Nothing to report yet, but The Sunday Skypers crew had a brainstorming session for a future UW campaign that I’ll be running. Lots of good ideas thrown about and world building done. Really psyched about this game. My first rodeo with running a PbtA game, so I do have some butterflies.
Nothing to report yet, but The Sunday Skypers crew had a brainstorming session for a future UW campaign that I’ll be…
Nothing to report yet, but The Sunday Skypers crew had a brainstorming session for a future UW campaign that I’ll be…
You’ll do great! Looking forward to hearing about the campaign. Any inkling as to the kind of game they want to run (Starship, Colony, etc) and what Factions will likely be in play?
[Warning, info dump]
Krosnov Satrapy: (AKA Krosnov Security when they are not the local government) a controlling military regime operating within the Yanopol Expanse. They took power after the abdication of the Yanopol Imperial Highness some twenty Imperial cycles ago, and have since maintained a rigid but safe society for its people. Known to deal with criminals the same way they would deserters and prisoners of war. The Satray has planetary governors throughout the Expanse. Their main offices and seat of power is the old regional capital at Haan.
Nakamoto TG is a more organized trade group with rules and a leader of sorts. Where the FT speak with many voices, Nakamoto speaks from a handful of voices of the ruling council. They are in it for profit’s sake and not necessarily for the benefit of its individual members. Nakamoto is feeding at the edges of the Core Worlds, while the Free Traders are sticking to the smaller, less profitable worlds, with occasional forays into the Core to sell and buy, but not to enter into any agreements or long term contracts. That way leads to having your ship owned by a Consortium Merchant House or Nakamoto Trade Group. Because Nakamoto has its interest in both Yanopol and the Core, they tend to broker a lot of long distance regional trade with large merchant ships and armed convoys. NTG’s corporate headquarters are far away on the core world of Dalshiv.
The Consortium: an opportunistic merchant group, it includes many of the Merchant Houses of the Yanopol Expanse. Letters of Credit issued by any of the members of the Consortium are better than money. They are guarantees of payment either in currency or in goods. Failure to honor these letters of credit can result in severe consequences. Merchants who are aligned with the Consortium can sometimes receive special treatment in Consortium controlled ports. The downside is that the Consortium always wants it cut, one way or the other. The Consortium is the old monied (formerly Imperial) interests of the Expanse. They own the ports, they own the lesser governments more or less outright. They have a tight fist on trade among the major worlds, but it’s not one where other factions are turned away. No, there’s not much profit in that. They are quite willing to extend letters of credit to any Free Trader or Nakamoto Trader that pulls into port. And when those letters are called due… You’ll pay them back, one way or the other. The Consortium has no single seat of power, when they form a ‘congress’, one the Houses will host the event.
The Free Traders of Yanopol: a defiant merchant alliance of small businessmen and ship captains who do not bow down to the old Merchant houses and seek to freely trade between worlds, without the Consortium taking its cut. The Free Traders are a loose alliance of like-minded traders who ply the Yanopol Expanse, seeking out lucrative contracts for hauling cargo and playing the speculative market. It’s expected that deals between Free Traders will always be equitable and beneficial to both parties. And not all deals involve currency or trade goods…
Second Life: robots are expensive to buy and maintain, what you really need is a labor force of obedient and skilled clones. SL has thousands of models to choose from. And, because they have the corner on the labor market, they have branched out to more than clones and medical replacement parts. Second Life runs farms, mines, brothels, service industries, and even in some places security and military forces.
The Church of the One: while there are a thousand religions in the Expanse, the only one that can be considered a mover and shaker is The Church. The One is the first holy Emperor of the Thousand Worlds (back before there were even a thousand worlds.) His origins are shrouded in mystery. The One is known by many names, although Aurach tends to be the official one. He has been described as the Second Coming and as “not the divine we wanted, but the one that we needed”. The Church still maintains a fleet of warships, but there has been no need for the glove to come off in decades. The center of The Church is on far distant Terra. They are regional bishops scattered around the Expanse and the Arch Bishop’s seat is on Haan at the Cathedral of the One.
ImpEx, originally the Imperial Exchequer was the government office that was responsible for the management and collection of taxation and other government revenues. But, over time it expanded its financial operations to include most of the interstellar bank functions needed across known space. It’s far reach helps to insure that an Imperial Credit on Haan is worth as much as one on Terra. While generally seen as a stabilizing force in the Yanapol Expanse, they do have a debt collection department that is backed by the Imperial Navy. Orbital bombardment, when you really really want to cancel that check.
Other possible factions in the region but ones that the players are probably not in debt to…
Freespacers’ Guild: a defiant anarchist network operating within the Yanopol Expanse. They broadcast propaganda, disrupt peacekeeping operations, and run a comprehensive black market information network available to those who meet their standards.
The Royals: Imperial vassals that have not given up their power in the Expanse. Some of them have ties to the Empire of a Thousand Suns (AKA the Core Worlds) and have been pleading for intervention and the restoration of Imperial control. Most of them are fragmented and their power only extends as far as their planetary holdings.
The Empire of the Thousand Suns: a vast region of allied worlds and the theoretical cradle of (human) civilization. They are so powerful and so distant that they transcend debt. Talk to one of the smaller corporations or Houses if you need something. Note there is a distinction between The Empire and The Church. Usually the empire is referred to as the body and the church as the spirit.
We made a conscious effort to have no gun bunnies. So, we’re looking at merchants, spies, saboteurs, con men, clones, angry ex-wifes, and debt collectors. Things will explode, but the characters will probably not be the cause of it. The players are part of the crew of the John Henry, a modular transport trying to make it in the wild expanse. Interestingly enough, no one wanted the captain’s hat so we have an NPC who has 3 of the 7 votes on the ship. The other 4 PCs have a single vote. So, they can out vote him, but if one of them sides with the captain, then they have the majority of the votes.
Interesting! An NPC captain will certainly require walking a fine line between freedom to the players and GM control. Buit it might be a good way to keep things moving if the players are not used to PbtA-style freedom.
Sounds like you guys got a lot of brainstorming done.
I’ve personally found Uncharted Worlds tremendously easy to run. It really makes me feel like I’m playing rather than working. It’s even lower on crunch than most other pbta games which makes improvising things tremendously smooth. My “prep” for each session is a small page of quick notes, a quick introductory scene description, and four or so questions to ask the crew.
Don’t prep too much, leave things open for surprise. Just create the initial conditions and let the players develop it for you. I’ve learnt not to make my own ideas too complicated because the players will inevitably make it more complicated on their own. My last session was supposed to be a quick one off while a player was away. My only idea was “one of the characters finds a bounty poster with someone from his past on it.” This developed into a coup against the mayor, a plan to take over the gang (or the town), an attempt to redeem the gang’s leader and a mandatory inspection of their “scientific, and definitely not stolen” vessel. It also became my first two-part episode, and I’m looking forward to the conclusion.
I don’t even do the page of notes. “Previously on…” to remind people what’s happened, a paragraph on the situation, maybe a paragraph on the world they’re on if I’ve defined it, then one or two questions each aimed at eliciting motive or threats. Sometimes I’ll have another series of questions ready for a plot element I can drop in easily. The other things are a “tasks” list – thinks the characters are likely to try and do, and a “threats” list: who is after them and why. But largely everything is created or defined in play.
Hey, folks. I’m one of Todd’s unsuspecting dupes. Just wanted to say I think you got this, too. I may have a (small) issue or two with UW’s design choices, but the GMing chapter is super clear, super friendly, and probably the best written in any PbtA game I’ve seen. Read it, read it again, and keep familiar with the big nasty fish in our starry little pond. They’ll tell you everything you need to know.
Now for the benefit of our potential future listeners, we’ve got a purser/navigator/face type character, a smug systems expert, a clone doctor (that is, a clone who is a doctor, not a doctor for clones; although, he may be clone-certified as well, what do I know) plus helpers, and a deep space salvager plus crew. It’ll be fun to see how they get on and what they’ll do once the fire starts…
Personally, I dig the NPC Captain angle. What happens when we disagree on something major? What happens when two of your friends agree with him? This is every Battlestar Galactica episode ever. And hey, who says he’ll stay captain? By the time we reach session two, who knows what’ll have happened? Beauty of PbtA.
Anyway, if you think you’re tripping up, Todd, remember that Ari and I have played a good bit of Apocalypse World, and Dirk’s got some Dungeon World under his belt. We’ll get you back on course, no worries.
Looking forward to this! (No pressure!)