VBAM Games Forums

It has been quite awhile since I have posted a project update to let people know where I am with my various projects.

First up is the first volume of STAR CHARTS, VOLUME 1: ATLAS OF NEARBY STARS. The rules are finished, and I am completing conversion of star data and descriptions. The book layout is about 60% finished as of right now, and I am up to about 50% of the star systems generated and annotated.

This book has taken much longer than anticipated to complete, and work slowed on it again this month with the need to get the new Mercenary Air Squadron rules layed out and ready for release. I can't give a firm date for when STAR CHARTS will get released, but I am optimistic that it is sooner rather than later.

Next is THOSE WHO SERVE. This is an expanded elite officers book, so it is something that is extremely niche and probably won't be of interest to everyone. It takes the elite officer rules from the COMPANION and STARS DIVIDED and integrates them, and provides a thorough overhaul to reconcile everything into a single package.

I am still debating on whether or not to release the rough draft when I am closer to completion to give players a chance to weigh in on the new traits. The rules are fairly well tested at this point, and I am now down to the point of fleshing out officer traits and making sure that the assignment and mortality rules jive.

What changes are made to the officer rules in THOSE WHO SERVE? The biggest change is that traits are now subdivided into areas of empahsis (starship combat, exploration, intelligence, etc.) and there are now only four officer levels -- instead of the 6+ that we had before. The levels generally align as follows: Level 1 is unit-level traits, Level 2 is squadron/army level traits, Level 3 is task force/planet level traits, and Level 4 are the "heroic" traits. Most high level traits have prerequisites; this prevents an officer from receiving skills in areas where they had never before demonstrated any ability or predisposition. Officer Career and Rank are ported more or less from STARS DIVIDED, though an officer can now elect upon retirement to enter service in another class (there are currently 8 officer classes). Rules will also be provided for handling both commissioned and non-commissioned military officers.

My apologies for the big text block above. There is just a lot of things going on in THOSE WHO SERVE, and I am pretty excited about the changes. That book is probably about one-third of the way done. The cover art is finished, and it is now just a case of getting the rules draft finished and locked in so that final testing and editing can be done.

As for future releases, I am fairly confident that I will have at the very least two more VBAM Campaign System releases finished and ready by the end of the year. The second STAR CHARTS volume has quite a bit of work already done for it, and will be a potpourri affair with a general theme (GALACTIC ENCOUNTERS) but will have a mix of rules that have been developed over the last two years. An untitled Underworld Empires expansion book is also in the cards, and was under development last year. I just need to finish writing it up and it will be ready. This book will include a more fleshed out approach to Underworld Empires, including some game balancing tweaks. Military commerce raiding, the black market, and more will be covered in that book.

Finally, a note on the future of the presentation of the VBAM Campaign System. In working on STAR CHARTS and THOSE WHO SERVE, we came to the decision to do a branding realignment with the system. We are going to be moving to a more standardized trade dress for these products, both internally and externally. We started out doing this on our first releases, but since then we have been all over the map as far as graphical presentation is concerned.

We have developed a working graphic logo for the Campaign System which will be used on the covers of all future campaign books to indicate compatibility with the VBAM Campaign System. The old stylized VBAM logo seen in large form on the covers of our previous books will be more or less retired from this point on. Our game lines have expanded, and this logo does not adequately represent the overall company image. A company logo similar to that found on the cover of the MERCENARY AIR SQUADRON book and in the header of this website ("VBAM GAMES" within the Jovian silhouette) will be used on the backs of these products.

The goal of this change is to make it easier to tell which of our products are campaign products, and to visually differentiate across our game lines.

In the future, once our stock of existing hard copies are exhausted, we will likely reformat and reprint our existing books in this new format. I don't see that happening for over a year, however. Except for errata integration, I would not expect any substantial changes in these new editions; they will be similar in function to the v1.2 release of the Campaign Guide which changed the book to a two-column layout and integrated rules changes from v1.0, but was otherwise the same. So no one needs to be worried about purchasing new copies of the books just because of a change in trade dress. Any rule changes that are integrated into the books will be duplicated in a free errata sheet.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to let people know where we were at, especially as the VBAM Campaign System hasn't had a major release for quite some time. They are coming, just more slowly than I had hoped.

-Tyrel

Boss Chief, I've started back with getting my art progs working ok under Vista, so I shall start some art renderings for yee.

Many thanks, Ian! I hope to get back to finishing up Star Charts with some more star system writeups tonight. Yesterday I watched the Eurovision Semifinals and didn't get anything done on the project. Okay, I watched the show twice... but the first time was just to test to see if the computer would push it to the plasma display correctly - honest!

Star Charts is slowly grinding along. I got tired of working A-Z through the star systems, so instead started back Z-A. I also decided to forget about doing the "See Also" references in the Star Atlas until the very end, so I can be doing that while other interested parties edit the book.

On a related note, a question for anyone that might be interested in Star Charts:

For each system entry, I have usually been including five sections:

A) A general information block that tells the type and number of stars, the number of importance of the system in the included system stats (including # of system objects), and the jump lane modifier.

B) A description of the star, including any scientific information we know about the star and/or system.

C) An overview of the system's objects, as provided in the appendices.

D) A faux historical overview of the system's development to reflect the "pre-colonized" statistics the system might contain.

E) A list of other designations for the star.

Here is an example:

Giclas 099-49
Red Dwarf (M3 V) ~ FLARE STAR
Colony (8 System Objects)
-2 Jump Lane Table Modifier

This small M3 V red dwarf is a flare star, which means
that it is subject to unexpected increases in brightness
as a result of heightened solar activity.

A total of eight system objects orbit Giclas 099-49. The
composition of these objects can be defined by their
orbital zone. The inner zone contains an Asteroid Belt
and Adaptable world; the middle zone contains two Ice
Giants and a Gas Giant; and the outer zone contains
three Hostile planets. Most of these objects are mineral
poor, with RAW values of 2 or less.

Giclas 099-49 has emerged as a major manufacturing
center within the Terran Commonwealth – despite the
system’s own scarcity of resources. Mineral resources
from nearby star systems – including Keid, Procyon and
Luyten’s Star – are transferred to this system’s heavily
industrialized colony worlds for refinement, processing
and assembly. Major industrial facilities are present on
Giclas I, II, IV and IV. Administration of the system’s
industrial assets is run from Giclas III. This colony is a
posh enclave set aside for Giclas’ social elite and enjoys
many amenities that are unavailable to residents of the
system’s other settlements. Travel between the industrial
outposts and the administrative colony are infrequent
for locals, though regular shuttles are run between the
worlds to allow routine travel service for corporate and
government agents.

Despite their many hardships, the citizenry in the system
are generally upbeat and happy about their situations.

Other Designations:
GJ 3379, LTT 17897.

Now, this entries Section D is more verbose than most, but what I am trying to get a feel for is if people think that any of these sections are wholly unnecessary. Section D is the one I am most worried about -- do people want to read this kind of stuff in the book, or is it useless fluff that you would rather see cut? Let me know what your thoughts are!

-Tyrel

I like the information provided in Section D. It's enough that one can just read through the book looking for ideas, but at the same time, a great resource for those who need it.

-B