the

NO.8

EVIL, MEAN, AND ROTTEN.

A fantasy game for the bad guys? Yea, verily. Monsters! Monsters! is the new fantasy
role-playing game from Metagaming Concepts. No more good-guy heroes. In Monsters!
Monsters!, you become a monster character - come up from the dungeons - stalk into
town - and wreak havoc. The eviller you are, the more experience points you'll earn ...
Monsters! Monsters! was
designed by Ken SI. Andre,
lavishly illustrated by Liz
Danforth, and edited by
Steve Jackson of the Metagaming staff.

As with Our previous

game, Stellar Conquest,
every effort was made to
provide a clear, complete
rule system. Major omissions and contradictions
that plague other game
systems 3re avoided by a
carefully organized format.

This is an excellent game for

novice Game Masters and
new fantasy bu rrs -

and

should be a relief for experienced garners exhausted

by confusing rule systems.

Monsters! Monsters! is a
52-page, 8 Y, by II rule
book with Danforth's fullcolor cover. Also included
3re four maps for the Game
Master to use in setting up
an initial adventure.
Rulnsn"I(ofl5lf1dud~:

IfI,roduC:liofl
Gomt Masln'lfI' ilfld :klUp
CIw~Itr CrHIion
xpH~nc:rPoints
:kqu~n(,'t of PIQ)'

Combill (indudin, Gtntrvl Discussion.

Combilt Tum StqUtfl", WQndt"nl
lItmltS. Rtoe:lion TQbf" SilvlfII
Rolls, UnusuQf Combfll, UIIQrmtt!
Combfll, Qnd WtflpomJ

MQltic:

So put a new twist in your

gaming try Monsters!
Monsters! Approved as an
outlet for antisocial tendencies by the American
Psychologists and Crazies
Association.

METAGAMING CONCEPTS
Box 15346
Austin, Texas 18161

Subscribers to our magazine The Space Gamer get a

discount price - $5.00. The
Space Gamer appears bimonthly. A year (six issues)
is $5.00; two years (twelve

issues), $9.00.

copyright 1976, Melagaming Concepts.

$1

SPAEE IiAmER

THE

SPAEE GAmER

art nau

na.

Where We're Going

Mostly business this time.

IN '!HIS ISSUE
3

Where We're Going

fIT

16

Books

COO

17

Feedback & Game Ratings

21

News & Plugs

23

Art Showcase: Chung

26

Letters

SPIDJIATIONS
4

Triplanetary: Suggestions for

Steve Jackson

Revision
7

The Soviet Manned Space Program:

Robert Taylor

The Next Three Years

8

Sim::msen 's Trinity and Grand Duels

Scott Rusch

FEATURES

10

GODSFIRE Sheet

11

Laser Weapons Conpared to Projectile

Steven List

Weapons
13

THE TIHIU: Innovations Applauded

William Brogden

14

Present at the Birth of Monsters:

Ken St. Andre

evolution of a game
25

GODSFIRE: Design Notes

REVIEWS

18

stooting is not the Whole Story:

1bny Watson

STI>.RSHIP Review
19

SORCERER: a review

Linda Brzus owicz

20

S'i'ARSHIP 'IRooPERS: a review

Sumner Clarr n

FRONI' COVER: Kenneth Rahnan

ARTISTS: Chung, Pileggi, Jaquays, Tiffin
PUBLISHER: Howard T'hcmpson

EDITDR: C. Ben Ostrander

THE. SPACE GAMER. is published bi-rronthly by Metagaming Concepts, Box 15346

Austin, TX 7876L Copyright fc) 1976 by Metagaming Conc pts. All rights
re~erved. A Sl.X-l.ssue subscdjifion is $5, twelve issues $9, USA and Canadl.an postal addresses only. Contrirutions are solicited at the base rate
of ~ per ;..ord cash or l per word purchase credit. Base art rate is $4 per
page cash, $8 per page purchase credit. News itS1ls and prcxJuct announcements accepted subject to editorial discretion.

Order problems/information: The

holiday season is coming so expect
a bit longer than usual delivery
time. Third class mail is delivered
after first class mail if there is
a backlog.
Also, be sure and let us know
your new address
as soon as you
make a move- TSG is currently Bulk
Mailed. Bulk Mail isn't fowarded
unless you specifically tell the
U.S. Postal Service you will pay
postage on all mail fowarded.
Otherwise, the TSGs are returned to
us.
When you write to us it is best
to keep your order information on a
seperate sheet from letters. We are
less likely to miss it that way.
With over 1,000 circulation we do
get lots of mail. All is read at
least twice during the normal mail
processing cycle. Actual letters
of comment, problems, etc., will
get handled three to five times.
Only a fraction of letters can be
answered but we do listen very well
to all you say. TSG readers have
taken us at our word about airing
gripes and problems as well as
giving us praise. We can't ignore
you like government and the phone
company.
MicroGames Project: Our MicroGames were the suprise hit of last
issue's feedback. All segments of
our readership were favorable toward the idea except for the compleXity/sophistication buffs where
reaction was still fair. The two
key elements seem to be price and
the shorter playtime. Also crucial
is a playable, well designed game.
Based on your response MicroGames go up on our project list. To
be a success, ie. economically
possible, they will have to attain
a 50% to 100% larger distribution
than our"first games. So, let your
local store know YQQ like SF&F gaming and tell a friend we'll send
him a copy of TSG for the asking.
With a little luck and your
support TSG #9 (Jan/Feb) may see
the announcement of the first of a
series of MicroGames. With pricing
a sensitive factor don't look for
super components. Counters won't
be fully die-cut but there will be
a color cover booklet and map. Most
effort will go into making the
rules work. Specialty short games
for pros that are also good starts
for novices is the Goal.

Computer Games: TSG #7 feedback

showed less support for computer
games than we'd hoped. Not that
there wasn't a lot of enthusiastic
interest. It's just that MicroGames
and the fantasy role game did
better. Price did seem to be a
factor based on comments but the
Universe idea rated a bit higher
than a computerized Metastar system
80. A game that put you into contact with other garners, computer
controlled sophistication, ratings,
etc, etc, seemed a natural.
I wish there were a way of doing
more than a bare bones game cheap.
A$I,OOO hobby computer won't cut it
A $40,000 IBM System 32 falls
short, too.
The advent of 16K bit
MOS RAMs, cheaper peripheral devices, and advanced microprocessor
CPUs is going to help.
But, it
will still cost several times what
it takes to get a STELLAR CONQUEST
or GODSFIRE to market.
We do have the expertise to do
a really superior job on computer
games.
More effort will go into
lowering cost.
It may be that an
initially simpler version that can
cost $1 per turn will be offered.
Or, an even more complex version
might be offered for the same
price.
$1.25-$1.50 per turn may
seem expensive, but if you are getting 10-20 hours of play value from
each game turn and corresponding
with other players, it's dirt cheap
A $1.50 paperback reads in two to
three hours.
$1.50 in quarters into one of the new video games like
TANK, BIPLANE, etc. is gone in fifteen to twenty minutes.
So, before
you sneer at $1.25, think about
what other entertainments cost.
Sure, a stand-alone game like
GODSFIRE is $15 for possibly hundreds of hours of play by two to
six garners; but, you don't get such
complicated servicing and background computation either.
$2.50
to $3.00 per month for unique gamin~
is pretty cheap.
Let us know your thoughts and
ideas on computer games.
A more detailed feedback form based on your
comments will tell us better how to
-:\0 it.
Good gaming,
Howard Thompson

SpEculATioNS
TRIPLANETARY:
SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR REVISION
by Steve Jackson

TRIPLANETARY has to be considered a first-class wargame. Because

of its SF slant, it will never
command the following of, for instance, DIPLOMACY. However, it is
an excellent example of its genre.
The adaptation of "pulp" space opera
concepts to viable game situations,
the clean design of the board and
counters, and, most of all, the
classically elegant simulation of
inertial motion and gravity make it
both a challenge to the gamer and a
great escape from reality.
Still, there are several problems with TRIPLANETARY. A number of
factors are not handled in the most
elegant way possible, or involve
unnecessary artificialities. To a
certain extent, of course, these
criticisms are only matters of
taste. However, I think the game
may be tightened up. This article
will present a number of suggestions
for rule changes which retain the
game's flavor while improving play.
The Board
The only problem with the
Triplanetary board is that it is too
small. In order to represent most-ot
the Solar System on one moderatesized hexsheet, it was necessary to
take great liberties with scale and
put all the planets on one side of
the Sun. To add insult to injury,
ships are prohibited to leave the
board. Violators are considered
eliminated.
This is not only completely
artificial (an "edge of space"?)
but frustrating as well. When a
battle is lost in supposedly endless
space because a ship goes one hex
too far, it hurts. But the hexsheet
is limited, whether we like it or
not, and some rule has to be made
about the boundaries. So, why not
make the rule:
"Ships may not voluntarily
leave the board for any reason. They
may, however, leave while disabled,
provided that, on an infinitely extended hexsheet, they would be able
to return under their own power.
Disabled ships which leave the board
must return by the shortest possible
route, including overload maneuver-

ing. (An extra hexsheet is helpful

in figuring this). Ships which leave
under other circumstances are eliminated."
This is both more realistic
(although still artificial) and much
less fr~strating. ~ote, too, that
although you may not pursue a disabled enemy off the board, you can
set up a reception committee at the
point where he must return.
Mines and Torpedoes
Under the present rules, torpedoes are much too deadly. Mines,
on the other hand, are too weak. A
torpedo-Iauching ship pushes a
circle of near-certain death, three
hexes in diameter, in front of it.
If such a ship is heading toward
you at any rate of speed, you're
dead. This isn't battle; it's
slaughter. Boring, too.
As for mines: why have them
self-destruct after five turns?
Mines are much more useful as permanent obstructions than as temporary nuisances. And, I think, they
should be stronger.
Furthermore, the present rules
impose no cost penalty for the use
of mines and torpedoes. It seems
more realistic to require that such
ordnance be paid for at the time it
is loaded onto a ship.
We can replace the present
types of ordnance with two others:
"smart mines" and "dumb mines."
(Well, they're easy to remember ... )
Smart mines cost 1/2 point.
They do not attack the ships, bases,
mines, etc., of their owner, because
they are equipped with a device
which identifies (possibly by a
coded beacon) friendly units. Smart
mines will not attack asteroids if
they are dropped, stationary, in the
asteroid hex; however, they will
attack asteroids if they are moving.
Dumb mines cost 1/4 point.
They will attack anything.
Both types of mlne attack in
the same way. Any unit that enters a
mined hex, or any unit in a hex that
mines enter, has a 50% chance of
being attacked by each mine. Roll
the dice: on a I, 2, or 3 the mine
attacks. Otherwise, it did not sense
and home in on that target.
When a mine has several targets
to choose from, it prefers, in order:
asteroids, other mines, bases and
ships in order of size. (Freighters,
tankers and liners are all slightly
smaller than Frigates.) If a mine
does not attack the preferred tar-

get, it rolls to see whether the

next is attacked, and so on. Thus,
if a mine enters an asteroid hex
containing a dreadnaught and a corsa ir, it rolls, first, for the
asteroids; then (if it misses) for
the dreadnaught, and then (if it
misses again) for the corsair. If
the mine misses all its targets, it
continues unaffected.
If and when a mine actually
attacks, no special CRT is need~d.
The mine attacks with a combat
strength of ,4, with no reductions.
A min~which makes an attack is
destroyed, regardless of its effect
on the target.
Since any mumber of smart
mines may be placed in the same
hex, their attacks are combined into
one roll.
A ship may drop one mine per
turn. The mine retains the dropping
ship's velocity. A ship which drops
a dumb mine must change course on
the following movement phase or be
attacked by the mine.
Smart mines are good for defending planets or bases. Dumb
mines are excellent for offense, or
for "sweeping" enemy smart mines.
(Note that hostile mines in the
same hex have a 75% chance of destroying each other, since both
attack. )
Asteroids:' Detection
The system given in the rules
is neither completely unambiguous
or completely realistic. Suggested
revision:
"Ships and bases have a normal
detector range of 3 and 5 hexes,
respectively, in clear space. Asteroid hexes, though, count double.
Thus, one clear hex and one asteroid
hex are the limit of a ship's detection. Two asteroid hexes exceed
the limit; the ship CANNOT detect
into the second one. A base could
detect up to two asteroid hexes and
one clear hex, but could not detect
into a third asteroid hex."
Asteroids: Combat
It is only logical--and adds
interest to the game--to assume that
asteroids interfere with gunfire.
Therefore, for combat in the asteroids, subtract one from the die
roll for every asteroid hex in the
line of fire. This is in addition
to all subtractions for range and
vector difference.
Simultaneous Movement
At its best, this is still
slower, than sequential movement, and
should not be attempted by novices.
However, for those for whom astroga-

tion and combat-odds calculation

have become intuitive, it may improve the game. Certainly it is more
realistic.
All instructions are written.
A ship may be ordered to accelerate
to the 'hex "northeast" of its projected endpoint--this is "a". The
next hex clockwise is "b", and so
on. (See Figure 1.) An overload
maneuver may be indicated, for instance, as "aa." Ships not ordered
to accelerate move to their projected endpoints.
Combat instructions specify
what shipes) are to fire at what
target(s). Obviously, odds cannot be
computed until we see where the
enemy ships went. If two ships move
into the same hex, either may
attempt to ram after combat results
are applied.
The counterattack rule may then
be dispensed with. Note, though,
that this eliminates up to half the
potential combat in a given GameTurn. Where two equally matched
ships might have fired at each other
twice in one turn (one player's
fire, opponent's counterattack;
opponent's fire, first player's
counterattack), each now shoots only
once. Situations which did not permit counterattack (i.e., attacks on
very small or unarmed ships) are of
course unaffected. Thus, the average
engagement lasts longer, giving the
underdog a better chance to escape.
Rendezvous
Ships which match course and
position for transfer of fuel,
weaponry, etc., are said to be
"rendezvoused." This has advantagesbut in reality it would also have
drawbacks which should be reflected
in the rules.
First: In scenarios where some
ships are "undetected" until they
approach an enemy ship, any undetected ship which rendezvoused with
a detected ship is itself detected.
(Rationale: Whatever is being used
to keep track of detected ships-long-range cam-operated tracking
scopes, maybe--would certainly
notice the new ship as well.)
Second: Two or more rendez,voused ships may be attacked in one
roll. (After all, it would be
difficult to hit one without hitting
the other.) The dice are rolled
once, to determine the accuracy of
the shot.The odds are then calculated separately for each ship.
Example: A Frigate fires on a
Tanker rendezvoused with a Corsair.
The roll, adjusted for vector and
velocity, is a 3. This means that
the Corsair is D2 (since Frigate

vs. Corsair is 8 vs. 4 or 2-1),

while the Tanker is 04 (since
Frigate vs Tanker is 8 vs. 1, but
4 to 1 is the maximum.) If you are
playing with the counterattack
rule, all counterattacking ships
attack together.
This effectively doubles the
firepower of a ship attacking rendezvoused ships, but is actually
more realistic. He's not dividing
his fire--he's attacking one big
target, some parts of which are more
vulnerable than others. Thus, defensive strengths are compared,
separately, to the attacking
strength.
When this rule is in effect, a
player must state which, if any, of
his ships are rendezvoused when more
than one are in a given hex.
This rule raises interesting
tactical problems, expecially in the
Piracy scenarios, when it may be
necessary to forego a shot at the
pirate in order to avoid doing much
more damage to an innocent bystander.
Refueling, Maintenance, and the
Overload Maneuver
The rules state that (1) ships
may transfer fuel back and forth,
(2) refueling ships "undergo minor
maintenance concurrently," and (3)
minor maintenance renews a ship's
ability to utilize the very useful
"double-burn," or overload maneuver.
Strict reading of the rules,
obviously, would let two ships in
cooperation undergo indefinite
overloads.
It is suggested that minor
maintenance, permitting the doubleburn, only occurs when a ship refuels at a base. It might be best
to limit this even further: the ship
must land on (or stop at) the base.
Orbits (of a planet) or flybys (of a
base), suffice for refueling, but
not maintenance.
Heroism
"Disabled ships often run the
risk of leaving the game map, or of
colliding with planets and asteroids. Any ship which successfully
rescues such a disabled ship, and
returns to a planet, becomes
heroic." Thus saith the rulebook.
Heroic status makes a ship fight
better.
Cute idea. Unfortunately, nowhere in the rules is it explained,
or even implied, HOW a ship can
rescue or aid a disabled comrade.
Maybe figuring it out is the heroic
part? You could transfer fuel, but
that won't get it un-disabled any
faster.

There are three possibilities:

(1) A ship, by rendezvousing
with a disabled ship, could aid in
repair work. That ship would become un-disabled at 2D/turn, twice
the normal speed. Thus, a 04 ship
could operate in only two turns.
(2) A ship might take another
ship in tow by matching course,
linking up, and expending two fuel
points per course change (if the
towed ship is the same size or
smalleY) or three (if it is bigger.
(3) This is the one I like.
You could forget about the "heroism"
rule entirely. If you're really the
heroic type, your play will show it.
Try these suggestions out: you
may like them. A good game is worth
improving.

Figure 1. Notation for simultaneous movement. Y represents the

ship's present position, X its position last turn. The solid arrow,
therefore, was its movement last
turn; the heavy dotted arrow is its
"projected" movement. That is, the
ship will move to Z if it expends no
fuel.
By burning one unit of fuel, the
ship may alter its course along any
one of the dotted lines, ending up
in any of the six hexes marked "a"
through "f".
Thus, one letter can be used to
describe the course change, if any,
ordered for each ship.

This objective is within Soviet

capabilities, but barely. Soviet
limitations in the space field are
twofold. First, the hardware problems: The Soyuz spacecraft, the
by Robert Taylor
~urrent wbrk~orse of their program,
lS not the engineering equal of the
U.S. Gemini vehicle, which last flew
in 1966. The Soyuz does not have an
onboard computer, its inertial
In attempting to analyze the
guidance system is suspect, most
Soviet manned space program and its
major systems have no backups, and
future plans, one faces the task of
quoting a U.S. astronaut, "almost
trying to focus on an enigma. The
all activities aboard the Soyuz are
Russians are still extremely secrecontrolled from the ground, even
tive (although not to the degree of
shutting off the lights." The
past years) about their space prolife-support and safety features are
gram. They do not announce their
very limited, and the spacecraft's
missions or their objectives in adoverall structural design is faulty
vance, nor do they volunteer much
and weak. The worst aspect of the
specific information even after a
Soyuz is its flight record. Twentysuccessful flight.
flve per cent of all Soyuz missions
Yet a manned space program by
have been failures, and two flights
its very nature is a rather visible
ended fatally. But Soyuz is only
thing. During the Apollo-Soyuz
mission, the United States learned a one example of the uncertain reliagreat deal about Soviet capabilities bility of Soviet hardware.
In the field of rocketry, the
and limitations. Through defectors,
Russians have made few advances
spy satellites, and sometimes--inadvertently---through the Russians since Gagarin's flight. They have
been unable to develop rocket enthemselves, more information has
gines of any great power since they
been gained about the status of the
do not have the metals 'to withstand
Soviet space program.
the high temperatures.
It is the intention of this
Russian electronic and computer
article to synthesize that informasystems are years behind the West.
tion, and present a broad picture
In fact, the Soviets often buy
of what to expect from the Soviets
Japanese or West German equipment,
over the next three years.
when they fail to miniaturize comIn general terms, the Soviets
ponents of their own.
will probably launch three to five
The second limitation, and the
missions a year. Each mission will
most damaging, is the Soviet
utilize the Soyuz space-craft and
approach to space flight. The
the Salyut space station, where
Russians are very conservative in
scientific, military, and engineertheir thinking. They pursue narrow
ing activities will be carried out.
and limited goals. The management
It is highly probable that on
behind the Soviet program is quite
occasions the Soyuz will fly indepoor. It is dominated by bureaupendent of the Salyut (when the
cratic inefficiency and political
Russians are testing new equipment)
demands. Most problems are dealt
Such was the case on Soyuz-22, an
with in isolation. A problem maybe
earth resources flight testing new
solved, but its causes are usually
hardware to be used on future unglossed over. Three different
manned satellites.
Soyuzes, as an example, have failed
Beginning in 1978, cosmonauts
from Eastern European countries will to dock. This is representative of
a lack of technical thinking and a
fly as flight engineers on Soyuz
weak system control.
missions. These missions will of
This conservative approach has
course be commanded by a Soviet
stymied any innovations. As long as
pilot, but this type of cooperation
will be of major propaganda value to a piece of equipment works most of
the time, the Soviets see little
the Russians. The cooperation may
need to improve it. As a resul t,
also give the Soviet space program
there have been few improvements in
something it sorely needs- fresh
any of their hardware or systems,
thinking and input.
and very little thinking toward any
The main objectives of the
redesign.
Soviets over the next three years
With all these shortcomings
will be a permanent manned space
station. They are certain to attempt how will the Soviets achieve their
objective of a permanent manned
this before the U.S. space shuttle
space station? Essentially through
can begin constructing an American
over kill.
No matter how poor the
space station.
THE SOVIET MANNED SPACE PROGRAM:
THE NEXT THREE YEARS

;,I:lnagement, ho,,, faulty the equipment, enough missions will succeed

to get the job done.
The Russians have enormous
resources. They have and can pour
hu?e amounts of materials; lorJ.'.e
nu~bers of scientists, engineers,
whatever is needed to reach their
goals. And among those resources is
money. The Soviet space budget is
believed to be twice that of the
U.S. program. This method is wastefUl, costly and dangerous, but it
,,,ill work.
The actual configuration of the
space station will probably be
limited to two or three Salyuts
joined together. The reputed
Saturn-S class booster of the Russians is still experiencing difficulties, and there have been some
reports the booster has been
scrapped.
Therefore, it will take a
series of launches to get up the
necessary material. Construction
will require EVA. Something the
Soviets haven't attempted since
1969, but they do have the ability.
This space station will have a crew
capacity of six, and will be resupplied by unmanned Soyuz type
vehicles.
The purpose of this space station will be varied, but its major
emphasis will be on military reconnaissance. Both Salyut three and
five were military space stations,
and the Soviets are eager to have a
permanent on station orbital
reconnaissance system. Their current
unmanned method is both severely
limited and unreliable.
There will of course be a great
deal of scientific work done. The
Soviets are developing a new telescope for planetary studies, and
they will continue to investigate
such areas as crystal growth and
earth resources photography.
For the next three years, while
the U.S. space program is dormant,
the Soviets will dominate the head1 ines. They wi 11 probably score many
space firsts, and perhaps pull off a
few surprises, but with their rigid
thinking, their limited technology,
and their emphasis on military
oriented flights the Soviet space
program will remain a narrow and
self-constrained endeavor trying to
conquer an area where unbridled imagination and initiative are the most
important assets.

SIMONSEN'S TRINITY ANr GRAND DUELS

by Scott Rusch

In "rSG'6 a very interesting

article appeared. It was written by
Lynn White, and was named "SPECULATIONS: Space War Games-Avoiding
Cliches." In it, the author pointed
out that technological progress,
typified by automation, transmutation, and fusion power, would
eventually result in a world of
abundance and leisure. This article
is to carry her ideas a little
farther.
For one thing, very complicated
mechanisms will be controlled by
individuals with computer-link implants. These implants (see
Pournelle's article in the September
'76 Galaxy) will feed information
directly into the brain as though
you were remembering it. This will
allow you to keep track of many
different factors (such as a space
fleet) as well as have instant knowledge of anything in the computer's
memory banks. Expertise will no
longer be knowledge of something,
but rather experience in doing it.
The human race, therefore, will have
three different pastimes, come the
millenium: the search for knowledge,
the creation of art and sport (warfare comes under this category), and
the pursuance of public business.
Do not be deceived by this
utopian picture; there will be competition and conflict. Rivals for
power (such as is left) for a woman,
man, or boy, or leadership in a
hobby or sport will at some time or
the other come into conflict. And
they will not be easy to control, as
each can command the production of
armies at a thought. For safety's
sake a "code duello" will be developed.
How will these duelers fight?
I suppose there will be a great
variety in the methods used, from
pistols at dawn for traditionalists
to interstellar wars for connoisseurs. And there may indeed be
connoisseurs, for death may not be
serious anymore (memories in the
computer could be fed into a cloned
body after the first one's demise).
Old age will also thus be dealt with,
so that time may easily be spent on
a long-term interstellar duel.
To see how such a duel may be
performed, let us use Stellar
Conquest.

Each player is put at a star

system, which he may never leave,
with nothing but himself and his
transmutor. He has all the technological levels, but may only buy SCTs,
ATKs, ESCs, DNs, MBs, and AMBs--no
PFS, TUs, RIUs, or CTs. The transmutor puts out 120 TU's each yearnot just every production year. One
may also buy another transmutor by
expending 120 TUs. ~Bs and AMBs may
only be emplaced on the home system,
and no moving transmutors. Object of
the game-to win decisively by destroying all the MBs and AMBs of the
enemy's home system, thus killing
him; or to win marginally by having
more stars occupied or last passed
through by your ships at the end of
turn 40. For two player games use
either Ceti and Canis or Scorpii and
Bootis and ignore the other half of
the board. For three player games
use Diphda, Aurigae, and Tauris or

" ?? GAl1

any other reasonable combination.

For four player games use Scorpii,
Canis, Ceti, and Bootis.
Now, the reasons for these
rules. For one thing, most of the
other stars are used by people uninvolved in the spat, and so cannot
be used directly, though the spaces
around these stars will be fought
for by the robot ships. For this
reason, and to limit the spread of
combat so the authorities can control it, the duelers have to stay in
their particular systems. The duelers will use the same technology
from fairness and from lack of research personnel (with only one
human on the planet, and him busy
running a war, not much R&D can be
done). And no PFS-it defeats the
entire purpose of the duel.
So now, like the gods of old,
go and enjoy your wars!

INNOVATION ?!?JJ

"HAVE; I GOT IlJNoVATIONS FOR. ly!OU.'!))

............

_-

_-_ _-

_---------- ...

11

10

feature
Another problem is weight and
power supply. With no more than 20
pounds of rifle, ammo and accessories, a single man is very mobile
by Steven List
and well fixed for a fire fight. I
have no idea what the weight of this
Charles Bowles' recent article
laser is, but an output of 60 KW at
on laser weapons was an interesting
1% efficiency requires 60000KW of
survey of currently available techinput. For a thermally-pumped laser,
nology, but I think he failed in one
this means heat at the rate of 6
important respect: a comparison of
million joules per second. This heat
laser weapons to conventional weahas to come from somewhere, and in
pons quantitative terms. The table
concentrated form (the heat is preshown at end of article gives data
sent in the air, but since the
on several "popular" German weapons
average-sized window air conditionof WW II, with the final column,
er needs about an hour to pull six
Muzzle Energy, being the kinetit
million joules out of the air, this
energy of the projectile as it
is not a practical source), which
leaves the gun tube. The chemical
indicates some sort of chemical reexplosive that some of the projectiles carry is not counted. That is, action. About the simplest is burnthe energy transferred to the target ing fuel at atmospheric pressure. A
gallon of "2 oil (diesel) has a heat
is solely a function of the energy
value of 146 million joules. Assumoutput of the gun.
ing as much as 80% of this heat can
Muzzle energy is chosen as
be captured and pumped into the
equivalent to Mr. Bowles output
laser, the fuel consumption of conpower figure. Just as a laser beam
tinuous operation would be about 3
in air loses energy through thermal
gallons per minute. Of course, there
blooming and other dissipative
are other ways of generating heat,
mechanisms, a projectile slowed by
but they would require heavier
atmospheric drag loses kinetic energy. When the projectile has slowed equipment. After all, the gun is a
to about 71% of its muzzle velocity, device for burning fuel under pressure in order to extract mechanical
it has already lost half its muzzle
work rather than heat.
energy. Kinetic energy is proporRegardless of the way the heat
tional to the square of the veloci ty,
is obtained, even if 100% is pumped
but so is the drag. Therefore, as
the projectile slows, drag decreases into the laser it will waster 99%.
In one second, for 60,000 joules of
and less speed is lost. As the laser
useful output, 5,940,000 joules of
power loss to thermal blooming are
waste heat must be disposed of. That
related to the inverse cube of the
is nearly enough to vaporize 100
distance, the power level falls off
cubic centimeters of iron.
faster. To make a meaningful comExamine the pulsed electrical
parison of the two types of
CO 2 laser, which is 24% efficient
weapons, an exact range should be
and puts out 2000 joules per pulse.
specified. But for qualitative
It only takes two pulses to equal
purposes, a comparison of muzzle
the German machine gun bullet, a
energy to power output is valid.
mere twenty pulses per second to
Since a watt is a joule/sec, or
match its rate of fire. Twenty
a joule is a watt-sec, the
pulses/sec at 2000 joules/pulse is
thermally-pumped gas-dynamic laser
40 kilowatts. To get this output
Mr. Bowles cites must operate for a
full second to put out 60,000 joules. from a 24% efficient electricallypumped laser requires 166 KW of
This is little better than one percent of the over 5 million joules of electric power, which is about the
output of a generator driven by a
kinetic energy for the King Tiger
gun. While it is 15 times as much as '200 HP engine. Sure, there are more
efficient power sources, such as
the small arms round, a typical
fuel cells, but they all have their
machine gun could fire about 10
own drawbacks. What it boils down to
round per second, making that adis that a laser with a power output
vantage minimal; modern small arms
comparable to that of an automatic
such as the M16 or AK47 have even
rifle, with current technology,
higher rates of fire and muzzle vewould require a vehicle to cart it
locities; - on a time rate of energy
and it's power supply around. Nobody
output (i.e. power), the laser is
about the same as a modern infantry- is going to bother unless it's worth
it.
man's weapon.
.
LASER WEAPONS COMPARED
TO PROJECTILE WEAPONS

This is a systems sheet for GODSFIRE. Enjoy it and hold on

for the game. It will be out in time to play at Christmas.

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12

13

Is it I,orth it? Well, in little

over a second, the thermal laser's
60KW output (neglecting losses in
air) will vaporize a cubic centimeter of iron. This is dandy if you
want to shoot at one centimeter
cubes of iron which will obligingly
hold still for as much as a second.
Don't, however, plan on making
little craters in the side of a
tank with such shots. Even assuming
you can keep your laser beam on the
same spot of a moving targ t several
thousand meters away, you won't even
warm it up. Iron (of which armor
plate is an alloy) is a tremendous
conductor of heat. To melt a holein
it, you have to put heat in faster
than it can disappear by conduction.
And a 60 ton tank can absorb a lot
of heat before getting very warm. An
automatic rifle won't put a hole in
a tank no matter how many shots hit
the same spot; a laser of this power
won't either. (A short digression is
in order. Some may argue that a
laser beam is hotter than the 1600
or so degrees of an oxy-acetylene
torch, which cuts iron quite readily. However, the torch cuts the iron
by providing an excess of oxygen,
which at the elevated temperature
literally causes the iron to burn
up. Also, such a torch is very poor
at punching holes in the middle of
a thick plate.)
Since a rifle can kill a man
much more easily and economically
than the laser, its use as an antipersonnel weapon is distinctly
secondary. What other targets might
be worthwhile? Vehicles are out-those worth the effort are too well
armored. Nobody builds armor plated
aircraft. The thin skin of an airplane would be far easier to melt
holes in than armor plate, and most
of the interior components are unprotected. It is far easier to hit
a plane with a beam of light than
with a projectile, as well, but
there are still serious problems.
Most aircraft have highly-polished
skins that would reflect most of the
incident energy-meaning incredible

power rates would be required to get

sufficient energy onto the target in
a very brief time. To make an effect i ve ant i-aircraft a ran t i -miss i 1e
system, much greater laser efficiencies are required, with a computerized target aquisition and ranging
system to bring a converging beam to
a point-focus on a rapidly moving
target.
Considering the power levels
involved, Mr. Bowles infantry laser
weapon is currently impossible. And
unless the waste heat problem is
solved, we would indeed have "a very
interesting picture of night combat", as a firearm-equipped sniper
with an infra-red viewer would have
a wealth of targets literally lighting up like beacons with each shot
fired.
Do lasers have any future as
weapons, as opposed to tl.eir use as
triggers, ranging devices, etc?
Maybe not on earth, but quite possibly in space. Re~earch is being
conducted on nuclear-pumped lasers
which have a gas laser tube coated
with uranium oxide. Slow neutrons
are directed into the tube. These
neutrons react with uranium nuclei
to cause fission and the release of
more neutrons in a chain reaction.
The energy released pumps the laser.
Current lab models of such units are
woefully inefficient, with power
outputs about that of a flashlight.
But far greater efficiencies could
be achieved if the neutron source
were combined with the laser. The
tube of the laser would contain both
the lasent gas and a gaseous nuclear
fuel, forming laser and reactor in
one. The total available energy of
the reactor would emerge in the
laser beam, providing power in the
gigawatt range with negligible heat
waste. Such units are envisioned as
orbital power plants, beaming energy
to remote users such as spaceships
or lunar installations. Needless to
say, a laser with that much power
would be a formidable weapon. About
the only drawback would be the inability to rapidly turn it on or

off.

_._._-_._._-_._._._.-.-._._.WEAPON
- - -TABLE
-7.92mm - rifle, machinegun
20mm L/55
Lt.tank, arm. car
75mm L/43 - pzr IV 2 "Special"
75mm L/70 - Panther tank
88mm L/56 - Tiger tank, Flak
88mm L/7l
King Tiger tank

.0128
.115

6.8
6.8
9.4
10.4

770

800
740
935
810
1000

3,990
36,800
1,860,000
2,970,000
3,080,000
5,200,000

THE YTHRI: I 'NOVATIONS APPLAUDED

by William Brogden
In my opinion, this game breaks
new ground for science fiction gaming and for war gaming. The major
innovation is a way of handling
movement and combat on three level~
space ships, atmosphereic craft,
and ground forces. Another innovative aspect is the extremely asyme~
ric distribution of forces. The
invading Terran player has overwhelming force, so a "win" for the
Ythri player consists of putting
off the inevitable for more than
IS turns.
Space warfare typically lasts
only a few turns, during which the
Ythri space force attempts to delay
the invasion and to destroy as many
troop transports as possible. This
is a very critical phase for the
Ythri player, and good or bad luck
here can have a large influence on
the rest of the game. I think the
movement and field of fire rules
are extremely good; accounting for
inertia in terms of turning ability
is nicely handled, and I really
like the orbiting guardian satellites.
Combat on the planet's surface
works well, with the atmospheric
and ground forces having different
movement and sphere of influence
rules. However, based on playing 8
or 10 games, it seems to me that the
Ythri player has rather restricted
defense strategy possibilities.
This is due in part to a lack of
guerrilla tactics which the highly
mobile native forces could utilize

to interfere with the movement of

Terran forces and supplies. The
Ythri atmospheric units can give
some flexibility if unopposed, so
it is extremely important for the
Ythri player to destroy Terran
atmospheric unit transports in the
space warfare phases.
The instructions are very clear
with good examples and have been
kept simple enough so you can begin
play very rapidly, yet the game has
a lot of depth. There is a big
psychological difference between
the sides of the game which reflect
the spirit of the novel it is based
on. As the Ythri, you watch the huge
Terran war machine move in on your
planet. You can't hope to beat the~
but you may be able to hold out until external p61itical forces make
the Terrans withdraw. As the
Terrans, you almost feel sorry for
the pitifully small Ythri forces,
but they turn out to be surprisingly
hard to eliminate.
.
This is an innovative and
mind-stretching game with a lot to
offer, both as the basic game and
as a base to build on.

15

14

PRESE T AT THE BIRTH OF MO. STERS:

the evolutlon of a game
by Ken St. Andre
In a way it is all the fault
of Steven McAII ist.er, he ,,,hose name
is immortalized in the PetersMcAllister chart in Tunnels &Trolls.
We had only been experimenting with
the most basic rules of ~ for
a couple of weeks when he rejected
the notion of Monster Ratings and
started to individualize the creatures in his dungeons. The first
result of such a fairness policy
was the chart that regularized the
creation of Elves, Dwarves, Fairies,
Hobbits, Trolls, Orcs, Giants, etc.
After that, the very nature of
Tunnels & Trolls, and my own sense
of fair play, made the development
of Monsters! Monsters! inevitable.
For a fair description of how the
game actually arose I refer you to
my introduction in Monsters!
Monsters! It only remains to say
that l!M! already existed in rough
form as early as November 1975, and
that Howard Thompson had agreed to
print it as early as January 1976.
This article really has to be
a designer's explanation of two
games in one, because I can'treally
talk about the guiding principles of
M!M! without actually talking about
~T at the same time. T & T star~
ed as a revolt against needless
complexity in Dungeons and Dragons.
I don't like 4 & 22 & 20 sldeddice.

Such polyhedra Is are difficult for

the average person to acquire and
are also quite expensive. (Since I
was unemployed at the time, I was
strongly opposed to anything that
inflated the price of gaming, and
on strictly anti-inflationary principle I still oppose the kind of
elaborate equipment that raises the
cost of my gaming. I am probably a
minority of one opposing the use of
miniatures in fantasy gaming, preferring the picture in my own
imagination to a piece of painted
plastic every time.) So guiding
principle number 1 was: whenever
dice were needed they would be the
conventional 6-sided cubes that an~
one could go down to the corner
drugstore and acquire.
The next thing I wanted to do
was make a player-character's dicecreated attributes directly applicable to the play of the game. Thus,
heavier weapons required greater
individual strength to wield them.
When using magic, higher level
spells are equivalent to heavier,
more powerful weapons, and so, required more strength to cast them.
What is the 'point of giving a
character a Constitution rating if
you're not going to use it for anything? So I defined Constitution as
how much damage it took to kill a
person. Luck has alw~ys played an
important part in my own life, and
from my extensive reading in the
field of heroic fantasy (and just
plain history) it has alwpys seemed that luck was a major factor in
the success of any kind of hero.
Logically, when one is in a situation where nothing else can help,
luck can still come through and
save your neck. Thus, a character's
luck became the sole basis for
Saving Rolls (which are used when a
character needs a chance to save
himself from something unpleasant).
Here I must disagree with something
Steve Jackson changed in the rules
of M!Mi On page 29 there is a discusSIOn of Saving Rolls, and there
is a column labeled minimum roll
required. Since a character's likelihood of making it's Saving Roll
is meant to depend solely upon it's
luckiness, the minimum saving roll
required would always remain the
same. I like the number 5 on 2 dice
because it is truly a minimum, very
easy to make but yet not automatic.
I have no hassle with those who say
5 is too easy and move the number
up to 7. The reason for putting a
minimum on Saving rolls in the first
place was so they wouldn't become
automatic (Say you have a Gremlin
with luck of 24. 20 minus 24= -4.

He would automatically make all

flrst and second level Saving Rolls
but that's not fair, because even '
the best of luck fails sometimes.).
On the other hand it is not easy
(even when doubles add and roll
again) to make a 9 or an lIon demand. It also unfairly penalizes
characters who have built up their
luck rating to a fairly high level.
The Saving Roll for a character with
a luck of 28 should be 7 on the
fourth level of difficulty, not 11.
The other attributes also have a
direct bearing on the play of the
game. A snollygoster with a dexterity of 3 will not turn into a
deadly missile weapon fighter.
Another very important aspect
of the design of M!M! is the premise that characters who manage to
survive will be able to improve
themselves. Personal growth is most
of the incentive to continue playlng the game. Individual ratings
may get to incredibly high levels
by the standards of other game like
D & D, but within the T & T/M!M!
unIVerse. No matter how-nIgh ratings in an attribute get, they will
be internally consistent. Thus,
while it is rare to have a human
character with a gigantic strength
of 60, it is not impossible, and
granting that there was such a
character, the extra advantages
that it derives from such superhuman power are quite reasonable.
One of the pitfalls of this kind of
open-ended attribute system is the
incredibly generous or thoughtless
game master who paves his tunnel
complexes and city streets with
diamonds and enchanted doodads that
double all attributes without the
character really doing any work except to pick up the goodies. This
becomes a form of monster creation
all its own, and can lead to ridiculousness, with gremlins or hobbits
more powerful than any 3 giants.
However, such problems tend to be
self-correcting. Game Masters have
the right to forbid the use of such
absurd characters, or alternately
the whole game turns into something
done purely for laughs, and everyone has such a good time being silly
that you don't mind the absurdity
of it all. Personally, it is my
belief that magical benefits should
be hard to come by, both for humans
and monsters, which will then limit
attribute growth to what could reasonably result from a character's
efforts to improve itself.
The thing that pleases me the
most about T & T and M!M! is the
sheer open-endedness of it. I try
very hard to get the players deeply

involved in their own intensely personal creative efforts. For T & T

you are expected to design at least
one tunnel complex; for M!M!, I
really expect the players to design
their own city. That is a lot of
work, but the rewards are tremendous . . . and educational. When
you get into city planning, the details of how this place could really
work, you will learn a tremendous
amount about what life must have
been like in the Middle Ages. If you
want to run a city of 20,000 peopl~
you have to provide a way to feed
them, a reason for 20,000 people to
be in one place, a ,,,orld or at least
a nation for them to be a part of,
and dozens (or hundreds) of other
details. Once the geography is taken
care of, you must be ready to evoke
the personality of potentially any
one of the 20,000 inhabitants. Not
everyone the invading monsters will
run into in this city is going to be
a fearless member of the guard who
bravely leaps up and attacks every
troll he sees. Probably the most
fun I ever had creating characters
in Krosht was the time the troll
tore down an outer wall of a
brothel near the city wall and
found a houseful of women, one or
two of whom were actually goodlooking. For the rest of the trip
I amused the players by having
these captive whores try to seduce
the more humanoid monsters, all the
while demanding the most outrageous
fees.
In fact, the possibilities for
invention are endless. In M!M! we
give you 52 different varieties of
monster, but that is not to imply
that you are limited to those monsters in the glossary. A thorough
examination of the monsters' attributes table will give you a good
idea of how to go about creating
the monster of your choice. Suppose
you wish to have a were-eagle. You
can have it. Imagine the dismay of
a city guardsman who thinks he has
apprehended a normal thief who
turns into an eagle right before
his popping eyes. Let us say you
are fond of dinosaurs. There is no
reason why you can't have T. Rex
. running rampant. No IQ to speak of,
and very little dexterity, but
strength right up there with a
dragon and a constitution to match.
Say Tolkien is not your favorite
author--you don't care about Elves.
D\"arves, Orcs, and Hobbits. Instead,
you dig the Arabian Nights and
would rather have an Afrit, or a
man-eating camel. All you have to
do is persuade your friendly local
game master to let you ransack the

16

place with a genie. Just don't be

surprised when a corps of 7th level
wizards show up to greet you, just
happening to be in town for a
wizard's convention that weekend.
Essentially this is what Liz did in
painting the front cover, invented
her own brand new monsters--the
green beastie--right on the spot.
And we did the same thing with the
Shadowjack, inventing, as a type,
a character who had been an individual in a Zelazny novel.
I have tried to avoid repeating information about the game
actually given in the rules for
M!M! or T & T. I haven't said much
about why magic is the way it is,
or how the combat system works. For
those who read the rules, the logic
and the problems are apparent. I
would like to note that there
really should be an asterisk on
the"Take that you fiend!" spell,
the effect being to multiply the
caster's IQ by the level the spell
is cast on.
I'd like to say a few words
about the problems of producing
this kind of role-playing head
game. It looks easy. If you are an
average reader you can get through
the rules of MiM! in about half an
hour. But it is like writing a
salable story in that one must be
careful in what one says. The object in M!M! has been to give all
the information necessary to set up
and play the game without going on
in boring length on anyone thing.
I have also tried to be amusing
about it, and Steve Jackson seems
to have felt the same. The whole
thing has been proofread at least
a dozen times to try and eliminate
contradictions between something
explained one way on page 8 and
completely different on page 32.
Last, and most difficult, is the
task of getting your artist to come
forth with material to bring animation to what starts as a bunch
of abstract ideas. I want to give
pounds and buckets of credit to
Liz Danforth whose graphics are,
in my opinion, easily the finest
part of the whole MiM! production.
Even though 1 had to spend all my
spare time cajoling her to draw,
offer incentives like cash out of
my pocket and a cut of the profits
forever, and almost camp in her
living room at times to keep her
brushes to the easel, this game
never would have seen the liCe of
print without her artwork behind
it. My advice to other game designers is make friends with as many
fabulous artists as you can, and
when your're ready to puhlish, include as much art as you can get.

17

JlBy;.5

....FEEDBACK .... &....

PROJECT FEEDBACK
Rate

MN-l PLUS

6.36
5.79
5.70
5.37
5.23
4.64
4.42
3.51

by Frederik Pohl
In 'Ibnka. Oklahana veiled in a near perfect security web is the !"an Plus Project.
This project has one simple goal: =eate
a cyborg capable of existance on the
planet Molrs.
The race to colonize M3rS is on and the
U.S. must win if WW III is to be avoided.
Roger 'Ibrraway. hero-astronaut. is about
to become a super sophisticated. $20 billion !"artian. He will be torn apart and
be canpletely rebuilt. All that will be
left of the hUl1\3.n Roger 'Ibrraway is a
hUI1\3.n brain and his very much slowed down
heart. The rest will be machine. A very
fine machine with a single goal; Roger
",:>Uld be placed on the surface of Mars
ahead of the Comnunists. and he must survive. He would be given a newly designed
canputer to aid him. but it will be up to
Roger to bring about success.
Fred Pohl has done a masterful job with
this, his latest book. It is a well writte,
example of science fiction at its best.
Then the incredible character of Roger
'Ibrraway. canplete with multiple scan eyes
rhino hide skin. "bat wings" that absorb
energy directly from the sun. and a new
canputer to help interpret. anything to
unusuaL will becane an unforgettable
cyborg. TSG recannends this book for all
those who enjoy fast paced. action stories
'IHE

You can see why we won't be

spliting up TSG into specialty
zines. The answer to improvements
would seem to be expanding TSG to
make more room for everything.
The generally low ratings in
comparison to the game type rates
comes from the nature of the
project feedback. Readers know we
can't do everything. So, as is your
right. what was liked was rated
very high. What you wanted less was
rated very low to help what you
really wanted. That's the only way
you can explain a feedback that
rates Fantasy Role games at 7, behind Society games at 9, then gives
the FRP game a rate of one and
Metastar a 9.

hDRLDS OF FRITZ LEISER

This is a brand new collection of short

stories by a legend in the fields of
horror. fantasy. and science fiction.
Fi:'itz Leiber has given me more hours of
enjoyment than any other single writer in
t'-e field of speculative fiction. He is a
total master of the written "Ord (this
Yffir he "On another Hugo for "Catch That
7~ppelin" which is included in this book)
Fran the introdution by the author:" I
bel i.eve this collection represents me
more corrpletely than any other." Twentytwo stories are included. Don't miss this
book!
MAN PLUS is available fran Randan House.
but TSG recarrnends a short wait for the
paperback.
'IHE w::JRLDS OF FRITZ LEISER is an Ace
paperback and carrys a cover price of

$1. 95.

Project
Fantasy Role Playing Game
MicroGames
Universe
Metastar System 80. Board
Metastar System 80, Computer
Fantasy Role Computer Game
The Computer Gamer zine
The Fantasy Gamer zine

GAME TYPE RATINGS

Rate
Game Type
7.52
Future Society Level (FSL)
7.03
Fantasy Role Playing (FRP)
7.03
Space Tactical Level (STL)
6.74
Planetary Tactical Combat
(PTC)
,
6.24
Fantasy Board Game (FBG)
Not too suprisingly the Future
Society Level game was most popular. Since most of our readers
started with us on Stellar Conquest
that figures. It's also not too
suprising that Fantasy Role Playing'
and Space Tactical Level do well.
They are the next most developed
type of game on the market. We plan
to eventually have offerings of all
types of SF&F games even though
complex. society level games will
probably be our best specialty.

GAME RATINGS
TSG #7 FEEDBACK RESULTS
Rate
Article
6.79
Starship Troopers: Review
6.61
Intermediate SC Rules
6.31
Dreadnaughts for My Lady
6.31
Game Design Notes
6.21
Orbiting Colonies
6.19
Starship & Empire: Review
Warship Design
6.00
5.91
Eldritch Wizardry: Review
5.17
Scenario ... by Colodiy
5.12
The Birds
6.06
Average all Articles

GAME RATINGS

Rate
Game
Fantasy Role Playing Games
7.70
Empire of the Petal Throne
7 . 51
Greyhawk
7 26
Dungeons & Dragons
7.16*
Monsters! M::msters!
6.78
Eldritch Wizardry
6.35
Gods. Dani-Gods & Heroes
6.04
Blackmoor
5.79
Tunnels & Trolls
5.39*
Citadel
5.35
Royal Armies of Hyborean Pge
5.13
Chainmail
Fantasy Board Games
White Bear & Red Moon
Sorceror
war of Wizards
Dungeon!
Siege of Minas Tirith
Battle of Helms Deep
Battle of Five Arm:'es
Planetary Tactical Oombat
7.08
6.76
6.46
5.65
5.41
4.30
4.00

Starguard
Future Society Level

7.03

Outreach
Stellar Conquest
Starlord
Star Probe
Space Tactical Level
8.17*
7.90
5.97
5.73

Star Force
Triplanetary
The Ythri
Alien Space
Space Role Playing
7.08
6.85
6.09
5.50

5.00*

Starfaring

The asterisk indicates that too f_

ratings have been received for a fully
stable score. Stellar Conquest has been
moving up despite it's age. OUtreach is
going to be popular. Monsters! Monsters 1
is also getting a pretty good reception.

19

18

REVIEWS
SHOOTING IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY:
A Review of STARSHIP
by Tony Watson
E~ery on:e in a while a really
good, 1nnovat1ve game will appear
fro~ a small and relatively unknown
desIgn group. Such is the case with
Fantasy ~ames Unlimited's Starshi
. !t IS apparent that some goo
th1nk1ng and design work went into
the cre~tion of Starship. The game
system IS excellent and achieves its
end as well as entertaining the
players with a good "feel" of space
contact and engagement.
The key word is "contact."
Starship is not a game of space combat per se; it is a game of contact.
Each of the two players controls one
starship in a.situation governed by
one of four dIfferent scenario
orders with goals kept secret from
their opponent. There are four sets
of mission orders for both the
Interceptor and the Intruder. They
range from attempts at peaceful contact to the out and out destruction
of the opposing vessel. Levels of
victory are determined by comparing
the actual outcome of the encounter
to.thr~e different categories of
c~lter1a: TacticaL, or military
vIctory; Strategic, or fulfillment
of outlined missioned goals; and
Command, or violation of certain
orders (such as firing when forbidden to, etc). It is possible for a
p~ayer to win a resounding military
v1ctory yet still lose because of
a failure to fulfill his strategic
g?als ~a peaceful contact) and/or
vIolatIng orders (firing at the
oppo~ing vessel). It is also quite
poss1ble for both players to claim
a victory since their objectives
may be very diverse.
The actual mechanics of the
game are somewhat like many air
wargames, including speed, damage,
and weaponry status (which are maintained on a series of tracked
charts) .. Sliding counters along the
tracks WIll denote changes in the
vessel speed, what weapons are armed,
shield strength, and any damage the
vessel may have accrued. But most
important , the tracks kept record
of any critical strain that any of
the systems have taken.
Movement and combat are handled
in terms of stress upon the spacecraft. Propulsion at higher speeds

places a greater stress, or critical

strain. Along certain ranges of the
track (low speeds), strain will
dissipate by itself; but, if you
pass beyond that, the only way to
cool the ship is by slowing it down
to a very low speed or shutting it
off completely. Passing certain
critical points will result in permanent damage. Permanent damage
lowers shield level and hampers
speed. Over heating weapons (by
l?adlng and firing at a high rate)
\"111 f1:'se them. The trick to staying
ql1Ve 1n combat is learning how to
handle the excess strain before
taking irreparable damage.
Combat utilizes anti-matter
pods and disruptor cannon. Thereare
also arrestor beams, but they serve
as tractor beams and do not cause
direct damage. Weapons must be loaded before firing; this takes time as
well as causing strain on the weaponry system. In combat resolution
there is no chance element. During
the combat phase (there are two a
turn), each player reveals his
plotted shot of type and range. If
the range is correct or overshot the
target.is hit, with appropriate declIne 1n effectiveness of overshots
due to range. Each type of weapon
has a damage capability factor, with
pods beIng more effective than disruptor banks, though shorter ranged.
The weaponry critical strain record
keeps track of the strain on those
circuits, and it is not difficult
for a trigger happy space captain to
burn up his guns.
. S~arship utilizes a small map
WhICh 1S three dimensional in design. A distance computation chart
as is Starforce is used to determine
distances. After moving, the actual
dIstance between the two ships is
figured and both are placed on the
center of the map at different
heights to denote their separation
The relative distances between the
c~aft is the important thing, for
wIth tAe high speeds, the ships are
capable of being off the map in no
tIme. However this system also
limits play to two ships, unless
someone has a good command of trig.
Optional rules allow for reflector screens, computer fire control, or improvements in standard
capabilities. This adds even more
to the uncertainty of an encounter
since these options are kept secret
from the other player.
The physical components of the
games include: a weaponry record, an

engineering record, a distance computation chart for each player and

one map. There is a set of unmounted
counters. for both sides. Rules are
in a twenty page booklet that is
generally clear and comprehensive.
Components are in black and white.
Starship is fast paced and
plays well. The emphasis is on skill
and bluff, outmanuver and good
planning rather than luck and certainly one of the better science
fiction tactical system around.
Starship is $6 from Flying
Buffalo Inc., P.O. Box 1467,
Scottsdale Az. 85252.

GAME REVIEW: SORCERER

by
Linda Brzustowicz
To date, I have read nothing
but very complementary reviews of
SPI's fantasy game SORCERER. However, in the June-July issue of
TSG, SORCERER received an overall
grade of only 6.7 (on a scale of 1
to 9), compared to a 7.7 by
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and a 7.6 by
STELLAR CONQUEST. Hoping to solve
this seeming paradox, I bought a
copy of SORCERER.
I rece1ved my first minor
disappointment when I opened the
box. Inside I discovered a paper
map. I happen to be one of those
people who like the durability of a
board-mounted map, not to mention
the additional mobility it gives if
you are forced to move the game.
However, I managed to quickly overcome my dissatisfaction by looking
over the rest of the game. The
die-cut pasteboard counters were
beautifully colored and printed
with ingenious silouettes of the
various magical and non-magical
unIts they represented. The map too
was very colorful, with the 518 one
inch hexagons colored pastel shades
of the six magical colors, plus
white and grey. Necessary charts
were printed right on the map.
My next task was to read the
16 page, 8l:i" x 11" rules folder.
Aside from the humorous introduction and the descriptions of the
nine scenarios, the rules read like
an army manual. This type of very
~xplanatory writing is good because
It makes sure all of the rules are
understood. It also makes for very
borin~ reading. Nevertheless, it
descrIbes a world in which magic is
fully operative. Six magical universes overlap a non-magical one,

creating the graylands where no

magic works, and the white land
where all magic works. In the rest
of the land, the dominant form of
magic varies.
The most important unit in
this game is, of course, the sorcerer. Actually, there are a total
of 55 sorcerers, although more than
20 are never used in any scenario.
The sorcerers have power over one
to three colors. This means they
can conjure up to five air dragons,
three demonic infantry, or two
trolls (or a combination of magical
units), while they are in a hexagon
of their color, each move. The sorcerers can also throw magic bolts
(analogous to artillery), from a
square of their color to another
square of their color, teleport from
one square of their color to another
(analogous to air transport),
und~plete a unit of his color, or
conJure or destroy a vortex (a
magical storm of chaos). Optional
rules provide for some interesting
spells and rules, such as invisibility, clones (where a mult~color
sorcerer splits into single color
sorcerers), assassination details,
and the effect of the shifting of
the magical universes. There are
some suggestions for spells to be
developed by the players as the
game progresses.
All in all, I found SORCERER
to be an enjoyable game. The one
major point of the game I didn't
like was the shallow development of
the importance of magic. All the
colors did was to divide the map
ahd give units an advantage in one
battle that they lost in the next.
I would have preferred to see each
color as a separate type of magic,
w1th the same overall strength,
but with different characteristics
and limitations.
SORCERER is available from
SimulatIon Publications Inc.,
44 E. 23rd St., New York, N.Y.lOOlO
for $9.00.

21

20
STARSHI P TROOPERS: A REVIEW
by Sumner N. Clarren
To the slowly growing set of
fine science fiction board games,
add STARSHIP TROOPERS by Avalon
Hill, released in July at the second
national gaming convention,
Origins II, in Baltimore. For the
last several years, Avalon Hill has
produced only historical war games.
However, the renaissance of gaming
over the last three years, and the
success of science fiction games
like STELLAR CONQUEST and STARFORCE
has lured this usually conservative
game company into producing a truly
interesting science fiction game.
SST was apparently produced
with the blessings of Robert
Heinlein, author of the book by the
same name. His letter and signature
are on the back of the bookshelf
style, multi-colored game box.
The game is truly tactical in
scale and in flavor. A hex is one
mile across, and one turn is approximately 12 minutes. The game is
designed by Randall Reed, who
brought miniature detail to board
games with tank vs tank battles in
TOBRUK. Unfortunately, TOBRUK also
required an excessive amount of
dice rolling. Randall Reed recovers
nicely with SST where the play
mechanics are clean and wellconceived, leaving a game which is
accurate to the book, yet eminently
playable.
The game, in seven separate
scenarios, sets forth the confrontations between the Terrans (earth
men) and two alien races: the
Skinnies (humanoid and nine feet
tall) and the Arachnids ("a mad
man's concept of a giant intelligent spider").
Avalon Hill's fine quality and
attention to detail are reflected
in the game components and playing
aids. The full-color, mounted mapboard suggests an alien planet with
pink mountains, burned-out red
desert, green savanas, and rainbowhued city and spaceport. The over500 counters make use of suggestive
silhouettes for the main combatants
and mobile weapons. A counter represents a single terran (in armored suit), or a unit of enemies.
Also represented are a full range
of S. W. & E. (Special Weapons and
Equipment), air cars, engineer
units, and even a human with ESP
talents. The attractive, two-color
booklet includes useful informatio~
pictures, and play examples, as
well as the full rules. (Incidentally, lest you be alarmed at first,

the charts for combat and terrain

effects are not in the rules book,
as the rules state, but on a separate piece of card stock). The
rules book uses the "programmed
instruction" method tried out in
need's earlier game, TOBRUK.
Scenarios are arrangea-rn-rncreasing order of difficulty, with new
groups of increasingly complex
.
rules introduced for each scenarlO.
This structure allows one to start
quickly and to digest the rules
through the use of bite-size increments of detail.
Almost all the interesting and
highly destructive weapons are
there. The terran player has a
status sheet so he can easily keep
track of the weapons each of his
men is carrying. Included are high
explosive rocket launchers, nuclear
weapons, delayed action proximity
and delayed action remote mines,
heavy nerve gas (useful against
those spiders), various demolition
charges, and heavy beam and missile
weapons.
The game has a good feel to it
(By "feel", I mean the gestalt

AH-HA 'of seeing real ity captured

through the fortuitous, artful usc
of rules). In my third game, four
terrans (two scouts and two marauders with rocket launchers) coordinated their efforts so that within
one-half hour (two moves) they were
able to disrupt a strongpoint and
destroy a nearby communications
center and power station before the
Skinnies could respond. In another
game, B squad was totally surprised
when holes in the ground opened up
to disgorge heavy beam weapons and
angry Arachnid warriors. A separate
pad, duplicating the board allows
for the secret plotting of the
complex Arachnid tunnel systems, the
positioning of Arachnid engineers,
and the placing of demolition char~
es for the unwary Terrans. Game
rules allow for infantry drops to
the planet with the inevitable
scattering, retrieval boats, rocket
beacons and full retrieval procedures. In later scenarios, the terran can descend into the Arachnid
tunnels to capture an Arachnid brain
and to free prisoners.
STARSHIP TROOPERS is a fine
tactical SClence flctlon board game
from Avalon Hill. It will be interesting to compare it with SPI's
STAR SOLDIER now being play-tested,
which is in the same scale. STARSHIP
TROOPER is available from Avalon
Hlll, 4517 Harford Road, Baltimore,
Maryland 21214 for $10.00 plus $1.00
postage.

NEWS & PLUGS

KEN ST. ANDRE WRITES

I have always felt that ideas

belong to everyone. Hopefully M!M!
will inspire ideas to keep its---players amused indefinitely. If
problems come up (and no matter how
careful one is they always seem
to), I trust you will be able to
read between the lines and solve
them for yourselves, but if you
ever feel you want to talk to me
about anything that has to do with
M!M! or T & T, I would be glad to
hear from you. My address is
2232 E. Pinchot #8, Phoenix, Az.
85016, and my phone number is
(602) 955-6229. Happy human hunting
and Merry Monstering!

WINTERCON V
100+ man D&D, Boot Hill and Lankhmar
tournament plus Q.and A. ~&D Seminar
on Dec. 3,4,5 at Oakland Univ ..
Rochester Mich. Guests: Gary Gygax,
Brian Blume, Rob Kuntz. For more
info: Bill Somers, 1654 Chandler,
Lincoln Par~, MI ; 48146.

WINTER WAR IV
Annual con of the Conflict Simulation Society at the Univ. of
Illinois in Urbana. Dates: Jan. 14,
15,16. Diplomacy, D&D, Wooden Ships
& Iron Men, more. Write: Rusty
Rutherford, 1005 S. Race St.,
Urbana. Ill., 61801.

\-IARCON III
Board wargames, fantasy games,etc.
with prizes for tournament winners.
At Texas A.&M. on Jan. 28,29,30.
Info from: Jerry D. Ruhland,
POB 6816 Aggieland St., College
Station, Tex., 77844.

GROUND ZERO
A weekend of competitive gaming,
strategy discussions & films.
Feb. 19,20 in Jacksonville,Fla.
More info from: The Cowford DragoonE
5333 Santa Monica Blvd. N.,
Jacksonville, Fla., 32207.

NOTICE***NOTICE
Metagaming Concepts and The Space
Gamer announce that we will no
longer be able to accept orders
for games or subscription from
foreign countries.

SPACE HUK
This is a variable-player, limited
intelligence, tactical, space wargame. Each player has one or more
starships with which he takes on
other players.
1 to 9 copies-$2
each; 10 or more copies -$1.50 each.
Send orders to: Scott Rich, 1640
East 1140 ~orth, Logan, Utah, 84321.

23

22

TOLKIFN NOTE

AGGIECON & WAR CON

The Sept. issue of Mythlore has

announced the autumn 1977 publication of THE SILMARILLION by Allen ~
Unwin.
Tolkien was working on this
book at the time of his death. It
is written in King James 8ible
style and has been edited by his
son Christopher.

TSG/MGC will be-at AggieCon and War

Can. Rumor has it that someone else
has already slated a STELLAR CONQUEST
tournament. MGC will sponsor at
least one event, possibly with a new
MicroGame, and run a dealer's table
with all our products.

BASIC HYPER5TATE FIGHTER

SI~RSH\P

TSR Hobbies Inc. reports by phone

on 10/26/76 that the STAR EMPIRES
supplement to STAR PROBE will not
be ready until late Dec. instead of
the originally quoted Sept. 1. If
STAR EMPIRES has been ordered from
MGC/TSG or another supplier this is
the reason for the delay. MGC/TSG
has a large back order with TSR and
will ship all orders as soon as we
receive the booklets.

!'

Dreadnaughts for My Lady:

-great idea, let's see mere
-has thi& character ever read any
science fiction?
The Space Warship:
-great idea, poor execution
-drives themselves are very detectable
-superficial
Scenario:
-comic book game?
-cute
Orbiting Colonies:
-covered in Analog
-what about radiation, meteors,economics?
-rehash

"

---(t,

---~_J
.~be"CJ(,- COM.fo'\A,Nt>

-eo UEQ(- SVPf'bR,T

: :~ ~~::~~1\R$5/~T""'C."

:
:

: .....lN1l\lIollllce,cP.llKAL.ClRevrnty

CRYOtu<, ,.vQE"-C.OfW\PVTER

'~Y"8fW\)h1PERSf'lJC ,.,J,D

~11M~

.....

ORIGINS"77

The National wargaming Expo will be

held at Warner College in Staten
Island, N.Y. on July 22,23,24,
1977
We have very little info, so write
ORIGINS '77, Simulations Publications
44 E. 23rd St. New York, NY 10010.

QUICK COMMENTS FROM FEEDBACK SPEET

Editorial:
-excellent
-good somewhere else but not in an
SF magazine
-does Howard Thompson enjoy what hp
is doing? would he be writing thip
editorial at all without that college education? college is exposure to education-and not neccesarily in the classroom.

T"
" ",

The Austin Fantasy Film Festival &

Comic Collectors Convention will be
at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel in
Austin, Texas on November 19-21.
MGC/TSG will be there part of the
time with games for sale, some games
to play, and conversation.

-~.- :;~.------'--"

...

A.F.F.F.&C.C.C.
STAR EMPIRES

I,

Ben Ostrander of Acstin has taken

over the editor functions of THE
SPACE GAMER
Submissions for publication should be sent to him at the
TSG/MGC address.

/
These illustrations by Winchell Chung show a warship and an
interstellar base for HYPERWAR, one of several MicroGames currently
being designed. HYPERWAR will be a tactical ship combat game
played without dice or other random elements. Combat will be
resolved through the interaction of player-selected strategies
and allocation of ship power to defense and offense. Players
design their own ships; as the game progresses, technology improves
and more powerful ships can be built.

5l1\ND\RD
INltRSTELLAR BASE

SF SWIFTIES
srtM'E \SA >ETRI\f\EDRoN

by Steve Jackson
"Ha, Kirk! Your weapon is
empty!" cried the Klingon, unfazed.
"Nobody can survive 15 Gs,"
said Tom, flatly.
"This spell will protect our
party from the giant birds," in'
toned the wizard impeccably.
"I've lost the signal, sir,"
said Uhura remorsefully.
"What our captors have forgotten is that, on the Moon, anyone
could easily jump the Grand Canyon,"
said Tom with an Evel grin.
"I am call Circe," she said
charmingly.
"This wind amulet has lost its
power,"said Captain Illq'uurth
disgustedly.
"Giant insects are suckers for
judo," said Tom flippantly.

.,,- REPP.lR OO(KS

25

Avalon didn't want to fight.

But that didn't mean it
couldn '{. As the Terran
Empire found out - the
hard way - when it tried
to invade...
They had underestimated , HE

6(OOSfI~""

PDf (.(J<JNTe-5

(>010)

YTHRI

THE YTHRI is based on Poul Anderson's Hugo Awardnominated novel, The People of the Wind.
THE YTHRI is a game of invasion from space and planetary
combat for two to four players. It can turn any science fiction fan
into a wargamer - and vice versa.
Includes: Rule booklet / 14 x 17" space map / 17 x 18" Avalon
map / 242 perforated counters / combat results tables

3 PDF

~
6 PDF

The Tax Phase. Cars quit when

they're out of gas; governments stop
when they're out of money. Players
must win military victory, but that
is difficult with an inadequate
economy and a rebellious population.
Victory is based on adequate revenue
willingly given and cunningly used.
(;;ClQSflR( -

Effect of Subversion.
Subversion pushes regions
to revolt, eliminating them
as tax and production
sources and disrupting the
player's party balance.

eEl-\. P/iSllrM-

It!

Scenario Four. As the

worlds of the Narym woke,
the Bosses were overthrown
one by one. Limited representative government
appeared ...

~Oup 0)\ -II

mETA6Amm6 COnCEPTS

("'LLI .

nlltic;nllJ
gc;vepnment

""

,ITONEY IN
TRANSIT

jll'j~

III ,.

I"L\l.~I~Iq-(..'I LIUIff
f,(..~".l-l> oJol HIO#eJ\.

NATIONAL PARTY LOYALTY

,~O

EEC:EJ

MELIEEJ~O

RELEJ

NA 110NAL HANK

: ,.......--

~O

REGISTER OF LOANS
Number O[s)'slcms cOlllrol/ed:

. /"

,,-':"".~., (~_.~~

~~..<::

~ F~~/~?~;~E
~~~~~
'"
~

I~:/~P"'"

.........~

__~l

'''.

v-~_

;:.:....

IlmoUnllhalmaY

bebo",oll'ed:ITE

RepaY/1/ent schedule:

[ITI

Ollly (he national gOllemllle"t may borrow money.

For rules on barraH/illX and repayment of loans, refer

to Section 111

4-7

8-11

12up

8TI ~ G G G

8m]] 8ffij44 rn rnrn

]

-I

/2

/2

27

26

LETTERS

Dear editor:

In TSG #7 Norman Apperson

wrote an excellent letter on the
difficulties of hitting a target
with laser fire at the 300,000 mile
figure I mentioned in my laser article in TSG #5. Indeed it does
require a high degree of accuracy,
but in reality we presently have
the technology to hit an object 100
meters across and smaller in deep
space at 300,000 miles and more.
As Mr. Apperson says, hitting
a 100 meter object at 500,000
kilometers means a ten meter long
laser tube would have to be aimed
within 2 microns or .002mm. To do
this we solidly mount the laser as
a structural member of the ship. To
the outside of the cooling shell of
the l'lser tube a high. resolution TV

camera is solidly mounted. The

camera is highly sensitive (Present
military TV 8canners can produce a
daylight quality battlefield picture using only starlight.) and
designed to pick up only light at
the laser wavelength. The lens on
the camera is a high magnification
type. The TV display feeds directly
into a computer which controls very
small maneuvering rockets which aim
the entire ship at the target. A
special lens mounted on a rotating
arm spins in front of the laser end
120 times a minute.
In the vacuum of space laser
beams will not diverge significantly over great distances, and the
ability of optical equipment to
pick up objects at great distances
is only limited by the size of the
optical lens and its quality of
workmanship. The small, lightweight
TV camera aboard Mariner 10 was
able to obtain resolution on objects 150 meters across at 10,000
km. above Mercury and 20 km. across
at 4,500,000 km. The TV camera used
on most of these missions uses
about 750 lines verticle and 750
horizontal. Therefore to penpoint
an object 100 meters across at
500,000 km. the TV camera will have
a telescopic lens giving it a
seventy-five km. field of vision at
that range.
In operation the laser weapon
would initially fire when the rotating diverging lens was covering
the end of the laser. This would
produce a wide beam of about 75 km.
at 500,000 km. The reflection of
the target would be picked up by
the TV camera and fed into the computer which would then activate
maneuvering rockets and aim the
entire ship at the target. This
process would be repeated once or
twice until perfect aim is obtained
and then the laser would fire when
the Tot'!ting lens is .not in front
of the laser end.
Once this system has been
sighted in by actual firings at
drone targets in space, the only
cause of inaccuracy will be the
unequal expansion due to temperature change within the metal be-

TIME LAG

100,000 miles

1.08 sec.

600,000 miles

6.45 sec.

1.382 ft.
1,444 ft.

tween the camera lens mounting and

the laser tube itself. Since the
laser would be continuously cooled
and could be fired at intervals
accurate to one thousandth of a
second, this change in beam aim
would be minimal and predictable.
After trial firings on drones the
computer would be able to predict
and compensate for these very small
changes in beam aim on the first
firing, second firing, etc.
If you are still not convinced,
let's try another approach. Mr.
Apperson states that the range
might move out to 5,000 km. where
the ten meter long laser tube coul:l
be off by 0.1 mm. That degree of
accuracy would be a piece of cake
for the system I have just described. To increase that range by ten
fold we will use the laser as a
scatter weapon. If the beam is
allowed to diverge uniformly over a
large area the power density will
drop too low to be effective, but
if the beam is split into smaller
components with separation between
them, the beams will cover a much
larger area with no drop in pbwer
density. A special lens will cause
the 1 meter diameter beam to break
up into 400 beams of 2 inch
diameter each. The distance between
the small beams will increase as
they move out until at 50,000 km.
each beam will be 50 meters apart
and they will cover a circular area
1 km. in diameter. Each of the
smaller 2 inch (50 mm.) beams will
have the same hole cutting power on
metal or force field as the larger
beam; only the holes will be
smaller. To increase the range another ten fold to 500,000 km.,
increase the laser tube size to a
ten meter diameter and break the
heam into 40,000 beams of 50 mm.
diameter and blanket a 10 km.
diameter circle.
Since I"e have seen that current
technology should be able to hitan
object with laser fire at 300,000
miles and we are talking about advanced systems combat of five to ten
decades into the future, I think
hitting an object at 300,000 miles
is quite conservative. When I wrote
the article on lasers I assumed
that, like the weapons systems of
today, the development of laser
weapons systems would go to the
maximum possible range. From the
time the laser range finder light
reflects off the target until the
weapon's beams hit the target will
be the time lag. The ability of a
target to out maneuver the fire is
dependant on its abilitv to take G
(See table on bottom of page 26)

forces. With a split beam laser

covering 1 km. the seven G ship
could be hit at over 600,000 miles
and the forty G ship at 100,000
miles. As I originally said, the
combat range of the laser warship
should move out to about 300,000
miles.

* * *

The laser triggered miniature

nuclear warheads I mentioned in
the TSG #5 article apparently already exists in a little larger
form. Reports of the 13th meeting
of the NATO Nuclear Planning Group
in 1973 suggested possible deployment of multiple warhead for
missiles in 1978 which are clean
(no fission products) and with a
yield of 50 to 100 ton of TNT.
In the same article I failed
to mention a theoretically possible
laser that may become a major
weapon in the distant future. Selected isomers of selected isotopes
are imbedded in a beryllium rod
core, which is surrounded by a
layer of enriched uranium or
plutonium, which is in turn surro~nded by a layer of deuterium or
tritium. The entire mass, which is
only about 100 microns (0.1 mm.)
in diameter, is rotated in a powerful magnetic field and hit with a
powerful fast pulse laser. As the
entire mechanisum vaporizes in a
small nuclear detonation it emits
a gamma ray beam of tremendous
po~er. It should work, but the
theoretical physics required to
build such a device is extremely
complex. If the GRASER (Gamma Ray
Laser) is possible, it may be a
long time coming.
Charles R. Bowles
Colo. Sprgs., Colo.

Following your comments on

growth, it seems to me that the
wargame/fantasy-posture industry as
a whole will probably hit abou~
$20,000,000 sales in 1982, given a
modicum of stability, and then will
level off there indefinitely, depending for further advances on
inflation or fad or some unknown
Bobby Fischer. At the moment I see
no rea~on why MC should not be
turning, say, 2-4% of that total by
then. This stuff is beginning to be
respectable, and its possibilities
in informal tutorials among the
middle class have not been scratched. Speaking Eldon Tannishly, the
greatest market seems to be in

28
eastern Europe and the Soviet Unionvery high literacy, chess is big,
they are philosophically agreeable
to considering societies as longterm affairs, and the applications
of systems analysis are still pretty
avantgarde. The difficulties are
enormous, of course, but the Soviets
do like to grant monopoly situ~
tions, though they would never put
it so.
Lynn Wi 11 is
San Francisco, Calif.

to such jobs would be analogous to

a five-year-old trying to win the
Olympic weight lifting championship.
More: these latter jobs do require
creativity of no small magnitude.
How else can one fathom the defects
of existing designs and decide upon
proper improvements.
As for the humanities: we need
them to keep us in touch with our
own culture and past. Although my
own education is primarily technical,
I find life without literature and
history and art to be damnably boring. True, we do suffer from a glut
of paper degrees; but once again I
blame those who pursue higher education blindly and choose majors on
the basis of how easy they are,
rather than on the basis of how the
knowledge gained will prove helpfUl
It seems strange to me that a
to them. There are many alternatives
magazine which is dedicated to
science fiction gaming, and continto college: technical schools and
vocational institutions abound. One
ually produces excellent articles
on this and related subjects, should
has only to decide what one wants.
Lastly, I would like to address
carry an editorial damning "creative
thought". Worse yet, the tone of the
the idea that all proper education
editorial was one of self-righteous- should be purely practical and jobness and hellfire-harangue which I
oriented.To this I say BULL****!
Jobs are something that a man (or a
have not encountered since I read
single woman) must have to eat and
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
maintain existence, but the implicaGod. Finally, the general content of
tion that one should forget all
the editorial was roughly as silly
education and simply work strikes me
as the sermon alluded to in the
as being a trifle silly. No doubt it
previous sentence.
works for some. I know people who
I do not doubt that too many
get along very well without literapeople pursue "higher education" for
ture, and who could care less for
the wrong reasons or for no reason
history or art. I suspect, however,
at all. I agree that anyone who
that if everyone tried to be a selfspends years of time and thousands
made man that the ideal would be as
of dollars with no goal in mind is
something of a fool, and that people hard to reach as true creativity.
I've known a few who tried that
who will not organize their own
route, and went down the tubes.
lives have only themselves to blame
The point is that most of the
if they are not happy.
time simply sustaining life by work
Never-the-less, the failure of
and eating is not enough. The qualieducation cited in the editorial is
not so much the failure of an insti- ty of life matters almost as much as
tution as it is the failure of those life itself. I for one would rather
who use the institution blindly and
have a low-paying job in a town
where I had friends and opportuniwithout clear purpose. To indite
higher education and creativity for
ties to pursue my hobbies, than to
have a high-paying job in a town
the failure of a few folk (or many)
where I had no friends and no opporis to put oneself in a class with
certain ancient peoples who - when
tunities for off-the-job amusement.
suffering prolonged drought, famine, Believe it or not (and it hurts me
to say this): money isn't everythin~
or other calamity - broke their
I'll pass over the rest. The
idols to show their gods how they
charges that schools exist as havens
felt.
for the incompetent is too silly to
A society such as ours needs
bother answering. The charge that
plumbers and janitors and housewives. We also need people who can
schools don't exist to impart knowledge is the expression of a narrow
understand the workings of nuclear
viewpoint: schools don't exist for
reactors, and someone who can design
computer hardware, and someone who
ANY single reason. The knowledge is
can improve on existing space craft. there if you want it, which is comThese skills, believe it or not, re- forting to know, but getting it is
up to the student. The charge that
quire years of study before one is
even qualified to express an opinion. creative thinking is a blind alley
is another example of a narrow viewFor a high school dropout to a~pire

29

point, and has h en answered above.

In two w ks or so I will leave
my military station and return to
graduate school, where I will earn
an MS in computer science. I will
consider it time well-spent, and
will hopefully use it to secure a
higher-paying job than I could have
obtained with a BS in the same field.
My education will not stop after I
receive my MS. Wherever I settle
and whatever my job I will continue
to frequent universities in search
of knowledge which will satisfy my
idle curiousity. Once I have a good
position from which to launch these
intellectual jdurnies, very few of
them will involve down-to-earth,
job-related subjects. I will return
to mathematics -a subject which I
love but which I do not want for a
primary degree, largelv because
there is too littie demand for
"pure" mathelll':ticians.
I will
brush up on certain historical
subjects which I have long been
interested in, but which the pellmell rush for degrees and jobs has
prevented me from studying in detail. I may be able to explore
English literature, and satisfy my
curiousity concerning its usefullness to me.
Much of this knOWledge will be
pure and useless. Even mathematics
tends to be abstract in direct
proportion to my interest in it.
Still, I may find use for this
pointless knowledge. It is amazing
how one can find uses for such
things. If I never find any use for
some field of knowledge, I will
certainly not waste time reviling
the institution which imparted the
knowledge. It will have been my
life and my decision.
Christopher S. Spilman

Lynn White's article was interesting, but it seems that she

has neglected the fact that there is
no such thing as a war with a single
cause, something that was drilled
into me countless times by my history classes. Take WWI as an
example--it wasn't just the fact
tha t somebody from Serbia shot Franz
Ferdinand that got Austria-Hungary
to mobilize their troops. There were
many causes besides, both related
and unrelated, like the opposing
forces of Austrian-Hungarian power
and th-e Pan-Slavic movement, as well
as th~ Pan-Germanic etc. The

"Aryan Myth" so prominent in 11'11'11

already existed. The big powers
wanted into the Balkans. To name a
few. And the big one, namely the
difference between the "haves" and
the "have-nots" would surely remain
even after the technology she describes is developed--not everyone
will have it at the same time, and
during the distribution there will
be a lot of tensions, which when
combined with other causes can cause
a war. Especially if large governmental organization goes away.
Also, the haves always want
more, usually at the expense of the
have-nots. Inner and Outer Europe-WWI. I once went to a great deal of
trouble creating a Terran Commonwealth that broke up that way,
because "all ships lead to Earth"
and eventually the outer colonies
grew fed up with that axiom and just
broke off, fairly peacefully. But
naturally, the powers-that-be back
on Earth could hardly allow that ...
hence a war.
And then, of course, there's
always the chance that the Solar
System will be invaded by monsters
from Outer Space ...
Eldon set off a few long-dead
circuits in my mind ... I have on
occasion thought about having a game
without rules, only with beginning
forces ana-some very loose objectives, and maybe a planet to run
around on. For example, you tell the
first player that he holds a city of
one-million people, named Spielenburg, on the outer fringes of a
great desert. He has, within that
po~ulation, 4000 crack SS troops,
350 bomber pilots, and 100 fighter
pilots, and the necessary Nazi
equipment to get them running. He
has such and such in oil, such and
such in factories and agricultural
areas, and he may make such and such
expansions.
(I think a map of the
city and surrounding area would be
necessary) The next player gets an
orbitting robotic station for power
and a Mark XVII Bolo, on the 6ther
side of the desert, as well as ten
one-man stratojets with pilots. And
the next player gets 200,000 Zulu
warriors and their families,
scattered acorss the desert at various wetter spots. You give them all
climafic reports, and the game runs
pbm. A central moderator, or better
yet, moderating committee, keeps
track of who is doing what, as all
moves are simultaneous, and at any
point the game may stop, depending
upon how the players and/or moderator feel about it. The players then
submit their final reports, including the projected strategies of

'31

30

their forces, and the committee decides who has "won," if anyone has.
Eldon would then have won!
(Note: this particular scenario
isn't too serious. The Bolo has no
reason to fight--the Zulus may want
the Nazi technology, and the Nazis
the Bolo, but other than that ...
Of course, you could incorporite the
Bolo as a moderator-controlled
trouble-maker, like the vortices in
SORCERER or even as a playercontrolled troublemaker, with that
player controlling the "machinegone-mad" in the way which he/she
feets~will tear up the game the
most.)
And the purpose of all this?
To add realism, of course. No war
has yet been fought by any particular set of rules except perhaps
when a particular army got "general
orders" and used those. But even
when such things as international
law exist, they usually get broken.
Hitler marched through neutral
countries without a blink, for example. And little crazy things like
Thermopylae are hard to come by in
a rules-controlled situation. The
only rule there was -- you can
march a man through an arrow very
well, but not very far ... people
with arrows in them tend to fall
down.
How about, in SC, the ability
to self-destruct ana-really tear
some enemy up? Considering the destructive force of a DN, combined
with its engines, it seems to me
that you could probably reduce a
whole planet if you were to totally
unleash all that power at once
nearby. Say kill all the colonists
and reduce a TR80 planet to ST60.
and totally eradicate BR planets.
An ATK, on the other hand, would only
kill the population and reduce the
planet's capacity to the next
smallest level (or if that's impossible, reduce the planet's type
but not population, like ST40 to
MT40), and an ESC would just kill
the population, and a SCT's engines
would kill say ten million people.
Maybe that's a bit much, but the
potential is there. Maybe a SCT
would only destroy a million people,
and a DN would do what the ESC does
above, and reduces empty planets
only. But that also makes a way to
break down PFS's, yes?
Well, we shall see.
K. Allen Bjorke
Minneapolis, Minn.

May Brian Bloomquist be h\Jng!

No satire or humor??? The man's a
sadist! I'll admit that as a wargamer I take SF as not too serious,
an escape hatch from the threat of
eternal trenchfinger. If you.can't
laugh at a floundering (no insult
intended) SF mag, I"hat can you laugh
at? You admitted yourself that
"where you're goin" might be bankrupt. Hope not.
Please do not publish anymore
articles about ESC vs. ATK. We see
the ruddy problem, and who the
bloody cares what the exact odds
are?!! I would bet as often on
6.029% as I would on 8.336%, never,
not a real bet, a kamikaze on the
side, but ...
Your magazine did make an interesting point, right now lasers,
phasers, and blazers are less
dangerous than razors.
I will probably be making several comments on SC, as I finally
scrounged up the money with the inflow of summer work cash. I really
wouldn't pay anybody for anymore
detail ship/ship articles on SC,
the "Ship Effectiveness ... " article
pretty much takes care of it, and
who's going to argue with that roller coaster formula on the bottom
of page eleven?
Frank B. Weir, Jr.
Clarion, Iowa

I used to like TSG. It was a

nice, friendly sort of magazine, a
format I could feel comfortable
with.
This was not so with Issue #7.
First of all, the editorial, besides
being outright wrong, had absolutely
nothing to do with gaming, which is
what TSG is all about. I'm not saying that you shouldn't express your
views, but you should pick subject
matter related to gaming.
May I also say that swearing is
a sign of a small mind. You may say
that I'm old worldish, but your
comment in "Game Design Notes" was
totally uncalled for. Have you lost
your wit?
The rest of the issue was fine,
but I really couldn't enjoy it after
such a cold beginning.
The quality of the magazine is
definitely improving, but instead of
investing your money on a computer,
why not look into type setting and
color covers. It would increase the
quality tenfold.

Bill
and unlr
a subsl I

I II the "'armth is gone,

I returns, you have lost

till'! .

Paul O'Connor
Van Nuys, Ca.

technology, and a range of 20,000km.

(Also 20,000 km is good for play
reasons, ",hich is another pressing
reason).
To integrate these two factorsthe fact that the power of a beam
will diminish only a little over
great distances, but that increasing distance will make it more
difficult to hit a ship---we're
assuming a "1)F,fJ"/like hit systeP.l;
f~rst you. roll to see whether you 'VB
hlt, and lf you've hit then determine how much damag~ the target
ShlP takes. In other words, the
amount of damage is in no way dependen~ upon the range, but the
probablllty of hitting a ship is.

I was extremely interested in

your discussion of the use of lasers
in ship-to-ship ",arfare in TSG #7,
as I am currently developing
BATTLEFLEET MARS for SPI. The two
objections to the use of lasers at
extreme distances (in the range of
several tens of thousands of kilometers) "'ere that a)the loss of
Greg Costikyan
power of a laser beam ",ith increasNew York, N.Y.
ing distance would decrease the
effect or a laser weapon, and that
b)the ar: that a spaceship presents
to a [lrlng ship decreases dramatically as he distance between the
t~o ships increases, making it
In TSG #6, the writer of the
dlfflcul or impossible to hit a
distant shi.p.
review on THE YTHRI as an historical
appraisal is good. He explains the
In BATTLEFLEET , we are assuming that the two most common weapons reality of THE YTHRI as compared to
The People of the Wind and how it
are lasers and nuclear missiles.
Obviously the latter are only for
could be lmproved to recreate more
use ln extremely close conditions,
closely the outcome of the novel.
as a nuclear blast in space (",here
However, one sentence irked me:
t~ere cannot be a shockwave) ",ill do
"Unless the Terran player has been
lIttle to no damage if at a distance foollSh and split his forces (or
from a ship.
",orse, lost.some of the transports
To answer the first objection
before landlng), it is a simple task
to the usc of laser ",eapons, the
to capture three choths or cities
and win the game by turn 12." I have
P?",er or. a laser decreases very
played THE YTHRI for quite awhile
lHtle "'Ith distance. In space
now, to work out the best strategy
there arc obviously very few f~ee
and have found that the only real '
atoms to diffuse a beam; thus the
hope of ~ successful attack by the
o~ly f~ctor decreasing the power
Terrans lS to split his forces. This
wlth distance is the inevitable diforces the Ythri ships to spread out
verg nce of the beam. No matter ho",
more, making it all the easier to
tight the.beam is made, there will
destroy them one by one. Unless the
be som dlvergence with distance.
Terran player is a total incompetent
1I0wever, as technology increases, a laser beam can be made
or someone new to the game (vti ry
new), lt lS an almost impossi Ie
tighter and tighter. Therefore if
one nssumes sufficient laser t~ch
task to prevent the destruction of
nology, one can assume as tight a
even one of the transports.
beam as one likes. I believe it is
On the planet, I have been
possible to develop the technology
successful in winning as the Terran
to hold a beam to a divergence of
player by splitting or combining my
say 100% over a distance of SO 000
forces. Of capturing the bases, they
kilometers over a period of 106
are.relatlvely easy to capture, but
years.
. agaln, only an incompetent Ythri
The second objection is more
player would make it very simple to
cogent. As Mr. Apperson showed in
do It by turn twelve. In my opinion
hIS letter, the arc a ship presents
~r. Howe should play THE YTHRI more'
at extreme distances is quite small, before making such comments on play
style.
and thus as dIstance increases we
can assume that the ability of a
~1ike Lazich
fIrIng shlp to hit another ship deBurlingaP.le, Calif.
creas s. Ir. Apperson assumes a
maximl.lln range of 5,000 km; we're
aSSUl1llll1l iI some\vhat more advanced