Holding Title to Planets

[taalismn]

Okay, in your Thundercloud colony campaigns how do you handle title and ownership to planets?
Discovery of a viable colony site can be a potentially VERY lucrative thing, but who decides who and how a claim can be made?
A good example might be an Earth-like exoplanet.....long range telescopes can discern a strong candidate, but that in itself doesn't necessarily establish claim...does the government or organization that first sends a physical expedition to a star system register the valid claim and administer right-of-colonization? What if the system is scouted by government long range sensors but the first landing is made by a private group using that information? Who gets the title?
And suppose a colony is established on that planet. Do the colonists also get right-of-territory to other planets in the system?
"We got here fastest with the mostest' can instantly become the basis of a colonial feud, especially if several different groups of colonists decide to contest colonizing rights, or a colony needing resources from a nearby world in the same system for survival(or terraforming) run into a group already there that's cagily controlling the needed resources, and willing to part with them only for a steeply inflated price.

Now, I imagine it's different from culture to culture....Any and ALL worlds in TransGalactic Imperial space, I assume, are instantly claimed as Imperial property, and anybody wanting a piece of those planets essentially has to buy license from the Emperor('s office). Likewise, I imagine the Golgan Republik claims new worlds as municipal territory and has a labyrinthine organization dedicated to handling colonial titles, licenses, and right of ways. The CCW might have corporate-style cartels that buy information from government sources and scouts, finance more in-depth exploration, register and purchase title to worlds and systems based on preliminary scans, then sell or lease colonization rights(whole planets or parcels of land) to colonists who then parcel up the land into smaller tracts). Acquisition prices might also include terms like a future percentage of mineral profits going to the cartel....terms that might lead to future conflict if the colonists decide that hiding their discovery of large quantities of psylite crystals from the development corporation that leased the planet to them, might be a good idea.

Thoughts?

[The Beast]

It's going to be the same way as throughout history; by brute force. If you don't have the power to fend of claim jumpers, you're going to have to cozy up to someone who does.

[taalismn]

It's going to be the same way as throughout history; by brute force. If you don't have the power to fend of claim jumpers, you're going to have to cozy up to someone who does.

So, colonization is conflict?

I can then see the larger concerns I mentioned coming across a nasty little colonial conflict, resolving it through the application of superior force, then offering up the newly acquired planet to other bidders.

Thing is, I got the idea because while the existence of cheap FTL drives means just anybody can go haring off exploring willy-nilly and trusting to luck and commercial-grade scanners to find them a goldmine-world, the SMART groups are going to use a combination of long range sensing, scout groups, and records of previous expeditions. Governments not wanting to miss out on claiming a motherlode or paradise world just over the edge of their current territory are going to be in the exploration business big-time, though they may lack the ability to develop, defend, and exploit a new world using government resources alone(though I can see the TGE dumping loads of slave-colonists on a planet and having them build infrastructure, with a shipload of troops watching from the safety of orbit, and then going down and muscling aside the survivors).

[Furoan]

The way I see it, is there are 3 things to take into account when your thinking of starting a colony.

First, you have as you mentioned people using telescopes and long distance scanners to determine that there is a solar system in the expected place and it has X number of planets about it. This information isn't all that useful but there's probably a finding fee by Governments of Trans-steller Mega-corporations who could use that information.

Then there's the actual survey itself. Think of it like the Enterprise from Star Trek coming into the system, determining that there's a habitable planet nearby. Now THIS information is probably worth a fair bit, especially if, as you said, its a paradise world or there's hints of Elder Race ruins around, and that information is probably either auctioned off or sold quietly to one of those Governments or Mega Corporations(If nobody else knows about the planet, then you can get a thriving colony going before people start trying to protest).

Then you have the actual landing on a colony, and eventually the setting up defences and system patrol craft.

The reason I kept bringing up Government and Mega corporations is because colonising another planet is expensive. Even with the relative cheep FTL that the Phase World universe operates on its going to take a while for your colony to be self-sufficient which means your probably shipping in food/supplies by huge freighters pretty regularly. More, you have to defend that colony by employing some kind of defence force (whether its a couple or fighters or you have a small fleet probably depends on who your sponsor is. If your colonising for the CCW, you can probably call in more military force to defend your stuff than if your a small time Mega corp.)

[taalismn]

T

The reason I kept bringing up Government and Mega corporations is because colonising another planet is expensive. Even with the relative cheep FTL that the Phase World universe operates on its going to take a while for your colony to be self-sufficient which means your probably shipping in food/supplies by huge freighters pretty regularly. More, you have to defend that colony by employing some kind of defence force (whether its a couple or fighters or you have a small fleet probably depends on who your sponsor is. If your colonising for the CCW, you can probably call in more military force to defend your stuff than if your a small time Mega corp.)

Indeed...Small groups seeking isolation from the rest of civilization, while idealistic, probably get picked off pretty fast by all the usual colonial hazards unless they're really skilled, powerful. or lucky. And if they're claim-jumping, they get steamrolled when the 'legit' stakeholders show up with the big colonial vans.

The sci-fi lite author Christopher Anvil had a lot of fun with this in his 'Colonial series' of short stories, where simply-equipped rougher colonists clashed with both their environments and the pampered arrogant coreworlders who often dropped by, playing tourist with all their automated geegaws supposedly protecting them from the surroundings(more often than not, they get swqeeked or forcibly added to the local colonial genepool).

On a larger scale, H. Beam Piper also dealt with legal issues in his Fuzzy series, where the Chartered Zarathustra Corporation ran into trouble when intelligent natives were discovered.....

[Nightmartree]

hitting on the dangers of colonizing I bet someone is making a mint selling "colony modules" and "colony ships" basically prefabricated structures you drop on planet, set up and are ready to rock and roll, heck probably a specialized company who does it to specifications,how many bandit leaders, and supervillain types in space wouldn't enjoy buying a decked out survival shelter, dropping it on a remote isolated planet and having an instant hideout for laying low. Or survivalists, or doomsday types (THE GALAXIES SHALL FALL THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER SHALL DEVOUR ALL OTHER INTELLIGENCES). or anyone else.

The colony ships aren't like those for colonists but rather they carry a COLONY for instant start up, basically a ship that you move it to a new planet, land it and you now have a greenhouse and power generator as well as defense systems providing an instant secure start for any colony to expand from.

[taalismn]

hitting on the dangers of colonizing I bet someone is making a mint selling "colony modules" and "colony ships" basically prefabricated structures you drop on planet, set up and are ready to rock and roll, heck probably a specialized company who does it to specifications,how many bandit leaders, and supervillain types in space wouldn't enjoy buying a decked out survival shelter, dropping it on a remote isolated planet and having an instant hideout for laying low. Or survivalists, or doomsday types (THE GALAXIES SHALL FALL THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER SHALL DEVOUR ALL OTHER INTELLIGENCES). or anyone else.

The colony ships aren't like those for colonists but rather they carry a COLONY for instant start up, basically a ship that you move it to a new planet, land it and you now have a greenhouse and power generator as well as defense systems providing an instant secure start for any colony to expand from.

Oh, I imagine there's thousands of companies that will outfit you for other worlds...and plenty more that will offer you weapons and maybe even protection details to help you hold on to what you claim...provided you actually have a legit claim(and there will be outfits that help you out even if that's not the case...I can see plenty of organizations clearing out inconvenient 'firsters' in order to claim a choice planet for themselves).