> In our Expansion campaign background we've actually taken the tack that
"Officially", yes, this is the intention in the GZG background.
Human-occupied space is basically split into three (loosely) concentric
zones - the Core Worlds, the Inner Colonies and the Outworlds.
The Core consists of Sol (Terra or course, plus most nations have at least a
foothold on many other planets in the system), Centaurus (which is colonised
via a series of very large orbital stations, rather than
planetary settlement) and Barnard (Barnard's Star) - all these have
multinational colonisation with most if not all powers/nations having a
settlement of some kind in each system, hence the need for the UNSC to stop
the major antagonists nuking each other or throwing rocks.... The Inner
Colonies are also multinational, with several separate "countries" on each
habitable world, and thus lots of potential for disputes and minor wars (or
even major ones) without having to assault from space all the time. Some inner
worlds will be dominated by certain powers (the superpower capital worlds, eg:
Albion, are Inner Colony planets largely "owned" by a single power, but even
these will probably have a few other small settlements belonging to allied or
neutral nations or commercial concerns). Don't forget that a single planet is
a very big place (hey, we ALL live on just this one at the moment). How many
Inner Colonies are there? Well, we've never specified this, but I would say
("Unofficially", ie: I may change this later!!) probably not more than a
couple of dozen in total. Then, you have the Outworlds. Some of these will be
multinational, some will be colonised by a single power, some will be
"commercially" owned, but
all will be pretty sparsely settled - many will be little more than
research or mining stations, or tiny colonies founded by minority and/or
dissident groups and struggling to survive. There will probably be quite a lot
of Outworlds, as the human sphere expands rapidly, but many will be of
marginal habitability and low importance to anyone except their own
inhabitants. We have tried to keep some sort of "realistic" feel to the
background, but always remember that it is primarily there to give as many
good excuses for
> How many Inner Colonies are there? Well, we've never specified
Which stars are they located at?
> Then, you have the Outworlds.
Star systems?
Tim spake thusly upon matters weighty:
Good question! I've seen some starmaps, and there aren't all that many systems
within a close distance of earth (that could be decent colony material
probabalistically).
> >How many Inner Colonies are there? Well, we've never specified
> On Fri, 27 Nov 1998, Ground Zero Games wrote:
> "Officially", yes, this is the intention in the GZG background.
concentric
> zones - the Core Worlds, the Inner Colonies and the Outworlds.
which stars? the last i heard, centaurus was a quarternary system,
although the smallest object is probably a massive planet / failed star
like jupiter.
> and Barnard (Barnard's Star) - all these have
> The Inner Colonies are also multinational, with several separate
this would seem to imply that the rate of discovery of habitable systems is
low compared to the time taken to colonies them; if planets are in short
supply, then there will be a race for everyone to get a piece of each one,
whereas if they are more plentiful, most powers would be able to get a system
all to themselves.
actually, it would imply that the rate of discovery was slow at the time the
inner colonies were settled; if the rate has increased, then the pattern will
shift further out, as is suggested later.
> Don't forget that a single planet is a very big place
oh yeah? maybe our bodies do, but our minds stride across the galaxy...
anyway, i've notices that certain list members have suspiciously long lag
times in email exchanges, almost as if the signals were coming from far
away ...
> We have tried to keep some sort of "realistic" feel to the background,
it also largely rules out the various planet-killing methods we have
discussed for orbital bombardment; no use doing a Yucatan if it will kill your
people too. this is why ground power is so important.
Tom
> On Fri, 27 Nov 1998, Thomas Barclay wrote:
have a butchers at nyrath's site (senor chung will show you the way) or mine,
where some bits of VRML mapping can be found (prototypes for
world-dominating ubermap):
users.ox.ac.uk/~univ0938/sc/index.html
i have been reliably informed that between half and two thirds of all stars
are members of binary pairs. bear in mind that planets have a hard time
forming in such systems.
Tom
Jon T spake thusly upon matters weighty:
> "Officially", yes, this is the intention in the GZG background.
concentric
> zones - the Core Worlds, the Inner Colonies and the Outworlds.
There is some fertile ground - which groups have outposts/colonies on
which bodies in Sol system? Mars is probably colonized. Terraformed yet? What
about Mercury, or moons of the Jovians? Luna?
Where is UN HQ now? Still Geneva for the political wing I'd imagine (or did I
miss something in the history that describes this?) but I
imagine UN military HQ might be someplace like Luna or L-5 or
somewhere....
Centaurus (which is
> colonised via a series of very large orbital stations, rather than
How many of these planets or population groups are independent? It strikes me
if I lived on New Moscow or New Israel or Albion (or insert name), I'd be
questioning paying taxes to Earth based governments. I assume that a lot of
these groups may have declared independence. Have you thought of such things
as the kind of dirty little insurrection that leads to SG2 and DS2 scenarios?
Or FT scenarios in patrolled and populated space (whee!)?
I ask this in part because I'm wondering if some of these should not be
recognized as independent by the UN. It would be interesting to try to catalog
those nations recognized by the UN in 2185 (self interest since I am working
on a web page). Would the UN recognize break away colonies? An interesting
question. I'm not sure how the voting to recognize these break away russian
and yugoslav republics goes (whether it is a full assembly vote, a
beauracratic procedure, or a Security Council matter), so I'm not sure how
this would work in 2185. Does the NAC prevent the Security Council from voting
unpopular
break-away colonies official recognition? Or is this a flare point
between the UN and its bigger more colonial members?
> Then, you have the Outworlds. Some of these will be multinational,
owned, but
> all will be pretty sparsely settled - many will be little more than
It's interesting in that Rick Shelley? Shelly? sp? in the Officer Cadet and
Lieutenant books he has written recently has an Earth that has expanded and so
may offshoot planets have grown up that no one really knows how many little
worlds man is on (so many small backwaters). It also postulates an Earthgov
that only has powers in the Sol system, and a few larger coalitions that have
power outside, but where mercenaries can easily operate on all the backwater
worlds. It looks like the GZG universe in another 100 years....assuming the
Xenowar does not change that.
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