"simple" question I’m finding difficult to answer

[Triple-F]

Hi,

After a bit of browsing about I’ve settled on this place being the best to answer I question I have.

Does anyone know where I can find, or can display up on here a list of all the different ship names that are used by Mongoose and some of the earlier RPG games, namely those listed in the “earthforce source book” for Chameleon/wireframe and those used in B5wars. I imagine a lot of them originated with Chameleon but I’m having some real difficulty being able to confirm this.

The reason for asking is that most fans know a Minbari Crusier as a Sharlin, one of the small Centauri transports as a Scarab and the Narn Crusiers as Q’Quans & T’Loth’s, etc. I’m just trying to find out exactly where those names originated from as very few of the ships where ever named in the show itself.

Thanks.

 

[Ben2]

Well the RPG came out beore War Without End was made, so only the following ships are in the CE RPG:

Earthforce:

Hyperion Class Heavy Cruiser
Omega Class Destroyer
Nova Class Dreadnought
Olympus Class Corvette
Shepherd Class Starfury transport
Porcupine Class Starfury transport
Cotten Class Long Range Tender
Condor Troop transport
Typical Earth Alliance Star Liner
Typical Earth Alliance Large Freighter

Narn

Battle Dreadnought (G'Quan)
Heavy Cruiser (T'Loth)

Centauri

Light Cruiser (Vorchan)
Battle Cruiser (Primus)

Minbari

War Cruiser (Sharlin)

The Cotten class is an addition by CE, all the alien ships are not named. Since many of them were named in series 2 and later the CE material is more a snapshot of the stuff available in series 1 and part of series 2. It also misses out all the league and ancient ships seen in series 1 and 2.

The big contribution from the Earthforce sourcebook is the EA starfury program info.
Otherwise CE only added the Cotten clas long range tender.

 

[Triple-F]

Thanks for that.

So CE gave the Narn Heavy Dreadnaught the name of G’Quan, etc. That’s cools.

Would you, (or anyone else) know who first coined the name of say a Sentri for the Centauri fighter, Vree Xill & Xorr, Thought Force, etc. The way I heard it the name of the Shadow Battle Crab was created by AOG which proved so popular that it was eventually picked up by jms and used in the show (at least in the DVD extras)

I have to admit I’m totally lost on how the development of CE & AOL tied in with the show. I’m guessing by the time Mongoose started up, most of the ship names (from the show at least) were all ready in use.

 

[Nomad]

I believe that many of the names for the basic ships (Nova, Omega, Olympus, Sharlin et.c) originated with the Babylonian production staff, principally Doug Netter. Most of the later ones came from AoG.

B5W and The Babylon Project RPG were initially supposed to be parallel, linked products, although for legal reasons that idea fell apart rather quickly. Which was why the EA Condor class troop transport and Cotten class tender never appeared in B5W. (edit - some of us would *really* like to see them in ACtA).

The Hyperion class was always a bit of a problem. The name came from the ship seen in the ' A Voice in the Wilderness' episodes of the TV show, however there is no reason to think that she was the lead ship of the class. The name was apparently a reference to one of the CGI companies that worked on the series. Some fan sites tried to popularise other names - Alpha class, Roosevelt class - but once AoG went with Hyperion, that pretty much settled it.

In passing, it may be worth noting the EFSB version of the Olympus looks nothing like the 'canon' version, and the LGTI plastic model of the Narn Heavy Cruiser rejoiced in the title 'Makaroon' class.

 

[Traveller-61]

but once AoG went with Hyperion, that pretty much settled it.

In the first edition it was a Lincoln class Heavy Cruiser, but was changed to Hyperion in the 2nd Ed on WB insistence, or so I heard. It certainly became the Hyperion then and as Nomad said it has stayed that way ever since.

DW

 

[Triple-F]

Ahhhh, I take from that a definitive list of names, or progression of names through the various RPG manufacturers, has never been drawn up.

I hear what your saying about Douglas Netter and the Hyperion for example. This is the reason for my confusion. The Hyperion, as I’ve read it, was named as a nod by jms to a very early fan web site that latter became the Sadgeezers (I think) or some other place.

As far as Douglas Netter goes, again based on other stuff, he appears to have been too far removed from the day to day’s on the show to have named things (until season 4 of course). John Copeland, possibly with things like the Thunderbolt.

Would anyone know who actually gave the Battlecrab it’s name.

Like I said, it seems like a simple question/subject but I guess time and other factors have coloured out the origins of the names a bit.