Subject: Lawlessness and Frontiers
Date: Mon Nov 13 16:01:18 1989
Message-Id: [email removed]
From: [email removed] (Richard Johnson)
My two cents worth on Frontiers...
As an experiment, I made up one subsector, nestled between the
Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate, as a rational anarchy. This
is an extremely loose confederation of worlds that maintains its
own peculiar codes of behavior, mainly for self-protection.
Location:
It is just beyond the frontiers of both empires. Sort of a "neutral
zone" that neither empire wants to disrupt. This allows the confederation
to "borrow" liberally from both cultures without fear of armed response.
Law:
The confederates figured out if they went the way of imperial caste/
democracy, the Zhodani would have to interfere. Likewise, if they
became socialist, the imperium would send ships. Thus they formally
declared themselves an "anarchy", proclaiming the rights of each
individual the highest morality.
The consequense has been that people walk around "packing" fairly
heavy arms, but are incredibly polite. Insurance companies have
a lot of influence, but only over people they insure -- and a LOT
of people have opted for chancing their own liability.
Characters (and players) have had really mixed feelings about
their adventures in this subsector. Those who are inclined to
commerce love it - no taxes. Those who were born high-caste
hate it - no one cowtows to them, and they feel "threatened" by
all those guns.
Frontier:
I think the frontier here, really, is in human relations. Characters
and players find lots of interesting, new, ways to relate.
I'll talk about this subsector more, only if you ask for it (I'm
trying really hard to cut down on talking).
Richard Johnson
[email removed]
All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator.
Submissions: [email removed], or [email removed]
Administrator: [email removed] (James Perkins)
The TML is made possible by facilities provided by Tektronix, Inc.