
-------- TML Message #692 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 692
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 09:53:29 -0600
From: wrgate.wr.tek.com!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!gslisa!gsliss!jcunning@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: misc. things




A few misc. things:

Some of you have had problems reaching me via "direct" E-mail.
This system I am using, I am told, will only recognize my
address if everything is in lower case letters; anything in
caps will bounce back.

I have received several messages indicating interest in High
Passage back issues. I'm happy to supply them-- all I ask is
$1 for each copy to cover postage, and please let me know of
your regular address so I know where to send them. If you're
interested, please drop me a line about what issues you want
and your post address, and I'll send 'em post haste. I also 
need your address to send copies of old JTAS articles. My
postal address is:

Jim Cunningham
1604 Coronado Dr. #7
Champaign, IL 61820

Regarding HP #1, I only have a couple of copies myself. We
only printed 1,000, and they were gone before we knew it.
You might try your local game convention aucctions-- I've 
seen copies sold for less than cover price. Besides, #1 
was our first effort, and trust me, it's not that good (well,
it's better than any of the junk Group One ever did...).

Regarding sector data for the Imperium: DG is going to
put out the sector data of the Imperium on disk for most
popular computer formats; see the inside back cover of
The World Builder's Handbook for info. GDW used to have
a photocopied hard copy available called Sector Data which
you could order from them, but that was a while back and
it may very well no longer be available. They also put out
The Atlas of the Imperium which had "abbreviated" sector
maps with some infor like starport type and things. That's
out of print too.

Have a good weekend, my friends.

			Jim Cunningham
			Traveller Relic

Something we'll ner see department: A K'kree elevator operator.



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-------- TML Message #693 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 693
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 13:21:28 -0500
From: (Mark Gellis) f3w@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
Subject: Frontiers



I just read Paul's discussion of the frontier.  It is very similar to
my own, in terms of how law operates, etc.  I thought I would describe
the parameters of the "frontier" in my gameworld for anyone who wants
to use these ideas.

First, I don't use the Jump drive system; instead, solar systems are
linked by what I call hypergates--remember the star gates in 2001?  It's
the same "big machine that punches a hole through hyperspace" routine.
I do this for two reasons--one, I find it more plausible, and two, it
allows the GM greater control over who gets into any particular solar
system.  Hypergates can basically open a gateway to anywhere in the
universe, but there are problems with opening a gateway closer than
two or three billion km. from a star-sized mass.

Also, I don't believe in gravity control.  This means that spacecraft
boost at one gravity (or sometimes more than that, but not for very long;
obviously, spacecraft can have powerful engines that will let them go at
extreme speed for a while, and there are drugs that counteract some of the
effects of high gravity (for a while), etc.)  This means that besides the
standard "new solar system being colonized" frontier, you've got an even
bigger and better one waiting for players in every existing solar system.

The cometary halo.  

The cometary halo extends to about one third the distance to the next star.
About one light year.  Cometary nuclei are believed to be spaced about two
billion km. apart.  Roughly, that means one hundred billion to one trillion
cometary nuclei in any cometary halo/oort cloud.  Since it takes about
three months to travel one hundred billion km. at one gravity (coasting
about two thirds of that time because there is a limit to how much fuel
you can carry, even if you are using fusion engines), most of the cometary
halo is totally beyond the reach of any central authority.

So what, I hear you ask.  Comets are useless.  Big, dirty snowballs.  
Oh, contrare, mon frere (or however that's spelled).  Comets are (a) water,
(b) hydrogen (= fuel for fusion power plants), (c) a small percentage of
organic chemicals and silicates ( = raw materials for building materials
and synthesized foodstuffs and trade goods).  If you belong to a space-
industrialized society, comets certainly don't rank as high as a good
high metal content asteroid, but they are a real source of usable raw
materials.  (=habitats....and adventures).

So who the hell lives out there?  Well, anyone who finds an asteroid belt
with a population of two hundred billion two damned crowded.  Anyone who
feels that opportunities in the cometary halo with its quintillions of tons
of untapped and unclaimed raw materials make it worth the risks and hard-
ships of going out there.  (After all, when you have London, why would
anyone risk the wilderness of, say, Ohio?  Because there are opportunities.)
Anyone who is at odds with the ruling ideology.  (Yes, hippies in space.)
Or anyone who is running from the law, or exiled by the law.  Religious
cults.  Corporate outposts.  Research facilities.  Mining colonies.  
Pirate bases.  Rebel bases.  (Not to mention friendly, and unfriendly
military outposts placed in the halo so they can observe the inner system--
with big space telescopes...free floating antenae can be made of wire and
kilometers across in free fall--in safe isolation.)  All this and more.
Waiting for anyone with a little capital and enough nerve to stake a claim.
Just like our player characters, huh?

Well, I've rambled long enough.  Take care, all.  Enjoy.

     Mark

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-------- TML Message #694 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 694
From: ("C. Harald Koch") chk@alias
Subject: Non-adventure adventures
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 14:35:52 EST


> One final note.  Just so everyone won't think all I do is try to make
> my players miserable, I try to sometimes run just goofy adventures where
> no one really gets hurt, even if they don't make much money.  If you want
> a good "module" for this kind of thing--rent the Marx Brothers movie 
> "Animal Crackers" and then let your players get invited to this kind of
> party and be involved in finding the lost painting.

We sometimes do things like this. We have "shore leave" adventures every
once in a while where we all go out bar hopping (getting thrown out of bars
causes us to move often). Our characters are the crew of a starship so we
play sailors on leave; carousing people out to have a boisterous good time.

Of course, we *always* get into some sort of trouble. Once two of the
characters decided to have a drag race in downtown Toronto... the resulting
multi-vehicle high speed chase was both amusing and destructive...

We even invented a skill, "carousing". useful for picking up members of the
opposite sex, *not* getting clobbered by people larger than oneself, etc.

It is fun to get away from adventuring and just have a good time... (And
yes, we do go out carousing in real life too; we just don't get into as much
trouble doing it).

- -- 
C. Harald Koch                        Alias Research, Inc., Toronto ON Canada
chk%alias@csri.utoronto.ca      chk@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu      chk@chk.mef.org
"There is no problem, no matter how large or how small, that cannot be solved
 by a suitable application of high explosives."               -Leo Graf, 2298


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-------- TML Message #695 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 695
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 21:17:14 -0500
From: (Dumpmaster John) jco@ufl.edu
Subject: Maintenance



Do you people REALLY make your players say, "I'm doing maintenance on my rifle
and sharping my boot knife."  I would interpert this as very bored players.

Ship maintenance I can see, this takes special equipment and lots of time.
But unless there is an overwelming reason to believe that the work couldn't
have been performed.

Do the players have to say they are backing up there computers disk files?
How about cleaning there clothes?  :-)   

later
jco

"What would Rock and Roll be without feedback?" -- D. Gilmour
In Real Life:		UUCP: {gatech|mailrus}!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!jco
John C. Orthoefer	Internet: jco@beach.cis.ufl.edu
University of Florida	Floyd Mailing List: eclipse-request@beach.cis.ufl.edu

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-------- TML Message #696 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 696
From: (Adrian Hurt) adrian%cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Nukes in Traveller
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 89 12:46:44 BST


> ...		I most emphatically DO NOT want a bunch of PCs with a
> subsidized merchant taking on squadrons of Vargr corsairs, Imperial
> cruisers, or whatever.  Believe me, some of my players would do it too!

Well, as Imperial cruisers are about the only ships legall allowed nukes,
the PC's life expectancy is rather short.  Vargr corsairs aren't allowed
them, but since when do they care what they're allowed?  They might have
problems getting them, though - even Vargr worlds are going to be careful]
who they allow to buy such weapons.

>      Basically, if you are going to permit the players to acquire heavy
> weaponry, be it nukes, battle dress and FGMP-14s, or whatever, you have
> to provide them with appropriate challenges to overcome.

Like opposition similarly armed.  That's the real problem with such things;
combat tends to be lethal.  At least if you get hit by a gauss rifle, you
can survive to pay the doctor.  By contrast, even a near miss from a FGMP
is dangerous, and a hit is fatal even if you're wearing the best armour.

 "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 #697 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 697
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 89 09:00 EDT
From: B_MAHONE%UNHH.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Does Norris have a family?


Metlay & Co.-

*Does* Norris have a family?  Who is heir to his titles?  Anyone know?

                                     -Bob

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-------- TML Message #698 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 698
Date: Sun, 12 Nov 89 14:29:19 EST
From: (Chris Bartlett) cdba_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
Subject: Starship design



     I've been reading some of the old TML traffic, and I noticed that a 
common complaint with MegaTraveller is the starship design rules.  I have
encountered similar problems also, especially where the ships in the Imperial
Encyclopedia are concerned.  Has anyone noticed that the ships in the 
books don't obey the construction rules?  I mean, that if you try to build
similar ships, you can't get anything even close to the specifications 
listed in the Encyclopedia!  

     The reason that I'm bringing this up again is that I think that I might
have discovered something that will make the rules and ships match.  When
I first looked at the Imperiallines TJ transport in the Rebellion Sourcebook,
I thought something was really wrong with it. REALLY WRONG. Anyway, I sort
of redesigned it to suit my tastes, trying to get something like the TJ 
originally given in The Traveller Adventure.  The problem is that the 
fuel consumption values for fusion power plants make it impossible to 
fuel such a ship for the 30 days recommended for starships.  I found that
if I assumed that a TL15 fusion plant consumed 0.003 kiloliters of fuel per
hour, instead of the 0.009 listed, then my version of the TJ turned out to
closely match the original version ( old Traveller ).  Almost the same cargo
space, room for full sized staterooms, and enough power for inertial 
compensators, an Active EMS array, and a little left over for extra add-ons.
This is with a 11,600 Mw output power plant.  Also, I removed the nuclear
damper pack to save cargo space.  It just seemed dumb to have a ship as 
well-armed as the TJ blind because it didn't have any active sensors...

Subsequently, I've been assuming that all fusion power plants consume 
0.003 Kl of fuel per hour per Kl of power plant, regardless of tech level.
It seems to work.  I haven't had a chance to go over any other ships yet,
what with midterms here at the U of R, but if anyone could let me know if
my idea is applicable to the other ships, please do. One thing I'd 
particularly like to know is if the design errors affect not only GDW's
designs, but DGP's ship listings as well.  Could be a royal pain... :-)

Not that this has anything to do with ship design, but... Upon meeting
a female Vargr passenger, on of the PCs cracked, " Ok, so she's a dog. "
( Not in the Vargr's hearing, of course ). I thought it was funny...


Chris


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-------- TML Message #699 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 699
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 89 14:54 EST
From: METLAY@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Subject: RE: Does Norris have a family?


[This came to jamesp@dadla.wr.tek.com, looks like it was meant for
traveller@dadla.wr.tek.com.  Watch those automatic reply headers! -- James]

I haven't the foggiest. All that's known about him is the blurb in the 
MegaTraveller rules and in the Rebellion sourcebook, and COACC mentions
that he has landholdings on the desert world of Yori, near Regina. Sorry.

metlay

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-------- TML Message #700 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 700
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 89 16:45:23 PST
From: gazis@halley.arc.nasa.gov
Subject: THE CHALLENGE



     Mark has posed the question, 'How does one deal with the
Challenge posed by powerful characters?'  At first glance, this
appears to be a worthy question.  After all, powerful characters 
have a depressing tendancy to anhilate any obstacle which is 
placed in their path.  They make mincemeat of the most powerful 
NPCs.  In short, they take a GMs carefully designed and well 
balanced scenario and break it into little teeny pieces, a sorry 
fate.
      After days, hours, possibly even seconds of mind-numbing
cogitation, I believe that I have discovered a small problem with
one of the assumptions which underlies the question.  Rather
than attempt to describe this problem in detail, I offer this
short story with a moral:


                      THE CHALLENGE

     Morris Minor peered around the corner of the alley.  There
was no one in sight.  He blended back into the night and checked
his gear.
     He wore a skin-tight suit of Xyram, fine overlapping scales
which would resist explosions, energy, projectiles, or blades.  A
combat helmet and filters provided protection against sonic
attack or noxious gasses.  Servos in the armour gave him the
strength of many men.  The armour was covered with a correlation
envelope which rendered it invisible to vision, radar, and 
infra-red.
     His weapon was a Kodak HK-47 Instamatic, a powerful pulsed
laser weapon whose coherent beam could burn through the heaviest 
of armour, the mightiest of shields, or both, with equal facility. 
The effect the beam had on the unprotected flesh within was
alarming.  The weapon was not controlled or directed by anything 
so crude as a trigger.  It was connected directly to his nervous 
system, which nervous system had augmented to increase its speed
and was interfaced to sensors in his helmet.  Morris could 
encompass the destruction of anything that came within range of 
those sensors.  In an instant.  With but a single thought.
     The same augmentations which increased his speed also
rendered Morris invisible and immune to psionic powers.
     He was the perfect assasin.
     Morris crossed the street.  Were there anyone to observe,
they might have heard a faint whisper of wind.  They might have
seen the slightest flicker at the edge of their vision.  But no 
one listened.  No one saw.  Morris was one with the night.
     He reached his destination, a small machine set into the
wall of a corner building.  He activated a device which supressed
all sounds.  He removed a small card from an envelope at his
waist and inserted it into the machine.  A panel slid up to reveal
a small keyboard.  Morris entered the code he had been taught.
     The machine gave no immediate response.
     Morris repeated the code.
     A message flashed on the screen.
     "Dear Customer, we regret that this ATM is out of order.  
Thank you for banking with IPBank."
     Morris stared at the machine in rage.  Was it possible that
he could be thwarted so easily?  This was scarcely likely.  He
was Morris Minor, the Perfect Assasin!  He waited for the machine 
to return his ATM card.  He would re-insert the card and try a 
second time!
     Nothing happened.
     Realization came quickly.  The machine had swallowed his ATM
card!  How could such a thing occur?  Surely such a thing was not
possible!  Was he not Morris Minor, the Perfect Assasin?  He
staggered backwards in astonishment and was run over by a truck.

AND THE LESSON WE LEARN FROM THIS STORY IS:

     Combat skills are not always particularly useful to a member 
of an advanced technological civilization.


Hail Chaos!

Paul R. Gazis                        
gazis@hal.arc.nasa.gov   or
gazis%hal.span@ames.arc.nasa.gov   or
something like that


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-------- TML Message #701 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 701
Date: Mon Nov 13 16:15:03 1989
From: richard@agora.hf.intel.COM (Richard Johnson)


Subject: Lawlessness and Frontiers
Date: Mon Nov 13 16:01:18 1989
Message-Id: <8911131601.AA11850@agora.hf.intel.com>
From: richard@agora.hf.intel.com (Richard Johnson)


My two cents worth on Frontiers...

As an experiment, I made up one subsector, nestled between the
Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate, as a rational anarchy.  This
is an extremely loose confederation of worlds that maintains its
own peculiar codes of behavior, mainly for self-protection.

Location:
It is just beyond the frontiers of both empires.  Sort of a "neutral
zone" that neither empire wants to disrupt.  This allows the confederation
to "borrow" liberally from both cultures without fear of armed response.

Law:
The confederates figured out if they went the way of imperial caste/
democracy, the Zhodani would have to interfere.  Likewise, if they
became socialist, the imperium would send ships.  Thus they formally
declared themselves an "anarchy", proclaiming the rights of each
individual the highest morality.

The consequense has been that people walk around "packing" fairly
heavy arms, but are incredibly polite.  Insurance companies have
a lot of influence, but only over people they insure -- and a LOT
of people have opted for chancing their own liability.

Characters (and players) have had really mixed feelings about
their adventures in this subsector.  Those who are inclined to
commerce love it - no taxes.  Those who were born high-caste
hate it - no one cowtows to them, and they feel "threatened" by
all those guns.

Frontier:
I think the frontier here, really, is in human relations.  Characters
and players find lots of interesting, new, ways to relate.

I'll talk about this subsector more, only if you ask for it (I'm
trying really hard to cut down on talking).

Richard Johnson
richard@agora.hf.intel.com


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-------- TML Message #702 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 702
From: ("45252-Peter L. Berghold") wrgate.wr.tek.com!uunet.uu.net!allegra!violin!plb@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: Powerfull PC's
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 89 8:48:21 EST


After reading the humorous treatise on how to deal with powerfull PC's, a
referee who's campaign I played in came to mind.   Whenever PC's became too 
powerfull they would either become part of the establishment and therefore 
be too busy to be a problem, or a plague would break out.  Rather effective.
Then there was always the problem of taxes, etc.   In his campaign you couldn't
outrun the Imperium.  They always eventually got their man.  

Pete
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-------- TML Message #703 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 703
From: ("45252-Peter L. Berghold") wrgate.wr.tek.com!uunet.uu.net!allegra!violin!plb@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: A quick question.
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 89 8:52:26 EST


A quick question for the members of the mailing list at large:  How many of 
you out there have access to 1) troff and it's cousins and 2) nawk?  I am 
putting the finishing touches on an awk script that may be of use to others and 
I want to see if it will be.

The script takes the output from a traveller starmap generator program that is 
text based and preens it to be compatible with [et]roff starmap and all. It is 
almost finished and it looks good!   

Pete

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-------- TML Message #704 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 704
Subject: Re: THE CHALLENGE
Date: 14 Nov 89 08:35:05 PST (Tue)
From: jamesp



Ah, here's my $0.02.

Or, if you are prone to having trigger-happy players, you could always
set them up for a horrible case of mistaken identity, where they blow
the head off some small, helpless innocent, like a small child.  Or
subject them to an enemy that can't be plowed over (say they enslave
children, for example, and the children are forced to confront the
all-invincible PC).  In theory this could force your players into a
moral quandary where they would actually have to begin to think...

Perhaps I'm just too manipulative as a Referee...

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-------- TML Message #705 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 705
From: ("45252-Peter L. Berghold") wrgate.wr.tek.com!uunet.uu.net!allegra!violin!plb@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: Re: Frontier
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 89 14:43:47 EST


>> 
>> 
>> Subject: Lawlessness and Frontiers
>> Date: Mon Nov 13 16:01:18 1989
>> Message-Id: <8911131601.AA11850@agora.hf.intel.com>
>> From: richard@agora.hf.intel.com (Richard Johnson)
>> 
>> 
>> My two cents worth on Frontiers...
>> 
>> As an experiment, I made up one subsector, nestled between the
>> Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate, as a rational anarchy.  This
>> is an extremely loose confederation of worlds that maintains its
>> own peculiar codes of behavior, mainly for self-protection.
>> 
	[ Uh Oh! ]
>> Location:
>> It is just beyond the frontiers of both empires.  Sort of a "neutral
>> zone" that neither empire wants to disrupt.  This allows the confederation
>> to "borrow" liberally from both cultures without fear of armed response.
>> 
>> 
	[ Further description deleted ]

I had a similar scenario of a campaign of mine.  Only the reason that neither
the  Zho's or the Imperium had much sway in the buffer zone was that after so
much fighting there wasn't enough of either government's forces left for them
to fight one another.   Also in my campaign there was a pocket of the "Ancients"
that survived their final war.  Their tech level was high enough to bring both
parties to the bargaining table.  (Here goes shades of Star Trek's Origani 
Treaty.)   Both sides were threatened by the "Ancients" with destruction of 
their forces if they did not honor a 20 X 24 parsec buffer zone between them.
As a result, this area was left to their own devices and set up several small
confederacies within this space.   Hence, why most of the adventuring was done
within this area.   


Pete




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-------- TML Message #706 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 706
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 89 19:24:08 EST
From: (wilson m liaw) macgyver@cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Troff



	Well, I have access to troff.

				Mac

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-------- TML Message #707 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 707
From: (Adrian Hurt) adrian%cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Subject: Re: THE CHALLENGE
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 89 10:20:13 BST


>From Richard Johnson:

Re: The Frontier

> Law:
> The confederates figured out if they went the way of imperial caste/
> democracy, the Zhodani would have to interfere.  Likewise, if they
> became socialist, the imperium would send ships.  Thus they formally
> declared themselves an "anarchy", proclaiming the rights of each
> individual the highest morality.

As I see it, within both the Imperium and Zhodani Consulate there exist all
sorts of world governments.  There are caste democracies within the Zhodani
Consulate (in fact, I thought the Consulate was one).  There are probably
socialist governments in the Imperium - they'd count as either democracies or
self-perpetuating oligarchies, depending on the referee's view of socialism
and whether it was Western or Eastern type socialism.

>From James Perkins

Re: The Challenge

> Or, if you are prone to having trigger-happy players, you could always
> set them up for a horrible case of mistaken identity, where they blow
> the head off some small, helpless innocent, like a small child.  Or
> subject them to an enemy that can't be plowed over (say they enslave
> children, for example, and the children are forced to confront the
> all-invincible PC).

Just in case the PC's aren't susceptible to such moral dilemmas, because they
don't have morals (likely, given our earlier descriptions), it does no harm
to have something really powerful in reserve.  Something which can remind them
they're not Masters of the Universe.  Something which can eliminate them with
much the same ease as they'd eliminate a small, not-too-bright rodent. A few
possibilities:

Imperial Marines.  I used the "Striker" combat rules, and just about never let
PC's get hold of the high-tech battledress, which was impervious to anything
except FGMP's.  Marines get the stuff as standard.  But, if the PC's do get
hold of FGMP's and/or such battledress:

Imperial Marine Grav APC.  As seen in Striker, book 3.  Armoured to resist
anything short of a tac nuke, and armed with a heavy rapid-pulse fusion gun,
a range of nuclear missiles, and a laser carbine.  In addition, the Marines
inside can stick their FGMP's through ports in the side and fire out.  But
if the PC's do have tac nukes, or if they just sit in their starship and try
to zap the APC from orbit:

Tigress class dreadnought.  As seen in Supplement 8, Fighting Ships.  Maximum
armour, maximum firepower, enough screens and computers so that the PC's nukes
won't get near it.  It also carries 300 fighters in case you want to give the
PC's one last warning.  If the PC's have something capable of taking out one of
these, use a full squadron.  If they can beat that, there's something wrong
with the universe.

Summary: Peace through superior firepower!  If they think being trigger happy
solves everything, show them just how right they are.

 "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 #708 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 708
Subject: A quick question. (fwd)
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 89 8:06:30 EST
From: (Jonathan Bayer) jbayer@ispi.COM


Forwarded message:

> 
> A quick question for the members of the mailing list at large:  How many of 
> you out there have access to 1) troff and it's cousins and 2) nawk?  I am 
> putting the finishing touches on an awk script that may be of use to others and 
> I want to see if it will be.
> 

I do, and this sounds interesting.


JB
- -- 
Jonathan Bayer		Intelligent Software Products, Inc.
(201) 245-5922		500 Oakwood Ave.
jbayer@ispi.COM		Roselle Park, NJ   07204    

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-------- TML Message #709 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 709
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 89 10:29:58 EST
From: (Greg Givler - QA) givler@cbmvax.commodore.COM
Subject: Troff



I also have access, to troff, that is. So I for one would like to see what you
have done.

Greg

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Givler                        Q-Link: GregGivler
QA Analyst                         CompuServe: Greg Givler 76702,647
Commodore QA (Software)            GEnie: G.Givler
215-431-9100                       INTERNET: givler@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Wild Whores couldn't keep me away!" -- George Fransisco
"That's Horses, George" -- Sikes -- Alien Nation --  Fox Broadcasting --
===============================================================================

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-------- TML Message #710 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 710
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 89 19:00:53 -0500
From: (Mark Gellis) f3w@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
Subject: The Challenge



I've been reading the responses to my initial question--Paul's is great,
except my players aren't quite that stupid...well, most of the time--and
I thought I would share some of my own techniques. 

The two real obstacles are, I think, fairness and elegance.  Anyone can
make an arbitrary decision that the NPC gets the first shot, and gets a 
hit.  I don't think anyone here does that to their players (with the
rare exception of a player who is REALLY asking for it), so that's not
too much of a problem.  

The peace-through-superior-firepower solution is one that I generally
have to rely on.  You have to be careful, though; unless you simply want
to make certain things totally off limits to a group of characters, you
can only make your NPCs a little more powerful than they are.  (Yes,
you have a five hundred ton corvette with a particle beam...it can blow
the socks off any unarmed merchants...uh oh, is that a sixty thousand ton
battleship on your screens?  Oh no, Mr. Bill....!)  And even here, you
have to be careful to keep the situation from simply being one of who
gets the first three really good rolls.  Sometimes, of course, it can
work, if the aim of the adventure is to take out a larger opponent's
forces via guerilla tactics, identifying weak points and hitting those
and staying away from the ones you can't beat--the decision being left
to your players.  In short, the problem here is that it is easy to
hit your players with something that they simply cannot stop (even if
you have Fleet Tactics +5 and a couple of dreadnoughts, the GM can always
send twice as many ships at you under a guy with +8) but giving them
something that they have a good chance of beating, although they will
have to sweat to do it.

I've sometimes found, by the way, that the most enjoyable adventures
are ones where people have to figure something out, as opposed to simply
blowing it up (of course, sometimes they have to do this, too).  I 
once had my players on their corvette being followed by a probe that
stayed at the borders of their sensor range so they could not get very
good information on it.  It was simply keeping tabs on them.  Didn't
do anything else.  Had them spooked, though, until they found out what
it was.

The trouble is that is it hard to come up with good mysteries.  Commando
missions are easy because they're really all the same; the only thing that
changes is the precise mission objectives and the skill levels and weapons
of the NPCs shooting at them.

Ho hum.  Take care all.

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-------- TML Message #711 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 711
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 89 19:07:42 -0500
From: (Mark Gellis) f3w@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
Subject: Jokes and women



I was curious if anyone in the mailing list has women running as player
characters.  A few of my female friends run in my game world.  They are
often a lot more level-headed than some of my male friends who run.  I
was wondering if anyone had any comments on this subject.

Also, for those interested in cruel jokes to play on their players...

Androids can basically look like any humanoid, right?  And a good AI
program can give them pretty much any "personality," right?  The next
time you're bored, and want to throw a random encounter at your
players, let them run into one of the Chuck Jones/Mel Blanc cartoon
characters.  The android will be a lot smarter than your player 
characters (well, most of them) and have a variety of neat, annoying
gadgets at its command (all from the Acme company, of course).  It
will also have a good enough Dex. to avoid being shot, at least the
first time.

How well will your characters do against Bugs Bunny or the Road Runner?
Think about it.


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-------- End of TML Messages --------

