
-------- TML Message #230 --------

Date: Thu, 16 Mar 89 09:40:12 est
From: (Paul Martenis) leeds%cfa209@harvard.harvard.edu
Subject: Passengers and tech level
Archive-Message-Number: 230


Whoops, I think I messed this up the first time.  Sorry....

>> 1. When you are seeking passengers it says as +DM to number of pass.
>> use source-destin TL. Implying that more people travel from Hi Tech to
>> Lo Tech worlds. Tourism seems a thought but is there anything else that
>> may be a reason for the above DM.
>
> According to Traveller and The Merchant Prince (Book 7) it says:
>
> Add (or subtract) difference between source world and market world tech
> levels.  This would imply that there would be a want to travel to low tech
> worlds.  In the past I have ruled that more people want to go to the high tech
> world, but being the devils advocate, if I know how to build air rafts, then I
> can get a real high paying job on a low tech planet.  Call this one as you
> like.  I send more people to the high tech world.

	How about this for a compromise of sorts:

	From low tech to high tech worlds you get a lot of country
hicks going to the city to hit the big time.  From high tech to low
tech you get tech experts going for the high paying jobs.  And going
round trip are the rich tourists.

	Thus, the low passages tend to be full of country folk when
going from low to high (apply DM appropriately).  More mid-passages are
sold to techies going from high to low (apply DM as in the book).
Finally, the number of high passages is relatively independent of tech
level (no DM for TL).

	Caveat: I haven't tried this myself.  The thought only just
occurred to me.

- - Paul
- --
Paul L. Martenis		E-mail:	leeds@cfa
60 Garden St.			    or:	leeds%cfa209@harvard.harvard.edu
Cambridge, MA  02138 USA	Phone:	(617) 495-7284

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-------- TML Message #231 --------

Date: Thu, 16 Mar 89 10:30:16 PST
From: (Brad Post) c9c-aa@dorothy.berkeley.edu
Subject: Planets
Archive-Message-Number: 231



Okay boys I got a real mean question.  Has anyone figured out an easy way to 
generate the: length of day, year, and seasons of a planet created using the
advanced rules in Scouts (Book 6), or the new MegaTraveller Rules.  I would
greatly appreciate any help on this, since I really need to generate this
type of information for a game I am running.

Thnaks
(that's Thanks)

Brad Post
ARPA:  c9c-aa@dorothy.berkeley.edu
UUCP:  ...ucbvax!dorothy!c9c-aa


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-------- TML Message #232 --------

From: (Adrian Hurt) uunet.uu.net!mcvax!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian@tektronix
Subject: Merchant help
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 89 14:54:55 BST
Archive-Message-Number: 232



>    TL difference is also a DM on the Cargo Table.
>
>I suggest you use the MINIMUM of source and destination as DM.  So flows
>are the same in both directions.

I'd be inclined to scrap the TL difference entirely. Starport quality should
influence trade; trade classification should influence trade; population
should influence trade. I'd only expect TL to affect trade in industrial
cargo; a TL15 computer is worth more than a TL7 one, but TL15 fruit is still
fruit. It might have some effect on packaging, but that's all.

>    Lots of Hi population worlds next to each other; you couldn't go wrong!
>
>Funny, when I travelled through that area, the authorities were well aware
>of profits to be made and either (1) the merchant cartels leaned heavily on
>so-called "free traders" (sugar in your LOX) and took a hefty bite out of
>profits (reducing them to zero)...

I was running a subsidised merchant anyway. Serves you right for poaching on
my territory!  :-)

I still think that the old Book 2 system was far superior.

 "Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk

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-------- TML Message #233 --------

Subject: Re: Planets
Date: 16 Mar 89 21:30:46 PST (Thu)
From: jamesp
Archive-Message-Number: 233



This looks like it's meant to reply to the planets question.

- ------- Forwarded Message

Date: Thu, 16 Mar 89 20:03:45 EST
From: Stuart Stirling <silver@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>

[... copy of Brad's message ...]
Try Scouts, pages 43 and 46; Grand Survey (Digest Group: 1986), pages 26-27.
[... signature ...]

- ------- End of Forwarded Message

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-------- TML Message #234 --------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 89 02:33:32 -0500 (EST)
From: em21+@andrew.cmu.edu (Eric Edward Moore)
Subject: Re: Planets
Archive-Message-Number: 234


>Okay boys I got a real mean question.  Has anyone figured out an easy
>way to
>generate the: length of day, year, and seasons of a planet created using
>the
>advanced rules in Scouts (Book 6), or the new MegaTraveller Rules.  I
>would
>greatly appreciate any help on this, since I really need to generate this
>type of information for a game I am running.
Unless I am mistaken a  formula for computing the length of the year is in fact
given in book 6
if there isn't a formula there The following should work:
        (r^3/2)/(m^1/2)
where r is the star-planet radius in AU and m is the stars mass in solar
(earth sun) masses. The result is given in earth years.
the length of day is highly variable and there isn't really any way to generate
it using any formula one good way might be to roll 7 dice and add them together.
This will generate results that fit roughly into an acceptable range (7 is a
little low, but is sufficiently rare) and will center around 24 hours which
seems to be a number conducive to human life
As for the seasons this is a diffucult question, as a season is really a change
in the climate. And as the climate at a given point on the surface of a given
planet is a function of a lot of variables I can't think of any way of
predicting the season without working it out on a case by case basis.
The equinoxes and solstices will however follow the same progression as they do
here being separated by 1/4 of the year.
I hope this was of some help.
        -Love Kisses and a Neutron Bomb
                -Eric the Finn
internet: em21+@andrew.cmu.edu
bitnet: Y612EM21@CMCCVB

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-------- TML Message #235 --------

Date: Thu, 16 Mar 89 23:00 EDT
From: RWMIRA01%ULKYVX.BITNET%CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: Re: Planets
Archive-Message-Number: 235


>Okay boys I got a real mean question.  Has anyone figured out an easy way to
>generate the: length of day, year, and seasons of a planet created using the
>advanced rules in Scouts (Book 6), or the new MegaTraveller Rules.  I would
>greatly appreciate any help on this, since I really need to generate this
>type of information for a game I am running.
>
Brad,
  Starting on page 43 of Book 6 Scouts, under Orbital Data, all of the data
is presented to compute orbital distances and temprature.  There is some errata
that was presented in an issue of the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society.

To compute orbital period (year), you need the Mass of the Star in Solar Masses
(Interpolate value from chart on Page 45, Type D stars are VI on this chart.)
Lets assume a F8v star, its stellar mass is 1.114 (40% between G0 and F5).
Next we need the distance in AU, here you need the orbit of the world and get
the distance in AU from the chart on page 46.  For an F8v star, the habital
zone is between orbits 3 and 4, so we will place it in orbit 4, or 1.6AU.

The orbital period is  Period = (Distance**3/Mass)**0.5 or 1.917509 Terran
Years.  Then multply by 365.25 to get days.

If you want to get seasonal data, you can use the Exxentricity chart on page 48
(change Temperature to Lumiosity in these charts).

An inverse formula is given if you know period and mass to derive distance, it
is  Distance = (Mass*Period**2)**0.33  Where Period is Terran Years.

The same formulas work for satellites where Period is in lunar months (28 days)
and Mass is combined Earth Moon Masses and distance is in Earth Moon Distances.
(400,000 Kilometers)

Now for temprature,
  Temp = 374.025 * Greenhouse (1-Albedo)(Luminosity**.25)/Distance**.5

So for our example, we will use a Greenhouse effect of 10% (1.1) and an Albedo
of .3 (Earth Like reflectance)  The Luminosity is 1.326 and the Distance is
1.6AU (Now this should yeild a slightly cool planet, since the real habitable
zone is orbit 3.5 and we are in orbit 4.  We get 244.32 degrees Kelvin,  Terran
average is 288 degress kelvin, so our world is 44 degrees colder than earth on
the average.  Feel free to adjust the orbit to bring tempratures with in
tolerances.

There is a second formula that takes the temperature and gives distance.  It is
in error in Scouts, the correct formula is:

  Distance = (Luminosity**0.5)*(GreenHouse*374.025*(1-Albedo)/Temp)**2

Now as far as the day lengths go, there isn't a way presented.  I am not a
physics dude, but I would guess that the size of the planet and its orbit
control the speed of rotation.  For simplicity sake, assume that a size 8 world
rotates in 24 hours, the smaller the faster, the larger the slower.  I am sure
that a quick formula somewhere.
- --
Rob Miracle              | Bitnet   : RWMIRA01@ULKYVX    CIS: 74216,3134
Programmer/Analyst-II    | INTERNET : rwmira01%ulkyvx.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
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-------- TML Message #236 --------

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 89 08:58:37 PST
From: (Brad Post) c9c-aa@dorothy.berkeley.edu
Subject: Re: Planets
Archive-Message-Number: 236



Does anyone have a copy of those pages online, the ones the guy just mentioned
only because my Scout book is 3000 miles away, and I don't find the info in the
MT rules. 

Thanks.

Brad


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-------- TML Message #237 --------

Date: Sun, 19 Mar 89 21:52 EDT
From: RWMIRA01%ULKYVX.BITNET%CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: Travel Times
Archive-Message-Number: 237


I have a MegaTraveller Question that frankly has be baffled.  I was computing
orbital periods and distances between the Gas Giant and main worlds.  I was
trying to compute the travel time between the gas giant and the main world.

Now my main world was at 4.0 AU (habitable temperature for a world around a F1v
star).  Now the habitable zone for an F1v star is orbit 5 (2.8 AU) but that was
way too hot, so I moved it back until the temperature came within reason.
My closest gas giant was in orbit 9, or about 38.8 AU.  Now they give a
calculation of 150 Million Kilometers = 1 AU.  This isn't very accurate, but it
is close.  For the sake of argument, we will use the distances in KM as
provided for 2.8 AU to 38.8 AU.  The net distance if the worlds were at their
closest would be 5,804 Million KM - 418.9 (round to 419) Million KM or
5,386 Million KM.

Ok now to change gears for a second.  If a 1G vessel takes  8 hours to move
from a size 8 world to 100 diameters, that would imply a mean vessel speed of
100,000 miles/hour (Size 8 world = 8,000 mile diameter * 100 diameters =
800,000 miles / 8 hours = 100,000 miles)  Or 160,000 KM/hour. Now I know that
acceleration is constant to the mid point, thus the ship can achieve higher
velocities, however there must be a maximum velocity where the thrust can
no longer accelerate the craft.

The travel time, if we assume a max speed of 160,000 km/h would be about 3365
hours or about 140 days.

Now figuring that the folks at GDW had ran into this questions the mention
something about an "In System Transfer" in the Imperial Encyclopedia under
travel, but they mention nothing more about times or methods other than to say
that you use "In System Transfer" to get to a gas giant.  I remember a journal
article on the subject where you "goosed" the jump drives, but it goes against
all normal jump drive rules.  No to mention that the fuel consumption would
make gas giant refueling impractical.

Does any one have any light on
  a) In system Transfer
  b) Better time computations to and from Gas Giants.

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks in Advance, Rob
- --
Rob Miracle              | Bitnet   : RWMIRA01@ULKYVX    CIS: 74216,3134
Programmer/Analyst-II    | INTERNET : rwmira01%ulkyvx.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
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-------- TML Message #238 --------

Date: Sun, 19 Mar 89 23:29 EDT
From: RWMIRA01%ULKYVX.BITNET%CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: Re: Travel Times
Archive-Message-Number: 238


>I have a MegaTraveller Question that frankly has be baffled.  I was computing
>orbital periods and distances between the Gas Giant and main worlds.  I was
>trying to compute the travel time between the gas giant and the main world.
[Stuff Deleted]
>Now figuring that the folks at GDW had ran into this questions the mention
>something about an "In System Transfer" in the Imperial Encyclopedia under
>travel, but they mention nothing more about times or methods other than to say
>that you use "In System Transfer" to get to a gas giant.  I remember a journal
>article on the subject where you "goosed" the jump drives, but it goes against
>all normal jump drive rules.  No to mention that the fuel consumption would
>make gas giant refueling impractical.
>
>Does any one have any light on
>  a) In system Transfer
[I still have questions on this one!!!]

>  b) Better time computations to and from Gas Giants.
>
Ok, I should have read the books a little better,  (Thankful I still have my
old Traveller stuff :-) .)  Here is a little 'C' program that I whipped up
that computes travel times.
   o /
- ----X-- Snip Snip Snip --------------------------------------------------------
   o \
/* TTIME.C
   Rob Miracle

   Language:  Ansi 'C'.
   Date:      March 18, 1989

   This program computes travel times for Traveller, a role playing game by
   Game Designer's Workshop.  It takes the distance to be traveled in
   Kilometers and returns a table of times.  The times are in days, hours,
   minutes, and seconds.  Each line represents the 6 different manuver drives
   in the game.  It is listed in G's of acceleration.  The formulas are based
   on ones found in "The Traveller Book".  They were originally published in
   Traveller Book 2, "Starships".

   This program compiles correctly under Turbo 'C' V2.0 and VAX/VMS 'C'.
   The only possible incompatiblity is with the 'pow' function.

   This program is placed in the public domain and I don't think that I
   am infringing on anyone's copyrights.  No warrentys or guareentees implied
   and the author assumes no liability.
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

main() {
    int i,j;
    double TDist,TAccl;
    double Seconds,Minutes,Hours,Days;
    char buffer[128];

    printf("Distance (Kilometers): ");
    gets(buffer);
    TDist = atof(buffer) * 1000.0;
    printf("Days     Hours    Minutes  Seconds\n");
    for(TAccl = 10.0; TAccl < 70.0; TAccl += 10.0) {
        Seconds = 2.0 * pow(TDist/TAccl,0.5);
        Minutes = Seconds / 60.0;
        Hours = Minutes / 60.0;
        Days = Hours / 24.0;
        printf("%-8.1f %-8.1f %-8.1f %-8.1f\n",Days,Hours,Minutes,Seconds);
    }
}

    o  /
- -----X------ Snip Snip Snip -------------------------------------------------
    o  \

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks in Advance, Rob
- --
Rob Miracle              | Bitnet   : RWMIRA01@ULKYVX    CIS: 74216,3134
Programmer/Analyst-II    | INTERNET : rwmira01%ulkyvx.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
University of Louisville | UUCP     : ...psuvax1!ulkyvx.bitnet!rwmira01


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-------- TML Message #239 --------

Date: Sun, 19 Mar 89 19:56:25 +0100
From: yla@ida.liu.se (Yngve Larsson)
Subject: Re: Planets
Archive-Message-Number: 239


There are some rules expanding the _Scouts_ system of world generation
published in the _Traveller_ supplements _Grand_Survey_ and/or
_Grand_Census_ (published by _The_Digest_Group_). These rules covered
local day length, possibility of locked rotation (day length same as
year length), orbital tilt (angle of polar axis) and means of computing
local (i.e. longitude and latitude) mean temprature from the other factors.

The rules (one book or the other, can't remember which) also suggested how
to create the continents of a world, how to allocate the population and
how to compute technology spread over a world (different in starport and
in the outback).

There is other things there too, that I can't remember right now, but they
expanded government and law levels, I belive. Great books for creating
consistent worlds, but that requires _some_ amount of work.


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-------- TML Message #240 --------

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 89 12:55:25 -0500 (EST)
From: (Eric Edward Moore) em21+@andrew.cmu.edu
Subject: Travel times
Archive-Message-Number: 240



>I have a MegaTraveller Question that frankly has be baffled.  I was computing
>orbital periods and distances between the Gas Giant and main worlds.  I was
>trying to compute the travel time between the gas giant and the main world.

>The net distance if the worlds were at their
>closest would be 5,804 Million KM - 418.9 (round to 419) Million KM or
>5,386 Million KM.

>Ok now to change gears for a second.  If a 1G vessel takes  8 hours to >move
>from a size 8 world to 100 diameters, that would imply a mean vessel >speed of
>100,000 miles/hour (Size 8 world = 8,000 mile diameter * 100 diameters =
>800,000 miles / 8 hours = 100,000 miles)  Or 160,000 KM/hour. Now I know that
>acceleration is constant to the mid point, thus the ship can achieve higher
>velocities, however there must be a maximum velocity where the thrust can
>no longer accelerate the craft.

>The travel time, if we assume a max speed of 160,000 km/h would be about 3365
>hours or about 140 days.

These computations are fine except there is no maximum velocity where the thrust
can no longer accelerate the craft. There is no resistance to slow it down, so
any
thrust will be used to accelerate our spaceship. Using those formulas it takes
 733,893 seconds to get to the gas giant. 203 hrs or 8 1/2 days. The maximum
velocity is:3.6 million m/s or 13 million kph (1.22% of the speed of light.)
This is incedibly fast but not out of reason for the drives used. (this is for a
1G
ship a 6G ship would take 4/10ths as long and be going 6x as fast at midpoint.)
I hope this helps a little. In system travel can take a long time. Space is BIG.
        -Love Kisses and a Neutron Bomb
                -Eric the Finn
Internet: em21+@andrew.cmu.edu
BITNet: Y612EM21@CMCCVB

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-------- TML Message #241 --------

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 89 10:48:58 cst
From: (Brett Slocum) uunet.uu.net!hi-csc!slocum@tektronix
Subject: In System Transfer
Archive-Message-Number: 241


I believe what they are referring to as 'In-System Transfer', is the
'transfer orbits' required to move for the orbit of one planet to
the orbit of another.  The 'transfer' orbit is the path taken by the
spacecraft.  The high-energy transfer orbit has the star as one focus
of the ellipse, and the new orbit as the 'apocenter' of the ellipse.
(The apocenter is the part of the ellipse furthest from the star.)
The low-energy transfer orbit, or Hollman orbit, has the pericenter
at the starting orbit and the apocenter at the ending orbit.

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-------- TML Message #242 --------

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 89 11:14:58 cst
From: (Brett Slocum) uunet.uu.net!hi-csc!slocum@tektronix
Subject: Re: In System Transfer, oops
Archive-Message-Number: 242


[To continue:  I got interrupted and sent the incomplete message.
Sorry.]

.... The pericenter of the ellipse is the point on the ellipse
closest to the foci of the ellipse.

(This is supposed     .......p.......
to be an ellipse)  .                   .
                 .    1             2    a
                   .                   .
                      .......p.......

If 1,2 are the foci, then 'p' are the pericenters, and 'a' is
the apocenter if the sun is at '1'.  

The Hollman transfer orbit is the lowest energy method of 
getting to an orbit.  It assumes that the fuel burn is short
compared to the travel time.  If you have a constant acceleration
engine (ion-drive, or something), the transfer orbit will be much
more gradual, resulting in a spiral that moves out toward the
other orbit.  The travel time is not necessarily longer for a
spiral transfer orbit, since greater speeds are possible.
Most of the time in the Hollman orbit is coasting.


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-------- TML Message #243 --------

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 89 22:47 EDT
From: RWMIRA01%ULKYVX.BITNET%CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: MegaTraveller Adventure: The Pursuit of Adventure
Archive-Message-Number: 243


The following is an Introductory Adventure for MegaTraveller.  It serves as
a  good adventure for new and old players alike.  It's primary purpose is
to introduce the players to the combat system and the game in general.  It
is the basic Shoot out at the OK Corral scenario.  There is some mystery
that leads to a confrontation.

If you are a player and are not going to ref, feel free to read down to the
REFEREE'S Section, since the beginning provides an introduction to the game
and a discussion on the stellar question "Why Adventure?"  If you are a
player feel free to give this to your Traveller Ref so that you might have
an opportunity to play this adventure.  This adventure should only take one
evening session of about three hours to complete.  Preparation is minimal.

Now for the quasi-legal stuff.  This adventure is Copyright (c) 1989, Rob
Miracle.  It is being distributed to the public domain freely.  Any attempt
to make a profit by selling it to others, including publishers is a
violation of the copyright.  Any similarity to any other published
adventure is totally coincidental and unintentional. The characters and
places and events are fictional.  Any similarity between them and any
real-life people, places and events is also purely coincidental.

Author's Notes:  Our Traveller group had not played Traveller in some 12
months when we got MegaTraveller.  A new referee ran three sessions before
he left on Co-op.  So we had several players who's characters had been
propelled into the future since when I stopped reffing last time, it was
the year 1111.  When the previous referee started, it was some time in
1115.  Several players were playing new characters and all were new to
MegaTraveller (since three sessions 9 months ago does not stick to ones
brain cells well).  Any way, when we played before, we used a modified
version of Traveller/Snapshot rules and no one, including myself, had used
the MegaTraveller combat system.  With the fact that I had modified MT's
combat system, we needed a "combat oriented" starter scenario to teach the
players the combat system.  The next adventure will deal with ship combat.
After that, the players should know the rules well enough that the plots
can be developed to the color that these people are used to.

Asumptions:  This adventure is set during the first year after Emporer
Strephon's assassination.  War has not reached the Spinward Marches except
for some Vargr invasions on the coreward edge.  Most communications with
Captial/Core have been cut, and the Duke of Regina has assumed command of
the area.  While the rebellion has little to do with this adventure, it
does add flavor.  Little work should be necessary to convert it to your
local worlds and situations.

- --

Stardate: 103-1117
Location: Starduster Lounge
          Credo Orbital Facility
          Regina/Regina/Spinward Marches-1910

Situation: For existing characters, each has spent the last 3-10 years
living on the spoils of their adventures.  A wonderful drug has kept them
as young as when they discovered it.  Young that is in all but their
wallets.  Anagathetics are costly but worth it.  Though they are not
busted, the high life has taken its toll both mentally and financially.
That adventuring spirit is hard to keep down.  It is like spring fever.  An
itch to travel and to get into trouble  seems invite the soul of the
adventurer.

Time and urge have brought our troop of adventurers together again.  Why?
For more credits?  For more fame? or infamy?  Sure, that is an
attractivness, but it is the thrill and challenge that drives these
travelers to a frenzy.

And there is the new blood, the rookies.  You have seen the universe from
the orderly nature of the service.  It is just enough to wet your appetite.
Sure see the universe, dock at many different ports of call, we are all
familiar with the ads.  But what they don't tell you is you have no freedom
during those years.  One mistake and it is 20 years on a Kinur Cruiser that
has been hulled into an orbital prison.  So you are now  free of those
bonds.  Those worlds that you paid a call to beckon you to learn more.  See
the planet from things other that orbit or the cold greyness of the
starport.  That is why you are here.

- ---

While, the acquaintance of each of you may have been brief, you have  grown
appreciation for each other.  The war stories remind each of you of a time
past, of glory won... and spent.  And there is the rebellion.  The great
empire that once stood high and proud is crumbling like dry bread.  The
emperor is dead and several people claim the iridium throne that Strephon
sat upon until the assassin's bullet tumbled him from it.  The great
network has failed.

The vargr, while personable have started to claim some of the  coreward
worlds in the sector, while the Aslans approach from the trailing  edge.
The Swords Worlds, and Darrians have strengthened their domains while the
Imperium's rule is weakened.  Several small groups have formed their own
government.  The Zhodani are still weak from the Fifth Frontier War that
ended only 8 years ago.

But these other governing bodies are not the threat, the threat is an
internal one.  Just who are you loyal to?  Is that Battleship with Imperial
markings going to wave hello with their hands or their meson gun?  Are they
loyal to the Arch Duke of Regina or are they rebels trying to gain a little
bit of power among all this chaos.

These are just a few of the inter-workings among the cosmos at the moment.
What are you going to do?  Sit around and drink Rhylanor Ale all day?
Wither away because the rebellion has cut the anagathetic supply lines and
you are paying triple cost on the black market?  Or are you going to get
into business for your self, and reopen those supply lines?  Are you brave
enough to take  an under armed freighter and run cargo though battle zones?
Hunting?  Run and hide?  Or head out and smell the spoils excitement.

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

REFEREE'S Section
(This section is to be presented to the players, notes specific to the
referee will be indented and labeled REF:)

As you sit around the Starduster, a very attractive woman approaches you.
By her dress you would guess that she is of a high social class.  She
appears to be nervous as she clutches tightly to a rolled up document.  As
she gets within three meters (15 feet), she gets a panic look on her face
and she turns and bolts.  Seconds later, a man in a dark trench coat leaves
in a slow, deliberate pace.  The large brimmed hat hides his face from you.

If you follow him he will board a shuttle for Credo Down Starport, on the
Surface of Regina.  The woman is nowhere to be found.  No one seems to know
him.  Checking at Astro-Transfer Shuttle Service, the carrier, he is
identified as John Smith.  No other useful information is to be gained.  It
would appear as if he was in no means following her.

REF:  The group may try to follow him to the surface.  Let them, but delay
them by several minute by having the Starport Authority place them in a
holding pattern for 10 minutes.  This will make it hard for them to find
him.  Hopefully they will soon realize that they are on a wild goose chase.
Of course that means another 10 minutes before they can launch and 23
minutes to orbit and another 10 minutes or so before they can re-dock at
Credo Orbital.

After you dock back at Credo Orbital and disembark, you see the woman at
the Oberlin's ticket office.  She picks up a bag and heads toward the
docking bay where a 1000T merchant vessel is docked.  She is still
clutching the paper tightly and appears to be very paranoid.

    REF:  The group will probably try to follow her onto the
    vessel.  But ship security will stop them since they do not
    have a boarding pass and they can't identify her.

The vessel's next port of call is listed as Yori (2110/Regina/Spinward
Marches), a small, highly populated desert world, 2 parsecs rimward from
Regina.  That flight is booked and several passengers are on a waiting list
wanting transportation to Yori.  The ship departs in two days.  It seems
unlikely that she could have walked up and purchased passage, though that
is what it appeared. Investigating with the ticket agent will prove to be
useless.  The agent is very loyal to Oberlin's and will not release any
information about passengers.

While you are trying to gain information, the woman will disembark holding
the document.  It would appear that she has moved into her stateroom for
the journey.  Her level of paranoia has increased.  She passes by you in a
very non-approaching fashion.  As she passes, she whispers "Help Me" and
continues to walk back towards the mall area.

She ducks into a coffee shop and sits at a booth.  If you join her, she
will announce herself:  "Hello, I am Arreen Applegate.  I have a need for
an escort.  Your name was given to me as someone I could trust.  I need a
body guard to escort me to Yori and back.  Also I need you to guard me
while I am there.  I have to see some one and I fear for my life.  Twice
today, someone has tried to kidnap or kill me.  Once was in the bar when I
first tried to contact you."  Her paranoia causes her to faint for just a
second.  "I can not offer much, just my thanks and passage to and from
Yori.  If all goes well, I may be able to give you something that has
monetary value.  Do these terms seem acceptable to you?"

You notice from her speech that she is very educated.  She never seems to
use a contraction or slang, yet her inflections of her voice are smooth and
harmonious.  She has a natural charm to her voice.  With the quality of her
speech and because she is showing emotions, you rule an android out.  She
knows a lot about you as things come up in conversation.  All are things
that she could find out through good research.

Finally she speaks again.  "I will be spending tonight and tomorrow night
in the starport hotel, room Delta 148.  I have reserved passage for you on
the Spinward Way (the ships name).  It departs in two days at 08:00 hours.
I wish to retire to my room at this time."

    REF:  She is quite bossy.  She seem to not ask for things,
    assuming that the group is smart enough to know that they
    should go with her etc.  Arreen Applegate is a local woman of
    moderate social importance.  Her UPP is 789ABA.  She is a
    noble and has several administrative type skills.  She has
    little combat experience.

    The rest of the time at the starport and the journey to Yori
    are of little significant.  You can fill in here with other
    encounters of strangers shadowing her etc.  Any thing to
    build the mystery.  She will not release the document under
    any circumstance, nor will she give any information.

Once you arrive on Yori, you land at the starport.  It is about 38 degrees
Celsius (about 100 degrees F).  It is the middle of autumn here.  Yori is
about the size of Mercury with a population of 70,000,000.  The atmosphere
is standard.   The planet has a law level that prohibits all firearms.  She
can get one pistol through for each person.  She can't get long arms
through though.  (NOTE:  If you outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have
guns!)

    After they arrive, she will rent a standard air raft and
    travel to a city of about 1,000,000 that is a 1 hour flight
    away at 90km/h (55mph).  Note, the heat will drive most
    people out of their armor.  On the way, roll for surprise.  A
    second air raft will come up behind the players air raft and
    start taking pot shots with an Advanced Combat Rifle with
    Discarding Sabot rounds (DS).  If they get surprise, have
    them hit the air/raft and knock out 1/4 power required the
    driver to have to make rolls to fly it every time they change
    course.

    With any luck, one of the players will take out the gunner
    and then the driver will turn and run.  This will give the
    players a chance to take out the driver. They now get an
    undamaged air raft (it was rented from the same agency) and
    a rifle.  There is little information to be gained from the
    two thugs.  All they have is about 400 credit's Imperial, and
    a 9mm auto pistol with two clips.  There is a second clip of
    DS rounds for the ACR and they have fired about 4 shots from
    the first clip.

    Just before they get to the City of Tanzor, they need to make
    another surprise role as a speeder blows by them at about 190
    km/h.  This is just to scare them a little.  When they arrive
    at Tanzor, she will get out of the air raft and go into a
    bar.  She will come out and say "Let us go 30 km southwest of
    town."  About a kilometer out, they will see an air/raft (or
    more) and a speeder sitting atop one of the dunes.

    Use as many NPC thugs as you need here.  Remember you can
    only fit four people to an air/raft (The player's air/raft
    may be larger so that they all can fit in one raft!)  Each
    thug is armed with an SMG and is sweating in their cloth
    armor.  As they get within 20 meters, they are signaled to
    stop and Arreen gets out.  She walks toward the thugs.  A
    gentleman in a business suit gets out from the speeder with a
    brief case.  They walk towards each other.  A conversation
    goes something as follows:

Man:   "Give me the paper!  Here is your payment."
Arreen: "Here."
(Man looks at the page)
Man:   "THIS IS FAKE!  WHERE IS THE REAL PAPERS?!?"
(He grabs her and she drops the brief case.  He begins to drag her toward the
speeder.)

    Here is where the fire fight begins.  If the characters do
    not start it one of the thugs will.  Treat them as UPP
    777777, +2 to hit (+1 Dex, +1 Wpn).  The fight should end
    with the thugs and man down.

    After it is over, Arreen confesses that she was being extorted
    by the man.  She is a reporter and had some information on
    the man, who is a known organized crime figure.  He was
    buying the information from her.  She could either sell it or
    die.  The brief case is full of paper shreds, since he had
    no reason to pay her anyway.  The exact contents of the
    document and the names of the NPC's are left to the referees
    imagination.

HOT SPOTS

    When I ran this adventure, I got thrown for a loop by a
    Psionic/telepath who kept trying to read everyones minds.
    With some lucky rolls and her only trying to read surface
    thoughts I was able to avoid dumping any real information
    about the plot, though some things may not have mattered.

    Your players may want capital up front to take this mission.
    They need to get at least their hand guns on the planet.  If
    you let them have too much fire power then it will be over
    before it starts.  I think that them at least getting the one
    rifle before hand is important since it gives them an edge.
    If they are really greedy then they can sell the speeder
    unless it gets shot up real bad.

    You don't have to let it end here.  There could be contaband
    in either the air/raft that they procured or the speeder that
    they could get caught with.  Or questions about the weapons
    or the deaths/injuries of the thugs can lead to legal
    problems.  You could let Arreen get kidnaped and have the
    group go and save her.


Happy Travelling
Rob
- --
Rob Miracle              | Bitnet   : RWMIRA01@ULKYVX    CIS: 74216,3134
Programmer/Analyst-II    | INTERNET : rwmira01%ulkyvx.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
University of Louisville | UUCP     : ...psuvax1!ulkyvx.bitnet!rwmira01

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