 February 27, 2014 - 10:34am | I know William is busy, so I thought I'd post this up. Get #24 hot off the Port Loren Press  |
 February 28, 2014 - 4:48am | Best issue I've seen in a while...and speedily released ;) . Douglass did a bang-up job on this one. Water, water, everywhere, indeed. I loved the write-ups on the Vincent Callebaut designs. Creatures, creatures and...more creatures! Yay! It's high time we had some water creatures and Rollo did a great job. Nice to see real professional art in this issue. It really gives it a step up. Nicholas Cloister's shrouded serpent image is really interesting and make for a great underwater encounter. I like urbanklaw's frilled serpent image for the same reason. Rollo's tentacled whale is also very interesting. I was never a fan of Todd Lockwood's dragons because of the heads, I like Spiralfish's use of the dragon head in the snaggletoothed pinneped image. It gives it a shark-like appearance. The rasp parasite could induce some good skin-crawling danger. Now we need some underwater environs. The clawed shark is a little over the top, but has a real "holy crap!" factor and seems to fit in nicely with Star Frontiers. I would be inclined to give it a Sathar affiliation because of their tendency for over-the-top dangerous creatures. The bearded serpent image by Chelsea is fantastic! The tentacled slug is fabulous and great for Star Frontiers. The beaked shark image by Abiogenisis looks like it could be real. I like victor's interesting animal descriptions, but he perhaps gives us too much information on animals that won't amount to much in a campaign. Allen Trussell provides us with an adventure pet (charrik), which you may remember my article from issue #9, which will help with how to include pets in a campaign, or it could be used to help a villain detect the heroes. He also provides a pet for villains (Danager's Ripper). The ihoric make for interesting planetary port dangers to vehicles and spaceships. The syrrith is a nice little surprise from above. Truane's hound is a unique predator that is very D&Dish but would work well in Star Frontiers. Ken Ryan's Peeloven make for a unique species. Highlighting adventuring peeloven as "insane" and "unorthodox" allows the players some leeway in presenting the peeloven's personal character, and makes that one perhaps heretical from the "heard instincts" belief. This could present some interesting dichotomies that the individual has to reconcile. I also like his Slirrys with the break-away limbs. I think Daron Patton's Felpa could use some work, but for an underwater species, they are perhaps interesting. Not much of a threat, but he has given them a role as surgeons, which makes them useful, but I'm not sure they would serve well as player characters except when emersed under water. Thus, unless the entire party of fish-men and the entire adventure takes place underwater, I don't see them getting a lot of use. But with some tweaks, I think that could be resolved. I like the Peldasha martial art. Loved seeing new crawler and walker vehicles by Andrew Campbell. Very gritty. Very science-fictiony. And also the lesser rovers and jets. I appreciate the "(ZG)" references. (Exactly the way I would handle it, though "SF:AD" I would simply say "(AD)" with a brief legend.) The Embecker Dance by Nick Pelletier makes for a nice unconventional design, pushing people to think outside the box. All-in-all, a very satisfying read. 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 27, 2014 - 5:31pm | As mentioned elsewhere, I was thinking of watery things and SF. THanks! |
 February 28, 2014 - 12:43pm | I have greatly enjoyed every issue of SFMan and this one is no exception! Lots of goodies buried between the pages to enhance and personalize your SF universe. I'm particularly drawn to the lilypad, the vehicles, the Embecker Dance and the derth of creatures that made it into this issue. But really, there's a place at my gaming table for everything contained within. :D And yes, as always, William has done an excellent job putting it all together! Also inside this issue was a thumbnail image of the cover of Balneum Blue (art by Khairul Hisham www.hishgraphics.com). The creatures that I statted out and that were contained in this issue of SFMan where the creatures that didn't make it into the Balneum Blue adventure - mainly due to space and a lack of art. When I wrote the adventure I statted 100 creatures for it so Balneum Blue will have many more aquatic creatures to choose from once it's out. If the adventure itself doesn't pass muster at least it should suffice as a fairly lengthy list of aquatic creatures to draw from for other worlds and/or inspiration. I don't have to outrun that nasty beast my friend...I just have to outrun you!  |
 February 28, 2014 - 11:17pm | If anyone has wondered, I think the Lily pads are a vrusk thing. They are beautiful and functional. Just what a vrusk floating city might be. Then again, they might not like the water? I hope this issue is enjoyable and thanks for the comments, I really do appreciate any feedback. |
