Talk:Slobbovia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Legacy

The claim that the meme of crottled greeps originated in Slobbovia had bothered me for a little while; I remembered seeing reference to it elsewhere in SF fandom. It in fact predates Slobbovia by some years: Dean Grennell's fanzine FILLER in 1953, in which in issue #378 we find the question "But if you don't like crottled greeps, what did you order them for?" MarkVolundNYC 10:33, 18 February 2007 (UTC)


I am fairly certain that "crottled greeps" migrated into Slobbovia, rather than directly out of it. They appeared in a variety of places in the Diplomacy hobby, which had strong ties to the science fiction fan community. A quick perusal of the internet reveals references that predate Slobbovia.

On the subject of the origins of the actual Zhurnal's early years, I once had a letter from one of the original players (James Ritchie) that outlined it, but it is lost in time (or perhaps buried in my box of Zhurnals, which I have begun to poke through again). If any of the players can clean up the area on that, please do so (it is flatly credited to Charles Sharp at the moment). BCNU - Two-Tonic Knight 21:40, 28 February 2007 (UTC)


Well, I've edited the article to more accurately reflect the role of crottled greeps, among other things. It would be interesting to know which of the players actually introduced them; they were already well established in Slobbovian "reality" when I joined. MarkVolundNYC 19:31, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

I seem to recall it as John Leeder, publisher of the Canadian Diplomacy 'zine, Runestone. But perhaps they predate the earliest copies of the Zhurnal that I have (which only go back to the mid 20's). Further, it can be rather cryptic at times figuring out who wrote what. Two-Tonic Knight (talk) 18:29, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Irreverency and relevance

I've restored a phrase in the section "Holy Sativan Church" which had been deleted: "(it is left to the imagination on how he is mounted, keeping in mind he was known as Tostig the Perverted)" I will grant that some (including, possibly, the contributor who deleted the phrase) may consider it to be in dubious taste. However, it does accurately reflect the atmosphere in which the game was played and the mindset of many of the players, many of whom were young men of college age or slightly older.-MarkVolundNYC (talk)

I was of two minds about restoring what I typed originally regarding Tostig the Perverted (which you went ahead and did). I try to exercise a reasonable amount of descretion but still convey at least the intent of the original game. Thus, when someone absolutely came out with a more exact translation of "Fecundar Strakh" (even with asterisks, it was pretty obvious which four letter anglo-saxon invective for sexual intercourse was involved), I toned it down to "something rather more obscene". Similiarly, how does one convey Tostig the Perverted without at least some kind of implication of the "pose" for the statue? Implied but not graphically detailed. The overall thrust of the "strakh" was humor, and hopefully that is what is being conveyed here, even when it gets risque. Two-Tonic Knight (talk) 02:45, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Military Ranks

I added a couple of specific military titles to the warfare section. All I could dredge to mind were Oberhorc and Unterflunky, two terms that were in general use. There were some more specific listings of ranks for given countries, but I haven't bothered to look them up. Title unique to Slobbovia were what I was looking to add more than Vurklemyerian lists. Let me add in here: perhaps the title of the section should be "Military and Warfare".Two-Tonic Knight (talk) 02:28, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

There was an NCO rank, Grundjerk. I know the Novarians used them. Of course, the Novarians had the uniform sense of the pre-1940 Soviet Army and the military competence of the Battle of Adowa Castrati Choir.GABaker (talk) 04:11, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Agreed with the first comment - I've gone ahead and changed the section title (plus added a bunch of links).MarkVolundNYC (talk) 18:35, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Other Nations

I decided to start this new section because the Empire simply was NOT all that was important on the board. As stated, I think it should be limited to those that were of fairly long standing (including intermittent occurrences over a major chunk of the game's life, such as Rabbitania or Valgoria) or generated a fair amount of strakh from multiple players ... or both. (Notice the absence of Barataria; but perhaps Phumpha should be mentioned?) If it's going to be more comprehensive, it probably should be hived off into a separate article. My blurbs on Rabbitania and Valgoria are from memory plus what old material I could refer to. I may eventually take a crack at SoC, unless someone else beats me to it, but somebody with a longer history than I should attempt Venturia/Triarchy and Jamul.MarkVolundNYC (talk) 18:08, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

I filled in Jamul - I swear half the fun is finding obscure things to hyperlink to - but I was always periphreal to Venturia, which was more the domain of the original Canadians. Perhaps the title of the section should be Major Powers and combined with the seperate one for the Slobbovian Empire. Upon sleeping on it, I now seem to recall that one of my characters was a Triarch Minor in the Triarchy, though for the life of me I couldn't explain it. Two-Tonic Knight (talk) 05:50, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I seem to recall that, it being around the point when I joined the game or a little before. Ra-Man the Rotten was Czar; Dimitri Valgoricanus was Prinz of Venturia (until he abdicated to Nikolai), and was nominally co-Czar, but really wasn't (depending on who you asked); Julian B-V was Triarch Major. And your character of Jurgen was also a Triarch Minor, opposed by Ivan Dragomilov and his Dreadites and I think also the Tarnkaps and their Pseudowikings, who represented Ra-Man's interests in that part of the south. (It is amazing and scary just how much of this I remember ... ) MarkVolundNYC (talk) 15:46, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

You remember it all better than I do - I wrote the Triptych Demon and I remembered the right head as being Alfred Aardvark, and yet glancing through issue 97 I see it is Krypton Chandrashankar (the beginning of the quest for St. Jethro Aqualung's Magic Flute - ahhhhh, that was the lost storyline!). Anyway, I just found my original Fourth Imperial Survey Map! I'll have to photograph it and upload it somewhere (I suppose I'll have to check the rules for images and hosting for Wikipedia). Oooooo, and all my other illustrations for Slobbovia, too! Two-Tonic Knight (talk) 16:49, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

That actually makes sense; how could Alfred Aardvark remain Slobbovia's eternal bogeyman if his fate was known to be dying and becoming merely part of a demon (no matter how powerful)? As for the illustrations, as artist I'd assume you have the rights to those, right? Would that include the map? Lastly, I wonder if a Fourth Survey map could be manipulated to reflect the extent of the board at the point of each earlier survey (or at least the 3rd, which is known to most contributors here)? MarkVolundNYC (talk) 16:04, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Somewhere in my library are all the later copies of the Zhurnal up to the end, and perhaps a map of Slobbovia. If I can find them and scan them in, it would be worth it.GABaker (talk) 17:55, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

I also have the later (perhaps up to the last?) issues of the Zhurnal, from when I joined (in the middle of Ra-Man's reign). Lipton had also been kind enough, back in the day, to give me photocopies of the Sharp issues (and maybe some of the early Apa-Slobbovia issues? Have to look.) The problem with a lot of the material is, of course, that it's on twilltone ... MarkVolundNYC (talk) 15:51, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] End of the Great Ice Age?

I was wearing black pants, black shirt, and a black leather jacket when I wrote that. :-) Two-Tonic Knight (talk) 17:08, 20 May 2008 (UTC)