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WinterRat1
We LitS GMs are perpetually overworked biggrin.gif So if any LitS player has the willingness and the time to help out, we have a few open – and very diverse – LitS projects for you!

Each project post will include a basic description and a contact name. Some projects are ongoing: please do not apply to help with any of those if you do not think you can commit to them for at least a few months. We also ask that you complete at least one project before committing to more than one project at a time. Please note also that if a week passes without any word from you to your contact prior to project completion, we will remove you from the project, and it will be re-opened for others.

If you are interested in taking on any of these projects, post your intention in this thread and let the listed contact know by PM. If you are accepted, the contact will post that acceptance in this thread, and the project will be listed as “closed”. If you are not interested in anything you see currently, keep checking. We will be adding to and revising this list regularly.

Oh, did I mention that completing any of these projects will earn you extra karma? biggrin.gif Your contact will post the bonus karma in the LitS OOC thread on the Sunday following project completion (or, in the case of ongoing projects, on the Sunday following each project interval).
WinterRat1
OPEN PROJECTS
  1. NPC database assistant (2004). Contact bandit50
  2. Location database assistant (2004). Contact bandit50
  3. NPC database assistant (2005+): contact bandit50. ONGOING
  4. Location database assistant (2005+). Contact bandit50. ONGOING
  5. Creating and maintaining an LitS stock market. Contact WinterRat1. ONGOING
  6. The Socialite entertainment digests. Contact Sedna. ONGOING *CLOSED*
WinterRat1
PROJECT #1

We are looking for one person to help bandit50 with cataloguing PCs and NPCs mentioned in posts dating through the end of 2004 in the Living in the Shadows IC, Shadowland, and Salvation threads.

Contact: bandit50
Karma bonus: 10 points at completion of project


PROJECT #2

We are also looking for one person to help bandit50 with cataloguing major locations in the same threads and over the same time period.

Contact: bandit50
Karma bonus: 10 points at completion of project


These two projects will involve much sheer grunt work in digging up specific post urls. You have been warned.
WinterRat1
PROJECT #3
*This is an ongoing project*

We are looking for one person to help bandit50 with cataloguing PCs and NPCs appearing in posts dated January 01, 2005 and later in the Living in the Shadows IC and Shadowland threads.

Contact: bandit50
Karma bonus: 2 points per completed page


PROJECT #4
*This is an ongoing project*

We are also looking for one person to help bandit50 with cataloguing major locations in these same threads, starting with posts dated January 01, 2005.

Contact: bandit50
Karma bonus: 2 points per completed page
WinterRat1
PROJECT #5
*This is an ongoing project*

We are looking for an economics-minded person to create and maintain a realistic stock market for the LitS Seattle-verse. The general idea is to add realism and create a sense of cause/effect to the aftermath of some runs. The current suggested model would give each corp a rating (per Corporate Download), multipled by a “profitability index” with an approximate range of 0.5 to 10.0 (rare!) in each of several different fields to give an overall rating, but if you have a better idea, go for it!

Like the LitS Seattle-verse, this stock market should begin on January 1, 2063, and thereafter be updated once a week, as well as after the completion of each run.

Some real-world research will be required.

Contact: WinterRat
Karma bonus: 5 points for setting up the initial structure; 1 point per stock market update
WinterRat1
PROJECT #6 *CLOSED*
*This is an ongoing project*

We are looking for one person to write brief entertainment digests in the person of Socialite, summarising the entertainment options available in the various nightclubs of the Seattle area. Digests don’t need to cover every nightclub in Seattle, but they should always include the major ones (even if only to say that there’s nothing on besides canned music).

At a minimum ”Socialite” should write one digest each and every (in-game) Friday and Saturday morning at around 0830 – the linked one is for the Friday of that week – but if you want to make them (in-game) daily, go for it!

Contact: Sedna
Karma bonus: 1 point per digest
Mister Juan
Main Website Update:
For some reason, the free webhosting company which supported the current LitS site has downsized all its accounts, scrapping, in the process, the LitS pages. Have no worries, the site hasn't disappeared. It's just not on the internet anymore.

In the next few days, I will be trying out a few other free webspace and different plans. I'm also beginning to think that an actual .com might be an interesting investment, one which I am ready to make all by myself (most "small business" plans cost about 70US$/year).
Mister Juan
Main Site Update:
So, after the last site completely crashed down, here's the new one. I'll update it as soon as possible.

Mister Juan
Main Site Update:
-All current stories, including the new players, should be up to date and mostly formatted. If you have pictures you would like to be uploaded to your PC's respective page, please do send them.

-Next on the list in all the "Inactive PC" pages.

-Compilation of Shadowland's post should then follow, with the "relaunch" of that part of the LitS Project.

-The NPC directory is still open and ongoing. If anyone already has list/data, please, do send them. I will eventually get around to doing it myself, but it's a pretty big task.

-The Location directory: I should also start going through posts to list it up, but I could really use a hand for this one.

-Still hunting for the best deal in dot com registry and hosting. It should be finalized before the end of August.
Mister Juan
Main Site Update:

-Everyone's stories should now be up to date.

-All inactive PC's stories have now been completed.

WinterRat1
Mister Juan -

When I click on the link you provided above, none of the links on that page lead anywhere. Have you changed/updated the web address since you posted that? If so, could you repost the most recent version of the LITS site?

And I know I'm one of the guilty parties with respects to NPCs/locations. I will be working on getting that to you after I clear the queue of everything above it...frown.gif
DireRadiant
http://litsproject.50webs.com/Living_In_Th...Index_Page.html

Thsi link works for me, however many of the character stories are linked as follows. "href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Jean/My%20Documents/LITS/Character/Scrapheap/Scrapheapmain.html"" which references a local file not on my machine, most probably only on Mister Juan's.

They probably should be href="Character/Scrapheap/Scrapheapmain.html"
Mister Juan
Oh right. I forgot to fix those. Stupid linking thingy wink.gif

I'll get right to it.
Mister Juan
Alright. It's all fixed now.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Mister Juan
LitS Webiste and Databases
Since we are bringing the whole project back to life (not that it was ever dead in any ways), I am going to start working again not only on the LitS site, but all the databases (NPCs, Locations, etc...)

As for the website itself, we can take two routes:
1- An actual website, with a nice little URL and shiny graphics. A cool presentation, SR mood, etc...
2- Forgo all the esthetics for something a little more barebones... like a Wiki.

Personally, I don't mind going either way. Both can easily be done, and neither require more effort or work than the other one. I just want everyone's input.
Sedna
Because I'd lost it myself a time or two, here is the current Living in the Shadows Wikispaces url.

We also have access to significant independent webspace and own an url associated with that webspace (http://www.livingintheshadows.org // direct link to shadowland with splash page). The wiki increasingly has the substance of what we need (thanks Mister Juan!), but structure and style still need work: it's a bit of a limited framework to work within. Slowly, we're working to integrate substance with style.

Myself, I'd eventually like the full-function webpage. But I'm happy we have the wiki reference functions active.
Sedna
The LitS book project

After a casual mention on the current LitS OOC thread less than a month ago, this project has now leaped full-fledged into existence.

The structure is a series of volumes, between 130 and 200 8 1/2 x 11 pages (but averaging around 170, or around the size of an average SR sourcebook), integrating storylines and Shadowland communications for each and every group of PCs active in LitS. The time covered by a single volume ranges from four to ten days. Groups of PCs can range from just one person (the first Cosmo volume) to as many as a dozen (the beginning of LitS), but the average is around four.

These won't be PDF'ed. Rather, I'm laying them out completely for print purposes, and then sending out the actual printed volumes as each one is completed to everyone who is willing to pay for a copy. Current cost estimates run between $20 and $30 per volume, depending on such specifics as number of colour pages and type of paper and binding.

What we need -- desperately -- are high quality pictures: not only people but also locations and even mood shots. Almost every single Internet picture we have is ~70 dpi, web-standard: but for print we need a bare minimum of 300 dpi, 600 preferred, and higher even better. Sources beyond the Internet could include created images or even scanned-in images from (gasp!) actual books. The location of the Cosmo volume is Los Angeles, so we need LA-based images as well as many Seattle ones. The current items being actively hunted for are the Casablanca poster and screenshots from the film, especially from the final airport parting.

I did find this map of Seattle. (It can also be found in the Resources section of the webspace linked in the previous post.) It has been suggested that major LitS locations, such as Zeyda's "headquarters", wink.gif could be "thumbtacked" onto this map to make a truly unique image.

What we also need are "flavour" graphics: everything from small pieces of clipart to advertisements.

I have now finished doing the initial compiling for what I think could become the complete first volume. It's actually the second by starting time, and I'll number it accordingly, but I arrived at a point that has the feeling of utter completeness and even leaves a small prologue for the next volume.

The current raw text at 8 pt Palatino Linotype, before pictures and other bells and whistles, comes in at 105 pages -- a bit light for a volume (about 160 pages), but doable: guesstimating ~130/140 pages after all is said and done, possibly more if people prefer the double-columned style I'll show you tomorrow. (Note that this doesn't mean 30-40 pages of pictures. However, I'd like to have between five and ten full-colour pages per volume if at all possible, including one city map per volume.) The next break point after that is almost a hundred raw text pages later, before any additions.

So: decision time.

Do we want to have the first Cosmo volume the shortest of the series, to make an artificial break at a specific page range, or to make it by quite a bit the longest?

Glossy paper throughout, linen (think of it as heavier bond with a bit of texture), or glossy paper for the full-colour picture layouts only?

And finally: should I take choice snippets from the OOC, in and around the time when that specific part of the greater storyline was being created: and pull them together into small appendices, say three or four pages at the end of each volume?
Sedna
Oh, and apart from the Cosmo volume length question, these decisions are intended to stand for every volume. I wasn't clear on that.


Edit: more samples to choose from will be up by midnight PST on the 29th, ie. a few hours after my current work deadline. It's another all-nighter, yay!
Sedna
Took quite a bit longer to finish with the domino-effect move than I expected: and will still be working on this for at least another couple of weeks. Plus, I have a dial-up connection, and -- oh irony! -- had to keep the phone line free for (among other things) the telephone company to finish dealing with the old apartment and office lines.

Fortunately, working through this text doesn't require me to be online -- or, really, all that much awake. wink.gif Equally fortunately, I've found that I won't need text pre-formatted into logical "volume" size after all. I have almost a thousand pages of text first-pass edited at this point: six volumes nearing completion, one that actually has reached a story break-point.

At this point the major delay is two-fold. There's quite a few storylines that are almost (but not quite) to logical story break-points, but only one that is actually complete. While LitS awaits the return of WinterRat, it seems ... no one wants to continue forward?

The second point of delay is pictures, lots and lots of high-quality pictures and maps. Whatever you have, for your character or storyline or on others, I want. smile.gif Note, however, the higher resolution needed for print as opposed to web.

My e-mail address is talia_invierno@yahoo.com .

Finally, a question wrt level of editing. Whenever possible, I've tried to keep it light and minimal, fixing grammar and spelling but only where it was appropriate to do so, combining some posts to make for an easier flow. I've standardised the way thought processes flow in posts, fonts, and spelling into American versions. Mostly, I've frequently changed name for pronoun or changed the order of phrases so that we don't have a constant succession of "[my PC] did this": necessary in multi-character post-by-post, quite a bit less so in printed text involving only a few PCs. Below is an example of one of the strongest changes I've made, and to that degree only in four places:
QUOTE
Original: This is getting ridiculous … only 75 thousand?  The car alone is easily worth that, with all the other gear, double what he’s asking me to find.

New: This is getting ridiculous … only 75 thousand?  The car alone is easily worth that, double with all the other gear.

Is this acceptable? (The rest of the context already covers the "asking me to find".)

More extreme is what I want to do with the third volume: which is basically to rewrite the first day of Andie's orichalchum process into a less choppy prologue for that volume.

Again: feedback, please?
Sedna
New graphic needed: tarot Knight of Swords. Resolution high as always for this project, but size flexible.

Thank you! smile.gif
Vegas
Sedna,

So you're in the loop too... my computer basically bit the big one the other day and got shipped back to TN 2 days ago with no return ETA.

I am basically dead in the water when it comes to image searching (since I shouldn't be doing it from work, or being on DSF for that matter nyahnyah.gif) for the time being.

I am hoping to have the machine back within a week, or a replacement if they can't fix the problem. *crosses fingers* Images from my end are going to have to wait...

I mentioned to WR in passing my concern about copyright issues using images scavenged from the web. Can anyone ease them further?

TIA!
-V
Konsaki
Knight 1
Knight 2
Sedna
Thanks, Konsaki -- I'll see how well print quality works for those.

I'll add your computer to the mourning pile, Vegas. (Yikes, it's been a bad year for computers.) I'm just grateful this one is still adequate to the current task ... though I really wish pdf/adobe hadn't been bought out, my computer is really noticing the change in code.

Re copyright: we aren't doing this for profit, just a very small circulation, limited to the point where it can safely be considered "personal use". That clears up a lot of stuff right there.

We aren't seeking original paintings or professional photographs (most of which will be watermarked to this effect), unless they're our own and we're willing to let them be used for this purpose. An exception might be many celebrity photographs. Often they're the ones they themselves send out in press kits and to fans, so I'm considering them open season.

We should be able to find equivalents to such images as the BMWs and rosaries of previous storylines without complication.

City maps are generally open season so long as they are for personal use: this qualifies. (I'm thinking of using the hard-core one I've linked to the livingintheshadows.org website: resources -- unless someone has something better?) Of course we also have many of our own tactical maps and building layouts: we made them, we can use them.

The Casablanca poster might fall under the "fifty year" copyright rule. The film itself won't: but publicity stills and excerpts are usually permitted for reviews and personal use.

Mostly, we're looking for images and even simple clipart which give illustrative tone. I'm also thinking that a fair number of those images we can scan or alter ourselves ... you'll see what I mean, when I post a proposed cover. SR-specific corporate logos, advertisements, Photoshop!

* * *

I've run into my first major editing change. I'd only considered it to this extent because the original player was here being temp-"played" by his GM (WinterRat), and I think I've caught his taciturn tone a bit better. Here is the original. Below is how I've changed it, to try to keep it in the same tone as the player himself established earlier in the same thread (and see also the first page). What do you think?

* * *

“Hold that thought. Man needs a moment to get hisself situated.� Tin Star pulls up a chair beside them, gesturing easily to the waitress – who’d started slightly at the sight of his Stetson, boots, and flannel shirt – and had her get him a glass of water and an assorted plate he’d no real intention of eating. Usually he’d pass altogether – food is food and biz is biz – but in a place like this, not ordering would gain him attention aplenty, and not of the kind he’d intended. He smiled, tipped his hat in Alleycat’s direction. He’d not even recognized her initially, wouldn’t have joined her if it hadn’t been for recognizing Blaze instantly. Girl had some interesting resources.
Sedna
Volume Sample the Second: first chapter (still with my layout notes) + title page + cast + glossary. Take those notes out, add appropriate clipart etc in their place, and this is pretty much the way the layout will look. I'm open to suggestions, especially for making this particular intro more "festive" without making it either light-hearted or "busy".

(Konsaki: your name has been added to picture credits. I'm anticipating contributions from Mr. Juan and Vegas ... yes?)

Edit: forgot to add a different version for Shadowland. This last is the current structure for all SL correspondence. The difference is how the datestamps are done. The basic intent of both is that the timestamp for any message by the original article poster matches the timestamp when the article was posted. In the previous version, that was the only timestamp seen; while in this version, it's possible to tell who is almost always hovering on-line (and thus answers within a minute or two), and which comments drift by a day or two later (not in this example, but it does happen later).

Front cover draft, courtesy of Neophyte Overlord: this will be universal across all the volumes. Bottom subtitle is to be lowered, possibly top title to be raised slightly, exact shades of blue yet to be worked out (weekend project). Feedback?

You'll see places where clipart or advertising is suggested. I specifically need a banner ad for Club Abraxis (Matrix club), a small 1" or 1 1/2" square ad for Miner's Landing, and a small tower ad, say 3" tall, for the Auburn Mall (flexible on this one). I'd also like many, many other pieces of clipart or advertising, in various sizes.

Two specific people-type pictures requested:

1. Female in sun-greeting pose, standing or kneeling, but the arms should be raised.
2. Blaze and Margaret sitting together at a restaurant table. (This one will also create the tone of Miner's Landing.)

Finally, a challenge:

For each volume, I'd like to have a special "group photo" of the characters involved in that volume, which would be placed opposite the cast list. I have more detailed descriptions for some PCs than for others: and mostly what I do have for these PCs is what is in the text. (I wasn't a GM, then.) I understand this is your special area of expertise, Mr. Juan. (Note: hold off on Alleycat until I send you more text ... although you could do worse than use a Kiera Knightly type for a template.) WinterRat: we're going to need your old e-mail files for most of this.
Mister Juan
QUOTE (Sedna)
Volume Sample the Second: first chapter (still with my layout notes) + title page + cast + glossary. Take those notes out, add appropriate clipart etc in their place, and this is pretty much the way the layout will look. I'm open to suggestions, especially for making this particular intro more "festive" without making it either light-hearted or "busy".

(Konsaki: your name has been added to picture credits. I'm anticipating contributions from Mr. Juan and Vegas ... yes?)

Edit: forgot to add a different version for Shadowland. This last is the current structure for all SL correspondence. The difference is how the datestamps are done. The basic intent of both is that the timestamp for any message by the original article poster matches the timestamp when the article was posted. In the previous version, that was the only timestamp seen; while in this version, it's possible to tell who is almost always hovering on-line (and thus answers within a minute or two), and which comments drift by a day or two later (not in this example, but it does happen later).

Front cover draft, courtesy of Neophyte Overlord: this will be universal across all the volumes. Bottom subtitle is to be lowered, possibly top title to be raised slightly, exact shades of blue yet to be worked out (weekend project). Feedback?

You'll see places where clipart or advertising is suggested. I specifically need a banner ad for Club Abraxis (Matrix club), a small 1" or 1 1/2" square ad for Miner's Landing, and a small tower ad, say 3" tall, for the Auburn Mall (flexible on this one). I'd also like many, many other pieces of clipart or advertising, in various sizes.

Two specific people-type pictures requested:

1. Female in sun-greeting pose, standing or kneeling, but the arms should be raised.
2. Blaze and Margaret sitting together at a restaurant table. (This one will also create the tone of Miner's Landing.)

Finally, a challenge:

For each volume, I'd like to have a special "group photo" of the characters involved in that volume, which would be placed opposite the cast list. I have more detailed descriptions for some PCs than for others: and mostly what I do have for these PCs is what is in the text. (I wasn't a GM, then.) I understand this is your special area of expertise, Mr. Juan. (Note: hold off on Alleycat until I send you more text ... although you could do worse than use a Kiera Knightly type for a template.) WinterRat: we're going to need your old e-mail files for most of this.

What I can do if I'm given enough prep time and enough directions is to find real people who might look like the "pictures" that you need, get them to my studio, and do an actual shoot.
Mister Juan
The very best would be if you could give me an exact list of photos you would need. I can also take pictures of stuff that could pass for "any place". Like the inside of a coffee shop, outside/inside of a bar/club, parks, night or day city skyline, corporate looking buildings, etc....

What I do know I have, that could be of some use would be:
-Irish Pub picutres (bar)
-Few downtown buildings
-Few shots of a city at night
-Decrepit looking old factory/warehouse
-Old tug boat
-Parks
-Pier
-Streets (night)
-Construction site
-subway
-sky/clouds
WinterRat1
Hey I could definitely use that 'decrepit looking old factory/warehouse' for Cao Jaan's Warehouse! If Sedna's willing to take it, that was one of the pictures I was going to hunt for to give her.
Mister Juan
I'll try to get a small gallery up and running so I can show you what I have.
Unfortunately, they're only exterior shots (cause I got busted by security trying to sneak in wink.gif) and it's of an old sugar factory if I'm not mistaken.

EDIT: Damn it... my domain is being transfered at the moment, so I can't upload crap. Anyone else has an ftp where I could upload web galleries?
WinterRat1
From Aug. 28:

QUOTE
Do we want to have the first Cosmo volume the shortest of the series, to make an artificial break at a specific page range, or to make it by quite a bit the longest?


Your call on this. Whatever you think is the most logical and artistically pleasing way.

QUOTE
And finally: should I take choice snippets from the OOC, in and around the time when that specific part of the greater storyline was being created: and pull them together into small appendices, say three or four pages at the end of each volume?


If possible, I definitely vote for this! Some of our OOC conversations have been drop dead hilarious (e.g. Blimp of DOOM™, Easter Bunny Assassins, Cthulhu's after-action report, BC trying to deflect Grendel's deadly schemes onto other innocent people, avgas, just to name a few!) and reflect a part of the LITS world that goes beyond the game. Namely, the relationships and fun times we've had getting to know one another and working together. I mean, we even ended up trademarking all references to the Blimp of DOOM™ for crying out loud, how can we not include the discussion of how that reference came about? smile.gif

From Sep. 6

QUOTE
The second point of delay is pictures, lots and lots of high-quality pictures and maps. Whatever you have, for your character or storyline or on others, I want. smile.gif Note, however, the higher resolution needed for print as opposed to web.


I don't know how to tell how much dpi a picture has, so I will send all pictures I dig up to Vegas, Mister Juan, and Sedna. At the worst, they can be put on the wiki as intended, at best they can be used for the novels. Someone more technically proficient will have to make that call, but at least they're out there to be considered.

QUOTE
Finally, a question wrt level of editing. Whenever possible, I've tried to keep it light and minimal, fixing grammar and spelling but only where it was appropriate to do so, combining some posts to make for an easier flow. I've standardised the way thought processes flow in posts, fonts, and spelling into American versions. Mostly, I've frequently changed name for pronoun or changed the order of phrases so that we don't have a constant succession of "[my PC] did this": necessary in multi-character post-by-post, quite a bit less so in printed text involving only a few PCs. Is this acceptable?


Absolutely! Obviously the way it's necessary to post in a play-by-post is going to have some idiosyncrasies that will not translate well to a novel you read. I trust your editing ability to remain true to the author and spirit of the post while making it readable as a novel instead of a post in an online game. By all means, please do this, because I know I wrote some posts that work for a game, but are terrible if you read it in a book, and I'm sure others have too, so you fixing them up where necessary is a step I heavily endorse.

From Sep 21:

QUOTE
“Hold that thought. Man needs a moment to get hisself situated.� Tin Star pulls up a chair beside them, gesturing easily to the waitress – who’d started slightly at the sight of his Stetson, boots, and flannel shirt – and had her get him a glass of water and an assorted plate he’d no real intention of eating. Usually he’d pass altogether – food is food and biz is biz – but in a place like this, not ordering would gain him attention aplenty, and not of the kind he’d intended. He smiled, tipped his hat in Alleycat’s direction. He’d not even recognized her initially, wouldn’t have joined her if it hadn’t been for recognizing Blaze instantly. Girl had some interesting resources.


Perfect. I could never get the hang of Tin Star and butchered him when I played him. Your version is infinitely better. As I said earlier, by all means please change it so I don't wince when I read it, as I would with my version! smile.gif

From Oct 12:

QUOTE
Volume Sample the Second: first chapter (still with my layout notes) + title page + cast + glossary. Take those notes out, add appropriate clipart etc in their place, and this is pretty much the way the layout will look. I'm open to suggestions, especially for making this particular intro more "festive" without making it either light-hearted or "busy".


I thought I wouldn't like the time/date stamps in the right corner, but after reading it a while I started thinking of it as if I were Dragon. Where would I expect the time to show up on my image link. Surprisingly enough, I ended up imagining it in the right eye. Not sure why, but it works. It seems to flow more naturally when the time is in the right corner, whereas in the left corner it seems to break up the flow into separate sections instead. It's weird, but I vote to keep the time in the right corner, it seems to flow better.

QUOTE
You'll see places where clipart or advertising is suggested. I specifically need a banner ad for Club Abraxis (Matrix club), a small 1" or 1 1/2" square ad for Miner's Landing, and a small tower ad, say 3" tall, for the Auburn Mall (flexible on this one). I'd also like many, many other pieces of clipart or advertising, in various sizes.


I don't have a scanner, but may I recommend using Seattle Sourcebook especially, and New Seattle and Runner Havens to a lesser degree? They have pictures that would be usable for a lot of things.

QUOTE
Front cover draft, courtesy of Neophyte Overlord: this will be universal across all the volumes. Bottom subtitle is to be lowered, possibly top title to be raised slightly, exact shades of blue yet to be worked out (weekend project). Feedback?


What about a black sky with dark blue for the Seattle Skyline and buildings? Then perhaps dots of yellow to represent the lights in the Seattle Skyline? Does that sound like it could work?
Sedna
In case it hasn't become really obvious, I don't naturally think in imagery -- and in fact I hardly ever think visually. Suggestions such as those which have just been thrown up help immensely in me trying to think what images might work.

Uploading: the livingintheshadows.org domain has tons of space and unlimited bandwidth, feel free to use it. I think you already have access?
QUOTE (Mister Juan)
The very best would be if you could give me an exact list of photos you would need. I can also take pictures of stuff that could pass for "any place". Like the inside of a coffee shop, outside/inside of a bar/club, parks, night or day city skyline, corporate looking buildings, etc....

I love the idea of "any place", especially some of the ones you have listed. I don't yet know which would go where, or even how many of these will end up working. Once we have these visuals though: it's a given these locations will suddenly start being actively used in-thread, since they will suddenly be "real".

I do know that for the first volume we could definitely use a human-"cold" image of high, glass skyscrapers. It's January in Seattle: no snow at this time but cold, and the outside streets can be very empty. Unfriendliness. Shutting out. I'll use that one somewhere opposite Blaze's story. (If you've read the excerpt, you'll get the idea.)

We will be needing lots of "city//streets at night" shots for later volumes, but it would be very easy to overdo this. Say, max of one "night city" picture per volume, but not in every one. If everyone is okay with it, for this volume I would like to just hang onto the one frontipiece Seattle picture we currently have.

Echoing WinterRat, I think I want to save the decrepit-looking warehouse for a specific later volume. Minor curses about being busted -- this one would really work best from the inside, especially emphasising the size and height of it and maybe showing catwalks -- but we'll work with what you can get. Photoshop work: added dust, smoke, darkness, and maybe a muzzle flash here and there. But if not, I'll be very happy with good outside shots.

Parks -- you've got me thinking about cemetaries. We'll need an older one for (I think) volume four. I'll get you the exact text clip after we put the current volume to rest.

Similarly, pub -- but what I'd suggest here is a house doorway, maybe with a sign swinging over it: I'm thinking a business converted from a residential house: talismonger business, with some "nature" out back where a shaman could set up his lodge. This one would be for this volume.
QUOTE (Mister Juan)
What I can do if I'm given enough prep time and enough directions is to find real people who might look like the "pictures" that you need, get them to my studio, and do an actual shoot.

That sounds expensive ...? unless you have a tight group of friends who'd get a kick out of this?

Oh, one specific thing I am looking for is the face / face+bust of a good-looking female (Human-Looking) ork: faint, lightly distorted. (Lady Cheng) I'll be using it as background for the "mirror" which has these words red-lipsticked onto it (I used Comic font for this):
QUOTE
Heya lover,

You were fantastic, and just
what I needed tonight.
Let’s hook up again sometime.

Kate XOXOX
kjones@u.washington.edu

Your choice as to whether the image should be colour or grayscale. This is the description I have for her:
QUOTE
“Habitually, she struck a come-hither pose: musculature well-defined, in a broad-shouldered but lanky frame, midriff flat with muscle from hours of crunches, attractively wide features, near-black hair tinged with purple and cut in the recently re-popularized pageboy style.  Hell, the overgrown lower canines that most orks also had were scarcely even noticeable, as long as she was careful when she smiled.  The only thing that threw off the image was the fist-sized yellowish-black bruising high on her left shoulderblade.â€?

QUOTE (WinterRat1)
QUOTE (Sedna)
And finally: should I take choice snippets from the OOC, in and around the time when that specific part of the greater storyline was being created: and pull them together into small appendices, say three or four pages at the end of each volume?

If possible, I definitely vote for this! Some of our OOC conversations have been drop dead hilarious (e.g. Blimp of DOOMâ„¢, Easter Bunny Assassins, Cthulhu's after-action report, BC trying to deflect Grendel's deadly schemes onto other innocent people, avgas, just to name a few!) and reflect a part of the LITS world that goes beyond the game. Namely, the relationships and fun times we've had getting to know one another and working together. I mean, we even ended up trademarking all references to the Blimp of DOOMâ„¢ for crying out loud, how can we not include the discussion of how that reference came about? smile.gif

If we go this route, I'll not include any of that discussion in this first volume, simply due to space. WinterRat (and everyone else who likes this idea): e-mail me links to the specific pages which contain the snippets you want.

Re time/date stamps: I've sometimes lightly re-arranged times (but only where it's not critical) so that things flow better: sometimes alternating two stories, generally much less choppy (I hope!). Perhaps the most obvious example of that will be many of the SL classifieds and personals which are not specific to PC action. I've also merged a lot of posts.
QUOTE (WinterRat1)
What about a black sky with dark blue for the Seattle Skyline and buildings? Then perhaps dots of yellow to represent the lights in the Seattle Skyline? Does that sound like it could work?

I can test this, but offhand it sounds as though it won't have enough contrast between the two parts. I am definitely going to test how dark we can get while clearly retaining contrast: the light dusting of gold edging might help there. Not the dots of yellow though: you'd not like how the effect comes across.

Fyi there's not a single crucial location in the first volume that won't make a repeat appearance in later volumes: so if the current volume brings up ideas, we'll definitely have more available space for those later.
Sedna
Cover: any other colour combinations people want to test? Saturday will be the dedicated cover-overhauling day. (Tomorrow is an actual scheduled day off! I'll read, but late.)
WinterRat1
QUOTE
If we go this route, I'll not include any of that discussion in this first volume, simply due to space. WinterRat (and everyone else who likes this idea): e-mail me links to the specific pages which contain the snippets you want.


When do you need/want this by?

Anyone - Anyone have good computer graphics skills? I have a clear vision of how the Paradigm Shift nightclub looks, but I can't produce anything that would look like it. Any ideas how to go about creating it with computers?

QUOTE
Fyi there's not a single crucial location in the first volume that won't make a repeat appearance in later volumes: so if the current volume brings up ideas, we'll definitely have more available space for those later.


May I suggest using whatever images we come up with and putting them on the wiki as well? Then we could develop our wiki more at the same time we're doing the novels.
WinterRat1
Character Descriptions

Avalanche

[ Spoiler ]


Blaze

[ Spoiler ]


Klaus Ebert

[ Spoiler ]


Cao Jaan

[ Spoiler ]


Lady Cheng
[ Spoiler ]


Durin

[ Spoiler ]


Tin Star

[ Spoiler ]
Sedna
So now there's three full page images I'd really like for the first volume, if at all possible. Deadlines ... well, obviously I'd like sooner rather than later for everything since I'm trying for a final layout, but the outside deadline is Friday.

The first is at Miner's Landing, Blaze (see WinterRat's physical description) and Margaret (think sweet middle-aged lady) sitting together at a restaurant table. Off-hand, I'm picturing a mid-upscale restaurant with tables at reasonable distances from each other (not particularly widely scattered, but definitely not as crowded as most restaurants seem to be these days). It's an emotional meeting.

The second is a female in sun-greeting pose, either standing or kneeling, but the arms should be raised. Could be as abstract as you like to play with -- in fact, I think abstract might work very well, here -- but the general build should suggest a waifish older teen with minimal breasts.

The third is WinterRat's image of the Paradigm Shift. Can I leave you two, WinterRat and Mister Juan, to try to work this one out together over the week?

Re Alleycat, if we go with the group picture: there's at least a dozen different descriptions floating out there, all of them equally accurate. She is a very youngish-looking elf, and that doesn't change. Four different ways to go here:

1. background her entirely;

2. give her any one of the described "looks" of the text (gah -- I'll spoiler them in here later);

3. go with the built-in tan (cold olive skin almost tinged with blue) high cheekbone look of Natalie Portman or Kiera Knightly (waifish direction), "chopped" mega-short white hair, wiry rather than muscled;

4. or use the look described in the astral quest, which, though still waifish, is quite a bit more mature-looking, dark dark blue eyes, long silver hair, apparently very beautiful, and comes closer to a drow than I care to really think about.

A few cover picture options will be up in about an hour. Pixelation is still an issue, but right now I'm looking for colour feedback. I've also got a few advertisements ready for feedback.
Sedna
Okay, with the sheer numbers and upload/download times I'm running into with a very low-speed connection (yay, dial-up), it's going to be much easier and faster if I just link to a single page with all the links. Here it is:

Book samples

I'll add in other images, advertisements, and book samples as I get to them over the next week.

(Sorry I'm later than expected. Got pulled away.)
WinterRat1
What about going with orange for the sunset?

Couple thoughts:

- I don't like the lights on the letters (e.g. Cover 5)
- I prefer the title plain (e.g. Cover 6)
- I prefer the title more in the middle of the page (e.g. Cover 1)

Those are a few opinions from yours truly.
grendel
I'm for the gray or the black covers, although I agree with WinterRat1 that the lights on the title are a no-go. Also, I've got issues with using a Colt M1911 as a picture for a Savalette Guardian, but I don't have the resources to scan in the picture of the Savalette from Fields of Fire. It would probably be more accurate to have either an AMT .44 Magnum, or an HK USP, or even an IMI Desert Eagle as the picture as the Savalette was a large handgun, but a 1911 will do I suppose.
Mister Juan
Canon Guns:
http://www.freewebs.com/theonerronin/canonfirearms.htm
Sedna
The gold behind the lettering is now gone. Title on cover has to be a bit off-centre, however. Remember, we have to allow for the binding.

Uploading a bunch of images again, including a revised Savalette: check back in a couple of hours. Also, check out the intended back page image before deciding on cover colours, by way of approximate match.
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