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?