Now I fully understand that not every one can love every thing and it is hard to have a company that publishes books for various roleplaying games and satisfy all customers. But there are a few things that I feel that I must be allowed to say here.
I just bought the Sword Worlds book and I must say that with all due respect to Mr Steele who wrote it, this book really feels as it is among the worst Traveller Books I have ever read. First I should point out that as a follower of what you call the Old Norse religion, it is quite sad to see how my religion is butchered, but not to be rude, though I must say that most Americans have a very strange picture about vikings at the same time that they are very intrigued by them, so i am not surprised (it seems that the best way to make an American drool is to point out somethings about vikings - like for the example that i can trace my family back to that age and I know for a fact that my ancestors lived in Birka (the ''capital'' of Sweden at the time of the Viking Era) and that I have a sword from that time over my bed that has been in my family for almost 1100 years).
I just do not understand why the Sword Worlders who seem to have such a focus on the Icelandic/Norse way of life at the same time names everything in German (or a bastardization of the language) and not uses traditional Scandinavian names, titles and phrases. Germany was never that into the Norse ways until the raise of the Nazi-government in German in the early 1930's - before that Germany was either an area of rival tribes that traded and/or waged conflict with various Scandinavian (viking) groups before parts of Germany came to be a christian nation.
But this is not the worst thing of the Sword Worlds book, what I seriously dislike about it is that it feels as if Mr Steele has used copy/paste from the GURPS Sword Worlds which can be felt when one see references to the Fifth Frontier War (page 23) and as if the setting in this book is post 1120 Imperial Calender (page 25) as well as references to the Border Worlds (page 31) which according to OTU canon in 1111 - years after the Fifth Frontier War. Then comes the big shock when you learn that this book is set in 1105 (page 39).
So in my eyes, this book feels as if it was made through extensive copy/paste from the GURPS book with the same name and it also feels as if the writer has very little knowledge about the setting of the Third Imperium and its timeline. Another things that bums me out is that this should had been easily spotted if someone with some knowledge of Traveller/Third Imperium had proofread it before sending it to the printers.
But not all things in this are bad, I enjoy the history and character creation and I hope that this can be seen as constructive criticism and just not whining. Mr Steele appears to be a good writer and he has nice ideas and thoughts that I like to put into my Traveller campaigns, but he needs some better knowledge base /aid with knowing what is what and when is when in the setting.
Thank you.
Dunia
I just bought the Sword Worlds book and I must say that with all due respect to Mr Steele who wrote it, this book really feels as it is among the worst Traveller Books I have ever read. First I should point out that as a follower of what you call the Old Norse religion, it is quite sad to see how my religion is butchered, but not to be rude, though I must say that most Americans have a very strange picture about vikings at the same time that they are very intrigued by them, so i am not surprised (it seems that the best way to make an American drool is to point out somethings about vikings - like for the example that i can trace my family back to that age and I know for a fact that my ancestors lived in Birka (the ''capital'' of Sweden at the time of the Viking Era) and that I have a sword from that time over my bed that has been in my family for almost 1100 years).
I just do not understand why the Sword Worlders who seem to have such a focus on the Icelandic/Norse way of life at the same time names everything in German (or a bastardization of the language) and not uses traditional Scandinavian names, titles and phrases. Germany was never that into the Norse ways until the raise of the Nazi-government in German in the early 1930's - before that Germany was either an area of rival tribes that traded and/or waged conflict with various Scandinavian (viking) groups before parts of Germany came to be a christian nation.
But this is not the worst thing of the Sword Worlds book, what I seriously dislike about it is that it feels as if Mr Steele has used copy/paste from the GURPS Sword Worlds which can be felt when one see references to the Fifth Frontier War (page 23) and as if the setting in this book is post 1120 Imperial Calender (page 25) as well as references to the Border Worlds (page 31) which according to OTU canon in 1111 - years after the Fifth Frontier War. Then comes the big shock when you learn that this book is set in 1105 (page 39).
So in my eyes, this book feels as if it was made through extensive copy/paste from the GURPS book with the same name and it also feels as if the writer has very little knowledge about the setting of the Third Imperium and its timeline. Another things that bums me out is that this should had been easily spotted if someone with some knowledge of Traveller/Third Imperium had proofread it before sending it to the printers.
But not all things in this are bad, I enjoy the history and character creation and I hope that this can be seen as constructive criticism and just not whining. Mr Steele appears to be a good writer and he has nice ideas and thoughts that I like to put into my Traveller campaigns, but he needs some better knowledge base /aid with knowing what is what and when is when in the setting.
Thank you.
Dunia
