Terran Empire Ambivalence

[bcholmes]

<p>I picked up <cite>Terran Empire</cite> a while ago. And while I'm happy that I have a copy, I'm a bit ambivalent about the setting. To be clear, there's a lot I like about it:

<ol>
<li>I like that the setting has so many built-in opportunities for stories and conflict. The different feel of the various monarchs suggest very different types of campaigns.
<li>There's some really nice art. Some of the nicest AD pieces I've seen, for example.
<li>The variety of the aliens is very impressive. I particularly like the fact that there isn't "a" bird-like race and "a" lizard-like race.
</ol>

<p>I think the main problem I have is that I don't know what an environment in the <cite>Terran Empire</cite> looks like. Do people drive cars in the <cite>Terran Empire</cite>? Are the insides of typical space ships big and spacious, with fashionable colours and potted plants? Or is it metallic and submarine-like with exposed rivets? Moonbase-Alpha-esque? What do cities look like? <cite>Blade Runner</cite> or <cite>Logan's Run</cite>? What's become of piercing and/or tattoos? Were they a 21st-century fad, or is it a staple in future fashion? Did the Alien Wars usher in a new conservatism?

<p>Most of the illustrations are of the exteriors of space ships, or of individuals standing with no background. That's throwing off my ability to feel like I can describe the place to my players and still be true to the setting.

<p>Other than Natoman's wonderful weapon illustrations, I don't know what much personal tech looks like. Do people all wear cellphones? Do computers use CDs, floppies, data crystals, or biostorage pens? How do people clean their houses (or their spaceships)?

<p>And, I'm sure the <cite>Spacer's Toolkit</cite> will help, but I'd really want to emphasize how important it is (for me, anyway) to feel like I can "see" the setting. And that surprises me a lot because, for example, the art in <cite>Ninja Hero</cite> was so strong and evocative.

<p>It's possible that I'm comparing things to <cite>Traveller</cite> and other SF games. And, to be fair, it was years before I felt like I knew what the <cite>Traveller</cite> universe looked like. But it did arrive at a very clear aesthetic. On the other hand, <cite>Fading Suns</cite> had a pretty striking aesthetic on day one.

[Monolith]

Well since the setting is somewhat based on Star Wars, I'd suggest you use that as your mental viewing point of reference.

[Storn]

Originally posted by Monolith
Well since the setting is somewhat based on Star Wars, I'd suggest you use that as your mental viewing point of reference.

wow. where did you get that from? Granted, I've only spent about 15 min with the book... but Star Wars was never mentioned to me when i got the art assignment.

As far as single figures, no background... uh.. that wasn't me. I did a happy bar scene, with plenty of background <g>. Just because we've seen the cranky, dangerous, bar-fight, bar scene SO many times. Besides, guiness has to survive into the future. Life just wouldn't be worth living if it didn't. <g>

I would have liked to have had more input on the visuals on this project. I think Andrew did an amazing job on his aliens. But there wasnt' much talke about how starships were going to look, or what is a business suit in the future in "civilized" space or the hundreds of other little details that would have made the visuals a coherent whole.

Just not enough time. As it was, I only took a handful of illos because I was busy with other projects when the assignment came down. I really wanted to take more, but could not.

[Lord Mhoram]

I could see a Star Wars game later in the life of the empire, when it is corrupt and you are the rebels brining it down.

I saw the Terran Empire more for the Dune/political type stuff, and foundations style.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by Storn
wow. where did you get that from? Granted, I've only spent about 15 min with the book... but Star Wars was never mentioned to me when i got the art assignment.

That is how Steve described it on the old message boards.

Ultimately you have 3 fiction-inspired campaigns. The first campaign is Alien Wars, which is basically Space: Above and Beyond or Enemies Mine. The humans have ventured out have run smack-dap into the Xenophores. Fight, fight, fight and winner takes all.

This leads to the Terran Empire campaign. Babylon 5 would probably also be a pretty good fit for the beginning of this period. The active campaign period is similar to what transpires in Star Wars episodes 1-3 and covers some 60 years. Then you kick into the "Revolt" campaign which covers Star Wars episodes 4-6 when humanity is trying to destroy the "evil" empire.

That eventually leads into your Galactic Federation campaign, which is your Star Trek-like campaign where humans and many alien cultures have joined together for the betterment of them all.

Which of course leads up to Galactic Champions (Legion of Superheroes) where superhuman reappear and you get to mix super powers and scifi.

I am not saying that each of those campaigns are clones of the scifi events I mentioned, but I think they are a very good basis to try and understand them.

[pawsplay]

The clearest influences I see on Terran Empire are Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Foster's Humanx novels, and the Chanur books. And, really, Traveller.

[Steve Long]

I can't speak for Jim, but I prepared the outline and dictated the general course of the project, and I developed and altered it as I saw fit.

I've never watched Battlestar Galactica, read a Humanx novel, or read a Chanur novel, so any influence there comes from Jim. I'm deeply familiar with Star Trek (see a big fat pile of ST gaming supplements with my name on 'em ), but that's really more of an influence on the Galactic Federation setting, as you'll later see.

The influences I'd primarily cite for TE would be Star Wars (at least later in the TE period, when rebellion is more widespread), Traveler to some extent, and to some extent the SF of Niven, Clarke, and Vance. All seasoned to taste, of course. But hopefully it ends up being more "Cambias" and "Long" than anything else.

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Steve Long
But hopefully it ends up being more "Cambias" and "Long" than anything else.

And just as hopefully we can see a few more surnames tacked onto that list before too many years pass by....

[AnotherSkip]

Originally posted by Steve Long
I've never watched Battlestar Galactica, read a Humanx novel, or read a Chanur novel, so any influence there comes from Jim. I'm deeply familiar with Star Trek (see a big fat pile of ST gaming supplements with my name on 'em ),

Steve, you were under WHAT rock when Battlestar Galactica was big?

[Nato]

Originally posted by bcholmes

<p>Other than Natoman's wonderful weapon illustrations, I don't know what much personal tech looks like.

Hey, thanks for the compliment bc; I'm really glad that you liked them. You are my first official compliment on these boards.

I'm really looking forward to doing more vehciles and ships and other tech in Spacers Toolkit. Ben shared some concept sketches with me that really got my imagination going. He'll attest to the flood of sketches I bombarded him with. Sci-fi is cool.

[Ben Seeman]

This is me attesting.

They were cool.

[Al_Beddow]

My local gaming store got in "Terran Empire" and so I've been looking it over.

Is there going to be some kind of map for the entire empire/setting? I found lots of little maps throughout the text, but I'm a big fan of having everything on one map so I don't have to go flipping around AND can see everythign in relation to each other.

[Steve Long]

There's an overall map of the galaxy on TE 75, though the scale prevents us from showing all the details on that map. There's a more detailed map of the Empire itself on TE 68.

If you're asking, "Will Hero publish a poster-size map of the setting with all the details and everything?" then sadly I must answer "no." It's not cost-effective.

[Al_Beddow]

Thanks Steve.

The page references you gave were exactly what I was looking for.


For those like myself who just LOVE the large poster sized maps, would you consider producing one if enough of us were willing to pay for it?

[Steve Long]

For those like myself who just LOVE the large poster sized maps, would you consider producing one if enough of us were willing to pay for it?

If you define "willing to pay for it" as "sends payment in advance," yes, we'd probably consider that.