I got my PoD Uncharted Worlds about a month ago and I like it a lot 🙂 I’ve now started a campaign, resisted a strong urge to use an existing world (I’d really like to use Fragged Empire) and just see how the world develops… First session was mostly character creation, and we played a bit and ended with heroes’ ship received from First Star Conglomerate (oldest part of human region) ended docked with a ship of pilgrims returning from a trip to a world ‘touched by God’; they had a man-sized bug eating their electronics…
I really like how easy it is to start a game. I must restrain myself from preparing too much beforehand, I’ve always spent too much time prepping!
There’s some things I have difficulties to get a grip.
-One is properties, especially on weapons. While some properties are obvious, properties like Laser and Plasma feel quite similar to me (I guess neither of them has recoil and have less danger when used in a spaceship compared to bullets).
-How much do ship workspaces affect the ship? For example, would Armored have any mechanical effect in ship combat, or would it be limited to preventing damage from spreading, what Navigation allows, what information ship’s standard scanners would give from a planet/ship compared to Survey?
-What is the primary reason for a crew to be mechanically similar, what effect would small variation have? I have one crew member with Class 3 crew and another one wants to be drone builder (I’m thinking of him buying a Crew, trading versatility of human ones for flying drones), and the question will come up sooner or later.
I have some other questions too but I guess they’ll start to clear up once I get more familiar with the system (my first PbtA!). I believe I want a bit more complexity for combat, but in games with more detailed combat I’ve wanted a quick combat option so I guess I appreciate both ways 🙂
Btw, I think a collected of rules questions and clarifications would be cool, I’ve been browsing this community quite a lot and have found a lot of answers too, but it hasn’t been very fast!
Traditional sci-fi wisdom says that plasma comes in blobs and bolts, while lasers are like streams of energy a la Phasers. I dunno remember if the Plasma property says so, but I know Lasers can cut through materials given enough time.
Workshops are super important. They customize the ship. They dont necessarily have mechanical perks, but they’re relevant in the FICTION. Probably they justify or permit certain actions, acting as tools at the players’ disposal — just like having weapons or toolkits or whatever. If you’re unsure of the perk, ASK THE PLAYERS! “Hey, Bill, what does Navigation do for you that a normal starship’s sensors won’t? How about survey? Oh, it works like that? Cool.” As an example, a player might say “oh well an Armored ship probably won’t suffer hull breaches, or take as much damage from collisions?” And you can jot that down and say ‘cool, thanks.’
Crews are mechanically similar because there is no reason to clutter up a streamlined game with weird tiny mechanical modifiers. The crews are FICTIONALLY distinct 🙂 a crew of humans acts like humans… A crew of drones acts like drones. Whatever that means in the fiction, that’s how they act… And in the end they use the same mechanics to make your job easier!
Hey! Thanks for picking up UW, glad you’re having fun with it. Let me see if I can’t answer your questions:
– Weapon properties are descriptive hints/guidelines. To be fair, a LOT of the interpretation of those guidelines is based on the table’s expectations and familiarity with sci-fi tropes. In the case of Plasma v Laser, Plasma tends to be bolts of incandescent fire, while lasers are thin sustained lines that rake across surfaces. While they’re both energy weapons there will be significant difference in the effect they have, the damage pattern, the kind of malfunctions they suffer, etc.
– Much like weapon properties, most workspaces are guidelines that make certain descriptions easier. While they have no outright mechanical effect, doing something that your Workspace is designed to facilitate might not even trigger a Move at all. Workspaces provide context to situations: am I performing a Patch Up in a medbay… or am I on a folding table in the grungy cafeteria. In the case of “Armored”, the characters could (for example) get much closer to stellar phenomena, or cut through a micrometeor cloud, or make a less-than-stellar landing with only surface damage.
– Not sure I fully understand the third question, but I’ll try: In Far Beyond Humanity (an upcoming supplement to Uncharted Worlds) one thing I’ll be introducing is Constructed as a type of Crew. The “base” Crew type (Techs, Gang, etc) are mostly a matter of NPC personality, look, behaviors, preferences, etc. A ‘Constructed’ Crew doesn’t really have a personality or autonomy, but is also more loyal and doesn’t talk back, get drunk, steal stuff, get into fights, fall in love and all that other fun stuff that puts the Soap Opera in Space Opera. Basically, the trade off for Constructed as a Crew type is that they don’t have autonomy or free will.
Good idea with the “collected rules/FAQ” thing. Maybe I’ll make a Google doc or something, when I find the time.
Edit: totally forgot the Orky answer: “Armored means youz kan RAM dem an’ walk away!”
Lots of thanks for your answers, they helped a lot! About crew, I’m thinking about a situation where a group of soldiers are armed, except one is medic with medikit, which I take isn’t possible by the rules.
Actually, the best way to represent mixed groups is to have a Crew with multiple upgrades (Class 2, or Class 3 if you’ve got Leadership). In your case, a Squad-type Crew with Armed and Medics could be explained as a mixed unit, with a number of soldiers, a couple of field medics and a dedicated battlefield surgeon.
Basically, a Crew with a diverse and complementary skill sets are much rarer than a group of like-minded, similarly-trained individuals. The more inter-disciplinary coordination the Crew has, the more Leadership you’d need to bring them together.
Cool, thanks Sean Gomes ! I have no problem with them then, as the group’s ‘face’ has Command and IIRC there’s a Industrial skill allowing temporary improvements to objects, which in this case I would allow to target the drones crew.