
-------- TML Message #359 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 359
Date: Wed, 10 May 89 12:13:20 edt
From: (Greg Givler SUPPORT) givler@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com
Subject: TRADE & COMMERCE VOL.5



  ***************************************************************************
  ** TRADE & COMMERCE DIGEST: Cargo, freight, and passenger issues.        **
  **                                                                       **
  ** All followups on this topic should be sent to                         **
  ** givler@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com.  They will be edited for clarity     **
  ** and resent to the Traveller Mailing List in a following digest.       **
  ** For my benefit, if you would include the word TRADE or COMMERCE in    **
  ** your SUBJECT: this will help me track these articles for inclusion    **
  ** in this digest. Thanks, Greg Givler <givler@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com> **
  ***************************************************************************

Letter from the Editor.

This is just a small gripe. As you will see most of the contents of the Digest,
I "lifted" from the list. If this Digest is going to work, you have to send 
your stuff to ME, not the list. Otherwise all I end up doing is send out 
duplicate articles. So, an appeal, if you have something that you think falls
under the heading of Trade or Commerce, E-Mail me direct, if the mail bounces
let Jim know.

So much for the complaint, now for the good stuff, we have some really nice 
articles for your perusal this time, especially number three, "Thoughts on 
planetary GNP", by Scott Ellsworth, at least I thought it was interesting. 
Also, Mark Power has some thoughts for us to ponder, as you will see, his is
the only article included that came direct to me, not to the list. So please
folks, take the time to edit the header TO: line. Thanks, Greg

====================================================
| TRADE & COMMERCE DIGEST VOL.5 - MAY 10, 1989     |
====================================================

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Subject: MegaTraveller Ship Design - Adrian Hurt
2. Subject: Technology in Trav/MT - Adrian Hurt
3. Subject: Thoughts on planetary GNP - Scott Ellsworth
4. Subject: Trade Digest - Mark A. Power

=========================================

1. From: adrian@cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk
Subject: MegaTraveller Ship Design
Archive-Message-Number: 331

>I agree.  In order to create a large merchant ship I spent 2-3 days poring
>over that information.  At the end, I got a useable ship but I find that
>it has quirks in that I made it more powerful than any merchant ship has
>any right to be.  Guidelines along "this constitutes a merchant", "this
>constitutes a pirate corsair", "this is a blockade ship", etc would be
>nice.

I have to disagree. I tend to view the Traveller/MT universe as a star-faring
version of the 18th-19th century sailing era. During that time, merchants were
often as heavily armed as warships, although usually a bit bigger than warships
of similar armament due to their cargo holds. Pirate corsairs were simply
warships or merchant ships under new management. I always had a great
disrespect for the 400t Corsair, available to Pirates under the old "Citizens
of the Imperium" book. A distinctive corsair like that would be attacked at
once by any Navy ships in the area. Better to have a free trader with some
decent weapons, and perhaps an upgraded computer. The Vargr corsair is exempt
from the above as, unlike in the Imperium, corsairing is an acceptable way of
life for Vargr. Of course, such a ship entering Imperial space does so at its
own risk!

===============================================

2. From: adrian@cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk
Subject: Technology in Trav/MT
Archive-Message-Number: 333

>   Equipment will get cheaper by approx. 10% per tech level.  Thus, making a
> TL 5 car at TL 9 should cost you .9^4 or 63% or the TL 9 cost.  Note that this
> makes TL 12 merchant ships dirt cheap by TL 15.  Why are the space lanes not
> full of these critters?  Because the TL 15 starport is swamped with offers to
> build TL 15 craft at full price.

I don't know about MegaTraveller, but the old Traveller universe _was_ full of
ships of TL 12, or lower. The Type S scout/courier and the Type A free trader,
the most common ships around, could be built and maintained at TL 9! Which
meant that you could buy one just about anywhere, and you could get spares for
it just about anywhere. The problem with TL 15 starports is, there aren't many.
What do you do if your TL 15 ship breaks down while you're at Regina (class A
starport, TL 10)? The TL 15 starport builds ships for megacorporations who
probably have their own private spares stores, and for the Navy who does have
private spares stores all over the place - naval bases.
 
>   Ilustrative example: The pocket computer.  It becomes available at TL 11

Does that mean that Earth is now TL 11? Because I own a pocket computer. It
has 32K memory, although that can be expanded. Seriously, although I wouldn't
class it as a model 1 (which I'm assuming is the equivalent of, say, a PDP-11)
I'd expect a pocket model 1 at around TL 8 or 9.
 
>   By the way, for ship computers, I allow a volume drop of about a factor of 2
> or 3 per tech level.  Thus, at TL 15, one may have a big, expensive, power
> hungry model 9, or a small, inexpensive model three that the ships engineer
> can carry on his belt.

Better yet, both. That way, if the ship's computer gets destroyed in battle,
you can use the belt computer to calculate your jumps to somewhere where you
can buy a new full size computer.

=============================================

3. From: HMCVAX.BITNET!SELLSWORTH@rutgers.edu
Subject: Thoughts on planetary GNP.
Archive-Message-Number: 335

 Thanks to the person who replied to my last post;  I would be more specific,
but my mailer ate the message.  I agree with what you said.  I would generalize
it as "on high tech worlds, manufacturing has many more capabilities, but these
add complexity and demnad, therefore costs to use."

  Last time, I wrote about a few theories I had on why I thought the traveller
technology setup is a bit messed up.  I also proposed a fix for the strange
lack of change in the available equipment at any given tech level.  I would
like to expand on that in terms of a generic credit rating system.

  Mega Traveller claims that a person spends 250cr/month per level of social
standing, regardless of where they are from.  I do not agree with this due to
the obvious holes in it.  F;oirst off, this means that a Duke spends only about
15 times what a social standing of 1 does.  Second, a duke from Regina would
seem to have a richer lifestyle than one from elsewhere.  I have started to fix
this in the following way.

  First off, define a base per capita GNP.  Striker claims that 2000 cr per TL
above 4 is good, thus a TL 15 person has a base GNP of 22000 cr.  I personally
woulkd modify this like so:

  TL | base GNP
  0     100
  1     250
  2     500
  3    1000
  4    2000
  5    3000
  6    4000
  7    6000
 ...
 15   22000

  This is then modified the trade classes of the world, ranging from 0.8 for
non-agricultural and non-industrial worlds to about 1.4 or 1.5 for a rich
world.  This seems reasonable to me, in that the per capita GNP of world with a
tech level below 4 is almost nonexistent compared to that produced at higher
tech levels.  Also, the amount of cash flowing through someone's hands when
they are on a rich world will be much higher than otherwise, while a poor world
will tend to have less credit flowing through any one person's hands.

  Now, this requires a calculation of how much each social class spends.  Here
I could use some help.  The other night, I figured out that the average person
gains +0.5 social standing through a typical run through the services.  Because
the Navy will tend to boost social standing by a significant amount, while the
pirates will attenuate it, I assumed the following distributions.

    After typical service, 24% of the population has SS drop by 1
                           35% does not change
                           35% raises by 1
                           10% raises by 2
                            1% raises by 3

  These are rough numbers; I intend to run a quick simulation to get a more
rtealistic distribution.  Anyone with the mustering out tables programmed into
a computer could do me a BIG favor by running a bunch of samples and mailing me
the results.

  One then applies this to the normal distribution of stats to get a *real*
spectrum of social standings.  From the reading I have done of the dugest group
stuff, there should be a bias towards the low level nobility due to the
Imperial requirement that all civil servants be part of the peerage.

  Now, once this is done, I will make an income distribution.  I am thinking
of having the lowest social classes live on about a third of the per capita
GNP, while the very highest live on about twenty or thirty times that.  I have
arbitrarily decided that the per capita GNP should be earned by social
standings of around 10, mostly because those above them are so profligate in
thier spending that they bias the curve upwards.  Suggestions?

  Finally, I am hoping to set some sort of "propensity to consume."  I am not
sure if this should be related to government type, or just a DM set thing.  I
am thinking of a range of 60-100% of production is immediately burned in the
society.  This suddenly becomes of interest to a character, as I will expect
them to keep this standard up when they are hired by a shipping company as
crew.  I postulate that there is an incredible desire on the part of most
people to get into space, but a great lack of qualified people who can actually
get those jobs, thus the salaries for space workers are generally much, much
higher than those for a ground worker.

  Thus, social standing will affect a characters income and spending habits
over a range of two orders of magnitude, also depending on what planet they
come from and the conditions they grew up under.  These then may be modified
as needed to produce a real variety of standards of living, as well as a quick
comparison between an adventurer's wealth and the typical planet denezin.

  Anyone see any serious flaws?  Anything that might make this a bit easier to
compute?

  With any luck, I should be able to get this done by semester's end.  Those
pesky finals may get in the way...

=================================================

4. From: "MARK A. POWER" <uabmap01@asnuab.asn.net>
Subject: Trade Digest

A couple of things for everyones perusal.

1:	Where do cargos come from?

An incident from the campaign I run brought on some questions.
Our heros met a free trader coming into system at the same time.
Since two traders arriving at a low population world (Paya/Aramis) at
the same time could have interesting consequences if they're both
trying to sell the same things, I randomly determined that the free
trader was carrying (among other things) 25 tons of silver on spec.
This didn't have any bearing on things until later in the week, when
one of the cargos for sale locally was silver.  Since Paya has a
population of around 1000, most cargos are probably trans-shipped
anyway, but this made the situation glaringly obvious.  How should
this effect cargo availability, price, etcetera?

2:	Another trade system?

I just picked up the new (#37) Challenge.  In it was a Bestiary column
on a small bird commonly found as a pet.  The interesting part was the
entry given for the "Lasias Lowalaa as cargo".

Lots:			1 kilogram each
Value:			Cr1000 each
Transport Price:	Cr50 per week
Transport Cost:		Cr5 each per week
Market:			Luxury item
Restriction:		+2
Availability:		7+
Special Handling:	Live animal.  Cannot be shipped in low berth.
			Special feeding requirements.

Does this format look familiar?  Is it for a trade and speculation
system we haven't considered?  Might it be useful for our system?

Mark

[ The above format reminds me of Small Goods from an article in the Journal,
a few years back, when I get home I will try and look it up and post something
for the next journal. - Greg ]
==============================================================================
TRADE AND COMMERCE DIGEST             | ****This*SPACE*intentionally*left****
Greg Givler, Editor                   | *************************************
James Perkins, List Administrator     | ************FULL*OF*STARS************
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send replies to: givler@cbmvax.uucp or givler@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com
==============================================================================


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-------- TML Message #360 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 360
Date: Wed, 10 May 89 10:52:19 -0500
From: uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!zephyr!gslisa!gsliss!jcunning@tektronix
Subject: AI and ship design stuff



A few words about AI: The idea presented is an interesting one, and
certainly would be a lot of fun. The limitation here, however, is
that AI comes into being only at higher tech levels. See Book 8,
Robots, for more on this. Also, remember the good old Kinunir in
Adventure One, which went slightly wacko and killed the ship's crew. (It also
lied to me a great deal when I found the ship and tried to use it for
my own. It ignored the jump instructions I gave it and turned itself
into the navy at Pixie, who payed me a mere CR25,000. Grrrrrr.)


About ships: Most of you have already seen my thoughts about
Megatraveller ship design. To be perfectly honest (Joe and Gary
forgive me if you're out there) I hate it. The original system was
not perfect at all, but I am willing to sacrifice some realism in 
return for more playability. I was going to write some material
based on some of my old High Passage stuff for Traveller`s Digest,
but the ship system is such a drag that I think I shall now pass
on the deal.

Let me ask this: Is there anyone who preferrs the Megatraveller ship design
system out there? Let's hear from you. I would be most interested in
learning about your reasons.


					Jim Cunningham
Traveller Relic





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-------- TML Message #361 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 361
Date: Wed, 10 May 89 15:01:29 MDT
From: (SULAIMAN) asulaima@udenva.cair.du.edu
Subject: MT ship design



Funny my ships keep coming out 10-15% cheaper. You may be doing something
wrong but if u are building a starship especially a merchant vessel here
are a few tips that will save u money and cargo space.

1. Decide on cargo space first.
2. Make Hull streamlined and not Airframe.
3. Don't put in EM Mask. Don't need it and not worth it either.
4. On cargo ships atleast u don't need Elecvtronic Circuit Protection.
5. Go for as small a maneuver drive as possible.
6. Go for smallest possible P-plant even if it means Agility 0. With the new
rules P-plants are really fuel hungry. It makes agility harder to reach but
a lot fewer MT ships have high agility anyway. The way rules are set up 
the smaller the ship the more likely it has high agility. Somehow seeing
a 100,000 t dreadnought pull agility 6 was a little hard to envision in old
High Guard.
7. Try to approach the 30/90 day limit on fuel for duration. It is not necessary
as long as you can keep it over 14/42 higher is preferable on Merch ships and
some warships with long loiter times (SDB's etc).
8. Try small staterooms for crew not bunks. Book suggests that bunk are for
vehicles etc I think. If requiring a large stateroom price it 250,000
not 400,000 as mentioned in Ref's book under accomodations. This is not
in the flowchart part unfortunately.

9. The Dweeb who designed the Subsidized merchant is wrong. He also bungled
the patrol cruiser(see my earlier posting). Subsidized merchant works
with Comp Model 2bis and reduced endurance I think its 22/66. Cost is higher
too but still less than old Traveller & High Guard costs. 
10. Problems appear at low tech levels where High Guard or Traveller old
designs CANNOT be directly translated. So consider this a new game and just
downgrade those designs until they can fly.

	Ameer Z. Sulaiman.


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-------- TML Message #362 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 362
From: uunet!netxcom!ewiles@tektronix.UUCP (Edwin Wiles)
Subject: Re:  Bis and Computers
Date: Wed, 10 May 89 11:59:14 EDT


>    unspecified hardware technology of AIs.  They can also be made relatively
>    fragile during combat.  I found that these conditions left plenty of
>    need for the usual player skills.

At least one game that I've looked over (played once, lack of players) had
AI's.  The gig was that an accident/failure would cause an AI to have a
malfunction, even if the accident was NOT a direct result of the AI hardware.

If the AI was part of something like a WarBot, you were in serious trouble!
The higher in development the AI was, the easier it was to have a malfunction.

It changes from "unusual accident causes dumb exploratory robot to fly erratic
course" to "accident causes smart medibot to inject wrong drug" to "common
failure causes inteligent life replicant to demonstrate epileptic seizure" to
........sneeze on superbrain wrong and it'll vaporize you while predicting
exactly where each of your component atoms will end up with an error rate of
less than 10^-999 percent.)
					How's that for interesting!

- -- 
...!hadron\   "Who?... Me?... WHAT opinions?!?" | Edwin Wiles
  ...!sundc\   Schedule: (n.) An ever changing	| NetExpress Comm., Inc.
   ...!pyrdc\			  nightmare.	| 1953 Gallows Rd. Suite 300
    ...!uunet!netxcom!ewiles			| Vienna, VA 22182

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-------- TML Message #363 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 363
Date: Thu, 11 May 89 08:04:40 EDT
From: vu0141@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu
Subject: Ship design


I'm not sure of the specifics, but its important to remember that the designs
in the Imperial Encyclopedia are standard designs and thus have a (I think)
20% discount because they are mass produced in such great quantities.

Fred Schiff (vu0141@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu)

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-------- TML Message #364 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 364
Date: Thu, 11 May 89 18:43:44 MDT
From: (SULAIMAN) asulaima@udenva.cair.du.edu
Subject: Ship design



This is is reponse to Jim Cunningham's article about the starship design etc.

First let me say that the editors of the Ref's manual(Joe Fugate?) etc ought
to be lynched. Second after all the kinks, I like the system. I heard the
same(its too hard...) arguments when High Guard came out and this system is
more playable. Ship design I admit is hard. However the design implicitly
makes a big deal out of a preplan. Meaning u have to be fairly specific about
the ship BEFORE u start. Add ons are a no-no. The design adds more flavor 
and makes u feel as if your ship has more than 1)Hull 2)Weapons 3)Computer
and 4) Cargo Hold. It gives the players more options as to what their ship 
can or cannot do. BTW Jim if you are having problems with ship design why don't
you ask for help. I thought that was part of the reason for this list. I'd 
be glad to build you your ship given your specifications and I'll e-mail u
the math too. I think that's a good idea and if people don't mind I'd like 
those with good ship design on their hands to post it. It could be made a part 
of the digest. I personally would like to see <TL15 ships. I have a few TL13
or so that I'll soon post. Am trying to convert Vargr Corsair to MT currently
so if anyone has ideas let me know.

	Ameer Z. Sulaiman.


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-------- TML Message #365 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 365
Date: Mon, 15 May 89 03:06:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: (Michael Francis Polis) mp3o+@andrew.cmu.edu
Subject: Starship Design


[I reformatted this article, before it was distributed, to make it more
readable--James]

This is in response to Ameer Sulaiman's response to Jim Cunningham's
article about starship design.

After all the kinks, I don't like the system.  I liked the High Guard
design rules the first time I saw them.  That's why I bought the book.
It takes time to design a ship in High Guard, but it's worth it.  You
get something that you couldn't have made before.  When I saw the
MegaTraveller design rules I was suprised by their length and by how
little they add to play.  Every goodie except sensors was already
available, either in Robots or in Striker.

In High Guard it is easy to preplan.  You find the total of the fixed
displacement components and the total of the percentage based
components.  You only need to allow a few extra power points for weapons
and agility.  This is enough to tell you the size of the hull.  In
MegaTraveller, one must consider control points, mass, volume (in kl),
and power ranging from Kilowatts to Gigawatts.  The best you can do is
take a guess at how big it will be (not easy for someone designing their
first ship).  Then come the goodies, pages of them.  How can you resist
the latest technology? What do you need on your ship? Is the neural
activity sensor really good for anything? How many forms of radios do
you need? What about a robot arm? Can I get my ship to load itself?
After those pages, the margin built in to your guess (assuming you were
lucky enough to have a margin for error) can dissappear, making you
recalculate every volume dependent component.

The design of any small craft under 20 tons has become a special case
under the new rules.  This is important as it is not possible to build a
fighter like the one in the Imperial Encyclopedia.  To see one of the
more obvious flaws, note that the power plant generates 186 Mw, while
the 2 beam lasers consume 250 Mw each when they fire.  Keeping track of
volume and mass while trying to shove enough components into a tiny
package to make a decent vehicle is not a task I enjoy.  Anybody try to
build a special grav vehicle to go with that custom ship?

Combining Striker and High Guard was a mistake.  It is the source of the
problems with (very) small craft, and it adds little of use to the game.
 The weapons and electronics that go into a starship are very different
from those that go into tank.  I doubt I will ever have occasion to
mount a howitzer on a starship, and I don't even want to think about a
tank mounting a UCP T particle accelerator.

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-------- TML Message #366 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 366
Date: 15 May 89 14:58 EDT
From: TIHOR@acf7.nyu.edu
Subject: bis


BIS shows up all over Europe to designate the second or upgraded model
of product.  Comes from the same Romance root as Bi- meaning TWO.
I do not recall off hand wether it is French or Latin though.

- -------

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-------- TML Message #367 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 367
From: (Adrian Hurt) uunet.uu.net!zephyr!mcvax!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian@tektronix
Subject: Starship Design
Date: Tue, 16 May 89 9:59:45 BST



>...						  The best you can do is
>take a guess at how big it will be (not easy for someone designing their
>first ship).  Then come the goodies, pages of them.
>...
>After those pages, the margin built in to your guess (assuming you were
>lucky enough to have a margin for error) can dissappear, making you
>recalculate every volume dependent component.

Now you know why the F-16 and F-18, originally supposed to be cheap, light
fighters, got to be big and expensive!

>Combining Striker and High Guard was a mistake.

No, that is a good idea. It is their implementation that may be at fault.
In fact, I always did dislike the High Guard assumption that mass and volume
were always the same; that density is constant for all ship components.
There's another thing I don't like, though. If your ship is big enough, why
can't you have more than one major weapon? Alright, so the main spinal mount
forms the "keel" of the ship. But what's wrong with a battleship having two
factor T meson guns on that keel? Come to that, what about a catamaran-type
design? Or, at the very least, a factor T meson gun and a couple of factor
J guns as secondaries.

> The weapons and electronics that go into a starship are very different
>from those that go into tank.

Not necessarily true. For one thing, according to Mercenary, at high TL's
gunships and SDB's become virtually indistinguishable. And I did design a
vehicle which took the standard starship turret-launched missiles - that
way, it could be re-armed at any starport of adequate TL.

One thing I do like about the new design system is that you can now have
spinal mount, bay mount and turret versions of the same type of weapon in
one ship. In High Guard, you could not have bay mount particle accelerators
and particle accelerator barbettes on the same ship, for example.

 "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 #368 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 368
Date: Wed, 17 May 89 00:14:20 MDT
From: (SULAIMAN) asulaima@udenva.cair.du.edu
Subject: Ship designs



I need a few destroyer class hulls for a Mega Traveller mini-campaign.

Should be less than 5000 tons and atleast greater than 2000t displacement.
No black globes and Tech 15 or less. Price no object. Should preferably
have a small troop complement. If anyone has any designs available 
that meet the req. I would be obliged.

	Thanks.

	Ameer Z. Sulaiman.


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-------- TML Message #369 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 369
Date: Wed, 17 May 89 10:26 EDT
From: B_MAHONE%UNHH.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Traveller's Aid Society


Greetings fellow Travellers!

I have a basic question.  How do you people play the Traveller's Aid Society?

All my information has come from the MegaTraveller books, and I am 99% ignorant
of what went on in the "original" manuals, so bear that in mind, please.
("New Referee, please do not bruise...")

Things like:

How do you handle day-to-day TAS functioning?

Do members get free lodging at a TAS hostel, or do they pay?

Are non-members allowed to pay for a room?

Every planet cannot have a TAS office- what are your criteria for TAS office
placement?

Anybody have a good layout of a TAS hostel?  Perhaps the one on Regina?  (If
so, would some kind soul post/mail me a copy?)

What kind of political involvement to you allow the TAS, if any?

What kind of services, besides picking up passages, do you offer to players?

For 1 *Million* credits, shouldn't a member have a room-for-life at his 'home'
hostel?   (Think of the classic image in literature of the social clubs in
London.  As an aside- read some P.G. Woodhouse: some great characters to update
and inflict on your players- some very funny NPC material in there!)

(Adrian - do such clubs still exist?)


In short, what *about* the TAS?  Any and all discussion appreciated.

                                  oo
- ---------------------------------m--m-----------------------------------------
Bob Mahoney                           PSC Computer Services, Plymouth NH 03264
BITNET: B_MAHONEY@UNHH                    uucp: [uunet!unh!,dartvax!]psc90!rem


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-------- TML Message #370 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 370
From: (Matt Goldman) goldman@ferris.cray.com
Subject: Re: Traveller's Aid Society (fwd)
Date: Fri, 19 May 89 4:16:24 CDT


Forwarded message:

From: goldman (Matt Goldman)
Message-Id: <8905190909.AA11965@ferris.cray.com>
Subject: Re: Traveller's Aid Society
To: 
Date: Fri, 19 May 89 4:09:16 CDT
Cc: goldman
In-Reply-To: <8905171435.AB11424@zephyr.ENS.TEK.COM>; from "B_MAHONE%UNHH.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU" at May 17, 89 10:26 am
Frustration-Level: Very high due to the mailer programme...
X-Mailer: Elm [version 2.1 PL1]

> I have a basic question.  How do you people play the Traveller's Aid Society?
> Things like:

> How do you handle day-to-day TAS functioning?
Players don't get to know that information.  TAS just happens.

> Do members get free lodging at a TAS hostel, or do they pay?
That depends on what part of the galaxy they are currently in, and the
mood of the referee...

> Are non-members allowed to pay for a room?
Depends upon how full the hotel is, who they are with, how much they
appear to be worth, and the mood of the referee.

> Every planet cannot have a TAS office- what are your criteria for TAS office
> placement?
Even though every planet is not able to have a TAS office, there are
many native hotel chains which will give substansial discounts to TAS
members.  Again, this depends on the mood of the referee.
	
> Anybody have a good layout of a TAS hostel?  Perhaps the one on Regina?  (If
> so, would some kind soul post/mail me a copy?)
The last N groups to visit my layout of a hostel (sometimes part of TAS,
sometimes not) have refered to it by many names; TAS hostle, Hotel
California, The Mall, and Hotel of Death, just to name a few.  I don't yet
have the floor plans in machine readable form but if you send me your
address I send you photocopies.

> What kind of political involvement to you allow the TAS, if any?
In the multiverse that I like to romp in, the TAS has very strange
politics.  Very few of my players have discovered that the TAS is run by
some *very* old humans.  No one has yet figured out exactly what the TAS's
goals are.

> What kind of services, besides picking up passages, do you offer to players?
That depends on where the office is located, what the players ask for, what
the NPC's ask for, how much money the players appear to have, and the mood
of the referee.

> For 1 *Million* credits, shouldn't a member have a room-for-life at his 'home'
> hostel?   
Yeah, but it is probably located in a very boring section of the galaxy.

> In short, what *about* the TAS?  Any and all discussion appreciated.
1) The TAS is not an Imperial run organization.
2) The goals of the TAS are as of yet unknown.
3) The TAS has access to a great deal of capital.
4) The TAS has a great deal of political power. (Old boys network)
5) The TAS is beyond the reach of laws.
     (What, you won't do what we say?  No problem.  We'll list you
      planet as an amber travel zone.  That will cut back the honest
      tourists and attract the player character terrorists...)

I hope that's good for starters.

                -Matt (aka Damion Biggs, aka Mike Weston, aka Winston
                       North, aka Otto M. Bond, aka Cmdr Thorndike, and
                       many others...)

P.S. Please let me know if this message went to the wrong address.


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-------- TML Message #371 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 371
Subject: Digest Distribution now available!
Date: Mon, 22 May 89 12:22:10 PDT
From: ("James T. Perkins") jamesp@dadla.LA.TEK.com



Hello TML Listees!

As of today I am accepting requests to move people from "instant"
delivery to "digest" delivery.  The current "instant" delivery method
sends TML messages to you as quickly as possible, giving you immediate
feedback on questions you mail to the list, and individual control over
the messages.  The new, "digest" delivery method coalesces 3 days' worth
of messages and sends a single-message "digest" every 3 days; providing
you with less frequent mail interruption, a higher signal-to-noise
ratio, and (unfortunately) slower response to any questions.

Both distribution methods are now running side-by-side; each of you can
choose which method of distribution you want.  Right now all of you are
marked for "instant" delivery *, and will stay that way unless I hear
otherwise.  If you'd like to change to "digest" delivery, just send me
mail requesting the change, and I'll cheerfully do it.

[* - Digest delivery beta-testers are being left as they now are, as
"digest" recipients.  You people know who you are.]

On another topic, list traffic has taken a dip lately.  Everyone must
have gone back to work :-).

James

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Tektronix Digital Systems Division	     "Load Auto/Evade, Beowulf!"
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-------- TML Message #372 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 372
Date: Tue, 23 May 89 09:29:24 -0700
From: ("Scott Holter v5.1") evil@blake.acs.washington.edu
Subject: alternate game mechanics for Traveller


At the risk of charges of treason, I must confess that the Traveller
and MegaTraveller game mechanics leave me unsatisfied.  Traveller combat
made a target either automatically hit, or automatically missed --- or
so it seemed.  (Just *try* to hit a character in combat armor with your
wimpy little autopistol.)  Starship combat was even worse:  it was easy,
though expensive, to design a small ship that was impervious to anything
short of a spinal mount meson gun.  (So I'm exaggerating a little....
But not much.)

MT did not fix these things very well.  The new all-purpose task system
is a good idea, but it is a pretty chunky step-function (ie, "granular"
in the popular syntax).

But Traveller has always been a great game not because of its mechanics,
but because of its background.  I like the Imperium.  I like the character
generation, with its inherent way of fleshing out a character history.
I like the "look and feel."

My question:  has anyone had success transplanting another system of
game mechanics into the Traveller universe?  (I have done so with 
a homemade system, with a fair to good level of success.  But it would
be nice to find a commercial system that would work as well.)

- ---Scott Holter                      evil@blake.washington.edu

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-------- TML Message #373 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 373
From: (Adrian Hurt) uunet.uu.net!zephyr.ENS.TEK.COM!mcvax!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: Traveller's Aid Society
Date: Wed, 24 May 89 14:56:09 BST



> I have a basic question.  How do you people play the Traveller's Aid Society?
> 
> Things like:
> 
> Do members get free lodging at a TAS hostel, or do they pay?
Free lodging, but such hostels aren't the best accomodation around. They aren't
bad, but they're not usually luxury either.

 
> Are non-members allowed to pay for a room?
Yes.
 
> Every planet cannot have a TAS office- what are your criteria for TAS office
> placement?
It must be within the Imperium. Usually, it should have a decent starport and
a reasonable sized population. Perhaps starport C at least, and population
at least a few thousand.
 
> What kind of political involvement to you allow the TAS, if any?
None.
 
> What kind of services, besides picking up passages, do you offer to players?
For one thing, a place to leave their weapons. Unless you own your own ship,
owning a laser rifle has serious problems if you want to visit a civilised
planet, unless you can find somewhere safe to leave it while you wander around.
 
>(Think of the classic image in literature of the social clubs in London.
>As an aside- read some P.G. Woodhouse: some great characters to update
> and inflict on your players- some very funny NPC material in there!)
> 
> (Adrian - do such clubs still exist?)

I think they exist, though not quite as they used to be. For one thing, women
are now admitted. (Curious, that: no-one objects to women-only clubs.)

 "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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