The OTU - the equivalent to that 1980s TV star after decades of drug abuse

[actionman]

The Solomani Hypothesis was presented by a Sylean at Sylea (Capital) to the Sylean Nobility now masquerading as the Third Imperium. The humans of the Terran region were not the ones to suggest it, promote it, or use it to claim dominance, that was the Sylean nobility.

Sylean nobles of Solomani descent used their Solomani blood to claim their superiority and great major race status in the Vilani tradition.

Sylean Solomani Supremacists were granted dukedoms etc when Terra et al joined the Third Imperium within what is now the Solomani Sphere. They brought their Sylean Solomani Supremacist notions with them.

They became the Imperial government of the Solomani Domain, and as the Third Imperium shifted towards a slightly less overtly racist stance the Sylean Solomani Supremacists caused trouble at court. They were eventually granted the Autonomous zone to shut them up and get rid off them - big mistake.

All true, though IMO I don't think there was much of a racially motivated anti-Vilani stance before powerful Vilani challenged the Sylean Solomani aristocracy. There were winners and losers in the formation of the Third Imperium. The Sylean Solomani aristocracy were winners, and Vilani populations were conquered and incorporated. The Sylean Solomani didn't have any racist stance at the time, and even among the predominantly Sylean Solomani aristocracy, there were many people of Solomani-Vilani heritage. I don't think that would've happened if there were an anti-Vilani narrative in Sylean Solomani culture.

Any attempt to label "the Solomani people" as fascists is, to me, ridiculous.

Agreed. It's simply not the case.

 

[actionman]

Why are we still on this?

I was ignoring it, but then I needed to clarify what my original post was about.

 

[Condottiere]

The Third Imperium.

 

[Bense]

There are other references, but I'm not going to bother. GT products were on the whole well done, and a great addition to Traveller at a time when interest and popularity were flagging, but they really could've done without the kind of writing I'm criticizing.

I didn't mind it at all. It added some needed color, I thought. And I didn't see anything much out of line with earlier portrayals.
One of the authors of the Sword Worlds supplement, Hans Rancke-Madsen, was himself Danish. It was basically his own people and culture he was writing about.

Perhaps you have a soft spot for the Sword Worlders and didn't much like their being taken down a peg or two in their GURPS depiction, but again, it could be viewed as an in-universe, pro-Imperial viewpoint.

GURPS Traveller books also wrote a great deal more about each of their subjects than the original Classic Traveller booklets did, with their limited space. When there is a great deal more material to work with it's easier to find something you would disagree with and less easy (if not impossible) to maintain a totally neutral stance.

Personally I think the low point in Traveller writing was some of the New Era material (though T4 has some howlers too). Like the Ithklur wearing ritual Santa Claus - sorry, San*klaass - hats. That was just too out there for me to take seriously. Or the whole cyber legions of K'kree lead by Lucan of Borg - sorry Lucan of Virus - behind the Black Curtain idea, which fortunately never made it into print. David Nilsen, the man responsible for those clunkers, worked on the GURPS Hiver book (Alien Races 3) too, but they must have reined him in.

 

[actionman]

One of the authors of the Sword Worlds supplement, Hans Rancke-Madsen, was himself Danish. It was basically his own people and culture he was writing about.

And it was beautiful. It was greatly needed after the treatment the Sword Worlds received in GT Behind the Claw. I hoped for something similar for the Solomani in Rim of Fire, but it was not to be.

Perhaps you have a soft spot for the Sword Worlders and didn't much like their being taken down a peg or two in their GURPS depiction, but again, it could be viewed as an in-universe, pro-Imperial viewpoint.

No, author bias is something I have a big problem with. Usually author bias is in favor of a character or a people because they're an author's pet creation (Honor Harrington, for example), but when it's against a character or group, that's about author issues spilling over into their work.

And I didn't see anything much out of line with earlier portrayals.

The Behind the Claw writeup of the Sword Worlds was completely out of line with the CT writeup and the GT core rule book writeup. The author simply picked out a group and added a load of negative content to it that didn't exist in CT or even the GT CRB writeup. It was glaring.

GURPS Traveller books also wrote a great deal more about each of their subjects than the original Classic Traveller booklets did, with their limited space. When there is a great deal more material to work with it's easier to find something you would disagree with and less easy (if not impossible) to maintain a totally neutral stance.

I disagree, because GT writers maintained a neutral or even positive stance with other race/species writeups.

Personally I think the low point in Traveller writing was some of the New Era material (though T4 has some howlers too). Like the Ithklur wearing ritual Santa Claus - sorry, San*klaass - hats.

Agreed. Absolutely agreed.

 

[actionman]

The Third Imperium.

My favorite characters were Brian Blessed as King of the Hawkmen, Klytus, and the mighty General Kala. General Kala was great. She was a rare villain that asked intelligent questions, immediately figured out what was going on, and did something intelligent.

 

[Condottiere]

That's the problem with De Laurentiis, uneven productions.

It's not to say the Fisher and Hamill were great actors, at that time, but they were managed, and the film was saved in the edit.

Whereas Flash was overrun with great supporting actors.

 

[actionman]

It's not to say the Fisher and Hamill were great actors

An aside:

During the filming of American Graffiti (1973), Suzanne Somers, who played the Girl in the White Car walked in to meet the other castmembers for the first time. Many years later she recalled that she looked at Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Ron Howard, and Cynthia Williams and thought "What a bunch of losers!"

 

[tanksoldier]

I was a casual...

OP complains about setting, doesn't like it based on the way THEY chose to interpret the setting...

...then dramatically exits when challenged...

...but doesn't actually exit, and continues to post in thread.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Top drawer trolling by the OP...

still fun discussing it all though.

 

[Condottiere]

An aside:

During the filming of American Graffiti (1973), Suzanne Somers, who played the Girl in the White Car walked in to meet the other castmembers for the first time. Many years later she recalled that she looked at Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Ron Howard, and Cynthia Williams and thought "What a bunch of losers!"

Could be because they appear to lack charisma; in my opinion, Ford only really manages to successfully convey that in Raiders.

Or, the script allows that.

Speaking of which, I think Flash, as a film, is amazing because it appears that the supporting cast manages to overcome the limitations of the script, sets, camera work, and sound, since everything feels out of sync, and barely manage to suspend disbelief.

 

[-Daniel-]

OP complains about setting, doesn't like it based on the way THEY chose to interpret the setting...

...then dramatically exits when challenged...

...but doesn't actually exit, and continues to post in thread.

We are now on page 4 and the OP has not posted sense page 1. Typical hit and run. Funny to watch play out.

 

[Sigtrygg]

He did have some justification in some of his complaints.

No one is ever going to describe the Third Imperium as the most comprehensively consistent sci fi setting ever

 

[actionman]

And it sparked more interesting discussions.

 

[tytalan]

Well guess this is neither the game nor the fandom nor the forum for me. So I say bye bye to all three. Thankfully only bought PDF so the stuff is gone in a delete

This guy created his account just for this post. They are just another example of internet Troll

 

[Bense]

He did have some justification in some of his complaints.

No one is ever going to describe the Third Imperium as the most comprehensively consistent sci fi setting ever

I don't see how an RPG setting that has been developed by a bunch of different companies over the past 50 years and had at least 8 different major rules sets could be completely consistent.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Well you could, if you were going for a reboot like Mongoose did, outline the setting concepts, technologies and red lines so authors make things less worse instead of more worse

 

[actionman]

Well you could, if you were going for a reboot like Mongoose did, outline the setting concepts, technologies and red lines so authors make things less worse instead of more worse

A dedicated line editor / canon guardian would have to watch new drafts like an Imperial fiefholder watches planetary tax revenue.

 

[Sigtrygg]

They are meant to have an inner circle that knows this stuff - but they don't. Some openly admit they have not read this or that classic Traveller or MegaTraveller supplement. Some of them dislike MegaTraveller, more dislike TNE and their bias shows.

I can make allowances for some obscure thing in a third party supplement or adventure, but every single author for the Mongoose Traveller Third Imperium should own and have read everything on the CT and GDW JTAS cd/USB drive, probably the MegaTraveller stuff too. or they should just ask

 

[actionman]

and their bias shows.

Author bias, author bias. It's not about having author bias. It's about being loyal to the canon one was hired to uphold, and not showing one's biases in one's work. If I took a job writing for a game I hated, I would do the best job I could, because I voluntarily took that job. This makes want to drink and listen to Lana Del Rey on repeat.