There has always been a Frontier.
What is the Frontier? This question has many answers. Some would
say that the Frontier is the place where civilization ends. Others
would refer to physical obstacles such as mountains, deserts, or
for a starfaring civilization, the place beyond which there were no
ready bases or fueling stations. Still other folk, those of a morbid
temperment, would define the Frontier to be the border between the
region where it is safe to travel and regions from which travellers
often fail to return. But all of these definitions have one thing
in common:
Beyond the Frontier there is no law.
Why, you may ask, is this so? The answer is obvious. Whatever
its nature, be it border of civilization, a physical barrier, or the
boundary of a place where travellers routinely vanish, the Frontier
represents a barrier to law enforcement as well. Those charged with
enforcing the law require a civilization in which to opperate. They
require bases and fueling stations. They certainly need to stay alive.
Without these conditions, there can be no law enforcement. And to
quote Jack Vance, "Law cannot reach where enforcement will not follow."
A curious observation, you say, but one without relevance to my
game. Perhaps so. That is my very point. I have followed the Nuclear
Controversy with some interest, and notice that many of you prohibit
or restrain the use of nuclear weapons through some reference to the
law. This implies that adventurers opperate within the region where
law holds sway. It implies that adventurers opperate INSIDE the
Frontier rather than beyond it.
My question is. How many of you really believe or intend this
to be the case? How many of you deliberately intend your players
to opperate inside the bounds of an all-encompassing civilization?
How many of you chose instead to force your players to devise their
own laws, to define their own moral code without recourse to or
dependance upon the strictures of their parent civilization?
And what is the reason for your choice?
To be fair, I should answer my own questions:
In the Eight Worlds, the Frontier is defined by the orbital
defense zones of the eight major worlds (Terra, Goa, San Vincento,
The Plieades Federation, Great Belt, New Carina, Redstar, and
Outback). Outside this limited volume of space all is Wilderness.
There is no law except that which is enforced by coherent photons.
Pirates and raiders opperate with impunity. Those sapients, vessels,
the prey of such.
The major worlds do occasionally send forth their navies to
enforce some kind of order. But these actions can rarely be
distinguished from the actions of the pirates and raiders they
purport to oppose ("Nice planet you've got there squire. Be a
pity if anything happened to it. You should join the New Carinan
Mutual Defense Alliance.")
Matters were not always thus. Legend tells of a time centuries
past when the entire Orion Arm flourished in peaceful prosperity
under the benign rule of the Terran Imperium. But those days, if
they existed at all, are centuries gone. The Empire was destroyed
centuries ago, if it was ever more than a myth.
I run such a campaign for two reasons.
First, I have always been fascinated by the Wilderness. I do
not wish to live there myself. If I were to be suddenly transported
to the Eight Worlds, my lifetime would probably be measured in minutes.
But I enjoy exploring such an existance in the comfort and safety of
my own living room.
Second, a world without laws is a sort of moral mirror. The
characters which opperate such a world, and to a certain extent
their players as well, must take responsibility for their own actions.
They have no one else to blame. In the process they will eventually
confront themselves, and learn if they are truly good or truly evil.
The results are often interesting...
For fun, gaming, and purple prose!
Paul R. Gazis
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