
-------- TML Message #712 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 712
From: ("Brent L. Woods") woodsb@gn.ecn.purdue.edu
Subject: Re: Jokes and women
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 89 3:12:18 EST



 In message8911160007.AA07078@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> Mark Gellis writes:
 >
 >I was curious if anyone in the mailing list has women running as player
 >characters.

     Yes.  Well, I used to.  A while ago, we changed game systems and
GMs (we tend to do that periodically).  It's a fairly large group--four
women, five men.  We've ended up in some, ah, *interesting* situations,
too.

 >             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.

     Sure.  Level-headed?  Yes, I agree with that.  Also (at least in
the case of the ones I game with) *much* more vicious and bloodthirsty.
Straight-forward, too.  We have this one gentleman in our group who
tends to look for hideously complicated solutions to just about anything
(we all know someone like that, don't we?  :-) ).  Half the time he
gets his thunder stolen by one particular lady who gets tired of his
dithering (to tell the truth, she isn't alone) and does something
direct (like tossing a grenade into a room without worrying about
whether or not it's occupied).

     Now, is it just my particular set of female friends, or are most
(all?) female gamers (vaguely) like this?  I mean, level-headed, direct,
dangerous, and no nonsense.  I'm just wondering about *gamers*, too.

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

     Oh, always...  ;-)

 >Androids can basically look like any humanoid, right?  And a good AI
 >program can give them pretty much any "personality," right?

     Right...  The possibilities are very interesting...  I'd better
not describe the Biff-bot, though...  :-)

- --
     Brent Woods

INTERNET:  woodsb@gn.ecn.purdue.edu
USNAIL:  320 Brown St., #406  /  W. Laf., IN  47906
PHONE:  +1 (317) 743-8421 (voice)


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-------- TML Message #713 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 713
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 89 08:47:31 -0500 (EST)
From: (Ronald Henry Daubel) rd1g+@andrew.cmu.edu
Subject: Re: The Challenge


Maybe I'm a little slow, but doesn't anyone here ever watch Star Trek?

Both the old and the new programs give GM's amazing ideas on what they
can do to their players next.  True, your players probably watch ST also,
but if you can't modify an episode sufficiently to give your players a
decently complex situation, then you're not thinking hard enough.

My personal favorite is setting up parallel worlds with facist (sp?) govm'ts
and letting the players get tangled up dealing for arms, drugs, etc.

Ron
ArpaNet:  rd1g@andrew.cmu.edu
Bitnet: Arioch@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu

"I don't know kid, I can imagine an awful lot."
                          -Han Solo

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-------- TML Message #714 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 714
From: ("45252-Peter L. Berghold") wrgate.wr.tek.com!uunet.uu.net!allegra!violin!plb@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: Awk script.
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 89 8:46:41 EST


I have gotten several positive replies to my script that I am developing.  I 
have a last(?) bug that I am trying to iron out, and as soon as I am done with
fixing that, I will post the thing as a "shar".   

The final bug I have found is that on some versions of troff/pic it chokes on 
the hex map at the end and screws up the aspect ratio.   Probably something 
simple I am overlooking,  so you'll be seeing this shortly.


Pete

- -- 
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-------- TML Message #715 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 715
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 89 10:16 EST
From: METLAY@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Subject: "Jokes and women"? I wouldn't have phrased it QUITE that way.



On women in TRAVELLER....

I have run a great number of female players and characters in my campaigns, 
including an all-female party that did quite well in comparison to the male 
parties I was running at other times. The ladies felt that the guys weren't 
giving them a fair shake, and as it turned out, they were right. The only 
tough part was explaining to people who didn't know me what I did on Friday 
nights ("Well, I go into a deserted student lounge in my dorm with five 
women, and we, uh, play games."). |->

The other big opportunity for women in my games is the Near Miss series of 
adventures, where four of the eight primary characters are women. It's been my 
experience, at the past six conventions where I've run Near Miss, that the 
players get into character best and have the easiest time of it when they run 
characters of the same sex as theirs. The closest to this ideal I've ever 
managed was three gals and five guys, which was phenomenal. I'd dearly love to 
run at least one Near Miss session with a real four-and-four split before I 
retire from cons; even better is when you get a boyfriend and girlfriend or 
husband and wife playing a married couple. If they're good role-players, the 
characters will come to life anyway, but the extra interplay from people who 
know each other THAT well ;-> gives the game an extra touch of realism. One 
young lady, who won an award for best job of roleplaying, actually started
screaming when her husband's character got shot last game! It scared the heck
out of everyone else in the gaming hall, though....

I love the opportunities that TRAVELLER allows for women. It's one of the few 
SF RPGs that doesn't force women into male-libido-stimulating poses, whether 
deliberately or otherwise. The rules are strictly free of gender bias (except 
for one or two non-human species), and GDW and DGP, rather than trying to 
attract buyers (usually young, male, and hopelessly, er, inexperienced) with 
book and gamebox covers that depict women as blaster-wielding sex/death/danger 
objects (e.g. Living Steel, Space Opera, SpaceMaster, or anything involving
art by Larry Elmore), show women in TRAVELLER as being attractive, perhaps, 
but always competent and in control of their lives (e.g. the TARSUS set, or 
the art of level-headed female artists like Donna Barr and Liz Danforth), fit 
partners for men but never dominatrixes or helpless damsels. Refreshing. 

For those who've never run with women, I recommend the experience strongly. 
My one regret about my current TRAVELLER party, which is 100% mature, smart, 
and skilled, is that it's also 100% male. Some of our lady friends, who are by
and large excellent gamers themselves but who don't feel the need to game on a
weekly basis, have elected to form a "Traveller Widows' Club" and get together
and socialize, ELSEWHERE, while we game. Oh, well. *sigh*


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-------- TML Message #716 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 716
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 89 11:12 EST
From: METLAY@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Subject: And speaking of mysteries....




Deep Space, somewhere between Suleiman and Easter in the Solomani Rim: 1117

	"Heads up, gang," Grant muttered. The undulating greyness of 
jumpspace gave way to the star-dotted velvet black of deep space, and the 
Serendipity's sensor boards lit up and began processing data frantically.
Grant looked up and out of the huge viewport, scanning the skies for any 
unusual sights. "Kherk," he said absently, "How's it look?"
	"Working on it," Kherkhoulloth said mildly, practiced hands flying 
over the controls of the nav panel. A threedee star map appeared before him, 
rotated slowly and shifted a tiny bit. He barked loudly, a Vargr's best try at 
a laugh. "Harf! Kakh, I'm good! I am so GOOD! I want a raise, Cap'n!"
	"I assume," Grant said drily, "That we're where we want to be."
	"Close enough to hit with a thrown rock!"
	"Nice work. Start setting up our next jump, and pulling fuel from the 
reserve tanks. We're halfway between nowhere and nowhere right now, and I 
don't want to be stuck here any longer than I have to."
	"Aye, sir."
	Grant flicked on the shortcom and called, "Power deck!"
	"Sanchez here, sir." The voice sounded harried but happy, he noted.
	"How's she look, Wu-Shun?" 
	"Slicker than a stinkscrabbler's egg sacs, sir," came the cheery 
reply. "I just have to do some cooldown checks and make sure the crystals are 
okay, and then we can power up for jump again."
	"Great. Get on it." Grant changed channels, not waiting for an 
acknowledgement, knowing that Sanchez wouldn't have bothered anyway.
	"Tactical," came the booming, resonant voice over the speakers. 
	Grant sighed wearily. "Turn down your voxbox, O'Connor," he muttered, 
"You're not impressing anyone."
	"As you wish, sir," replied a woman's sexy contralto.
	"Oh, very funny," Grant snapped. "Look, do you even have a setting on 
that thing for your own voice?"
	"Of course, sir," said a man's strong, thickly accented tenor. "But 
it's been so long since I lost my throat, I don't even remember what it sounds 
like."
	"Oh, tragedy," Kherkhoulloth sang from his station, "My heart erupts 
in a thousand bleeding holes at the very thought of it!"
	"I like you, Kherk," came the voice. "That's why I'm not going to 
crush you like a rotten skymelon."
	"What's Tactical saying?" Grant interjected. "If you don't mind."
	"A lot of things, sir," O'Connor replied. "We have ghosts of any 
number of things: interstellar hydrogen, artifacts from old stellar flareups, 
and we're not far from Suleiman's Oort cloud, so there are comets to deal with 
as well."
	"I reiterate," Grant said in a level tone. "What's Tactical saying?"
	"We're all alone, sir. No immediate risks."
	"THANK you, O'Connor," Grant said. "Keep me posted if the deep scans 
come up with anything. We'll be out of here in an hour or less, but--"
	"Whoa!" O'Connor interrupted him. "I have something here, sir!"
	"What is it?" Grant called up the Tactical display at his station, and 
Kherkhoulloth looked over at it curiously.
	"Metallic object. Don't know how I missed it on the first sweep; it's
big. Really big." 
	"Take it apart," Grant ordered. "Every scan we have."
	"I'm on it, sir. Hector, arm and warm the main guns."
	"Main turrets armed and ready," came the imperturbable computer's 
voice. "Target select on unidentified object confirmed and tracking."
	"I want those scans, Daryavayush!"
	"You've got them, sir," O'Connor replied. "Up on the display."
	The holovid began streaming numbers across the vague, grainy outline 
of the distant object. Grant scanned them, reading aloud, as they went by.
	"Cold to almost the background level, no air, no life, little or no 
organics, no power sources, no radiation, volume echo versus densitometer 
indicating it's hollow, a ship of some kind. But totally dead." Grant shook 
his head. "Weird."
	"I vote we leave it alone and get out of here," Kherkhoulloth gulped.
	"Oh, no! We have to explore it! Let's get in closer and have a look!"
Grant and Kherkhoulloth turned as Jaeger stepped onto the bridge, vidcam in 
hand and rolling as he walked. He pointed the powerful camera to the heavens 
and looked about for the mysterious object. "I don't see it," he complained.
	"We're a good two hours' trip from it," Grant said. "And I'm not sure 
we want to get any closer."
	"It could be a trap," Kherkhoulloth suggested uneasily. "Let's jump!"
	"I recommend exploring it, sir," O'Connor's voice chided. "This is a 
very strange occurrence, and I'd hate to pass it up."
	"You wouldn't pass up a chance to get a nuke dropped on you, just to 
have the experience!" Kherkhoulloth snarled.
	"No," O'Connor replied mildly. "I've HAD nukes dropped on me before. 
How do you think I ended up looking like I do?"
	"Aegh," the Vargr muttered. "Sir, our ESCAPE course is laid in."
	"Thanks, Kherk. Plot a low-fuel loop for that...THING out there."
	"You're going to look at it?" Kherkhoulloth said disbelievingly. 
"WHY, for the Old Ones' sake?"
	"Because it shouldn't be there," Grant said. "Other ships have 
disappeared in this region before. If it's a ship, it may be salvageable."
He smiled thinly at Kherkhoulloth. "You know, MONEY?"
	"Ah!" Kherkhoulloth nodded sagely. "That's one word I understand!"
	Grant smiled at that; if nothing else, the navigator was predictable 
in his unpredictability. He switched the intercom to all-ship. "Sanchez, can
you give us some maneuver power while running the jump prep?" 
	"Sure, but not once we start the charging sequence...."
	"Hold off on that," Grant said thoughtfully. "we've got something to 
look at first." 
	Jaeger smiled at that. "A real, live ghost ship," he said happily. 
"The drama and pathos of a crew lost forever in space, the Flying Dutchman of 
the Solomani Rim. It'll make great copy for my next movie."
	"I'm hoping it's a real DEAD ghost ship," O'Connor said softly. "If 
it's alive and we can't tell that from here, this could be a very interesting 
trip, in all the wrong ways."
	"We're going," Grant said, taking the control stick. "Prepare for one 
point five gees."
	Kherkhoulloth slapped a hand to his forehead. "Why am I convinced that
we're going to regret this?" 



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-------- TML Message #717 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 717
From: CHOINSKI@env.prime.COM
Date: 16 Nov 89 11:37:27 EST


- -=============================================================================-
||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,

The "PTSF" metheod can be used quite well, even without actually using it
but through threat.  In one 2300 session I wanted two of my players to get
captured by some anarchists so that they could get useful information out
of it.  One was a "mostly harmless" administrator/field agent with little
in the way of combat skills.  The other was a ground military/space military
(aka. ground pounder) type.  The big problem was that the GP player always
walked around in combat plate with an assult rifle.  So the session went
like this ("Mike" is the administrator, "Andy" is the military man, other
names are assorted characters and "Me" is my narration)
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Me: Well, you spend the last 15 minutes putting the fuel in the cargo area
    of your tram whenely poor.  This works when they want to buy black
market arms and are charged many times the list price for them.  Making
high-tech weaponry hard to acquire ( ever try to find a high TL world
with a low enough law level to actually buy a laser rifle legally? )
is usually sufficient, and the PCs desire to advance themselves 
financially proves to be an excellent incentive to take those risky
jobs that PCs always seem to get...   And, like Paul said, combat 
skills aren't always the most useful.  "A Marine can do two things:
Kill, and wait around until he can kill some more." :-)

    Did anybody look at my fuel consumption idea?  It looks like it
will work for the 10 ton fighter, too. (Although the fighter needs a
bigger power plant )  Sigh.


Chris


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The TML is made possible by facilities providedgees of gravity (Imagine a Jinxian, but of normal height).
Mike and Andy were sufficiently cowed so that I could have them brought before
the head anarchist so he could, like all good villians, leak some parts of
his plans to his helpless captives.  In the long run, this "spur of the moment"
character became a major thorn in the side of all the players.  I would
have loved to have him get away to be a future annoyance to them, but they
were too persistant in hunting him down later on and he bought it.

I guess things are just easier in the 2300 world to balance out tough PCs.
Even with the best armor, a shaped grenade or FTE-10 gaus sniper rifle will
still blow your head off, and no matter how many life points you have, a shot
to the head with a .22 pistol can still kill you if you are unarmored.
- -============================================================================-
 Burton Choinski                                       choinski@env.prime.com
   Prime Computer, Inc.                                  (508) 879-2960 x3233
   Framingham, Ma.  01701
 Disclaimer:  Down! Down! Down! Out! Out! Out! Mine! Mine! Mine!
- -============================================================================-
- -============================================================================-
 Burton Choinski                                       choinski@env.prime.com
 Prime Computer, Inc.                                    (508) 879-2960 x3233
 Framingham, Ma.  01701
- -============================================================================-
          Disclaimer:  Hey, not me man ...  musta been my evil twin!


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-------- TML Message #718 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 718
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 89 12:05:58 EST
From: (Chris Bartlett) cdba_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
Subject: Re: THE CHALLENGE




     In regard to Mark's question, ( by the way, thanks for the kind 
words, Mark ), I've never let my players get to the point where they
were so powerful as some of the PCs everybody's been describing, but
I suspect that I keep a tighter rein on my players' destructive impulses
than most referees.  I tend to run my games like Pete and Adrian described,
where the players can do pretty much what they want, as long as they 
don't mess with the Imperial authorities.  My players tend to be very
pro-Imperial anyway, trying to stay on the good side of the law.  
Remember The Traveller Adventure?  After discovering the meson gun plot,
their first impulse was to go to the Imperial authorities.  Loyal citizens,
all. Not that they aren't devious in their own ways, but they managed to
get on the good side of a certain naval intelligence officer and wanted
to stay that way.

     Enough digression.  One way I keep the PCs from getting too powerful
is to keep them relatively poor.  This works when they want to buy black
market arms and are charged many times the list price for them.  Making
high-tech weaponry hard to acquire ( ever try to find a high TL world
with a low enough law level to actually buy a laser rifle legally? )
is usually sufficient, and the PCs desire to advance themselves 
financially proves to be an excellent incentive to take those risky
jobs that PCs always seem to get...   And, like Paul said, combat 
skills aren't always the most useful.  "A Marine can do two things:
Kill, and wait around until he can kill some more." :-)

    Did anybody look at my fuel consumption idea?  It looks like it
will work for the 10 ton fighter, too. (Although the fighter needs a
bigger power plant )  Sigh.


Chris


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-------- TML Message #719 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 719
From: ("45252-Peter L. Berghold") wrgate.wr.tek.com!uunet.uu.net!allegra!violin!plb@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: Postprocessor for the "ST" program
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 89 13:08:08 EST


As I promised, here is the awk script set that I wrote to postprocess the 
ASCII output from the program "ST" into [et]roff compatible input specification.
This will allow you to edit the information as you see fit and as well, add 
things to the information to make it more complete.   The star map is 
rendered in PIC format as well.   It probably could be greatly improved upon 
and I invite the programmers out there to hack away at it and come up with 
whatever improvements you can think of.   

The working script itself was written for the NAWK version of awk because of 
the ability to break the script up into modular units easier.  In fact it 
almost is like programming in C! 

Enjoy!


Pete


#---------------------------------- cut here ----------------------------------
# This is a shell archive.  Remove anything before this line,
# then unpack it by saving it in a file and typing "sh file".
#
# Wrapped by 45252-Peter L. Berghold <plb@violin> on Thu Nov 16 13:02:45 1989
#
# This archive contains:
#	README		do_map		do_map.awk	
#
# Error checking via wc(1) will be performed.
# Error checking via sum(1) will be performed.

LANG=""; export LANG
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:$PATH; export PATH

if sum -r </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1
then
	sumopt='-r'
else
	sumopt=''
fi

echo x - README
sed 's/^@//' >README <<'@EOF'
@@(#)
@@(#)README	1.1




What is this program and why was it written?   When I recieved a copy of the 
program "st" I was suitably impressed with it.  However, being left with the 
choice of outputs of either text or postscript left a little to be desired.
I wanted to be able to add comments and such to the resultant output and then 
print all this information via eroff to my laser printer.  I even wanted the 
hex map for a subsector printed out as well.   

I began hacking at an awk script to do this for me, and the result after many 
hours of tweaking ended up being the product you see here.  To use the script
set you execute:

	do_map [seed number] > file 

	-or-

	do_map [seed_number] | pic  .... etc ....


Some of my own complaints about this script:

	1) Stars are not "shaded" in.   In the postscript output facility of 
	"st" the stars are filled in.   I liked that.  Unfortunately PIC has
	no way of doing this (boo hiss!).

	2) No facility flags in the hexes.   Maybe next release.

	3) Stars are not centered.   I don't know why.  Pic is being
	ostreporous about this.   


I wholeheartedly release this set of scripts to the public domain. I don't 
claim that they are "the end", and probably could be improved upon greatly.


	Send all questions, complaints, bug reports, flowers and 
	brickbats to:

			Peter L. Berghold
			AT&T Red Hill 
			(201) 615-4419
			UUCP: {uunet!allegra|att}!violin!plb

@EOF
set `sum $sumopt <README`; if test $1 -ne 7787
then
	echo ERROR: README checksum is $1 should be 7787
fi
set `wc -lwc <README`
if test $1$2$3 != 482431421
then
	echo ERROR: wc results of README are $* should be 48 243 1421
fi

chmod 444 README

echo x - do_map
cat >do_map <<'@EOF'
#!/bin/ksh
#
#	@(#) SRCID: @(#)do_map	1.1
#
#########################################################################
##
##	Front end to the "do_map.awk" nawk program.  Filter all the control-l's
##	out and change them to ".bp"s before nawk is forced to process the 
##	output from st.
##
##
st $* | sed "s/\/.bp/g"  | do_map.awk
@EOF
set `sum $sumopt <do_map`; if test $1 -ne 24862
then
	echo ERROR: do_map checksum is $1 should be 24862
fi
set `wc -lwc <do_map`
if test $1$2$3 != 1249331
then
	echo ERROR: wc results of do_map are $* should be 12 49 331
fi

chmod 544 do_map

echo x - do_map.awk
cat >do_map.awk <<'@EOF'
#!/usr/bin/nawk -f 
########################################################################
##
##	@(#) SRCID: @(#)do_map.awk	1.1
##	@(#)
##	@(#) Author: Peter L. Berghold
##	@(#)	Released to the public domain on 11/16/89
##
##	@(#) do_map.awk  -- Postprocess the output from the program st and 
##	@(#)	           change it into [nte]roff compatible input specs.
##
##
BEGIN{		FirstHeader=1	# State for finding the first header
		Star=2;		# Find the star
		Header=3;	# Next header
		Sys=4;	# Process the star system.
		SStab=5;	# Subsector table
		SSmap=6;	# Subsector map
		Swallow=7;	# Swallow lines.

		ocount=0;	# Orbit object count.
		STATE=FirstHeader
		printf ".nr Ej 1\n"
		printf ".PH \"\'IISS Survey Report\'\'UNCLASS\'\"\n"
		printf ".PF \"\'Information released to public\'[ %% ]"
		printf "\'Under the Freedom of Information Act\'\"\n"
		
		SysCount=0;
		Sysix=0;

	# An array containing the normalized coordinates for a hex map
	# hex vertices.

		hexx[1]=0.866;
		hexy[1]=0;
		hexx[2]=0.433;
		hexy[2]=0.75;
		hexx[3]=-0.433;
		hexy[3]=0.75;
		hexx[4]=-0.866;
		hexy[4]=0;
		hexx[5]=-0.433;
		hexy[5]=-0.75;
		hexx[6]=0.433;
		hexy[6]=-0.75;
}
END {		
	hexmapstrt();
	for(ix=0;ix<SysCount;ix++)
		printf "MapSystem(%d,%d,%s,%s)\n",substr(HEX_ENTRY[ix],1,2),\
					substr(HEX_ENTRY[ix],3,2)\
					,HexName[ix]\
					,HexProfile[ix];
	hexmapend();
	print ".TC"		
}
NF==0 {	
	# ignore blank lines		
		next;
}
STATE==FirstHeader && substr($0,1,3) == ".bp" {
		IssueTBhdr1();
		STATE=Star;	# Find the star...
		next;
}
STATE==Star{
		printf "%s %s-%s\n=\n",$1,$2,$3;
		printf "~Planet~Moon\n*~Orbit~Orbit~Name~Description~Remarks\n";
		printf "=\n";
		STATE=Sys
		ocount=0;
		next;
}
STATE==Sys{
	if (substr($0,1,3) == ".bp")
		if ( substr($0,4,1) == "S" ){
			TBhdr();
			STATE=Star;
		} else {	# Processing for the Subsector Table
			print ".TE"
			## We process the first entry CAREFULLY...
			printf ".H 1 \"Subsector Synopsis Table\"\n"
			printf ".TS\nexpand,doublebox,tab(~);\n"
			printf "cccc\nclll.\n"
			printf "Location~Name~Profile~Remarks\n=\n"
			Loc=substr($1,4,length($1)); # Filter out the ".bp"
			Name=$2
			Pr1=$3
			Pr2=$4
			if (NF  > 4 ) {
				for(ix=5;ix<=NF;ix++) Re[ix-4]=$(ix);
				cn=NF-4;
			} else cn=0;
			SSTabEntry(Loc,Name,Pr1,Pr2,cn,Re);
			STATE=SStab;
		}
	else ProcessBody();
	next;
}
STATE==SStab{
	## 
	if (substr($0,1,3) == ".bp") STATE=SSmap
	else {
		## Process the SStab entry
		Loc=$1
		Name=$2
		Pr1=$3
		Pr2=$4
		if (NF  > 4 ) {
			for(ix=5;ix<=NF;ix++) Re[ix-4]=$(ix);
			cn=NF-4;
		} else cn=0;
		SSTabEntry(Loc,Name,Pr1,Pr2,cn,Re);
	}
}
STATE==SSmap{
	print ".TE"
	##	Process the SSmap entry
	STATE=Swallow;
}
STATE == Swallow {
	## Gobble this line.
}

#
#	Subfunctions to use in processing the text file...
function IssueTBhdr1()
{
	HEX_ENTRY[SysCount]=substr($3,2,4);
	SysCount++;
	printf ".H 1 \"%s\"\n",substr($0,4,length($0));
	StartTB();
	return
}
function TBhdr()
{
	EndTB();
	HEX_ENTRY[SysCount]=substr($3,2,4);
	SysCount++;
	printf ".H 1 \"%s\"\n",substr($0,4,length($0));
	StartTB();
	return
}
function EndTB()
{
	print ".TE";
	return
}
function StartTB()
{
	print ".TS";
	printf "box,expand,tab(~);\ncsssss\nc|c|c|c|c|c\nc|n|n|l|l|l.\n";
	return
}
function ProcessBody()
{
	Porb=substr($0,4,2);
	Morb=substr($0,7,2);
	if (substr($0,5,1) != " " && ocount > 0)  printf "_\n";
	if ( substr($0,2,1) == "*" )
		printf "*~";
	else
		printf "~";
	if (substr($0,11,11) == "EMPTY ORBIT")
	{
		printf "%d~~~EMPTY ORBIT\n",Porb;
	} else 
	{
		ix=10;
		for(iy=10;substr($0,iy,1)!=" ";iy++);
		l=iy-ix;
		OName=substr($0,ix,l);
		ODes_p1=substr($0,27,7);
		ODes_p2=substr($0,36,1);
		Remarks=substr($0,37,length($0));
		if ( substr($0,5,1) == " ") 
			printf "~";
		else 
			printf "%d~",Porb;
		if ( substr($0,8,1) == " ") 
			printf "~";
		else 
			printf "%d~",Morb;

		printf "%s~",OName;
		if ( substr($0,27,5) == "Small" ) 
			printf "Small GG~";
		else
			if ( substr($0,27,5) == "Large" ) 
				printf "Large GG~";
			else
				printf "%s-%s~",ODes_p1,ODes_p2;
		printf "%s\n",Remarks;
	}
	ocount++;
	return
}

function SSTabEntry(L,N,P1,P2,nc,r)
{
	HexName[Sysix]=N;
	if ( P2 == "UNINHABITED" ){
		printf "%s~%s~~UNINHABITED\n",L,N;
		HexProfile[Sysix]="UNINHABITED";
	}else{
		printf "%s~%s~%s-%s~",L,N,P1,P2;
		HexProfile[Sysix]=sprintf("%s-%s",P1,P2);
		if (nc > 0 ) 
			for (ix=1;ix<=nc;ix++) printf "%s ",r[ix];
		printf "\n"
	}

	Sysix++;
	return
}

#
#
#
#	Function to start the definition of the hex map macros and such.
############################################################################
function hexmapstrt()
{
	print ".bp"
	print ".nf"
	print ".PS 5 8 "
	print "xmove=0.866"
	print "ymove=0.5"
	print "define Hex X"
	print "cx=$1"
	print "cy=$2"
	print "hexx1=0.577"
	print "hexy1=0"
	print "hexx2=0.289"
	print "hexy2=0.5"
	print "hexx3=-0.289"
	print "hexy3=0.5"
	print "hexx4=-0.577"
	print "hexy4=7.07e-17"
	print "hexx5=-0.289"
	print "hexy5=-0.5"
	print "hexx6=0.289"
	print "hexy6=-0.5"
	print "move to (cx+hexx1,cy+hexy1)"
	print "line to (cx+hexx6,cy+hexy6)"
	print "line to (cx+hexx5,cy+hexy5)"
	print "line to (cx+hexx4,cy+hexy4)"
	print "line to (cx+hexx3,cy+hexy3)"
	print "line to (cx+hexx2,cy+hexy2)"
	print "line to (cx+hexx1,cy+hexy1)"
	print "\"\\s-2$3$4\\s0\" at (cx,hexy3+cy) below"
	print "X"
	print "define MapSystem X"
	print "    cx= $1 - 1 * xmove "
	print "    if ( $1 % 2 == 0 ) then N"
	print "         cy = 11 - ( ymove + $2 )"
	print "    N else N"
	print "         cy= 11- $2"
	print "    N"
	print "    move to (cx,cy)"
        print "    circlerad= 0.1i"
	print "    circle"
	print "    namey=cy+( ( hexy3 - cy ) / 2.0 )"
	print "    \"\\s-2$3\\s0\" at (cx,namey)"
	print "    profy=cy - ( ( cy - hexy5 ) / 2.0 ) "
	print "    \"\\s-2$4\\s0\" at (cx,profy)"
	print "X"
	print "define CreateMap X"
	print "Hex(0,10,01,01)"
	print "Hex(0,9,01,02)"
	print "Hex(0,8,01,03)"
	print "Hex(0,7,01,04)"
	print "Hex(0,6,01,05)"
	print "Hex(0,5,01,06)"
	print "Hex(0,4,01,07)"
	print "Hex(0,3,01,08)"
	print "Hex(0,2,01,09)"
	print "Hex(0,1,01,10)"
	print "Hex(0.866,9.5,02,01)"
	print "Hex(0.866,8.5,02,02)"
	print "Hex(0.866,7.5,02,03)"
	print "Hex(0.866,6.5,02,04)"
	print "Hex(0.866,5.5,02,05)"
	print "Hex(0.866,4.5,02,06)"
	print "Hex(0.866,3.5,02,07)"
	print "Hex(0.866,2.5,02,08)"
	print "Hex(0.866,1.5,02,09)"
	print "Hex(0.866,0.5,02,10)"
	print "Hex(1.73,10,03,01)"
	print "Hex(1.73,9,03,02)"
	print "Hex(1.73,8,03,03)"
	print "Hex(1.73,7,03,04)"
	print "Hex(1.73,6,03,05)"
	print "Hex(1.73,5,03,06)"
	print "Hex(1.73,4,03,07)"
	print "Hex(1.73,3,03,08)"
	print "Hex(1.73,2,03,09)"
	print "Hex(1.73,1,03,10)"
	print "Hex(2.6,9.5,04,01)"
	print "Hex(2.6,8.5,04,02)"
	print "Hex(2.6,7.5,04,03)"
	print "Hex(2.6,6.5,04,04)"
	print "Hex(2.6,5.5,04,05)"
	print "Hex(2.6,4.5,04,06)"
	print "Hex(2.6,3.5,04,07)"
	print "Hex(2.6,2.5,04,08)"
	print "Hex(2.6,1.5,04,09)"
	print "Hex(2.6,0.5,04,10)"
	print "Hex(3.46,10,05,01)"
	print "Hex(3.46,9,05,02)"
	print "Hex(3.46,8,05,03)"
	print "Hex(3.46,7,05,04)"
	print "Hex(3.46,6,05,05)"
	print "Hex(3.46,5,05,06)"
	print "Hex(3.46,4,05,07)"
	print "Hex(3.46,3,05,08)"
	print "Hex(3.46,2,05,09)"
	print "Hex(3.46,1,05,10)"
	print "Hex(4.33,9.5,06,01)"
	print "Hex(4.33,8.5,06,02)"
	print "Hex(4.33,7.5,06,03)"
	print "Hex(4.33,6.5,06,04)"
	print "Hex(4.33,5.5,06,05)"
	print "Hex(4.33,4.5,06,06)"
	print "Hex(4.33,3.5,06,07)"
	print "Hex(4.33,2.5,06,08)"
	print "Hex(4.33,1.5,06,09)"
	print "Hex(4.33,0.5,06,10)"
	print "Hex(5.2,10,07,01)"
	print "Hex(5.2,9,07,02)"
	print "Hex(5.2,8,07,03)"
	print "Hex(5.2,7,07,04)"
	print "Hex(5.2,6,07,05)"
	print "Hex(5.2,5,07,06)"
	print "Hex(5.2,4,07,07)"
	print "Hex(5.2,3,07,08)"
	print "Hex(5.2,2,07,09)"
	print "Hex(5.2,1,07,10)"
	print "Hex(6.06,9.5,08,01)"
	print "Hex(6.06,8.5,08,02)"
	print "Hex(6.06,7.5,08,03)"
	print "Hex(6.06,6.5,08,04)"
	print "Hex(6.06,5.5,08,05)"
	print "Hex(6.06,4.5,08,06)"
	print "Hex(6.06,3.5,08,07)"
	print "Hex(6.06,2.5,08,08)"
	print "Hex(6.06,1.5,08,09)"
	print "Hex(6.06,0.5,08,10)"
	print "X"
	print "CreateMap()"
}

function hexmapend()
{
	print ".PE"
	printf ".FG \"Subsector Map\"\n";
	printf ".fi\n"
}
@EOF
set `sum $sumopt <do_map.awk`; if test $1 -ne 774
then
	echo ERROR: do_map.awk checksum is $1 should be 774
fi
set `wc -lwc <do_map.awk`
if test $1$2$3 != 3588778146
then
	echo ERROR: wc results of do_map.awk are $* should be 358 877 8146
fi

chmod 544 do_map.awk

exit 0

All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator.
Submissions: traveller@dadla.wr.tek.com, or uunet!dadla.wr.tek.com!traveller
Administrator: traveller-request@dadla.wr.tek.com (James Perkins)
The TML is made possible by facilities provided by Tektronix, Inc.

-------- TML Message #720 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 720
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 89 12:55:51 PST
From: gazis@halley.arc.nasa.gov
Subject: Women, androids, mystery, and how to deal with them




WOMEN, ANDROIDS, AND MYSTERY
Another wierd posting by Cap'n Paul


WOMEN
     Doesn't EVERYONE have female players and PC's running in their
games?  One of the best goups of players I can remember was the All
Girl Mount Holyoke Paranoia Campaign.  Not a single PC ever made it
it out of the briefing room.

ANDROIDS
     There are no androids in The Eight Worlds (as far as anyone
knows).  There are, however, robots.  Which robots are not terribly
intelligent.  It is an ancient piece of EW lore that self-awareness
is a simple programming trick which only takes about 32K of code,
while real intelligence, capable of abstract reasoning, common sense,
passing the Turing test, and all that stuff takes Truly Massive Amounts 
of computing power.
     As a result, all robots, be they simple tour guides or ancient
and powerful autonomous war machines left over from imperial days,
must be handled with care.  They have a tendancy to interpret commands
and data in an excessively literal fashion.  They have, in fact, a
tendancy to leap to conclusions.  Some models of robot have what can
only be described as personality flaws as well.  Such as the 
autonomous mining complex whose components had what to my mind was
a whimsical tendancy towards religious fanaticism.

MYSTERY
     It is easy to create mysteries for your players.  It is trivial.
It is the Very Simplest Thing In The Whole World.  Simply DON'T TELL
THEM ANYTHING.  DON'T TELL THEM ANYTHING AT ALL.  Rather than say,
"Two Pastagorian Death Commandos (PDCs) open fire from the third green
balcony on the left with their Canon SureShot short blasters!" say
"You see the flash of a laser bolt.  Morris Minor takes 32 points
of damage to his STR."  After the PDCs get shmeared, don't say,
"They were obviously sent by the Evil Prince Cormac."  instead say,
"You don't find any trace of identification, except for a claim check
for Carl's Dry Clean on Rastabad."
     The beauty of the Don't Tell Them Anything Approach (hereafter
referred to as DTTAA) is that it allows the GM to appear subtle and
clever without any effort.  In short, you can create great mysteries
by simply being lazy.

THE DTTAA AT WORK
     Consider the following example:
     The PC's land their corvette, the 'ANDROSCOGGIN', at Rastabad 
spaceport.  On board is a valuable cargo of mirpins which they have 
been hired to carry to Bounders to relieve the mirpin shortage there.  
The Evil Prince Cormac (EPC) wants to stop this cargo from arriving 
because... well...  he's Evil.
     An energetic GM would now spend several hours creating the EPC's
army of minions.  Right down to the last min.  Which minions the PCs
would then blow away.  Down to the last min.  How dull.
     An even more energetic GM would Try To Create A Mystery.  He 
would devise a complex scenario, laden with trails and clues, which
the PCs would cleverly ignore in their rush to blow away the EPCs 
minions.  PCs are like that.  Impetuous fellows every one.
     A lazy GM applies DTTAA.  He does not bother to create any
minions.  He does not bother to plant a single clues.  He is, in fact,
completely unprepared.  In desperation, he throws two hapless PDCs at
the PCs.  To buy time, he furnishes one of the PDCs with a laundry
ticket.  This is surely plausible.  Even Pastagorian Death Commandos 
need to get their shirts cleaned.  ESPECIALLY Pastagorian Death 
Commandos.  Tomato sauce leaves such terrible stains.  It is the GM's 
fervent hope that the PLAYERS will generate some sort of mystery.  On
their own!  Players are, after all, quite good at this sort of thing.  
It is what they are for.  If left to their own devices, players can be 
relied upon to create such a terrible tangled mess that soon even the 
GM will lose track of what is happening.
     The players do not hunt down the EPC.  No, this is much too
obvious.  They conclude that the attack is the work of the New
Chinese Fleet.  The laundry ticket is a obviously a clue.  Everyone
KNOWS that the New Chinese control every dry-cleaning establishment 
from here to Boruski.  The New Chinese must be seeking to protect 
their mirpin monoploy.  The PCs break into the New Chinese Embassy.
     The Ambassadorian Cleaning Staff repells the attack with 
contemptuous ease, after which the New Chinese attempt to determine
the identity of their attackers.  The PCs have left no clues.  So
the GM consults his notes to discover that New China is currently at 
odds with the Sandulak Corporation.  Ah ha!  The plot thickens! 
Three New Chinese agents attempt to infiltrate the Sandulak Regional 
Headquarters.
     In no time at all, the NPCs are bustling about in a furor,
spying on each other, shooting each other, and conducting local
school board elections.  The PCs still have no idea what is going 
on.  Because:
     First, nothing IS going on.  There are NO grandiose plots and
conspiracies.  The NPCs have been stirred into frantic life by the 
PCs inept bumblings and are running around essentially at random.
     Second, the GM is lazy and DOESN'T TELL THE PLAYERS ANYTHING AT 
ALL!  He does not say, "Well, today three Escargian Fetishists fell
seized a Sandulak cargo shuttle and crashed it into the Central
Repository."  he says, "You hear a distant explosion.  It is
doubtless a matter of small consequence."  If prompted the GM will
admit that yes, the landing pad next to the ANDROSCOGGIN is now 
empty.  And the PCs will receive a small surprise should they ever
decide to take a Central Repository Tour.
     At last, the players are forced to conclude that they are
lost.  They have stumbled into an incredible mystery, a conspiracy
of gargantuan proportions.  They are forced to conclude that their 
GM is a genius.  They show their admiration by fixing the GM up 
with dates.

Paul What Does The R. Stand For? Gazis                        
gazis@hal.arc.nasa.gov   or
gazis%hal.span@ames.arc.nasa.gov   or
something like that


All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator.
Submissions: traveller@dadla.wr.tek.com, or uunet!dadla.wr.tek.com!traveller
Administrator: traveller-request@dadla.wr.tek.com (James Perkins)
The TML is made possible by facilities provided by Tektronix, Inc.

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

