Point Five is Number Two! (Also another free offer!)

   Yesterday was a wild ride RocketFans! Our little half-issue of LAUNCH WINDOW proved to be more popular than I dared to imagine.  When I went to bed last night, we were at number two on RPGNow.com's Top 100 Hottest Titles!  We were still at number two on the Top Small Press Titles.  This is amazing - in a few short hours, LAUNCH WINDOW Issue 0.5 broke all sales records here at Blue Max Studios!
    I'd like to take a moment to talk to all of you RocketFans old and new about what's next.  Obviously, LAUNCH WINDOW issues every month are next.  We've also revamped our reward and goal structure on Patreon to reflect the new direction of the company.  Part of that includes the new $5.00 reward, which is a PDF download of of each month's issue, both short stories, and the isometric map at no additional charge.  And since these patron are already getting the entire PDF archive with it, it's a pretty good deal.
    But I want to give that deal to everyone.  Thanks to the survey I ran a few weeks ago (Still active, BTW, so you can still get a free book!) I discovered that enough people dislike Patreon, for whatever reason, to make me decide to publish a monthly digest in the first place.  And since this is going to be a regular thing, There is no reason not to offer subscriptions at a substantial savings to all of my RocketFans.  So There will now be an option on our RPGNow.com page to order a full year of LAUNCH WINDOW for only sixty dollars.  That is a third off of the cover price; a total of $27.00 savings over the year.  

  

 I realize that $60 is a lot at one time, especially around the holidays.  While I think that a year's worth of LAUNCH WINDOW would make a great holiday gift for the gamer in your life, I more than understand not having the scratch to make such a purchase.  Well, that's okay, because one of the nice things about the system we have here is that you at any time you want to buy the 2017 run of LAUNCH WINDOW, you can.  If it's 2020 and you want to get the first year of our Digest, it will still on the infinite virtual shelves of the Internet. And you can always go the five buck a month on Patreon route. So don't worry about it.
     I will however, sweeten the deal: Issue 1 will be included in the 2017 subscription.  That means you'll be getting thirteen issues for only sixty dollars! It makes the next year's all even that way -January to December, without any issues left out.  Issue 0.5 will always be Pay What You Want.
    We have other plans for the future as well.  There will be Quarterly and Annual extras, and I hope to have Issue 1 available for POD by the debut of Issue 2 on Jan 15th next year, and be able to continually offer print editions one month behind.  I'm not sure about offering print subscriptions - that would cost a good bit more, our net would be less, and the shipping issues are an animal I've yet to tame.  If there's enough interest, however, I'll certainly give it a shot.
    You know what I'd love to do?  Get my books in brick and mortar stores.  We've got five within a hours drive of here alone.  I may only manage to get ebooks on gift cards into stores (yeah, that's totally a thing!) but maybe - just maybe - I can see my books on the shelves of bookstores and gaming shops.
     That would really be something.
     Anyway, I've got to get back to work.  I've got to get the D20 and OSR updates ready for Tuesday and, of course, I'm already writing for Issue 1.  See you later, RocketFans! 

Drawing Spaceships Crooked (Isometric Projection)

     Just to be different, RocketFans, I thought I'd actually make a post.
     Kidding aside, I've been working at a day job of late and dealing with getting myself back into the groove of time management, scheduling, and all the things I haven't had to think about since comas and brain damage removed me from the conventional labor force.  I'm not sure how to describe the experience.  Imagine having to re-learn not only the moves and routines of something you've done all of your adult life, but have to re-learn some of the concepts behind the routines and moves.  Only a strict regimen of bi-hourly doses of insulin and daily doses of anti-depressants and anxiety meds.
    I only mention this to explain my sometimes (okay, often) erratic postings and tendency to tail of in mid-series.  I'll put it this way:  Normal blood sugar is between 70 and 90.  Mine has gone from 461 to 39 in the space of six hours.  At least once a week.
    Moving along...
    As the title suggests, I've been playing with isometric projections and cutaways.  If you're not 100% familiar with the concept,  It's like this:

Tantive IV FTW

     I love these kinds of images.  I've got all of the Incredible Cross Sections books and I've dreamed of being able to make my ships into art like this.  After all, I taught myself how to make the deckplans, the orthos, the CG models, and everything else you've seen in my previous work, what's one more technique?
     To start with, I got some iso-grid paper.  This wonderful stuff is great for folks who do not have drafting tables and 3 degree triangles in their inventories and better still, it takes a lot less time to use than blank paper.  After watching a brief YouTube tutorial on how to draw isometric circles, I was off and running!
     Here is an image of what could be a variation of the Heinlein Rocket's Keel:

     Rather than try to ink this little sketch, I did what I think is the smart thing and scanned it into the computer and printed it out at three times the original size:

     This is the version I inked.  I used pens and did it by hand, because I'm old school.  And because it's faster...

 
     But after that, I put the inked imaged back into the computer, fired up the GIMP, and cleaned it up.  I not only scrubbed out the blue guide lines, I fixed mistakes and added some details that were just too fiddly for me to work in with a hand pen.  Thank goodness for a computers extreme zoom!

A drawing like this can still be confusing if left in un-shaded black-and-white.  Besides, I wanted to capture the style of the ICS books, so I colorized the image and added some additional details.  This is the latest iteration:

     I did not add any shading or people to the image, because this is only a test.  Now that I've managed to create a workflow and get some practice in, I'm going to start working on making some real spaceship art.  I will naturally be posting the results regularly on Patreon and here, and once I've finished a collection for a particular spacecraft, a published volume would not be out of order.  I look forward to it.
     I just want to take a moment and sing the praises of the Patreon system.  Back before the advent of monthly crowd-funding, I would never have felt like I had the time to work on this kind of art.  I had to stay within the bounds of the admittedly narrow style I had already developed for making deckplans and churn out books monthly if I was to expect to see any decent money from the enterprise.  Even then, the money wasn't that decent, but for a family of five living on $17,000 a year, it meant the difference between a real birthday party for the kids or just a present and box cake.  With Patreon, however, I'm at the level I of monthly income slightly above that of when I had to get a thirty-page book out every thirty days.  That means I can actually explore new ideas, like the nano-fic, the maps, and these isometric drawings.  Now I know I can take my time and work on a single, long-term project because I not only have a venue with which to share the progress, I have the support it takes to finish it.  So thank you to all my Patrons out there, for making this possible.
   Got a little sentimental.  It happens.  Anyway, soon-ish, I'll be talking about my next major project and what books Debra and I are working on, as well as whatever Rob Garitta has cooked up in his devious little mind.  See you then!

Starphin Map and a Modest Proposal

Had to finish the Bow so I could measure the decks...

   Happy Monday, RocketFans!  I've been contemplating all of the suggestions I've received over the last week having to do with our alternate Metaphysics mechanics and the ideas are slowly evolving.  Expect a new post on the topic Wednesday, maybe.  For today, I am happy to present the first completed deck of our capital starship, the  Starphin Treaty Frigate!

     This deck was fairly easy to do, as I already knew what I needed.  Situated just below the upper sensor dome, this deck would service that machinery, house the main communications antennae, and have coolth (not my word, okay?) pumps and tanks for the after radiators and heat sinks.  In addition, the upper ring of shield projectors are on this deck, a pair of shield generator nodes, and a pair of inertial compensators.  This was the best place for the ICs, in my opinion, as this tall fin would be likely to snap off the first time the Captain order flank speed without them.  But enough talk, deckplan below!

030 Deck

     This is not a deck with much human habitation.  In fact, outside of the insulated forward sensor substation and the after sensor room/pump house, the antennae and sensors would fry any organics in the maintenance spaces when the electronics are active.  This is a deck primarily for droids, and probably not regular R-series astromechs, either - upgraded R1s, with their reactor-drone casings, are possibly the only robots that can service the sensors and hyperwave antennae while they are in service.  For fun I used a classic design for the hyperwave transievers - except for the color and size, they are identical to the antenna mast on an Imperial Mk I Star Destroyer.  I went with a pair because I needed the lift tube to be on the centerline of the deck.  

 

     As you'll see in the next several maps, the machinery for the four turbo lasers on the decks under this one take up so much space that I've had to do some creative arranging to get everything to fit and still have space to move from one end of the deck to the other.  It would be simpler if I could just have two lift shafts, fore and aft, to reach all sections of the following decks, but the hanger spaces below make that impossible.

     For what is easily the largest mapping project I've ever attempted, I find myself running out of room easily... 

     This deckplan  turned out to be 15 tac squares wide and another 15 long, not counting the heat sink.  That's fairly large - and this is the smallest deck on the ship.  And there are forty-nine more.   Which brings up the ugly little question of how exactly I'm going to be able to publish this monster?  The PDF would have to be a couple of hundred pages, take about six months of work, and sell for at least fifty bucks to recoup even a fraction of my time and effort.  I mean, I enjoy drawing spaceships, obviously, but this is my job and I can't just work on unsalable projects and expect to get the bills paid.

     But.

     I have a Patreon account, and a handful of fans who support my work by pledging a dollar or two a month to see more content on this blog and to get access to my existing PDFs for no extra charge.  It occurs to me that through Patreon, I can get the kind of money I need to work on this project, and the Alternate Metaphysics book, and all the other big ships I want to map.  You, my dear RocketFans, can get all those goodies just by pledging a dollar or two a month.  It's good math; For the cost of a fifty-dollar book, which most of us couldn't justify buying, you could pledge a dollar and keep it up for over four years, in which time I will write a lot more than one book of plans. After all, in the last four years, I've written and published 42 books.   That a lot better deal. 

     If you look at my Patreon homepage, you'll see I currently get $60 a month in pledges.  I deeply, deeply appreciate every bit of support I get from my patrons.  In order to be able to give away the Starphin maps, the Metaphysics book and the other projects I would love to work on and don't have the time, I would need to reach a goal of about $200 a month.  If a hundred and forty people were to pledge a dollar a month, I'd be home free and you would all get free books.  We've been getting close to twice that in visitors a day since I began posting on D6 topics again, so I know it's possible.  

     So that's where we are, RocketFans.  I'll keep mapping and showing off the un-keyed deckplans on the blog for as long I can afford to.  If we hit $200 on Patreon, I'll release the full deckplans, maps, keys and stats and keep designing and mapping ships large and small, for as long as you want me too.  

    I'll even take requests.

New Feature: Mini Maps

I started drawing these on a lark and the response has been more enthusiastic that I could have imagined.  So, for the benefit of everyone not following me on Google + (and really, why aren't you :)) I decided to put these on the blog.  These are sci-fi geomorphs, inspired by our Star Trek discussions of the last few days, and there are more to come.  There will even be, due to popular demand, versions for sale that include colored maps, blank maps (walls and doors only) and battle-damaged maps.  Enjoy!

Bridge and surrounds

First color pass of a B&W map.
I usually start and finish in color, so this in encouraging.

Block of Crew Quarters, two single staterooms share a central bath.

Deck one of our Jovian-class frigate for Starships and Spacemen

Labs, for to do SCIENCE!

People guessed that these were anything from nightclub dancefloors
to power stations to brigs before I filled in all the details.
But no, it's a pair of Teleporter rooms with attached Decon chambers.

What's Out Now and What is Yet to Come

While the White Star compatible version of Technical Readout: Fighters was published on time, it lacked a cover.  The Open D6 version had even more growing pains, and did not get released until this afternoon.  But that's all in the past, everything is out now for sale.

Of course, both versions were available to my Patreons since the 23rd, for half the cover price of one of them.

Just sayin'.

Anyway, This post is about the future of Blue Max Studios and what we have in store for you.  If you are a fan of the White Star RPG ( and according to RPGNow.com, a lot of people are, the book has been in the top five since it came out in March) then you are in luck.  My wife, author Debra McVay, is interested in developing a new product line with me we're calling Species Spotlight.   These will be smallish supplements featuring a single alien species, a single class for that species, and a spacecraft (with deckplans) used by that species.  We hope to have the first one, Species Spotlight: Abhorrans up for sale as early as next week.  We also have two more already on the drawing board, so the series is off to a great start.

Gratuitous WIP teaser. 

In addition, we're still planning on releasing Techical Readout: Freighters  before the 24th of November.  Like Fighters, it will feature a half-dozen transports for use in either an Open D6 or White Star game.  Beyond that, we hope to offer a Space Opera bundle in December to celebrate a certain movie's premier.

What lies in store for next year?  Probably more Species Spotlights, and I fully intend to release the much anticipated Star Morphs game, for both the Open D6 and White Star systems.  I also want to do my first capital ship deckplans.

But that's all space opera stuff.  Those of you who have been RocketFans for awhile know I can't stay away from Hard SF too long, or I get intellectually constipated.  But that's okay, because I have lots of topic to cover, including finishing Building a Space Navy series, nano-fic for Conjunction and even (gasp) some new designs for Black Desert.

2016 is going to be a busy year for us at Blue Max Studios.  As always, we hope you enjoy.

TR-Minus-One Month and Counting...

It's September 16th, which is one month from official release date of our next books, Technical Readouts - Fighters.  These two-dollar PDFs will feature six new starfighters for your game enjoyment and will be available in both Open D6 and OSR (White Star) compatible versions!  I gave my Patreons a preview of the artwork last week, and now it's time for the world to see.

In addition to the starfighters, Technical Readout - Fighters will also feature a full-sized battle map of a small hanger to enhance your game play.  And remember:  Patreons who pledge $1.00 or more get this book - and our entire past book archive - at no extra charge.

There will be more previews as we approach the release date, but in the meantime, Enjoy!

And For Our Next Trick...

Greetings RocketFans!  The last week has been super busy - not with projects, but with illness.  Debra, all of our kids, and myself went through the rounds of flu, and now the house looks like the end of a particularly raucous party I don't remember attending.

My house after the flu.

But I already had plans for the next few installments in Blue Max Studios' inventory, so we are by no means behinds schedule.  In fact, the designs that will be used in these new books have already been done, and that is a huge savings in time.

And yes, I said these books.  As in plural.

The next couple of books were putting out, like The ABCs of Space Opera, are a bit of a departure from our normal spacecraft deckplans.  Instead on one ship being explored in detail, we're releasing a half dozen designs at once.  They don't have deckplans - just stats and some images of the various ships.

We're calling the series Technical Readouts.  Our first books are on fighters.  There will be two releases at the same time; one with OSR stats, suitable for the new White Star  RPG, and one in Open D6, because of course I'm doing stats in D6.  The two books will include six fighter designs and will also include a small hanger battle map.  They will be sold for two dollars each - In order to keep the costs down, the two rule systems will each get their own short book, instead of a five-dollar long book.  This also means that the books will be available to a wider number of my Patreons: the books will be made available to my one dollar patreons as well as my $5+ patreons at no additional cost.   I try to make sure my Patreons get a good deal.

Just because the books are cheaper than our usual fare doesn't mean they're of lower quality.  For one thing, thanks to hitting our first milestone (at $50 a month) I am upgrading my equipment and software!  I've already got a new Wacom tablet to replace my aging one, and I've aquired new desktop publishing software on which to edit and layout our future books.  As for the art, how about we have a sample?

Technical Readout - Fighters will be available for sale on October 16th for $2.00 through the good offices of DriveThruRPG.com and RPGNow.com.  We'll have more updates as the month goes on.

The ABCs of Space Opera Released!

98 pages of AWESOME.

Here it is, RocketFans, our first offering in two years!  Coming in at 98 pages, this is also easily the longest book we've ever published. It is twice the size of our next longest book, The Pumpkin-Suit Manual, if that tells you anything.  That's one of the reasons it's a two volume set - after all, it wouldn't do to have a third-party suppliment be longer than the core-book, would it?   Honestly though, we needed the space.  Inside you'll find four new playable races, an entire new class of alien menace, and a new type of spacecraft.  There are also new rules for beam weapons, shields, hybrids and a ton of random tables.   It's ten dollars by itself, but if you want it and all the other stuff we've and all of our future books as well, you can go to our Patreon page and pledge $5.00.  Your choice.

Speaking of which, our Patreon account reached it's first milestone yesterday!  In addition to giving me and my family a much-needed infusion of funds, the reaching of this goal will allow me to upgrade my hardware and software, so the next books we put out should be even better!

You may be wondering, in a rhetorical sort of way, what's next for Blue Max Studios.  Obviously, The ABCs of Space Opera, Volume 2: M-Z are on the horizon.  There are also a lot of ships in the S&S Universe that are just crying out for deckplans.  That being said, I have some other ideas for OSR and D6 suppliments that I'll be talking about in a day or two.  But for right now...I'm taking a day to just enjoy the happy feeling of being back in the game of Gaming again.  See you later!

Publishing Date Announced!

That's right, RocketFans, work has continued at a feverish pace to the point that I can confidently announce a publication date for our next book, The ABCs of Space Opera Vol. 1: A-L.  The volume will be available for sale on September 1st.  Our asking price will be $10.00.  The price is higher than most of our offerings, but the length is a lot longer- we're looking at 104 so far, and that's before the technical stuff and forward and contents page.  In other words, over of hundred pages of content.

Of course, my $5.00 Patrons on Paetron get this book at no charge.  Along with the previous 22 books, and all future books.  It's what you call a bargain.

The remainder of the month we, will be focusing on the book and showing off previews and exerts.  After that, we'll return to Tugs and other topics as I furiously work on the next book.  But for now, enjoy!

Fear my giant head!

Barsoom-class Airship Officially on Sale!

          After a frustrating day of shopping and a long night of last-minute layouts, The Barsoom is posted on-line and ready to go! I am pleased with how it turned out. I'll admit that there are a few rough edges; this beauty was the first project that I did in GIMP, so there was a learning curve. Still, with every completed project I learn more and find ways to increase my production values and streamline my design process.

           The good news is, about half of the work for the January offering is already done. It ties into my article in the OpenD6 Magazine, which is why so much is already done. This means that I can relax and enjoy the holidays (and my birthday) without worrying about being ready come Jan 16th.

Anyway, check out the boat, and enjoy!

Happy Cyber-Monday!

     It's that time of year again, RocketFans...It's Cyber Monday!

     To celebrate this most busy shopping day online, Blue Max Studios is proud to offer a special deal on all of our merchandise.  Through our partners at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow, we are offering our entire inventory for 20% off the regular prices, just TWELVE DOLLARS!
     In addition to 20% off, buyers of our Cyber Monday Bundle will receive, via email, a sneak peek of our December offering, the Barsoom-class Martian Airship!  Only preferred customers will get to see these plans early.  We won't offer a deal this good again until the week of Christmas, so don't delay,follow the link to order yours right now!