Ethnical Colony Worlds

[ghosty]

The colonies we usually see on TV are usually draws settlers from a mixture of ethnical backgrounds making them "Federation" in origin.The exception was Dorvan V, the colony settled by Native Americans in the DMZ.

I would imagine that Dorvan V is not the only planet settled along ethnical lines in an attempt to go back to their roots.

The CO in my current campagin comes from New Kyoto a world settled by colonists of Japanese origin who keep to many Japanese traditions. Another officer, the security chief is from Potsdam where traditional Prussian values including duelling in schools are kept.

The PCs have also encountered several colonies of similar types over the years. They've visited Dorvan V to bring relief supplies after the Dominion War and they've visited planets settled by ethnic Russians who live idyllic lives on dachas.

Of course these colonists have weeded out the dark side of their culutre so there are no slaves or serfs (robots and automatons take up most of the slack).

[darkwing duck1]

I had a helmsman character from a colony world of ethnic Irish. TNG seemed to show that a lot of early Earth/Fed colonies were ethnic/social in origin. Usually, the colonists felt there was no more room for them on their homeworlds, or that their unique culture/lifestyle was endangered by the "cosmopolitanization" of their homeworlds. Religious groups also might be a source of those early colonies.

LUG material made mention that after problems with some of these "one group" colonies, there was a conscious effort on the part of the Federation to discourage such colonies from being founded in the first place.

[Perrryyy]

I just finished (a few minutes ago, actually), book one of six in the Double Helix series of trek books (the title is Infection (by John Gregory Betancourt). It provided fair, (though not strong enough for me,) social commentary on racism.

It's set on Archaria, a world dealing with racial cleansing, albeit in a grim way (read the book).

Not a fantastic read, but worth the $5 or so I paid for it.

[qerlin]

I think you'd see a lot of colonies that are trying to recapture an old or lost culture (the possibility of creating an authetic culture I contest...). Caldos is an example -- the Scottish romantic past; the native Indian planet mnetioned above, etc...

[ghosty]

Originally posted by darkwing duck1
LUG material made mention that after problems with some of these "one group" colonies, there was a conscious effort on the part of the Federation to discourage such colonies from being founded in the first place.

But the canon evidence from TV suggests something quite different. I think that Federation sponsored colonies can mandate a mutli-ethnic community to prevent communalism but I doubt they can stop private groups from colonising class M planets with people of the same ethnic background...Dorvan V comes to mind.

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

In my campaign, 3 out of 4 characters come from the DMZ world of New Russia. While it is not in any way communist, the population does live on farms owned by the community.

I'd figure that the Federation ensures an adequate mixture of different ethnic groups. They could withold economic aid or extra funds to ensure that the non-compulsory rules are followed. Of course, they would not force anyone to 'have' to take extra ethnic groups and the colonists could always strike it out on their own.

Most colonies I show my PC's are based on earth's cultures and sometimes on other species from what I've read in LUG.

[Robert Lai]

One possibility is that socio-statistical studies were conducted and found that colonies with a broader ethnic diversity tended to fare better. That may be pseudo-scientific technobabble, but ultimately, it's no different than the studies that come out saying 'coffee is bad for you,' followed by another study a year later saying, 'coffee is good for you.'

Single-ethnicity colonies are likely to be privately underwritten and difficult to establish ... picture finding 100 people that share a common background or ethnic trait, then having enough capital among those 100 to create the colony: transport, buildings, supplies.

The Federation likely offers support structure through a program that classifies potential colony worlds. There may even be elements of the Organian Peace Treaty involved (the right to colonize goes to the group that can demonstrate the best use of the resources).

This DOESN'T preclude an independent group such as the Amerinds on Dorvan from acquiring the necessary monies and resources ... they may even have several years of peaceful existence before a regional government discovers their presence.

[ghosty]

We're not only talking about colonies formed by people of a common ethnical origin, colonies can also be formed by persons of a similar religious persuasion or philosophy.

Religious groups have a tendency to want to stick together and usually they will have the money and resources to privately fund their own colonies.

Further, colonies should have a minimum population of a few thousand, otherwise necessary skills will be missing and well there is a question of a big enough genetic diversity to make the colony viable. Given such criteria I think the potential colonists (say a Irish group who wants to found a New Eire) would probably have more than enough funds and whose to say they will not have corporate backing or backing from folks back home who will immigrate to the new colony once its set up and by contributing now, they guarantee themselves a place when they do arrive.

[ghosty]

How about this for a more comedic episode. Harry Mudd has acquired samples of dino-DNA and has found a unpopulated world which he hopes to build a dino theme park.Only thing is his DNA sequencing equipment screws up some how and he breeds an intelligent and sentient race of 'raptors Well the raptors have captured Harry and his ship and well its up to the PCs to unravel Harry's latest money making scheme.

You could of course substitute Quark into the game or some other Ferengi.

[Michael Barratt]

Hrm. Stonewall Colony, anyone? (Yeah yeah, you all expected me to say something like that...)

Culture is embraced by the Federation of TNG era, but I can see the Federation of the TOS era being a little twitchy about transplanting colonists that wanted to create microcosms of earth culture - they were aiming for a more united federation type approach, it seemed... Then again, Scotty did get to wear his kilt, Caldos was around... I dunno.

From "Enterprise," we did see that the first attempt at an earth colony went bust, and likely that set things back a lot.

But it would certianly be interesting to create some plausible future derivations of those past cultures. I mean, keeping ones culture doesn't necessarily mean ignoring evolution, advances, or technology, for example. It would be interesting to see a society of technologically advanced traditional Celtic people, for example - having your sabbats and esbats with holographic deity representations, lighting plasma "bonfires" in upper orbit for everyone to see, blessing ceremonies for the launch of the new ship, USS Astarte. Etc.

The Doc

[ghosty]

Originally posted by ghosty
How about this for a more comedic episode. Harry Mudd has acquired samples of dino-DNA and has found a unpopulated world which he hopes to build a dino theme park.Only thing is his DNA sequencing equipment screws up some how and he breeds an intelligent and sentient race of 'raptors Well the raptors have captured Harry and his ship and well its up to the PCs to unravel Harry's latest money making scheme.

You could of course substitute Quark into the game or some other Ferengi.

This reply was to go into the Dinosaur Planet thread apologises for any confusion caused