Racoon in the garage

THEME: Space Westerns, Part 2

Hello there! I have quite a few recommendations that I've mentioned in the past that I feel fit this request, so you should definitely check out the extensive bookmarks at the end of this recommendation post. Here's a few more I have yet to cover!

Ceres: The Planet that Never Sleeps, by Tidal Wave Games.

Hell of a place to be awake, too. And nowhere better to be. It's humid and sticky from the scheduled rain and it's alive in a way a lot of the system isn't. Yeah, they say all this shit about humanity's real home being Earth, but here on Ceres you can feel the future actually forming up. And it's a future not meant for you, unless you're mean and lean and ready to act without hesitation. If you don't have the cash or the connections, you better have nerves of steel and an iron will. You better be able to flow with the moment.

There's malls and concerts and shopping, and TV and convenience stores, because people live here. But what you're here for is the hustle, the catch and the chase. You're here to claw out your own piece of the future for yourself, with your own hands.

Welcome to Ceres…Try not to die.

This isn't a standalone game, but rather a supplement for See You Space Cowboy, a space western TTRPG I've mentioned in one of my previous recommendation posts. It can also be plugged into a space game of your choice, if you have a game system you're already fond of. It's got roll-tables of bounties, gear, and situations, and the game comes with a map full of vibrant locations and dangerous NPCs and factions to make the world come alive.

You can get a digital version of this supplement here.

Godslingers, by Rat Wave Game House. @ratwavekayla

Long ago the Old Gods lorded over the Fourth Galaxy, these cosmic deities held great power and made their domain amongst the stars themselves. One day they all died. Now, well over three thousand years later, on the fringes of Outward Space, desperados hold the power of the dead gods soul in revolver chambers; they are Godslingers.

Godslingers is a space fantasy western. This is a game for playing out the dangerous lives of Godslingers, cosmic cowboys wielding divine weapons whose destructive nature threatens to consume and transform them. It’s designed with multi-session play in mind but the book does suggest some modifications that could be made to suit one-shot play. The majority of players will play the titular Godslingers, while at least one other player acts as the Referee; and takes responsibility for framing scenes, playing supporting characters and making rulings and judgements.

If you want an actual cowboy in space, like Cowboy Andy in the 22nd episode of Cowboy Bebop, or perhaps a mix of fantasy, the wild west, and space, then Godslingers just might be for you. This kooky setting smashes Silver Age sci-fi comics into the weird west, with d66 roll-tables aplenty, oodles of help for GMs want to create their own adventures, and a GM-less version of the game for tables who all want to have the same kind of fun.

24XX BLUE MARS, by Kirt Dankmyer.

IN THE BLUE DESERT, FAR FROM THE DOME CITIES, COLONIAL MARSHALS KEEP THE PEACE. They're the law even now, 200 years after Mars was (barely) terraformed and Earth suddenly went dark. One year ago, Martian ruins were discovered far under the deep desert, and now you have a gold rush on your hands…

24XX games have a lot going for them: they're rules-light and easy to read, they can be picked up and played with little-to-no prep, and they're often cross-compatible with other 24XX games! The creator of Blue Mars recommends checking out 24XX-D Aftertime for inspiration and extra bits and pieces, although Aftertime uses a diceless version of the rule-set. If you like the lawlessness and violent frontier justice of the wild west, and want to transpose it onto a barren planet, you might like Blue Mars.

Interstellar Bounty Hunters, by Zadmar Games.

Several years have passed since the fall of the empire, and a newly-formed republic now attempts to restore democratic rule throughout the galaxy. But the fledgling government is still young, and remnants of the former empire continue to operate on the fringes of society, just as new criminal organizations have clawed their way up to fill the power vacuum.

These are hard and lawless times, and the bounty hunter’s guild has plenty of work available, although most of it is dangerous and unsavory. Competition for the highest-paying jobs can be fierce and bloody, however—particularly when multiple bounty hunters pursue the same target.

You are professional bounty hunters, tracking down fugitives and criminals, and bringing them back dead or alive. Most of your jobs are guild commissions, but sometimes you work directly for a client.

Interstellar Bounty Hunters is a setting add-on for Tricube Tales, the setting-neutral rpg spearheaded by Zadmar Games, great for one-shots and easy to pick up sessions. The game is small but it packs some very iconic moments from some big-name properties in its roll-tables; if you love Boba Fett, you'll probably like this game.

The Kandhara Contraband, by LunarShadow Designs.

Chasing the stars is an expensive game for an independent crew. Docking fees, fuel and repairs ensure that profits are rare. If you don't mind getting your hands dirty or are just that desperate, there are always the smuggling rings. After all, crime really does pay. Word has reached your crew about one such job - Algoth Nieminen, the head of the Jitana Syndicate, is after a ship to pick up some cargo and ship it to its final destination. It's easy money, so what's the catch?

The Kandhara Contraband is a system agnostic adventure suitable for sci-fi settings such as Firefly, Orbital Blues and Traveller. The free 'demo' files consist of the initial alpha, lacking editing or layout. The paid edition of the adventure is approximately double the size of the alpha, has been edited and includes layout.

Plenty of sci-fi games can easily slip into a space-western feel if you have the right adventure, and The Kandhara Contraband aims to be just that. It's also compatible with Orbital Blues, another Space Western game I've waxed poetic about in the past. If you like this, you might also be interested in Hopes and Dreams of the Orbital Bound, by the same creator: it's a little less action, and a little more slice-of-life.

Deep Sky Ballad, by Winged Lion Games.

Inspired by legendary settings such as Firefly, Westworld, Trigun or Cowboy Bebop, Deep Sky Ballad is a space western genre ttrpg where the characters play the members of a posse - fortune seekers more or less tightly bound to each other who share their resources and a spaceship in search of purpose or wealth. The game mechanics are based on the Blackjack System, a poker cards based system; it's the same rules system Arcana Familia ttrpg use, and give agency to the player to balance the power and accuracy of an action through what can be considered a subgame.

I love seeing game-makers incorporate blackjack and other poker mechanics into western-style games; they really pull on some of the themes of westerns and bake the vibes into the game. Deep Sky Ballad has a very specific setting written for the game, so you'll have lore, factions, organizations and NPCs to pick up and play around with, as well as an introductory adventure for GMs who like a bit of extra help getting the game started for their crew.

For Further Reading…

My Trigun Recommendation Post,

My Space Westerns Recommendation Post,

Dead Belt, by A Couple of Drakes, @drakeanddice

Scum & Villainy, by Off Guard Games,

Voidhunters, by Fox Tale Games,

See You Space Cowboy, by Tidal Wave Games

The Long Shift, by Caro Asercion.

She played bass on 10,000 songs, including the most-played track of the twentieth century. She was paid $55 per session. Her name never appeared on the albums.

Gold Star Studios, Los Angeles, 1964. A woman in a cardigan walks past the receptionist, a Fender Precision bass in her hand like a briefcase. She doesn’t sign autographs. She signs a timesheet.

Her name is Carol Kaye. In three hours, she will record what will become the most-played track of the twentieth century. She’ll pocket fifty-five dollars and head to another studio, on the other side of town, for the next session.

The record label will never put her name on the album.

Between 1957 and 1973, Carol Kaye took part in roughly 10,000 recording sessions. Not as the featured artist, not as a guest, but as a hired hand. She was part of an anonymous collective nicknamed The Wrecking Crew—elite studio musicians who actually played the instruments on your favorite records while the famous bands posed for promotional photos.

The work was relentless. Three albums before the day was over. Stale coffee in paper cups. No rehearsal. The charts arrived minutes before the tape rolled. If you couldn’t read a chart and nail the take in two tries, you didn’t get called for the next session.

Carol could do it on the first try.

She started playing guitar in grimy bars at fourteen because her family couldn’t pay the electric bill. Music wasn’t a romantic dream for her. It was survival. It was a job—factory work with better acoustics and lower pay.

But she was faster and sharper than almost everyone else. She corrected charts in pencil while the producer was still explaining what he wanted. In one session in 1968, she told a famous producer his arrangement sounded like a dying dog. She chose her own line. They kept her version.

That descending bass line that drives the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”? Carol Kaye. The propulsive groove of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”? Carol Kaye. The acoustic-guitar intro to “La Bamba”? Carol Kaye. The iconic theme from Mission: Impossible? Carol Kaye.

She invented techniques on the spot, out of sheer necessity. When the bass sound was too muddy for AM radio, she stuck felt under the strings and used a hard pick instead of her fingers. The tone cut through the static like a blade. It became the sonic signature that defined 1960s pop.

Bassists spent years—decades—trying to crack the secret of the Beach Boys’ gear to get that sound. They were studying the wrong people. They should have been studying Carol.

She received no royalties. No residuals. No gold-record ceremony. No credit on the album sleeves. When “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” hit number one, Carol was already back in a studio cutting a soap jingle.

The biggest bands mimed her bass lines on TV variety shows. New York marketing departments decided a mom in classic clothes didn’t fit the rebellious-youth image they were selling. So they simply left her name off the album credits.

For thirty years, almost no one cared. The truth only began to surface in the late 1990s, when music researchers found the same union contract numbers on thousands of hit records. The very documents meant to preserve studio musicians’ anonymity betrayed them.

Think about it. Every time you heard “Good Vibrations,” “River Deep – Mountain High,” the Righteous Brothers, Nancy Sinatra, or Sonny and Cher, you were hearing Carol Kaye. She composed the soundtrack of an entire generation’s youth.

And yet the records still say nothing. She’s now over eighty. She wrote instructional books. She trained countless bassists. She is finally starting to be recognized by music historians who uncovered the truth about The Wrecking Crew.

But she never got what she deserved: her name on those albums. Credit for the music that defined an era. Recognition that those bass lines everyone associates with the “Beach Boys” were, in fact, Carol Kaye’s.

Fifty-five dollars a session. Ten thousand sessions. The most-played track of the twentieth century.

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

Anyways! HERE'S YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO WHAT CAN COUNT AS EYESTRAIN! I'm pulling this straight from the Artfight rules page about what needs to be labeled and filtered as eyestrain because it's VERY helpful and VERY accurate! I also know not everybody has an AF account and might not always have access to this handy guide, and this is an important resource; That's why I'm sharing it here! (under the cut)

PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!!! THIS IS ABOUT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OTHERS!!!

The European Union already forced Apple to abandon its proprietary charging port and adopt USB-C across its entire iPhone lineup. It just did something bigger. A new EU mandate requires every smartphone sold in Europe including Apple devices to feature a battery that can be replaced by the user without specialist tools, without voiding a warranty, and without sending the device to a manufacturer approved service center. Batteries must maintain a minimum capacity threshold after a set number of charge cycles and replacement parts must remain available for up to ten years after a model goes on sale.

The consumer electronics industry built its current business model around batteries that degrade, cannot be replaced at home, and create a natural upgrade cycle every two to three years. The EU just legislated that model out of existence in the world's largest regulatory market.

Apple, Samsung, and every other manufacturer now faces a choice between redesigning their devices for the European market or accepting that their current hardware architecture is no longer legally sellable there.

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