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 February 4, 2011 - 10:52am | I know I'm crazy, but I'm working on multiple projects at once right now. Currently I'm very happy with the 4.5 version of the Zebulon's Guide to Animals of the Frontier. I've got a 24 page section done describing all the information that is presented in the stat blocks, plus other details that might prove useful, and I've updated creatures from A to D so far, with cool new details about each creature's ecology. I figure that this will be the first crossover guidebook that'll be coming out of this project. once its done I plan to convert all the creatures in this estimated at 145 page book to classic Star Frontiers stats, and figure out how they'll reach the community. A sample of these creatures I think might be showing up soon in the SFman already converted to classic Star Frontiers stats but I will say that the new versions in the book will probably have a little more info then what will appear in the Magazine (mostly ecological data). Anyway that's the update. "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 |
February 8, 2011 - 9:34am | This is either going to be a really big book, or I'm going to have to split it into two books, each about 150+ pages long. I will probably split it up, but I don't know if I should split up the creatures into Alphabetical order (you know book one, A-J, book two K-Z) or book one creatures from the most common Frontier worlds (those everyone is familiar with) and book two, all the rest. The problem with doing either way is having enough creatures in either book. I guess I could just come up with creatures to reach a quota, but I hate just creating things to fill X amount of space. Any suggestions? "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 |
 February 8, 2011 - 10:55am | I start by generating the full list of creatures and then see how it breaks down. Maybe a book for the core worlds and one for the Rim or maybe alphabetical and chop it in the middle as you suggested. Or maybe once you've got the list you'll see some other pattern emerge that makes sense. 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 11, 2011 - 6:21pm | I decided to create two volumes to the Animals of the Frontier guide, the first volume will include only animals that exist in the major planets of the Frontier that are common in both the expanded universe, and in Classic SF. I also decided that as I put these creatures together I'll work on classic SF stats at the same time and when I hit a nice number (maybe 6 or ten creatures) I'll send them off to the SFman. I think this will work out best because the community will get to play with the creatures and those of you (hopefully) using the URS rules can have them too. It's a little more work, but I want to make sure I give back to the community. "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 |
February 14, 2011 - 11:22pm | These books are getting off to a bit of a slow start, because I'm trying to make each creature interesting, and not just a bunch of stats on a piece of paper. Also I'm trying to make sure the creatures mesh well with the planet that I'm creating them for. Oh and did I mention that I'm also giving each creature classic SF stats as well? The Classic SF versions will be submitted to the magazine in blocks of six to ten and so far I have created the Anthrope, and Golden horned Anthropes of Cassidine two related animals with curious effects on Yazirians, and the mischievous Snow-faced Monkey's of Cryxia which are a favored pet of Dralasites everywhere. I'm hoping to have the first batch of creatures ready for submission to the zine by the end of the week (actually the second batch if you count the creatures of White Light I submitted a while back). I promise that this freaking cold is not going to stop me from working on this little obsession of mine. "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 |
February 17, 2011 - 11:01pm | Looks like when I wake up today I'll get back to working on those Animals of the Frontier. I figure I should be able to get in enough creatures to send out the Article as well. I am considering if I should send out several generic animal templates along with the creatures in the article. I have templates for generic Herd animals, Primates, and Fish of various sizes which might be useful for Referees looking for generic stats they can flesh out or use in a pinch. After all I'm always looking for stuff to make a Referee's job easier. Something that w00t mentioned long ago about monsters from the Monster Manuals looking sci-fi enough for the Frontier came up again today as I was working on another little project (transferring my creature conversions for my Sword&Sorcery rules set to 4.5 compatability) and there are a lot of creatures that if tweaked really would make great Star Frontier's creatures. Might be something I'll work on for the Zebulon's guides to Creatures of the Frontier...but that's something that won't happen for a while yet (there are at least 6 books that have to be finished first at least). "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 |
February 21, 2011 - 9:38am | The Argh!! department resurfaces. Okay so I'm working on the Animals of the Frontier, and I ran into a major stumbling block....compatability issues. Okay here's the problem, in a nutshell, The Frontier Worlds in the Star Frontier's (URS) are a clean slate for me. I am not going to import any of the star systems in the canon games, the names may be the same in some cases, but I am planning to create a whole new Frontier...For example The Prenglar in the Expanded Frontier is a binary star system with I believe 8 planets three of which fall into the habitable zone, with two of them being garden worlds, and one of them I believe being classified as either a failed garden world, or a post garden world. Anyway the problem that then arises is making the creatures backwards compatable. one of my goals as I've stated many times with the animal guide is giving back to the community by making each creature have a Classic Star Frontier's counterpart, but what if the environments of the planets do not match? While White light turned out pretty much compatable, a kind of wet temperate world so the creatures are an easy fit, what if that isn't the case elsewhere. I have a possible solution with something I'm working on for the SFman for these future articles that were going to introduce the many races of the Star Frontiers URS project in a series of Articles called the "Beyond the Frontier series" which was to create these multipage miniguides for the expanded universe redone in classic Star Frontier Style that would include a star system overview, the major planet and it's race, and several creatures found in the races homeworld. however I didn't want to have to do that with the star systems that have been so well documented in the zine. so I'm stuck with the compatability issue again. Any suggestions? "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 |
February 28, 2011 - 10:29pm | Decided to forge ahead on this project and see where it goes. I am trying to decide how many creatures are a good sampling for each planet and decided that there should be at least one of the following: 1 Aquatic type for worlds with any kind of body of water 1 Avian type 1 amphibian/or reptile 2 or three types of herd animals and at least 3-5 specials. I think this should give a good enough sampling of the Animal life on a planet, and offer enough creatures to fill a few guidebooks just on Animals alone. Of course there will be other types of creatures in subsequent books but that's a future project..... "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 |
March 11, 2011 - 11:21am | This is becoming the book from hell. I have enough creatures to fill about 165 pages but there are not enough creatures in the book that showcase the creature of the main planets in the Frontier so I have to write up a bunch of creatures specifically for these planets. So the frustrating part becomes finishing the updates on the creatures I've already created, then writing up new creatures and naming them (the hard part for me) and then shuffling them into the creature guide. This process is a lot slower than I ever expected, which is bugging me, because I want to give you guys new stuff to play with but I don't see this guide shaping up in a timely fashion. I guess I should be happy that you guys will get some of the new creatures in Classic Star Frontiers format before this book comes out but I hate the thought of not having new material coming out for this project for an extended period of time, and both projects I'm working on (The Zebulon's guide to the Core systems, and this one) are taking a bit more time then I'm used to, but require a bit more work to get them ready for you guys. But I guess as long as I'm moving forward instead of getting stuck things are going well right? "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 |
