2300AD: Tools For Frontier Living. The Art.

[rust]

As the author of this book, I am quite proud of what I wrote.

And this is justified, it is by far the best treatment of colonies
that I have seen in any roleplaying game supplement - very
well done, congratulations. :wink:

Some of the art in the equipment section is ... suboptimal, but
in my view this does not reduce the value of the excellent ma-
terial you wrote. Frankly, I can easily get much better pictures
of satellites and thelike, but hardly an equally good text with
equally good informations.

 

[Grazelander]

Sorry Colin, I wasn't disappointed with the writing just the artwork.

Unfortunately I won't be buying the print version of this one because of that art. I have always bought both versions of everything so far but I a drawing a line here.

 

[Captain Jonah]

There are two schools of thought with regard to layout of rooms in zeroG.

The NASA pack in everything you can where ever you can regardless of orientation or the psychological idea of maintaining up/down even in zeroG by orientating the rooms as if they have a floor.

For a spacer crew who have spent most of their lives in zeroG they utility of maximum space use is more important, they are not that concerned if they are working upside down or have a workstation on the ceiling.

For ground siders and passengers the up/down idea is more important. By using mag plates, Velcro carpets etc and aligning the furniture as it there is an up and down you can maintain an illusion that psychologically is more comfortable.

For deck plans it is going to make more sense to set out the rooms in a way people recognize. Filling a room with icons to represent wall mounted zeroG sleeping bags and ceiling mounted display screens is going to be a visual mess. Until we start getting 3D deckplans that is, but considering the problems with getting good 2D plans I think 3D plans will be like hens teeth :lol:

 

[Mithras]

I sort of agree. Having lots of zero-G modules and spacecraft in my own setting, I was tempted to produce deckplans showing the interiors of the spacestations, but remembering how badly I've seen these done before (I'm thinking of Comstar/Avenger's otherwise fantastic Archaic Spacecraft and Spacestations, I decided to leave the interior of the station modules up to the GM. A simple description of a can with configurable fittings. I may draw up some plans, but they will not be typical Traveller airliner style plans, they must take into account that extra dimension if only to reflect the zero-G nature of the space.

But I agree that trying to do a deckplan where every wall is a floor and workstations could be on any surface are impossible and confusing.

 

[Lemnoc]

Bought it. Gotta agree with the OP....

You're reading along and it is all excellent and of a high quality, very creative and evocative, then GA-AH! middle school doodles. Pretty jarring on mundane items. And then, yes, back to deck plans that are some of the best we've seen.

Gun sideviews are tolerable but "off" (as another commenter noted). Vehicle sideviews, better but still meh. :?

I wouldn't say the equipment art is fatally subtractive, other than in the sense someone casually flipping through might conclude the book uneven and amateurish, and move on, lost sale. But it is not additive to the overall quality.

Not all who wander are lost. Not all who draw are artists...

----

And this is justified, it is by far the best treatment of colonies
that I have seen in any roleplaying game supplement - very
well done, congratulations. :wink:

Some of the art in the equipment section is ... suboptimal, but
in my view this does not reduce the value of the excellent ma-
terial you wrote. Frankly, I can easily get much better pictures
of satellites and thelike, but hardly an equally good text with
equally good informations.

+1

 

[PFVA63]

Hi,

I bought a copy of this guide a week or so ago and for the most part I'm totally fine with everything in it. Sure there are one or two pieces I don't like at all, and some which may not be my favorite, but it all seems pretty serviceable (even if a lot of the peoples legs and feet seem much to big), and/or the line weights seem a bit light in places.

 

[2330ADUSA1]

As with anything that comes out in print, I use it as best as a guide or reference only. I then tailor it to meet my own campaign and design for my own Traveller based campaign.

Hi,

I bought a copy of this guide a week or so ago and for the most part I'm totally fine with everything in it. Sure there are one or two pieces I don't like at all, and some which may not be my favorite, but it all seems pretty serviceable (even if a lot of the peoples legs and feet seem much to big), and/or the line weights seem a bit light in places.

 

[GJD]

I have to agree. I designed a few of the vehicles, and the Tribal class Surface Frigate was envisioned as a sleek, stealthy trimaran, something like the new, stealthy US Littoral Combat Ships or the Indonesian Stealth gunboats, not a fishing trawler.

Should be:

or

Not: