 November 17, 2010 - 11:13am | This has cetainly not been one of the super active projects which is no big deal as not all projects will have that kind of activity. Originally when I joined I didn't really get active in the threads discussing ideas of new races and etc for a few reasons: 1. I felt the existing races were just rough sketches and could use fleshing out 2. a NEW race isn't really a Zebs guide issue IMO as just labeling it under Zebs guide will cause certain people to not even consider using it while listing it under another project or publishing it in the zine might tempt those people to actually check it out- 3. Because of the sometime debate and division over Zebs Guide I felt if we lable this project with that name then we aught to focus on the zebs material and maybe not New Material that could be a better fit for other projects. Proposal: 1. Use the project to develop the Zebs races in ways the Core 4 project has been used to flesh out the core 4 races- the Zebs races really could use it. There has been some good material recently on ifshnits and humma in the fan zine, those races could use more development and the osakar as well. If these are pollished up and presented with better artwork and a more thorough and well thought out background and presented to the community it would go a long way toward rehabilitating Zebs Guide in the eyes of the detractors. 2. After significant work on the races is realized we could branch into other areas. One thing in particular is fleshing out some of the Rim locations. In my work on a new race for SF I strove to not just detail the race but I put a lot of thought into the avenues that evolution took on that race's homeworld and detailed the botany and zoology of the Planet Basilisk (I find one of my greatest objections to using a new race from the fan zine is that the description gives you very little to work with but with a thought out culture, history and home environment my imagination starts to get fired) Also I have a pet peeve over zoologies that read like a D&D monster manuel with all sorts of weird creations- there should be some re-accuring patterns in the zoology and botany of an ecosystem. So step two might be banging out a seriously detailed system brief for one of the Rim systems, covering history, zoology, botany, culture, industry and commerce and suggestions for adventure and maybe even some Warriors of White Light style encounters that are not meant to be a campaign but to support a campaign or plugged into a campaign for filler. These style of encounters will likely be tied to specifice details of the system, its government, economy, zoology or history. 3. plus a neat project that would fall under this project would be an alphebetical guide to cults and cadres in the Frontier sector called "Zebulon's Guide to Cults and Cadres" where every cult, cadre and maybe even political groups mentioned anywhere in SF literature is compiled into one PDF (rules, dragon& polygon mags, modules, and the SFman) all information available on them is included and the source is referenced. File that away in the download section of this project and blab about it in the general forums so that people come by to see what we're doing here. That could be followed up with a Zebulon's Guide to Sentient Aliens Down the road as more new cults or cadres or races are introduce a new edition of those guides could be added and the old edition deleted from the project; we'll just add a subtitle, "2nd Edition" etc. Ultimately the mission of the project, IMO, should be to produce new content for consumption in the community like the recent articles on ifshnits and humma or new PDF docs for down load and use. Certianly other areas of Zebs Guide could be dusted off for expansion in this manner with one exception: column shift mechanics- no one likes them and they were pretty much still born when the original Zebs guide was birthed. (to be fair I liked the idea that how good you rolled your attack influenced how much damage you did but I dont see anyone in the community being convinced to use column shift) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 17, 2010 - 11:20am | Oh yeah and new equipment might not fall under this project- though new equipment is a good thing for the zine. However a re-tooling of zebs equipment and updating it for AD mechanics plus adding some new wrinkles to it would definetly fall under what I envision for this project. Agian the final aim of that is puting it in the hands of players and GMs so the goal would be an article for publication in the SFman. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 November 22, 2010 - 8:41am | Equipment, Race Specific Weapons, etc. These could be discussed here, when completed add the content to the Ultimate Equipment Guide |
 December 8, 2010 - 8:00pm | So in addition to the Core Four, we'll start up with the "Wee Three"? On a more serious note, what does it take to change managers at a project? I went through Aramis' profile and see he hasn't posted anything since early 2008, it's safe to presume he doesn't come here anymore... |
December 8, 2010 - 8:03pm | So in addition to the Core Four, we'll start up with the "Wee Three"? On a more serious note, what does it take to change managers at a project? I went through Aramis' profile and see he hasn't posted anything since early 2008, it's safe to presume he doesn't come here anymore... w00t can do it but so far we just sent him an email to his personal email thats on file. I dont see its needed other than for the ability of the project manager to send out announcement emails. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 8, 2010 - 8:04pm | I was going to nominate you since you seem to have taken cahrge  |
December 8, 2010 - 8:28pm | I was going to nominate you since you seem to have taken cahrge I thought you might being going that way, the thing is I dont want to steal it while another's back is turn and we've never outlined proceedures for what to do when a project needs a new lead and the old is MIA. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 8, 2010 - 9:22pm | And if necessary, w00t and I can send out project announcements in his absence. 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 |
December 18, 2010 - 10:45pm | Discovered a surprise in my email - that I became manager which is cool enough with me. My desire in working on the Zebs project is to knock the dust and cobwebs off of the old guide and revamp, adjust, update, retool, etc or whatever....perhaps we should call it Zebs 2.0 with a view to producing a quality rendering of the existing setting material (I have no interest in the Zebs resolution mechanic) from zebs for the purpose of encouraging its use bu players and GMs alike. (if will be very gratifying to see humma characters gracing PBP games and fiction in the SFman). Number of Major fronts are moving forward: humma, Rim government and military Minor fronts: collecting the cadres and cults into one source document, ifshnits (currently just getting the recent work on them from the zine into the documents section nothing new as yet) ultimate goal should be a comprehensive setting book based on Zebs material for those who'd like to use it. Areas that people could consider turning their tallents to: producing a full on conversion of the Zebs equipment list to AD mechanics- this isn't a big deal for much of the equipment list but tinkering with the weapons will be- I looked at it and it doesn't look so straight forward. If no one takes up this banner on their own I will eventually get around to it but for now I've forbid myself from biting off that bit of leather. One caveat though the new edtion of the zebs equipment done for AD game resolution should be called The Capellan Merchant Catalog (the AD equipment list can be called the Pan Galactic Catalog) IMO. RE: former visions of what this project can and should be- I consider them equally vallid and they are still welcomed here and perhaps I'll take a bit out of those ideas and push them forward eventually but for now there is enough just re-making the existing setting material for popular use in the community. Jedion I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 19, 2010 - 3:50am | Heh heh, good to know my subliminal suggestion carried some weight. Now if I could only do the same with getting sponsored and thus turning my motorcycling hobby into a career... P.S. you forgot to mention revamping the interior artwork. I have a much better flit board rendition on my SF website gallery... |
December 19, 2010 - 9:52am | Heh heh, good to know my subliminal suggestion carried some weight. Now if I could only do the same with getting sponsored and thus turning my motorcycling hobby into a career... P.S. you forgot to mention revamping the interior artwork. I have a much better flit board rendition on my SF website gallery... thank you shadow and you are right that I did forget the revamping of artwork but then its sort of off my grid as I tend to focus on the writing aspects. Artwork is an area where we need to pray that Santa Clause sends us someone who will take on the mantle of Art Director. If I could I'd take some drawing classes and spend some time with my dad who has a BA of Fine arts and use to teach oil painting and eventually I'd probably churn out some half decent art but I think I should stay focused on the writing. However, if we could get 3 or 4 artist that produce 1 piece of art/month in support of the needs of the zine that would totally rock. BTW with art that we do get and the stuff that we do recycle the SFman blows the doors off the Traveller fan zine thats going right now. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 19, 2010 - 11:00am | Heh heh, good to know my subliminal suggestion carried some weight. Now if I could only do the same with getting sponsored and thus turning my motorcycling hobby into a career... P.S. you forgot to mention revamping the interior artwork. I have a much better flit board rendition on my SF website gallery... thank you shadow and you are right that I did forget the revamping of artwork but then its sort of off my grid as I tend to focus on the writing aspects. Artwork is an area where we need to pray that Santa Clause sends us someone who will take on the mantle of Art Director. If I could I'd take some drawing classes and spend some time with my dad who has a BA of Fine arts and use to teach oil painting and eventually I'd probably churn out some half decent art but I think I should stay focused on the writing. However, if we could get 3 or 4 artist that produce 1 piece of art/month in support of the needs of the zine that would totally rock. BTW with art that we do get and the stuff that we do recycle the SFman blows the doors off the Traveller fan zine thats going right now. Don't look at me. I failed Stick Figure Drawing 101. Seriously, I'm willing to tackle what items strike my fancy. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
December 19, 2010 - 1:17pm | Google Docs has a line drawing app you can use in your browser. You could use this to make logos. |
December 19, 2010 - 2:13pm | Drawing is actually rather easy. All you really have to do is look at any object and realize that everything is comprised of a few basic shapes: cylinders, spheres, cubes, and occasional pyramids & cones. For example, a human head is comprised of a sphere (top) and a vertical cylinder (jaw), the chest can be a cylinder or tall box, arms and legs are both two cylinders each, hands and feet are flat boxes with five sets of joined cylinders. The gun is a pair of right angle joined rectangular boxes with a cylinder poking out of one end. A yazirian head is the same as a human head, just add a second cylinder perpendicular to the human jaw for their protruding jaws. Drals are simply speheres and cylinders. A vrusk is a series of cylinders, and I use the basic "motorcycle tank" shape for the head. Add those shapes to your stick figure and you have anatomically correct form. Once you get your basic shapes down for a base, you fill in the details. I failed miserably on colors...so I stick to line art. Inking (turning pencil art into something that can be more easily printed) is another chore, one that I'm constantly working on. |
December 19, 2010 - 5:20pm | Drawing is actually rather easy. So.... we can include you as an artist for the Magazine. Right? :-) |
December 20, 2010 - 2:16am | Yep. As soon as I can get this PC situation squared away... |
