Alenzar / Reidain / 3229 Foreven

[Golan2072]

Thread Resurrect

To expand on things a bit, I've lately been looking at Foreven and Far Frontiers with something resembling distaste.

While it seems obvious that exploration and colonization should have extended two sectors spinward of the Imperium, I still don't like it, and so IMTU things are different.


Natural Path into Reidain

Alenzar is on a path into the subsector. The player's ship is a plain Type A. Therefore, I assume it's a jump-1 path. In other words, not the same as the current charts we have of Foreven.


My Proto-Traveller Setting

Hollis exists, has an Imperial Scout base, but not a garrison.

There is no Avalar Consulate, no Mnemosyne Principality, no Marrakesh Trade Assoc, no Katanga Empire, and the Zhodani are not in subsectors E or F -- and may not be in subsectors A and B, either.

Subsector N of Far Frontiers replaces Subsector N of Foreven. Its little pocket empires are the only ones in the sector.

... but now I'm concerned about the Keith Brothers' other adventures in the sector...

There are some other, "free", colonized worlds.

There are many uncolonized, "free" worlds, owned by unconquered "aliens".

There's no sector survey available to players.

*YET ANOTHER* Resurrect...

I love this! An open frontier, very backwater and with no big government, and not even a thorough survey, would be very fun to play in. The question is how to keep it from being over-developed due to having neighboring Imperial subsectors in the Marches for centuries? Maybe the Imperium has exhausted its drive to expand, and now expands very slowly?

 

[rancke]

I love this! An open frontier, very backwater and with no big government, and not even a thorough survey, would be very fun to play in. The question is how to keep it from being over-developed due to having neighboring Imperial subsectors in the Marches for centuries? Maybe the Imperium has exhausted its drive to expand, and now expands very slowly?

That is a big problem with the Imperium. Not only does it not have a real frontier, but it has also had a millenium to explore what it does have.

My suggestion would be to do what I did with Leviathan set in in Year 400 (or earlier).

An alternative is to create a newly opened frontier by changing things around a bit, as I describe in post #19 of this very thread (A slightly more detailed version of the same material can be found in post #36 of this other thread).


Hans

 

[Golan2072]

That is a big problem with the Imperium. Not only does it not have a real frontier, but it has also had a millenium to explore what it does have.

Exactly my problem as well. All frontiers are locked by rival polities; no wide-open, boundless frontier with big mysteries waiting to be explored. I guess that a stable, 1108-years old Imperium is a difficult place to set a frontier game in - I agree with you that, say, 400 Imperial, or even during the Long Night, would be far more open settings in terms of a frontier.

 

[mike wightman]

The only other option, which is highly unlikely, would be to retcon the Imperial expansion into the Spinward Marches to a much later date.

Keep the Vargr campaign dates as they are and we have the Corridor campaign ending in 348, only after that can meaningful expansion into Deneb and on to the Spinward Marches.

The first frontier war could be due to the Imperial Colonisation feet being met with resistance from the Zhodani, which gives you a window of 350 to 585 for the movement across Deneb and into the Spimward Marches.

True development of the Spinward Marches is thus pushed forward to starting post first frontier war or even post Civil War.

Five hundred years of colonisation and development is plenty of time to produce the Spinward marches we have today.

 

[rancke]

The only other option, which is highly unlikely, would be to retcon the Imperial expansion into the Spinward Marches to a much later date.

Keep the Vargr campaign dates as they are and we have the Corridor campaign ending in 348, only after that can meaningful expansion into Deneb and on to the Spinward Marches.

The first frontier war could be due to the Imperial Colonisation feet being met with resistance from the Zhodani, which gives you a window of 350 to 585 for the movement across Deneb and into the Spimward Marches.

True development of the Spinward Marches is thus pushed forward to starting post first frontier war or even post Civil War.

Five hundred years of colonisation and development is plenty of time to produce the Spinward marches we have today.

I guess that would work too, but it would involve scrapping a lot of the historical material that I've developed and doing quite a bit of new development. I'm not prepared to do that. But someone else might enjoy it. It would make for an excellent alternate universe.


Hans

 

[mike wightman]

It's just a couple of date changes

I could never reconcile the SM being colonised within the first century of the Imperium's founding, and yet Corridor wasn't secure until 348.

 

[rancke]

It's just a couple of date changes

It's a lot more than that to me.

I could never reconcile the SM being colonised within the first century of the Imperium's founding, and yet Corridor wasn't secure until 348.

I had a problem with that myself, but I came up with an explanation. (I wonder if Robert used it in MgT: Deneb or what he came up with himself if not.)


Hans

 

[inexorabletash]

Whither Far Frontiers?

So here's a question that I ponder...

Let's say the Far Frontiers / Afachtiabr sector as described by Dale Kemper and James Kundert, printed in FASA's Skyraiders, Ares Magazine and The Traveller Chronicle, was accepted more or less as-is. What additional constraints would this place on Foreven?

The only directly intruding polity is the Mnemosyne Principality. What else is implied?