Category: Uncharted Worlds

Far Beyond Humanity Origins

Day 5 – Forlorn

We round out our new Origins with the Forlorn, a very popular trope indeed. DS9s Odo, the Doctor from Doctor Who, Cale of Titan AE, and so many, many more.

This origin’s unique skill is the one that plays the most into the social behavior aspect of these stat-replacement skills. While the consequences will always have a social element, it also has the potential to cause some real drama between protagonists as well.

The cross-class skills center around a character who moved around a lot, someone who wasn’t tied down to a place or a culture.

There’s a lot of defiance in this origin… but a lot of loneliness too.

Side note: it’s bloody hard to come up with icons for all these origins and careers.

So that’s it for Origins! Coming soon: A first look at Species, a new character creation step.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wl2ne58lhuu3xn3/Origin%20-%20Forlorn.pdf?dl=0

Far Beyond Humanity Origins

Day 4 – Occult

This is an odd Origin, in that it fills a hole in the design-space without having any recognizable/popular sci-fi parallels. It goes one step further into the supernatural than the Spiritual Origin, and adds a mix of generically pseudo-pagan-witchcraft mysticism.

In addition to the Warhammer 40k-ish “dark galaxy” style, this Origin serves Magitech / Magipunk style games as well. For example, all the kids from both Hogwarts and Xavier’s School for Metahumans fall into this category (which is why I put in that line about “prestigious mystic academies”).

You may note that the unique Skill has the same name as one of the Chosen skills. Not a typo! I’ve removed the skill-formerly-known-as-Ritual from the Chosen career, and will be replacing it (it was pointed out that the old Ritual was a so-so version of the way Pact would work. Huzzah for good feedback!)

The implementation of this unique was a bit tricky, in that I tried not to dictate the behavior too heavily. My worry is that in practice it will be very “swingy” (either too easy to activate or too dangerous to bother). Will need to playtest.

The cross-class Skills are a smattering from the more magically inclined careers. I’m quite happy with the fact that the unique and cross-class skills all have a very physical, manual component to them.

Tomorrow: The Forlorn

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7eu7e0ofe6f5a7p/Origin%20-%20Occult.pdf?dl=0

Far Beyond Humanity Origins

Day 3 – Programmed

(I know I originally called this the Indoctrinated Origin, but that was too much of a mouthful).

This Origin comes from a LOT of different sources, and is a super common sci-fi trope. Basically, all the bad-ass sleeper-agents and living-weapons, from Jason Bourne of the Bourne series, to River Tam in Firefly, to Talia Winters in Babylon 5.

As a side note, this Origin allows for plant creatures, hive-mind insects etc. More importantly, it allows for more tightly controlled AI and Robotic species.

The Unique skill is probably the most GM-facing of all the stat-replacements. While the other 4 skills give direction as to the consequences, this one allows a small amount of control over the character directly.

The cross-class skills are pretty self explanatory. Still love Obsession, and in this case, it’s not even your obsession, it’s theirs (“they” being the ones that programmed the Obsession).

Tomorrow: The Occult

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ih3dudn5pemqj53/Origin%20-%20Programmed.pdf?dl=0

Far Beyond Humanity Origins

Day 2 – Spiritual

So! Our second Origin. This one follows some of the generically spiritual not-quite-denominational tropes of sci-fi, with vague allusions to Zen Buddhism, monastic Christianity/Jesuits, with sprinklings of Hinduism, Animism and so forth. Babylon 5’s G’Kar was an important inspiration here.

This Origin’s unique skill was interesting to word. I had a lot of variations revolving about ‘wisdom’, and yet they seemed too vague. I’m quite happy with the idea of “forcing” an aphorism out of someone. “A single pebble may cause a landslide, but a single pebble cannot stop one.” kinda thing.

The other skills are pretty self-explanatory. I’m happy Pact is made available outside of the Chosen career, I really like the design. Also note that I’m still offering original UW skills as cross-class skills (Inspiration).

Tomorrow: The Indoctrinated

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mswqrz84smez574/Origin%20-%20Spiritual.pdf?dl=0

Far Beyond Humanity Origins

Day 1 – Primal

The Primal career falls somewhere between the Brutal and the Frontieer, tone-wise. I wanted something that played to brutish and low-tech without being the stupid “metal fish go to dark not-ground” trope. A big inspiration was the Catachan and Orks from WH40k, the Weren from Alternity, Wookies from Starwars, etc.

Navigating the design of this Origin was tricky, and I still worry I fell into an unconcious trope or stereotype. So much fiction is filled with gross colonial racism regarding the “noble savage” that it’s become ingraned. When creating a “barbarian” origin, I can’t help but call upon the images of Conan or Tarzan, despite how ugly and problematic they are as representations. I’m hoping socially aware community members will call me on any subconcious biases that manifest.

The unique Origin skill is a new direction. Previously all the Origin uniques were +Stat. For FBH, I toyed with stat replacement. It’s a tricky balance. Without limits, it’s way better than +Stat, meaning anything from a +1 to a +3 depending on the stat you’re replacing. Too many limitations makes the skill Not Fun.

I ended up going with a narrative limitation/direction, to create an expectation for when the skill could reasonably be used. I also added a strong suggestion as to the secondary effects of using that replacement, as a guideline for the GM. Each of FBH’s 5 careers will have a stat-replacement skill like this, but I’ve got my eye on them in upcoming playtests, they feel dangerous.

Launch being a cross-career skill available here was interesting, and shows that the source of a skill can affect the skills fiction, even if they are mechanically identical. A Kinetic character will psionically propell an object, but a Primal character will just chuck a scooter at someone’s head.

I’m still on the fence about having Transform in there. The druidic/shamanism aspect of it are fairly clear, but it might not be the best fit.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bslvjbzwcaksifp/Origin%20-%20Primal.pdf?dl=0