New Traveller Fanzine
- Thread starter Richard
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Richard - why dont you make it the most ecumenical of broad churches and, while keeping CT/T20 core, allow all rulez systems and eras. That way talented people who play THE GAME in neglected eras get to have a say.
I have to say if its as good as OD&DITIES it will be darn good.!!!
I have to say if its as good as OD&DITIES it will be darn good.!!!
propjockey
SOC-5
the most useful information for me has always been background info. Cities, maps, Governmental briefs, cutural oddities, any kind of local color, starship procedures, animal info.... et al ad nauseum. Anything that I can use to make my campaigns richer in detail, provide more texture....
One can never have enough background. After all, space is big.
( I mean REALLY big! You might think it's a long trip to the corner store for mixed nuts, but listen.....)
One can never have enough background. After all, space is big.
( I mean REALLY big! You might think it's a long trip to the corner store for mixed nuts, but listen.....)
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
Off the top of my head, I suggest one project... endeavor to write a fresh adventure that can be applied to any era interchangibly, i dont mean one that is adaptable, but one that is from the outset designed to be a "universal" Adventure...
My other suggestion is to pull out all the stops visually and go Buck Nas-T with the maps, deckplans, and so forth, from all sources... but esp. things involving Aliens and Robots! (Oh, and Comics...)
Ps: Did I say Maps?
My other suggestion is to pull out all the stops visually and go Buck Nas-T with the maps, deckplans, and so forth, from all sources... but esp. things involving Aliens and Robots! (Oh, and Comics...)
Ps: Did I say Maps?
Generally, articles should be a minimum of one page and a maximum of eight; sent to me at Methuslah@tongue.fsnet.co.uk in RTF, TXT or Word format if possible.
Richard
Richard
Here's a thought:
When people write up a landgrab, do it with 'the sweep of history' in mind. Cover the landgrab entry in MO, in CT, in MT, in TNE, etc. Try to describe the evolving situation in each period.
When writing up equipment, try to present rules for it for each game era/system.
When writing up NPCs, try to stay away from detailed mechanic-specific descriptions. Or provide several versions. Generally, a description of what the NPC can or does do and his or her description and motivation are what matter.
For starships, stat lists are nice. Deckplans, however, are absolutely fraggin' vital. If anyone re-writes Shattered Ships of the Fighting Imperium again without Deck Plans, I'll hemmorage. Ships were meant to be visited and adventured in and on and through. Deckplans make that feasible.
For aliens, stats/rules for various game systems.
And if an author can't perhaps fill out stuff for all the systems, the magazine editor can perhaps (or perhaps this community) could help him or her do so. Thus someone comes up with an idea and stats for one system or two, then others chip in how this translates into X or Y particular rules system.
Where possible, avoid rules specific stuff, where necessary, cover for as many rules variants as feasible.
That's my 0.02 for general usability.
For the best example of generic adventure design, see the Kieth Bros' (I think) Lee's Guide to Interstellar Adventure (I think that's the name). It lists a scenario, the type of UPP required to suppoprt it such as:
Size 4+
Atm 5-7
Hyd 2+
Pop Any
Govt 5
Law 6-8
Then it goes on to say "In Spinward Marches, this includes candidates X Y and Z. In the Solomani Rim, A, B and C and D if you ignore this aspect...".
Fantastic.... so that the ref can tell exactly what set of UPP stats he needs to locate for the adventure. And the adventures are very generically written, like the best GDW ones.
When people write up a landgrab, do it with 'the sweep of history' in mind. Cover the landgrab entry in MO, in CT, in MT, in TNE, etc. Try to describe the evolving situation in each period.
When writing up equipment, try to present rules for it for each game era/system.
When writing up NPCs, try to stay away from detailed mechanic-specific descriptions. Or provide several versions. Generally, a description of what the NPC can or does do and his or her description and motivation are what matter.
For starships, stat lists are nice. Deckplans, however, are absolutely fraggin' vital. If anyone re-writes Shattered Ships of the Fighting Imperium again without Deck Plans, I'll hemmorage. Ships were meant to be visited and adventured in and on and through. Deckplans make that feasible.
For aliens, stats/rules for various game systems.
And if an author can't perhaps fill out stuff for all the systems, the magazine editor can perhaps (or perhaps this community) could help him or her do so. Thus someone comes up with an idea and stats for one system or two, then others chip in how this translates into X or Y particular rules system.
Where possible, avoid rules specific stuff, where necessary, cover for as many rules variants as feasible.
That's my 0.02 for general usability.
For the best example of generic adventure design, see the Kieth Bros' (I think) Lee's Guide to Interstellar Adventure (I think that's the name). It lists a scenario, the type of UPP required to suppoprt it such as:
Size 4+
Atm 5-7
Hyd 2+
Pop Any
Govt 5
Law 6-8
Then it goes on to say "In Spinward Marches, this includes candidates X Y and Z. In the Solomani Rim, A, B and C and D if you ignore this aspect...".
Fantastic.... so that the ref can tell exactly what set of UPP stats he needs to locate for the adventure. And the adventures are very generically written, like the best GDW ones.
Just wanted to agree with you Kaladorn,
I hate it when an adventure doesn't feature the deckplans of a new ship.I know some people like designing them themselves but i just don't have the time.I couldn't believe it when i found Fighting ships was once again completely plan free.
So definitely include starship deckplans.
There, I got that off my chest!
I hate it when an adventure doesn't feature the deckplans of a new ship.I know some people like designing them themselves but i just don't have the time.I couldn't believe it when i found Fighting ships was once again completely plan free.
So definitely include starship deckplans.
There, I got that off my chest!
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
Well, three in a row seems to be enough to pull me away from vital pre-lift procedures 
<rant on>
kaladorn and boycey42, and maybe flykiller (though less specifically) do you have any concept of what you're asking with respect to deckplans for the ship's in either the CT or MT edition of "Fighting Ships"?
Most of those ships were several kilotons in size. Of the ones that weren't most had deckplans already in other publications. Have you tried doing deckplans for even a 1,000 ton ship? Trust me its no walk in the park to get it "right".
I'd rather not see a deckplan for say a Tigress thank-you. 500 kilotons is going to be a huge (and rather boring) book all by itself. And for what? Unless your game is going to be about active duty Imperial Naval officers and the ship is the whole setting (or mostly).
No, the big ships are there for background color and maybe the occasional visit. For that all you need is maybe a docking bay and some corridors to the visitors lounge, or the brig if that's where the PC's are being escorted.
And frankly given the quality and attention to detail (you know, little things like scale, function, and actual volume ) of many published deckplans for smaller ships, I'd expect anything in the kiloton range to be useless.
That's not to say I don't want deckplans. Just that I don't realistically expect or see a need for deckplans for any ship much over 1,000 tons. And for those I'd like to see much, much more attention given to making it "right" rather than "close enough" (and I don't mean the +/- 20%).
<rant off>
and like boycey42 it does feel good to get that off my chest, though I expect it isn't gone for good
<rant on>
kaladorn and boycey42, and maybe flykiller (though less specifically) do you have any concept of what you're asking with respect to deckplans for the ship's in either the CT or MT edition of "Fighting Ships"?
Most of those ships were several kilotons in size. Of the ones that weren't most had deckplans already in other publications. Have you tried doing deckplans for even a 1,000 ton ship? Trust me its no walk in the park to get it "right".
I'd rather not see a deckplan for say a Tigress thank-you. 500 kilotons is going to be a huge (and rather boring) book all by itself. And for what? Unless your game is going to be about active duty Imperial Naval officers and the ship is the whole setting (or mostly).
No, the big ships are there for background color and maybe the occasional visit. For that all you need is maybe a docking bay and some corridors to the visitors lounge, or the brig if that's where the PC's are being escorted.
And frankly given the quality and attention to detail (you know, little things like scale, function, and actual volume
) of many published deckplans for smaller ships, I'd expect anything in the kiloton range to be useless.That's not to say I don't want deckplans. Just that I don't realistically expect or see a need for deckplans for any ship much over 1,000 tons. And for those I'd like to see much, much more attention given to making it "right" rather than "close enough" (and I don't mean the +/- 20%).
<rant off>
and like boycey42 it does feel good to get that off my chest, though I expect it isn't gone for good
How about modules of deck plans.
Like 5 different types of each:
staterooms
bridges
mess/galley
engineering sections
2 different versions of
entertainment/receation areas
ships locker
And 10 different versions of
Hall/corridors
Then you could use the part you need for your RPG during encounters and such
Maybe doing ship lines where that particular manufacturer has standard designs that they always use.
You could do a book on the corporations that build ships and have some of their generic/standard designs as part of the book that could be photocopy as needed.
Just some thoughts
Dave
Like 5 different types of each:
staterooms
bridges
mess/galley
engineering sections
2 different versions of
entertainment/receation areas
ships locker
And 10 different versions of
Hall/corridors
Then you could use the part you need for your RPG during encounters and such
Maybe doing ship lines where that particular manufacturer has standard designs that they always use.
You could do a book on the corporations that build ships and have some of their generic/standard designs as part of the book that could be photocopy as needed.
Just some thoughts
Dave
http://spacecraft.sfrpg.net/plans/02-MG1-01.htm
http://members.aol.com/exog/myhomepage/pictures/lewis/lewis.gif
http://members.aol.com/exog/myhomepage/ice/davis.gif
I don't know if you would consider any of these to be right. Anyway, yeah, deckplans are tough, and that's exactly why your magazine should carry them.
Keklas Rekobah
SOC-14 1K
IMHO: It may be more that designing a multi-deck starship is a little harder than designing a multi-level dungeon, especially when you have to do so from a volumetric economy - there's only so much space you can allocate per compartment, and there's never enough. Oh, and there seems to be some disagreement over how much deck area represents one displacement ton of liquid hydrogen - is it a square that's 1 or 1.5 meters on a side?
Aside from the dTonnage conundrum, here are some suggestions:
1) Select a standard hull configuration for ALL the ships that you design (sphere, cylinder, box, etc.).
2) Design a few different versions of standard modules for each compartment. Some can be scaled up or down to fit different-sized hulls, others (low-, mid-, and high-berthing compartments) will remain fixed in size and simply stacked side-by-side on each deck.
3) Mix and match as needed.
KR
[PS: I just noticed DaveChase's post AFTER I posted this one - great minds really DO think alike!]
Yes, deckplans are great and wonderful to have. And, if the adventure revolves around a relatively small ship, asking for the deckplans for that ship is reasonable.
Deckplans for anything greater than 1000 to 2000 dTons would take an incredible amount of time unless a large number of repeating decks are used and the ship is arranged like a tall cylinder. And, for anything of cruiser size or larger, the deckplans themselves will end up being very large which makes printing them problematic unless the scale is so small that the deckplans become not very usable. The deckplans for just one cruiser could consume an entire supplement (think Azhanti High Lightning). Insisting on deckplans for 20-30 ships from 1000 dTons to 500k dTons in a single supplement seems a bit much.
Ron
Flykiller,
Since you are so good at deckplans, are you going to submit deckplans for the "Spinward Ho!" fanzine? Richard did say that if there was something you'd like to see, the best way to get it is to do it and submit it. Since you obviously have the talent, do you think you could help the rest of us out?
EDIT: Just so you know, this is not a troll, but an actual, honest request, given the quality of your work.
Just a thought,
Flynn
Since you are so good at deckplans, are you going to submit deckplans for the "Spinward Ho!" fanzine? Richard did say that if there was something you'd like to see, the best way to get it is to do it and submit it. Since you obviously have the talent, do you think you could help the rest of us out?
EDIT: Just so you know, this is not a troll, but an actual, honest request, given the quality of your work.
Just a thought,
Flynn
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