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Bundle: 559
Archive-Message-Number: 7028
From: Anthony "K." Baggaley [-- REDACTED --]
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 16:49:02 GMT
Subject: Traveller Background-Round 3.

 Well things are certainly a bit more active around here now...

 Firstly, to keep up the pointless-nitpicking-science bit of the TML..
 
 James Kundert corrected.... (when I said Thrusters didn't need G-turns
 of reaction mass)

> Sigh.  To put the record straight, the term "G-Hours" (or "G-Turns")
>has two uses.  One of these _always_ applies. Repeat: Always.

> So: Yes, a Thruster ship still accelerates using G-Hours of THRUST,
>but requires no G-Hours of FUEL to do so (aside from what the power
>plant is using).


 Sorry, looks like I was behind in current GDW terminology... I had no 
idea they used that as a measure of acceleration, which it isn't.
A G-hour is a measure of velocity, and it's use as a measure of reaction
mass fits perfectly with that- reaction mass is usually measured by the 
total change in velocity it can achieve. 
(and, if velocity is measured in G-turns then acceleration is measured 
in G, so why did they complicate the term with two meanings?)
 Just wanted to say, I wasn't trying to confuse anyone- in my small
brain acceleration for ships is still measured in G...  It never occurred
to me that G-turn could be confused  with acceleration

                     -----------------------------

 Now, for David Johnson's battle of the backgrounds... or is it battle of
the automobiles?
  As he said, Round Three....
 
    Well it really looks like TNE has failed to bring in many advantages,
 the only NEW thing in there is the virus, and that's not to everyones 
 taste. So the popularity of TNE seems to depend on it's support and it's
 rules... there isn't much more background to discuss at the moment- GDW
 have not told you anything about what happens in the future. It's almost
 as big a spectator sport as the Rebellion. What is jumpstart/longbow/Avery/
 the black curtain- will we find out this millenium?, will we care? When 
 you consider how many people were unimpressed with the 'secret' of the
 ancients (well *I* liked it) never mind the virus, chances are that many
 will be disappointed.
    Straying slightly (only a bit, trust me) into the grey area between 
 rules and background is the other large difference between the two
 settings that I've mentioned before- the equipment. Even if CT and TNE
 were identical in background, you'd notice a BIG difference in the
 capabilities of weapons/armour/starships/vehicles- all the other 
 changes tend to conceal them. Do you prefer thruster plates and 
 fusion guns with infinite ammo, powerful/light gauss rifles and pistols,
 starships with fewer crew, triple turrets?... and so on. In an SFRPG
 the technology is part of the background as much as the astrography.
 With FF&S it is obvious that TNE has an advantage in this area, since
 you can partly alter the technology to suit you game, but some people
 might prefer the simplicity of the old Traveller... you can have any
 starship laser, as long as it's 250MW, don't take your foot off the floor,
 we have two weeks more thrust at 6G, keep firing that fusion gun till
 the power plant goes (not that I ever used them much). Those small but
 annoying changes can stop people changing over, it even stopped some 
 people switching from CT to MT, never mind TNE. Personally I'm just too
 old and set-in-my-ways to change, as are the people I play with, but TNE
 does have good points in this background area.
  
    It's likely that most people didn't buy this Yugo just because it's
  the only car in town- there are a few supported SFRPGs out there, and
  several have certain similarities with Traveller :>, so there was a BIT of
  choice.
   And, don't forget a lot of this list would even buy a broken Yugo
 if GDW printed "TRAVELLER" on the hood :>
                                    
                               (and I did, he mutters)
                               (twice, he mutters)

                             Oh no the thought police have arrived...
                                   
                                    Anthony K.
                       (someone must have been telling lies about me)
 
  oh, and you think Yugos are bad? Well I sometimes drive a Lada...