 January 9, 2014 - 9:54pm | I was entering the "Freeze! Star Law!" by Kim Eastland (Dragon Magazine #87) article into the documents sections and realized that there are a lot of problems with it. For one thing the article has many mutually contradictory statements: Star Law itself does not own a great fleet of ships or an army of combat vehicles. Each base would probably have an array of fast, light armed vehicles for planetary and interplanetary transportation, such as flit-boards, rocket bikes, skimmers, etc. In the first sentence it says they dont have an army of vehicles and in the second sentence it says each office has an array of vehicles. There were more than a few of these somewhat contradictory statements in the article. In addition it list a series of vehicles (except one) that dont exist anywhere in the rules. In another place he talks about the imposition of Stellar Law which is clearly based on the real world imposition of martial law. What is Stellar Law anyway? and how would a small office of Star Lawmen enforce the equiv. of martial law on a city, continent, or planet let alone a system? They just dont have the manpower and this activity takes them away from their special investigative mission to regular police action for which their is ample police and security forces on a planet as was pointed out by the author in beginning of the article. The bit about Stellar Law should be dropped and martial law which is imposed by a military organization. not Star Law. Finally, the progression of ranks has increase authority the higher you go and yet it makes no sense that officers that transition to administrative duties as City and Planetary Officers would go back to being patrol officers at the lofty ranks of Rangers, Marshels or Commanders. I think that it should be reorganizes to Deputy Officers, Marshals, and Rangers and special agents for your investigative patrol sort of positions and admin positions: City, Planetary, Commanders, and Captain-General. most star lawmen are DOs and Marshals. Agents would be in under cover work and rangers would be like special forces assets that would do the truly hard core stuff on the fringes of the Frontier. Admin positions come from anyone Marshal and above but generally ability is demonstrated by starting in the lowest position and working your way up (very little skipping of positions.) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 6, 2014 - 9:55am | Star Law agents don't need their own manpower. Like martials, they recruit the manpower from local and federal law enforcement.j However, there is one contradiction. "Martial law" means "military law", not "law enforced by the martial service". It is when a military moves in and enforces a curfew and protects property and citizenry. The martial service is not part of that. In fact, it says, "It is safe to assume that matters of immediate local defense (riots, revolutions, massive pirate raids, etc.) usually fall under the authority of a planetary army and the space fleet is uses for orbital defense." The martial service has authority to deputize anyone and recruit any local or federal service to accomplish the apprehension of criminals. Star Law represents this style of enforcement. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
February 6, 2014 - 9:56am | Also, the article says they do not own an "army" of "combat" vehicles, thus he is referring to an actual army of vehicles for a major battle. What they have are small contingents of enforcement vehicles at each division office. He calls them "armed vehicles", not "combat vehicles". The difference is that armed vehicles are for light enforcement options, not for major battles. I see no contradiction. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
February 6, 2014 - 10:12am | A city or planetary officer has a small office of a number of other deputy officers, not martials. The article is rather generous, given that they are not supposed to pose a threat to local enforcement, or rather, trampling their turf, so that could be counted as a minor contradiction. It is entirely possible that the city or planetary officer involves himself in field duties from time to time in which he is required to take the lead. There is nothing in the article that preempts this. Also, it would be the local star law personnel that imposes the law. Likely, this is taken as a very serious authority. If a Star Law officer were to impose stellar law without legitimate reason, he would likely be busted out of the service. It is simply a matter of responsibility. Also, an officer can impose stellar law on a room or office building. He doesn't need to impose stellar law in the entire city or planet to do so. So clearly, each officer imposes such authority as rational sense requires and which would not get them into trouble with their superiors. So there is no contradiciton in that matter. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
