Out of the Darkness - Discussion thread

[Hyphen]

Dear Folks -

Originally posted by Liam Devlin:
Others have posted on the topic of IRIS since today, and what Frank Chadwick wrought, Mr. Nilsen undid. Too late to Monday-morning quarterback that call--not with 1248, OoTD out now.

MJD took his take on it, as I recall, and made his decision. He was after all the man with the ball. As partial as I am to your point of view, Kafka47, I had to concede in the scheme of things at the end of the day, they were an opportunistic player, not the "Star Chamber" men they portrayed themselves to be.

FWIW, Charles Gannon created IRIS. It appeared a couple of issues of Challenge magazine, where it was specifically stated to be a variant.

Dave Nilsen invalidated it in Survival Margin (the first product he wrote, BTW) in what many of us think was one of the cleverest retconned solutions to a "canon problem". Dave's argument was that if any group was supposed to be Emperor-brokers, it should have been, y'know, the Moot.

I was going to have IRIS be an invention of the highest-remaining MoJ official not on Capital, probably someone in the Rimard region, who evacuated from near-Terran space to Margaret's Domain.

(I haven't yet bought OotD - my home PC is currently DEAD DEAD DEAD - to find out what Martin did!)

 

[Liam Devlin]

Good YTU idea Hyphen!

 

[MJD]

I inherited a right can of worms in some respects.

OoTD is an overview of course. It deals with the larger pocket empires - say 3-4 subsectors. You can infer if you like that the Reavers Deep ones are less than this size now and so didn't merit inclusion on grounds of space bloat (the history was half a book long as was!).

Now, if you infer this and want to talk about product set in Reaver's Deep, I'd be listening...

 

[TheEngineer]

Hi !

Time moves on more slowly in my place, so it took a bit longer to get thru the new stuff.

"Out of the darkness" is just a great new baseline for a new age in the continued timeline of the TU.
The perfect thing is, that this setting really offers a way to use most of the already collected adventurering or campaign material with just minor tweaks, as nearly any setting environment is represented somewhere.
The fragmented and diverse structure of this TU offers many many new chances for adventuring (and authoring, too).

Yes, as Mal stated, there were really dark and devasting times, but at least civilisation survived as it did before in the Long Night or in the times of civil war.

Years ago I played a "Timer" campaign, carrying players from times of civil war up to the end of the fifth frontier war, including mini scenarios spread in those period of time.
Guess I will set up a new campaign, to make the passage thru Rebellion and New Era ending at 1248. There are many events during this "dark" times, which just cry for a related adventure setting.

Maybe this is a oversized intention, but a centralized stock of 1248 survey data would be great, even if the typical IMTU variations will appear as well as "this UWP is unrealistic" statements.
Anyway it would be great to have a common baseline.

Best regards,

Mert

 

[kafka47]

Ok, I have looked over the Rebellion Sourcebook, I can concide that canon makes Windhook a man but he remains a woman IMTU. As he or she remained an important NPC, so back to sex change theory...

I like your take on IRIS, Hyphen. Even if we don't accept IRIS as super spies. We still have to ask the question, who was holding up the Longbow II data disc, in GT...if not some sort of Star Chamber guys. I always like conspiracies, even though, I don't believe in them. And, before you tell me about the ancient Terran Order of Knights called the Men who don Black, think how we can reconcile parts of 1248 into GT's timeline.

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Hyphen:
FWIW, Charles Gannon created IRIS. It appeared a couple of issues of Challenge magazine, where it was specifically stated to be a variant.

Hyphen,

Yes, IRIS is Gannon's work and the original articles were labeled as variants.

However, IRIS then began to be mentioned in Challenge TNS items and was also featured in, IIRC, a Challenge adventure The Green Hills of Earth. That made IRIS canonical and that is why Dave Nilsen and MJD had to do what they did.

Whoever inserted IRIS into the TNS items (and possibly the adventure) is unknown, but IRIS was canonical at one point.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Elliot]

OK - first cycle (after 1 year) of my Terran Commonwealth campaign over - chipped humans saved and nuke taking out main computer of viral hell empire. All players still alive.

However, Freedom League agent wants Terran Commonwealth Kinunir class Regal Splendour (the ship the players serve on) to take a body in a low birth to Usdiki - apparently its someone important to Avery. Soujourn to United Worlds to meet with the Usdiki factions' ambassador and then through the wilds.

Any ideas on what my players can meet on the way?

 

[Liam Devlin]

Kewlness Elliot!

Avenger Press' Bearers of the Flame is now out, and can give you at least the pocket empires between UW and the 4th Imperium to run across...

Available on comstar-games.com now!

 

[kafka47]

1. The Third Great Geonee Empire using salvaged 3I Black War tech and re-engineering it to look like Ancient technology asking them to hand over the Starship.

2. Slavers still operating amongst the ruins of Margaret's realms (think AD&D module).

3. Signal GK's {fanzine} Pocket Empires in Dag. A fragment of the Black Curtain establishing itself on an Imperial Depot. Just a few...