--- In , dcndcn13@... wrote:
>
> In no particular order, Frank's ideas included the following:
>
> * Schalli
> * Sean "Hammer" Lathrop
> * The female RC trooper who was divorced or separated
> * The Ithklur PC in Star Vikings
> * The "absent friends" toast
> * The "Star Vikings" meme to begin with
> * The "Long Ships" meme to begin with. My old college friend, Traveller
> player, skipper of the Belladonna, and Best Man at my wedding Rick Boquist
> did the design, which got sent back a couple times, "make it uglier, less
> streamlined" "make it longer," "loooonger," and I convinced Frank to
> change the name to "Clipper"
> * The title and structure of the "PoT" book, from the Cherokee term
> * The title and structure of the "S&G" book
> * The original concept of a virus to end the Rebellion era, which is how
> we had people bashing TNE long before we actually made any of the final
> decisions. As recounted elsewhere, I decided to go with the virus idea
> because it had a lot of things that appealed to me: Allowed us to bring AI
> into Traveller, and the whole Aeschylus Once an Eagle quote:
>
> So in the Libyan fable it is told
> That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
> Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
> "With our own feathers, not by others' hands,
> Are we now smitten."
>
> That was the only way to end the Rebellion.
>
> * The Solee
> * Lots of other things.
>
> Dave
>
We shall have to make sure we hold our roughly annual Toast to Absent Friends at Celesticon this year, then, since Frank is scheduled to be there.
I know Loren was working on deckplans for the Clipper at one point. He made it sound like a matter of pride to complete. Not sure how far he's gotten, but my attempt stopped (well before hearing of his) when I did the tonnage breakdown for the Clipper and realized just how much of the bare Clipper is behind the Engineering firewall.