Empire Building

It has been rather quiet, hasn't it?  So I hope that no one minds if I 
kick up a little dust....

With the development of interstellar travel, it seems likely that we 
would be seeing a lot new societies forming as various factions and 
splinter groups claim their place among the stars.  So far as I know, 
however, the only power (official or not) that we have seen that is 
entirely new is the Alrishi Empire--everyone else seems to be basing 
their creations upon a current or former power.  We've seen Romans 
(oh, GOD have we seen Romans...), Israelis, Imperial Russians, and the 
like, but not too many original creations.  Well maybe the 
Antarcticans (I keep thinking that their ships and vehicles should use 
a black-and-white Penguin camo, but that's probably just me).

I dunno...maybe I'm weird, but when I think of basing a new empire 
upon something, it tends to be things like H.P. Lovecraft's Mi-Go.  
Now there's an interstellar power for you!  And the Sa'Vasku ships are 
Cthuloid enough to work, too....

I've just never been a history person, that's all.  The closest that 
I've come to such a power is the Hanseatic League, and, interesting 
though their history might be, my only real use for them is a scenario 
tool.  I think that it's because I do research, among other things, 
for a living--I'm not particularly enthusiastic about doing it for fun 
any more.

Please don't think that I'm complaining or anything--I like hearing 
about other people's creations, no matter what form they take.	But 
I'm more likely to create my empires out of whole cloth, or to base 
them upon some kind of whimsy (witness the New Bavarian Republic), 
than to model them on something from history.  This give me the 
freedom to design whatever kind of forces or society that I desire, 
wothout being restricted by what these people *really* are (or were, 
as the case may be) like.  I know that I'm not unique in this, but it 
seems to be the exception, rather than the rule, on this list.

Is it because of the "realistic" nature of the rule systems and 
background, do you think?  Does this encourage a more historical 
mindset, perhaps?  Again, I'm not advocating one approach over the 
other--they both seem equally valid, as far as I'm concerned.  I'm 
just curious as to one predominates over the other on GZG-L.

Any opinions?

John Crimmins		john1x@hotmail.com	 johncrim@voicenet.com 
	http://www.voicenet.com/~johncrim/index.html 
     Home of "Destroy All Monsters!" and other nonsense. 

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