What I've Been Working on Instead of Posting...

     Happy Wednesday, RocketFans!
     Profuse Apologies for not posting anything for awhile; the Thanksgiving holiday was busy.  In other news, hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and I've stated the obvious.
     I've (naturally) been working on Issue 1 of LAUNCH WINDOW when I haven't been working on the rules updates for Issue 0.5.  Issue 1 is shaping up well.  It's a monster of content - two stories, several articles and features, some nano-fic, an isometric bonus, and lots of artwork I've got to get finagled.  I've also received offers of help from some of the talented RocketFans - for which I am most grateful.
    Anyway, let's take a look at what we've got going on for Issue 1, shall we?

Stargosy Part 1: The Stargosy series of stories, which we began back in April, have turned out to be enormously popular and I've received more requests to continue the series than I have for just about anything else.  So Issue 1 will see a reboot of the series where the story is expanded and the world building cleaned up a bit.  By which I mean that the series started very "Royal Navy" in feel, then became very "Egyptian Transhuman" as it went on.  So the new version will start out Egyptian and get a more unified theme.  It's turning out well so far!

The Hichikar Ankhmesh (pleases no one) gives his towel
to Imhotep, upon whose lap he has spilled beer.

Let Freedom Ring:  This story is exciting to me, as it will be the first Black Desert fiction to see print!  The Black Desert is by far Blue Max Studio's oldest property - in fact, BD predates Blue Max Studios by over a year.  So to finally see the characters I've developed for the setting come to life is most gratifying.
Species Spotlight: Hichikars: That's not a typo, it the return of of the Species Spotlight feature!  In this entry, we meet a race of shape-shifting humanoid vagabonds that star-hop across the galaxay, trying to kedge a pint at the pub and bringing towels to the masses.  Loads of fun to hang around with but check your pockets afterwards.
Nano-Fic: I've got a few ideas kicking around.  I'll probably put at least two in this issue...
Technical Readout: Pinnace: A brief write-up and plans for a short-ranged aeroshuttle suitable for a wide variety of settings.
Starmorphs: Barracks: Continuing the series, we offer more random tables and another ten by twenty map for your gaming peasure.
     That's...wow, that's a lot of stuff.  What am I wasting time chatting fore?  I gotta get to work -

But what about all the other stuff!? (Regular Features in LAUNCH WINDOW)

     Boss' note:  For the foreseeable future, we're shooting for a M-W-F post schedule, with Blog-exclusive goodies on Mondays, and info about upcoming issues of LAUNCH WINDOW the other two days.
     

    

 TGIF, RocketFans!  For those of you gaming this weekend, have fun.  I'm officially jealous.
     Not that I lack things to keep me busy.  I've just now gotten The Gentleman Scoundrel stats for OSR and D20 completed, and will spend this weekend twisting her crew through multiple chargen systems as well.  I've also started writing the new stories for Issue 1 and hope to start modelling ships for the internal art.  Busy busy busy.
     I wanted to touch base with everyone about the future of some of our more popular product categories.  In the last year alone, I've introduced four new product lines - and only one or two products for each, if that.  This was the kind of diffusion of effort that really bogged me down and made moving forward difficult.  Fortunately, LAUNCH WINDOW has given me a way around all that.
    A big part of the problem was taking a decent little idea and then fleshing it out into a book-sized product.  I can draw a map easy, sure, but trying to sell just one is a disaster, as my first Starmorph product shows.  For example, I've had a new book - Technical Readout: Shuttles! - on the back burner for over six months now, because I haven't been able to develop enough unique and exciting spacecraft to fill a whole book. Another problem is that laying out and editing a book takes more time than developing the content, by a surprising high margin. Not to mention it's the least fun part of the process. So making a whole bunch of little books is neither time effective nor is it fun enough to compensate.  Big fail.
    But LAUNCH WINDOW changed all that.  The magazine is an average of a hundred pages an issue, and I only have to lay it out once.  Even better, it's covers a variety of features and subjects, so I don't need to pad a story or my game content to reach my page goals - I can just add different content. So all those little product categories we developed for independent titles can be folded in as features of the magazine.  One of them, Starmorphs, is already part of Issue 0.5, and we're planning on including it in every issue at least for the full 26-tile series.  Issue 1 will include a Species Spotlight as well, and possibly a Technical Readout, depending on our page numbers.
     The point is, I can finally develop my little ideas in a venue that favors them.  That means a larger variety of content, which make for a more diverse magazine and guarantees something for everybody.  That's the hope, anyway.
     Just like I hope you all have a fun weekend out there in either the real world or the campaign setting of your choice.  See you Monday, Rocket Fans!

     

I've Fallen in Love with D6 Again

     ...Not that I ever really fell out of love with what is my favorite gaming engine ever.  I haven't been showing it much lately, but that was more of a business decision than a personal one.  White Star and The Black Hack have, between them, bracketed the SF OSR market of late as much as they have the color spectrum.  I've been writing products for these systems, and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
     Another reason I stopped producing for D6 is, ironically enough, the D6 Star Wars fandom.  And not because it's getting smaller, but because it's bigger and better than ever.  The number and quality of the fan-produced books for Star Wars D6 not only have higher production value than what I can do, seeing how I have to own the rights to all the art before I can sell, but books such as the new REUP core book and the books produced by Womp Rat Press are better than what West End Games could put out in the Nineties.  How's an indie producer like me to compete?

     But.

     Let's be honest here; I didn't star writing RPG books for D6 because I thought it was a smart business decision.  I started writing D6 books because I was a fan and had always wanted to.  I love D6.  I think it's one of the easiest systems to learn, and in my experience, it's the easiest system to run. Therefore, I have decided to start writing for D6 again.

Some of our future products will include a collaboration with Rob Garitta on a version of spacecraft creation rules for the Black Hack.  I'm writing the next installment of the Technical Readout series  featuring shuttles, which will be released under OSR as well as D6. In addition, there's the next of our Species Spotlight books, with will feature a race of ghost faced killers called the Sung.  But those are our smaller projects; There are two pretty major ones in the works that as well.

     Our next major title will be Opposing Force: Alternate Rules for Metaphysics for Open D6.  In this book, we'll provide alternate mechanics for those most frustrating of rules (next to the Wild Die, apparently) in the D6 System.  In addition to a new system for using Fate Points and Powers, the book will have guidelines on creating new Codes to live by, new organizations, weapons, equipment, species and templates.  There will even be new spacecraft, because of course there will.

Project number two won't be available for sale for quite some time, but you'll all get a chance to follow along as I'll be posting regular progress reports.  I will be working on this:

Starphin-class Frigate
Concept Art

This little beauty is a small Missile Frigate/ Pocket Carrier.  It's 180 meters long and 150 meters from the top of the forward fin to the base.  It has six light double turbo-laser turrets, fourteen point defense turrets, and either 24 missile tubes with a hundred and twenty missiles, or a squadron of twelve fighters.  This ship is tiny by space opera standards.  By mapping standards, it is a mammoth project as the spacecraft is a hundred and twenty tactical squares long and has fifty decks.  I plan on making these plans as detailed as possible.  this will require some serious research on the design of the weapons turrets, engines, life support system and landing gear.  Like I said, this will take a good bit of time.  The good news is, I'll be posting the works in progress on the blog.
   Anyway, that's what's going on with Blue Max Studios for now.  Our next several posts will involve showing off our work, so stay tuned, RocketFans!

Species Spotlight: Myrmidoni ON SALE NOW!

CLICK HERE.
You know you want to.

“They are nomadic marauders from the edges of space. Always, they serve those with the credits to buy their power and are loyal only to their own.”

Warbands raiding across the stars. Iron juggernauts that cannot be contained. Warriors the likes of which the galaxy has never seen: These are the Myrmidoni.

In this Species Spotlight supplement you will find:

A Tribe of Warriors: The Myrmidoni, notorious across the galaxy as the finest fighters in space.

A Tribe of Mercenaries: The Myrmidoni are implacable foes. Their warriors face a gauntlet of challenge, their warlords command armies, their elites hunt the deadliest prey among the stars.

A Tribe of Armored Goliaths: With their special Starloy armor that turns even laser swords aside, the Myrmidoni are as indestructible as they are destructive.

Do you have what it takes the run The Gauntlet against them?