CT Only: LBB:0 Hidden Setting

[boomslang]

While we work on the setting, we do need to keep in mind that a campaign has to be run in it. I see free trader and mercenary campaigns being severely restricted by suggestions so far.

I designed it quite to the contrary. To whit:

Mercenaries will run rampant outside of Federation Space, and may find ample opportunities within Federation Space to train/cadre/augment local Militias without the system's government needing to run to the FIN/FMC to protect them from every little off-world menace that crops up (including rival member worlds). Bolstering mainworld defenses by "outsourcing" will be at the discretion of local commanders. Surreptitiously hiring mercs (through a cut-out) for plausibly-deniable hostile actions in somebody else's backyard that politically or economically benefit your own homeworld will be a Standard Operating Procedure. And worlds that do not like it can bring their complains and demands for redress directly the MolaFed Senate when it next convenes in oh, about 6 months.

Free Traders will be ubiquitous throughout the area; the FMM will only constrain subsidy holders -- while making a nice profit off of FMB loans to any independents who want to take on the debt load. Other than making blatant piracy in the core systems a problematic business model, what restrictions do you see on Free Trade? Without megacorporations (cough, cough, Tukera, cough) to control supply & demand while cheating freely, the Moladon Federation and Environs should be a Trader's Paradise. No "tradewars," just underserved markets.

As to the Previous War, there will need to be either 1) a substantial outside aggressor as yet unidentified, or else 2) occasional insurrections and/or civil wars sparked by xenophobic groups that are not really that fond of the corrupting influences of cultural exchange and (for example) would love to see a terrorist attack on Moladon itself as payback.

This ain't Star Trek; the Moladon Federation strives to be a happy, orderly place, but as a practical matter, there are plenty of opportunities for shenanigans everywhere -- especially on the frontier. Which is where the initial action is set in the LBB0 description.

 

[mike wightman]

The outer subsector member worlds of the federation could well be like those great members of the USA - Dodge City, Deadwood, Tombstone etc.

The federation may extend by giving land grants - even if the worlds they grant land on are already occupied...

 

[boomslang]

The federation may extend by giving land grants - even if the worlds they grant land on are already occupied...

Heh.

The Federation might need even need to formally make the grants -- a syndicate of "entrepreneurs" on some enterprising member world or worlds might take it upon itself to "uplift" a nearby/troublesome/rich non-member world and find itself needing to bring a little military and/or economic leverage to get their client up to snuff enough to apply for Federation membership... in the fullness of time, of course, and once there has been an ample (and sustained) return on the initial "investment."

On the other hand, the Federation officially condoning this lucrative/exploitative practice by issuing formal land grants on the flimsiest of pretexts might be just the thing that got its peer/rival alarmed-enough to start that big war a century ago...

 

[Brandon C]

I designed it quite to the contrary. .

You moved the (private) merchant service to a merchant marine and are having the federation more tightly control commerce than the LBBs suggest they are controlled.

 

[mike wightman]

I've always seen it this way.

The LBB:1 Merchant career is a career within an organised merchant service - government backed merchant marine or megacorporation it is still an organisation of considerable stature.

Post career Traveller 'free trader' is not part of the career Merchant - otherwise you would just serve another term as a Merchant rather than adventure.

 

[boomslang]

You moved the (private) merchant service to a merchant marine and are having the federation more tightly control commerce than the LBBs suggest they are controlled.

The FMM only "controls" commerce through providing subsidies and baseline freight and passenger pricing, as per B2.

Free Traders in this setting may operate wherever they please and sell for whatever they can get; there are no business restrictions on them except for the establishment of a baseline framework for service rates and prices, and no external obligations upon them other than making their mortgage payments.

Just like it works in BT/CT.

The merchant service is, in fact, no longer private, but Free Traders are not necessarily a part of it, unless they spend their prior careers on subbies, and those vessels have always been subject to mobilization to meet government need, as a condition of the subsidy. I am still not seeing the problem or incompatibility here.

 

[mike wightman]

Let's turn to the initial subsector for adventure.

A few federation worlds, but quite a lot rougher and wilder then the core worlds. A FIN base and a couple of scout bases.

A few two/three world polities. The rest randomly generated and lets see what adventure potential we get.

 

[boomslang]

Also, at this juncture, I am inclined to address the issue of the sixth digit of the Universal Personality Profile: SOC.

RFC...

Given that the Federation was in part founded to move away from at least the appearance of a feudal hierarchy (in favor of a multi-layered Democratic Republic, as such), I would approach SOC as a raw score reflecting an individual's socio-economic status within the Federation (or in the eyes of the Federation), and consider the noble, and in some cases, hereditary, "ranks" used in the 3I as simply superfluous here (much in the same way ranks have different interpretations within the prior services, SOC carries different -- or even non-existent -- titles at its various levels outside of the 3I -- or any non-feudal -- context).

I note that the MolaFed itself is specifically not some sort of Marxist, egalitarian Utopia; it is a classed, commerce-centric society (and an expansionist one, at that). As such, SOC reflects the social status and perhaps most crucially, the level of privilege, which the individual currently enjoys and has previously lived under. It therefore continues to act as a DM on Reaction Rolls when meeting folks from similar, or indeed from different, backgrounds.

It is conceivable that in the interests of promoting social mobility (hopefully upward, but also downward as may be appropriate to individual aptitudes), the Federation Council might simply impose a blanket, aggressively progressive inheritance tax, and then sit back to rest on its laurels and rake in the fattened tax revenues, congratulating itself on empowering the masses while devolving the implementation details and the need to address any shortcomings in the policy down to the local governments, all in the name of efficiency and self-determination.

In addition, I would not suggest MolaFed SOC is anywhere nearly as fluid as Charisma is in Vargr culture (for example), but SOC should be subject to modest revisions over time as may be warranted by lifestyle choices and/or personal achievements and/or The Caprices of Fate, while also being anchored by achievements and reputation brought forward from a Traveller's prior service.

(Thus, it is not entirely coincidental that a distinguished career in the FIN tends to bring officers into the socio-political limelight, and even Planetary Militia flag officers can rise to interstellar prominence from time to time.)

Finally, I would suggest that, similar to how the FSS handles the Survey duties and standardizes Universal Planetary Profiles, they also handle Census duties and standardize Universal Personality Profiles for a specific reason. As an appendix to world survey data, the FSS will also assess "measures of central tendency" in the aggregate population; specifically looking at the median and the mode SOC at all levels of the target world.

A society (speaking typically at the mainworld or solar system level here) should ideally have a median SOC value of 7 or higher, indicating that at least half of the studied population is at or above an acceptable standard of living. The modal SOC plot should also show a roughly-symmetrical Poisson Distribution (or "Bell Curve") about the median, ideally with short tails on either side of it. If the distribution shows too many people existing too far away -- on either or both sides of the median -- the class structure of that society is becoming too stratified and is trending dangerously back towards feudalism (or even oligarchy), and the FSS will be sent in to, as gently and indirectly as possible, remediate. Which is but one of many reasons I can think of as to why Scout Bases are occasionally located on worlds with Class A or B starports.

How's all that sound?

 

[boomslang]

Let's turn to the initial subsector for adventure.

A few federation worlds, but quite a lot rougher and wilder then the core worlds. A FIN base and a couple of scout bases.

A few two/three world polities. The rest randomly generated and lets see what adventure potential we get.

And average stellar density, please.

 

[boomslang]

OK, busy week behind me now; I will see if I can generate a half-dozen or so random subsectors over the weekend, and see if any look promising as candidates for a starting place.

More nomenclature:

I am still favoring a 5 subsectors tall (coreward-rimward) by 6 subsectors wide (spinward-trailing) map. I propose calling this plot a "ward" as it encompasses a single major interstellar polity. Wards may vary in size, but we are only dealing with a single one here, so that is moot for now.

The component subsectors may then be identified (for any size ward, in fact) by using a grid system wherein the coreward-to-rimward-running columns of subsectors are numbered 1 through (as there are six of them here) 6, starting from the spinward edge. Similarly, spinward-to-trailing-running rows of subsectors are identified by Anglic letters A through (again, because there are five of them here) E, from coreward heading rimward.

Thus, the subsector comprising the spinward-coreward corner in the upper left of the map of the Moladon Federation ward is designated A1, and the rimward-trailing-most subsector is E6. The core worlds of the Federation comprise the dense subsectors of C3 and C4 -- and this should yield ~120 worlds in the core, packed-in closely.

The ten subsectors surrounding this core, B2 through B5, C2, C5, and D2 through D5, are all standard density, with approximately 40 worlds each, half of which are Federation and the other half are not -- this should yield ~20 Federation worlds per each of the "fringe" subsectors, for another ~200 in subtotal, giving us the 300+ in the original description.

The eighteen (!) subsectors surrounding these, A1 through A6, B1 and B6, C1 and C6, D1 and D6, and E1 through E6, are sparse, and home to still more non-Federation systems and alliances -- with a few (deliberately-placed) corridors (or even mains) heading off to adjacent wards that are home to other major polities and/or alien realms and/or uncharted space that has only been observed remotely by telescopes.

Our starting point will be somewhere in frontier Subsector C2 (name to come later -- perhaps via a contest?), at the spinward "edge" of the MolaFed, on an interesting world that will emerge from the random/not-random generation process.

How does all that sound?

 

[boomslang]

OK, here is the first top-level pass at Subsector C2 of the Greater Moladon Ward:

@SUB-SECTOR: C2  SECTOR: Greater Moladon Ward
# 
#--------1---------2---------3---------4---------5-------
#PlanetName   Loc. UPP Code   B   Notes         Z  PBG Al
#----------   ---- ---------  - --------------- -  --- --
Baror         0104 A96A7A9-9    Wa Ri              421 BP
Xenka         0106 C633529-7  S Ni Po              202 NA
Anfasce       0107 C66A764-8    Ri Wa              123 BP
Larqarge      0108 D582534-3    Ni Pr              700 NA
Castilig      0110 A200ACB-9  N Hi In Na Va        100 CC
Kednedav      0202 A57165A-9  N He Ni              411 KC
ZERAP         0208 B577A6B-9  N Hi In              123 CC
Orurcab       0209 D445775-4  S Ag Pi              212 NA
Jusceje       0301 E666412-2  S Ni Ga Pa           234 NA
Onona         0302 C8B1745-8  S Fl He              114 MF
Bihodokace    0304 C20062A-7    Na Va Ni           703 NA
Zesysobifa    0305 B55A78C-7    Wa                 134 GC
GLAPOBFAN     0306 A726ACC-9    Hi In              302 GC
Apzefas       0307 D959110-8    Lo                 212 NA
Savsan        0308 E43367A-3    Po Ni Na        A  513 NA
Jefasob       0309 D5465AE-7    Ag Ni              100 NA
Ennesane      0402 D997644-5  S Ag Ni              205 MF
Conetiria     0403 A693636-9  N Ni                 510 KC
Zejero        0405 E611544-9    Ic Ni              123 MF
GLILXAD       0406 B9A3986-7    Hi Fl In           101 IA
Docedo        0408 D510241-6  S Lo                 102 MF
Jelafae       0503 C673459-6  S Ni                 404 NA
Ytoberbi      0505 A695744-B  N Ag Pi              503 MF
Irula         0506 A56688A-9  N Ri Ph Pa           323 IA
Ladapje       0509 D7A4341-6  S Fl Lo              110 MF
New Blavsaro  0510 C664505-9    Ag Ni Pr           135 NA
Kestrii       0601 C787644-9    Ga Ni Ag Ri        403 MF
Bijerosysa    0603 A110522-9  N Ni                 124 NA
Canonyt       0604 A887544-9  N Ag Ni Ga Pr        614 MF
Rasohatesia   0606 E211100-6    Ic Lo           A  623 NA
RARHO         0610 AAA4945-B  N Fl Hi In Cp        925 MF
Celadoia      0703 C500655-7    Na Va Ni           300 NA
San Abusae    0705 B110845-7    Na Ph Pi           123 MF
NINAVURILZA   0706 C679949-8    Hi In              124 MF
Qusrar        0707 C8B2544-6  S Fl Ni He           303 MF
Glonesaver    0708 D550544-5  S De Ni Po           422 MF
Narce         0802 B500441-9  N Ni Va              804 MF
Urirobal      0804 B535344-7    Lo                 402 MF
Kedmavobus    0805 C213141-6    Ic Lo              102 MF
Rirubasav     0809 C696746-7    Ag Pi              123 MF

I ran several passes through the trusty subsector generator at The Zhodani Base, adjusting parameters from time to time, until I got a distribution that looked even enough. There is a massive main that includes all but three worlds on the map (and Rirubasav might still be accessible from a main to Trailing; we shall see).

Then I went through by hand and applied Golan2072's "LBB3 Realism" guidelines to bump TLs up to the bare minimum to support Starport and Atmo. I did this instead of following the cumulative TL DMs from the BT/CT charts, because the latter tend to push TLs toward 3I norms, but this setting, as given, has lower-that-OTU TL caps in place, so I suppressed them where it looked appropriate.

I reduced the number of Scout bases as seemed appropriate, and grouped some worlds into homeworld-colony pairs, again as prompted. I reduced one TAS Red Zone to an Amber Zone and then assigned it to a different world.

I assigned political allegiances as plausibly and/or interestingly as struck me, modding all MF member worlds to Gov 4 and a starting LL of 4 that is adjusted up and down roughly in line with population density concerns. I moved bases around as suited me. Scout Bases are FSS-affiliated; Naval Bases are affiliated with whichever polity controls the system.

This is Subsector C2 of the Greater Moladon Ward, and I left the hexes numbered for the subsector instead of the ward.

Stellar types and non-mainworlds I may leave to others to flesh out.

I set Rarho as the MF-designated "capital" mostly because even though it is not advantageously-located, but is not as vulnerable as the lesser-industrialized Ytoberbi is. Please note that I am married to exactly none of these world names, but hey, they were automatically generated and I do like some of them.

Trade routes (and Mail routes) to follow whenever (unless someone else wants to wrestle with it); maybe as Photoshop Layers or something?

I can post a preliminary Traveller Map poster to the files area, I reckon, if anyone would rather not generate it themselves; let me know.

 

[coliver988]

I like Glapobfan...

The TravellerMap Poset API allows you to also paste in an MSEC or XML file for routes, borders, all that fun stuff. See for an example

edit: well, heck, for some reason the image does not want to show up; it is in the gallery though

 

[boomslang]

I like Glapobfan...

Glapobfan is, of course, partnered with the nearby waterworld of Zesysobifa to form the Glapozesys Concordat. Although there is a whole lot of fishing-for-export going on, this alliance is primarily for minerals extraction -- from Zesys' three asteroid belts -- to feed Glapo's booming industrial economy as the Concordat Supreme Council steers the biplanetary society rapidly in the direction of TL10 as both a hedge again future forced annexation by the MolaFed and to keep up with its other upwardly-mobile neighbor polities.

 

[boomslang]

OK, I decided to name the subsector and upload a basic map the the gallery.

Here is the link to the Cretaemus subsector.

 

[boomslang]

Worlds of the Cretaemus Subsector: 510 New Blavsaro


New Blavsaro (Cretaemus 0510 C664505-9 | Trade: Ag Ni Pr | PBG: 135 | Align: NA) is the principal thorn in the side of the Moladon Federation and its aspirations in the Cretaemus Subsector. Its location a mere one parsec from 610 Rarho is the main reason the MF administrative capital for the subsector is not located elsewhere -- 0505 Ytoberbi, for example.

A "pre-Rich" world originally held in Reserve to become a future colony of Rarho, during the last MF expansion wave into the subsector a century-plus ago "Blavvy" was quickly established as a rally point for anti-MF ex-patriots from Rarho and beyond. To this day, it remains a fortified, wealthy, and defiant nexus of resistance to the MF's long-term annexation plans for the area.


Strengths

New Blavsaro has three primary strengths, which it is has expertly leveraged and synthesized to expand its own power and influence while keeping the Moladon Federation at bay.

First and foremost is the vast mineral wealth just sitting there for the taking spread across Blavvy's three expansive asteroid belts. Blessed with a rich belt system of its own, the government and industry of Rarho had never felt the need to start the exploitation (ahem, I mean "harvesting") of the New Blavsaro belt system, and had merely been holding it in reserve for future use. Thus, the ex-pats were able to self-fund from the beginning.

Second, the system itself is very large and defensible. The FIN has enough trouble suppressing piracy within its own borders; it has not yet been able to spare and muster the fleet assets required to successfully attack and occupy a system as raider-friendly as New Blavsaro is.

Third, although there is little direct evidence, it is widely believed by all the other polities around that New Blevsaro is home not merely to the most advanced Psionic institute in the subsector, but actually functions as clearinghouse for the entire network of them for dozens of parsecs in every direction. There have been no 3I-style Psionics Supressions in this part of the galaxy ever, but psions in this campaign setting are still subject to the default public fearfulness described in the LBBs.

So, a vast secret society of telepaths sitting on top of untold mineral riches in a system whose topography makes the Hindu Kush looks like easy pickings in comparison -- it is not at all surprising that the Blavvies are anything but a pushover.


Weaknesses

New Blavsaro has no recognizable government. Civil order is somehow maintained by mutual consensus. Most likely facilitated by lots of telepathy and clairvoyance, but I dare you (or your PCs) to prove it.

New Blavsaro has two short-term goals, both of which will require significant time, effort, and resources to realize. First and foremost is the upgrading of its principal starport to B and eventually A. This will enable New Blavsaro to build and support its own interplanetary, and eventually interstellar, navy. For now, it is widely suspected that one or more of the privateers NB has contracted with maintain one or more mobile starship repair and servicing facilities hidden among the many suitable places in the system Wilds. Locating (and disabling) such facilities is a major goal of MF activity -- both overt and covert -- within the system.

For the last century or so, NB has relied on Letters of Marque (and on occasion, Reprisal as well) to attract privateers to supplement its extensive ground-based planetary defensive grid, patrol the wilds of the system for corsairs, wildcatters, claim jumpers, spies, FIN patrols, and other bad actors, and when necessary, "project force" either directly (privateeers) or indirectly (corsairs) against its enemies out-system. By design, Blavvy has plenty of liquidity and/or mineral rights with which to hire mercenary companies to do its bidding, and there is often little anyone can do to stop them -- other than perhaps out-bidding them, of course.

The other short-term goal is to boost New Blavsaro's TL to 10 and eventually at least 11, so the NB navy can at last be on an even footing with the FIN without depending on third-party hires.

Prospecting licenses are simple and easy to obtain; all that mineral wealth is not helping the resistance as long as it remains locked-up in the belts. As it has not yet achieved Rich World status, NB is an excellent market for claims and mined resources, and indeed is seeking to develop a natural monopoly on in-system buying. There are always wildcatters to contend with, but NB can always find the cash to hire mercs and even independent mining rigs to protect and bring home the goods, and even engage in a bit of recovery and/or "thieftaking" as necessary.

It is, of course, also widely believed that NB is little more than a pirate freeport, and that is often used as a pretext for aggression against it or its assets. Which brings more mercenary and privateer contract offerings as NB rushes to defend it reputation and business model.

The entire system is very much in line with the classic "Wild West" ethos.


Opportunities

New Blavsaro seeks to become an economic powerhouse for the region, and has the resources and ambition to succeed. There are already tentative long-term trade ties in place with the other, non-MF polities in the region, especially the multi-planet ones: The Castilig Confederation, The Irulan Alliance, The Baror Protectorate, The Glapobfan Commonwealth, and The Kednedav-Conetiria Pact.

New Blasaro seeks to be a raw materials source and a manufactured goods market, leveraging politics (plus some psionically-facilitated blackmail/bribery/boobytrapping where appropriate) to insure that NB does not get the proverbial "short end of the stick" in any of it.


Threats

The Moladon Federation and its vast intelligence network, plus the occasional super-competent FIN commanding officer in charge of an expeditionary force. And all those FSS bases squatted and digging-in on "developing" worlds nearly every direction the Blavvies look.

Real pirates and other worlds' privateers.

Faithless mercenary companies.

Wildcatters.

Anti-psion public sentiment.


Look, nobody said it would be easy...

 

[Brandon C]

Worlds of the Cretaemus Subsector: 510 New Blavsaro


New Blavsaro (Cretaemus 0510 C664505-9 | Trade: Ag Ni Pr | PBG: 135 | Align: NA) is the principal thorn in the side of the Moladon Federation and its aspirations in the Cretaemus Subsector. Its location a mere one parsec from 610 Rarho is the main reason the MF administrative capital for the subsector is not located elsewhere -- 0505 Ytoberbi, for example.

Rarho has 10,000 times the population and two TL Advantage. It can crush New Blavsaro whenever it wants, meaning it is no thorn in the side of Rarho or the federation.

If you want New Blavsaro as a threat to the federation, switch the society numbers (pop, gov, law and TL) for the two worlds.

 

[boomslang]

Rarho has 10,000 times the population and two TL Advantage. It can crush New Blavsaro whenever it wants, meaning it is no thorn in the side of Rarho or the federation.

I feel that you are placing too much stock in raw military might; CT/BT makes the deployment of such brute force power across interstellar distances highly problematic, by design. (To facilitate PC-scale mercenary operations, of course.)

This sort of situation is exactly why "asymmetric warfare" was invented.

And outnumbered-on-paper New Blavsaro is quite capable of waging it to the point of seriously depleting Rarho's own resources, even if those are bolstered by any additional off-world resources that the MolaFed can spare to help. "Crushing" is not possible on either a tactical or a strategic scale with current deployments. Yes, Rarho has many more people on hand and a presumably-thriving industrial economy, but being a member of the Federation, they have no interstellar navy of their own. Given that the always-stretched-thin MolaFed keeps only a light touch on member worlds regarding own-planetary matters, the best option for Rarho would be either to hire mercenary transports to haul its own militia to NB for a rumble, or else directly hire large forces of mercenaries to attack NB for it. And fiilthy-rich NB can play that latter game as well as the Rah-rahs can.

So, after a cost-benefit analysis, augmented with a strong black market in luxury Ag goods smuggled-in (or even openly-traded) from NB to decision-makers* in the Rarho government, there is not (yet) sufficient political support (Gov 4, remember) for a military campaign to crush NB. It is thought to be easier and more lucrative to simply out-earn them and reduce their market opportunities long-term, to the point that they, willingly or grudgingly, eventually return to the fold. The MF will officially back this policy, but will not let that keep it from "sweeping" the NB system as often as it can get away with looking to "suppress" "pirate" activity.

NB itself is bristling with enough laser turrets and mercenary missile boats to push back several billion credits' worth of invading hull tonnage (B2 combat gives significant advantages to the entrenched defender, and if you choose to go back to the 1977 rules, missiles are useless for bombardment until you specifically convert them to deadfall bombs -- which takes time and money and renders them unsuited for ship-to-ship combat), plus the psionically-supported planetary defenders will have all the intel they want months in advance, thanks to spies and (voluntary or otherwise) turncoats.

In an LBB2 TU, TL11 versus TL9 means bigger ships to haul more hardpoints to the field of battle (maxing out at around 2000 versus 800 dtons), but both sides are still relying on the same basic guns. TL11 does have the specific advantage of grav tanks, but they are not much of a match for space-combat weaponry, and pretty much require areo superiority, which is not going to be a given.

If you want New Blavsaro as a threat to the federation, switch the society numbers (pop, gov, law and TL) for the two worlds.

Which would then have made New Blavsaro the target of the MF campaign during the war instead of Rarho, and the scenario would persist, except for the worlds exchanging roles, with still the need to explain why the FIN left a resource-rich, conveniently-located, perfectly-conquerable-at-face-value TL9 system untouched.

The MF knows all this already, which is why instead they have the FSS building cultural bridges to otherwise unaffiliated planets nearby, to establish good relations with worlds Rarho can develop as markets for its manufactured goods before those worlds can develop sufficient industrial capacity on their own to be good markets for NB's raw materials.





* I resist the temptation to include the contemporary appellation "thought leaders" here for two reasons: 1) merely hearing or reading it makes me grind my teeth, and 2) I want to avoid any confusion over the fact that the real threat that MB poses to any polity, large or small, is in the form of its cutting-edge research in psionics.

 

[robject]

Count me in.

but minor skirmishes are constantly taking place, especially between the larger outer states.

"Especially"? Why especially? Answer: because they're jostling for power, territory, resources, what-have-you. Because we're playing King Of The Hill, and that means There Can Be Only One.

A "state" is a nation, and so should be outside the Federation. However, "outer states" is therefore a meaningless term -- what's an "inner" state? So I suspect that "STATE" means a "PROVINCE" of the Federation itself.

Thus we see that the larger outer provinces have continual disagreements on where their boundaries are exactly. That's interesting.

That leads inevitably to me thinking that the LAST war was when one of these larger outer provinces got too uppity, and was forced to release territory by the Federation Navy. That's also interesting.

Because the Federation is centralized power... but power can shift... and some provinces are big enough to think they have a shot. And that is also interesting.

This also makes me think that world or state membership in the Federation is a privilege, not a right.

 

[aramis]

Technically, a federation or confederation is a collection of states which relinquish some sovereignty for mutual benefits.

A republic is often a subtype of a federation, but not of necessity.

The term in US english has drifted in meaning because the thirteen original states in the Confederation were, in fact, sovereign until the Constitution of the Republic was ratified.

 

[boomslang]

A "state" is a nation, and so should be outside the Federation. However, "outer states" is therefore a meaningless term -- what's an "inner" state? So I suspect that "STATE" means a "PROVINCE" of the Federation itself.

This is possible, but I am leaning in favor of aramis' implied point that Federation worlds are voluntary members.

Although I was thinking of thinning it out more, I suppose the subsector immediately to Spinward of Creteamus (which would then be Subsector C1 in the Greater Moladon Ward), could be basically a mirror image of the given subsector, with a soft, politically-shifting border extending halfway in from further Spinward. This larger state might be ~100 worlds in size, at least TL10 overall, and with varying leverage on fringe worlds of the MolaFed, especially those that have recently decided to cast their lot in with the Federation for some measure of protection and economic opportunity.

The Creteamus Subsector would then have been a major avenue of the most recent interstellar war, and thus at present remain relatively rife with old battle sites, derelicts, abandoned bunkers, and so on -- more adventure hooks for those Refs and PCs who might be inclined toward such pursuits.