Polyhedron on Main Star Wars site!

[Gospog]

Sorry if someone already mentioned this, but Polyhedron gets a plug at the main Star Wars "movie" site:

http://www.starwars.com/eu/news/2003/03/news20030319.html

Exposing this many Star Wars fans to RPGs can only be good thing!

 

[Moon_Goddess]

I thought they had been linkin to the RPG materials for a long time now?

 

[Gospog]

It was news to me!

 

[Mapmaker]

I must say: I was more than a little excited to see my ship featured on the official Star Wars site.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Gospog]

Christopher,

Did you do the entire article yourself?

I'm at work and can't check the credits.

If I remember correctly, though, yours is the ship with the detachable cargo section, right?

It's cool to have pictures of an alternate ship suitable for PC hero groups.

Not everyone can cruise around in the Millenium Falcon.

 

[Mapmaker]

Christopher,

Did you do the entire article yourself?

I'm at work and can't check the credits.

If I remember correctly, though, yours is the ship with the detachable cargo section, right?

It's cool to have pictures of an alternate ship suitable for PC hero groups.

I created the deck plans a year or two ago, actually...even before Star Wars Gamer was canceled. When I heard about Polyhedron's plans to start printing Star Wars material, I polished it up a little and submitted it along with some background text and description. Then JD Wiker wrote stats and additional background based on the map, and the editor of Polyhedron fused our ideas into one cohesive text.

Finally, the remarkably talented Jeff Carlisle illustrated the ship's exterior view based on the map. I can't tell you how impressed I am with his translation. I created an overhead view of the hull on which to place the map, but his rendition (made without ever seeing that hull, I believe) is far cooler and much more detailed than what I had imagined, yet somehow managed to be 100% faithful to the ship's intended design.

That illustration is actually my favorite part of the article.

Anyway...if you like that map, just wait: I've gotten a lot better since I created it. There's one more older design in the pipeline, and then you'll probably see a noticable jump in quality.

Not everyone can cruise around in the Millenium Falcon.

Too true. Of course, there hasn't been an official RPG map of the Millennium Falcon published since the dawn of d20 Star Wars.

At least, not yet...

 

[Paul_Klein]

Christopher West! Just today I picked up that issue of Poly, and I was commenting to my girlfriend how I think you're the best cartographer in the biz.

That ship easily qualifies as one of the best starship deckplans yet. And I don't know if you had anything to do with it, but the sidebar detailing each part of the ship was refreshing and quite awesome.

One nitpick though (sorry!), but I think you may have made the engines a bit too small. It seems as if the hyperdrive, shied generator, sublight engines and life support should consume more space in a ship than that. But who cares?

Good job. I can't wait each month for Starships of the Galaxy.

Any hints on what the next ship will be?

 

[Mapmaker]

Christopher West! Just today I picked up that issue of Poly, and I was commenting to my girlfriend how I think you're the best cartographer in the biz.

Wow...thank you very much!

That ship easily qualifies as one of the best starship deckplans yet. And I don't know if you had anything to do with it, but the sidebar detailing each part of the ship was refreshing and quite awesome.

Thanks. When I originally designed the ship, I imagined that it would end up as a one-page feature like the Global Positioning maps, where the map has to speak for itself. It also had a sidebar built in that gave a brief identification of each numbered compartment, but that became unnecessary with a full descriptive text. The whole thing was laid out on a starfield, but only small parts of that surfvived the rearrangement.

One nitpick though (sorry!), but I think you may have made the engines a bit too small. It seems as if the hyperdrive, shied generator, sublight engines and life support should consume more space in a ship than that. But who cares?

I agree with you, actually. The map was designed at a time when I thought I had to show at least part of every system within the compartment space, and that was the only logical space to put them...so they got crammed in. That said, you can think of the exposed areas of some of these things (the engines in particular) as just the maintenance access points and diagnostic stations, while the bulk of the system runs into the walls, floor and ceilings.

There's also this to consider about the Wayfarer in particular: none of the things you mentioned are particularly impressive for a ship of this size. It's not particularly fast, tough, or maneuverable. In fact, those systems might be barely sufficient...another possible reason that it failed in the intergalactic marketplace.

Good job. I can't wait each month for Starships of the Galaxy.

Sadly, it'll only appear every other month. I hope you'll find it worth the wait, though. (Global Positioning is monthly, however.)

Any hints on what the next ship will be?

Well...it'll either be something of a more military nature, or a real hunk of junk.

 

[Gospog]

Chris wrote:

Well...it'll either be something of a more military nature, or a real hunk of junk.

Well, if you're taking requests
I'd love to see some of the "Military" ships used by the Republic before the Clone Wars.

Not having any puts me in sort of a bind. You see, the SW movies go out of thier way to point out that before the Clone Wars, there is no "real" Republic military.

I run my game in the Cularin System, using the Living Force campaign guide (which is excellent, btw, not just for RPGA use!). The campaign guide has a whole section on the Republic military presence in Cularin around the time of Episode I.

My players never ask "what ship was that Republic Captain piloting?" but it would be cool to have a ship or two handy...just in case.

Thanks again. I'm eagerly awaiting the next ship!

 

[RodneyThompson]

The Republic Judicial Department Battlecruiser looks like the ship Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan arrived in at the beginning of Episode I, only gray, and is one of the few true capital ships used by the Republic itself.