I picked up UW at DTRPG and I am really digging it. As I understand it, the default is to create the characters, then the factions/setting. My group has had a great time creating settings using Microscope (or homebrewed versions of such) and then creating PCs — seemingly the reverse to the UW default.
Any advice for doing this?
Hi! Thanks for the purchase, and glad you like it :D.
Also: check the Departures chapter for full campaign setup! You decide on the broad setting first, then design characters, then make factions to fit both the setting and to support character concepts (I made an ex-military character, so there should probably be a military faction that I used to be a part of!). However, that sequence is absolutely open to tweaking. If you want to go Setting > Factions > Characters, by all means, do so. The factions could shape your characters quite nicely.
With all that said, a lot of world-building happens during play, because that world-building happens through the lens of the character (after all, they live in that universe, they should tell us what they know, see and feel). The broad-strokes approach, coupled with the focus on prompting the characters to describe what they know and see, means that there won’t be an excessive amount of detail at the start of a standard UW game.
Sean Gomes This bit, right here…
“You decide on the broad setting first, then design characters, then make factions to fit both the setting and to support character concepts (I made an ex-military character, so there should probably be a military faction that I used to be a part of!).”
No kidding. Allowing players that creative buy-in is very important! As important as not scripting out the entire adventure beforehand or trying to fill in all the little details instead of disclaiming decision-making now and again.
Unlearning the tendency to do all that campaign prepwork ahead of time is the hard part for me! It’s also quite liberating.