| Brood Brother |
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Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2003 4:43 pm
Posts: 7258
Location: Sacramento, California, USA
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Hi James,
| Quote (wargame_insomniac @ 02 Dec. 2005 (13:55)) | | Leland seems to be very positive about new SD releases. I have not yet seen a definitive start date but seems to be imminient. So cross fingers... |
Leland is an excitable person, but... sometimes the projects he's excited about get put to the side after the inital excitement has past.
I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.
Be happy when it happens, but keep a stiff upper lip until it does.
| Quote (wargame_insomniac @ 02 Dec. 2005 (13:55)) | | Most of Leland's work seems to be on the more recent SD supplements before ICE went into liquidation/bankruptcy. So you may have missed them first time. From memory he was involved in Fighter Tactics Manual and More Than Valor annexes, and the Q'Raj Void Protectorate and House Colos house books. |
Yes, having discussed this with Leland, I agree.
| Quote (wargame_insomniac @ 02 Dec. 2005 (13:55)) | | The Q'Raj Void Protectorate house book might be right up your alley- the House is based on descendents from Jewish AND Islamic settlers from earth. I have seen some nicely painted ships by Leland done up in modern Israeli jet aircraft camo patterns. Sounds as if you will be able to use your painted ships as Q'Raj Void Protectorate without any problems!! |
Actually, I really despise all of the ignorant Westerners who assume that the Arabs and the Israelis and going to blend their respective cultures into one big happy new conglomerate. Fiddlesticks! I think that we (they) can get along, but I don't see our (their) cultures merging.
Islam is a replacement theology... they think that they're the final coming and everyone else should convert to their truth. That doesn't make for a good merge. And that idea of replacement is a pretty central tenet of Islam. I don't see it happening either. In fact, I see Islam as the Brothers Gemini, they'll always be fighting among each other if not outsiders.
Jews have weathered or outlived Antiochus, the Greeks, the Syrians, the Babylonians, the Romans, the Persians, the Ottomans, the Poles, the Russians, Hitler and the Third Reich, the British and the Mandate, the Palestinian-Arabs, the Arab nationalism movement and suddenly we decide to merge our culture and faith (Judaism) with one antithetical to it? I just don't see it happening. Judaism survives because it's both rigid and flexible. It's flexible in adapting to survive among other cultures and rigid in that the core humanistic values of Judaism have not been lost after almost 4,000 years of existence. Space colonies or even space empires aren't going to change what Judaism is or will be. Judaism outlived all of the other the "mighty empires" that have both come and gone. I see the principles of keeping the Jewish culture and faith alive through the spacebourne versions of the ancient "mighty empres" as very little different. Judaism will outlive them too.
The core values of Judaism are good ones. They're humanistic values. In fact, most of them are so widely used these days that those same values are called the "Judeo-Christian ethic" and a a part of the majority of the world's legal systems and governments. It doesn't matter to me what they call it as long as we, as a group, can set boundaries on our behavior and differentiate between right and wrong in a just manner. Noone sacrifices children to fire idols anymore... Judaism wins. We'll probably credit anyone and anything but Judaism, but the end result is the same. That's what I care about... no more child sacrifice although the children soldiers in Africa and the Americas (Central and South) are bad enough. At least, it's less blatant.
Leland, doesn't have much of a realistic impression of the cultures of the Mid-East... sort of like Frank Herbert and 'Dune.' 'Dune' is an absolutely horrible racist view of Arab culture... very ignorant. The novel has its entertainment value, but the story premises are very poor. There is a tremendous amount you can't learn from reading a book. It's really that simple. Some things have to be experienced and not read about if you are truly to even have an inkling of understanding about them.
Otherwise, you get popular misconceptions and stereotypes. Most games that depict Middle Eastern cultures do it through strongly tinted glasses if you get my drift... popular misconceptions and stereotypes. ?
I have some ships painted in Israeli colors and others in Islamic Federation / Q-raj / "Whatever they plan to call the Muslims in the future" colors. I suppose that in Leland's Q'raj, they'll work together. I can deal with that. that's plausible. In the end of end, the Arabs and Jews are related people. I can see them cooperating, but not merging.
As an aside, Leland is very interested in gaming the 1948 War For Israeli Independence. We've spoken alot about it. So much of the equipment was so randomly acquired that it's hard to research much of it.
| Quote (wargame_insomniac @ 02 Dec. 2005 (13:55)) | | The bio-organic bad guys are the alien race called Nightbrood- very nasty- ships are small & nimble and very hard to hit with a lot of nasty weaponry. |
The Nightbrood are great!
I love bio-organic bad guys.
I think that many of the Night Brood minis would make great Yuzhann Vong in the the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
| Quote (wargame_insomniac @ 02 Dec. 2005 (13:55)) | | The robots are the AI's from DataSphere. They have strong links to the Asp Technocracy which are humans with strong experimentation into electronic implants & upgrades. |
I like the ASP technocracy as well although many of the ASP minis are just pitiful looking. You'd think that AIs could come up with something better.
I think that human culture will have to undergo a lot of changes when cybertechnology and cybernetic bodily augmentation become more common-place. True AIs are also going to be a hurdle.
Should AIs be considered citizens or slaves?
Souless or soulful?
Restrained by Asimov's Laws of Robotics or not?
What about human beings? At what point of cybernetic bodily replacement can one be considered less human?
Or is one ever less human by replacing their body with machinery?
Does the organic body make for the soul or something else?
Those are the questions.
Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
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