Originally posted by Chaos:
There´s a difference between "taking familiar elements" and blatant cut-and-pasting. If I want Americans and Nazis, I´ll play Axis and Allies.
I´m not sure if you know the Honor Harrington novel, but if you don´t, you should read them - if for no other reason, then because they show you how to integrate historical elements into a science fiction setting without being a blatant copycat.
History has a lot more to offer for an SF setting than just cheap stereotypes. Lots of bits and pieces of historical precedents have been added to the OTU everywhere, but it doesn´t exactly hit you over the head with it - and it wouldn´t be half as good if it did.
You want an external threat for your USA. How about something that has not been done to death *quite* as throroughly? How about some local warlord gathers troops and starships and starts a campaign of interstellar conquest, similar to what Alexander the Great did? He probably shouldn´t be called Alexander the Great, except of course if he either thinks or pretends he is Alexander´s reincarnation or something - "great" men of that kind tend to be kind of whacky even in the best cases... Of course your USA isn´t the Persian Empire - which would be one way in which your scenario is a cut-and-paste job.
Or if you insist in Nazis, then read up on Nazi ideology - primacy of the state over the individual, racial purity, might makes right, the whole nine yards - and adapt it; anti-semitism is quite pointless if there are no jews within a few hundred light years, for example. Of course, the whole 20th century racism thing is a bit outdated in the 57th century - why worry that the guy next door is too tan, when the guy across the street has claws and fangs? 
So you´ll have to adapt it. That´s the point of creating your own TU, at least to me - you get to do your own thing.
And I predict you´re going to lose more people by cutting and pasting history into your TU than by being creative and transforming bits and pieces of history into something new.
Its not an exact cut and paste, both countries have a continum and a history that justifies their existance. There are for example Neo-Nazis today, and some of those Nazis are German. Now projecting these Nazi-movements into the 21st century, there are groups of people that don't like the UN's takeover and World Government. One group is a bunch of American patriots and the other is a German Nazi movement, they are both distinct minorities in their own societies and Nationalism in the world as a whole is in decline everwhere as the world pitches in to fight the Vilani First Imperium.
In the Early Wars it looks as if the Vilani might win, and as a hedge against this possibility, the World Government starts the Phoenix Project, a chance to start humanity ans terran civilization elsewhere in the cosmos, away from the Vilani first imperium. Nationalist in droves flock to these projects as a chance to get away from the global world culture and reestablish their national culture free from UN interference. The UN for its part is glad to get rid of them, their absense helps them to build a global World Culture and thus fight off the Vilani without having to worry about all that Nationalist division. Among all the patriotic groups that sign up for the Phoenix project is one group of German Nazis, they never were hapy with the fact that Germany was defeated in World War II, and they hated blacks, and Jews, and Muslims, and now Vilani humans. The fact that the Vilani had hardly advanced in their technology for thousands of years, was to the German Nazis, evidence of their "racial inferiority", naturally that group of people was put on the Nazi list as those types that they wanted to be exterminated. Their are plenty of ethnic Vilani humans in the 57th century, so the Fourth Reich has plenty of victims to feed into their death camps. Even American Society has people in it of Vilani descent,and their are of course humans who simple look like Vilani even if they aren't. The Nazis don't care, if you look like a Vilani, you might as well be a Vilani as far as they are concerned.
I imagine that you don't like them speaking German, however I don't see any reason for them to speak English. Why should English speaking cultures be so vilified just to spare the German Speaking Cultures the association of the Nazis?
Adolf Hitler was German (or Austrian, but he considered himself German), the Nazi groups in America and elswhere know that Hitler was German, it maybe that they endeavoured to learn the language, the same way the Jews who recolonized Isreal learned Hebrew, even though before it was.
Anyway, I approach this with a sense of humour, I'm trying to recreate the World War II era in a way by reintroducing the most important elements of it in a science fiction setting. This campaign isn't entirely serious, and in part its played for laughs, though sometimes with a serious tone. Star Wars reproduces some elements of the Third Reich, but the Emperor wasn't quite Hitler in character. Maybe I'm copying the Thrid Reich too closely, but if so, your shouldn't be so dour about it. I think it instead as a challenge to ask the what if question. How would Nazis really act if they had spaceships? That is a question that history never answered, all you Germans should be really good at making guesses since you know your country so well. Maybe it is a stupid idea, but so was the movie "Airplane" and "Airplane II", I enjoyed those movies because of their very stupidity, I thought they were funny because they were so implausible.
You know they say that history repeats itself, in this campaign I am simply taking that premise too literally and applying it too exactly. I could be more creative and make something more alien and nonterrestrial. Ever see the TV miniseries "V"? Well, instead of the bad guy being reptiles who wear human masks all the time, I decided to make them humans who speak German and who copy cat Nazi ideology to the same extent as these New Americans copycat 21st century/early 19th century American culture. if you can recreate one nation in space, why not two. The Fourth Reich and the USA are really two peas in a pod, in one respect they are alike, but in another they are opposites. The Fourth Reich is more modern than a bunch of Romans running around in togas, which is what the Third Imperium seems to be. maybe some of you Germans might have a sense of fun and contribute some of your own ideas, maybe start another German nation or two. Lord knows there are few nations that speak German when compared to English speaking ones. The Evil Empire in Star Wars after all spoke English, shouldn't we Americans be offended at that? George W. Bush has even been compared to Emperor Palpatine. I mean Sheesh!
