Uploaded for a friend of mine named Roger Sanger:
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Hi, Rodge here.
This is in response to Jerry Alexandratos' letter about receding into pocket
empires.
I strongly disagree with your claim about playing New Era in the Regency.
Playing in the Regency is indeed a viable option, and for die-hard Imperium
fans, offers the best environment for roleplaying in the New Era.
As for venturing into the wilds from there, getting into and out of the
Regency is not that hard. The border blockade is only 6 or 7 systems deep,
and patrolling the deep space (empty hexes) between occupied systems is not
only NOT easy, it is near impossible, meaning that by stockpiling fuel in deep
space, you could easily cross back over into the Regency after leaving it. I
assume black marketeers and pirates do it all the time. Even the Virus could
use this method, which means that very strict contact protocols would have to
be mandatory throughout the entire Regency.
As for the big picture, of all the interests concerned with reclaiming the
wilds, the Regency by far has the biggest advantage. It has the necessary
technological base (including some TL 16 worlds) to thwart and weed out the
virus wherever they find it -- they've even been breeding the Virus, mutating
it to serve their needs.
Not only that, but the basis of the Regency is the keeping of the flame, and
the restoration of the Imperium. To the people of the Regency, the "Imperium"
isn't even considered to be dead. In a territorial race between the Regency
and the Star Vikings, who do you think would win? My bet is on the Regency,
its civilization of many billions, and its state-of-the-art fleets.
With the mounds and mounds of materials written for the Spinward Marches, I'm
glad that they didn't blast it out of existence like they did the rest of
developed space. My campaign is proceeding ahead (circa 1105 in the Spinward
Marches, Foreven, and Far Frontiers sectors) without any undue acceleration --
I doubt if any of the present characters will be alive by the time the New Era
begins. Heck, I haven't even put them through the Fifth Frontier War yet!
This will give the game developers plenty of time to flesh out the new
campaign enough for me to play it without requiring too much custom
development effort from me. I've got enough Traveller and MegaTraveller stuff
to last me many years.
So far, I've found 350+ items written for Traveller. Its going to take me
some time to play them, let alone read them all.
Anyways, when my campaign finally gets to the coming of the Virus, it will be
quite interesting to see how the players respond to Armageddon (sp). I fully
intend to play it out.
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Now to cover the issue raised by some about fleeing this message conference:
My attitude is this: The more Traveller-related conferences the merrier! I
collect them all anyways. Adding another script to one's comm program just
ain't that hard.
If you are worried that this conference is waning because the participants are
moving to other conferences, then you are getting too political. Enjoy this
conference, and make it more enjoyable, and people will flock.
By the way, 442 members ain't bad!
Any comments?
Roger Sanger
o o
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