OTU Only: What is your take on the Zhodani?

[mike wightman]

What?! No anonymous ballot? Oh well

What? You have something to hide? Come this way citizen... :devil:

or

at least you get a vote - this isn't the Imperium you know :CoW:

or

are you worried that some would be coerced into voting a certain way without anonymity?:toast:

By the way - all of the above is meant in good humour and as a joke

 

[flykiller]

No room for messiness or madness or oddball strange obsessions that go into fractal low probability high chance of failure behaviors-but also holds the prospect of something new.

like cronus.

But what exactly is a "goose stepping hive mind"?

there is no way to explain without actuating various coti ban rules. suffice to observe that "marching around in 18th century battalions" gets translated into "goose stepping" without a single twitch.

 

[Blue Ghost]

What? You have something to hide? Come this way citizen... :devil:

or

at least you get a vote - this isn't the Imperium you know :CoW:

or

are you worried that some would be coerced into voting a certain way without anonymity?:toast:

By the way - all of the above is meant in good humour and as a joke

... he's a Zho ... get him! :smirk:

 

[mike wightman]

The goose step is a perfectly legitimate marching style, practiced by many of the world's militaries past and present:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goose_step

as to hive mind:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_mind_(science_fiction)

 

[Ran Targas]

IMHO the Zho have just perfected the same mass crowd control that the 3I and Solomani use mass media, subliminal suggestion, and food additives for. The only reason Imps and Sollies are so afraid is because they can't do it as well.

 

[Jame]

I like the Zhodani.

So to me, they're somewhere between mildly bad guys due to their psionic overlords to being the same level as the Imperium.

 

[Bravesteel]

No better or worse, in my opinion. They are looking after their own interests, so I wouldn't label them as evil.

 

[Spenser TR]

As an aside, I feel like something changed in my world when I heard MWM at the Gamerhole convention pronounce "Zhodani" with the first syllable sounding like the "ge" in the Olympic sport "luge."

Crazy. I feel like I need to be psi-adjusted, to make my world right again.

 

[Cryton]

No better, no worse. Shockingly alien to our way of doing things though....

 

[aramis]

As an aside, I feel like something changed in my world when I heard MWM at the Gamerhole convention pronounce "Zhodani" with the first syllable sounding like the "ge" in the Olympic sport "luge."

Crazy. I feel like I need to be psi-adjusted, to make my world right again.

That's the usual sound for ZH.

It's also written ž in transliterations (usually of slavic languages, being the bukva "Ж". As a phoneme, it's limited use in English (s in pleasure and measure), and a few borrowed words.

 

[Spenser TR]

That's the usual sound for ZH.

Absolutely. And I've studied a Slavic language, so I'm no stranger to the sound. But while I should have known better I was definitely knocked for a loop, a long with many other people, it sounds like. Ack.

 

[aramis]

Absolutely. And I've studied a Slavic language, so I'm no stranger to the sound. But while I should have known better I was definitely knocked for a loop, a long with many other people, it sounds like. Ack.

I figured it out from the nickname in TTA - "Joes"...

 

[Timerover51]

I did not vote, as there was no option for "ignoring them". See my signature at to where I will be playing in the future. You might encounter some Droyne, courtesy of a Great-Child who wisely got far, far away, that Grandfather did not know about when he got cranky, and the Space Vikings do like to raid the Aslan, having decided that roast Aslan as a great way to celebrate a victory, but that is all. Note, the farther out you get, the odder things get.

 

[Blue Ghost]

What? You have something to hide? Come this way citizen... :devil:

or

at least you get a vote - this isn't the Imperium you know :CoW:

or

are you worried that some would be coerced into voting a certain way without anonymity?:toast:

By the way - all of the above is meant in good humour and as a joke

*assume Buzz Lightyear cadence*

"You're mocking me, aren't you." o:

 

[aramis]

I added a "Don't play where they matter" for OTU players who don't play on the spinward side of the Imperium...

 

[Condottiere]

Skill levels are a representation of the probability of success at any specific endeavour.

 

[Psion]

I sort of read it as an actualization of all the mid-20th century social dystopia SF -- stranger in a strange land, demolished man, etc. It's "evilness" is as evil as you perceive it to be. You have no privacy, and in some ways that mean you aren't free. But citizens are still predominantly happy. Is that good or bad? Better authors have peeled that question apart better than me, but now you can bring these exciting questions to your game.

 

[Blue Ghost]

To me, and the way I see Zhodani space, is one giant psychiatric ward, where a patient is drugged up and reveals their inner most thoughts. Only for the Zhos they actually have "mental powers" that don't need chemicals as a software "worm", but treat your mind like like a laptop hooked up to wifi.

So yeah, evil mind flayers. How the Vargr hook up with these dudes is beyond me.

 

[Condottiere]

They threw them a bone?

 

[Blue Ghost]

*chew bone in hand while whistling*

"Here Fido! Here boy! Go fetch!"

*throws bone*

Eh ... what's the starship equivalent?