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Hi folks. Just posting a heads up that my Starscapes Terrain Kickstarter is live.

The Kickstarter is aimed at X wing players, but you may find the mats useful for other games too. I appreciate that there are already a lot of mat makers out there, but I believe that mine are unique in that I've been granted permission to use Hubble Images. Anyway, some of you may be interested, so I've put a link below, along with some product images.

10% of any profit made from the mats will be donated to the Earth and Space Foundation.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1716406738/starscapes

Those are some stunning images, and the 10% going to the ESF is a nice touch. Do you have any plans to sell the mats after the kickstarter or are they going to be kickstarter exclusive?

Thanks! Good luck.

Thanks for the kind words. I'm waiting to see how the kickstarter goes to see if it might be worthwhile creating a small webstore. If it goes well, then I have some ideas for future products (which will not be worked on until all pledges are fulfilled!), so I'll probably develop something.

They look quite good! Could you show the edge of a mat? My issue with the star mat I have from DeepCut is it is thin, and so when stored (rolled up) the edges curl badly. Do you personally do anything to mitigate this with yours?

Looks good, and is a step up from past "asteroid" kickstarters.

Just an FYI though, you dont need permission to use NASA imagery (including Hubble and other telescopes). They are a free gift from tax payers. The only time you need to seek permission is when you use NASA, the Meatball or other specific logos or terms which may imply official support by NASA.

I looked into it Sean. You can use them for personal use, but not commercial (without permission anyway). The commercial use of NASA images is administrated by the Space Telescope Science Institute.

 Eggs wrote:
I looked into it Sean. You can use them for personal use, but not commercial (without permission anyway). The commercial use of NASA images is administrated by the Space Telescope Science Institute.

You were told wrong:

Material credited to STScI on this site was created, authored, and/or prepared for NASA under Contract NAS5-26555. Unless otherwise specifically stated, no claim to copyright is being asserted by STScI and it may be freely used as in the public domain in accordance with NASA's contract. However, it is requested that in any subsequent use of this work NASA and STScI be given appropriate acknowledgement. STScI further requests voluntary reporting of all use, derivative creation, and other alteration of this work. Such reporting should be sent to copyright@stsci.edu.

All imagery created by the US government (NASA in this case) or for the US government (the contract mentioned above) puts the images in the public domain. One of the few things they have done right in the last 50 years for IP law. We already paid for it...it should belong to the public. They can not restrict the public domain to non commercial use, since corporations are people too (and helped buy it as well).

Dont want to side track off your work though too much. Hopefully it does well.

Thanks. Appreciate the support.

That aside.

 RiTides wrote:
They look quite good! Could you show the edge of a mat? My issue with the star mat I have from DeepCut is it is thin, and so when stored (rolled up) the edges curl badly. Do you personally do anything to mitigate this with yours?

I too would be interested in seeing this.

RiTides, I haven't done anything to prevent this, but have found that if you store the mats rolled up 'image side out', then there are no problems with curling - the edges want to curl back into the table, so it sits flat. The mat is about the thickness of a bank/credit card. I'll try and get some pics of the edges tonight for you.

Eggs - you should put the details of the donation in your 1st post.
Unfortunately I don't play any games where I could use these items.
Great looking product at a very competitive price.
Good luck!

Thanks blubber! I appreciate it.

 Eggs wrote:
RiTides, I haven't done anything to prevent this, but have found that if you store the mats rolled up 'image side out', then there are no problems with curling - the edges want to curl back into the table, so it sits flat. The mat is about the thickness of a bank/credit card. I'll try and get some pics of the edges tonight for you.

Ah, glad to hear that! I just tried it last night hoping it would correct the issue on mine, but wasn't sure if it would work. Thanks for the tip

Yes! I've been excited waiting for this to launch.

I'm in for the Asteroids.

Thanks for the enthusiasm and support Eldarain!

Too bad GW let BFG die. These would have been awesome in a 6'x4' size for BFG. I may have to go in for one for FFG's Armada.

How many asteroids/wrecks do people typically play with in "epic" X-wing games?

I usually use 12. But then I have a lot of prototypes kicking around.

I don't even play X-Wing and I'm considering this.

Thanks for the kind words!

 Sean_OBrien wrote:

 Eggs wrote:
I looked into it Sean. You can use them for personal use, but not commercial (without permission anyway). The commercial use of NASA images is administrated by the Space Telescope Science Institute.

You were told wrong:

Material credited to STScI on this site was created, authored, and/or prepared for NASA under Contract NAS5-26555. Unless otherwise specifically stated, no claim to copyright is being asserted by STScI and it may be freely used as in the public domain in accordance with NASA's contract. However, it is requested that in any subsequent use of this work NASA and STScI be given appropriate acknowledgement. STScI further requests voluntary reporting of all use, derivative creation, and other alteration of this work. Such reporting should be sent to copyright@stsci.edu.

All imagery created by the US government (NASA in this case) or for the US government (the contract mentioned above) puts the images in the public domain. One of the few things they have done right in the last 50 years for IP law. We already paid for it...it should belong to the public. They can not restrict the public domain to non commercial use, since corporations are people too (and helped buy it as well).

Dont want to side track off your work though too much. Hopefully it does well.

A little caveat to that Sean, works created by government employees within the scope of their employment are inherently public domain. The same is not necessarily true for works created for the US government by contractors.

Also, Egg, I assume that the bases for these asteroids conform to the dimensions of the asteroid tokens in the X-Wing starter box. Is that correct?

That's correct weeble1000, they are the same size and shape as the tokens.

 Eggs wrote:
That's correct weeble1000, they are the same size and shape as the tokens.

Which is fantastic. It's why I haven't purchased any of the other options I've seen.

Has anyone added a backing to their X-wing bases to reduce sliding?

Any thoughts on making 8x4 mats at all?

To be honest, I didn't think anyone would want an 8x4. Do folks think there'd be a market for a mat that big?

The only use I could see is to cover a complete 4x8 gaming table. While it might be nice I think the 3x3 and 3x6 table sizes are perfect and just use a regular table cloth to cover the rest so I can set my cards off the edge of the map.

 Theophony wrote:
The only use I could see is to cover a complete 4x8 gaming table. While it might be nice I think the 3x3 and 3x6 table sizes are perfect and just use a regular table cloth to cover the rest so I can set my cards off the edge of the map.

I too like having an area for everyone to collect their reference materials away from the gaming surface.

 Eggs wrote:
To be honest, I didn't think anyone would want an 8x4. Do folks think there'd be a market for a mat that big?

If you want an 8x4 mat, can't you just use two 4x4 mats?

Great KS, just snagged the last early bird for the 3x3 and asteroids!

Thanks for your kind words and support. Things seem to be ticking over nicely. If it keeps going as it has, we should fund no problem.

I'm working on a little surprise gift for backers too.