Traveller Universe History and Background

A thread of 2 messages, 7 September 1989 to 3 October 1989, in the order they were sent.

#529 Traveller Universe History and Background

[unnamed sender] · 7 September 1989

[I have removed a name to protect the guilty, where there is a [*] -- James]

To the List in general:

A lot of people seem to be interested in bits and pieces of Triveller travia,
uh, Trivialler tra-- oh, the hell with it. Anyway, if the List needs an
unofficial historian (or, James, an official one), I'll be glad to fill the
gap: I've got access to everything GDW ever put out on the Traveller->MegaT
universe, and almost everything Digest Group has done. There may be people
with better connections for certain things than I (hi, [*]), but for
historical data and info on the Universe, I'd be glad to work as a resource.

When I say "historian," I mean historian, of the universe and of developments
in the game, and not (even if people would listen to me, which I doubt) a
rules arbiter. If you want to know why people laugh when you say you've gotten
a perfect-condition first printing of HIGH GUARD, or why Cymbeline's a
hacker's heaven, or whether Hivers have a sense of humor, or who Ek is, or how
many babies a Vargr mother tends to have in a litter, or even the lowdown on
who is credited with the discovery that you could have a viable 2G, Jump-2
ship with a 200 ton hull (and hence invented the Far Trader by accident), I
can answer you gladly. But I will not render judgements on how ANY actual game
rules are supposed to work, as my policy since discovering my first rules
glitch in the original Book 2 in 1978 has been, "Talk fast, wing it, and if
anyone tries to quote the rules at you, kick their character out an airlock,"
which is great for argument-free play sessions but lousy for being able to
quote chapter and verse on tables of data.

I should warn folks that my database, while huge, is incomplete: I own by no
means all of the stuff belonging to groups other than GDW and DGP, and am
missing several issues of the better-known fanzines. (I need information
contained in Travellers' Digest Numbers 5-7, for example.) And last but not
least, my research schedule forces me to leave my terminal for weeks at a
time, so there may be backlog on occasion. But I'll try to notify James and/or
the List in such cases.

My memory is excellent but by no means perfect, so I may amend answers to
questions after I've had an opportunity to check the hundred-plus-volume
Metlay Traveller Library. And if I get something wrong, I'm open to being
corrected, but flame me at your peril: the last person to flame me was named
Jim Morrison. And before that it was Elvis, and before that, Jimmy Hoffa.

What do y'all think?

expectantly,

******
metlay				| "What'd you hit him for, Hug?" "I asked him
******				| what the wallet was made of, and he said,
[email removed]      		| `Hide, the cow's outside.' Imagine his nerve,
[email removed]        		| suggesting an Aslan is afraid of a cow!" |->

#587 Re: Traveller Universe History and Background

Scott, part time fuzzy · 3 October 1989 · reply to #529

[This came to [email removed], looks like it was meant for
[email removed].  Watch those automatic reply headers! -- James]

  Hello all.

  This is actually in regards to the weapons debate, though I do have a
question for the list historian if he gets that far.

  In one of my previous games, we had a true point and shoot death beam in the
game.  We were all equiped to TL 17 or 18 before the DM knew what that meant.
He gave the entire merry band "power gloves."  As the name implies, you pointed
an appropriate digit at the offending being, vehicle, or starship that annoyed
you, and an appropriate blast of power removed it from the game.

  While the actual implementation was kinda lame (I can see all of the pocket
computers translating furiously), the idea was handy.  We used a target system
where the thing to be vaporized was telepathicly implanted in the firer's mind,
along with a BIG crosshair.  This gave a major plus on any aimed shot
(Essentialy adding about 20% to your chances to penetrate armor, more if you
had any skill) PLUS making any future shots occur at about a ten percent boost.
It was kind of fun in that it was both concealable and VERY nasty.  Applying
the idea to the proposed laser flashlight/ sword of Damocles, I would boost the
hit chance by a great deal on the first shot, possibly also upping the
penetration due to precision effects.  Later shots may get an advantage, but
the bad guy might decide to get the foo out of the way.

  For another view on this, see David Gerrold's creation in the Chtorr series.
In traveller terms, it would be an upscaled Gauss rifle, perhaps due to law
level restrictions on portable energy weapons, that had full electronic scope
sights and easier precision targetting.  In essence, the rifle sent out a guide
beam that the helmet picked up.  The frequency shifted by a nasty random series
set by some switches in both the gun and the helmet, thuis allowing the fierer
to see instantly where his or her shots were going, while only lighting up the
gun to standard sensors for millisecond flashes.  Still worse than no active
systems at all, and easy to defeat with enough sensing gear and computer power,
but pretty effective against those facing it.

  Metlay: (first name not currently at hand, sorry) What information exists
about Sternmetal Horizons.  In my game, they seem kind of like a bloodthirsty
K-Mart.  Thier equipment is very good for the tech level behind where one is,
thier training is laughable, but thier people are very well trained and
effective.  Almost like thier legal staff.

  Thanks.

             Scott Ellsworth
            [email removed]
Best bet -> [email removed]

ps I am still working on a more sensible equipment list by tech level and
function, indexed by Per Capita planetary product, etc, but I have not had the
time.  My playing group has gotten tired of lasers and wants to get back to
midieval era gaming.  Sigh.