Moonage Daydream

This is Barking Alien to Spaceflight Command...

 

Pre-flight checks all green.

Plasma injectors online.

Heim-Space Drive* initiating.

We are go for FTL interchange.

 

Roger that Barking Alien. You are cleared for launch.

Art By Peter Elson

A Personal Favorite

Science Fiction is home for me.

It is my first love, my original inspiration, my introduction to fandom.

Star Trek, Lost in Space, and Space:1999 were things I knew, and knew well, long before I really got into comics. I discovered RPGs a few months after I discovered Star Wars**. As I learned to read well above my grade level at a fairly young age, I practically absorbed any Science Fiction short story, or novel I could get a hold of.

I recently told a friend the story of finding a copy of Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, and trying to locate as many of the stories where the tome's aliens originated as possible.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., The Extraterrestrial, even my Superhero comic book interests are topped by Green Lantern, and the futuristic Legion of Superheroes. Space Adventure is in my blood.

I am truly made of star stuff.***

Recently I've gotten to do something I really love to do. Run Science Fiction RPGs.

Sure, I've been running an ongoing Traveller campaign for three years now, but additionally, in the last few months, I've gotten to run Star Trek (LUG), Star Wars (WEG), and even Hunter Planet.

Not all of it has gone perfectly, in fact some of it has irked me considerably, but I've gotten to do it, and on at least one occasion I hit it right on target (a small exhaust port, approximately two meters across. Surprisingly tough to hit, even for a computer).

I have plans for a possible online, Google Hangouts campaign next year based on a Science Fiction television show IP I've been wanting to run for years. I'll let you know how that goes.

Combined with the arrival of a brand new Star Wars film just seventeen days from now, and it seems the perfect time to focus the blogs posts on this genre. Additionally, I've had some very interesting conversations, and experiences lately that have taught me a lot about how to run games, how not to, and the fact that as I go into 2016, I have some great opportunities, and tough choices to make.

All this, and lasers too! Lasers I tell ya.


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Barking Alien


*Heim-Space Drive is a name I created for a FTL drive based on the Heim Theory, a speculative means of achieving faster than light speeds by entering an alternate dimension such as Star Wars' Hyperspace, or Traveller's Jump Space.

**Star Wars isn't really Science Fiction, but rather Science Fantasy, or better yet 'Space Opera Fairy Tale'. Still, it involves aliens, spaceships, ray guns, robots, and travel to distant planets. For the purposes of this post, and this month's theme, it is more than welcome at the cool kids table.

***Thank you Carl Sagan.