United Rimward Company

(Verenigde Randwaartse Compagnie(VRC))

Things are a bit of a mess at the moment as I am reshuffling and adding a lot.

Designer's notes

At the moment I am only playing Stargrunt(not often), and none of the other GZG games. I just got the other rulesets and have been working on fleshing out the fleet part of the VRC.

The main reason to create this page is to have a background for Stargrunt scenarios, once I get some more figures painted:-) I also would like to start to do some hobbying in POVRay, and the Tuffleyverse is a good setting to create starships and other nice pictures.

I have made several attempts at designing a flag besides the above one.

Introduction

The VRC's charter originally was to explore the farther reaches of space towards the rim, and make a profit doing so by exploiting the resources of any star system that is encountered. It continues the tradition of the VOC that started trading posts and colonies in the East Indies.

The First Solar War got the Dutch worried about future conflicts between the big powers they might be drawn into. This because history had taught the Dutch that is was not always possible to stay neutral. Consequently the charter was expanded to find habitable planets far enough away, that if a new conflict erupted, at least part of the population might be safe. Taking the long view, and extrapolating from current human expansion, a minimum distance of at least 15 lightyears from the nearest occupied world was proposed. The Second and Third Solar Wars, and especially the recent alien encounters have made this approach even more urgent.

The VRC is an independent entity. However, the Dutch crown and major Dutch corporations have large stakes in the VRC.

Currently the VRC operates a long string of mining operations into deep space towards the Rim. These provide the goods necessary for the VRC to be self-sufficient and even profitable. As much of the trade is done via the main Dutch colonies, not much people know about the VRC. However, it is very likely that intelligence organisations of other nations know about the VRC, as security is never perfect.

Stories

History

Population, listing of important planets

Stellar cartography

Current politics

The VRC doesn't dabble much in politics. As long as profits keep growing and the exploration of deep space continues the VRC will keep a low profile.

The VRC is however very wary of competition and external security risks. This means that in systems where the VRC has colonies or installations no other installations are tolerated, and foreign ships will always be escorted by a security patrol.

External contacts are made through Dutch front offices most of the time. This is done to obfuscate the real economic power and military assets of the VRC.

Economy and trade

Currently the VRC has only two inhabited planets. However, as mass immigration has only started in the 2140's, the population is not big enough yet to sustain a complete economy. This deficiency is slowly being handled, and it has no real impact on the abilities of the VRC as the VRC's economic clout is big enough that it can acquire any technology it deems necessary.

Most income is generated through mercenary companies and large scale mining operations. There is also a growing ship building and biotech operation, but these are mostly for internal use and their existence is kept quiet.

All systems with colonies or installations are under the direct control of the VRC. Trade however is done through a vast spiderweb of other companies, all of which are directly or indirectly controlled by the VRC.

The main trading partners are the traditional allies of the RDC. However, because of historical ties, there are also good relations with New Isreal, Japan and the IC. As the IC is still in a state of cold war with the OU, the VRC follows a good mercantile tradition by also trading with the OU, as we don't want to give an advantage to either state.

Official trading volume:

NAC	20%
RDC, NSL, NI	15% each
Japan, OU, IS	10% each
Others	5%

There is also a love-hate relationship with the ITTT. The VRC generates a lot of trade, of which a significant portion is transported by the ITTT to clients far away. This creates plenty of profits for both the VRC and the ITTT. Unfortunately, the ITTT has exclusive contracts for trade and transporation in a lot of systems, which doesn't make the VRC happy. In turn, the VRC tries cautiously to establish itself in systems where the ITTT contracts are about to expire, which doesn't make the ITTT happy.

Corporate structure

Civilian branches
- Civilian craft

Military branches
- Military craft

Security threats, internal and external

Our biotech division is a constant source of worries. Scientists do need their freedom to get good results. Unfortunately, because of the delicate nature of their work, this clashes with the demands for security.

There is no xenobiology department within the biotech division. It is not a highly dangerous safety and security risk, because it doesn't exist.

It is known that we have been infiltrated by intelligence agents of some of the major powers. As fas as we have been able to ascertain, their main interest is to keep informed of potential discoveries in deep space. The agents involved have been steered into low-risk jobs and are being fed non-essential information

There are some business competitors. As these have no interests in the part of space being explored/exploited by the VRC, no direct confrontations have occured. Yet. Accidents have happened to competitors though. And yes, further investigations always confirmed they were real accidents.

There have also been attempts by agents of other corporations to infiltrate the company. Some of them got an accident during military training, but most of them have had an interesting experience in one of our biotech labs.

As the VRC is getting bigger and bigger, small opposition parties in the RDC parliament have been raising questions about the lack of democratic control within VRC controlled space. We have been able to keep all controversial news out of the public eye, which has helped in preventing major harassment by the RDC parliament. The fact that the Dutch crown has a major stake in the VRC, and that dividends have been good, hasn't hurt VRC interests either.

Allies and foreign relations

The VRC is closely tied to the RDC. There are also good relations with various trading partners.

Of special interest is the OU, with whom the VRC often cooperates in deep space exploration. This is of great help to the OU, as space is very big and they need all the help they can get in charting all of it.

Standard operating procedures

Player notes, ideas, tactics, etc.

Hairy training missions on the Dark Side
All kinds of alien encounters in really deep space
Getting vital supplies to a highly valued customer
Sabotage missions against competitors : do the job and get out before reinforcements arrive

Credits

Jon Tuffley : for giving us all his games
Jerry Han, editor of the GZGPedia : for putting up the GZGPedia, which made me think of starting these pages
Tom Anderson : for writing down the Royal Dutch Commonwealth, which actually made me write all this down
Alan E. Brain : for OU buoys that go bump in the night
Nyrath the Nearly Wise : for creating great looking starmaps
Gordon R. Dickson : for his Dorsai! series
Jerry Pournelle : for his stories around Falkenberg's Legion

Disclaimer

Short version of the disclaimer from the GZGPedia : I retain all copyrights to the info on these pages. However, anybody, especially Jon Tuffley, can use the information contained in these pages as long as I am mentioned as the original author.