Just correlating data

hultsfred

Captain
So for over a year now I've been wrestling with a Wing Commander RPG. I've been tinkering with a little free-form rule set and feel more or less ready to give the game a go at last. I'll be play-testing it in the near future with some friends via forums. If anyone's interested I can post the details of it all after the fact, and let you know how it goes and what I recommend for anyone considering doing the same.

Anyway, the reason for my posting. With a rule-set laid out, I'm now finalising a character-creation system, and was after a little information somebody might be able to help with.

- How was the Union of Borderworlds formed? What actually is their status in relation to the Confederacy? This story is set during the Kilrathi war, and I presume it was a case of "terrans' unite" during that period, but never-the-less I imagine some interesting tensions and politics lay between the two even then.

- The Landreich. I never played the Privateer games unfortunately, and have had no luck running any of the fan-projects involving this faction either. The encyclopedia here makes reference to them, but doesn't give an overview.

- Oasisian, Firekkan, and Grovesner races. Very much the same.


And on another incidental topic.

- Jump Drives. How do they work? From researching the archives here I notice different types of jump-lines, so presumably there's more than one mechanic behind them. I'm staying away from the film incidentally (I enjoyed it, but consider it an "alternative universe"). And at what stage in the war were they introduced to fighters?


Thanks for your help guys.
 
I'll answer what I can and point in the right direction and I'm sure others will correct or add the rest.

- How was the Union of Borderworlds formed? What actually is their status in relation to the Confederacy? This story is set during the Kilrathi war, and I presume it was a case of "terrans' unite" during that period, but never-the-less I imagine some interesting tensions and politics lay between the two even then.

The UBW came into existance as a political union after the war. The region has been known as the Border Worlds for longer, but was still a part of Confed.

- The Landreich. I never played the Privateer games unfortunately, and have had no luck running any of the fan-projects involving this faction either. The encyclopedia here makes reference to them, but doesn't give an overview.

The Landreich does not appear in the Privateer games. It is seen in the novels and on the WCP Universe map. It has been a seperate politcal union since before the war, it still had rocky relations with Confed. It's a region filled with outlaws, renegades, castoffs, etc. During the era you are talking about it was run by President Kruger. He is one of the many characters that make multiple novel appearances.

- Oasisian, Firekkan, and Grovesner races. Very much the same.

Firekkan are seen in SM2 and Freedom Flight. They are a bird-like species. As for the Oasisan and Grovesner that's really about all we know about them, that they exist and there locations.



- Jump Drives. How do they work? From researching the archives here I notice different types of jump-lines, so presumably there's more than one mechanic behind them. I'm staying away from the film incidentally (I enjoyed it, but consider it an "alternative universe"). And at what stage in the war were they introduced to fighters?

The best source for this information is the Confed Handbook from the movie. I see you dislike for the film, but the Handbook article is the de facto explanation of how Jump and Hopper drives work. There is an old Jump Theory FAQ here on the CIC. That might be an alternitive source for your work.
 
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Well thank you for that, that answers my questions quite nicely. The link to the jump-theory was especially useful. It's a good attempt to discuss such a dodgy concept, although the line where he mentions a gate forming in a perfect vacuum made me laugh, considering the huge noise they make in the games. It gives me plenty to work with though. I'm deliberately staying away from actual physics as much as possible for the game, but jump points are such a crucial strategic issue, I needed a few more details on them.

If anybody could contribute any more specifics or generalities about the Landreich, I'd be very grateful.
 
Firekkan are seen in SM2 and Freedom Flight. They are a bird-like species. As for the Oasisan and Grovesner that's really about all we know about them, that they exist and there locations.

Oasians are the neutral race seen in the "Recreation" episode of Wing Commander Academy. They look sort of like turtles without shells.

The Grovsner Colonies are a human faction similar to the Free Republic of the Landreich.

The best source for this information is the Confed Handbook from the movie. I see you dislike for the film, but the Handbook article is the de facto explanation of how Jump and Hopper drives work. There is an old Jump Theory FAQ here on the CIC. That might be an alternitive source for your work.

That's an ancient version of the Jump FAQ - this is the most recent one, which has been completely redone: https://www.wcnews.com/articles/jumpfaq.shtml

The Handbook jump article is an almost word-for-word reprinting of the jump science article created for the Wing Commander Universe bible in 1994.
 
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Excellent, that gives me more than enough information on Jump Drives. It's a little different to how I imagined they worked, but that's good stuff. Thanks for the link.

Now if anyone can held out with the Landreich, I'm on my way.
 
The Landreich Sector is a region of space 1200 light years from Earth, on one of the far flanks of the Terran-Kilrathi border. You might liken it to the American 'Wild West' of the 19th century - inhabited by rogues, outlaws, men looking to make a buck and genuine pioneers. Until 2650 they were nominally chartered colonies of the Terran Confederation, though the culture was very different from that of the homeworlds (when the war broke out the Confederation capital of the region was Buford's World, aka "The Hell Hole").

The Landreich was far from the front lines when the war started, but the Kilrathi decided to invade the region as part of their opening attack in 2634. The Confederation, facing a crisis on multiple fronts, refused to reinforce their Landreich garrison and ultimately ordered a withdraw of their naval units. President Bulcher, struggling to put together a spit-and-glue fleet of smugglers and freighters, put Hans Maximilian Kruger (a promising young smuggler who had helped a Confederation intelligence team prove that the Kilrathi were massing for an offensive) in command of a fleet destroyer.

Kruger refused to accept the retreat order, hijacking the destroyer and leading the defense of the colonies. Thus was born the Republic's great folk hero and eventual leader. Kruger won the Battle of the Hell Hole and then forced the Kilrathi back through twelve jump points... eventually having a frigate blown out from under him deep in Kilrathi space. His crew crash-landed on Fawcett's World, a Kilrathi occupied human colony, and lead commando-style raids for three years before a free trader arrived to help him steal a Kilrathi frigate.

While he was missing in action, the Confederation tried him in absentia and found him guilty of mutiny during wartime - a capital crime. He returned to find himself a celebrated hero in the Landreich System... and a wanted criminal in the Terran Confederation. The people of the Landreich responded by electing him President of the planetary senate, which rendered him immune from potential arrest.

In 2647 the Kilrathi began raiding the region and the Confederation dispatched a heavy cruiser to coordinate the Landreich 'Home Guard' fleet. The cruiser's commander, Vance Richards, clashed with Kruger regarding how to best defend the system. In response Kruger organized another mutiny, took the cruiser and spent another three years hunting down and destroying the Imperial base responsible for raiding the human coloniesin the regions. The Confederation ordered his removal from the senate and arrest when he returned in 2650, forcing the Landreich System to formally declare i tsindependance from the Terran Confederation. Without the resources or the interest to fight a civil war at the height of the Vega Campaign, the Confederation allowd the Landreich System to slip away and become the nucleus of the Free Republic of the Landreich. Over the next twenty years thirteen other systems, including Buford's World and Ilios, would join the Republic.

The Landreich is best known for their distinct codes of honor and their 'best with what's available' attitude towards technology. During the war they would piece together new ships from the parts of thsoe long abandoned by the Confederation... and after the war they purchased squadrons worth of ancient Confederation fighters. By the 2670s the Landreich was changing into a much more formalized Republic, with an organized government and a military on the grow...
 
The hopper drive... didnt the pilgrims use that? It seemed to be the more effective version.

AFAIK the Hopper Drive lets you hop to wherever you want within certain limits, but the drawback is that it takes dozens of hops to cross the space between systems, and it takes hours to perform each hop because of the need to let the radiation from the previous hop dissapate before the next hop can be attempted safely. The result of this is that it takes more time to reach another system by Hopper Drive than by Jump Drive, assuming that there is a Jump route that does not require too far of a detour.
 
It had quite a few other limitations, too - it was much more dangerous than a jump drive *and* you couldn't use it within a solar system... you had to cross a system at sublight and then travel through deep space for some amount of time before you could even activate the first 'hop'.
 
Just out of curiosity, how do you plan to run character setups? With different human factions, not to mention the various Kilrathi clans, you could make an extremely interesting character development process. Think of it like this, if you will...

Confed: Atypical well-balanced character with no real strengths, or weaknesses. Maybe some bonuses in 'mental' attributes; i.e. they have high "wisdom" and have leadership bonuses that help them in commanding large ships and leading crews.

Border Worlds: Atypical tech-oriented characters with bonuses to computer and repair skills.

Landreich: Your atypical rogue/smuggler characters. Good at merchandising, finding deals, getting away with stuff behind the scenes. A "people-person" with high "charisma", for example. Probably some stealth bonuses too.

Kilrathi: I was thinking that maybe the Kilrathi could be divided into seperate clans - straight warrior and warrior-tech. Huge combat and strength bonuses, but limited skills in repair and computers, yada yada yada. Warrior-tech would have lesser combat skills (because he's devoted time away from combat training to learn how to fix equipmet), but he would have a modest degree of both computer and repair skills.

These are just some ideas I thought i'd throw out for consideration. By no means do I intend to force them on you; they're just my thoughts on how it might work.
 
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