Re: Into the Void

I'm answering extracts from a couple of messages here.

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From: "Static" <eshum@????????.org>
Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Proposal: Into the Void: a Spelljammer online magazine


> In our last episode, David Shepheard said:
> >Into the Void sounds like a great idea for a magazine. I hope that you can get enough
> >people to provide content. I guess it will have a "Moon of the Month" in every issue if
> >you are doing it! ;-)
>
>         Nobody said this would be a monthly thing... :)

Thinking about it more, I agree. I think monthly would be too frequent. I would say that
the best thing to do would be to get hold of a number of articles and put out a pilot.
After the pilot issue is put out, everyone involved can see how much work is involved and
decide how they can cope with the workload. The ideal thing would be to have one issue in
hand to allow for proofreading and internal criticism to take place without having to rush
things.

> >* Reviews of non-Spelljammer related material (websites and game books) that can be
> >converted to Spelljammer. Telling us what stuff is.
> [snip]
>
>         Interesting idea.  This is something I tried with the SJ Products
> page (which nobody every f@#king looks at), but I've only gotten one
> suggestion so far in over 5 years.  Must be 'cuz nobody every looks at
> that page.

That would have been me. Perhaps the page can be expanded somehow to include new fan
content. If completed PDFs and issues of "Into The Void" were listed here, the page might
be worth bookmarking to more people.

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From: "George "Loki" Williams" <chaos93@?????????.net>
Subject: [SPELLJAMMER] Frequency and categories

> I think that shooting for a quarterly would be the best bet, after all this
> is supposed to be a magazine, not just another site. If we were going that
> way it would be much simpler to just expand upon BTM. Twice a year is too
> infrequent to make it "sticky," monthly is hardly feasable with all
> volunteer labor. To my mind quarterly seems the best approach.

Quarterly sounds like a good timescale to aim for. We might need a while to work up to it,
though.

> Also, we should work out what the sections are going to be (and possibly
> some names for them).
> Things like Ask Estriss, Contraband (rebooting d20 materials for SJ),
> Xenobiology (critters), etc.
> Once we have a framework and an idea of when we shoot shoot for launch-wise,
> the rest should fall into place. Also, once we have the organization laid
> out life will be much easier for the WebJammer (tm).

I'm not sure on the use of the word "xenobiology" as it sounds too scientific and modern
for a fantasy campaign. I believe that there was a group in one of the Spelljammer books
that specialised in hunting down and capturing unusual monsters...

..Found it! They are The Gatherers. They are listed in Krynnspace, but the description
does mention that they can be found in other spheres. They don't just hunt dangerous
creatures. They also transport harmless animals and plants too.

At the risk of it turning into a bit of an overused cliché, I think we could have Into The
Void written (in part) by in-character organisations (or at least introduced by them).
Critter reports could have a very short sidebar style introduction by a member of The
Gatherers (think of the rich Europeans that like to shoot elephants or gardeners that
import foreign plants) before having a more typical monster manual entry.

Here are a few names that might be worth using for columns:

* Gaspar's Guide to Gadgets: A column "written" by agents of this company listing new
magical items they have discovered. (See Gaspar's Reclamations in The Complete
Spacefairer's Handbook)

* Hurricane Halvor's Ship Sale: A column where DMs can share statistics for custom built
spelljamming ships they no longer need, as well as ship related mundane and magical items.
(See Hurricane Halvor's Real-Cheap Spacedock)

I'd be especially interested in someone coming up with a good ship "character" sheet (in
PDF form) to start this column off as I haven't found one I'm happy with yet. I'd like to
see one that can match the standard of Mad Irishman's fantastic four page 3e character
sheets. Something that can list *all* the stats, saves and attacks (ship's weapons) for
the ship as well as having space to list ships equipment and crew. We probably need
someone who is heavily into the War Captains Companion and Battlesystem to work on a
sheet. I'm not sure of everything that would be needed, but I believe that a series of
boxes that would help people make adjustments for things like "increased thickness" would
be the right way to start this off.

Something I'd be quite keen to see, that I don't think has been mentioned yet is a
"beginners guide to wildspace". Something aimed at helping non-Spelljammer players from
adapting to the Spelljammer setting. It would be nice if this type of column went
systematically through the standard character classes and races and explained how they
might be affected.

>From a 3e (and 3.5e) point of view skills and feats can be detailed as well. While a lot
of this sort of thing seems self explanatory there are a number of questions that could
come up for particular character classes especially as spelljammer has heavy influence
from sea based travel and the standard fantasy campaign is not set up for this. (For
example if two ships in combat do not share a common air envelope I think that the Bardic
Music ability can not affect things on the other ship even if it is very close.) I'd
especially like to see the dwarven, elven, gnome and halfling subraces adapted for 3e as
these are missing in the Players Handbook/SRD. Anything written here could eventually be
reused for BtM's PDF Spelljammer rules.

Finally Into The Void (is it going to be abbreviated as "ItV"?) could do with a few space
fillers. Artwork would be good for this, but people could also submit "sidebar" sized
articles. Occasionally we could have small in-character "adverts" as well.

David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/links/d20_system_001071937434/Spelljammer_001071430476
http://virtualeclipse.aboho.com/