Where's the Rules Update for LAUNCH WINDOW? (and other news)

     Let's talk about that.
     For those of you who do not already know, I got sick again right after getting Issue 1 published.  It was another depressing reminder that while the spirit is willing, the flesh is still very much disabled and will crap out at the most inopputune times.  What can I say?  Putting out a 80+ page magazine monthly single handedly may not be impossible, but for someone of my medical conditions, it may very well be unsustainable.
     Not to be deturred, I devoted some thought to the situation between bouts of fever and + blood sugur reading and came up with the following solution:

•  January's Issue 2 will come out on time and be awesome.  I've decided to take the monthy feature "Starmorphs" and devote the entire issue to it.  It will contain 26 maps, complete with keys and six random tables apiece for your gaming peasure.  The whole thing together was planned as a stand-alone product for $10.00, so getting it for $7.50 as a LAUNCH WINDOW issue is abargain.
• Since Issue 2 will contain no new rules per se, it will need no rules updates, so I can spend that time catching up on Issue 1's updates.  This way I can keep to my publishing schedule for the magazine without getting any further behind.
• Starting with Issue 3, LAUNCH WINDOW will be the same length as Issue 0.5 - roughly 50 or so pages, and sell for $5.00 an issue.  I know I can make those monthy even if illness or other douchebaggery happens to upset my schedule.  Print issues, when they come, will be two-issue collections, for a total of 6 100- page print books a year.
• The subscription deal we have, (one year for $60.00) will now be expanded to include 18 issues for $60.00, to reflect the shortened lenghth.  You'll still be getting each issue for 1/3 off.
• Patreon pledgers will get the magazine, the separate short stories, and additional behind-the-scenes and bonus materials not available for sale.  These will include prgressive reports on the "Star Desroyer" mapping project

    Anyway, that's where we're at on the magazine for now.  In other news, Christmas is around the corner, my 40th birthday is right after that, and I'll probably be out of touch more or less untill the new year.  So...Happy New Year!

Star Destroyer Map? To SCALE!?

     So after getting LAUNCH WINDOW up an running (finally) my tired brain needed a break.  As a sort of palate cleanser, I went trawling around Ye Olde Interwebs looking at Star Destroyers.

 Some of the images I came across were from Geoffry Mandel's blueprints.  These are so old, they pre-date the scaling up of the Blockade Runner and SD made late in production and show us a Star Destroyer less than five hundred meters long.  The weapon mix and compliment is also interesting - the Mandel SD only has a crew of 750 (280 of which are Stormtroopers) but still carries a full wing of 72 TIE fighters.  No AT-AT or chicken walkers, though.  The SD was either too small to carry planetary assault equipment, was optimized for space combat, or, most likely, these were omitted because George and ILM hadn't invented them yet.
    Anyway, for fun, I started sketching star cruiser whose size was inspired by Mandel's SD, and blended featured of all different Star Destroyers we see from Episode II on.  I couldn't get the tiny inch long sketches I drew scale up, so I fired up Wings 3D and simply built a model in that.  Because my "Pocket SD" star cruiser was only about 600 meters long, I could build it out to scale.  The scale I chose was one grid square = 15 meters, because my Star Morph capital ship map tiles are 15 x 30 meters, so it made sense.  I also though about texturing the beast, but this was just a palate cleanser, so why bother?
     That's when the muse descended.
     I can texture blocks in Wings.  I have twenty-six star morphs laying around.  Hmmm...

      Sure enough, I not only could put my Starmorphs on 1x2x0.2 tiles to represent 15x30x3 meter deck segments, the resolution of the images was sharp enough to really see the detail.
    I was shocked as the implications set in.  By using my existing tiles, maybe a few new ones, and Wings 3D, I had the tools to fully map a Star Destroyer to scale.
    At first I thought it was crazy - after all, my Starphin project proved to be too much work to do in a timely manner - and that ship was a third of the size of my Mandel SD.  But in reality, the SD is a lot simpler a project, because the large pieces like engines and main guns are computer models and the deckplans have already been drawn.
     The results so far have been encouraging...

LIFTOFF!

A NEW ERA IN SCIENCE FICTION GAMING!

Now you can get new material for your science fiction game - no matter what game it is!

Welcome to LAUNCH WINDOW: A monthly digest that features new material for Cepheus Engine, Diaspora, D20, Open D6, and OSR gaming.  Stories and articles every month feature new characters, starships, equipment and rules options for your favorite science fiction games.  Every system, every item, every issue.

The Black Desert of space is a dangerous place. When a shipping rocket is endanger of being impounded by a hostile government,  takes a special kind of team to repossess spacecraft before its passengers and crew become detainees.

The Third Gleise Monarchy stood for freedom and prosperity.  When is much larger totalitarian neighbor orchestrated a palace coup, it appears that all is lost.  It’s up to one diplomat and his starcruiser to find a way to turn what few ships and troops remain into a force of resistance.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

Gone in 7 km/s: When your rocket’s bills are past due, don’t fear the Repo...

Species Spotlight: Hichikars:  These vagobonds of space are a lot of fun, but keep your hand on your wallet!

Technical Readout: Pinnace: These armed interface craft are a real bargain...but you get what you pay for.