Someone in the Free League forums asked about space-craft for company executives. I found a couple of models in my collection that would fit the bill for executive shuttles, the larger one is suitable as a small trans-light ship, while the smaller one makes an attractive short range shuttle.
This is another redo as a technical drawing. There are some differences: I've paid closer attention to scale, included some metre rules, and left the details of the decks largely blank for other to fill in according to their own requirements.
It is a different concept of the vessel than that in the CMOM, so you should consider it a civilian version. For my own needs, this is going to be a law enforcement ship. I have also treated the aft section as a detachable life-boat. It retains the auxillary fuel cells and auxillary thrusters, but not the aft thrusters.
I woke up very early today, so here are another couple of re-dos as technical drawings...
Another re-do but with the details kept blank for you to customize with your own name and deck details. By my reckoning, the hull is about 75 meters in length (you can get a feel of the scale from the seats on the flight deck).
Level 1, the main cargo deck, is 4.5 meters high, while Levels 2-4 are 2.5 meters high, while the decking is 0.5 meters.
The main platform that lowers to ground level, called "The Box" has it's own airlock door, the housing of which extends up into Levels 2 and 3. At the back is a large platform list that raises up to the aft airlock on Level 3.
Level 3 also has an airlock on the port side.
I've placed the main habitable volume, with the rest of the volume intended for engines and ship systems.
A couple more images - both of these models had interiors I was able to render and do some cut-outs for. The first is an alternative APC design with a little more ground clearance than the classic one from Aliens. Then there is a heavy mobile command vehicle. I was thinking of using both of these for the Royal Marines.
I'm not going to abandon the faux computer displays, particularly for on-line games. However, they aren't good on the old eyes and really aren't printer friendly, so I'll be doing things the other way around now, starting with the faux drawings and then converting them to computer displays when needed. If someone would like a green computer display of one of these, post and, if I've some time, I'll see what I can do.
Some of the selection below are repeats that I've improved a bit, with some new examples.
Here are a couple more images. One is the mech loader as a drawing, the other is a car in both green display and a drawing.
After looking at how to create faux green computer screen technical displays, I thought I would look a little at how to render the images as faux drawings, or at least something a little more printer friendly. Here are a couple of examples.
So, here are three more of these. I'm think that perhaps I'll start looking at building the collection into something reflecting the Three World Empire, rendering it a little distinct from the United Americas and the Colonial Marines.
A couple more technical displays. We have a drop ship similar in style to the classic design from Aliens, though this one has a drop-box that it leaves behind and collects. There is also a small planetary lander vehicle.
Something I’ve been hearing and reading a lot with regards to games like Traveller and Alien, is the term retro-future, referencing the apparently dated vision of a future technology based on that of the 70s and 80s, treating it as an aesthetic and part of the charm of the setting.
I’d like to suggest that this is a mistake, and that the clunky looking technology seen in the films of that time are a fairly good representation of what I think spacefaring technology does, and still will look like.
Compared with that of the recent past—and I’m old enough to consider the 70s and 80s to be recent past—modern tech is sleek, elegant, sophisticated, and even fashionable. This is consumer technology. Industrial technology looks a little different. Compare consumer technology to the technology in, for example, the International Space Station. Check out some pictures. Baring the odd laptop, there’s not much there that wouldn’t look at home on the Nostromo. And the space capsule still in use to ferry astronauts and supplies, as well as to provide a means of escape? The Russian, formerly Soviet, Soyuz capsule has been in use for more than forty years, with not a great deal of change—and for very good reason.
The more sophisticated your technology, the more there is to go wrong, the easier it is to break, and the harder it is fix.
In space—and it really doesn’t matter what scale of space we are talking about, be that orbital, interplanetary, or interstellar—you will always be a long way from help, even a long way from just calling for help. If you run into a problem, help is very unlikely to get to you in time, so either you find a way to solve the problem yourself or you die. Space is unforgiving that way.
The upshot of this is, of course, that the technology you depend upon needs to be robust, reliable, and repairable. Efficiency is a bonus but only that, the three Rs of of spacefaring trump all other design considerations.
Strictly, the 3R design mantra should be considered extensive. It is not just that you need to be able to repair as much as possible, from your engines through to the electronics that govern life support, or the motherboards of your computers. You can no more call up a software engineer in deep space than you can an electrician, so software must also meet these requirements—and this includes operating systems. In Alien, this is not quite the case with their shipboard AI systems but for other games, I would certainly apply the principle.
The tech of the original Alien films does a good job of getting it right. And for that, I’ll forgive them their other sins of gravity and trans-light travel.
Here are a few more technical displays for Alien. Feel free to use in your own games.
Among some of the more interesting new games that have come to my attention are those from Free League, a Swedish publisher. Forbidden Lands, Vaesen, Tales From the Loop, Things From the Flood, and Alien have all found their way into my collection. At some point, I will have things to same about all of them, and in particular, the Year Zero Engine, which is the game system they all share.
Alien is one of the games that I’m most interested in running and this has led me to try my hand at producing some material for use in play.
I am not an artist or designer, so to produce the images I wanted, I sourced some 3D models which I rendered in some inexpensive software, and then hacked about with the results to try and achieve a green screen effect.
The results are a bit amateurish and a hodgepodge while I figure out what I want to do. I’ll post improved results as I get them but in the meantime, I’ll post what I’ve done so far in case something might be of use to someone else.
So, it’s been nearly twenty-five years since I last played a role-playing game, then, toward the end of 2019, I opened up a cupboard I hadn’t looked in for twenty years and found some of my old games and notes. Out of curiosity, I looked on-line to see the state of the hobby today and found it was looking very healthy indeed, and not a little unchanged thanks to the growth of the internet, the arrival of print-on-demand services, and the impact of the Open Game Licence.
With my interest renewed, I very gradually found myself buying some new games and new editions of some old ones, and have now purchased a virtual table-top licence with a view to starting to play and run games again.
I’ll be using this blog to post my thoughts and progress as I work toward a return to my old hobby. I’ll also be using it to post some ideas, and material that I develop which I think might be of use or interest to others.
I needed to come up with a selection of weapons for the 3WE. For the Royal Marines, I needed them to be familiar to the popular selection of...
