Browsed by
Tag: traveller

Four Pioneers

Four Pioneers

Comments 0 Comment

Mongoose Publishing is in the process of producing a new Traveller-derived RPG, called Pioneer, set in the near future and centered around a New Space Age in which player characters (called “Pioneers”) are engaged in the development and colonization of space. Written by Sandy Antunes, it’s very much on the “hard science fiction” end of the spectrum.

For those of us who backed the project, a pre-release draft of the Pioneer core book was made available a few days ago, and I’ve been poring through that ever since.

First impressions: this looks like it’s going to be a very neat game, and I’m looking forward to making use of the finished product. I might be developing some Pioneer adventures for future convention visits!

On the other hand, it really needs a copy-editing pass before final release, and I suspect it’s going to be a tough game to referee unless you’re already comfortable with some space science. The core book tries to present both an engaging RPG and a primer on space science and engineering, and it may be falling between two stools in the process. On the other hand, the final release is apparently going to include two full campaign books, so that might help get potential referees over that hump. We’ll have to see how it turns out.

In the meantime, I spent some time today putting the Pioneer character generation sequence through its paces, and I ended up with a team of four ready-to-play Pioneers. These are loosely inspired by my own “Human Destiny” universe, although I don’t plan on taking these specific versions of the characters as canon.

Dr. John “Jack” Carter

Age 38 (born 1992) – current residence Baltimore, Maryland, USA
STR 8 (+0), DEX 9 (+1), END 9 (+1), INT 13 (+2), EDU 13 (+2), SOC 8 (+0)
Skills: Athletics-0, Charm-0, Computers-2, Engineer-0, Explosives-0, Heavy Machinery-0, Investigate-1, Language-1 (Spanish), Media-1, Medic-0, Navigation-1, Perception-1, Persuade-1, Science-4 (Life), Space Suit-1, Survival-1, Zero-G-1
Social Assets: Rival x2
Benefits: 540 Influence, Lab

Jack Carter graduated from the University of Tennessee in 2014, and earned his PhD in biology from Oxford University in 2018. He has earned widespread renown and multiple awards for excellence in the sciences, and is recognized as a world-class expert in life support technology and the adaptation of biological organisms to long-term space travel.

Dr. Carter currently teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and also does commercial research for several space-industry firms. He is a close personal friend of Nathan Walker and is a likely candidate for Walker’s growing space ventures.

Besides, with a name like that, he’s doomed to be selected for an eventual Mars expedition . . .

Major Melissa Chen, USAF (retired)

Age 34 (born 1996) – current residence Houston, Texas, USA
STR 5 (-1), DEX 9 (+1), END 6 (+0), INT 10 (+1), EDU 11 (+1), SOC 6 (+0)
Skills: Charm-0, Combat-2, Computers-2, Electronics-2, Heavy Machinery-0, Language-1 (Mandarin), Leadership-1, Navigation-1, Orbital Mechanics-1, Perception-0, Pilot-1, Profession-0, Remote Operation-1, Science-1 (Planetary), Space Suit-1, Survival-1, Zero-G-1
Social Assets: None
Benefits: 80 Influence, Secret Clearance, Advanced Tech

Melissa Chen attended the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs, where she earned recognition for both academic and leadership excellence. Despite facing systemic prejudice for being a woman, and a second-generation immigrant whose parents came from a rival nation, she had an outstanding military career which ended in a nomination for astronaut training. She recently retired from the service in order to pursue long-time ambitions in space.

Ms. Chen has been married to Robert Mitchell since 2020.

Robert Mitchell

Age 42 (born 1988) – current residence Houston, Texas, USA
STR 7 (+0), DEX 9 (+1), END 8 (+0), INT 12 (+2), EDU 7 (+0), SOC 3 (-1)
Skills: Admin-1, Advocate-1, Athletics-1, Charm-2, Computers-1, Deception-0, Electronics-3, Engineer-2 (Electrical), Language-1 (Mandarin), Leadership-2, Mechanic-1, Pilot-1, Profession-1 (Roughneck), Streetwise-2
Social Assets: Ally, Contact x2
Benefits: 120 Influence, Plane

Robert Mitchell was born to a very poor family, and never had the opportunity to gain much formal education. However, he has spent his life working twice as hard as anyone around him, and educating himself with every available resource. The result has been a successful career as a networking specialist, working his way up from freelance contractor, to team leader, to head of engineering for medium-to-large firms. Much of his work has been adjacent to the growing space industry, where he has many contacts and potential allies now that he is consciously aiming for a role as a Pioneer.

Mr. Mitchell has, among other things, taught himself to be a skilled backpacker and small-aircraft pilot. His occasional vlogs about his expeditions into deep wilderness have made him a minor social-media celebrity.

Mr. Mitchell has been married to Melissa Chen since 2020.

Nathan Walker

Age 30 (born 2000) – current residence Palo Alto, California, USA
STR 6 (+0), DEX 8 (+0), END 6 (+0), INT 9 (+1), EDU 10 (+1), SOC 12 (+2)
Skills: Admin-1, Advocate-2, Charm-1, Computers-2, Deception-0, Electronics-1, Explosives-0, Jack-of-all-Trades-1, Language-1 (Russian), Media-2, Orbital Mechanics-1, Survival-1
Social Assets: Ally, Enemy
Benefits: 200 Influence, Board Position

Nathan Walker has two very important assets: he was born into a lot of money, and he has an immense talent for loudly claiming credit for successful ventures (while moving silently away from unsuccessful ones). Space is his latest hobby, and he has enormous ambitions for his new startup venture (Ares Enterprises). He hasn’t quite reached the position of being able to carry out his own launches and missions, but his money and his media presence have gotten his foot in the door with both national and commercial space ventures.

Mr. Walker and Dr. Carter are close friends. Mr. Walker is also acquainted with Ms. Chen, who led the rescue mission when one of his highly publicized adventures went badly in 2024.

Planning for April 2026

Planning for April 2026

Comments 0 Comment

Huh. My apologies to my readers – it looks as if I completely failed to post a planning message for the month of March. I certainly made out a planning board, and I know I intended to make a post about it, but “I’ll do it tomorrow” must have gotten a little too entrenched. So let’s pick back up with the month of April.

In general, retired life is agreeing with me, I’m keeping up with my university coursework, and I’m getting at least a little creative work done most days. It’s just a matter of pushing long-term projects forward until I have something worth sharing . . .

Here’s the (not so tentative – I’ve got some definite commitments I need to meet) plan for April.

University Studies

Still very much on track, and as far as I can tell I haven’t scored lower than about a 94/100 on any assignment or exam so far this year. Coming down to the final stretch for both courses, with exams coming up in May.

The objectives for April are:

  • For my astronomy course: Read Topic 6, turn in the sixth graded assignment, and then read Topic 7.
  • For my mathematics course: Read Units 11, 12, and 13. Get started on the computer-marked and tutor marked assignments due in mid-May.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

“What’s Past is Prologue” reached Chapter 20 just before the end of March, and I’m definitely getting into the end-game of the plot. Probably aiming for 24-25 chapters in all. Very good chance I’ll be able to finish that novel in April, depending on how my time works out. It’s getting very good engagement, including from new readers, to the point it should soon pop into the top-five list of all the stories I’ve ever written on Archive of Our Own.

The objective for April is to complete “What’s Past is Prologue.”

Architect of Worlds & Composer of Cultures

Ken Burnside would really like to have a revised version of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller” ready to sell, and I suspect I can have a draft ready for him before the Mayday celebrations kick off, so that’s a major project right now. I’m not seeing any reason why that revised and expanded document, based on the final release version of Architect, can’t be available on the Ad Astra Games catalog within a few weeks. This is my top priority right now.

Still working on version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures. I had originally intended to do just a little polishing of existing mechanics, but the more I worked, the more I saw ways to improve the whole structure. The simulation model is complete at this point, but I’m working on the section the reader can use to translate the game results into a more-or-less detailed history of their sophont species’ cultural development. Hoping to have that done sometime in early-to-mid April.

The formal errata list for Architect of Worlds is finished and has been posted here.

The objectives for April are:

  • Draft a new edition of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller“ and release to Ad Astra for publication
  • Finish version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game for Composer of Cultures
  • Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Composer of Cultures
  • Continue to collect research for a potential second edition of the book, and make occasional world-building posts to this site based on that new research

Personal Universes

The “Human Destiny” and “Tree of Worlds” universes are getting occasional attention, as time permits, although progress on both is very slow. Maybe more over the summer, when I don’t have university courses to take up time and energy?

I’ve also gone back to look at my “Great Lands” Iron Age fantasy setting, with the intention of reworking some of the worldbuilding and re-releasing the fiction (“Krava’s Legend”) that I’ve written in that universe. Incremental progress there too. There’s a good chance I’ll eventually be able to point to a World Anvil page for this setting . . .

Planning for December 2025

Planning for December 2025

Comments 0 Comment

November was another mixed bag, due to a bout of illness and the need to finish preparing for Philcon 2025. I’ve been doing okay on staying ahead of schedule with my university courses – and getting top-notch grades, too, which is a morale booster! A couple of important creative projects have been pushed to the back burner for a while, though. Now that Philcon is over, I’m hoping to get back to making good progress on those.

Philcon 2025 After-Action Report

Philcon was a blast, by the way. A few minor stumbles, but on the whole I think it was a good con.

One of the two RPG events I drew up didn’t happen, for lack of players. I think I’ve concluded that Friday evening is just not the right time to try running a tabletop game at Philcon. If I do any games at future cons I think I’m just going to draw up one for Saturday evening.

My seminar ran into some trouble when I was unable to project slides, but I had a backup plan for that. I was able to direct the audience to the slide deck on this site, and most of them were following along on their phones. Lots of good questions afterward, and I sold and signed every single copy of Architect of Worlds that I had with me. Could have sold more copies, most likely.

(A surprising number of people at Philcon knew who I was as soon as Architect was mentioned. I’m beginning to think that book has gotten more penetration in the niche “SF creatives” market than I expected.)

The panels I was on all went off well. I particularly enjoyed the one I did on Friday evening with Jim Cambias, Andy Campbell, and Michael Ryan (on science-fiction gaming) and the one on Sunday afternoon with Charles Gannon and Dennis Myers (on exoplanetary science). Both of those moderated by Jennifer Povey, who’s pretty skilled. Being a panel moderator is tough work, and I always appreciate when it’s well done.

I also picked up information for some of the spring and summer conventions located closer to home – I may see if I can get onto the programming dockets for one or more of those.

Anyway, what follows is the tentative plan for December.

University Studies

I’ve lost a little ground, but I’m still ahead of schedule on both courses, and my grades so far have been sterling. It helps that I seem to have done a lot better job wrapping my brain around differential equations than I did the last time I studied them, forty years ago.

Objectives for December include finishing Topic 3 and the third graded assignment for my astronomy course, and finishing units 4-6 and the next two graded assignments for my mathematics course.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I had hoped to finish “The Spooky Season” in November, but here it is December and I’m still writing the Halloween-themed story. Finishing that is going to be the objective for the coming month. Good news is that I still seem to be bringing in readers. Lower Decks may have been over for a year, but it seems that people still want more stories about the Warp Drive Five.

The objective for December is to complete “The Spooky Season” and start on the next story.

Architect of Worlds & Conductor of Cultures

The next minor version of the Cultural Evolution Game is mechanics-complete, and I’ve made good progress on some of the explanatory and supporting text. I’m fairly certain I’ll have a new partial draft ready for collaborators and playtesters to look at, hopefully by mid-December.

The objectives for December are:

  • Complete a minor rewrite (version 0.3) of the Cultural Evolution Game, including a substantial portion of the supplementary material, and submit that to playtesters for comment
  • Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Conductor of Cultures
  • Begin researching and drafting a new edition of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller“
  • Reconstruct a formal errata list for Architect of Worlds, so readers can see what’s been fixed in each minor-version release so far
  • Continue to collect research for a potential second edition of the book, and make occasional world-building posts to this site based on that new research

The Human Destiny Universe

I’ve been able to collect some notes and do some back-of-brain game design for a version 0.60 of the “Human Destiny Sourcebook.” In particular, I think I’ve settled on the underlying game system for it, and I’m kind of kicking myself for not considering this one before. Version 0.60 is going to be designed around the FATE system published by Evil Hat Productions.

The objective for December is to continue work on a version 0.60 of the “Human Destiny Sourcebook,” with the understanding that it may be some time before I have a complete draft to share.

Upcoming Conventions

As mentioned, I’m interested in some other SF conventions that take place a little closer to home. The ones I’m specifically looking at include Balticon, Capclave, and RavenCon.

The objective for December is to apply for programming seats at Balticon 2026, Capclave 2026, and RavenCon 2026, and begin planning for possible appearances at these three conventions.

Planning for September 2025

Planning for September 2025

Comments 0 Comment

I was pretty busy throughout August, reaching several milestones, so I’m reasonably happy with how things went. In general, I seem to be adapting pretty well to retirement – I’m having no trouble at all in filling my days, and if anything I still don’t feel as if I have enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. So, as we move into the fall, here’s my tentative plan for September.

University Studies

I’ll be taking two new courses from the Open University in the coming year. One is a bog-standard observational astronomy course, which I don’t expect to present serious challenges. The other, however, is an advanced mathematics course which revisits a lot of the topics that defeated me forty years ago: differential equations, calculus of scalar and vector fields, Fourier series, that kind of thing.

Okay, I have a lot more experience as a mathematician now, and hopefully I’m a lot better disciplined than I was in my twenties, but I suspect this material is going to be a challenge. Fortunately I already have the textbooks for it. So, although the course doesn’t formally start until next month, I’m going to start working on the first few units now.

The objective for September is to spend at least an hour a day studying and practicing for the first two or three units of my mathematics course.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I finished a Star Trek: Lower Decks novelette titled “Mariner’s Seven” in August. That was a fairly straightforward heist story, with some connections to the Star Trek: Picard series.

The next story is titled “The Stern and Direful God of War.” I suspect this may be a bit longer piece than usual. It’s going to involve exploration, some weirder-than-usual aliens, and a really deep cut into Star Trek canon. The objective for September is to complete that story.

Architect of Worlds & Conductor of Cultures

I spent a lot of time in August coming up with an initial design for a “Cultural Evolution Game,” which is likely to be a big chunk of the planned Conductor of Cultures book (notice the new working title – we decided that would be a better fit for the theme established by Architect of Worlds).

At the moment, that mini-game is being poked at by my collaborators and a few playtesters, and I’m mostly involved in collating their feedback and starting to consider a final draft of the overall design. I may or may not actually get that design work done this month. On the other hand, there’s likely to be a lot of supplementary material for the mini-game, and I can start writing that even while the game design itself is still coalescing.

The objectives for September are:

  • Work on the design for the Cultural Evolution Game
  • Begin writing supplementary material for the Cultural Evolution Game
  • Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Conductor of Cultures
  • Begin researching and drafting a new edition of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller“
  • Reconstruct a formal errata list for Architect of Worlds, so readers can see what’s been fixed in each minor-version release so far
  • Continue to collect research for a potential second edition of the book, and make occasional world-building posts to this site based on that new research

The Human Destiny Universe

I got essentially no work done on the Human Destiny setting this month, so the outstanding objectives for this project are unchanged. if at all possible, I do intend to make an attempt at the first two items on this list this month.

The objectives for September are:

  • Build a revised map for the “Human Protectorate” region and release that to Ko-fi
  • Produce a one- or two-page document that describes typical starship designs and mission profiles, and release that to Ko-fi
  • Re-work the spreadsheets I have modeling the exploration and colonization of near-Sol space, now based on FTL assumptions
  • Revise existing “Atlas of the Human Protectorate” documents to reflect the reappearance of FTL in the setting, and release the new versions to Ko-fi
  • Resume producing new documents in the “Atlas of the Human Protectorate” series (most likely starting with the Alpha Centauri writeup) and release that for patrons to Ko-fi

Upcoming Conventions

It’s looking as if Travellercon 2025 isn’t going to happen – I haven’t been able to make any contact with their organizing committee, and with other priorities piling up I’m afraid that one is dropping off the list.

So my main focus is going to be on Philcon 2025 in November. I’m already signed up to deliver a seminar there, as well as two RPG sessions, and sit on any other panels that seem appropriate. I’ve made good progress on the seminar and one of the games, but there’s lots of prep work still to be done.

The objectives for September are:

  • Finish preparing a world-building seminar, “Foundations of Worldbuilding: Getting the Astronomy Right” for Philcon 2025
  • Finish preparing a Star Trek Adventures game for five players, to be run at Philcon 2025
  • Work on a Dune: Adventures in the Imperium game for five players, to be run at Philcon 2025
  • Sign up for up to 3-4 panel discussions at Philcon 2025

Re-publishing Earlier Fiction

I continued to make very little progress on this item in July, and it’s probably going to stay close to the bottom of the priority list. The objective for September will be to continue researching my options for re-publishing, and start developing a workflow for it.

Planning for August 2025

Planning for August 2025

Comments 0 Comment

July 2025 didn’t go quite as planned, largely because of the new Symphony of Cultures project taking up a lot of space. I’m not dissatisfied with how the month went, by any means. These planning messages, and the project white-board I maintain in my office, are intended to make sure I stay creatively busy and don’t get side-tracked into unproductive channels. If a worthwhile new project crops up and pushes other items aside, I have no objections.

So here’s my current status, with the tentative plan for the month of August.

University Studies

I’ve learned that I passed both my physics course and my planetary-science course “with distinction,” which rounds out the 2024-2025 academic year nicely. I’ve successfully enrolled in two new courses for the coming academic year: a straightforward astronomy course, and a course on advanced mathematical methods. Tuition is paid, I’m good to go, but the courses don’t formally start until early October. No new objectives for this item.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I wrote a Star Trek: Lower Decks novelette titled “A Temporary Madness” in July. Be warned, if you’re considering reading that one – it’s mildly smutty. Fan-fiction leans that way sometimes.

I’m currently working on a new story, titled “Mariner’s Seven.” This is a pretty straightforward heist tale, in which Beckett Mariner and her friends are breaking into a high-tech casino on behalf of Starfleet Intelligence. Naturally, things are not going entirely according to plan. The objective for August is to complete that story.

Architect of Worlds & Symphony of Cultures

Ken Burnside and I (finally) reached an agreement on a “policy document” describing what we consider appropriate for projects to automate the Architect of Worlds design sequences. That document is located here.

The biggest development in this category was the new Symphony of Cultures project, in which I’ll be collaborating with two others to design and build a sourcebook for producing alien species and cultures for interstellar fiction. That’s going to be a big project, likely to take up a lot of my time over the next year, so it’s going to be prominent in my planning messages for months to come.

The objectives for August are:

  • Design a complete mini-game for the development of an alien society’s history based on its planetary environment and psychological traits, and begin writing that section of the Symphony of Cultures rough draft
  • Contribute to the initial design for other portions of Symphony of Cultures
  • Begin researching and drafting a new edition of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller“
  • Reconstruct a formal errata list for Architect of Worlds, so readers can see what’s been fixed in each minor-version release so far
  • Continue to collect research for a potential second edition of the book, and make occasional world-building posts to this site based on that new research

The Human Destiny Universe

I had a burst of cartographic activity early in July, and was able to produce and publish two maps for the Human Destiny setting. The third map – a small scale map of the so-called “Human Protectorate” – is still on the drawing board.

The objectives for July are:

  • Build a revised map for the “Human Protectorate” region and release that to Ko-fi
  • Produce a one- or two-page document that describes typical starship designs and mission profiles, and release that to Ko-fi
  • Re-work the spreadsheets I have modeling the exploration and colonization of near-Sol space, now based on FTL assumptions
  • Revise existing “Atlas of the Human Protectorate” documents to reflect the reappearance of FTL in the setting, and release the new versions to Ko-fi
  • Resume producing new documents in the “Atlas of the Human Protectorate” series (most likely starting with the Alpha Centauri writeup) and release that for patrons to Ko-fi

Upcoming Conventions

Attendance at Travellercon this year is looking less likely, but there’s still time for me to get everything set up for that, so we’ll see.

Philcon is definitely a go, though – I’m already committed to being on the program for a seminar and some other panels, and I’ll be running a session or two in their gaming track. So that’s definitely on my schedule for a lot of prep work between now and November.

The objectives for August are:

  • Continue to attempt to register for convention programming for Travellercon 2025
  • Begin preparing a world-building seminar, tentatively titled “World-Building for Science Fiction: Getting the Astronomy Right,” for Philcon 2025
  • Begin preparing two tabletop game sessions to run at Philcon 2025
  • Sign up for up to 3-4 panel discussions at Philcon 2025

Re-publishing Earlier Fiction

I continued to make very little progress on this item in July, and it’s probably going to stay close to the bottom of the priority list. The objective for August will be to continue researching my options for re-publishing, and starting to develop a workflow for it.

Symphony of Cultures

Symphony of Cultures

Comments 1 comment

I have a contract in hand for this project, and the design is starting to come together nicely (although there is a ton of work to be done), so it’s about time that I pulled the tarp off of it.

As of this month, I’m working on (part of) a new book, with the working title of Symphony of Cultures. This is conceptually a “sequel” to Architect of Worlds, and it’s essentially going to be a book of tools and design sequences for building alien species and alien cultures for interstellar fiction. Ad Astra Games will be publishing it. The objective is to have it ready for release in about a year, in time for next summer’s big conventions. We’re aiming for a book that’s about the same length and heft as Architect of Worlds – that is, about 192 pages of rules, worksheets, and scientific/historical/literary background.

I’m not the sole author for this one. Ken Burnside intends to write at least a short section. We also have a third collaborator who has both gaming chops and considerable relevant expertise in evolutionary biology – honestly, they’re likely to end up writing more of the final draft than I do.

Prior art that might be relevant includes the various Traveller animal-design rules, the old Digest Group Publications release Grand Census, the alien-design rules in GURPS Uplift, and the Civilization tabletop and video game franchises.

The intention is to have a “short” design sequence, something a writer or gamer could complete in an hour or two, generating a “planet of the week” for a piece of fiction. There’s also going to be a “long” design sequence, that would take a lot more work but would help the reader generate the whole evolutionary and cultural history of an alien society in detail. That “long” sequence is where a lot of the scientific and historical mojo is going to be applied.

At the moment I’m drafting an initial design for a major portion of the “long” design sequence, and giving some thought to what the “short” sequence might look like. I’m hoping we can actually start writing big chunks of material by this fall. We may be looking for beta readers and “playtesters” at some point, so feel free to drop me a line if you might be interested in that. I probably won’t be posting portions of the draft here, as I did during development of Architect of Worlds. We’re on a much shorter development cycle for this one, and it has a publisher from day one, so we’ll be working through Ad Astra’s usual playtesting pipeline.

Should be an interesting project, though, and I’m looking forward to making it come together.

Planning for July 2025

Planning for July 2025

Comments 1 comment

It’s not quite the end of June yet, but I find I’ve made decent progress on all my objectives for this month, and I’ve discovered a couple of dependencies in my creative work that mean I need to move a few tasks up in the priority order. So I think I’m going to lay out the plan for July a few days early and get started on that now.

As I began with last month, the planning message for July is going to be organized around a list of high-level projects, with a few paragraphs for each. Note that for any item that has multiple objectives listed, those will be more or less in priority order, and I’m not making any commitment to finish all of them in the coming month.

University Studies

I successfully completed my two courses for the 2024-2025 academic year at the beginning of June. Haven’t seen the results of my finals or my overall grades yet, but I’m reasonably confident I did well with both courses. I’ve selected two courses for the 2025-2026 year, but those don’t start until September, which leaves the rest of the summer free. No objectives for this item.

Therapy Writing (Fan Fiction)

I completed the Star Trek: Lower Decks novella “Panem et Circenses” a few days ago. Turned out pretty well, I thought – at least it’s been keeping my regular readers over on Archive of our Own happy and calling for more.

I haven’t come up with a title for the next story, which is going to involve character development, identity politics, and dealing with family issues, all of it happening on Vulcan. As I’ve observed, someday someone is going to write a story involving pon farr in which the characters involved resolve the situation without complications, and just end up happily married and ready for the next adventure. I’m not going to be writing that story!

The objective for July is to write the next story in my Lower Decks fan-fiction series.

Architect of Worlds

Today I had a lengthy conversation with Ken Burnside about a number of items having to do with Architect of Worlds. In particular, we had a long-overdue discussion about his vision for providing automation for Architect. We also talked about some possible follow-on products, most notably an expanded and improved version of the “Architect of Worlds for Traveller” document I put together a couple of years ago.

The objectives for July are:

  • Draft a one-page specification document for an automated utility for Architect of Worlds which can he hosted on the Ad Astra Games website, and get that approved by Ken Burnside
  • Begin researching and drafting a new edition of “Abbreviated Architect of Worlds for Traveller,” with the objective of being able to start final layout in August
  • Reconstruct a formal errata list, so readers can see what’s been fixed in each minor-version release so far
  • Continue to collect research for a potential second edition of the book, and make occasional world-building posts to this site based on that new research

The Human Destiny Universe

I was able to rework my basic “structure of interstellar civilizations” document for Human Destiny in June, and published that for my Ko-fi readers. The next step in reworking that setting is going to involve some cartography, and some general notes on ship design. One I’ve finished those steps, I think I’ll be going back to the star system writeups I’ve already done and revising those, then starting to produce new ones.

The objectives for July are:

  • Build revised maps for near-Sol space on two scales, one for just the “Human Protectorate” region, another for a substantial portion of the Orion Arm that places the 8-12 other civilizations that humans will interact with most frequently, and release those to Ko-fi
  • Produce a one- or two-page document that describes typical starship designs and mission profiles, and release that to Ko-fi
  • Re-work the spreadsheets I have modeling the exploration and colonization of near-Sol space, now based on FTL assumptions
  • Revise existing “Atlas of the Human Protectorate” documents to reflect the reappearance of FTL in the setting, and release the new versions to Ko-fi
  • Resume producing new documents in the “Atlas of the Human Protectorate” series (most likely starting with the Alpha Centauri writeup) and release that for patrons to Ko-fi

Upcoming Conventions

I had originally intended to hit some of the conventions closest to me this year, but the windows for getting on con programming and making other arrangements passed while I was still employed by the federal government, and I missed a lot of those opportunities. So in 2025 I think I’m going to hit the same conventions I attended last year: Travellercon in October, and Philcon in November. I’ll revisit my plans for conventions in the Baltimore-Washington area next year.

The objectives for July are:

  • Register for convention programming for both Travellercon 2025 and Philcon 2025
  • Begin preparing a world-building seminar, tentatively titled “World-Building for Science Fiction: Getting the Astronomy Right,” for one or both conventions
  • Begin preparing 2-3 tabletop game sessions to run at both conventions

Re-publishing Earlier Fiction

I made very little (although not zero) progress on this item in June, and it’s probably going to stay close to the bottom of the priority list. The objective for July will be to continue researching my options for re-publishing, and starting to develop a workflow for it.

Planning for January 2025

Planning for January 2025

Comments 0 Comment

December was a refreshingly dull month. Aside from a couple of minor medical procedures, I didn’t have anything too disruptive of my schedule.

Well, my family took a couple of hits, all on 30 December – my wife was in an auto accident that totaled her vehicle (she escaped any injury, though, thank goodness), and my son lost his job and is once again looking for new opportunities. But that’s all survivable. We actually laughed around the dinner table that evening about how odd it was for all that to happen on the same day.

All month I just cranked out course-development work for my employer, made progress in my university courses, and worked on creative projects in my free time.

I got an Architect of Worlds star system writeup finished and published, as promised to participants in my workshop at Travellercon 2024 in October. I also got a second star system drawn up for the Human Destiny universe, and pushed that to my Ko-fi shop as well. That second item took more work than I anticipated, so it was pretty close to the end of the month when I finished it. I developed some useful workflows, though, so the next ones should be quicker and easier.

So new year, new directions. As I’ve mentioned, I seem to be focusing on the Human Destiny setting for the time being. I’ve promised myself that I’ll produce two items for the Atlas of the Human Protectorate per month. I also want to start revising the setting bible, and writing a draft for the next version of the tabletop RPG book. I have a story or two in that setting, percolating in the back of my head, so if one of those takes shape well enough I may get it written down too.

So here’s the list for January:

  • Produce the writeups for two star systems for the Atlas of the Human Protectorate, post as a freebie for high tiers on Ko-fi
  • Start work on revisions to the Human Destiny setting bible and core RPG rules
  • Start (or resume) work on at least one new Human Destiny story
  • Continue to collect and rewrite existing material for posting to Ko-fi

The first item is this month’s hard-and-fast objective, and the other three are “as time permits.” My biggest concern right now is that I’ve fallen behind on my university courses, so I’ll need to work hard this month to get caught up. We’ll see how things work out.

Planning for November 2024

Planning for November 2024

Comments 0 Comment

I seem to be in the midst of an extended hiatus in my creative life: since late September I’ve been working on support for gaming conventions rather than large-scale projects.

Travellercon was pretty successful. I sat on two panel discussions and ran a GURPS Traveller: The Interstellar Wars adventure for a full table. I didn’t run myself into the ground, I had a good time, and I got to meet a lot of people in person who had just been names on the Internet before.

Ironically, one of the people I met at Travellercon was on the programming committee for another convention: Philcon 2024, set to take place 22-24 November. As of right now, I’m scheduled to sit on three panels at Philcon – one of them a solo workshop on “Worldbuilding 101” – and run two games in the evenings. So no sooner did I get finished with one convention, than I had taken on a bunch of prep work for another.

This isn’t a problem. I’m obliged to attend (and promote Architect of Worlds at) two conventions this year anyway. It gets me back into the more public side of tabletop game design and SF literature, after a very long time away. Still, it means I’m working on those short-term projects rather than any of my longer-term ones. I have several items I need to get back to, as soon as my schedule loosens up a bit after Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, I’m giving serious thought to re-organizing and re-prioritizing my creative work even after I finish with Philcon.

Part of this is that I’ve just about determined that I’m going to be shutting down my Patreon campaign soon. At this point, my patrons may be able to expect a free release or two in November or December . . . but that may be the end of it. There are a number of reasons for this, but the three most significant are:

  1. Now that Architect of Worlds is finished and on the market, it may be a long time before I have another large-scale project that will help me make consistent monthly releases.
  2. In any case, I’m seeing a lot of patrons cancelling their subscriptions now that Architect is done, or signing up only for free subscriptions, or signing up and then cancelling in less than a month. Which reinforces that what I’ve been doing on Patreon since the Architect release is probably not holding people’s interest.
  3. Meanwhile, Patreon is showing signs of enshittification. They’ve already deprecated the payment model I’ve preferred since Day One, and I keep seeing signs of increasingly arbitrary behavior and reduced customer support from them. It may be time to move away from a service which seems to be responding more to the needs of venture capitalists than its customers.

The plan at present is to migrate over to Kofi (“buy me a coffee”). I’ll have my page set up to permit people to make one-time donations, or to sign up for a monthly support subscription (with the understanding that I will not necessarily be releasing any significant “rewards” on a monthly basis). There will also be a store-front, where I’ll be selling PDF and EPUB e-books of my fiction, and maybe a few game-design items. Regular supporters will get steep discounts on these. I’ll make interim drafts of big projects available for free as well – but those will be taken down if and when they lead to published products.

I’m not sure when the transition will be taking place – it depends on how quickly I can get a few more pieces of fiction into my store-front so there’s a substantial amount of material in place. Almost certainly by the end of the calendar year, though.

Another factor is that I think I want to buckle down and focus on writing more fiction over the next year or two, rather than working on big game-design projects. I’m sensing that’s where my creative energies are likely to be better spent for the immediate future.

So yeah, some changes in the weather are approaching.

Status Report (23 April 2024)

Status Report (23 April 2024)

Comments 0 Comment

Looking forward to the next few days, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, so I’m in the midst of some rather aggressive prioritizing.

Since September, I’ve been involved with a big course-development project at the office, one which has been shattering every barrier that would normally allow me to avoid office work in the evenings and over weekends. This is the biggest course-development project I’ve ever been involved with – one which I would normally have said required 18-24 months of research and development before starting the pilot offering – and we’re having to pull it together in a fraction of that time. So that’s item #1.

Item #2 is the university courses I signed up for last summer, on the assumption that my established work-life balance was going to hold and I would have plenty of time to study . . . yeah, that hasn’t turned out as expected. My last set of exams came back with lower marks than I was willing to accept. I have two exams due at the end of April, and finals due at the end of May, and I am feeling a wee bit under-prepared.

Item #3 is Architect of Worlds, for which (good news!) I now have final edits in hand from Ken Burnside. Unfortunately, that means (bad news!) I need to get those final edits implemented and a release draft back to Ken ASAP so we can finally get the book out the door, right when #1 and #2 above are already demanding a big chunk of my energy.

None of this rises to the level of existential crisis, but I need to prioritize and manage my time a lot more aggressively than usual for the next couple of weeks.

This afternoon, I pulled together an interim draft of the Human Destiny setting bible and RPG sourcebook, and sent that to my patrons as a free update. I now expect to set that project aside for at least the next 10-14 days while I knock out other tasks.

I’ve got a commitment to appear on a Traveller podcast on 1 May, but aside from that I think I’m going to be limiting my social media time for about that long too. Don’t expect any posts here and only minimal noise on Facebook, and my May planning message may be later than usual as a result.

Hopefully by about 8 May I’ll be in much better shape, and I’ll have some good news to report, especially about Architect of Worlds.