[TML] 20mm cannons and bulky aliens

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 1/23/08 4:22 PM, "Leon Wu" <Leon.Wu at newswire.ca> wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: tml-bounces at travellercentral.com
>> [mailto:tml-bounces at travellercentral.com] On Behalf Of Brad Murray
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 4:08 PM
>> To: The Traveller Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [TML] 20mm cannons and bulky aliens
>> 
>> On Jan 23, 2008 1:02 PM, Leon Wu <Leon.Wu at newswire.ca> wrote:
>>> Wow, now imagine what their equivalent of a dreadnaught would be...
>>> You'd get a special "large target" bonus. And the open deck design
>>> would be worse for warships, lack of compartmentalization and all.
>> 
>> Yeah this is all seeming implausible -- based on the naive
>> assumption that a sapient species will exhibit immutable
>> aspects of their wild psychology.  I'm more likely to believe
>> that they beat their claustrophobia with drugs and training
>> and perhaps artificial smell and sounds to imply space and
>> company than that they have ships that are vastly inferior to
>> any other space-faring military.  I mean, these are aliens,
>> sure, but not animals.  They use technology too.
> 
> Well... sorta. Up until they make contact with another major star-faring
> race I'd agree they'd build their ships as defined in the alien book.
> Following contact it would depend on how conservative they are as a
> race. Off the cuff, I'd point to the general reaction of most navies to
> airpower following WW1. Sometimes organizations are remarkably resistant
> to reality when it comes to world-changing events.

Conservative?  I'd like to remind people of the discussion a month or so ago
about the (IMO) absurdly conservative nature of Vilani culture...

For the record, Challenge #28, p.22, K'kree Starships: A Human Perspective.

*6000* dton merchant class Xeekr'kir, described as "typical of most
commercial starships in the 2000 worlds".  1-G, J-2.
34 dtons cargo + 74 crew/family/passengers.  Passengers can be swapped out
for 48 dtons cargo each.

And all starship crew are considered madman too...