About the advancements. I quickly read the manual, so I can be wrong, however I saw that you can “simply” add more moves from your careers. Correct?
Well, I love advancement in RpGs, and I own almost every AW-based game that exists. So: why limit the advancement to some new move? Why to not add some “special” advancement, that gives one or more of these:
– +1 to a Stat (maybe another +1 to another Stat in a successive special advancement).
– An additional “slot” to endure an additional minor damage (and, in a successive special advancement, an additional medium damage)
– An automatic “big” asset, like “A new ship”, or “A loyal crew/community/gang”, or “A secret base”
– A sidekick (you create a “backup” character, and this is introduced in the fiction, useful as sidekick, backup PC when another PC is out of the scene for a while etc.)
I’d say you can easily add these to the core rule, and a lot of from-zero-to-hero player enthusiasts will be grateful for that!!!
Also, a fantastic idea could be tie these special advancements to specific careers, so for example, the Military gets +1 Stat and +1 Damage Slot, the Starfarer gets +1 Stat and a Backup Ship, the Scoundrel gets +1 Damage Slot and A Gang etc.
I feel the standard rules a little “plain”, mildly exciting.
Maybe you can access to the special advancement after 2 “normal” advancements in the same career.
Well, there are already moves that give you Crews and Vehicles so I think that’s already covered. Maybe Sean can talk more about lacking +1 moves, but I assumed it was because this PbtA game is mechanically balanced slightly “lower” than AW and similar games. Space Adventurers stats don’t change, they just develop tools and connections, that kind of thing. Sean?
Alfred Rudzki has it correct. I tried as much as possible to limit the stat increases; limited to an Origin skill (which can’t be earned later) and capped at + 2. Each extra stat bonus screws greatly with the probability curve of the 2d6/10+/7-9/6- , and limiting that growth was the way to keep the success/partial/failure ratios at the level I liked.
As for the other special upgrades:
– Extra toughness can be earned from the Military career (“Toughness” skill). I suggest choosing “Suffer harm” as your xp trigger if you’re aiming for that.
– A unique follower/retainer/sidekick can be earned from the Commercial career (Luxury).
– A unique loyal crew can be earned from the Personality career.
The secret base or starship are a bit too big for a level reward; they should be difficult, multi-part Acquisitions, usually with travel and negotiation involved.
All that said, remember that I am not the final arbiter of your games. I strongly encourage you to try out alternate xp gain and rewards, to find a balance that you and your table enjoys (and post about it here, I’m always happy to read about UW players’ stuff). Like all other PbtA games, Uncharted Worlds is Creative Commons and very, very open to further hacking.