Kafers in MGT

[pixelgeek]

Kaffir, a completely different word, happens to only sound the same. It's spelled completely different.

I am guessing that not a lot of people will know the Arabic origin of the term. In fact popular opinion conflates the German and Afrikaans terms and has people thinking that it means cockroach.

Either way, they are pronounced almost exactly the same and the last time I discussed it with my gaming group they all thought it was a reference to the Afrikaans term. Including the fellow I game with who games from South Africa

 

[Mark A. Siefert]

Sigh... Political correctness and cultural cluelessness strikes again!

What's next? We erase all the nude art pieces from Mongoose's Conan books lest we offend the religionists and rabid feminists?

What other group of cry-babies can we appease?

 

[EDG]

Kaffir, a completely different word, happens to only sound the same. It's spelled completely different.

I am guessing that not a lot of people will know the Arabic origin of the term.

Well, they do now .

Either way, they are pronounced almost exactly the same

I thought one was "KAY-fer" and the other was "ka-FEER". That's not "almost exactly the same".

and the last time I discussed it with my gaming group they all thought it was a reference to the Afrikaans term. Including the fellow I game with who games from South Africa

That's probably why they thought it was the afrikaans term .

Frankly, I doubt that most people in the West would know what either term meant. I sure as hell never heard of it til I picked up 2300AD years ago - it said "it's german for 'beetle'" and I was good with that.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Keep it the same - combat ignorance!

 

[Rex]

I'm all for leaving it as it is myself. I'm just saying, there are some people out there that will make a stink over anything they perceive to be stinky.

Hell read the Gencon forums sometime if you want a good laugh and that sort of literalism.

~Rex

 

[The Chef]

could call them Crapauds

thats what the french call them and the birtish army according to etranger

 

[G. K. Zhukov]

I would jump up and down in joy if Mongoose acquired licensing to make a 2300 AD sourcebook for the Mongoose Traveller system. Until that happens, I would say keep Kafers where they are supposed to be, in the 2300 AD universe.

Go ahead and make a new minor race based upon the Kafers if you like them, give them a new name, etc. Please don't port the Kafers over as is.

Agreed. (Italics are mine.)

 

[EDG]

Go ahead and make a new minor race based upon the Kafers if you like them, give them a new name, etc. Please don't port the Kafers over as is.

Agreed. (Italics are mine.)

AFAIK nobody is considering porting them to the Charted Space setting. I presume Matt mentioned it because Mongoose are considering a Traveller version of 2300AD.

 

[Rex]

Go ahead and make a new minor race based upon the Kafers if you like them, give them a new name, etc. Please don't port the Kafers over as is.

Agreed. (Italics are mine.)

AFAIK nobody is considering porting them to the Charted Space setting. I presume Matt mentioned it because Mongoose are considering a Traveller version of 2300AD.

Which for all of us old 2300AD folk, would be downright Cool! The more Sci Fi options the Better.

~Rex

 

[SSWarlock]

Oooh! The Kafer vs. Hammer's Slammers. Now that would be fun!

 

[Sturn]

Frankly, I doubt that most people in the West would know what either term meant. I sure as hell never heard of it til I picked up 2300AD years ago - it said "it's german for 'beetle'" and I was good with that.

I also never knew there was an ethnic slur "kaffir" until someone complained about "Kafer" in 2300 AD. So, those wishing for political correctness may have actually proliferated the ethnic slur to other parts of the world? Kinda ironic.

 

[Rev503]

Eh, It might be a country thing.
I remember when 2300 was new out and I was explaining the setting to my gaming group, 6 out of 6 people recognised the South African term (one guy asked if it was a South African expedition that made contact)

I'm in Australia, I'd believe that most of the people here would make the connection.

Oh no-one got uptight about it..they just recognised it as South African Slang

 

[MongooseMatt]

It's not like people have been shrieking about it for all the years that 2300AD has been out anyway.

It is something that pops up every now and again on RPG.net and such places.

 

[The Chef]

if it helps, when i woke up the other night with an epithany.. i called them chigs as in space: above and beyond...

 

[Gee4orce]

Kafers, meh. Am I the only person who thought that intelligence that varies based on fear or anger was an implausible idea ?

Pentapods though…now you're talking ! (I think it's because they remind me the Lovecraft's Old Ones).

 

[The Chef]

yes i didn't like their intelligence but i did like the idea of them growing smarter and more devious was always a good one. i could never work out how a race like this could ever develop space travel...

 

[Sturn]

yes i didn't like their intelligence but i did like the idea of them growing smarter and more devious was always a good one. i could never work out how a race like this could ever develop space travel...

From what I recall, they had "genius's" from time to time that were always awakened and thus at the higher state of intelligence, not just when provoked.

 

[The Chef]

still it takes a lot of genius's to get spaceborne, i just could never work out how they could do it

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Oooh! The Kafer vs. Hammer's Slammers. Now that would be fun!

Gee, that would almost be... Starship Troopers.

 

[Vile]

Yes, "Käfer" is German for beetle. 20 million Volkswagen can't be wrong. However, it does need an umlaut, or it's just not right. It messes with my head seeing spelled with an ae, too, I still haven't gotten used to those things.

Now, I'd like to join those who hope this is a hint of things to come ... in the "near future", so to speak ... :wink: