Wow! That is a lot of replies!
There is a ton-o-stuff to be done for Spelljammer. Probably far too much for myself alone. I'm in touch with some other people who make Spelljammer art. In fact I got press-ganged into being an admin at the Spelljammer Image Group (on Flickr).
I'd love to see what your map of Greyspace looked like. I've got to say that I'm slightly dissatisfied with the original canon sphere map style, as it looks far too like science fiction art for something that is supposed to be fantasy space. I would rather see crystal sphere maps that retain the SJ symbols, but look a lot more like sea charts. I was talking about this to a guy called John "Paladine" Baxter (on the Spelljammer Mailing List) about this and he knocked up some pretty great looking maps of Greyspace.
(One of the things I really like about Paladine's charts, is that he has altered the positions of the outer planets, in order to chop off the outer parts of the orbits and get more of the central area onto the page. That is something I'd like to do myself, when I eventually attempt a sphere map.)
I love your ship. Over on The Piazza, there is a guy called Twin Agate Dragons, who is hoping to get blank deck plans done for all of the ships of Spelljammer. A guy called Leroy Van Camp III started doing this years back, but only did some of them. I figure that blank ships would be great images to load into the bottom layer of a drawing package (GIMP, Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro) and then use as the basis of a bespoke ship plan.
Yep. Neogi and giff (the hippo-headed guys who love guns) are from Spelljammer. Some of the SJ monsters were actually raided from an earlier TSR sci-fi game, so I might need to buy that for further inspiration on "racial style" of maps that are supposed to be designed by an NPC from their race.
I might need to do world, to region, to city/town, as I don't have a map-monkey to do them for me!
I actually had a brief look around that Cooperative Worldbuilding Project. It looked very interesting. With the different styles it reminded me of a BBC TV program where Rolf Harris (yes the guy that draws kangaroos) got a ton-o-people to all do pictures that were stuck together to make a gigantic painting. That seems to be what you lot are doing (only with a giant map instead of a painting).
I think there is going to need to be an element of colaboration among Spelljammer fans, as I don't think that any one person can do everything by themselves. (Although we have a couple of guys in the fan community who come pretty darn close - they actually went to Kenzer and Company and got them to buy and publish a SJ reboot called HackJammer.)
I actually see a few of my SJ motivational posters in there!
I already heard that rumour (and did my own bit to spread it about with a picture I planted in a few places )
But that cover picture is great. I'll have to "distribute" that to some people that I know will appreciate its beauty.
Thanks!
Thanks. I think you are right. The "replication" thing is something that is vital if I'm going to give a feel of consistency to a bunch of maps that are supposed to be parts of the same world.
I've been floundering around trying to complete a few projects for ages. Robert S. Conley's method is something I want to try to come at this from another angle (and actually get some meat onto the bones via maps). It's been a few years since I did any art stuff. I've had a couple of lessons with Photoshop, but I've got a lot to learn.
Thanks!
Now I'll have to actually do something!