures Market:  I guess  so  ...  Swaps,  Options,  Swoptions,
  Repos, Reverse-repos, and  all  the  other  esoteric  financial
  instruments ... but I don't think  we  need  bother  with  this
  level of detail.

- - Commodities Market:  Now here's something  to  really  interest
  those Merchant Prince players!  A  simple  simulation  (perhaps
  random walk model) of the commodities market would introduce an
  additional variable into merchant campaigns  as  the  price  of
  their trade goods go up and down based on local speculation.



Regards PLST
- ---
John Barrymore: You should play Hamlet.
Jimmy Durante: To hell with them small towns.  I'll stick to New York.
- ---

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 09:51:18 -0500
From: "Christopher Duden" <dude@citilink.com>
Subject: Traveller Player Roster

	Chris Duden, Minneapolis, MN USA



___________________________________________________

0302 C66A667-B S kk- hi as va dr so++ zh++ vi- 833
IMTU: tc++(**) mt(++) tn tg t4-- tt ru he

PGP Fingerprint:
25CB CEA7 63E8 3369 C6CDF3EE 55E0 59DA 577B 92C6

ICQ: 836814
___________________________________________________

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

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 07:42:08 -0700
From: "Wayne" <wewart@home.com>
Subject: Re: Curiosity question!!!

- ----- Original Message -----
From: Antony Farrell <Skaran@bigpond.com>
To: <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 2:56 PM
Subject: Fw: Curiosity question!!!


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Christopher Duden <dude@citilink.com>
> To: Traveller <Traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 8:05 PM
> Subject: Curiosity question!!!
>
>
> *grins* Like there is any other kind.
>
> Okay- I've got just a few items from TNE,
> and one of the things that has always bugged me
> is on pg79 of the Mark 1, Mod 1 edition of the
> rules-- there is a map of known space as of 001-1201
> and on the right side (covering Fornast, Core, and
> Ley Sectors) there is this HUGE black splotch, labeled
> "The Black Curtain".
>
> What the H$ll is it???!?!
>
>
From what I recall, "The Black Curtain" was were most Vampire ships/fleets
hung out in a programmed desire to get Lucan (spreading out from Capital)
with a major Vampire Highway to Cymberline to pay homage to there ancestors
(Cymberline being the Mecca of the Virus).
I've dropped Virus from my game(did not like it), so I'm really not to sure.

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1144
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