c

>
>
>
> [email removed]
> - --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                                                  Science-Fiction Adventure
>                                                          in the Far Future
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Bundle: 378
> Archive-Message-Number: 4531
> Date: Sat, 8 Aug 92 14:16 GMT
> From: PAVEWAY [email removed]
> Subject: c
>
>    The point I am trying to make is that some of the discourses on some of
> the more technical aspects of the MT universe do tend to get a wee bit, well...
> nit-picking and dare I say it longwinded.  MT is an SF game and as such it has
> some of the standard props of Sci-Fi eg. FTL in the form of the jump drive and
> a reactionless drive, your friend and mine the Thruster plate drive.  Now from
> my days as a failed A-level physics student I recall that these devices are in
> the light of most accepted theory Utter Tosh.  The thing is that there seems to
> be a lot of time and energy going into trying to come up with ideas for said
> props that conform to our current view of reality, Why?  Is it because for a
> physicist it is a grate on the nerves to see bad pseudo-scientific gobbledygook
> used to explain the Drives, and you want to explain it better yourselves?
>    Why not just accept the drives for what they are.... necessary impossiblities
> ?   Scott 2G makes the point that the long physics discussions serve to clarify
> the effects of technologies.  (I hope thats the point you were conveying I ain't
> too perceptive today! :) )      This is all well and fine but I have never had
> that much trouble with the technology in MT needing over much explaination,
> You have a jump drive that you put fuel in and push a button.... fine
> The M-drive takes fuel in one end and pushes you along..... Why gild the lily?
>   I am lucky though as not one of my party is an Engineer or a Physicist and
> therefore there is no-one to really cringe at the howlers in the 'physics' used
> to explain the drives.
> 	In reply to the point about Physics being easier to discuss than Biology
> due to the comparative complexity of the latter....
>  I franky disagree,  life is complex, yes  BUT is IMHO easier to deal with in a
> SF game than physics.  The Physics in SF deal with acheiving either the
> impossible or doing stuff we can't manage Yet.  Xenobiology is easier surely? we
> have seen what life can do on a planet that can support it (given enough time)
> and given the universal rules that govern life we can speculate on what we'd
> find on another world.  I always had my doubts about the Alien in ALIEN, but
> if there is a niche to fill then evolution will most likely fill it.  2300ad
> is quite good with its Xenobiology, the fact that there is a left or right hand
> version of molecules with 'assymetric' carbon skeletons means that the proteins
> and sugars on alien worlds have a 50% chance of not being any use to a terran
> lifeform.  Consider the problems the Vilani had with the life on Vland, I reckon
> that they had it as good as you can expect.
>   I shall start throwing the odd alien into the TML for people to peruse as well
>  as a few more whinges on what I don't like about the MT universe.
>
> 		PAVEWAY
>
>
>  PS. Scott? How much space on a disk would you entire 4.5th frontier war
> story take up?   And what format is it in?
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Bundle: 378
> Archive-Message-Number: 4532
> Date: Sat, 8 Aug 92 14:36 GMT
> From: PAVEWAY [email removed]
> Subject: Alien romance
>
> My party once annoyed a certain imperial personage sufficiently to be worthy
> of being the target of a terminator, basically a TL15 pseudobio with AI.
>   The T-1000 was stopped in its attempt by a 3rd person who reprogrammed it
> with the Algorithms used in the ships main computer.  Keith (the computer AI)
> was rather please with actually having a corporal body that did not displace
> 2000tons and could also juggle, eat, smell, dance and (in the case of one young
> lady in the crew) find out how real the pseudo actually was.  The AI still had
> much of its old programming and therefore defered to organics as a reflex.  The
> crew were a pretty liberal lot and made it an official human.  The heuristics
> in the program made the change in outlook possible.   The crew were surprised
> when the droid spent all 'his' booty share on becoming a 'her'!  A new set of
> cloned skin.... some extra width on the hips and some work with an orbital
> sander on the face et viola! Voici Karan!  Ok the lass is still 6'2" and built
> like Arnie but hell so was Taura Satana!
>   One of the crew asked how well she had been converted over..... the poor man
> was excused duty as a consequence.
>   The crew contained some people who felt uncomfortable with a synthetic that
> acted like a human..... this 'upset' Karan.  Later that year an aslan joined the
> crew and she began to load up software on that race to act as a liason.  The
> fact that aslan accept one for the pattern of ones thought not for your physical
> nature has made Karan begin to 'become' aslan.  She does have emotions....
>    As I said   Go figure....
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of TML Biweekly
> ******************
>


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

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

First, sorry about that last attempt.  That's what comes of having a
mailer which sends off a message when you hit "return", and using it
first thing on Monday morning.  Wipe egg off face, try again. :-)

PAVEWAY [email removed] writes:
>					MT is an SF game and as such it has
> some of the standard props of Sci-Fi eg. FTL in the form of the jump drive
> and a reactionless drive, your friend and mine the Thruster plate drive.
> Now from my days as a failed A-level physics student I recall that these
> devices are in  the light of most accepted theory Utter Tosh.  The thing is
> that there seems to be a lot of time and energy going into trying to come
> up with ideas for said props that conform to our current view of reality.

The problem is that some of them can't be made to conform to our current view
of reality, but something equally useful can.  FTL travel apparently causes
trouble with the Theory of Relativity, but Traveller won't travel far without
it, so people generally accept that one.  Reactionless drives definitely
cause problems with Relativity and Conservation of Energy, and even I who
never took physics beyond high school can prove it on paper.  (Or on a VDU,
if you want.)  Reactionless drives are also completely unnecessary.  What
upset a lot of people is that there is no reason for using them, when a
good old reaction drive will do just as well.  It's sort of like trying to
use an alien which eats a modest amount, never excretes, and outruns
an antelope.

>			This is all well and fine but I have never had
> that much trouble with the technology in MT needing over much explaination,
> You have a jump drive that you put fuel in and push a button.... fine
> The M-drive takes fuel in one end and pushes you along..... Why gild the lily?

A lot of us started with the original Traveller, which tried to keep magic
boxes like that to a minimum.  It still had a few (jump drive, for a start)
because they were necessary for an interstellar SF game.  But MT is full
of them, and some (e.g. the reactionless drive) are not necessary.

>			The Physics in SF deal with acheiving either the
> impossible or doing stuff we can't manage Yet.

That's just it.  Traveller tried to keep the impossible bits to a minimum.
MT doesn't care what is possible.

>   I shall start throwing the odd alien into the TML for people to peruse
>  as well as a few more whinges on what I don't like about the MT universe.

Good.  That will make a change from all the vehicle designs.  :-)  Do you
fancy writing some alien design rules?  :-) :-)

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

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