AM: Solomani & Solomani Rim books? How do they combine?

[SJE]

So, how does the Alien Module Solomani book fit together with the upcoming 3I: Solomani Rim release? Usually the Alien Modules cover a sector or subsector, so does AM:S cover the same Sol sector as Solomani Rim or do they address different sectors?

(EDIT- looking at the AM:S preview, apparently its Alpha Crucis Sector which is covered - is this adjacent to Sol Sector?)

How else do the books complement each other? If you just bought the Solomani Rim book, could you use it without the Alien Module?

Thx.

SJE

 

[smiths121]

SJE - did you pre-order the book, or have you actually got it in your hands?

The reason I ask is Alien Module 5 is up on Drivethru, suggesting it has been released, I am used to the Pdf +1 month model. However it is "Pre-order" on the Mongoose site.

Think I am getting a bit confused with the released schedule.

 

[lastbesthope]

It was caused by a problem with the print run, explained here:

http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=51026

LBH

 

[dlpulver]

So, how does the Alien Module Solomani book fit together with the upcoming 3I: Solomani Rim release? Usually the Alien Modules cover a sector or subsector, so does AM:S cover the same Sol sector as Solomani Rim or do they address different sectors?

(EDIT- looking at the AM:S preview, apparently its Alpha Crucis Sector which is covered - is this adjacent to Sol Sector?)

How else do the books complement each other? If you just bought the Solomani Rim book, could you use it without the Alien Module?

Thx.

SJE

Alien Module: Solomani describes the institutions, politics, beliefs, etc. of the Solomani Confederation -- things like the Solomani Party, the SolSec secret police, or the institution of the Home Guard. It provides a lot of back history and information that provides a context on the struggle between the Imperium and the Solomani Confederation.

The Solomani Rim is written under the assumption you are familiar with this information. There is some explanation within the Solomani Rim book of the history and workings of the Confederation, but it is cursory compared to the detail presented within Alien Module: Solomani.

You can use Solomani Rim on its own; most of the Rim (12 of 16 subsectors) are controlled by the Imperium rather than the Confederation, and life there is fairly similar to anywhere else in the Imperium. But the politics will probably make sense if you have the Alien Module.

What Solomani Rim provides that the Alien Module does not is a detailed look at the Solomani Rim sector.

About half of it describes subsectors and worlds; the other half covers history, organisations, politics, and some adventure/campaign ideas.

Solomani Rim assumes you're familiar with the Imperium. It does not take time to explain things Traveller players are likely already familiar with, like the megacorporations, how the Navy or Nobility works (see Spinward Marches and the core book). What it will tell you is, for example, what the megacorporations are up to in the Rim, who commands the Navy's sector fleet there, what is going on in Depot, or who key nobles and other political leaders are. So you'd refer to this book if you want to know who is running the Vegan Autonomous District or major criminal and terrorist groups that are on the loose in the Rim. It won't explain the Imperial Marines to you, but it will tell you how military rule work, how the Marines are overstretched with multiple commitments throughout the sector (meaning more mercs get hired for Imperial jobs), etc.

 

[kermit]

I've got to say Alien Module 5 is already my favorite Mongoose Traveller supplement (not including 2300AD...sorry David, but I really like 2300AD much more than Traveller...its not you its me...honest...we can still be friends). If you're worried about there being two Solomani based books, don't be. I have the utmost faith in Mr. Pulver and have been a long time fan of his by way of BESM's Centauri Knights and numerous GURPS supplements (Spaceships, Bio-Tech, Reign of Steel, Technomancer and a lot of Transhuman Space stuff). It will be really interesting for me to see how Pulver's view of the Solomani Rim differs from the GURPS version (entitled Rim of Fire) written by Jon Zeigler.

I'm looking forward towards both books. Hopefully Pulver will become a regular writer for Mongoose. And if he could contribute to the 2300AD line I'd be ever so tickled pink.

Benjamin

 

[SJE]

Thank you for the explanation, David, but how do the Alpha Crucis Sector and Sol Sectors compare? Is the Confederation a bigger deal in AC than in Sol?

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Alpha Crucis is the next sector Trailing from the Solomani Rim. It is a bit more of the frontier of the Confederacy, while the Rim is the more established region.

It offers a nice less developed region than the Rim, but still has the 3I/Confed conflict and is right next to the Hiver Federation, so you could add them into your game if you wanted.

 

[dlpulver]

I've got to say Alien Module 5 is already my favorite Mongoose Traveller supplement ... It will be really interesting for me to see how Pulver's view of the Solomani Rim differs from the GURPS version (entitled Rim of Fire) written by Jon Zeigler.

Benjamin

Thanks for your kind words!

I was encouraged to make Solomani Rim compatible with Rim of Fire, so some overlap is inevitable as many key worlds are important enough to require coverage in both books. I have kept in mind that our Solomani Rim is set in 1105, about 15 years before the GURPS book, and indeed even two or three years before many of the GDW adventures which were set in 1107 or later. So things can change and the GURPS history is not inevitable; there is setup for "roads not taken" where things could go differently. Where worlds covered in RoF were also important enough to be covered here I tried to keep a description broadly compatible with RoF but also tell different sides of the story. And In 1105 the "Imperial" part of the Rim is perhaps not as peaceful as 1120, as Imperial rule is not yet solidified on some worlds like Terra, different people are in power, or are much younger and uncertain, the Confederation worlds themselves are not as dysfunctional (no big war raging at Kukulcan, though problems exist). I also cover some hopefully-interesting Traveller worlds that have been often mentioned but haven't been detailed much, like Xiwa (with its nuclear war) or the Depot system.

 

[dlpulver]

Thank you for the explanation, David, but how do the Alpha Crucis Sector and Sol Sectors compare? Is the Confederation a bigger deal in AC than in Sol?

The huge difference in Alpha Crucis is that where only 4 subsectors in the Solomani Rim are Confederation controlled, in Alpha Crucis more than 14 of 16 subsectors are majority-Confederation Control. The Confederation throws more weight around and powers like Cthonia and Turin are dominant here.

It is a "younger" sector: almost all settlement here postdates the Interstellar Wars era. There are no starfaring alien races with long-settled worlds (unlike the Vilani and Vegans in the Rim, or the Hivers in neighbouring Spica). There are a few minor races, but they're local and generally under the Confederation's thumb. Being a minor alien race in the Confederation is not very fun.

It is a wilder sector as well. The Confederation has a "looser" interstellar government than the Imperium; while individual planets are perhaps more oppressive, there are more factions operating at the interstellar level. Confederation control is not absolute. The shock of the Solomani Rim War weakened Solomani power;with the need to keep large forces on the border watching the Imperium (and the Aslan and Hivers, elsewhere) there are many independent worlds that can't yet be subdued, a few are not entirely friendly to the Confederation.

While these are gnats compared to the Confederation itself, the loose structure of the Confederation means that they can still sting. But the Confederation are not the Imperium. If a planet starts acting up and the political will is there, the Confederation military - or even SolSec paramilitaries -- can go in with a lot less provocation than the Imperium requires. So there are a few recent, and some active brushfire wars in Alpha Crucis where the Confederation is militarily engaged with main Confederation Army troops, or has recently fought the equivalent of "Falkland Islands" or "Afghanistan" level army or navy conflicts.

(I wanted to make sure the Confederation had some naval and army fights in recent history that veteran PCs could incorporate into their past character histories.)

 

[far-trader]

(I wanted to make sure the Confederation had some naval and army fights in recent history that veteran PCs could incorporate into their past character histories.)

Laudable goal, but I don't understand the bit about making the Solomani the evil thugs of the setting in the same product.

Why give (or even force on) the players a background as the bad guys when you could have as easily made it neutral or even as the good guys? Don't forget the victors write the history so even IF the Solomani are the evil warlords of the area, they won't be in THEIR accounting of it. Which imo is where the perspective of the sourcebook should be from, IF you're going to go into it picking sides and colouring the background. Just curious about your reasons if you feel like filling in some design background.

 

[dlpulver]

(I wanted to make sure the Confederation had some naval and army fights in recent history that veteran PCs could incorporate into their past character histories.)

Laudable goal, but I don't understand the bit about making the Solomani the evil thugs of the setting in the same product.

Why give (or even force on) the players a background as the bad guys when you could have as easily made it neutral or even as the good guys? Don't forget the victors write the history so even IF the Solomani are the evil warlords of the area, they won't be in THEIR accounting of it. Which imo is where the perspective of the sourcebook should be from, IF you're going to go into it picking sides and colouring the background. Just curious about your reasons if you feel like filling in some design background.

I don't think of the Solomani as evil thugs - indeed, I think Alien Module: Solomani actually takes a more neutral, pro-Solomani stance than many prior books on the subject. At the same time, I write sourcebooks from a neutral perspective - I don't think it's useful to do the sort of thing that was done in the old Digest Group book where it's told from a biased perspective. (Amusing, but not that useful).

Prior canon has more or less had absolutely nothing positive at all to say about the Solomani. (usually `everything was going fine - and then a Solomani Revolution imposed a racist dictatorship and things went to crap!'). I think this book takes a different view that covers Solomani virtues while still confronting the elements of racism and authoritarianism that exists in their culture.

At the same time, I felt that it would be wrong to take a revisionist stance on the Solomani. The Imperium had reasons to fight Solomani Rim War -- perhaps its greatest conflict, and unlike the Frontier Wars, one that they pressed to the very heart of the enemy with a massive invasion of its capital. I did not want to neuter the Solomani and claim they were just misunderstood and really Hivers in human clothing. The Solomani don't wander around breathing heavily and wearing black caps, but they do believe in manifest destiny and their own superiority.

On the whole, I don't think the Solomani are evil thugs. Most of 'em are just patriotic folks who don't mix much with aliens, and are bitter about losing chunks of their territory. Maybe like the British of Kipling's era (and they probably would use his poem The Stranger as their unofficial national anthem...) Others grew up on racially divided border worlds, and have the same siege mentality you got in South Africa or post-Civil War deep South, where the need to retain power and privilege helped institutionalize a racist system. Then you have SolSec, which the book explains is viewed differently on various worlds; sometimes its a secret police, other times its more a means of countering the elites.

The Solomani Confederation will intervene where the Imperium won't - but it will do so for good as well as for bad. At one level it's a far more a populist interstellar government than the Imperium is, with elected leaders bound to the interests of individual worlds, if not individual people, and as many worlds are democratic or otherwise free as are not.

The Imperium has about the same number of evil thugs as the Confederation. The main difference is that the Imperium has a policy of ignoring them as they long as they rule only one planet at a time, and at the intersetellar level, restricts prejudice to Zhodani and psionics!

 

[far-trader]

Thanks for the additional bits David, that makes it clearer and much better imo. I agree you can't totally wash your hands of the previous treatments. I was thrown off by some of the previous post which hinted at the olde treatment of the Solomani as cardboard caricature jackbooted thugs and political officer snitches.

 

[Captain Jonah]

When reading this please put on the Ode to joy in the background (the middle section which is the unofficial Solomani Theme)


The poor old Solomani getting the smelly end of the Imperial Propaganda stick again.

The Vilani were a dying empire when they first met the Solomani, the humans from Terra wanted to explore and trade, the Vilani response, WAR……..

After emerging from this classic David and Goliath battle the Sons and Daughters of Terra struggled mightily to hold of the Long night and retain as much civilisation as could be saved.

By way of thanks the Solomani now have the 3rd Imperium as a neighbour. An aggressive bully that has crushed all opposition and has its jackbooted thugs, the Imperial Marines, maintaining a conquest on the very birthplace of mankind. Lets face it how many times has the Imperium attacked the poor peace loving Zhodani.

The Solomani are a confederation, they practice Democracy. They have been in the past open and welcoming.

At every turn they have met with treachery, naked aggression, Invasion, exploitation.

Is it any wonder that the sons and daughters of Terra are wary of Aliens given that just about every alien they have ever met has attacked them, invaded them or just tried to cheat them or rob them. Is it any wonder that the Solomani Confederation with its democratically elected leadership fear the proven aggression of the Tyrannical Imperium. The Imperium, a Monarchy no less. Rule passed from parent to child and maintained by the jackboots of the Imperial Marines and the Iron fist of the Imperial Naval. Both forces that have spread death and destruction within the Confederation.

What power or influence do the people have in the Imperium, who elects the Emperor. All those Dukes and barons and lords. Who puts them in power, who voted for them?

Yes the Confederation will Intervene to protect its people, the 3rd Imperium mutters propaganda about caring then stands back and ignores open warfare, slavery, tyranny, oppression, and much much more.

As we stand here in 1105 of the Imperial reckoning the Solomani confederation stands divided and under threat. Its very capital and vast numbers of its worlds are under the control of a tyrannical invader. Its people are threaten by Aliens and the Cruel forces of the Emperor.

The only people who call the Solomani evil are those who have been listening to too much Imperial Propaganda and lies.

Open your eyes to the truth, it is the Emperor who is the Tyrant. It is the 3rd Imperium that is the warmongering evil power.

Support the Solomani, vote in strong leaders who will protect the sons and daughters of Terra. Enlist in the Confederation services and do you part to protect the confederation from the many threats that surround it. Oppose Tyranny where ever it may be found, do not fall for Imperial Lies and falsehoods.

TERRA FOREVER !


:lol: :wink:

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I think that a Referee can really change how the Solomani Confederacy REALLY is by changing how SolSec works.

Sure, they are the "secret police", but they have an entire career path that is open and working in public. If a Referee makes SolSec more concerned about removing Imperial or "Foreign" influence and less about policing citizens about which version of the Cause they support, you can lighten up the Confed quite a bit.

As Captain Jonah said above, the Confed has enemies on 3 sides and can truly see the 3I as a major threat (the 3I invaded them, not the other way around).

Belief in racial superiority doesn't make a group EVIL, it just makes them "Patriotic". They really are trying to help the prindig's, really...

Shades of Grey...

I really like the new Solomani book and look forward to the Solomani Rim sector book as well.

 

[Ishmael]

SolSec sounds a bit ( or maybe more ) like the Department of Homeland Security in the USA, complete with the Patriot Act and the NSA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency

IMTU, I tend to view the Scouts as analogous to the US Coast Guard, complete with the various law enforcement activities ( another reason for the lower survival rates ). This would put them under the command of Dept Homeland Security, or SolSec, during peacetime and under the command of the Dept Navy in wartime.
It fits for me.

 

[dlpulver]

Thanks for the additional bits David, that makes it clearer and much better imo. I agree you can't totally wash your hands of the previous treatments. I was thrown off by some of the previous post which hinted at the olde treatment of the Solomani as cardboard caricature jackbooted thugs and political officer snitches.

Yeah, sometimes I do that too - it's easy to refer to SolSec as "the secret police" and to some extent they are, but I try to make it clear that they are more than that. Their primary goal is to not to spy on ordinary people but to spy on politicians. They are every dictator's worst nightmare

One of the fun things in Solomani AM was to explore how organizations like the Solomani Party and SolSec actually formed. SolSec did not come into being because a good fraction of the Imperium decided to become totalitarian suddenly. It formed in adhoc fashion from various other agencies including Solomani members of the Imperial Ministry of Justice, citizens watchdog groups (sort of like Wikileaks), etc.

On a cultural level, I also briefly discuss things like what books and vids and music are popular in the Confederation, the sports they enjoy, how the food there differs from the Imperium, the major public holidays, how their Navy and Marines have a proud tradition of explorers and pioneers (unlike the imperial Navy, the Solomani don't have a scout service - and nor do they have a scout branch in the navy. Instead, the captains do time on the frontier, so many of them have that James T Kirk tradition of being Soldiers, Explorers and Diplomats, something that, say, the Imperial Navy, don't really get. Solomani Navy officers often study planetology or xenology.
The Solomani aren't surrounded like the Imperium - they have new frontiers and a pioneer spirit!
So you can play a Solomani starship captain exploring strange new worlds, with his crew of men and women (and one token nonhuman, maybe a dolphin science officer. or an ape security chief.)

Solomani racism and xenophobia is a bit conditional, by the way. As well as being nuanced - most Solomani haven't met aliens anyway - it varies. They tend to respect Aslan, who are the aliens who act like they believe aliens should (tough, mean, dudes who don't pretend to be human). Vilani are sneaky, Vegans are traitors who went whining to the Imperium, and Vargr -- aren't they really from Terra? Why aren't they on our side as junior partners, like the dolphins? Vargr show up in Solomani adventure stories, as brave pro-Terran wolf-pirates battling the Imperium!

 

[AndrewW]

So you can play a Solomani starship captain exploring strange new worlds, with his crew of men and women (and one token nonhuman, maybe a dolphin science officer. or an ape security chief.)

Got to watch those ape security chiefs though, they can be trigger happy.

 

[dlpulver]

When reading this please put on the Ode to joy in the background (the middle section which is the unofficial Solomani Theme)

> Forgot to mention Ode to Joy. Darn it.

The poor old Solomani getting the smelly end of the Imperial Propaganda stick again.

The Vilani were a dying empire when they first met the Solomani, the humans from Terra wanted to explore and trade, the Vilani response, WAR……..

After emerging from this classic David and Goliath battle the Sons and Daughters of Terra struggled mightily to hold of the Long night and retain as much civilisation as could be saved.

> all true!

By way of thanks the Solomani now have the 3rd Imperium as a neighbour. An aggressive bully that has crushed all opposition and has its jackbooted thugs, the Imperial Marines, maintaining a conquest on the very birthplace of mankind. Lets face it how many times has the Imperium attacked the poor peace loving Zhodani.

> Well, mind you, if we were living next to them, we'd probably have to do that as well. But ask any Impie in the Spinward Marches what he thinks of Zhos, and you'll hear racial remarks that would match that of any Solomani citizen!

Is it any wonder that the sons and daughters of Terra are wary of Aliens given that just about every alien they have ever met has attacked them, invaded them or just tried to cheat them or rob them.

> And don't forget the ongoing suffering of the humans to spinward on the Aslan Frontier. Look at old maps - human colonies lay deep in Dark Nebula and beyond. Now nothing but Aslan space and wastelands there, conquered by the aliens! Did the Imperium answer the call? No, they showed up - and then they made a peace treaty, and one that only covered Reaver's Deep. It was left to the Solomani to defend the frontier... and our colonial fleets fought against the Aslan and held the line in Magyar and Dark Nebula and Ustral... while the Imperial Navy stayed behind.

Is it any wonder that the Solomani Confederation with its democratically elected leadership fear the proven aggression of the Tyrannical Imperium. The Imperium, a Monarchy no less. Rule passed from parent to child and maintained by the jackboots of the Imperial Marines and the Iron fist of the Imperial Naval. Both forces that have spread death and destruction within the Confederation.

>Don't forget the suffering of the Civil War. What if there was another one?

What power or influence do the people have in the Imperium, who elects the Emperor. All those Dukes and barons and lords. Who puts them in power, who voted for them?

>Indeed. The Solomani Movement wasn't just about racism. The Solomani Movement was also a union of populist "confederationists" (or Devolutionists) who looked to the republican spirit of the Terran Confederation and the Old Earth Union rather than the Vilani-like ideals of Empire.

>Another important element was the desire to rid the Rim of the overweaning power of the Imperial megacorporations (many of them connected to the nobility and Imperial family). Solomani business interests at the planetary and subsector level provided crucial backing to the movement; even today, the huge megacorporations are carefully controlled and monitored within the Confederation; they don't have the same power and autonomy they do elsewhere (except Trannstar, and that is a special case due to its relationship with the state. Sort of a public corporation....think of it like the post office, with passenger ships, okay?)

Yes the Confederation will Intervene to protect its people, the 3rd Imperium mutters propaganda about caring then stands back and ignores open warfare, slavery, tyranny, oppression, and much much more.

> The Confederation sometimes ignores these things, but not by policy; rather, it is a republican government, and it is hard to get hundreds of delegates to agree to act and send men into battle. But act it will. As recently as last year its military forces, guided by the voices of the people, removed one genocidal dictator (Yasmin York) by force of arms....

As we stand here in 1105 of the Imperial reckoning the Solomani confederation stands divided and under threat. Its very capital and vast numbers of its worlds are under the control of a tyrannical invader. Its people are threaten by Aliens and the Cruel forces of the Emperor.

The only people who call the Solomani evil are those who have been listening to too much Imperial Propaganda and lies.

>Probably the fault of Vilani media megacorporation Makhidkarun.

Open your eyes to the truth, it is the Emperor who is the Tyrant. It is the 3rd Imperium that is the warmongering evil power.

Support the Solomani, vote in strong leaders who will protect the sons and daughters of Terra. Enlist in the Confederation services and do you part to protect the confederation from the many threats that surround it. Oppose Tyranny where ever it may be found, do not fall for Imperial Lies and falsehoods.

 

[dlpulver]

Belief in racial superiority doesn't make a group EVIL, it just makes them "Patriotic". They really are trying to help the prindig's, really...

I really like the new Solomani book and look forward to the Solomani Rim sector book as well.

Call in the Solomani Interstellar Development Corps!

Thanks - glad you liked the book.

 

[Captain Jonah]

So you can play a Solomani starship captain exploring strange new worlds, with his crew of men and women (and one token nonhuman, maybe a dolphin science officer. or an ape security chief.)

Got to watch those ape security chiefs though, they can be trigger happy.

Trigger happy. ME ?

I don't know what you are talking about. I was firing three round bursts of 40mm Ram Grenades. Its not like I slapped in the 20 round drum and went full auto down the starship corridors. :roll:

Damn AI doesn't understand the fine art of the careful application of just enough explosives to take out the enemy, their cover, any hiding place where undetected enemy may be and still leave the bulkheads intact.



Sgt Kimba Bloodfang Uplifted Lowland silverback Gorilla Ex Marine Assault Grenadier now security officer on the independent trader Whippet.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/ancient-trails-a-spacer-s-guild-campaign/characters/sergeant-kimba-bloodfang