Category: Uncharted Worlds: Discussion

Ladies and gentlemen, I am excited to announce that the Uncharted Worlds Kickstarter is now live. Thank you all for your support, and please feel free to repost, reblog and share the news in your gaming communities and to anyone who you think might be interested in supporting an indie roleplaying game. Together we can make this an awesome product.

Thank you all!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/278368114/uncharted-worlds-a-space-opera-roleplaying-game

Behold! Sector 05 – Habitation. Aka Character creation.

Barring minor alterations to individual skills, this should be it for this chapter. Check it out, run character creation for yourself, try to find some cool or wacky combinations.

Also, as a fun exercise, my regular playtest group would roll 1d10 3 times, rolling for origin-career-career and then trying to come up with an appropriate sci-fi archetype that fits that combination and/or an interesting skill interaction. It was a great viability test; never had a roll that was unworkable, and really allowed them to step outside the bounds they were comfortable with. Give it a shot, if you have a spare moment.

Moving on to Sector 06 – Marketplace. Gotta equip those newly minted characters!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4ky16XZasoPaFUwelpyX2lLZkk/view?usp=sharing

And finally, the last (but certainly not least) career, the Technocrat.

Those of you who tried out versions 0.83 and before might notice that the ‘Access’ basic move went through a very recent major update, allowing me to overhaul the Technocrat (which was already the newest career). Much more satisfied with the interplay of the skills with other careers in this version.

Side thought: It’s amazing how we take technology for granted. If sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, then sufficiently widespread technology is indistinguishable from the mundane (he wrote, creating electronic signals across the breadth of a planet by touching his fingers to squares of shaped organic polymer).

Tomorrow, a special treat: Chapter 5: Character Creation in its entirety. Step by step character creation rules, full 10 careers and 10 origins.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4ky16XZasoPeV9JaFJMaUtTN28/view?usp=sharing

Captain’s log: The Starfarer (career #9)

The Starfarer and Explorer were always mirrored classes, thematically, between frontier and core worlds, between land and space. This can be seen in the parallels between Cosmopolitan and Reconnaissance, and between Custom Vehicle and Custom Flyer. To a lesser extent, Calibrations and Recklessness are also opposites, though they’ve diverged mechanically.

Also: Yes. Calibrations. I’m sure that reference will age well.

Tomorrow: The final class, the Technocrat.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4ky16XZasoPWWxhVjFDRkZMUkk/view?usp=sharing

The dastardly Scoundrel is our 8th career. The overlap between this and Clandestine made for some interesting back-and-forth, to ensure the separation of style and intent between the two designs. That said, the Sneak Attack move remained with the otherwise non-lethal Scoundrel (as opposed to the very lethal Clandestine) was an aesthetic choice of sorts; it fulfills the Rogue analogue, and I couldn’t help but put in a cheesy Star Wars reference. I mean, really, it’s a scoundrel, there’s an ability that lets you shoot first. How could I not?

The Addict move is one of the newest skills to be introduced, and I’m still scrutinizing it. I’ve avoided flat +1s and -1s for the most part (because they’re usually boring), but the narrative gain is quite high here, from a story perspective, a characterization perspective, and for the sheer number of hooks the GM can get into the player.

Tomorrow: The far-travelling voyages of the Starfarer.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4ky16XZasoPM211R2JYSXl1ZnM/view?usp=sharing

On to the Personality career (#7 of 10). In earlier iterations, this career was the only source of social-based skills. The other careers have picked up the slack somewhat, but a ‘career/Personality’ is still the best way to have an influential, interaction-oriented character.

A lot of reworking went into the current skills; I had to make the decision whether to make them “rules air-tight” but long winded, or to make them succinct but open to interpretation. I opted for the latter.

Tomorrow! The villainous, scruffy Scoundrel.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4ky16XZasoPUG5kclJnWlhJSkk/view?usp=sharing

The Military career is our 6th reveal. The Military is one of the careers that has changed the least in the iterations of the rules. Aside from updating and refining the language/template of the skills, the main design and thrust of the career crystallized early on.

I tried to play up the command and control elements of the career to give it wider appeal to less-than-obvious career combinations. That said, this is a career that will attract a certain kind of player above others, and I’m ok with that.

Also, I dread to think of the aberrations that will be created by a Military Industrial character with Unique Weapon and Upgrade. A Class 4 weapon. One shudders at the possibilities for inventive destruction.

Tomorrow, for all you Faces out there, the Personality career.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4ky16XZasoPbXBobVlKOFBSWU0/view?usp=sharing

The 5th career is the Industrial. The way this career evolved during development, almost all of its skills ended up being “modal” (choose one from a list). I’m not unhappy with that, because it feels very “engineer-y” to have the choice of a lot of different customization and tweaks. That said, taken all together the skills can seem a bit overwhelming in the sheer number of choices.

Tomorrow, the Military career.

(Also for some reason my Word has been publishing PDFs weirdly since yesterday, no idea why)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4ky16XZasoPT2l4TlFfNUlXTFU/view?usp=sharing