Ah-HAH!! I knew if I looked long enough, I'd find it. In issue #27 of
Challenge ("Back before you were born, remember kids?"), there's a great
article on "Journalism and the Stars" by Anders Blixt. It describes a
complete new "extended generation" charaction class, the journalist (natch).
It also describes the new task "Journalism", which is detailed as follows:
"Journalism: This new skill is the ability to make good saleable material,
both with text and pictures. When a free-lance journalist wants to sell
a story, he must roll 2D 11+ (DM journalistic skill and fame). He is paid
fame * Cr.80/day of production (double if the material was gathered in
dangerous conditions)."
BTW, the "fame" mentioned here is something that a journalist character
accumulates during the course of character creation (like promotions for
a military character). A high fame also provides a positive DM on mustering
out benefits.
Given the above "fee formula", I figure Adrian Bishop would rate about a
Journalism-5, even though he didn't actually have that specific skill.
Eric Sergienko writes:
> > Well, speaking as something of an authority on Journalism in the
> > Shattered Imperium (:-))
>
> Yellow Journalism, of course :-). Adrian's one disappointment with
> the inability to have FTL communication was that he couldn't have an
> Imperium wide hook-up:
> "This is Adrian Bishop, coming to you live and direct, from Archduke
> Norris' private pleasure palace, payed for by Children of the Spinward
> Marches Fund..."
True, true. Just once, I wanted to look straight into my holo-cam, knowing
that all of the Imperium behind the claw was watching, and say, "Good evening.
I'm Chevy Chase and you're not." :-)
Actually, I had as much fun running Adrian in Eric's campaign then as I'm
having now, running him in Richard's PBEM game. He met the rest of his
travelling companions during a little brush war on a mid-TL, semi-developed
backwater world out in the boonies. He promptly dragged the entire group
to Capital, and then back out into the middle of a belter mining dispute.
He surrounded himself with disreputable merchant traders, amnesiac criminals,
disbarred, drug-abusing doctors, and other indispensable journalistic
sidekicks. And you know something? He hasn't changed at all. He's still
the same old hyper, moody, chemically-dependent, social-climbing, cowardly,
strutting, muck-racking reporter today, and still likely to dive behind the
nearest crowd of women and children when the small-arms fire starts. Than
is, as long as they don't block his holo-shots of the carnage. :-)
.. And on an entirely different note, Rob Dean writes:
> Only two this time...these are in response to a request for cheap grav cargo
> carriers in the military campaign.
> .
> .
> .
> Bishop Grav Carrier TL10
>
> The Bishop is intended as a medium grav vehicle suitable for cargo
> transport at fairly high speeds.
CHEAP!?! Sleazy maybe, but cheap? Never!! I don't know whether I should
be insulted or flattered. Waitaminute, this smell's like a HEADLINE!!
I can just see it now,... "This is Adrian Bishop, coming to you live and
direct, from the Vincennes Vehicle Bazaar. Tonight, we're going behind the
scenes of the biggest cut-rate grav vehicle swindle in years..." :-)
"Boy, those Sword-worlders really stick it to you!"
- another MT "pointed" pronouncement.
Mark F. Cook
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Hewlett-Packard - Interface Technology Operation
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