Uncharted Worlds 2nd Edition - Alpha

#61

Hi,
I bought the first Edition at Montreal Comiccon a couple years ago, and only in the last months started to look into it. I just finished a Savage Worlds campaign, based in the Halo universe. I like a good crunch side to my games, and I have to say, your game looks like a great balance. I never felt at home with the Apocalypse world clocks, so not any, made me quite happy. I’m eager to see the road you take with the 2nd edition. So far, I like what I see.

My next campaign will be running on a hybrid of first and second edition. I’ll keep you posted on any bug and stuff I would like to see.

Thank you for your great work and have a good day.

-Philippe

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#62

Welcome to the community @Philippe_Racine - I ran sessions with @SeanGomes work in progress and we had a great time.

#63

Hi folks. Very brief announcement that development is on hold for now, due to family-medical-stuff that has left me utterly drained of motivation and energy (f*ck cancer! ugh)

@Philippe_Racine Ah, salut, bienvenu! Je me demandais honetement si quelq’un de Montreal jouait au jeu apres les ComicCon. 'Scuse que t’est pas tombé sur un bon moment pour moi, mais quand les choses vont se calmer je serais la pour en parler plus.

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#64

Look after yourself and those who matter @SeanGomes - we’ll see you when we can.

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#65

Québec en fait :stuck_out_tongue:

Prend surtout soin de toi. Pour avoir vécu une situation similaire dernièrement, je peux comprendre à quel point c’est de la marde. Y a aucune presse, et sache que tu as du support.

Je vais avoir bien hâte que tu nous revienne en force! Entre temps, je vais profiter de ta première édition, de la alpha et faire du homebrew :wink:

À bientôt! :slight_smile:

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#66

Prayers and best wishes @SeanGomes!!

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#67

Hi everyone!

I’m looking around and can’t find it, so I’ll ask the forum crowd. Are there 2e Character/Ship Sheets? I’m looking forward to DMing 2e, but I can’t find those and they would be quite handy.

Thanks a lot and have a great day!

#68

pinging @Alun_R who has 2e playtesting material (I think).

#69

Everything that Sean currently has is in the link at the top of this thread.
There’s nothing much on ships so far and I don’t think there’s a paper character sheet.
Here’s the link to the online character keeper I used for a playtest, if it’s any use to you:

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#70

It’s definitely something I could make use of/inspire myself of. There are a couple of useful ideas here :slight_smile: Thanks for sharing!

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#71

Ah shit! I’m sorry to see this. I hope that the treatments are going as well as can be expected. F*ck cancer! More prayers and best wishes. The nice thing about this sort of project is it will still be here when you are ready to get back to it.

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#72

Hi folks. Quick update. Sadly, things have been rather down lately. My mom’s year-long bout with cancer is at an end. Long weeks at the hospital, staying overnight at her bedside. Then came the funeral arrangements and family gatherings. And soon the estate, government, and bank stuff. It’s been… exhausting.

Ironically, those long nights in hospital afforded me a bit of time to write, to get my mind off stuff. It was all rather disjointed, notes-to-self and random snippets, but it passed the time and gave me something to occupy my mind.

One big thing that I’ve been yearning to finalize are the Core Moves (Face Adversity and Seek Opportunity).

I’ve got a new pdf here for you to check out, if you have a chance. There’s a bunch of random new stuff in there (the Academic and Commercial career Moves have changed, for example) but the most important part is the Moves section, starting on page 51.

If I could ask a big favor, could you folks give it a read and tell me if it “scans”, if it makes sense as guidance for how to resolve those Moves? I’d appreciate it.

+++ PDF - UNCHARTED WORLDS 2 - v0.72 +++

Thank you all for your continued interest in UW2 by the way. Hopefully things will calm down in the coming months, and I’ll be able to finish writing. I think I’m close to flipping that switch from Design to Writing.

-SG

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#73

@SeanGomes So sorry to hear about your mother! My father passed away back in Aug 2014. It was a rough time and he was home for the last week or so. I don’t think exhausting begins to cover it. Prayers and/or best wishes!!

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#74

Condolences, @SeanGomes.

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#75

I Hope you’re taking some time for yourself.

I took a kick read at your new version and I love the “Less is more” approache. The moves are easier to reference and understand and the options are clear. The Core moves seem universal (have not tested them yet).

I think you did the right thing with regards to the Wealth tiers. The idea was interesting, but really gave a different vibe than what you’re trying to accomplish.

I also appreciate the Core move explanation at the end.

I’m still not sure about the use of Creds vs Acquisition Roll of the first edition. Creds bring some simplicity, without having to make new rules for acquiring stuff/in bulk/how many times can you try to acquire. But the fact that Acquisitions were more vague gave it a narrative feel.

Have fun and take care. :slight_smile:

-Philippe

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#76

No pressure @SeanGomes…I just was thinking of sci-fi rpgs I’d like to play this year and UW 2nd ed. Then, I was thinking…I hope you are doing better.

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#77

@SeanGomes , just learned about UW 2 after I looked something up for the original. UW grew to become my most favorite Sci-Fi system over the years, and I have converted some players to it from more complex or even traditional Sci-Fi systems. There is just something both simple, refreshing, and compelling about the system that makes it work very well for the kind of play I am looking for.

I registered on these forums to send you my best wishes: I hope things have been a bit easier for you with time, at the very least. I hope things have calmed down and you have been able to regain a bit of your groove.

If there is any way to support you, what you do, and the project, please do share. I would be more than happy to chip in to your Patreon or “buy you a coffee” to support you in your future endeavors.

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#78

Hopefully @SeanGomes will be able to return to designing UW2e some day soon, and another home for development of this game will be found. Lots of good game design insights are to be found in this thread (as well as its original)!

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#79

Hi folks. It’s been a while. I’m afraid I’m not very good with social media (god how I miss G+). I’m kinda eyeing Mastadon but I also feel too old and tired to throw myself into yet another social platform. (Anyone here on Mastadon?)

Firstly, to those who have posted here in the past couple of years: Thank you. I can’t emphasize it enough. Thank you. I appreciate all your kind words, your polite inquiries, your condolences, your understanding. From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate you.

Secondly: How things are going. More good days, fewer bad ones, emotionally. Still some rough patches. Career’s going well, I’m now a Director of Animation in the video game industry, which has been very rewarding and enjoyable (though it has eaten up a LOT of my time).

Thirdly: Uncharted Worlds 2. I’ve done a lot of thinking about UW2. Thinking about how it fits into the modern ttrpg space, what value it brings, who it’s for, how I can innovate or bring something new, how I can uphold what folks liked about the original, and so forth. I’ve kinda poked and prodded the design, but I’ve honestly been unable to really commit to a plan of action, and of late I’ve been taking steps back to look at the bigger picture.

It’s been almost 9 years since I started writing the original (9 years! Almost a decade! My 8-year-old son wasn’t even born yet!). Things have moved on, and there’s so much interesting design in the ttrpg space (for example, Scum and Villainy seems to be handily dominating the Space Opera genre, so I’d have to offer a unique experience or flavor to be worth people’s time).

I think I’m ready to start writing out my musings in the days ahead, to help me organize my thoughts and see if you folk have any opinions, perspectives, or experiences that could help bring things back into focus. I want UW2 to exist, I just don’t quite know how to get there yet.

Again, thank you all for your interest. It makes me glad you guys have been enjoying the game. I’ll write more soon, I promise.

EDIT: I did NOT see the announcement that the Gauntlet was closing. Well then. /sad trombone

-SG

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#80

When returning to UW2, I ended up taking a pretty big step back from my previous designs. I wanted to see if I could approach the same vibe, but questioning the mechanics and systems behind it. Interestingly, the further I strayed from the original design, the more I questioned certain mechanics, the more I started to get an uneasy “but is this Uncharted Worlds” feeling.

After multiple iterations, I ended up circling back to a lot of the design decisions that I made originally. Partly because they were indeed the more elegant/simple way of handling things, partly because massive overhauls felt like change for the sake of change, and partly because certain elements were central to the UW that folks enjoyed.

That said, one thing I am doing is changing the dice. I’ll give you all a moment to collectively gasp.

The old 2d6: 6- | 7-9 | 10+ has served many a story game well, but the range limited stat bonuses, with each +1 disproportionately skewing the expected results. Additionally, I’ve been very happy with the incorporation of Advantage/Disadvantage as a mechanic (Advantage: 3dice + drop lowest. Disadvantage: 3dice drop highest)

I’ve crunched the numbers here and thought I’d share. Note that a 0 in this scale is the equivalent of a -1 in a 2d6 system; I just felt that starting the characters at 0 across the board and building them up as they chose origins and careers was more aesthetically pleasing than a downer “-1”.

2d10 0 +1 +2 +3 +4
17+ 10% 15% 21% 28% 36%
11-16 45% 49% 51% 51% 49%
10- 45% 36% 28% 21% 15%
3d10 Drop Low 0 +1 +2 +3 +4
17+ 23.3% 32.7% 42.6% 52.6% 62.2%
11-16 55.2% 51.9% 46.8% 40.5% 33.6%
10- 21.5% 15.4% 10.6% 6.9% 4.2%
3d10 Drop High 0 +1 +2 +3 +4
17+ 2.3% 4.2% 6.9% 10.6% 15.4%
11-16 26.7% 33.6% 40.5% 46.8% 51.9%
10- 71.0% 62.2% 52.6% 42.6% 32.7%

(For reference, an unmodified 2d6 is 41.6% fail, 41.7% mixed, 16.7% hit)

Of interesting note, a Balanced roll (2d10, no Advantage or Disadvantage) has a 50% chance for a mixed success / success-with-cost no matter what your stat is, which is quite fortuitous.

Obviously, I’m going to have to playtest the d10 version to make sure it still feels right, but I’m fairly confident that it will provide me with a few opportunities. (Not the least of which is randomized charts are so much easier to do in a d10 system! And UW has 10 origins and 10 careers, so there could even be a life-path-ish randomized character creation. Just spitballing)

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