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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dispari" data-source="post: 2315860" data-attributes="member: 7329">Some words form the ADMany thanks for the observations and comments, any kind of feedback is always welcome.So I take the chance to unveil a little of the behind the scenes part of doing the Art Direction for Dawning Star.Having to design technology for a game my primary concerns where two:- Real Word tech should be a model- Real Word Tech shouldn't be a limitOf secondary concern:- ergonomics Vs. design- help to visualize a new worldSo in DS we have a lot of weapons close resembling RL weapons (especially light and heavy firearms) and a few of more exotic kind, most notably Gyrojet and Vaasi weapons.I gave the Gyrojet pistols an loose art-deco feel. Certainly these could have looked more traditional (if "traditional" is correct word for an advanced technology weapon of this kind) but then the second pair of "design concerns" stepped in, too often "realistic" technology in SF goes unnoticed being quite "transparent" amd such losing much of is appeal and becoming "interesting" like the equipment of the typical marine (form a POW of a SF aficionado and not an army buff). Unlike licensed products, DawningStar is a setting who can't count on a strong starting visual recognition, so it need as much cool factor as possible (in reasonable limits), and I was afraid that a too realistic approach o design was an very artificial limit (whe are talking about a star spanning story, aliens ancient relics of lost technologies, etc.).Also if is it possible to have a spaceship that carry millions of peoples in the space, or a music player with all the music humans ever created on Earth, why limit ourselves to the idea that design cannot be applied also to weapons?Vaasi are aliens, not the Mork not the Alf kind, but a vicious race and their technology should be truly different, so I had to take into account the difference in body shape and mindset. Just a look at the oddly-jointed arms they have should suffice to explain how vaasi weapons looks weird or difficult to handle (for a human perspective). The D20 system takes into account that most of the equipment of fallen foes can be acquired and used (Treasure?). This was a limit and a challenge for me, the first draft of the Vaasi weapons looked much more strange and unmanageable than the ones that went to print but I preferred to give Humans and Velins the possibility to use them without too much discomfort.Spaceships could suffer from the "Big Grey Box In The Sky" syndrome, realistically no one in space need design and color, but again why limit ourselves? DawningStar is not a "generic" setting and is spaceships *should* have some (good or bad) design. Admittedly there is more "Star Wars and Babylon 5" than "Alien and Predator" behind my reasoning for the outlook of spaceships in DS.  When you see the huge spaceships of Riddick's Chronicles you say "WOW" not for the technological aspect but for the awe that those huge semi-egyptian monoliths could inspire.As long as nearly everyone will recognize the shape of the Millenium Falcon better than those of the Dropships used in Alien I'll gladly  succumb to the suggestions of traditional Space Opera <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" />) I hope that my grasp on english language is adequate to explain how sometimes in a SF RpG (and Science Fiction in general) all we ned is only a huge dose of "fantastic verosimilitude".PS: on a funny note, when a few days ago I saw Star Wars Episode III a friend of mine seeing the flying vehicle used by Obi-Kenoby exclaimed "How catamaranesque!" ;o)</blockquote>

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