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Not sure where to put this. I tried the unofficial Discord-channel, but this is probably a better place to reach out to Free League.

I just finished GM-ing Heart of Darkness. Great scenario! But I have some issues. Not with the layout and all the moving parts (that was nothing new nor unexpected), but what's up with the Slavic proper nouns?

Sezja Drabikowski
Why does Sezja have a male Belarusian name if she's a young woman from Ukraine? I mean, the book uses the female pronoun for her (doesn't it?) and she is from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv – not Belarus.

The i-ending in Drabikowski is for men. For a woman, it should either end with -a (Драбіковська / Drabikovska) from Ukrainian, or -aya/-aia (Драбікоўская / Drabikowskaia) if you prefer the Belarusian variant.

There are two reasons why I suspect the surname is Belarusian:

1) Belarusian male surnames end with -i (Драбікоўскі / Drabikowski). In Ukrainian, male surnames end with -yi (Драбіковський / Drabikovskyi).
2) Also, the "w" is never used to transliterate from Ukrainian. It should be written with a simple "v" (в). The "w" is mainly used to translate from the Belarusian alphabet [ў].

Also, her given name – Sezja (Сєжа) – is the short/familiar form for Serhij (Ukr. Сергій), Sergei (Rus. Сергей), or Siarhei (Bel. Сяргей).

Snova Trakhnu/Snova Trakhnul
The name of a ship mentioned in the game (not spoiling anything here) is Snova Trakhnu/Snova Trakhnul, which is, to be honest, not the prettiest of names.

Let us take the first part – Snova. This means in Russian "Anew" or "Again".

Now for the second part — Trakhnul / Trakhnu.
Both versions of the name are used in the book. And both are from the same Russian verb for ... ehm ... having sexual intercourse/fornicate. Only, it is the most profane word you could find for the act (making the English f-word seem sort of nice).

Trakhnu is first person, future tense.
Trakhnul is past tense (not specific who did the f-ing, but it is the masculine form).

So, the ship is sometimes called Snova Trakhnu (Снова Трахну) "I'll f--- again"
sometimes Snova Trakhnul (Снова Трахнул) "I have f---ed again".

Is this deliberate? If so, why?

Sorry for all the nerdy stuff. I am a linguist and been studying Slavic languages for my entire adult life. So, yeah! Really interested to hear from the developers.

If you ever need help with coming up with meaningful (and correct) Slavic names for whatever reason, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Dear ArthurDallas

Thank you for the reply!

I know the module was published a while back, but I am sure they will create a new (evolved) version some day. Anyway, as I said, I just recently GM-ed it.

I am absolutely sure these are the only possible translations. Especially since the booklet uses two different (but gramatically correct) declensions of the same verb

Are you saying the developers don't read and comment on the FL forum?

Sounder

Personally, I'd just chalk it up to culture change. In-game, it's been a very long and tumultuous period in human history, with geopolitical (and cosmopolitical!) reorganizations and the expansion into far space.

While I'm pretty OCD (and thus sympathetic) about details similar to those that inspired this topic -- you should hear me bitch when average people talk about law, or, God forbid, make TV shows about it! -- this is a pretty minor thing, and I don't think it's reasonable to expect game designers or Game MU/TH/URs to be educated on every detail.

"Cultural drift" is a perfectly reasonable explanation that doesn't place unreasonable expectations. As someone who actually played Drabikowski (and really enjoyed it), my fun wasn't all all impacted by her "incorrect" surname.

Thank you for your replies, all of you!

Some context for my question about the male given name and male Belarusian family name: I just thought it was a bit odd, and wanted to point it out. Actually, I just did a search of all the instances of "Drabikowski" and "Sezja" in the rules and couldn't find a single pronoun describing him/her, so perhaps the character actually is meant to be male or a trans woman (which is totally fine). It might also be the artist that perceived "Sezja" as a female name and thus decided to draw a feminine face. But a Belarusian from Kyiv would in any case be given a Ukrainian version of the name and surname by the authorities. I suspect the name was decided by Gaska a long time before publication, but because of the war in Ukraine, he changed the origin of Drabikowski from Minsk (or somewhere else) to Kyiv, which was a nice gest

By the way, Sasha is actually the shortened/familiar form of two names – Oleksandr and Oleksandra (or in Russian: Aleksandr, Aleksandra), so it could be both sexes. Sezja doesn't work that way, since there are no female equivalent for Serhii/Sergei.

I have no problem with ships having profane names.

Anyway, it is up to the players and GMs what names they use and what they mean to them. I just thought someone might find the actual translations interesting or funny.

At the moment, I'm preparing The Lost Worlds, and immediately see som Russian words pop up here and there. "Izvinite", for instance, as in "Izvinite Outpost", means "beg your pardon" in Russian.

Have a great day, everyone!