How big a deal is the Starburst for Extreme Heroism?

[Carlobrand]

Note that's for POSTHUMOUS recipients, not all recipients.

...

Oop, my bad, you're right. I should have read farther back, I see I'm covering old ground and doing it badly to boot. On the other hand, I don't know too many ships named for posthumous recipients of a bronze star.

Given a game where 1 in 36 players start as a baron, where a decent chunk of scouts and merchants retire with a multi-million-credit ship at their disposal, I tend to think of the character generation system as being intended for the players' benefit, not as a means of reflecting demographic trends. It's TV: the folk who get special treatment are the folk who get the speaking parts or who are important to the story; the hoi polloi in the background don't count. It's Movie-night, where the eager young farm-hand turns out to be the son of an evil lord and heir to mysterious powers. Nobody tells stories about the eager young farm-hand who joins up and spends the next three years cooking for the mess hall.

Either that, or the Imperium's giving away one heck of a lot of scout ships every year.

 

[McPerth]

Note that's for POSTHUMOUS recipients, not all recipients.

Comments: The Gionetri class light cruiser is named exclusively for posthumous recipients of the Imperial Starburst for Extreme Heroism.

That means, only those awarded it for actions leading to their heroic death. Mind you, that's an award subcategory not open to PC's, and a class that's not that uncommon.

In MT:Rebellion, page 81, the word posthumous was omited when describing the SEH light cruiser (and in Arrival Vengeance is told they are the same as the Gionetti):

Originally posted from MT:Rebellion, page 81:
The SEH-class light cruiser is named for the recipients of the Imperial Starbush for Extreme Heroism.

 

[Quint]

I never viewed the SEH as either the VC or the CMH. I always viewed it as the 3I equivalent of the Knights Cross. That was the only way I could come up with that made sense to me.

I also had an old Medal yearbook & I went to town with it, creating all kinds of awards for almost every career service under the sun.

No one had a SEH, but a lot of them did have equivilents. Made the characters much more interesting.

Yup, pretty much did the same thing - the other fun thing I did was come up with names for campaign medals, plus foreign decorations. The fruit salad on an experienced combat vet could look pretty impressive.

Now, some of that was based on the flavor of the Griffin novels, and some of it was based on the experiences of friends and family in the Vietnam/Cold War as well as (primarily) the U.S. military of the 80's and 90's (Grenada/Beirut/Panama/Gulf War/Somalia/Kosovo). But as we all seem to note here, the Traveller system seems to be a bit wonky, in some way or another.

D.

 

[whulorigan]

I never viewed the SEH as either the VC or the CMH. I always viewed it as the 3I equivalent of the Knights Cross. That was the only way I could come up with that made sense to me.

In general, I see the MCUF as equivalent to the Bronze Star, and the MCG as equivalent to the Silver Star (in American usage).

I think of the SEH as the equivalent of the Navy/Air Force/Distinguished Service Cross (in American usage) or the[FONT=arial,helvetica] [EDIT: Distinguished Service Medal[/FONT]] in British usage.

T5 has an additional higher category: "SEH with Diamonds" (*SEH*), which I consider equivalent to the Medal of Honor or the Victoria Cross.
T5 also has an award lower than MCUF, the XS (Exemplary Service Medal), which I presume is somewhat like the Commendation Medal/Ribbon (American usage).

 

[Timmy]

The George Cross, in Commonwealth usage, is the highest civilian award, equivilent in that respect to the VC. The military award that is a step down from the VC is the Distinguished Service Order or Medal, depending on the rank of the recipient.

 

[whulorigan]

The George Cross, in Commonwealth usage, is the highest civilian award, equivilent in that respect to the VC. The military award that is a step down from the VC is the Distinguished Service Order or Medal, depending on the rank of the recipient.

Thank you for the correction.