Low tech surprise!

A thread of 3 messages, 22 July 1992 to 24 July 1992, in the order they were sent.

#4493 Low tech surprise!

I was talking with a friend the other day, annd we got to discussing
some of the "odder" things that can be stolen from older SF and
incorporated into Traveller.

We came up with one that looks like it could be *real* nasty, but I'd
like to bounce it off the ship design folks.

Jack Williamson had a couple of Novels in the 50s set in a version of
the solar system that was a bit improbable then and *totally* impossible
now. But a similar solar system *could exist in this galaxy (it'd just
be *very* unlikely).

Specificly, this system had suffered from an encounter with an
extra-galactic rogue planet. Both it and one of the systems planet
interacted and the result was a large asteriod belt.

I hear you saying "So what?". Well, there's one *teensy* detail... the
rogue planet was antimatter. This means that a rather low tech level
culture could have antimatter powerplants *and* warheads...

Picture the poor unsuspecting Imperial scouts encountering *that*
contradicttion. (Tech level 10 ships with antimatter power! <shudder>)

Anybody think it's worth fudging up some designs for?

#4498 Re: low-tech anti-matter

Leonard Erickson [email removed] writes:

<about a star system that had collided with another star system and
produced a planetoid belt.>

> I hear you saying "So what?". Well, there's one *teensy* detail... the
> rogue planet was antimatter. This means that a rather low tech level
> culture could have antimatter powerplants *and* warheads...
>
> Picture the poor unsuspecting Imperial scouts encountering *that*
> contradicttion. (Tech level 10 ships with antimatter power! <shudder>)

And now you know why the Shionthy system is a Red Zone.  According to
Adventure 1, Kinunir, that system is a planetoid belt with chunks of
anti-matter floating around.

What this means is that either the Imperials have already used the
stuff (TL 15 ships with anti-matter power - not quite such a big
shudder :-) or that there is some basic reason why they could or
would not do so, such as the ship blowing up.  If the Imperials can't
build anti-matter powerplants at TL 15, neither can those TL 10 people.
Or indeed, the TL 8 residents of the Shionthy system.

Anyone want to design some TL 8 ships with anti-matter power? :-)

- --
 "Keyboard?  How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  [email removed]
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   [email removed]

#4502 Anti-matter in the Imperium

Adrian Hurt writes:

>And now you know why the Shionthy system is a Red Zone.  According to
>Adventure 1, Kinunir, that system is a planetoid belt with chunks of
>anti-matter floating around.
>
>What this means is that either the Imperials have already used the
>stuff (TL 15 ships with anti-matter power - not quite such a big
>shudder :-) or that there is some basic reason why they could or
>would not do so, such as the ship blowing up.  If the Imperials can't
>build anti-matter powerplants at TL 15, neither can those TL 10 people.

Unwarranted assumption, I think. It is much more likely that the amount
of anti-matter that the Imperium can get out of Shionthy is too small to
base a squadron of ships on (I doubt that Imperial admirals think in
smaller units than squadrons). The people of Shionthy lives by gathering
anti-matter and selling it to the Imperium (this is the real reason the
Imperium allows them to stay in a system that is interdicted for being
to dangerous to travel in). So they can at least handle the anti-matter.
Wether they can use it in power-plants is another matter. But if you
want to give your players a prototype anti-matter-driven ship you can.

>Or indeed, the TL 8 residents of the Shionthy system.

They can collect it, at least. But maybe they get the tools to do so
from the Imperium.

      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     [email removed]
- ------------
        "A  subsector  official  pompously states that the
        subsector  armed  forces  have  four Kinunir class
        ships in service,  each with enough troop strength
        to put down any military operations that threathen
        the peace of the Imperium."

                        ---Adventure 1, The Kinunir