Category Archives: General

Planned Posting Schedule

An image of a calendarOkay, now that I have the basic outline for the three projects, it’s time to get started working on them.  I will most likely be jumping back and forth between the three projects, although my intention is to put a bit more effort into the Ghost Ship Osiris project simply because that’s one I’m working on with someone else and not just for the Patreon.  If you have preferences, let me know in the comments.

My plan initially is to spend at least 15-30 minutes each day working on something related to these three projects.  Hopefully that will translate into some sort of significant post each week.  In addition, there may be other small posts here and there commenting on what I’m working on.  The posts will typically be to present maps or materials created but may also include tutorials or descriptions of processes and how I created stuff.

I haven’t yet decided when I’m going to post but most likely the major posts will occur mid-week.  It might be spotty here the first few weeks as I get going but hopefully I’ll build up a rhythm as I get under way.  Any minor posts will occur as I think of them.  From the Patreon, I’m on the hook for at least one major post (>2000 words) a month.  If you took all three of the outline posts together, that would have hit that word count, but those don’t count.  That post will probably come in a couple of weeks, toward the end of the month.

Contacting Me

Iclassic brass rotary dial telephone would love to hear from you!  If you have suggestions, comments, or questions about any of the stuff I post or am working on feel free to reach out to me.  If you do want to reach out, there are quite a number of ways to get a hold of me.

The most obvious is to comment on the post here on the site you want to discuss. I’ll respond here as well and we can have a public discussion on the topic that anyone that comes after can read and learn from.  This works best for discussions specific to the post in question.

If you want or need a non-public discussion, feel free to e-mail me at tom[at]expandingfrontier.com.  I check my e-mail regularly so you should get a fairly timely response although it definitely won’t be immediate.  If you are a Patreon supporter at the Senior Advisor level or higher, you will also have a private e-mail channel to contact me at.  Those e-mails will typically get a faster response, or at least a higher priority in responding to them.

If you are a Patreon supporter you can always contact through Patreon or on the Discord server as well.

Beyond that, I’m active on social media in a variety of places and you can find me in those venues by clicking on the social media icons in the sidebar.  Twitter (I’m @dagorym) is probably best as I typically have my Twitter feed up on a side screen during the day but my phone will ping me when I get direct messages at any of the other locations as well.

So don’t be afraid to contact me.  I want to interact with those reading the blog and supporting me on Patreon.

That said, I’ll probably be off-line from now until Tuesday (May 8, 2018) as my wife and I are headed out of town for our 24th anniversary and for at least part of the time will be places where there is no internet or cell service.  I’m going to try to get a post queued up to post tomorrow but beyond that I’ll be back next week.

Some Example Content

After I posted my announcements about this site on my various social media platforms, someone asked about content samples.  The plan to post some examples was already in the works as part of launching this site so here we go.

Let’s start with this one, the image I’m using as my cover image on the Patreon campaign.

Collage of various pieces created for the Assault Scout Technical manual showing the range of items produced from sketches to deck plans to write-ups to 3D models and printed 3D objects.

This showcases a few of the bits that went into making the Assault Scout Technical Manual (link downloads the PDF) that I released back in Nov 2017.  The deck plans on the right fade from my initial sketches through different iterations to the final labeled deck plan.  Then comes the cross section created to show the relative positions of the decks in the ship.  Next comes a page from the technical manual where that cross section image is featured.  The yellow ship is the full 3D model of the ship based on the deck plans and the final image is the 6″ printed version of that model (1/333 scale) fading from unpainted to painted (with a different color scheme that the digital image).

I had posted most of the images used in this collage on-line in the process of creating them.  Here’s a few links to some of the posts with full versions of the images:

  • The unpainted model  – The image at this link is actually the 4″ one unpainted but there are pictures of all of the various sizes I printed including the 12.6″ (10mm scale) version of the model
  • A Star Frontiers logo I made (that I’m trying to get permission to make a patch out of) that used the painted digital 3D model used to make that cross section image.
  • The painted physical 3D model – This is actually the 7.6″ (6mm scale) version and is sitting here on my desk next to me as I write this.
  • The cross section image – unlabeled in this case.
  • The unlabeled deck plans

In addition to the Assault Scout Technical Manual, I also created a Sathar Destroyer Technical Manual (link is to the PDF) back in 2014 to describe that ship.

Here are a couple of other large maps I made, recreating the big poster maps that came with the original Star Frontiers boxed sets.  Unfortunately I can’t to link to the full files since I was asked by WotC not to and they own the IP

Original Port Loren map digitally recreated
This is recreation of a fan map of the Port Loren starport redone in the same style as the original map.
Space station map from the Knight Hawks box set digitally recreated.

Here’s a “family portrait” of many of the 3D ship models I’ve created (this one predates the assault scout model).  All of these models were designed to be used as tabletop minis.  Several are based on the old Star Frontiers metal miniatures and are replicas of them.

Family portrait of a number of digital models I’ve created

Finally, I’m going to link to you my collection of Two Sheet Locations on DriveThruRPG.  These are small four page write-up (the first 4 are free) that provide a map, location description, and NPC for use in your games.  The are mini versions of the types of things that I’m hoping to produce with this project.  The only reason that project stalled was that I reentered grad school for my Masters of Library Science degree and just didn’t have the time to keep producing them.

I hope that gives you a feel for some of the things I’ve created in the past and what to expect in the future.  In addition, you should check out my posts (published under my dagorym handle) on the Arcane Game Lore blog to see some the “behind the scenes” materials I’ve posted in the past.

Welcome to the Expanding Frontier

Welcome to the Expanding Frontier. This blog and site is dedicated to creating gaming resources focused on science fiction role-playing games.  I’ll be posting maps, locations, ships, vehicles, characters, and more that you can use in your games.  I’ll also be talking about the tools and processes I use to to create the materials.

I’ll primarily be focusing on creating adventures and all the bits and pieces that go along with that.  There will occasionally be other stand-alone or one-off projects as well.

A lot of the work I do is supported by may Patreon campaign.  Some of the posts that appear on the blog will be only available to Patreon supporters but most will be publicly available.  If you want to help support the work I do, just hit the “Become a Patron” button on the right and sign up.

This is very much a work in progress so don’t be surprised to see changes and updates to the site and the things I work on as time goes on.  If you have suggestions or requests, feel free to comment below.