Canon 4. Variations on a Theme

[welsh]

Oh, and the Canadians? They're weird.

Well, only recently. Up until fifty years ago we used British ranks. Then someone decided to simplify things.

 

[Timerover51]

It would have matched some of the source fiction - to wit, portions of the Falconberg's legion.

Against that, it would have made it a bit incomprehensible to the U.S. audience who are more used to companies, battalions, and regiments. While I am familiar with Roman legion organization, the average war gamer would be totally lost with those terms. Currently, with my World War 2 class, we spend some time going over what unit terms mean in World War 2, as the students are pretty much lost in that area.

I am not a fan of using what I call obsolete terms in writing, and those terms are pretty much obsolete.

 

[aramis]

Well, only recently. Up until fifty years ago we used British ranks. Then someone decided to simplify things.

"Master corporal" is not a simplification....

 

[aramis]

Against that, it would have made it a bit incomprehensible to the U.S. audience who are more used to companies, battalions, and regiments. While I am familiar with Roman legion organization, the average war gamer would be totally lost with those terms. Currently, with my World War 2 class, we spend some time going over what unit terms mean in World War 2, as the students are pretty much lost in that area.

I am not a fan of using what I call obsolete terms in writing, and those terms are pretty much obsolete.

Note that Legion IS a US millitary unit size. US Army, in fact. Up to about 1830.

Point taken about the lack of common knowledge about that, tho'.

 

[welsh]

"Master corporal" is not a simplification....

I should have put "simplify" in scare quotes....

Today's corporal is the old lance corporal; master corporal is the same as the old corporal, i.e. the first enlisted rank with any real responsibility. The reason for that change remains a mystery.

The "simplification" was that all services would share the same rank badges so that everyone would recognize rank regardless of service. This applied to officers also; only recently were the old-style officer insignia restored.

 

[Maksim-Smelchak]

THIS.

Thanks for writing that out so succinctly. This is the strength of Traveller and the "OTU".

Proto-Traveller, Millerverse-OTU, Lorenverse-OTU, and TNE-style "harder-science" OTU ALL have their own individual charms, even if they do not all seamlessly fit together.

Quite agreed.

It would be nice to have all of those different variations on setting, technology, and/or style of play clearly detailed for the player new to Traveller.

Cough, cough. Someone has already been setting a baseline and mapping these things out in an accessible, public way.

So many folks want to complain about it and say it's all wrong, non-canon, etc. ...but very few are actually willing to do something about it. Kudos to Wayne, Rancke, Adie Stewart, and the many others who are doing something about it.

I'm pretty sure that almost none of the inner circle grognards really understand how Marc feels about canon and why he chooses to take or not take the actions that he does.

*** Why did it take a Don to write the hermeneutic? What does the hermeneutic really mean? ***

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

 

[Maksim-Smelchak]

*Thread Resurrect*

Do I hear any volunteers?

I suspect some of you already know how your favorite ruleset makes the Imperium distinct from the Imperium of other rulesets.

• CT/MT
• TNE
• T4
• T20
• MgT
• T5
• TNE*1248

Hey Rob,

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/What_is_Traveller

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Setting

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Theme

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Rules


You really ought to call me more often. I know the resources and have often created ones where there were none.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.