German-speaking Traveller Players...

[KrasnyKot]

Well, these "all nazis are german" and sometimes vice versa "accusations" ain't that much insulting but quite boring and not very unexpected. Nowadays such a thing almost always come from the same direction. And the least to be said the better. (o.k. you wanted it, some years ago we had joke going around: What's the difference between Adolf Hitler and George W. Bush? One was elected by a majority of the population.)
Now I would prefer to see to that german ship designations as a more productive venture.

Please note: there has been a german translation of Traveller which don't own. So I try for myself.

Ship Type Codes
Primary ______________ Qualifier
A Kauffahrer _________ A Gepanzert(er)
B Schlacht ___________ B Schlacht: Boot
C Kreuzer; Träger ____ C Kreuzer; Nah(er)
D Zerstörer __________ D Zerstörer
E Eskorte ____________ E Eskorte
F Fregatte; Jäger ____ F Schnell(er); Flotte
G Beiboot; Raffinerie G Kanonen
H ____________________ H Schwer(er)
I, J Intruder ________ I, J
K Pinnasse ___________ K
L Korvette; Lab ______ L Führung(S); Leicht(er)
M Kauffahrer _________ M Raketen
N ____________________ N Nicht-Standard
P Planetoid __________ P Provinz
Q Hilfs ______________ Q Provokateur
R Liner ______________ R Plünderer
S Scout; Station _____ S Angriff(s)
T Tanker; Tender _____ T Truppen; Transport
U ____________________ U Antriebslos(er)
V ____________________ V Fahrzeug
W Barke ______________ W
X Express ____________ X
Y Yacht ______________ Y Shuttle; Kutter
Z ____________________ Z Experimentell(er)

Where necessary I put a syllable in parentheses; if you use the qualifier in conjunction with the primary you should add these. (CZ= Experimenteller Kreuzer)
Sometimes the english designations are the same in german (Tanker, Express(latin I think), Yacht
sometimes the english is more in use in our language nowadays (Shuttle i.e. would be translated as Fähre, but the Space Shuttle is only very seldom called a Raumfähre)

German Space Navy - Deutsche Raumkriegsmarine (somewhat oldfashioned, more modern would be Deutsche Raumstreitkräfte)
Scouts - You could leave that scouts, any translation would imply boy scouts
Marines - Difficult, too. Maybe Rauminfanterie
Army - Heer, but Bodentruppen would also suffice.

I hope I could be of any help.

 

[KrasnyKot]

OOOPS, I've overseen the intruder, it's not the german name for it. But at the moment I can't find a name which does sound right. The neares thing I can come up with would be Blockadebrecher which means blockade runner.

 

[Laryssa]

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

By the way, ever read Bio of a Space Tyrant by Piers Anthony? There was a series of books detailing a hispanic immigrants rise to power. There were a number of countries in those books, The United States of Jupiter, the Union of Saturnian Socialist Republics, basically he took each planet or moon in the Solar System and made it an analog for a country in the 20th century. What I'm attempting is in a simular vein, though on a smaller scale with the number of countries involved.

Well, it can't be quite World War II-ish of course. Even in the 1940s the nations involved didn't have to put up with such time delays. If I wanted to do a more exact rendering, I'd alter the rules for jump drive, probably make them into hyperdrives, where the amount of time spend in hyperspace is proportional to the distance traveled, I'd also have a form of FTL communication called hyperwave for instance, but in order to fit in with Charted Space I have to accept these limitations and see how each society works around it. Slow FTL travel makes the USA more frontier like as in the early 19th century. There was no Nazi Germany in the early 19th century, so der Fuhrer Karl Stremple will simply have to manage as best he can, he can rant, have temper tantrums and threaten people as much as he likes, but that won't make his ships travel any faster.

 

[Droptrooper.]

Bio of a Space Tyrant, the beginning of the end for Anthony. The pulp writer goes downhill as it were. It's a bad juvenile series full of sexual titillation and gore. Simplistic themes and simplistic symbolism for a target audience.

Why bother with charted space and Traveller canonical history at all? Have your hyperdrive and ftl communication. Traveller was after all originaly a generic science fiction rpg.

 

[kafka47]

Funny, Bio of a Space Tyrant was one of the series of books that I always wanted to read but never got around to it. I was always hoping that they would be put together in an Anthology but they never did. In terms of Gore & Sexual titillation...is that not what all Anthony books are about anyhow...pure mindless escapism.

Right now, I am reading a collection of short stories entitled: Sex & Violence in Zero G by Allan Steele. And, if you are a Hard SF fan it is really quite good.

Anyhow, back to the topic at hand, inspiration for creation of all sorts of Pocket Empires in the IW era is an intriguing one. I would have guessed with such short periods of time, why would polities like this have reason to form? In the aftermath of the Second Imperium, in the Long Night, I can see this as a distinct possibility. Although, I tend to shy away from real historical names as history is much too complicated to be repeated in such a simple manner. Look at all the contraversaries we have on this list about the Solomani of the contemporary era (be it T20, CT, MT).

But, Tom it is your campaign and I am sure it will be a great way to introduce your friends to a new found love.

 

[Laryssa]

Originally posted by Droptrooper.:
Bio of a Space Tyrant, the beginning of the end for Anthony. The pulp writer goes downhill as it were. It's a bad juvenile series full of sexual titillation and gore. Simplistic themes and simplistic symbolism for a target audience.

Why bother with charted space and Traveller canonical history at all? Have your hyperdrive and ftl communication. Traveller was after all originaly a generic science fiction rpg.

Have you read it?
I think not. The bedroom scenes were only a minor part of the story, they were not overly descriptive, and they served to advance the story. I read all four books, if they were as bad as all that, I would not have read them, they are certainly not Playboy material.

 

[Laryssa]

Originally posted by kafka47:
Funny, Bio of a Space Tyrant was one of the series of books that I always wanted to read but never got around to it. I was always hoping that they would be put together in an Anthology but they never did. In terms of Gore & Sexual titillation...is that not what all Anthony books are about anyhow...pure mindless escapism.

Right now, I am reading a collection of short stories entitled: Sex & Violence in Zero G by Allan Steele. And, if you are a Hard SF fan it is really quite good.

Anyhow, back to the topic at hand, inspiration for creation of all sorts of Pocket Empires in the IW era is an intriguing one. I would have guessed with such short periods of time, why would polities like this have reason to form? In the aftermath of the Second Imperium, in the Long Night, I can see this as a distinct possibility. Although, I tend to shy away from real historical names as history is much too complicated to be repeated in such a simple manner. Look at all the contraversaries we have on this list about the Solomani of the contemporary era (be it T20, CT, MT).

But, Tom it is your campaign and I am sure it will be a great way to introduce your friends to a new found love.

I've explained to you the reasons why they would found such a nation. I don't think the American colonists would travel thousands of light years and found a nation called "Zaphnobia", or "Kreen". They are not going to all don silver suits, put on their bubble helmets and then say, "For now on, we all are going to live differently, we are going to speak and alien language and we are going to worship Mog, an alien deity that we just made up."

I think more likely people are going to try to preserve the culture they left behind.

 

[kafka47]

Tom, I agree that they would not have that as their intent but History has a funny way of playing tricks on you. Just as any American would not associate themselves as English dissenters which is their heritage rather they have come to associate themselves as Americans even though they speak none of the languages Native to the Continent and the current regime strongly resists any notion of a Spanish or French America that existed before the establishment of the United States.

Furthermore, you forget that what America means today will not neccessarily mean what it will mean tomorrow. Indeed, not too long ago and in the minds of some recently, there was talk of an American race (which ironically was White). Americans will be very different and IW makes that quite clear with its rise of UN as the counterweight to National interests.

Lastly, as Terrans take to the Stars, yes, they will be reflecting their national identity but increasingly Earth will become a polyglot of a multitude of different identities all colliding with one another. Ask anyone in International Business or went through immigration what is their identity. The answer is: Here & There...assuming that Here has enough social supports to make one feel comfortable. Reproducing the States might start off that way but soon that might change when different people come to learn new things about their world and the centripical forces come to fore.

 

[Droptrooper.]

You appear to have missed a book out Laryssa. The BoaST series contains five books (and one in the pipeline).

Yes I've read them. As Kafka points out they are not very challenging. About the level expected of Anthony, but this time amongst his allegories is a high level of sexual and gratuitous violence, more than usual for a Piers Anthony book, not exactly designed for juveniles which, considering the simplistic structure is where it is obviously aimed.

 

[Laryssa]

Originally posted by kafka47:
Tom, I agree that they would not have that as their intent but History has a funny way of playing tricks on you. Just as any American would not associate themselves as English dissenters which is their heritage rather they have come to associate themselves as Americans even though they speak none of the languages Native to the Continent and the current regime strongly resists any notion of a Spanish or French America that existed before the establishment of the United States.

Furthermore, you forget that what America means today will not neccessarily mean what it will mean tomorrow. Indeed, not too long ago and in the minds of some recently, there was talk of an American race (which ironically was White). Americans will be very different and IW makes that quite clear with its rise of UN as the counterweight to National interests.

Lastly, as Terrans take to the Stars, yes, they will be reflecting their national identity but increasingly Earth will become a polyglot of a multitude of different identities all colliding with one another. Ask anyone in International Business or went through immigration what is their identity. The answer is: Here & There...assuming that Here has enough social supports to make one feel comfortable. Reproducing the States might start off that way but soon that might change when different people come to learn new things about their world and the centripical forces come to fore.

What exactly do you know about this version of the United States besides a bunch of stats?

Here's the state of New York for example:

Orbit _ Name ___ UWP _ Remarks
Primary Solis __ K5 V Mass 0.570
0 _____ New York A5.566742-C 0.62g Warm pop 1
__ 25 _ Hudson _ G0.500614-B 0.05g Normal pop 8
__ 45 _ Niagara _Y3.010464-B 0.30g Normal pop 1
1 _____ Hamilton Small GG (40,000 miles) 1.0g varies
__ 57.5 Chase __ F3.5A0662-B 0.35g Frozen pop 7
2 _____ Roosevelt Large GG (90,000 miles) 2.27g varies
__ 47.5 Eleanor _F4.5A0662-B 0.28g Frozen pop 6
3 _____ Adirondack _ G2.530563-B 0.25g Frozen pop 9
__ 1 __ Marcy __ YR.000000-0 0g Frozen
__ 1.5 Coldwell YR.000000-0 0g Frozen
__ 2 __ Placid _ YR.000000-0 0g Frozen
4 _____ Rockerfeller Small GG (42,500 miles)
5 _____ Jay ____ Small GG (47,500 miles)

Some interesting facts:
The year on the Planet New York is 43.27 days long.
New York is tidally locked with its large moon Niagara.
The sun appears bright orange in New York's sky and 2.5 times the apparent diameter of the Sun as seen from Earth.
The seasonal effects of New Yorks axial tilt are minor as it takes a while for parts of the planet to cool down and heat up. Since the seasons are only 10.7 days long each, this basically means that you see the bright orange sun rising and setting on a different part of the sky from day to say. Being a warm planet, it rarely snows in most place except on the tops of tall mountains, the planet has long days, and high tides are caused by the close proximity of the sun and occur after noon and midnight.

This environment is quite alien to what we know of new york, plus the fact that interstate travel takes a long time forces changes on American society, so its not quite like the good old USA you know, but it is interesting to try to see how similar this society could be to our own despite these differnces. Besides, the closer it is to the source of inspiration, the more real the society is going to seem to the players because they can relate more.

 

[Laryssa]

Originally posted by Droptrooper.:
You appear to have missed a book out Laryssa. The BoaST series contains five books (and one in the pipeline).

Yes I've read them. As Kafka points out they are not very challenging. About the level expected of Anthony, but this time amongst his allegories is a high level of sexual and gratuitous violence, more than usual for a Piers Anthony book, not exactly designed for juveniles which, considering the simplistic structure is where it is obviously aimed.

I read his books for entertainment, not to challenge my reading skills. If he used very long and complicated sentences with plenty of obscure words that require me to refer to a dictionary to look up the meanings of, I'd call that challenging, but I wouldn't enjoy reading it, I probably wouldn't finish a book written that way either.

Ok, so there were 5 books, the last one being stateman, its been years since I read them. The thing that stuck in my mind from reading them was not the sexual encounters that occured in them, but that of a man's rise to power in a Solar System designed to look like our modern World politically. I think Larry Niven's Ringworld books score higher in the Sex meter than Peirs Anthony's. In Niven's books, sex is nore essential to the plot, while in Anthony's those scenes serve as an interlude. I mean after all, Bill Clinton did it, so why shouldn't Hope Hubris? Piers Anthony's views on causal sex seem to be more liberal than my own, but still I enjoyed reading his books, and his books seem to sell pretty well, whether you like them or not. I still see them on the shelves of books stores, and if they didn't sell they wouldn't be there.