As we’ve been in an unintended silent running mode longer than we’d intended (but couldn’t avoid as it turned out), now we’re surfacing back into real space with some bits of news, some things to cross our fingers and look forwards to, and a really insane idea for a scenario…
To begin with, the news from the depths of the Backnet! We’ve shipped off a selection of 3 to 1 masters for evaluation by a potential resin caster. They’ll be gone over and weighed to calculate the actual costs of labor and materials to see if they’re still within the range of cost effectiveness from a consumer’s point of view. Over 10 years ago a typical 3 to 1 model retailed at $15. Given the increases in the cost of everything from dog biscuits to advanced fighter aircraft since 2006, we’re really hoping that these solid mostly single piece castings will not require so much resin to cast that the end costs is beyond acceptable levels.
Next, progress on two fronts! The reworking of the Ship Design System for #silentdeath 3rd edition has been making steady progress; there will be an announcement and in-depth summary of what is happening in a separate post tomorrow. Stay tuned for that particular update!
The Night Brood hit a creative block, however that has also been overcome very recently. The issue was the Gammas (again! #$%@^@ ungrateful little Brood maggots!) and how they move and fight as a group. The answer have been pure Occam’s Razor, in that the simplest solution -limiting Gammas to a single weapon system and requiring them to move and fight in small groups- is proving to be the correct one. More on this in a separate post as well…
Finally, show of appendages, who uses terrain in their games of Silent Death? I for one have always loved using asteroids, as it creates all sorts of opportunities to duck behind cover to avoid getting shot, only to get killed when you forget to take into account the fact that the asteroids drift every turn (!!!). Along those lines I was pondering different scenario ideas, and went looking for inspiration on my Pinterest board “The Interstellar Recycling & Salvage Company:”
https://www.pinterest.com/…/interstellar-recycling-salvage…/
In doing so, I came across an old art piece probably for a paperback book cover of an asteroid with a base built on and around and most importantly, *in* the asteroid itself. That triggered a memory from the mists of aeons past of a movie I saw in the theater as a young spratling, the sci-fi classic adventure romp, The Last Starfighter. Upon remembering that feature length film’s pioneering use of CGI to cover the special effects needs for all of the space combat scenes, I cast my mind back to a particular sequence in which the protagonist experiences space fighter combat in earnest for the very first time, and that dogfight took place *inside* of an extensive tunnel network excavated inside of a large asteroid.
Welp, I also happen to be the proud owner of a classic bit of modular terrain kit, the Geo-Hex Cavernscape terrain layout meant specifically for dungeon crawls and subterranean battles. So I thought, why not? Why not run a game of Silent Death set inside of the extensive tunnel network within a large asteroid? The problem was why would the fight run into the interior of such a large floating object in the cold vacuum of space?
The solution was simplicity in itself, an Occam’s Razor answer: it’s an abandoned mining operation that has since been taken over by a space pirate gang who are using the asteroid’s proximity to civilian shipping lanes to launch raids against merchant shipping for essential supplies, luxury goods to fence on the Black Market, and captives to either ransom or sell off to slavers. But this meant that being the obsessive-compulsive sort, I had to have something besides bare stone walls on the tabletop.
I figured that the pirates would have adapted any modular habitation units, docking platforms, etc. to their needs. So what I needed was a series of generic looking assorted habitation units and accompanying components such as landing/docking pads, defensive weapon systems, repair shops, etc. I wanted everything simple, straightforward, easy to use and reasonably robust enough for handling, yet small enough and detailed enough to provide a good visual impression.
So how to accomplish this task? Well, as most of you well know by now, I’m eternally looking at whatever has landed in the middle of our recycling bin to see if there’s anything to be salvaged for a new life as part of Something Sci-Fi for the #tabletop. I’ve made a habit over the years to save empty dental floss boxes, as I find them useful for a variety of projects, and also had accumulated expended gift cards from #peetscoffee for use as everything from bases to large doors on #scifibuildings, to sheet plastic to be cut up for use for various kitbashing needs.
The end result is a series of protected military grade habitation units, along with accompanying defensive weapon batteries, large and small docking platforms, water and air purification processing and storage. Each module will therefore have its own Damage Track, including an opportunity for Critical Hits.
So without further ado, here are the photos of the hidden pirate base from which the Black Skull Gang have been launching raids on shipping within House Tokugawa’s sovereign territory, no doubt at the behest of the Luches Utopians who use pirates and piracy to carry out their less than scrupulous agenda. I’ve used all sorts of plastic rhinestones, odd metal bits, and various plastic and metal toy and model parts to create a coherent and plausible looking organized criminal syndicate’s hidden base of operations. And I even managed to find a scale model of a Soviet-era Soyuz module to convert into an appropriate tramp freighter to have loafing about the base when the Tokugawan “cops” show up looking to crash the party.
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Enjoy!
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