Rim Dawn Campaign [Research]

[Sturn]

As stated in the other thread, I'm going forward with a campaign set among the pocket empires of the Solomani Rim at the end of the Long Night (no exact date yet). Can someone think of a catchier but still descriptive name then, "Rim Dawn?" [Edit - Currently going with "Terran Dawn", can't figure out how to change the title]

First step, research. ((should this thread be somewhere else?))






Here are the resources I have thus far:

• Supplement 10: Solomani Rim - the first and primary resource, modern era.
• Alien Module 1: Aslan - some history correlates with the Rim.
• Alien Module 7: Hivers - some history correlates with the Rim.
• Alien Module 6: Solomani.
• Gurps Rim of Fire: campaign guide, modern era.
• Gurps Interstellar Wars: pre 1st Imperium campaign (history, worlds, past ships, worlds, maps, past corporations, past governments).
• Gurps Alien Races 3: Hivers included (the race, history).
• Gurps Alien Races 2: Aslan included (the race, history, locs in the Rim).
• DonM's Intergrated Traveller Timeline (excellet timeline from many sources, thanks!).
• DGP's Solomani and Aslan
• Adv 8 - Prison Planet (world of Newcomb)
• Adv 9 - Nomads of the World Ocean (world of Bellerophon)
• Adv 11 - Murder on Arcturus Station (worlds of Arcturus, Heraklion, Scaramouche)
• Adv 13 - Signal GK (worlds of Scandia, Ochre, Cymbeline, UFC library entry)
• Dbl Adv 3 Argon Gambit / Death Station (worlds of Janosz, Gadden, history of Sol. Hypothesis)
• Dbl Adv 4 Marooned / Marooned Alone (world of Pagliacci)
• Library Data Supplements 8 & 11 (other sources more updated?)
• MT Imperial Encyclopedia Library Data (more updated then Supp 8/11?)
• Gurps Humaniti (soley for the Acheron minor human race)
• Gurps Traveller core book (for the large library section)
• Gateway University Library (website of library data)
• Traveller Wiki

What am I missing? Which old GDW adventures are set in the Rim? I have them all as reprints and on a CD, I guess I can read through them and see which have Rim information that is important. Isn't there also a DGP racial module which includes the Solomani? (edit: yes there is, found my copy in my basement)

Worlds - Supplement 10 and Rim of Fire (both set after my campaign era) combined with Interstellar Wars (set before my campaign era) should give me tons of world notes, maps, and UWPs before and after my campaign. Adventure modules set on the Rim have more world information.

History - DonM's timeline, Supplement 10, Alien Module 6, Rim of Fire, DGP's Solomani supplement, plus whatever isn't in them that I can glean from the old adventures.

Ships - I will look at Interstellar Wars ships (Solomani before my campaign) and Alien Module 6 ships (Solomani after my campaign) to get a feel of style for what they may have had in-between.

Vehicles - DGPs 101 Vehicles has several modern era Solomani vehicles that I can use for style reference. Perhaps Interstellar Wars has something also.

 

[Ran]

"Empires of the Dawn"?
"The Kingdoms of the Rim"?
"Empires Ascendant"?
"The New Dawn"?

Edit: Mongoose for the win! *I kid of course*

 

[rancke]

Here are the resources I have thus far:

• Supplement 10: Solomani Rim - the first and primary resource, modern era.
• Alien Module 1: Aslan - some history correlates with the Rim.
• Alien Module 7: Hivers - some history correlates with the Rim.
• Alien Module 6: Solomani.
• Gurps Rim of Fire: campaign guide, modern era.
• Gurps Interstellar Wars: pre 1st Imperium campaign (history, worlds, past ships, worlds, maps, past corporations, past governments).
• Gurps Alien Races 3: Hivers included (the race, history).
• Gurps Alien Races 2: Aslan included (the race, history, locs in the Rim).
• DonM's Intergrated Traveller Timeline (excellet timeline from many sources, thanks!).
• DGP's Solomani and Aslan
• Adv 8 - Prison Planet (Newcomb world map and description)
• Adv 9 - Nomads of the World Ocean (needs checked for info)
• Adv 13 - Signal GK (Scandia, Ochre, Cymbeline world description)
• Library Data Supplements 8 & 11 (needs checked for info)

What am I missing?

I wrote some library data about the Rim that was included in Traveller Chronicle #6. I think they were also included in the Reaver's Deep Sector book in the Lost Keith Collection. Both are hard to find. I'll see if I can find the file and send it to you (or post it here).

Oh, and Sword Worlds has a few bits of info about the Rim and Magyar in the years around -420.



Hans

 

[Sturn]

I wrote some library data about the Rim that was included in Traveller Chronicle #6. I think they were also included in the Reaver's Deep Sector book in the Lost Keith Collection. Both are hard to find. I'll see if I can find the file and send it to you (or post it here).

Oh, and Sword Worlds has a few bits of info about the Rim and Magyar in the years around -420.

Thanks sir!

 

[Sturn]

There are many sources of library data I have access to. Is there one that is all encompassing so I don't have to sift through them all?

I have large library data sections in -

Original supplements 8 and 11
Later CT versions of above
Megatraveller library data (in Imperial Encyclopedia)
Gateway University Library (online source)
Gurps Traveller core book library entries

 

[rancke]

I wrote some library data about the Rim that was included in Traveller Chronicle #6. I think they were also included in the Reaver's Deep Sector book in the Lost Keith Collection. Both are hard to find. I'll see if I can find the file and send it to you (or post it here).

My copy of the Reavers' Deep Sector book has been temporarily mislaid, but I've dug out my library data somewhere else. I can't guarantee that all three were included in the book (although I think so), but in any case the book is so obscure (around 100 copies, IIRC) that for all intent and purposes it's no kind of canon anyway. So think of the entries below as mere suggestions.

However, I did put quite a lot of thought and research into writing them, and I'm pretty sure they're all canon-compatible. For one thing, they explain how the Rule of Man managed to enforce its regulations long after it had dissolved .

Rim Province: Administrative division of the Second Empire comprising most of the defunct Terran Confederation. It is, depending on what historian you ask either one of the first or one of the last parts of the Rule of Man to succumb to the Long Night. It was one of the first areas to loose contact with Hub; in -1854 the second new governor sent out from Hub failed to reach the province's capital, Dingir, and Acting Governor Ayara Twofeathers instituted the custom of Governor-appointed successors, a system that was kept to the end of the provincial government.

The lessening flow of commerce between the rim and the core was already rendering taxes more and more meaningless, and 16 years later the province ceased to remit taxes to Hub except on an intermittent basis. For a while Dingir tried to keep up payments in the form of precious metals and gems, but when the third of the treasure fleets carrying these payments failed to return, these too were discontinued.

On the other hand, the government at Dingir kept ruling "in the name of the Emperor" for another century and a half, keeping the peace and enforcing Rule of Man regulations. It collapsed finally in -1690, when a huge budget deficit forced the government to decommission two thirds of the already decimated provincial fleets and turn over the rest to various individual planets and the Terran Mercantile Community.


Terran Mercantile Community: Loose trade association formed in -1862 by Terra and her closest ex-colonies that later grew into a corporation. Ostensibly a purely commercial organization, it was actually a means of circumventing Rule of Man prohibitions against member planets having their own navies. The TMC built a merchant fleet that toed a very fine line between commercial ships and naval vessels. The ships carried enough armament to protect themselves from pirates and raiders, but not enough to classify them as naval vessels. Their merchant fleet made Terra and her fellow worlds in the TMC a formidable commercial force.

When the Rule of Man in the form of the Rim Province collapsed in -1690, The Terran Mercantile Community had a space fleet to patrol its systems and to replace the now gone Second Empire fleets. The TMC's merchant fleet cushioned the blow of the Long Night and made it possible for Terra to survive in relative comfort.

The TMC took over many of the functions of the Rule of Man (though abandoning the extreme edges of the old Rim Province), but was careful at first not to assume the mantle of government. By avoiding the appearance of ruling it avoided alienating the other planets and driving them into forming their own unions. Relying on the protection of the TMC ships were cheaper than building their own, and the TMC itself took pains not to be perceived as a threat.

For several centuries the TMC managed to maintain this delicate balance, but the steadily worsening commercial climate eventually forced them to retrench. Like the Rim Province before it, the TMC found the strain of protecting the furthest worlds too much of a burden. From -1500 on other Rule of Man successor states in Alpha Crucis, Dark Nebula, Magyar and Reavers' Deep routinely raided worlds on the fringe of the TMC sphere, but although this was a contributing strain, it was not the primary factor. The Reaver Era ended before the end of the TMC, and Reaver attacks in any case concentrated on fringe worlds that had already been abandoned by the TMC and lost interstellar technology. The primary factors were economic depression and a widespread trend toward isolationism, causing a shift to planetary self-reliance at the expense of interplanetary trade.

When the Easter Concord in -1112 severed its economic ties to the TMC and other worlds began talking of forming their own unions, the TMC decided to cut its losses. In -1110 the corporation formally transformed into the Old Earth Union, abandoning all worlds outside the Union to their own devices, and becoming a small, tight group instead of a large, loose one.


Old Earth Union: Interstellar government from -1110 to 588 comprising Terra and the worlds closest to her: Barnard, Calgary, Dismal, Ember, Fenris, Forlorn, Hades, Heiphaistos, Inferno, Junction, Loki, Midway, Peraspera, Prometheus, Sirius, and Ys. Fleet bases were also maintained at Aggida, Markhashi, and Meshan -- all within jump-3 of Terra -- but these systems were not considered part of the Union proper. Aggida was a balkanized world and thus unable to send representatives to the Union Council, and both Markhashi and Mendam had been abandoned during the recession that followed the fall of the Rim Province in -1690.

The Union was formed in -1110 out of the Terran Mercantile Community as a response to worsening economic conditions. Although experiencing some problem -- a short, vicious tradewar with the newly formed Dingir League from -1106 to -1098 put a severe strain on both sides -- the Union proved strong enough to defend itself from any seroius threat during the rest of the Long Night, and in 588 it was peacefully incorporated into the Imperium.


Easter Concord: (-1572 to 426) A stable confederation centered on the Concord Subsector of the Solomani Rim, founded early in the Long Night. During the troubles occasioned by the fall of the Rule of Man, the major worlds of the area formed a union for mutual defense, with its capital at Easter (1802 Solomani Rim).

In its early days the Concord maintained close economic ties to the Terran Mercantile Community, but worsening conditions led to the Concord going its own way in -1112, triggering the dissolution of the Community two years later.

The Easter Concord grew into a trade and commerce union as well, and remained a secure bastion of civilization throughout the Long Night, being formally dissolved only upon its admission into the Third Imperium in 426.

Enjoy.


Hans

 

[rancke]

There are many sources of library data I have access to. Is there one that is all encompassing so I don't have to sift through them all?

We're trying to get there at the Traveller Wiki (http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page, but it's a lot of work and only a handful of volunteers to do it (Feel free to come and help us ). At the moment there are well over 5000 entries (6,509 as of this moment, but some of them are empty, stubs, or incomplete), so you should be able to find a lot. But all-encompassing... sorry.


Hans

 

[Sturn]

We're trying to get there at the Traveller Wiki (http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page, but it's a lot of work and only a handful of volunteers to do it (Feel free to come and help us ).

Hans

If I get a chance I might be able to add some M0 entries since much of that stuff is still in my head.

 

[Sturn]

Rim Province: Administrative division of the Second Empire comprising.......

Thanks Hans just noticed this post, almost missed it.

Where did you get the Rim Province information from? I haven't read through my stack of research books yet, but don't recall the Rim Province. Was this your own creation? It makes sense as a historical gap filler.

The Old Earth Union, Easter Accord, and TMC I have read about.

 

[rancke]

Thanks Hans just noticed this post, almost missed it.

Where did you get the Rim Province information from? I haven't read through my stack of research books yet, but don't recall the Rim Province. Was this your own creation? It makes sense as a historical gap filler.

The Old Earth Union, Easter Accord, and TMC I have read about.

Originally my idea (lthough it's pretty obvious that both the Ziru Sirka and the RoM would need a province that covered the Rim), but Jon Zeigler used the name in Rim of Fire (p. 38, 50). I think he came up with a Vilani name for it too, but I can't find it.


Hans

 

[Starviking]

Nice stuff Hans.