Apology, Languages, Wilderness Refuelling

Hi all,

UPDATE
I've been on holiday for a while, hence haven't replied to those of you who've
been e-mailing me in the last two weeks.
APOLOGY
Re: 563/7072 (from myself)
My last upload included a graphic description of someone nasty being very
nasty to a heroine, resulting in her giving him a good kick where he deserved
it. I would like to apologise if any of the content of this fictional example
offended anyone.
I would just like to add that with regard to the sexual side of the encounter
(I'll bet that's got you scrabbling to find the mailing) the text I used was
quite deliberately graphical. This is a technique that I use with my Traveller
group(s) to build up the tension, slowly, sentence by sentence. Not only do
some of my female players take full advantage of their sexuality in such
circumstances (in effect taking advantage of the weakness of men), but in
addition their sense of revengeful satisfaction at the point where they get
to counter-attack their aggressor is heightened by the slow build-up. I have
also found that release of violent emotions in the game can sometimes help
people deal with real events, whether it be getting rid of the tension after
a hard day's work, or simulated revenge on someone who's been nasty to them
at some other time. I'm sorry if this carry-over from my own (adult) games
offended anyone. If so, I suggest they disconnect their TV and keep to the
children's shelf at the library. :)
I fully support women and their equal rights - my own wife has to put up with
working in a particularly sexist group and therefore I know first-hand how
hard it is for some women. Therefore I tend to let her (and others) express
their feelings in my games - as long as they only act in defence (I don't like
to encourage needless aggression, hence my frequent use of high law-level
worlds in my games).
I'd be interested in anyone else's views in this field (unless it's already
been discussed prior to me joining TML, of course).
REFUELLING
Re: 562/7068 (Grant Sinclair)
Refuelling in oceans might seem the easy option to saving money on fuel bills,
however I had the following thoughts:
1) Refuelling from oceans will be frowned on for ecological reasons
(disturbance of wildlife, plankton, etc., particularly if from a small lake,
etc.)
2) There may only be limited safe landing places around such seas, allowing
that some ships can't hover, others might not like total submersion, many
beaches, cliffs, marshes, etc. are unsuitable for a heavy ship, etc. The
remaining 'safe' sites have no beacons or other landing aids and, unless the
players have a priori knowledge of the site, may hide some nasty shocks
(sudden land slippage, unpleasant flora or fauna, etc.) "Hmm. Just land on
that sand over there... how could you know it looks like quicksand from up
here? Don't be silly, just land the damned ship... er... ooops...)
3) Such landing places may be unreachable due to air traffic control laws,
private property ownership, fishing rights, tribal law, religious significance
of the body of water concerned, etc.).
4) Alternatively, certain landing places may be legalised, with a usage fee
(say, about the same price as unrefined fuel at starport rates...)
5) Many ships (particularly the really big merchants) are too big to land
anyway, so they would tend to rely on small shuttles (for maximum speed they'd
use a known approach path and quick refuelling facilities... i.e. a starport)
or the main ship could dock with an orbiting starbase (problem solved).
6) All in all, any large merchant ship is going to take the known route every
time, i.e. the starport. We all know how short cuts always take longer, so a
sensible captain pays the few credits for the fuel bill, given that a detour
to a sea might (due to Sod's Law, etc.) delay him or cost him more money in
the long run.
FURTHER...
In continuation to the comment about refuelling, i.e. that this makes merchant
ships much more economical to run...
1) surely most ships ought to still be paying off their 'mortgage'; if that
isn't a fair outlay each month then you're making it too easy for them. Ships
shouldn't just be given away - the mortgage is a good excuse to press players
into doing any job they can for almost any money, encourages them into
smuggling, etc. making life much more interesting...
2) whether the ship's mortgage has been paid off or not, I still charge my
characters for its usage by making them pay maintenance costs. These are some
small percentage of the total ship cost per year, with them having the option
of doing the work themselves (reduce %) or having others do the work (increase
%). In either case they can pay for good parts and good skills (increase %)
or not (reduce %) or not at all (zero %). Their choices then influence the
ship's jump, pilot, computer, etc. rolls throughout the game. A bad failure
on a well-maintained ship will generally not cost too much to repair... but
a badly maintained ship... well, you can just see the engineer's face as he
examines the damage, that knowledgeable sigh and tutting sound as he adds up
the megacredits of repair bill (ever taken your car into a garage and had the
same treatment?)
LANGUAGES
Re: Multiple messages over past week
There was a pretty good article about Languages in JTAS. I have a copy of the
article but don't know which issue it was from [Roger Sanger may like to look
this up on his index system and mail in the issue number].
Given that there may be a sudden rush to buy translation machines, and given
the Virus (oh no!) might have extended a few less virulent tentacles to such
(or a disenchanted programmer or a programming fault, whatever), how about
giving your players a translator that acts about as well as the Monty Python
Swedish/English dictionary.
Player, beginning trade negotiations with Vargr, speaking into translator:
"Greetings fellow star merchant. May the sun shine upon your cargos"
Translator: "Vrgahh sghett ajskj dyuyer qiuu qoid hhhh"
Vargr Captain fingers Gauss pistol under table, having just heard translation:
"Yo werewolf features. Your mother wears combat boots"
Vargr, realising translator might be at fault, replies:
"I think your translator needs correction, but welcome anyway"
Players hear: "hhjasd iudkfn wifu asuu qwwjwjd ashdjhqw dhajsd"
and then (from translator): "Stick it up your *&#$ you slimey Vilani"
Gun fight ensues...
If this isn't the Virus' ideal ploy - getting people to kill each other, then
I don't know what is...
COMPUTER GRAPHICS FILES
I've been trying to get EPS (expanded postscript) files across e-mail. After
all, they're text-based and if split into reasonable sizes ought to transfer
across the network... but I've not had any success yet so if anyone has got
it to work, please contact me. EPS can be included (in a non-editable, but re-
sizeable form) into some wordprocessors (e.g. Microsoft Word, Wordperfect) and
graphics programs (e.g. Freelance). GIF files are more generic with regard to
displaying but generally need transferring to another format to edit and
aren't as flexible as EPS for re-sizing, etc. I'd be interested to know if
anyone has an alternative way of transferring graphics files using e-mail
(rather than relying upon a ftp site).
NEWSPAPERS
Re: 563/7076 (jeff.zeitlin)
Yes please, more news articles, etc. Anything that can be made into a
scenario. Even minor stuff can at least be going on in the background so that
when the players come into system and ask for a news broadcast to see what's
going on down on a planet I don't just say 'Oh, the usual'...
ER...
I think that's it. Thanks for listening.

Andy Lilly

Commander, PITS Team (Political Intelligence Team, Scout)
"We are never out-gunned..."
Nothing I say or do here in anyway reflects the views of my very kind,
understanding and generally wonderful employers