Happy New Year!

Even though the holidays are over, there doesn't seem to be  much
traffic on the list.  I thought I might as well take this  oppor-
tunity  to bring up a few things that have been on my  mind,  and
see if we can get a little activity going again.

Item  1:  MESON COMMUNICATORS  I have been asked why I never  put
these things on nay of my starship designs.  Well, there are  two
reasons.  They serve no purpose, and they're expensive.  Serve no
purpose, you say?  Exactly.  The only advantage of a meson commu-
nicator  versus any of the other tight beam comm systems is  that
it can transmit through solid objects.  However, assuming that it
works  more or less like a meson gun, you need to know the  exact
range before using it.  Thus, unless you can already see and talk
to the other ship, you can't use your meson communicator.  I also
have a feeling that I wouldn't want to be aboard a ship receiving
a slightly misaligned meson communication--even though the 20  or
30  megawatts of a communication beam aren't anything next  to  a
spinal  mount's  output, I'd hate to be on the bridge  when  that
message decays ten feet from the meson receiver.

Item 2: IMPERIAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS  A fair amount of powder has
been burned in the past few months on the nitty gritty details of
weapons.   I've  always  worked under the  assumption  that  some
Imperial  standards organization exists, and that if you carry  a
standard   weapon,  you  shouldn't  have  much  trouble   getting
bullets/power packs for it.  This is basically the same situation
that exists for starships, where you can get your drive  repaired
anywhere.   Even though there may be multiple  standards  (Oh...I
see  you  have a Procyon.  That's an ImpStd-D isn't  it?)  it  is
still easy enough to get parts.

Item 3: SPACE COMBAT WITH UNDERARMORED VESSELS  My first  sugges-
tion for a quick approximation of what to do with an underarmored
(less  than 40) space craft would be to apply a +1 to the  damage
die  roll for each three armor classes under 40.  (Mirror  of  -1
for each three over 40).

Item  4: GREAT ADVENTURE IDEAS What are some of the  best  adven-
tures  people have run/played in?  For all the years  I've  owned
this game, I've not played it much, and I wonder what people have
done that they thought worked well.

Item  5: A MILITARY CAMPAIGN PBEM  Since I never actually  get  a
chance  to  run  anything, I am considering  the  possibility  of
running  a military oriented game over the net.  Realistically  I
couldn't  accept more than about five players.  The basic  situa-
tion  would  be this:  A small mercenary unit  with  a  financial
problem has been approached by the government in exile of a small
country which was overrun by a larger neighbor.  They would  like
to liberate their homeland, but have very few resources.  The pay
would be better than the training duties the company is currently
surviving on.  Emphasis on military ingenuity/irregular  warfare,
and  an  exploration  of how grav vehicles  would  really  affect
combat.  If it works, and I can keep it up, there would be poten-
tial  for expansion or starting a new game on a different  topic.
Set in the Spinward Marches...

Item 6 REVISIONS OF VEHICLE DESIGNS  I've been sorting the  vehi-
cle designs and correcting typographical erros where I could find
them.   If anyone is interested, I'll be sending them to the  ftp
site (if it has been repaired.)

Item 7 TDR VEHICLE SYSTEM  Has anyone looked at my draft  vehicle
system version 1.1?

Respond to any or all.  Let's get this list moving again.
Rob Dean