Nolgroth Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 This is a placeholder message for my 2009 Pet Gaming Project: Echoes of a Forgotten Empire. This project is falling under a larger blanket project that I have titled Project: HERO. The purpose is to create micro settings and then build adventure modules for that setting. Somewhat similar in premise to the Western Shores for the older Fantasy HERO book written for 4th Edition HERO. One of the concepts I wish to explore is demonstrating the principle and then having the new HERO GM try out some of the concepts himself. I have decided to carry on despite the looming presence of Sixth Edition. Mostly I want to start building momentum. I can then revise the project after the release of Sixth Edition. Inspirations: Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica (recent version), Firefly/Serenity, Star Frontiers Here is the map of the micro setting. More later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Looks cool, should be an interesting project. The black hole is so not my fault this time though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted February 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire How do you know the black hole is not your fault. Empires rise and fall along the frontier and a seemingly isolated incident can have lasting consequences. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I actually had a "holy %&()$%^&" moment when the personal wiki software I was using decided to have a database failure and I lost everything on my USB flash drive. Luckily I had it backed up to a hard drive, so work continues. Hoping to have enough to start posting campaign setting content by this weekend. Then some short adventure missions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Looks cool, should be an interesting project. The black hole is so not my fault this time though. You just don't remember that time portal adventure you haven't had when.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Is it a 2-D map, or is there a 3rd dimension in there I'm not seeing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire You just don't remember that time portal adventure you haven't had when.... I actually accidentally caused a black hole in Nol's Star Hero campaign, with an offhand comment, as we faced down much larger forces, of "Can the replicator make a nuke?" The answer, it turned out, was yes. A series of events afterwards, one black hole, one destroyed star system. One character thinking "Told you I hated planets." He's mentioned several times it would have consequences; I can't help but think I contributed something to this idea. As I read over the campaign my character is approaching Jack Sparrow level planning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted February 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Is it a 2-D map' date=' or is there a 3rd dimension in there I'm not seeing?[/quote']Yes. Originally, I made this as an entry in the November challenge at Cartographers' Guild. Whenever I make generic, non-purpose maps, I like to leave a lot of leeway into how it is used. The original XCF (Gimp native format) or PSD (Photoshop native) file support multiple layers and every single star and label can be edited. You can add or subtract from it. So to answer your question, it is technically both, depending on who was going to use the original file. For the purposes of this thread, that image is literally a place-holder while I work on the "actual map"* which I have been getting the gumption up to do. The biggest thing I want try is converting a tutorial on "planet making" over to some GIMP steps. The results are pretty awesome. If you have any interest, I can post the original archive which has the PSD file (exported from Gimp) and some instructions on how set up the file for easy editing. For that matter, you can copy the file over and use it as a template for additional systems. And something I've been wanting to do; listing applicable online resources. Resources: Cartographers' Guild (forum.cartographersguild.com). Gimp Homepage (gimp.org). Starfield Tutorial (www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/starfield-tutorial.html). Used as a base upon which I built the rest of the map. * This may turn out to be the "actual map." In that case I will go in and edit in coordinates into the labels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted February 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire He's mentioned several times it would have consequences; I can't help but think I contributed something to this idea.I certainly thought of the Gemini crews escapades when I was creating this map. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted February 28, 2009 Report Share Posted February 28, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire I actually accidentally caused a black hole in Nol's Star Hero campaign, with an offhand comment, as we faced down much larger forces, of "Can the replicator make a nuke?" The answer, it turned out, was yes. A series of events afterwards, one black hole, one destroyed star system. One character thinking "Told you I hated planets." He's mentioned several times it would have consequences; I can't help but think I contributed something to this idea. As I read over the campaign my character is approaching Jack Sparrow level planning. Um... story! I wanna hear it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 28, 2009 Report Share Posted February 28, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Um... story! I wanna hear it! At the threat of hijacking Nol's thread.. but since it was his campaign. If you're familiar with the Star Frontiers Setting that's what we were using, complete with Void Space (which was turning out to be a sort of gestalt-mind of an aliean species). The Characters: Wade McCode - hot shot pilot, fancies himself a ladies man, bit of a cad. Ta'Rang - a Yazarian warrior, calm and collected unless in ground combat Caspar - a Drasalite psionic, the real voice of reason Elvis - at the time the ships sarcastic AI Samantha - the captain (she was voted into the position right after she 'ran away' - which should tell you something), pilot and really thinks outside the box. She also hates planets with a passion. Killian - a human from Terran space, engineer extraordinaire. The campaign is broken into "seasons" - we start the season disoriented, and on board a medical station of a mostly deserted planet. Trying to figure out how we got here, what happened, etc. Apparently we were found dead in space, our ships hull breached, and only revived because of some interests Above (read NPCs interested in making sure we live for one reason or another). So the part is revived and naturally, wants off to do their thing. They get a hold of their ship again - which is a hyper advanced piece from a long forgotten alien species. It takes a bit of doing since the military kind of wants to keep it for study, but is also under orders to return it to us. As we prepare to leave the sector is attacked, one of two capital ships appear, along with many fighters. With our pilots skill (Wade's biggest saving grace is that he's The Best when it comes to piloting) the fighters aren't much of an issue. But they're going after the station, which isn't heavily defended. The attack wasn't entirely expected, it's in the opening shots of what's about to become a large scale war. (to give an example of Sam's attitude, the Attackers had offered to let the PCs ship withdraw, her repsonse: Dear Yazarian Commander. Bite me.) So we're trying to defend this station, the super advanced ship has this new technology: a replicator. Now, we really don't know it's limits, the captain is a former fighter-pilot - her usual method is get close to the big ship and fire a nuclear missile into their engines. She doesn't have those. But they do have another really neat new device: A transporter. You see where this is going? Wade flies, Ta'Rang and Samantha are shooting, trying to bring down the capital ships shields so they can do a boarding maneuver right to the bridge (that actually worked once before). Caspar is working ECM so the numerous (2 or 3 dozen) fighters can't lock onto our ship and score hits. Then this: Samantha: Elvis, what are the chances you can fabricate a tactical nuclear warhead, medium yield? Elvis: That's funny Sam. Ha ha....wait you're serious? She was. Elvis had the ship fabricate the parts, Killian and Ta'Rang put it together while Wade and Sam attempted to take down the shields of the enemy capital ship. The finally succeed, and transport one nuclear bomb inside the enemies ship. The is where Void Space comes in. The enemy ship is getting ready to jump into Void - possibly to get away from us, possibly as a quick way to get out of the incoming dreadnaught's spinal cannons, who knows. We finally bring down the shields, and transport the nuke onto the ship - just in time for it to jump into Void Space. Only seconds later a Void Rift opens up a really really short distance away and the nuke goes off. Note: Nuclear detonations + Void Space = Really Bad Time. Enter one Black Hole. Now, most people think "oh crap, I just created a black hole" Sam thinks "Ha! I figured out how to destroy entire solar systems! Stupid planets!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted March 1, 2009 Report Share Posted March 1, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire That sounds dangerously close to a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Any place where I could find some campaign logs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted March 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Check ghost-angel's signature for the link to the campaign logs posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire If you have signatures turned off and don't want to turn them on: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63852 reminds me, I don't think I finished converting the raw chat logs into something readable. I should do that. The campaign was truly epic - Samantha is easily my favorite character ever to have played, no small part due to the GMs ability to weave a story. I hope someday we get back to it, we abruptly got canceled mid-season by real life (mid combat no less). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted March 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire The campaign was truly epic - Samantha is easily my favorite character ever to have played' date=' no small part due to the GMs ability to weave a story. I hope someday we get back to it, we abruptly got canceled mid-season by real life (mid combat no less).[/quote']The good news is that I am not working seven days a week. The bad news is that my schedule is still in flux during the week. Ironically, I have been asking for a weekend day off for nigh on eight years. Finally, Saturday is my one stable day off and Thursday is a crap shoot. Go figure. I cannot hope that I will have a stable schedule anytime soon. The current workplace environment demands a certain amount of flexibility. Since I'm not really interested in starting over with another company, I'll be flexible. And that all out of the way, I have an update on my project. I have been learning how to create semi-realistic planets and my technique is getting better (IMO) with each new image I make. I am almost ready to start writing the source material for the micro-setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire reminds me, I don't think I finished converting the raw chat logs into something readable. I should do that. The campaign was truly epic - Samantha is easily my favorite character ever to have played, no small part due to the GMs ability to weave a story. I hope someday we get back to it, we abruptly got canceled mid-season by real life (mid combat no less). Please! I remember this log now. I´ve tried to read it several times, but it´s really a beast to try to read in its current format. It seems like there really are some good stories there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire I keep thinking that someday I'll turn it into more prose and less the converted-chat-logs that it is. But that's one monstrous project. . . The campaign was Epic. Here's the "still needs work but most of it is there" website: http://www.cellularsmoke.net/rpgs/gemini/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordGhee Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Sir your site looks cool but I cannot read that black on green, old eyes so it is useless to me. Lord Ghee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted March 3, 2009 Report Share Posted March 3, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Black on green? You can't possibly be talking about my website. You should look into a new monitor (or adjust yours), better browser, or better lighting. That's Dark Red (with some Dark Blue) on Grey. Though I should lighten the grey a touch, it's close to standard contrast. The Reds are #300 and #600, the Blues are #003 and #006 and the Background is #666. Not a lick of bloody green on the site. Definitely not my website that's the problem there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted March 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or shoot up a McDonalds (joking on the last one). I did a whole lot of work getting together some "maps" for my project only to learn that I had totally not anticipated the actual print size for them. I literally have to go back to the drawing board to make new ones that are size that is printable. Part of me is very frustrated, but the sarcastic and wry sense of humor I have is LIAO. So, since I cannot use them for the project itself, here is a taste of what is to come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire No way of reducing them in size outside that program? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted March 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire No way of reducing them in size outside that program?Not looking at reducing them. Looking at making them bigger. Print size (not really necessary but I want it as an option) is 3.5" x 3.5". I was looking for something just a tad bigger. Probably 6 or 7" square. The good news is that during these last couple of weeks, I really stretched out and learned some new skills and techniques for making these sorts of maps. Should be relatively quick and easy to make more now. Just struck me like a thunderbolt when I went to place it inside a document to see what size I had to shrink it too, only to find that shrinking was the last thing I needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristopher Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or shoot up a McDonalds (joking on the last one). I did a whole lot of work getting together some "maps" for my project only to learn that I had totally not anticipated the actual print size for them. I literally have to go back to the drawing board to make new ones that are size that is printable. Part of me is very frustrated, but the sarcastic and wry sense of humor I have is LIAO. So, since I cannot use them for the project itself, here is a taste of what is to come. Are those the "too small" images attaches to your post? Because when I open them up completely, they're bigger than my screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Are those the "too small" images attaches to your post? Because when I open them up completely' date=' they're bigger than my screen.[/quote'] Well, you must have your screen resolution set rather low. On a 1280 x 1024 monitor, the images are about three-quarters of the screen. But if these are meant to be printed, the determining factor is not how big they look on the screen, but the dots-per-inch setting the printer uses. This can be more than 300, which would make the planet images very small indeed on the printed page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Rich people with no talent can use (the hideously expensive) Adobe Photoshop with the Lunarcell plug-in to instantly make hordes of alien planets. I think that The Gimp freeware program can use Adobe plug-ins, but I'm not sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 Re: Echoes of a Forgotton Empire Are those the "too small" images attaches to your post? Because when I open them up completely' date=' they're bigger than my screen.[/quote'] Screen size is irrelevant. All computer screens are 72dpi; resolution (as Nyrath pointed out) determines exactly how much of the screen a picture takes up. Printing is significantly higher in most cases. Absolute minimum is 150dpi. I usually use 750 for printing when I do feel the need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.