[background=Bear with me a minute.[/size]
[background=I’ve watched a bit of Deep Space Nine recently, and I found myself paying attention to how territory and government work in Star Trek. Outside the Federation, you get nearly monocultural enclaves, Major Factions by Chaos terminology. Inside the Federation, you still find enclaves of worlds that pertain to specific cultures, races, or species. The same is true in Star Wars, but those enclaves don’t get nearly as much attention for the most part -- at least not within the RP sphere. Now, that’s clearly because you’re not going to find all that many people RP’ing most of these species as main characters. Even so, these enclaves can offer some interesting background for RP, and most folks don’t even know they exist.[/size]
[background=Within the aegis of the Old and New Republics, you find all sorts of species and races with their own established territory, colony worlds, fleets, political power. The Ishori versus the Diamala. The Herglics. The Hapans. The Bothans. The Mon Calamari. The Neimoidians. The Wookiees.[/size]
[background=On my first board, when the world was flat, there was a Corellian major faction: the Corellian Commonwealth. This board has seen a few species/race-based enclaves that have seen a decent amount of success as major factions: the Echani, some incarnations of the Hutts, the Atrisians, the Mandalorians, and so forth. It wouldn’t be so hard, though, for a Corellian Major Faction to exist, or a Twi’lek one, or even a Zeltron one if you sort of squint and tilt your head. Tons of people play those species and races. I search the ‘Character Creation’ forum, and I get Corellian (189), Hapan (172), Twi’lek (unavailable due to search engine limitations, but Valiens isn’t hurting for eye candy around here), Vahla (102), and Zeltron (147). Compare the Echani (163), the Atrisians (131), and the Mandalorians (113), all of whom have had major factions to their name. This is a quick-and-dirty methodology with all kinds of flaws. Even so, potential is clearly there; it just doesn’t get realized or talked about.[/size]
[background=One obstacle is that the species and races of Star Wars aren’t always as fleshed out as you’d hope. Star Wars places a ton of emphasis on culture as separate from species and race -- hence the massive amount of information on the history and practices of the Sith and the Jedi. On one level, Star Wars is just plain about different things than Star Trek (and that's a level I'm not going to engage with right now). But there’s a lot of overlap. Honestly, out of the possibilities that work best for Chaos, I think the Mandalorians are probably the closest thing to how Star Trek treats enclaves in the sense that I’m talking about. That might be a reason the Mandalorians have lasted literally the entire length of the board. Most Major Factions are about a specific ambition or a set of principles/ideologies. Mandoness is about identity in a way that a lot of Major Factions don’t match -- but Corellianness, Hapanity, Twi’lekitude, and so forth do, or can. And those are just the easiest examples of the overlap between canon species/race enclaves and number of RP’ed main characters. [/size]
[background=Regardless of whether we ever see another Major Faction like that (which I think would be downright awesome), I personally find it cool to encounter this stuff when writing space travel. All manner of obstacles and opportunities can come from a jaunt into the Hapes Cluster or the Tapani Sector or whatever. Norms change, character development happens, and fun can ensue. Then again, I’m the kind of person who adores space maps. I like plotting things out based on maps. I like being able to have my characters make IC decisions based on what’s around them, what they could run into on the way from X to Y, and so forth. So your mileage may vary, but yeah, take this for what it’s worth, have some fun with it. [/size]
[background=I’ve watched a bit of Deep Space Nine recently, and I found myself paying attention to how territory and government work in Star Trek. Outside the Federation, you get nearly monocultural enclaves, Major Factions by Chaos terminology. Inside the Federation, you still find enclaves of worlds that pertain to specific cultures, races, or species. The same is true in Star Wars, but those enclaves don’t get nearly as much attention for the most part -- at least not within the RP sphere. Now, that’s clearly because you’re not going to find all that many people RP’ing most of these species as main characters. Even so, these enclaves can offer some interesting background for RP, and most folks don’t even know they exist.[/size]
[background=Within the aegis of the Old and New Republics, you find all sorts of species and races with their own established territory, colony worlds, fleets, political power. The Ishori versus the Diamala. The Herglics. The Hapans. The Bothans. The Mon Calamari. The Neimoidians. The Wookiees.[/size]
[background=On my first board, when the world was flat, there was a Corellian major faction: the Corellian Commonwealth. This board has seen a few species/race-based enclaves that have seen a decent amount of success as major factions: the Echani, some incarnations of the Hutts, the Atrisians, the Mandalorians, and so forth. It wouldn’t be so hard, though, for a Corellian Major Faction to exist, or a Twi’lek one, or even a Zeltron one if you sort of squint and tilt your head. Tons of people play those species and races. I search the ‘Character Creation’ forum, and I get Corellian (189), Hapan (172), Twi’lek (unavailable due to search engine limitations, but Valiens isn’t hurting for eye candy around here), Vahla (102), and Zeltron (147). Compare the Echani (163), the Atrisians (131), and the Mandalorians (113), all of whom have had major factions to their name. This is a quick-and-dirty methodology with all kinds of flaws. Even so, potential is clearly there; it just doesn’t get realized or talked about.[/size]
[background=One obstacle is that the species and races of Star Wars aren’t always as fleshed out as you’d hope. Star Wars places a ton of emphasis on culture as separate from species and race -- hence the massive amount of information on the history and practices of the Sith and the Jedi. On one level, Star Wars is just plain about different things than Star Trek (and that's a level I'm not going to engage with right now). But there’s a lot of overlap. Honestly, out of the possibilities that work best for Chaos, I think the Mandalorians are probably the closest thing to how Star Trek treats enclaves in the sense that I’m talking about. That might be a reason the Mandalorians have lasted literally the entire length of the board. Most Major Factions are about a specific ambition or a set of principles/ideologies. Mandoness is about identity in a way that a lot of Major Factions don’t match -- but Corellianness, Hapanity, Twi’lekitude, and so forth do, or can. And those are just the easiest examples of the overlap between canon species/race enclaves and number of RP’ed main characters. [/size]
[background=Regardless of whether we ever see another Major Faction like that (which I think would be downright awesome), I personally find it cool to encounter this stuff when writing space travel. All manner of obstacles and opportunities can come from a jaunt into the Hapes Cluster or the Tapani Sector or whatever. Norms change, character development happens, and fun can ensue. Then again, I’m the kind of person who adores space maps. I like plotting things out based on maps. I like being able to have my characters make IC decisions based on what’s around them, what they could run into on the way from X to Y, and so forth. So your mileage may vary, but yeah, take this for what it’s worth, have some fun with it. [/size]
