RE: TNE Background #7

>What's your take on the organization of the RC government and the issues I
raised above?
  The RC is governed by a representative democracy, with representation based
on population (although all planets are guaranteed one vote). There are many
sub-factions, but the two most powerful are the Centrist bloc, who are in favor
of a strong central government based on the Feudal Technocracy model, and the
Federalists, who are in favor of a looser organization which allows worlds to
develop their own social systems. In all, the RC is a fairly organized
governmental entity (at least for a relatively new government), It doesn't
sound at all to me like the "Space Vikings" of H. Beam Piper fame. (By the way
what's the name of that book? I'd like to read it.)
  The RCES is an organized (although again loosely) group similar to the old
Imperial INterstellar Scout Service in some ways. It has four major functions
according to PATH OF TEARS, pages 30-31:
   DISCOVERY: Basic exploration and information-gathering. The Discovery
Mission Statement reads "Identify and locate key resources neccesary to
establish interstellar commerce." This is performed in two ways. Missions
codenamed "Stardust" are purely scientific missions, such as initial surveys
of systems or unihabited worlds. Missions codenamed "Moonshadow" are missions
of covert contact with intelligent inhabitants of a world for intelligence
gathering purposes.
   RECOVERY: "Secure and preserve those assets currently in the Wilds
neccesary to the establishment of interstellar commerce." These also come in
two brands: Cold Recovery missions, where the tech is abandoned or sentient
resistance is not expected, and Hot Recovery, where those who have the tech
want to keep it. All missions against TED's (Technologically Elevated
Dictatorships) fall into this category. These are the missions commonly known
as "Smash and Grab" missions.
    INTEGRATION: Actual integration of inhabited worlds into the RC. Quoting
from the book, "Diplomacy is the preferred means of integrating a world into
the Coalition". When the people like the government, and it treats them well,
the RC tags the planet TDO (Trade and Diplomacy Only), no SAG's allowed.
A Charismatic Dictator who was loved by his people and benevolent toward them
would not be overthrown.
    A second type of Integration method is Pacification. Only two worlds have
been integrated this way, but there will undoubtably be more. INteresting to
note that the Third IMperium (and the two preceding) engaged in this practice
as well. It's almost neccesary; allowing pockets of resistance within your
space would make as much sense as allowing Missouri to be an independant nation
in the middle of the US, especially if they were hostile. Admittedly, this is
distasteful (as I'm sure it is to many within the RC) and I intend to stay
away from this kind of thing.
     REGENERATION is the final step; helping the worlds to rebuild their
technological base and reestablishing interstellar commerce. This is, as the
book points out, the major goal of the RC. Two operations are used here;
Commerce with Free Traders and RC merchants, and Bootstrap operations, where
the members function much as Peace Corps members do, helping the people relearn
the technology they need.

   I'll post later about our specific campaign activities; this post is long
enough :)
          Allen