I was recently talking to a friend who, like me, is from the age of the Original Trilogy before there were a lot of outside inputs. We were discussing communication and he reminded me that it seemed like only the Empire could communicate in real time across star systems. I did the head slap to myself and realized he was right. In the OT the setting was much more a Space Fantasy in many ways, so the characters are not communicating over interstellar distances by use of telecommunications.

If Interstellar real-time communications are the realm of Military/Government then information becomes more precious and messages and couriers are more pertinent. Pre-made rendezvous points are a thing that you need.

Fantasy games like D&D are often easier to run in many ways because there isn't this kind of communication normally.

It also seems to me that the Empire would not want open communications between systems.

Posts like this make me really glad I've only just started my campaign.

Because I absolutely want to have this sort of restriction.

I may allow something a little less 'real time', maybe more akin to 90s email, and needing somewhere with a connected holonet terminal.

I don't allow long range communications unless you specifically have access to a long range communicator. Seems obvious, but I don't think most ships have them.

On 10/8/2019 at 12:29 PM, Stethemessiah said:

Posts like this make me really glad I've only just started my campaign.

Because I absolutely want to have this sort of restriction.

I may allow something a little less 'real time', maybe more akin to 90s email, and needing somewhere with a connected holonet terminal.

Hey that's great. I think it will make it feel more like fantasy or age of sail a bit which is good for making it like original Star Wars where if you need to tell someone something you have to go to them, send your droid, or send a courier. The real-time transmissions could be capabilities of the Empire and maybe for things like the Intergalactic Banking Clan.

I just see a lot of great stories and situations that can come out of this kind of a limitation in communications.

On 10/8/2019 at 1:31 PM, Vek Baustrade said:

I don't allow long range communications unless you specifically have access to a long range communicator. Seems obvious, but I don't think most ships have them.

Yeah I like that. I think there are only a few items in the books that allow this anyway.

Interestingly enough I think I have done this by default in my campaign. The players have consistently had messages and such waiting for them or had pre arranged contact points (great for ambushes!). Only real time communications they have had have been while in system. Excellent point though, the Empire did guard the Holo Net access pretty tightly and if it wasn't through couriers it was through high jacked or piggybacked signals that long range communication was done by the rebels

Arch, it depends on how strict your interpretation of "OT-style." If it's strict, you're going on fewer than 10 lines of dialog between the first three and only one example of interstellar two-way — notably facilitated by the most well-equipped man, and one of the most advanced ships, in the galaxy.

I may be wrong, but I believe the first reference to Holonet is the WEG Imperial Sourcebook from 1991. For folks like me, it means almost a decade for the OT to have sunk in as definitive. Obviously, EU and Prequel interpretations of lost ages expand on possibilities for communication over long distances, and in a day where interconnectivity has been reality for most or all of the memory of half the population, the anachronism is probably a little harder to conceptualize than in bygone-age fantasy.

But, yeah — strictly OT means messages are normally transmitted system to system one-way and at great expense. Word otherwise travels face-to-face which, on the other hand, is so prevalent in Star Wars that long-range communication doesn't need to be convenient.

I think any sort of Capital Ship (Sil 5+) can be assumed to have some form of long range Comms, as we regularly see the Rebels in Rebels sending messages, but only when they have at least a Corvette.

On 10/11/2019 at 6:06 PM, wilsch said:

Arch, it depends on how strict your interpretation of "OT-style." If it's strict, you're going on fewer than 10 lines of dialog between the first three and only one example of interstellar two-way — notably facilitated by the most well-equipped man, and one of the most advanced ships, in the galaxy.

I may be wrong, but I believe the first reference to Holonet is the WEG Imperial Sourcebook from 1991. For folks like me, it means almost a decade for the OT to have sunk in as definitive. Obviously, EU and Prequel interpretations of lost ages expand on possibilities for communication over long distances, and in a day where interconnectivity has been reality for most or all of the memory of half the population, the anachronism is probably a little harder to conceptualize than in bygone-age fantasy.

But, yeah — strictly OT means messages are normally transmitted system to system one-way and at great expense. Word otherwise travels face-to-face which, on the other hand, is so prevalent in Star Wars that long-range communication doesn't need to be convenient.

For sure it is a matter of personal interpretation, and I appreciate that info my friend. I think my goal here was to not be the OT hammer so much as to show that a lack of inter-connectivity could yield some great results. Having that kind of communication be a big deal requiring infrastructure equipment has changed my game for the better.

I think many of the best ways to get Star Wars to feel different from Sci Fi or, what I see the most, Sci Fi with a Star Wars skin is to have these differences that seem counter-intuitive in 2019. I think Star Wars was just better back then, so to me the QoL stuff added in the prequels and later hasn't really enhanced the setting in my opinion.

I'd imagine that the Empire would heavily regulate communications between systems in the Outer Rim (for security, of course), while having things be more 'open' in the Core (traffic still being monitored for signs of anti-Imperial sentiment). The Core is supposed to be the heart of Imperial power, so throttling communications too much would likely breed anti-Imperial resentment.

There is also the question of infrastructure. The Core systems likely have lots of infrastructure built to facilitate inter-system communications (large-scale transmitter/receiver arrays and the power supplies to support them), with redundancies and backups to guarantee service. Worlds on the Outer Rim would tend to be less heavily developed, especially after the damage caused by the Clone Wars, meaning that the Empire would need to secure far fewer sites to control all outbound communications traffic. Of course, we know it is possible to jam a planet's transmissions from space (see the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo), but I would imagine that takes an awful lot of effort compared to having a squad of Stormtroopers at the door of the only facility capable of beaming a message to the next star over.

As for communications between ships; I would run things such that your average light freighter cannot beam a message beyond their current system, or possibly reaching the next nearest system at a push (garbled message, simple transmission, definitely not a two-way holo-message). Larger vessels such as Corvettes can send messages to other ships in their 'local' area (nearby systems), while Star Destroyers and the like can get messages across much longer distances. Of course, with relay stations/vessels, the communication range can be increased greatly.

On 10/16/2019 at 2:13 AM, AceDogbert said:

I'd imagine that the Empire would heavily regulate communications between systems in the Outer Rim (for security, of course), while having things be more 'open' in the Core (traffic still being monitored for signs of anti-Imperial sentiment). The Core is supposed to be the heart of Imperial power, so throttling communications too much would likely breed anti-Imperial resentment.

There is also the question of infrastructure. The Core systems likely have lots of infrastructure built to facilitate inter-system communications (large-scale transmitter/receiver arrays and the power supplies to support them), with redundancies and backups to guarantee service.

I think that the Empire probably would allow communications to go through from trusted sources that are obviously pro-Imperial and vetted, and also sources that contribute to the Imperial economy. It's not a government that rules at the consent of the governed so I don't see the communication control being that big a deal for them.

I think that Infrastructure would be something local governments would use to communicate, but I see that as a totally different thing than someone telling their friend in real time in another system that they need to come to the world they are on. Diplomacy, Commerce, and other important functions seem germane to the use of such signal equipment but personal messages from private freelancers seems less likely if the whole Communication is Rare thing is in effect.

I imagine it as "cable phone" and telephone booths. You have an Imperial call center, which controls the connection, but you can only make contact where infrastructure exists. So basicly only the Imperial controlled and loyal worlds