
Traveller-digest     Tuesday, October 26 1999     Volume 1999 : Number 1260



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

RE: I-WAR (independence war): Traveller??
re: Mining the TML
Re: Honoring J. Andrew Keith with a planet
Re: X-boat route too long?
Re: Mining the TML
Re: TML Members as Resources
Re: TML Members as resources
Re: How many Imperial barons?
Re: Norris the Man
Re: Mining the TML
HOW tactical are a ship's lasers?
BD Crush Depth (was Freezing in the Aleutians)
Re: Honoring J. Andrew Keith with a planet
Re: X-boat route too long?
RE: Honoring J. Andrew Keith with a planet

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 07:12:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Conley <estar@toolcity.net>
Subject: RE: I-WAR (independence war): Traveller??

On Mon, 25 Oct 1999, Jesse DeGraff wrote:

> Not if the models can be done in Lightwave as suggested.  If so, it's gravy
> for me dude.  The geometry detail doesn't have be nearly what it does for my
> SJG work, you just have to do the textures a little differently (a bit more
> painting detail than you'd actually use for film, SJG, etc.
> 

In the game the Indies (Independence Movement) use graffi for hull colors.
Makes their ships very colorful. This seems to indicate that model builder
will have good control over the color schemes of the ships.

In the base game the weapons and defensive systems are:

Particle Accelerators (close in work)
Explosive Missiles
Diseruptor Missile (for diserupting shields)
Shields (Two shields that can be focused on a target on the top half and a
target on the bottom half)
Remote Drones.

Rob

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 12:08:28 +0100
From: Phil Kitching <postmark.design@btinternet.com>
Subject: re: Mining the TML

At 03:35 26/10/1999 -0400, Rob Brady wrote:
>At 02:01 PM 10/25/99 -0400, you wrote:

>>More Obtrav: How many points of Edu can you give someone with
>>six weeks and Instructor skill?

The problem is that each EDU point takes about a term, not six
weeks, so you first need a suitable candidate - ie someone who
should qualify as EDU 7 but skipped higher education.

>You can't teach EDU for for some reason.

I'll agree that it doesn't say you can but...

Effectively, you can in T4.1 (and probably T4/T5) where a character
can get to specific EDU scores by specific levels of education
- - that is if you teach them to read and write, they can have EDU 3,
qualifying for university is about EDU 7, completing a degree
EDU 8 (okay I'm guessing here)

So all your instructor needs to do is register as an educational
establishment of the appropriate level. :-)

You can probably teach up to EDU-2, the time taken depending on
you Instruction skill (eg base time 4 years, less 6 months per
Instruction skill)


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

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 06:11:25 PDT
From: "will richards" <willrichards@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Honoring J. Andrew Keith with a planet

>From: Phil Kitching <postmark.design@btinternet.com>
>Subject: Re: Honoring J. Andrew Keith with a planet

>IMHO neither "Andy" nor "Keith" seem much of a name for a place (too short)

Then I guess you have never been to Duck N.C. or Ware V.A.
or Gore VA, or several other towns or counties in the world with short 
names.
  It's not the legnth of the name that is important its the story or person 
behind then name. Besides I think that the name "Keith" would fit in just 
fine in the Five Sisters subsector where there are four canidates to be 
renamed.(876-496 and 769-422 being the best canidates with populations).

Also just because a planet was given his name does not mean that then a ship 
can not be given it (and Vise versa).
in fact I want to see both.

How about this: and this is just a sugestion...

  Capital/Core                  005-1117

In a press release issued today, Emperor Strephon granted Imperial 
membership to the world designated as 769-422/Spinward Marches,  now 
formally known as Keith/Spinward Marches. Additionally the Emperor appointed 
Baron J. Andrew Keith as the Count of Keith sighting his many acts of 
loyalty and great service to the Imperium and the Emperor. Long live Count 
Andrew of Keith!



- -Will

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 09:38:03 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: Re: X-boat route too long?

someone wrote:
>I notice the x-boat route between Tenalphi and Strouden in the 
>Lunion subsector is a jump 5. Does anyone think this is a 
>mistake or merely some special circumstance? 

	In Traveller, is there a difference?   ;)

Peez

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 07:40:39 -0600
From: cos 90 <cos90@powersurfr.com>
Subject: Re: Mining the TML

>teaching. If Joe has:
>Traveller-4
>Instruction-3
>AD&D-2
>GURPS-1
>
>Joe can teach up to Traveller-2 and AD&D-1. He can't teach GURPS (this is
>CT, no level 0 skills) and Instruction cannot be taught. This is really a
>side effect of the instruction skill which is really to be used to train
>troops in say, using a new weapon.

If Instruction as a skill cannot be taught, then what do they teach in
Teacher's College? :)


     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: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 09:00:18 -0500
From: ehenry@newberlin.org (Eric Henry)
Subject: Re: TML Members as Resources

< disengaging black globe >

Here's my once a month participation.

Assistant IS Director for small suburb of Milwaukee, USA.  BA with some
graduate work.  Training in computers and telephone PBX.  Guessing skill
levels are ( note that i'm probably inventing skills )

Political Science-2, Computer-2, Commo(telephone)-2, Gambling-2,
Carbine(non-lethal paintball only)-1, Admin-1, Wheeled Vehicle-1, Urban
Affairs-1, Game Design-1, Chess-2, Sheepshead-4 :).

< set globe to flicker 90% >

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 09:53:03 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: Re: TML Members as resources

Glenn Grant writes:
>Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca> sez,
>		level 5: top of the field

>Hmm.  This depends on the rules set you're using.  I certainly
>didn't mean to rate myself at the "top of the field" as either
>a writer or artist.  I used the "rate yourself" system in the
>draft T5 chargen chapter (sort of). Since I was using T4/T5 rules,
>I assumed much higher "professional" skill levels. In T5,
>"Entertainers" (writers, artists, musicians, dancers, etc) are
>considered famously brilliant at around level 9.

	Good ol' CT for me.  I just scribbled those skill levels
	rather quickly, but I meant that skill level 5 reflected
	someone in the top echilon, but not necessarily the very
	best.  Thus, I would rate most professional atheletes at
	skill level 5, but some might have 4, 6 or 7.  8+ would be
	rare in the extreme IMTU.  Anyways, I would tend to
	evaluate each TMLer's skills relative to the other skills
	that (s)he has.

Peez

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 10:03:02 EDT
From: JFZeigler@aol.com
Subject: Re: How many Imperial barons?

In a message dated 10/26/99 7:05:34 AM Eastern Daylight Time, rancke@diku.dk 
writes:

>  You're assuming that a world with billions of inhabitants needs
>  significantly more high Imperial officials than a world with a few million.
>  Is that necessarily so? I'm not saying it isn't, but I don't see why it HAS
>  to be. And I can see one very good reason why it shouldn't: The Moot.
>  Imperial barons all have a seat in the Moot. Even 10,000 peers are 
unwieldy.
>  Millions don't bear thinking about (Unless you're George Lucas ;-).

I imagine that the relationship isn't linear -- a world with 10 billion 
inhabitants
won't need 1,000 times as many high-level administrators as a world with
10 million.

Hmmmm.  Canon says that every Imperial noble -- at least members of
the peerage with hereditary titles -- has a seat in the Moot.  I rather doubt
that most of them actually use that seat, though.  Most of them appear
to vote by proxy, so that a nobleman who actually lives near Capital
can hold the proxies of many nobles out in the fringes.  I imagine the
Moot institutionalized the proxy vote centuries ago.  Thus the Moot
doesn't have to have the capacity to physically seat more than a (small)
fraction of the existing roster of Imperial peers.  Makes even a large
number of nobles easier to manage.  Meanwhile, most nobles will be
more involved with the court of their local sector duke or archduke.

Another point: I don't see why someone with a non-hereditary title (a "rank"
or "acheivement" noble) should be entitled to a seat in the Moot.  Someone
with a nominal barony due to his current position in the bureaucracy won't
have that privilege, any more than he would have a fief.

I can also imagine an agency of the Imperial bureaucracy whose purpose
is to help the Emperor keep track of all the high-noble families.  Aren't
there still institutions in Europe which officially keep track of bloodlines
and heraldry?  Something like that, to help reduce the burden on the
Emperor to personally evaluate every new heir or candidate for elevation.

All of which says that I don't have all that much problem with a large
number of Imperial barons.  Of course, a million or so *does* stretch
my willing suspension of disbelief.

What *is* the population of the Imperium, anyway?


>  >My gut feeling is that there is probably at least one baron per self-
>  >governing planet, no matter how unimportant
>  
>  Agreed, although some peers have multiple titles, Norris being the prime
>  example. 

    Presumably acquired through dynastic marriages. . .


>  > -- and about one baron per 20-50 million people on a high-population
>  >world.
>  
>  But that I don't think can be right. I'd say 2-3 barons per higher noble
>  would be about right. If you assume that every world with a population
>  level of 7+ has a higher noble, you get about 2,800 marquesses and above.
>  If you assume an average of 2.5 barons apiece, you get a figure of 7,000
>  barons, for a total of 9,800 peers. Even that is a lot, and it assumes
>  that the other kinds of nobles are not peers, which is quite iffy.

    10,000 or so sounds very manageable, for the reasons I stated
above.  EVen a factor of 3-4 more than that shouldn't present an undue
burden.  Hmmm.  That would make it at least one baron per world,
with about one more per 250 million people.  I suspect 250 million
people on any Imperial planet will generate enough work for one peer,
no matter how "hands-off" the Imperium is.


>  Actually, there's no real reason to assume that there HAS to be more barons
>  than marquesses. It's a natural assumption, but it doesn't HAVE to be. 
Maybe
>  there's only one noble per self-governing world; if the world isn't 
powerful
>  enough, it gets a baron; if it is, it gets a higher noble. That would give
>  you a Moot of maybe 6,000 members. If most higher nobles has a baronial
>  title in addition to his main title, the way Norris and Leonard of Aramis
>  has, there may be even fewer.

    I do find it interesting that at least some Imperial barons in canon are
associated with whole worlds (Norris is Baron Yori, for example).  That
tends to indicate that a Baron can be associated with a single entire
world, like a marquis (or count, for GT).  Just not an important one.

>  >Any insights?  And yes, this is going into a book for GT if possible.
>  
>  In that case you must remember that G:T switched the count and the marquis.

    !!!

>  In GT it's the count who is in charge of a single world and the marquis
>  who is in charge of a small cluster. I can't say I understand why that was
>  done, but there it is. It's an infernal nuisance, and I note that BtC
>  didn't follow up upon it, so perhaps you can persuade Loren to quietly drop
>  it again, but unless you do, you'll have to keep it in mind.

    Ouch.  Thanks for pointing that out. . .that's something I would
*never* have considered cross-checking.  (Why on Earth would it be
changed at this point?)

>  I'm sticking my neck out here, because odds are two to one that either Marc
>  or Loren wrote the essay about Imperial nobles, but whoever it was IMO made
>  a big mistake when he turned the noble ranks from the character generation
>  system into Imperial nobles. Book 3 plainly speaks of planetary nobility
>  (there are two more ranks above duke, prince and king, and kings are actual
>  rulers of worlds). When social status 11+ was turned into Imperial 
nobility,
>  a whole section of society, the local planetary nobles, was cut out of the
>  system. You go directly from the gentry of SS 10 to the Imperial nobility.
>  But the character generation rules remained the same. Do not, I implore 
you,
>  consider the dukes you get from the CGR equivalent to real Imperial dukes.
>  That way lies madness.

    Never considered that, but you're right.


>  >All the way through duke?  Well, clearly the "high nobility" (i.e. those
>  >hereditary noble houses who hold what you call "sees" where they
>  >serve as Imperial representatives to a world or region) are created for
>  >service to the Imperium beyond any reasonable expectation.  My guess
>  >is that this doesn't happen very often -- there's only so many such
>  >positions to go around, so the Emperor would tend to create new
>  >ones only when an existing high-noble family line fails for some reason.
>  
>  My preferred solution I've already mentioned: To assume that the reward
>  titles are actually various Imperial knighthoods that makes the generals
>  and admirals peers of planetary barons and dukes (Though the highest
>  admirals might be important enough to rate Imperial noble titles).

    Makes sense.

    Hmmmm.  I wonder if work has started on the GT book on Imperial
Nobility yet. . .this is an area that sounds like it needs some thorough
housecleaning.

>  >There's also those non-hereditary noble titles, though, tied to high
>  >administrative rank or to special achievement in various fields.  MT
>  >canon claims that the latter, at least, never get higher than marquis.
>  >My take on it is that these non-hereditary posts almost never get
>  >higher than the baronage.  I mean, think about it: what bureaucrat,
>  >scientist or ordinary military officer is really going to earn social
>  >precedence equal to the one direct Imperial representative to a
>  >high-pop world?
>  
>  Or get a seat in the Moot. Precisely. As I said, the bottom-up approach
>  to the system does not mesh with the top-down approach. It needs fixing.

    Again, I doubt that a "rank baron" or an "achievement baron" is
going to be entitled to a seat in the Moot.  Canon is silent on that
point, as far as I can tell, but it does indicate that such awards
don't carry any benefits beyond the title itself.  Presumably
that gets you a place in the system of precedence, but it wouldn't
get you voting privileges equal to those of the old families.


>  >My question still remains, though.  Given all the ways one might get
>  >handed a baronage -- given all the roles the barons play in Imperial
>  >society -- how many barons are there likely to be?
>  
>  How many roles do you think real Imperial barons  --  those who have a
>  seat in the Moot  --  actually play? I don't really see them getting into
>  anything much lower than subsector level administration (and their own
>  world, of course, but even that is sort of subsector-level).

    I imagine the subsector-level administrator's post in any of the
Imperial bureaucratic agencies (Ministry of Justice, Ministry of
State, and so on) would just about have to be a peer.  Maybe the
layer just below that, too -- chief of staff, general counsel, and such.
That would imply a couple of dozen barons per subsector, minimum.
Large and important worlds would probably generate enough trade,
litigation in Imperial courts, and military activity to justify a few
peers of their own.


>  >Meanwhile, it's clear that the baronage is the backbone of Imperial
>  >administration, so every population needs barons to staff the machinery
>  >of Imperial government.
>  
>  I don't think it is so clear. The essay says 'high office'. But how high
>  is high? Port Captain? Tax Assessor? Postmaster General? How many high
>  officials does the Imperium need per subsector? Remember that beneath the
>  barons you have Imperial bannerets (in effect, hereditary knights). Now
>  _there's_ an Imperial rank that might have millions of members.

    On reflection, I think you're right.  Most of the mid-to-upper level
managers in the Imperial system are probably not peers.  Being a
peer should give you *authority*.


>  >And -- hey, this is a new thought -- where else are you going to put all
>  >those children of upper-rank nobles who don't inherit the titles 
themselves?
> 
>  >You could give them "courtesy ranks," but you could also put them in
>  >the baronage.  Their title would be real, if not as high as the one their
>  >older brother or sister inherited.
>  
>  It still puts them in the Moot. Give them a baronetcy if you want to give
>  them anything. 

    Good point.  The last thing the Moot needs is to be growing
exponentially :-).


>  Hmmm. That didn't help much. You'd almost think it was made up by several
>  different people who didn't consider the implications much. ;-)

    What?  In *Traveller* ?  Naaaah.

    (Worldbuilding by committee, over a period of decades. . .)

- ----------
Jon F. Zeigler: Mathematician, computer geek, amateur historian, freelance
writer, occasional scribbler of bad poetry
"For any statement, no matter how innocuous, there exists a nonempty
set of people who will take offense at it."

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 16:27:58 +0200 (METDST)
From: Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk>
Subject: Re: Norris the Man

Keven R. Pittsinger writes:

>>The problem is that if you analyse the descrition of Vargr and Aslan
>>society we have, the dangerous part of the two constitute a very small
>>fraction of the total. Starships are expensive. Even 40-year old obsolescent
>>starships are expensive. If an Aslan clan lord were to outfit a sizable
>>number of his _ihatei_ AND ESCORTED THEM OFF SOMEWHERE 100 PARSECS AWAY, he
>>wouldn't have the strength to defend himself against any neighbor that
>>kept his warships at home and used his troop transports to ferry a lot
>>more _ihatei_ over to that that nice, well-developed, undefended land
>>right next door, that he could ever hope to send off to settle 100 parsecs
>>away (where any colony that survives is unable to add their strength to
>>help defend his home holdings).
> 
>Who says the ships go just one way and never come back?

_Rebellion sourcebook_, for one (Or was it _Referee's Companion_?). But
that's just the extreme version. The one you suggest is more likely and
almost as bad.

>A lord could cut a deal where his ihatei are transported out of his hair,
>and the ships he wants to keep come back to him. The rest can stay with
>that group of ihatei he just got rid of.

Just to keep this straight, we are talking about some Aslan clan lord in,
say, Dark Nebula sector, who sends off an _ihatei_ fleet that is a threat
to the Domain of Deneb, right? That means that he is sending them off on
a journey where the ships he wants back is away for 3 to 4 years if they
are jump-3. Effectively they are able to defend him for, let's be
generous, 3-4 months out of every 3 years, or 10% of the time. If that
doesn't put him at a disadvantage against a neighbor who keeps his ships
at home, I don't know what does. 

>>Of course, if the Aslans give their _ihatei_ obsolescent ships (which canon
>>says they do), they have the added disadvantage of being in worse shape
>>than most colonial and all regular fleets, and of inferior TL too.
> 
>Giving ihatei 2nd line ships to work with is actually a *good* thing for the 
>Hierate in that it promotes new shipbuilding.

That is a fallacy that crops up with distressing regularity. While military
spending is good for the lucky part of the society that gets to build and
man the hardware, someone else (a lot of them) has to go without something
else (a lot of it). SOMEBODY ALWAYS PAYS. If a clan lord gives away his
military ships when they are 30 years old, he has to replace them more
often than his Imperial oppo. That means he can't afford as many. The
fact that his shipbuilding section will be burning incense in his praise
doesn't alter that.

>>Vargr Corsairs are a small fraction of any Vargr society. The _Kforuzeng_,
>>said to be the largest band in Gvurrdon, at its height couldn't muster
>>enough ships to give a single light cruiser trouble. Granted that the
>>Rebellion Era apparently saw some Vargr light cruisers turn corsair, they
>>still shouldn't be able to match the Domain _peacetime_ navy.
>>
>>Now up the Domain spending from peacetime levels (said to be 3% of GWP, but
>>apparently only 1%) to wartime level (15%), and you have to wonder how the
>>hell the Vargr corsairs managed to kick Norris completely out of three
>>subsectors.
> 
>Thing is, the Marches fleet is still in the rebuilding phase.  Remember that 
>little joke the Zhos pulled off called the 5th Frontier War?

Try a little experiment. Take your TCS rulebook. Decide how big a percentage
of the entire Domain of Deneb fleet forces (not just the Marches forces) was
destroyed, how much had major damage and how much had minor damage by 1110.
Work out how much the maintenance budget is reduced by that. Now work out
how much repair and new construction can be done in six years without even
increasing the budget (Don't forget the normal replacement rate of
2.5%/year). Now imagine that the Domain didn't remain at peacetime
spending during the 5FW, but went up to the canonical 15%. Add whatever
construction was underway when the 5FW ended. Finally, consider how likely
it is that the Marches didn't go all the way back to 1% spending on the day
of the armistice, but instead only down to, say, 2%.

>>As for overrunning Corridor, well, if you go through the Megatraveller
>>Journals, you will find that most of the high-population planets didn't
>>actually fall to the Vargr. Mostly they reached various forms of
>>accomodation (Norris may actually face more problems with human pocket
>>empires in Corridor than Vargr).
> 
>True.  But all the Vargr had to do was cut off the high pop worlds and 
>blockade them a bit until they geeked.

It takes large forces to blockade a high-population world. It is also
boring, unprofitable, and unglamorous. Are the Vargr who keeps up such a
blockade really the same Vargr we've seen described in _Vargr_? Not IMO.

>>I know that in _The Kinunir_ we are told that an Imperial Warrant is an
>>anonymous "get out of anything free" card made out to bearer. If you want
>>to believe that, feel free. But I prefer to regard this particular piece
>>of canon as on a par with the information that four Kinunirs are strong
>>enough to cow the entire Regina subsector...
> 
>IIRC, not having the canonical info right in front of me at this moment, a
>Warrant basically says "You are ordered to help the bearer in any way you
>can because he is working for the best interests of the Imperium."  The
>implication is that the bearer *will* have to give an accounting down the
>line someplace. If he does the job right, he's a hero. If he screws the
>pooch, he's less than zero. The Warrant puts the full responsibility *and*
>blame on the bearer.  Ghods help him if he screws up.

You are 100% correct. That's how an Imperial Warrant is described in _The
Kinunir_. The part I take issue with is the 'bearer' bit. There's no good
reason for it, and the potential for disaster in case it fell into
unauthorized hands is too great. No doubt every Imperial outfit will hunt
down and inflict the death of a thousand cuts on anyone stupid enough to
misuse a warrant, but that won't help clean up the mess,  will it? And we
know that there's no shortage of people who is incapable of realizing that
_they_ can ever be caught. Besides, if it is not possible to use a 'bearer'
warrant without eventually getting caught, then the warrant in the 
_Kinunirs_ safe is the evillest PC trap I've ever seen... >:->

Why run such a risk when all the Emperor has to do is to put a name (and a 
gene-scan) on the Warrant?


      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     rancke@diku.dk
- ------------
        "The referee should determine the nature of subsequent
         events based on the individual situation."
                                _76 Patrons_, p. 8

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 10:25:59 -0400
From: "Sword Worlder" <swordworlder@clinic.net>
Subject: Re: Mining the TML

- ----- Original Message -----
From: cos 90 <cos90@powersurfr.com>
> If Instruction as a skill cannot be taught, then what do they teach in
> Teacher's College? :)

Oh, that's an easy one; psychology, sociology, eastern religions, public
speaking, and how to respond to every question with another question.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The TRAVELLER Domain
http://www.downport.com
Colin Michael, WebDev

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 09:12:41 -0500
From: "Robert Eaglestone" <eaglesto@nortelnetworks.com>
Subject: HOW tactical are a ship's lasers?

Gentle Travellers,

Here's a scenario I'd like y'all to ponder.

Far Trader _Marliiner_ has landed on the surface of a barren world.
Investigating the surface, they find the landscape pockmarked with
centuries-old ruins.  They also find an insectlike, crustacean-like
critter that burrows in nests all in/around the ruins.  These critters are
malevolent to the extreme, and the adventurers, at one point, wisely
destroy an entire nest by blasting its location with the ship's lasers.

The ship fires its lasers from a short distance at the surface of the planet...
say a 30- or 60-degree angle downwards.  What is the minimum safe
distance for ship's laser fire?  Please note that these lasers are 2-2-0-0,
which means they do 2 points of damage to a starship's armor at 30,000
kilometers.

My observations:

1) Targetting is not a problem.  The weapon-sensors are good enough
to lock onto a 10-dton object at up to 60,000 km.

2) There may be a distance so close to the target that the ship can
sustain damage.  I don't know what that distance is, nor do I know
how much damage it would inflict (surely no more than a point?).

3) If I very roughly translated starship damage to MT values, a 2-2-0-0
laser might do on the order of 2000 'points' of damage to a non-ship
target (a person in battledress, for example) at 30,000-60,000 km.
Does the area of effect increase as range decreases?

The amount of damage a ship can do to a localized area on a planet
is devastating.  I would like to know if there are any consequences
to the ship for blasting a planet's surface.

Rob

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 10:00:40 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: BD Crush Depth (was Freezing in the Aleutians)

Craig Berry writes:
> > note to self: Figure crush depth for GF BD designs...
>
>Well, if you just use the Vehicles computation for crush depth, there won't
be >much trouble exceeding those figures.  Crush depth in Vehicles is a
multiple of >DR, which is why the Intrepit has a crush depth of 140
miles....

I can't agree with that. The formulas below are from page 133 of GURPS
vehicles. The depths don't get into the really ridiculous range (IMO) until
you get to Marine Commando Battle Dress GT:SM style. Depth is in yards
(meters). You'll have to convert to Atm. as I don't have depth tables handy.

(DR+10)x0.25x10=CD (yards) Extra light frame
(DR+10)x0.5x10=CD (yards) light frame
(DR+10)x1.0x10=CD (yards) medium frame
(DR+10)x2.0x10=CD (yards) heavy frame
(DR+10)x4.0x10=CD (yards) extra heavy frame

				DR
Combat Armor		20	(20+10)x0.5x10=70 (yards) light frame		63 m
Battle Dress		100	(100+10)x1.0x10=200 (yards) medium frame		91 m
Improved Battle Dress	120	(120+10)x1.0x10=220 (yards) medium frame		201 m
Sane Battle Dress		500	(500+10)x1.0x10=600 (yards) medium frame		548 m
Insane-Battle Dress	1400	(1400+10)x1.0x10=1500 (yards) medium frame	1371 m

Values of DR are from the lowest DR of pressurized container, typically
hands or limbs. Insane Battle dress in GT:SM only gives one DR. The Sane
Heavy Battle Dress I've seen posted other places might have lower DR's on
limbs, hands etc. Just use this as a guide. I used light frame for the CA
and Medium frame for the others.

Terry C

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

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 07:43:28
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Honoring J. Andrew Keith with a planet

At 06:11 AM 10/26/1999 PDT, you wrote:

>>From: Phil Kitching <postmark.design@btinternet.com>

>>IMHO neither "Andy" nor "Keith" seem much of a name for a place (too short)
>
>Then I guess you have never been to Duck N.C. or Ware V.A.
>or Gore VA, or several other towns or counties in the world with short 
>names.

The ever-famous Lodi, Ca., or Mars for that matter..
- -- 

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

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 07:46:35
From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: X-boat route too long?

At 09:38 AM 10/26/1999 -0400, you wrote:
>someone wrote:
>>I notice the x-boat route between Tenalphi and Strouden in the 
>>Lunion subsector is a jump 5. Does anyone think this is a 
>>mistake or merely some special circumstance? 
>
>	In Traveller, is there a difference?   ;)

There are no mistakes, just plot opportunities.  Even though my games are
set in Lunion, I had never noticed that before, and it took me about ten
minutes to not only justify it, but come up with a campaign hook as well.
- -- 

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

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

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 12:05:49 -0400
From: Glenn Myers <glenn.myers@ansys.com>
Subject: RE: Honoring J. Andrew Keith with a planet

Thanks Doug,
As a former resident of Mars, PA, I appreciate your comment!

Glenn

- -----Original Message-----
From: Douglas E. Berry [mailto:gridlore@pop.mindspring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 1999 3:43 AM
To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
Subject: Re: Honoring J. Andrew Keith with a planet


At 06:11 AM 10/26/1999 PDT, you wrote:

>>From: Phil Kitching <postmark.design@btinternet.com>

>>IMHO neither "Andy" nor "Keith" seem much of a name for a place (too
short)
>
>Then I guess you have never been to Duck N.C. or Ware V.A.
>or Gore VA, or several other towns or counties in the world with short 
>names.

The ever-famous Lodi, Ca., or Mars for that matter..
- -- 

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

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1260
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