[OT] The Ythri

A month or so ago a side topic of a thread came up about an old Metagaming
Concepts game called "The Ythri". After I mentioned that I had a copy of the
game two people asked me (one private, one on the list) if it would be
possible for me to scan the cover of the game in. I finally was able to
arrange this and said cover image is now viewable at:

On Tue, 3 Aug 1999, Say what you will about me! I comprehend very little
> of it anyway. (The Tick) wrote:

> A month or so ago a side topic of a thread came up about an old

it looks rather good. now can anyone explain to me what it depicts?

it looks like a moon (in the "that's no moon..." vein) above a planet
(possibly the Earth), with a trio of spacecraft with green-trail-making
drives dropping an armada of interface craft onto the planet. in addition,
something is happening to the moon: it looks like someone is shooting it.
possibly up to three separate things (a blob on a line to the right, three
blobs in the middle and something off to the right) are shooting it.

so, what is what and who is who?

> Can't keep it up there for long. So go look while ya can! :)

this sounds like a job for .. the GZG-L public web archive thing!

ftp://ftp.xoom.com/
user: GZG_L
pass: nacesu

either bung i in the root directory or in a folder somewhere. provided that
this is clear on the copyright front, of course.

tom

My goodness! What a blast from the past. I drew that sucker back when I was in
high school, and I forgot all about it. (My copy of the Ythri has the black
and white cover)

The three blue things with green contrails are carrier spacecraft dropping
fighters onto the planet.

There is a largish moon overhead.

In sillouette on the gold cross shaped star is a black sphere with a line
through it. That's the orbital fortress.

The three blobs are spherical dreadnoughts. The red lines are the ship's
*contrails*, not their weapons.

What is happening is the dreadnoughts were travelling from the right to the
left. First their contrails are perfectly straight. Then the large green beam
from the enemy orbital fortress induces the huge orange explosion, which the
hapless dreadnoughts fly through. They pop out on the other side of the
explosion (you will note that their contrails are now corkscrewy from the
turbulence).

The Ythri is based on Poul Anderson's novel THE PEOPLE OF THE WIND. It depicts
the Terran Empire's planetary assault on the Ythri homeworld (Avalon).

> Tom Anderson wrote:

> On Tue, 3 Aug 1999, Nyrath the nearly wise wrote:

in stereo, no less.

> In sillouette on the gold cross shaped star is a black sphere

aha.

> The three blobs are spherical dreadnoughts. The red lines

oooh.

> What is happening is the dreadnoughts were travelling from

right. yes, i see it now. thanks!

> The Ythri is based on Poul Anderson's novel THE PEOPLE OF

> At 11:12 PM 8/4/99 +0100, tom wrote:
[snippage -- neat pic, BTW!]
> The Ythri is based on Poul Anderson's novel THE PEOPLE OF

Actually, you might try and find "The Earth Book of Stormgate" instead, or in
addition to; I liked it more, it's more an overview of humanity from the
perspective of the Ythri, rather than a short novel. If I'm remembering the
books right, this is after flipping through 'em real quick... it's been a
couple years since I read them. Overall, I like Mike Resnick's "Birthright:
The Book of Man" better as far as a galactic history goes,
though I could do with a re-read of Anderson's books.... ^_^

Later,

> Tom Anderson wrote:

Sorry about that. My ISP has been flaky of late.

> [snippage -- neat pic, BTW!]

I love Mike Resnick's work. If and when I ever get a science fiction RPG
going, it will be based on his "Inner Frontier" books -- _Widowmaker_,
_Santiago_, _Oracle_, etc.  Great stuff.   _Kirinkyaga_, which may or
may not be related to his other books, is the best Science Fiction I have ever
read, bar none. And one of the best books, period.

And of course, if you REALLY want an epic scope, find yourself a copy of

Olaf Stapledon's _Last and First Men_.

> In a message dated 8/5/99 2:08:12 PM EST, john1x@hotmail.com writes:

<<
I love Mike Resnick's work. If and when I ever get a science fiction RPG
 going, it will be based on his "Inner Frontier" books -- _Widowmaker_,
 _Santiago_, _Oracle_, etc.  Great stuff.   _Kirinkyaga_, which may or
may not be related to his other books, is the best Science Fiction I have ever
read, bar none. And one of the best books, period.

And of course, if you REALLY want an epic scope, find yourself a copy of
 Olaf Stapledon's _Last and First Men_.
> [quoted text omitted]

You haven't named an author I don't LIKE, but I really love Anderson's
Polesotechnic League and Flandry stories and novels. Wonderful books, great
characters amazing aliens, believable technology an almost ghostly ambience in
the Twilight of the Empire books. I've often wondered why no one adopted it
for a serious role play venue.

> John C wrote:

I'll second that. Though technically his "StarMaker"

> On Thu, 5 Aug 1999, Nyrath the nearly wise wrote:

> John C wrote:

finally, a book i *have* read! 'Last and First Men' is on the to-read
list too, though.

and if you want scope, i would suggest Rudy Rucker's 'White Light'. the domain
is mathematics, which i would say is larger than any physical object.

> The time scale are thought provoking by themselves.

Stephen Baxter's 'The Time Ships' has a rather good extrapolation - many
of Stevie-boy's books follow things through to the end of one universe
or another, but this one, i feel, does it best.