Bertil and I [wildstar] have been having a discussion about world
government codes, based in the "fix" I did to the T:TNE world generation
for the Wilds (T:TNE pp.191). The following is most of that discussion,
edited into a conversational format. We'd be interested in hearing your
comments on this.
[Lines which begin B: are Bertil talking, and W: indicates me]
B: IMHO it is good to have the info in the basic world data somewhere, instead
B: of having to scan through the extra data for each world to find it.
B: I include the trade classifications area and the alliegance field in 'basic
B: world data'. It's when one has to go to another sheet of paper that it gets
B: onerous.
W: Oh, sorry. I thought you were complaining about my modification
W: (instead, I guess you were complaining about the original T:TNE rules).
B: [About the "TED" code]
B: At least in the case of the areas surrounding the RC, we might assume that
B: It is like a 'most favoured nation' status in reverse. Government Non Grata,
B: or 'Hunting Licence'.
W: That's what I would assume, too.
B: Now this system might be abused in several ways. The threat of being 'teddy
B: marked' might be wielded by those who hold the power against individual
B: worlds in various nefarious ways. I can think of several plots resulting from
B: this.
W: This is a good idea, and a lot more
W: interesting that the usual RCES "Which TED will we Smash This Week"
W: adventure!
B: [About the "TED" code in areas away from RCES activity]
B: "Teddy marking means that the RCES would regard the world as being under the
B: control of a TED if they had known about it."
W: That's probably reasonable. And most expansion-minded polities are
W: going to have a similar label for similar worlds. In order to expand at
W: the maximum rate, a polity will need access to all of the resources and
W: (particularly) pre-Collapse equipment and information possible.
W: TED-like governments will be in the way, and the most expeditious means
W: of removing the obstacle will be to stomp them flat.
B: Btw: regarding government codes, the way I'm reading the rules suggests that
B: we will be up to our sensor-clusters in balcanized worlds, so how about
B: marking them too in the trade field?
B: Thus a balcanized world where gov 9 is most common would be marked:
B: Gov: 7 and in the trade field "B9"
B: And a similar one where the typical noncharismatic TED is the most common:
B: Gov: 7 and in the trade field "B6 TB"
B: And a noncharismatic TED world (for completeness sake:)
B: Gov: 6 and in the trade field "TB"
W: OK. But how about using "B:9" or "B:6" to visually distinguish it from
W: the other codes that are in that field; two letter codes (of the form
W: "Cp", or "Ag") indicate trade classifications. Letter and number codes
W: ("A5", "C0", or "D1"), or preferably Letter Colon Number codes ("A:5",
W: "C:0", or "D:1") indicate racially mixed populations. And finally
W: "B:x" codes ("B:9" or "B:6") indicate the most common
W: government type on balkanized worlds. There is also the "O:xxxx code,
W: which is used to indicate the ownership (hex number) of a Captive
W: world.
W: Finally, the TED code goes in the allegiance slot. Since it can only
W: occurr in the wilds, the TED code won't ever conflict with an actual
W: allegiance (presumably once the world government becomes part of an
W: interstellar polity, it will no longer be "Government Non Grata" to that
W: polity).
W: SO: A balkanized world where the most common government is 9 would be
W: marked with a "B:9" in the trade classifications, and government type 7.
W: The (fairly common) balkanized world where the most common form of
W: government is a non-charismatic leader TED would have government type 7
W: in the UWP, "B:B" in the trade classifications, and "Td" in the
W: allegiance. A non-charismatic leader TED world would have a government
W: type of B, and "Td" in the allegiance field.
W: As an alternative, all TED worlds could have government type 6 (with the
W: referee then responsible for deciding on what for the government should
W: have), in which case the latter two are (Gov=7, Trade=B:6, and Alleg=Td)
W: for the first case, and (Gov=6, Alleg=Td) for the second.
W: I'm fairly ambivalent about spelling out the "most common" government
W: (and law, for that matter) codes for a balkanized world. It is quite
W: possible that nearly any and every government type could be represented
W: on it. I also still have mixed throughts about the "TED Government Type"
W: table I put in my update; as Steve points out, this is the province of
W: the referee as well. Since I had to draw the line somewhere, I included
W: the TED government types, and didn't consider Balkanized world
W: government types. I'll think about it some more, though.
B: Ok, I must admit that my main reason for wanting two-letter no colon codes
B: is that my program will barf at anything else. The only valid argument
B: against colons that I can find is that it will take more place.
B: What letters will be needed for races? I would guess A V H K (and perhaps
B: 'h:4' for human minority worlds?) and a general code for minor races (M?).
B: Time for a page on 'the grammar of world data' :)
W: (presumably once the world government becomes part of an
W: interstellar polity, it will no longer be "Government Non Grata" to that
W: polity).
B: He he he, and the cases where a polity declares a participant government
B: GNG are plots to adventures. As are the cases where one polity declares an
B: ally of another to be a TED.
B: [on the two coding options above]
B: I don't know which version that is the most intuitive. I'm leaning towards
B: the first (since the TED in the balcanized case is a secondary characteristic
B: it should logically be a subcase of the balcanized case)
B: I will probably treat the 'most common gov' data as a recommendation to be
B: ignored at will by the referee if the plot demands it, as long as they can
B: justify it somehow.
B: For example, what is the most common government type on Terra in Real Life
B: Right Now? Do we take the most common government by numbers of governments?
B: The government type that the most people live under? Or the government type
B: of the largest country? Largest by population or area? Or the gov of the most
B: powerful nation?
B: [on the whole idea of the "TED Government Type" table]
B: I'd recommend keeping it (and the most common notation) but with an explicit
B: note that they are only there to serve as helps to the imagination of the
B: referee (like it says somewhere in the TTNE) not as rreplacement of the
B: same.
W: [on Bertil's program that can't handle 3-letter codes]
W: A valid reason; however *my* program can deal with either; it only adds
W: a little more code. (suggestion: write a subroutine which parses the
W: string into "words" separated by white space: "procdeure wordscan(input:
W: string, wordnum : string) : string;" btw: No, I don't acutally use
W: Pascal, my programs are in Rexx, where such a function is a builtin).
W: The second concern is a little more real; I've yet to run across a world
W: that currently exceeds the space provided, but is certainly possible
W: as we add more codes.
W: [on using "h:4" for human minority worlds]
W: I generally don't like to make case distinctions. In *theory* the
W: current system is case-insensitive (as a matter of fact, I uppercase
W: the UWP and Trade Classifications whenever they are used for
W: comparisons).
W: Another item: Traveller is very inconsistent about noting worlds with
W: non-human populations. Native minor races often aren't noted in the
W: UWP at all, and it is either mentioned in the notes, or up to the
W: individual referee to determine this. The only codes I've ever noticed
W: with any consistency are C == Chirper and D == Droyne.
B: Time for a page on 'the grammar of world data' :)
W: Definitely. The O:xxxx code has been used for quite a while, (and is
W: acutally used in T:TNE), but isn't explained in the section on
W: world-building.
B: He he he, and the cases where a polity declares a participant government
B: GNG are plots to adventures. As are the cases where one polity declares an
B: ally of another to be a TED.
W: Yup. You seem to have a talent for thinking up these twists --- that's
W: the second one today that I wouldn't have thought of!
B: Perhaps we should bundle this discussion, edit some things out (like
B: ******************************* DELETED ****************************
B: and raspberry jello) and send to the TML?
W: Sounds like a good idea. I've been keeping copies of this, so I'll pull
W: it all together and send it to you for comment before I send it to TML.
[email removed]
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Science-Fiction Adventure
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