Firefly/Serenity

Here's what I did while the site was down:

Ration vouchers!

I'm imagining when the Alliance has to demoralize some poor little moon, they institute rationing.

Or for when things are in legitimately short supply. In case there's a war on, perhaps...

Anyway, it seemed like something they would do.

So here they are!

You get vouchers for beef, bread, beer, cloth, fuel and water. Plus a set of generic backs, if you want to go the extra mile and make them two-sided.

These print out at about the same size as a business card.

Print on white or light colored paper or card stock.


-Mike J.
 

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Major Cool I started up a thread on Generic Ration Cards I've been working on for a project for the kids.

http://www.therpf.com/f40/ration-cards-food-fuel-clothing-175576/

I had found a bunch of stuff from WWII and posted it and some others ran with it. Now if my cheapo ink jet printer would play nice I could actually get these printed up. My largest problem is printing the covers. I am using file jackets for the covers to match what I've seen on some real ration booklets, with card stock for most of the ration coupons and onion skin paper for the inside cover insert. The printer doesn't like printing on anything but regular printer paper, but there is supposed to be a printer driver out to fix that. I just haven't found it yet.
 
Well, my professionally perforated stamps are in.

Heads up, for those who go this route: Print out your sheet of 'stamps' and draw lines along all the 'cut' marks. Those lines represent your perforations. If it looks like there's gonna be too much white space around the edges of the stamps, re-arrange them. Some of my stamps were spaced too far apart, and I've learned a very expensive lesson.

Let me tell you what got perfed and looks good: my Independent stamps, my Blue Sun stamps, my Allied Worlds Unified Postage stamps, and my Alliance tax stamps.

Here's the big kicker: The Olathe Poste charged me $3 a sheet. Not including postage back to me. So, be prepared to pay up to $3 per page if you go the Olathe Poste route.

The perforations themselves are reasonably well aligned (within a mm or 1.5 mm) and look great. Very authentic. If you want realistic perfs, short of modding a sewing machine, this is the way to do it. Double check your margins!


-MJ
 
I"ve made perforated paper before using a pattern wheel. It is what is used to transfer a sewing pattern to fabric. On thin paper it works rather well. Just don't use the plastic handle one as it will break. The aluminum handle one with the replaceable wheels is getting harder and harder to find.
 
There's nothing quite like gettin' post from the Verse via Mike J.

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Here's one that just occurred to me tonight: a 'visa' for Niska's "Skyplex" space station.

Oddly enough, it's very easy to dock and gain entry. Leaving the station, however, can be tricky. "Malfunctions" of the station's automated defenses have been reported. Don't lose your permit.

Ideally, these would be printed on a light colored cardstock, and stamped for entry and exit. You can you can score down the middle and fold the backs over and glue them, or you can flip the sheet over and run it through twice.


-Mike J.
 

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Thanks. Here's a pair of Entry / Exit stamps for your Niska cards.

Note that these are not Skyplex-specific, so they could in theory be used for other things. :)


-Mike J.
 

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You can skip to the end if you want. This next paragraph really goes nowhere :wacko

So, early this morning, about 2 AM, I was possessed of the notion that I should make a fictional map of a fictional journey called the Serpent. Serpens in Latin, I think. My original plan was to have the map be composed of 3 separate pieces, Serpens Caput (the Serpent's Head), Serpens Dorsa (the Serpent's Back) and Serpens Cauda (the Serpent's Tail). This would be done all Lord of the Rings style, old-world looking with annotations. After looking up old illustrations of the constellation 'The Serpent', I for some reason decided to make The Serpent Run a Firefly-styled space journey, a la The Kessell Run in Star Wars. I don't know why. It may have been lack of sleep.

Then I decided to redraw the map of the Verse. Also possibly due to lack of sleep...

Here is the end result: a 2' x 3' planar map of the Verse, in vector form, designed for RPG use. By which I mean I fitted the systems to a hexagonal grid. I don't know if the RPG books come with nice, big, fold-out maps, but they should.

You can take this file to your local copy shop and get it printed out at actual size for something like $30. The QMx map is actually cheaper.

Or you can try and break it up onto, say, four 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper and do it at home. Good luck with that. ((Support your local copy shop!))

I suppose you could use this for something besides RPG use, like a poster for your wall or something. Or a desktop background. It's kinda plain, cause all the planets aren't on there. Or any of the planets, really. If you want something super-detailed, buy the QMX map, please.

I just thought this would be nice for table-top gaming.

In case anyone is curious, my hypothetical Serpent's Run would start at the Red Sun, make an illegal gravity slingshot at one of the 'northward' cortex relay stations, avoid the deep space stations, and end up near the Blue Sun / Reaver territory. That's the Serpent's Head - the dangerous half.

Let me know what you think.


-Mike J.
 

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I think it's a very fun idea. You should use a few of the gas giants in the Blue sun system as slingshot points. Fury would be a prime candidate.
 
Thanks, William. Since I don't write fiction, you have my blessing to use The Serpent's Run in your Ransom tales, if it can be used in any way. :)

What do you think of my map? I wasn't trying to compete with QMx, rather I was trying to fill a niche I think may have been overlooked. Obviously it is based on their planar view.

It seems a little sparse to me, but if it's only going to be the background for some minis, I guess that's OK.

I'd also like your advice as to what forum I should post this in over at FireflyProps.net
 
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I would post it in the 'Firefly Talk' subforum at Fireflyprops. Or perhaps 'non-canon props' since the Serpent's Run is an original creation.
 
New and Improved!

I went back in and added stars to the background - I think that's just what it needed.

They're the stars in the area of 34Tauri, too.


-Mike J.
 

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