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To: Dan Corrin <dan%engrg.uwo.ca@RELAY.CS.NET>,

        Chuck McKnight <tinylk!1!170!104!chuck.mcknight@TUSUN2.MCS.UTULSA.EDU>,

        Joseph "Jo" E Poplawski <traveller%fantasci.uucp@RELAY.CS.NET>,

        "James T. Perkins" <jamesp%metolius.wr.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET>

Subject: TML Bundle #183: Msgs 2270-2281

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Precedence: bulk

Date: Wed, 17 Apr 91 21:00:13 PDT

From: James T Perkins <jamesp%metolius.wr.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET>

Status: R





TML Bundles come from the archives of the Traveller Mailing List,

maintained by James Perkins, traveller-request@metolius.wr.tek.com.



----------------------------------------------------------------------



Date: Wed Apr 17 21:00:09 PDT 1991

From: traveller-request@metolius.wr.tek.com (TML Administrator)

Subject: TML Bundle #183: Table of Contents



-AMN- --Date--- --Sender--------- --Subject-----------------------------------

2270  11-Apr-91 "Robert S. Dean"  Re: (2259) A lot of TidBYTES << I'm sorry it 

2271  11-Apr-91 Dan Corrin        Re: Batteries << I assume that the reason tha

2272  11-Apr-91 METLAY@vms.cis.pi The latest PBEM address List, for those who n

2273  12-Apr-91 grue@cs.uq.oz.au   << hiya, >Date: Thu, 11 Apr 91 15:09:41 EDT 

2274  11-Apr-91 Richard Johnson   PBEM two new addresses << I have two new addr

2275  12-Apr-91 Mark Power        Re: (2259) Alot of TidBYTES... << My own answ

2276  13-Apr-91 waylancm@mentor.c encyclopaedia traveller << Trying to find dec

2277  13-Apr-91 "Robert S. Dean"  Re:2273 (Cruisers and things) << When I said 

2278  13-Apr-91 METLAY@vms.cis.pi PBEM: The Hour is upon us! << Fellow Travelle

2279  13-Apr-91 "Robert S. Dean"  Vehicles (Apologies) << I apologize for the c

2280  13-Apr-91 METLAY@vms.cis.pi PBEM Correction << The correct address for Go

2281  14-Apr-91 METLAY@vms.cis.pi PBEM: another address change << Steve Owens h



------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2270

Date:     Thu, 11 Apr 91 15:09:41 EDT

From: "Robert S. Dean" <rsdean@crdec8.apgea.army.mil>

Subject:  Re: (2259) A lot of TidBYTES



I'm sorry it took me so long to answer this message, but I wanted to take the

time to be thorough before I replied.  





> Date: Fri, 05 Apr 91 10:05:13 CST

> From: C450160@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU

> Subject: (2259) Alot of TidBYTES...





> Fellow Travellers,



> I am in need of your thought provoking input on a number of MT ques-

> tions.  Let me state that I am using the first edition/printing of the 

> MT rules, thus some of these "problems" may be solved and I don't know 

> about them.  Now, where to begin...



> 1) Personal Combat - I've recently started running a Traveller cam-

> paign and this is the first time that I have used the new MT rules.  

> I've worked through all the changes that have occurred and thought I 

> was ready to move into the new age of Traveller, then I had to deal 

> with personal combat.  Traveller was kind to PC with the combat system 

> before, But NOW...  I can't kill anybody without High Energy 

> Weapons...



Okay.  There is definitely a problem in Traveller with the effective-

ness of armor (it's too good).  This includes the vehicle design 

system, too, since it is very easy to design an APC that will stop a 

40mm armor piercing round, and run for three days on a tank of gas, 

and have a cross country speed of 70mph.  Mike Metlay, our resident 

historian and general all around Traveller theorist has commented on 

this problem before.  Hopefully, he'll jump in and discuss it this 

time, too.



> I try to keep the military related gear out of my players hands... 

> that gear is for the active duty types.  They went along with that 

> fine, so everyone got cloth armor ship's jumpsuits...No problem, until 

> the first firefight.  Since I keep the lid on military gear, most 

> opponents have lower level stuff too... That was when we found out 

> that SMGs, Shotguns and Advance Combat Rifles CANNOT penetrate even 

> "lowly" Cloth armor.  I was stunned.  Topping that feat is the TL14 

> Vacc suit which will stop anything short of a Gauss Rifle, ARL or LAG 

> AP rounds...  Even when you hit with these, most damage will be dissi-

> pated...  I can see the headlines now...  MAN IN VACC SUIT TAKES 

> ROCKET TO THE CHEST AND LAUGHS.  Now I can live with all the hand 

> waving and scientific slips that occur for game's sake, but NO DAMAGE 

> without Penetration...  I know the 10% rule, but that's for uncovered 

> areas only... a vacc suit covers all...



I shouldn't have to say this, because a game that I pay thirty dollars 

for should work without tinkering, but I'd increase the penetration of 

the weapons or decrease the armor protection until rifle bullets did 

penetrate cloth...or I'd arm all security personnel with laser weap-

ons.  However, I've laid out a little chart showing how things work 

out now, using as an example an average character with Dex 7 and 

Weapon-2 skill, firing a rifle at a stationary man sized target at 

medium range, a difficult task, with a +1 for dex and a +2 for skill.



     2d6 roll  Chance  Type of Damage  Points (0 armor) Points (5)

       2-7     21/36      miss          0                 0

        8      5/36    marginal success 1.5=2           .15=0

        9      4/36   norm. success      3               .3=0

      10-11    5/36   excep. success     6              .6=1 (1 min)

       12      1/36   +4 exceptional    12             1.2=1 (2 min)



The standard opponent (7/7/7) has hit points of 3/5.  In the case of 

the cloth armor (expected value of damage 0.2 per shot) it will take 

15 bullets to knock him unconscious on the average, and 40 bullets to 

kill him.  On the microscale this is too many--one aimed shot should 

probably have the possibility of killing.  On the macro scale it isn't 

too bad.  In real wars thousands of bullets are expended per casualty.  

By the way, a trained sniper (Wpn-4, Dex 10, +6 to hit, with 2 levels 

of tactics skill for a roving DM of +2) could use the pinpoint fire 

rule, and therefore get to count a normal penetration (as opposed to 

no penetration) with exceptional success damage modifers as follows

  

     2d6 roll  Chance  Type of Damage    Points (5)

        2       1/36     miss              0

        3       2/36   marginal           .75=1

        4       3/36   normal success     1.5=2

       5-6      9/36   exc success         3

       7-10    18/36   +4 Exceptional      12

      11-12     3/36   +8 Exceptional      24



That is, 21/36 (58%) chance of a one shot kill, and a 25% chance of a 

one shot knockout, for a total of 83% chance of removing the opponent 

from the combat per shot.  Maybe that isn't so bad.





> Slug throwers are and will be one of the most widely used weapons.  

> Kinetic energy is the easiest way to convey killing power.  Defensive 

> technology will keep pace.  This all equates to a police nightmare.  

> Thank god my players are not all running around in combat armor or 

> battle dress.



What can I say?  Even a few policemen with laser rifles will keep the 

characters acting cautiously, without modifying the rules at all.



> 2) Personal hit locations - If we start to consider partial armor 

> covering, as the 10% rule seems to, why not use a hit location chart 

> ala Aftermath?  I'm interested in your opinions on this, if you use a 

> system and how you work it out.



Too much trouble, and *I* don't want a combat heavy game in the play-

ing.  All the GDW role playing games (except maybe Twilight:2000 

because of its combat emphasis) spend too much effort covering combat 

in relation to how often it ought to occur.  (IMHO)



> 3) Rates of Fire - Did they forget about this all together? Sure there 

> is the rapid fire rules, but you empty your clip and the auto fire 

> rules cover only fully automatic fire.  I'm sorry...  I may not be a 

> marksman but I have fired both pistols and long guns before.  With a 

> 9mm Beretta (a Traveller autopistol) I can aim and fire off 2-3 rounds 

> in a 6 second period of time accurately.  At this rate it would take 

> 30 seconds to empty my clip, but I am firing at multiple targets also.  

> A submachine gun only firing 1,3 or 30 rounds in a combat round...  I 

> don't understand.  With this system an antique Blunderbuss (one player 

> has one), a revolver, an autopistol, a SMG, an ACR and a VRF Gauss Gun 

> all fire ONE round every 6 seconds.  What was Marc Miller thinking 

> about here...



I won't defend the combat system extensively. It does look like there 

ought to be some sort of ROF rule for hand held weapons.  I tend to 

run games that don't involve a lot of shooting.  (You might look at Jo 

Jaquinta's excellent and amusing scenario from GaelCon'89 if you'd 

like to see how something like that might work--it's in the Sunbane 

archives.)  However, there is a reloading rule on the blunderbuss--in 

the Imperial Encyclopedia rather than in the combat rules where it 

ought to be.  See page 73.  A flintlock musket requires 18 seconds 

(three combat rounds) to reload.  The VRF Gauss gun damage and pene-

tration numbers apparently factor in the rate of fire.



> 4) Starship Hijacking - with the new rules about ship computers, this 

> option becomes almost impossible.  No real criticism, but I would like 

> to hear how you pull this caper off.



Oddly enough, since the players have always had their own ship (of 

some description) in every game I've run, this has never come up.  

I've never felt that it was all that necessary to try hijacking the 

players' ship, so it hasn't come up on the other side of the fence, 

either.  If I really wanted to take away the players' ship without any 

chance of their responding, I'd just haul out a 20,000ton navy-type 

cruiser and demand that they surrender or be meson-gunned.  One shot 

will annihilate any player class vessel.





> 5) Starship combat rounds - 20 minutes... ummmmm...  I'm sure that 

> a lot could be occurring in that time.  I realize that the distance 

> can be so great, but modern naval combat takes place at much longer 

> ranges than that of WW2 combat and things move faster now.  I use 1 

> minute rounds and throw the movement scales out the window.  I'd like 

> to know what you do.



Remembering that Traveller was once intended as the realistic entry in 

the SF games category, this sort of thing really doesn't bother me.  

If you run through a few basic physics class calculations, you will 

see that if you want a 20 minute combat turn, and a 1-G acceleration 

to produce a 1 hex/turn velocity change, that this corresponds to a 

hex dimension of 14,112km.  If you were to go with the 25,000km hexes 

described in the Referee's manual, the physically correct time scale 

would be 26.6 minutes per turn.  50,000km hexes would give you a 37.6 

minute turn.  At 14,112km per hex, the moon and the earth would be 

placed about 28 hexes apart on the map.  I don't worry about the fact 

that my lasers could be firing for the entire 20 minutes of the turn, 

because I think that it may take them that long firing in the general 

vicinity of a ship to hit it, because of the speed of light lag in 

targetting and the possibility of extremely small angular errors in 

the firing angle to result in a miss.  In addition, as I'll show, even 

a hit may not do much good.  For ease of calculation, I'll go through 

what happens when a ship intersects a laser beam fired from a 250MW 

beam laser turret.  The turret will be assumed to be stationary, 

firing without turning.  This means we can treat the beam as a 

straight line in space.  For sake of argument, let's say it is fo-

cussed into a beam with a cross section of one square centimeter.  

Let's also say that it is 50% efficient--current lasers are less 

efficient, so let's say it's a TL9 laser so that the rest will be 

reasonable.  This means that a 250MW input to the laser will result in 

a 125MW output beam.  



     Now for the ship.  Let's say it is steel, rather than some more 

advanced (and hopefully more resistant) material.  Besides, steel is 

basically iron thermodynamically, and I was able to look up heat 

capacities and heats of fusion (melting) for iron.  Crossreferencing 

to Striker from memory, a minimum spacecraft hull of armor 40 is 33cm 

thick.  To poke a hole in it with our one square centimeter beam will 

require that we heat the metal to the melting point and then add the 

additional heat required to fuse it in the time that the beam is on 

the ship.  Ignore beam travel and heat sink effects of the rest of the 

hull for a moment.  Assume that the ship is painted with an 80% re-

flectant coating.  Only 20% of the incident energy will be transferred 

to the hull, the rest being reflected back into space.  I calculated 

that each puncture would require 248,000 joules (watt-seconds) (and 

that was figuring that the ship started out with a hull temeprature of 

20 degrees C, a nice equilibrium with the comfortable interior temper-

ature.  An insulated ship would have a lower starting temperature, and 

therefore take even more energy to heat up).  Figuring the reflectance 

and the efficiency of the laser, that works out to 2.4MW-sec.  Now, 

our 250MW nominal laser would thus need to be focused on this hypo-

thetical iron column for about 0.01 seconds to melt a hole in it.  

Suppose our ship, however, is travelling at a rate of six hexes per 20 

minute combat round, and furthermore, that it is 50m long.  At the 

speed of 70560m/sec, it will cross the beam in 0.0007 seconds-- 

1/1400th of the time needed to make a hole. AND THE ENERGY SUPPLIED BY 

THE BEAM WILL NOT EVEN BE CONCENTRATED ON A ONE SQUARE CENTIMETER 

PATCH OF THE SHIP!.  This translates to no damage from a single hit.



     Let's look at the angular problem for a moment.  Without even 

considering movement, a laser firing at a 50m long ship at a range of 

50,000km must keep its fire within an arc covering 0.0000573 degrees.

Let's say we had a 10m laser tube pivoting at the bottom.  That corre-

sponds to moving the muzzle 0.001 centimeters (4/10000 of an 

inch...which is a high precision tolerance in machining.)  The longer 

the baseline of your weapon, the more accurately you will be able to 

aim it, but...



     If the ship is moving at a constant velocity, the situation 

becomes worse.  Using the 6 hex/turn example above, we find that to 

stay on target with our stationary laser requires us to track the ship 

at a rate of 0.08 +/- .0000573 degrees of arc per second.  Even assum-

ing that we could move our gun at that rate, if our tolerance on 

firing angle was one percent of the movement, our chance of a hit has 

fallen to just over seven percent (per second).  Now, remembering that 

the ship will cross the beam in 1/1400 of the time needed to make a 

hole, and that a 50m by 20m ship has 10 million square centimeters of 

surface, I get the impression that I should multiply all of this 

together to get the answer that we will put a hole in a ship once 

every 2E14 seconds (once every 3 billion years).  Okay, so if combat 

works at all, it's a little better than that.  But it gets worse again 

fast if both ships are altering acceleration randomly, even over a 

small range, and the range is longer--lasers are permitted to fire at 

up to ten times the range I used for this example. All of this goes to 

support the thesis I advance once before--lasers and other beam weap-

ons work by saturating the general vicinity of the target ship's 

predicted position rather than by precision aiming, making the 20 

minute combat turn not only plausible, but generous favoring the 

attacker.



So, what do I do in the game, you ask?  Well, it hasn't really come 

up, but I'd use the given combat system with the inertial movement 

rules (and probably the boards and counters, too) from Mayday, the old 

Traveller ship-to-ship combat game.



> 6) High Tech Gear - I've got a number of players reading GURPS Ultra 

> tech and asking for conversions.  I agree with most of the stuff, but 

> some things that make sense just don't work.  For example, construc-

> tion cement.  I figure that by TL 15 there would be some form of quick 

> drying polymer that would be used as material for roads, walls, etc. 

> that is as strong, if not stronger, than concrete.  Now my players 

> want to use this stuff as bulkheads in their ship. If the get boarded 

> by bad guys (good guys to me), they just start pouring this stuff down 

> the halls to the bridge and engineering, thus sealing out the enemy.  

> How do you deal with logical technical advances that could throw the 

> system out of whack?  It's the Traveller equivalent of the +5 Holy  

> avenger/rune blade/sword of sharpness.  ..  HHEEELLLLPPPPP....  See 

> reference to question 4



To pick on your specific example, I'd start shooting the idea down 

like this.  First off, the stuff is likely to be no stronger that the 

current bulkheads, which means that the boarders can slice right 

through it with explosives or lasers or whatever.  Second, unless it 

is a foamed material, it will require a bag of the stuff as big as a 

hallway to make a wall--if your players are using all their cargo 

space to haul Plastiwall bags, where do they put the paying cargo? 

Thirdly, how are they going to get it into the hallway under fire?  

You can always tell them that the special distribution tubes they have 

in mind won't work because the stuff will harden before it gets out of 

the tube, and you could always add a warning or two about the flamma-

ble vapors produced, or the toxic byproducts necessitating extremely 

good ventilation.  Also, as Adrian said yesterday, there is the prob-

lem of getting the goop back out when the battle is over...



I've looked through GURPS ultratech in the store, but didn't think it 

looked worth buying.  The maximum Imperial tech level seems to be 

about equal to GURPS tech 10 or 11 at most, so that may clear up some 

problems.  Just tell them it's not available.





> 7) Imperial Law Level - As I have stated, I keep the military gear in 

> the hands of the military when and where ever possible.  I know that 

> there are law levels for the member worlds, but what if any, law level 

> do you apply to Imperial space?  I know that every Imperial marine 

> force commander has nightmares about garrisoning a starport that 

> allows civilian merchants to arm their security men with battle dress 

> and FGMP-15s.  And should civilian ships be allowed to mount 

> meson/spinal mount weapons?



Civilian merchants who spend half a megacredit equipping each of their 

security guards are going to go broke, so don't even worry about it.  

If they players insist, start reducing their cargo yields until they 

are going broke.  Civilian ships may definitely not have spinal 

mounts!  (The Oberlindes Emissary aside...) Besides, if the players 

have the money to buy the stuff outright, it's time to start over.  A 

meson gun-J (the small TL-15 standard one--think of it as an 8" cruis-

er gun in WWII) costs 400MCr outright, not to mention the 12500kl 

fusion plant needed to power it, at an additional 2500MCr.  2900MCr 

will buy you about 78 200 ton Free Traders.



> 8) True Speculative Cargo - The trade and commerce section deals with 

> speculators buying and selling cargo, but the cargo bought is only  

> supposed to go to the world where the ship is going.  With this in 

> mind, the minimum resale price any good merchant captain will get is 

> 90% of its selling price (2 on dice+4 Broker +any Bribery).  What 

> happened to the "What do you mean, you don't want 10,000 snow cone 

> machines... this is a desert planet you idiot". I've got players 

> wanting to buy TL15 household items, with replacement parts, to sell 

> on any given TL11-14 world.  How do you deal with this problem?



I haven't rolled too many merchant captains with Broker-4, but let's 

say that 90% is still correct.  That's 90% of the selling price, not 

the buying price.  I'll admit that TL15 industrial world goods can be 

sold at a profit almost everywhere--take the example of Glisten and 

Overnale in the Spinward Marches.  Glisten goods base buying price is 

Cr1500/ton.  On Overnale (Ag, NI, Starport B) they sell for a base of 

Cr9600/ton.  We'll make a bundle on every trip!  That's where the 

referee needs to be a little creative.  Say, Overnale is developing 

its own industry and has imposed a protective tariff of Cr10000 per 

ton on goods from Glisten that must be paid before you can even at-

tempt to sell them.  Smuggling is, of course, illegal and not without 

hazard.  Let's also say that after you've paid your tariff, you real-

ize that an unbalanced exchange situation like this will have drained 

all the Imperial currency from Overnale long ago, so you can either 

accept payment in local currency (with an inflation rate of 150% per 

month) or in barter.  Of course, the local goods are only worth about 

a quarter of what the Glisten goods are worth per ton, so you have the 

choice of leaving three quarters of your barter behind (hope it's not 

perishable foodstuffs...) or accepting 3/4 of the price in rapidly 

depreciating ducheks.  Might as well send the crew on a spree in the 

starport to get of the ducheks since they'll only be worth half as 

much next run...of course, drunken merchants have a tendency to get 

into trouble in strange foreign towns.  Do you see what I'm driving 

at? If there is a problem with a particular portion of the rules, 

invent some sort of explanation for why things won't work the way the 

players had hoped, and STICK TO IT.



> I must state that my campaign is running in 1113 pre-Rebellion.  I 

> would like to see TDR replies.  Enough rambling...



> Mike Finn

> c450160@umcvmb.missouri.edu



Hope some of this is of use to you.  Hopefully some others will be 

inspired to comment, especially on checking my math in the laser 

combat example.  When all else fails, think in terms of analogies and 

remember that Traveller is supposed to be realistic.



Rob Dean

rsdean@crdec8.apgea.army.mil



------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2271

Date: Thu, 11 Apr 91 18:07:56 EDT

From: Dan Corrin <dan@engrg.uwo.ca>

Subject: Re: Batteries



I assume that the reason that batteries are not considered seperately in the

control rules is that no section is considered seperately. One would presume

that every section and several sub-sections would have its own multiplier to

the control point calcualtaion. This would make designs much more complicated

and I believe that they wanted to keep things simple.

In most cases I'm sure that the CP calulation is correct (averaged over the

entire vehicle). But I can come up with some other examples.

1a) Jump drive is incredibly complicated when it is running, but simple at

other times, perhaps one can calculate CP like energy, and determine

peak requirements.

1b) Jump drive should be far more complicated than maneuver, but they cost

almost equivalent.

2) Cold sleep equipment is cheap, but would require much more control than

the average stateroom. Maybe there is some amount of local control assumed

to be built into each cold sleep berth.

3) Why are we required to use the crentral computing paradigm? Why not

have a network of smaller computers to provide the functions of the main

one?



			-Dan

			

Dan Corrin, Network Manager, Mechanical Engineering, UWO, London, Ontario

TML/CZ FTP site coordinator:     dan@engrg.uwo.ca.        (519) 661-3834





------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2272

Date: Thu, 11 Apr 91 22:30 EDT

From: METLAY@vms.cis.pitt.edu

Subject: The latest PBEM address List, for those who need it. --metlay



! **** VMS MAILER COMMAND FILE FOR THE R-ALPHA PBEM GAME ****

!

! (last rev: 11 April 1991. May be missing some R-Alpha people; let me know)

!

!------------------------------------------------------------------

!Command Team:

!

!Count Ger                  Mission Commander, CO of Alcyon

!Bhyarrvouf^                Mission Subcommander, XO of Alcyon

!Etienne de Mer             Transport Team Leader, Helmsman of Alcyon

!Lazer Farouk               Security Team Leader

!Johann Abuko^              Engineering Team Leader, Chief Engineer of Alcyon

!Christian van der Merwe    Bioscience/Medical Team Leader, Ship's Doctor

!Karl Morser^               Physical Sciences Team Leader

!Dave Sokuku                Social Sciences/Contact Team Leader

!Mac Witfield               Generalist Team Leader

!(Richard Jett)             Turnskaad's Legal Liaison (advisory capacity)

!

!------------------------------------------------------------------

!Transport Team:             | Security Team:		

!                            |

!Etienne de Mer*             | Lazer Farouk*

!Nishu Neriika*2             | Thule Jonson*2@

!Andon Shrike+	             | Abdul Schmud+	    

!Fritz Severin+              | Andon Shrike+	    

!Morgan Grey^                | O'Shi Mahlel

!Charyn Robins++             | Jordan Kalhoun Azani

!Jaron Voga                  | Andreas Spear+	    

!Goughzar+                   | J. J. Horne+

!                            |

!-------------------------------------------------------------------

!Engineering Team:           | Bioscience/Medical Team:  

!                            |

!Johann Abuko*               | Christian Van Der Merwe*@

!Aaron haut Frieder          | Joachim Tabor	    

!(Bhyarrvouf+)               | Andreas Spear+	    

!Fitz Severin+               | Morton Limner++

!Kimball Redd                | Jan Yorblin

!Ralf+                       | Ian Thomas+

!Zben Blaine                 | Alliara Niigurd+

!Slide Wrinkley              | Charyn Robins++

!                            | Goughzar+

!                            | 

!----------------------------------------------------------------------

!Physical Sciences Team:     | Social Sciences/Contact Team: 

!                            |

!Karl Morser*                | Dave Sokuku*

!Manfred Werner              | Adrian Bishop

!Abdul Schmud+               | J. J. Horne+

!Morton Limner++             | Alliara Niigurd+

!Ian Thomas+                 | Richard Jett+

!Daniel Silvmane^            |

!                            |

!-----------------------------------------------------------------------

!Generalists:

!

!Mac Witfield*

!(Bhyarrvouf+)

!Morton Limner++	   

!Ralf+		   

!Rigo Edmondsen	

!Richard Jett+

!Charyn Robins++

!

!"*" is the Team Leader (and "*2" is 2nd in command.)

!"+" indicates placement on another team, and "++" indicates two other teams.

!"@" indicates a ship owner.

!"^" indicates someone who can stand watches in Engineering if necessary.

!

! *** PBEM individual character mail address definitions ***

!   (ONLY FOR PLAYERS CURRENTLY IN THE GAME AND RUNNING!)

!

$ define pbemref "IN%""richard@agora.UUCP""" !regular address (should work)

$ define pbemref2 "IN%""richard@agora.rain.COM""" !also works fine (usually)

$ define pbemrefca "IN%""richard@engrg.uwo.ca""" !feed through Canada (if not)

! Richard Johnson, PBEM Referee

!

$ define ger "IN%""dan@engrg.uwo.ca"""     

! Count Nanadh Nggemen Ger (Dan Corrin), Mission Commander

!

$ define abuko "IN%""d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se"""

! 		Johann Abuko (Bertil Jonnell), Engineering Team Leader

$ define vouf "IN%""metlay@vm1.cis.pitt.edu"""

! 		Bhyarrvouf (Mike Metlay), Engineering and Generalist

$ define frieder "IN%""GDS3939@ritvax.isc.rit.EDU"""

! 		Aaron haut Frieder (Gary Schreiber), Engineering

$ define redd "IN%""cse426@cck.coventry.ac.uk"""

!		Kimball Redd (Simon Anderson), Engineering

$ define ralf "IN%""jscratch@eklektik.pgh.pa.us"""

$ define ralf2 "IN%""scratch@unix.cis.pitt.edu"""

! 		Ralf (Steve Owens), Engineering and Generalist

$ define blaine "IN%""brucer@psc.plymouth.edu"""

! 		Zben Blaine (Bruce Ritchie), Engineering

$ define severin "IN%""baranski@meridn.enet.dec.com"""

!		Fitz Severin (Jim Baranski), Engineering and Transport

$ define demer "IN%""salamon@sdbio2.ucsd.edu""" 

! 		Etienne de Mer (Andrew Salamon), Transport Team Leader

$ define shrike "IN%""bgillesp@lonestar.prime.com"""

! 		Andon Shrike (Brian Gillespie), Transport and Security

$ define voga "IN%""cdba_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu"""

!		Jaron Voga (Chris Bartlett), Transport

$ define neriika "IN%""kstclair@jacobs.cs.orst.edu"""

! 		Nishu Neriika (Kelly St. Clair), Transport

$ define farouk "IN%""hobbit@ac.dal.ca"""

! 		Lazer Farouk (Colin Roald), Security Team Leader

$ define schmud "IN%""grue@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au"""

! 		Abdul Schmud (Paul Dale), Security and Physical Science

$ define spear "IN%""chris@ssbell.imd.sterling.com"""

! or chris%ssbell.uucp@uunet.UU.NET

!		Andreas Spear (Chris Olson), Security and Bio

$ define jonson "IN%""plb@violin.att.com"""

! 		Thule Jonson (Peter Berghold), Security

$ define merwe "IN%""npsylv@wmvm1.cc.wm.edu"""

!	Dr. Sir Christian van der Merwe (Nicholas Sylvain), Bio Team Leader

$ define tabor "IN%""pierson@xenna.encore.com"""

! 		Joachim Tabor (Dan Pierson), Bio

$ define limner "IN%""gsw@moss.att.com"""

! 		Morton Limner (Gerry Williams), Bio and Phys Sci, Generalist

$ define sokuku "IN%""jlp@hamblin.math.byu.edu"""

! 		Dave Sokuku (Jan Peterson), Social Science/Contact Team Leader

$ define morser "IN%""waylancm@mentor.cc.purdue.edu"""

! 		Karl Morser (Craig Waylan), Physical Science

$ define werner "IN%""rona@hpdml92.hp.com"""

! 		Manfred Werner (Ron Abramson), Physical Science

$ define horne "IN%""givler@cbmvax.commodore.com"""

! 		J J Horne (Greg Givler), Social Science/Contact and Security

$ define witfield "IN%""macgyver@cis.ohio-state.edu"""

! 		Mac Witfield (Wilson "Mac" Liaw), Generalist Team Leader

$ define edmondsen "IN%""rancke@diku.dk"""

! 		Rigo Edmondsen (Hans Rancke), Generalist

$ define bishop "IN%""markc@hpcvss.cv.hp.com"""

! 		Adrian Bishop (Mark Cook), Journalist-on-assignment/SocSciCon

$ define grey "IN%""rem@oz.plymouth.edu"""

! 		Morgan Grey (Bob Mahoney), Transport

$ define thomas "IN%""richard@engrg.uwo.ca"""

!               Ian Thomas (Richard Johnson), Physical Sciences

$ define jett "IN%""npsylv@wmvm1.cc.wm.edu"""

!		Richard Jett (Nicholas Sylvain), Generalist

$ define niigurd "IN%""mav@lizardo.huji.ac.il""" 

!		Alliara Niigurd (Marc A. Volovic), Social Sci/Contact/Bio

$ define wrinkley "IN%""iain@batserver.cs.uq.oz.AU"""

!		Slide Wrinkley (Iain Fogg), Engineering

$ define azani1 "IN%""ez002182@deneb.ucdavis.edu"""

$ define azani2 "IN%""ccm007@deneb.ucdavis.edu"""

! 		Jordan Kalhoun Azani (John Banagan), Security

$ define robins "IN%""jamesp@metolius.wr.tek.com"""

!		Charyn Robins (James Perkins), Transport/Bio/Generalist

$ define mahlel "IN%""abc@gateway.gateway.com"""

!		O'shi Mahlel (Alan Clegg), Security

$ define silvmane "IN%""glenn@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu"""

! 		Daniel Silvmane (Glenn Fernandez), Physical Science

$ define yorblin "IN%""s94sergienko@usuhsb.ucc.usuhs.nnmc.navy.MIL"""

!		Jan Yorblin (Eric Sergienko), Medical

$ define goughzar "IN%""C447463@UMCVMB.missouri.EDU"""

!		Goughzar (Bart Simpson), Transport and Medical

!

! And people in the game but not on the Alcyon:

!

$ define ferdy "IN%""ASSHUSCR@cms.am.cc.reading.ac.uk"""

!		Ferdy (Alan Huscroft)

$ define hooper "IN%""ajgreen@irlearn.bitnet"""

! 		Hooper (Arthur Green)

!$ define doejin 

!               Doejin (

$ define akhouw "IN%""npsylv@wmvm1.cc.wm.edu"""

!		Akhouw (Nicholas Sylvain)

$ define aiwi "IN%""bpost@tully.berkeley.edu""" 

! 		Aiwi (Brad Post) 

$ define eihoftyah "IN%""rsdean@crdec8.apgea.army.mil"""

!		Eihoftyah (Robert S. Dean)



------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2273

Date: Fri, 12 Apr 91 14:58:15 EST

From: grue@cs.uq.oz.au



hiya,



>Date:     Thu, 11 Apr 91 15:09:41 EDT

>From: "Robert S. Dean" <rsdean@crdec8.apgea.army.mil>

>Subject: (2270)  Re: (2259) A lot of TidBYTES



>If I really wanted to take away the players' ship without any 

>chance of their responding, I'd just haul out a 20,000ton navy-type 

>cruiser and demand that they surrender or be meson-gunned.  One shot 

>will annihilate any player class vessel.



Actually, one shot will annihilate ANY class of vessel.  A meson-T gets

lots of nice critical hits on small (<100k Ton ?) ships and lots and lots

of internal hits anyway (I seem to remember that it is about 17 :-)  The

only chance of surviving a large meson gun hit it not to get hit.  This means

a very high agility (which is damn hard to get) and a big meson screen (which

is incompatable with agility :-)  I haven't worked out the probs to see what

the best trade off is (yet????!!!! ;-)



Hopefully, TDR ship combat will try to rectify the short lifetime of large

ships a little.  (will we let them live 2-3 turns not 1??? ;-)





I liked most of the rest of the information content in the article, I just

couldn't resist pointing out the 'obvious' error ;-}





oh, and by the way a 20k Ton cruiser has a lot of trouble carrying a large

spinal mount.  I designed a ship which was close to the minimum that could

carry a meson-T, it was a large power plant with a HUGE gun hanging off it.

I think it was 20k Ton total (nice size?)



By about 50k Ton you get a 'nice' navy-type ship that can defend itself

somewhat better.









        						Pauli

seeya



Paul Dale               | Internet/CSnet:            grue@cs.uq.oz.au

Dept of Computer Science| Bitnet:       grue%cs.uq.oz.au@uunet.uu.net

Uni of Qld              | JANET:           grue%cs.uq.oz.au@uk.ac.ukc

Australia, 4072         | EAN:                          grue@cs.uq.oz

                        | UUCP:           uunet!munnari!cs.uq.oz!grue

f4e6g4Qh4++             | JUNET:                     grue@cs.uq.oz.au



------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2274

Subject: PBEM two new addresses

Date: Thu, 11 Apr 91 21:35:50 PDT

From: Richard Johnson <richard@agora.rain.COM>



I have two new addresses to pass along -



Goughzar - c44763@umcvmb.missouri.edu



new aslan - 09nilles@cuavax.dnet.cua.edu





Also, the R-alphans are starting to get going.

Hooper - A J Green

Katie  - John Kim

Doejin - Carl Fago

Ferdy  - Alan Husscroft

Ziggy  - Rob Harris



And these guys will also be playing other characters too.  Don't let

that throw you.  :-)

- - -- 

"If I get murdered one more time, I'll scream!"  //      Richard Johnson

`Mary' from the movie "High Spirits"            //   richard@oresoft.com

                                              \X/ richard@agora.rain.com





------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2275

Subject: Re: (2259) Alot of TidBYTES...

Date: Fri, 12 Apr 91 9:55:15 CST

From: Mark Power <mpower@beowulf.his.uab.edu>



My own answer as to what to do about the problems with MT combat and

speculative trade is -- throw them out.  I've been working on a replacement

personal combat system based on Snapshot, Azhanti High Lightning and

Striker.  The first, partial draft is ready  for play-testing, just to see

if I'm on the right track at all.  I'll be happy to send copies to anyone

who would like to do that.  NOTE: Don't expect snappy response: I'll be

out of the office most of the next two weeks.  Also, don't expect a lot.

It's really just at the proof-of-concept stage.  It covers only basic ranged

combat, so far.



Speculative trade is another sore spot.  Re-working spec trade was the primary

purpose of the now-defunct Trade & Commerce sub-list.  A number of usse

kicked around some ideas, and Greg Givler assembled a preliminary draft of

an expaned trade system.  I could dig that out of the archives and send it

to you as well.



Mark



- - -------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark Power				mpower@beowulf.his.uab.edu

University of Alabama Hospital

GSB 240

619 19th St. South

Birmingham, AL 35233







------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2276

Date: Sat, 13 Apr 91 03:47:53 -0500

From: waylancm@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Legion)

Subject: encyclopaedia traveller





Trying to find decent gaming supplies in West Lafayette, IN is much

like wandering about in a desert wasteland; lots and lots of NOTHING.

(Odd, since it's only a few hours north of hte last reported location

of Traveller HQ...)



What I'm looking for is basically a list of equipment, knick-knacs,junk,

etc. (useful or not) that players might actually find. If there's

an on-line listing, could Some Kind Soul please send me some info for

ftp'ing it, or alternatively, has anyone tried to compile something

like this for TDR?





********************************************************************

Hi, my name's Legion. I'm many.   **   waylancm@mentor.cc.purdue.edu

********************************************************************



------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2277

Date:     Sat, 13 Apr 91 8:14:42 EDT

From: "Robert S. Dean" <rsdean@crdec8.apgea.army.mil>

Subject:  Re:2273 (Cruisers and things)



When I said 20,000ton cruiser, I had in mind something like the Piranha class

light cruiser of the Imperial Glisten navy, which was posted here a good long

while ago, and still available from the Berkeley site.



Its main armament is a Meson Gun-J, which doesn't get as many extra damage

rolls as a MG-T, but will still do a

number on a small vessel.



(-8 Clearly, almost anything will destroy a player vessel...I just picked

a number that I felt was in the smallest region of the "obviously so big it's

hopeless category".



With regard to agility, you know my opinion on the topic--it should be based

on the size of the maneuver drive (as modified by thrust, for my tastes), so 

that a vessel that can maintain a 2-G acceleration with all weapons powered

would have an agility rating of 2.



Rob Dean



------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2278

Date: Sat, 13 Apr 91 14:22 EDT

From: METLAY@vms.cis.pitt.edu

Subject: PBEM: The Hour is upon us!





Fellow Travellers, R-Alphan New Friends, and filthy-alleycat-furballs-

only-fit-to-be-eaten, erm, I mean, and Worthy Aslan Explorers:



As you all know, the entire PBEM is soon going to be in the same "place,"

which makes communications VITAL among all players. I need to hear from

each and every one of the PBEM's people who are NOT part of the Alcyon's

crew: R-Alpha natives, and Aslan alike. I handle some of the mailer duties

for Richard, and outside the Alcyon my files are old and out of date. PLEASE

contact me ASAP so I can add you to the master alias file. I would also like

a volunteer to translate the master file, which is a .COM file for VMS, into

a unix aliases.text file, for those who'd like it.



I would also like to hear IMMEDIATELY from people who do NOT plan to be back

in the game next September, or who may have to change addresses etc. A lot

of the plotline hoops we had to jump through this past year were to cover 

for people who vanished with little or no warning; knowing ahead of time who

may not be back will make things much easier for poor Richard. 



many thanx

metlay



------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2279

Date:     Sat, 13 Apr 91 17:56:03 EDT

From: "Robert S. Dean" <rsdean@crdec8.apgea.army.mil>

Subject:  Vehicles (Apologies)



I apologize for the condition of the send below.  Somehow my C-64 managed to

translate a perfectly normal upper/lower case file into all upper case when 

uploading.  In any case, the Industrious is an example design using George

Herbert's watercraft rules, posted last week.



Rob Dean



- - -----------------------------------

INDUSTRIOUS CLASS TANKER TL7



     THE INDUSTRIOUS CLASS TANKER IS A WATERCRAFT SPECIALIZED FOR LONG DISTANCE

TRANSPORTATION OF BULK LIQUIDS.  

  

 CRAFTID: INDUSTRIOUS CLASS TANKER, TL7, MCR22.883

    HULL: 3600/9000, DISP=4000, CONFIG=4SL, ARMOR=12B, UNLOADED=3766.2T,

          LOADED=27006T

   POWER: 4/8, IMPINTCOMB=36MW, DUR=20 DAYS@75% POWER

    LOCO: 3/6, PROPELLOR=1 (ELECTRIC DRIVE), MAXSPEED=31KPH, CRUISE=30KPH,

          RANGE=14400KM

    COMM: RADIO=CONTINENTAL(5000KM)

 SENSORS: RADAR=DIST(5KM), ACTOBJSCAN=FORM, ACTOBJPIN=FORM

     OFF: HARDPOINTS=40 (NO WEAPONS INSTALLED)

     DEF: -

 CONTROL: ELEC*3040

   ACCOM: CREW=24 (6 BRIDGE, 6 ENGINEERING, 9 MAINTENANCE, 3 COMMAND),

          SMALLSTATEROOMS=24, ENV=BASIC ENV (CREW SPACES ONLY)

   OTHER: FUEL=540KL, CARGO=22700KL, OBJSIZE=LARGE, EMLEVEL=FAINT

   NOTES: CREW WAS DETERMINED BY STARSHIP REQUIREMENT FORMULAS MULTIPLIED

          BY THREE TO PROVIDE CONTINUOUS COVERAGE OF DUTY STATIONS.





CHARIOT CLASS SYSTEM DEFENSE BOAT TL13

  

     THE CHARIOT CLASS IS A STANDARD IMPERIAL SDB DESIGN. HUNDREDS ARE IN 

SERVICE WITH THE PLANETARY NAVIES OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORLDS OF LUNION AND

STROUDEN IN THE SPINWARD MARCHES ALONE. WHILE THE FUEL SUPPLY IS SUFFICIENT

TO ALLOW THIRTY FULL DAYS OF OPERATION AT MAXIMUM POWER, IT IS MORE OFTEN

STRETCHED TO PROVIDE 75 DAYS OF OPERATION AT 40% POWER, ENOUGH FOR 1-G

MENEUVER AND FULL LIFE SUPPORT.  IF OPERATED IN LIFE SUPPORT AND PASSIVE

SENSOR ONLY MODE, AS WITH A LOITER OPERATION DURING AN ENEMY ATTACK ON THE

SYSTEM, ONLY ONE PERCENT OF THE POWER CAPACITY IS REQUIRED.  THIS WOULD

ALLOW THE VESSEL TO WAIT FOR UP TO 4375 DAYS BETWEEN FUELINGS--WHICH IS TO

SAY, AS LONG AS NECESSARY.

  

 CRAFTID: CHARIOT CLASS SDB, TL13, MCR757.85

    HULL: 540/1350, DISP=600, CONFIG=4SL, ARMOR=70F, UNLOADED=29760T,

          LOADED=30600T

   POWER: 70/140, FUSION=9270MW, DUR=30DAYS

    LOCO: 94/188, MANEUVER=6 (THRUSTERS=67600T), MAXSPEED=1000KPH, 

          CRUISE=750KPH, NOE=170KPH, TRUEACC=2.2G, AGILITY=2

    COMM: RADIO=SYSTEM*2, LASERCOMM=SYSTEM*2, MASERCOMM=SYSTEM*2

 SENSORS: EMM, EMS ACTIVE (FAR ORBIT)*2, EMS JAMMER (FAR ORBIT)*2, 

          EMS PASSIVE (INTERSTELLAR)*2, NEUTRINO SENSOR (100KW)*2,

          HIGH PEN DENSITOMETER (100M)*2, ACTOBJSCAN=ROUT, ACTOBJPIN=ROUT,

          PASSOBJSCAN=DIFF, PASSOBJPIN=DIFF, PASSENSCAN=ROUT, PASSENPIN=DIFF

     OFF: HARDPOINTS=6



            BEAMLASER=XX3             MISSILE=X03

          BATTERIES     2                       3

          BEARING       2                       3



     DEF: DEFDM=+10



          SANDCASTERS=XX4

          BATTERIES     1

          BEARING       1



 CONTROL: COMPMOD7*3, HUDHOLODISPLAY*6, HOLOLINK*120

   ACCOM: CREW=11 (2 BRIDGE, 2 ENGINEERS, 2 GUNNERS, 1 MAINTENANCE, 2 FLIGHT,

          1 COMMAND, 1 MEDIC), STATEROOMS=11, ENV=BASIC ENV, BASIC LS, EXT LS,

          GRAV PLATES, INERT COMP

   OTHER: FUEL=3780KL, CARGO=73KL, MISSILEMAGAZINE=90KL (100 B-R), 

          SUBCRAFT=1*30T SHIP'S BOAT, OBJSIZE=LARGE, EMLEVEL=FAINT



------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2280

Date: Sat, 13 Apr 91 18:08 EDT

From: METLAY@vms.cis.pitt.edu

Subject: PBEM Correction





The correct address for Goughzar (B. Simpson) is not the one given by our

Fearless-but-Typo-Prone GM: it's actually c447463@umcvmb.missouri.edu.

(He only missed one digit, but y'all know how finicky computers can be....)



metlay



------------------------------



Archive-Message-Number: 2281

Date: Sun, 14 Apr 91 16:06 EDT

From: METLAY@vms.cis.pitt.edu

Subject: PBEM: another address change





Steve Owens has a new computer account which will follow him when he

leaves Pitt, so please alter your alias files for Ralf as follows:



scratch@hpb.cis.pitt.edu



Thank you very much, and I'm still waiting to hear from the R-Alphans

and the Aslan... c'mon gang, I didn't really mean the crack about furballs....



metlay



------------------------------



End of TML Bundle

*****************



