On 8/26/2014 7:30 AM, Jeffrey Schwartz wrote:

> CT says everyone must do at least 4 years service to the Imperium.
> Universal Service...
(etc)

Because it seems that this needs to be repeated now and then:

Using Books 1-3 to try to extrapolate what life is like for the average
citizen and/or the Third Imperium as a whole is not unlike treating
chess as an accurate and complete simulation of medieval warfare.

It's a game, a very simple game (compared to reality) designed to
produce adventurers, mostly military veterans of one stripe or another,
who will be hired by dubious persons known collectively as "patrons" to
perform tasks that are almost always risky, criminal, or both; an
imperfect work of many hands that (sadly but sometimes hilariously)
becomes more and more out of date with each passing year.

And sometimes it leads to things like people who fail to grasp (as, IMO,
the original authors did) just how BIG a planet is, and how much stuff
it produces and needs and moves in a week or a year; or wilfully stick
their heads in the sand, because those numbers are too big and scary to
be comfortable, and besides, That's What It Says on the 2D6 Table, and
The Rules Are Always Right.  Even (or especially) when they contradict
each other.

--
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Kelly St. Clair
xxxxxx@efn.org