------------------------------ Bundle: 561 Archive-Message-Number: 7048 Date: Tue, 22 Mar 94 19:46:04 -0800 From: [-- REDACTED --] (Brian Makens) Subject: Some PoT Observations Warning, there are spoilers about Path of Tears below, please skip to the next article, if you have not read the book yet and are concerned about that type of thing. First off, I have not been a fan of the TNE era and have made my share of snotty remarks about GDW.(I suggested a wake for the Imperium last april and made references to maniacal butcher knife attacks on TNE authors among other things). That all being said, I liked the Path of Tears. I thought it was of the best products I have seen come out of GDW in years. Some of the best planetary detail yet. (Though that could have just been as easily done as a "Client States of the Imperium" book without the murder of the Third Imperium being necessary ;-). ) My mental picture of the Reformation Coalition is a lot more flattering that I thought it would be. GDW actually makes "killing the locals and taking home the neat stuff that don't belong to us"(the SAG mission) seem like a noble and self sacrificing endeavour! Forgetting the bombed cities, dead civilians and crying babies and all that stuff that goes with clobbering the opposition. At least the original Space Viking(Prince Trask) in the H.Beam Piper novel used to get nightmares about dead childeren. It don't seem to bother the RCES. The political structure and currents of the RC are quite well described as well as RC motivation. That being all the good things, I have a few observations about this RCES gaming universe for GDW's consumption. 1. I like the Guild, but haven't they been set up as a straw man opponent? From what is described they appear to be both too strong in actions and too weak in supporting capabilities. We're told that they are not a government, but in PoT, their agents appear to be everywhere. The Guild seems to have designed and manufactured tanks and all sorts of weaponry. Where are the factories and designers?(I can't believe its all done by ships crew during jump transit) Either the guild is a group of derelict ship captains in a sub sector or two, who couldn't possibly support this infrastructure, or its a force thats at least as strong as the RC.(wheres the worlds it controls then?) 2. If the Guild is going to be the big bad guy. I suggest the GDW come out with a a source book for them. I wouldn't mind playing guild characters. Give the support to be a guild agent, guild ship captain or slaver. Explain the economics of slavery in this environment. 3. I kinda like the idea of the Guild being the anarchists of space.(makes you wonder if they fly the black flag of anarchy). But in all seriousness, I don't know if their attitude towards multi-planet government is likely. Sure, gov't caused the mess, but I bet that any one of those merchant captains would prefer to have a big navy cruiser commin' to the rescue with lasers and particle accelerators a flashing, when a pirate starts chasing the cargo. Remember, the merchant's ships big problems arose when the gov't ceased to exist. 4. The wild's strangely enough is more civilized than I think it should be. There seems to be mostly Tech level 5-9 worlds out there. There seems to be a lot of ships(free trader and guild) still plying the space ways.(where are the pirates?) Some of the these worlds, don't make sense. Worlds have "data priests" that are in the tech 5-9 eras. Given that we are talking 20th Century technology, it takes a rather sophisticated population to support such a technology(just take a good look around you). A population that can support tech 5-9 just doesn't seem the type to go in for supersitious data priests. I consider the data priest in that tech level as dumbfounding as the Virus itself. I quite believe that data priests could be found in 2-3, but in tech 5-9, too much of the population has to support the technology, for a data priest syndrome to really set in.(IMHO) 5. TED model seems to be too simplistic for the worlds described. (Mass balkanization seems to have occurred). The general impression that GDW gives is every TED is a bum whom the population could care less about. Anybody who is leading a nation >=4 in tech level and with at least hundreds of thousands and greater population, is actually setting on a fairly sophisticated and bureaucratic state(have to be it wouldn't run otherwise). These nations got created somehow, where is the force of nationalism? Maybe in the description of the gov'ts GDW should give a loyalty of the population indicator(from openly seditous, to indifferent, to your basic throw yourself in the line of fire to protect our sainted TED). Let me use a real world example, Iraqi's(the lower tech zips) have been merrily overthrowing their TEDS for years, now the US(re RCES) and others come around and try to force the current TED out, and between the TED's terror and the locals rallying around the TED(because he's OUR bloody TED and no outsider is going to tell us what to do), the TED gets stronger and stays in power for a record length of time(i.e stronger state apparatus than apparent and force of nationalism than TED model implies). Well, enough ranting, I actually did enjoy the product. Brian J. Makens [-- REDACTED --] [-- REDACTED --] Carpinteria, Ca ------------------------------