So what is this bugger up to?

Me and Einat

You may have noticed that I post on this blog somewhat less frequently than back in late 2014/early 2015. The reason for this is actually good news - I am finally making a living as a full-time (sorta of) freelance English-Hebrew-English translator, and most of my financial woes are behind me. I am also in a second relationship (after seperating from my ex-fiancee two and a half years ago), so far almost a year and a half with einat, a beautiful, sweet woman who is also working full-time (as a kindergarten teaching assistant). So my own private life is quite full, with less time for gaming and online publications. Generally this is good news - I've found my place in life (as a translator), I am employed, I make a living, I have a beautiful girlfriend who loves me, and I also game every two weeks (right now a hybrid of Barbarian Conqueror King and D&D 5E). However there are three main big projects I am working on in the field of gaming, though a bit at a slower pace than I wished I could have worked on them:

1) Outer Veil improved/second edition (buy the old version here) - my commercial setting for Mongoose Traveller by Spica Publishing. My part of the work is more or less done and the whole thing is undergoing layout and preparation for print. Yes, you read right - this will go to Print-on-Demand (POD)! Also it has new and much improved starmaps and deckplans and a better layout. Stay tuned for the new edition!

2) Barbarian Conqueror King - a sword & sorcery sourcebook and setting for ACKS. I am going with this commercially - this will eventually be an ACKS sourcebook by Autarch LLC. But this is going far slower than I hoped to work on it, due to translation contracts and the usual delays of game writing. But I'll try to get it done as soon as possible and submit Alexander Macris (or Autarch fame) a full draft, hopefully within a month. This would be awesome - dinosaurs! Alien technology! Loinclothed barbarians tearing down decadent civilization! Tentacled monsters! Gladiatorial fights (yes, with full game rules)!

3) Translating Stars Without Number (SWN) into Hebrew (pro-bono) for the Israeli Society of Role-Players (ISRP), of course with a license from Kevin Crawford. This is taking very long and will also need editing, but WILL BE DONE eventually I'll also demo SWN in two games at the ICON festival/convention in Tel-Aviv in late September/early October this year.

Other than that, I am also (very slowly) working my way through my Classic Traveller setting, Visions of Empire...

Outer Veil Review Alert!

My Outer Veil setting for Traveller has been reviewed by John of The Wandering Gamist blog. An excellent review! Go and read it! :)

Writing/Game Design Plans for 2013

Now that one quarter of 2013 has already passed, in retrospect I think that I have wasted much of my free time on having too many thoughts at once, too many projects and too many ideas. Of course, I was also busy with the failing relationship with my ex-fiancée (we are no longer a couple, though she still remains a good friend), as well as my thesis dissertation (about town planning at the Bedouin town of Rahat in southern Israel), but I did lack a good focus to my free-time work, and thus did not accomplish as much hobby stuff as I would have liked to.

So I have decided to put everything in order and focus on the things that are most dear to my heart. This comes in addition to my wargaming terrain plans for April-June 2013.

Main Project:
My main focus will be on working on further titles for my commercial Traveller setting - Outer Veil - published by Spica Publishing. This means finishing writing the first two Ships of the Outer Veil books, the 'Mishka'-class Prospecting Craft and the Phobos-class Jump Fighter; once done, I'll move to further ships down the line, as well as a horror adventure set on a remote colony, and then get back to the Asteroid Mining Rig book.

Secondary Projects:
1) I want to get back to work on my setting for Stars Without Number, the Alkonost Sector, which will be published piecemeal through Infinite Stars. I want to finish the first instalment of Alkonost by the end of June 2013.

2) I want to continue working on my Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) setting, Barbarian Conqueror King, in all its pulpy sword-and-sorcery glory.

3) I want to continue working on my USE ME wargaming titles, namely Twilight of the Empires Basic and Advanced (Colonial and WWI gaming) and Star Smuggler (space-opera skirmish).

That's all. Everything else - ACKS: The Dark Project, space-opera Traveller and a post-apocalyptic variant on Swords & Wizardry, tentatively called Frostburn - which is done in collaboration with Kelly "K-Slacker" Roberge of Tempora Mutantur fame - are on hiatus at least until USE ME TotE and USE ME Star Smuggler, as well as the first instalment of Alkonost, would be ready.

Outer Veil Released!

Spica Publishing is pleased to announce that Outer Veil has been released!



Outer Veil is now available to buy and download from Spica Publishing’s publisher page at DriveThruRPG.com, price $14.99.

Click here to grab your copy of Outer Veil!

Product code: SP 0200
ISBN: 978-0-9560893-9-7
Format: PDF format, 156 pages.

Outer Veil is © Spica Publishing 2011. All rights reserved.

Oh, and I'm the primary author!

The Space Cockroach is Getting Published!

Yep, I'm getting my own first book published by Publishing! And its going to be available in PDF format NEXT WEEK! Woohoo!






Spica Publishing is pleased to announce that Outer Veil will be released on 30 October 2011!

THE YEAR IS 2159 AND THE FRONTIER NEEDS YOU.

Written by Omer Golan-Joel with Richard Hazlewood, with art by David Redington and Michael Thomas, Outer Veil is a completely new game universe for Traveller, set in 2159 AD in the space around Sol.

As mighty as they are in the Core Worlds, the Federated Nations of Humanity government and the Megacorporations cannot act directly on the Frontier, which is a month or more away even for the brand-new Jump 2 couriers. To exert their power to these distant stars, they need you to go there on their behalf and act as their eyes, ears, and hands away from home. The FNH government needs reliable administrators who can think on their feet, loyal military officers to project its force, and determined Justice Commission agents to uphold the law where the colonial authorities cannot.

The Megacorporations want results and want them now and demand people who can get results fast, by any means necessary. They also need researchers, explorers, and workers for their projects on the frontier and spies and mercenaries for the darker side of inter-corporate competition. The locals need you, too: as a professional, a hired gun, an explorer or as a fellow colonist. You need the Frontier, too: opportunities and adventures abound there for both the hireling and the freelancer.

The Frontier is large, deep, and wide open. Humanity's young sphere of interstellar space is surrounded on all sides by unexplored space. At the edge of this tiny sphere lies the Outer Veil, a partly-explored, sparsely-settled region of space separating the known and the unknown. Despite its best efforts, the Core has little influence in these dark reaches, and nearly anything can be found there: unsanctioned colonies, pirate enclaves, secret laboratories, alien ruins, isolationist groups, strange worlds and colonies scraping out a living on the edge of the Great Unknown.

The space beyond the Outer Veil is unexplored, unknown and undisturbed by human exploration, habitation or influence. The future of Humanity lies beyond the Outer Veil, where untold opportunities, riches and dangers await the trail-blazing explorer. The present human institutions hold little or no power amongst these far stars; whatever lies beyond the slowly expanding Outer Veil is an enigma waiting to be explored and colonised: a new opportunity for Humanity to begin anew and build new civilisations.

Authority is scarce and your bosses, if any, are weeks of Jump travel away from you. The Core can only give you general guidance and standing orders; when trouble strikes, you have to make your own decisions. If you are the captain of a patrol frigate, the commanding officer of a Marine detachment, a colonial governor or a Justice Commission agent, you are the government. If you are a trouble-shooter or a local exec for a Megacorporation, you are the company. And if you are a freelancer, you truly are independent.

In the Outer Veil you are on your own.

Outer Veil includes background and historical information on the Outer Veil universe, eight new, setting-specific careers, statistics for 20 new starships and smallcraft, rules for asteroid mining and belting, a complete sector of space with UWPs and subsector maps, Referee's information on the Outer Veil setting, patrons and 'Brotherhood & Justice', a complete introductory adventure ste in the Outer Veil universe.

Outer Veil will be released on Sunday 30 October 2011 as a PDF download from Spica Publishing’s publisher page at DriveThruRPG.com, price $14.99.

Product code: SP 0200
ISBN: 978-0-9560893-9-7
Format: PDF format, 156 pages.

A selection of preview pages from Outer Veil from Spica Publishing are presented below.

Outer Veil is © Spica Publishing 2011. All rights reserved.

Requires the use of the Traveller Core Rulebook, available from Mongoose Publishing.
'Traveller' and the Traveller logo are Trademarks owned by Far Future Enterprises, Inc. and are used with permission.