Blue Darrians Petition!

[Vargr]

If Mongoose offered me to write the Blue Darrians up for them I would say....

...yes.

No, I meant it would be a waste of money for them. There's a metric ton of material they can develop without messing with canon. A Blue Darrian sourcebook would only serve to add fuel to the fires that sometimes flare up from the embers of a broken fanbase.

Ok, that sounded more poetic than I wanted to...

Have you posted it here? Sounds interesting. I've found the feedback on the Blue Darrians to be helpful in developing them.

Er...no I didn't, because its part of a professional product. Well, its up to editor if he likes them or not. Nothing fancy, they are Solomani Imperial loyalists from a single planet that kept much of the Pre-Stellar culture of their ancestors (including the language, although mutated after all these years) and mantained a very pure gene pool. I mean pure as in "consistent" and "old", its got nothing to do with the SoliConfed racial superiority BS.

Thanks! I have more stuff like that planned, I need to improve the lettering though, a little too faded looking.

Bring it on! Real military women and cool rifles are always ok by my book.

Those are Peruvian Special Forces

Peru has special forces?!

I just monkeyed with the background and added the Imperial Star, the rifle is a FN F2000. I thought it looked sufficiently high tech enough for Trav; IMTU I classify weapons by the caliber of the bullet (pistol/carbine/rifle), so Assault Rifles like that are a carbine being a short rifle round.

Ah...that brings back good memories of playing Sla Industries and Call of Cthulhu. Different calibers and types of ammo always make a game more fun. HEAP rounds, how I miss thee...

Then again, there's always Central Supply Catalog. Modded Gauss Rifles FTW!!

 

[Dragoner]

No, I meant it would be a waste of money for them. There's a metric ton of material they can develop without messing with canon. A Blue Darrian sourcebook would only serve to add fuel to the fires that sometimes flare up from the embers of a broken fanbase.

Ok, that sounded more poetic than I wanted to...

Well... //start corporate mode (up until recently I was a officer of a fairly large design&const firm in the SF bay area and while not in charge of marketing, I had to go to all the marketing meetings etc. ad nauseum. Now that business is flatlined after the crash and I am back in uni getting a CIT degree. wouldn't you know I'm back lumped in with the nerds getting A's in math and such...lol)

From a purely commercial standpoint, Trav would do well to have some drow-like race. It would tap into the market of all the goths/steam punk/neo-victorians and such; all one has to do is look at their popularity (just typed drow into google and got a million hits) on the various rpg's and mmorpg's. It could definitely bring in new players, which from a business standpoint is prime. It doesn't hurt to fan the embers to create a fire. Some sort of Traveller online wouldn't hurt either, but that is another discussion. D&D as well is not a bad trail to follow either, they were the big dogs in sales back in the day. Traveller could have been bigger but they lost focus, they should have been creating sectors right next to each other, not scattered everywhere, that is the meat of the campaign milieu. The World of Greyhawk was far more developed than the Spinward Marches, and where things should have expanded out from the 'Marches, instead the next sector to be described was the Solomani Rim, which distance wise was incompatible with the 'Marches. The Solomani Rim was way to "settled" as well to be a campaign backdrop, IMO. Things like Blue Darrians, they are just a spice really, the meat should be proper campaigns. That is what Mongoose should concentrate on, this I know too from doing my wargaming stuff and watching peoples reactions and what they are playing. To me they are just a minor doodle.

Er...no I didn't, because its part of a professional product. Well, its up to editor if he likes them or not. Nothing fancy, they are Solomani Imperial loyalists from a single planet that kept much of the Pre-Stellar culture of their ancestors (including the language, although mutated after all these years) and mantained a very pure gene pool. I mean pure as in "consistent" and "old", its got nothing to do with the SoliConfed racial superiority BS.

Sounds good, hope to see it.

Bring it on! Real military women and cool rifles are always ok by my book.



Peru has special forces?!

Yep, girls with cool weapons, always a killer combo.

Peru had a fairly decent sized insurgency up until recently with "the shining path"; so I am not suprised.

Ah...that brings back good memories of playing Sla Industries and Call of Cthulhu. Different calibers and types of ammo always make a game more fun. HEAP rounds, how I miss thee...

Then again, there's always Central Supply Catalog. Modded Gauss Rifles FTW!!

Ah yes, I do have 6mm HEAP rounds for that gun IMTU, Imperial only, but goodies for players to get. That pic I did kinda make for the OoB of the Imperial Rifle Division, the only Divisional organization in the Imperial forces, everything else follows a modern Battalion->Brigade->Corps->Army->Group organizational structure (there are some regiments, but really they are part of the brigade structure, independent battalions are the norm with a task force mentality at corps level), I'll get around to posting it at some point.

Played a good bit of Call of Cthulhu, back in the 80's, never played Sla Industries but it looks pretty good.

-Robert

 

[Jamus]

Typical Amazonian tasks like fighting, you mean?


Aslan assassins don't act like ninjas.


Not so. They vaguely resemble lions. If you actually study the pictures, you'll note that the resemblance is not all that great. Unless you believe the images Mongoose hawks, in which case they look like Lion-men of Mongo[*]. I haven't seen any of Mongoose's female Aslans, but I'll believe they're portrayed as lion-women if you tell me so. That just tells me Mongoose got it wrong. After all, I have the original pictures to looks at.

[*] This is not a compliment.​

Hans

I have some of the original pics also. look in the adventure Twilights peak. Like it or no Aslan started out as lionoids. To state otherwise is an attempt to rewrite history. MgT holds the liscense to I guess they got it right.

 

[rancke]

I have some of the original pics also. look in the adventure Twilights peak. Like it or no Aslan started out as lionoids. To state otherwise is an attempt to rewrite history.

True as regards the very first picture of them. But that was followed by a lot more pictures that veered away from that cliche, to say nothing of the canonical description.

"Early Terran explorers regarded the Aslan as 'lion-like,' and the simile has stuck ever since, although the Aslan bear little resemblance to Terrestrial lions. Nontheless, this early misnomer has influenced a great deal of human thinking about the Aslan, including terminology (the use of pride to translate ahriy, for instance and ascribed behavior -- which is not at all leonine." [AM1:3] (Emphasis mine).​

To ignore all this evidence is an attempt to rewrite history.

MgT holds the liscense to I guess they got it right.

Not in my opinion. They got the right (legal term) to get it wrong (mistake), but they still got it wrong. Just as Marc Miller himself has the right to claim that small worlds are able to retain breathable atmospheres without being right about it.


Hans

 

[Jamus]

I like the cliche.
The more later articles about Aslan try to make them not lionoids the less believable they are.

I really like pride of Chanur<sp> a lot also.

 

[Dragoner]

Aslan means lion in Turkish however and was the lion in the Chronicles of Narnia. Kinda difficult to get around that.

 

[rancke]

Aslan means lion in Turkish however and was the lion in the Chronicles of Narnia. Kinda difficult to get around that.

Who is trying to get around it? "Early Terran explorers regarded the Aslan as 'lion-like,'" canon tells us. It requires no great leap of imagination to assume that either said early explorers spoke Turkish or were Narnia fans and that they named the species 'Aslan' because they regarded them as 'lion-like', even though "the Aslan bear little resemblance to Terrestrial lions" when you take a closer look. Thus Aslan, to conform to canon, should look superficially like lions but not when examined more closely. As, indeed, many of the early illustrations manage full well. Lion-like, yes, actual anthropomorphic lions, no.


Hans

 

[Arvig]

They are. I think Mongoose's versions are white. My point is: The Mongoose version might as well be blue. It's the same difference. White-hair, cyber-punk, rock-n-roll Mongoose Darrians. All they're missing is blue skin.

Sorry for the confusion, folks. It was early when I wrote that post. I'll edit it.

Where did you hear about MongTrav adding white Darrians? Is there something you can quote or link?

This is the cover of the upcoming Darrian alien module by Mongoose as an aside:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/common_incs/popup.php?id=travdarrians.jpg

Yes, that Darrian lass in the foreground is very pale, almost white but IMO that is the artist taking a liberty too. If you've seen the cover art of the other MongTrav Third Imperium specific books, they all tend to have a 'washed out" palate if memory serves.

Anyway, unless you've seen a quote on their boards or perhaps from a playtester allowed to mention such without breaking a NDA, I am curious to see what you base your statement on, if it's that cover or something else.


EDIT: To be on topic with the OP's petition: No, I'd not want to see Blue Darrians in the OTU. If they introduce white ones in the OTU via the upcoming MongTrav Alien Module then in MTU I'd probably not use white ones unless the description they give IMO works well enough to include them. But regardless, no Blue Darrians. They look "Elvish" to a degree I suppose. But they aren't Elves any more then Hivers are huge starfish or K'Kree or Horsey Centaur people. Or for that matter, even if people do feel that the OTU Aslan are "lion-like" or if they don't, Aslan aren't felines either, even if they MAY (or may not) look the part so to speak.

I'll let someone else decide if they want to post the UPP for The Forgotten Realms.

 

[Jame]

Arvig, that's actually what I'd thought of Darrians as looking like - though when I and another played Darrians and the GM asked us to choose someone for a picture, I chose Adam Beach and the other chose Cote de Pablo. Ironic, huh?

I wonder how one pronounces her name...

 

[mbrinkhues]

I have given Darrians some thoughts. My prefered concept on them would be like this:

+ Smallish build
+ Developed on a swamp world so the have oversized feet
+ Severe male:female imbalance (10+ males per female)
+ Severe age imbalance (few elder Darrians)
+ Blue skin color developed as some camouflage originally
+ Have little color perception
+ Prefer white clothing

Basically a male Darrian would end up like this

Would make the race acceptabel.

 

[Rraurgrimm]

Almost as OT like the previous post:

If You are using comic images, I'd have gone for this one. At least it's SciFi - of the early 70ies.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Almost as OT like the previous post:

If You are using comic images, I'd have gone for this one. At least it's SciFi - of the early 70ies.

Nope. I LIKE Luc Orient so I would never use the images for something as repugnant as Travellers Space feys. Smurfs are barely bad enough for that race.

 

[Rraurgrimm]

Actually, those are Vineans from 'Yoko Tsuno' by Roger Leloup.

But - back to the topic, this little digression brought to You by Yours, humbly...

 

[Jame]

I have given Darrians some thoughts. My prefered concept on them would be like this:

+ Smallish build
+ Developed on a swamp world so the have oversized feet
+ Severe male:female imbalance (10+ males per female)
+ Severe age imbalance (few elder Darrians)
+ Blue skin color developed as some camouflage originally
+ Have little color perception
+ Prefer white clothing

Basically a male Darrian would end up like this

Would make the race acceptabel.

You realize that Traveller already Has them - Bwaps!

 

[mbrinkhues]

You realize that Traveller already Has them - Bwaps!

Nope. Bwaps are your hard working, slightly wet Burokrats. A nice species that should be put more in the foreground. Really likeabel guys.

Darrians OTOH are more like a disease that crept out of a third rate english fantasy book

 

[bromdenlong]

hmm..

Blue skin, white hair, resistant to intense cold...am I the only one thinking of Andorians here?

The CT Darrians have pointy ears and are intensely intellectual, which screams 'pseudoVulcan' to me. Pointy ears alone ain't enough to make 'em elvish.

Someone also said that a pure oxygen atmosphere is toxic. Over what time frame, if at all? IIRC, the early astronauts used pure O2. Grissom, Chaffee and White died in a fire because of it, but not of toxicity.

 

[Dragoner]

They live, if only in infamy! he he

 

[Ran Targas]

I don't have a problem with blue Darrians in anybody's TU but there are already too many minor human and non-human races in the OTU that are poorly thought out and only partially useable in game play. There's really no need for another.

Before developing an off-shoot of the Darrians with no previous reference, I think more effort should be focused on fleshing out some the 25-30 minor human races that get only a few sentences in some obscure out-of-print canon; making them at least playable.

 

[Dragoner]

IMTU they work as Gypsies in the Spinward Marches, they work good cooperatively with the Zhodani and Vargr, another thing to go bump in the night. Of the many other races of other sectors? I don't know and don't care. I didn't create them with so much of a buzz about them in mind, it just rather happened, they have taken on a life of thier own.

haha

 

[ThunderChilde]

Maybe it's just me.

I've got a couple non OTU alien races rattling around in the background of my MGT campaign. I really have no desire to share. They work for me, my players understand thier role, and it is quite specific to my particular OTU variant ideas.

Personally, I don't care for your Blue Darrians, don't see either a need nor a good reason for them in my own opinion. If you like them, go ahead and use them in your campaign, feel free to share your ideas if you wish. Just don't expect others to neccesarliy agree with you.

My further thoughts I've deleted because they were getting Flame worthy.

Play Traveller, Run your Own Universe, have fun, that is all.