Power Projection: Escort SSDs now available
Thursday 23 September 2010
Thanks to the generosity of Power Projection fans who raised $203.23 towards Loren’s medical expenses, we are happy to make all the missing SSDs from Power Projection: Escort, updated for use with Power Projection: Fleet available as free PDF downloads with immediate effect. You can download them from the shipyard page here.
2nd Fundraiser for Loren from Ad Astra
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Ad Astra Games have announced the following:
Until September 30th, half of the purchase price of the following items will be donated to Loren Wiseman to help him recoup his medical expenses after his heart attack and bypass surgery. We wish Loren a speedy recovery, and thank you (and the people who generously let us sell their material for this sale) for helping it happen.
Power Projection: Fleet
Voidstriker Fleet Box
Nexus Journal #1
All Traveller Spaceship Minis
Remember, we're also holding a discounted shipping window on all items from our ship...so act soon!
Ken Burnside
---
BITS are supporting this through the Power Projection: Fleet sale.
Until September 30th, half of the purchase price of the following items will be donated to Loren Wiseman to help him recoup his medical expenses after his heart attack and bypass surgery. We wish Loren a speedy recovery, and thank you (and the people who generously let us sell their material for this sale) for helping it happen.
Power Projection: Fleet
Voidstriker Fleet Box
Nexus Journal #1
All Traveller Spaceship Minis
Remember, we're also holding a discounted shipping window on all items from our ship...so act soon!
Ken Burnside
---
BITS are supporting this through the Power Projection: Fleet sale.
Want the PP:Escort ships? Fundraiser for Loren [UPDATED x2]
Friday 10 September 2010
You may not be aware, but Loren Wiseman – one of the founders of GDW and the man who was responsible for Traveller’s continued existence at Steve Jackson Games after Imperium Games imploded – has had a heart attack and is presently in hospital.
As a freelancer, this has hit him hard financially in terms of medical fees and his ability to work.
As a result, BITS would like to join in some of the efforts to raise funds for Loren and give something back in return...
Send a donation via Paypal to Marc Miller at Farfuture@gmail.com, marking it ‘Loren Wiseman Fundraiser - Power Projection’, and then send a copy of the transaction confirmation to webmaster@bits.org.uk.
If I receive confirmation of more than $100 in transactions, I will make the PDF of all the ships for Power Projection: Escort that were not included in Power Projection: Fleet available to download for free on 20th September 2010.
These are:
Imperial
200T SDB
Broadsword Class
Chrysanthemum Class
Fer-de-Lance Class
Kinunir Class
Midu Agashaam Class
Zhodani
Chtierabl Class Tender
Plokl Class
Shivva Class
Vlezhdatl Class
Zhdoq Class
Zhodatl Class
These will be updated to match the Power Projection: Fleet SSDs and include Points and RCP values.
I will post updates on progress via the @BITS_Traveller Twitter feed.
UPDATE: A day left and only $11 short of the minimum at which I’ll release the PDF publicly. If you pledge to this, I will guarantee that I will send you the PDF whether or not it goes public.
Thanks,
Dom
Other ways you can help:
If you want to help him out as a thank you for all the things he has done to support Traveller in the past, you could buy some of his Traveller material published at RPGNow.
Alternatively, Marc Miller is selling some reprints of CT as a fundraiser. Details can be found here on COTI.
As a freelancer, this has hit him hard financially in terms of medical fees and his ability to work.
As a result, BITS would like to join in some of the efforts to raise funds for Loren and give something back in return...
Send a donation via Paypal to Marc Miller at Farfuture@gmail.com, marking it ‘Loren Wiseman Fundraiser - Power Projection’, and then send a copy of the transaction confirmation to webmaster@bits.org.uk.
If I receive confirmation of more than $100 in transactions, I will make the PDF of all the ships for Power Projection: Escort that were not included in Power Projection: Fleet available to download for free on 20th September 2010.
These are:
Imperial
200T SDB
Broadsword Class
Chrysanthemum Class
Fer-de-Lance Class
Kinunir Class
Midu Agashaam Class
Zhodani
Chtierabl Class Tender
Plokl Class
Shivva Class
Vlezhdatl Class
Zhdoq Class
Zhodatl Class
These will be updated to match the Power Projection: Fleet SSDs and include Points and RCP values.
I will post updates on progress via the @BITS_Traveller Twitter feed.
UPDATE: A day left and only $11 short of the minimum at which I’ll release the PDF publicly. If you pledge to this, I will guarantee that I will send you the PDF whether or not it goes public.
Thanks,
Dom
Other ways you can help:
If you want to help him out as a thank you for all the things he has done to support Traveller in the past, you could buy some of his Traveller material published at RPGNow.
Alternatively, Marc Miller is selling some reprints of CT as a fundraiser. Details can be found here on COTI.
Playing the Game
Tuesday 17 August 2010
It’s fair to say that my life has changed a lot over the last 3 years since my son was born. I’ve suddenly found myself time poor, which has really impacted the chances that I have had to put any significant time into gaming, let alone Power Projection specifically. Of course, there are consolations.
Anyway, I had a chance at the weekend to run some demo games for some of my friends who are Traveller fans but have never played Power Projection. We ran two battles; ‘A Good Clean Fight’, the classic introductory scenario we use at conventions and then a made up on the spur of the moment engagement with two Batrons, one a Zhodani Rider Squadron, the other an Imperial Battleship based one.
I took some pictures, and thought that I’d share:
The first battle...
As you can see, it got quite messy. The ships are GZG models, and a Star Wars Diecast miniature for the Plankwell in the second battle. The order of battle was as follows:
Imperials
BB Plankwell Class
CA Atlantic Class
CL Gionetti Class x2
Zhodani
BT Aatsdivr Class Battle Tender
BR Anzha Class x2
CL Zhdavldlits Class x2
In the first scenario, the Zhodani realised a crushing victory as their player rolled back the defences on the Imperials with massed missile strikes, killing the Fer-de-Lance missile escorts before they could respond in kind.
In the second scenario (which we didn’t finish as my pass out was expiring and I had to get home), it was too close to call. Initially, it looked as if the Imperials were doomed again, as they failed pretty much most of their spinal to-hit rolls on the first turn with spinal fire and Zhodani didn’t. Fortunately, the Plankwell has enough structure to shake off the damage (after it luckily managed to repair its bridge after the first threshold suffered took it out).
And, yes, I know that Ad Astra have a fantastic Plankwell model, but one of the time poor things I have at the moment is a large pile of books to read, games to play, videos to watch and miniatures to base and paint. However, I draw heart in the latter case as one of my friends, and stalwart Power Projection demonstrator, Neil always tells me that if you run out on miniatures to paint then you’ll have nothing left to live for and the end will be nigh!
Dom
Anyway, I had a chance at the weekend to run some demo games for some of my friends who are Traveller fans but have never played Power Projection. We ran two battles; ‘A Good Clean Fight’, the classic introductory scenario we use at conventions and then a made up on the spur of the moment engagement with two Batrons, one a Zhodani Rider Squadron, the other an Imperial Battleship based one.
I took some pictures, and thought that I’d share:
The first battle...
As you can see, it got quite messy. The ships are GZG models, and a Star Wars Diecast miniature for the Plankwell in the second battle. The order of battle was as follows:
Imperials
BB Plankwell Class
CA Atlantic Class
CL Gionetti Class x2
Zhodani
BT Aatsdivr Class Battle Tender
BR Anzha Class x2
CL Zhdavldlits Class x2
In the first scenario, the Zhodani realised a crushing victory as their player rolled back the defences on the Imperials with massed missile strikes, killing the Fer-de-Lance missile escorts before they could respond in kind.
In the second scenario (which we didn’t finish as my pass out was expiring and I had to get home), it was too close to call. Initially, it looked as if the Imperials were doomed again, as they failed pretty much most of their spinal to-hit rolls on the first turn with spinal fire and Zhodani didn’t. Fortunately, the Plankwell has enough structure to shake off the damage (after it luckily managed to repair its bridge after the first threshold suffered took it out).
And, yes, I know that Ad Astra have a fantastic Plankwell model, but one of the time poor things I have at the moment is a large pile of books to read, games to play, videos to watch and miniatures to base and paint. However, I draw heart in the latter case as one of my friends, and stalwart Power Projection demonstrator, Neil always tells me that if you run out on miniatures to paint then you’ll have nothing left to live for and the end will be nigh!
Dom
Update
Tuesday 17 August 2010
A quick update on the status of things:
- I’ve completed the book that I was doing the test layout on and it has gone in and out of print subsequently, and is now being published by d101 Games. It’s called Wordplay; if the idea of a narrative engined, fast playing game (think the lovechild of HeroQuest and Burning Wheel plus some others) then have a look at it here. The layout here is actually by someone else, as I did the initial edition that was used to put a foot in the water.
- I now have converted Quark files from Andy Lilly, which should mean I can extract the styles and frames used into InDesign.
- Next Power Projection related thing is to get the PDF of the Escort ships completed and on here as a download.
- I’ve also done a quick and dirty table for cross referencing the loss of massed systems to a threshold check. This came about having played some games with Capital ships at the weekend with some of my friends who are less enamoured with large numbers of dice rolls and more than happy with statistical resolution. So next time you need to carry out a threshold check on up to 100 systems you can just cross reference it on this table rather than rolling.
- I’ve completed the book that I was doing the test layout on and it has gone in and out of print subsequently, and is now being published by d101 Games. It’s called Wordplay; if the idea of a narrative engined, fast playing game (think the lovechild of HeroQuest and Burning Wheel plus some others) then have a look at it here. The layout here is actually by someone else, as I did the initial edition that was used to put a foot in the water.
- I now have converted Quark files from Andy Lilly, which should mean I can extract the styles and frames used into InDesign.
- Next Power Projection related thing is to get the PDF of the Escort ships completed and on here as a download.
- I’ve also done a quick and dirty table for cross referencing the loss of massed systems to a threshold check. This came about having played some games with Capital ships at the weekend with some of my friends who are less enamoured with large numbers of dice rolls and more than happy with statistical resolution. So next time you need to carry out a threshold check on up to 100 systems you can just cross reference it on this table rather than rolling.
2010
Wednesday 30 December 2009
I’ve just been preparing the websites for 2010, and thought that I’d mention a few things here.
You may have noticed on the main BITS website blog that I attended Dragonmeet for the first time in three years, and whilst there we had some discussions on Power Projection and future releases. Anyway, we’ve had a few ideas, which we’ve been kicking around as ways to get Power Projection: Reinforcements and some other books out. At the moment, we’re considering a drip feed release of fleets from Reinforcements as PDFs on advance of the main book being prepared. This will focus primarily on GZG vessels, rather than the excellent Ad Astra vessels. As I’ve recently raised my InDesign DTP skills from nothing to a complete book laid out (an RPG called Wordplay), this is actually looking feasible as a deliverable, as it means I can prepare it while Andy Lilly focuses on the RPG material. The final book would have further content - some extra chapters of material we’ve been looking for a home for such as classic Traveller ship designs not included in Power Projection: Fleet. BITS also have plans for up to three further books to support Traveller, all for the RPG. All this subject to the usual ‘real life may intervene’ tag.
I finally got to see the Ad Astra Games Traveller Miniatures at Dragonmeet, and they’re really nice. If you’re in the UK and can catch BITS at a con, they’re well worth getting hold off (as exchange rate was better when we got our stock). Otherwise, Ad Astra Games sell direct.
Finally, TravCon UK is upon us soon, and there are very few places left. Check out the main BITS site for more information!
Thank you for your patience with us, and have a Happy New Year.
Dom
You may have noticed on the main BITS website blog that I attended Dragonmeet for the first time in three years, and whilst there we had some discussions on Power Projection and future releases. Anyway, we’ve had a few ideas, which we’ve been kicking around as ways to get Power Projection: Reinforcements and some other books out. At the moment, we’re considering a drip feed release of fleets from Reinforcements as PDFs on advance of the main book being prepared. This will focus primarily on GZG vessels, rather than the excellent Ad Astra vessels. As I’ve recently raised my InDesign DTP skills from nothing to a complete book laid out (an RPG called Wordplay), this is actually looking feasible as a deliverable, as it means I can prepare it while Andy Lilly focuses on the RPG material. The final book would have further content - some extra chapters of material we’ve been looking for a home for such as classic Traveller ship designs not included in Power Projection: Fleet. BITS also have plans for up to three further books to support Traveller, all for the RPG. All this subject to the usual ‘real life may intervene’ tag.
I finally got to see the Ad Astra Games Traveller Miniatures at Dragonmeet, and they’re really nice. If you’re in the UK and can catch BITS at a con, they’re well worth getting hold off (as exchange rate was better when we got our stock). Otherwise, Ad Astra Games sell direct.
Finally, TravCon UK is upon us soon, and there are very few places left. Check out the main BITS site for more information!
Thank you for your patience with us, and have a Happy New Year.
Dom
Webhosting Interruption
Thursday 26 February 2009
Hi all,
The Website may be down temporarily whilst the hosting provider physically changes the location of the servers, which will start around 10:30 pm UK time on Thursday 26th February 2009. We’ll see you when we’re back after the break.
Regards,
Dom
BITS Webmaster
The Website may be down temporarily whilst the hosting provider physically changes the location of the servers, which will start around 10:30 pm UK time on Thursday 26th February 2009. We’ll see you when we’re back after the break.
Regards,
Dom
BITS Webmaster
BITS Newsletter Power Projection Goodies
Sunday 05 August 2007
Just a quick note to say that the latest issue of the BITS newsletter is now available for members and includes a page of material on Power Projection by Nick Bradbeer. This includes some of the optional rules like low power batteries and ship fragility that we propose to include in Power Projection: Reinforcements.
New Traveller-esque ship from GZG
Saturday 09 June 2007
Longer term fans of Power Projection will know that we have a close working relationship with Ground Zero Games, the publishers of Full Thrust and manufacturers of many fine miniatures. They have been starting to revise their main Full Thrust lines of starships, starting with their ESU and NSL miniatures. The most recent addition is the first of the FSE ships, a Super-dreadnought, and it looks gorgeous and very Imperial in lines. There's a picture above, with a link back to their website.
Of course, these revisions have us very tempted to change the ships we are using for the forthcoming book, Power Projection: Reinforcements. Our current thoughts are to use the NSL for the Sword Worlds fleet. ESU and Islamic Federation Ships will also make it into the book.
Ad Astra Minis now out of pre-order
Wednesday 18 April 2007
I guess the subject line above says it all. Ad Astra Games have announced that they have placed the order for the first Imperial and Zhodani Fleet Boxes to be manufactured. They are still available for pre-orders on their website.
Update on Minis
Monday 12 March 2007
This weekend past, Ken Burnside reported that Ad Astra Games need 13 more orders (out of 70) to launch Imperial Fleet Box 1 and 18 more orders (out of 70) to launch Zhodani Fleet Box 1. Order details here.
Traveller Miniature Pre-orders.
Tuesday 20 February 2007
Ad Astra Games are now taking pre-orders for the first two boxes of miniatures (one Zhodani, one Imperial).
Ken Burnside (Ad Astra's President) posted the following on their forums:
You can pre-order here.
Power Projection: Fleet is also available for order on their website.
Ken Burnside (Ad Astra's President) posted the following on their forums:
These are on a P70 system - when we get 70 orders in house, we'll be putting them to the prototyper and into production. Depending on the timing at the protyping house, production minis will ship about 6-8 weeks after we send them in.
Customers who pre-order will get their miniatures shipped at the same time they ship to distribution; credit cards will be run when we pay the bill to the prototyper, which may be a few weeks before the minis ship. (We have also had situations where it's gone to prototype to minis in our hands in under 3 weeks, but this is the exception, not the rule.)
You can pre-order here.
Power Projection: Fleet is also available for order on their website.
New Picture of Minis
Friday 09 February 2007
Charles Oines recently posted an updated image of the miniatures that are planned by Ad Astra Games on their forum. This is another CGI render combined with a metal effect to give an impression how they should look out of the box. There are four Zhodani (to the left of the coin) and five Imperials here.
And just to note, I haven't forgotten about the Huron and other ships I mentioned earlier!
Dom
Traveller Miniatures are coming from Ad Astra!
Sunday 28 January 2007
Following our announcement earlier in the week about Ad Astra Games licence to publish Power Projection, we are very pleased to bring you a preview of the Traveller miniatures range they are going to be releasing.
.
The ships pictured above are the Plankwell Class Dreadnought, the Azhanti High Lightning, a Chrysathemum class Destroyer, and two Zhodani ships (a Zhdavldlitz class Light Cruiser and a Zhdiak class Light Destroyer).
The pictures below show a situation that an Azhanti High Lightning doesn't want to get into!
These pictures are CGI models of the final sculptures produced by Charles Oines for Ad Astra Games.
If you're interested in the chat about these new models, have a look at Ad Astra Games' forums.
.
The ships pictured above are the Plankwell Class Dreadnought, the Azhanti High Lightning, a Chrysathemum class Destroyer, and two Zhodani ships (a Zhdavldlitz class Light Cruiser and a Zhdiak class Light Destroyer).
The pictures below show a situation that an Azhanti High Lightning doesn't want to get into!
These pictures are CGI models of the final sculptures produced by Charles Oines for Ad Astra Games.
If you're interested in the chat about these new models, have a look at Ad Astra Games' forums.
Power Projection to be printed in the USA
Monday 22 January 2007
BITS are proud to announce closer ties with yet another game publisher. Following on from our collaboration with Jon Tuffley at Ground Zero Games to produce our much-applauded Traveller starship combat system Power Projection, we are now beginning printing of the Power Projection: Fleet rules through Ken Burnside at Ad Astra Games in the USA.
We continue to have stock of the original UK printings of both Power Projection: Escort and Fleet, but this agreement allows us to produce and distribute the updated version of Fleet more easily in the USA. We will continue to stock and distribute the original UK printing to distributors, mail order customers and at conventions, but will replace these with the US-printed version over time.
We will only be printing Fleet at Ad Astra; though Escort is a useful, and fun, lead-in to Power Projection, the economics of printing meant it wasn't worth producing Escort in the USA: for our first out-source to Ad Astra we wanted to focus on the complete rules set in Fleet and see how it went.
We intend to collaborate further with Ken and his team at Ad Astra on future projects, just as we continue to work very closely with Jon at Ground Zero Games with our upcoming Power Projection: Reinforcements book.
Andy Lilly
http://www.bitsuk.net/
http://www.powerprojection.net/
We continue to have stock of the original UK printings of both Power Projection: Escort and Fleet, but this agreement allows us to produce and distribute the updated version of Fleet more easily in the USA. We will continue to stock and distribute the original UK printing to distributors, mail order customers and at conventions, but will replace these with the US-printed version over time.
We will only be printing Fleet at Ad Astra; though Escort is a useful, and fun, lead-in to Power Projection, the economics of printing meant it wasn't worth producing Escort in the USA: for our first out-source to Ad Astra we wanted to focus on the complete rules set in Fleet and see how it went.
We intend to collaborate further with Ken and his team at Ad Astra on future projects, just as we continue to work very closely with Jon at Ground Zero Games with our upcoming Power Projection: Reinforcements book.
Andy Lilly
http://www.bitsuk.net/
http://www.powerprojection.net/
Welcome to the New Look!
Friday 22 December 2006
It's taken longer than planned, but the site is now relocated onto the main BITS server, and I've taken the opportunity to completely rebuild it. Hopefully, this will allow more regular updates and maintenance. We may even give some better updates on the progress towards completing Power Projection: Reinforcements! However, updates may be a little slow at first, as I am expecting to become a Dad at Christmas.
For the more technically minded amongst you, the site is now built with Realmac Software's RapidWeaver 3.5 rather than Adobe GoLive 6, but is still designed using Mac OS X. I'd love to claim responsibility for the CSS and XHTML the site has, but that is down to the excellent software combined with the theme's designers, Blueball Design. All mistakes are my own.
Dom (Power Projection Author and this site's Webmaster)
Picture ©2006 Tom Zunder (taken at Continuum 2006). Thanks!