Carta Galaxia Development Update #16
In which our writer is on cold meds and feeling kinda loopy, so take this with a grain of salt/ignore this.
What am I even doing here?
I’ve been thinking hard about the structure and purpose of the Carta Galaxia books. Unlike UW and FBH, I’ve been writing/designing them without a solid final goal in mind. Maybe because I don’t usually use pre-written campaign/setting guides, so I have no idea what makes a good one or a bad one. Maybe because I’m starting to feel like this is something I’m obligated to write due to the Kickstarter, rather than something I want to write.
Or maybe after a couple of years I’m seeing all the cracks and half-baked ideas in UW and I so want to just work on a 2nd edition to fix all that.
Tried and true
So far, the stuff I have written is… tame? Pretty standard fare. Broad setting, 6 big factions, major districts to play in, special rules, Jump Points. Structurally it gets the job done but it could be more engrossing.
Feels like UW was a pretty big sandbox, and now I’m writing a more enclosed/pre-defined sandbox…
Maybe it’s the meds talking but it feels that I could do something really cool and interesting with the content and structure but it’s just out of reach.
No ship, no exploration
Part of the whole dystopian thing is not being able to escape your debts. But the whole In Here / Out There thing of debt and exploration is kinda not applicable in the current setting either.
I a planet-bound dystopian setting what I want as a flagship setting for a Primary Colors sci fi game? When I ask it like that; no.
Sunken cost
So maybe I’m trying to dance around a truth. Maybe I’ve done a lot of work on something that was not the correct thing to work on. I can keep plowing through it, and it will be A Product by the end, but I don’t know if it’ll be good. If I’m honest, it will likely be phoned in.
Or I can take a step back and approach a new, more fitting setting as a flagship for the game itself, and a setting that lends itself to an interesting structure.
Or I can take a big step back and re-define what Carta Galaxia is. An ur-setting? A setting-creator-toolbox? Something akin to Microscope but specifically for UW campaigns?
Or I can take a huge step back and acknowledge the core flaws in the base game design, put aside my previous obligation (and my guilt about said obligations), and start on Uncharted Worlds second edition.
Or I’m just beating myself up due to a lack of self confidence and guilt (and cold meds we’re here too weeeee!).
What’s Next
I’ll come back to this topic once I’m a bit more clear headed. But it felt nice to ramble. Thank you guys. You rock.
If it helps, I had always assumed that CG was going to be “and here are a few examples of how to do it your way, in detail” for differing numbers of factions and settings. Not an ‘official’ setting or a limited sandbox so much as the equivalent of the player character options in FBH for campaign settings overall. Does that make sense?
The beauty of your game is that There Is No Canon, which is something I think ought to be retained if possible but which in no way precludes you from having a “Gomes House Special” version available for us to borrow! And we will borrow from it. I mean, I already steal shamelessly from, say, my buddy Ed’s 5150 game universe and just about anything published by Sine Nomine (Stars Without Number in particular).
I’m down with a 2nd Edition at some point in the future, of course. Or even a revised omnibus that blends in all the material from FBH and CG into a single unified tome.
For what it’s worth, I’d like to see a setting-creator-toolbox kinda thing.
But seriously – if you’d rather put out 2nd Edition UW in place of Carta Galaxia, and put a few setting sketches in the back or on the side, I’m good with that. FBH was the main supplement I wanted.
Now, if UW2 is going to mess up FBH…
Sean Gomes – I’m curious, what do you consider to be cracks/half-baked ideas in UW? (If you don’t mind sharing,)
I’d love to see the toolbox. Something focused on session zero – you can continue to use all the stuff you’ve built up but as examples.
A focus on different styles of campaign, what to create for each, and the like, would be amazing.
Noah Doyle, Henry de Veuve, UW2 definitely wouldn’t mess with FBH. If/when I do a 2nd Ed, it will very likely be a revised omnibus, combining and updating UW and FBH into a single tome, cutting the chaff, etc.
Jesse R so many things of various degrees of “broken” that I’d like to fix, with the benefit of 2-3 years of feedback and play. One big thing is the Debt system, which didn’t quite hit the mark and could stand to be more seamlessly folded into the mechanics of the game.
Sean Gomes glad to hear it! Because one of these years I am gonna have to inflict my Potter-esque VSF types on soemone as a Faction…
ETA…and I’d hate to have to reskin them because of canon compliance! (grin)
Toolbox and a few example settings. Just a few examples of set-ups you could build with the system or you could use if you feel lazy. The Veil has Glitch City, The Hood has an example set up at the end of the book, Urban Shadows: Dark Street has several examples of cities-storms. Something in that tone is what I expect.
Follow your passion. Do what you want first, then take another look at whatever you may be obligated to do. I’m sure the results will be much better in the end. My group has been enjoying UW and FBH, but we’d also be interested to see a version 2.
Take all of this with a grain of salt, as I am someone who is a writing major that has published nothing and I have played UW all of three times (once as my first ever first into PbtA running for some very trad friends, then with you play testing 40K character types for FBH, and finally in a short lived pbp).
And half my post disappeared because my 2yo loves my phone. Awesome. Lol.
Short version is I don’t think folks need a canon setting as faction creation is so cool. I personally would like some help with mechanics to replicate a few genres, however – dog fighting for BSG, Mecha for a Robotech/Gundam/Starship Troopers style in the military game, custom moves that have cool flavorful 7-9 and 6- options that are better than resorting to base moves. I think you can demo that stuff as a form of CG. Maybe, you can even highlight things that you would like to fix in a 2E by making settings whose primary purpose is not to be a setting but to demonstrate “alternate” rules.
That might already be out there in the community – I’m not diligent in following the G+ group – but an official take on settings used to exemplify rules as opposed to solely providing world creation and plot hooks might give you a test run of what you want in 2E.
Personally I like setting creation stuff. I love roll tables and seeds that can help create a sector, planet, city etc
Seriously, I super appreciate such a supportive community. I love being able to bounce ideas and concerns off you guys and get such positive, encouraging feedback. You guys are why I keep writing, no joke.
My day job is dev at a big-name videogame company, so I doubly appreciate positive community interactions, lemme tell ya. Also I may be at the “izzz you an me ‘gainst th’ world, yerrr my bes’ frein'” stage of loopy.
Sean Gomes Thanks for the explanation. I have to admit, I agree. I’ve pretty much only played UW as one-shots (Thanks Chalice In Chains! :)) so Debt didn’t really play into thing. But just reading the posts from folks who play longer-term campaigns I can see how a more in-depth system might be useful.
I played UW as a semi-improv’d short adventure, I loved it and my players had a blast. The credit system showed some weakness when the playes wanted to ask the bad guys “enough money to retire and live a comfortable life”. The bad guys said no and that was the end of it.
What I was expecting from CG was a collection of factions, locations, threats and NPCs that I can use if I’m short on time or need inspiration.
I would love an UW2.0, that includes FBH and reworks the cargo/debt/favour system, provides more consistent examples, and gives more GM advice. But perhaps give us a CG first, then you can include that in UW2, after we spend a year or two debugging it 🙂
In my case, I wait CG as an example of what can be made, not a complete canonical setting. A toolbox will be fine too.
And I meant to add: I love charts 🙂
First of all, I’m a huge fan of everything you’ve put out and no matter what you release next, I’m totally gonna buy it and love it. 🙂
Frankly every single option you listed sounds appealing. I’m not a KS backer, so I’ve got no preexisting attachment to Carta Galaxia or any particular form of it.
If I had to pick, I think I would get the most benefit from a 2.0 revision.
I was expecting CG to be example settings, easy pick-up-and-play stuff for people who don’t want to create their own from scratch. Obviously they’ll customise from there as they go, but having a few starting points to hang things off / focus questioning can be better than a complete blank slate. And of course, its useful for cons…
A planet-bound dystopia might not be the best flagship for primary colours space opera. But that’s just a question of release order. If you’re having doubts about it, take a break, fiddle with something else, then go back to it when it feels right.
The freighter crew trying to survive is kinda the expected default. Which is also my favorite as it allows so many options.