Encounter One - Factions Part 1
I had opportunity to discuss Encounter One's Timeline, Races (or Factions) and History with Malcolm Booth recently.
Hi Malcolm,
just a quick query re Encounter One. Third edition introduced the Guild, Great Houses and Minor Houses. Apart from Photon Torpedoes, they don't say which stat line the new factions use on the missiles tables?
I had followed the lead on Photon Torpedoes and used Empire stats for Great House Bolt and Federation stats for Guild and Minor Houses. Looking again, GH don't get Arrow like the Feds, so I wonder if they should have Fed Bolt?
On the same subject which Stats line should the new Factions use for Dart?
Federation don't have Arrow or Drones so I used Empire stats for the new factions.
I am now thinking the Great Houses are aligned with the Federation. The Minor Houses align with Empire and the Guild can buy the best from both!
Malcolm:
It was sort of based on Dune to be honest, the Landsraad. The great houses provide a control over both the Empire and Federation - from memory in the history they grouped to stop a war between the two- and the minor houses just hope nobody gets annoyed at them 😊
It's a very long time since I read Dune. That does make sense with published time line in 3rd edition.
I was thinking of the Great Houses as autonomous star-faring cultures within the Empire and Federation.
They occupy multiple solar systems, but maintain treaties and mostly cordial relations with the great powers.
The Minor Houses have achieved space flight enough to occupy a few planetary systems, but need to hire their star ships from the Guild.
The Guild is a cooperative of Mercantile houses trading across the galaxy.
Malcolm followed up with an email giving a lot more info about the background to the game:
The question around the relationship between the Empire, Great Houses, and Minor Houses is a good one.
As I said, we were pretty much influenced by the social structure portrayed in Dune, with the Empire staring out as a Great House which became so powerful that it could not be challenged by any, or any grouping, of the other houses – so, in the potted history, House Corollan ‘…gains majority in the Council’, suggesting that they gathered sufficient support to become de facto rulers.
That sort of suggests that the ‘Empire’ is, in fact, a coalition of Great Houses, acting in concert, under the direction of one house, although the impression in the Dune universe is that House Corrino has become so powerful that it’s rule cannot be challenged.
To flesh out the Encounter One universe a little more you could imagine that House Corollan, rather than simply having influence over the other Great Houses, has in some way (marriage, purchase, intrigue) absorbed several of these Houses, together with their military infrastructure, to achieve a position of dominance which allowed them to declare themselves as an empire.
The timescale for this would be from -105PN, when the Great Convention is signed, to -10PN, when House Corollan declares itself as the first Terryan Galactic Empire, so around 950 years
The term ‘Galactic Empire’ was probably a bit grandiose, as the time scale from the first outward spread of colonisation would only be around 1,400 years.
Of course, once the improved hyper-space engine is developed (in year zero PN) you can imagine House Corollan, with its greater resources, getting the lion’s share of the new colonies and, more importantly, their resources, bolstering the empire’s position.
The Guild is, of course, a reference to the Spacing Guild in the Dune universe, except it doesn’t have the same monopoly on interstellar travel. I think your view of the Guild as a collection of mercantile houses is a good analogy, and if you use a Guild list then you are basically a Minor House which can’t source its own ships, rather than the Guild itself becoming involved in combat situations.
The Federation, as you say, is made up of newer systems operating in the periphery, but still part of the Empire. I think in this we were influenced by Asimov’s Foundation story line, with more progressive elements far from the centre of the Empire not being as influenced by tradition as the more established systems and pushing back against imperial influence. Systems which would have, over time, gained Minor House status but who don’t want to become embroiled in the politics of the Confederation of Great Houses in Council.
I think Minor Houses not being able to ally with the Federation sort of falls in with this, as you could imagine the Minor Houses, jealous of whatever influence they may have under the imperial social order, being wary of these ‘Johnny come lately’ peripheral systems who were threatening to turn the established order on its head.
The Great Houses, on the other hand, would be sure of their own position and would find common cause with the Federation if it suited their needs.
The Rim Raiders, from memory, were the outer systems and Minor Houses which were being persecuted by some faction and went rogue, suggesting they left their home system(s) for a more nomadic lifestyle (I think in the original edition the phrase was ‘fled to hide and flee again’)
Bottom line, we plagiarised everything from Dune to Star Wars, but fortunately neither Frank Herbert’s estate, Isaac Asimov’s estate, nor George Lucas have noticed. 😊
Re the Missile Tables:
Stat lines for the new factions were missing from the missile tables in the 3rd edition rules. I added them to the 2021 digital edition but I was not sure that I got them right.
I think GH should use Fed Bolt, and G/HM should use Empire Bolt.
Feds and GH don't use Arrow, and F don't use Drones.
So that leaves Dart. I had Empire stats for GH & HM, and Fed stats for Guild!
These need to be Empire for Guild and House Minor, and Federation for Great Houses.
Malcolm:
I think what you’ve done makes sense. So Minor Houses have arrow, Feds are newer systems so don’t have it, Rim Raiders were rogue minor houses so do have it. And as you say, if anyone takes exception they can always flag it
I have now amended the missile tables and updated the rules.
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