OK, on the surface, trying to do a system brief for Devco may seem like a wasted effort. It's a system introduced in Zebulon's Guide to the Frontier with a description written with almost careless abandon:<br /><br />"Cass is a mega-corp planted founded by the Cassidine Development Corporation. It eventually became a refuge for the multitudes that were left homeless by the Blue Plague."<br /><br />It eventually became a refuge?<br /><br />According to Zeb's own disfunctional timeline, Cass was opened for colonization in 32 FY. The infamous Blue Plague ran its course between 17 and 27 FY. So, more than five years after the plague ended, Cass became a refuge? As others, such as Shadow Shack, have pointed out, why wouldn't the "homeless" have settled somewhere else. The whole plague world thing is ridiculous if a cure had been found.<br /><br />Besides, what is a "multitude"? The planet only has a light population, which is defined as "only a few cities, and most would be considered small on a planet with a Heavy population" (AD p. 49).<br /><br />I'm sorry, the whole concept needs to be reworked. The CDC was founded in 8 FY and quickly grew to mega-corp size. OK, that's fine. But then you had a 10-year plague that disrupts trade and travel in the Frontier, yet it still has the resources and gumption to found a corporate world in 32 FY. And that is two years after the Pan-Galactic Corporation established Pan-Gal and a year after Streel opened New Streel for settlement.<br /><br />I had thought of ditching the Blue Plague altogether or moving its outbreak to just before the Second Sathar War in my own timeline, but maybe I'll leave it around 17-27 FY. Perhaps its like having a bad influenza pandemic, such as around 1918, but one would think with the medical standards of the Frontier -- where Humans can live to an average age of 200 years -- they would be able to contain an outbreak better than we did with ebola. And with that example, ebola created a great amount of death in parts of Africa, but it has not turned into a worldwide pandemic.<br /><br />With that, I'll start presenting the Devco System Brief as a work in progress (WIP).
- Log in to post comments