Can you believe it’s 2021 already? Time seems to be really flying. Probably because I’ve been so busy. Truth be told, I’m glad January is over. With the university starting up, it’s taken a bit to get settled into the new routine. Hopefully things have settled down and going forward it will be a little less hectic.
Looking Back
As expected, I wasn’t able to keep to a regular posting schedule this month, and probably won’t in February either. That said, I still managed to get five posts out (six if you include this one) even if they were relatively small ones.
We started with the usual Detailed Frontier Timeline post. Related to the timeline, there were two battle report posts (Battle of Theseus and Second Battle of Kawdl-Kit). There was originally going to be a third one (in the Kisk-Kar system) but looking at the orders of battle, the UPF decided it wasn’t in their best interest to get annihilated when they could fall back to a stronger position, so they evaded that combat. There is another battle coming (Battle of Pale) that should have been posted this month, but I’ve gotten a bit behind in the timeline posting and playing out the battles. With my reduced time to work on projects, I just haven’t had time to work through it. Also related to the timeline, the last post of the month was a discussion of the fleet designations I use for Spacefleet and the sathar.
The last post (which was really the second post of the month) was an announcement of the availability of print versions of the first six issue of the Star Frontiersman and a discussion of what is involved in getting those issues put together. Related to that, I learned that DriveThruRPG (or more accurately, Lightning Source, the POD printer DTRPG uses) is discontinuing the option for saddle-stitched binding on their products starting March 1st. This doesn’t impact the Star Frontiersman as I was planning on doing those Perfectbound anyway, but it does impact the Frontier Explorer. I wrote a bit about that on the Frontier Explorer website.
The other major event was that we got issue 31 of the Frontier Explorer out the door. You can grab it on the Frontier Explorer website or DriveThruRPG. I’ll be working on getting the print version set up in the coming weeks.
Behind the scenes, there hasn’t been much happening as I’ve been settling into my new job as a computer science professor at the local university. I’m no longer working from home and that has required a change in everyone’s schedules. The biggest impact is that I have less free time, taken up by the drive to work, but I do get to spend more time with my wife as we drive in together (she’s been an astronomy professor there for 13 years now). That said, I did start working on a new 3D model, recreating a miniature from the Privateers box. The box calls it the Moonbright Stinger, but you may recognize it more as the Gullwind from the Dramune Run adventure. The picture at right shows where the model is currently at.
Looking Forward
We’ll have a timeline post as the first post of the month although it might be a few days late. I’ve got to get the timeline caught up and play out that last battle and I’ve fallen behind over the last week. There’s also going to be another battle later in the month. Those two fights are going to be pretty important and determine the way the Second Sathar War will proceed. So that means we should have two more battle posts this month.
I hope to finish the Moonbright Stinger model this month. I’m about 5 hours into it and probably have 5 more to go but I should be able to finish it up. All of the “positive” features are done, and now I need to go through and carve out all the features that are etched into the body of the miniature.
Otherwise, I don’t know what else we’ll see. I’ll probably spend a bit of time converting the files needed for the POD version of the Frontier Explorer to the new format. It is just the cover file that needs to change and I don’t foresee that being difficult, but it is going to take some time, maybe 20-30 minutes per issue. Although it is the same process for each cover and I I can use the same template for each issue so Imight actually be able to get each one done in 10-15 minutes. But with 30 back issue to process, I’m looking at 5 to 15 hours of work just for that. Assuming my estimates are correct. I’ll probably spread it out over a couple of months. But if you want the Frontier Explorer issues as saddle-stitched POD version, you’ll need to head over to DriveThruRPG and order them this month. I’ve also been asked about building omnibus editions of the Frontier Explorer and putting say 8 issues into 400-page soft or hardback editions. So I might look at that for both the Frontier Explorer and the Star Frontiersman.
Otherwise, I have ideas for a couple of starship related posts but those are going to require some work. And I hope to get back to the adventures I started with blog with years ago and make some progress on those.
Final Thoughts
Truth be told, I can’t believe I’ve kept the Detailed Frontier Timeline going for over two years. It has spun off some interesting side projects like everything related to the HSS History’s Hope. In fact, that is the only part of the timeline not specifically related to the Second Sathar War at the moment. But that’s okay since I originally conceived the timeline to focus primarily on the war.
If you have ideas or topics you’d like to see explored, feel free to reach out to me and let me know. I’m always interested in feedback.
I’ll end with a big thank you to all those who have supported me on Patreon over the years. You have really helped to keep this blog going. If you are already a supporter, thank you again. If you’re not a supporter, consider helping out.