Hi Doug,

First, glad to see you’re back, you’ve been missed.

I’d like to mention that when I think of the Imperium I am strongly influenced by the Arkonide Imperium from the Perry Rhodan series. Much of that rather rich series seems to coincide with Traveller especially its notion of the nobility and their duties. It’s use of hyperspace jump ships also seems to match perfectly with Traveller technology. I realize that there were/are no doubt a lot of other influences/sources, but Traveller seems to be a pretty good fit for the “Perryverse.”  :-)

Regards,

Chuck



On Jun 13, 2016, at 3:11 PM, Traveller Mailing List <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

Fixing the Third Imperium -- A series of utterly immodest proposals - Douglas Berry (12 Jun 2016 22:01 UTC)
Re: [TML] Fixing the Third Imperium -- A series of utterly immodest proposals - Richard Aiken (12 Jun 2016 23:31 UTC)
Re: [TML] Fixing the Third Imperium -- A series of utterly immodest proposals - Richard Aiken (13 Jun 2016 03:22 UTC)
Re: [TML] Fixing the Third Imperium -- A series of utterly immodest proposals - Douglas Berry (13 Jun 2016 05:46 UTC)
fist fights - Timothy Collinson (13 Jun 2016 13:40 UTC)
Re: [TML] fist fights - David Shaw (13 Jun 2016 14:00 UTC)
(missing)
(missing)
Re: [TML] fist fights - Timothy Collinson (13 Jun 2016 16:45 UTC)
(Previous discussion continued)
Another proposal, was Re: [TML] Fixing the Third Imperium -- A series of utterly immodest proposals - Phil Pugliese (13 Jun 2016 15:14 UTC)

Fixing the Third Imperium -- A series of utterly immodest proposals by Douglas Berry (12 Jun 2016 22:01 UTC)
Reply to list

    At this point in history, as we approach Traveller’s 40th birthday, it is time to reassess the classic setting, the Third Imperium of Man. From it’s birth in vague references in Mercenary and High Guard, the 3I has grown mightily over the years.


    The problem is it was never really designed. Dozens of authors working for different companies added pieces here and there. Oh there was the Moot, and we knew about the Imperial Armed Forces, but it stopped there. It was the broadest brushstroke of a setting. Which suited me when I was 13 years old.


    I’m a bit older now.


    So, I’m going to rip the Third Imperium to pieces and rebuild it. Comments welcome.


    What is the Imperium?


    11,000 worlds, the vast majority self ruling is the quick answer. Ruled by an Emperor and his loyal nobles. But most of the nobles seem to have no real power over these independent worlds. So what gives?


    My answer is that the Imperium is, in a very real sense, the Imperial Navy. It’s the navy that keeps the peace, polices the “space between the stars” and has the best equipped troops in known space ready for action. The Imperium is a military state with civilian oversight.


    But what is the Imperium? Born out of the ashes of the Long Night, Cleon I realized that what doomed interstellar civilization was the end of trade. The new empire was built on three concepts:

    1. A universally accepted currency
    2. A universally used calendar
    3. Near universal freedom of trade


    Using these three principles, the state grew quickly. (As an aside, the one thing I hated about 4th edition more than anything else was the Core Sector was filled with inhabited worlds. It should have been one desolate, ruined world after the other.) This would have been the glory days of the Scouts Service, who cemented their role as the more subtle option when compared to the navy’s hammer. Early merchant princes also struck out, using the promise of free trade to sign deals. It was a golden age.


    And it established how the Imperium would run for the next thousand years. The Navy everywhere; gaining more power.
    The Nobility.


    One thing that always bothered me (once I started reading history, that is) was the neat pyramid of Traveller nobles. Everyone in their little slot. The reality is much different. So I’m scraping the nobility for the most part.


    In the Imperium the only rank that really matters is Count-Elector. These counts replace subsector dukes, and they are the members of the Moot. They are the meat of the Imperium’s administration, as they control far more manageable areas of space. The local fleet admiral answers to them and the Sector Admiral. They control the local Unified Army, and oversee a vast bureaucracy dedicated to making sure that taxes and levied and apportioned correctly. The Count-Elector is the sophont on the spot. These posts are hereditary, but the Emperor can strip a family of their office if high crimes or gross incompetence are proven. Not all Counts are Counts-Elector, and it’s the Emperor alone who decides who get the title.


    As members of the Moot, Counts-Elector are required to “maintain a presence” at Capital. As this is impossible for most Counts, a relative is usually sent as a proxy. The Moot is mostly a debating society, where the assembled member study issues and provide guidance to His Majesty. A year on Capital is a standard stop for a young noble’s Grand Tour. 


    Sectors are the province of Ducal families, and only rarely would a duke be an Elector. (One example is Grosherzog Norris of Deneb, who used the power of an Imperial Warrant to retain his title as Markgraf Regina.) Archdukes oversee Domains, and like the Emperor, are limited to mostly long range planning.


    Barons are mostly life appointments, and are awarded for service. Most come with a manor house somewhere nice that provides a nice income. Knighthood is unchanged.


    A note about Social Standing and noble rank. It is entirely possible for someone to be SS F and not be a noble, or not hold a title consummate with his power and influence. A merchant prince who controls the bulk of shipping across three counties might be of low birth, but his money opens many doors. This guy is probably a knight and should have his home estate declared a baronial holding. But still, he’ll be hob-nobbing with the glitterati while the Count-Elector of a poor frontier county will be ignored.


    The Member Worlds.


    The 11,000 worlds of the Imperium govern themselves, with certain limits. Imperial Worlds are strictly limited in their ability to conduct “foreign affairs” with other systems. In almost all cases, they are denied jump-capable warships (although a blind eye is usually turned to the “armed merchantmen” fielded in frontier regions.) They are forbidden to make war on other systems.


    Controlling this is the office of the Governor-General. Appointed by the local Count, Governors-General work out of the Imperial Consulate usually found in the planet’s capital city or close by the starport. Consulates tend to be near fortresses in most places, and are guarded by Imperial Marines. Because the Governor-General has the power to forbid any action taken by the local government if she feels that it threatened the safety of the planet or other systems, it would unduly restrict trade, or violates the few laws the Imperium has. Governors-General tend to be people who've spent years in the Imperial bureaucracy and have shown a talent for diplomacy. The larger and more powerful the world, the lighter the Governor-General has to tread.


    Sadly, there have been thousands of instances of Governors-General using their positions to enrich themselves through corruption, theft, and in one notable case, co-running a pirate fleet with the world’s system defense commander. 


    Less populated worlds tend to have a Colonial Administrator assigned instead, leading a much smaller office. On very low-population planets, the Administrator could also be the Starport Authority Port Master, the Customs Officer, and run the best bar in town (it’s the only bar.) Such assignments are seen either as stepping stones to bigger and better things, or the inglorious end after not making the right moves to further a career.


    In all of these levels, from the Count-Elector down to the Governor-General, the key problem is time. Even if you have a courier ready to go, the minimum response time is going to be two weeks.  So at every level, you will find leaders taking action. Sometimes the wrong actions, but that’s where we get adventures!

    Next up, the threats faced by the Imperium, or how your character got six Starburts for Extreme Heroism.

    --

Re: [TML] Fixing the Third Imperium -- A series of utterly immodest proposals by Richard Aiken (12 Jun 2016 23:31 UTC)
Reply to list

    On Sun, Jun 12, 2016 at 6:01 PM, Douglas Berry <dberry49xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
    <snip of lots of interesting stuff>

    But most of the nobles seem to have no real power over these independent worlds. So what gives?
    When this question arose for me, I answered it by making the Imperial title an appendage of a local potentate or sometimes the *office* of a local potentate. The Imperium gets a powerful local addition without having to conquer anyone, while the local potentate gets a much bigger stick with which to whack his opponents (within certain limits). If the "Imperial noble" gets out of line too far, the Emperor just gives one of those local rivals that bigger stick instead.
     
    (As an aside, the one thing I hated about 4th edition more than anything else was the Core Sector was filled with inhabited worlds. It should have been one desolate, ruined world after the other.)
    The relative prosperity of Core Sector is why it - and no some other area - *became* Core Sector. I remember a comment somewhere (perhaps in T4) that Cleon's attempt to re-found the Empire wasn't the first try someone made at this, in the waning hours of the Long Night. It was just the first one to *succeed.*
    I rather like the idea of "Counts-Elector" but this inspired me to read up on the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. The history of *that* body are fiendishly complex, but the history the Imperial Moot is likely to be at least as complex as an "assembly of the estates of the realm" for what was only a small part of one world, with a much shorter applicable history. The formal powers of the Imperial Diet certainly seem to match those of the Imperial Moot . . . but most of the actual powers come from the fact that the various members of the Diet were the monarchs of their own small states.
    On the face of it, such "actual power" doesn't seem to apply to the members of the Imperial Moot . . . unless you take my above course of assuming that Imperial noble titles are for the most part appendages of the more practically-important local titles of each noble.
    As members of the Moot, Counts-Elector are required to “maintain a presence” at Capital. As this is impossible for most Counts, a relative is usually sent as a proxy. The Moot is mostly a debating society, where the assembled member study issues and provide guidance to His Majesty. A year on Capital is a standard stop for a young noble’s Grand Tour. 
    IMTU, most proxies are given to leaders of parties (or at least of acknowledged philosophies). E.g. the fact that the current leader of the Arch Conservatives speaks for 14 other "Count-Electors" is what gives him power in the body's debates. Young relatives can still travel to capital to carry annual restatements of those proxies, particularly after a new heir assumes a title. Of course, if the proxy is being shifted to another holder, that young relative might need some competent bodyguards to make sure that he (and the new proxy) do not go astray . . .  
    Sectors are the province of Ducal families, and only rarely would a duke be an Elector. (One example is Grosherzog Norris of Deneb, who used the power of an Imperial Warrant to retain his title as Markgraf Regina.) Archdukes oversee Domains, and like the Emperor, are limited to mostly long range planning.


    Controlling this is the office of the Governor-General.
    I would probably call them "Consular-General," since (as noted above) IMTU the actual Imperial noble in question is also a local power. The Consular-General is there to make sure that said noble doesn't become overly focused on local matters and forget the imperial portion of his duties.
    --
    Richard Aiken

    "Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
    "I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)
    "We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester
    "It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.

Re: [TML] Fixing the Third Imperium -- A series of utterly immodest proposals by Richard Aiken (13 Jun 2016 03:22 UTC)
Reply to list

    On Sun, Jun 12, 2016 at 7:31 PM, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
    I would probably call them "Consular-General," 
    That should properly be "Consul-General." :P 

    --
    Richard Aiken

    "Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
    "I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)
    "We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester
    "It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.

Re: [TML] Fixing the Third Imperium -- A series of utterly immodest proposals by Douglas Berry (13 Jun 2016 05:46 UTC)
Reply to list



    On Sun, Jun 12, 2016 at 4:31 PM, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
    On Sun, Jun 12, 2016 at 6:01 PM, Douglas Berry <dberry49xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
    <snip of lots of interesting stuff>

    But most of the nobles seem to have no real power over these independent worlds. So what gives?
    When this question arose for me, I answered it by making the Imperial title an appendage of a local potentate or sometimes the *office* of a local potentate. The Imperium gets a powerful local addition without having to conquer anyone, while the local potentate gets a much bigger stick with which to whack his opponents (within certain limits). If the "Imperial noble" gets out of line too far, the Emperor just gives one of those local rivals that bigger stick instead.
    Agreed, The title of Count-elector is going to be granted to the family with the resources and local power to be an effective steward of the region. Local nobles, Naval hero, industrial magnate... the Imperium wants the title to carry weight. Once awarded, it's up to the family to groom proper heirs.
    Depending on the planetary culture, the Count-Elector could carry multiple local titles. Or he might just be "Beau Graeber, Comrade Citizen of the Collective and Count Elector."

    I rather like the idea of "Counts-Elector" but this inspired me to read up on the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. The history of *that* body are fiendishly complex, but the history the Imperial Moot is likely to be at least as complex as an "assembly of the estates of the realm" for what was only a small part of one world, with a much shorter applicable history. The formal powers of the Imperial Diet certainly seem to match those of the Imperial Moot . . . but most of the actual powers come from the fact that the various members of the Diet were the monarchs of their own small states.
    On the face of it, such "actual power" doesn't seem to apply to the members of the Imperial Moot . . . unless you take my above course of assuming that Imperial noble titles are for the most part appendages of the more practically-important local titles of each noble.
    This is eaxctly what I was modelling on. The Electors of the Moot have local concerns that affect the debates on the Moot floor. They, whether a proxy or the noble themself, will try to divert the river of money coming out of Capital in their direction.
    As members of the Moot, Counts-Elector are required to “maintain a presence” at Capital. As this is impossible for most Counts, a relative is usually sent as a proxy. The Moot is mostly a debating society, where the assembled member study issues and provide guidance to His Majesty. A year on Capital is a standard stop for a young noble’s Grand Tour.
    IMTU, most proxies are given to leaders of parties (or at least of acknowledged philosophies). E.g. the fact that the current leader of the Arch Conservatives speaks for 14 other "Count-Electors" is what gives him power in the body's debates. Young relatives can still travel to capital to carry annual restatements of those proxies, particularly after a new heir assumes a title. Of course, if the proxy is being shifted to another holder, that young relative might need some competent bodyguards to make sure that he (and the new proxy) do not go astray . . .
    I wrote that bit because I wanted a vibrant Moot, even with fewer nobles. Also an excuse for trips to Capital in games. Plus, put yourself in the shoes of a Count-Elector on the frontier. Do you really trust the holder of your vote when he's a year away and out of contact? Wouldn't you want you son, surrounded by hand-picked advisors, of course, there to watch out for the family fortunes?
    Sectors are the province of Ducal families, and only rarely would a duke be an Elector. (One example is Grosherzog Norris of Deneb, who used the power of an Imperial Warrant to retain his title as Markgraf Regina.) Archdukes oversee Domains, and like the Emperor, are limited to mostly long range planning.


    Controlling this is the office of the Governor-General.
    I would probably call them "Consular-General," since (as noted above) IMTU the actual Imperial noble in question is also a local power. The Consular-General is there to make sure that said noble doesn't become overly focused on local matters and forget the imperial portion of his duties.
    Consul-General it is! I'm basing this on the professional city administrators found in Italy in the late medieval period. Consuls-Generals are experienced bureaucrats and diplomats who can ride herd on restive worlds and work well with the local government. The position can be quite lucrative, as C-Gs often have insider information that allows them to enrich themselves greatly.  But unlike the Counts, Consul-General is not a hereditary office. Indeed, on smaller worlds the turnover rate may be high. There's also the troublesome world where multiple Consuls have been removed for failing to perform their duties. 



    --

fist fights by Timothy Collinson (13 Jun 2016 13:40 UTC)
Reply to list

    Hi there,
    Thought you might be interested/amused to hear about my first ever bar fight!
    (Indeed it was only my second combat ever as referee after the noble sword fight I ran at the end of _The Second Scions' Society_ several years back!)
    My nascent lunchtime work group of newbies (have just met for the fourth one hour session) really wanted to try combat.  As they were trying to find rumours in the local city centre a bar room brawl seemed the obvious order of the day.  I was quite pleased with the way I (think) I worked it into the story and also gave them some clues for later.
    But some questions, if I may (Mongoose 1st edition rules):
    - am I doing it right?  With an 8 "to hit" the PCs and the other pub denizens often completely missed (all had skill 1 or 0 and many had DEX or STR DM+1 but it wasn't enough).  While this gave a very funny "how many drinks have you all had?" vibe, I was beginning to wonder if I was doing it right
    - we generally stuck to fisticuffs but one lady tried a grapple.  Lots of options if it works, but what happens if it fails?  Is it just 'nothing' as I read the rules?
    - (oh, and if she'd really used her brooch pin (!) as a weapon, is a damage of "2" reasonable, or should I have a die roll in there?)
    - does anyone have any advice on how to run a mass brawl?  I decided in the end I could forget about everyone except those actually interacting with the PCs but it seemed to lose something of the flavour of a tv brawl with people all over the shop and NOT just lining up against one opponent
    - is healing *really* that slow?  How does anyone handle it AND continue the adventure afterwards (as I'm assuming continuing the adventure does not count as "rest"!)
    What became very very funny was the fact that I think we were really running the first bar pillowfight ever.  On the sixth (consecutive barring one roll of '4') roll of '1' for damage it was a good job you add the Effect or we'd still be there now...
    We decided NOT to implement the optional Knock Out Blow rule as the 'muscle' of the party (low in the initiative order and with only average END) would have been taken out on the first NPC swing!
    In short, there was a lot of humour, a lot of fun and they want to do it again!  I certainly learned more about combat in 60 minutes than any amount of reading the rules and 'simulations' in preparation might offer.  I dread to think what happens when we add weapons.... :-)
    tc
    PS You can tell they're not seasoned Traveller players, yet.  They'd gone to the rather rough and ready bar to meet a contact who was selling them weapons and armour (illegally on Regina).  Offered pretty much *anything* TL10 or less, they chose two body pistols and a snub pistol.  Great for hiding I guess, but I'd better scale back the warehouse guards they're (unknowingly) going to have to fight later.

Re: [TML] fist fights by David Shaw (13 Jun 2016 14:00 UTC)
Reply to list

    Sounds like you all had fun, which is the main aim, after all.  As to how to handle a full scale brawl, I'd do it pretty much the way you did it but add a segment at the end of each round giving a quick overview of what's going on elsewhere. You can either make this up on the fly, tailoring it according to how well (or badly) the PCs are doing or come up with a few 'set pieces' beforehand - these can be a good way of introducing plot elements or patrons.

    Hope that helps,
    David Shaw

    On 13 Jun 2016 14:41, "Timothy Collinson" <xxxxxx@port.ac.uk> wrote:
    Hi there,
    Thought you might be interested/amused to hear about my first ever bar fight!
    (Indeed it was only my second combat ever as referee after the noble sword fight I ran at the end of _The Second Scions' Society_ several years back!)
    My nascent lunchtime work group of newbies (have just met for the fourth one hour session) really wanted to try combat.  As they were trying to find rumours in the local city centre a bar room brawl seemed the obvious order of the day.  I was quite pleased with the way I (think) I worked it into the story and also gave them some clues for later.
    But some questions, if I may (Mongoose 1st edition rules):
    - am I doing it right?  With an 8 "to hit" the PCs and the other pub denizens often completely missed (all had skill 1 or 0 and many had DEX or STR DM+1 but it wasn't enough).  While this gave a very funny "how many drinks have you all had?" vibe, I was beginning to wonder if I was doing it right
    - we generally stuck to fisticuffs but one lady tried a grapple.  Lots of options if it works, but what happens if it fails?  Is it just 'nothing' as I read the rules?
    - (oh, and if she'd really used her brooch pin (!) as a weapon, is a damage of "2" reasonable, or should I have a die roll in there?)
    - does anyone have any advice on how to run a mass brawl?  I decided in the end I could forget about everyone except those actually interacting with the PCs but it seemed to lose something of the flavour of a tv brawl with people all over the shop and NOT just lining up against one opponent
    - is healing *really* that slow?  How does anyone handle it AND continue the adventure afterwards (as I'm assuming continuing the adventure does not count as "rest"!)
    What became very very funny was the fact that I think we were really running the first bar pillowfight ever.  On the sixth (consecutive barring one roll of '4') roll of '1' for damage it was a good job you add the Effect or we'd still be there now...
    We decided NOT to implement the optional Knock Out Blow rule as the 'muscle' of the party (low in the initiative order and with only average END) would have been taken out on the first NPC swing!
    In short, there was a lot of humour, a lot of fun and they want to do it again!  I certainly learned more about combat in 60 minutes than any amount of reading the rules and 'simulations' in preparation might offer.  I dread to think what happens when we add weapons.... :-)
    tc
    PS You can tell they're not seasoned Traveller players, yet.  They'd gone to the rather rough and ready bar to meet a contact who was selling them weapons and armour (illegally on Regina).  Offered pretty much *anything* TL10 or less, they chose two body pistols and a snub pistol.  Great for hiding I guess, but I'd better scale back the warehouse guards they're (unknowingly) going to have to fight later.
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Re: [TML] fist fights by Timothy Collinson (13 Jun 2016 16:45 UTC)
Reply to list


    On 13 Jun 2016 3:01 pm, "David Shaw" <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
    >
    > Sounds like you all had fun, which is the main aim, after all. 

    That's true.

    Even I had fun (if a bit stressed about the logistics) which is unusual for combat.

    Can't work out whether it's better to list (for the purposes of tracking damage etc) those involved in the combat in initiative order, or positional order or PC/NPC pairs, or what.

    As to how to handle a full scale brawl, I'd do it pretty much the way you did it but add a segment at the end of each round giving a quick overview of what's going on elsewhere. You can either make this up on the fly, tailoring it according to how well (or badly) the PCs are doing or come up with a few 'set pieces' beforehand - these can be a good way of introducing plot elements or patrons.
    >

    Oh yes, that's helpful.  I sort of did that at the start and end but didn't think of doing it at the end of each round.  Excellent thought.  Will make it an initiative 0 thing each time I think.  Thanks

    > Hope that helps,

    Yes, definitely.  If only to confirm I'm not too far off the mark.

    Cheers

    tc


Another proposal, was Re: [TML] Fixing the Third Imperium -- A series of utterly immodest proposals by Phil Pugliese (13 Jun 2016 15:14 UTC)
Reply to list


    As a committed CT grognard who, after trying real hard to get into MT, essentially fell back to CT w/ only a few bits & pieces from the later versions,
    here is my submission;

    (OK, Doug, I *know* you won't like it!) ;-)

    Note: I originally came up with this after some PC's wanted to get into a mega-campaign of sorts while in military service.
    It was about about a year before MT & The Rebellion appeared so it was long, long before SJG's GT material appeared.
    This served as a briefing/orientation hand-out to familiarize the PC's to the general admin structure of the 3I.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    My view is that the subsector government, headed by the relevant Duke, raises & runs the 'colonial'
    army & naval units. The 'colonial' army units are stationed on a 'homeworld' & stay there subject to
    temporary deployments elsewhere in their subsector for training exercises or maintaining order.
    In case of emergency these units are subject to sector-wide deployment. An idiosyncracy of the'colonial'
    army units is that they are equipped at the tech level of their 'homeworld', presumably to simplify logistics.
    Thus there can be a fairly wide range of TL's (specifically from 10-14 w/i the Spinward Marches) present
    amongst 'colonial' army units. The 'colonial' naval units are similarly raised, run, & stationed but they
    engage in regular training cruises around their subsector. During a war they also are subject to sector-wide
    deployment. They are equipped w/ out-dated IN equipment at a uniform TL14. The sector government, headed by the
    relevant Duke, coordinates the various activities of the 'colonial' units w/i it's sector.

    The 'regular' Imperial Army & Navy Units are, in theory, raised & run by the central Imperial government
    at Capitol itself. However, in practice, & even more so since domains, w/ their respective archdukes,
    are now back in the administrative picture, the sector governments are actually primarily in charge,
    coordinated w/ their respective domain administrations. 'Regular' Imperial Army units are stationed on
    'homeworlds' like the 'colonial' units but while they usually only exercise (reportedly for budgetary reasons)
    w/i their subsector, they can be temporarily deployed thruout the sector to maintain order, etc. It's also
    possible, for a 'regular' Imperial Army unit to be deployed or even, very rarely, permanently transferred
    anywhere w/i the Imperium, if & when the Imperial Government on Capitol deems it necessary. This can now also
    happen w/i a Domain following the recent reform of the Domains. Imperial Army units are mostly TL15 w/ a
    significant fraction (about 15% w/i the Spinward Marches as of the onset of the 5thFW) at TL14. A very, very
    small number are now equipped to TL16 but this is extremely rare & no units are present w/i the 'Marches at this
    TL except for a few, relatively small, mercenary units of Darrian origin. The 'regular' Imperial Navy units are
    raised, run, & stationed similar to the 'regular' Imperial Army units but they engage in regular cruises thruout
    their sector. 'Regular' Imperial Navy units can also be deployed or permanently transferred, similar to the
    'regular' Imperial Army units, anywhere w/i the Imperium. This is unusual but not unheard of, as attested to by
    the transferral (completed in 1102) of all Plankwell-class BatRons from the Spinward Marches to Corridor.
    'Regular' Imperial Navy units are equipped at a uniform TL15. In time of war or other emergency 'regular'
    Imperial Army & Navy units can be deployed anywhere w/i the Imperium. The Imperium also maintains an empire-wide
    coordination of forces, such as the 'automatic' (according to pre-established contingency plans) dispatch of
    naval forces from Corridor to the Spinward Marches during the FFW, & also reviews any transferrals initiated by
    the domain adminstrations.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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