IA; Multiworld Gov'ts

One thing I neglected to make clear in my posting about Imperial
Army/Marines dispositions is that the planetary forces which are
_not_ "imperialized" are probably greater in number than the
IA forces.

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TCS shipyard capacity was 0.001 * population, in d-tons, roughly.

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Cynthia Higginbotham writes:

> Compared to the Navies of
>independent single worlds, the Imperium has an incredibly low (factor
>of 100 or more) naval strength in proportion to its population (based
>on my experience playing TCS).

Agreed.  The Sword World fleets (two of which were in _5FW_) seemed
similarly small, but I forget the figures offhand.

About the multi-world governments in the old Imperium: they weren't
_quite_ illegal.  Worlds were allowed to sponsor colonies on nearby
worlds, to get them going.  A small amount of internal conflict was
allowed, but the second things looked like they might get out of
hand, the Navy and Marines were called in.  Some cultural regions
had close pre-Imperial ties, but were usually forced to officially
act through the Imperial bureaucracy at the multi-world level.  It's
possible that some exceptions were allowed where it served the
government's interests.  For instance, the Vegans were given that
huge autonomous region near Sol to counterbalance the Solomani
Confederation.  They were even allowed to maintain an internal
navy under their control at TL14+, many ships of which were retired
second-rate Imperial vessels, which admittedly often had the most
powerful weapons downgraded.  So it's possible the Imperium did
this very occasionally on a smaller scale -- but they kept a real
close watch on them.  They probably didn't have too much trouble.

After all, the Imperium was pretty good at object lessons.  What
they did to Ilelish during the early years is an example.  I'm
sure that when the Solomani lost Earth, quite a few people breathed
a sigh of relief that the Imperium didn't dare to put the Terran
tropical regions to the nuclear sword, even after an evac.

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Yeah, I killed the Emperor in one pre-MT campaign, too.  A friend
of mine had just gotten the GDW Zhodani, and I read it cover to
cover and was inspired.  This was the high-power campaign with a
PC playing the "Duke of Egyrn", so I appointed him special ambassador
to Zhodane with instructions to discuss the "Pa'an Question" which
was unresolved after the 5FW.  (He started out as an IISS Imperial
Warrant psionic agent, and worked his way up the noble ladder over
the course of the campaign, so he was a vehemently anti-Zho psi,
which threw another wrench into the works.)

Essentially, over the course of negotiations, he and his retinue
got to know the Zhodani, and slowly began to "go native".  Then
the news of Strephon's assassination reached Zhodane.  When it
became clear that the Zhodani were more interested in the Core
Expedition (which he had known nothing about, of course) than
the attack on the Marches he expected, he became very confused.

A replacement arrived to discuss the new situation, and he was
recalled.  The Imperium collapsed into a Second Civil War, the
Marches dominated by a "Regina Free State" around Norris.  So
he ended up working to stabilize the area behind the claw....
As I recall, Strephon was killed circa 1117 or 1118, so the
Zhodani found out circa 1118-1120.  It's been a while.

The bizarre thing is, I didn't really _plan_ any of these new
developments in advance, they just sort of *happened* as I went
along, because they seemed to fit the plot so well.

I knew the scenario had worked because afterward, the PC playing
the Duke came up to me and said, "God, Steve, you've not only got
me *liking* the Zhodani, I might want to ally with them!  The Zho
are either *incredible* propogandists, or I've lost my mind!" :)
Best campaign I ever ran.  High power campaigns can be fun!

  Steve Bonneville
  [email removed]