The Ransom Project

[Yellowjacket]

Back in 2009 (I know that 2009 was only yesterday, but this was earlier yet) I began laying out a whole town in the Verse called Ransom. Wait...no. It was 2008. Man how time flies. Anyway...

Ransom is a tiny little town in the Outskirts on New Canaan. It has a population of about 3,000 at any given time and it sports one of the few true airfields on the planet, complete with runways and hangers. While there are very few boats on Canaan that require a runway, the place still sees it's share of on and off world air traffic.

Ransom is also the home of Camp 96, one of many relocation camps set up during the War, and while it has long since served its purpose, much of it still stands as a reminder to the conflict. In fact, many of the settlers there, Independents and Alliance alike, remained at Ransom after the War, and it could be argued that true unification works there better than most places that openly brag about it.

Post-war Ransom is a quiet place, for the most part. The town sees a good share of the New Canaan Trade Route shipping and it sports more than a few interesting places for the weary inbound and outbound trade, so some days are more exciting than others. It also has some very rare and unfortunately dangerous days due to the close proximity to Miranda and to that portion of space known, feared, and hushly spoken about.

Now when I first began writing about Ransom it was a small, modest project. It was going to be all but a footnote in my free time, but as I've worked on this dusty little town, the project has grown. Not only have I written up numerous pages on her history and the history of the many people living at Ransom, I've also begun making labels, posters, props, brochures, photos, logos, and just about everything else for this sleepy little smudge on New Canaan that you can imagine.

Then along came the "Name That Crappy Town Where You're From" contest sponsored by the Austin Browncoats and I just couldn't resist. I bought a little town in the upcoming Atlas of the Verse.

Now, I'm offering a little chunk of real estate. I have numerous buildings, hangers, shops and residences on the map and I'm just looking for names to fill in the last empty buildings. I've already offered specific locations to all sorts of fellow fans, but I still have more space. As an example of one place already spoken for, Keelhauler now owns his own little corner of Ransom; a tidy little business right off of Ransom Airfield called Keelhauler Transport & Trading Company. According to Keelhauler himself, It's primarily a transport business (legal and not so much) but trading also plays a big part. The business is run by a former Browncoat. Their motto...

"Core to Rim ... You Got It, We'll Haul It."

I've also placed numerous other businesses for Badger, AZneed, Goodwolf, and others, and still I have a few places left unclaimed. Now, I'm opening the place up for anyone else who wishes to join in.

What I need:

-Name of a business (Uncle Carl's Haberdashery) or residence (Bill Smith's Place). If you do a business, I just need the name of the main proprietor. You can also be just an honest to goodness farmer, cowpoke or long since retired from the War soldier eeking out a life in the Outskirts.

-A brief explanation of the type of business. What do ya sell...or rather...what do you pretend to sell while all the while selling something else altogether?

-I'll also take any logos, mottos or tidbits you wish included in the overall write-up.

-I also wouldn't mind a good photo of you or someone else playing the part of a resident or proprietor in appropriate Verse style clothing. Just a simple shot of you in the day to day. Not something overtly posed or contrived, but rather a shot someone snapped off of you doing something or standing casually on a dusty porch or against a usable backdrop.

The finished work (though it won't ever really be finished) will be made available in all sorts of forms. There might be some posters that I'll charge for, but lots of the project will be broken down into free downloads and paper products, like some of the shipping labels and props that you've seen me make here already. Ransom is primarily a work intended for the pure joy of doing something in the Verse and sharing it with my fellow fans. I plan to go all out, so if you want a little of yourself, a friend (alive or long ago departed) or some one entirely made up placed on the map, must send me a private message and we'll talk.

-William Pace
aka Yellowjacket

P.S. Anyone wishing to have a cozy little shop or shack at Ransom will need to get me names prior to January 15th.

[keelhauler]

This really sounds amazing, William!

I can't wait for all the papers props (free and otherwise) to come available! I gotta have them all! The labels you've shared with us in the past were fantastic and I'm sure the Ransom project props will be most shiny, too!

I'm also thrilled that Keelhauler Transport & Trading Co. is going to part of this project. It's just too cool for words!!!!

We are lucky to have someone with your imagination and skills here to keep the expanded 'verse, well, expanding.

Cheers,

Sean

[Yellowjacket]

Thank you, Sean. I appreciate the vote of confidence.

The project is coming along very nicely, and strangely enough, it is much more symbiotic then I ever would have imagined. For example, I wanted there to be a cattle business present at Ransom, at least a modest one. Not so much a large range organization, but rather something smaller and more manageable, befitting the barrenness of the Outskirts. And so, without even asking for it, Goodwolf asks if he can have a little cattle business at Ransom. I also wanted a little bookshop of sorts and my friend Mark asked if he could sell antiquarian books at Ransom. Each little thing that the town has needed, people have offered, so that the whole place is already showing a kind of vitality all its own. There is a microbrewery, a pub, a handful of eateries, several repair and machine shops, a collection of junk and scrap yards, numerous shipping and transport compaines, medical facilities, a martial arts training house, a chicken farm, a fish farm and a cattle ranch.

I'm having the devil of a time keeping up with all of the write-ups. Keep 'em coming.

[Goodwolf]

Brewery/distillery was gonna be my second choice.

[Yellowjacket]

Outskirts Brewery and Pub makes a lager called Blue Star (just try to guess why). They also produce an annual limited stock of schwarzgebrannter called 'Camp 96', a schnaps in honor of those who lived and died at Ransom during the War and specifically those prisoners of German descent that made moonshine to keep up the camp spirits during their incarceration at Ransom. Other labels inlcude Stouthearted (a little bit of liquid courage), Black Rock Bock and White Horse (a weissbier named after the township south of Ransom).

[keelhauler]

Glad to hear you have plenty of contributors, William! I especially like the antiquarian bookshop! Are you going to create an inventory of some of the books? You, or anyone really, could come up with some 'verse book titles and make covers.

In the Serenity novelization, two books are mentioned that were on River's bookshelf at her parents home that might be neat to include:

Triumph of the Terraformers, by Wu Baifang (pp. 21-22)
“a particularly lurid treatise on the terraforming after Earth-That-Was was used up. Nobody took it particularly seriously as history. River only liked it because she enjoyed Wu’s use of language.”

Moonward Ho!, by Deltev Woczynski (p. 22)

Maybe someone out there with some artistic/photoshop skills would like to design the covers? I've always thought it would be cool to have these books on my shelf!

Just a thought......

[Akin]

Woa cool! I really need to peruse all these threads floating around more regularly... otherwise I miss things with deadlines, like this...

[Eric Ardros]

You and me both! Bugger.

Of course, I didn't even join this forum until late last year, so I still would've been out of it, lol.

Kewl idea, though. Would've been neat to set up a shop of some sort in good ol' Ransom

[Yellowjacket]

Sickness, work and too many projects at once pushed the Ransom Project back a little bit, so I still have some unclaimed pieces of real estate. Yeah, it's a big project. I've put a lot more into it than I had originally planned. The release of Whitefall's beautiful Atlas also gave me some added reference points, so I'm adding even more. I even had the chance to go on two photo shoots and collect some nice shots of old buildings for the project this past month. I spent all of yesterday writing the early history of Ransom and I've begin labels from the Outskirts microbrewery.

Anyone still wishing to join in, is more than welcome. Just drop me a pm.

[Eric Ardros]

Really? Wasn't the deadline mid-January, though?

Well, if there's still a few spots open, I'd definately be interested.

The only problem is that I don't think I'd be able to provide a pic, for a couple reasons.

One, since I got into Firefly props only recently, I wouldn't have any Verse-appropriate attire to wear in one, lol.

Second, I'm a city dweller, born and raised. So, no western-style areas around here for me to take a proper pic.

Don't know if you'd see that as an issue, but I thought I should mention it nonetheless.