Eamon--
In case you're asking me (and if you're not, sorry) I think it's pretty
obvious that my memory on these details is moldy and furry. So I'll
respond to two points.
(And I know I said my previous post would be my last word on this, but a)
what can I say, I get excited, and b) I also am striving to answer every
question asked of me.)
1. The adventure hooks were intended to do what they apparently did very
well: get people excited about all of the cool things happening, and that
they would be involved in, because they were adventure hooks. Which also
means that since we've told all the TNE players out there to "play these
scenarios out and see what happens to you," we have spawned some number of
parallel universes re: "what really happened in TNE." That means to some
extent when we say, "this is your adventure, what happens to you is what
really happened," we have to maintain a loose hold to allow those
different results to still remain within the larger thrust. And speaking
as a ref, I want my players to succeed--I want them to earn it, but I do
want them to succeed--so there is an assumption that they can win these
scenarios.
2. Larger thrust: In RPGs what we are dealing with is collaborative
fiction in that we encourage the players to craft their own portions of
the story that can still remain in our larger thrust. The larger thrust
when I arrived at GDW was "Star Vikings and Long ships" which translates
to "RC and Clippers," and that was still the larger thrust when GDW went
down. However, in any creative venture you have to allow for the fact that
that larger thrust will become colored by other things that emerge, like
Solee. (At a certain point you must realize that the larger thrust will
start revealing things about itself and doing things on its own and you
must allow for that. In cases where people stick too close to the original
script without allowing for, "this no longer makes sense," you get the
Star Wars prequels where the Jedi were a bunch of buffoons who say, "I've
got a bad feeling about this," but charge into it anyway with predictable
results.) So, with respect to Solee, who is to say that "Star Vikings and
Long ships" in reality doesn't turn out to be "Star Vikings and their
buddies the Visigoths and Ostrogoths and Huns" but to the average observer
that appears to be, "A bunch of barbarians passed through here with lots
of noise," which comes back to "Star Vikings and Long ships" but just in a
looser definition.
Which is a long winded way to reply "Yes," and "Yes" to your question, "I
was wondering if the evolution of the RC was seen as RC-uber alles (at
least in the Old Expanses and surrounds, or much more fine-textured than
that?"
Does that make sense? In other words, Eamon, your thinking is correct. As
if my opinion about it matters, which it doesn't except to the extent that
you care, which you do enough to ask the question.
Dave
> The talk of Solee got me wondering - which of the states and planets
initially opposing the RC actually get overthrown/forced into
> capitulation, and which (if any) get bypassed - left for another day.
>
> With the adventure hooks in PoT, there's a definite overthrow coming for
Keipes (the guys with the meson cannon & a space fleet) and Futok (the
ones with the nutty prophet). Montezuma seems to be one that gets hit if
they misbehave (al la BL scenario) otherwise left until more pressing
matters are dealt with. Kide does not have a solid hit as an adventure
hook in PoT - so I wonder if it was more up in the air than the others.
I
> actually have a soft spot for Arturo, the brilliant & paranoid leader
there. Shenk, with one of the TEDs trying to make the best of the
inevitable re-contact with interstellar society brings an interesting
option to mind - the RC deciding to work with some reasonable TEDs to
bring them around to a more enlightened way of thinking.
>
> I'm sure there was not a definite roadmap, but I was wondering if the
evolution of the RC was seen as RC-uber alles (at least in the Old
Expanses and surrounds, or much more fine-textured than that?
>
> Eamon
>