James T. Perkins · 28 July 1987 · reply to #21
Mike Rossow forwarded some information which he apparently painstakingly
excerpted from one of the Traveller supplements for our reading
pleasure. While it *is* true that this excerpt is copyrighted and
reproduction on this mailing list is in direct violation of
international copyright law, I will forward this letter.
Why? Because it is shorter than about one page of printed material, and
is therefore in *my* opinion (as list owner) a small-enough excerpt that
it merely serves as a free advertisment for the original copyrighted
material. I am also permitting it because the nature of the material's
copyright is clearly indicated.
Furthermore, since I "own" this mailing list, any copyrighted material
passing through it (including the "Traveller News Service" articles from
Challenge Magazine), is my responsibility. Using the above guidelines,
I would appreciate that reproductions of copyrighted materials be kept
short (< about one page) or paraphrased, and the copyright notices
should, like here, be noted clearly. To me this seems reasonable and
prudent. (Any lawyers out there suggest I act differently? :-)
"Feel the discussion FLOW, Luke..."
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James T. Perkins Traveller Mailing List Administrator
Tektronix Logic Analyzers "Load Auto/Evade, Beowulf!"
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To: [email removed]
Subject: I submit this for your approval
From: Michael Rossow [email removed]
I am not sure if this posting is quite appropriate for the
Traveller mailing list. My concern is that this is copyrighted
material. The other side of the coin is that it is only an
excerpt from the complete work. I don't have any idea if this
would fall into the fair use catagory.
If you do find this appropriate, I would appreciate it if you
could forward the message to the list. If you find that this
falls out of bounds for this list, please enjoy it as a response
to your querry.
-Mike
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To: traveller
Subject: Re: History/Government of the Imperium
In-reply-to: Your message of 22 Jul 87 10:25:45 PDT (Wed).
[email removed]
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This is an excerpt from an essay on GDW's Imperium campaign.
It was published in Supplement 8, Library Data (A-M) by GDW.
It is copyright 1980, 1981 by Game Designers' Workshop.
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The Imperium is a far-flung interstellar community encompassing
over 1100 worlds within a region approximately 700 parsecs across.
It has now ruled its territory for eleven centuries and looks to
continue for many more. Interstellar government over such a large
area, however, becomes a philosophical question; the problem
initially seeming to be insurmountable. Distance, travel time,
and communication lag all conspire against a functioning, efficient
structure which can meet the needs of its subject population. But
the lessons of history serve as a guide. Spain in the 16th century
ruled much of the New World, with travel times of up to a year
between the seat of governmental communication, with both a rapid
dispatch of instructions and an equally rapid response, has been a
dream, not a reality.
The Imperium has come upon two solution which together ameliorate
the problems of distance: the xboat network and feudalism.
The Xboat Network: Like the body, with its network of veins and
arteries, the Imperium is permeated by a network of xboat routes,
or links, devoted entirely to the carriage of messages for official,
commercial, and private purposes.
The express boat (xboat) is a small, fast ship filled with a pilot
compartment, message data banks, and jump drives. The fit is so
tight that the tiny ships don't even have maneuver drives. Each
is capable of jump-4 (four parsecs in a week); it jumps, relays its
messages to the station on arrival, and then waits to be picked up
by a tender, refuelled, and sent on its way to the next station on
the route. The local station on a world accepts messages, encodes
them, and transmits them to a station at the edge of the stellar
system. The network works like the pony express - with messages
always moving at top speed. Transfer time for the messages from
one xboat to another can be as short as ten minutes, and is rarely
more than an hour.
Ultimately, the little xboats make their way to one of the many
Imperial Way Stations scattered throughout the Imperium's
subsectors. There they are refitted, overhauled, and refurbished,
only to be sent on their way again.
The xboat network makes the edge of the Imperium about 44 weeks out
from the core and capital; that represents a savings of better than
50% of normal travel time. And still the Imperium is straining
under the effects of distance.
Feudalism: With such great distances separating stellar systems,
individual responsibility and authority become of great importance.
The Imperium is divided into sectors (twenty of them), each about 32
parsecs by 40 parsecs in size. Each sector is divided into sixteen
subsectors (8 by 10 parsecs). And within a sector are perhaps
thirty or forty system, each with a star, worlds, and satellites.
Individual worlds, and even entire systems, are free to govern
themselves as they desire, provided that ultimate power is always
accorded the Imperium. Interstellar government begins at the
subsector level - on one world designated the subsector capital.
The ruling figure at the at the subsector capital is a high-ranking
noble selected by higher levels of government. This duke has a
free hand in government, and is subject only to broad guidelines
from his superiors. But at the same time, the duke owes fealty to
the higher levels of government, ultimately to the Emperor himself.
The feudal approach depends greatly on a sense of honor, one
cultivated by the hereditary aristocracy. This sense of honor is
very strong within the Imperium; it has proven essential to the
survival of such a far-flung community.
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