Pangalactic Politics

[ShapeShifter]

Has anyone ever thought of using the NPC reaction table, but instead of using it for just interpersonal contact, applied it instead to developing a super-game involving the interrelationships of potentially galaxy-spanning civilisations, and then using such results as a backdrop for a CT campaign?

I've been tinkering with some notes to achieve such a result, but I'd first like to know if such grand designs have been tried by CotI posters.

 

[mike wightman]

This is definitely a 'why didn't I think of that?' moment.

Yes the reaction table could be used just the way you suggest.

Off the top of my head I can think of ways to use it world vs world, subsector vs subsector or even Imperium vs Zhodani.

It's just a matter of deciding how you arrive at DMs for the reaction roll - relative TL, degree of militarism, population, overall trade classification, that sort of thing.

Nice and simple way to deal with such stuff - I like it

 

[ShapeShifter]

The reason why I was thinking about this is because, upon seeing Charted Space (at the "galactic scale") on travellermap.com and how little room it takes up overall, I yearned to make use of a grander scale than being cooped up in one tiny corner of one single spiral arm.

Being a pessimist I assume that any civilisation--no matter how advanced technologically--will always have a military and find the most elaborate justifications for putting it to use. I don't share the optimistic beliefs of futurists of earlier decades (there's a strange phrase! ) who opined that, the more advanced a society was, the less likely they were to exhibit belligerent tendencies. There will always be motives for expansion, colonisation, conquest, etc.

CT already distinguishes between races who do not have jump tech and those who do. So my grand-scale galactic political experiment would only concern those who not only have jump tech (and, to violate the rulebooks, jump tech of kiloparsec ranges) but have used it over thousands of years to establish vast empires, federations, colonies, etc. throughout whole octants or even quadrants of a galaxy. After multiple jump-capable races develop and expand over millennia the vastness of the galaxy will seem like an uncomfortably crowded parlour. Conflicts--and juicy gaming possibilities--are bound to ensue!

 

[FreeTrav]

This sounds like a wonderful idea for Freelance Traveller - do please work it out and write it up with some expository text, and send it on to us at editor@freelancetraveller.com or submissions@freelancetraveller.com ...

 

[ShapeShifter]

This sounds like a wonderful idea for Freelance Traveller - do please work it out and write it up with some expository text, and send it on to us at editor@freelancetraveller.com or submissions@freelancetraveller.com ...

I may consider it. I will have to do some extensive playtesting first.

I thought I'd start off my article thusly:

Tired of being cooped up in that tiny flyspeck boastfully called the Third Imperium?
Here's a chance to develop massive, galaxy-spanning civilisations over millennia!


:rofl:

 

[ShapeShifter]

One part of my rules will be to generate species for various galaxy-spanning civilisations. I'm racking my brains to remember other obscure words, many ending in -oid, -ian, etc. If anyone can think of others, let me know!

SPECIES TYPE
Roll 4D

4 Ophidian, Serpentine, Colubrine
5 Porcine
6 Ichthyoid, Piscine
7 Saurian ("Dinosaur-like")
8 Amoeboid
9 Plant, Fungi
10 Insectile, Vermicular
11 Ursoid
12 Canine, Lupine
13 Humanoid, smaller height and/or stockier build.
14 Humanoid, normal height and configuration.
15 Humanoid, greater height and/or thinner build.
16 Feline
17 Equine
18 Ornithoid, Avian
19 Mammalian, incl. Cetacean
20 Reptilian (not Saurian), incl. Draconic
21 Amphibian
22 Arachnoid
23 Silicate
24 Strange, Unknown, , Hybrid*, Other**

* Mermen/Mermaids would be a hybrid of 13-15 plus 6; Centaur (K'kree) a hybrid of 13-15 plus 17; Vargr a fusion of 13-15 and 12; Aslan, 13-15 and 16; "Winged Folk" (Dragon Magazine, #51, p. 18 ff.) a hybrid of 13-15 plus 18, and so on.

** e.g. Hive, Swarm, Nepheloid (where individuals cannot function fully--or at all--on their own); Artificial (droid, robotic, computer).

 

[FreeTrav]

I'm going to strongly urge you to think carefully about the species that you come up with; too often, I see aliens which just break WSOD because their advertised capabilities are either unjustifiable evolutionarily, or, even if justifiable, beyond what their physiology as described would allow.

The failure is often especially egregious when dealing with "hybrid" species, or with species advertised as parasitic or symbiotic.

 

[robject]

[...] my grand-scale galactic political experiment would only concern those who not only have jump tech (and, to violate the rulebooks, jump tech of kiloparsec ranges) [...]

One part of my rules will be to generate species for various galaxy-spanning civilisations.

Okay, just those two statements alone makes me, humbly, suggest you look into the beta release of Traveller 5, which has tables for the former, and a consistent, extensible system for the latter.

 

[ShapeShifter]

Thank you for the input, gents!

The species table is an (admittedly whimsical) add-on late in the writing process.

The bulk of this excursion is an emphasis on massive-scale galaxy-wide political/social interaction among polities (which can very well be all homo sapiens sapiens for all I care, frankly) with a TL great enough to allow relatively swift domination of large regions of the galaxy over tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. Thus, J-6 ain't gonna cut it, folks.

I am primarily interested huge phenomena which can shape a civilisation: expansion (colonies), internal fragmentation (civil war, economic woes, colonial independence movements, etc.), external conflict (warfare by various justifications), successful (or failed) trade relationships, technological or natural disasters, religious schism, terrorism, and so on. Students and educators of human history can certainly add to this list of phenomena.

The key to this is THINK VERY BIG!

 

[Commander Truestar]

This is definitely a 'why didn't I think of that?' moment.

I agree! That is a great idea

Marc

 

[FreeTrav]

Shapeshifter, please write to me separately at editor@freelancetraveller.com. I have an idea of my own that just might make for an interesting joint project.

 

[Peter Schutze]

>I am primarily interested huge phenomena which can shape a civilisation: expansion (colonies), internal fragmentation (civil war, economic woes, colonial independence movements, etc.), external conflict (warfare by various justifications), successful (or failed) trade relationships, technological or natural disasters, religious schism, terrorism, and so on. Students and educators of human history can certainly add to this list of phenomena.

lack of frontier / shared goals leading to stagnation then collapse

at the galactic empire scale unless populations are sparse, natural disasters are going to be static. even a supernovea is only going to be news for about 100ly unless its a key world

 

[ShapeShifter]

>I am primarily interested huge phenomena which can shape a civilisation: expansion (colonies), internal fragmentation (civil war, economic woes, colonial independence movements, etc.), external conflict (warfare by various justifications), successful (or failed) trade relationships, technological or natural disasters, religious schism, terrorism, and so on. Students and educators of human history can certainly add to this list of phenomena.

lack of frontier / shared goals leading to stagnation then collapse

at the galactic empire scale unless populations are sparse, natural disasters are going to be static. even a supernovea is only going to be news for about 100ly unless its a key world

Hm. Well...*brainstorms a bit*...a black hole or supernova may not be natural after all. Didn't the CT canon Ancients have tech to make whole planets go BOOM? They might also have had tech to create black holes in sensitive places or cause a heavily-populated system's star to go POP. o:

 

[ShapeShifter]

post deleted.