Uncharted Worlds – Page 24 – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

Activity: Make a Class 2 Melee Weapon with the upgrade Specialized [Chemistry]

Specialized

Choose a skill. Lessens/diverts/absorbs some of the consequences of failures.

Sean Gomes Hey Sean — Question regarding factions.

Sean Gomes Hey Sean — Question regarding factions… if I wanted a faction to have a high level of knowledge about a single planet (let’s call them The Librarians) but not a lot of Might, would you see that as reach, or is there perhaps one more category of faction creation called ‘Information’ or some such?

Carta Galaxia Development Update #8

Carta Galaxia Development Update #8

Hello hello! Another week, another update. So lets jump right in.

General Workflow

Over the past few weeks I’ve been hitting a lot of creative walls. While I’ve been picking myself up and trying to plug along, I decided to take a step back and look at my methods and workflow.

Writing a setting is quite different from writing rules (shocking, I know), but I had been applying my old methods to this new challenge. Didn’t work out quite so well. The biggest issue was flipping back and forth between sections to make sure the factions were distinct, well rounded, well defined, etc.

Despite following the same template for writing each faction, I found myself wracking my brain to not repeat myself, of thinking of stuff that would really work well for faction A while working on faction B. Things like that.

So I’ve started a series of documents that are concept-based rather than faction-based. This allows me to easily compare and shift elements around. For example, I just traded the Dai’Rho’s angry mobs out to the Iron Assembly because it fits more and doesn’t have anti-synergy with the whole opiates/pacifying drugs. Instead I saw an opportunity to have a parallel to the Ministry’s infiltrators by giving the Dai’Rho sleeper agents (more in line with the whole brainwashing aspect of the faction).

All in all, it’s going much better, and I feel quite unblocked, creatively. Hopefully I should have more faction stuff very soon.

The Dai’Rho

Speaking of the Dai’Rho, I’ve linked their Faction section down below. Same format as the others.

As I said last update, the Dai’Rho were too much of a good thing in a dystopian society. So they underwent some serious changes and became a lot more sinister, a lot more bombastic in their outlook. They are experts at brainwashing and mindcontrol, especially on a community/social level.

I invite you to take a read if you’ve got the chance. It’s just 4 pages. I’m looking for feedback about the faction itself, plus general stuff about the layout, etc.

What’s Next

Got 3 factions left to do. Probably Tulwar Industries will be next. I’m quite happy with how they’re evolving, they’re really finding their personality, and I look forward to introducing them.

Until then, have a good week folks, and thanks for your continued interest. Keep those conversation topics coming, I love hearing from you guys.

-SG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gs817au2lj70dh4/The%20DaiRho.docx?dl=0

So you have a new colony world.

So you have a new colony world. It’s little over forty-sixty years old. Second or third generation. But you need more than a mule and an acre of land for modern or future colonists. You’ll need entertainment. You’re colony will have an Internet and folks will want something to look at when the robot is done plowing the north forty.

Initially, the colony will be totally dependent on entertainment brought to the colony by supply ships. And depending on various things, those ships might show up once every two to three years. Also, is the colony a “chartered” colony run by the home world, a corporate colony, or an independent?

The first two, there’s an entertainment budget and a committee dedicated to acquiring the latest vids, e-mags, and other forms of entertainment. And they cost money. Depending on the colony size, you’re either buying rebroadcast rights or buying individual copies for everyone in the colony. Neither is cheap, so only those shows that don’t have high ratings, or were popular 10 years ago are affordable. Books and games also have the same problem, though a “digital” library is viable and doesn’t have the problems movies and series have in terms of licensing.

And this happens because “Hollywood” or it’s equivalent, believes that piracy is not possible on the colonies. Like a lot of entertainment executives, they lack imagination.

The most common form of piracy is “intentional inattentiveness”. Independent cargo haulers can get a “theater” license to show the latest movies, and “demo” license to sell digitally signed copies of various series. What happens is that the ship uses a “entertainment” computer to run the projectors and sell legal copies of various shows. And then they purposely leave the computer unattended.

On that computer are “unsigned” copies of the stuff that they are selling. And they have unguarded data ports. One petabyte datastik and you too can have the complete, 5 season run of “My neighbor the Martian” for free. There is a “donation jar” app on the computer, and most folks donate. It’s cheaper than plunking down 250 credits to have the privilege of watching the antics of Bob the Martian.

Carta Galaxia Development Update #7

Carta Galaxia Development Update #7

Howdy folks. Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians.

Some of you may have heard a distant thump last week. That was the sound of me writing myself firmly into a corner. I had a bunch of stuff written for the Dai’Rho and Tulwar factions, but when I reread it, it was just… garbage. Like really no good. The whole thing was bloody messy and not very useful.

So I completely scrapped all that work and went back to the drawing board. Thanks to a couple of writer friends, I was able to re-examine the two factions through a more appropriate lens. Said factions are now more cohesive and considerably less scatter-shot.

However, that means that there won’t be anything in the way of preview material this update. There was more unwriting than there was writing. Such is life.

Hopefully I’ll have more tangible stuff for you guys to sink your teeth into.