

-------- TML Message #785 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 785
From: (Bertil Jonell) d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se
Subject: Re: insurance
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 90 12:55:24 MET DST


Richard Johnson writes:
> The insurance underwriter does not want to pay for a starship
> that he (or she) cannot *guarantee* really was destroyed.  This
> is hard to prove when communication is so poor.

Report on Damage: "Dear Hortalez-et-cie, Last wonday when my Free Trader "Noisy
Roamer" was parked on Regni starport, Regina/Spinward, It suddenly was attacked
by a large vicious building owned by the Regni Starport Authority...."

If the ship is big and valuable (name a ship that isn't :) the underwriter
would probably send out an investigation team to the site of the accident to
inspect the wreckage. (This is a great opportunity for adventures: The
underwriter is the Patron and the PC's the ones who are going to do the more-
or-less-covert investigation of a suspected MultiMegaCred insurance scam.)

If the insist on on-site inspections they would probably have a clause that
voids the insurance if the ship is taken out of Imperial Space. (If the under-
writer is a Mega, that is (Hortalez?). If it was insured by a sectorwide or
smaller they might even forbid travel outside one or more sectors.)
In any case: Redzones is a no-no. (and amber might be too, if the players have
settled for the really cheap insurance)

There probably is high-risk insurances for ships doing potentially dangerous
things (like trading in Corridor). But these tend to be *very* expensive and
would have to be payed separately.

> The cost of even a really cheap starship makes a lot of fighting in
> courts worthwhile.  Yes, the insurance is required by the lending 
> institution and is payed each month with the mortgage, but that does
> mean the players got a good underwriter.

Two additional questions:
How much of the total value would the underwriter pay?
and
These Scoutships... Any ideas on iiss policy regaring ex-scouts crashing 
scoutships? I would tend to the wiew that they would look through their
finger if the ship was smashed when it was doing things which was in the
interest of the iiss or the 3Imp. 
BTW "Look through their fingers" imply "not pressing charges", unless the
scout got nobled by the same mission it would probably  have been the last
scoutship that the iiss lent him/her/it.
If it was destroyed during some semi-legal stuff, he would probably be hit
over the head with a 29MCr fine (and perhaps a few years in the slammer)!


- -bertil-
- -- 
Bertil K K Jonell @ Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg
NET: d9bertil@dtek.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)      
"There's a sucker born every month, except february, which have 28!" Alf Tanner

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-------- TML Message #786 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 786
From: (Bertil Jonell) d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se
Subject: Pulling out teeth with piano wire...
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 90 15:17:24 MET DST


James once used that phrase for describing the process of designing ships
for MegaT.

Here are some small notes that I'll hope will help people with their dental
work :-)

The dividing of starship components in %-components and tonnage-components
is old and have been rehashed many times in JTAS and TD. 
In essence it is an observation that certain components always take up an
certain % of the ship for a given performance. For example: A jump4 drive
always need 5% of the ship's volume (excluding fuel) regardless of the ships
volume.
The tonnage components is the components that have a fixed size (like
staterooms and turrets). A tripple Beamlaser turret at TL13 will always have
an volume of 13.5kl regardless of if the ship is an Type S scout or an 
1,000,000 ton Experimental Battle Intruder

The main %-components is the Jumpdrive, the Manueverdrive, the Lifesupport, and
to some extent, the Agility. (The agility is really shakey, see below)

In the data below, the volume of an component, the powerplant required to
power it and the fuel required to keep the plant happy for 30 days is added
to obtain a % of the ships volume that have to be dedicated to obtain the 
stated performance in a certain area.
For calculation purposes the powerplant is divided into parts grouped with the 
equippment the part powers. In the final design the powerplant is placed as a
unit, of course.

These examples is only correct for TL15 and for ships with total powerplants
over 14kl (and of course for MegaT). Inconsistencies between the components
and the "Total:" line comes from rounding errors.

Jump:
(the % includes the drive and the fuel required for one jump at max performance)

            Jump:   1     2     3     4     5     6 
                  -----------------------------------
            Drive:  2%    3%    4%    5%    6%    7%
            Fuel:  10%   15%   20%   25%   30%   35%
            Total: 12%   18%   24%   30%   36%   42%


>From this table one might learn that a Jump 6+6 ship is a distinct possibility.
It would need 7% for the drive and 70% for the fuel, and that would leave 23%
for everything else. Riftbreakers anyone?

Manuever:
(The % includes the drive, the part of the powerplant that's needed to power
the drive and the fuel needed to fuel that part of the powerplant for 30 days.

    Manuever:     1       2       3       4       5       6
               -------------------------------------------------
    Drive:       2.0%    5.0%    8.0%   11.0%   14.0%   17.0%
    Powerplant:  0.6%    1.4%    2.3%    3.2%    4.0%    4.9%
    Fuel:        3.7%    9.3%   14.9%   20.5%   26.1%   31.7%
    Total:       6.3%   15.8%   25.2%   34.7%   44.2%   53.6%

Note that if you want a Jump6 6Gee ship with 30 days endurance you need to
dedicate 95.6% of the hull to plants, drives and fuel!!

Environment:
(The % includes basic env, basic life-support, extended life-support, grav
plates, inertial compensators,  the part of the powerplant that's required
to power it and fuel to fuel that part of the powerplant for 30 days)

    Components:  3.3%
    Powerplant:  0.4%
    Fuel:        2.7%
    Total:       6.4%

This means that for a given hull you can only use 95.6% for useful components 
(useful for other things that keeping the crew alive, that is). The environent
% can be reduced by various strategies, such as not installing grav and inertial
compensators for the fueltanks. That will lead to problems with getting a smooth
feed from the tanks to the jumpdrive if you have engaged in any acrobatics
(used agility, turned the ship etc) during the rounds before the jump.
(The fuel will be sloshing around like nuts, and baffles is only effective to
a certain degree.)

Agility:
(The % includes the part of the powerplant that's neccesary to obtain the
required extra power to achieve the given agility and the fuel to fuel that
powerplant for 30 days).
The Agility is the most unpredictable characteristic of a ship. It is dependent
on the ships unloaded weight and the excess powerplant output.
The data below assumes that the ship has an average density of 1 ton/kl.
The density of ships varies from around 0.5 for a bulk cargo ship to around 2
for a heavily armored SDB. Large drives, powerplant, or any amount of armour
tend to raise the density and large cargoholds or fueltanks tend to lower it.
The Density for unarmored combatships is around 0.9 to 1.2
This table will give atleast an approximation of the investment in volume needed
to achieve a certain given agility.

     Agility:      1       2       3       4       5       6
                -------------------------------------------------
     Powerplant:  1.0%    2.1%    3.1%    4.1%    5.1%    6.2%
     Fuel:        6.7%   13.3%   20.0%   26.7%   33.3%   40.0%
     Total:       7.7%   15.4%   23.1%   30.8%   38.4%   46.2%


Well then: How is all this data used? 
You add together all the tonnage-components (weapons, cargo, subcrafts, state-
rooms and computer etc and the powerplant and fuel for all of this). Then
you compute how much % of the hull is needed to achieve the needed performace.
Divide the tonnage of the tonnage components by this percentage to get the
hullsize. Choose the next larger hull to ensure place for electronics, crew,
sensors, and controls. Design and adjust until it works.
Lets say that you want to design a longhaul cargoship that can transport
20,000 kl of cargo and performs at jump4 and 1Gee (no agility).
The Environment requires 6.4%, Jump4 needs 30%, 1Gee needs 6.3% for a 
total of 42.7%. 
We guess that the crew will be around 10 persons, 10*54=540kl, no weapons,
no subcrafts, Model4 computer: 33kl for a total of 20573kl.
20573/0.427=48180 kl total volume. A 4000 hull (54000kl) seems about right 
and also leaves extra room for electronics, crew, sensors and controls.


- -bertil-
- -- 
Bertil K K Jonell @ Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg
NET: d9bertil@dtek.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)      
"There's a sucker born every month, except february, which have 28!" Alf Tanner

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-------- TML Message #787 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 787
From: wrgate.wr.tek.com!reed.UUCP!oresoft.uu.net!richard@tektronix.TEK.COM (Richard Johnson)
Subject: Anyone for adventure?
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 90 12:15:48 PDT


Anyone out there care to participate in a play-by-email adventure?

I think I can wrest a little time from my schedule to moderate, if
people would like to play...

If possible, I'd like to try to run the adventure (campaign if it
goes that far) double blind.  That is, players mail the characters'
actions in, I try to decode the overall effect, and then post the
publicly visible result.  Communication between characters is OK,
too, if I get a copy. (Referees are notorious busybodies.)

I'm not sure yet whether to have pre-generated characters, or to
have players use their own.

Public feedback on the list until we decide if this is going to
happen, please.

You can reach me at:

richard@oresoft.uu.net	 	 uunet!oresoft!richard
or
richard@agora.hf.intel.com  ...tektronix!intelhf!tessi!agora!richard

Try the Oregon Software adress first, I'm here more.
	Richard


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-------- TML Message #788 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 788
From: ("Brent L. Woods") woodsb@gn.ecn.purdue.edu
Subject: Insurance and Scout Ships
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 90 17:11:26 EST



 In message: <9001171155.AA03254@ranko.cd.chalmers.se> Bertil Jonell writes:
 >
 >Richard Johnson writes:
 >> The insurance underwriter does not want to pay for a starship
 >> that he (or she) cannot *guarantee* really was destroyed.  This
 >> is hard to prove when communication is so poor.
 >
 >Report on Damage: "Dear Hortalez-et-cie, Last wonday when my Free Trader
 >"Noisy Roamer" was parked on Regni starport, Regina/Spinward, It suddenly
 >was attacked by a large vicious building owned by the Regni Starport
 >Authority...."
 >
 >If the ship is big and valuable (name a ship that isn't :) the underwriter
 >would probably send out an investigation team to the site of the accident to
 >inspect the wreckage. (This is a great opportunity for adventures: The
 >underwriter is the Patron and the PC's the ones who are going to do the more-
 >or-less-covert investigation of a suspected MultiMegaCred insurance scam.)

     Hey, if someone told me that their ship had been attacked by a
*building*, I'd be suspicious too.  :-)  Really, I think it would
tend to depend on what *type* of ship was involved.  An armed merchant
would, I think, have a somewhat lower premium than an unarmed one,
conditions being what they are these days, since it would be able to
fight back, and thus provide a deterrent to attack by Var...ah,
pirates...  :-)

     At the same time, the insurance problem is probably having at least
as much of an effect on interstellar commerce as, ah, the "current
unpleasantness."  The underwriters have probably marked off large sections
of territory as "too dangerous; go there and void your policy."  A
prudent Captain just won't go there, since he can't afford to lose his
current underwriting.  Why?  Well, insurance policies usually have ceilings
on how high the premiums can go, so most of the existing policies (at
least, those that predate the assassination) are probably running at
bargain-basement rates (at least, by current standards).  If a Captain
loses one of these policies, he would have two problems:  1) the new rates
for a new policy would be enough higher than his old one that they would
seriously impact his revenues (perhaps enough to slowly bankrupt a free
merchant on a marginal route), and 2) he obviosly did something dangerous
(like going into the wrong subsector) or some such thing to convince his
old underwriter to terminate his policy.  It's going to be *very*
difficult for him to find a new underwriter under those circumstances,
and give an added boost to his new rates if he does manage to find one.

 >Two additional questions:
 >How much of the total value would the underwriter pay?

     In most cases I'm sure they would pay the current market value of
the ship.  That's what happened to me when my old car got totalled--I
received the current cost of my old car (an '80 Mustang).  I had to add
some of my own money to that to get a new car (well, newER).

     That would be a problem--the ex-owner would need a new loan to
get a replacement ship, in a lot of cases (I'm sure used ships are
selling at a premium, these days).  Unfortunately, losing your old
one would tend to make you a poor risk...

 >These Scoutships... Any ideas on iiss policy regaring ex-scouts crashing 
 >scoutships?

     Depends on what else gets wrecked in the crash.  The ships that are
released to detached duty are getting near the end of their service
lives in the first place.  If just the ship is wrecked, I think the IISS
would tend to say, "Oh well.  Write the ship off."  However, if there was
a substantial amount of property damage as well (like, say, crashing into
a fuel tank farm sited next to a residential area) as possible loss of
life, the IISS would throw the ex-Scout to the local wolves as well as
slapping him with a massive lien themselves.


- --
     Brent

INTERNET:  woodsb@gn.ecn.purdue.edu  /  woodsb@attctc.dallas.tx.us
USENET:  pur-ee!gn.ecn.purdue.edu!woodsb
FIDONET:  Brent.Woods@p303.f40.n201.z1.fidonet.org  (from Internet)  or
          Brent Woods@1:201/40.303  (from FidoNet)
USNAIL:  320 Brown St., #406  /  W. Laf., IN  47906
PHONE:  +1 (317) 743-8421 (voice)


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-------- TML Message #789 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 789
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 90 09:55:25 CST
From: (Jim Cunningham) jcunning@gsliss.lis.uiuc.edu
Subject: PBM ideas




Play be mail sounds most interesting. I have done it several times with
board wargames (including Fifth Frontier War) with friends who have
scattered accross the country over the years. It's great fun.

Idea for PBM: Journal 15 (I think) has an interesting article on starship
reposessors. I've always thought that this would be interesting for a
mail game, with one person/group being the people who stole the ship
and the other person/group the reposessor. I'm up for it. What do you
folks think?

			Jim Cunningham
			Travller Relic



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-------- TML Message #790 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 790
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 90 14:36:42 MST
From: (SULAIMAN) asulaima@udenva.cair.du.edu
Subject: MT ship combat




	Has anyone out there really used the MT space combat system.
If so I have a few questions that I would like answered. 
	1. How do you handle Sensor Tasks. The rules say only one task is
	free next costs one battery of fire. It seems to imply that there
	is no point in having fighters or 100 t ships they only have one
	battery most of the time. As Fire requires two tasks, Scan+Pin
	it seems to be flawed.
I'm reading this as one SET of scans. Each set being Scan+Pin. Other option 
being that Scans are being done routinely and don't cost anything. 1st Pinpoint
is free, 2nd Pinpoint cost one battery and so on.

	2. What about engaging multiple contacts. How do u scan for and engage
	more than one target. A 400t warship probably has 4 batteries and 
	if it thinks it can engage and destroy 4 fighters shouldn't it be able
	to? As it is it will need a pinpoint for each fighter that means at best
	it will engage 2 fighters with one battery passed over and one firing
	defensively.

	3. I have mixed feelings on the rule that says that u have to roll
	again if target has moved 1 or more hexes/squares. Even if a square is
	25000 km.

	4. I disagree heavily with the move system in which u can choose any
	speed less than max and any direction every turn. At slow velocities 
	yes but a 1G ship going 750,000 kph going in one direction should
	not be able to in the next combat round to go 750,000kph in the other
	direction evn when allowing for 3D effects. In game terms thats a speed
	of 25 squares/hexes I think. 
I have been working on a very simple(and probably nonrealistic) turn mode 
system with mods for agility and pilot skill.

	5. How do you handle Ship'sTurret Weapon Skill. Rules say replace
	Comp Mod or Wpn Mod by Skill but If your ship has anything over a 
	Model 3 and a decent UCP factor High Gunnery Skill is meaningless.
I have been thinking of using the HighGuard version: every 2 levels of skill
over 1 give u a beneficial +/- 1 mod. Use for Pilot skill too.


Ameer Z. Sulaiman


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-------- TML Message #791 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 791
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 90 14:47:23 MST
From: (SULAIMAN) asulaima@udenva.cair.du.edu
Subject: Fifth Frontier War.



	Just a rough survey of the game.
- -How many people have played it.
- -How long did it run? Real time and play time
- -Results?
- -Any interesting house rules?
- -Comments.

	Ameer Z. Sulaiman

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-------- TML Message #792 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 792
From: ("Mark F. Cook") markc@hpcvss.cv.hp.COM
Subject: Re: Traveller E-PBM
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 90 14:26:59 PST


I've never tried any of the PBM games discussed on Notes, since none of
them really interested me.  This, however, sounds like something more
my speed.  I think it might be a kick.

Just for the sake of consistancy, I think we might want to take Richard
up on his offer to pre-generate characters.  This would help the beginners,
like me, mesh with you more experienced folks.

If a PBM game does start up, count me in!

        Mark F. Cook

USMail: User Interface Technical Support
        Hewlett-Packard - Interface Technology Operation
        1000 NE Circle Blvd.  Corvallis, OR 97330

INTERNET: markc@hpcvss.cv.hp.com
UUCP:     {cmcl2, harpo, hplabs, rice, tektronix}!hp-pcd!markc

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-------- TML Message #793 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 793
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 90 22:20 EST
From: (Bob Mahoney) BOBMAH%PSC.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: PBEM game


Well, in case Richard didn't get the message I sent him, I'm up for it!

Sounds like fun.  Besides, all I ever get to do these days is ref.  It would be
nice to play!

- -Bob
                                  ..
- ---------------------------------m--m-----------------------------------------
Bob Mahoney        Plymouth State College Computer Services, Plymouth NH 03264
Network Manager/Postmaster    BITNET: BOBMAH@PSC.BITNET   UUCP: rem@psc90.UUCP


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-------- TML Message #794 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 794
From: (Adrian Hurt) adrian%cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Fifth Frontier War
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 9:59:39 BST



Ameer Z. Sulaiman writes:

> 	Just a rough survey of the game.
> -How many people have played it.
> -How long did it run? Real time and play time
> -Results?
> -Any interesting house rules?
> -Comments.

Two people played.

I can't remember how long it took in real time; in game time, I have not seen
a game go beyond the second year.  And even before then, the Imperium was
winning; we extended the game for curiosity, to see what would happen.  If it
had gone on till 1111, like the "official" version, there would have been no
Zhodani presence in the Spinward Marches, with the exception of Riverworld and
maybe Cronor.  It is just about impossible to do any damage to the immense
number of SDB's present there.

One rule I tried was to allow scout squadrons to be attacked using the
bombardment factor, rather than the attack factor.  The assumption was that the
attack factor represents major weapons (spinal mounts, and possibly bays); the
bombardment factor represents turrets, and maybe bays.  It would be these
bombardment weapons which would be used against the small scout ships.  The
real reason was, it seemed stupid when an Imperial scout squadron met a Zhodani
scout squadron and all they could do was make rude gestures at each other.

The Sword Worlds didn't tend to live long.  On turn 6, the Imperials get their
Rimward Forces reinforcements.  The book says they can be brought in on that
turn or any later turn; I bring them all in at once, hopefully with an admiral
with plotting factor 0, and they go and flatten the Sword Worlds invaders,
followed by the Sword Worlds themselves.

There is one Imperial admiral who usually ends up winning the war.  He has
plotting factor 0, tactical factor +3.  Unfortunately for the press who might
want to make a hero of him, his name is Goolanzoon.  There is a similar Zhodani
admiral, but their names all sound weird to us Imperials anyway.  By contrast,
the two supreme commanders have plotting factor 4, tactical factor -1 - they
are a liability to any fleet saddled with them!  They usually get dumped on
some out of the way world, so no fleet has to visit them and get taken over.

 "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 #795 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 795
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 11:51:19 EST
From: (Frobozz) wrgate.wr.tek.com!uunet.uu.net!munnari!eldritch.hss.bu.oz.au!grue@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: Re: Anyone for adventure?


hiya,

Count me in any play by email adventure. I'd simply love to play.

I'm also willing to comment about any ideas put forward. I tried to figure
out how to run a trillion credit squadron campaign by e-mail.  The big problem
we came up with was how to adequately run combat without turning it too
simplistic.

Running the adventure double blind would be the most entertaining but it
would involve a lot of work for the moderator.

							Paul
seeya
SNIF

Language Centre              internet    : grue@lance.hss.bu.oz{.au}
Bond University              JANET       : grue%lance.hss.bu.oz@uk.ac.ukc
Gold Coast, Qld 4229         ARPA, bitnet: grue%lance.hss.bu.oz.au@uunet.uu.net
Australia                    UUCP        : ..!uunet!munnari!lance.hss.bu.oz!grue

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-------- TML Message #796 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 796
From: ("45252-Peter L. Berghold") wrgate.wr.tek.com!uunet.uu.net!allegra!violin!plb@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: Re: PBM ideas
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 8:08:35 EST


>> Idea for PBM: Journal 15 (I think) has an interesting article on starship
>> reposessors. I've always thought that this would be interesting for a
>> mail game, with one person/group being the people who stole the ship
>> and the other person/group the reposessor. I'm up for it. What do you
>> folks think?
>> 

Sounds like a job for the Armagedon Industries Special Financial Loss
Recovery Team to me!

;-}

- -- 
/* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  */
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All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator.
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-------- TML Message #797 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 797
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 90 19:43 EST
From: METLAY@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Subject: RE: PBM ideas


[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]

PBM? Well....

I'm thinking it over. I normally avoid PBM like the plague, but with this
bunch it might be worth trying. 

As for what sort of adventure: A repo scenario might not be bad, and it
would certainly be easy enough to get a starmerc story going, too. I, on
the other hand, enjoy high finance, car chases, and the occasional "whit
whit whit" of a subsonic Gauss pistol from a dark alley. Heh. lots of serious 
headscratching and mystery solving is also a nice touch; kneejerk reactions
involving nuclear weapons have their place, but there are more subtle ways of 
dealing with one's troubles.

Where would it take place, and when? The Solomani Rim as the Rebellion really 
gets cooking (1118 or so) is where my own campaign is currently situated, but 
I suppose the Marches are the best known area for most....

[Oh, by the way, folx: I'm not back from Tenessee, nor will I be for a couple 
more weeks. I've just discovered remote logins. Yippee!]

Back amongst ye,
Thy historian of all things Travellerish,

metlay

PS: What I do NOT like is even easier to sketch out: Overpowered parties
(overpwered villains are fine). People running aliens who act out of character 
("well, he's a K'Kree warrior with a STR of 25 and he likes to be left alone 
and eat hamburgers. What's wrong with that?"). And, my most pet peeve of all, 
the one thing I have never seen run or played well in this game: Psionics 
(Take your pick: either "Oh, he can't sneak up on me, I'm reading his mind" or 
"You mean this guy I've been running with for a game year is a psi? Geez, I 
really feel bad about this, but I blow him away when his back's turned.").
Sigh...

PPS. I haven't much to add on the insurance question, other than to point
out that people had better come up with a more forgiving scenario for the
finance and underwriting of starships, even before Doolie wasted Stref with a 
quick one to the ole cardiac, or I can easily demonstrate that it would be 
economically impossible for anyone other than a planetary or larger government 
to own or operate a starship, period. I would like to answer the other 
question posed in the original posting, though: since the Archdukedom carries 
with it no additional enfiefment, and the fact that the Archduchy of Deneb has 
not had an Archduke for centuries (neither did the others, until Stref brought 
them back, but he never named an Archduke for Deneb), I find it highly 
unlikely that Norris would relocate himself to Deneb upon ascending to 
the Archdukedom. When he's not travelling about his domain, putting out 
brushfire wars and screaming at the Lakht Aorlakht, he's almost certainly at 
home sweet home on Regina, or on his ancillary lands in Yori.

PPPS. There may be another chapter in the story of Grant and CO. in the works, 
but we'll have to see....

anyway, it's nice to be back.

ciao!

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

-------- TML Message #798 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 798
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 09:09:12 +0100
From: yngve@tigger.softlab.se (Yngve Larsson)
Subject: Re:  Fifth Frontier War.


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

I have played it twice with friends.
We played for 6 and 8 hours, approx. 10-12 turns if I remember correctly.
We never achieved a decisive outcome, but I think the Imperial side looked
good.
We tried to play by the book, even the rule that makes TankRons almost
impossible to use, unless you sacrifice them.
I like it very much, but have too few traveller-fanatic friends.

		Yngve Larsson

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

-------- TML Message #799 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 799
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 12:09:48 MST
From: ("Jan L. Peterson") jlp@hamblin.byu.edu
Subject: RE: PBEM


I also am interested in playing.  I havn't played trav in at least 5
years and I've never played MT, so I may be a little rusty on rules,
but I'm interested.

	-jan-
- --
        Jan L. Peterson
EMail:  jlp@hamblin.byu.edu  or  uunet!hamblin.byu.edu!jlp
Mail:   Math Dept. -- 292 TMCB; BYU; Provo, UT 84602 (USA)
Phone:  +1 801 378 2183



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 #800 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 800
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 12:40 PST
From: SELLSWORTH@hmcvax.claremont.edu ("Scott, part time fuzzy")
Subject: Starship design revamping


Accursed editor!  I have a bad feeling that this is going straight to James,
and not the list.  I also bet that it used the wrong subject.  Sigh.

[Yep, it did.  I spell-checked it, put a meaningful subject line on,
and resent it for you.  I'd rather people send something, anything, to
me, rather than stay quiet out of fear of administrator wrath.  What I
mean to say is, thanks everyone for the contributions! -- James]

  I have started work (slowly) on revising the traveller rules to more
accurately reflect real world physics in their starship design sequences. 
While it is true that I have not the foggiest idea how much fuel a fusion plant
takes, I would bet it is a lot closer to the gurps statement (The plant
includes fuel for 200 years of straight operation; longer than the designers
expect the plant to last) than the traveller conception (A fusion plant may get
as low as about a thousand miles to the gallon.)  As a result, I am shifting
some percentages about some. Here are the axioms I hope to work under:

  1.  Space is taken up separately for power, locomotion, stardrive, agility,
life support, and living space.  These represent the lion's share of the ships
initial volume in many cases.  Power plant fuel is trivial for fission, fusion,
and antimatter (in effect).  Jump drive fuel may not be, if the ship needs to
bleed it off as reaction mass as they travel through Jump space.  Manuever fuel
is mostly used for heat sinking.  The thrusters themselves are reactionless,
but the ship needs to blow off immense amounts of mass to move.  Otherwise, the
numbers make no sense at all.

  Most of the "fuel" used for increased agility and for life support power I am
assuming is used as reaction mass for small thrusters in the first case, and as
raw materials in the second.  If fusion is good enough, one could synthesize
many basic raw materials out of the plasma.  I would bet that TL15 fusion is
that controllable, and possibly earlier types as well.

  2.  The primary limit on a ships capacity is volume.

  3.  Computers are so fantastically adept by the end of TL8 that they can do
just about anything.  The need for controls and control panels is to display
information to the human operators.  Their whole function in life is not to do
the small stuff, but to do the risky maneuvers.  This is why a low engineering
skill does not matter much, while a high one does.

  4.  Anyone with a ship, no matter how bad, is wealthy.  It has a power plant
to power a small city, enough resources to outdo a basic machine shop, and
more computing capacity than the NSA.

  I will get some hard numbers for this, possibly using the neat set of
percentages of hull volume worked out by a net compatriot a few days ago.  (I
do not have my mail folder with me, so I can't give proper credit.  It was
posted to the list.)

  I will also let you know on how the "equipment by tech level" chart works
out.  It is coming along slowly. but I have a few items worked out.  I warn
you, I wandered rather far from the tech levels posted in the traveller books
when talking about computers and materials.  The rule is that each tech level
about doubles what came the tech level before.  I also rule that a tech level
is about fifty years of uninterrupted progress.

  See y'all.  Any suggestions about technical problems in the traveller rules
would be appreciated, as long as I am a-fixing.

  Thanks much

  Scott Ellsworth
  sellswor@jarthur.claremont.edu
  SELLSWORTH@HMCVAX

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 #801 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 801
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 17:07:57 -0500
From: (wilson m liaw) macgyver@cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: PBM Game.



	Count me in, I am very interested.

				Mac
Wilson "Mac" Liaw                    | If you put your mind to it, you can 
Internet:macgyver@cis.ohio-state.edu | acomplish anything. 
=====================================|      - Marty McFly, Back To The Future 
Disclaimer:All opinions are mine only|-----------------------------------------


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 --------

