Custom Services Page

The page should not feel like a generic “hire a game designer” page. It should sell a small set of concrete RED-SHIFT services that use the things the project is already good at: grounded worldbuilding, system design, research-driven speculative fiction, scenario construction, and custom game material.

I would call the page:

CUSTOM RED-SHIFT

Your world. Your crew. Your problem. Built for RED-SHIFT.

RED-SHIFT can be customized for individual players, gaming groups, creators, stores, conventions, and organizations.

Whether you want a one-shot built around your group, a custom world to explore, a ship designed around your crew, or help turning an idea into playable science fiction, custom RED-SHIFT work is available on a project basis.

What You Should Offer

1. Custom Adventures

This should be the primary service.

CUSTOM ADVENTURES

Give me the crew, the tone, and the kind of problem you want to face.

I will build a RED-SHIFT adventure designed for your table, including the situation, locations, major NPCs, competing interests, complications, and consequences.

Possible requests:

  • one-session adventures;

  • convention scenarios;

  • multi-session missions;

  • exploration missions;

  • salvage operations;

  • investigations;

  • trade and smuggling runs;

  • political problems;

  • corporate conflicts;

  • survival scenarios;

  • strange discoveries;

  • military or security operations.

Best CTA:
REQUEST AN ADVENTURE

This is the clearest product because customers understand exactly what they are buying.

2. Custom Worlds

BUILD ME A WORLD

Give me an idea, a star, a culture, a problem—or nothing more than a sentence.

I will develop it into a playable RED-SHIFT world.

A custom world can include:

  • planetary environment;

  • settlements and infrastructure;

  • population;

  • economy;

  • government;

  • major institutions;

  • corporations and factions;

  • law and regulation;

  • local technology;

  • trade opportunities;

  • hazards;

  • conflicts;

  • rumors;

  • adventure hooks.

This fits RED-SHIFT particularly well because the setting emphasizes institutions, economics, travel, imperfect information, and consequences rather than lore for its own sake.

Red Shift Project Instructions.docx

CTA:
BUILD A WORLD

3. Custom Characters and NPCs

Don’t sell simple character generation. People can eventually do that themselves.

Sell important characters.

CREATE SOMEONE WORTH MEETING

Need a rival captain, corporate investigator, planetary official, criminal broker, Psion, scientist, spacer, mercenary, patron, or someone much harder to categorize?

Custom characters can include:

  • background;

  • motivations;

  • relationships;

  • resources;

  • obligations;

  • secrets;

  • conflicts;

  • game statistics when appropriate;

  • roleplaying guidance;

  • ways the character can enter a campaign.

CTA:
CREATE A CHARACTER

4. Custom Ships

This could become one of the most attractive services once RED-SHIFT’s spacecraft architecture is mechanically approved.

BUILD MY SHIP

A ship should be more than a diagram and a list of numbers.

It is a workplace, home, investment, liability, and sometimes the only thing keeping the crew alive.

Custom ship projects could eventually include:

  • mission and operating role;

  • ship history;

  • physical configuration;

  • crew requirements;

  • operating costs;

  • maintenance issues;

  • cargo capability;

  • equipment;

  • deck plans;

  • quirks;

  • debts or ownership structure;

  • recurring problems;

  • adventure hooks.

However, do not advertise full mechanical ship design yet unless the spacecraft construction domain has been approved. Phase 1 explicitly requires later systems to wait on the foundational architecture.

Red Shift Project Instructions.docx

For now, market this as conceptual/worldbuilding ship design, not finalized rules-compliant construction.

CTA:
DESIGN A SHIP

5. Turn My Idea Into RED-SHIFT

This may actually become the most useful catch-all service.

BRING ME THE IDEA

You do not need to know exactly what you need.

Bring a concept:

“I want a colony where everyone works for the same company.”

“I want a generation ship somebody discovered abandoned.”

“I want a prison planet that isn’t actually a prison.”

“I want an expedition based on the Franklin Expedition.”

“I want a campaign about debt collectors in space.”

I will help turn the concept into something playable in RED-SHIFT.

Possible deliverables might include:

  • setting concepts;

  • campaign frameworks;

  • locations;

  • factions;

  • characters;

  • conflicts;

  • adventure structures;

  • research;

  • gameable consequences.

CTA:
BRING ME AN IDEA

This gives visitors permission to contact you even when they can’t neatly categorize what they want.

6. Campaign Development

This should be a higher-tier service.

BUILD A CAMPAIGN

For groups that want more than a single adventure, RED-SHIFT can develop a campaign framework around the players and the kind of science-fiction experience they want.

A campaign package might establish:

  • starting situation;

  • home region;

  • crew premise;

  • major factions;

  • economic pressures;

  • recurring NPCs;

  • important locations;

  • long-term conflicts;

  • exploration opportunities;

  • initial adventures;

  • consequences that can develop over time.

The key distinction:

Don’t sell a predetermined story.

Sell a situation capable of producing stories.

That is much more consistent with RED-SHIFT’s emphasis on player agency and persistent consequences.

Red Shift Project Instructions.docx

CTA:
BUILD MY CAMPAIGN

A Service I Would Add Later

Your Group in RED-SHIFT

This could be a strong gift product.

A customer provides information about their gaming group, family, friends, coworkers, etc., and you transform them into a fictional RED-SHIFT crew.

Deliverable:

THE [NAME] CREW

  • custom crew portrait;

  • RED-SHIFT character interpretations;

  • ship;

  • homeworld or station;

  • short crew history;

  • relationships;

  • individual roles;

  • one custom adventure.

This could eventually become a premium package.

But I would introduce it after the basic services page is working.

What I Would Not Offer

Avoid a giant menu.

I would not initially advertise:

  • general freelance writing;

  • proofreading;

  • arbitrary RPG consulting;

  • generic AI-generated artwork;

  • game-master-for-hire sessions;

  • dozens of tiny $10–$20 customization products;

  • custom mechanics;

  • “I will design anything” services.

And, during the current RED-SHIFT development phase, I would specifically avoid selling custom rule-system development based on supposedly finished RED-SHIFT mechanics. The project is still in Phase 1, and unresolved rules should not be presented as established.

Red Shift Project Instructions.docx

Recommended Page Structure

I would make the actual Squarespace page much simpler than the full service list above.

HERO

CUSTOM RED-SHIFT

Your world. Your crew. Your problem.

Custom adventures, worlds, characters, ships, and campaigns built around the science fiction you want to explore.

START A PROJECT

Use a wide RED-SHIFT illustration showing a Referee’s workspace: map, planetary information, ship plans, character notes, reports, and handwritten annotations.

SECTION 2 — WHAT CAN WE BUILD?

Use five cards, not ten.

CUSTOM ADVENTURE

A RED-SHIFT scenario built specifically for your group.

CUSTOM WORLD

A playable planet, colony, station, settlement, or region.

CUSTOM CHARACTER

A major NPC, antagonist, patron, rival, or crew member.

CUSTOM CAMPAIGN

A larger situation built to support months of play.

SOMETHING ELSE

Bring the idea. We’ll figure out what it needs.

I would leave ships folded into Something Else until the mechanical ship-design rules are ready.

SECTION 3 — HOW IT WORKS

1. TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT

Give me as much or as little information as you have.

2. WE DEFINE THE PROJECT

We determine what you actually need and what the finished deliverable will contain.

3. I BUILD IT

The project is developed using RED-SHIFT’s grounded approach to people, institutions, technology, economics, and consequences.

4. YOU GET SOMETHING YOU CAN USE

Not a pile of ideas.

Something built for play.

SECTION 4 — YOUR IDEA DOESN’T HAVE TO BE FINISHED

This section is important.

You do not need to arrive with a design document.

You can start with:

“I want Alien, but the crew actually has to deal with the investigation afterward.”

Or:

“My players want to own a ship but I want them permanently worried about money.”

Or:

“I want something based on a real historical event.”

Or simply:

“I have an idea. I don’t know what to do with it.”

That’s enough to start.

SECTION 5 — PRICING

I would not invent fixed pricing yet.

Use:

EVERY PROJECT IS DIFFERENT

Custom RED-SHIFT work is quoted by project rather than by page or word count.

Before any work begins, we’ll define:

what is being created → what you’ll receive → what it will cost

No open-ended billing.

REQUEST SOMETHING

That is much better than forcing yourself into pricing before you know how long these projects actually take.

Final CTA

BRING SOMETHING INTO THE UNIVERSE.

A world.

A ship.

A problem.

A person.

A campaign.

Or just the beginning of an idea.

We’ll figure out the rest.

REQUEST SOMETHING

My Recommended Launch Offering

Start with only four purchasable concepts:

  1. Custom Adventure

  2. Custom World

  3. Custom Character

  4. Custom Campaign

Then have Something Else / Request Something catch everything outside them.

That keeps the page understandable while still letting RED-SHIFT accept unusual commissions.

The positioning should not be “James will freelance for you.”

It should be:

There is a huge RED-SHIFT universe. Tell me what part of it you want built.

That fits the open-world philosophy far better.