Author: Sean Gomes

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

Carta Galaxia – Art Spotlight #5 – “Sheriff”

Yet another awesome Claudia Cangini piece, and another movie poster reference. This one is also a callback to the dinosaur-riding, poncho-wearing robot from the cover of Far Beyond Humanity. As usual, the Art Brief is below.

5 – Sheriff

A riff on the old spaghetti-western style of movie poster, specifically the Sergio Leone poster for “A Few More Dollars”. The piece will be separated into 4 “value layers”: foreground, midground, background, sky.

In the foreground (darkest), left of center, we have the main figure: A robot in a poncho. His torso is covered by the poncho, his legs, right arm, neck and head are visible. His limbs are thin and have obvious wiring, hydraulics, pistons, etc. His head is vaguely oval, and slightly blocky, with an antenna extending from the ear piece. He’s holding an advanced looking plasma pistol by his side, white smoke coming out of the barrel. His pose should be very similar to the “A Few More Dollars” poster, but taking up the left side of the image rather than centered.

The midground (dark grey) is the silhouette of rocks, spiky plants, and a half-buried car tire.

The background (grey) is the silhouette of a space colony. Square, blocky buildings with a massive satellite dish array.

The sky (light-grey/white) just has a large circle sun hanging over the town, and a few wispy clouds.

Carta Galaxia – Art Spotlight #4 – “Reach”

Another wonderful Claudia Cangini piece. This one went through a couple of revisions for scale, placement and such; ended up looking really awesome. I like how the shading elicits juuuuust enough of a double-take to catch what you missed the first time.

4 – Reach

View from inside a complicated machine/computer. In the center is a power core/battery held from above and below by cables. Cables, little lights, pipes, and circuits in the background. From the left, there is an opening, which is the only source of light. An arm is reaching into the machinery from that opening, reaching for the battery. They’re wearing a heavy-duty glove.

In the lower and upper right side, there are hints of an alien creature inside this tight space. A few obviously organic hints of the creatures, like long scythe claws or a spiky, segmented tail. It will mostly be in the dark, the focus will be on the power core and the hand coming from the left.

Carta Galaxia – Art Spotlight #3 – “Forbidden”

Bit of a hiatus, dealing with family stuff and general work overload. But we’re back with another awesome Claudia Cangini piece, along with the Art Brief.

3 – Forbidden

This is a remix/homage of the classic Forbidden Planet poster. Replace the robot with a woman in a bulky power armor suit whose helmet looks like the robot’s dome. She should look like the fainting woman in the cover. Replace the fainting woman with a thin (gender netural) robot. Background/clouds should remain roughly the same. No need for the poster text.

Carta Galaxia – Art Spotlight #2 – “Tactics”

Continuing our series of art spotlights, another piece by Claudia Cangini, plus the Art Brief.

2 – Tactics

A middle-aged, heavy-set black woman wearing the uniform of a galactic navy admiral. She stands tall in a dark command room. There’s a holographic galactic map displayed on a table below her, and she’s pointing at a sector. The admiral is underlit by the light from the table. Various UI elements are holographically highlighting the tip of her finger. Behind her is a circular window and a starfield.

Carta Galaxia – Art Spotlight #1 – “Recharge”

In the Art Spotlight, we’ll take a look at the chapter art for CG (by Claudia Cangini), as well as the artist brief.

1 – Recharge

A young, scrawny woman sits in the foreground in a window frame, looking out at the city in the background. She’s lounging with her back against the side of the window frame, one leg bent. The woman is skinny, and she’s wearing a tanktop and shorts. Her left arm and left (the ones facing the viewer) is missing, and her shoulder and mid-thigh end in cybernetic sockets. She’s holding up a fast-food soda cup with a “re-charging” icon on it.

Her cybernetic arm and leg are hanging from dangling recharge cables on the opposite side of the window. They should look well-used and obviously robotic in nature.

The city in the background is a typical futuristic city scene, oddly shaped skyscrapers, flying cars, cloudy sky, whatever fits in the framing between the young woman and her cybernetics.

Artist: Claudia Cangini

Carta Galaxia Development Update #22

Awesome News: Interior Artist for Carta Galaxia!

I’m very pleased to announce that Claudia Cangini will be doing the art for Carta Galaxia. You may recognize her work from Fate Accelerated, 1001 Nights, The Watch, and so many others.

I’ve been a big fan of her use of shadow and light, patterned textures, and most importantly the diversity of shape, age, and ethnicity that she lends her characters (especially the women). You can bet that I’ve been leveraging those strengths in my artist briefs.

In a couple of days I’ll be revealing the first piece along with the creative brief.

Writing Stuff… or lack there-of

Whuff. Tough couple of weeks on my end, I’m afraid. Rough days at work, coupled with a toddler in the throes of the terrible twos. Not much to show, writing-wise. I’m hoping things will pick up soon. Maybe as we warm up into spring and I start getting more sunlight.

-SG