AAB PROCEEDINGS
30 September. 1994
Contents
Chairsophont.' s Letter
GenCon Report . . . • . . . .
T: 2000 & GDWNews . . . . . . 5
Copyright Messages . . . . 6
Electric Fanzine Denied. 7
New Startup . . . . . . . . . . 8
Fanzines . . . . . . . . . . . 10
TNARB notes. . . . . . . .
Proposed Star Changes, . 11
Regency Development..
Re.gency Adven'.::.ures . . . 16
Issue 26
The newsletter of the History of the Imperium Working Group (HIWG), a Traveller club
using the offici~ Tnveller universe. Produced and distributed by Clayton R. Bush.
Opening Letter
This issue of AABP is going out in the first part of October; the next AABP will go out
in early November. Sever~ threads reached a critic~ point in August and September. Thi.
issue deals with those. The November issue will catch up on HIWG status reports, new
documents, and activities.
Geneon XXVII
This issue has my annu~ report from the GenCon Traveller seminar. I included a report
on the Twilight: 2000 seminar, because the Armor 21 has alot that can be carried over to
TNE campaigns. ([he common example is how CJ.ssic Traveller's high-tech ''battle
map "was available for Desert Storm--and GDW had overstated the size by ~f.)
. 2
Elcctrozine
1j GDW received a propos~ for ;\0 electronic fanzine, which was discussed on computer
channels during the summer, and GDW fi~ly said "No". Roger Sanger has redirected his
energy into setting up a new game, which is definitely newsworthy. The new system will
not have :my connection to Traveller, so I probably won't be mentioning it again.
Sanger's posts to Traveller discussions have proselytized for his development project. A
discussion on HIWG's mission rose (again), and the CSL on the next two pages discusses
Geo's response. Perso~ly. I don't think HIWG ever has had one mission that involved
anything close to everybody in the organization.
Due to the discussion, however. I have slightly amended the sidebar on page 3. Since
11 HIWGers are open to discussing alternate universes. it did not make sense to say HIWG
is working on "the offici~ Traveller universe."
12 Traveller Naval Architect Review Board
GD\'I a:;ked if anyone wa~ interested in joinging a group to verify the correctness of
FF&S ship designs. Four people. ~l HIWGen, are in the group so far. If you have a
design. please submit it to them! (They've just started up, and need the work. wink)
Regency Sourcebook
GDW will be doing a Regency Sourcebook. Sever~ HIWGers have been involved in
groundwork activities. such as UWI~ updates from 1120 to the New Era. Discussion of
what should be in the Sourcebook has been ongoing. and starts on page 12 here.
HIWG-IJIST
Well, InterNet fever continues. A host computer has been arranged and now there's an
InterNet mailing list for I-llWG members. Just send the message "subscribe hiwg-list"to
HIWG-LIST@IO.COM, and you'l be copied on ~l messages.
And I could not fit everything into 8 pages, or even the current 16. So watch for
AABP 2 7, due in your mailbox in November.
 Chairsophont's Letter
-GeoGelinas
I h2ve recently received :lnumber ofletters questioning the
purpose of this org:lniz:ltion. Let me ske with you the text of :l
flyer th2t wu put together to :ldvertise HIWG. I h2ve :It nrious
times md phces st:lted the concepts cont:lined here, but perh2ps it
is time to print them collectively for :lI1 the membership to see.
mWG BEFORE NEW ERA
The History of the Imperium Working Group (HIWG) is m
international org:lniz:ltion of Traveller fms. I-HWG W.J.S founded
:lbout the :ldvent ofMeg:lTuveller. As conceived, HIWG would
expmd on the history of the Imperium from the time of the
assassination of Emperor Strephon bringing the condition of the
Imperium to that shown on the "112; P(!j.ce M~p ".
HIWG set :lbout in earnest tow:lrd th2t go:ll, but very quickly
expmded beyond th2t purpose. Mmy people joining HIWG were
interested in :lspects of MegaTraveller other than its history. This
resulted in the creation of a number of Speci:ll Interest Groups.
HIWG thus bec:lffie more than m organization creating history, it
bec:lffie m idea exchange.
A number of our members got their start as writers ofT raveller
materi:ll while creating documents for HIWG. Both Digest Group
Publications md G:lffie Designers' Workshop, though under no
obligation to do so. h2ve used materi:ll developed by HIWG.
mWG IN THE NEW ERA
But th2t was then. md this is now. It is evident to myone who
h2s read the Travellers' News Service in Ch:llienge. or the reprint
of th2t material in Surviv:ll Margin that the Imperi.al timeline h2s
gone well past 1125. Pe:lce :lS we expected it is deftnitely not at
hand. So wh2t is HIWG's role now? HIWG rem:lins wh2t it has
become in recent years, m org:lnization ofTr:lveller players md
referees. This is HIWG's most importmt role now.
That is not to say that HIWG no longer does development.
Quite the contrary" All the people credited for the creation of
HubWorlds in Tr~veller: The New Euare l-IIWG members.
HIWG will continue to develop that pocket empire md expects
materi:ll to appear in Ch.Jlenge.
Our development is not limited to the HubWorlds. Some
members :lre applying the effects of the Collapse to published
sectors. Others are concentrating on the Regency md worlds
which avoided the Collapse. Still others are cre:lting materi:ll
associated with the Reformation Co:llition. There will be members
creating equipment, vehicles, md st:lrships. If there is:l Traveller
rel:lted :lctivity you:lre interested in which is not mentioned here,
it has a place in HIWG too.
Let me t~e :l few minutes to focus on:l few issues here, md
expound on them to m extent which I could not in the flyer.
HIWG is ftrst of all a "Working Group", not :l"Writing Group."
W" h2ve not been chartered by the Workshop or my other g:lffie
compmy to write for Traveller. lndividu:l! members of HIWG
30 September, 1994 Page 2
h2ve written md had published Traveller :articles. I believe th2t
most of the best writers of Traveller m:ateri.al today are members.
As noted elsewhere in the flyer, some of these got their st:lrt
writing for HIWG. but others were writing for Tr:lveller long
before th2t. However. the Workshop is under no oblig.ation to use
-my- of our materi.al.
Furthermore, the Workshop has used very little m:lteri.al that we
h:lve created :lS :l group. Even th2t is misle:lding, because the entire
membership ofHIWG has -never- created :l single article for
publication. Yes, inclividu.als h.ave had materi.al published md have
occ:lsion.ally duwn ide4.s from other mem.b'ers. Yes, sm:lll groups of
members have worked together on a project, such as HubWorlds.
:md h.ave had it published. However, there has not been one single
project in ''1'hich.al1 r.Hlmbers have hJ~.2 contribution. Is this bad?
Absolutely not.
It is not practical for us :lS m entire group to :lttempt to work
together on a single written article. The reason for this is prim:lrily
the distances between members and the difGculty of trying to
communic:lte with everyone. There :lre :lIso f:lctors ofindividu.al
person.alities md interests, which may not coincide md m:ly even
conflict with the group's project. We have seen this recently while
working on the Regency project.
Should we, therefore, disb;nu:l.? Absolutely not. A l:lrge p:lrt of
our strength is that we are such:l diverse group. Tr:lveller h2s been
enriched by Ollr work. In my re.al world occupation, I have studied
m effect c.alled synergy. The synergetic effect is that the sum of
ideas gathered from a group is gre4.ter th;nl the sum of the ide:ls of
the individu.als of that group. A key re:lson is that as one individu.al
presents an idea, it cm spark a further idea in another individu.al.
Disbanded. HIWG members would still be individu.als.
Individu.ality is import;nlt, but when that individu.ality is :lpplied to
a group effort. then it becomes all the greater.
Wh:lt should our group effort be? Support Traveller! Traveller
h.as always been and continues to be the best science ftction role
phying game :lv:lihble. For the most p:lrt, it doesn't nl:ltter which
ver~Qn of the rules you use. Every rule set ha,s its :ldvmtag~s and
disadvantages. If you want to write for the Workshop, you need to
use the New Era rules. but otherwise. you are free to use wh.atever
rules you w;nlt.
ENRICHING TRAVRIJLF,R
How should we support Tr:lveller? At the very b.lsic level, I
strongly encour:lge every HIWG member to referee or participte
:lS a pl:lyer in Traveller g:lffies. Beyond that, there is such a variety
of activities that you cm do. I will mention just a few here, but you
:lre not restricted to these or under obligation to GO my of these.
W~ '::011 kQ,p th~ Workshop informed of wh:ot w~:os individudls
wmt from Traveller. Most organiz:ltions view any letter that they
receive not as m individu:ll letter, but as representative of a
percentage of the people they serve. I believe that one of the
primary re:lsons that the Workshop is going to release Regency
AAB Proceedings 26
materi:i1 is because people like you have
requested it.
We cm continue writing for Traveller.
True, the Workshop may only use a sm:i1l
proportion of the materi:i1 my of us
produces. But why are you writing for
Traveller in the first place? If you are
looking to make a living as a Traveller
writer, you are writing for the wrong
reason. I don't know of myone outside the
Workshop making.;t Ii ving as a Traveller
writer. Although I have received some
monetary compensation for my work, it is
mostly a labor oflove.
We c~ continlie development of
HubWorlds. There is thi 5 wonderful
pocket empire published in TNE th:at -we-
developed. Yet, nothing much further
~ecm.s to have been done with it. There are
:adventure possibilities here that have
nothing to do with the Reformation
Co:i1ition.
We can continue to developequipmeut
for the New Era. In Fire, .Fusion, :md Steel,
we have a tremendous tool for the design
of a vast array of equipment. Some of you
have developed equipment and some of it
has been published. Let's keep up this
effort. There may be :.I need for TL 1 3 - TL
15 equipment as the Regency c:.lmp;>ign is
published. Might some of your desigm fill
that need? I know fOr a fact thOlt the
Workshop will never use that which is
never designed! Beyond that I cm't make
Jny promises.
Select 01 world md develop it with loving
detail. EolCh worldisflch in djv~sity:and
adventure possibilities. Develop one for
use in your person:U group. So what if
something the Workshop later publishes
runs right over it? We are under no
obligation to use in our own g:.lmes that
which the Workshop has published. The
Khul:.lm Sector that my players adventure
in is cert;>inly 9uite different than what
appears in P:1th ofTe:1rs.
Exdunge ideas as pOlrt of 01 speci:i1
interest group. Are you interested in the
ecocycle ofVargr fleas? There m:ay be
someone else who has a similar interest.
Okay. my example is 01 bit extreme. but you
AAB Proceedings 26
get my point. HIWG can be :.I vehicle for
finding others with your interest. If the
rest of the T rOlveller players in the world
have no interest in your interest, so whOlt?
You hOlve that interest. and have the right
to investigate that interest with others with
the sOlTne interest.
Develop an :i1ternate universe. AgOlin,
Fire, Fusion, :1nd Steel is 01 tremendous
tool for OIccomplishing this end. Indeed,
with the publicOltion ofTNE OITld FFS,
Traveller is not limited to the offici01l
universe my more. (Of course, some of us
never felt limited to the offici01l universe to
begin with.) In previous letters, I llOlve
offered the opportunity for HIWG to
collectively create md det;>il our own
universe. To dOIte. I hOlve not seen any
suggestions to that end. but the offer still
stmds. True, it mOlY never be published
my where outside ofHIWG publications.
If thOlt mOltter s to you then I suggest you
direct yuur ~nergies to other OITeas. which is
perfectly OIcceptable within the frOlmework
ofHIWG. Ifit doesn't mOltter to you, then
this is m excellent opportunity to
contribute to TrOlveller.
Thes~ OIre just 01 few of the mmy activities
md methods by which HIWG cm support
TrOlveller.
But why support Traveller? You will 6ve
to answer that for yourself. Each of us has
our own reason. but whOltever your reason
is. it is enough.
Yours [or Tuveller,
Geo
~~.~ -, ..- . ~
, J ~!iii':, ~ " ~. ~.'
<C •
Page 3 30 September, 1994
 GenCon Report
--Clay Bush
D.ve Nilsen started the TNE seminar by
s.ying. "Regency sourcebook. in the first
qwrter of 1995! So let's all call it quits and
go b.ck to ollr hotel rooms."
Perversely, we kept the seminar going for
the full two hours ~c1teduled.
SPINWARD ISSUES
The Regency Sourcebook will st.art when
the Regency is r~dy to go bck into the
Wilds. Their drive is to reest;lblish the old
Imperium. They see themselves as its
spiritwl custodims.
It will resolve what Project Longbow
was/is ";IS well as it will be resolved." It wlll
have something to do with the Zhodmi
Core expeditions, ;lnd it will hit the
Regency before it hits the rest of the
Imperium. Unlike the Ancients, GDW will
not fully resolve this mystery in print.
Question: ue you ;IS interested in
Yaskoydray now that you know he is a
TL35 Droyne remnmt?
"Spinward Aliens" wlll ;lppear to
complement "Aliens of the Rim." (fhey
will have a b"'tter name thm "Spinw;lid
Aliens:) No work has been done yet, but
it's burning on the back burner.
OTHER PRODUCTS
Strihr II: Due out in December, 1994.
1: 1000 sc.Je. Demos were run in the
Demo ar~ at GenCon, and the official
play test W;lS held S;lturd;ly evwing.
Although the S;lturday event was sold out.
;lloc;ltion change lost most of the
scheduled players, so I got in.
New RAFM 25mm figures were used for
about h.Jfthe RCES stands: they looked
very good. The others used were the old
Grell;ldier 25mm figures. The scenuio was
the M;lr:l.x :l.sS;lult from p:l.th ofT~rs.
They bve ;I good bsic system. md th€-y
got some notes on developing it during and
after the demos. They are looking to retain
some of the detail Oike mobile ovens) that
contributed to roleplaying milit;lry
cmtpdigns. The fin.! product should be
well worth the price.
WorldTamers:This will include the
30 September, 1994
rules for simple planet;lry conflict.
Referees will be ;lble to resolve milit;lry
conflicts in their wIll-playing campdigns. It
may not be very interesting as a two-player
game, but they weren't trying to stuff a
board game into the product.
VampireFleet:lt will expldin the Black
Curtdin.
AthsoftheImperium:GDW has gotten
requests to reprint this. If they were to get
5,000 orders, they would! However, it wa~
a very poor seller. They think most the
inquiries are abollt completing colkrtions.
RJg;mling the i'lterest in jUStJl.:<l:ing a
compillte map to the Core; th,~ UW P file,
are mostly available on GEnie (and other
libraries). However, most flIes have not
been developed. Zaruslugar W:.lS noted
being :.I gi;nlt hiccup where 1/2 the worlds
have the same UWP.
COMI'UTER STUFF
Paragon is doing nothing. (They did the
two IBM PC role-playing games.)
Traveller Navig:Hor is ;ldmittedly very
basic. A new version is in the works. They
haven't seen it yet, but know it is coming.
N;lutilus wiiI do interactive games. They
;Ire on the RPG put of the Internet. The
GDW represent.atives were Wlsure if new
players would start anew or if they would
be joining ;a campdign in process. (l expect
the btter.like in PBM games.)
ALTERNATE UNIVERSES
23 ooAD: They intend to do a J 300 AD
Sourcebook, but it is not in their schedule
for the next 18 months.
A Chillenge issue will soon present 2300
AD char;lcter generation under the TNE
system. Similar development wNk would
be welcome in Challenge, andwould hasten
the re-app~rmce of 2300 AD.
Otherwllverses are possiM<'. They had
discussed doing other universes once the
rule system was well established, but
nothing in sight now. They were re;ldy to
sign on two ne;at universes (ALIEN and
PREDATOR) when the other party
re.Jized they had all rights except the rights
being sold. Both deals ;Ire now dead.
Page 4
They wOldd be willing to license the
GDW house system to people doing
.Jternate universes. They would be less
likely to publish an :Jternate universe
sourcebook them sieves.
(GDW W;lS uneasy with this discussion; I
SU'P"CL concern wilh being sure abuuL
having rights and with quality ;md with
fragmenting the SF role.pbying market.
But the door is ajar to the right product.)
Nlhlnler~lelb-rWar sourcebooHl
would be fUll to do (otccording to some
participants). but the discussion surted off
wilh.~'How many people would buy it :md
pbyiLc" .
C~dilbcs& DinosaursII is written, but
the dealers responsp- to tlw prOc1llct was
"Are you rr;azy?" Despite the comics and
the TV series, they have IlO intere~t in
carrying the produc t.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
GDW is still developing th", New Era
K'kree. They have some ideas. but nothing
in print yN. They did say tlut the K'kree
are not ~ny rucer th~n before.
There was only one set of designs
turning in for the Top Laser competition.
Nilsen admitted it w~s a great idea. but
they l.Ick the resources to recreate a
number of ship designs. Discussion was
that prooflng the designs amounted to
r02creating them~ since you had to recreate
all design d"cisions. On modifyingl
correcting designs. are you keeping the
submitted design or .just replacing it with a
'. similar ship with the original name?
DISCUSSION; GDW is willing to
cooperate with any fans willing to run an
unpdid board of proofers. This could be
c.Jled the Centraliz;ltion Bureau or th,,·
Board ofN~val Review. The computer
tools to automate verification don't exist
(GDW works by hmd) and someone has
yet to create them.
[See the TRNARB article on pdge I I for
development. since Gf:I1Con. J
AAB Proceedings 26
 T:2000 Seminar at GenCon
--Chy Bush
PRODUCT SURVEY:
ARMOR 21 Wins
Armor 21 is the direction the survey
iIldic;~ted. The other projects tended to
luve ;a small, very interested group md
everyone elSp. indicating 110 interest. (Lots
uf 1,2s and some 9,10s.)
It is set a few decades ahead to demo new
t.echnology. Third'World countries will
havp. sp.cond-- md third-hmdMIAls;
phyers will be in existing military
hier;uchies with "modern" equipment.
Setting:No depression as in Merc:
2000. Instead, fairly suddenly, lr:l.q's l:1St
attempt ;at nuclear bl;ackmail f;ailed. With
most Mideast oil flleds now radioactive,
the U.S. md Europem Union compet.e for
oil fields in Nigp.ria ;and Gh:ma.
Traveller is Multi-Cultural
Q: Here is an issue that's been really
bllgging me since I first began playing
T r;aveller (Chssic). Where did the
plethora of races from Terr;a go? It would
seem thaI. every human in the Traveller
lmiversl' is Cl.llcasi:m, Jnd cultural spice is
;adJed by the use of :IIi en cultures. I guess
it's possible that the Traveller universe is
one in which there were never my r:lces on
Terr;!. besides the "white" ones.- .. Unknown
A: Not true. GDW's policy has ~w:J.ys
been that the fiJI panoply ofTerran r:lcial
Jnd national diversity went into space,
s['rf'Jd out, and cuverlified. wilY do you
think we .:ly: "Any character is potentially
of either sex or any race." Back in the
classic Traveller (hlys,John Harshman and I
tried to get. the widest variety of ethnic
names into the game in order to drive this
point home. (Anybody remember m
admiral SL;Ishll NagoyJ, the Japanese-
f'ole?).
We have had (and still have) problems
convincing artists to depict other than
c all s:l.sian males (we are not alone in this
either), but this should not be construed
as indicating that space travel is only for
AAB Proceedings 26
One big difference ITom T:2000 is that
pbyers are in a ch;ain of commmd, not in
:nJ.archy (So no idle fragging of officers.)
There are more and bettcr uses for admin
and bargain skills in scrounging and getting
resourCl;S. You don't usually buy things;
they issue you equipment, :md seud up
resupply. M;aintenance will be far less
import.ant, sinre you CJn get sp1re parts.
It will probably include chJracter tem-
plates, for easier st;u-t up and replacement
of dead PCs.
Antibiotics won't work any more! Check
those diease rules ...
GDW discussed having niix of live and
robot Lmks on m Armor 21 mission. 'fhe
robot tanks would be slaved to or
controlled [rom J lil'e, comm:rnd tank.
The semin:l.T discussed radio discipline.
Lots of ch;atter goes on in '1':2.000 role-
WASPs (check Ollt the ill os in Star
Vikings onpp" 10,26,28, and 68 for
some characters that :Ire clearly not purely
European) or only for men. Frankly, I am a
little peeved that we do not h:lYe more
asi;atics ,lepicu_,d in our ill(JstrJLi, ,lIS,;JJ d I
have mentioned tills our art dil'ector.
I disagree with many of Roddenherry' s
philosophical expressions in Star Trek, but
I fLoe! he got one thing right: We humans
should ,.debrale our diversity.
As for cultures, we don't talk ahout
individual planetary human cultures or
rciigion; much (except inindividual
adventures), because we assume th.at
referees will bring interesting and exotic
cultures/religions into their campaign to
suit their own tastes md we prefer not
place any restrictions on this. We do not
discuss sex or sexual orientation for· the
same reason. Player char:lCt<}rs can be
whatever their plAyers want them to he, and
the game is richer and more diverse because
orit.
Sorry if! went a little overho;u-d in this
response .. .J feel rather strongly on the
subject.--Loren Wiseman
Page 5
playing. Ch.:mer and adrenaline-induced
stream ·of conscioumess reporting can
bury import:nlt traffic; comm:nrd cOIllrol
counter-acts. For role playing, r~ferw is
(sometimes) higher authority on comma
channels giving orders & reports, and
enforcing r;ldio discipline (or not, as case
m:l.y be).
OTHER PRODUCT
They have gotten requests to reprint the
"Poland" trilogy. That is the gmte setting
in the rules, and most of the adventures in
th;at corl? cWlp;aign are out of print.
They have some interest in updated
Mideast/RDF scenarios.
TWilight Night.tmres had good sale, as
v,uiety, but miniscule repeat business in
the stores. (No dem:llld to restock.) No
interest in similar submissions. (Some of
that market may have gone inlo Dark
Conspiracy, for which the Nightmare
scen;u-ios work well.)
MINIATURES
The whole m;u-ket is taking it on the chin.
Changing to (non-lead) pewter caused
price increases which buyers perceive as
excessive.
Also, miniatures where often an impulse
purchase. Right now, Magic is domimting
all impulse gaming purchases. (Smart
people in industry think this is temporary,
fad thing, so watching to see iff when
market reverts to older habits. Pewter-
induced pric€'s may have permanent effect
on :lmount of impulse purchasing.)
CHALLF~NGE SUBMIS-
SIONS
No "better set of rules" articles, please.
Also, they have plenty of scenarios where
players reCOYer a nuke that fell to earth and
did not go off. They have no interest in
more.
They are looking for interesting and
entertJ.ining scenarios. Map and 2-3 pages
(1000 words per page) probably best.
30 September, ] 994
 Copyright: GDW Attacked (Flamed?) on InterNet Channels
--Grant SincLair
I bve h~rd sever'! disturbing things
:l.bout GDW;,uw. copyright btely, most
recently in TML digest 30. I h~rd it
rumoured somewhere th:l.t they are not too
thrilled about TIC, though if they re.uly
6ted it t6t much, they would presum:l.bly
shut it down. TTC is for profit, :l.t l~st we
are only lm:l.teurs.
No·one is going to dispute their owner-
ship of the copyrights ;,uw. the ex:unple
Loren g:lve of someone going to OCR .!I
the rules for gener.! rele:ase is obviously
going too f:l.r. I thought'it was re.J nice of
them to ~:ly t6t it w:l.~ OK, as f:IT:lS they
could see, to write :I. spre:l.dsheet for
person.! use. I hope its OK with them to
write :l.n adventure yourself to run for your
pbyers. (s:l.rc:l.sm mode off) Du you 6ve
my unoffici'! guidelines from them? The
progr:uns in the HIWG libr:l.ry I mirror
would certainly breach their copyright, md
the W;J.y they ;J.re t;J.lking, I would think most
HIWG documents do too (cont~ning .II
GDWs Post on Copyright Question
To Sh.Jom Z:lidfeld:
Q: Is writing :a utility to help design
vehicles using FF&S nJes as :I sprl'..ldsheet
and then giving it :l.way to whoever wishs to
use th:lt spreadsheet illegal?
A: Ifit contains any of our copyrightl'.d
materiJl (tables, charts, etc.), yes.
Writing the utility and using it yourselfis
evidently OK (to the best of aUf leg;J
advice), but selling, conveying, or giving it
to anyone else is a definite no-no (:l.lld this
includes putting stuffin FTP sites, BBS
libr:ITies, "I just put it on a. disk =d 1",[t it
on a t:l.ble" gimicks, and the like).
To David Reed:
Q: My question wa.s of more technic.!,
legal nature than the note from Mr. Nilsen
addressed, but since I find you posting here
I will take th;J.t as a tacit nod in the
direction of open mJ free cOllversa.lion,
the likes of which T$R (tm) seeks to stifle.
30 September, 1994
those references to the official Travl'Jler
universe).
I've removed [rom the HIWG libury the
files I have th;J.t [ thought bre:ached
copyright too b:l.dly (the Conta('t! :alien
files went some time :1.&0, :l.S requested by
Brym Borich), but I'm st;J.rting to wonder
whether I should cut more deeply.
If there :l.ee some things about all this
that people should know, perhaps it would
make a good :lTticle for MB proceedings.
Grmt Sinclair
grant@c]cese.:lpana.org.all
. Bush:Word is th~t Kevin Kllig~t got his
:lpprov.!directly from Marc Milier,
without my discussion with GDW.
Sinchir:Your comment abollt Kevin
Kniglll getting his approval from Marc
Miller was interesting. It explains the
comment I h~rd about GDW (l"J'C.
It. WlS the bit about writing ~ utility to
use yourself was OK "to the best of OllT
legal :ldvice" t6t I thought was going a bit
b.r. I do lmderstmd that they want to keep
A: We c;,ul'l give you a l"g.J .m&wer be-
C:l.l1se we aren't lawyers, and the t.e(hniC':~1
legalities of the whole "lnr.,II'll· ltd
property vs Infoh:l.hn" thing aren't
completely settled yet. GDW mu~t,
however, take:l. uther conservative position
in these matters, or ri sk losing the
tradenurks and copyrights tklt constit.ut\,
our liv~iEood.Th;iL'swhy W"Ldh~ to
answer Shalom as we did.
We have nn prohl",.m wi th ron vers:J.IJon
OIhout Traveller (we :.lctivc1y ~courage it),
but there :lTe people who wallt to do a. good
deal more than that. and get highly
offended when we t",ll them they can't. (I
h;.J.ve he:ard rumors of a series of flames
cir.:ul:l.ting about us beo.use we wouldn't
OK an on-line electrozine.) I'm not
kidding when I say that one proposal
wmted to photocopy/OCR large blIDche,
of our stuff and give it aW:lY, md wanted
our offici:l.l st:l.mp of :l.pprov.J to do so.
(We refused, of course).
Page 6
control over their ('opyrights, but why
consult a bwyer to see ifit's OK for people
to write utilities for their own Lise, given
th.t they must 6ve bought the books to
do it at all?
Bush:My understanding is that you C3rt
do ;,ulything you want for yourself.
However. if there is ;.J.ny sale or other
distribution, you are infringing on the
trademark md copyright rights.
Now, all p:lge 3 of this fanzine!
newsletter is a statement th:at use of
(,DW's trademarkednames is admitted.
In theory. they could write me to stop
u~illg those rumes, 'which would kill AABP.
They won't do t.his, because they like their
games being discussed mrll have arlmitterl
tlwy have J tradem:lrk. (HTWG got
permission [WIll DGP and GDW when it
was founded, but GDW (ould withdnw
permission.)
If one beeJn publishil1£ a fJIIzine (or
~ellitlg :lIly product) thal used Traveller but
did not have GDW's permission, then one
of twn things happ~ns. Either GDW orders
them to stop selling or distributing their
product, or GDll'1wL'S lhe tr;;.Jem;;.rk.
We then have The (Second Chssic)
Traveller Adventure anrl Tr:ive\1er:
Predalor Jlld Trdvelkr: Fluffy Aliens JIld
TrJ.v.,\1"r: Sorcery Supplement being put
out by :mybody wltlu'llt (lOW having :my
right to comphin about quality or
consistency. (I-lint: Formica used to be:a
J.rJ.d,mldrk fUIlle, but the owner did not
ddi:...nd it ii'um seumt1 party use.)
Now, GDW is not rc']uired to track
down all f1nzines CYl,r produced. They do
6ve to folluw up 011 r"purts of use of their
tr..ldem:al k, and umut.horized use of their
trademark for such products as
computerized referee :lids are areas they
must police or lose the trademark.
Likewise with progr:uns. If! use a
spre:adsheet to design my ships, fine. If I
distribute it by mail or for sale, I must have
GDW' ~ p~mlisBio!l. ! f '. hey don't care 1.0
sell spr~dsheets, a tr .. deIllJ.rk admission
may be enough, but they c:m order ;my
distribution stopped. Tfit can hurt sales of
FF&S, they will. That's their right. Period.
AAB Proceedings 26
 Electric Fanzine Proposal Denied
Roger Sanger & Brpn Borich were
working on;m electronic ·zine.
The problem was that Bryan & Rodge
could not sell1<l1Ough periodic;us per Yl'..r
under GDW's rules to make the effort
worthwhile. This limitation is to protect
GDW' s utiter licensees, and GDW won't
give Bryan & Rodge a license.
Rodger got one prelimmry estimate for a
'~ne with 100 pages and color covers (8.5
x 11 I belieVe/presume):
500@$Sper
1000@ $3
2000@$2
Tlus pr"sumed camera re;/.dy work. We
p;/.~te the ;/.rtwork in. etc .. And no
:Jdvertising to help bring the costs down.
Rodge:GDW could sue on the grOlmds
of the publication being a "derintive
work." Yes, and it has very much to do with
use of the words "V;}rgr", "Asian",
"Archduke Norris", "Regency", "Spinward
Marches", Jnd so on.
LeroyGu;/.tney:GDW does not need a
Par;moid Press or J ttdge' s Guild for
Tra~,eller now. The recognition is ;uready
out there. They can afford to be picky
;/.bout what ends up as "canon" in Traveller.
I would ch:uacterize them as desiring
someone who cm produce tight materi;us
;md be a consistent producer. To my
knowledge, the longest any of us (;/.s a
group) have been working on any major
project is all of perhaps two or three
months. Th;.).t's ;umost trivi;u in the scheme
of things.
Permission Denied
RodgerSanger:Dear Bryan,
Well, after calling sever;u times, I f11"!.4-!ly
got through to Susan Schug.t GDW (she
Jl"ver returned ,any of my c;uls).
Their mswer is definitely NO.
"We don't give away rights that we could
sell. "
For a license for such a product, they
wmt $5,000.00 up front, plus some kind
of roy;uty (negotiable). Overill fees would
d~pomd upon how m=y times the materi;u
was released (reprints, new versions, etc.).
Furthermore, even if they did gr=t us
AAB Proceedings 26
license, they wouldn't ;/.Ilowmyreprinting
of material copyrighted by them (Jstrodata,
rules, etc.).
She indic;~ted thaL ..
If we did a Traveller electrozine without
thpjr permission. t.hey would sue.
If we did;m on-line service, such;/.s on
AOI.., they would sue.
If we went ahead with a PRI NTED
Traveller mag without a letter of
permission, they would sue. She ;uso stated
·th;/.t they ;uen't giving out =y more letters
of permission to anybody for anything.
If we did a non-Imperium c2IIlpaign that
used T r;/.veller rules, they would sue.
She said they reserve the right to sue
fanzines, but that they are not actively
pursuing that course of action.
FOR THERHCORD,MY INVOLYH-
MENr WITH THIS MAGAZINE
PROJECT IS HEREBY OFFICIALLY
TERMINATED.
Susan seented to be amiable to the
concept of turning all of the ;/.rticles we've
received over to other publications. such as
Challenge, or the HIWG family of
newsletters. But she was unfamiliar with
the HIWG, :md wouldn't make an offtci;u
TSR Also Got Into Copyright Issues!
--Cb.y Rush
Magazines
TSR nI;!iled a letter to most g;Hning
public;/.tirms s~)'ing they could no longer
publish anything concerning TSR' 5 games
except reviews. This may end the wide-
spread publication of scenarios and filler
items for those g4.ffies, but some public;/.-
tions may pay the licensing fees re<Juired.
I noted that magazines aren't =ing
TSR's g4.ffies in their =nouncements. This
is probably ;/.bout tndem4.fk issues, so I
followed that practice here.
InterNet
TSR ;uso sent notices to ftp sites across
the country. Basic;uly, they would remove
all materi;us for TSR's game, or they wOlJd
Page 7
sUtement concerning their publishing of
the materi;us.
She said t~l submitting tllJ.l m;/.t~'Ti4.ls to
other publications th;/.t had J leller of
approval from them would be acceptable.
So it looks like your HIWG back-up plan
m;/.y very well work. Good luck if you go
that route. Keep in mind that you mUlit get
permission from Andy before you publish
any of his articles.
Keep in touch,
Rodge.
(?): (SUS411 seems kind ofh~Tdnosed)
Borich:1t may have just been Rodger's
wording.
As f;/.r;/.s Rodger goes, he's out of the
picture on Traveller ·zines. Or anything
closely rcbted.
It might be worth asking the HIWG
read..rship in the next AAB how they would
feel like a change in the nature of the
publication.
It's too b;/.d GDW is being this way,
though I can underst:md some of it.
But this might be a big loss for them in
the long run (I think the electronic
magaziu" :utd the hypertext form;/.t might
havB bwn a big boon to Traveller players).
pay a licensing fee to TSR, or would face
;/.Iawsuit over copyright infringement. A
few sites are paying ;/.Iicense fee, but most
ftp sites purged their files.
The projectsaffected include the Great
Net Mages Book (which collected ill spells
into one reference work), =d a monster
compendium project. While these are
items that c= easily =d profitably be
computerized, you can now only get to
them by a read-only access to a licensed
site. (This last is based on reports that I
have not verified.)
Looking Forward
It will he interesting to see what kind of
referencing systems are &et up in a few
years. The lnfob;/.hn is meeting copyright
law now, =d the Tesults will be interesting.
30 September, 1994
 Electrozine Proposal Leads to New Game Startup Effort
Once upon .1 time.
There W.lS .1 Tr.lveller-f.1wtic n.lffi~.d
Hyperodge who W.lS so into Tr.lveller th.t
he built .1 collection cont.lining almost
enry Tr.lveller-rehted item ever made
(over 700 of them), including virtu.lly
every offici.I product ever produced,
m:lg:lzines with so much.s .. single
Tr:lveller ..rtiele in them. multitudes of
fmzines, an .;mny of min.i:ltures, meg upon
meg ofTr.vell"r-rel.lted m.gnetic medi ..
md ne:lrly the entire HIWG library of
documents. including. few misplaced docs
tholt for some reason never m.1de it frem
the lunds of one of the HIWG's illustrious
cofounders into the HIWG's librolry.
This hopeless fmatic even wrote a
"f.lWtic's guide" for other collectors which
listed every T uveller item he knew of
(900+). md which included ol biblio-
grolphy with hundreds of Traveller .. rtides
listed in it.
So target-fixated on the game was
Hyperodge that he constructed a coloss.I
hypertext knowledgeb .. se to support his
Tuvellerroleplaying obsession. This
hypertext reference work cont.lined
infoTm.ltion about the game organized for
the e.lse of retrieval. including sections for
cmlp.lign tim~lines, astrogrJphic d:lta
(interstell:lT empires, domains, sectors,
subsectors, worlds. md allegiance codes),
libr:lry data. NPC's, technology,
equipment, vehicles, shi ps. aliens. etc., ';l.l1d
it even contained .l majority of thl<
documents :luthored by theHIWG in
magnetic media form. as well as .II the
bWldl"s .llld.:ompihtiolls Cpa(bges") of
materi.I from the TML!
With this wondrous reference tool, he
could look up Traveller-related issues in.l
sm.ill fr.lction of the time it took other
referees to fmd the m.lteri;ll.
It W.lS only .l m.ltter of time tbt this
fmatic's .lttention tumed tow.lfd
publishing for the game.l-bving enjoyed so
many of the 3rd-p;rrty product~ produced
for T r.lveller, he decided to produce a
Traveller f;mzine. He te;uned up with
mother f.lWtic and I-IIWG'er n;uued Bry;ul
Borich. ;uld the two cuzies gathered
30 September, 1994
enollgh m.J.teri.I to fill at kast 2 or 3 i sSLIes.
I laving st.lrted .. hypertext wftw.J.re
development business·:I few months
before, Hyperodge convinced Brym that
the best W;ly to go would h." with an
e1ectrozine format for dispbying the
m .. teri.I on computer screen.
To test the waters, ;l survey was
conducted to s'<e if ther", was interE',t in
such:l public:ltion. Here is the intro from
th..t survey:
First Survey
Altentibh Travdler Aftcionados!:'
I'm looking into theproducing a TrJveller
hypertext e1ectrozine, .lnd W.lS wondering
wh..t interest there would be for this kind
of thing. Essentially, it would be :I
Traveller f.lnzine on magnetic mediJ
(floppy dishtte) with hypertext access.
Hypertext is tlw technology of infor··
mation access. I t is similar in nalllre to the
.. see .Iso" referenc .. s so f.J.miliar in
encyclopedias, except that luoking tho?m lip
is :lutom.lted. All the read"r h.lS to do is
select which reference to go to, and th:lt is
:lccomplished with a coupl" dkqstrokes.
Thus. cross-referencing is t.lk>2l1 to a n"w
level. because it can be applied to ubIes lOf
contents md indices, md to 01 her
reference aids,:ls well ;IS from within thE'
.ltticles themselves.
Hypertext is the technology cfkllOW-
ledge organiz:ltion, or "Tech-knowlogy." It
allows for the r.lpid cat€:gorizJtion and
strlle tut'ittg,()finform;\r1on through
processes which I cill .. node--processing"
and "link-man ..gement." For the fanzine.
this me:ll1S that .11 related m.lteri.I will be
e:lsily .lccessible -- no more hunting around
to g.lther ship descriptions. ;.ldventures,
world descriptions, equipment. ch.lracters,
etc., for e:lch will be grouped into
convenient .lccess lists. with the jLUnps to
the materi.I built-in to the lists!
Adventures. the central purpose of
Traveller. would be given mow life, inJ
would become easier to use. Dealing with
cOlwoluted intel' twining plot. lines would
be m:lde simple, by providing links to uke
Page 8
the referee' fi·om one reb ted event to
mother. or from the description of a room
to the ones next to it,,-even handling
adventufl?s with lots of tdeportation
becol1H:s eJsy. because- hypertext is a form
of tel,,?ortation! Tracing the nuggets =d
the flow of :lny :ldventure becomes an easy
task.
CrOSS-lc' ~>2f-2ncil1g shall also be provided
to allow the reader to access the
descriptions of the things he is reading
about (the r",l<ev;ult NPC's, world library
dJtJ, Ne.) J' tlwy c>c(ur in th(: adventure.
Pwb:..bly t he nicest feature th:lt I could
provide is the combinability of issues. That
is, ;JS you ro"c€'ive issues of the fmzin€'. YOLl
simply add each on", to the previous issues
you've rec~ved. aud the master t.bles of
contents and indices would be updated
each time, encompassing ALL of the
material in previou~ issues. alld allowing
you to jlm,p directly from d,ose reference
aids to the desired material itself.
Providing sue h is an eJSY task for the
hyp,>rtext deydoper (me) with the right
tooL.
Thus, all equipment descriptions
thwughollt :>.11 the iSSll,'S wOlJd be listed in
ono> p\.IC8, with jump,outs built into the
list, so tlut you coulJ sJect my piece of
equipment and then go to its description
with but the press of J key. reg.lfdless of
which issue, .lrtic!e, or adventure it
originally appe.;,ueJ in. Simildr lists would
be provided for technology descriptions.
Jli€'l1 race d",scriptions, authors, subject s,
Jnd "very other category of Traveller icon
(sectors, sub sectors, worlds, ships. rul"s.
etc.). Articles from ongc'ing series wOlJd
be combined, linking each to the
installm(<I1ts t1l.lt C.1111(: before.
These m:lster-refereJlce aids would be in
addition to the t:lbles of contents and
indices of'~dch issu€', so that you could also
view the issues .lS you originally received
them. if you so desired.
Writers for the electrozine could refer to
previous material (such as .l particul.lf
ship) ..md provide instmt-.lccess cross-
references to that rn:lteri.I! Thus, a
ch:lracter description could have linkouts
AAB Proceedings 26
to the descripti?l1s of e..ch item of equip-
ment he possesses, and so on, regardless of
what issues those pieces of equipment
originally appe..red in.
Submissions would not be limited to
articles. 'Vriters could submit programs.
md those programs could be executed
from right inside the electrozine! Figures.
pictures. md the like could also be submit-
te.d, along with articles or independently.
I'm also con!lidering to allow the re:lder
e..sy editing of the electrozine, so that you
could .add your own materds, or edit the
articles already there (tncluding the'
reference ~d5). You could then customize
:l.I1ything YOll wanted. or you could copy and
then create customized versions from the
copies. You could also create. your own
reference ~ds for e:lSY access to particular
it"-I11S (for instance, all th", background
material you h~ye tracked down to support
your latest custom adventure), thus,
erlCounter tables md th~ like can be used
over md over again with ease.
An interesting outgrowth of the
el..xtrozine is that the main file-formats
that I plan to use are edsy to work with -- as
they are in ASCII. (Don't worry, there shall
~(? plenty of grJ.phics too). What this me..ns
in practic:l.l terms is that the re:lder can not
only add his own custom files to the
,,!':-ctrozine's ae'cess structure, but can also
at tachto it .any file thJ.t h" collects,
including the files that are provided on ftp
sil",s! Readers can cooperate with each
oth~r by L1rloadin~ in(~ices or tables of
ccntents for the fil.es contained in the ftp
archives.
Since the fiI~ames for the TML BUNs
are already standardized. links to specific
messages could be utilized, for those
readers who ha;'e the TML BUNs on their
machines. Thus, writers who submit
articles to the electrozine could include
references to specific TML mess:l.ges if
they so desired.
Isn't t~hnology grand?
I'm currently looking into providing
access lists to all of the files on sunbane, so
tlut you can access these access lists from
the electrozine, and :l.ccess the mes
AAB Proceedings 26
themselves from the access lists. Thus, you
could l1;1ve ;tlist of all of the s~tors, with
e:lsy access to the data for eae h published
sector, The same goes for the enormous
collection of ship and vehicle files. And
something simi).J.r could be done for TML
BUNs. Don't go crazy just yet by down-
loading everything in sight -- some of the
filen:unes on the ftp sites might need to be
chmged first to accommodate this process,
Each issue of the electrozine would be
packed with the equivalent of 1000r more
p.ages ofTRAVELLER-rE'!J.ted articles,
anJwOlud cost in th' neighb,::,rh,),xl of$ 5
to $9 per issue.
TO DETERMINE WHETHER THIS
IS A WORTH-WHILE PROJECT, I
NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU, TIlE
pOTENTIAL READER.
IThe rest deleted].
Responses
After conducting the email survey of
TML mE'mbers. the responses of whom
wen? nothing short of ecstatic. tho" FJ.ir of
would-be publishers promptly submitted a
request and proposal to GDW, the
Traveller copyright owners, to ask for their
permission to produce the electrozin12.
After making the duo jump through
several hoops. GDW responded with a
resounding "NOr" Not only did the g.;une
comF,my d"ny permission, but they
threatened to sue in no uncertain terms,
and went so far as to list just about every
conceivdble contingency under which they
could Stl8, "Vetl thos" du,t had notlung to
do with th" electrozine project. Their
represent.tive expl~ed that if the p~r of
enthusiasts produced anything remcttely
related to'1'rav ..Jler, they would sue.
The operation was crushed. The many
writers who had submitted material were
apologized to and then refet'l'ed to Kevin
Knight of The Tr.1veller Chrom'cie.
Hyperodge mused. It had been an
interesting experiment. Because there lud
been so much interest, and so many
Volwltwrs lud offered to help out with the
proj~t. he sent out a press rele:lse ;md a
Second Survey, to see if a non-Traveller
Page 9
game system organized along the same
lines .1S til" proposed electrozine would be
of interest.
The Second Survey w~s a success. A new
game was born, md it is currently under
development.
Under Development
Th" design te..m currently includes 3
1- IIWG'ers, several unknowns. and we are in
neiloti.tions with several names in the
industry. T.!ented individuals all. We luve
opened the doors for new te~m members
md ~re c.urr=t.ly processing a flurry of
applicants. I am looking for designers.
writers, editors, artists, and programmers.
The game is f:l.pidly turning into :l.n entire
product line. Several different campaigns
are on the drawing board, with 3 products
already in the works: A set of integrated
cor( rules, a multi· dimensional module to
tie everything togeth"r. and a c;unp~gn
based upon alternate histories or p~ralle1
Ul11verses.
Since the core rules are currently being
roughed out, we are ge:lTing up to compete
in the two m~n genres of the industry:
Medieval Fantasy, and H:l.rd Sci-Fi.
W,,'ve been knocking our he..ds together
to determine wlut fe..tures the sci-fi game
should and should not cont~n. and the
responses to the Second Survey have been
a gr~t help. Among other things. on that
survey I asked wlut the readers wanted in a
new game system, and also what they ab-
solutely hated about existing game
systems. Their responses were
etilightening. If you would like to answer
our second survey, drop me :l. note ~t
rodge@cyberspace.com.
The sci-fi game will likely fill the gaps
left by the other games in the industry. and
its focus shall be forging into fascinating
frontiers rather thm recovering from a
holoCJlIst of one type onnother. rf you.re
interested in joining our le..m, by all means,
drop me :l. note at my em~1 address
(rodge@cyberspace.com).
I hope the .bove h:l.s helped to s~tisfy
your I:uriosity,
Sincerely, Roger Sanger
30 September, 1994
 Fanzines and Newsletters
CRB:I list fanzines in alpbbetical order.
KFAN UZANGOU
--Roger Myhre
I'm about to take upmy Vargr related fanzine after a year of no
production. I hope to get out m issue in ~ couple of months. To
make this I would like to get Vargr articles md artwork. Everyone
that contributes will get m issue.
Free copies are available for all ~nalysts md developers for V~rgr
sectors in Travell"r. Those who submitt material will also receive
free copy of the issue the material appears in. The articles should
not be longer thm 2000 words.
Articles em either be e-mailed me or sent on a disk. See below
for information on submitting disks. drwaing should h"plack md
white or grey scale (please no more than 16 colors/shades) A4 size.
It may also be submit ten on disk in these formats: GIF, IFF, EI'S,
MacPaint. Illustrator. PCX, DR2D and ProDraw
Disk formats: Amiga, PC or At~ri double density disks. Sorry
can't hmdle high density disks yet.
I'd like to get reply from all analysts or sector developers of
Vargr sectors. or Vargr related topics bye-mail. My mail list for
the 'zine is not up to date.
Roger "StarWolf'Myfue (myfue@oslonetl.no)
Ammerudgrenda 168
096005)0
NORWAY
MAYDAY FANZINE?
--Mark Watson (94/06/21)
I'm planning to start up a fanzine. I figure I currently have
enough material for the first four issues. based on material from
past campaigns I have TlUl. I plan to cover the classic. MT and TNE
rulesets. As such I'd be willing to take you up on your request for
someone to coordinate Rebellion era material. and would use my
'zine as a vehicle for disseminating those discussions.
My w~rking title for the zine is Mayday, which I'll! currently
trying to dear with GDW.
I would lib: is to be able to use the same sector for both Classic
and TNE development. as I would like to consolidate my current
material into the HIWG timeline by relocating it. l1t is set in a
Lishun that is based on AU<ls ohile Imperium. pre- Fi;J.l1ling Eye.)
I'd also like to pick up some work on TNE. I would willingly take
on the job of collapsing one of Spica. Glimmerdrift or Hmter-
worlds. Is Spica still available?
If this is not possible. then I would like to pitch ~lso for ~ sector
for my Cb.ssiclMT material. My eyes alight on Astron. I s this
virgin territory} I realise I'm asking for a lot but I am serious,
M~k WatsoCl .
28 Adams P~rk Road
Farnham, Surrey GU99QG
Great Britain
30 September, 1994 Page 10
Melbourne Times
Although I have not beeIl following it. thi s [=ine detailing an
alterrute setting ~round earth h~s ~dvanced to issue # 5. His new
address is:
DaviJ Johnson
2020 GeorgiaIl WOOd5 Place. # 13
Wheaton. MD 20902
SIGNAL-GK
Paul Sanders has recieved permission to distribute Signal GK! in
the u.s. Leighton Piper and Jae Campbell al'e considering a "Best
of" compilation and T- slurts emblazoned with GK artwork.
Sign.u-GK returns to D.lgll<:ksha.lg with ContJ.ctl ZiJ.dd (10
pages on ~:mi!ior human r.ce).a world write-up (11 pages), two
interesting adventure called "Nine Day Wonder" and "Gateway" (8
pages involving ~ Hutter transporter and a contact situation).
An ins8rt det.ail SIl.lllows [E 1subs'ec[or and mother is.l cli.lgram
of an assault lander.
42 pages.
Terrau Traveller Chronicle
Issue 6 is devoted to the pocket empire that the TML working
group develop,,,d in Reaver', D8"'P: th" Grayln Union. There's one
long .lnd one short adventure Jnd J. writeup of the Union's scout
service complet" with 28 NPCs.
Other articles continue Keith's write up of Caledon seuhsector,
three mo"" subs""ct,xs of Far Frontiers, and two Amber zone
adventures set in DiJ.spora.
48 rag"s, $4.95.
Sword of the Knight publications can now be reached on
InterNo?t at "sword.knight@\:eni".geis.com".
World Builder
Tl·us is J. profe;,si':'J'ldlly-produced mas;.a.:ine that is looking for
science fictiolJ contriblltors. DUt< tu th", the copyright discussion
mentioned e;,lrlier in tlus issue. I'd huld off on submission for;/.
while. I have a message to G DW asking what sort of permission
~Vord Builder L.r the ;luthor needs to obtain before publication.
40 p.. ges, $ 15/p,;,lr for 6 issues.
World Builder
P.O. Box 7196
BOffiley Lab?, WA 98390-0932
Voice/PAX: (206) 89'/-6182
Terran Traveller Times
Geo is working on his next issue It h;lS been ;! while.
AAB Proceedings 26

Traveller Naval Architecture Review Board
·-Harold Hale
Dave wOlJd like to orgm.ize a committee
which would review ship designs md give
them the "OfflciJ! UDW Sump of
ApprovJ!." IndividllJ!s who wmt to become
a member of the committee must be well
versed in J!l a~-pects of BriIlmt L:mces/
FF&..'>' ship design, be willing to review
starship designs line by line· perform
revers\! engineering when necessary ..nd
nuke ~iIILplc correctiolls. (1,,(u majur
r"d",signs jllst bec;lLls", SOllwone thought
I.h~y had 2,000 more cubic meters than
they did.)
PJ.rlicil'J.IllS must be ;,lso be willing to
wcn-k for the sh<£r joy of being ..nd n;lvJ!
"rchitect ... sorry guys, no pay for this job.
Inlerested HIWCl IT,,,ml',,r, sJ\I,tJd drop
IIh: J.lille;ls SOOIl;lS po;silYle. I'll put the list
of mmes togett)l:r .mel get in touch with
J)OlVf: In J couple of weeks about the
pJrticuiars.
MEMBERSHIP
s,:> Lr I hdve the- following list (If people
who hav", st J.t~d t hdt they have an interest
in being involved with ti,e review bo:nd:
Djmgo Upton
S;un "Sillktd" Thomas
Roger "StdrWolP'Myhre
CR1TERIA
III t h" I1l';:Jnt illle, we need to decide on
Ctileri;} for membership to the committee.
I move that the following criteria be
"stJ.blishE·d, .
I) The individu:tl must own his/her own
copy of Brifli:mt L:mces and Fire, Fusion &:
Steel. Individual committee members are
responsible for he-pitlg their copies of
these publications up-to.date. though I will
endeavol' to get all changes from Dave
Nilsen, and pass them J!ong when possible.
2) The individuJ! must show proficiency
with tit" d~sign system by designing two
vessels: one jLUHp c..pable ship utilizing the
Brilliant Lances design sequence
",xelusively, and one non-jump capable ship
utilizing thE: design sequence in Fire,
Fusion &: Steel. The non-jump c..pable
design must utilize at l~st one ship's
AAB Proceedings 26
weapon of original design. Both designs
must be mbmitted to the Committee
Cluirm~n (iuc) , :md be found by the
TNARB to be free of mathematicJ! errors
and design flaws (l will :mume t.hat:a11 of
YOll have done this by now, so you :are
e"empt-.the requirement is for future
committee members).
3) A prospective committee member
must own or have acc<~ss to at \"..Jst the
following pieces of equipment: a PC
cap;,!>le ofrunniug Microsoli. Excel (or ..
compatihle program) or a good cJ!culator
(OM capable of storing formilbs)c: 3 IJX
machi,,,,, vr a PC equipped with a mudem;
access to Internet or UEnie. TNARB
membr:rs will inform the chairm~n of any
address. telephone, or electronic e-mail
.. Jdress chang<!s.
We need to establish ollr own internal
ruies ami guidelines with regard t.O how the
TNARB will operate. r move first that J!l
Proposed Stellar Type Changes
--.r-larold HJ!e
f-J:1rold fhle :md others discussed stdbr
t;pes, espt!ci:l/~r the over:lbuncbnce of
white dW:lT[compuuoI1S, bJ' em:1J.i. } tJrold
used the Jc,J}owm.fJ pro!,os:U for Di:1spor:l
;;.nd Solom:mi Rim. There W:lS discussion
:1bout putting nell' st:lr gener:ltioll rules lil
lVoddT:.uncq bue thAt did not luppell.
These were my recomntend..tions:
1) Errata could be issued for the TNE
Manual tlut :lily M spectrJ! type stars
generated that lu.ve 'D' as a size should be
changed to a main sequence type. This
would be the least painful change to the
rules, and ;Jctually has a side benefit in that
more M main sequence stars would :.pp=
(which wouldincr~se re;Jism).
Additionally. guidelines could be issued on
how many of what types of white dwarfs
normally appear in a sector, with the
Solommi Rim (or some other section of
space) as a model.
2) Cre.ate a separ:tte system for
generating ill white dwarf st:u-s. This would
require that additional tables be cr~ted,
Page 11
•
rules and guidelines be voted on by the
TNARB as a whole, and that J!l rules and
guidelines pass or fail on a simple majority
vote of J!l voting members (non-voting
members counted as abstaining).
r wOlJd in my role as chairmm also at this
time issue thl! following decree. It is likely
to he the first and only such decree to be
issued by my office. so no one need worry
about future constitutionJ! precedent:
"The chainnan of the TNARB will. on at
l~st :Ul :lImuJ! basis, publish for members
only .~ list of TNARB member names,
:ddi~sses, phone numbers and e-mail
addresses. The chairm:m will be
responsible fOr distributing this list in a
timely fashion to J!l TNARB members."
All TNARB members should send the
above information to me no later than
10/14/94. My e-mail addresses are:
HDHALE@TASC.COM and
HHALEl@GENIE.GEIS.COM
:lJId errata issued. The Sion Classification
System could also be introduced. This
option still allows for the possibility of
DM stars, but they would appear only in
special circumstances.
,) Cr~te a supplement to the TNE rules
which would have a more re;Jistic system
for generating stars. This could be included
as part of an updated. TNE version of iJoox
6: Scou{s (along with the new government
gener:ttion system tlut has been
discussed), or as part of Fire, Fusion., mel
Steel: P:1rt 2. No errata would have to be
issued, but there remains the time
consuming chore of retrofitting J!l the star
systems generated for TNE with the new
system (something I'm sure thE! public will
demmd). This option would ~lIow not only
DM st:lrs, but J!so for generating neutron
stars. pulsars, qwsars, even black holes.
I strongly suggest whatever courSE! of
action is taken (except ignoring the
probl~m). that someone grab the ear of a
PhD in Astronomy or Astrophysics md
find out if my conclusions are correct.
30 September, 1994
 Regency Development Discussions
REGENCY SOURCEBOOK
The Regency Sourcebur~k is sbted fur
the first qu~rter of 1995. How~~, it will
probably be preceeded by the equipment
guide in December or January.
Basic~lIy the overview f.lls into these
sections:
1. Publication of a Regency Sourcebook,
concentr:lting on the Spinw:lrd Marches
around 1202 when the Regency decides to
expand into the Virus domiru.ted :lre.s.
This will be using maps gener~ted by
'HIWG'.
Possibly c:alled 'Keeping the FJ;u;n,,:
Possibly including some surrounding
sectors depennding on av~lability of room.
2. Public:ltion of Equipment GuidI! for
the Regency, donI! by Loren.
3. Publication of Robot design rules in
Vampire ships. And nethacking ala
Cyberpunk.
4. Classic type adventuring for the
Regency (.long with some new stuff).
Other possibilities include the
'Assassination Wars: Vargr uplifting.la
Warld Tamer s [ounung other regions}, and
;md I'm sure I got a few more ide.ls floating
arOlmd my he.d.
5. More info released on the Longbow/
J umpstart projects.
TML's "SHALL NOT
PERISH" PROJECT
Borich: [This Regency project] hasn't
produced.anything useful y",t.. It needs
organization ;md editing. It isn't worth
anything in the format it's in.
DavidJohnson: I've been cutting ~nd
pasting and editing .ll.long. I think we're
on our way to a decent project - espocially
for a 'labor oflove.' I've alre.dy posted
two edited dr~fts (quite skeletal) but the
next one ought to have some reJ.1
substance.
Bry:mBorich: I just saw the outline.
That's a step in the right direction t~wards
something useful. By the way I'm not
trying to belittle the discus.ions, just
stating a concern.
30 September, 1994
REGENCY DEVEI,OPMENT
--Bryan burich
What I was figuring for the Regency was
1. validating 1117 (or 1120) maps
2. Figuring out which worlds got hit by
InnsiollS (A~Lm, Reb, V;>.rgr, Virus)
3. Applying I-lard Times/l'NE modifiers
to step 2. [CRB: various respondant s
not!ld that the ColLapse only hiL part of
D=eb sector.]
4. Doing random improvements to the
rest of the applicable worlds.
5. Hand tune the affair as deemed
necc;ssJ.ti (modi[.1ill.g starporLs, b::,."~;, pop,
allegences); . than someune or your experi'"ll~e wuuld
As for what GDW wants, I'm not sure I
care, as I'm sure we call do bet ler [h.lvi!:g
more time}, ;,lud they CUl ;uways duuge
what they need.
GregoryLee: As for random versus fine
tuning sLar system:; by hand, I thiTJk by
hamlis better. RanduUl ~ptelm .'lem great
for g=er;lting areas which arl! in the
background but you don't necessarily feel
you11 ever play in. This means that there's
no good Ulufteel sy:;tem t~ P4S~ ;Uung tu
referees and it's hbor intemive to du, but. 1
think the final. result is worth it.
REGENCY PROJECT
Mikesh:Technical.ly this is not iust for
GDW. This is for the writers. No
backgrOlUld check, no Reg,e.l1cy, no
Regency projects.
Part of the reason GDW probably hasn't
bothered with the R('g'''w), is 1"1cdu;", t],q
Jon't h;,v", the tim", to dL' whJt w,,'re doing
(though technidly they .houlJ 1.,,, bett«t
equipped in some respects for the job).
Working on a project is not easy. Tlus is
my fifth(~) depending on wbt rOll CJI'" to
PERSONALITIES
Guatney: I don't know if J. "Personali-
ties of the Reformation Coalition" work
will be done fur the Regency,
Mikeslu I sure hope the GDW doe"
include something like this. It goes a long
way toward defining the chJract.er oyhe
selling.
Page 12
count. All the ones I've been involved in
early on require bying down alot of
gwwiJwork ;mel doing dw appr(jprial~
rl!s~rch. Aftl<1' thi; is done, the rest of the
sl.lIffi5 J. piece of cake (writing ;adventures,
developing further source material, etc ...).
y uu '.iy you w:mt to become mar" nuted
;as ~ writer ....wellthis is one of the WdYS.
The general sllggestion is write adventures,
develop material, becorn" steady at lhis and
than ,!vctltually Irl.lyb" th" compouly will let
you du;a projoect for tht<rll. Thi~ applies to
all the g:uning companies J know of. Right
no)v you're involved iT! a bigger project
norm.tlly be ..lIowlld in on. It will put your
TI:lme in front of GDW's eyes, what you
want to Jo from than on is up 10 YOll. But it
gives you a step in their front dum.
As for whim the mdteri",l will be
publishlld, I think we em speed this up one
way or the at her.
Brp.:uBuTich:lfil'S autollDluy you WJIlt
than you're better off doing youI' own
ganK. Don't expect autonomy working for
any gJming cOnll':my. Th(-."['e is no such
thing. As fur J.cklluwl~dgem\!!ll, well, it is
the first step ill being recogniz"d, ;md gets
your n;ame in front of the comp~nys' eyes.
A~ for p;ay and gaming comp:uues in
gLll'"r.tl, they work differently Lhan other
comp.lilt,,;. rlll~v" it atthaL
NoalllS AS REGENT?
Bush: Th.. TNE book does not s",y who
the l\l?gent is; c'llly thdt the RE'gency Moot
l..unf1rll1~ his Sll(C~'::S:-;Or. Discussions oVl2r
who slI(c",,,,d,"d Norris, or wh",t.h",r h," st.il!
rules, has b~l ongoing on GEnie ;md
Em;lil.
Guatney:The Norris Interview (c.,
1120) says:
Norri::; Aelb A1edon, (exc",rpted) Age:
57. born 156-1063
This makes him J.ge 140 years on
156-1203 (1n th", New Era). For
r&fcl'''-11ce, D&!phin.. di.J.;}t ;}ge 141. Arrlv;;;l
Venge.mce confirms his age as 63 in 1126.
GEnie topic I, "The Spinw;;!rd Chronicles"
had some discussion about whe·ther or not
Norri~ still lives.
AAB Proceedings 26
rSIONICS
D2vitlJohnson:We've never seen :my
indiration of lit., Imp.,rium being ~ble to
detect psionic activity. Given this, I expect
('TIe of two things. Zhodani ;agents are
thicker among the R"gency councils than
cockroaches in a Chicago housing
development. or else some sort of ' secret
psi detector' (Imperial psikes?) exists to
root them out.
Borich:1 think something was stated to
t.he contr~ry, but. I'm not sure where. Then
Jg.lin, maybe it was'n't official. Somphing
about ;an Imperi:al N4VY Psionic service.
(It's been proposed by sever:al parties that
t.he Imperium would need such J service to
l"oteCl themselves against. tile Zhodmi.)
11arolJ I ble: I'SiClllS C;ill d"tl;ct other
psions (through a simple' R\,::Ld Sud~ce
Thoughts', et.c.). Non-Psions h;ave to
wit.ness th,· Psion perform some sort of
psionic ..ctivity.
(jiven the proximity of the Zhochni
Consubte to the Rep,(>J1CY, I would assume
tbt the Reg('TlCY Intelligence Agency (or
wltat"ver they call themselves) woulJ have
an entire wing of their head9u;lfters
devoted to psions who ;Ire employed in
finding Zhod:mi spies, ;md rsions who
p"rform covert missions [or tit", Reg,-'IlCY.
S"'ORJ) WORLDS
Was tllll Sword Worlds Cou[",der;!.tiun
viable on its own? The duration of the
current confecler:ation may be due to the
Zhodani support that started with thi s
confeder:ations establishment.
"I point to Zhochni support (collusion}
propping up} fTatemal fTjend ship 7) in
establishing and maintaining th:lt
confederation as part of their anti-
lmperi\uu policy of contairunent."
Mikesh:This is pretty much the
conclusion I've come to in my TML posts.
?;;: I expect they l;"'ve cont~lueJ to
support it, because their policy has the dual
goab oHeeping the Regency arOlmd to
maintain order and stillto contain it so that
it doesn't intruJ," on ZituJ:ani ~pJ.ce.
Mikesh:! 'd fJther exp.,ct the Zhodani no
longer need to continue this support. It's
sort oflike the US in Pakistm after the enel
of the Cold War - there's no longer as gre.tt
a need to continue to support. thi:; client
state and there are always pr('sslIres to use
thos(' resources elsewhere.
Tlus :also opens up the Sword Worlds for
some interesting adventure possibilities as
they cope with th",.ir own ~ihat.",j~
incursions (or al least refugees £k('.ing the
"ilut";") ;mJ once again suf[1?[ frLJm Lheir
inherent fr:actiousness once the
'st;lbilizing' influence of the Zhodani is
renl;"ved.
STARPORTS
At 1120 the SpinwJrd M:arches had only
four TL-15 worlds. Rhylanor. Glisten,
Mora and Trin, one TL-16 Darri:m. Trrn
got trashed, Glisten got captured Q-fI
recall by the Asian, yep just checked).
l~ving Nonis or his successor only two
worlds to hl'lp the tech of the others.
GregoryLee: Aftl'f 70ye:ars mda
whopping big external thre..lt, I 'J expect a
lot went into upgrading porl~. shipprds
and TLs :across the volume. Remember
that although YOll have to build an
illfrastructure. tech doesn't have to be
reinvented, just trmsferred. I don't think
such an upgr2de program is out of the
question if all of the high tech!
shipbuilding worlds across the ex-Domain
participate. (Of course convincing local
systl'ms to give up a tec~ologically
dl?1'iv",d economic .ldvant:age should be m
interf:sting (adventure generating)
exercise).
D2vidJohnson:Why just the Marches?
What about the rest of the Dom:lin/
Regency? Th.,re's Depot, Vincennes and

Spinward Aliens Supplement

UARRIANS
Mikesh:l )ave LY,x~ th" proposal that they are back to
prod'lCing real TI.1 6_ He Jdded that an aspect of the I).rrims th:at
"P. would like 1.0 ' 'Po preserved is the uTlcertainty of th(' tech they're
r"ally :at. He sounded satisfied with th", following solution.
Before tha R"bellion. Darrian scientists allJ businessmen
flocked to the I mperial interior to work :and invest in the
Imperillm's high tech industries. When the Imperitun sh,uerecl,
tI,,,se D:arri:ms brought home wlut they needed to continue those
in,.lustries ill the D;arrian Confederation. So, Danian's tech level is
propecl up by both relic technology md Imperial technology, but
there ;are still gJI'~'
K'KR(i~E
Guatner:News Note 350-1 120 K7cree Arm:Jd:l Enters Donl:Jln
stdtecl the K 'kree consulate was on Cip:atwe (3118 SM). Alien
lv10dule 2: K7cree st:ates that these consulates were one-per-sector
in th" Imperium, \I~lIally on a key world. It goes on to state that the
consubt \' on R"gina w:a~ later mcwed to Rhylanor during the 5FW.
The At.11 n,,{i,relKl< wn to worlds, however Cipatwe is in Rhylmor
suhsector, sn Cip;atwe may not be .. controversial "cmon:' Also,
Rhybnor the world, is high pop, and Cipatwe could be construed
to be better .. secured."
Mikesh:! propose that the K'kree are now on M:arastan
(M:lrches ').2 31 D868772-5 Ag Ri).
GII:ltner:Tr.hink we bve a good case for thousmds ofK'kree
having b ..-en c;!ught behind- the-claw Juring the Rebellion :lnd
subs~uet\t Collapse. In our sCeJUrio. Norris gave the refugees ;l
subcontinent on M:austan! Glisten. In the generations since, the
K'kree bllilt a major c-orporation (Agro Centauri) transporting
food to hi.-popul:ation worlds.
Milr.:esh:D:ave replied favorably to the idea. The upcoming
Regency material might include some comment about it, but the
Rr'gency product line will not deal with K'hee in depth as it rightly
should foe us more on Zhodani, V:argr, AsIan, and Darrians.

AAB Proceedings 26 Page 13 30 September. 1994

 Regency Development (con.)
Pashus (all TL 16) and An si rk , Magash,
Starn, Imone, Dekha, Bishop, HRD,
Saguenay. Qilv;u- ;md Jecife (ill TL 15) in
Deneb and Lint! (IL 15) in Reft.
Vincennes;md M:lgash (1n Sabine) are
high-pop worlds with class A starports
they're probably turning out megat(JIls uf
warships. Starn and Lint! are high-pop' s
with class B's. Depot, Pashus, Imone,
HRD, Qevar and Jecife all have class A
starports.
Hale: I'd like to report that in my
Spinward Marches Rebellion campaign
that the starp0Tt facilities at Glisten were
severely damaged by cCJIrunmdos. (A group
of PCs was at the wrong place at the wrong
time--don't worry, they lived. though they
had to expbin to their boss how :I large
thermonuclear device detonated in the
w:lrehouse dinrict.) The att:lck temporarily
halted the Asian advance into the Spinward
Marches. and bought critical time for
Norris' forces. (The S:nD.e PCs were l:lter
decor:lted for their heroism in the <iltt:lck on
the Glisten st:lrport. Am:lzing how thin the
Regency Scout Service Missions
--Gregory Lee
Given the situalion at 1130, I expect that
RQ,S was on :I w:lr fuoting from the word
go. Without infinite resources. the Scouts
get a sm:aller part of the pie. Sti1lthere aTe
import:lnt.. missions to be performed which
the Scouts are best able to" l:ecute:
o Increased contact with eKisting cultures
and races displaces first cont:lct duties
(which were never highlighted in the
published sources ;myw<ily) during the
pre-I200 timefrarne. Recontact missions
undertaken post 1200.
o Conduct of a mini Grand Survey with
the emphasis on political and economic
aspects. With a confin.;d economy, this
inform:ltion becomes vit:al (pre-1200).
Expand the Survey in post 1200.
o Economic developm=t and assessment
as per previous messages (post 1200).
o Intelligence gathering both within and
30 September, 1994
line sometimes is between getting a medal
or a court manial, eh?)
A NEW DEPOT?
> An«w Depot shOLJd be built.
In addition to the on8 in Den'ob? To
replace the one in Corridor?
Gregory Lee: The creation of one or
more depots is;m excellent ideJ.. They're
almost lUJ.ndatory to support the vast
number of ships needed. for the
Quarantine. (Aside: Whatever happened. to
Depot/Corridor?) Probably th~y won't be
(he superhuge in;talbtions of tll~Third
Imperium. but the new d"'pot (s) should
still be sizeable.
CORPORATE INTERESTS
MegaCorporations in the Rebellion Eu:
"Corpor:ltions in the Spinward Marches.
for example•... :Ire cOl1centrJ.t.ing on the
hum;m client states (JfForeven sector ;md
beyond." Gust beyond, not The Beyond)
Bush:Beyond Foreven is Far Frontiers
without the Qtlarantim" pos~;ihly indlldin,p,
vdmpire htmling (pI'\; .md po;-;t I :cOO).
o MaintelUIlce of "KiSling nJvigJ.tim,.u
dJta bases and markeT systems, SAR and
other not so gbmornus ditties_ I seem 10
remember reading somewhere Ih;lI t \1"
S~outs !('-sc their comUlw~~calic:.n& job but
I'm not entirely sure. Ifthey haven't. they
stiJ1 nID th" X -Roat net.
This mJY be ;j moot point giv<~ the poor
press RISS receives inTNE on Pg. 169.
With the reopening of the borders, perhaps
the Scoms will take back many of their
previolls duties. I'm not of t.he opinion that
either RQS or the Navy woulJ want to take
on the old Scout missions. Even with no
major eKtenul thrE'.4ts (weli m:lyhe the
vampires). I think the NJvy would hoy on
strat"'gic defense while RQS stich with
what it knows (a kind of Border Patrol
fIIDction).
Page 14
(developed in Tr:lveller Chronicle) and
Yiklerzdmzh (developed. by HIWG
Australia). Rimward of these are The
Bl10nd ;me! V mguJrd Reac hes (developed
by Chuck Kallenbach 11).
What we have not yel seen in print are
a.ny mercantile or eKploratioIl adventures
set in lhese ;ue;lS in Ch:allenge. I'm sure.
howel'er, th;lt it is a case of GDW being
unable to publish what they have not
n;ceiv8Ci.
S?INWAUD MARCHES
Leroy Guatn"y is working on validating
Spinw:ord M:.rche. UW l-'s for GDW' s
Regency sourcebook.
REFTSECTOR
Bush:J've collapsed this sector, ;md:un
working on developing it for 17.0/ _First
priority i; I he Island Clusters,;ls the
Regency Qu:orantine Servic .. h..J.~ advallceJ
bases there :mcl patrolls the area. This looks
like a good aTea for RQS Wilds/Virlls
.adveIltuTds, becaus\; il is ,epar;;ted from
th.. Regenc y core by jWllp-7.
My ClITrent version h:ls the main RQS
klSP;H '!:"Ourht. JOFtls" is Ih" only world
b.ack up to teel, leyJ 9 since recontact;
French trmsbtioll chips anyolle?
Guatney:On Ancient sites, in checking
TCS CT/A5, we noticed the Orpht>.P.
(I'12 9) r~feTence to interdictiun to
prot-.d Ll,e minor .Iillll1lJtive h",rbivorou5
grazers, and th" het that Esperaryza
(0926) had bal wings which died 0111. 200
yeaTS :afLd" th,> plam,t was settled. Laler, it
W;lS e!etermillw. Ll14t these Were droyne.
Perhaps il should be an Ancients site.
Mayhe w" shoilld consi,]"r Troy (Trojan
Reac h) :IS well.
Deneb Sector
No one is J.ctively nlidating the infor-
mation for this sectur.
Trojan Reach
No one is actively validating the infor-
mation for this sector.
AAB Proceedings 26
 Nilson on Regency
Mikesh:! had a ch:mce to talk to Dave
about how they arrived at the Regina data,
how their thinking ran for the rest of the
H.egency, :md updating UWPs to 1200.
Dave affirmed that the Safe sub sec tors of
the Spinward States were spared the worst
:md lasting effects of Hxd Times ;md the
Collapse. There were no die-ofTs or tech
int.erruptions. Virus effects need not be
considered, except ill particular cases such
as Trin. (It· sounds like we c;m create some
J.(klitional cases, although we might want to
Jvoid oversh:ldowing t he Rape ofl;in.)
RHGINA:Regarding tech, GDW
assUIned the Regency would see a net
increase of approximatf'ly 1. In their first
cut of Regina, they gave virtually
everything a + 1 TL After that, tll'-'y did a
lut of'nouJling aroulld.' Dave favors that
high tech worlds saw little or no t"ch
inrrease, whereas lower tech worlds did see
il1cT'.~ses by and brge.
He tlo£s not w;mt cllviromnent :If[ecting
ch.mges to st.arport, tech, or population.
rhese should be arbi trary (sort of -- see
below). Regarding population, their
origin:t! thinking was that refugees would
tend to go to blue sky worlds, but Dave
also recognizes th1t surplus work forces
would go to lillpleas;mt resource colonies,
creating a bal;mce over all.
STARPO R TS:lle does want to see
:lstrography influence at least st.arport and
bases. (Borich: I W:2S thinking the border
;,{Te:JS might be better subject to m:mcal
:2djl~slmerJts For st.1rp0rts. pop incre:2ses,
bs.~ pl:2cemenr.. Worlds frirther in could be
sf.'bjected to;/ more r.mdonI method)
Backw:J.ter worlds might not enjoy many
increases in starports or tech. (Barich:
EKceptions to this :2re prob:2bly the border
world~ for security re:2sons.) Worlds
:J.wunJ important hubs woulcl It also
makes sense that. starports improve on
worlds on important routes. We probably
want to :J.djust worlds like Heroni (3017).
Tltis world with no gas gi:lIlt or ocean is at a
fork in the Spinward Main, and yet it only
lud a class E starport -- no fuel.
I t might be best to handle starrort
. increases as a manu.:J operation. We
AAB Proceedings 26
probably know how many total incrE'.:lscs we
w:mt in the Regency. Perh:lps get that
many beans ;md start placing them at
plausible locations on the Domain map.
Dave spoke of economics being a driving
factor, which suggests yet another
possibility. If you really w;mt to do some
computer coding, perhaps work up :m
economic atlas of the Regency drawing on
the Trade and Commerce rules. (In fact, I
think there was a)TAS article addn:ssing
this.) Where we see the most ship traffic is
probably where we want to ph~e the 1:·,etter
starports. Pbcement of other starports
might also open up wl,ole clusters that
were otherwise secluded from much trade.
Thi s would be a lot of work. But if YOll
choose to pursue this, it would result in a
kind of detailed map tlut Traveller piay(.'TS
wmJd relish, as would GDW.
BASES: Dave thinks that. ch:J.nges or
additions to bases should be specifically
placed astrograpltically (alb'~it gov ..,trb.>(l by
the limitations imposed by the rules). He
had in mind more RQS bases along the
frontier than the interior. (No surprise.)
We 11 need to address the RQS more soon.
Barich: 1 would figure th:2t most R C}S
b:lses :2re within :2bOflt j.'J oEche border.
This would:ulow j6 covenge ['oth W:l)'S
(tow:2rds the lwrder md further into the
Regency interior). Worlds with RQS b;,lses
:uso h:2ve:2 ch=ce ofbecoming m:lrketing
hubs (or :2t le:lst there should be one close
by, on the ZhocbrU/As]m/V.1rJ,'T border~).
SCOUT SJi:RVICE
Dave brought lip the Scout Service as
relat..d to the Qu;tr:mtine Service. These
remain two distinct entities, although the
RSS now has a substantially rE<duced
mission. Exploration. for instance is
probably nil. although the censu~/survey
and communication mission cOIltinue.
Dave pictures thE< RSS in this period as
something like the Coast Gu.ud, with :a
emphasis on sioafch and re.cue missions.
Borich: They might :Uso be doing more
resoul'ce m:lppi1Jg:u :2 eco~ts md stuff.
This would fit in w.ith the RegeI1CYs need
for more resources.
Page 15
Hale: I'm not sure if! agree with Dave's
assessment of the Regency Scout Service.
Search:md rescue missions lu.ve been the
responsibility of the local system defense
forces, not the Scout Service. I realize he's
looking for something for them to do to
justify their separate existence. (Their
mission could easily be handled by the
RQS and the Navy). Perhaps that should
be written into the storyline (the
comm;mder of the Scout Service fighting
budget cuts. etc.). I see the Scout Service
h~ving the following missions:
1) Provide for the smooth flow of
civili:m communications over interstellar
dist:mces.
2) Resource mapping a h ecosats. "This
would fit in with the Regency's need for
more resources." Somebody would have to
be in charge of detailing what resources the
Regency has, and the Scout Service would
be perfect for this role.
3) Establishing contact with potential
new markets spinward. The Exploratory
Branch would make contact with old
Imperial (or other) colonies, clear the way
for free traders and other merchants, escort
ambassadors, etc. Not exactly exploring
strange new worlds, or boldly going where
no one has gone before, but at IE'.;tst. they
are working.
4) Other duties as assigned. In other
words. they get all the crappy jobs no one
else (the Navy. RQS, or local system
defense forces) warits. As the Scout
S<rrvice struggles to redefine its mission
and justify its separate existence,
:administrators are likely to volunteer the
services of their people for all kinds of odd.
(and very dangerous) jobs. Some of these
assignments could very well take them into
the Old Imperium, and elsewhere....
The exploration brarlCh will blossom
when the Regency penetrates Corridor in
earnest. Unt.il then, it might be used for
deep space reconnaiss;mce, in coordination
with the RQ,S, luuking fur evidence of
Virus activity.
30 September. J 994
 REGENCY ADVENTURES
Mikesh:G ow will do m :.Idventure book
for the Regency, like Sm:Jsh 8{ Gr:Jb. Its
not on the schedule, though, sillce they
kven't gotten th:.lt f:.lr with their plmning.
Borich:I'd suggest something more
:.ilong the lines of the old style :ldventures ..ssassirution group. Ow; puim h:J.s b"en
tkn Sm:.lsh&Gr:lb type. Do they wmt
strictly expmding into the old Imperium
space-type :ldventures or or (or don't know
yet) .......
H.:Je: The Regency :ldventures in m:my
ways sholiId be nost.Igic throwbacks to the
old TT:lveller 4dventures, with perh:lps a
few curve b:.ills throWl' in fi'om t1m'; to timeorl l!n.,· "us SU(iUll ). To du thi ~ the
to k.eep the older phyers guessing. Aftet· :.ill,
what W:.lS the purpose ofkving the
Regency survive (I'm t:llking here about
the re;a}il.y.b:.lsed reasoning, not storyline
re:lsoning)? Having .. d:l~sic" adventures to
go with the "chssic" setting only m:.lkes
sense.
Gregory Lee: The Smash & Grab
mindset seems more :.Ipplic;.tble La the
Reformation Co:.ilition than to the
Regency. I think there should be noticeable
differences between the two settings,
offering distinctly different environments
to the user. I side with Mr. H.Ie in the
desire to see Regency Adventures which
are "...nosl:llgic throwbacks ... with... :1 fewgoing on would be hum:m-styl.,J Q.e.
curves." After .II,lthink most of us have
played there :lnd it would be neat to c .tch
up on things 70 years hter. Imagine phying
descendants ofPCs you've run before.
Adventure Ideas
Mikesh: ; propored ~n . K:ver.ture where
PC's discover ;m Imperi:.il art smuggling
ring that tr:lils bck to the Sword Worlds.
Sword Worlders are looting the old
Imperium (similar to Piper's Sp:Jce Viking)
vi:l :I route through Reft. O:lve liked it. so
I'll be doing that for him.
Hale: An interesting storyline (de.Jing
with RISS's need for:l dear miSSion) could
involve some rich tYCOOll'S :lttempt to 6v ..
the mission (of interstell:lr civilian m:lil)
t:lken aW:lY md spun off to the "Priv:.lte
Sector." He just h:.lppens to know someone retribution.
who wmts the job .... hint. hint.
30 September, 1994
ASLAN ASSASSINS
One thr.,:J.d in emdil h.., beell mixing
some of the Regency int~tul politic s
(pro-democracy forces, old nobility,
reformers, and so on) wit.h an Asloul
how to get Ashn ass.lssin involved.
MikeMikesh:Since this isn't a linear
adventure, considering its range of
outcomes, the best w~y I see to achieve this
to give the refero:e d lot control over the
pacing md the action, md 1(>.4ve the
:.Idventu1'''' itself unstructured Qike Jl1urdl'r
:.Irt;cle would h:.ive to focus on thl (,.. things:
1) The sitl.1:.ltion set.-up,
2) The possible range of outcomes, Jlld
3) the forces in play. By 'forces', I mem
the NPes (the :lss:lssin, Mar9uis, possibly
m AsIan Colonies rep, Naval lnt.pJligence
:lgent, the assassin's employer, the p;<rty
mistaken [or beiug the ernploy"r. etc).
All the referE:e needs is some b .. sic
inform:ltion, and a thorough understanding
of the NPCs in play. He can wing
everything else. which me411S he Clll throw
in :.Inything he wants when h", w;mts to k~
the degree of activity high.
I'm inclined to think the ass;<ssimtions
sneaky and dirty). ~ lowever. this event
wouldn't preclude the employment of
Ashn :.Iss:.lssins. There :.Ire several reasons
why they might be aLLr.lctiv,,:
1) The Asian assassin famili ..s have
expertese based on millen;., of experience.
.2) Nc1 :l1Inen, with no un<! "rworld
contacts, might have no other recourse but
to contact an Asian assassin family.
3) Asian :.Ire honorable. Some noblemen,
forced to hire assassins. might st--e Lhem :I~
[:.I\' less reprehensible th411 hiring J hUIll;!Il
killer.
Borich:The Democrat.ic faction might
use this rOllle more than the Imperial
faction. Mostly in the cas'3 o[ wh,.;re they
have an :lttanpt m;td" on them :md t h;\11
use this more honor:lble method as tltting
4) If c:lught. a hum= ;I.,s2ssin might
name his employer to save himself. An
Page 16
Aslan would probably kill him self before
reve:tling even the sndler sec reI..
On t.he JuwIlsid,". t!W Asbn w.rm; his
victim in Jdvance. l)ut tlus might not be as
b.d where capituhtion is better than if the
victim actually <1i"5 .
Allother downer is t1l;!t = Asbn would
rE::llly st=d out on .. hum= world. Tho:n
:.Igain, who says the Asian assassin has to be
"raei.I· Asian? Al~o, I he ass:.lssin might
ll:J.ve h«lpers to get around the problem.
His ;tppnmtices could b" hwnan, hdping
to set up the Marquis tor the kill. In
ac;'lition,. d().~en Aslan might !1ave been
imported ;tS J..x:uys. E.ch decoy nughL be
orJ"r."J to gu to:l p.lTticulJr plJce.md do
cert~in things:.It given time. Being Vlssals,
lhl'y have no idea why. nor would they dare
ask.
Still another w:.Iy "round the problem is
simply to have human vassals kidnap the
Marquis, perhaps by trmq g:lssing the
building.
'rhe Mar9lu s could then be :.Iwahned.
armed, md released again, say in :.In
;!bamloned industrial p:lrk, :.Ilone except for
the dss.ssin somewlWfe.
Borich:' nus I.st could b .. " good one for
the PC's.
Bush: I think this Jjseussion confuses
As\411 assassins with ]J.p411esc ninja. The
ninjJS were largdy metrenary. The AsIan
assassins, however, are clan· related. A W:.lr
of ;lssassination is still fought between
ChIlS. so how is the Asl411 cLm involved?
Involving Lhe cl.m is oasy i[ the coniliel
of intl·rest. is b"rween the m;"9L',s a'nd the
cbn. In that. os,,, however, t.he clan would
ll:J.ve little need to hum411s siuce it could
c:.ill on its own troops.
Pro-D{'mOl~rHCY Uprising
Bush: l-larold l-l.!l e pushed. for :I wide-
spread "Democractie" movenlent that
wants to te'ppl" the Regency's nobility-
jnfll1,~n(ed instit ustions through terrorist
or guerilb action.
The Ine Ginr were pro-Democr:.lcy,
(They said so!) I-Imm ....
111 put some of that democrJ,-y/guerilb
w:.Ir di~c u.sion in the next AABP.
AAB Proceedings 26