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[kropotkin41]

Campaign notes: Imperial Date: 326/1105

These adventures will take place in the Spinward Marches, a sector to the Galactic Spinward edge of the Third Imperium. The Third Imperium holds sway over a huge swathe of charted space, contains thousands of star systems and is home to numerous human and non-human major and minor races. Although the Imperium rules not worlds but the space between worlds, it is vastly powerful, it's megacorporations and its nobility are mighty interstellar players and its military provides not only security against incursions from without, but a final guarantee of order within.

In the context of the Third Imperium, however vast, the Spinward Marches are not insignificant. In the past trouble has tended to emerge from these somewhat rebellious and isolated subsectors. The sector also borders on such serious rivals to Imperial power as the Zhodani Consulate, contains significant local players whose growing influence both within and without the Imperium cannot be ignored, and also seems to present both the opportunity for the expansion of Imperial interests and the risks attendant with any such development.

One of the border regions of the Spinward Marches is the subsector named Vilis. The 193rd Fleet of the Imperial Navy is based in the subsector – on the worlds of Frenzie, Denotam and Mirriam. Mainly light units of the 193rd patrol the Imperial border with the Sword Worlds to Rimward and show the flag in neutral systems in Querion to Spinward and the worlds gradually coming under the sway of the Federation of Arden to Spinward-Coreward.

Originally known as Tanoose the world of Garda-Vilis is a possession of nearby Vilis. Garda-Vilis has been in this subservient position for a millennium and yet the fires of revolt have never entirely died. For the Government of Garda and its supporters history is clear: Vilis helped prevent the complete collapse of Tanoose's society and since then has maintained law and order to the benefit of all. The most gifted of Garda's people have the opportunity to advance in and serve a metropolitan society much richer than garda alone could ever hope to attain, farming backwater that it is. For the patriots who still talk of Tanoose and maintain the old local dialects in fierce defiance of the Garda educational system, their world has been systematically robbed for a thousand years, denied development and kept economically dependent. The Tanoose Freedom League maintains a policy of loyalty to the Imperium but militant opposition to every aspect of Vilis rule on Garda. Since the last period of open rebellion in 1103, the TFL has been operating solely as a covert guerilla/terrorist (depending on one's perspective) organisation.

Needless to say the fact that Garda-Vilis is a world in the Imperium, but in a potentially volatile border region hugely increases the Imperial and outside interest in what would otherwise be purely a local matter. As of yet the Government of Vilis shows no willingness to do more than suggest a Naval blockade to stop arms reaching the TFL; the Tanoose patriots will brook no compromise and the Imperium's local representatives – Navy and nobles in the main – fight shy of decisive action to solve the long-running struggle.

The supply of weapons and training to the rebels, the potential involvement of foreign agents and the intransigence of all of the parties seem to suggest that it is only a matter of time before events come to a head.

The PCs & the campaign: It is clear that there is a great deal to learn about the campaign. In time you will come to appreciate the power of the megacorporations and of the Imperial nobility – the names of a few will become familiar. This information about Garda-Vilis is not presented as a straight-jacket; if you want to take a stand one way or another, have political positions for your characters and so on, then that is fine. If you want to move on from your home system then that too is something that the campaign can deal with. In that sense the campaign is as open as the Traveller Universe and our imaginations allow. The action however, will start in the Garda system and it is clear that your character stories will already have been affected by what has happened on their homeworld. Weave Garda-Vilis into their stories and they will start to make more sense. In particular, you may notice that there is no-one with very high social standing in the group – this reflects their origins on a dependent world... they are “colonials”. The characters who have served in the military have done so in the Imperial military, Marines and Navy, this does not mean that they were fighting for Vilis (the Imperium is not openly involved for either side). The agent/drifter on the other hand may well have spent his/her first term working for the Garda-Vilis authorities – that will be up to the player and will affect what information/secrets he/she has access to.

Garda-Vilis is a largely agricultural world, its industries such as they are are all owned and operated by Vilis-based interests. It is a fairly large world, a little bigger than Terra and with 1.25 standard gravity. The atmosphere is slightly tainted which provokes long term cardiovascular damage without preventative medicines and demands periodic resort to breathing filters (a source of constant friction because of the cost to the inhabitants). It has extensive oceans (78%) and its land masses are dominated by wide plains, originally inhabited by squat muscular creatures and creeping plant-life. Agriculture revolves around the seas, vast fields of root vegetables for export and the barrel-chested stumpy local breeds of farm animals common to hundreds of worlds long ago colonised by humans. The climate is somewhat Earth like, in general a little warmer. The human population is 470 million, much of it concentrated around the world's large downport, important for both exports, communications links with other subsectors and its Imperial Scout base. A law level of 8 makes Garda-Vilis in theory a thoroughly controlled and strictly policed world, of course an awful lot depends upon who you know and whether the TFL is in town on the day in question.

There are bases and settlements in the rest of the Garda-Vilis system: belters (asteroid miners); IISS (Imperial Interstellar Scout Service); Navy destroyers and light cruisers; scientists, corsairs, salvage crews, merchants and settlers are only some of the types of folks who might be encountered out there beyond Garda's tainted atmos. The system has a gas giant with a host of small moons, five other rocky planets, innumerable planetoids and is on the Imperial X-boat route.

I hope that that's enough to be getting along with. I'm very happy to discuss all aspects of this campaign in this forum. I can even try to answer questions about the wider Traveller Universe here. Most importantly players need to feel that their character's place in this campaign both makes sense and is pleasing.

[kropotkin41]

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/travelle...LVilis_1115.jpg

Edited by kropotkin37, 26 November 2008 - 08:53 PM.

[kropotkin41]

This just duplicates the notes from the epilogue to scenario 1 - copied here so I don't lose it!


In and around the capital city, Garda-Vilis could almost be any other peaceful world in the Third Imperium. But for natives, the truth of the situation is not far enough below the surface to be hidden. There are too many buildings that still show damage from the last uprising (1103); there are too many bits of graffiti in the back streets and alleyways that speak of Tanoose and the TFL; there are too many colonial administrators and colonial soldiers whose accents and mannerisms mark them out as being from Vilis (the colonial power); it is too obvious that the few supporters of the Administrative Council are the ones who get rich from the exploitation of Garda's natural resources and agriculture; they are ones who never breathe the tainted atmosphere, who have masks, or who never leave their air rafts or ground cars except to enter purified and climate controlled high rise buildings or villas.

It is into this city, a sprawling colonial capital, ill-at-ease with itself, that the characters emerge from their long isolation. There is no avoiding politics here, no ducking the issue. It is also difficult for long to stay away from trouble; with rebellion and counter-insurgency has come corruption and crime. On top of that each and every establishment, from bar to barbers shop, has a partisan position. This is a dangerous place to try to play the neutral.

Think about where you want to stay and what kind of things you'd like to do.

It is high summer in the capital; the worst time of year for the naturally occurring taint in the atmosphere (a result of complex biological and oceanographic phenomena).... filters are available at a price - 150cr

Garda-Vilis, although part of the Third Imperium due to its status as a colony of Vilis, does not itself rate as a particularly high tech world. Most of the 470 million inhabitants have access to a technology not far in advance of 21st Century Terra. This is a colony exploited for its agriculture, oceans and natural resources. Leaving the starport is something akin to a contemporary westerner walking out of an air-conditioned airport terminal into a crowded city of the developing world.... the wealth of the supporters of the colonial regime and their access to everyday off-world high technology is all the more startling for that. So, the people of Garda-Vilis have flat screen televisions and ground cars; the capital has power from fusion plants nearby on the coast. On the other hand, freight is moved on wheels not anti-grav trucks; energy weapons are virtually unknown outside of the starport (and illegal to carry anyway out there); the level of medicine would frankly frighten Stettler.... they still use steel scalpels! That is, in short, Tech Level 8 (Imperial average = 12-15).

Edited by kropotkin40, 13 May 2009 - 10:27 PM.
population discrepancy

[kropotkin41]

The Vargr:

Intelligent Major Race derived from Ancient genetic manipulations of Terran carnivore/chaser stock, apparently dating from approximately the same time that Humaniti was scattered to the stars.

Inhabiting a region rimward of the Imperium, the Vargr were for years a puzzle to Imperial xenologists. The Vargr biochemistry and genetic makeup are almost identical with a number of terrestrial animals, but differ radically from most of the flora and fauna indigenous to Lair, the purported Vargr home world. Researches during the early years of the Third Imperium concluded them to be the result of genetic manipulation of transplanted Terran animals of the family Canidae, almost certainly of genus Canis. The obvious conclusion, supported by archeological evidence, is that the race known as the Ancients was responsible

[kropotkin41]

Bawapakerwa-a-a-awapawab
[edit] Background

Intelligent minor race native to Marhaban (Empty Quarter 0425). Known as Bwaps or Wabs (from their name for themselves, Bawapakerwa-a-a-awapawab), they are also known as Newts due to their appearance.

Prior to obtaining civilization, proto-Bwaps lived in densely wooded, mangrove-like swamps. They burrowed under and among the root systems of large trees, forming dens for the communal protection of their young. Their culture and ritual interactions began at this time. A shift in weather patterns caused the marshy areas to shrink, forcing them into increased competition with other animals in the region. The discovery of tools and then agriculture permitted the Bwaps to gain a tremendous advantage over their competition, and put them on the road to civilization.

The Bwaps did not discover fire until late, due to their environment, which hindered development of metalworking and similar pursuits. When discovered by the Vilani, the Bwaps had reached TL 7 and stabilized. The introduction of advanced technologies such as jump drive had no major effect on their culture, and the Bwaps have prospered greatly in the intervening centuries.

Bwaps can be found throughout the Imperium, more commonly in the region trailing and coreward of Capital (Core 2118). Fewer than 12 Imperial worlds are fully controlled by Bwaps; most of these are classed as religious dictatorships. Bwap merchants and administrators can be found throughout known space, but are less common outside the Imperium.
[edit] Personality

Society is dominated by the Bwap world-view, which holds that each individual has a place in the wapawab or tree - a view stemming from their habitat, but including phratry, bloodlines, country, and place of duty. The literal tree is intricately tied into the planetary ecology, providing shelter and oxygen, converting water and minerals into food, etc. The figurative tree is much harder to define, but is roughly equivalent to a clan or tribal group. Both sorts of trees are part of a planet, which is part of a solar system, which is part of a cluster, which is part of a galaxy, which is part of the cosmos. Everything the Bwaps do reflects this complex, wheels-within-wheels outlook. Each individual takes great pride in being one small, functional and unique cog in a vast, ever-changing universe of interlinked patterns. Their ritual of greeting, for instance, seems like meaningless formality and windy chitchat to non-Bwaps, but communicates “I am in this place, and doing my part. Where are you and what are you doing?”

From the human point of view, Bwaps are obsessed with minutiae, patterns, and the order of things. Driven by this internal desire to see everything in its proper place, they make excellent bureaucrats, officials, mathematicians, bookkeepers, scientists, and historians. However, their obsession with ritual and proper conduct can make them difficult to deal with. Those who violate the rituals will be lectured to, at length, on propriety. Dealing with Bwaps takes time, but trying to speed things up only takes more time. Criminal behavior is extremely rare, and is considered the worst form of mental disorder among Bwaps, since it disrupts the proper order of things. Their world-view means that their definition of crime is often at variance with Imperial norms, but fortunately most Bwaps courts consider exile to be sufficient punishment, especially in the case of aliens such as humans.
[edit] Physical Description

Bwaps average 1.4 m in height and mass between 30 and 50 kg. They are upright, bipedal, homoeothermic and bisexual, with an internal skeleton and a closed circulatory system. Their hemoglobin is copper-based, a deep blue in color, making their skin a faint greenish-blue in areas without pigmentation.

Body markings vary tremendously from clan (“tree”) to clan, each one having a distinctive pattern. The pattern is determined by genetic factors and the color is determined by careful manipulation of the mother’s diet during the formation of the egg. Greens, browns, yellows and blues are most common, usually in patterns of darker colors over a lighter basic color.

Bwaps are uncomfortable in less than 98% humidity, as their skin must be kept moist. With special clothing, they can exist indefinitely in humidity as low as 25%, provided they have adequate water. This normally consists of a loosely fitting kaftan-like garment and a hood covering the head (giving rise to another nickname, “towel-heads”). The cloth of these garments is permeated with a network of fine tubes, through which water flows and keeps the cloth moist. In occupations where they must handle paper or other items which would suffer from moisture, Bwaps wear thin water-proof gloves. In humidity of less than 25%, they must use sealed environment suits. All clothing is colored with a stylized representation of their body, since recognition of body pattern is an important part of their greeting ritual.

Bwaps are oviparous, each female incubating a single, non-amniotic egg in a special pouch on her lower abdomen. After hatching, the young remain in this pouch for several weeks, occasionally coming out to be fed, until they are strong enough to survive outside. The young reach maturity after 14 years.

[kropotkin41]

Express Boat (a.k.a. X-boat) are rapid communication ships which are designed to make optimum use of jump technology in communicating information within the Imperium. Because the Imperium is so large, ordinary communication must depend on ships travelling along established trade routes, making Regina (Spinward Marches 1710) nearly 4 years out from the Imperial Core.

The express boat (abbreviated X-boat) system, established originally in 624 and expanded to cover the entire Imperium by 718, cuts this communication time by nearly 75 percent. Selected locations along major trade routes are established as sites for express stations, which are orbital facilities which service and refuel the X-boats on their communications runs.

As an X-boat arrives in a system, it beams its recorded data to the express station, which then retransmits it to an X-boat standing by for a jump outsystem. Time between jumps is almost always less than four hours and has been recorded at under seven minutes, making the speed of communication nearly the speed of jump (since X-boats carry jump-4 drives, speeds near four parsecs per week). In practice, this speed is somewhat reduced by the fact that trade routes do not follow straight lines and that not all jumps are made at jump-4. Nonetheless, the system achieves approximately jump-2.6 per week.

This is all an extract from a Far Future Enterprises publication. The most important aspect of all this is that the x-boat network comes as far as GV - this is one of things that increases both the strategic importance and the sensitivity of the GV situation.

[kropotkin41]

The yacht's steward Morgan is from The Sword Worlds:

A loose confederation of worlds in the Spinward Marches Sector, spinward of Imperial space and coreward of the Darrians. The first settlement in the region was on Gram in -399. By ca. -200 the settlement of the area was largely complete, and the first interstellar government in the region, the Sacnoth Dominate, was formed in -186. Consisting of the twenty worlds settled up to that point, the Dominate lasted until -102, when it was fractured by rebellion into several smaller states.

During the ensuing centuries, various Sword World governments rose and fell, sometimes coalescing all the worlds under a single world's domination, sometimes splintering into several small states. Contact with Imperial traders in 73 brought increased trade and had a stabilizing influence on the region, but this stability was short-lived.

The First Frontier War brought a desire for cooperation among the various squabbling worlds, and the end of the war saw the formation of the first unified confederation in centuries, centered on Sacnoth, and referred to as the Second Dominate. As a result of the Outworld Coalition's victory, the Sword Worlds annexed Anselhome, Entrope, Torment, and Winston.

The Second Dominate held power until 698, when it was overthrown by a coalition headed by Gram. The Gram Coalition ruled until 788, when a short war with the Darrian Confederation resulted in the loss of the four worlds gained during the First Frontier War. Public outrage at the mishandling of the war caused the subsequent fall of the Gram government. The replacement for the Gram Coalition was the Trilateral Alliance, a decentralized organization headed by Narsil, Sacnoth, and Durendal. The Alliance broke up in 848, due in large part to the inherent weakness of its organization, and an interregnum of essentially independent worlds lasted until Gram reasserted its influence (helped substantially by Zhodani money and advisors, rumor has it) in 852. This government has remained in control down to the present.

The government allows almost complete local autonomy. Individual worlds maintain separate military forces, pass their own laws, and completely regulate their own internal affairs. The Confederation government regulates interworld trade, handles diplomatic relations with outside powers, and adjudicates interworld disputes.

In peacetime, the Confederation government maintains a pool of high-ranking military officers (selected from the military forces of all worlds) who are trained in large unit command and staff operations.

During time of war, all military forces are confederalized, and placed under a single unified command. For ground forces, divisions will be commanded by generals from the individual worlds, corps and higher organizations by Confederation officers. The component forces of a division will be from the same world whenever possible. For naval forces, individual ships are under the command of local officers, squadrons or higher organizations under Confederation officers.

[kropotkin41]

PSIONICS The use of mental powers to manipulate matter and energy, to sense, and to communicate. It has been demonstrated that minds (human or non-human, conscious or unconscious, intelligent or unintelligent) contain some capacity to operate without apparent use of physical facilities. Until circa - 1000, psionics was little studied in most regions, except on a disorganized level (parapsychology, the occult, spiritualism, and so on). It was known and practiced among the Zhodani, and by some minor races, but it was by no means widespread. However, during the Long Night, many races, (human and others) turned introspective. As a result, many finally began to engage in serious research in psionics, which revealed much about the empirical nature of the phenomenon, although the principles involved were, and remain, little understood.

However, even though it assumed scientific validity, psionics remained a backwater science until about 650, when it underwent a tremendous burst of popularity. Psionics within the Imperium reached its peak in the latter half of the 700's. In the 790's, however, the crest of popular opinion broke with the revelation of scandals within the Psionics Institutes; the result was the Psionics Suppressions (800 to 826), which shifted public opinion away from support of psionics.

Psionics falls into several talents: Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Telekinesis, Awareness and Teleportation. Although psionic activity generally lends itself to classification, some individuals defy this very classification. Individuals with special talent are capable of some activity which is not described here. Some special psionic abilities include: abilty to spontaneously start fires (pyrokinesis), the ability to teleport others instead of one’s self, the ability to perform an assault on inanimate objects, the ability to telepathically communicate with computers or robots, the ability to induce visions or hallucinations in others (either audial, visual, or combined), the ability to use awareness to affect others (to either increase or decrease characteristics, or to heal), and the ability to use awareness to influence Dexterity or Intelligence.

Edited by kropotkin40, 23 July 2009 - 05:43 AM.

[kropotkin41]

Human Major Race (Homo sapiens zhdotlas) inhabiting the Zhodani Consulate, a region far spinward of the Imperium. The Zhodani Consulate rules a sphere approximately 70 parsecs in diameter immediately to corespinward of the Imperium, believed to include in excess of 80% of all racial Zhodani. Much of the remainder inhabits the Zhodani client states, although other sub-species of humaniti are also to be found in the client states and the consulate.

The Zhodani are a discrete, though interfertile, sub-species of Humaniti, independently descended from human stock transplanted by the Ancients. In general, they tend to be taller than Solomani or Vilani, and lithe of build. Averaging 2.0 meters in height and massing upwards of 90 kilograms, they tend to be swarthy in complexion and dark-haired. Their most important difference is the acceptance and use of Psionics. Zhodani nobles often wear a turban-like headdress which serves to accentuate their height.

If you think that your character is well educated to know more, for example about Zhodani society or politics, pm me and I'll fill in some details if it seems appropriate.

[kropotkin41]

Also called The Imperium. Founded in 0 by Cleon Zhunastu from the Sylean Federation in what is now Core Sector. The Imperium grew swiftly during the pacification campaigns and more slowly thereafter until stability was reached in the 600’s, by which time the Imperium had absorbed much of the territory of the First and Second Imperiums.

Government Structure: The Imperium can be best thought of as a form of feudal confederation. Member worlds of the Imperium agree to pay taxes and obey a few fundamental laws which the Imperium promulgates, known as the High Laws. In return, the Imperium agrees to patrol the space between the worlds, to protect interstellar trade, to encourage travel and commerce, and to arbitrate diplomatic relations between worlds Beyond this, individual worlds are left to their own devices so long as they acknowledge the power of the Imperium to rule the space between the stars.

Imperial power is present on member worlds in the form of consulates, bureaucratic offices, and bases. Sometimes, larger enclaves of Imperial power are placed where they can enhance the emperor’s strength.

The Imperium’s territory is divided into sectors, which are in turn divided into subsectors and systems. Groups of sectors, called domains, have been created above the sector level.

During the Pacification Campaigns, Emperor Artemsus divided space into six regions, labeled them domains, and appointed an archduke over each of them. To each archduke, he assigned the continuing pacification of the domain’s many systems and their integration into the Imperium. The domains were: Sylea (Core, Fornast, Massilia, Delphi), Vland (Corridor, Vland, Gushemege, Dagudashag), Gateway (Ley, Glimmerdrift Reaches, Gateway, Crucis Margin), llelish (Ilelish, Zarushagar, Reaver’s Deep, Daibei), Antares (Lishun, Antares, Mendan, Amdukan), and Sol (Dispora, Old Expanses, Solomani Rim, Alpha Crucis). Most of the domains were never totally absorbed into the Imperium.

In 589, during the First Frontier War, a seventh domain was established- Deneb (Spinward Marches, Deneb, Trojan Reach, Reft) The intent was to appoint an archduke to be responsible for their supervision. However, the Civil War broke out before an archduke was appointed.

Following the civil war, the emperors expressed concern about individuals with powers equaling their own, so they moved to lessen the power of the archdukes in the Imperial government Because of this, no archduke of Deneb was never appointed. As a result, the domains came to have little practical significance. Each archduke did retain the power to create knights and baronets.

In the years after the Fourth Frontier War, and after the problems it presented from lags in communication, Emperor Strephon felt a strengthened archduke position could enable the Imperium to more quickly respond in defending the realm. Against the protests and opposition of some prominent members of the Moot, Strephon reestablished the domain as a level in the bureaucracy of the Imperial Navy and returned to the Domain the ability to collect taxes Still later, Strephon gave the archdukes the ability to legislate and enforce the desires of the emperor on the local level.

[kropotkin41]

Ine Givar: A terrorist organization active in the Domain of Deneb and elsewhere in the Imperium. The Ine Givar are opposed to the Imperium. They are rumored to be a front organization for the Zhodani Consulate.

The Ine Givar are an apparently disparate opposition network involved in direct action against the Third Imperium. They are known to make no strategic demands (on occasion they will demand prisoner release or similar tactical concessions) short of the dismantling of the Third Imperium and its replacement with a radically democratic confederation or confederations.

The Ine Givar are also known for becoming involved in all kinds of local fights where they consider they might be able to weaken loyalty to the Third Imperium. There have been rumours that they might seek to become involved in the Garda Vilis situation, but until now, as far as you know, rumours have remained unsubstantiated.

If the Ine Givar are involved then it would seem reasonable to expect a major heightening of tension and numerous attempts to derail any Imperial attempts to broker peace or break the deadlock.

[kropotkin41]

Anagathics or Antiagathics are longevity drugs, usually a mixture several compounds. They help prolong life and prevent aging in Humans. A regimen of regular monthly doses enables an individual to ignore the debilitating effects of advancing years. They need to be used starting at the age of 30, and with luck, the user may reach an age of 100 or more before old age affects the user. Because of the rarity and demand for anagathics, they are quite expensive and are often unavailable at any price.

It takes a while for the total effects of anagathics to be felt; it also takes a while for the effects of anagathics to totally go away. However there are withdrawal effects from interrupting the supply of anagathics. Obviously, anagathics are most effective if they can be taken long-term without interruption. A continually interrupted supply can have devastating effects. Anagathics have dangerous side-effects on some users and often anagathics users take extra risks to maintain a constant supply.

Anagathics do carry a stigma in some societies (but not particularly in the Imperial mainstream), and are by no means commonly available. It is worth noting that anagathics can be either entirely synthetic or composed of rare herbs and spices.

Edited by kropotkin41, 09 November 2010 - 06:26 PM.