Just finished a read-through of Uncharted Worlds. One thing that jumped out to me that I couldn’t think of an immediate answer (possibly I’m over-thinking) is if the group goes the route to start with a starship.
The text says they’ll be in some significant debt (whatever color that debt takes), but doesn’t give much guidance beyond that.
Is that extra debt in addition to what they already start with? How much?
Nope no additional Debt for character creation, the “significant Debt” of a Starship campaign is used as an easy way to explain why the characters start with Debt to one or more Factions (if they want)
For non-Starship games, characters will have to come up with other reasons. Though I suppose their home and any workplace they own in a City game would be a source of significant debt.
Perfect. That makes sense. Thanks!
Thanks Sean, for the clarification.
I also was under the impression that “significant debt” meant “additional debt”.
Well if you want to give them extra debt, that’s up to you and your group. 🙂
I wonder what the effect would be to start waaaaay deeper in debt with a faction. Like “they will break my legs if I don’t do whatever crazy thing they demand of me” kind of debt.
Don’t tempt me, Sean Gomes 😉
Follow up question.
Let’s say multiple players go the route of being pledged to a particular faction. But different factions.
Would it be weird if one or more characters didn’t actually have any debt to whatever faction is connected to their starship?
Or is it a job for us to figure out why multiple factions may have debts related to the ship through the various characters?
Really depends on the setting, and the factions we’re talking about. Most of the time, the “pilot” or “owner” of the ship is assumed to have the ship Debt if they are loyal to a single faction. The others have to come up with their own reasons for having their Debt.
If the factions aren’t overtly antagonistic, the ship itself could be a joint venture, sponsored by more than one faction.
Otherwise, if the factions are specialized, you could say that the ship itself was made by the productive/spacefaring faction, but the characters went in debt with the military/pirate faction to equip it with decent weaponry, and went in debt with the scientific/technological faction to install the more technical Workspaces.
Thanks! Makes sense.