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Wednesday, June 07, 2017

Master Star Ship Books Are Still Coming

This is Steven Petrick posting.

The Kzinti Master Star Ship Book has gone to the proofers (at least the first section of it, dubbed the "Main Section" which includes all of the formally published ships that are not Early Years, advanced technology, or published only in Captain's Log). Reports have been coming in and are being processed.

Lest you think this means I am sitting back and relaxing as this is going on, I have gathered together the various elements needed to create the Gorn Master Star Ship Book and am currently (among other tasks) going through the heartbreak of trying to hammer it into the approved format.

With all of these books there is the problem that the format has been constantly reinvented over the years. Often the format was driven by "space" constraints, so in order for a ship description to be done, elements that would normally be separate get folded into a paragraph to save a few lines on a page of text. Part of doing a Master Star Ship Book means tracking these down. Then adding all of the new data points and special considerations.

In some books the lists of known ship names precedes the "SSD and counter" note, while the standard for the Master Star Ship Books is that the known ship names are the last items listed.

And every empire seems to have its own "unique" parts of the format which have to be inserted. (The Gorns, for example, have a listing for the number of balcony systems each ship has).

So if I often look dazed and shell shocked after working on one of these books for a few days, there are reasons for it.

 
 Gorn Medium Cruiser
Art by Adam Turner