 August 20, 2012 - 7:00pm | StarFrontiersman #18 is up and we would like your feedback. New stuff awaits your viewing. http://starfrontiersman.com/downloads/starfrontiersman |
 August 20, 2012 - 7:45pm | Yahoo! Now I just need to download and read it.  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 |
August 20, 2012 - 8:02pm | There is a printer friendly version too. |
 August 20, 2012 - 8:02pm | Downloaded, looks cool at a glance but I must not read it until I get a couple of 3d models finished and textured. |
 August 20, 2012 - 8:19pm | Downloaded, looks cool at a glance but I must not read it until I get a couple of 3d models finished and textured. Nonsense! Fun before work!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. |
August 20, 2012 - 8:49pm | I'm only on page 14 but I have a couple of initial reactions to the new layout (comments on content will come later). I pretty much only read the SFMan on my tablet these days (10.1" Motorola Xoom) and the font size in this issue is just a bit small. I've found myself squinting to try to read the articles. I could just zoom in but then I have to scroll up and down to read everything and I find that a bother, I much prefer to have the full page visible. It's readable but barely, I compared it to the previous issue and it looks like the font size dropped a little (probably one point). It's actually even an issue on my 25.6" (1920x1200) monitor. In fact, it's worse there since I actually hold my tablet close enough that its angular size is bigger than a full screen height image of the zine on the monitor. Since this is primarily an electronic magazine destined to be read on e-readers and computer screens, I'd recommend going back to the bigger font in the future. Of course, that's just me being picky since I don't like to zoom in and scroll around but have full page views. On the positive side, I like the new border in the full version. Although it's probably good there is a printer friendly version as well as I think this one would take up even more ink than the old one . But that doesn't matter to me as I don't print them out (and even if I did it would be the full version as I don't mind using the ink.)And of course I'm stoked that my logo made it into the zine and the ad for the Frontier Explorer made it as well. 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 |
August 20, 2012 - 9:30pm | Downloaded, looks cool at a glance but I must not read it until I get a couple of 3d models finished and textured. Nonsense! Fun before work!Fun work before fun fun. :) I have a date with a Thai bistro and the latest issue tomorrow around noon. |
 August 21, 2012 - 1:39am | This is awesome. I have not read it from cover to cover but I have given it a good look over. Thanks for all of your hard work. |
 August 21, 2012 - 6:28am | Great issue. The interview with Zeb Cook was a nice anniversary surprise! I like the new look as well. |
 August 21, 2012 - 7:03am | Great issue. The interview with Zeb Cook was a nice anniversary surprise! I like the new look as well. That the sathar SHOULD be a playable race?  Thanks to jedion357 for this interview, w/o him we wouldn't have the truth! |
August 21, 2012 - 8:49am | That the sathar SHOULD be a playable race? Thanks to jedion357 for this interview, w/o him we wouldn't have the truth! I was really surprised in the interview how badly the company messed things up for the game. I guess I shouldn't be surprised-it explains a lot of the schizophrenia in the rules and setting. |
 August 21, 2012 - 9:17am | I'm actually very proud of the interview with Zeb and did my research on him including reading other interviews he gave. I had three goals 1. Find out what he knows about the game's development- get some insight to the things we tend to fuss over that have lain unresolved for 30 years to which I largely failled but it was perhaps to much to ask to get these things resolved. 2. Find out what a master knows about game design and module writing in general- get some advice on paper from a master game developer for prospective game designers and referees 3. Find out what he knows about the passing guard- In light of the passing of some of the greats like Gygax and Arnson I thought I should try to get some light on those luminaries from someone who could tell us something and I especially liked the veiw Zeb gave us of Gary as a GM and mentor. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 21, 2012 - 10:52am | The interview was my favorite part of this issue. It was a great tie-in for this year. Thanks Tom for getting that and your hard work on the rest of your articles. |
August 21, 2012 - 11:09am | ^ Mine too. I thought you did a fantastic job Tom. Goal #1 was a big one. I'm a firm believer in Once Far Off's Maxim of Accomplishment which states: "One thing is a hundred percent more than zero things." I felt the tone of his responses did a lot to shed light. |
August 21, 2012 - 11:11am | The interview was my favorite part of the zine too! 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. |
 August 21, 2012 - 2:18pm | Sweet! Excellent work y'all. :D I was particularly drawn to the alien generator article, the catastrophic settings article, Discovery and the basilisk section. Good stuff...looking forward to using it next time I get to play. :D I don't have to outrun that nasty beast my friend...I just have to outrun you!  |
August 21, 2012 - 5:20pm | If you liked Discovery, the entire book has been done since December. You can get the full story here: http://newfrontiergames.com/Discovery 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 |
August 21, 2012 - 5:36pm | Tom, next time you write we need to include a link - totally spaced on that one. |
August 21, 2012 - 7:40pm | Got to read it today. Excellent work, really nice issue. I really liked the interview as well, probably my favourite part (as others have said). It might be interesting to have interviews of module creators and others in the future. It can be interesting to know more about the thought process behind the designs. Nitpicky things: The font is a tad small, on tablets and HD monitors it's a chore to read even with 20/15 vision. On a regular lcd monitor it's fine. The Santa Maria ship image/stats seem disconnected from anything else. Maybe a headline ('Ship Spotlight'?) with the image and a short description of what it's doing there? |
 August 21, 2012 - 7:41pm | The Zeb interview was really enlightening - Hell, it really changes the scope of the game! Imagine SF as an open-ended rule-set, with the established Frontier as a sample setting, and lots of ideas to make your own setting? The funny thing is, that Traveller started off the same way; with the Imperium as a sample setting. This is something I strongly support, as I see the potential for a wide-range of homebrew settings. I would love to see more homebrew settings around here! |
August 21, 2012 - 7:50pm | Tom, next time you write we need to include a link - totally spaced on that one. When I submitted it, there wasn't a link to provide as I was only half way done with the book. I did send William the link later when he asked me about it but it must of gotten lost in the shuffle.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 |
August 21, 2012 - 9:29pm | The link was my fault, Tom, I had included the link, then during some changes it vanished. So I will take that as a point to double check. Besides, I own a copy and have read it. I really liked it. |
 August 21, 2012 - 9:34pm | The Zeb interview was really enlightening - Hell, it really changes the scope of the game! Imagine SF as an open-ended rule-set, with the established Frontier as a sample setting, and lots of ideas to make your own setting? The funny thing is, that Traveller started off the same way; with the Imperium as a sample setting. This is something I strongly support, as I see the potential for a wide-range of homebrew settings. I would love to see more homebrew settings around here! I like the way you think on this. My friends and I actually started several of our own settings when game products stopped being produced. My setting was basis for what you see now in my Titan Rising project and my friends setting was based on Wartech being the predominant corp in the Frontier instead of Pan Gal. We both moved away from the Sathar as an adversary well after we had played the sathar modules to death. The funny thing is I always assumed this is the way the game should be played...as in create your own game universe to play in (or you can play in the provided one if you like). In this manner, Zeb's comments didn't suprise me. I was a little suprised that the Sathar were planned as a player race but when you look beyond the texts and the modules you can kind of see it set up that way in the manuals and an apparent re-write changed the concept. I respect Zeb's comments about staying away from sci-fantasy and supertech but sometimes have the fun of a plot device like a bap bin teleporter is that it is a story element and not the sort of cheat the players get all the time. But, if you did allow player access to such tech you just got level the playing field with limitations or more challenging scenarios. |
 August 21, 2012 - 10:01pm | I really liked the interview with Zeb Cook. I have always wanted to ask the homeworld questions. I'm happy with the answers too. I'm tickled to see my Legend of the First Clan in the 'zine too. Thanks Jedion for putting it into your article. -iggy |
August 21, 2012 - 10:11pm | I also had a hard time with the font size. -iggy |
August 22, 2012 - 10:13am | @TerlObar - just finished reading Discovery. Great read! Thanks for the link. |
August 22, 2012 - 11:23am | I really liked the interview with Zeb Cook. I have always wanted to ask the homeworld questions. I'm happy with the answers too. I'm tickled to see my Legend of the First Clan in the 'zine too. Thanks Jedion for putting it into your article. Well I am an idea whore, I grab ideas everywhere and yours was just so good I didn't see the need to rework it as it stands on its own. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 22, 2012 - 12:07pm | The reason for the font size and selection was as follows... I recently retyped every word of the Alpha Dawn Basic book rather than rely on the OCR scans from Tim's site and am planning a re-remastering of that book. In doing so I saught a font size and spacing that causes the exact same line and page breaks as the original book, so that page numbers will all match up. The result showed that Star Frontiers was very close to Calibri 9 point with a 1.1 line spacing and very specifically sized columns. I figured if the format was good enough for the game we're all talking about then it would be good enough for our webzine :-) But if you guys are wanting this to go on an ebook reader, then we can totally adapt. I guess I'm an old schooler who prints my stuff out and uses print at the gaming table... gosh I feel old now! haha I had no idea so many of you used ebook readers. William - I'm sure we can bump up the font a point or so in issue 19. Can someone who uses an ebook reader bring up the Fanzine Manifesto and take a look at it? It is using an 11 point Calibri font. How does that compare to the 9 point font in use on the rest of the book? Would that size suffice? Seems kinda big to me, but if it solves criticism then I'm all for it. Might make a 110 page issue though 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. |
 August 22, 2012 - 2:40pm | Out of curiosity, do y'all receive more content than you can print? |
August 22, 2012 - 2:54pm | I had no idea so many of you used ebook readers. William - I'm sure we can bump up the font a point or so in issue 19. Can someone who uses an ebook reader bring up the Fanzine Manifesto and take a look at it? The 'Fanzine Manifesto' page is a perfect size on a 10.1" droid. The next page, FrEx mag advert, is no easier to read than it although it appears to use a larger/stronger font. The font two pages down in the classifieds which I guess is the same as the rest of the issue, is a little small. Personally I can read it, it's just not optimal/comfortable. Regarding eReaders in general I am with you, I'd rather buy a print edition of all this SF stuff (and books) than use electronic versions. Alas that is not the way the world is heading. Star Frontiers material is the only stuff I use in electronic format, 3 months after buying a tablet I've still yet to finish a kindle book. |
