Carta Galaxia – Yet Again
So after carefully considering all the feedback, I’ve decided that I will be starting back up on Carta Galaxia with a reduced scope. I think I over-extended myself and was unable to deliver on what I thought I needed.
The new plan for CG is this: A few pages going over the theory of a topic (Settings, Jump Points, NPCs, Worlds) then a few pages of examples to lift and drop into the game in a pinch. The back of the book will have a slew of pre-made assets to drool over (because while it does add clutter, I’m a little nostalgic for the “gear porn” pages of more traditional games).
Plus I’m toying with something special to me: a Lifepath system for Uncharted Worlds. Just because.
So here’s the new breakdown of Carta Galaxia. I hope to have new chapter previews available soon. That said, I’m going to take things slower to avoid burning myself out again.
Campaign Settings
– – Creating a New Setting
– – Premade Campaign Settings (including factions)
Jump Points
– – Creating a Jump Point
– – Running a Jump Point
– – Premade Jump Points
People and Places
– – Creating New Locations
– – Premade Locations
– – General NPC advice
– – Premade NPCs
Characters
– – Lifepath (alternate character creation)
Running a Game
– – General gameplay (Difficulty, Get Involved, etc)
– – Combat examples
– – Exploration
– – Long Term Campaigns
– – – – New Advancement system (from FBH)
Arsenal
– – Premade Assets
I would love a Lifepath system. I’m struggling with making premades for a future game, and pointing players to a Lifepath system to quickly make their own character would be fantastic.
Sounds amazing! Way to figure out what you want and trim the fat.
Sounds awesome
Nice. This version sounds even better. Especially if it is healthier for you to redo the book this way. I’d rather you be healthy and happy with the product you release to us than one you’re not happy with.
Sounds solid. I’m enjoying reading your working through this, the ups and downs help me with my own dreams of RPG design/hacking/skinning. UW/FBH were so good, so very much worth the price of admission, that everything else is gravy. I’d far rather hear ‘crap, this sucks, this isn’t what I want to make,and I need a new direction, I need to rethink this whole supplement’ than ‘well, there are vague delays’ or just silence. Keep pushing on!
I like what I see.
Suggestion:
In the running the game section, I would like to read some procedures for creating threats, distributing them on the table and some advice on dials to make a combat easier/harder and simpler/more detailed.
Yes!!!!! Sean Gomes this sounds great. Thanks for being open with us about how you are feeling and what you are doing
Lifepath and exploration rules sound awesome. Also gear porn!
Props to you Sean! I’m glad you worked your way through this and found your solution. I’m looking forward to CG and to UW2 whenever it materializes. There are so many exciting things happening with indy games, so, while I’m still playing and enjoying UW, I look forward to see what you come up with next.
This is exactly what i wanted from charta galaxia!
In the combat section, please put some SPACE COMBAT examples. I’d be infinitely grateful.
This seems like a solid layout plan and I at least am excited to dig into some of the new guidance provided by the New Carta Galaxia proposed here!
Andrew Taylor , the Lifepath system probably won’t be faster than regular character creation, just more random/narrative (kinda like a choose your own adventure thing).
For really fast random characters, check out Ben Overmyer’s absolutely stellar Random Character Generator (https://uncharted-worlds.ironarachne.com/). It’s amazing.
uncharted-worlds.ironarachne.com – Uncharted Worlds Character Generator
Sean Gomes have you seen the game Parsec? It’s a fantastic scifi game that feels a lot like Burning Wheel in some regards. It has a fairly interesting lifepath system that might be worth scoping out.
Aaron Griffin Oooh, I’ll look into it. Thanks for the heads up.
Hey Sean Gomes, I know this is your thing, but if you’d ever be interested, I’m a technical writer currently running a UW game who also has aspirations of designing a PbtA hack at some point myself. If you want a collaborator, someone to flesh out text, copy edit, whatever, hmu. Good way to repay having a great system to play in without any prep!