Friday, June 5, 2020

Starship Geomorph Images and Virtual Table Tops

One of the most frequent questions I get regarding the Starship Geomorphs book is "Can I get access to the original images?" Since the PDFs are printed directly from AutoCAD, there are no intermediate images. This question and discussions around the topic have ramped up recently - I'm assuming due to the pandemic and the increased use of online virtual table tops (VTTs). I don't use VTTs myself since I am more of a solo gamer, but I've always loved tools that helped people be more creative and I haven't met a frazzled GM yet who didn't appreciate a good time saving tool. Online gaming is a great way to maintain social distancing and game with people around the globe. With that in mind I want to introduce a few people of the Traveller community I've been interacting with lately and link to the Starship Geormorph files they've been generous enough to share that they've created as part of their VTT gaming.

I highlighted David Gillespie of High Shelf Gaming last July, after catching his "Yacht My Problem" Traveller campaign on YouTube. David uses Roll20 as his VTT. He used Photoshop to convert the geomorph book into .PNG files of each page. He then created his "Titan" deck plan from those. David has been kind enough to provide us a link to the assets for his game, which includes the aforementioned geomorph sheets, a variety of deck plans, and vehicle tokens. He's also included an .MP3 file of some ominous music he used for when the players entered the ship.


David's "Yacht My Problem" game assets can be found here.

Nicole Beach of Cheese Weasel Logistics is using the geomorphs with the Fantasy Grounds VTT. She has created a Traveller geomorph mod for that system which she has shared on the Traveller RPG House Rules Facebook page. The mod can also be found here. Nicole trimmed the geomorphs to the outside of the wall and included a variety of vehicles and ships from the book. A ZIP file with her collection can be found here. Nicole also has plans to release a Traveller game and official Droyne Coyns.

Manfred Pade uses Tabletop Simulator as his VTT. He used GIMP - a free photo imaging software - to create individual geomorph .JPG files. He then converted those files to Tabletop Simulator objects that can be used within the game. The Sci-Fi RPG Starship Geomorph Map Tiles module can be found here. Manfred trimmed all 400 of the Standard, Edge, and Corner geomorphs down the centerline of the wall for easy placement. The geomorph image files he created can be found here. A video example of using the tiles on Tabletop Simulator can be found here.


Although when I created the Starship Geomorphs book I did not have VTTs in mind, I am really grateful for David, Nicole, and Manfred for taking the time to create the files from my book and be willing to share them. The whole purpose of creating this blog was to share some of my work with the Traveller community, so their efforts are appreciated in helping me with that goal

 If you would like to create your own modules for other VTTs feel free and let me know so I can share your work. My only requirement is that anything you create based on my work remains free (even if the VTT costs to use it). Credit and/or a link to this blog is also appreciated.

Note that all the images and mods referred to above are based on version 1.1 of the Starship Geomorphs book and many of the images have been tweaked, majorly modified, or renumbered for the upcoming 2.0 book. I can easily create full page image files of the book like David did, but to create trimmed images like Manfred's takes considerable more effort. Hopefully someone from the community will step forward to put in that effort if the community feels having those extra files would be beneficial.

Happy Virtual Travelling!

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UPDATE 08-18-2020:  Additional images from  Starship Geomorphs 2.0 and Starship Symbols have been added.  >> CLICK HERE FOR MORE <<

8 comments:

  1. Pretty cool stuff, thanks for posting!

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  2. These are probably the most useful graphic tool I've ever seen for Traveller. As soon as I saw it I wondered why it wasn't up for sale cause I'd buy it right there.

    In the interests of giving back, it is mentioned here that if someone wanted to produce trimmed images? I'm just finishing up producing the primary images (numbered) from V1.1 for use in some graphics programs like Cosmographer. I'm converting them to PNGs, approximately 1000x1000 pixel for the regular sized images and around 700x350 pixel for the edge types.

    Assuming these would be reasonable, is there a drop location? I can send a few over to see if they are suitable and then zip up the rest.

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    1. You can email them to me at pearcedesignstudio@gmail.com. I'll host them on my Google drive and provide a link to them as an update to the blog post. I'll also acknowledge your work with your name (if you provide it) or your online name if you prefer to be anonymous. If you provide a screen capture of how you are using them in Cosmographer that would be even better. Thanks.

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    2. Sounds good. Now that the 2.0 is out, I'm going to review those to see what I'm missing, then pull and convert those. I currently have 805, which includes images for smaller internal pieces like machine equipment, pieces like the engineering section, fuel tanks and other items in case people wanted to pull a few pieces out and set them independently.

      Total size of all elements so far is 150 Mb though, too much to upload via email. What I will do I think is post up the details to a temporary Dropbox and let you collect them. Then you can source them as you fit.

      As for credit, I appreciate that but I'll probably just stay anonymous. I'm just doing cut and paste whereas you did all the heavy lifting.

      and once I get a Cosmographer layout done up, I'll post that too.

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    3. I appreciate your efforts. You should be aware that I am close to releasing the Starship Symbols book, which is 40+ pages of all the symbols and rooms(CAD blocks) I used to make the geomorphs plus additional "never before seen" additional room layouts like bridges and engineering. If you email me your email address I'll send you the work-in-progress PDF so you can see how it fits in your overall goals. I will also be making some very minor tweaks to the 2.0 drawings as I re-review and comments come in from the community, so you might want to wait a couple weeks. I just revised the fresher in #706 because I forgot to add the privacy partitions. I'm a little obsessive like that. :)

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    4. Okay, that's certain to keep me occupied for awhile longer. :)

      For sure symbols are likely to come in handy. I know when I look at things like planetoid structures, the base geomorphs work well until my designs start to get close to the surface. The option to have things like specific things such as remote weapon turrets, barbettes and the like and have them connected to the interior structure via corridors would be much more realistic in appearance.

      I will be forwarding a few of the items I've cut and converted from the PDF so you can get a look at it. I've finished reviewing 2.0 and pulled all the new elements out that I did not already have (the aerofins are very nice, btw). That should provide you with the email address you need.

      One enhancement I might recommend, since you are now at 2.0, is a revisions list? What elements have changed between revisions so that if people are using the elements they can know that might need to adjust one of their designs if they used a particular geomorph? The specific details won't necessarily be relevant, just a listing of the geomorph numbers for fast review

      Have a good day.

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    5. The Starship Geomorphs 2.0 post includes a link to a version 1.1 PDF with all the revisions highlighted. Hope that helps.

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    6. That should work. I'll take a look at it.

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