Some questions about the Imperium

[Maladominus]

Actually... a barrage of questions for you veteran experts.... about some 'canon' facts that I cannot find the answer myself.

I do thank you guys in advance for any response!


1) So is the Galian Federation (Gateway) part of the 3rd Imperium? Or is it more like a loyal "client state"?


2) As of CT era (Strephon still alive), what is the name of the Archduke of the Spinward Marches area? And what is the name of the Archduke of Gateway? This might seem like a trivial question, but I need to know their names and disposition... as the dukes may take part in the RP stories of my planned future campaigns. Right now, trying to decide if my campaign should be based in the Marches or in Gateway.


3) What is the meaning of life?


4) What was Archduke Dulinor's motive for assassinating poor ole Strephon? Why'd he do it??


5) And this one stumped me: If the Imperium had conquered/occupied Terra at the end of the Solomani Rim War, then what (pray tell) is the NEW Solomani Capital? Never did find this out. LOL


thanks!

 

[Golan2072]

3) 42.

4) Dulinor felt that there should be a massive change (some limited democratization and more Imperial responsibility for the welfare of its planet-bound subjects) in the stagnant Imperium, so he assassinated Strephon in order to claim the thrown by "the right of assasination" and impose the change from above. His coup detat failed, but it pushed all the supressed conflicts of interest inside the Imperium to the surface - and thus causing an all-out Civil War (called the "Rebellion", even though it's actually less of a rebellion and more of a civil war).

5) The new Solomani capital is called Home and is situated in the Aldebaran Sector, 30 parsecs away from Earth (as told in AM6: Solomani).

 

[Andrew Boulton]

"2) As of CT era (Strephon still alive), what is the name of the Archduke of the Spinward Marches area?"

There isn't one - the position of Archduke of Deneb is vacant. During the Rebellion Norris promotes himself.

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Andrew Boulton:
"2) As of CT era (Strephon still alive), what is the name of the Archduke of the Spinward Marches area?"

There isn't one - the position of Archduke of Deneb is vacant. During the Rebellion Norris promotes himself.

Let me expand on this one a bit. Maladominus says he hasn't decided whether his campaign will be set in the Marches or Gateway. Before he chooses he needs to know there are two versions of the Marches!

One versio of the Marches is the Official Timeline or OTL. In the OTL, history plays out as you remember running from T20's M:1000 era to CT's Golden Era to MT's Rebellion to TNE's Viral Era to (hopefully) QLI's M:1248.

The other version of the Marches is the Alternate Timeline or ATL. In it, Dulinor dies in orbit over Sylea, Strephon is not assasinated, and the Imperium is now facing what may come out of a ever more possible, widespread Solomani civil war in 1122.

Norris figures prominently in the OTL and ATL versions of the Marches. In CT and the OTL, he is a mover and shaker, a holder of an Imperial Warrant, and a force to reckoned with - but he isn't even the Sector Duke of the Spinward Marches let alone the Archduke of Deneb! The Delphine of Mora is the Marches' Sector Duke. Norris will use the Warrant to 'promote' himself Archduke of Deneb during the small window available to him between his recieving jump6 notification of Strephon's murder and the official announcement of the news at Regina on 328-1116.

In the ATL, Norris is appointed Archduke of Deneb on the first day of 1117 by Strephon. He then travels to the Palace on Sylea for the investiture ceremonies.

I posted all this OTL vs. ATL stuff because you may be interested in playing in the ATL Marches setting. The reason you may be interested in playing in the ATL Marches is that the fellow who wrote the Marches sourcebook for the ATL is the same fellow who wrote huge chunks of T20; Martin J. Dougherty.

If like his rules, you may like another of his Traveller settings!


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Malenfant]

Just to be clear, Bill's "ATL" is the GURPS Traveller timeline. You can catch up on that at:
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/traveller/oldnews.html

Start at the bottom of the page and read upwards to the most recent at the top.

 

[Maladominus]

Thanks for the input everyone.

Yes, Im still deciding between the Marches or Gateway. Bill's input on Duke Norris is the kind of thing I was looking for. I want to begin a long-term campaign... in a sector that my playergroup will call "home" for many months to come.

Hence, I plan them to become involved (eventually) with local politics. For example, the possibility that the Sector/Subsector dukes may hire them as privateers or mercenaries for a good cause on a regular basis. This is the reason why I needed a sector where the sector dukes were pretty much involved leaders.... rather than sector dukes that were "No-name-behind-the-shadows-nobodies".

To keep things simple, and since Im still rusty on Traveller (as I had not touched the game since the early 1990s), I plan to stick with canon CT material as much as possible. Yeah yeah I know that the more *exciting* and interesting supplements and current published material are in the T20 and GURPs era.... but I'll be playing with a bunch of total newbies to Traveller. Sticking to the classic period is my best bet to "KISS"... (keep it simple stupid).

Now... if I do go with the Marches, now I'll have to hunt for a SUPERB still-in-print sourcebook for classic-era Spinward Marches. With my luck, it probably no longer exists. /sigh

 

[Malenfant]

Originally posted by Maladominus:
[QB]To keep things simple, and since Im still rusty on Traveller (as I had not touched the game since the early 1990s), I plan to stick with canon CT material as much as possible.

The GT background at least has the advantage of authors trying to make sense of the mess that is CT canon...

You may want to check the GT Rim of Fire and the Sworld Worlds books anyway, they're excellent background resources.

Now... if I do go with the Marches, now I'll have to hunt for a SUPERB still-in-print sourcebook for classic-era Spinward Marches. With my luck, it probably no longer exists. /sigh

Doesn't exist, I'm afraid. The closest thing is the GT Behind the Claw book, which is (a) OOP and (b) too riddled with errors to be useful (apparently they printed an early draft by accident). It's the one blackspot in the GT line, IMO.

 

[RandyT0001]

Originally posted by Maladominus:
3) What is the meaning of life?

Just don't ask how old the Earth is?

 

[Spinward Scout]

2) I always wondered how many Sector Dukes there are - I guess I need to count how many sectors are in the Imperium. Is there a Who's Who of Nobles in GT: Nobles? Also, if, in the ATU, Norris is advanced above the Sector Dukes, it could make a dicey political situation if one or more of the Sector Dukes were gunning for the position of Archduke. Norris would need to watch his back...

3) I usually like to go to Hooters or the nearest strip club to meditate on this answer.

4) Lack of Hooters restaurants in the Domain of Illesh.

Dameon

 

[jappel]

I heartily recommend hunting around on the used market (e-Bay, half.com, craigslist, etc.) for copies of The Traveller Adventure (see a thread a bit further down in this forum discussing this work in detail) and The Spinward Marches Campaign, which has a ton of background data on the Marches.

The GT:Sword Worlds book is almost universally praised, but the take on GT:Behind the Claw is quite different; it's apparently full of contradictions and has some internal consistency problems. Spend that money instead on a set of the JTAS reprints from the Far Future website, or perhaps the Alien Module reprints.

Don Mckinney has an Integrated Traveller Timeline on his site. It hasn't been updated for a while but it's still a valuable resource. There's some other good stuff there, poke around.

And speaking of web resources, I also recommend Freelance Traveller, run by Jeff Zeitlin. Many excellent bits of crunchy Traveller goodness to be found there.

- John

 

[jappel]

Oh, and I'm 99% sure the answer to #1 is that the Galian Federation is either a client state or something close to that. It's not actually part of the Imperium (in 993, at least).

- John

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Sir Dameon Toth:
2) I always wondered how many Sector Dukes there are - I guess I need to count how many sectors are in the Imperium.

The answer would be ambiguous. There are 28 sectors with subsectors that contain enough Imperial worlds to warrant the stationing of regular Imperial Navy fleets in them. But some of them only have two or three such subsectors. So the question is, do they all rate a sector duke? We know from the Forbidden Canon that the Trojan Reach has a sector duke (Quinn of Tobia), but TR has six subsectors with regular IN fleets. Does Alpha Crucis with only two rate a sector duke? Does Reft rate one (six subsectors with fleets, but three of them on one side of the Great Rift and the other three on the other)? We know that some subsectors are administered as counties under neighboring subsector dukes. Might not some sectors likewise be administered as parts of neighboring sectors?

Is there a Who's Who of Nobles in GT: Nobles?

Not an all-inclusive one. There's a list of sample nobles. All the archdukes are there, but not even close to 20 sector dukes.

Also, if, in the ATU, Norris is advanced above the Sector Dukes, it could make a dicey political situation if one or more of the Sector Dukes were gunning for the position of Archduke. Norris would need to watch his back...

There has been a few hints to that effect in the TNS newsbriefs and in GURPS Nobles.


Hans

 

[hirch duckfinder]

am i the only person that likes behind the claw?

 

[mike wightman]

Nope, I think there are some great ideas and adventure seeds in it.

If a world description doesn't match something I've done in the past I just ignore BTC.

And I stick to CT supplement 3 for UPPs if I base a game in the Spinward Marches.

 

[jappel]

Any reason you use Supplement 3 over The Spinward Marches Campaign, Sigg?

Also, I finally acquired GT:Sword Worlds and I have to say it's an excellent work.

- John

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by hirch duckfinder:
am i the only person that likes behind the claw?

Hirch,

No. I like portions of BtC. It's all the other parts that make it one of the few failures in the G:T line. Among it's many problems, BtC's utter and inexplicable failure to present a description of the 5th Frontier War that even was in the same time zone as all the previous descriptions stands out the most.

The 5th Frontier War is the most detailed conflict in the OTU. BtC's version of it is so far removed from earlier sources that the usual excuse for BtC's many lapses; that it was an early darft somehow printed by mistake, doesn't stand even cursory scrutiny. BtC's version of the 5th FW isn't a case of a few canonical boo-boos that playtesting would reveal. BtC's version is a case of the authors deliberately ignoring every other canonical source on the war. About the only things the two versions share are the names of the combatant polities, the names of certain worlds, and the names of certain personalities. All the rest is completely different.

If you have the money in your budget and find it at a reasonable price, by all means purchase BtC. There are plenty of good bits to plunder.

However, if your RPG budget is tight, give BtC a pass.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[BetterThanLife]

If you want the players to get involved in local politics, then I heartily recommend Setting up in Gateway Domain. There are lots of pocket empires that player characters, without being very powerful or having stratospherically high Social Levels, that players can get involved with and have major impacts. Unlike elements of the Imperium which are pretty stagnant, unless you happen to be a Marquis or above.

If I could go back and restart I would have chosen Gateway Domain. I chose the Spinward Marches for my current campaign based on the fact that GRIP had a bunch of Spinward Marches stuff in it so there would be a little less work for a Referee that is at the same time as setting up the campaign is also working on the software end of things. However, unfortunately, the GRIP Spinward Marches software is excessively buggy and having known that in the first place I would have started in the Shanape Link Worlds cluster instead of the Regina Subsector.

 

[Seanr451]

Originally posted by Maladominus:
Now... if I do go with the Marches, now I'll have to hunt for a SUPERB still-in-print sourcebook for classic-era Spinward Marches. With my luck, it probably no longer exists. /sigh

Actually FFE sells the Classic Traveller Reprints. The Classic Supplements (1-13) includes Supplement 3 The Spinward Marches.

Originally posted by Bill Cameron:
The Delphine of Mora is the Marches' Sector Duke.

I thought that Norris was the Sector Duke, and that Delphine of Mora gets promoted to Sector Duke only after Norris becomes Arch-Duke. I could be wrong though...

 

[jappel]

Seanr451,

Bhoins might be talking about The Spinward Marches Campaign, a vastly more detailed module covering the Marches, released in 1983 or so. It hasn't been reprinted yet.

Also, Norris was only Duke of Regina until he became Archduke. I'm pretty sure Supplement 3 lists Mora as the sector capital.

- John

 

[mike wightman]

Mora being the sector capital doesn't appear in Supplement 3 - at least not in my editions.

Did a later printing change it, I wonder?

By the time of the Spinward Marches Campaign Mora was listed as sector capital - and Regina had gone up two TLs

Delphine was sector Duke, and Norris only a subsector Duke prior to and during the FFW.

Norris was promoted above others to get the title of ArchDuke.