
-------- TML Message #420 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 420
From: (Bertil Jonell) bertil@ranko.cd.chalmers.se
Subject: IS THERE ANY ROBOTS OUT THERE?
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 89 9:56:16 MET DST


Hi!
 
Is there anybody out there on TML that's got some good warbot designs.
I'm specially intrerested in Hiver Six Eyes Nest's models
(But dont tell that to the Marines :-) :-)
Other robot designs are also welcome.
- -bertil-
 
"Shitty weather on this rock" Imperial Marines Lieutenant Kiara Travernier
 			      After landing with the 14th Marines Frontier
 			      Group "Unleashed Lightning" on the infamous
 			      planet Jinx (Spinward Marches).
"That animal, Wonder what it ate??"
"I guess we don't want to know!!!" LanceCorporal Luena Jekatrinova and Private
 				   Johann Shulamikash a little while later.
      _________________________________________________________________________
     |                   *** SCROLL OF MAGIC NETTING ***                       |
 /-------------------------------------------------------------------------/-\ |
/  Bertil K K Jonell @ Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg      /_ _\|
|  NET: bertil@cd.chalmers.se                                             | | ||
|  VOICE: +46 31 723971 / +46 300 61004     "Don`t worry,I`ve got Pilot-7"| | ||
\  SNAILMAIL: Box 154,S-43900 Onsala,SWEDEN      (Famous last words)      \_\_//
 \-------------------------------------------------------------------------\--/

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-------- TML Message #421 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 421
From: (Adrian Hurt) adrian%cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Subject: Vargr and other aliens
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 89 9:29:04 BST



> 1. I have nothing to add to the miniatures discussion; I don't use them, 
> myself.

O.K., you can sneak out the back door then.
(Hey, I was only kidding!!! :-)
 
> And now a question to the Group in general: how popular are the alien races 
> for PCs in your campaigns, and which ones do people prefer? I'm partial to 
> Vargr, myself, and every now and then I get the feeling that I'm the only one 
> in the Orion Arm who runs them as anything other than greedy little cowards.

I also like Vargr, because they can do pretty much as they like. Greedy little
cowards they are not (at least, not all). I played in a campaign which started
off with all human characters, until I bought the Vargr Alien Module and rolled
one up. I had in fact joined a campaign after its first adventure, which had
been to deliver a cargo of liquors to Roup. The others, while there, had helped
themselves to a decrepit scout/courier and parked it in the scout base while
they went to get parts for its jump-drive, and someone who could fit them.
Enter my ex-Army, ex-Navy Vargr, who amongst other skills had Engineer-2. When
we got back, we found a pirate ship in port. My Vargr, having no respect for
authority, took the scout ship down next to it and calmly blew its drives out,
then lifted off again, followed by much noise from air-traffic control. Roup
wasn't pleased with us, because the scout/courier was 1/4 of their navy! We
went to a naval base to report the pirate ship. The choice was Regina or Feri;
we chose Feri because it was smaller, and might let us help capture the
pirates. In fact they sent a Gazelle-class escort, which tolerated our company.
Back at Roup, the Navy commander demanded that the pirates be handed over, and
some prisoners were brought forward. I can't remember why, but we got a bit
suspicious; the prisoners turned out to be political prisoners from Roup, and
not one pirate among them. Now the Navy officer had no authority to threaten a
planet's government. Nor did my Vargr, but that didn't stop him doing so anyway
on behalf of the Navy. The pirates were brought forward.

My next coup was to get all these humans to visit the Vargr's home planet,
Kedzudh. I'd spotted in the Alien Module that this place was TL16, law level 1.
You can check this if you don't believe me - it may be a printing error, but it
is there. The problem was that we had to pass a corsair base on the way. Now
my Vargr had high Charisma, and his plan was to let a corsair attack, then take
command of it. It didn't quite work out like that, there was a bit of a fight,
but we ended up with the corsair and most of its crew. One or two humans died
in the fight; they took Vargr as new characters. In due time all the humans
died or left, and were replaced by Vargr.

We also had a mercenary game using just Aslan in one of their formalized wars.
Each side was allowed a fixed amount of money and a limited set of stuff from
which to buy what they wanted. This time I was refereeing, as well as running
one side; the players had PC's in the other side. They had serious trouble as
I invested a lot in air power, and in particular one 50 ton cutter fitted out
with every piece of electronics available from Striker to TL12. Eventually they
won by getting some Assassins (Aslan Ninja/commandos) into my H.Q.

 "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 #422 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 422
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 89 13:48 EST
From: WRICKER@northeastern.edu
Subject: RE: Miniatures


The figures I'm currently painting for variant traveller are 20mm and 25mm
figures from Ral Partha's lines for Call of Cluthlu, Danger Int'l, etc.,
and Twilight 2000.  The TW2000 figures are variously NATO and WARPACT
soldiers and semi-armed indigenous personel, with modern weapons.  They'll
paint as SF even better than the WWII figures mentioned previously.  20mm
figs can be used on the 100:1 maps designed for 15mm figs without the extreme
stresses of 25mm.  Alternatively, you can use blow-up mode at your favorite
copier to up-scale you ship prints.
- --Bill Ricker

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-------- TML Message #423 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 423
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 89 23:01:23 EDT
From: (wilson m liaw) macgyver@cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Gravity and Black Globes



	Here is some stuff which a friend of mine has ask me to repost.

     1)  Can a ship in a black globe be detected by a densitometer?
     2)  Can a ship in a black globe be affected by a repulsor or
 tractor?
      Its not necessary to get the right answer, just one that seems
 consistent with Traveller.  As the answers build up and the discussion
 progresses, there might be a problem with consistency, in which case
 we can go back and change an answer.
      To let you know what I'm really doing, I'm planning to write an
 article tentatively called "Tech Briefs: Gravitics".  This is an
 intensely complex subject considering the many different ways
 gravitics are employed in Traveller, from stiffeners to TDX.ALI'm not
 so concerned about explaining gravitics as I am about describing
 reasonably and consistently how it is applied in Traveller.  So, I'm
 hoping this open discussion with the rest of you will help.
      I'm starting off the black globe because Mike Jackson (Third
 Imperium fanzine; Canada) was thinking of doing an article for Digest
 on globes.  So, this will help his work as well.
                                                            MIKE MIKESH
     Mass is related to momemtum (the faster you go the heavier you get). 
     If a ship has momemtum it has mass (as far as I know, at least according
to Einstein's theories).  However, I don't know if it has the mass that could
be detected by a densitometer (I don't believe densitometers measure mass as
such).  Maybe WILSON can pass this onto USENET (there might be more technical
people there, ie. some people who know more physics than we do, to give us a
better answer).  If the globe has mass, it might probably be affected by a
tractor or repulsor.


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-------- TML Message #424 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 424
Subject: Re: Gravity and Black Globes 
Date: 06 Jul 89 11:11:16 PDT (Thu)
From: jamesp



>      1)  Can a ship in a black globe be detected by a densitometer?

	Well, my understanding was that a black globe sucked up all
	incident "energy".  Apparently, this is all energy in the form
	of electromagnetic radiation.  Less understandably, the Black
	Globe affects the manueverability of the craft inside.  I have
	assumed that this is because as well as absorbing the
	electromagnetic force (photons), it absorbs gravity too
	(gravitons), rendering reactionless thrustors and gravitic drives
	useless.

	This leaves the strong and weak nuclear forces
	which it apparently doesn't affect.  I don't know if it can
	affect the strong force; this might make it capable of
	disintegrating the nuclei of matter which passes through it,
	which would liberate a lot of energy and make it a very bad idea
	to let the black globe touch any matter.

	As the black globe absorbs gravitons, it shields the ship inside
	from the gravitational effects of the outside.  Hence, while the
	black globe is "on", the ship would not appear on a
	densitometer, which indicates in which direction large sources
	of gravitons exist.

	But, the black globe "prevents any transit" of matter across its
	boundary.  How it accomplishes this is a mystery to me.  My
	guess is that it appears to be matter to matter striking it,
	meaning that it has an electronic/nuclear structure that
	resembles matter.  To prevent degenerate forms of matter from
	bursting through the field, the black globe would need to appear
	as dense as neutronium, while maintaining its masslessness.
	Perhaps this is achievable by weaving a web of nearly
	impenetrable strong nuclear force over the surface of the globe.
	I would suppose that if someone sent an ultradense kinetic
	weapon moving near the speed of light, it would be possible to
	rupture the black globe's integrity until it was turned back on.
	Somebody help me out; this concept is starting to become very
	difficult to explore.

>      2)  Can a ship in a black globe be affected by a repulsor or
>  tractor?

	A repulsor or tractor creates a directed (anti-) gravity field,
	or conceptually, a stream of (anti-) gravitons, to affect its
	target.  I would think that the black globe would render a
	degree of immunity from gravity weapons similar to its immunity
	from densitometer detection.

Now, since a black globe is flickering, the ship should emit and absorb
gravitons any time the block globe is off.  For stealth, the globe ought
to be set to flicker at a rate which makes the ship appear to be
invisible.  For protection from gravitic weapon fire, the black globe
should be on as much as possible.

I would think that combining gravitic and electromagnetic sensors would
make detecting a stealthy black-globe-equipped ship much simpler, since
the black globe has two desriable flicker rates: one which makes it
blend into the electromagnetic background, and one which makes it blend
into the gravitic background.  If these two flicker rates are quite
different, the ship will have to choose to hide from a particular type
of sensor and will be visible (to some degree) with the other.  The
greater the disparity in desirable flicker rates, the more obvious the
ship is.  Considering the sensitivity of sensors, I would choose to
always flicker the black globe for electromagnetic stealth; the gravitic
sensors tend to be less sensitive for locating an object, and less able
to indicate the type/configuration of a object that is only visible
gravitcally.

>      Mass is related to momemtum (the faster you go the heavier you get). 
>      If a ship has momemtum it has mass (as far as I know, at least according
> to Einstein's theories).  However, I don't know if it has the mass that could
> be detected by a densitometer (I don't believe densitometers measure mass as
> such).  Maybe WILSON can pass this onto USENET (there might be more technical
> people there, ie. some people who know more physics than we do, to give us a
> better answer).  If the globe has mass, it might probably be affected by a
> tractor or repulsor.

Ah, but photons have MOMENTUM, but are MASSLESS!  I think the key is in
interpreting densitometers as graviton counters.  I also think that the
globe itself need not mass anything, instead taking the form of a
multi-force field matrix (electromagnetic, strong, gravitic) bound into a
limited region of space (a sphere), with siphons to redirect energy flow
into appropriate collectors, which absorb the energy and store it as
stored electric potential in capacitors.

James

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-------- TML Message #425 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 425
From: scratch@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu (Steven J Owens)
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 89 19:29:03 EDT
Subject: Re: Gravity and Black Globes


> 	Here is some stuff which a friend of mine has ask me to repost.
> 
>      1)  Can a ship in a black globe be detected by a densitometer?
>      2)  Can a ship in a black globe be affected by a repulsor or
>  tractor?

	I'm neither particularly knowledgable about physics nor traveller,
but the impression I seemed to get from reading about Black Globes was that
they weren't so much mass as energy of a sort... or to be more specific,
lack of energy.  I suppose that the simplest way to think of them is that 
they generate a field of some sort that then conducts energy directed at
it into some storage medium hooked up to the field generator.  Since energy
cannot escape from the Black Globe, it would seem reasonable that the 
densitometer cannot detect the mass of the ship within it... then again,
if the densitometer works not by detecting gravitic energy, but by sensing
the changes in the "shape of space" caused by mass, it would be reasonable
to assume that it CAN detect the ship.  Too many unknowns, I suppose.

>      Mass is related to momemtum (the faster you go the heavier you get). 

	Uh, not quite... it's sort of the other way around.  Just because
there is a Mass ==> Momentum relationship doesn't mean that there is a 
Momentum ==> Mass relationship.   
	
>      If a ship has momemtum it has mass (as far as I know, at least
> according to Einstein's theories).  

	If a ship has mass and is moving, it has momentum (same disclaimer).

> However, I don't know if it has the mass that could be detected by a
> densitometer (I don't believe densitometers measure mass as such).

	Same problem as above... I'm not really sure how densitometers
could detect gravity...

Steven J. Owens  		| "Twist ye, twine ye!  Even so,
Scratch@Pittvms  		|  Mingled shades of joy and woe,
Scratch@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu	|  Hope and fear, and joy, and strife,
jscratch@eklektik.pgh.pa.us	|  In the thread of human life."



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-------- TML Message #426 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 426
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 89 00:37:14 EDT
From: (wilson m liaw) macgyver@cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Information on HIWG


 From David Lai, Chief of the United Kingdom (UK)'s HIWG division: -
     WHAT IS HIWG? The History of the Imperium Working Group (HIWG)
is dedicated to the development of material for the Universe of the Third
Imperium during the Rebellion Era, featured in GDW's MEGATRAVELLER game.  It
was originally founded by Ed Edwards and Mike Mikesh in the United States in
1987, and since then the membership has grown steadily to over seventy members
in the USA, Canada, and the UK.  Because of some of the "professional"
contacts it has, some of the work of HIWG has already made print in the pages
of GDW's REBELLION SOURCEBOOK.
     Primarily, HIWG is a postal discussion group.  Much of what is discussed
revolves around the politics of the Rebellion and events, rather than
adventures and equipment for characters to buy.  
    Like many things in life, you get as much out of HIWG as you put into it,
so if you are interested in a certain aspect of MEGATRAVELLER or the
Rebellion, chances are that there's someone in HIWG who's either currently
conducting a discussion on it, or is willing to start!  To help with
discussions, members can volunteer to take on a post as a correspondent or
analyst for a particular region (Domain or Sector) or a faction of the
Rebellion (e.g. Lucan's Imperium, ani confederation, etc), that interests them
and attempt to furnish the region with further dtail.  These posts are
 assigned on the basis of "first come, first served", and so it's best for new
members to inquire what vacancies exist first before applying for a post.
There also exist other special interest groups that consider certain aspects
of the Rebellion, such as the Science and Technology Special Interest Group,
which considers the implications of the technology of the TRAVELLER Universe,
and the Espionage Secial Interest Group which considers the activities of the
various intelligence agencies active during the Rebellion.  Other interest
groups seek to promote the use of computers in TRAVELLER and to exchange
magnetic data. Three groups already formed are for the Atari-ST, Amegia, the
IBM PC.
     The main means of expression outside letter writing is a HIWG
Publication.
 Sometimes in a letter, one can find that you can waffle on for several pages
on one particular topic, which with a little tidying up could constitute a
small article.  Sometimes one might wish to discuss a certain problem, such as
"Who is the 'real' Strephon?", in the form of an open ended article inviting
comment.  In each case, they could be turned into a HIWG Pub and made
available (for a small photocopying fee) to anyone who was interested.


HOW TO JOIN HIWG

The new member package for HIWG contains:
      1) the latest TIFFANY STAR
      2) the official 1125 map of the Imperia by Marc Miller
      3) a really spiffy certificate of membership in HIWG in your name
      4) example HIWG Pub (this varies from new member to new member - 
 depends on what I have extra copies of - of course. I send out copies
 of the $0.30 items, not the $3.00  items).
      5) HIWG Pub List (HPL) - denotes the organization of HIWG
 and the HIWG Pubs available for ten cents a page.

 The normal membership in HIWG costs $12 per year.  This includes six issues of
 the fanzine: TIFFANY STAR (TS). 

                       -Mega Good TRAVELLERing!!!
                       -Ed


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-------- TML Message #427 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 427
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 89 08:17:11 EDT
From: (wilson m liaw) macgyver@cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Cyberpunk in 2300



	A while ago, someone was asking about the source book for cyberpunk
in 2300 AD. The name is called Earth/Cybertech Source book. Only a small
portion of the book deals with Cybertech. The equipment listing is incomplete,
I mean just image, you can't have telescopic eyes installed? However, there
is still hope. The next two adventures that's going to be release by GDW
are cybertech based adventure. Also, Challenge will have a couple of articles
that deals with cybertech. GDW is doing their best to improve the cyberpunk
stuff in 2300.

	Hope this helps.

				Mac

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-------- TML Message #428 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 428
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 89 19:18:03 EDT
From: (wilson m liaw) macgyver@cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: More info on Alien source book #1



 The MegaTraveller Alien, vol 1 (DGP) 144 pages

   - Covers these races in great detail:
   - Solomani (humans of Terra)
   - Zhodani (humans of Zhodane)
   - Vilani (humans of Vland)
   - Aslan
   - Vargr
   - Anatomical drawings of a male, female, and child for each race
   - Comparative illustration with all races in one picture
   - Detailed examples to help referees use the race as an NPC in a game 
   - Detailed examples to help players play the race in a game
   - New, never-before published details about each race
   - New suggestions to make each race FUN to play

There you go.

			Mac

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-------- TML Message #429 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 429
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 89 09:31 EST
From: METLAY@vms.cis.pittsburgh.edu
Subject: the HIWG



Has anyone noticed that the letter doesn't say where to send yer 12 bux?

metlay

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-------- TML Message #430 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 430
Subject: Re: Gravity and Black Globes 
Date: 10 Jul 89 09:54:46 PDT (Mon)
From: jamesp



> Why does the Black Globe have to act like a *barrier* to solid, high-speed
> objects?  More likely is that it absorbs all types of energy impinging on
> it, including kinetic energy.

> Result:  that salvo of missiles was just stopped dead in its tracks at the
> edge of the field, within whatever common reference frame you happen to be
> using for the combat.  There is nothing to prevent them entering the field
> thereafter if, for example, the ship using the globe moves toward them.

> Am I making sense?
> 8 )

Since I can't conceive of how a "real" black globe could possibly be
engineered, your suggestion makes as much sense as any other.

If we assume your suggestion is correct, then it would be easy to blow
up a ship by throwing enough mass at a high enough speed at the black
globe.  Shoot a heavy piece of ordinance at .9c at the black globe, and
watch the sparks fly!

Alternatively, you could keep the Black Globe installation on a ship a
secret.  Then, as the opponent brings his fighter or boarding ship in
for the kill, you wait for them to get closer, closer, closer, and turn
on the shield at the last minute.  WHAM! It's as if they just crashed
into an asteroid.  Hope your capacitors can handle the kinetic energy
and resultant fuel explosions aboard the incoming craft.

I would tend to think that letting a mass with large kinetic energy
strike the black globe is almost as useful as letting it strike the hull
of your ship.  CRUNCH!  Only it's worse because having the capacitors
explode is an internal explosion, whereas hull damage is external
damage.

If we really wanted to get carried away, we could assume "all energy"
means kinetic, radiant (E-M, Gravity, Nuclear) and potential energy.
This would mean that the binding energy of molecules, atoms, and
subamtomic particles is absorbed by the field.  Unfortunately, this
would cause everything that struck the field to act as if it were a
nuclear explosion, and the matter would disintegrate.  This doesn't seem
to match the intended game balance.

I'm getting tired of theorizing.  Does anybody have "The Mote in God's
Eye" by Pournelle and Niven (I think those were the authors)?  I would
sure appreciate someone searching for an explanation of what the original
black globe was.

James

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-------- TML Message #431 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 431
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 89 11:43:52 EDT
From: (Edward J Driscoll) ejd@caen.engin.umich.edu
Subject: MT questions/observations



    This weekend my friend and I *finally* got around to
    trying out MegaTraveller.  Our objective was not to
    start a game, but merely to exercise the rules a little
    bit to see if we understood and/or liked them.  Several
    questions, observations, and potential modifications
    suggested themselves, which I would like to submit for
    your analysis and commentary:


    (1) How many printings are there?  This isn't really a
    rules question, but during the course of play it became
    clear that there were discrepancies between my manuals
    and my friend's.  The discrepancies we noticed were in
    the combat section.  His copy has a typo about the
    maximum DM to any roll being *18*.  However, his copy
    also has some additions and/or corrections to the
    personal slug throwers table on p76.  We bought our
    boxed sets in the same store, about 4-6 months apart
    (mine first).  This isn't really devastating or
    anything, since we tend to be "house rules" players
    anyway.  However, I was extremely annoyed that not only
    do I have to live with inexcusable editing, I have to
    live with conflicting sets of inexcusable editing.  What
    gives?


    (2) Surprise roll:  Surprise is a DIFFICULT task and on
    exceptional failure, the defending party has surprise
    instead.  This seems utterly nonsensical to me.  Since a
    difficult task is an 11+, which makes exceptional
    failure a 9-, it is far more likely for the party making
    the first agressive move to be surprised....

    Tom:    "Let's hide in the bushes and ambush the sentry
            when he comes by!"

    Fred:   "Don't be a fool!  We'll stand out in the open and
            wait for him to make the first move.  Then we'll
            surprise him for sure!"
  
    Am I missing something here?


    (3) Exceptional????  Why is "exceptional"
    success/failure only +/- 2?  It seems to me that with
    such a small spread between success/failure and
    exceptional success/failure, then the latter is going to
    occur more often than the former.  In other words,
    the exception is not exceptional after all, but normal.
    We decided that +/- 4 would be exceptional
    success/failure.  This also has some sort of symmetry
    with the +/- 4 division between various difficulties of
    tasks.  That is, exceptional success on a difficult task
    requires the same effort as regular success on a
    formidable task.


    (4) Starship computers in combat:  Even in old Traveller
    I disliked how much the ship computer affected starship
    combat.  I'd rather have the outcome be determined by
    the skills of the crew, not how much the owner layed out
    for a computer.  On the other hand, I don't want them
    factored out entirely.  I picture the real heavyweight
    ships (battle cruisers, dreadnoughts, and so forth) as
    having computers which are powerful enough to affect
    combat.
 
    Our solution to this was first of all to replace all
    DM's for computer level by appropriate skills (piloting,
    gunnery, sensor ops, and so on).  Optionally, the
    computer level *divided by three* can serve in place of
    the appropriate skill, fractions rounded down.  Our
    experience has been that this rule does a good job of
    simulating the balance between human skills and
    computers that we want in our games (heavily slanted
    toward the humans).


    (5) Starship agility:  We don't like this attribute at
    all.  Scientific or not, we want the ship's maneuver
    drive capabilities to represent it's combat agility.  So
    a "fast" ship is one with a 6-G Maneuver drive, not one
    with a 1-G drive and an oversized power plant.  (Of
    course, it will take more power plant to support the
    bigger drives.)  Our house rule is that agility =
    Maneuver drive.  Seems to work for us so far.



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