The Gaming Outpost

AMERICAN IMPERIUM:

Its 2020 Common Era, and do you know where your children are? The government does, but that’s not much of a worry to most of your neighbors. Keep your nose clean, and be loyal, and hard-working and you’ll do all right in America.

The governing system has been changed slightly. No dictatorship has been put in place despite the attacks on September 11, and the following attacks the next year on the same date when Ebola was released in Atlanta and Los Angeles to serious but not devastating effect. But it brought a new realism into play. No more did Americans worry about humanitarian intervention. They knew the world was a dangerous place, and they needed to be protected. So they abandoned idealism, and got ruthless.

One effect was to shift to proportional representation. {Need sidebar explaining it}.

Another effect was the doing away with of the Electoral College which simplified the task of the ruling party since now they only had to cater to the large states and the big cities.

And of course, the sitting president was rapidly impeached, and a number of major figures resigned in shame. {Some suggest, very quietly, that folders containing photographs and bank documents were used as blackmail to get the more recalcitrant to resign.}

But fundamentally, America seems much the same to its citizens as it did in 2000. Oh, there’s several Jewish colonies in Western states on what had been federal land. So Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, and Arizona have the added benefits of cultured and sophisticated citizens who join the U.S. Military in disproportionate numbers. And the Palestinians have their own state in the Middle East; much good it does them.

The United States had long been involved in the Middle East due in large part to oil. The current American government, now seeing no need to act from a mix of humane and mercantile motives changed its policy. It saw its job as to take care of the American people, and nothing else. It proudly proclaimed this as the highest humanity. So we got out of the Middle East, and as a parting gift mined the Straits of Malacca and the entrance to the Persian Gulf, and blew up a half-dozen pipelines, and closed the Suez Canal. Suddenly, the buyers and the sellers of oil could not get to each other, and we smiled because for a long time we had not been getting that much of our oil from the Middle East anyways. It was Japan and Europe that really needed the Middle East, not us.

ANWR, the Alaskan Oil Reserve, was opened up. And Venezuela was being misgoverned by an incompetent Marxists who showed disdain for America. At one time, much ink might have been spilled over the good we would do for the people of Venezuela before we invaded them. Now such kindly notions, while true to some degree as hardly anyone could be worse for the Venezuelans than the man they had freely elected, were not a serious concern. Venezuela had oil, and we took it.

Oil is the lifeblood of a modern economy. He who controlled oil could send the world into a depression. We dodged that bullet, and started pumping into our own market. Any oil exported had a sizable tariff slammed on it. And we put up a nice tariff of fifteen percent on everything which had the benefits of returning a lot of manufacturing and IT jobs to America. It led to starvation in India, but that was not our problem. We had full employment and high wages and a booming economy.

It also helped the economy that we finally had a stable and assured energy supply.

We explained “Fair Trade” to our trading partners. We would treat them exactly as they treated us. They thought we were joking, until we started to put their cargoes to the same rigamarole they had put ours to for decades. This either opened up markets to us, or it redressed imbalances, and so overall it helped the U.S. economy a great deal.

We went on to grab for whatever strategic minerals we needed that we did not already possess. These were quite few because America was blessed. Iron-clad treaties, or annexations, or buying of land, or whatever means necessary secured our supply lines.

We extended our maritime borders two hundred miles into the ocean, and we built great ports far at sea where each ship could be thoroughly examined before letting them pass on so as to minimize the danger of a container nuke.

We explained to the Middle East what we expected of them. You could have Israel as soon as we evacuated everyone. There was an effort to repeat Saigon with the enemy rushing the last leaving helicopters, but we discouraged that with JDAMs before they even got in range of the helicopters. Even if the targets were tanks in suburban neighborhoods, we bombed. We did not become terrorists, but we no longer chose the most merciful method of instruction either.

The Middle East objected to our “no terror” rule; so we explained it to them again in a day and a night of napalm and high explosives. The wrack and ruin of three armies made our point abundantly clear. Occasionally we still have to “explain” things again, but most of the Middle East is remarkably safe for the business traveler seeking cheap rugs. Their oil economy has fallen through the floor, and taken most of the nation-states with it. The place has reverted to tribalism. They lack the money to cause trouble now. We don’t care; they made their bed; let them sleep in it.

Internal politics is such that each small party has some representation. The Communist Party has three senators, and the Libertarian Party has five, and all these splinters make the Congress easily manipulated by the Executive. And this small bit of power satisfies many better than the old days of Republican and Democrat total dominance where the fringers were frozen out in favor of the middle.

The government supports movements that divide the nation. The Confederate States Re-enactments are funded by the government. States with old disputes against other states do not get decisive justice, but merely a chance to vent and then fester some more. Its divide and conquer.

Citizens have rifles seeing as even the New American Empire understood it had precisely zero chance of taking away hundreds of millions of guns from private citizens. Instead, they outlawed machine guns, and put police and military in protective armor that the only legally salable bullets had little chance of penetrating. Thus the Second Amendment was nullified, while retaining it.

We are no longer a republic, or even have much of the fabled civil culture of the old Americans, but we no longer bother to question ourselves very much either. It is a lot more peaceful and restful. The jobs are good, and our enemies are terrified, and the nations of the Earth sing our praises (they’d better or else), and only a few people look around and realize something precious left the Earth. America is now just another empire rather than the last best hope of this sorry planet. America is not a totalitarian hellhole by any means, but now its just another nation, Granted, its the most powerful, and one of the most ruthless and functional. But for a long time it was a republic, and then when that failed it was a liberal democracy, and then it had a chance to regain the republic, but circumstances changed it into an empire, and that door back was closed.

Problems for the Verser:
1) Everyone has papers, and identity cards.
2) Money is fairly specific and has several hidden devices included in it. Passing money from another dimension as your own is going to be difficult.
3) The gray men, the men in the shadows, the intelligence services…by whatever name you call them, they are paranoid and rough. They are more likely to believe you’re a spy, or even a brainwashed assassin who doesn’t remember his job (which is just barely possible, maybe, in this world. The tech for drug-based mind control is in development.)
4) The gray men are looking for anomalies. You’re an anomaly. They have a wide and subtle net. They spy on everyone, but only the suspicious elements are gathered together for analysis by humans. Privacy Laws do apply, but only when its a human watching you. If a machine is watching you, that does not count.
5) If you catch the grey men’s attention, it will be very hard to lose them. They have, among other things, a complete overlook on every point of the US for every moment of the day. There are other elements in this tracking system.
6) Much of the dysfunctionalities of the current US society have been dealt with effectively and reasonably. A) Street crime is very low with incarceration of repeat or violent offenders for long time periods; with strong right-to-carry self-defense laws; with policemen on every corner in some formerly ‘bad’ neighbourhoods. B)Racial harmony is very high historically. While there are still divisions, the number of Black-White or Black-Asian incidences is very low. The New American Empire is interested in causing division, but not division that shows too much potential for spinning out of hand, or causing structural weaknesses. Thus ghettoes received big increases of police forces until the criminals realized that it was easier to go to suburbia, and leave the mostly law-abiding majority alone. Once in suburbia, they ran into a phalanx of shotguns, and realized it was easier to get a job. C)The middle class is larger; the rich are rich, but trimmed a bit (The New American Empire realizes that people like Bill Gates are independent power points, and it wants the Power. So Gates got his company broken apart, and lost three-fourths of his fortune making him only phenomenally wealthy.) D) Artists tend to receive many chances to get stipends and grants and prizes. This has the effect of creating loyalty to the New American Empire. The Empire has lax rules on art. It requires effort so Serrano and Pollack get nowhere, but Rembrandt and Monet and Anson Adams achieve fame, disapproves of anything grossly seditious, and mostly lets the artists police themselves. However, loyalty to the Empire is slightly more likely to win a prize than neutrality or cleverly hidden disloyalty. Its just enough of a leash to keep the artists in line, but not enough to make them really mad since many remember the old days when many a brilliant artist couldn’t make enough to feed himself off his art. And now they can. And a permanent sore in the American Mind is healed. Much of the possibly excessive self-criticism of the previous era was not fueled by high principle entirely, but was heavily influenced by how hard it was for an artist to make it.

Its very pleasant to be a member of the New American Empire. Granted, your vote matters nil, but most people never voted anyways. The masters of the NAM have votes as public ritual, but they don’t have an effect. The masters of the NAM believe most people don’t really want freedom. Most people want a responsive government, common sense rules, prosperity, and a good parade.

Unlike some other entities insulated from the public will, the masters of the NAM are quite populist, and in touch with what their subjects want. The problem arises in the next generation. Will they continue to be in touch, or will they and the populace start spinning off into separate worlds with the populace having sacrificed the ability to correct its political masters when they go off the rails?

Only time will tell.

Its a pleasant land, but hard on versers. Its important for the referee to make that dichotocomy clear.

Ed replied in Mayhem, Mecha, and Mythos. He’s wondering what to do to get back going.

If you could explain that to him and me, I’d be grateful.

A writer needs to learn to notice, and give names to details. A frequent problem of young writers I’ve been told is not giving enough details; to not I think make it clear what is happening where to whom. Or as my English teacher said, Eric, you can’t rewrite what isn’t there.

So the writer must needs learn names, and places, and hues, and little insights.

You have to give enough original detail, enough to make it feel like its a real place. This is in part a result of the character’s detailed interaction with the detailed environment. And the level of detail varies from author to author, and even from the purpose of the scene to another scene. You might not want to describe every sword move of a twenty person brawl, but you might want to get deep in detail on the climatic fight. Then again, there are lots of famous authors who don’t do that, so maybe its just me.

I have discovered a voluptuous love of detail, after all.

But then he must go beyond that to choosing just the right one. Sometimes the right one is a whole herd of them, deepening the feeling, letting the reader feel the moment. This was hard for me to figure out, as I thought you only said something once.

But, there is a converse as there is to most things. My friend J in discussing L. Ron Hubbard described him as the type of writer that if he had a room with a striped carpet in it, he would describe every single one of the eleven million and some stripes.

The hardest thing for a writer to do is to find the telling detail. The one thing that brings the picture into absolute focus, but with startling speed.

Don’t feel downhearted if you can’t do this. A lot of professional writers aren’t that good at it either. But if you can do it….well then….come and explain it to me.

The Isle of the Mighty in the Cyrston Sea is a huge island running two-fifths of the length of the sea, or slightly over a hundred Brehon Miles. Its about fifty Westing Great Yards wide (its traditional to measure north to south in Brehon, and west to east in Westing due to Brehon being in the North, and Westing in the West. This has nothing to do with various Brehonite kings and Westing kings executing mapmakers who did otherwise. Well, okay, that might have influenced some people.)

English Mile: All other measurements are measured by the English Mile and by the English Inch. These ‘English’ measurements are not used in the world of Tellus.
Dayhorse: The distance a lightly encumbered horse with a skilled rider can go in a day on a road. This is roughly twenty English miles.
Brehon Miles: 110% of an English Mile
Westing Great Yards: 85% of an English Mile
Louzanne Hill Miles: 70-75% of an English Mile
Merchant’s Mile: 120% of an English Mile.
Archer’s Fling: 25% of an English mile.

High Foot: 18 English Inches
An Arm: 30 English Inches
King’s Step: This varies from 8 to 14 English inches depending on who is the current King in Westing.
Louzanne Push Step: 5 English inches.
Merchant’s Measure: 10 English inches.

Thumb: 2 English inches
Apple half: 3-4 English inches. Its usually determined by cutting an apple in half, and counting how many times you can rotate the apple as you ‘march it down’. Thus ‘this board is 18 and a half apple halves.’ would mean the board was between 54 and 72 English inches long with a 2-3 additional variance due to the ‘half apple halve’.

There are seven dominant areas of the Isle.

Westing–This is a large peninsula that extends out fifteen Great Yards and is thirty Brehon miles north to south. Westing is the land of the grape, and cattle. It has many small valleys running down to the sea with creeks and rivers filling them. Each valley is held by a different king, and some valleys have more than one king.

Brehon–This is the northernmost tip of the country. Fishing, and some sheep-farming is common here. Some of the locals are pirates.

‘Behind Brehon’ is a bit southerly and inland, and receives little attention or care except from the small farmers and tiny kings who live there. Its less socially advanced than other regions with inferior farming equipment.

Marchsea–On the East/Northern coast live the remants of the Kings of Might. A thousand years ago, these brutes ruled the whole Isle and had outposts in many of the nations surrounding the Isle. But their harshness spawned rebellion, and their own moral decay turned them from warlords into pleasure seekers who could not deal with the anger their actions created. They were driven to their last fortresses, and left to them as a defense against the newly risen raiders from the North end of the Crystron Sea. They have spent the last thousand years squabbling among themselves. Some favor restoring the old harsh ways, some favor becoming complete dissolutes, others favor becoming inventively sadistic so as to combine harshness and dissolution. But they mostly fight each other, rage at each other, and teach any Dernaki Raiders from the sea that they still have a sting.

Louzanne Hills–The hill-land is a difficult country more suited to sheep than other forms of agriculture. However, its many kings always want to grow wealth, and are full of dreams of terracing hills, or somehow creating cash crops. These dreams fail vastly more often than not as raiders, brigands, and general lack of cooperation and incompetence take their toll.

The Great Fens–The home of brigands, and independent men. There are a few kings in this land. Some are pirates, and others are heads of great families. There is little fighting amongst themselves as the land is harsh enough with its swamps to keep the peace. And those with warlike intentions can join a brigand band and raid the exterior lands.

Southland–Below the Great Fens is a wide area of warmth and farmland. Its also the most common area for battle as this great prize is of worth, and small kings come from all over to try to take what the local kings have. And the local kings are invariably when not being invaded, trying to expand their lands at the expense of their neighbours.

The last census was taken in 805 After the Scouring. (Marchsea people render this 810 After the Fall for the date when their great capital, Du San Ried was burned. The Scouring refers to the great pogrom nationwide where anyone with any ties to the Marchsea were harried or executed. This took five years of phenomenal cruelty.)

The Great Census by Vineir the Learned, Great Magi and Adviser to the Westing Kings yielded 1,287 kings in the Isle of the Mighty. In the two hundred and nine years since then (which makes this 1014 Scouring) this number has only increased.

The dominant religion is the worship of the Great One. He is contended to be the King, the Hero, and the Piercing Presence in his faces. He created the world by his Law which he as King spoke and inscribes on the Tablets of Glory and in each person’s heart. He as Hero came to Earth and demonstrated that He could live up to them, and then offers to one and all the entrance to Glory provided they admit they cannot. But once they do, the Piercing Presence is free to work in their lives, and bring them comfort, and kindness, but also knowledge of duty, and punishment for failure.

It is commonly acknowledged that open evildoers have less of a hard time than the good who turn evil. This is explained by the justice of the Presence who cares not to cane the wicked, but only canes the just who stray.

The primary sins are Pride (particularly Pride which claims entrance to Glory on one’s own merits); Lack of Generosity; Cowardice; Excessive Ambition; Dishonesty; Unfair Dealing (this is probably the trickiest one to adjucticate); Dishonorable Behavior; and Not Respecting the Roles of a Person (this covers insulting a craftsman at his trade, and sleeping with a someone not your spouse, and a lot else).

There is a priestly hierarchy. But it is relatively flat with only three layers separating the village priest from the Wise In Council. Traditionally, the Wise Council meets every three years in Westing. The Wise In Council try among other things to limit the epidemic wars and actual epidemics in the land by the use of Holy Days where war is forbidden, and by the use of the Texts of the Great One which reveal fairly advanced sanitation and medical techniques (latrines, quarantine for disease, checking for rashes after quarantine, boiling water, and washing hands in running water are all required in the Holy Texts.)

Celibacy is not a requirement of the priest, although it along with vows of poverty are allowed. Celibacy for others is generally frowned upon. One is expected to get married.

====This is part of the War Wizard stuff I was talking over with MJ and Wodium…

I’m running Mentat through a world that has Mental Powers, Mecha, Lovecraftian Mythos, and a fight against evil aliens.

Here’s some high points in the construction of a world…

1. Post-apoc brought about by alien KE bombing.
2. Previous society was hi-tech late 21st century with a Moon Base and robots
3. Current society is a warped post-apoc where some tribes name themselves after football teams. Some tribes believe in cargo cult aka ‘if we keep the airport grass short, then one day, the 747 angels named Fedex and DHL will land and give us all the great things we heard our ancestors talk about–Teevee, and Re-Mote Con-Troll. (sounds like a great opportunity for puns and jokes–like renegade robots are name Re-Mote Con-Troll–like trolls…). Other tribes, more successful, survive on trade and salvage. These are more mobile tribes, and have less durable dwellings. Primary form of entertainment for the mobile tribes is haggling, talking, and storytelling–in other words they are great liars.
4. The great cities are still heavy with loot, although the most obvious stuff has still been taken. But there are buildings with bricks and I-beams and copper wiring….
5. Battle bots on the moon defending the Earth, somewhat. Still raids to suppress new tech get through.
6. Current time is 2315 so this war has been going on for a while.
7. An adviser wise man character who’s old enough not to be totally trustworthy.
8. As its anime, psi powers exist to a degree.
9. Say we have tech aliens who worship the Mythos…and they summon the Mythos when they are having real problems. This gives us Gundam vs. Lovecraft….