TNE...

Hi there,
        This is my first attempt at a posting to TML, so please bear with me.
IUve been spectating for a couple of weeks and IUd like to add my say on the
New Era.
    Firstly, by way of introduction, I'm a grad student at UCLA, recently
arrived from Australia and a member of HIWG Australia. I must also state my
preference for Hard Science Fiction - I prefer the 2300AD universe (minus
cyberpunk) to the Imperium, but as 2300AD is currently in the doldrums, I am
mucking about with Traveller. Virtually all my Traveller and 2300AD stuff is
currently sitting in my parent's attic in Australia, so some of what I write
here is from memory. Apologies for any mistakes. Right ho, on with the fun...
8-)

TNE:
    I'm using what I've read on this mailing list, plus AAB Proceedings 19 and
Challenge 64 as my sources. If the this could also be passed on the folks at
GDW by Loren Wiseman, it would be appreciated (if I'm having my say, I may as
well be heard 8-).
    Seeing as this has turned into such a long posting, I will summarise my
points here:

Modularity: Make TNE a core rules system + Imperial sourcebook. Allow for
        other universes in the system.
Stutterwarp: Why does stutterwarp have to be FTL? Don't retrofit it.
World Generation: The current system needs tweaking. A few suggestions.
Trade: Something new needed.
The Virus: My $0.02. The virus should be beaten by the time TNE is set.
Thought for the Day: A neat idea which justifies the stutterwarp and defeats
        the Virus in one fell swoop.
The Short Nap: Longer please (the Imperium's had a hard day)
The Hivers: Some idle speculation on what the little so-and-so's were up to.

Modularity
    Having a core rules system with add-ons to cover various universes (eg.
the Imperium, the 2300AD universe, etc.) is a _good_idea_ IMHO. It would make
sense then to keep the core rules as general as possible (ie. have rules for
character creation, combat, trade, vehicle construction, system generation,
etc.) and include generic equipment which would be common to all Sci-Fi
settings (eg. standard laser weapons, slug throwers, etc.), but not things
such as starships beyond a few examples - they should be kept for the various
universe expansion books.
    Also, the expansion books should contain rules and data, as well as
background information. One of the worst things done with MegaTraveller was
including all the information about the various alien races in the Ref's
Companion and then not including any rules ("Hey, these Aslan sound great! 8-)
How do I create an Aslan NPC? 8-( "). If something is going to be done, it
should be done fully - taking the above example, a couple of pages detailing
Aslan character generation would have been really useful, even at the expense
of a couple of pages of description of the Aslan psychology (or whatever). Of
course Fighting Ships of the Shattered Imperium went to the other extreme and
had equal problems. Even a paragraph of written information about each ship
would have made the book useable. I must say that DGP MegaTraveller products
were in general much more useful than the GDW products, and I think that the
reason was that they got the mix of rules, data and background waffle about
right.
    I like the idea of having supplements dealing with other periods in
Imperial history - Rebellion era, First Imperium, Rule of Man, classic Third
Imperium, the Civil Wars would all make good subjects, as well as alternate
histories (the "We Have Always Been As We Are" suggestion of Martyn Wheeler of
a non-rebellion Imperium, or a non-virus version).

Stutterwarp in the Imperium
    Why not? But if it is going to be introduced into the Imperium without
making massive changes to the flavour of the universe it should not out-
perform the jump drive.

    Indeed, why does it need to be FTL?

    Why not have it merely as a superior form of m-drive? This would solve the
problem that was mentioned of trying to get the 2300AD starship combat system
without the massive effect on the imperial universe. Perhaps one of the
fundamental constants of a universe could well be the relative effectivenesses
of the various FTL travel means (ie. the MegaTraveller system would be jump-6,
stutterwarp-0, stargate-0; for 2300AD it might be jump-0, stutterwarp-7.7,
stargate-0; maybe TNE might have jump-6, stutterwarp-0.0001, stargate-0).
    Perhaps a UUP (Universal Universe Profile) might be in order!
    Stutterwarp should _not_ be retrofitted to Traveller, if it's used then it
should be a _new_ development since the hard times (maybe the Hivers or Deneb
came up with something). See below for a neat thought.

World/System Generation
    By far the most useful way of presenting data about worlds (from a game
point of view) was the 1-page format in Knightfall and the various DGP
products, although the system maps were wasteful of space. However, these are
obviously impractical for large-scale universes like the Imperium (the 2300AD
universe could concievably list every colonised system in such a format in a
reasonable space). So keeping the old Traveller system, or something like it,
does seem to make sense.
    However there are some problems with this system, the most notable being
atmospheres: A size 1 world (half the diameter of the moon) can have an
atmosphere of 6 (as dense as the earths. Given that there is a rough
correllation between gravity and atmospheric pressure (from the 2300AD
generation system tables, which are, I think, scientifically accurate for all
worlds bar gas giants), the world would need to have a mass one 64th of the
Earth, and hence a density of 8 times the Earth! Even if it were made of solid
lead or iridium it would not be this dense (from memory the Earth's density is
approx. 5 gm/cc, lead's is about 13 gm/cc, this planet would need 40 gm/cc).
(Please don't flame me if my calculations are wrong. Correct me, sure, but I
am a mathematician, not a physicist! 8-) It is things like this which cause
problems when you try to improve the data on a world you want to use. The
2300AD system was good, but too long-winded for a "simple" system.
    So how could the current traveller UPP system be improved, without
invalidating all the UPP's already generated throughout the Imperium?
(allowing for the fact that the Hard Times/Short Nap have totally stuffed a
lot already) Well, you could simply legislate out of existence ridiculous
examples like the one above (I know from AAB Procedings 19 that things are
being changed so that Agricultural worlds are being forced to have reasonably
bright stars).
    Another posibility would be to change that UPP digit to a "Composition"
digit which gives both the density (planetary composition) and atmosphere
(atmospheric composition) somehow. How about something like:

UPP Digit     Planetary Composition
  0,1,2        Icy Body (excepting asteroid belts)
  3,4,5        Rocky Body
  6,7,A        Molten Core
  8,9,B        Heavy Core

              Atmospheric Composition
 1,5,6,8       Standard Oxygen/Nitrogen atmosphere
 2,4,7,9       Tainted Atmosphere
 0,3,A,B       Exotic, vacuum or otherwise unusual atmosphere

    This should mesh fairly well with existing data and rules systems, but
would provide a better means to then use a World Builders'-type system to
generate more detail. However, it is a bit of a mess (mainly from trying to
make it fit the previous system), and I don't know where to put the existing
atmosphere types C to F. Any suggestions? Anything else anyone objects to in
the current UPP system?
    Oh yes, either the number of gas giants should be reduced, or the
number of available orbits increased - it seems too many systems have gas
giants in the habital zones.

Trade
    I don't really like either of the trade systems: the one in classic
traveller was too limited in scope, the one in MegaTraveller was better, but
was a pain to use and unrealistic (all cargoes on a given world cost the
same/ton, whether it was diamonds or grain or hi-tech weaponry you were
trading). Also on low-population worlds, a single starship's cargo could have
major effect on trade ("You've got 100 tons of gizmos. Sorry, we got a
shipment last week which should last us for a year..."). Things also started
to break down if the ships got too big: there is virtually no way that a 10000
trading vessel could fill its holds - a population A world could expect to
have approx 200 tons of cargo and another 200 of freight at any given time -
yet there were huge trading megacorporations which managed to make a living
(yes, I know that the trade tables are supposed to reflect what would be
available to the average Free Trader, and that most people would choose to
send their freight by Tukera lines than Bob's Free Trader. Nevertheless one
would expect a planet with a population in the billions to have thousands of
times more trade goods available than a planet with a population in the
millions or thousands...)
    This starts to touch on other things discussed elsewhere on TML, on
whether interstellar trade is just in "luxuries" or is wide-ranging and all-
pervasive. The consensus seems to be that the latter is the state of affairs
in the Third Imperium (and hence probably in Deneb in TNE), but my suspicion
is that it will be more likely that the Star Vikings will only trade in
luxuries. I s'pose that what it boils down to is the _cost_ of interstellar
travel. The higher the cost, the higher the value of the goods must be to make
the profits worthwhile. Somehow, the trade system needs to be able to cope
with both extremes.
    Certainly fixed passenger fares and freight costs have to go: consider
a free trader landing on a world in Deneb, where there is strong interstellar
trade: a berth on such a ship would perhaps cost something like what it does
in the current system. However the same free trader landing on an otherwise
identical planet somewhere out in the old heartlands of the imperium can ask
whatever it likes as the fare, as there will almost certainly be many people
who want out - whether it is to a nicer nearby world, a local capital or all
the way to Deneb... The difference here is that where the costs are high (the
dangers of trading in the old heartlands, the fact that repair etc. is almost
impossible), the price of transport is also high.
    I'm almost feeling motivated enough about this to write an improved
trade system myself, if university work doesn't intervene...

The Virus
    The idea of having a "race" of predatory computer chips destroy the
Interstellar economy is a fairly good one, although I am not 100% sure about
it: there are problems. The foremost of these IMHO is the idea of silicon
chips still being used in the hi-tech Imperium - I was of the impression that
the higher tech computers used various other means ("synaptic processors"
certainly form a significant part of TL15 ship computers, and my vision of
these is not of some special form of silicon chip... that could just be me,
though 8-) I s'pose that my vision of what a TL 15 computer's CPU would look
like is more like Orac from Blake's 7 - transparent or translucent
crystalline/plastic boxes (without flashing lights though). However, the idea
of having semi-intelligent chips in ship's transponders does get around this
problem to some extent. There are properties of the Cymbeline chips which
would suit them to this purpose. However, to be really effective, the Virus
would have to include aspects much more like a traditional computer virus.
    It would be fittingly ironic if the killer chips were manufactured as part
of Lucan's Black War effort to produce a doomsday weapon.
    The Virus is going to make technological advance extremely difficult in
affected areas, however, so that recovery may well be not possible - every
time that a civilisation gets to TL 7 or so, it will almost surely start using
silicon chips, and sooner or later the remnants of the Virus are going to
discover this little treasure trove of silicon, and take over. Thus, the Virus
should have been wiped out or be extremely limited in its range in TNE (How?
Maybe Deneb managed to produce an anti-virus? Silicon chips are extremely
susceptible to hard radiation (nuke-em)? Perhaps sufficient numbers mutated
into a "good" form that fought the Virus and virtually wiped it out) If there
are still Virus "eggs" lying about, or if there are still large numbers of
Virus chips active and there is no effective means of destruction or
pacification, then TNE will _not_ be the dawn of a new age, but merely a dark
struggle, and I think that everyone (including GDW) doesn't want that.

Thought for the Day
    What if the stutterwarp drive were the thing that turned the tables on the
Virus. Assuming some way to protect the electronics of a stutterwarp ship from
attack (and the stuttering may well be enough), a stutterwarp powered ship
would utterly abuse any of the non-stutterwarp imperial ships which the Virus
had taken over (in the 2300AD starship combat rules, any non-stutterwarp
driven ship _cannot_ move during combat). If you add something like the slow
build up of hard radiation from the stutterwarp drive being enough to fry any
Cymbeline chip which got aboard, the organic lifeforms have a permanent
military advantage over the Cymbeline chips. Thus the stutterwarp makes the
Virus much less of a threat.
    It also makes the stutterwarp an integral part of the TNE plotline, rather
than a convenient addition to the rules.
    I _like_ this idea 8-) The stroyline might go something like:

    About the same time as the Virus first breaks out (or maybe a bit before),
researchers at the Jumpspace Institute discover a means of inducing micro-
jumps, which although short in distance, only take milliseconds (or less) to
traverse, as opposed to the normal week in jumpspace. It is found that making
rapid, repeated jumps allows for performace far exceeding normal m-drives, but
there appears to be no way of getting the drive to produce FTL speeds. In
addition in gravity wells, performance drops off considerably as smaller jumps
have to be taken to allow for the gravitational field effects, but the time
taken for the jumps does not noticeably change. Hence the ships slow down.
Finally, there is a problem with buildup of radiation (or each jump generates
a electro-magnetic pulse), which although not dangerous to humans, fries many
traditional ship electronic components, such as transponders.
    Realising the military potential of this discovery for the Domain of
Deneb, the development of stutterwarp drive ships are fast-tracked and the
problems with the electronics surmounted by new (and incidentally Virus-proof)
technologies. By the time the Domain of Deneb is threatened by the Virus a
small squadron of fighting ships is ready. This handful of ships then defeats
a Virus Armada coming through corridor. As more ships are produced, similar
actions stop the spread of the virus in the Vargr extents (or maybe the Vargr
extents, left to their own devices, remain a haven for the virus), the Aslan
Heirate (in exchange for the Ihatei to stop their attacks), the Hiver worlds
(or maybe they developed stutterwarp independently), and perhaps some
remaining pockets in the Imperial heartlands. The Virus is no longer a threat
to most of humaniti, but the combination of the rebellion and the Virus has
left virtually the entire Imperial and Solomani empires a mass of devestation.
Once the Virus is under control, Deneb is forced to retreat to repair the
damage it has sustained before it can even think of helping the rest of the
Imperium, the same with most of the other interstellar states.
    It is only now, n years later, that once again Deneb is probing beyond
its borders into the remains of the Imperium, and that Hiver-backed Star
Vikings are starting to trade with former Solomani and Imperial space.
    The new frontier is the Imperial heartland, and it _is_ the dawn of a
new era...

The Short Nap
    I have to agree that 70 years or so is not really long enough for a new
dawn to be underway after such a fundamental collapse. I object on
dramatic/storyline grounds more than historical reasons. It just doesn't seem
right that a huge 1100 year old empire comes to a crashing fall, but in less
than 100 years things are starting to get back to normal...
    I s'pose I should ask if GDW have any plans for Imperial history after
TNE? (with the Rebellion era, it was pretty clear that things were heading for
a total collapse, if not in quite the way it finally happened) Are things
heading towards a 4th Imperium? Or something new? Imperial space divided
amongst Deneb, the Hivers, the Vargr, the Aslan and a few pocket empires?
Presumably a new dawn implies some sort of stable situation appearing on the
horizon.

The Hivers
    Although I doubt the Hivers were responsible for the Virus, I have always
had a nagging suspicion that the Rebellion may have been a Hiver manipulation
on a massive scale (indeed I once vaguely laid out the plans for a campaign
which followed such a plot line - nothing ever became of it). Part of my
reasons for thinking this way is that they kept out of the rebellion, not even
aiding any one particular faction with trade (and a Hiver keeping out of
anything that important seems unusual - mind you, there was a lot of violence
going on). And note that they've come out in what is by far the best position
after the dust has settled. Not that the Hivers are likely to let humans know
the truth about it until they've well and truly finished...
    Just an idle speculation 8-)

Final Comment
    I hope GDW don't go off half-cocked on TNE. Even if the release date is
put back or whatever, they should make sure they get it _right_. I wish them
luck, however. The new scenario has potential.

    There, I've probably said enough here to get me flamed to a crisp, but
thanks for bearing with such a long posting (2500 words - and exams are only 3
weeks away!).

See ya 'round
  Corran Webster