Category Archives: Humaniti

Everything about Humaniti. Zhodani, Solomani, Vilani and others…

Sword Worlds revisited by Mongoose

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Sword Worlds from Mongoose

Sword Worlds from Mongoose

What has Mongoose done to the Sword Worlds? Do I need this book? These are the questions that I will try to answer here.

The cover of the book is quite cool, but it doesn’t look like the soldiers in the image are Sword Worlders at all. :-|

Interior art is not bad either. I just feel it is too much Viking themed, and not really showing the hi-tec spacefaring culture that I wanted to see. The deckplans are fine and the 3D rendering of the Jarl is ok. It can be seen in colour at Biomass Art.

There are a few contradictions in the introduction of the book. Are the Sword Worlds a dangerous place or a popular place to visit? Are there no physical differences from original Solomani or is the average male weight 105 kg, and the females pregnant for 10 months? Then there is also (a likely) bug in the naming rules, since the female surname possessive form is missing, but not the male possessive form.

How did they come up with the Army Ranking table? I don’t think that matches any Scandinavian army. (SWE, NOR, DEN)

There are 3 new careers. The first one is the Aesirist Church. This isn’t something that I like. It is too Viking themed. I will not use it in MTU. The next one is The Patrol. From old JTAS #18. This is a good idea to include. The third is Jäger Command. I think it should really be part of Marines or Army, as special forces.

The origin of sagamaal and the vocabulary makes some sense. Currency and exchange rate was a good thing to include. History is a bit messed up. It’s interesting but doesn’t match the previous publications.

In the Worlds chapter, the world listing of the subsector is missing the worlds outside the Sword Worlds. The atmosphere of Enos is explained in the same way as in the GURPS SW module. (To keep Traveller fun, these things should be ignored so that the referee can deal with in a different way.) Mithril matches the old adventure Mission on Mithril.

The equipment list is nice, but there are some items that are just too Viking themed. There are a nice selection of ships. Some parts of the encounter tables are fine, and the animals are interesting. The miniphants has been changed. They are not the same miniphants as in JTAS #16.

There are some proofreading errors (as usual). There are some extra-large apostrophes. There is a reference to a class III starport. (That is what a type C starport is called in GURPS.) There are some talk about the Border Worlds (that shouldn’t exist in 1105). I get an error message in the end of the pdf. Please Mongoose, do a better job!

So, I think that parts of the book is good, and other parts are not so good. You can buy it for the good parts. Maybe you like the other parts as well. The alternative would be to use JTAS #18 and read Space Viking for free, and form your own opinion about the Sword Worlds.

The 4518th Lift Infantry Brigade (Duke Of Reginia’s Own Huscarles)

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Shoulder Service Insignia 

Description

On a blue silhouetted right cylinder 3 inches (7.62 cm) in height and 2 inches (5.08 cm) in width overall within a 1/8 inch (.32 cm) with a Maroon Central Stripe, 3 stars arrayed above a Unicorn’s Profile with the point of a bayonet in the background. A sunburst in the foreground at the bottom

4518th Lift Infantry Brigade Shoulder Service Insignia

Symbolism

The Blue background alludes to the vastness of space and the branch color of the infantry. The maroon central stripe is homage to the presently serving seconded Imperial Marines within the brigade, but also  legacy of of the unit origins form the Imperial Marine cadre that founded the unit after the 2nd Frontier War. The Three stars are in remembrance of the Thrid, Fourth and Fifth Frontier Wars where the brigade fought with valor and steadfast loyalty to the Imperium. That very loyalty and service in the Imperial Army is again seen in the sunburst in the foreground. The Unicorn’s profile is the personal crest of the Duke of Regina, of which the brigade serves as the primer household troops, but also represents the “Emergent Unicorn” (also known as the Bridled Steed) constellation spanning the Chronor and Jewell subsectors and recalls the fierce battles where the Huscarles gave the supreme sacrifice during the Third Frontier War in the service of their Duke and the 3rd Imperium. The bayonet point in the background is the current steadfast vigilance and readiness to defend the spinward marches now and in the future.

Created: 28 Jan 2011 by Sword Worlder

Interesting idea about coyns

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At the CotI boards, there is an interesting thread about replacing one of the coyns for the major races with something else. E.g. a coyn for “the Virus” or IMTU (where the virus doesn’t exist) a coyn for the Hhkar. Since I am an evil referee, the coyn I would replace would be the humaniti coyn, (and this would happen all over known space). :twisted:

This could be the start of an interesting campaign where the PCs try to save the future of humanity. Only the PCs and a number of scientists would know about the change, and the authorities will not listen to their warnings…

Artwork

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I’m trying to fill in some of the gaps on traveller artwork.
I’m not a artist; I’m heavily trained in CAD, and dabble enough to be considered a “professional” with CGI software.
My first mission in this quest is to figure out what the #$^&* Zhodani ground vehicles look like. I don’t have any of the GURPS stuff, I stopped buying Traveller stuff at “Pocket Empires”. The only thing I have to go on is CT Alien Module 4, which seems to have a very boxy tracked APC, and the MT: Referee’s Companion, which seems to be showing a atmospheric craft which is very different from what people seem to describe Zho craft as.
Help? your sketches? Art? whatever? I’ll give you full credit as original designer…
Initial work (which right now is just the type S) is up at my website. I would be happy to do a custom render for anyone who asks.
I’ve got Zho small weapons, Armor wired, should be finishing up the BattleDress within a couple of days.