 February 5, 2010 - 7:22pm | Been some discussion in the WTOC bail on star wars thread and I wanted to get some discussion just focused on this issue. 1. Do we need an analogue to Dungeon Magazine? something to stand side by with SFman but just focused on adventures & mini modules or a full fledged module each issue. 2 if we need or want an Adventure magazine then what should we call it? Terl Obar has suggested Frontier Adventures which is also the name of an Alaskan travel agency but probably not a problem. Any other good names? 3. what would we want to see in the magazine? 4. In a perfect universe how often would you want to see it come out? 5. Any other thoughts on something I missed. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 5, 2010 - 7:47pm | I like the idea. Start out small, do it as an addendum to the SFman for several issues, then if there is more interest and submissions expand from there. Time flies when your having rum. Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time. |
 February 5, 2010 - 7:53pm | Some comments: 1) It has defininte posibilities. While it might pull a little content from the SFman magazine, it doesn't carry a lot of adventure content right now. Plus it allows them to run on different time scales if needed which it probably does as there will probably be more effort needed to get the adventures ready. 2) I like Frontier Adventures but that is just the first thing that came to mind. I'm sure I'll think of something else as well. 3) There is a couple of possibilites here. You could do a full up module in a single issue. Or you could have an issue contain a bunch of little encounter scenarios. Or you could serialize several adventures and have one section from each one in an adventure. Or some combination of the above, plus other game aids specificly aimed at the adventures although some of that should probably go in SFman. 4) Depending on the format, I'd vote for every 3, 4 or 6 months. The bigger the module included, the more time will be needed for development so you'll need less frequent issues. I'd probably shoot for the 6 month rate and then increase it as more content starts coming in. 5) Nothing else comes to mind at the moment. 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 |
 February 7, 2010 - 9:22pm | Adventures! should continue in the Star Frontiersman. We have another heading called Scenarios that has more information than the Adventures! section. (I'm not sure if they need to be split out)  However, a fully fledged module/adventure/campaign deserves it's own publication. In my opinion Basically Speaking would be a perfect start. Shadow is the Creator, if he gives his blessing someone should take the lead to coordinate the project and get it completed. I've been updating this beast as we publish each issue. (It's a download on sfman.com website)  |
 February 8, 2010 - 7:20pm | I'm very interested in writing up some adventures. A lot of ideas I'd like to use that I don't have the opportunity to play - not in a household that has a lot of gamers. |
 February 11, 2010 - 7:31pm | Why not have adventures in the Star Frontiersman? I think that doing a completely different mag just for adventures just splits resources. Do you have a surplus of articles and adventures? I guess I don't understand the need for a whole new magazine.. At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
February 12, 2010 - 7:36am | While it might pull a little content from the SFman magazine, it doesn't carry a lot of adventure content right now. The webzine doesn't carry a lot of adventure content because nobody submits adventure content.  |
 February 16, 2010 - 3:59pm | That will change. The Article Index page is empty. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 February 16, 2010 - 9:37pm | I'm a huge fan of Dungeon Magazine. I used to subscribe. I never ran a single adventure from its pages directly, but I did use the maps, the storylines, the creatures, and so many ideas. If someone did this for sci fi gaming (and for Star frontiers specifically) I'd be in heaven. If we could get even ONE adventure submission per issue of the starfrontiersman I'd be happy as heck. But if we could get 4-8 per issue, it would warrant its own 'zine. Do you guys think it's even possible to get that kind of submission content? If one of you wanted to tackle it, I know I'd download it. But to be honest, I doubt we could get that kind of submission rate. It's hard enough to put the webzine together with the small size of our submitting community. ya know? It's not about control. Heck - this site was made to be a sandbox for collaborative development of any sort and this idea is a great example of just that kind of thing I hoped to see from here. But I do wonder if we'd ever see sufficient quantity of quality adventures submitted. How the heck did Dungeon get all that? lol 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. |
February 16, 2010 - 10:03pm | I'm definitely willing to tackle it if people think it would be worth it. I agree that we would need a decent submission rate but that rate would depend on the publication rate as well. If it started out as a semi yearly publication (or maybe even 3 times a year), I think there are enough ideas floating around in just the minds of those here that we could put out a decent set of adventures. It doesn't have to be large to start, even 15 pages of material an issue would be great. I could imagine two types of submissions off the top of my head. The first being small one-off encounter scenarios similar to the ones in the early editions of the Star Frontiersman. They would be self contained and could be modified and dropped into any running campaign as part of the plot or a side adventure. The other would be larger pieces, similar to the published modules but published serially over several issues of the magazine. This would have a couple of effects. One, it allows the authors to spread the writing burden out. There isn't a mad rush to get everything done for a specific issue.but rather more time is available to work on it. I think that would help encourage submissions (but maybe not). Second, it provides a hook for readers to keep coming back (that probably isn't necessary but hey!) and the writers/publishers to keep publishing. Also, if the writer did get it done all at once, it provides a submission backlog to fill future issues. I imagine that once the series is done for a given "module" we could then publish it as a complete module as well in a stand-alone form. Since it is starting here, it will definitely have a Star Frontiers flavor to it, but I'm sure we'd quickly pick up FrontierSpace material. And I think we'd definitely keep the format open to other game systems as well. As Bill said, you can always adapt things to your campaign. If it keeps going, I expect we might grow our submitter pool as well as people realize it is a source for publishing their material. 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 |
February 17, 2010 - 6:24am | Lets say that submission rate stay low, put one per SFMan, then later in the year complie all of those into one. Or even every 3-4 SFM issues put out one adventure mag with the previous adventures and maybe a couple more. Time flies when your having rum. Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time. |
February 17, 2010 - 12:13pm | I have modul-ish sized submission on woots desk- a series of encounters but with extra details for a GM to let the players depart a little for the "outline" plus gridded maps for counter or mini use, I've always thought that it was a little rough or slightly unfinished (not sure if woot was expecting more work on it or not) so there is at least one adventure ready though I'm thinking to have another go at touching it up unless its already in issue 14 as we speak. That said maybe a colaborative project for working on adventures is the ticket- use the forums to hash and bash ideas till we have a decent outline of encounters- as much as I come up with ideas i equally feed off the work of others and especially appreciate the imput of more than a few of you. Once rough outline is ironed out (plus at the very least some rough maps) a volunteer (only if you can commit the time) can step in start a first draft write up. it gets compiled to a doc to circulate for feed back in the group then 2nd round of editing goes in. and play testing. after feed back from play testing- 3rd round of editing and packaging for submission. Plenty of room for multiple contributers- artist - sketch and or computer rendered, mapping, writing editing. Big question is should this group be open for all including lurkers to view or should it be slightly exclusive in membership to keep the final submission somewhat fresh for when it hits the zine or even an Adventure Annual? I can play project editor and be responsible for working up a "ladder" and do a lot of the writing. I'm a better editor of other peoples work than my own as the brain will work faster than the fingers and when I re read my stuff the brian "knows" what should be there and I can miss things. If the community thinks this is a good way to proceed and I'll volunteer to start a project and push it along- though I do think we should answer the question above and this in no way will prevent a solo submission by one person who simply wants to write their own. PS the Forbidden Moon adventure could get rolled into this as it started as a community adventure thread. (I've been working on it but it would be a good one to go with this) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 17, 2010 - 1:29pm | Big question is should this group be open for all including lurkers to view or should it be slightly exclusive in membership to keep the final submission somewhat fresh for when it hits the zine or even an Adventure Annual? I like this idea as it seems the most logical to produce larger modules. I would think that it could remain open membership in a project. My guess is that many of the lurkers stay in the open forums and wouldn't have the treat spoiled by reading it in threads before it hits SFman. Note: I lurked only in the open forums before I even touched projects. I lurked without an account here for quite a while. I also wonder what the percentage of SFman readers that read the forums here is. Are there more SFman readers outside this site than in? If so, anything in the open here would not spoil the freshness of the published product. I'm also more likely to be able to help a group module project along than create a full module myself. -iggy -iggy |
February 17, 2010 - 2:23pm | Closed memberships in the Star Frontiers community have failed repeatedly, and don't typically work too hot in other communities either. Projects on this site fail utterly simply because they're not visible enough or maintain interest enough. Letting someone submit a little here and a little there until they've completed the adventure also isn't a good idea, unless they are an established article writter who shows up for every issue. Otherwise, you will end up with a bunch of unfinished modules. A person who doesn't write frequently should turn in a full manuscript and let the editor decide if it needs to be split up. Even with those who show up regularly, I still recommend completing the module before submitting it. You never know what you will need to change in stuff you have already submitted, and you don't know what's going to happen to you tomorrow. That said, I don't think there will ever be enough module, location, and encounter submissions to warrent a Dungeon-like magazine for Star Frontiers. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
February 18, 2010 - 7:51am | I suppose a project like that should have an ideas thread that its explicitly stated on the front page of the project is for ideas or partial ideas. if the thread becomes too long we lock it and start another maybe make it sticky so it stays at the top. other threads would be for the current project. but then someone would have to wield the big keyboard and say this it what we're working on. if there was enough activity I dont see a problem with 2 threads going with work on two different projects though I'd expect one would progress faster and then the other would slow way down. what it wouldn't or shouldn't do is stop people form doing their own thing. - shadow's adventures in history aught to be getting to the place that he could pound out a module. or discuss in the game talk thread an idea to get feed back on it. which then begs the question why not take well discussed threads from the main forum and say ok here's the summary of that thread's ideas lets see what we can do with this for a full up module or maybe this material would just support an encounter but now we're working on it the project forums. Good points Iggy & Ascent lurkers dont do projects (though I did) and open membership promotes activity. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 27, 2010 - 10:52am | How many have played out the adventures found in the webzine? I flipped through my hardcopy of 1-6 and noticed a lot of seed adventures, a Raith Lair. In addition Bill Logan submitted an entire campaign. Maybe Referee's are looking for more module-type articles (filled with npc stat block, read-aloud text, etc). A good start might to be convert those articles into module format. |
 April 16, 2011 - 11:55am | My 2 centicreds... I like the idea of a compilation of 1-4 sci-fi adventures upadated once or twice a year. However the content that has become the dungeon mag isn't a good example for a dedicated Star Frontiers mag. Dungeon accepts submissions for 'generic campaigns' set in a 'non-setting' framework, and occasionaly accepts a few that are setting specific.... publishing perhaps 3 or 4 in one of the 5 to 8 specific settings in a year. I wouldn't expect more than one submission a year would meet rigid Star Frontiers setting scruitiny and be able to take the label, the way dungeon magazine sometimes tacks on the Spell-Jammer, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Dragon Lance (tm)s on some of the adventures submitted, however any set of generic sci fi adventures would benifit the Sci-fi rpg community as a whole. Probbably best to say you want submissions for short generic Sci-fi adventures to be placed in a periodical as a companion to the SFman and its SF setting focus.... and wait till you have enough submissions to publish, and then after putting a few issues out, see how long it takes to get flooded with more submissions than you can proof for content..... that would be a comparison to dungeon mag. Between Dragon and Dungeon Mags they published... how many... three? over five years?... that were specifically Star Frontiers, and somewhere the count I heard was a tentitive nine in total submissions were made in the same time frame..... easily many times that in generic Sci-fi submissions and publishings have been done. Sci-fi is harder to write for than fantasy..... and limit-structured linear-scenario games (Dungeon Crawls), are easier than non-linear open-environment social-interaction games (LARPs)... simple as that. Thats why sci-fi games are full of pirate-chases and bug-hunts, fantasy games are full of crypt-loots and monster-slaughters, and Supers and LARP games frequently suffer the ramp-up and burn-out fate. Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
 April 16, 2011 - 12:25pm | It's an interesting idea specially with the number of kernals of could be expanded into full fledged modules that some of us here (w00t, Jedion, to name a few) constantly come up with. However there would have to be a list of submissions guidelines, a framework would be required to give the modules a uniformity, and a word and or page count. Personally I would love to see new modules being produced for Star Frontiers which is something that came up in a conversation I had with Imperial lord, but because many of us have a lot on our plates, and a large majority of our community fit into the "silent masses" category, would producing an Adventurezine be really viable? I wish I could say yes with certainty but judging by the actually number of people in the community that partake of the forum discussions, or have appeared in the SFman I don't think there would be enough submissions to make an Adventurezine producable with any regularity. Of course I might be proven wrong (and I wish I will be proven wrong). "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
April 16, 2011 - 12:52pm | I'm sorry that I've sounded kind of negative in my post, above, I might just be a little down today. I would love to see whole new Star Frontiers adventures being created, and maybe even some cannon modules being expanded on as I believe Jedion had proposed a while back If I recall, and while I am not anywhere near behind the scenes of the production of the SFman I am just making observations based on the number of active community members that I see being active in both the forum here and who have had articles published in the SFman, and compared to the number of members we have here we seem to have a relatively small group of "overactive" members who are at the forefront of this revival, and a larger group of 'Silent" members. I really wish that more people in our community would become more active around here, and that we could show WOTC what a dedicated group of gamers can produce because they have a passion for a particular game but that will only happen if more people take an active role around here. Of course Gary E. Gygax and a small group of like minded individuals started out with just a passion for gaming and a small set of homebrewed rules and look what happened (before it became an overbloated mess that is). "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
April 16, 2011 - 2:02pm | I'm all about doing what i can, contibuting where it's needed, I don't know how long it might take to put together the project I did pick up... since it is based on a whole movie, it dosn't really fit a submisssion to a magazine, but warents it's own module... I have some other smaller ideas tho', of course, even them there lurkers do I am sure! <points to the person with the doughnut> yea, I think it would take someones time, to accept submissions, review them thoroughly, aprove/disprove/assign que value/and suggest revisions/or edit in full.... possibly even play-test a few... it would be an arduous undertaking, worth a hamburger or two, but would probably have to be done on ramen.... and that shouldn't be allowed to take time from the SFman which needs all that attention and more. But kewl! if enough submissions were gathered to make the atempt of a seperate mag worth it. more than just a couple few to review I think.... but I don't know for sure how many the other magazines started on. Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
