Spaceports & Spidersilk July 2014

The July issue of Spaceports & Spdiersilk is now available.  You can find it at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/452851.

 

New Taurin Tales Kickstarter rewards

We’ve added all sorts of new rewards for the Taurin Tales kickstarter.  Think you might want to have your name adapted into Taurin to include it in Taurin Tales 2?  Would you be interested in having a story you’ve written critiqued by one of the writers, or the editor?  Would you like a copy that has been signed by all of the authors?

If any of these jump out at you, please go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1521750492/taurin-tales, and help us out.

 

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The Ephemeris Encyclopedia Galactica: Sectors 24 & 25

The exploration of “Unexplored Space” continues with Sectors 24 & 25.  You’ll find a few colonies in this tome, but you’ll also find lots of planets waiting to be explored, and planets that were once colonized, but no longer are.
There are more machine culture colonies that have been abandoned, and civilizations that have died, plus worlds that are screaming out to be explored, with dangers that characters can’t even begin to imagine.

Order from us: http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/the-ephemeris-encyclopedia-galactica-sectors-twenty-four-twenty-five/

Order from DriveThruRPG: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/131278/The-Ephemeris-Encyclopedia-Galactica-Sectors-TwentyFour–TwentyFive

The Ephemeris website

We’ve done quite a bit of work on the Ephemeris portion of our website: http://www.nomadicdeliriumpress.com/ephemeris/main.htm.  You will now find listings for all of the titles we’ve released for the game (and there are a lot of them!!!)  In addition, you’ll find links to various places that you can purchase the game and the supplements.

The five month anniversary of the release of the game is just over a month away, and sales are still building.  We’re very happy with the direction the game is going, and we’d love your feedback.

Please drop by the site, and stock up on the titles that you might be missing from your collection…and keep playing!

 

Who are the Taurins?

As we’ve mentioned, we’re running a Kickstarter for an anthology called Taurin Tales, which brings up the question, exactly who are the aliens in Taurin Tales?  Below is the description I gave to the authors for them to start creating their stories.

Please support the Kickstarter at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1521750492/taurin-tales

The Taurins are six limbed creatures with greyish-green skin that resembles that of a lizard, although they have a layer of fur on their back that can range through most colors. The Taurins back limbs are four toed and act completely as feet. Their middle limbs have digits that have one joint each. They normally use these limbs for walking, but they can use them to carry items if they need to, although these limbs tend to have the dexterity of a one year old human child. The Taurins front limbs have four digits, each of which has four joints, giving them outstanding dexterity.

Taurins have five eyes. They have two on the front of their heads that give them stereoscopic vision. They also have one eye on each side of their head, and one on the back of their head. Their front eyes are able to see into the near-infrared, but their other eyes are completely color blind, and they can only see about 100 yards before things become too blurry for them. The Taurins have two ears that are actually set in their head, instead of protruding like human ears. Their range of hearing is about 20% greater on each extreme than a human’s hearing. Taurins have sensory glands that cover their body that give them a sense of smell, but it’s only about half as good as a humans. Their mouth has three layers of razor sharp teeth, and although the Taurins are omnivorous, they prefer a carnivore’s diet.

The Taurins wear clothing that covers the majority of their bodies. The clothing is usually worn for comfort and ease of use, but there are times when the Taurins like to dress up.

From a technological standpoint, the Taurins are slightly ahead of Humanity. They have interplanetary travel, but they don’t yet have interstellar travel. So far they’ve colonized their home planet’s two largest moons, and although they’ve explored the third moon, they’ve found it to be too small to colonize. They also have limited research colonies on the two planets closest to their homeworld.

There are three major nations on their planet, nations that manage to cooperate, but only about as well as the US does with China or Russia. Although there are “racial” differences among the different Taurins, there is actually very little racism, although there is a group of Taurins that have light green fur on their backs that have been exploited as slaves for centuries, and although slavery no longer exists, these Taurins are often looked down upon by the other Taurins.

 

 

Meet the Lomisians

The Lomisians are a new species that is available to players in the Ephemeris Role Playing Game.  They can be found in the Ephemeris Species Compendium of Deep Space Species at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/130262/The-Ephemeris-Species-Compendium-of-Deep-Space-Species?manufacturers_id=2805.

The Lomisians (pronounced Low-me-zhens) average seven feet in height, but whereas the Khruntha are bulky, the Lomisians are slender, almost fragile. They evolved on a low gravity planet in Sector 44 of “Deep Space.” The Lomisians have two long arms that have four joints on them, and four long legs (which gives them a +4 bonus on their balance skill) that each have four joints. They have two eyes that face forward, and they have large ears that they’re able to turn in multiple directions (much like a cat). These ears give them a +2 skill bonus on the listen skill. The Lomisians also have fur that ranges from a pure white to a dark gray. Wealthier Lomisians will often dye parts of their fur as something of a status symbol.

Due to their frail stature, the Lomisians suffer a -2 penalty on their Endurance when a character is created. Given their thirst for knowledge about everything, they receive a +1 bonus on both their Intelligence and their Common Sense.

They were a basically peaceful people until the met the Khruntha. In fact, the Lomisians are often referred to as the Librarians of the Galaxy because they are more interested in knowledge than in conquest. Although there had been battles on their homeworld, the Lomisians did not tend to fight amongst themselves much, and now they only fight when they absolutely have to, and then almost exclusively with the Khruntha and the Ernya. The Julahmo tend to avoid the Lomisians because they don’t like the fact that they Lomisians do not have religion. The Alexans, however, have had very few differences with the Lomisians, and the two species will often work together.

The Lomisians expansion into the galaxy is more about knowledge than it is about territory. They don’t really care about how many planets they colonize and control. They just care about the knowledge that they might be able to gain from that planet and everything else in the planetary system.

 

Taurin Tales Kickstarter

We’re going to be publishing a new shared world anthology, and we’re hoping to publish it in September.  The book will be called Taurin Tales, and here are some of the details…

Taurin Tales is a shared world anthology featuring some of the top names in small press science fiction.

Taurin Tales is a shared world anthology about an alien species called the Taurins.  The concept was designed by science fiction writer, editor, and game designer J Alan Erwine.  From there he invited several writers to contribute, and together they formed Taurin Tales.

The authors in the collection will be David Lee Summers, Maggie Bonham, Rick Novy, Ian Brazee-Cannon, Laura Givens, Dylan Moonfire, and Anna Paradox.

Most of the stories have already been delivered, and we’re shooting for a September 1st, 2014 release date.

Please help us out by supporting our kickstarter at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1521750492/taurin-tales

New Ephemeris titles in print

We’ve released two new Ephemeris titles in print.  You can now get The Ephemeris Encyclopedia Galactica: Near Space at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/129004/The-Ephemeris-Encyclopedia-Galactica-Near-Space?manufacturers_id=2805, or you can get The Ephemeris Species Compendium of Deep Space Species  at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/130262/The-Ephemeris-Species-Compendium-of-Deep-Space-Species?manufacturers_id=2805.

Meet the Khruntha

The Khruntha are a new species that is available to players in the Ephemeris Role Playing Game.  They can be found in the Ephemeris Species Compendium of Deep Space Species at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/130262/The-Ephemeris-Species-Compendium-of-Deep-Space-Species?manufacturers_id=2805.

The Khruntha are a brutal and savage race. Throughout their history, they have waged war on each other, and now that they’re in space, they wage war on anyone they can find. They, along with the Lomisians were the first species to reach space in “Deep Space,” and they’ve waged war on one another ever since, although the Lomisians have consistently sued for peace, but they’ve constantly been denied.

Physically, the Khruntha are an intimidating species. They are eight foot tall bipeds with four eyes (all facing forward) on their oblong heads. Their other sensory organs are all recessed into their heads, obviously a genetic adaptation that came about as a result of their brutal ways. Their arms have three joints, which gives them a good bit of manual dexterity. Even though the Khruntha are bulging with muscles, they are also very good at fine and delicate work.

The Khruntha (the first sound in the name is pronounced a bit like a human clearing its throat) evolved on a world in Sector 46. It’s a harsh planet with dramatic seasonal changes, and fairly high gravity.

Due to their four eyes, the Khruntha receive a +1 skill bonus on their search and spot skills. When a Khruntha character is created, they receive a +1 bonus on both their Strength and their Endurance attributes. However, due to their foul nature, they receive a -2 penalty on their Charisma.

The Khruntha live in a society of brutal laws. The penalty for almost any crime is death, or at the very least, very painful torture, and the Khruntha accept this. They have very few freedoms on their worlds, and when they conquer a world, that world must accept Khruntha law. Inevitably, thousands, or even tens of thousands, die in the first weeks after they’ve conquered a planet, as most species will not accept Khruntha law very easily. Even the Ernya, who are pretty brutal in their own rite, do not like to give in to Khruntha law when their worlds are conquered.

 

Meet the Julahmo

The Julahmo are a new species that is available to players in the Ephemeris Role Playing Game.  They can be found in the Ephemeris Species Compendium of Deep Space Species at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/130262/The-Ephemeris-Species-Compendium-of-Deep-Space-Species?manufacturers_id=2805.

The Julahmo are on average five feet tall bipeds. They have short legs and very long arms, with each arm having two elbows. They have feathers, although what the evolutionary advantage of the feathers was has been lost. Their feathers range over a wide variety of colors, from dull browns to a mixture of pastels. There are two genders of Julahmo, but they can change genders if the need arises. This change takes one year to accomplish, and once changed, they can never go back to their original gender. The Julahmo young are maintained by a group of Julahmo that have been bred for taking care of young. They never learn who their real parents are.

The Julahmo evolved on a low gravity world in Sector Sixty. They are muscularly very frail, and they are often tormented by the other species, especially the Ernya. Many in “Deep Space” refer to the Julahmo as the “beaten race.” While frail, they are quick, and often quite charming. When a Julahmo character is created, they receive a +1 bonus on both their Charisma and Agility, and they receive a -2 penalty on their Strength.

The Julahmo have six eyes that are spaced equally around their head. These eyes are able to see into the infrared spectrum. With eyes spaced around their heads, the Julahmo receive a +3 bonus on their search and spot checks. They also have remarkably acute ears that are almost 20 cm long, coming to a point at their ends, which gives them a +2 bonus on their listen checks.

The Julahmo are a deeply religious species. They believe in a great creator that is waiting for them in the heavens. Before they had space travel, they believed that their great creator, Shektakth, lived above the clouds. Now that they have space travel, they believe that Shektakth is waiting for them on one of the planets they are destined to colonize. Unfortunately for them, their religion didn’t prepare them for the Ernya and the Khruntha, and now they are finding that survival may be even more important than their quest for their creator.