Category Archives: Traveller

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Traveller

Wikia must be stopped

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The Traveller Wiki that is now at Wikia is going to move (to Downport). They have to move since Wikia is requiring that a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA 3.0) is used.

Most of the information at the Traveller Wiki is used by permission from the author and used under license from Far Future Enterprises. This is clearly stated on the pages of the Traveller Wiki.

Since these two licensing requirements don’t match, the contributing users of the Traveller Wiki have decided that they need to move. They have probably been pushed a bit by authors and by Far Future Enterprises that don’t want anyone to say that their stuff is under a Creative Commons licence.

Since Wikia claim that everything at the Traveller Wiki is under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA 3.0), (which it isn’t) this had led to that content from the Traveller Wiki is published in books. Have a look at this one described at Google Books. (I will not link to any of the sites that actually sell this.) Books LLC (a.k.a. General Books and other names) that use this content are claiming that they may do so since everything at Wikia is under a Creative Commons licence. But they haven’t checked or if they have they didn’t care.

In my opinion it isn’t enough (at least not for a commercial company) to use material from the web that someone has posted under some sort of free license. You always have to double-check. Just because someone post something, it doesn’t mean it is free to use. The one who post something that they don’t own (or otherwise may post) may just be a teenager who wants to feel cool when getting lots of likes (at Facebook). It could also be that the person posting hasn’t understood the terms of the site to which the post is made.

I am the author of some of the information that has been posted at the Traveller Wiki. (I have not posted anything myself.) If a lawyer in the U.S. wants to help me sue Books LLC for free we can split the indemnity they have to pay. There are other authors that have a lot more of their writings at the Traveller Wiki.

The business model of Wikia is quite clear. Trick the fan-base of nerdy stuff (gaming, manga, science-fiction, fantasy, vampires etc.) to post at Wikia. Then, present their posts together with lots of ads. Then I suspect that they are in cahoots with Books LLC and share the profits (from the suckers that buy these books).

One strange thing about the move is that Wikia is demanding that no pages are deleted even though Wikia knows that these pages are not using a Creative Commons licence. This only means that Wikia and their accomplices are planning to continue their crimes.

Wikia must be stopped

A call to all fans (of something) that has a wiki at Wikia. Move!
A call to all content owners being ripped of by Wikia or Books LLC. Sue!

At the Anti-Wikia Alliance, you can get help with your move from Wikia.

Update: The Traveller Wiki has now moved. 🙂

Update 2: Now it has moved again.

Model-1, Science Fiction, Traveller

Create Sci-Fi pulp covers with the Pulp-o-Mizer

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The Pulp-o-Mizer is too good not to write something about. It is a front cover generator for sci-fi pulp books. I think it is a lot cooler than my LBB cover generator. Look what I can do with it:

Pulp-O-Mizer Zhodani Base

I bet you can do something better! Douglas Berry did this cool cover for Twilight’s Peak. Bruce Johnson did this scary cover for Signal GK. What can you do with the Pulp-o-Mizer? Please place a link to your image in the comments.

Science Fiction, Traveller

Save our Space Marines

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Space Marines is a term that has been used in science fiction since 1932. In Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein from 1948 the term is used. Games Workshop is now going after an author (MCA Hogarth) who wrote a book called “Spots the Space Marine“.

Amazing Stories December 1936
Amazing Stories December 1936
Image from wikimedia – Public Domain

Games Workshop needs to be stopped. A boycott was suggested by two Traveller fans at the Zhodani Base Facebook page. I hope they then will understand that they cannot hijack science fiction archetypes.

We must save our Space Marines!It’s easy for me to boycott GW. I haven’t bought anything from them for a long time. I hope you can do the same, and spread the word. Don’t buy anything from Games Workshop until they repent their behaviour and drop their trade mark of the term Space Marine.

Update: Good news from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The battle is won, but the war continues.

Traveller

Hunter Gordon

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Hunter Gordon Sept 14 1966 – Jan 24 2013

Very sad news about Hunter Gordon, author (with MJD) of the Traveller T20 book and of other books for T20. 🙁

He will be missed. There were some parts of T20 that I thought was really good. Hunter gave me permission to place the T20 Ley sector on my website. Lets play some T20 now!

T20 - Cheers Hunter Gordon
T20 – Cheers Hunter Gordon

Could my internet Traveller friends stop dying now please! It feels like an epidemic. First Bari Stafford (a.k.a. General Turokan) who mapped a route to the rim of the galaxy. Then Jerry Mapes, Andrew Boulton, John Lees and now Hunter Gordon. 🙁

Adventures, Starships, The Base, Traveller

Zhodani Base Awards 2012

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Welcome to the Zhodani Base Awards 2012! 2012 has been a very good year for Traveller. There have been lots of new publications and a few interesting Kickstarter Projects.

The first category is “Best Cover“. The nominees are:

The winner of the “Best Cover” category of the Zhodani Base Awards 2012 is: Solomani Rim: From Mongoose

There were lots of Traveller products with nice covers this year. Lots of love for all nice covers. This one was the one that I liked the most.

Next category is “Best Fanzine or Online Magazine“. The nominees are:

The winner of the “Best Fanzine/Online Magazine” category of the Zhodani Base Awards 2012 is: Freelance Traveller (again).

Freelance Traveller has again proved that they are the best fanzine by publishing (almost) monthly issues with lots of good contents for free.

Next category is “Best Adventure“. The nominees are:

The winner of the “Best Adventure” category of the Zhodani Base Awards 2012 is: 21 Plots III: From Gypsy Knights Games

There were lots of fine Traveller Adventures for different settings published. This year I prefer one with a number of hooks that can be used for lots of settings.

Next category is “Best Ship or Deckplan“. The nominees are:

The winner of the “Best Ship or Deckplan” category of the Zhodani Base Awards 2012 is: Ship Book: Garuda Class MSV: From Gorgon Press

There was lots of fine ships for Traveller published this year. I liked the Garuda Class MSV since it can be used in my adventures and it looked cool.

Next category is “Best ATU Product“. The nominees are:

The winner of the “Best ATU Product” category of the Zhodani Base Awards 2012 is: Outpost Mars: From Zozer Games

I am just a sucker for Mars… I hope they will do a lot more for this setting.

Next category is “Best OTU Product“. The nominees are:

The winner of the “Best OTU Product” category of the Zhodani Base Awards 2012 is: Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society. Issue No.1-24: From Game Designers’ Workshop (GDW)

Even though it is a re-release, it is over 1200 pages of Traveller goodies. It just had to win.

A final bonus category this year is “Best Free Traveller Product“. The nominees are:

The winner of the “Best Free Traveller Product” category of the Zhodani Base Awards 2012 is: T5 Traveller5 Wallpapers From: Game Designers’ Workshop (GDW)

Those wallpapers are really nice. (Did you support the Traveller T5 Kickstarter?) Now, go and download all of the free Traveller Products. Why? They are free!

Mapping, Traveller

New Elite game at Kickstarter

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I just love Elite. You have a starship and travel between planets and trade and try to avoid dangers. You can equip your starship or upgrade to a better ship. (Does it sound familiar?) I played it a lot on my ZX Spectrum. I would have played it even more if the copyright protection hadn’t been so silly. Then I got a PC and played Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters. Now I play Oolite.

David Braben has now started a Kickstarted project for a new multi-user Elite called Elite: Dangerous. I want this new game and I support this project.

In the original Elite (and in Oolite) the game map is 8 “galaxies” with 256 planets each. I thought that a galaxy would work great as a sector for Traveller, so I started mapping Galaxy One for Traveller. So far I have mapped half of the sector (8 Subsectors). The starting position for the old Elite game is in the Old Worlds Subsector. The other 7 subsectors can be found here and here.