Re: Jumps, energy and black globes

Adrian Hurt, in Message 275: (sorry, I lost who he's quoting)
>>I got that from Digest Group's Starship Operator's Manual which explains
>>(probably for the first time) the rational for the various technologies
>>in Traveler.
>
> [ Comments on obvious error made by Digest Group, specifically
>   gauss guns being silent ]
>
>>[energy absorbed by black globe screens,] - nope.  You can't use this energy.
>
>Yep. You can use this energy. At least, according to High Guard, which I quote:
>"If a ship absorbs enough energy to make a jump, and is supplied with
>sufficient fuel, it may jump at the end of the turn."

Whatever your feelings about the Digest Group people, you might want
to learn to live with it - their stuff might as well be stamped
"Official Material".  Marc Miller seems to think the world of them;
they really wrote MegaTraveller, and he (Miller) co-authors the Q&A
column in _Traveller's Digest_.  In one of those columns, he clarifies
(read: contradicts) that passage in High Guard, saying that the clause
about energy in the capacitors is unnecessary, and that the fuel
requirements are still there.

With respect to gauss guns, for a long time, I've allowed them to have
a switch that lets them fire subsonic.  It cuts their penetration in
half and shortens their range, but it's sometimes worth it.  Even when
fired normally, it is easy to tell someone's shooting at you, but
rather more difficult to tell where they are.

Unless i'm mistaken, the bit about the jump grid originally came from
an article in the Journal on jump space (by Marc Miller?), not the DG
folks.  As far as I know, no one has addressed what happens when its
damaged.  I still haven't seen the Starship Operator's Guide, but it
does sound, ummm, interesting.  Anybody care to review it?


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Mark Power				[email removed]
Health Information Systems
University of Alabama Hospital
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