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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

New Star Wars Fan Comic ( http://www.fandomcomics.com )

Discussion in 'Archive: Fan Sites' started by NarCranor, May 29, 2005.

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  1. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Well, it is finally here! Please, go to our site at http://www.fandomcomics.com and download the zip of the .pdf for starfighters. 45 pages of crunchy goodness! I hope everyone enjoys the stats and the optional rules and equipment! Please please please let us know if you see any errors, be they grammatical, or continuity, or formatting, so that we can fix them up and make certain that we retain a high degree of quality on the site!

    Note that this is the first chapter that shows of the skills of our latest contributor, Eric Allen! Also known as Uncle-Servo of the Star Wars Deckplan Alliance, Eric has been kind enough to contribute two pin-ups for this chapter, the Cord-Class Starfighter and the Corellian Lancet Interceptor! Both turned out fantastic, and any words of encouragement and praise you might have for Eric would be appreciated either here or in a new thread on our own forums.

    Our own Ryan Brooks also altered four or so images to suit needs for pin-ups, the Delta-12 Skysprite was particularly fantastic.

    Our D20 material will be getting archived very soon. It will remain available for download, though probably in just one large single file. We will be slowly converting these chapters over to saga, interspersed with additional new chapters over the coming months.

    In any case, I look forward to seeing everyone's comments and thoughts on our first Saga Edition rules chapter! Capital Ships ought to be next, but well have an announcement about that in a few weeks, when we see how scheduling is looking!
     
  2. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Well, just wanted to let you all know we at http://www.fandomcomics.com have updated the site again and posted our Capital Ships chapter for our Clone Wars Saga Edition Fan Sourcebook. Contained are 46 capital ships, two of which have original artwork (Givin Wavecrest Frigate and Geonosian Corvette). I am very excited to present the new chapter, and can?t wait to hear what you all think of it. Next month we will be taking a small break, and posting a smaller RPG update that we have been holding in reserve dealing with Starship rules, and breaking them down for GMs that are having difficulty understanding the stats. October 1st is when transports are going up though! In any case, let me know what you think of the Capital ship chapter, any errors you might spot, how it worked in your games if you used it, or just your general impressions after downloading!
     
  3. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    The 1st of the month came again, and we updated again! This time we give a sneak preview of our atmospheric vehicles chapter, showcasing speederbikes, swoops and airhooks. We also did a stat cheat sheet for starships and vehicles, breaking down the stats and showing where they all come from, complete with formulas! A must-read for anyone new to saga edition!

    Keith "Nar" Kappel
    http://www.fandomcomics.com
     
  4. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Well, a belated happy Halloween to everyone! It is the 1st of the month again, and once again Fandom Comics has posted a new chapter in their Clone Wars Saga Edition Fan Sourcebook! This chapter focuses on Repulsorlift vehicles, and features 52 of them from the Clone Wars era! Note that we did not reprint the 11 speederbikes/swoops and airhooks from our preview for this, so there are 63 total repulsorlift vehicles on the site now for the Clone Wars era! Also included are some new stock templates for vehicles, and additional emplacements to customize your ships and vehicles with, including a new "vulnerability" mechanic that is based off the "ion vulnerability" presented in the core book for the AAT entry!

    Anyway, as always, I hope everyone enjoys the chapter, and please let us know if you find anything that needs correcting.

    http://www.fandomcomics.com
     
  5. Trika_Kenobi

    Trika_Kenobi Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 1999
    Hi there! I really haven't gotten around to exploring the site until today, but I must say, it's quite impressive all the way around! It sounds like you've got quite an operation going, and I'm interested in learning more about it all. :)

    I went ahead and read "Cracken's Crew" because super secret stuff is really close to my heart. :p When is the next issue coming out? I saw in the forums that you had an issue two plotted out, but it hadn't been scripted as of January. Any updates on that?

    Trikes
     
  6. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Thanks for the interest! Artist Steve Criado is on sabbatical from the site, so nothing will happen with cracken's crew until he is ready to go again, probably this coming january. Each issue takes steve about two years to draw, so he tends to need some time off afterward. In any case, you can expect us to make announcements as soon as he starts drawing pages again!
     
  7. Trika_Kenobi

    Trika_Kenobi Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 1999
    Two years? Wow. That's amazing stuff! I'll eagerly look forward to your next Cracken's Crew update, and in addition, to linking my site to yours in the near future. I have the banner link and will be glad to have it as our first "friend" site once we get the website updated completely.

    I'll also look forward to talking with you sometime again in the future... school's eating me alive right now, but with the holidays approaching, I'm sure I'll be right back to doubling my efforts on my own stuff. It was great to get the inside-scoop on you all. What an impressive organization!

    Thanks,
    Trikes
     
  8. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Hello everyone, just wanted to let you all know we updated the site with our latest chapter of the clone wars saga edition fan sourcebook, which has 24 vehicles that roll on treads or wheels, or are walkers. Some new templates and emplacements as well. Please let me know if you see anything questionable, as we will be doing our big vehicle recompile this month, and hope to have all the bugs worked out of the vehicles for the big update jan 1st.

    As always, the Clone Wars Saga Edition Fan Sourcebook chapters can be downloaded at http://www.fandomcomics.com
     
  9. Brandon Rhea

    Brandon Rhea Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 26, 2004
    Glad to see that you guys are still chugging along with this. How many readers do you typically attract?
     
  10. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Our RPG supplements do something like 600+ downloads in their first month, plus anywhere from 100-400 per month after that for about 5-10 months, then just under 100 per month. Tough to measure the comics, but we do get 3,000-5,000 unique visitors per month. Now, when you look at how many people play the Star Wars RPG or read star wars comics, this is obviously only the tip of the iceberg that we are reaching, so we feel there is a LOT of room for growth with the readership.

    However, limited to promoting free online (the number of forums I hit per month is retarded) Im not sure what moves we can make to reach a wider audience beyond getting some of the news sites more interested in our monthly progress. TFN has done half a dozen news posts on us, which is fantastic, and we always get a big response from that. But the other star wars news sites I have hit seemed pretty unresponsive as far as our site updates (re: new content) being news.

    So it is a struggle to attract readers, but for what is essentially fan fiction, I think we do pretty well.
     
  11. Brandon Rhea

    Brandon Rhea Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 26, 2004
    Those are pretty good numbers for a fan fiction website, although as you said there is of course room to grow. What other Star Wars news websites have you looked into contacting? How has TF.N helped so far?
     
  12. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Well since 2005 we have talked to virtually ALL the star wars news sites out there, some of which arent around anymore. TFN has been good to us though, whenever I have sent them an email informing them of a major website update, they have posted the email as a news article on their main page. That can be good for 5,000 unique visits over 2-3 days if the news item stays up top. Of course, we have only done that 4-5 times since may 05. We use it sparingly and when we know that we have a significant thing happening. In a few weeks we will likely try for it again, as we have a new comic about to launch.
     
  13. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Hey everyone,

    Just wanted to inform you all that we have finally put up our converted Dark Side chapter, which is now in Saga Edition. The chapter can be found at http://www.fandomcomics.com . However, in the course of doing this chapter, we really put in a lot of extra work to re-writing entries and adding all the new data from the newer sources to release in the past 18 months. We have also added two additional characters.

    For those of you who haven't been around long enough to remember when we put out the D20R version, just some quick thoughts on the philosophy behind the stats. In general, we look at the major players in the films as people who have come to represent the top of their respective fields in the galaxy. For instance, Bail Organa as a Level 9 Noble might work for Threats of the Galaxy, but we see him more as a Level 16 or so character. This is a senior member of the galactic senate, after all. A guy who has risen to the highest halls of power in a galaxy-spanning organization. So, in general, our NPCs will be of a higher level than those officially done by WOTC, with the intention of providing NPCs that will be able to function as "BBEG"s for entire parties. After all, Dooku's dark siders can't really function as much of a threat to a group of players if they are all level 10 and below. And using one of the Separatist Council members as the "evil brain" of a campaign plot seems to work better with them at the 15-20 CL.

    Also, we do stat some characters that have already been handled officially in Saga Edition. In these cases, we typically don't have much interest in re-treading the same ground of the official stats with minor tweaks. In most cases, we will try to present a radically different take on the character. We understand that some of these might be considered controversial (We gave Darth Vader levels of scoundrel, for instance, though for good reason).

    Finally, with the new Clone Wars cartoon, the timeline during the three years of war has taken a huge hit. No one is quite sure 100% when anything takes place any more. Since we didn't really have a desire to put the project on hold until things are officially straightened out, we made the decision to choose one of the existing fan timelines and use that as our bible. We chose this one: http://timelineuniverse.net/Riseoftheempire.htm#22%20BBY For anyone who feels that some event is listed as taking place at the wrong time, we are always interested in knowing when we have made an error, so we can take steps to correct it. But in the case of timelining, unless it goes against this source, we are content to leave it 'wrong" for the time being. Rest assured, when there is an official word about the sequence of events, and what retconning has to take place to make the timeline work, we will update appropriately.

    In any case, the new chapter presents 18 Sith and Dark Jedi that were active during the Clone Wars for use in Clone Wars Campaigns. The pdf file is 36 pages and four pieces of original art by Holly Laing, Tim Sullivan, and TJ Colligan, all of which depict characters who are either never before depicted by official sources, or whose original source had a resolution far too low to make it suitable for presentation.

    As always, please let us know what you think of the updated chapter, and fill us in on any errors you might have spotted or comments you might have.
     
  14. Trika_Kenobi

    Trika_Kenobi Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 1999
    Wow... you guys put together some great-looking stuff! I'm not into RPGs, but that's a lot of work to handle and compile like that. Ryan did the design on them, right? Does he use InDesign for the layout? They look really sharp, very professional. Good job! :)
     
  15. Brandon Rhea

    Brandon Rhea Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 26, 2004
    Great work. I'm impressed as always. =D=
     
  16. Anstrona

    Anstrona Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    May 14, 2005
    Yep, I did the design (well... I duplicated the official design anyway) from scratch. All the page graphics I did in Illustrator, all the text is done in MS Word, and then I import it all into InDesign. Great program. Thank you very much for the compliments :)
     
  17. Trika_Kenobi

    Trika_Kenobi Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 1999
    I super-love InDesign... I wish I could take the time to run through my "Classroom in a Book" again. The Adobe Suite is such a powerful compilation of software. Again, great work with the design and Illustrator graphics!

    Are you currently using Creative Suite 4, or an earlier version? I'm still stuck on CS 2 and am contemplating upgrading in the near future.
     
  18. Anstrona

    Anstrona Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    May 14, 2005
    I'm currently using CS3. Lots of smart object additions and a few other neat things. I've been wanting CS4 for a little while but it requires Service Pack 3 on XP, and I'm still running SP2 because a few programs I use have compatibility issues with SP3.
     
  19. Trika_Kenobi

    Trika_Kenobi Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 4, 1999
    Ewwww. Completely understandable. :p I'll definitely be holding back as you are, then.

    I have a friend who would say this sort of thing wouldn't happen if I just owned a Mac. [face_talk_hand] Bah!
     
  20. Anstrona

    Anstrona Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    May 14, 2005
    I've done some small corrections and updates to the Dark Side document and posted it to our site just this afternoon. I've also included a change log inside the zip with the pdf so those who are printing these documents can conserve on reprinting. I'll do my best to keep doing that from here on out.
     
  21. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know that Tron has finished and posted the Weapons conversion for the Clone Wars Fan Sourcebook at http://www.fandomcomics.com . The chapter looks gorgeous and contains crunch for 66 different weapons entries in use during the Clone Wars era! I am personally really happy with this chapter, and feel it is some of the best Saga Edition work we have produced on the site thus far. Give it a look and let us know what you think, along with any errors or typos or concerns you may have! (We do love to debate!).

    Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
     
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