Re: Getting things off the drawing board

Hi all,

After having a long look around for Spelljammer websites (in my mad quest to add *every*
Spelljammer website in the world to my links page) I've noticed a very sad thing about
most of them. They are not finished.

It seems to me, like lots of people are coming up with great ideas, but are getting bogged
down when they try to create a website for their content. Personally, if I was going to
create some Spelljammer content, I'd rather throw it at Static and let him put it on BtM,
but a lot of the Spelljammer website authors *do* have valid reasons go to the effort of
running their own websites.

Here is an idea, that might help some of the websites that are struggling a bit. I'm not
sure if it would be good for Into the Void or this mailing list. How about we pick some
good Spelljammer stuff that is half finished and work together to knock it into shape?

I realise that there is a problem here if we pick something out of the ether as we would
need to contact the original authors to get their permission to update their work. As some
of the websites look like they have been abandoned, this could be a lengthy and
frustrating process that would slow down or stop the entire process. However, I have seen
one place where I think we *would* be able to work on some of the content - a Lost Spheres
website called The Drawing Board:

http://lost.spelljammer.org/DrawingBoard/index.html

As the page itself says: "It contains mostly unfinished or very unconventional material
that didn't make it onto Beyond the Moons." If we ignore the "unconventional" stuff (which
would probably never make it off of this page) and stick to the "incomplete" stuff, maybe
we can give something enough of a leg up that it moves off of this page onto BtM!

Here are my favourite candidates:

The Vodoni Empire:

http://lost.spelljammer.org/DrawingBoard/worlds/Vodoni/index.html

This is an expansion of the empire that was featured in the Spelljammer adventure, Under
the Dark Fist (SJA4). The empire has 12 crystal spheres, however only 3 have had content
created for them on The Vodoni Empire homepage. As this setting *is* an official
Spelljammer location and deserves to be on the BtM "Worlds of Wildspace" page. However, as
nobody has worked on it since June 2000 it isn't going to get there in a hurry.

The Vodoni Empire needs you! We need to get the other 9 spheres into a condition where
Static can put this website onto BtM.

Admittedly nine spheres is a bit of an effort, so perhaps we might want to start of with
something smaller. Here is where my next candidate, Webspace, comes in:

http://lost.spelljammer.org/DrawingBoard/worlds/Webspace/index.html

This unofficial crystal sphere has been neglected for longer than the Vodoni Empire. It
was last updated back in August 1999 However as it is only one sphere, we could probably
get it into a acceptable state a lot quicker than we could get The Vodoni Empire up and
running. The fact that it is not based on an official product also gives people a bit more
freedom to do stuff with it.

There are 12 planets in Webspace, five of which have already been named. Planet seven has
been partially worked on with one of its moons documented. Webspace also has five asteroid
belts, two of which have been worked on. The primary has not been given a name and there
are no additional astronomicals or constellations yet. However, what *is* done looks good
enough to make me want to see more.

The only thing I don't like about Webspace is its name. The current name sounds like a
joke. I strongly suspect that it is only called Webspace because it is being made on the
web. This sphere badly needs a powerful world (possibly a groundling world) that can lend
this sphere a less corny name.

If there is anybody out there who has created a world and is struggling to adapt it to
Spelljammer, this crystal sphere could be the solution to your problem and your world
could be the solution to Webspace's problem.

There are a lot of talented people out there creating Spelljammer stuff. I hope that a few
of you can donate a small amount of content to help one of these settings make it off of
the drawing board. (Pun intended in this case).

I hope that we could get some other websites off of the drawing board as well. What we all
want is more Spelljammer material and I think that it will be quicker to get half finished
content done than to create new content from scratch. I hope to one day look at my list of
Spelljammer websites and see only a small percentage of unfinished stuff.

Maybe an "Off The Drawing Board" style feature in Into the Void could be used by
struggling Spelljammer website authors as a place for them to appeal for additional
content and assistance. I hate to see other people's hard work go to waste.

What do other people think? Are there any Spelljammer website authors reading this (apart
from Static) who are looking for help with their websites? Would you want a place to
appeal for additional content?

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/

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Shepheard" <david_shepheard@???????.com>
To: <SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 10:43 PM
Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Proposal: Into the Void: a Spelljammer online magazine


> From: "Night_Druid" <Night_Druid@??????????.net>
> Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Proposal: Into the Void: a Spelljammer online magazine
>
>
> >     Couple of more things:
> >
> > 1) I'm really thrilled about the support thus far!  Had my doubts at the
> > start, but I think we're starting to get really psyed about this :D
>
> If you build it, they will come!
>
> ;-)
>
> Have you got an idea on the format of Into the Void yet? I think that the candidates are
> going to be:
>
> * Plain text email.
> * HTML email (good because it allows pictures).
> * PDF with an email notification containing the link to the latest issue and all of the
> other issues.
>
> > 2) Might be a bit early to define deadlines just yet...the idea is barely 4
> > days old!  First babysteps are being taken, so no need to burst into a
> > sprint yet.
>
> It is better to start of small and slow and give people a plesant surprise when you pick
> up the pace than be over ambicious and disapoint people.
>
> > 3) I do intend for my own regular article, the working title of which is
> > "The Maelstrom's Eye"...:^D  More to come!
>
> Be careful how many of the Cloakmaster titles you use up, or some poor person will be
> stuck with having to call something "The Ultimate Helm", and nobody will want to read
it!
>
> LOL
>
> ;-)
>
> 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/
>
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