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Peter Darby
United Kingdom
Welshpool
Powys
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Check the title of the Blog. That's where.
Oh, you want to know WHY the Spinward Marches, and its semi-permanent gaming hub of Regina?
Well, there's the vast amounts of gaming material available set in and around Regina, but mostly it was a realisation that came to me recently...
The Spinward Marches are to the Imperium what Florida is to the US.
And to that end check out this job advert.
To quote:
Quote:
For those unaware of Florida’s reputation, it’s arguably the best news state in the country and not just because of the great public records laws. We have all kinds of corruption, violence and scumbaggery. The 9/11 terrorists trained here. Bush read My Pet Goat here. Our elections are colossal clusterfucks. Our new governor once ran a health care company that got hit with a record fine because of rampant Medicare fraud. We have hurricanes, wildfires, tar balls, bedbugs, diseased citrus trees and an entire town overrun by giant roaches (only one of those things is made up). And we have Disney World and beaches, so bring the whole family.
The Spinward Marches has Ine Givar terrorists (whom the Zhodani ambassador is shocked, SHOCKED to hear are still being funded from somewhere), invasions that end before Capital has heard about them, a Duke who, on hearing of the death of the Emperor three months before the populace, declared himself Archduke in the dead Emperor's name (and is a local hero for it), two intermittently land hungry alien races on the doorstep, a few nearby client states of dubious alliance, one of which has a device that blows up stars... oh, and has long lost ancient sites like the average Western 21st century city has Starbucks.
In fact, it's a mix of 21st Century Florida, 3rd Century Britain and late Empire India.
Like all of those, it's where people end up. This is the edge of the dominant culture and "our civilization". It's where disgraced nobles go in hopes of keeping them as far away from the Moot as possible. Cashiered Marine Commanders abound. At the ends of the British Empire, the further reaches of what was becoming the commonwealth became a haven for the civil servants and army officers who couldn't be trusted closer to home. There's a dollop of that in the Marches.
Equally, it's where young guns can make a name for themselves before returning to the core.
As has been repeatedly pointed out, look at where the weirdness gathers in the US: The NorthWest, the SouthEast, and everywhere outside the lower 48.
The corners.
Because that's as far as you can run without a passport.
So there's that.
When I posted "Spinward Marches are Florida", one of my friends replied "So, are the Sword Worlds Cuba then?"... well, up to a point.I mean, I can't see the Sword Worlders exporting passionate dances to the Imperium, but the Border Worlds and the Spinward subsectors hosting SW refugees? Oh, and shedloads of guns? Certainly.
And it makes the Darrians Puerto Rican. When you're a solar jet, you're a solar jet all the way.*
So there's a Burn Notice mix of international politics and espionage too.
So apart from the usual sources for Traveller, I'm reading up on my Carl Hiaasen. It just makes sense.
Hell, I want someone else to run this campaign just so that I can play the Traveller version of the journalist who got the job from that ad at the top of this post.
(*Yeah I know the Sharks were the Puerto Rican gang. Sue me.)
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