Sean! was asking me about where my old projects are at.  Generally the answer is progressing.  Sometimes slowly, other times quickly but they're usually progressing, unless I'm really stuck.  A friend recently suggested that I should try working on things in serial instead of parallel, but then I'd have to wait until I got unstuck to move on with the current project.

Take Galaxies In Shadow, all it really needs is for me to knuckle down and re-do all the vehicle designs and weapons and equipment.  It's just a huge project, so it's taking me a very long time.

Now, Incandescent is that game's little brother.  Even more than ever now, actually Galaxies In Shadow now has Incandescent's damage system and vis versa but that's beside the point.  Here's a current playtest draft of Incandescent.  And yes it's seen a decent bit of playtest in the last year but I think I'm mostly happy with it now.  What it needs now is more and better art.  Well, and half a dozen more vehicles but it's actually in a usable state at the moment.

http://www3.telus.net/public/uncouths/Incandescent.pdf

Looks cool. Some of the alien races are quite novel and I like d10s as a core mechanic. Nothing much to nitpick really, sorry. Perhaps Skills look a bit imbalanced since there's a mix of stronger and weaker skills on the same list (taking points in Acting, vs. taking points in psionic powers)
 
I guess it could also (like most SF games) use a system that lets you create/play a wide range of alien types - I've seen a number of games that let you DIY your own aliens e.g. Silverlion's Derelict Delvers, or Savage Worlds Deluxe. Might be handy for the GM even if most PCs should come from the main listed types.

Thanks, there are vehicle and race design rules but I left them out of the core.  Simple points based race design is best left to the Moderator because it's easy to twink out.  Vehicle and weapon design involves cube roots.  A great many gamers are terrified of pushing a single button on a calculator so it had to go in a later part of the rules where people looking through the game wouldn't see it.

On the one hand I envision numerous alien races but on the other hand if I put cat guys and dog guys in the core I'll get people whinging and damning my game by default.  I actually wrote them up to put something more generic (or perhaps playable) in but I may convert my races from The Covenant Generation from Galactic Adventures as they're more original and unusual.

Here are the design rules, including race design if you were curious.

Life Form Characteristics
   The races are built by simply calculating the number of points used relative to the human base.   Natural characteristics cost one point unless they simply exchange a capability in which case they are free.

Aquatic (0)
   The race is able to move at full speed in the water and breathes water instead of air.

Carapace (1)
   The race has a think shell of natural armor.  This armor provides protection equal to the individual’s Strength.

Fast (1)
   This race is built well for running and has its movement rates increased.

Flight (1)
   The race has wings or gasbags and can fly.  If the increased speed and mobility seems like a bargain, just remember there’s not a bit of cover up there.

Nocturnal (0)
   The race is adapted to activity in the dark but is at an equivalent disadvantage in full day light.

Slow (-1)
   The race is slow moving and often slow to react.
   
Teeth and Claws (0)
   The race has a natural weapon attack.  This means that they inflict stun and wound damage like a weapon but natural materials are no match for high tech armor so it still resists the damage inflicted as if the attack were unarmed.

Vehicle Design
   A vehicle is designed by designating its size and function and dividing its ten hit location slots between systems.  It is important to bear in mind that this is a simple and quick system that pays lip service to the laws of physics for the sake of scaling and clarity, not a detailed engineering course.

Slots and Units
   Every vehicle uses a ten point hit location chart, each slot on which indicates a tenth of its internal volume.  A system that is installed in a slot is called a unit.

Crew
   The vehicle’s crew is assumed to be part and parcel of the overall design with work stations, seats, and seat belts being installed as a matter of course.  The minimum crew needed to operate a vehicle is normally one plus one per thousand tons.  Of course armor doesn’t require crew so the base mass is used.  This does not include maintenance crew who are generally assumed to be at base.  This is assumed to be pretty uniform as even cargo requires handlers.  If the vehicle has the robotic feature it doesn’t require crew to operate but still requires maintenance.  Long range military vessels will generally carry five times the base crew by running in shifts and hot bunking and .

Systems
   Systems take up hit location slots.

   Arms are a very flexible tool which can wield appropriately sized weapons and be used to interact with the surroundings.  Weapons used with an arm have a 360 x 180 degree arc.  If the arm is mounted on a turret, such as the upper body of a giant robot the weapon will have a 360 x 360 degree arc.

   Arm Strength = 3√Arm Units x Mass x 5 / number of arms

   Bay: A bay is an open space which can be outfitted with modules, missiles, and smaller ships and has direct access to the vehicle’s exterior through a large hatch.  Fighter bays, missile bays, gun bays, landing bays, and cargo bays are all common applications.

   Faster Than Light Drive: Entering hyperspace requires one drive unit and a power plant unit to fire it up.  If the drive is deactivated or damaged in hyperspace the ship automatically precipitates back into real space.

   Gravity Repulsors: These rare and advanced units allow a vehicle they are mounted on to ignore gravity.  This means they can hover with minimal thrust and reach orbit with around half as much fuel.  They still need the angular momentum to orbit but they don’t need to fight gravity to get up there.

   Hold: Vehicles that are intended to operate far from support infrastructure require a hold in which to store extra fuel and provisions to extend its range.  A hold module can be mounted in a bay.

   Power Plant: The standard vehicle power plant is a highly efficient fuel cell that store allows it to run for twenty-four hours before refueling.  Larger vessels carry fusion power plants that allow them to function at full capacity for months on end.  Advanced power plants are representative of fusion reactors small enough to power most vehicles and include enough fuel for months.   Faster than light drives and energy weapon units require one power plant unit to function.

   Quarters: Vessels that are intended to operate full time without regular crew changes at bases need a quarters unit to provide bunks, galleys, and laundry facilities for the crew.  Quarters units can be mounted in a bay module.

   Rockets: Each unit includes fuel tanks and rocket engines.  The rockets face to the rear and the fuel tanks can be hit from all other directions.  Rockets include articulated, vectored, and even additional maneuvering rockets which are too incidental and redundant to be shown on the hit location display.

   Shield Projectors: The vehicle is shielded by a powerful energy field.  Shields require a power plant unit to function.  They operate like a second layer of armor that doesn’t increase the vehicle’s mass.  Technically all shields are an advanced technology.

   Suspension: Whether it runs on wheels, tracks, or legs, a ground vehicle needs as many suspension units as its armor multiplier.

   Thrusters: These maneuvering engines require little or no fuel but do require power from a power plant.

   Weapon Mounts: Weapon mounts can be divided up into a wide range of configurations.  Turrets have twice the mass of a fixed mount.  Batteries of missiles and can be divided up into the number lost per damage point or the number of damage points per weapon as appropriate.

Features
   Features modify the vehicle’s performance without altering its volume.

Armour: Doubling a vehicle’s Armour Factor halves its Acceleration.

Buoyant Hull: The vehicle is streamlined and water tight on the bottom making it sea worthy. Mark half of the vehicle’s hit location slots with an “F”.  If the vehicle suffers a penetrating hit to any of these locations it begins to sink.

Defensive Dispensers: These fire smoke or chaff to obscure the vehicle from enemy fire.

External Payload: Up to half of a vehicle’s mass can be designated as external load, which is not protected by armor.  Multiply the mass of the vehicle by the ratio before figuring its armour and cost.

Full Spectrum Sensors: This sensor array provides the full range from infrared to ultraviolet and the entire radio wave range in active and passive.

Jammer: These antenna emit radio frequency interference making the vehicle hard to target with radar.

Night Vision: These lenses provide infrared or ultraviolent enhanced visual input to the crew stations.

Radar: These antenna emit radio waves and receive them when they bounce back.

Robotic: This vehicle is full autonomous and requires no operating crew.  It still requires maintenance.

Sealed: This vehicle is air tight to pressures a hundred times that of Earth’s atmosphere and provided with air recycling and filtration systems.

Wings: Wings allow a vehicle to fly in atmosphere.  As aircraft are light weight and wings have a large surface area they half the vehicle’s armour.  Rockets and thrusters provide vectored thrust allowing the vehicle to hover so stall speeds are not a major issue.  Mark two hit locations containing fuel or weapons with a “W” indicating the systems are inside the wings.

Target Size

   Mass         Modifier
   2 - 20 kg         -1
   20 - 200 kg         0
   200 - 2000 kg         +1
   2000 - 20000 kg      +2
   20000 - 200000 kg      +3
   2000000 - 20000000 kg   +4
   x 10            +1

Structure =  3√Mass
Protection = 3√Mass x n
Armour Points = 10 x 3√Mass x n

n = Armour Factor

Acceleration
   4 x Rocket or Power Units / Armor Factor

Top Speed
   Aircraft: 2000 + 250 x (acceleration -4)
   Wheeled: 90 + 15 x (acceleration -4)
   Tracked: 60 + 10 x (acceleration -4)
   Legs   30 + 5 x (acceleration -4)

Weapon Design
   These rules focus strictly on game effects over real physical data.  They are built around a very simple and direct trade off between damage and range with a few options for more and less advanced weapons.  There is no actual distinction between various types of energy weapons and slug throwers.

Tracking
   Tracking represents the ability of a weapon system to follow a moving target.  Naturally larger weapons are less able to do this.  Use the mass of the weapon mount.  That is to say hand held weapons use the mass of the weapon itself, turret weapons use the mass of the turret, and fixed weapons use the mass of the entire vehicle.

   Mass         Modifier
   5 - 499g      0
   500 - 4999g      -1
   5000 - 49999g   -2
   50000 - 499999g   -3
   500000 - 4999999g   -4
   x 10         -1

Range = mass / 1000 x r
Damage = 3√ Weapon Mass / (r x a)

a = action factor

Action         RoF   Shots   a
Expendable      1   1   0.1
Single Shot:       1   1   0.2
Single Action:   1   10   1
Burst: Rate of Fire   3   30   1.5
Automatic      5   50   2.5
Rotary         20   200   10

Advanced Options
   x2 ammunition
   x2 range factor
   x2 rate of fire
   x2 damage
   ½ armor

Primitive Options
   ½ ammunition
   ½ damage

Blast
   ½ ammunition or damage

Explosive projectiles do not attenuate.

Guided projectiles do not have higher target numbers at greater ranges.

Crew = Mass / Armour Factor x 10000

Prices
   Originally Incandescent was intended to be run without accounting for money.  But players generally like to have money to keep track of.  As such costs have been assigned to the equipment and vehicles using the following multipliers.  Only one multiplier from each class should be applied to any single item.  Even so, the referee is advised to make scenario appropriate equipment available without much fuss.

   Note that bays, fuel, and quarters are essentially empty space and don’t count towards the cost of the vehicle.  Divide the cost of the vehicle by ten and multiply by the number of slots devoted to all the other systems to find the final cost.  Of course you have to pay for the fuel and  missiles normally.

Cost Factors

Type
x 10   Electronic
x 1   Mechanical
x 5   Vehicle

Grade
x 1   Expendable
x 5   Commercial
x 10   Military
x 20   Quality

Technology
x 1   Galactic Standard
x 0.5   Primitive per modifier
x 2   Advanced per modifier

Legality and Risk
x 1   Consumer
x 5   Controlled
x 10   Restricted

For example, most automatic weapons are military and controlled for a multiplier of x 50.

I'm torn on the aliens thing.  I did stat up dog and cat men.  Dull I know though the catmen are a clear and sloppy genemod of the human genome and the dog men claim to be descended from werewolves who bred true once away from the influence of Luna.  Not that anyone believes them.

The problem being the very loud hard sf and anti furry lobbies will pan any game with humanoid animal aliens.  Like showing a cube root in a game it's the kiss of death.  Even if you try to do something different with it.

Beyond that, there's the general feel of the setting.  While I originally envisioned a very racially diverse universe, I also originally envisioned a Saturday morning cartoon feel to the game, which wouldn't really do much to sell to a wider audience.

Though I'm also torn about selling it.  A well done and well supported free and open game might actually become more popular than one that's just another pdf for sale.

Quote from: David Johansen;549891The problem being the very loud hard sf and anti furry lobbies will pan any game with humanoid animal aliens.  Like showing a cube root in a game it's the kiss of death.  Even if you try to do something different with it.

Screw them!  Seriously, anthropomorphic races are a staple of both science-fiction and fantasy.  As long as you approach it with a serious attitude, I would totally buy into it.  

Quote from: David Johansen;549891Beyond that, there's the general feel of the setting.  While I originally envisioned a very racially diverse universe, I also originally envisioned a Saturday morning cartoon feel to the game, which wouldn't really do much to sell to a wider audience.

Options, options, options.  Present several different setting lens for the game: hard sci-fi, space opera, cartooney, and etc.  I would pick one as the prime setting, such as hard sci-fi for example and then present the others as possible options.

Quote from: David Johansen;549891Though I'm also torn about selling it.  A well done and well supported free and open game might actually become more popular than one that's just another pdf for sale.

Take a page from Stars Without Numbers or Dark Dungeons: make it the best possible and offer it for free to get the word out and then judge by the reaction if you will offer it in print as well.

Or sell miniatures...how many sfrpgs are actually supported with miniatures of their races?

But the thing is that Incandescent is a specific setting, Galaxies In Shadow is universal but it's quite a bit more complex.  I just want to minimize the noisy backlash that tends to follow any game  with cube roots and/or furry aliens that comes out.  Maybe I'm just scared by the huge Spacemaster Privateers flameout.

So really I'm mostly holding some things back for the supplements just to cull the dominant high noise to signal issues.

Quote from: David Johansen;550023Or sell miniatures...how many sfrpgs are actually supported with miniatures of their races?

But the thing is that Incandescent is a specific setting, Galaxies In Shadow is universal but it's quite a bit more complex.  I just want to minimize the noisy backlash that tends to follow any game  with cube roots and/or furry aliens that comes out.  Maybe I'm just scared by the huge Spacemaster Privateers flameout.

So really I'm mostly holding some things back for the supplements just to cull the dominant high noise to signal issues.

Dude, completely understandable.  I think putting it into supplements is a good compromise.