Pirate Spelljammer

Another great image by by p2722754 on Pixabay, but I decided to use this one specifically for Time of Ages. I like the small but dangerous feel to this ship. Its crew would would be survivors — a small fish is very big pond.

Time of Ages

While piracy is a huge concern in the sky above Rielun, out in the wildspace of Rielun’s sphere is another matter altogether. Pirates often take to the Aether to prey on ships coming into the sphere for the first time or to harass traders moving from planet to planet. (I really need to create the crystal sphere for Rielunspace. Hmm, I have a feeling it’s going to be huge.) While most of Rielunspace’s pirates are dastardly and greedy, there are some out in the space lanes just trying to survive. The ship below would belong to one of these small time survivors who would spend most of their time avoiding the patrols of the Elven Navy, which have a strong presence in Rielunspace and privateers for various Aether Kingdoms spread throughout the sphere.

Image by p2722754 from Pixabay

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Fantasy Frigate

Here is another free image I found on Pixabay that is perfect for Spelljammer. Use it as you wish and if you want to credit the artist, check out this page on the site. There are few other great pictures there that could be used for Spelljammer.

Image by p2722754 from Pixabay

Steampunk Spelljamming Ship

A free image from Pixabay that felt very “Steampunk Spelljammer.” While perfect for Time of Ages, I figured I’d reblog it here on Wildspace too. -RPB

Time of Ages

I found this image on Pixabay and immediately thought Spelljammer, and the image’s creator even noted it as being a steampunk-inspired creation. This old trader ship would be typical for the Aether skies of Rielunspace — older ships that have fallen out of favour in the spacelanes of the Kings’ Monarchy.

Image byJazellafromPixabay

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Rielun Revised

This world map shows the primary campaign world, Rielun, within my Spelljammer Gone Wild steampunk cosmology for D&D v.3.5. The map was created using the free version of a program called Hexographer.

You can read about the world’s prehistory here.

Time of Ages

While I had completed this map in Hexographer some time ago, I never got around to sharing it on here. This is now the official Time of Ages campaign setting map from which all others will be created.

Direct link to map.

The primary world for my Time of Ages 3E campaign setting set in my Steampunk Spelljammer cosmology.

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Livestreamed Spelljammer: Adventure 1

Last year I started a Spelljammer campaign with viewers from my channel, livestreamed on Twitch.tv. This first adventure was an introductory set of sessions to get the players used to concepts of Spelljammer and AD&D 2nd Edition.

This first adventure involved a member of the Seekers who had failed to check in with another member of the Seekers, who then recruited the party to investigate what happened. What has happened to The Seeker’s Friend?

The party consists of:
Cadet Higgimus, a Giff Fighter, played by Asher
Braxon Miacc, a Human Fighter, played by Big Mac
Yeldan Sharpeye, an Elven Ranger, played by G_Man
Lafdul Moonblade, an Elven Mischiefmaker/Thief of Erevan Ilesere, played by Zakhad
Xanfyr, a Half-Elf Invoker, played by James
Levalithana Footloose, an Elven Wild Mage, played by Eleve

The campaign adventure can be watched on the YouTube playlist:

Homefront: Toy Soldier Saga Livestreamed Readings!

Livestreamed reading of Chapter 1 of Homefront, my Toy Soldier Saga novella, which appeared in the limited edition On the Horizon book bundle! The Toy Soldier Saga is derived from Spelljammer, though it removes all proprietary content and has now become its own thing.

Want the rest of the story? You can get it here or here, or you could sign up for my Patreon at the $2 a month plus level, which will give you the rest of the livestreams (and the archives.)  And it gives you access to my other livestreams and audiobooks as well!

I’ll be reading one chapter a day until they’re done.

How to Convert Spelljammer to 5th Edition

Posting to Patreon: The Eye of the Storm (Toy Soldier Saga)

Hi all, Sable here!  This is my heads up that tomorrow I will be posting the completed and edited story, “The Eye of the Storm,” as a charged post for my Patrons at Patreon.  This is my Shaundar and Y’Anid elf-orc love story, for my Toy Soldier fans!  This is your one and only chance to get it if you want it without buying the Chasing Fireflies anthology!  Note that there may be some small changes in the story between now and the time it appears in the anthology.  Chasing Fireflies will be released July 1, 2017.  (Rated R for graphic sex.)

Originally posted at Toy Soldier: A Spelljammer Saga.

http://70sscifiart.tumblr.com/post/158160508877

Lightyear FM

Want a perspective on what flying through space might actually look like?  Here’s one project to give you an idea.  Working on the knowledge that radio waves travel at the speed of light, this simulation shows you the local neighbourhood near Earth (excluding exoplanets) up to the limit of the first Earth radio broadcasts; up to 110 years ago (as of 2015).

Things I learned from this:

• In general, stars don’t float randomly by themselves.  They appear in clusters.  We’re part of a pretty little cluster of mostly much tinier, dimmer stars than our own, that might look like the Pleiades with a red-shift in someone else’s perspective.
• We can infer that most of the stars near us are smaller/dimmer than our own because most of them have alpha-numeric names (more on that in a minute).  Also, stars progress from red to orange to yellow to white to blue in terms of brightness and most of the stars around us are more orange than we are.
• Every once in a while you do get singular stars just floating in a void, but it’s the exception, not the rule.
• There are two nebulae relatively near to us.  One’s about 40 light years away and the other is about 80 light years away.  Each is about 10 light years across.

Naming conventions of stars:

• The oldest stars we know about have proper names.  Those tend to be the brightest from our perspective and are typically the ones visible with the naked eye.  Most such names are derived from the Arabic language.  You’ll see relatively few of them in our local neighbourhood (Sirius, Fomalhaut, Pollux, etc.)
• Sometimes stars are named for astronomers or the people who discovered them.  You’ll see a couple of those in this simulation.  One of them, Barnard’s Star, which you’ll see right after the Centauri stars that are our closest neighbours, blasted right through the edge of our solar system only 70,000 years ago!  Talk about a near-miss!
• Some stars are catalogued.  The Bayer Designation names stars by a lower case Greek letter generally representing its corresponding number, plus the constellation it appears in. (ie. Sigma Sagittarii).  Once all 26 Greek letters have been assigned, letters of the Arabic-derived alphabet are used (ie. G Scorpii).  Sometimes when concurrent stars were discovered (like, say the smaller star in the Alpha Centauri binary) it was designated with a superscript.  The Flamsteed Designation is used when no Bayer Designation exists or when the Bayer designation uses numeric superscripts, because it’s less awkward.  (ie. 61 Cygni).  These stars are usually visible with a decent telescope.
• The most recently discovered stars, visible with ultra high resolution or space telescopes and tracked by computers, are named with an alpha-numeric designation based on their position in the sky.  Over 990 million such objects exist.
• Special cases: Pulsars are designated by the prefix PSR, with a series of hyphenated numbers in which the first indicates its right ascension and the second its degree of inclination.  Supernovae are designated by the prefix SN, plus the year they were discovered in, and if there was more than one, a letter indicating the order of discovery (ie. SN 1987A.)  A few supernovae are known by the year they occurred in (ie. SN 1604, also known as Kepler’s Star).  Novae are usually given a name according to the naming convention of the General Catalogue of Variable Stars, which includes a number or letter designation and the constellation it’s from (ie. V841 Ophiuchi, SZ Persei, T Bootis.)

Here’s a preview to show you what it looks like: you can find the simulation itself at Lightyear.fm.  Note that if you hover your cursor over each celestial body (save the Earth, the Moon and the Sun) it will tell you what it is and how far away from Earth it is.  Enjoy the simulation!

Lightyear.fm – An interactive journey through space, time, & music from chris baker on Vimeo.