Re the Gamba subsector:
I just got around to looking over the last few nights worth. I have a few questions
about the GMing exercise:
1) Where is the Gamba subsector? Things would be significantly different if it were
in the Trojan Reaches, as opposed to Core.
2) What is in the surrounding nine subsectors? The artificial subsector boundaries
have always appalled me. If there were a world like Trin just over the border in the next
subsector, the situation will be REALLY different. And the hypothetical players can get from
the center of Gamba to one of the adjacent subsectors in only four weeks.
3) What type of group of characters are these hypothetical adventurerers? Mercenary
types don't use the same kind of adventures as merchants (who probably would leave anyway).
Explorers/scouts would want something different than the merchants. Or are these guys
supposed to be the generic thugs that GDW assumes in so many of their adventures?
>So, at least one other GM looks at this and decides that we need those standard
>items: "the university planet", the "plague world", the ancient site, and the
>"lost colony". What subsector would be complete without all four?
Well, any I designed, for one. These four stereotypes are all well and good, but they have
been overused to the point of boredom.
I don't like the "plague world". What kind of plague is there that TL14 techniology shouldn't
be able to deal with? Yes, I've read "Speaker for the Dead", but I'm not willing to bet that
something like the Descolada couldn't be beaten by Imperial technology.
As to "Ancient sites", I've never bothered to use one. Mostly because everyone I've ever
played with has been completely turned off by the idea of playing archeologist. And if it's
not archeology, it's dungeon plunging.
"lost colonies" are usually good for one adventure. Seldom for more than one. So I usually
don't bother. But I don't have any religious objections to the presence of one.
"University Planets" I don't buy. Not until someone can show me a "University country" on
Earth. Talk about overspecialization. Not to mention that the level of available shipping
already described wouldn't be able to handle the off-planet support required.
>Once we've discussed the explanations a bit more, we'll move on to the types
>of adventures suggested by the worlds, and the combinations of worlds, in the
>subsector.
Since you seem to have already decided "how things are", I guess I don't have anything more
to add.
George:
>You'd have to avoid referring to interstellar travel via a week-long
>hyperspace as "jump". You'd have to try and keep "Imperium" out of
>it for most intents and purposes. All alien race names would be
>verboten. Star system names might even be covered.
"jump" has been in use in scifi for at least 40 years.
"Imperium" is a good latin word for Empire. It also has been used since the 60s in scifi.
(Anyone remember Perry Rhodan???)
"Vargr" is a Scandinavian word for wolf.
"Aslan" cannot be copyrighted, since the original copyright (C.S. Lewis's) has expired.
And the form they gave the Aslan seems to bear more than a passing resemblance to the guys
in the "Chanur" stories, by C.J. Cherryh (which I just reread.)
"Efate" is an Island in the Pacific ocean.
"Regina" is a city in Canada.
"Mora" is a coach for the New Orleans Saints.
"Zyra" was lifted from the movie version of "When Worlds Collide".
The "Sword Worlds" individual names were taken from history, myth, and fiction. The
collective name is from "Space Viking" by H. Beam Piper. Even the culture seems awfully like
Piper's Sword Worlds.
> Weapon names like "7mm Assault Rifle" or "RAM GL" or "PGMP" are probably out.
There is or was a Swiss 7mm assault rifle. So I doubt that that is copyrightable. "PGMP"
is probably covered, though. "RAM GL" is probably not. Didn't the Army use that some years
back for one of their projects? "ACR" isn't copyrightable - the Army has been running its "ACR
Competition" for years now to come up with the infantry weapon for next century.
----Steve
"Actually, I think he was concerned with YOU attacking him through
Topas. And possibly New Colchis. He was just too polite to say so."
---attributed to FAdm Hari Helsson
^Z