Book

Critical Hits

By The Illustrator  |  2009/05/24 21:49 Posted in Book, Other Systems, Review  |  Comments (0)

Dave T. Gamer commented on my site recently, and pointed me in the direction of CthulhuTech. I like it by the way, but it isn’t free, so it’s just going to have to wait until after I’ve checked out D20, which is a free RPG.

Before I approved his comment I followed my usual procedure of checking his link, the one that will be left on my site in the comment, to see if it is porn or some other unsavory content. I always do this and I’m always blown away by the quality of the websites out there in The RPG Bloggers network. Dave’s site in particular is a very professional blog written by someone with an obvious love of the games/comics field.

Critical Hits

What Dave says here for example, about a D20 sci-fi RPG based around Star Trek is exactly the sort of thing I’m toying with at the moment.

I’ve also been reading Dune again.

 

I’d forgotten what an interesting background it is for science fiction role playing games. The jihad against computers which replaced them with humans trained, and probably altered, to do the same job gives a background with a primitive medieval flavour which has spaceships at the same time. Nice. I couldn’t see myself adopting a pure Dune background for my role-playing games however, because I love droids too much and Dune doesn’t have any. But a Dune-like setting where the jihad wasn’t completely successful and there are still robots and artificial intelligences around (discriminated against and misunderstood, forced into the shadows) – now that might be interesting.

Sci Fi author responsible for Battlestar Galactica offers free online writing course, and some free eBooks (but are they any good).

By The Illustrator  |  2009/05/15 18:36 Posted in Book, Editorial, Illustration, Other Systems, Review, Spaceships  |  Comments (0)

sf_bookworm_logo copy Jeffrey A. Carver always posts his latest science fiction novels on his website to download for free, although they are real books and will be published in the print medium too, and that’s brought him to my attention. I’m always searching for free sci-fi eBooks you see.

It turns out that this author also offers an online science fiction writing course at http://www.writesf.com/ and is the creative talent behind the novelization of the Battlestar Galactica Sc-Fi TV series.

I just finished reading Sunborn, after having it lurking in the inards of my laptop for a long time, downloaded but forgotten and forlorn as I worked on creative stuff for my sci-fi RPG blog. Creative stuff like resources pages of spaceships, planets, monsters, droids and starmaps – all with one eye on their use in sci-fi role playing games – had been getting in the way of me reading science fiction for fun. But then I realized that science fiction books are some of the most useful resources for science fiction role-playing games such as Traveller, and I added this sci-fi bookworm slot to the blog, along with the nifty bookworm logo art.

And if science fiction books are a good resource for role-playing games then free sci-fi eBooks are even better (because they don’t cost anything, and because you don’t have to drag yourself down to the local Borders or Barnes and Noble to find them). So I remembered Sunborn in its resting place within my laptop, imported it into Mobipocket, transferred it to my Smartphone and started to read – mostly on the tram to work, and in my lunch breaks.

After reading for a chapter or two it dawned on me that it was the third installment in a trilogy. But luckily for me it stands alone very well; it even drops hints about the previous installments in this sci-fi opus without spoiling them. In fact I think I’ll probably be reading the second installment of the trilogy next.

I was struck from the very beginning with the role-playing game ambience of this story; the number of characters for instance is very reminiscent of a group of player characters. There are a handful of them to get to grips with right form the get go in chapter one who adventure together like a party of science fiction role-playing game player characters working their way through a game scenario. The linear plot and the fact that the characters are forced, like it or not, to undertake their perilous mission only add to this feeling. Each character is interesting and they share a bunch of experiences, from the earlier installments of this trilogy of internet science fiction eBooks.

With so many characters from all over the galaxy there is a lot of communication between different life forms, which is glossed over a little bit, but even at this level of detail there are a lot of pages with just talk, and I could have survived with less of it.

There are a lot of very imaginative ideas on the other hand; stuff that grabs the attention of the game master and is just crying out to be included in a game setting. There is for example the idea that stars are intelligent, which is intriguing, and the story is populated with even more imaginative and strange creatures than that. There seems to be the potential for emergent intelligence in any complex system, and this rings true for me.
I also very much liked the sense of history this work of eBook fiction has. It is normal for characters to discover the ruins of eons dead civilizations in science fiction, but this free sci-fi eBook has the remnants of almost extinct ancient civilizations speculating about beings so old that they are hardly more than a myth to them. I love stuff like that. There is a great abundance of ideas about where research and discovery can take us, and although there are challenges an threats, this vision of a possible sci-fi future is very benign.
The element that really caught my attention for use in role-playing games though was the spaceships. The alien spaceship in the story is a very advanced structure which has a hull generated exclusively by force fields; and the poor human passenger has to be reassured that the generators foe these fields are very reliable, and there are backups. This force field structure means that the layout of the ship, although it contains physical structure too, can be changed relatively rapidly. The idea suddenly dawned on me that I needn’t spend hours creating deckplans for high tech level spaceship RPG designs (I complain about how long deckplans take to produce in this post). All I need to do is note somewhere in the game stats that the spaceship is almost infinitely reconfigurable – a contemptible, lazy and unworthy shortcut – but very tempting none the less.

Along with this free sci-fi eBook, I have also read and reviewed a whole load of other science fiction that is freely available for download around the internet.
Including: Ventus, a great free sci-fi eBook which starts out as a middle ages set bit of fantasy, sword and sorcery and turns into a really interesting exploration of nanotech.

and Star Dragon, a truly inventive chunk of sci-fi that brings the effects of interstellar distances home with some force, essential reading for any Traveller game master.

I also found this cool sci-fi fiction magazine. It has some high quality stuff too, and I’ll keep searching.

Sci-Fi Book Worm, looking for – and finding – inspirational SF for role-playing games like Traveller

By The Illustrator  |  2009/04/26 13:11 Posted in Book, Illustration, Other Systems, Review, eBook  |  Comments (0)

sf_bookworm_logo copySci-Fi bookworm column, with cool robobookworm illustration.

A Sci-Fi Ezine, wow. 

My thoughts on the free science fiction inspiration I find dotted around the interweb is proving popular(ish) and I have promoted it to being a regular part of the Starbright mix of stuff for use as inspiration, illustration and resources for role-playing games.

My latest download is the Concept Sci-Fi Ezine, which is readable with Mobipocket on my Samsung smartphone the way I do most of my reading these days. I’m not reviewing the latest issue however, the issue I’m reading has been hiding in the dark recesses of my hard drive for some time – waiting for me to get round to it.

The art is nice and the thing has a professional-enough look, but what about the content. IT TURNS OUT NOT TO BE TOO BAD. It isn’t a Parker Dozios collection or anything (Parker’s collection is the bench mark for Sci-Fi short stories,

 

and his round up of science fiction resources is a must have, every year, for any role-playing geek who’s into science fiction) but it is full of cool sci-fi ideas that can easily be cannibalized for role-playing games and it’s fun to read.

The first story is a Blade Runner-like slice of cyberpunk, but if you`re into hard science fiction and space opera like me there are still some nice elements to be mercilessly ripped off for inspire your role-playing games.

That first cyberpunk story comes from Jaine Fenn and a trip to her site is well worth the click. (Though there could be a few more links if you ask me, I love links.)

Jaine Fenn’s Occasional Blog

The free sci fi ebook I found last week was great, now for the next one.

By The Illustrator  |  2009/04/06 22:04 Posted in Book, Illustration, Review, Spaceships, role-playing game  |  Comments (1)

spaceship_amulet

The science fiction story I found last week, see previous sci fi ebook post, as an inspiration for Traveller role-playing games seemed really good as soon as I found it, but it has gone on to exceed my high expectations for it. That it was an inventive setting which combined nanotechnology and medieval elements was obvious from the beginning and it just kept on adding interesting ideas to the mix. One of the pivotal plot points was the importance of what was called a language game, an attempt by artificial intelligences to invent their own language and language categories to be sure that they were not parroting human ideas. But it became a language whose categories became so different that the language become untranslatable to a human tongue – even in principle. I loved it, and it’s a great idea for a science-fiction role playing game as well.

I found both Ventus and Star Dragon on the this site dedicated to free ebooks of all genres and so I decided to go back to the same well and see if I could find yet another top-class slice of inspirational science fiction to use as part of my role-playing game world building and scenario designing process. It seems like I’m in luck. They have an ebook called Sunborn and it’s free, but only for a limited time. It seems to be nice hard edged science fiction and the .prc file is nicely done and even includes professional cover art for use on my virtual bookshelf. I’ll let you know what I thought of it in the next post.

My pages of resources for use with Traveller and other science fiction role-playing games haven’t grown very much lately, and all I can say is oops sorry. I have caught the fiction bug and when I’m not reading science fiction (free when possible, downloaded to my smartphone) I have been writing my own over-ambitious narrative. I’ll get it out of my system soon and get back to the RPG content and illustrations. I always come back to role-playing games and illustration eventually, it’s in my blood, and when I do it always seems that I’m energized by all the stuff I’ve been reading in the mean time. I hope that’s a more satisfying excuse than the fact that my real job, translation, has been keeping me too busy lately but that’s also true.

sleepy_obama_fan I’m living in Austria at the moment and me and my girlfriend just nipped over the border to Prague this weekend to be there when Obama gave his speech on nuclear disarmament. More photos at Kooky Photography It was a fascinating experience and Prague is a lovely and strange mixture: a refined and huge sprawling ancient European city with exquisite buildings and architecture which has been taken over by students, punks, tourists and other revelers. When you add the hordes of police, helicopters and motorcades associated with the presidential visit the city itself took on the feeling of a post apocalyptic role-playing game setting.

My next Free SF Ebook that I’m checking out — KarlSchroeder.com

By The Illustrator  |  2009/03/30 21:10 Posted in Book, Illustration, Review, role-playing game  |  Comments (1)

pretty_monster_head I’ve done reading Star Dragon and it was very good if a little obsessed with hunting, like the author had eaten too much red meat. I’m reading Ventus next, great story and it has good cover art.

Ventus Free Ebook Version — KarlSchroeder.com

This is the highest quality free bit of science fiction inspiration for role-playing games that I have stumbled across so far on my web searches.

There aren’t any spaceships but it is the best imagining of nantechnology I have yet come across, and on a low tech level planet. It really is a great setting for a science fiction role-playing game like Traveller.

Deckplans for my Traveller spaceships, coming soon

By The Illustrator  |  2009/03/12 12:43 Posted in Book, Illustration, Review, Spaceships, role-playing game  |  Comments (0)

rambunctious_deck_one

As you can see here my deckplans for my Traveller spaceship designs are starting to look more like the standard Traveller format. Photoshop is not a dedicated deckplan maker, so it takes a little longer, but I do win more control over my creations.

I’m enjoying creating spaceships and other stuff for science fiction role-playing games, with the Traveller rules and I’ve found a graph paper image to use with my spaceships to make their deckplans more compatible.

I based my Traveller spaceship deckplans on this graph paper File

I ended up having to redesign the paper extensively, so that it competed with the role-playing game spaceship design less. I’m starting adding deckplans to my Traveller spaceship designs with the rambunctious design, which has some neon green – very pretty but not very detailed – deckplans at the moment. The deckplans above are a work in progress and there are another couple of decks to go before the sf rpg starcraft design is done.

I’m also reading The Stars are Cold Toys, a nice fat chunk of Russian, almost soviet SF. I can’t give an Amazon link, at least not at Amazon UK, they don’t seem to have it. But the link goes to a Wikipedia page with a synopsis. I’m hoping it will inspire some science fiction role-playing game illustrations. It is an interesting read, but very old school. There are no nanobots or cybernetic implants here, just spacemen in overalls flying chunks of iron around the galaxy. But there are interesting ideas, such as the euphoria of the Jump for some creatures going through hyperspace, but the fear of others.

Profile: Alan Moore, the man with a graphic vision | Books | The Observer

By The Illustrator  |  2009/03/01 22:35 Posted in Book, Film, Review  |  Comments (0)

darker_rocket_man I have always hated the Watchmen, and now there is a movie coming out based on this old-fashioned 80s comic book, sorry graphic novel. Apparently the author of the, non too good in the first place, graphic novel is less than happy about the way his film has been handled as well.

He is profiled here.

Profile: Alan Moore, the man with a graphic vision | Books | The Observer

This is a subject I’ve ranted about before, see this Watchmen blog post rant, so I won’t bore you with my opinions here. Let’s just say, I predict a turkey.

It all reminds me of all the time I spent playing Champions, the superhero role-playing game. The iconography of superheroes is such a rich source of inspiration for an illustrator, and such an interesting theme for a role-playing game that it vies for my attention, even with my first love of science fiction.

One of my favorite illustrators is Mike Mignola, the sequential artist behind Hell Boy. Comic books are at their best in this territory, a cross between science fiction and legend played out against a background of magical realism. Hell Boy is a rich source of inspiration for Science fiction, and science fiction role-playing. A story about the intersection of different worlds, populated by esoteric beings, some of them supported by super science. These are elements that even the most sparse of hard science fiction benefits from.

In-between reading comic books, designing role-playing games and musing on science fiction I have added my first Traveller spaceship design with all the elements I intend for each one. This design, the TSS Rambunctious, has stats, a 3D illustration and deckplans.

Convergence, the internet, mp3 music, books, applications and mobile phones.

By The Illustrator  |  2009/02/16 20:10 Posted in Book, Editorial, Illustration, Review  |  Comments (1)

alien_dj

I love convergence. Convergence is where your phone turns into a camera, and then the next model is also an mp3 player, and then the next model can surf the internet and on and on until you just need one machine for everything from brain surgery to transportation. The Dancers at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock is a great book about a society where everyone has a gadget like this.

         

My phone is getting there, and I love stuffing it with goodies I find on the internet, including applications, music and e-books. Music is the hardest thing to find of the three, at least for me; I like to make a good faith attempt at obeying the law. But I have found that on www.download.com there are sometimes free sample tracks to download from some of the artists. The artists are not particularly well known but I’m into rap and some of the rap is good.

I just love the way that a modern mobile phone lets you use your time. If your a little bit bored, often in the smallest room in the house, you can browse to a newspaper website. I was checking the Guardian newspaper site every couple of hours during the Obama campaign – yep I was in that room every couple of hours, I drink a lot of coffee. I also have classic literature from Project Gutenburg to read – just left click save target and import it to Mobipocket the free ebook reader for example – but be careful it’s amazing how racist and sexist a lot of these old books are. I was just reading a Captain Blood story by Raphael Sabatini and the casual racism made my toes curl, perhaps Gutenburg should comment on this a little bit instead of just making the works available without any indication of what horrors might lie within.

I can even post to my blog with Wphone. The only thing I don’t seem to use it for very much is making phone calls.

Carrie Fisher’s new book

By The Illustrator  |  2009/02/05 01:50 Posted in Book, Review  |  Comments (0)

Carrie fishers new book sounds cool. She talks about the new book at her blog here. It’s called Wishful Drinking and I can’t wait to read it. I’ve done a bit of wishful drinking myself over the years.