Thin edge ports and diplomats ports

[jatay3]

The concept in Starports of a "thin-edge" port at the border of a war-zone seems to me intrigueing. When I read Istanbul Intrigues, a historical work by Barry Rubin I was immiediatly reminded of it. Istanbul during the World War II was a neutral port and a major spy-center of the European theater. Everybody who was anybody had an interest there; even those that weren't "anybody" sometimes had a desire to find out what the big boys were doing. It was also a major diplomatic center, and lots of deals were hammered out there.
This combination makes for very interesting twists and turns. It could be adopted in Traveller. How do states communicate? There are too many states for each to have an embassy in every other state. Therefore there would have to be "diplomats ports" where every state who wants to look in can go. Within a large intersteller state the substates would of course go to the capital: Swordies would go to Joyeuse, Impies would go to Archduke Norris' court. But between those states there would have to be places guarenteed by treaty or custom as being the gathering place: as a corralary it would be considered bad manners to interfere in their neutrality-a thing of course that the Kingdom of Jatay3 would never do heh,heh,heh.
As in Istanbul Intrigues the concept of "thin edge" and "diplomatic center" fit very well together. Perhaps Arden during the Fifth Frontier War(I would assume they were neutral, but that has to be checked).
As a side note I still say the net allows two or more campaigns to be interlaced, so one group of players could be working for the Swordies, another the Darrian's another the Impies, and so on.

 

[jatay3]

Swordies
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Some might argue whether SWC is a state or an alliance. That is not unrealistic as it sounds like something Swordies would argue about. How about a cryptic answer-it is less than a state and more than an alliance.

 

[jatay3]

Swordies would go to Joyeuse
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Actually I think I have that wrong-the first SWC capital was on Joyeuse. Than it moved back to Gram-but in a city of it's own outside Gram's capital.

 

[jatay3]

Getting back to the subject, I think it would be almost a necessity to have diplomats ports-unless one is to go back to the pre-renaisance style of having no relations unless an envoy is sent for a specific purpose.

 

[Ran Targas]

Although there are no "neutral" worlds of significant population IMTU, I have played out plenty of diplomatic intrigue scenarios. Most occur at the sector capitols of border regions, where attaches and assistant consuls scurry about, trying to get one up on the opposition.

My players were even given the opportunity to go on safari with an assistant to the cultural liaison from one embassy. They used the opportunity, as designed, to gain a patron and access to some worthwhile information and goods. Later, they utilized the same patron to covertly cross the border and explore the relatively unknown territory held by the opposition.

It was a good way to reward good roleplaying.

 

[jatay3]

Setting aside a neutral world specifically for this is very interesting; something like Switzerland and the League of Nations?
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I think it would be more like Switzerland. The custom might begin in time-beyond-time and become so obviously convenient that the world's sanctity is guarenteed by all concerened.

 

[ditzie]

Uncle Hengie always said Arden was a harbour for covert operations and intelligence gathering.