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Perry Rhodan

S

ShapeShifter

SOC-13
I was reading an old Dragon mag issue (#3, 1976), and I caught a reference to a science fiction series called "Perry Rhodan" (for some reason spelled here as Perry Rhodem). I had never heard of it before, and after a little searching on the Net was shocked to find out that it is world-famous and widely translated into many languages. However, Amazon lists only a few English translations and those go for obscene amounts of money. Does anyone have any experience with this long-running series of scifi pulp stories? Is it too silly to mine for ideas for Traveller and should it be left alone, or would it be deemed worthy reading?
 
what I've seen says it is a good fit...

but it's apparently OOP in English, while it may still be in print in German.
 
Great space opera in every sense of the phrase. You should check out this thread:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=18233

Rhodan can have a sort of Vernor Vinge flavor to it so unless YTU has ascended beings and powers capable of manipulating vast energies on a galactic scale, not everything will translate. And a lot of technologies (read: extreme handwavium) don't necessarily fit into the Traveller universe but they could represent Ancient tech.
 
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Yes, read it since a kid in German, one of the reasons I love Traveller and sci-fi in general.
 
I've read German in university, but I have absolutely no experience with scifi German. Most of my experience is in fields like history, archaeology, etc. It may be cheaper for me to somehow track down Unternehmen 'Stardust' in the original.
 
Sci-fi German is very Americanized, if you read it at University, I would not think there would be a problem. If not, there is always Duden or Beolingus Wörterbücher.
 
The PR universe is "classic space opera" with the

300 Battleships from the left, 300 Battleships from the right and 600 through the middle

school of space battles. Where a battleship is a 1500+ meter sphere studded with weapons and energy shields that make Andromeda/Enterprise-E/The Death Star look weak. Granted, the "solution" to most problems is a small team of adventurers (Think about the President, The VP, the head of Military Intelligence, an Alien Psionik, Another Alien and 2-4 extras) sneaking in and killing the bad guy/solving the riddle.

Good to read but lousy for a game universe
 
The Perry Rhodan universe has gone through many incarnations and changes during the almost fifty years since the series did start in September 1961. But since that time, every single week saw a new 64-pages story furthering the story (with currently almost 2550 issues). Not to mention countless short stories, books, spin-off series and even comic books (which admittedly suck IMHO). It has been my first contact with the science fiction genre.

So yes, things did happen - and will happen - in the Perry Rhodan universe, they are usually arranged in cycles lasting 50 to 100 books. Unfortunately, the U. S. reception of the translation was not that good - despite Forrest J. Ackerman and his wife doing most of the work in the late 60ies to the late 70ies. An attempt to restart the series in 1997 did not go well, either - and they did not even reach the (personal favourite) grand time of the Solar Empire in the series with the 'Masters of the Island'-cycle dealing with the first visit to another galaxy (Andromeda) - and the battles there had thousands of ships involved.

The storylines slowly became more complex - from rather pulpy heroic scifi with a more or less loose connection and rather quickly introduced new technologies (though they were rarely forgotten or introduced on a whim like in Star Trek) to a slowly growing and expanding fictional universe. The technological level is - compared to Traveller - beyond 15 in most fields. Still: the adventures of the characters - and I should add that it is not exactly only the same group though admittedly Perry Rhodan will have a major role rather often - are quite often useable for adventure ideas, especially those of the books outside the cycles. Psionics are a part of the universe as well - and the problems arising from such abilities. Like in CT, the strength and type of psionic talent is rather coincidental. Oh, and regarding the technology: the first interstellar flights did use a jump drive as well - for quite a long time. They did also have a large interstellar Empire that has grown decadent (under the rule of a robotic Regent) - only to see that Regent destroyed by the newly arrived Terrans. There is a German RPG to the series as well - which has a small but active fanbase.

If You are able to read German and like some pulpy scifi - You might want to give it a try and the collected issues of the early years are easily availeable. The series has grown more 'mature' over time, I think.

(Purchaseable as ebook:
http://www.readerserver.de/index.php?cPath=118_188

Free teaser issues:
http://www.readerserver.de/product_info.php?products_id=1385
http://www.readerserver.de/product_info.php?products_id=1430
http://www.readerserver.de/advanced_search_result.php?pto=0.01&sort=2a&page=2)*

* I will gladly remove the links if they are seen as blatant advertising.
 
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The "Jump Drive" (Transitionsantrieb) of PR works quite different from the Traveller variant. A ship activates the drive, de-materialises and (almost) instantly re-materialises lightyears away (IIRC they had ranges well into the 4-digit numbers) And (until the Terrans developed counter-measures) the de- and rematerialisations could be tracked by FTL capabel sensors so unlike Traveller you could follow a ship through jump(s)

Closer to Traveller is the "Linear Converter" that allowed FTL travel in a semi-stabel zone between normal and hyperspace. The ship stayed stabel and could abort the flight at any time. While slower the engines allowed greater distances to be travelled and they developed over time from the original "Kalup" to the "Warringer" and then to inter-galactic FTL drives

Traveller had transmitters (similar to Aintnoprize-Transporters) but with few exceptions (build by the ineviteble but at least somewhat funny superbeing) they needed a receiver station. OTOH they worked across interstellar distances and some even across intergalactic distances (Using suns to power them)

Traveller was (at least initially) a mostly humano-centric universe with other races playing the sideshow (Swoon, Posbies, Matten-Willies) or the bad guys (Blues, Maahks) and few getting a center stage. Even then it was "selected individuals" rather than "race as a whole" (Some say that is a positive element when it comes to Mausbibers)

Robots/Computers range from the rather stupid (Combat bots act like the Wehrmacht-Soldiers from 1950s US movies) to "huge but smart" systems like the mentioned robot regent of Arkon or NATHAN of Earth (not to mention the even more advanced OTTO)

Energy shields are always closer to white globes with some protecting only against STL weapons and more advanced systems even protecting against the FTL guns employed starting to appear since booklet 150. In addition to screens ships are armored and use bulkheads.

Carrier/Battleship combinations are common and a must for the series since the subcrafts allow for the deployment of "small player groups"
 
If you want to find Perry Rhodan books the usual best place is any used book store. Those places can be treasure troves at times. I read the older books in the series (1-49) when I was in Jr. High and High School and really liked them.
 
Oy, thats a bit too much for my blood. Though I'd spend that much in gas and money to find them at a few used book stores, but who knows what else I might find :)
 
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