From: Warbeads@a...
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 05:57:16 EST
Subject: thoughts on Re: NAC - American style [LONG]
In a message dated 1/6/05 1:56:49 AM Pacific Standard Time, > JBrewer@webtv.net writes: I have two problems with the NAC as written up by Jon Tuffley - The rather confusing nomenclature of the ships as presented in FB1, and the future history which has the collapse of the US and the re-emergance of the British Empire. I don't disparage the dream of a return to the days of colonial glory, and the idea of the US falling into a chaotic distopia is, to say the least, pragmatically amusing to some Brits, but it does come to seem a little insulting to American players, as well as somewhat less than believable, considering that our economy continues to grow, thanks to immigration - legal & otherwise - from South & Central America. Besides, that sci-fi convention has been done to death since the late 70's. It has also inspired many trivial debates on the List concerning American title peerage and whether or not the British military could put down an insurgency in America, let alone a potental insurgency in every country in the Western Hemisphere south of the 49th parallel. So for the American players of FT, and any Brits interested, allow me to postulate an alternate future history of the NAC for Y.O.U. [Your Own Universe] as a date addendum to the background history on pages 42-43 of the rule book 2nd edition... <snip a well developed alternative> There have been several 'USA-centric' models discussed before. Perhaps it has just slipped my mind/attention span but has anyone wrote an alternative when the USA AND Canada divide up, sectional groupings occur and parts of the Canada and USA join UK to make the variant NAC, and the rest of the USA/Canada (and Mexico/parts of Central America) makes up several smaller 'nations'? To balance this one would possibly have to adjust the ESU slightly I expect. Right now you have a pyramid of power categories of nation (first tier NAC/ESU, second tier NSL/FSE, and various wider 'steps' as you proceed down the ziggurat shaped 'power pyramid.') By fracturing the NAC and the ESU somewhat you create a setting more akin to the number of 'world powers' found in 1890's or 1914... Gracias,