 October 17, 2011 - 12:10pm | One issue that has been prevalent is printing the zine in black and white leaves you with some really dark art. I'm looking my copy of issue 17of from Lulu. A lot of the CGI art is dark and that may be just the nature of the beast- not sure if the artist can make adjustments in color choice and density that will still look good. However, one thing that did look good is the art in the trade goods article and shells drawings of the creatures. These look, on the computer screen to have been done with colored pencil and they look fine in black and white- perhaps the color saturation is just low enough that they look fine. The other sort of art that looks fine is straight line drawings in black ink. So we still have options for art I guess we need to just remind ourselves to think critically of what were using. No doubt we'll be forced to continue to use the dark stuff which is OK since the zine has a larger electronic circulation then printed circulation. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 17, 2011 - 12:14pm | Note to Larry: the lower right corner of the back cover is where Lulu puts a white box and the bar code partially obscuring the classified in that location. We should leave this space empty or put a futuristic looking bar code that it won't matter if Lulu covers over. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 17, 2011 - 12:21pm | LOL, when I saw the title I immediately thought "Oh no, not another SF.org forum thread"... |
October 17, 2011 - 12:39pm | LOL, when I saw the title I immediately thought "Oh no, not another SF.org forum thread"...
Took me a minute to get that :)
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 17, 2011 - 1:10pm | LOL, when I saw the title I immediately thought "Oh no, not another SF.org forum thread"... LOL. I did to actually.Jedi has a good point. When I'm proofing the issues, I always print in grayscale and some of the art just doesn't work. As he said, there probably isn't much we can do about it given how hard it is to get enough art but it is something to think about. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 October 17, 2011 - 1:19pm | Hey, jedion's job is to  down the artist. Or was that up?Anyway, I'm sure when we request artwork we can specify lighter art. Art that is donated comes to us as-is. Don't be an arty farty hater. Man. |
October 17, 2011 - 4:31pm | Shells art works real good for printing but all of it makes the zine look good as a PDF. We could also offer the option to pruchase it as full color on lulu- virtually doubles the cost but.... I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 18, 2011 - 7:50am | I received my first print copies of DwD stuff last night from lulu: Alpha Dawn, Knight Hawks, Gamma Dawn, and Star Frontiersman #1. Haven't spent a ton of time with them yet, but I thought the illustrations looked pretty good. I wished some of the (imported?) art looked better--for example, the Elmore illustration on the cover of Alpha Dawn looks like a low quality jpg that's been enlarged just a bit much. That said, I only ordered those materials to throw money at DwD for the amazing work you're doing, and to have a print resource at the table for the players to thumb through and pass around, and these will do very nicely. I'm pretty happy with them. |
October 18, 2011 - 9:14am | (SNIP)That said, I only ordered those materials to throw money at DwD for the amazing work you're doing, and to have a print resource at the table for the players to thumb through and pass around, and these will do very nicely. I'm pretty happy with them.
Thanks Drammattex! Just a note that we don't make a penny off Star Frontiers. Print copies are provided "at cost" with no profit. Consider ordering the Adventure Idea Factory or Dark Times in Brighton. Moore products are on the way! :-) Here's a few in the DwD pipe-line; MegaCorp (Far future sci-fi board game) Bare Bones Game System (Fantasy and Sci-Fi) based on d00 Lite. Dunjonworx (Fun, light card game. Build a dunjon, screw your opponents.) Frontier Space (Premier sci-fi RPG based on d00 System) I plug product and toilets!  |
October 19, 2011 - 12:59pm | Oh no! I had really hoped that buying a few of those in print would have contributed to your coffers! Ah well, it'll be nice to have something for the players to reference at the table.I did buy the Adventure Idea Factory last week (pdf). I feel like Bill and I are of the same mind on many many things--improvising around the random parameters you set for yourself in the Adventure Idea Factory, for instance. I'm sure I'll check out Dark Times in Brighton eventually, if for nothing else than to support DwD.  P.S. I'm TOTALLY interested in Megacorp. Can't wait to see that. |
 October 19, 2011 - 4:59pm | P.S. I'm TOTALLY interested in Megacorp. Can't wait to see that. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
October 19, 2011 - 5:23pm | Can't you pdf it and offer it for sale at lulu.com or other such outlet? |
October 19, 2011 - 5:59pm | Can't you pdf it and offer it for sale at lulu.com or other such outlet? yeah... but the game isn't very useful/fun when it's just a bunch of printed out pieces of paper. The game has a 20" x 20" full color game board which quad-folds. It has several chipboard tokens of various types (representing interstellar corporate headquarters, starships, armaments, control markers, resource production, etc.). It has several colors of wooden cubes representing cargo of various resource types. Basically - it just has a lot of pieces. Print and play just wouldn't do it justice.3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
October 19, 2011 - 7:54pm | Megacorp is a lot of fun. I enjoyed making it and enjoy playing it. ... Wish I had a way to sell it at-cost to all of you guys...
I've been so impressed with the Star Frontiersman and the little additions to the end of Alpha Dawn that I started actively looking through all the other DwD stuff on the site. Bought the Adventure Idea Factory. Found the description of Megacorp. By this point I'm already a fan of the work you folks at DwD do, so Megacorp looks especially enticing. I think it was this part that really grabbed me though: "There are no dice or cards to this game. It's all about what you can and can't do, what you can convince others you can or can't (or won't) do, and how well you can out-think your opponents." Economy of actions. Sounds great. |
October 20, 2011 - 12:17pm | Another thought about Megacorp: Obviously I have no idea how to implement this, but I wonder how difficult it would be to get it made as an iPod/iPad game. Not your intent, I'm sure, but from what I hear, Reiner Knizia is doing a lot of his design there these days. Had a conversation this morning with a friend who's a board game fiend, but says he plays even more games with his wife since they got an iPad. I wonder if it could start electronic and then go print? I'll keep my ear out for publication avenues when I'm at conventions and such. Some of the folks I know might be able to offer some insight, and if you think that's helpful I'd be glad to ask/pass it on. As I said, I like what you've done with the other DwD products so I'm very interested to see what you've done with Megacorp. |
October 20, 2011 - 11:34am | A free AP for the smart phone! Then I can play while delivering food. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 20, 2011 - 7:51pm | Another thought about Megacorp: Hrm... well, I AM a programmer by trade, I'm sure I could figure out how to do an ap for smartphones or ipads. But I'm an old-school-board-gamer who detestes the idea lol.Obviously I have no idea how to implement this, but I wonder how difficult it would be to get it made as an iPod/iPad game. Not your intent, I'm sure, but from what I hear, Reiner Knizia is doing a lot of his design there these days. Had a conversation this morning with a friend who's a board game fiend, but says he plays even more games with his wife since they got an iPad. I wonder if it could start electronic and then go print? I'll keep my ear out for publication avenues when I'm at conventions and such. Some of the folks I know might be able to offer some insight, and if you think that's helpful I'd be glad to ask/pass it on. As I said, I like what you've done with the other DwD products so I'm very interested to see what you've done with Megacorp. I have another board game nearing completion called Dunjonworx. It's a lite beer & pretzels card game playable by 2-4 players in around 15-30 minutes. I play it with my kids and wife and we all enjoy it. Comes with a deck of 108 cards, 12 hero pawns, and an instruction sheet (just front and back of one page). I'm going to have it for sale on thegamecrafter.com soon. Probably will sell for around 15.99 (that's almost cost, I think I'll earn like 15 cents on it haha... print on demand is so much more expensive than I'd like). 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
