- Scapegoat seems ripe for abuse. Probably be better to make it an +Ing roll triggered by a 6-, rather than an automatic successNote that it's the GM that chooses who your potential new targets are, and the player has to choose one from among them. In a game where the crew is your (dysfunctional) family and everyone has a faction behind them, inelegant use of this skill will trade short term ass-saving for long-term trouble. That said, it'll be something to keep an eye on in play.
- You get followers, you get followers, you get followers! EVERYBODY GETS FOLLOWERS! When one person can roll up 12 followers, you've got the makings of a bookkeeping nightmare and a huge ensemble cast. I would at least make the followers skill only takable once.Actually that's a conscious design decision. I wanted to capture the gang/holding mechanics from Apocalypse World, which I feel were missing from Dungeon World. It plays heavily into the idea of "crew as family", and gives a lot more opportunities for PC-NPC-PC relationships. Having people bound to your through duty or employment fits a number of the Principles of the game.
- With your current very strict debt/favor mechanic, "Investments" seems way overpowered. Get an additional +3 favor when most others get only 1 +1, and replace a crushing, inescapable debt with one that can be worked off fairly easily? Win.Duly noted. Tweaking is undoubtedly in order
- On the same idea, equalize Authority/Diplomacy. Either +/-3 or +/-2 would work, but +4 favor means you can ask for about anything and get it without penalty. That should have a bit of cost.Note that even on a 10+ with Acquisition, you still gain Debt. So far the only way to not gain Debt to someone on an Acquisition is to be a Criminal, Roll 10+ on your crime, and then roll 10+ on your Acquisition.
-Ice Cold doesn't make any sense without +cool. I'd replace Mettle with Ingenuity and call it something like "schemer."Hm, true. That definitely is a throwback to when Hot was the primary interaction stat. I'll look at "Outwit" or "Scheme" as a stat replacement, I just have to make sure there's an even distribution of stat replacements.
-Why does changing a melee weapon into an energy weapon add +Reload, but turning a missile weapon into an energy/laser weapon remove -Reload?Laser ranged weapons have high-capacity batteries that you can fire hundreds of times before losing their charge, and can be easily plugged in to recharge. They don't have physical projectiles that need to be reloaded. While it's possible they may run out of charge during a prolonged fight (as a result of a 7-9 or 6-), they don't need to be reloaded regularly.
-What does 2x Loud do? (Pistol/Rifle+explosive)It's very, very loud. Like really loud.
So, in short, we had a fuckin' blast with it. I think a large part of it for the group was just being able to play something that wasn't DnD, and particularly something that was kind of Firefly-ish.
We had:
An Artificial Military/Personality who was a mercenary with a Squad, who was the original owner of the ship itself.
An Artificial Scoundrel/Cybernetic on the run from the Imperial Navy R&D project that created him.
And a Spacer Clandestine/Starfarer, who was a little more amorphous, but had a background with the Silver Syndicate, a galactic trade cartel/migrant fleet. Kind of a schmoozer and a blockade runner, the kind of guy who can talk his way past a roadblock or a star-system interdiction with equal ease.
We kind of skimmed over the crunchy mechanics of the ship and stuck to the feel of it. Ship-to-ship combat was avoided when the Captain used his Gadget for a decoy system and maxed his Avert Disaster roll, thus escaping the Imperial Naval Intelligence ship that was trying to run them down. Looking back, I probably would have made him take a debt and then fight a boarding action; he should have won it easily, since the Agents wouldn't have been expecting six highly trained Marines and a couple of supersoldiers to be their adversaries.
Character creation took about two hours between three players, which I didn't find surprising since we were handing off between two computers and two of the guys had never played an AW type game. That done, we spent at least as long on actual gameplay, in which we did a lot of world-building and fleshing out of our characters.
This was my third time GMing, and the first two were using straight AW. Third time was the charm for a successful and fun session on my watch, since the last two kind of flopped due to group chemistry and some lack of understanding on everyone's part. I think it might be the comparability of settings; when you compare AW to Mad Max, people look for the Humongous or Barter Town. When you say Firefly and Mass Effect, people want to walk around, meet people, and pull of a heist or two.
Seeing as how it was my third game ever as a GM, it was nice for my players, instead of asking what other systems I could pitch, to say "We're doing this again next week, right?" Really glad I went with this over the FFG Rogue Trader.
tl;dr It's solid, newb friendly, just needs the finishing touches put on it. Character advancement, ships and ship combat, and a sheet is all it needs. Moves need a few tweaks, or maybe some adds. There's no equivalent to either Go Aggro or Seize By Force, which my players needed a few times. Also, maybe an Interrogate move? But as I said, there's no reason it can't be played as is, unless you really need the stats on that ship.
0.5.4 Changelist
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From a purely visual standpoint, I like the Origin cards, but it would be fantastic if you repeated the origin blurb on each. Speaking as a GM who runs a lot at Cons, that would be handy for quickee character generation.
EDIT - Nevermind. I realized you'd put the pages under CC licensing, so I went ahead and redid the Origin cards, which are here (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1gbLqXS723cbnFPWEJud1JjSzg/edit?usp=sharing). I could see using Uncharted Worlds for a convention sci-fi horror game I'd created years ago under another system -- I'd already had homeworld and profession separated, this just continues and expands that idea.
I should port the convention scenario to UW and release it under CC licensing so that others can benefit.
EDIT2 - The way I'd use the cards is to print the Origins and Professions on differently-colored paper, cut them out, and then allow players to mix and match.
How are finding the harm rules work? I'm very interested in whether the various injuries types are compelling enough.So far the injuries have been a great boon for myself as a GM to raise the stakes. I had a character who took a pretty big fall, and ended up with a mangled arm and bleeding wound in his helmet. From that point on, he was forced to Face Adversity for a couple of pivotal actions; Once using Physique to overcome the pain of his twisted arm to climb a ladder (partial success; ended up tearing more muscles and doing further damage. Hope he has enough Favor to request a surgeon). The other using Mettle, to take a shot with his pistol despite the blood that was leaking from his forehead into his eye. In this way, the injuries play like the Fate System's 'Tags'; something to compel at just the right (i.e.: most disastrous) moment.
Also, how does enemy armor or shields play out, or other force disparities? As written, I don't see anything that would account for that. I seem to be just as likely to "take out" a heavily armored foe with a stick as I am to take out a nekked dude with a las cannon.In theory, yes. This is my "16 hp dragon"; there's a very nice article about how in Dungeon World, the dragon only has 16 hp; in theory it could get one-shot by a level 1 character with a lucky hit. BUT what's important is not its stats, but the puzzle and danger and unapproachable aura it has. Just because they can mechanically, doesn't mean they should be able to narratively. In the same way in Uncharted Worlds, armor on enemies is a purely narrative convention. It's there to add color, and/or to add an extra component to the "puzzle" of overcoming the current situation. If a player would go after a Titan Suit -wearing space marine with a stick, he wouldn't roll anything; there's no way he's going to succeed. What does he think he is, an Ewok? In more questionable situations (conventional weapons vs heavy armor, or enemies with superior cover, etc), my question would be "how are you overcoming their armor?" or "they're really well entrenched behind cover, how are you going to get a good shot at them?".
Another observation/question: both of your basic moves for violence work like this...
Roll +stat. On 10+ succeed but pick 1; 7-9 succeed if you let the GM pick 2.
- There are a number of surviving enemies
- The attack causes unwanted collateral damage
- Your side suffers harm during the attack
- Your side ends up in a dangerous/costly position
Overall I really like this, but I'm concerned that there's never any "clean" success. Say it's just me and another guy in a gun fight on the ship. I can never just take him out, right? On a 10+, I have to pick something. So I either pick "there are a number of surviving enemies" (meaning he's still up and--I assume--fighting) or one of the other options that escalates the situation. I roll 10+ again, same situation. Etc., etc. The fight can't end unless I accept some cost or escalation.
How does that work in play? Is that what you want?
Another observation/question: both of your basic moves for violence work like this...
Roll +stat. On 10+ succeed but pick 1; 7-9 succeed if you let the GM pick 2.
- There are a number of surviving enemies
- The attack causes unwanted collateral damage
- Your side suffers harm during the attack
- Your side ends up in a dangerous/costly position
Overall I really like this, but I'm concerned that there's never any "clean" success. Say it's just me and another guy in a gun fight on the ship. I can never just take him out, right?
This is almost what I was looking for - sci-fi powered by the apocalypse. I really like what you've written... but for me personally I was hoping for a core system more similar to Dungeon World. That said, I really like the way your character creation works.
I was working on a hack of my own for a science-fiction Dungeon World (as opposed to a sci-fi AW) but I didn't make it quite as far as you did. Would it be in bad taste if I borrowed some of your excellent work to use in my own?
Hey, I just posted my space opera hack here in the brainstorming & development board. Comparing our two hacks, there's a lot in common but (gah!) you beat me to the punch. Still, I'm happy to mix sauces if you see something cool and want to snag it from me--I'm definitely gonna keep a close eye on yours.
If folks have the chance, I invite any of you to give the rules a read-through; I'd sincerely appreciate any and all feedback, suggestions or questions. I'll be popping in regularly to answer any queries while I prepare myself for the next phase of development (seriously, it surprises me just how much anxiety the whole Kickstarter/publishing causes me. If anyone has any experience or advice about <i>that</i>...)
Basic Moves
- Get Involved-move: Though I understand the idea Baker has with the change of order of things I really don't like this approach where help only comes in after you fail. My main reasoning behind this is "the feeling". It just doesn't seem right. When someone helps you they are tied to your result. But if you help them only after they have already failed, they become tied in to your result. This is really just a matter of opinion though.
- Assessment-move: Someone pointed out to me that players really like the lists of questions they may ask. It also helps you to build in the feeling you might want to enhance in a hack.
- Patch up-move: You might want to consider giving a more precise amount of time than "a moment" or remove this part. "you’ve reached the limit of what you can do" reads more like a partial success than allowing the character to try again after eating a Snickers.
- You have given each stat one basic move but this removes the option for players to influence other characters. Command-move targets a group of people so RAW it cannot be directed against other characters. As you have established that the characters area dysfunctional family I would expect the players to search ways to manipulate each other and gain power position by influence. Is this considered to be a Face Adversity-move? If so you should probably indicate it somehow.
Backgrounds
- The Criminal-move from Poverty-background allows you to gain a favor from a criminal faction. Though this is simple to establish given the description of the factions have you considered [tag]s for the factions? Something like "choose a faction and give it 2 tags from the following list".
- You raised a point of Artificial background being problematic. How about replacing it with Transhuman background? Something like Eclipse Phase and various scifi-books offer. Possible moves could include "at the beginning of session re-arrange your stats (a stock of clone bodies you could install your mind into), changing skills on the fly (maybe giving some major drawbacks with them like treating 10+ as 7-9 etc.).
- Frontier-background: Tenacious-move is pure gold but Toughness is a bit over the top in comparison to moves from other backgrounds.
- High Tech-background: Please, pretty please, do not use the word "slot" in Techonphile-move. With Calibrations-move I would re-consider this kind of "auto-success". How about allowing to re-roll any failed check (the second roll stands). Artificial intelligence -move " 2-4 word description of its personality" is a bit restricting. Maybe removing the constrains or offering a list for the players to choose from.
Other stuff
- Heroes of Might and Magic 4 had a cool table of classes (http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes4/heroclasses.shtml) depending on the skills your characters starts with. As you are considering Kickstarting this hack it might be a good idea to include something similar as an optional rule. It would allow those who want to get playing asap to simply pick up a cool sounding career and check what background they would need to become one. This would also allow you to add a complete (maybe optional/additional) list of moves that would be specific for that particular mix of background careers. (FYI I'm already considering of writing this kind of table.)
- A pdf with drop-down menus for each skill and background option would come in superhandy.
I'll pick up my commenting from the careers and carry on when I have the time.
Thanks for a great hack!