An Incredible Model Zeppelin

If you like Steampunk, it's hard to imagine you don't have a soft spot for zeppelins. I sure do, ever since the 1971 film Zeppelin with Michael York and Elke Sommer -- and probably long before, but that's what sealed the deal. Well, the 1986 Miyazaki film Laputa/Castle in the Sky really sealed the deal, by why quibble?

I recently was directed to an amazing link which shows dozens of pictures of a 28mm zeppelin as it was built, step by step, by two brothers. It's for a 1930's pulp game, rather than a Victorian steampunk game, but agin why quibble. A cool zeppelin is a cool zeppelin. The picture at the top of the page shows the forward section in an early stage of completion. The one below shows the same section from a different angle and a little later in the construction.

The girders are made with heavy card stock and the exterior panels appear to be cut from cerial boxes. That's a great forward obervation bay, isn't it? There are a couple 28mm figures in the picture as well to give you an idea of its size.

Since this is a 1930's model it includes an aircraft hanger and biplane fighter painted in German markings. That's not relevant to Steampunk exactly, but check it out when you visit the site. They did a really nice job.


Here a close-up from the passenger lounge in the complete model. I love the attention to detail and it's followed throughout this massive model. I think the little model zeppelin in the lounge is a nice touch.

Finally, here's a long view of the completed model. Of course there is no top half as it's used as a complete game environment. Here the link. Check it out by all means.

Forever Engine - A Map of Europe

Baen Books commissioned this map of western Europe in 1888 as a two-page spread in The Forever Engine, due out next January. I like what they did with it, particularly the gears for cities and towns. It covers the area where the action of the novel takes place and from some of the unlikely smaller locations included, you can probably figure out that some of the important action takes place in out-of-the-way places like Kokin Brod. You get a nice look at London and Munich as well, however.

They've also commissioned cover art well in advance and may end up with some interior art as well, so I'm very pleased with the care they're taking with the project. It's not too soon to start some buzz about this book. If it sells well, I can pretty much guarrantee sequels. When we get a little closer to publication, I'll post some sample passages here. As soon as I get the go-ahead from Baen (which I think will mean as soon as they are happy with it) I'll post the cover. Cool cover.

How Dark The World Becomes -- now street-legal

Well, How Dark The World Becomes shipped in early February and is in Barnes & Nobles around the country as well as available through Amazon and directly from Baen Books, my publisher. I'm pretty excited. I already had a reading in Champaign, IL at the Iron Post (a great local jazz bar) and I have another one coming up on April 13 at the Jane Addams Book Store in Champaign, IL at 1:00 PM, as part of the Boneyard Arts Festival. Stop by if you're in the neighborhood. For than matter, I'm doing a book signing at the Champaign Barnes & Noble on Saturday, March 23rd at 1:00 PM as well. No reading, but stop by and say high if you happen to be in east-central Illinois around then. And as a writer friend of mine has said, "I wouldn't be offended if you bought a copy."

Here is the book back-copy:

An Addictive Taste of Freedom

Sasha Naradnyo is a gangster. He's a gangster with heart, sure, but Sasha sticks his neck out for no man. That's how you stay alive in Crack City, a colony stuffed deep into the crust of the otherwise unlivable planet Peezgtaan. Alive only -- because if you're human, you don't prosper, at least not for long. Sasha is a second generation City native. His parents came to this rock figuring to make it big, only to find that they'd been recruited as an indentured labor force for alien overlords known as the Varoki.

Now a pair of rich young Varoki under the care of a beautiful human nanny are fleeing Peezgtaan, and Sasha is recruited to help. He'd prefer to leave the little alien lordlings to their fate, but certain considerations -- such as Sasha's own imminent demise if he remains -- make it beneficial for him to take on the job.

Sasha discovers his simple choice has thrust him in the midst of a political battle that could remake the galactic balance of power and save humanity from slow death by servitude. Now all he has to do is survive and keep his charges alive on a hostile planet undergoing its own revolution.

But it's the galaxy that had better watch out. For now the toughest thug in Crack City has gotten his first taste of read freedom. He likes it, and he wants more.

***

If you've read it, please go on Amazon or Good Reads and review it. Good or bad, call it like you see it.

Here are some handy links.

Baen link to both the physical and e-book.

Amazon link to the physical book.

Amazon link to the Kindle e-book.

Mars Needs Steam Pictures From Celesticon

I attended Celesticon out the San Francisco area last Labor Day and ran a big Mars Needs Steam game. Rick Schutz provided the terrain and soldiers while I shipped out an assortment of special stuff -- unique units and steampunk vehicles -- to flesh out the game. You've seen lots of pictures of the game with our terrain, mostly built by Glenn Kidd. Here's a look at what you can do with terrain originally intended for historical games. I envisioned this as a ground near a "broken canal," the sort where the channel itself has shattered and the water has spread out to make a shallow lake and swamp. Beyond it is arrid ground.

Heres another view. I'm explaining the rules and Rick sits to my right. These photos were all taken by Kyle Talbert, who did a great job. It's definitely a different look from most of our games, but a very nice one. The important thing, in my view, is that the table be well broken up into discrete areas so it remains possible to move and maneuver. Otherwise games (this one or most others involving a fair number of long-ranged weapons) are likely to degenerate into long-range sniping contests.

One of the great things about the show is that Dave Nilsen, an old friend from GDW days and maybe the best game designer/developer I ever worked with, showed up at the show. He pitched in and helped run the game as well as push some troops. Here's Rick seated and Dave standing, with the French contingent in front of them.

Here the French aerothopter is about to strafe the British Colonial contingent from behind. Tres ignoble, n'est pas? Rick's Indian infantry in the lead are supported by Tom Harris's dismounted female hussars representing Canadian "Amazonians."

Here's a different view of the British Colonial contingent from the other direction. You can see the Indian infantry in the background and the Amazonians, while in the foreground Bengal lancers cross a wadi supported by a light scouting landship. 

All in all, we had a great time.



Visions of Futures Past

Beginning in 1899 the French issued a series of postcards (no, not the naughty ones!) which featured impressions by artist Jean-Marc Cole and others of what life in France would look like in the year 2000 (En L'An 2000): transportation, industry, liesure, and war.

What is striking to me about this collection of images is how prominently flight figures in their view of the future. Most of the images feature people or machines in flight: winged firemen pouring water on a fire in the uppers story of a building, winged policemen chasing a thief fleeing in a flying machine, winged duck hunters rising up to shoot their prey, winged tennis players enjoying "air tennis." Flight would become as everyday an event as walking or taking a bicycle ride, they thought, and the abundance of personalized flying machines in the collection makes it clear this fascination with flight was deeply personal, not simply dispassionate technological projection. We have always longed to soar among the birds -- still do, although now our imaginations have been tamed by the thoroughly unromantic realites of cost, safety, and the inherent engineering difficulties of personalized flight. That does not keep us from sky diving, though, does it?

Conflict also figures in these images. There is no belief that war would be a thing of the past by 2000, a distant memory of more barbaric times. Instead it would be waged by men and machines which sometimes bear a striking resemblance to the contrivances of the 1920s and 1930s. It's hard to see a century ahead, but perhaps not so hard to see three or four decades.

These images were originally presented at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and additions to the collection were made over the course of the next ten years. Almost 90 images were created and distributed. Here is a link to a collection of 47 of them. It's well worth a look.

Mars Needs Legos!

A Martian screw galley built from . . . Legos? Yes friends, that's right. This beautiful Martian cloudship, perhaps based on a Hullcutter design, was built by the talented Ingo Siekmann. I really like this!

Here is a link to a whole gallery of pictures of this wonderful toy ship.

*****

CORRECTION! December 4, 2012

I misunderstood the original posting. Ingo Siekmann did not build the ship, he found the website with it and re-posted it. He sent me the following:

"Mr. Chadwick, there seems to be a misunderstanding. I did not build this model, I just stumbled upon the picture in another blog. The ship - and many other models - were build by a Portugese hobbyist
called Paulo Castanho, who mantains a great gallery."

And here's the link to Paulo Castanho's gallery. Terrific job, Paulo!

Cover Art For Mars Needs Steam

You may recall I mentioned earlier that we'd contracted for a cover for Mars Needs Steam from Talon Dunning. The first version wasn't really to any of our liking (including Talon's) and so we went back to the drawing board and I'm glad we did. This time Talon nailed it! This really captures the feel of the game and will be a great cover. Now all I have to do is finish the final rewrite of the rules and we're on the way to publication.

I just returned from running a big game up in the Illinois-Wisconsin border area for Anderson's Irregulars, a great bunch of gamers honchoed by Mark Anderson and which includes my old pal Duke Seifried. Duke's approach to "adventure games" informs a lot of the encounter rules in the Mars Needs Steam game as well as generally moving it past a simple soldier game, so seeing him have a good time was fun. His Germans were all but destroyed by the French and Americans, but not before gutting both of those contingents so thoroughly that when the Japanese switched sides they were able to forge on to victory.

I'm very happy with how the game plays now, after dozens of playings with who knows how many players -- most of them first-timers. The rewrite I'm working on is just to smooth out any remaining rule ambiguities and add a few more exotic weapons to the design system.