Definitely worth thinking about further, but just gut instinct, Control/Confront seems like a pretty good way to get at that vibe of dogfighting, trying to fly around targets and get into position long enough to line up a shot, etc., so I think it seems promising for sure!
Designing Uncharted Worlds 2nd Edition
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You could look at the workspaces for inspiration for cool things ships can do.
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Minor update/thoughts.
āPlanet of the Weekā. Thatās where I feel UWās strengths may lie. Iāve always designed with a semi-episodic structure in mind, and the evolved āCramped Quartersā downtime move, the mission statement of āfreedom out among the starsā, the concept of Burdensā¦ they all lead me to a planet-hopping loop.
Arrive -> Do Stuff -> Earn Resources/Eliminate Burdens -> Move to a new planet -> Repeat.
Getting resources keeps you in the air, eliminating burdens keeps you from being tied down.
Itās kinda obvious in retrospect but I felt it needed to be stated as a reminder, alongside the core mission. It will inform what is important going forward, for sure. Simple rules for designing interesting new planets, for example.
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One reservation I have about Planet of the Week ( and perhaps this is the legacy of being more of a Babylon 5 fan than a Star Trek one ) is that the style of play that I tend to favour is one where you get to revisit some places and build relationships with NPCs in those locations. I find that a more interesting way to tell a story than constantly moving forward onto new and different worlds.
A way to support that might be to have something to support the principle of some kind of core world or station that makes a good trading hub, so your PCs have somewhere to come home to. This might also provide a location where good quality repairs are available and traders in more esoteric goods are likely to congregate. Going off on wild adventures around new and sparsely populated worlds but coming home every few sessions to catch up with old friends and patch up the ship is a more interesting gameplay cycle from my point of view. Also having somewhere that feels like home gives another way to raise the stakes by putting it under threat.
Of course my experience is far from universal, but I suspect this mode of play might be something other people enjoy too.
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This is a good point. The proposed workflow can certainly still work with your style of play. In fact, I think including only a limited number of pervasive factions would help reinforce thisā¦as opposed to a new faction on every planet
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This is a very good point, but Iām trying to see how it squares up with the idea of freedom and moving on.
Spitball Design: Safe Haven
The Safe Haven is a locale the heroes can return to between missions. It acts as a hub; a secure spot to rest, resupply, meet old friends, or gather new contracts. It can be anything; a bustling trade station, a corporate hive-city, a hardscrabble mining colony, a pirate haven. As long as itās a couple of Jumps away.
Record the number of times the crew visits a particular Safe Haven in the Burdens track. Whenever the heroes land at a Safe Haven, roll a d6. If the roll is lower than the number of visits, the Safe Haven has changed in a major way, and is probably no longer safe. Maybe there was a war, or a famine, or a plague, or an environmental disaster. Maybe a faction hostile to the heroes moved in, and claimed it as their turf. Maybe the prospects dried up, or the last of their old friends moved away, leaving only strangers.
The heroes can move on to a new part of space, and seek out a new Safe Haven (and new nearby planets to explore). If they do, erase this fallen Haven from their Burdens. Otherwise, the heroes can try to restore or improve the lot of this Haven. In doing so, they are tying themselves to this place, perhaps permanently.
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Thatās very much the kind of thing Iām thinking of- I think that the contrast between freedom and ties of friendship and loyalty in a specific place is interesting. Having the opportunity for an Anchor Station makes the game more flexible in terms of telling some different stories for very little extra effort.
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In addtion to that, anything that keeps the PCs from murderhobo planet hopping (like intra-galactic factions) is a good thing!
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Ugh. So. Yeah. Iām afraid Iāve been going through some Stuffā¢ and Iāve gone back and forth on a lot of core elements. Fortunately my writings are digital and backed up on the cloud, so I havenāt lit them on fire, but lets just say that I have a certain amount of anger/frustration towards the product at the moment.
For example, the Harm system I posted? Completely scrapped. It sucks. Even the core moves are being revised again. I want to build the best foundation possible for this, but I keep running into gribbly-bits I donāt like. Iām striving for depth, but end up creating complexity. I strive for elegance, but end up limiting player freedom.
Basically Iām at an all-time low as far as self-confidence and motivation are concerned. Iāve finally started anti-depressants and therapy, and Iām working towards better self care. But it might take some time.
I appreciate you asking after the project. I really do. Maybe during the holidays I can knock something together.
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If it was easy, I would be trying to build an off brand UW 2! This exact trouble with game design (and writing for that matter) are why I have never published anything. You are far from alone in having that trouble of over-complicating ideas.
Meanwhile, your post-hoc assessment was so dead-on and honest that I donāt think anyone could design UW 2 better than you!
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Man, you made one of my top 5 PbtA games. Itās hard to follow that, but whatever you do, I fully trust ya
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I 
you guys. Truly. You made my day.
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The discussion has been great, and I canāt wait to see what you actually come up with. Have you playtested any of this new design to see how it works in play?
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Itās funny, I have a regular gaming crew and I asked the question: the multiverse is collapsing and you get any one character weāve played together to try and stop it - who do you choose?
Two of us chose characters from our UW run, and then we reminisced about that game a bit. There were some really high points in that game, and they wasnāt just cool freeform things related to the fiction at the time like you often see - itās one of the few games where the rules were mostly what made it happen.
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I feel you there, brother!
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Things have been going well. Meds have apparently kicked in, and designs that seemed hopelessly terrible arenāt so bad anymore.
While Iām still working on Harm rules (almost done!), I took an opportunity to scribble down a preliminary design for two other systems: Assist and Opinion. theyāre pretty closely linked, so I had to create them together.
Assist
When you establish that you are providing support to another characterās action, wait until they Roll, then roll 1d6.
- The character may choose to replace the result of either of their Rollās dice with the dice you rolled. If they do, they increase their Opinion of you.
- If you roll a 1 on your single dice, you have hindered them and they MUST replace their highest dice with that 1. They reduce their Opinion of you.
Opinion
Each character starts with an Opinion of each other character, expressed as five boxes, the other characterās name, and the opinion of that character. At the start of the game, each Opinion can be chosen from a neutral set, or rolled randomly.
Events during play add + (āincreaseā) or - (āreduceā) to the empty boxes, such as Assists, certain Skills, or spending Downtime together.
When all five boxes are filled, erase the boxes and the opinion. If there were more positive boxes, write a new, more positive opinion. If there were more negative boxes, write a new, more negative opinion.
Template:
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] - [Character Name] is [Opinion]
Examples:
[+][ ][ ][ ][ ] - Abunda is a trusted friend
[ā][ā][+][ ][ ] - Skyran is a huge jackass
[+][ā][ ][ ][ ] - Okoro is going to get us all killed
I have! Quite a few playtests with my regular gaming crew (same folks who were instrumental in testing UW1). As soon as I get an MVP (minimum viable product) together, Iām going to broaden my playtesting range, hopefully run a few conventions, maybe look for testers here on the Gauntlet, etc.
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Iām so glad to hear the meds are helping and that youāve gone back to designing.
I like the idea behind the opinion mechanic and will be curious to hear how it plays. For assist, Iād recommend a tweak in the wording: āWhen you say howā instead of āWhen you establish thatā¦ā This makes it clear that they have to say how they would assist in the fiction.
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I dig how the opinion thing works, but the explanation feels a little round-about. Not sure I have any good suggestions as to how to fix it. But I do like it a lot!
On Opinions, Iām wondering as you get +ās or -ās do you re-roll on the table? Also must the Opinions come from the table or can the player make them up in collaboration with GM?
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