Plan of action as of July 27th

I think priority is to get the initial few pages up as soon as possible.
We already have Chuck's rough breakdown somewhere else here (is everybody finding this forum as confusing as me?).
1. The cover (pretty much sorted really - just the LBB effect with the Akhilleus)
2. The intro to the Cortex Crown, some simple intro text of the myth/legend with some 'history' images down one side. How do we do the text and what do we have for the images, the old Conan comics did this stuff well with images of mad king clutching crowns, fields of dead warriors, monarchs murdered on their thrones, etc. Perhaps we should have something similar, it doesn't have to be explained, just indicative of the rich and violent history of this thing (we probably should not show the crown itself either, just its legacy).
3. The page of intros to the crew & ship. This is straightforward an X-boat message which all the crew hear telling them to report to the Duke, I can sketch up this one immediately, I think top panel with the ship, a central panel with the Captain putting the message ship-wide and the rest of the page with the various crew members hearing the message.
4. Now I get stuck, obviously it's them meeting the Duke and getting their mission from now on, but how do you make it exiting?
As was said earlier 'think Indiana Jones'

Looking only very briefly at the first run ups of the pages, What if the Crown intro (I have been working on this while "away") and the initial Character interaction both be under the observation of the Duke. (Or Duchess?) and our Owner Aboard.

The Crown information as a Library entry (a classified or obscure one) maybe presented like the filmbook that Paul Atreidies looks at in the beginning of "Dune" but more subtle (and more direct for sure)

And the interaction and intros to the Characters part would be by survellaince equipment, installed without the character's consent or knowledge.

The transition between the two could be as simple as a close up of a hand on a control panel, while the transition to the Duke and Owner talking about the Plan and Characters could be a "fuzz" panel of the last panel of character dialog, or a pullback showing the scene rendered on a holodisplay.

Brilliant.
That is great, well done.
This will flow far better & I do like the secret surveillance idea introduced up front, really shows the manipulation/hidden agenda part of the story from the start. And surveillance camera images always look good graphically, we could also intro the characters names & ship locations by way of the readouts on the monitor images, a bit (quickly sketched up) like this:

*points to pic above* I do enjoy this style and was/am using it in a story/script in my SuperPunk world, so thanks for letting me know it was a good idea.

Re: Zho. I have a genuine question at this point which I feel we should think about here and now...

Are we going to run with standard tri-dee Zho or like the way they are presented in the Canon as not so much bad/evil/not nice, but as a truly alien culture?

I really feel that we should make an effort to try and present the Zho not as boring standard villains but as *insert spooky bg music* Aliens. It is truer to the Canon and still allows us to have them as not so much villains but Antagonists. A good example of this fellow Refs is the Hotel Clerk who does seem to have the Crew's Reservation, not a villain, but at the time of the encounter, an antagonist.

I guess my thing here is somewhat RL leaking into my life online, but at this time in Human History we really seem to remember that different doesn't mean bad/evil/etc., just different. I....still hurt, sorry, i'd just like to leave something that says some of us didn't live in fear of the Alien. That an honest look at the 3I reveals a smidge of xenophobia. Of all the Major Races in truth the best two are the Hivers and the Zhodane, they genuinely care about the Community and the Individual, where as in the 3I it's the opposite.

To me Traveller was always about the Contrasts and I feel it gives the best chance to show all the Members of the Grand Union Galactic of the Milky Way of the Farest Future at their best and worst. Ooops, did I let out the Biggest and Best Hiver Manipulation?

But hey, I am the young blood, so...

Magnus von Thornwood wrote:It is truer to the Canon and still allows us to have them as not so much villains but Antagonists.

Agreed, competitors really, but who's to say in a race of this importance, dirty tricks and downright lethal violence isn't needed.
There should also be grudging admiration between the teams (especially when it comes to the stunning Zho babe I have yet to draw up ).

And I also agree about stressing the alien-ness of the various races (how, i don't know!), it will be far more convincing. Needs more than turbans and subtitled language for the Zho.

The Zho will Crew different from the Imps. The Zho will automatically have a team plan, they will coordinate almost with out thinking, they will function as a completely cohesive unit at all times. And they will talk less and look more, they use Body Language to do a lot of Communication and almost exclusively during combat. And then we get to Psionics and how it will be used to keep the Crew together, sane and happy. (see Zho Module or ask me and I will post relevant parts)

Thinking of the mutual admiration society (I assume later on in the Arc) that in the end, what if they do the traditional player thing and suddenly both realize what the Crown is and what it might really do "in the wrong hands" and try and figure out where to hide/store it. They then go through the Galaxy's Major and some of the Minor Races as choices as The Guardians. Sure, it's hackneyed, but that's because it works.

It is also important to the story that there be no right hands as far as the Crown is concerned. It should be beyond anything human. Someone could use it for a bit, but it should have a cool way of making them meet a bad end. Wether it is madness or physical effects, it should be clear that the Crown is nothing to be messed with. Any plan to use it for political purposes is flawed from the start, and shows a limitied or romantic understanding of what the Crown is.

Wasn't there a Ring of Invisibility that had a similar problem

And some sort of Midi-chlorian thing too I seem to remember, (our is better though)

Beech wrote: Needs more than turbans and subtitled language for the Zho.

I meant visually here, I need to develop a style for all their equipment, ship interiors, weapons etc. so they are are instantly recognisable. Any suggestions??

Crazy, but how about a combo, Socialist Realism meets Islamic Geometric design school...

I like them both. And they give us the vaguely middle eastern look and the Soviet's 'The People Going Boldly To the Future of Humaniti' style art and what there is aesthetic.

The Zho should have very little personal adornments and the ones the do floss are the Official ones. The buildings and ships are designed for max efficiency and less official portraits and stuff, mostly geometric aesthetics and lots of dome and block style buildings, oh and remember they are freaking tall compared to Imps. By like 10 centimeters on average...

This means the space in Zho locations will be higher than the Imperial locations. Also, consider lighting have to go and get the Zho Module out of the Stacks and check and then try and remember the color and approx light to the Home world, Zhadant was it?

OK, I dragged Alien Module 4 out of Stacks and here is the Base Zhodane System Data:

Star: Pliebr. K0 V, Luminosity: 0.42, Radius: 0.908 Sol, Mass: 0.811 Sol.

World (main): Zhdant. orbits at 0.769 AU (orbit 2), with period of 273.44 standard days, rotates on axis every 27.02 standard hours. Zhdant is 9,620 km in diameter, has a Thin atmo, 40% Hydro with 2% in the northern ice cap. Axial tilt of 18 degrees, and orbital eccentricity of 0.05, so no extremes of climate and the avg temp is 15.9, can range from 0 to -20 in winter and highs of 30-40 degrees in summer. Local Gravity is 0.85 at surface. The primary satellite is large tidal locked moon with Very Thin atmo and an orbital period of 40.7 local and a distance of 379,500 (which means that Zho menstruate at a slower rate than Imps of at least Solomani heritage), hmmm a sudden good thing about the Zho, 10 extra days of sanity. ) Law level is 8 banning guns in public and has TL F on Zhdant and TL E on average for the Consulate.

Tall, thin, and less strong than Imps and a bit more superstitious....got more but the Fox is crapping out on me, soo....