Across the Sea of Stars

The Diplomacy

The leaders of the races that were invited to the Telling realized what an enormous opportunity it could be, to advance the technologies and galactic position of their race. Because of the distances involved, and the need for the Invited to reach the station at McCutcheon's Nebula, there wasn't time for formal diplomatic briefings and extensive preparation. Plans were made in haste. Options were considered and resources gathered. Professional diplomats and long-time leaders privately cursed the Klorn for taking these negotiations away from them.

To that end, your leaders or allies have provided some of you with incentives you may be able to use in negotiations. While these incentives may not be interesting to the Klorn (or the Vim), they may be interesting to the other races.

These incentives come in three flavors:

In addition, you may gain access to more of these incentives during the Telling, to keep, trade, or use as you see fit.

These resources are represented by Resource item cards.

Diplomatic Favors

Diplomatic Favors are provided by governments. They represent promises of support, backed by the diplomatic, economic, technological, cultural, and military capabilities of the race providing the favor. Since each race has its own connections within the Coterie, as well as their own assets, it means that all Diplomatic Favors are of roughly equal value.

Some of the peoples of the Coterie may have diplomatic goals that require the assistance of others in the Coterie. Races may have a desire to improve their standing in the Coterie. Groups may have the desire to sponsor new races for membership, or to advance some specific cause. There may also be cases where Diplomatic Favors might help in negotiating for other purposes.

Specific goals will call for specific numbers of Diplomatic Favors needed to accomplish that goal.

Example 1: A Zurn diplomat seeks full Coterie membership for its race. It will take seven Diplomatic Favors to get a favorable motion placed before the Coterie on Conclave World. The Zurn diplomat turns to a member of the delegation from the friendly Narani. The Narani agree that the Zurn deserve full membership and give the Zurn a Diplomatic Favor. The Zurn needs to collect six more Favors to reach its goal.

Any collection of Diplomatic Favors from other races can be used to fulfill a goal.

Example 2: The Narani delegation confers and decides that the Zurn have been long time allies. Full Coterie membership would also help Narani causes. The Narani offer a second Diplomatic Favor to the Zurn. The Zurn now has two Favors, and only needs five more, even though two of them are Narani favors. The Narani are simply going to work very hard to help their friends.

These favors cannot include any Favors from the race trying to achieve that goal; it is assumed that they are already using their influence to push their agenda.

Example 3: The Zurn turns to the Emissary from Greem. The Greem offers to give the Zurn a Greem Diplomatic Favor in exchange for a Zurn Diplomatic Favor. The Zurn can feel free to do this because Zurn Diplomatic Favors cannot be used for the Zurn Coterie membership cause.

This gives the Zurn three Diplomatic Favors towards Coterie membership. (Two Narani and one Greem.)

Diplomatic favors cannot be passed along to a third party without the express permission of the original owner.

Example 4: The Zurn delegate notes that the Greem has Diplomatic Favors from a Polco. The Greem could not give or trade the Zurn the Polco favors, unless they had the permission of the original Polco owner of the favor.

The Zurn still has three Diplomatic Favors towards Coterie membership.

Diplomatic favors cannot be duplicated. They are unique.

Economic Resources

Economic resources are valuable and rare items controlled by an owner race. There are two kinds of economic resources:

Unique economic resources cannot be duplicated or shared.

Example 5: The Zurn might press its case with the Emissary from Greem, offering to give the Greem the famous Portrait of a Young Greem Shedding Its Gronk, a work of art known across the Galaxy. The Greem agrees to go to the Polco. The Greem and the Polco make a deal where the Greem gives the Zurn delegate the Polco Favor in exchange for the Portrait of a Young Greem Shedding Its Gronk. The artwork is now the property of the Greem delegate, who might choose to trade it for something else.

This gives the Zurn four Diplomatic Favors towards Coterie membership. (Two Narani, one Greem and one Polco.)

Shareable economic resources can be duplicated by the original owner.

Example 6: The Zurn, inspired by its deal with the Greem, approaches the Mindful of the Moon. The Mindful are looking for a new source of wupi, a plant grown on Zurn worlds. The Zurn offers the Mindful a share of the wupi plantations of Zurn Minor, in exchange for a Diplomatic Favor. The Mindful agree. The Melg, also looking for wupi, ask for the same deal. Since the wupi plantations produce a lot of wupi, they are a shareable resource. The Zurn can duplicate the resource and gain a Diplomatic Favor from the Melg as well.

This gives the Zurn six Diplomatic Favors towards Coterie membership. (Two Narani, one Greem, one Polco, one Mindful and one Melg.)

Shareable resources can be traded to others without the permission of the original owner.

Example 7: The Dorfa know that the Zurn will never trade them access to the wupi plantations of Zurn Minor. However, the Dorfa could make a deal with the Melg for access. They could trade the Melg a unique Dorfa Cornucopia machine for the access to the wupi plantations economic resource. The Melg would, in effect, harvest the wupi from the unsuspecting Zurn and pass it along to the Dorfa as part of the bargain.

When you want to duplicate a shareable economic resource, see the Resource GM to get the appropriate Economic Resource card.

Technological Advances

Many of the races of the Coterie specialize in some particular form of technology. Some of these races may be willing to share their secrets, if the price is right. While most of these technologies pale against those of the Klorn, they might be quite valuable to other races of the Coterie.

Technological Advances represent pure knowledge. They can be freely duplicated once they are gained, even if they aren't fully understood.

Example 8: Being close to Coterie membership, the Zurn delegate approaches the P'teh, asking for a Diplomatic Favor. The P'teh, known as difficult bargainers throughout the Galaxy, insist that the Zurn turn over the technological advance of Enhanced Interactive Literature. This is a reasonable offer, and the trade is made. Both the Zurn and the P'teh now know the secrets of Enhanced Interactive Literature.

This gives the Zurn the seven Diplomatic Favors needed to gain Coterie membership. (Two Narani, one Greem, one Polco, one Mindful, one Melg, and one P'teh.) There will be much rejoicing on the Zurn worlds!

When you want to share a Technological Advance, please see the Resource GM to get the appropriate Technological Advance card.

Technological Advances can represent varying levels of technology. This is covered in the Advances bluesheet.