On the subject of piracy and Hard Times, I recently received this message from
Chuck Gannon, who gave me permission to forward it on to the TML. You'll note
his CIS adress is included, so you can question him directly if you please...
Rob Dean
(He didn't say not to...)
- ----- Forwarded message # 1:
From: Chuck [email removed]
Re: piracy. Yes, those hi-pop worlds sure can crank out the patrolling
forces. But my logic was as follows;
(you may submit this for inclusion on TML, if you wish)
In the wind-down period of the Rebellion (let us call them the Black War
years), the consequences of sustained strategic combat are being felt by
even the most unscathed surviviors. Merchant fleets are in tatters, indust-
ries that once were part of an integrated market are rapidly realizing that
they can no longer be a big specialized cog in a bigger Imperial machine.
They will have to go solo now, since the Imperium--and the commercial matrix
that pervaded it--has dissolved (or rather, disintegrated). This means that
they must initiate the difficult process of retooling for maximum self-
sufficiency. They must move to the more primite (see Aristotles __Politics-s_
for the source) economic state of generalization and self-reliance in all
things. In effect, every planet begins --perforce--to think of itself as
a separate `machine' not a cog.
The retooling necessary to actuate such a shift is immense. Real world
examples would include the USA trying to go back to a 100% domestic economy;
we could probably do it, but the cost would be horrific. Workforce dis-
locations, currency instability, decreased commercial and investment potent-
ial; there would be violence, unrest, confusion. And as a result, an
increasingly isolationist view (economic isolation DOES tend to be a vicious
and self-amplifying cycle).
While all this is going on, the big whigs on any planet have one thing upper
- -most in their mind: to hang on to as much tech level as they can. TL is
the primary chip in the interstellar poker game of survival, dominance,
aability to enforce one's sovreign right to govern oneself (or others!). So
in the midst of all the economic and industrial restructuring, there is ano-
ther expensive imperative; retain as high a level of technology as can be
self-sustained. A tricky balancing act. This act is further complicated
for worlds with less friendly biospheres.
Specifically, in the case of most industrial, hi-pop worlds, their environ-
ment is, virtually by definition, essentially inhospitable to terrestrial
life. Environment must be created and maintained; it is not delivered
gratis by the planet. Hi-pop means a tremendous food consumption capacity.
Food growing is expensive on such worlds--but manufacturing (ie; industrial
endeavor) is not. This predicts the pre-war, peacetime economy; produce
those things which are cheap for you to make and bring in the highest price.
Use the profits to buy your needs. This is more commercially rewarding than
making all your needs AND then making goods. This stunts economies, limits
growth. The only advantage of this brand of fiscal conservatism is that it
makes the economy/polity very self-reliant--not a big concern in the laissez
- -faire mindset that dominated the Third Imperium.
So what does all this mean? It means that the worlds that COULD make all
those defensive ships to combat piracy aren't doing so; they're busy frying
other fish that are essential to their survival. In a few years, when the
retooling is all done and they feel that they have vouchsafed their own
safety, THEN they might start trying to expand their protective envelope to
include other less developed systems. But they are going to look out for
Number One first. And it will take until 1130 (and trillions upon trillions
of credits) to achieve this.
Here the problem exists that while since TCS we have had a way of getting
very clear numbers regarding costs and maintenance of fleet assets, we do
not have a mechanism for calculating the cost of the massive retooling
necessitated by Hard Times. Nor do I think such a mechanism is required;
history and common sense both tell us that the costs will be HUGE--huge
enough to paralyze even the largest powers into isolationistic, protectionists
t stances until they have recovered from this era of displacement.
In my view, by 1130, that process of restructuring will have progressed to
the point that the surviving polities (whether multi-system or single world)
will have worked out a means of existing in this new universe. At this poin
- -t, there will be a tendency to retake space from the elements of chaos
(piracy and other thuggery). At the same time, the best spoils are likely
to have been found and picked clean by these interstellar vultures. So as
their sustenance diminishes, resistance rises--forcing piracy back into it
s box, awaiting its next opportunistic feeding time.
Sorry for the long sermon, but that's what was in the back of MY mind when
I wrote HT. What GDW did with it after they got it (it was changed in
a few ways, some of which I liked, some of which I didn't) and what GDW
intends to do next are completely out of my hands. I envisioned a one-decad
- -e balkanization period. In the end however, Lucan is too big and unstable
a loose cannon to be endured; the need to end his threat and depredations
was to serve as the basis of an alliance, pitting a coalition of pluralist-
minded governments against his autocratic and Caligulistic monolith.
Well, Rob, right or wrong--that's how I saw it. And to me, the beauty of
Traveller is that it MAY be wrong--or at least everybody is free to pursue
their own vision. At least that's how I always saw it; games should be what
make us happy and give us pleasure. Adherence to `published fact' as
though it is some kind of rosetta stone is at best naive, at worst, suggest-
ive of a need for external order. Gaming is (or should be) a form of expre-
ssing and reaffirming our own freedom to do and be anything (vicariously);
we should not feel compelled to follow what we do not like. Certainly, the
(ostensible) point of a manufactured game aid is to provide refs (and player
ss) with opportunities for fun experiences. But unfortunately, as the
gaming industry has grown, so has the dominance of marketing-oriented though
t. The people in charge today are businessmen more than gamers, and it show
s. The products may be glossier, but I think they are less responsive--and
sensitive--to what many gamers really want. So I feel that in this period
of our hobby's history, we must be highly individualistic, ever ready to
decide for ourselves which is the wheat and which is the chaff.
Yes, you can print all that on TML if you wish. Be well, have fun,
hope to hear from you soon.
Chuck
PS: I hope you explained to Loren that we had discussed the use of your
designs (ie; that it was not data piracy!). Thanks.
- ----- End of forwarded messages