James Kelleher 1h 1r... :-) Hello again here I am again I'm on TML
myself Yah. But first I noticed one typo in my post... MY OWN D***
NAME! ... ARRRRGH! I hate that; when other folks don't check their
stuff: but My own name... Oh bummer. It's Jim Kelle(h)er not
Kelle(r)er! Oh well no use crying over an extra r... and my spell
checker has it I know it does... James Kundert ( I'd better spell it
right he is in one of my games!)
I think that he's right on the blasters. The plasma gun is a bit
extreme, smoking boots ? yuck! Ok so I guess either an overloaded
pulse laser, or a low powered laser stun gun ( up powered ) would fit
the bill. I have yet to have anyone ask for one or for a "Captain's
sidearm" either, since there has not been any personal combat (
through a lot of paranoia on the part of the captain, and other crew
members they have managed to avoid several dangerous situations. {
DARN! :-)} ).
Rob Dean Writes: The trouble that I have is that the new setting is
DULL. Ho hum...another planet full of barbarians. How clever can I
be today? "Yo, Starblade, bring me my laser rifle...those guys have
blowguns and they look a little more dangerous than the last batch."
:-( :-P Was it here that someone mentioned H. Beam Piper's "Gunpowder
God" recently? If not, they should have. For those of you unfamiliar
with the works of Piper (shame on you! a seminal influence on
Traveller), <Lots of plot synopsis left out > In "GG", the kingdom
is located on a distant planet and is saved by the intervention of a
trading company scout team with contra-gravity vehicles and machine
guns, who massacre the opposition in the course of a couple of days.
One of these is an exciting adventure story; the other was only
reprinted to round out an author's Complete Works collection. What is
the difference? In Kalvan, the hero is challenged by the situation and
has to struggle for success. In "GG", the heroes smash everything in
sight without working up a sweat. Our games should resemble the former
more than the latter. The advantage of the Old Imperium was that
there were many planets providing _different_ levels of challenge,
allowing the referee to provide interesting situations without
straining our sense of disbelief. How is a ref supposed to keep a
game challenging when nearly every obstacle in the path of the
characters can be removed by blowing everything to bits? It's not
even like the Imperials will hunt you down and send you to the Prison
Planet (Adventure 8 (-:) if you do something too antisocial. Sure,
you _could_ play the game without falling into the "I've got the
biggest gun" rut, but the internal checks and balances of the setting
have been removed.
Ah well--I've always maintained a continuously progressing timeline in
my own infrequent games, and for _me_, the year is still 1108. It'll
take me a while to get to the point where I have to decide about the
Rebellion. Is civilization collapsing up there, ahead of me? We'll
see when we get there. But if it is, I think the universe is going to
be a dull sort of place, without the ability to inspire the near-
fanatical devotion that we oldtimers seem to have for the game.
Rob Dean Weeeelllll I'd have to differ with you here I think that it
would not be all that hard to come up with new and interesting
variations on a theme... " Hey Vikekiller they have to run out of
ammo sometime..." guess who gets the staring role in the stewpot
tonight? in addition there is the noticeable fact that the high tech
stuff is at least 80 years old and so can be unreliable at best.
Maintenance? spare parts? ha! you gots' ta find em! there is also the
"Longbow" factor as well as cultural factors that will keep the
characters in line. Well ok somewhat... A good number of challenges
could be invented, here are a couple... A highly psionic and
xenophobic cult secretly rules the planet unless you are very good or
lucky you won't even know of their existance but gosh... things just
keep going wrong. Or... You run into somebodies' psycho - historical
experiment and mess it up??? and boy are they p***ed. note that
neither one used the old ... fissle snap pop ... I guess it is broken
you will just have to do without it. (not bad for off the cuff.)
Jim Kelleher writes:
> I think I'll bite the bullet, (as it were ), and go off, ( yes I
>know I'm off ;-) ), and take off on a tangent. OK Guys I'm gonna
>make you work for this one, and, I hope, a lot of band width. Just
>what do you think high tech level Forensic science will be like (
>high tech level = 13 - 15 ;-) ). How will criminal investigation
>work? I have only seen this addresed in traveller as " you are on a
>ship in jump and you have no equipment except your wits ( if any :-
>)) to find who did it." I am thinking of a murder on ground that
>some of my players can get involved in and I don't want the Lab to
>solve it for them. I assume that if there are common devices that
>there will be methods around them but I find that I'm outa ideas.
>thanks for any ideas at all. ( Metlay, Scott 2g, Rob Dean you guys
>all seem to have opinions on everything. :-) :-) ). waiting with
>baited breath and muffled oar.
Well, I don't know if you have ever seen the Classic Traveller
Adventure "Murder on Arturus Station" But I feel it is a classic.
You're party is asked by the station manager to help solve the murder
of someone aboard the station. It is a very well done module. And the
best thing is that you can change the killer each time that you play
the adventure, so even someone who has played the Adventure could do
it again the next time because the solution can be different each
time. Unfortunately it does not rely on forensic science so there are
no helps there. It relies on character interaction, which I think is
the best part of role playing anyway. The GM has to play many parts
male and female each with their own motives and alibis. If you can
find it pick it up I think it may help. It has the feel of the Maltese
Falcon or an Agatha Christy murder mystery. Except in this case all
the clues are there for the hunting. What it basically boils down to
is good ole police work. Searching for clues and talking to suspects.
Of course everyone is a suspect and almost all have means, motive and
opportunity. > Jim Kelleher Greg Givler
Uh Greg I hate to say it but it looks like " you have nothing but your
wits ( If any ) to solve it." although I do not have that one it is on
my list of stuff to get soon, it sounds interesting and could give me
some ideas. the problem is that this murder is going to occur at the
kingsbury campus of the university of Regina, on Regina, DNI may get
involved ( I can't tell you why yet ;-) )
Everything else is sort of "OK, roll." I think of a number that they
need to succeed and say if they do or not. Sort of seat of the pants
stuff. I just try to be consistent. I have always felt that rules in
role playing games should be a frame work, not engraved in Granite.
Greg Givler I agree and I must admit that I do this sometimes. I also
tend to just randomly roll dice sometimes I am trying to determine
something sometimes I'm just making my players paranoid. there is no
system that is graven in stone I think that I've modified every game
system I have used. If you do not LIKE some aspect of a system you can
either change it or use something else you like more.
From: Anthony Neal [email removed] Subject: Forensics at TL
13 - 15...
Greetings Humanoids:
I see someone looking for advice that I myself had a pondering
about and recently made a ruling. This might be helpful... Or not.
Catie, could you see that Jim Kelleher receives this post... Thanx!!
( I have received it but due to a misspelling it is Kelleher 1h 1r)
Well Jim, I have taken to stealing from other games and
supplements and trying to make a conversion to MegaTrav that I feel is
resonable. Here's one example... So have I, Gurps, is just one of
them sometimes translation can be a problem, but it's a small price,
as some of my players have even more Trav stuff than I do; Surprise!
It is not the scenario you thought it was. Or sometimes I'll just
modify one of the old Trav things...
FORENSICS KIT
This is a portable forensics lab, with a dedicated computer system
capable of detection and chemical analysis of evidence. As well as
ballistics analysis and finger and voice printing, the lab is capable
of identifying and classifying hair,flesh scrapings and blood samples,
and using them to determine the owner's genetic pattern. It is usually
linked to a database containing detailed records on suspects to aid
identification. Also contained is a still camera with reader. It comes
in it's own carrying case.
TL Volume Weight Price --------------------
- ------------------------ 12 30.0 litres 30.0 Kilograms Cr
9,000
Aside: Well, I dunno. I put together this little thing to make my
life a little more relaxing. Actually, it's pretty well stolen from
the Criminology Kit in GURPS Cyberpunk, page 54. (Lawsuit???) but very
bare bones translated. I figure the "Dedicated Computer" is some
kinda expert system. Could linked to a central database by comlink or
cellular modem (whatever). For my purposes, the computer is a
model/1bis. That's what the Hand Computer is supposed to be. Sure,
there's a lotta room in the case for more hardware, but that's all
they really need. The sensors are stolen from the Electronic Locks
section. Sure, they're a little more accurate, but it's a decent start
for a homegrown piece of work. I have brought the Cyberpunk and
Ultratech Battery types into Traveller to make my life easier, seeing
Trav won't make my life easy! Never could find definitive information
about power pack size for laser weapons and other things. The above
contraption runs off a C cell for three months. Powerful little cells.
You could up the ante and put in more gizmos, but this should do.
I think that a chemical sniffer and a neural sensor might help I'll
consult with Catie's former police commissioner character ;->.I have
noticed that T:TNE has what looks like a good set of battery rules. --
jim --
For the still camera above, I use a Digital Camera, which will
get 3000 still photos or 1 hour of video (Huh? ah well. probably a
weak comparison. but it's my rule. Don't like it? Change it!) per
1.5 Gigabyte disk.
Only 1.5 Gigabyte Tsk Tsk we have 1.2's in 3.5 in. format now! I think
you should get more than an hour but for it's work you probably won't
need it. -- jim --
Anyhow, that's the stuff. Hope it helps. Yes a lot, but I still have
to figure a way around the " Well we have matched the DNA samples at
the scene of the crime and here is the criminal." I guess that is my
problem not yours but how could they get away with it ???
Now back to your regularly scheduled diversion...
Scott 2G Kellogg has some good things to say about Survival Margin ( S
& M ? ) I do think I like the whole thing. I think what he is doing in
the IKAR sector ( Foreven sector to us imps ;-) ) is great. His
universe and mine are probably diverged, but that's Ok, to each his
own I think my group is interested in playing through the 1130's and
beyond into the regency and the consulate getting closer,this seems to
be an exciting period. Eventually we may see the new era, of course it
will be the children of the characters ( if they survive ;-) bwaha ha
ha ) or their grand children. if... this is not to say that we will
not use the new rules if they seem to be an improvement. ( what I've
seen so far looks like it! ). After all we have not passed 1118 yet
there are exciting adventures just around the corner so to speak.
- -bertil- >but it seems that ol' Norris still rules things, even
though he >should be in his 140's (and his daughter in her 60's at
least). Uh, bertil uh, I couldn't find where you got your assumption
from. I would be surprised if ol' Norrie, ( one of my characters calls
him Norrie to his face ;-) ), was still around after all, the
anagathics rules are very pointed. You are lucky if you make just
about 120 years, His daughter could still be around but she would be
pretty old. How about the Kid from Arrival Vengeance???
Assuming that low Pen means better penetration, and high Dam means
more damage (which assumptions are based on the idea that better
penetration and more damage mean better chances of harming the target)
then it is the data which gives the 9mm rifle better penetration and
more damage than the 12mm rifle which is at fault. I would personally
expect the 12mm rifle to have worse penetration (higher Pen) and do
more damage (higher Dam) than the 9mm rifle.
The smaller bullet and higher powder ( relatively ) charge makes the
9mm penetrate better but will have a lower damage than a 12mm which
has a larger area to inflict its damage over. -- jim kelleher --
Adrian Hurt
Will there be a way for people who have bought the various items that
will be in the boxed set to acquire the "special goodies" without
getting TNE and Technical Architecture again ie: without shelling out
for the entire boxed set? mark Matson
Yes! Yes! please I have already bought T:TNE and really do not need
another copy. I'll buy the technical architecure book as soon as it is
out, I am very eagre for it, especially since the quality of T:TNE was
so good. -- jim K --
For my own use, I'm thinking of staying with my current usage of
thruster-plates for common use, and fusion rockets where high delta-
v/t is needed. The thought of the common-folk running about riding
oversized fusion guns is frightening. :)
Edjs ------
[email removed] I am considering this as there has
been a lot of comment about the usefulness of fusion rockets as
weapons. -- jim --
[email removed] (SPG6) > P.S. I wonder what the Imperial
equivalent of coffee would be. (A >toned-down version of combat-drug
as a beverage additive would really >get your heart a pumpin'...)
> I'm sure that no matter where humans from Earth go, the coffee bean
> can't be far behind ... > > [email removed]
And in fact in the Azhanti High Lightning adventures there was one
about a delivery of a rare Solomani vintage to the Emperor. It was
something called -- Jmaica Blue Mountain -- if my memory serves me
well, ( no that's Dillon :-) ). Blue mountain for you folks out there
who do not know; Is one of the best coffees any where!!! In my
campaign some people drink coffee and like it, but it is very
expensive, others just have Neo-caff. ( some even like that STUFF
better than coffee! ) -- jim --
Coffee On coffee: It's notoriously fickle regarding where it will
grow, and how it tastes depends a great deal on the conditions that it
was grown in. I can see the coffee houses of the (Post)Imperium now,
3100 flavors at your beck-and-call (for a price, of course...) Or you
can drink the local swill for 10Cr. [email removed] (SPG6) Humm
Yeah I guess Cr.10 would be about right :-> unless you WANT Neo-caff
??? Humm I wonder if Bach's coffee cantata is still popular? -- jim --
At least in the case of the areas surrounding the RC, we might
assume that any teddy mark in the world lists is a statement by the
RCES giving any official or quasi-official party an 'open season' on
the government and that the mark in the world list reflects a current
or future RCES classification, just like the Amber and Red zones were
classifications actually issued by TAS reflecting their judgement and
info about interdictions, instead of 'just' a game-mechanic.
It is like a 'most favored nation' status in reverse. 'Government
Non Grata', 'Hunting Licence'.
I mean, are these guys GREAT examples of HEROES, and GOOD GUYS, or
what??? ---Steve Higginbotham
I have to agree with Steve Higginbotham on the ARCES I find that makes
a good role-playing " Well the curch is not so bad... so who do we
believe and who are we working for anyway??" -- jim --
So stop wasting time babbling about TRIVIA like those det-laser
missiles. If you really want to disarm your PCs, start by preventing
them from getting their hands on a ship of any kind.... Think about
it.... ---Steve Higginbotham "A reaction drive is a
weapon, whose efficiency is in direct proportion to its efficiency as
a drive" --- The Kzinti Lesson, from Larry Niven.
youch that looks evil I am thinking of staying with the thruster
plates in order to stop this kind of abuse. -- jim --
the TNE book.. is there any mention on TAS (Traveller's Aid Society)?
Just wondering if they are still in existance in the Regency.....
Thanks Heaps...
- - ------------- James Johannesson Email
Internet:[email removed]
Why yes I noticed that the good ol' TAS still existed in the Regency
but not any where else. I think that they will be an interesting group
to get the Regency players to head out into the wilds to see what is
there. ;-)
There's also the potential for coasting missiles; the missiles would
go "dead" for a large part of their flight and hope to avoid detection
until they go active close enough to (hopefully) get in before
defenses could defeat them. If this tactic were extended to ships, I
imagine space battles would look much like submarine combat... In
reference to detecting contra-gravity, I suspect that stealth contra-
gravity technologies would be developed; technologies to hide or
disguise the detectable emissions. Steven J. Owens [email removed]
Ya know I kinda like some of these ideas I did like "Star Cruiser" and
the submarine like combat. On the stealth designs, I was working on a
design that was a stealth ship she was going to be a peripheral part
of the adventure but I thought of an added extra it is an AI (this
definitely predates the Virus 1120 or thereabouts :-) ).
More T:TNE My first impression of the ship hull armor is that it is
too weak I Mean; I mean; I'm just sittin'' here on the group W ... no
that's Arlo Guthrie. When a grunt Tech level about 5 can use a Bazooka
( See the Heavy Weapons book ) to punch through the the hull of ANY
commercial craft Armor = 10, and any other except a Gazelle, or SDB.
Has a chance on the Gazelle armour = 63. Most of the "Free" Traders I
know are going to want do something about this Pronto! If the local
gravel agitators find out that they can poke holes in the ship; it
won't be long before they try just for grins and giggles. ( Yeah sure
right !) With Super Dense (tm.) :-) I feel that the armor values too
low unless I missed something here. ( My materials person will go on
at great length about the impossibility of " SuperDense (tm.) " at the
drop of a hat [ sometimes she drops it herself!] Loren, any comments?
- - I realize that this equalizes the the natives and a ship crew but
there are other ways... ;-) ( Bwaaah Ha Ha )
Steve Higginbotham : Did I note a bit of Nyah Nyah I told you so ! In
that post??? although my science "nerd" is gritting her teeth ( hear
it ?) She agrees that the Thrusters weren't so bad after all. ( gag
choke.)
Well here is my chance to start another thread and also get flamed at
the same time. :-) The other day one of my players and I were having
coffee at my house and the conversation turned to the Zhodani ( did I
see some ears perk up out there ? Scott 2G, Metlay? ) well any way
here is some thoughts.
Imperial P.O.W.s they would quickly either be "re-educated" and fit
into the Consulate, or send them send them back with a strong PSI
suggestion that "Shooting people is BAD." the person's colleges and
friends will think that he has been "Brain Washed" By those evil psi
using brain sucking ... zho's this marks the end of that person's
military career the Domain has come to realize that these are no
longer functional with out a lot of work so they are given what they
will need ot start an new life and are resettled. Zhodani are
horrified at the concept of prisons. They are not typically very
patient people. Their culture is slowly stagnating although very
few would realize this and fewer still would admit it! The
Tavrchedl sends out pairs of agents to hunt down "Noble" "Law
Breakers" ( they have broken the social contract in some way ) who
move into the Imperium. In order to prevent the bad press of a psi
using Zhodani doing bad things to the non psi's in the Imperium. This
also sends a message to all potential such that this is not an option.
Remember: when it comes to the Tavrchedl: no matter where you go;
There they are! A noble member of the Tavrchedl is "Judge Dred",
Judge, Jury, and Executioner. ( Oh Boy here come the flames... ;-) )
Games: I've seen a few but here is one that seems to be popular (
at least in our games...) Chess It is very popular ( the Zho's claim
to have invented it :->, Really :-> ok you don;t believe me ) by the
way the use of psi in a game is considered uncool, uh sorry "bad
form". so her is one for ya all what do they do during the psionic
games...? what kind of competitions. -- jim --
Here is another one for you all am I missing something or what happens
when you negate gravity, does your ship leave as the planet turns
under it? I have noted a bit of acidic posts here lately I think we
can tone them down as we a falling into the I'm right and you're wrong
trap, and we do not need this here I'd like to see more constructive
posts. sorry about the length of this post but I have FINALLY! gotten
on to the net so I've been saving this up for some time...
Remember... No mater where you go there you are... B. Banzai (
Ancient Solomani Philosopher, Scientist, Rock Star... )
- --
Remember: no matter where you go...
There you are...
B. Banzi
James M. Kelleher
[email removed]