Update: (Finally! Late but here.) The New Year!

Greetings My Patrons, Fellows, Associates, Staff and Visitors.

First off, please accept my apologies for the tardiness of this post and the lack of three that should have come before it this new year. With that out of the way, let us proceed to look at what is on the horizon here at the Institute.

So, the new year is starting with a lot of work. First of course is the good news that the Traveller5 Core Rules book is printing or even printed as I write this. This means sometime come February I should have all sorts of swag. I plan on doing my first un-boxing of goodies video which is will post as this box has such great and special meaning.  I got a 4518th Lift Infantry  T-shirt coming, a Jump Drive (flash drive with the Traveller colors) with the Core Rules, a megaton of Traveller5 dice (including a bunch of the Kickstarter Yellow ones), a Title and Land Grant, a Knighthood and of course, my Travellers' Aid Society membership card. Life is good here, busy, but good.

That all kicks into what is going on Behind The Screens. First off, I am about to get all my paperwork in order to be an official gaming company. Yep, that is right I once again am stepping off into the deep end, the grown ups end of the pool. Last time, I found out you can go down more than three times and not drown. Now, I can swim some what, so I suspect I won't drown, but I may not look very elegant while I head for dry land. I have a few aces up my sleeve and a ringer or two in my corner so I am not starting at a complete noob level here. I am however finding new and interesting things that I had played around with as a kid (read 18 years old, first Term, Citizen through about third Term, Student) suddenly have real meaning.

Take business cards. I made tons, for the eventual company, for the Special Law Enforcement Department, for shits and giggles. Sort of like I was doing with forms and such. Now, I am really sort of stressing out about it because now I know what kind of things a business card can say. So add to what paper, ink, style and fonts to chose, I find myself wondering if I should stay with the Thornwood-Daarnulud Institute as the company name or do I go with some like the Thornwood-Daarnulud Bureaux? These things now matter. *sigh* Being a real grown up does suck at times. You don't see little kids stressing company tradedress and legal filings. They'll get theirs though, sooner or later, Life catches us all. So, I do go with the later, here is a basic logotype.

Possible Company Name and Logotype. (draft 1 - ca. 2012)

This matters because, well, yet more good news this year, I have (a copy posted on my fridge) a license to produce third party product for Traveller5. (I also have my name in the Big Black Book, twice. >:D I am it turns out an Imperial Accredited Naval Architect. Yeah, baby, I am a Shipwright.) Which is why I am freaking out about tradedress and paperwork. Be right back, got something to fix real quick...okay back. I had to trim the logotype down. The HMS Herald is back on the front burner and I am going to hit a few people up with the latest stuff and start getting that ready to go out the door. In the immortal words of the great Moderator Don McKinney, "No deadlines, it is finished when it is finished.", which I believe is actually the Minister of Communications and Information speaking on behalf of His Imperial Majesty. Realistically, February late or early April 2013 is where I am looking at for the Herald. I need to send the Artist some more of the latest and greatest variants of the line and get another couple people to take a final look at it, including Marc so he can get me proper T5 markings for it.

Yet one more thing I am trying to figure out how to do a wargame/board game, yet keep the size down. This one is one of the early drafts of the board. Odd part is ever time I look at it I am trying to see given the larger picture how unbalanced is this one. Do I make the Parthian side bigger, but then they are probably defending. Blah, blah, woof, woof. And so it goes around here lately.

Wargame Board (draft 2)

Honestly, that is just one of a whole bunch of stuff I am writing down in notebooks these days. I do a lot of that, writing ideas in notebooks. Rustin always stressed it, Lauri (Secretary of the new company) lived by her damned Daytimer. Okay, truth as the little wanna be police I was I had a daybook and a pen at all times. Now, I carry something small that fits into some larger container, usually the backpack, but these days, the nine-deamon bag. (In honor of Ogre-Mage Martz, who went to scout the way before us all.) Worse yet, I am already filling a notebook that in the old days would have lasted, well, it might still be lying around with only half its pages used. So, it looks like some spiffy, good Ease of Use in the QREBS pens and notebooks are in order for the crew.

Speaking of the notebooks, I will try and get some more posted, Ted, who is looking to be our Editor in Chief right now, since Rick the other guy with some sort of English major is slated in the Chief Tech position. Also, I have to contact the Staff Magician and let him know he is for one for real now. I told I would do, and by the Voids I will. If he still wants the job, I should call him very, very soon.

Then, I am doing some work for another project, not mine, and other stuff. Basically, I have not posted because I just don't have the time. But, I decided I needed to make the time and here are the results. And now you are better informed as to why there has been a bit of quiet around here.

So, I will leave with this for a bit and when I can squeeze in some time, I will try and get some more from the notebooks posted for you. Oh, another quick bit, Tedrick THEGREAT! is also helping me start culling and putting the Library into some sort of useful by people other than me. Yes, I am working on a genuine setting book and some adventures. Hell, I finally started to figure out what is actually going on. Like where the hell does Vladimir really come from as he shows up rather suddenly and claims and takes over in the Name of Rufus the Immortal, Seventeenth of His Name, His Imperial and Royal Majesty of the Great and Honorable Fifth Empire of Man and Kin and the Stars. And why is the world of Bohen important or why isn't it. What is the shape of the space around the Far Stars Sector...rummage, rummage. It looks something like this:

The Riftborne Domains (Imperial Year unknown)

That is what it looks like. A sparse group (marked in orange) with three standard density clusters (marked in blue) floating in a rift off the Orion Arm, or so it is thought and so Vlad II states it is. Well, as much fun as I am having throwing the veil off how cool is this year looking, I have to go and back that up with more work. Like, now I have to keep track of two sets of finances, mine and the company's and two sets of taxes. Not that I mind taxes, they fund civilization and I am great fan of civilization and its mighty wonders. On that note, I shall close now.

Laterness,
Craig.