Would Imperial credits be widely accepted on Wild Space planets like Lysatra, specifically at about 15-10 BBY?

It’s impossible to say for sure. On one hand, before the Empire took over, many planets beyond the Mid Rim used different currencies and Republic credits were often considered worthless. Even under the Empire, the Wild Space region was not well documented or explored at the time, so Lysatra may have been using a currency of its own.

On the other hand, Imperial credits were known to be much more widely accepted because the economy had stabilized again after the Clone Wars. We know Eli Vanto knew enough about the Empire to choose to become a cadet, so there was at least some contact between the Empire and the worlds in the area. We also know that his parents owned a shipping company, which may have had to use Imperial currency in order to do business closer to the Core, in which case there would have been precedent for standard credits to be introduced in Wild Space.

Overall, I would say sure, if you’d rather have Lysatra using Imperial credits, then why not? My personal guess is that the planet would be in a weird transition phase of accepting both Imperial credits and whatever currency they originally had, supposedly with a conversion ratio of some sort.

Sorry I couldn’t give a solid answer, but I hope that helps a bit!

~ Jacen

ladytharen:

operaticspacetrash:

Does anyone know how to do dates in the Star Wars calendar outside of years? Are there names for standard months? I’ve only managed to find some info on the days of the week so far.

@writebetterstarwars any answers?

I don’t normally answer questions on other people’s posts, so I hope you don’t mind @operaticspacetrash, but this one is relatively straightforward. Within the Galactic Standard Calendar there are no names for months, and they are known by their number (e.g., Month 5). You probably know that there were many different variants of the calendar, all with different numbers of months in a year, weeks in a month, and days in a week. The GSC consists of 24 hours in a day, 5 days in a week, 7 weeks in a month, and 10 months in a year. These 10 months, plus 3 festival weeks and 3 holidays make up a year with a total of 368 days. In the Old Republic, the Treaty of Coruscant was used as year 0; in the New Republic, it was the Battle of Yavin.

I’m guessing that what you’re wondering about is how to write this out and refer to specific dates, like how we would say [day]/[month]/[year]? This is covered by the Great ReSynchronization. It was a notation system established in 35 BBY which used the format [year]:[month]:[day] to write dates. 35 BBY was the reference point, so, for example, the Jedi Purge occurred in the year 16 and the Battle of Yavin in the year 35. Years before 35 BBY are written with “BrS” (before resynchronization) after the number, so Qui-Gon would have been born in 57 BrS. Adding in the months and days, you get something like the date 13:5:21 (13 years after 35 BBY, on the 21st day of Month 5), on which occurred the First Battle of Geonosis. Much like how we might say “June of 2015” you can omit the day and just write [year]:[month].

This system was used through the Imperial period (though some preferred to use the Empire’s creation as year 0) and was reorganized in 25 ABY into the BBY/ABY system that we often use. Before the Great ReSynchronization and after it was disbanded, there is no canonical system for writing dates. It is possible that the [year]:[month]:[day] format was still used, but this is not confirmable.

You may also want to take a look through my tag on calendars.

Hope that helps!

~ Jacen

Would musical instruments have the same names in SW as in our world? I’m assuming that musical groups (woodwind, brass, percussion) stay the same, but what about specific instruments like french horn? Would the name change due to SW not having France? Is their a similar instrument in canon?

The groups of musical instruments do have the same names, however there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of brass instruments. Some instruments have exactly the same name in-universe as out, but French horn isn’t one of them. The closest thing in appearance to a French horn I could find was a hypolliope horn cluster, which looks like this. Not all that similar, but most other horns were either trumpet-ish or bassoon-ish. I wouldn’t guess it would have a similar sound, either, so you could also go with something like the Faln horn (presumed to have a “smooth” sound) or the woot horn (has a bass tone). There really isn’t anything exactly like it, possibly because the French horn is kind of a ridiculous instrument in the first place!

Hope one of those works!

~ Jacen

Is there a Star Wars equivalent of Valentine’s Day? I’ve seen fics mentioning ‘sweetheart’s day’ or ‘lover’s day’, but I’m unsure if these are just fan creations. Thank you :)

There is such a thing as the Festival of Love, but it’s held by the Ewoks and is only loosely based on Valentine’s Day. It’s more about love between clan members, often in a platonic/bandmates kinda way. I couldn’t find evidence of “sweetheart’s day” or “lover’s day” being canon, so I would guess they’re made up; if anyone else has heard of them, please correct me. No reason why you couldn’t use one, though!

Sorry that wasn’t quite what you wanted!

~ Jacen

Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder actually called ‘Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder’ in star wars? Or is there a different name for it?

Mental illnesses are very rarely mentioned by name in Star Wars. The only instances I’ve seen (which have all been in Legends), the illness was called by the same name it is in our universe. Psychosis, OCD and Multiple Personality Disorder (an outdated and inaccurate term) are all mentioned. I couldn’t be sure, but it seems very likely that if PTSD was mentioned, it would just be called PTSD.

~ Jacen

I know that portable electronic music players exist in star wars, but I can’t find anything that gives them a name besides just ‘music players’. Do you happen to know what they’re called?

The only thing I know of that is intended solely for playing music is just called a music player. However, it’s a whole lot more common to use various holographic devices to play music on, because “music players” are a bit antiquated. You might use a holopad, holoprojector or holo-player, especially if you have a recording of the artist or a dancer to go along with the music. They all mean basically the same thing, in this case. A plain old datapad could also play a recording, as most came with headphone ports and the ability to play sound, and those are extremely common.

I hope one of those works!

~ Jacen

What’s a small purchase that has a canonical price? Like, for the equivalent of “that and a dollar will get you a coffee”.

Hmm. There aren’t a lot of canoncial prices, especially for small things. Off the top of my head, a ration pack costs five credits. That may or may not fit the sentence. Bantha stew also costs five credits, at least at the restaurant for which the price is listed. Perhaps something more recognizable could be a blue milkshake, which costs exactly 2.7 credits, apparently. Lots of different types of donuts cost about 1-2 credits, and the general term “donut” is perfectly acceptable to use. That’s pretty much all I’ve got. Hope one of those works!

~ Jacen

pomrania:

inquisitorius-sin-bin:

freshbrainss:

imperialremnant:

deducecanoe:

roane72:

askshivanulegacy:

bobafctt:

tips for writing Star Wars fanfic/Star Wars roleplay things

it’s not concrete; it’s duracrete

viewports are the windows on ships

not a plane; ship or speeder

it’s not steel; it’s durasteel

books are rare; holorecords or datapads

it’s not a glass pane it’s transparisteel

caf is the equivalent of coffee

it’s not paper it’s a flimsi

medcenter is a hospital

Star Wars can be very similar to things we’re already used to, but getting familiar with some of these terms can make your writing really fit in with the universe

This is brilliant! Here’s another:

It’s not a movie; it’s a holovid

It’s not a phone or cell; it’s a holocom or communicator or just comm (unit). You normally comm someone instead of call them.

Searching our standard terms in Wookieepedia will normally provide you with one or several in-universe alternatives. The other items exist, they’re just either archaic terms or really low-tech versions of what’s commonly used (like concrete is a real thing, but just extremely less durable and strong than the more advanced and common duracrete).

I’ve seen ‘permacrete’ used in the latest books as well.

Back in the day weren’t the “glass” windows on x-wings and ships called like invisa-steel or something? That stuck in my head from the Thrawn trilogy I think. I remember sitting there in deep contemplation over how the hell you make the molecule chains in metal transparent and worrying about carbon chains and shit because what’s what you do in 10th grade.

I remember seeing med center used as medbay and sickbay as well, and dishwasher as sonic dishwasher? (correct me if wrong tho, I can’t remember v well). But here’s some more:

bandaids = bacta patches
bathroom = refresher
watch/clock = chrono
first aid kit = medpack, medkit
motorcycle = speeder bike, swoop bike
camera = holocamera
internet = holonet
shower = sonic shower(?)

Correct any of these if they’re wrong ;P also they’re all legends I think and I’m not sure if any of them are in new canon.

I love this, because it’s not condescending or pretentious…just fans letting newer fans know ways to improve their fic. I love the films, but I haven’t been able to get access to so many of the books and comics yet (even though they’re waiting in my Amazon cart for pay day), so this is awesome. And I’ve basically been living on Wookieepedia lately, too!

I can’t find a canon instance of it but

refrigerator = conservator

I just know I’ll be needing some of those in the future.

@writebetterstarwars maybe add those to your list?

Thanks @pomrania! In the meantime, I’m sure you guys could use this list.

There’s an unpleasant-for-everyone situation, and someone tries to laugh at the other person’s lame joke. It sounds like a (creature) being strangled; what would the “creature” be? Like, as a general expression someone would use, not that they have personal experience of those sounds.

Honestly, you could pretty much use any small animal. Probably one from your character’s homeworld or somewhere else they’ve spent time, and possibly something vaguely feline, in order to follow the real-life expression. A nexu could be a good one to use. I know you write for Rebels a lot, so perhaps a loth-cat, a sabercat or a puffer pig. I’m sure mynocks would make a pretty bad sound when strangled, and most people know what mynocks are. One more thing, off the top of my head, could be the shriek-hawk from Mandalore. These kinds of expressions usually vary from planet-to-planet and culture-to-culture, so feel free to ask again if you need something specific to one world.

I hope that helps!

~ Jacen

Is there a communication device, handheld, that someone could use to communicate with someone on a different planet? My character is trying to be discreet while conversing with the Rebellion on Yavin 4.

Sorry to say, there is no such device. Anything sending transmissions that far needs a bigger power source than, say, a comlink. However, you could do a couple things. One, get a regular old comlink message to someone who has access to a subspace or hyperwave transceiver, someone within about 50 klicks of your character. Two, have the character themselves get to a more powerful transmitter, like you would find on a ship or maybe a private building.

It’s also important to note that the Empire shut down large portions of the HoloNet (the network used to carry hyperwave transmissions), causing the Rebellion a lot of trouble when it came to communicating with each other. It also didn’t cover a lot of the Outer Rim, but there were secret channels used by the rebels. Subspace transmissions were not routed through the HoloNet, but they did take significantly longer to reach their destination, and they were easier to intercept. Think about which would work better for your story.

I hope that helps!

~ Jacen