Kafers in MGT
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Lord High Munchkin
Mongoose
You mean the Kafers come from Kansas?
rust said:
Pretty much. IIRC, it was only for a D20 version. Ad Astra are working on a d6 game, not sure how far they've gotten.
Mongoose have a foot in the door, so to speak, with Hammer's Slammers. Getting the Honorverse and RCN would be great. They just need to get 2300 AD out first.
Maybe call it a third edition, 2303 AD, set just after the invasion.rust said:
I don't recall if they ever did any development work for it, but QLI definitely did once have a license for that, and a license for some books about "Posleen" (which I'd never heard of, but sounds like another one of those military sf things), and I think they had one other literary SF license too that I can't recall (or may be imagining?).
They squandered them completely, of course. Hunter did his first big vanishing act, the licenses (AFAIK) lapsed, nothing ever came of them, and I suspect it probably soured the licensors somewhat on getting them done as RPGs for a while afterwards.
I mean, ffs, I can't stand Honor Harrington and all that military SF stuff myself, but I know that it's fairly big, and I know you just don't do that sort of thing to people who have (and give you!) big licenses!
Dave Chase
Mongoose
Hmm,
Well, a company's attitude can make or break the ability to get a license.
I know that I had my hands on many a popular license (for my company) and we were not the top money offer, the hottest licensee company nor some other things.
Most Licensors look for more than the dollar amount but even they are placing the amount made at or near the top when they consider things.
Things like
open communciations
putting out product
willing to listen and develop things that the licensor wants (assuming that's part of the contract/license)
insuring that product identy/trademark and control is not lost (ie leaks, sneaks and insider stuff)
and a few other things.
Dave Chase
Well, a company's attitude can make or break the ability to get a license.
I know that I had my hands on many a popular license (for my company) and we were not the top money offer, the hottest licensee company nor some other things.
Most Licensors look for more than the dollar amount but even they are placing the amount made at or near the top when they consider things.
Things like
open communciations
putting out product
willing to listen and develop things that the licensor wants (assuming that's part of the contract/license)
insuring that product identy/trademark and control is not lost (ie leaks, sneaks and insider stuff)
and a few other things.
Dave Chase
Indeed. It seems to me that the "Honorverse fever" has died down a bitEDG said:
now, probably because the last books of the series did not convince all
of the fans, but there were times when a license for a Honor Harrington
RPG - handled right - would have been almost a permission to print mo-
ney ... or at least to mint coins.
I have to admit that I usually dislike military SF, too, but that the early
Honor Harrington novels were a very rare exception, mainly because
Weber succeeded in creating a rather interesting universe for the back-
ground of his stories and wrote much of his books from the point of view
of Harrington's enemies - they were not just "mooks" to be killed, but
interesting and often rather likeable characters on their own.
EDG said:
It only takes ONE.
That's why it's an issue (even if just a perceived one). Unfortunately, one can not afford to ignore a tiny minority, when one is in a tiny business, that can be and is greatly effected by vocal groups of small minded people.
It takes very very little to offend people. Hell, you can look at these boards and find folks that get offended by the most inane stuff really, or find something that's basically fluff, to be offensive.
Still, I'd be for a full blown cleaned up return of 2300AD myself. Always liked the game.
~Rex
Rex said:
The trick is to make those hypersensitive people look like idiots. Seriously.
If Mongoose explicitly state that "they're called Kafers because it's German for "beetle"." and some idiot starts shrieking about how they're being racist because it's really south african slang and Mongoose are just hiding it behind this german justification, who is everyone going to believe? You can even look up the fact that Kafer means "beetle" in German (and that it's spelt that way), for crying out loud.
It's one thing if people say "I thought it was the south african word, but then I saw the explanation and that made sense". It's another if they say "I saw the explanation, didn't believe it, and so Mongoose are using derogatory racist slang". The former is reasonable, the latter is idiotic.
I mean, I'm sure some people must have been offended when Orson Scott Card called his aliens "buggers" in Ender's Game. Didn't stop that being published though.
Now this is some linguistic nightmare ... :lol:
As Vile pointed out, the German spelling would be "Käfer", with those little
dots above the "a".
Over here "Kaffer", based upon the same word in the Boer language that
in turn is based upon the Arab "Kafir" ("Unbeliever"), also is a racist in-
sult. But this did not prevent our biologists from naming quite a lot of ani-
mals "Kaffern...", for example the Kaffernadler ("Kaffer Eagle") and the
Kaffernbüffel ("Kaffer Buffalo").
Well, I would use the original "Kafer". It is not the German spelling, but
the obvious English spelling of a word that is pronounced exactly like the
German one.
I would perhaps add a remark that the Boer word "Kaffer" is both spelled
and pronounced differently, and that these two should not be confused,
but that's it from my point of view.
If someone would still complain, he would almost certainly be of the kind
who complain always, anyways, everywhere, because complaining is their
way of life - and those are best ignored, I think.
As Vile pointed out, the German spelling would be "Käfer", with those little
dots above the "a".
Over here "Kaffer", based upon the same word in the Boer language that
in turn is based upon the Arab "Kafir" ("Unbeliever"), also is a racist in-
sult. But this did not prevent our biologists from naming quite a lot of ani-
mals "Kaffern...", for example the Kaffernadler ("Kaffer Eagle") and the
Kaffernbüffel ("Kaffer Buffalo").
Well, I would use the original "Kafer". It is not the German spelling, but
the obvious English spelling of a word that is pronounced exactly like the
German one.
I would perhaps add a remark that the Boer word "Kaffer" is both spelled
and pronounced differently, and that these two should not be confused,
but that's it from my point of view.
If someone would still complain, he would almost certainly be of the kind
who complain always, anyways, everywhere, because complaining is their
way of life - and those are best ignored, I think.
From Urban Dictionary:
"Mongoose"
1) Someone who constantly acts like a clown and is slightly retarded.
Do enough research, most words have some sort of derogatory connotation in some language, somewhere. Add worrying over similar spellings and sounds (Kafer vs. Kaffir) and the list just grows.
Leave it Kafer with the note (as suggested) of what it really means, and what it doesn't. Start bowing to the PC clowns and the company name of this forum will be next! :roll:
"Mongoose"
1) Someone who constantly acts like a clown and is slightly retarded.
Do enough research, most words have some sort of derogatory connotation in some language, somewhere. Add worrying over similar spellings and sounds (Kafer vs. Kaffir) and the list just grows.
Leave it Kafer with the note (as suggested) of what it really means, and what it doesn't. Start bowing to the PC clowns and the company name of this forum will be next! :roll:
FreeTrav
Cosmic Mongoose
EDG said:
Posleen, also called "Legacy of the Aldenata" is indeed another MilSF series, principal author John Ringo. There are currently 11 books in the series (titles below) with more (LOTS more) on the way. All currently available in multiple DRM-free e-book formats from Baen Webscriptions; some of the late ones are in dead-tree format, but the early ones may out of dead-tree print.
I could try to describe the Posleen, but no description could really do them justice. Suffice it to say that they're the K'kree's worst nightmare - Gnaak that look sorta like the K'kree... only worse.
EDG said:
I have reason to believe otherwise (in the question of souring them on licenses); if Mongoose is interested in Harrington, Posleen/Aldenata, or RCN, they should absolutely start by getting in touch with Toni Weisskopf at Baen Books in New York.
Titles from the Legacy of the Aldenata/Posleen series, in internal chronology order for two storylines that interlock - the two storylines are listed separately:
Main line (John Ringo and ...):
- A Hymn Before Battle
- Gust Front
- When the Devil Dances
- Hell's Faire
- Watch on the Rhine (Tom Kratman)
- Yellow Eyes (Tom Kratman)
- Eye of the Storm
- Cally's War
- Sister Time
- Honor of the Clan
- The Hero (John Ringo and Michael Z. Williamson)
andrew boulton
Mongoose
msprange said:
Just to correct this error, QLI's licence still has a year to run.
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