Telesthetics

These are in some senses superhuman beings. They are also said to be exclusively women. The background never seriously considered the possibilities that persons with superhuman powers mi(Tht tend to despotism or tyranny. In Frank Herbert's DUNE universe, power was divided between the Emperor, the Great Houses of the Landsraad, the Bene Gesserit Order, and the Guild of Space Navigators. The Fremen were also important because they lived on the desert planet that was the source of the "spice" that drove interstellar travel.

The most obvious "realworld" analogy to DUNE is the attempts of various Arab and Islamic countries to leverage their control of most of the world's oil to obtain greater power for themselves and achieve various political objectives. In that sense, Frank Herbert's DUNE could be seen as a prediction of the OPEC crisis of the mid-1970s, when the leading OPEC countries decided to assert greater control over their own resources, and use the oil-power to weaken the links between Israel and the U.S.A.

In the 1990s, Saddam Hussein would probably like to see himself as Paul Atreides! The Telesthetic Guild in StarForce seems to combine the characteristics of the Bene Gesserit Order and the Guild of Space Navigators in DUNE - an overwhelming concentration of power. Perhaps it could be suggested that there are only slightly more female than male Telesthetics, and that they are relatively evenly distributed between different human ethnic groups - otherwise the socio-logical effects on human societies might be devastating (e.g., might not some planet consider that a virtually all-female population would be the way to increase the number of precious Telesthetics)?

Another thing to be considered is that there have to be extensive procedures and institutions for the "retrieval" of Telesthetics from the General population. This would probably be something similar to the "PsiCorps" model in the Babylon Five television series, where the Telesthetics would live in special facilities apart from the General population.

Planetary Combat

In the StarSoldier rulebook, the interactions of planetary combat are quite well-characterized. Perhaps the notion that the StarSoldier Active Battle Dress operates on a G-less drive is too ridiculous. The StarSoldier equipment can be characterized as micro-atomic-driven "power-armor" loaded with electronics, but NOT a G-less one. It could perhaps be suggested that alongside the StarSoldiers, there would be around Regiments, who would have armored and transport vehicles shielded from the Heissen Effect; and similarly shielded sophisticated atmospheric fighter planes, space fighters, as well as ground bases with laser-weapons and missiles. Perhaps it could also be argued that the over-all number of StarSoldiers be smaller (e.g., one-tenth the numbers suggested in StarForce/StarSoldier, where a StarForce is said to carry 100,000 StarSoldiers in stasis plus their support equipment) as their ABD and full equipment might have the relative cost of an expensive jet-fighter to the Earth's GNP, today. So the new suggested total would be 10,000 StarSoldiers per StarForce, or 2,500 per teleship. (However, the overall numbers of StarSoldiers could not be reduced too far, as planets might then become unconquerable.)

L'Chal-Dah

The L'Chal-Dah home system, Siama Draconis, is less than twenty light years away from Earth. So, if that civilization has been using radio communications and television broadcasting for roughly the same time as humanity, the two civilizations should have become aware of each other far earlier. One wonders what semi-credible reason one could find for the First Contact taking place as envisaged in StarForce and StarSoldier? Some kind of blocking magnetic cloud between the human and L'Chal-Dah systems?

2836/c. 2836: First Contact [described as unspecified First Contact in StarForce with Igugui (from StarGate)(Igugui have unusually high telesthetic abilities - short, stocky, friendly aliens)

c. 2850: (J2 - single Psion/Telesthetic jumping from outside a system's gravity well) [about 2300, according to UNIVERSE/Delta Vee]

c. 2870: First Contact With Duonoips (from Stargate - tall and highly-muscular aliens; but rather unintellectual)

c. 2880: First Contact With Meta-Mex (Meta-Mex are machine intelligences with highly sophisticated warp drives)

c. 2900: (J3 - purely-techno logical warp drive from outside a gravity well) (This would mean a profound weakening of the Telesthetic Guild's power.)

c. 2950: War in the Gilgamesh Cluster (located in Outreach hex 1315 - one hex "above" SOL):

Vector One: planet-to-orbit shuttles
Vector Two: "solar-wind" powered ships (interplanetary)
Vector Three: central cylinder; and various types of pods

Xandri-Bratcom Coalition - a human commercial empire (Bratcom), allied with a saurian race (Xandri), who provide the company "muscle"

Humano-Cetacean Civilization - a splinter group of humanity living in harmony with genetically-enhanced telesthetic dolphins, who provide various telepathic skills

Aaland: strateuic base and site of the major battle

c. 3000: (J4 - Mini-Jumps within a gravity field) (This would probably permit faster maneuvering near planets.)

3021-3023: E'kerm Assault on Outer Human Colonies - E'kenn are supercilious parahumans (or perhaps even descendants of some throwback line of Earth humans) with an extreme sense of hierarchy

Note: The game is clearly only a "schematic" of a far larger conflict.

c. 3100: after the defeat of the E'kenn, dissolution of their civilization into commercial, dernotic forms

c. 3439 [changed from 2439]: Virunian "War of Purification" begins (80 years) Note: Since this is so far in the future, Virunians can be conceived as virtually anything. Perhaps one could speculate they are actually a coalition of three races: supercilious parahumans (or even descendants of Earth humans) "the brain" saurians - warriors - "weapons section" short, stocky "techies/workers" - "transport section"

c. 3519 [changed from 2519]: Battle at Null-Gate Note: Human J4 drives unable to function in the wild energy Fields of the Null-Gate. Meta-Max have J5 (or Wobble) Drive. The gatne is clearly only a scematic of a battle that could have involved thousands of ships. Race that defeated the Virunians: Hidden Guardians of the Galactic Core (extremely telesthetically and technologically advanced parahumans).

The far-future games, The Sword and the Stars and Freedom in the Galaxy, have not been included. Freedom in the Galaxy is too obviously derivative of George Lucas' Star Wars to be considered a distinct background; whereas The Sword and the Stars seems to be an entirely self-contained background- although somewhat derivative of the setting (and clearly the game system) of old SPI's Empires of the Middle Ages. Old SPI's War in the Ice is a near-future superpowers conflict game set in Antarctica, which also has a sci-fi "alternate-history" scenario positing the appearance of a subterranean Antarctican race, which tries to push the modern humans Out of Antarctica.

Mark Wegierski is not a mouth-breather.

More Future-History of SPI

Introduction
List of Relevant Games
The Time Line
Issues About the Star Force Background

The Near-Future History of SPI After the Holocaust