Traveller-digest      Sunday, October 10 1999      Volume 1999 : Number 1182



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Re: Ammo Conservation ( was Re: Firing two guns at once)
Re: It pays to be a Traveller player...
Re: It pays to be a Traveller player...
Re: Annic Nova (canon)
re: OI: email failure (was:Starports Vehicles)
Re: GT:Fusion Thrust (Heplar) Missiles
Re: TML ROSTER UP!
Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...
Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...
Re: Firing two guns at once
Re: Firing two guns at once
Re: Jump Technology (was RE: Annic Nova)
Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy... ideas!
Re: Feudal Technocracy
Re: Annic Nova (canon) 
Re: Firing two guns at once
Re: Feudal Technocracy
Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...
Re: OT: email failure (was:Starports Vehicles)
Re: Firing two guns at once
Re: OT: email failure (was:Starports Vehicles)
Re: Ammo Conservation ( was Re: Firing two guns at once)
Re: Annic Nova (longish)
Re: 21st century spaceports
Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy & the Rebellion 
Re: 21st century spaceports
Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy & the Rebellion 

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 08:17:41 -0700
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@pharmacy.arizona.edu>
Subject: Re: Ammo Conservation ( was Re: Firing two guns at once)

Leonard Erickson wrote:
> 

> > With proper camouflage, back lit isn't the problem.  It's what happens if
> > the see the rifle in your hands, or get a reflection off your glasses...
> 
> I was thinking more of the fact that your silhoutte doesn't look a
> whole lot like a tree, bush, or rock. Especially with that rifle in
> your hands. :-)

Actually (remember, Doug was  a sniper) in proper camoflage, what he looked
like was a rather skinny shambling mound.

With glasses. ;-)

Bruce

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 08:10:55
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: It pays to be a Traveller player...

At 11:46 AM 10/9/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>"Douglas E. Berry" wrote:

>> One thing leads to another, and later today I'm getting a private tour
of >>a nuclear attack submarine in return for running a game tonight in their
>> wardroom!  Seems they've never played Legend of the Sky Raiders...
>
><tongue-in-cheek>
>In the _wardroom_?  You mean, you're associating with _officers_?!? 
>Doug, how could you lower yourself like that?  Have you no pride?
></tongue-in-cheek>

I know, I know.. but think of it this way, I had four officers responding
to my commands for once!

Fun bunch, and the tour was interesting.  There were a couple of points
where I got instructions like "don't look into that access way on your
left, or else."  One of the players was a Weapons Officer, so I learned
more than I ever wanted to know about torpedos and missile tubes.

The game itself was great, although it's the first time I've run Traveller
in a walk-in closet.  I'm not claustrophobic by any means (hey, I enjoy the
MRI tube) but one week on any type of sub would drive me nuts.  The players
all really got into the spirit of the game, though it took them forever to
figure out the door lock on the tomb.

I got home at 0500 (first time in years I've gamed all night) and the damn
Navy coffee I've ingested wouldn't let me get more than two hours sleep.
Revelation:  The Navy has invented Slow Drug.
- -- 

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

Embrace Fascism.    The uniforms look cool

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 08:15:43
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: It pays to be a Traveller player...

At 01:22 PM 10/9/1999 PST, you wrote:

>I'd love to hear *their* thoughts on stuff like fire-fights on
>shipboard and life-support issues. After all, boomers and attack subs
>are the closest thing we've got to starship tech. 

One of the players was the chief life-support guy (forgot his exact title).
 He gave me some very frightening numbers on how fast the air goes bad if
they lose the ls equipment.

If you've never seen the inside of a modern sub, it's quite amazing.  You
go from a room that's filled with bleeding edge computer equipment into a
steampunk maze of pipes and fittings.  After seeing the berthing
comparments, I have a new respect for the people who do this for a living.

I also go to listen to the sonar tape of a Russian boomer off the
Californai coast.  They wouldn't tell me exactly where or when, but hearing
that noise brought back that cold War fear.
- -- 

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

It's tough to beat a Chinese chef armed with
3 suckling pigs.     -Hud Nordin

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 11:58:13 -0400
From: Kurt Feltenberger <kurt@blazenet.net>
Subject: Re: Annic Nova (canon)

At 02:39 AM 10/10/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Agreed! I've made tools to make tools. Not the same as electronics
>though. I'd have to say that while the physical properties could be
>duplicated, after very pains taking work, there are still a lot of
>varables that can stop it from working. Probably why we aren't using
>full fledged scout ships, just dribs and drabs of the technology from
>them, as we reach a point where we can understand it enough to duplicate
>it and finally get it to work.

Yeah, but a flyby of a formation of Type-S scouts painted in national 
colors and markings would make an interesting attention getter at the Paris 
Airshow or during the now in progress Fleet Week.  It would make ol' Bill 
Sweetman wet his pants!

Kurt Feltenberger
kurt@blazenet.net
Morrow Project Campaign http://www.sol-3.net
WT-L Support Pages http://www.sol-3.net/wt-l

"To our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations,
      may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong!"
~Stephen Decatur

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 00:22:25 +0100
From: John Buston <John.Buston@tesco.net>
Subject: re: OI: email failure (was:Starports Vehicles)

>>     550 REJECT

>This indicates that the destination host is deliberately rejecting the
>sending domain or sending machine, usually because the email
>administrator of the destination has decided not to receive mail from
>the sending machine.

>As an email admin myself, I reject mail from sites only when the
>following conditions have been met:

>1. Our shop has been spammed several times by the site.
>2. Inquires to the postmaster at that site go unanswered or the
>postmaster isn't cooperative in eliminating the source of the spam.

tesco.net is one of the 200+ free ISPs in the UK (Tesco is one of the UKs major
food retailers). I can understand that spammers may prefer to operate from a
free ISP. Tis a tad worrying that I may be unable to send mail to more and more
sites if this is due to problems with my ISPs admin. You get what you pay for I
suppose :-(

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 17:02:30 +0100
From: John Buston <John.Buston@tesco.net>
Subject: Re: GT:Fusion Thrust (Heplar) Missiles

Brandon Cope wrote:
>Yes, but unlike reactionless drives, they don't violate the laws of physics 
>- -- they just stretch them to the snapping point (TNE HEPlaR drives may be 
>absurd, but at least are remotely more possible).

Not sure about that. I would rather handwave a new technology than try and
justify broken science - which I have heard is the case here a few times. Not
that I have ever played TNE...

>(If you want to recreate HEPlaR drives using GVE2, use the stats for fusion 
>rockets, except for fuel consumption: use 1/4 the consumption rate for 
>optimized fusion rockets. Also, add a power requirement of 50 kW for every 
>ton of thrust).

Wow. 200 times the fuel performance using a much lighter fuel. I see what you
mean about Heplar.

I am not trying to create TNE gear using GT, just working out the performance of
lower TL drives and missiles for my GT campaign. Is this stuff going to be
covered in any GT supplement?

Just altering the TLs in GV2 so that the GTL9 & GTL10 fusion rockets are
available one TL early in GT would provide a smoother transition in drive
performances. Looking at the figures from 101 Starships version 4 makes me
suspect something like this is in the pipeline.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 09:45:08 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: TML ROSTER UP!

> Take a look and tell me where I screwed up.

I see nothing wrong, but you can add the url:
 http://www.sierratel.com/aum/BZAT/
to my entry.


Benyamene' Ze'Abe Akella
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

////////////////////////////////////////
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+

"FGMP, or not FGMP, -- that is the question: --
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And with hot plasma end them?"

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 09:49:07 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...

> How a feudal technocracy comes about is a slightly more difficult question,
> since it would likely be different for every society that the IISS
> classified in this fashion.

This is IMHO the same with other government classifications used by the IISS.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 09:53:57 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...

> I can think of other ideas, but I'm really kind of too tired to type.

Teaser. Rest up and post more soon, that was a great bit of conjecture (sp?)
and we all love that, right? Got my brain in a Travelling mode for the
morning.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 09:59:05 -0700
From: "Justice Hypercleats" <eris@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Firing two guns at once

> With the sligshot, do you mean you hold it in your right hand?  Never heard
> of anyone but a southpaw doing that.  Interesting.

That is it exactly, and your response is the same as anyone elses who has
noticed my stance.
"Are you a lefty?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Uh, could I really be in doubt about something like that?"

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 13:11:14 -0000
From: "Chris Seamans" <semo@pil.net>
Subject: Re: Firing two guns at once

- -----Original Message-----
From: Justice Hypercleats <eris@sierratel.com>
To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Date: Sunday, October 10, 1999 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: Firing two guns at once


>"Are you a lefty?"
>"No."
>"Are you sure?"
>"Uh, could I really be in doubt about something like that?"


Hehe... It is possible to be in doubt about that. I write, draw, paint,
etc... with my left hand. I throw, swing a bat, shoot a gun, dribble a
basketball and do just about everything else right handed. It was never
conscious, it just sort of happened that way.

So I'm confused, am I a left or a righty? ;)

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 10:09:48 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Jump Technology (was RE: Annic Nova)

> I have my TU explanations of how jump space works, and I would be
> interested in seeing how others have defined theirs.

The best techno-babble I've read is on the Near Earth Campaign. I can
totally suspend by disbelief with that bit of history/jargon.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 10:18:44 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy... ideas!

> Could the IISS have mistaken a world controlled by drug dealers as a Feudal
> Technoracy? Is it a Feudal Technocracy?

IMTU, the IISS makes errors in classification all the time. Not so much in
the physics of a star system, although I would expect an occasional error
there as well, but in the hazy areas of law level, government type, etc.
Your Nivenesque idea sounds like an example where this would be the case,
and I can see the crew of an IISS survey craft having a heated debate on
what to actually call it.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 10:21:54 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Feudal Technocracy

> No wait, I should probably build it before I destroy it,
> right?

Are you looking for a high spew factor here? Somebody is bound to demand a
keyboard refund, you rascal.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 10:28:19 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Annic Nova (canon) 

> Bogus Particle of the Week

Now that sounds like a fun thread, anyone have any pet peeves about these? I
mean not in general, but specific mentions in Sci-Fi? Surely ST could be
torn apart by someone to provide constuctive critical analysis of what is
*not* the way to suspend disbelief.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 11:27:02 -0700
From: "Benyamene' ZeAbe' Akella" <xrp@sierratel.com>
Subject: Re: Firing two guns at once

> I write, draw, paint,
> etc... with my left hand. I throw, swing a bat, shoot a gun, dribble a
> basketball and do just about everything else right handed. It was never
> conscious, it just sort of happened that way.

And I thought I was an oddity. ;) Can't really call your characteristic
"ambidextrous", and it doesn't sound like somebody forced you to use your
off-hand. Could it be based on fine dexterity vs gross agility?

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 14:42:23 -0400
From: Jeff Zeitlin <jzeitlin@cyburban.com>
Subject: Re: Feudal Technocracy

On Sun, 10 Oct 1999 07:53:57 -0400 (EDT), "Sword Worlder"
<swordworlder@clinic.net> wrote:

>This is great stuff.  Got me itching to build an FT.  Wouldn't it make a
>great module?  You could get into all sorts of trouble :-)  Sort of a Lord
>Kalvan of Otherwhen storyline.  Or how about a first contact / first in
>scenario where the whole system is shaken to it's foundations by the arrival
>of GTL-11 IISS.  no wait, i should probably build it before I destroy it,
>right?

Y'know, there's nothing in LKoO that would be outright impossible
in Traveller - once Cpl. Morrison arrives, there's no need for
the Paratime context - and in fact, there _is_ a version of that
same story that _doesn't_ have the Paratime element.  The reason
that it ended up being a Paratime story is because the original
story had independently evolved aliens (in the Federation
context) that were indistinguishable from humans.  This bothered
J.W.Campbell, who suggested that Piper shift it over to the
Paratime line.

The original version of the story, titled
_When_In_The_Course..._, was essentially the Not-Yet-Chartered
Freya Company landing on the planet in question and using their
advanced technology, including contragrav, to break the gunpowder
monopoly of the Styphonists, to bootstrap Hostigi technology, and
to help the Hostigi win their war against Nostor. Resulting,
ultimately, in the Freya Company getting their Charter. It was
never developed past that point, the way LKoO was. But it's a
_great_ adventure for a Traveller universe...

- --
Jeff Zeitlin
jzeitlin@cyburban.com

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 13:41:57 -0500
From: "Bont" <felix@felixcafe.com>
Subject: Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy...

> On Sat, 9 Oct 1999 16:17:55 -0400, "pould" <pould@netcom.ca> wrote:
> 
> >The world is divided in two classes of people: those who know how to
> >program computers and those who sell them donoughts...
> >
> >Daniel Poulin
> >pould@netcom.ca
> >
> 
> That reminds me of Scott Adams'(of Dilbert fame) article a few years
> ago titled "Men who use computers are the new sex symbols of the
> nineties" I still have it on my refrigerator.

I have it posted on my web page.  You can find it at

http://209.39.36.25/

Follow the Personal link and then the Computer Geek link.

I still read it every now and then when I feel that the world is going to 
H*ll in a handbasket.  And then I feel much better because I know 
that I will be one of the Godlike beings :)


- - - -
FELIX (Thomas L Bont)

- - Encrypt your messages!
  That way only the government knows what you wrote!

- - It is truly the wise man that knows what he doesn't!

- - With your shield or on it ... (Old Spartan Blessing)

- - Fidelitas super omnia, honore excepto

- - Help Stop Forest Fires.  Outlaw Matches.

Be sure to visit The FELIX Cafe at
     http://www.felixcafe.com/

- - - -

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 12:54:08 -0600
From: Erwin Fritz <efritz@GLJA.com>
Subject: Re: OT: email failure (was:Starports Vehicles)

John Buston wrote:
> 
> tesco.net is one of the 200+ free ISPs in the UK (Tesco is one of the UKs major
> food retailers). I can understand that spammers may prefer to operate from a
> free ISP. Tis a tad worrying that I may be unable to send mail to more and more
> sites if this is due to problems with my ISPs admin. You get what you pay for I
> suppose :-(


Yes. Unfortunately it has come down to getting the innocents customers
of the ISP to demand change from ISPs. As the receiver of the email, I
have no clout with the ISP since they make no money from me.

More and more sites are implementing anti-spam measures based on domain
names or specific sites, which inconveniences more and more innocent
people, just because those innocent people use ISPs also used by
spammers. However, only those innocent people (read: the paying
customers of the ISPs) can force the ISPs to change their ways.
- -- 
Erwin Fritz
Gilbert Laustsen Jung Associates Ltd.
http://www.glja.com

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 15:05:50 -0400
From: "Jory Earl" <j-man@iname.com>
Subject: Re: Firing two guns at once

> I write, draw, paint,
> etc... with my left hand. I throw, swing a bat, shoot a gun, dribble a
> basketball and do just about everything else right handed. It was never
> conscious, it just sort of happened that way.
>
>And I thought I was an oddity. ;) Can't really call your characteristic
>"ambidextrous", and it doesn't sound like somebody forced you to use your
>off-hand. Could it be based on fine dexterity vs gross agility?
>

I am the same way.  When I was a child I would write half my sentences with
one hand and finish with the other.  How is that for wierd?


___________________________________________________________
 J-Man
 ICQ# 2843475
 New Hampshire - U.S.A.
 Email : j-man@iname.com
 Home Page : http://www.geocities.com/~jman037/
___________________________________________________________

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 15:12:13 -0400
From: "Jory Earl" <j-man@iname.com>
Subject: Re: OT: email failure (was:Starports Vehicles)

>More and more sites are implementing anti-spam measures based on domain
>names or specific sites, which inconveniences more and more innocent
>people, just because those innocent people use ISPs also used by
>spammers. However, only those innocent people (read: the paying
>customers of the ISPs) can force the ISPs to change their ways.
>--

I would like to track down every son of a bitch who spams and put a gun to
their head.  I for one am sick and tired of this shit.  everytime technology
creates a convenience, some group of assholes come around and ruin it for
the rest of us.

___________________________________________________________
 J-Man
 ICQ# 2843475
 New Hampshire - U.S.A.
 Email : j-man@iname.com
 Home Page : http://www.geocities.com/~jman037/
___________________________________________________________

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 16:32:14 -0000
From: "Chris Seamans" <semo@pil.net>
Subject: Re: Ammo Conservation ( was Re: Firing two guns at once)

- -----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@pharmacy.arizona.edu>
To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Date: Sunday, October 10, 1999 3:16 PM
Subject: Re: Ammo Conservation ( was Re: Firing two guns at once)


>Actually (remember, Doug was  a sniper) in proper camoflage, what he looked
>like was a rather skinny shambling mound.
>
>With glasses. ;-)


Ach! Any AD&D players would run in terror from such a sight! ;)

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 16:35:08 EDT
From: Sethkimmel@aol.com
Subject: Re: Annic Nova (longish)

In a message dated 10/9/99 3:54:47 AM !!!First Boot!!!, 
shadow@krypton.rain.com writes:

<< Brrr. Can you imagine sitting there, watching the star get bigger and
 bigger... <shudder>
  >>

Simple; set a repeating Mayday message, have a last party to end all parties, 
and then button up in the low berths. Either you get rescued or you get 
toasted, and you'll never know it...

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 16:40:17 EDT
From: Sethkimmel@aol.com
Subject: Re: 21st century spaceports

In a message dated 10/9/99 3:54:50 AM !!!First Boot!!!, 
shadow@krypton.rain.com writes:

<< Being that high up, and only 5 degrees from the equator would make them
 one *hell* of a launch site if anyone ever feels like doing it. >>

I say the southwest of the US. LOT's of flat land, and the feds already own 
alot of it...

I bet there would be one in Europe, one in Asia, and one in pacific rim. Put 
one in  each major area of high tech and commerce...

Of course IE shows one in Phoenix Arizona, one in Western Australia (Perth?), 
and one in north Africa (AECCO whatever the heck that means) that looks like 
it's in Libya or Algeria...

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 13:07:30 -0800
From: Peter Newman <pnewman@gci.net>
Subject: Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy & the Rebellion 

 "Chris Seamans" <semo@pil.net> wrote

> Before I start: I've always found the feudal technocracy classification
> pretty absurd. It's not that I can't imagine a feudal technocracy. It's just
> that a feudal technocracy seems so limiting. Personally, I use to feudal
> technocracy designation to indicate one of two things: the world is ruled
> directly by the Imperium.

Isn't a world ruled directly by the Imperium simply a 
Captive government? [Traveller government type 6 or 
GURPS government description Colony, subjugated, or 
military.]

Functionally they seem the same to me.  Are you 
suggesting that the Imperium has the IISS use a 
different government type to describe planets directly 
controlled by the Imperium to mask these similarities?

On another matter I am not convinced of the canonicity
of worlds ruled directly by the Imperium, since the 
Imperium is said to rule the spaces between the worlds,
not the worlds. However the existence of places like 
District 268 clearly indicates that the Imperium does,
in fact, control some worlds directly.

One method I use to get around this IMTU is to say 
that the Imperium _as_a_whole_ will not ever rule a 
world.  However an agency of the Imperial government may.
Thus canonical Imperial Reserve worlds are not ruled by 
"the Imperium" they are ruled by "the Imperial 
Conservation Department."  Thus worlds which rebel and 
are reconquered are not ruled by "the Imperium" they 
are ruled by "the Imperial Navy"

In a few cases a subsector capitol is listed as being a 
colony.  In some of these cases there are no other 
planets around that could have conquered it.  Case in 
point Sirim [1912 Verge] has (using the DGP stats and no 
I am not interested  in discussing the canonicity of those 
stats, this is just an example.) the UPP of

B 434966-G Hi Cp 210

I can not imagine that 2 billion people living
at TL G could be conquered by any of other
worlds in this subsector (or parts of neighboring
subsectors).  The next highest tech planet (2017)
is also TL G but has a population of only
2,000.  Now it is not inconceivable that 2,000
TL G nobles (with an F-tech government) might
rule 2 billion people in a colony, possibly the
luxurious homeworld A 85A351-G has its sparse
land reserved for the estates of the ruling
classes.  But that is not the situation I wanted
to portray.

Instead IMTU Sirim is owned & run by the Imperial
Department of Technology.  It is a base for
development of high technology (notice that Verge
sector is separated from all foreign powers by a
rift or a minimum of 4 sectors of distance). 
IMTU the Imperium takes advantage of this. There
are hints of this in canon if you read the Survival
Margin TAS reports dealing with the Verge Coalitions
secession from Dulinor's realm during the
rebellion.  IMTU losing Verge was the straw that broke
the camels back for Dulinor and caused Virus.  With 
the support of Verge Dulinor would have been able to 
take Capitol before Lucan had a chance to release Virus.

With Lucan dead & no Virus Dulinor would have 
probably been able to put a significant fraction of the 
Imperium back together.  By picking the right cause:
"Defeat the evil Solomani" he would have been able to pick 
up a good fraction of the rimward factions.  He could 
then gain peace with the Solomani by defacto abandoning
the Solomani Sphere & building up defense beyond it.
After taking a few years to do this he could have used
the same gimmick "Defeat the evil Vargr" to try & pull
the coreward factions back in.  I would have loved to 
have seen a TNE where the PC's were loyal subjects
of the elderly Empress Isis doing their bit "for
queen & country" to conquer the evil wogs beyond the
borders.  TNE as Space 1889 anyone ? :)

IMTU The University of Sirim is the best high tech 
university in the whole domain of Illelish.  The 
Imperial Department of Technology, and its 
subsidiary the Division of Education, run the whole 
planet. Thus I have explained how the most powerful
planet (despite their lack of an A port) in the
subsector is a captive government.

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 14:35:32 -0700
From: Kristian Miller <travellerne@3rd-imperium.com>
Subject: Re: 21st century spaceports

I got in a little late on this one, but my bet is Singapore.  

2 degrees north of the equator, they are already a tourist and travel
hub for all of Asia and the Pacific as well as connecting to Europe
and the Americas.  They also have the money, commerce and work force
to build such a thing.

I predict that they will continue to reclaim land from the sea and
build a spaceport on the new land--probably adjacent to the existing
international airport.  Imagine a two hour hypersonic flight on a
Singapore Airlines aerospace plane and then a short five hour flight
to Japan, India, China or Australia.  Much better than the twenty
four hours it now takes.  (And yes, their stewardesses look exactly
like the ones in their commercials.)

Kristian

> In a message dated 10/9/99 3:54:50 AM !!!First Boot!!!,
> shadow@krypton.rain.com writes:
> 
> << Being that high up, and only 5 degrees from the equator would make them
>  one *hell* of a launch site if anyone ever feels like doing it. >>
> 
> I say the southwest of the US. LOT's of flat land, and the feds already own
> alot of it...
> 
> I bet there would be one in Europe, one in Asia, and one in pacific rim. Put
> one in  each major area of high tech and commerce...

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

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 17:34:27 -0000
From: "Chris Seamans" <semo@pil.net>
Subject: Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy & the Rebellion 

- -----Original Message-----
From: Peter Newman <pnewman@gci.net>
To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Date: Sunday, October 10, 1999 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: The elusive Feudal Technocracy & the Rebellion


>Isn't a world ruled directly by the Imperium simply a
>Captive government? [Traveller government type 6 or
>GURPS government description Colony, subjugated, or
>military.]

>
>Functionally they seem the same to me.  Are you
>suggesting that the Imperium has the IISS use a
>different government type to describe planets directly
>controlled by the Imperium to mask these similarities?


Nope. Not suggesting anything of the sort. However, it seems that in my own
hand-rolled subsectors, feudal technocracies tend to pop up quite a bit more
frequently than I would like. Since there is no special classification for
worlds ruled by Imperial nobility[1], I just as frequently use that
government code to keep down the number of true feudal technocracies, while
allowing for the possibility that some worlds may be ruled by the Imperium.

[1] This probably has more to do with Traveller originally having been
something of a generic sci-fi game than anything else.

>On another matter I am not convinced of the canonicity
>of worlds ruled directly by the Imperium, since the
>Imperium is said to rule the spaces between the worlds,
>not the worlds. However the existence of places like
>District 268 clearly indicates that the Imperium does,
>in fact, control some worlds directly.


Supplement 11: Library Data (N-Z), p. 36

"Marquis: The third level of noble rank is the marquis. A marquis is
associated with a single world (generally a large an important one with a
type A or B starport). The title consists of the world name after the title,
as in the Marquis of Aramis (or, alternatively, the Marquis Aramis)."

The Imperium may be said to rule the spaces between the worlds, but that's
not entirely in keeping with canon.

>One method I use to get around this IMTU is to say
>that the Imperium _as_a_whole_ will not ever rule a
>world.  However an agency of the Imperial government may.


You're absolutely right, but the assumptions of the Third Imperium really
rule out direct rule by the Imperium, don't they? Even the Domains aren't
directly ruled by the Imperium, but by an Archduke who is bonded to the
Emperor.

>Thus canonical Imperial Reserve worlds are not ruled by
>"the Imperium" they are ruled by "the Imperial
>Conservation Department."  Thus worlds which rebel and
>are reconquered are not ruled by "the Imperium" they
>are ruled by "the Imperial Navy"


At that point it just seems to be an exercise in semantics. If the Imperial
Conservation Department and the Imperial Navy can be said to answer, on some
level, to the Emperor, then it's rule by the Imperium, isn't it?

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1182
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