[none]

From: Ashley Munday <Ashley.Munday_at_liffe.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 12:55:42 -0000

Newt Stuff:
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Roland said: "Or maybe it's time for "Newtpak."

Nah, a Newtpak is the colloquial name for a severed Newtling tail.

He then wonders about Newtling ancestor worship. If Newtlings dump their en mass eggs then individual Newtlings wouldn't know (or care) who their parents are. Maybe the ideas of Ancestry and Geneology are alien to them! Could the Great Newt be like a spirit cult but only be contactable by Newtlings? Anyone got any thoughts or ideas?

Talking about Newts dying in character generation led to: "What do you mean you died in character generation? This isn't Traveller!" Another great game with a decent background flushed down the toilet of history. ~ Genuflects and crosses himself. ~

Gary expresses doubt about female Newtlings producing loads of eggs. I don't see any reason why not. The way I see Newtling reproduction is that there exist isolated communal breeding pools that all mum and dad Newtlings drop their eggs into. All the parents then spend a large chunk of their time keeping predators out and dropping food in. After a couple of years the older Newtlings are separated from the tadpoles and put in Nursery pools. As soon as they hit the nursery pool they're treated like members of the race.

As the pools are communual, over several breeding seasons and breeding pairs, if a tadpole happens to hatch out around dinner time ~burp~... From that I assume Newtling breeding pools have plenty of weeds for the very young to hide away in from the not so young.

As a RW human analogue, Newtlings treat their young the way a human couple treat IVF: When the eggs are fertilised they're just embryos which may or may not turn into adults. You take as good care as possible of the young but don't get too worried if loads don't survive. It's only the ones that finally make it to near adulthood that count. You don't weep over the ones that don't survive.

I won't comment much on the bit about the cleanliness of the Zola Fel. Anyway, you know what fish do in water. Now imagine what a SIZ 6 catfish does, Intelligent or not!

Fish / Dolphin Stuff:

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Roland makes the point about keeping the bristly fish in the Zola Fel: "With any fish you catch having some chance of being intelligent (if you are illicitly fishing) it adds a little spice to the activity."

I take the point that it makes "Unlicensed by Zola Fel" fishing more hazardous so they're worth keeping for that. Especially if after you hook it it starts hammering you with Disruptions. However, I prefer the idea that a single species is intelligent rather than a blanket 1 in 1000 of all fish, from Guppies to Megalodon.

Gary comes out in partial sympathy: "[There]are clearly catfish helping the newtlings herd fish on the cover of "River of Cradles." Seeing as I don't want to break an excellent picture and we've already had a big conflab about piccies in here it looks like the intelligent catfish have to stay.

How about this instead:

1. There's a species of Intelligent catfish in the Zola Fel (no change there);
2. There's also a species of small cetacean that lives in a similar ecological niche (catfish and river dolphins tend to both live in murky, turbid conditions);
3. The catfish associate with the Newtlings and the Dolphins with the human fishermen. Both groups spend large amounts of time whinging about the other but as they're all "parts of" Zola Fel it prevents open hostilities. Still, occasionally, Dolphins get caught in Newtling nets, the odd catfish gets munched or speared, a Newtling gets a klonk on the head from an oar or a human fisher has his boat overturned by a boisterous Newtling.

[ If you liked Gary's accent idea, The catfish can speak a Franglais patois and the Dolphins speak undine Urdu.]

Ooops, another longy... Sorry!

Ash

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