[ICON] Species Sourcebook

[redwood973]

Originally posted by. . .um, me
I have been playing around with a Species Database for ICON the last two weeks. It is not by any means meant to be a tell all source book for each species. My intended use was for a quick reference for use during character creation. . .a little detail on appearance, history, culture and of course the species template.

Each species will have a two page layout. On the left will be the Star and Planetary System Data; and on the right will be a small writeup of the species appearance and culture, a pic and the template.

At the moment I plan write ups for over 80 species (only those having appeared on screen, sorry no fan based works). Not everyone of the 80+ species will appear in the Database, I will decide which ones can be done when I get to them. For example, I doubt I will do one for the Evora (from ST:Ins.) as there is just not enough information on them to write up anything.

The background information will be from the few LUG books I have, and what I find off the net. Some of this material appears to be from the old FASA game, some of it from other Sci-Fi series and some of it is fan creation. If it makes sense to me and I like it I will include it in the write up. The Templates in the Species Databank from the TrekRPGNet main page (um, the Memory ICON page I guess, as soon as that information is transferred) will be the primary source (along with these boards) for species templates.

I am at this moment talking with Michael "The Doc" Barratt (of the "To seek out new lifeforms" thread fame) who has shown interest in assisting with the project. Owen O. has offered to turn the completed project into a .PDF file, and Dan G. has allowed the use of his species template creations for the project.

If anyone has any Templates they are willing to share for the project they would greatly be appreciated! If you don't have any Template laying around but have a species you have always been interested in, write them up and send them to me! [e-mail redwood973@yahoo.com or my TrekRPGNet Private Message Box]

I am quickly learning I will not be able to do this without your help! For instance, I have never seen the show that featured the Acamarians. I have seen the write up for the show but never actually seen it. Someone who has taken a fancy to them could write up a better Template for them than I could (hell if someone doesn't make a template for them I will most likely exclude them!).

I am doing species from all four quadrants. . .the only limitation is that they must have appeared on screen (TOS, Movie, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT [someone else will have to do the ENT Templates as I don't get the show on my local stations, otherwise they will not be included!]).

Thanks all.

[redwood973]

Originally posted by Yuber Okami
Only a suggestion. . .you should include in the description of each race a couple of "common names" for characters of that species. . .(that would be truly helpful).

Originally I did do this, when the project first started. Since then they were dropped. Lack of imagination on my part is why (Mork seemed to be as common in the galaxy as Smith and Johnson are here in the States ). They may be brought back once Michael "The Doc" Barrratt joins the project [as I said before he has shown an interest in joining the project, an e-mail error on my part has slowed our communications process].

Ah, and, are you interested in the Reman stats from the reman people thread?

At the moment yes, they are in the list of species to do. That is, however, subject to change. Now that there is a template for them [Owen did you ever post a final version with the changes you were considering?] the only reason they would not appear is for lack of background information. Which is the case right now as I have yet to see the movie. . .unless someone who has taken a fancy to them writes one up and sends it to me.

[redwood973]

Originally posted by. . .yep me again.
If anyone has any Templates they are willing to share for the project they would greatly be appreciated! If you don't have any Template laying around but have a species you have always been interested in, write them up and send them to me!

In addition to any templates you may have if you have any background information (culture, history, government) send it to me! There are some speices which I do not know (such as the Acamarians). Your templates and background information on a species you love will be more useful and interesting to users of the database than something I make up having never seen them on screen (actually the species I don;t know will most likely be left out of the database).

Thanks all.

[redwood973]

Originally posted by Eric R.
Have any interest in the Magna Romans from Bread and Circus? I can supply them. Unless of course you already raided Dan G's site.

I already have the Magna Romans (from Dans' page) and now have the final writeup of the Reman from Owens' page. Thanks guys!

[redwood973]

This is a sample of the sheets. This is not the final sheet for this species, it is what I have been playing around with to set layout and fonts, ect. The content of the sheet is subject to change. . .but it will give ya all an idea of what to expect.

Edit: Removed sample datasheet. See larger sample file below.

[Admiral Tim]

Wow this looks great!
Are you really willing to make an entire book about this? I would personnally really like that. The Andorian file looks great and it would be a real asset to the playability if you have something to check for all races.
Keep up the good work.

Admiral Tim

[redwood973]

O.K. I guess it works now? I still can't get it to download, but I guess as long as everyone else can it don't matter.

Thanks Admiral, and welcome to the boards.

Yeah I am willing and ready to try my had at this. I currently have about seven species sheets done, just polishing them up and still playing around with layouts. I know I won't be able to writeup everyone of the 80+ speices I have pics for, but I should be able to get a good majority of them.

I too think this would be an asset to ICON gamers (I know my game could use it) and I aint giving up on it. It seems to take about two and a half days to finish one writeup. . .that should speed up a little once I decide on final layout (I have to keep going back and adjusting each sheet when I make a change). The longest part is background study, once that is done the writeup seems to write itself.

Every now and then I will post a new sample species to let everyone know how I am comming along. . .and I maybe tossing out a few questions in this thread now and again about species I do not know.

[Anyone with templates and writeups for on screen species send them my way! redwood973@yahoo.com]

[redwood973]

Hello everyone. Long time no see.

Just kicking this up on the list so I can find it latter tonight. I will be posting a short test section of the ICON Species Database sometime around 9:30 or so.

[Owen E Oulton]

Cool - looking forward to seeing it...

Glad someone's projects are working out - this summer/fall has been busy enough that I've barely been able to keep up with my campaign, and other things, such as the Loknar plans for Ice Giant and Memory Icon have had to take a back burner to making a living.

[redwood973]

O.K. here are a few sample pages from the database.

I may be doing some revision on these sheets, as I am waiting for some reference material I have purchased (man I love eBay). So if you have any suggestions please let me know. These sheets were made using a free trial version of .pdf the final database will not be, so the advertisment at the bottom of each sheet will not be in the final sheets.

I am doing this database for the ICON system. Where possible I have followed the ICON material. But in a few places I have had to discard ICON to come up with more realistic values.

For example, I use real stars for each planet. The life zones of these stars can be different. So rather than Andor being the fifth planet in orbit around its star. . .to be in the stars life zone I had to move it to the second orbit. The changes I have made were necessary to produce more realistic star/planetary data.

For those wishing to keep to the ICON published data, simply take your red pen and make what changes you feel are needed.

[Owen E Oulton]

Hey, is that Terran image a picture of the one, the only, Seamus Zelazny Harper, the only reason to watch Andromeda (well, aside from ogling Beka, Trance, Rommie, Rommie and Rommie?)?

[redwood973]

That it is sir. I am trying to avoid pictures of anyone wearing a Starfleet uniform. So far I have been able too. I could find no images of Terrans without a uniform, but I knew of a few pics of the Andromeda crew so I went with the one and only.

Someone send an e-mail (sorry I don't remember who at the moment) wishing to know if the Database is completed, and where it is available.

Once I started this project (six months ago) I have had little time to devote to it. An illness and then a death in the family plus situations at work took up much of my time. The pages I had posted are the only ones currently completed, and as I mentioned in my previous post I may be revising those. Now that real life is not so demanding of my time I hope to be able to complete two (three if lucky) datasheets each week. Having around some eighty datasheets currently mapped out, this project is far from completed.

As for its final home, Owen offered it one on his Memory ICON page. If he is still interested in the project after seeing it I assume it would be available on his site.

I see a few of you have downloaded the sample pages. Please if you have any comments or suggestions let me know.

[redwood973]

This page will also be a part of the Database. For now I am having a problem getting the spreadsheet into MicrosoftWord. It does some crazy things to the format of the whole document, so for now it is on its own.

The distances listed in the StarDistantProject are in light-years.

[Cmdr. Maddox]

Keep up this very ood work!
When I can do something for you email me!

madman@wingcommander.de





ICON FOREVER!!!!

[redwood973]

Thanks CMDR.

Thanks to everyone who has sent e-mails. Your kind words have motivated me to continue with the project.

I was wondering if anyone might have an idea of how to get the StarDistantProject sheet into the ICON Species Database?

Everytime I import the spreadsheet into the Word document everything gets knocked around. The format goes crazy on the whole document.

If I could I would love to have the StarDistantProject as the final page of the Database.

Thanks.