Aliens Capsules Book Two

And we're live ... sort of.

I just dropped the pdf of Aliens Capsules Book Two at OBS and even though it's my fourth product I'm still not vetted enough to be allowed to go on line immediately.

This sucks to put it mildly.

We live in an era of a massive amount of RPG products. A newbie like me is rapidly swamped by ten other people putting their products in the pipe. After ten people or so get put online your product is not longer one of the first things people see. That can lead to a rapid transit to oblivion.

When I started freelancing ten years ago it was a bit easier. The ratings system went according to the number of copies you sold twenty or more -IIRC- and you at least made Copper Pick which gave your product a bit more visibility. But now it's percentage based and much harder.

My strategy so far is to try to release my books on Monday morning. With the delays required for approval though they get released who knows when. Last time was Wednesday noon. Monday mornings 8 EST and people are coming into work, warming up the computer and messing around over coffee tile they have to work. Hump Day and they're thinking lunch, not buying RPGs. At least that is my understanding.

I'd like to know when I am vetted in RPGNow's eyes. I'd like to know if this delay is just because every other guy thinks Monday morning is a great time to release their stuff. In that case maybe they could use an appointment system and give everyone a chance.

Anyway, I've tried to give some aliens to use as possibly allies in this book. With a little work they could easily be used as variants on the two aliens classes of the core rules or even player characters. If there's some interest I could write up new classes for them as a new book.

I'm considering three themes for Book Three. Let me know which you prefer:

Patrol Posted: the evil, nefarious or godlike and uncaring entities the Patrol tries to defend against. This would be write ups on single individuals with their unique abilities a/o technologies to challenge your players.

To the Dust: write ups of several (supposedly) extinct species, their civilization and the bizarre artifacts they left behind.

Empires: A more in depth look at 2-3 alien species with stats for their ships, equipment, homeworlds and a class or two.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Proxy? You Misspelled Patsy! Part 1

  Mechane, Atomo and Spatia  had a delightful little trade union going. Things improved with time. Spatia's ships improved their drives and began reaching other forgotten though populated worlds. However, when were people ever content for long?  Nottusa, the most populous, some would say advanced ,nation on Mechane was a republic. It had a well developed and politically active set of corporations, made even richer and more active by the affluence afforded by trade with Spatia. Eventually Nottusa saw a change in leadership. The new regime decided the trade agreements with Spatia were not in their best interest and they demanded a bigger cut of everything, raising the price of goods. This didn't sit well with the Spatians who soon found their trade ships boarded and further harassed by Mechane vessels built on Spatia.  It was a small ship Universe (the people living in it just called it the Universe.) Invasion options were limited. Mechane had a huge population, was already crank
Read more

Trade Relations

 This blog uses Quantum Starfarer tech levels. The three levels in particular are Mechanical Age, Atomic Age, and Space Age. Mechanical age is WW1 to middle of WW2. Atomic Age is From the end of WW1 to about now. Space Age is the near Future with extensive interplanetary and Basic FTL. Let's take three planets Mechane, Atomo, and Spatia. Guess what tech levels they are! I'll wait.  The three worlds are in close proximity. Spatia's free traders and corporations are eager for trade. Spatia figures it can bring nearly anything it produces to trade, as it can make superior versions of everything. Atomus in particular has little heavy industry, is sparsely settled and needs vehicles for explorations, settling, and internal security due to revolutionaries in remote locations. Mechanus has a large population and heavy industry, already trading between its several nations. It also builds vehicles for the various militaries to defend the splintered nations. Spatia as noted has an es
Read more

Traveller: Society in Decline or Post Apocalyptic?

First of all Classic Traveller is a work of brilliance. As Marc W. Miller said he started the game design by reading through sf, and nowhere did anyone tell how much fuel it took to get to Alpha Centauri. He made all that stuff up and he was first!  Second, it gave you the ground rules for a Universe, in three little black books (LBBB) or The Traveller Book . The price then was not high enough to bankrupt anyone.  Third, the rules themselves had and have their fans. In fact, many Traveller games to this day are run are run as Proto Traveller -they use the LLBs and maybe Supplement Four - Citizens of the Imperium (SS4). Okay I use snub pistols and a couple weapons from Book Four - Mercenary . But for the purpose of this discussion let's say just the LBBs and SS4. There's no Third Imperium. what do the rules and equipment say about this Universe?  You can interpret it a lot of different ways. My take away was always that high technology gadgetry was fairly conservative. The onl
Read more