My questions thread!

[ZeroArmour]

My first question.

Language.

Is Federation Standard English? And if it is, do all Humans speak it as their native tongue?

And why do Humans have to study their native language at SFA to a higher degree than non-Humans?

Why do the Vulcan & Andorian overlays include Federation Standard?

Wouldn't it make more sense that the Human template have "Language, Native 2"?

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Is Federation Standard English?

Well, we've never seen Cyrillic on any starship hulls...

And if it is, do all Humans speak it as their native tongue?

The French seem to.

And why do Humans have to study their native language at SFA to a higher degree than non-Humans?

To make them appreciate why the other students hate their language.

Why do the Vulcan & Andorian overlays include Federation Standard?

Same reason English is the "third most known" language in the world?

Wouldn't it make more sense that the Human template have "Language, Native 2"?

If you want.

[C5]

About Federation Standard being English... with the universal communicator, it's rather hard to know what it actually is. I don't think it has ever been stated on screen that Fed Standard was the same language as 21st century English, and we can also assume that we see and hear English while the characters are speaking a different language.
English might still exist as a local language in some areas of Earth, like French, Russian or Swahili, and maybe the characters of British or American origins use some English words here and there when speaking (but since they are already talking in English, we can't hear them ).

In short: I don't think it is canonically stated somewhere that Federation Standard is English, so that makes you free to rule what you want about it

And if local languages still exist, you can indeed add Human-Native as a species language (and it would be the language from the region in Earth they are born in).
Maybe human colonies only speak Federation Standard, on the opposite ?

[The Tatterdemalion King]

In short: I don't think it is canonically stated somewhere that Federation Standard is English, so that makes you free to rule what you want about it

In fact, there's nothing in Trek that implies there is a 'Federation standard language.' The FS in the game is just the same as Common in D&D; a convenient way to establish that the members of the group can talk to each other.

[Phoenix]

I like to think of Federation Standard being something a kin to Esperanto, Humans in my old game spoke regional Terran languages just like everyone else spoke their own native tongue. Older colonies had their language based of what ever world/culture had started them. More recent integrated colonies spoke Federation Standard as the norm. Around the time of TOS Federation Standard was universally taught to all cadets and trainees to facilitate communication amongst the crew of ships. By the time of TNG and universal translator technology shrinkage and reliability, personnel are just as likely to learn Klingon or Vulcan rather than Fed-Std.

One of the things I did House Rule in my game was languages, I made them into specializations rather than a full on skills, referencing the HERO System scale of proficiency 1=Basic Communication through 5=Fully Fluent/ imitate dialects. This allowed for characters to remain balanced point wise.

[tonyg]

I beleive there are a few vaue hints in some TOS episodes that Starfleet/The Enterprise is using some type of English, down to the signs, lables and text we see on computer screens. We certainly didn't see Kirk or Spock carrying around a UT during "city on the Edge of Forever".

Still, with the Universal Translator it might be assumed that everyone is speaking thier native tongue and we are "hearing" (and reading) the translation. As with most bits of Treknology, the application of the UT isn't entirely consistent. In most instances, it appears to be unnoticable-so much as to have enough in perfect lip sync! Occasionally (when the writers don't want the UT to solve something for the characters), the UT can't be used because it would be a dead giveaway. Likewise the UT doesn't seem to translate curse words.


I think the "truth" of the situation is that The UT and having everybody speaking English is simply a convince so the audience can follow the story, and doesn't hold up well to close scrutiny.

[Aldaron]

Worf's parents spoke with Russian accents, as did Chekov. That suggests to me that English/Fed Standard wasn't their first language.

[ZeroArmour]

Okay, new question.

When using the RPG rules to create characters for the "Enterprise" era (2150's), what do you do with Language, Federation Standard & History (Federation) skills? Since there's no Federation neither skill should exist!

Do you drop the two skills (making the Overlay worth only 50 points), or do you replace the two skills with something else?

Also, how would you write up MACOs?

[Phoenix]

There are some ENT era Overlays around here some place. Try using the search function. As for the history part of your question replace the word "Federation" with "Earth" (or Terran, Human, etc.). Languages, I use house rules as I mentioned above.

[ZeroArmour]

This creates a similar problem as before. Why would Starfleet teach world history to people who already learned it in high school?

I can't find the Overlays, I'm probally not looking hard enough.

How about LUG write-ups for ENT era ships?

[Phoenix]

Oops, I gave you bad information... I thought Evan had posted his information here on the boards.
The link to his site is http://mitglied.lycos.de/EmperorsArm/st/trek1.html
He has the Enterprise Sourcebook pdf and the Enterprise Season II-III Update pdf.

Anyway, sorry about that. Hope this makes up for it.

[Aldaron]

This creates a similar problem as before. Why would Starfleet teach world history to people who already learned it in high school?

Well, I studied history at high school, but when I went to university there were electives I had to take (elective as in I could choose which ones, but I had to take four units). One of those electives was history, another was sociology, another was ethics, and another was maths.

Starfleet is about producing well-rounded academics, not just engineers or security officers. Just as the idea behind university is to produce well-rounded professionals, Starfleet wants its graduates to be "Renaissance Men" (and Women), not just soldiers.

[Owen E Oulton]

In the episode where Data is damaged and loses his memory on a semi-primitive planet, he did identify the writing on his sample box a English.

I don't make Humans take English as their native language. If they do, the "1" skill they get at Academy can be any other language. If they take French, or German, or Chinese as their native tongue, then they have to take English at the Academy like everyone else.

[ZeroArmour]

I guess that fair.

Does anyone know of any write-ups for the new Luna and Vesta class explorers?

[Tobian]

Cood catch Owen!

I tend to think Federation standard is English, as more or less English is the main language of Earth, and I can't honestly say that's going to change any time soon. While I know it's something like 3rd or 4th on the [most spoken] language, I have never seen a definitive list of second languages spoken: English is a VERY common second language in a lot of places, largely due to colonialism (British empire) and then latterly TV and Film, of which the hub is America. The language of the internet is, lets face it, English too! I would suspect that English might not be the most common language, but it's likelly one of the most known!

All that said, obviously people speak their native languages, and I can't see regional dialects going away any time soon either! (plenty of comedy Scottish, Irish and Russian accents there! )

As to in-game mechanics - call it English or 'federation standard' or whatever you like, but yes officers really should have a skill in it, as translators do breakdown!