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Post by grinnenbaeritt on Sept 29, 2019 8:58:50 GMT
Obviously there will be a "Core" rulebook... which I assume will contain elements of setting, base character creation guidelines, rules, "Common" world information including frequently encountered fauna/flora, basic equipment/common mods/genetic designs required to play a sandbox game..
But, I guess there are plans to expand on this with similar supplements that expand to encompass much of the additional content from V.1 and V.2 ...
For example, I can imagine the following a similar structure to V2..
"Player Survival Guide": Contains all the information currently at the start of "v.2 Natural Selection", but include common knowledge, Incorporates (1 page each Maximum), Larger Islands (2 pages each, one of which is a map), Larger settlements (one page each, basic summary, top down map).
"Natural Selection": Fauna/Flora (including that from the Core) but with expanded "Access restricted" stat blocks, guidelines for creation of new Fauna/Flora. Perhaps with an added option to expand with Rare/uncommon Marine and Terrestrial books?
(Note: although I loved "Natural Selection" for V2, I wasn't convinced about the depth of volume, I'd have preferred a far greater selection of creatures detailed in it, for me half of it was just fluff... which is why I'd suggest moving that element to a "Player's survival guide"
"Fluid Mechanics": similar to "Natural Selection" except Personal Equipment, to include and expand upon that information in the Core. Basic stats for vehicles.
"Vehicles and Plans": Taking vehicles and further detailing them.. including floor/deck-plans where appropriate.
"Setting Guides" .... one for each major Island(or Island group detailing the Major settlement with Significant Npc's, large map, skimming backgrounds for each lesser settlement.
"Corperate Guides"... one for each, covering specific Incorporate activities, spheres of influence, NPC's, base of operations (Map) etc.
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Post by Pawel on Sept 29, 2019 10:50:00 GMT
In my mind, the "core" of V2 is Player's Guide and Moderator's Guide - and I do wonder whether these will get combined into a single book in the Recontact line, or kept separate. I think the only chance to answer these questions accurately is that Kickstarter going.  Impatience is killing me! |
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Post by grinnenbaeritt on Sept 29, 2019 14:03:10 GMT
In my mind, the "core" of V2 is Player's Guide and Moderator's Guide - and I do wonder whether these will get combined into a single book in the Recontact line, or kept separate. I think the only chance to answer these questions accurately is that Kickstarter going. Impatience is killing me! Me too. Can't you tell? In all fairness, what I don't want to see for V3 is one huge wedge of a book... then have loads on wafer-thin supplements that don't add much to what is already in the core rules. So, allowing the core-book setting to remain mostly sandbox, but putting enough interest in that to allow the game to be run without additional books will mean it, at least, will sell. i.e. Establish Posiedon's setting as a planet, fully develop the character creation and rules system, with background (covered by broad time-line) and finally general guidelines on expanding further, with templates for scenario ideas and character troupe types (of which the Red Sky Charters is excellent  ) When adding supplements that contain a majority of "system" defined stuff (rather than back ground). e.g. A Bestiary and An Equipment "Catalog". Entries should expand both the detail and selection of those initially presented in summary form in the corebook... For example, for "Natural Selection" especially, I'd like to see a full page for each creature, picture, and description, with it's stats placed clearly as small bar at eh bottom of the page, so that each page's appearance /layout is fairly uniform. Why? I don't want the stats to dominate (and the reduced stats of v3 shouldn't have to)... I find having "Part pages" irritating, so please keep the entries to complete pages rather than over-running into another page with part of another creature. This source-book should be a thing of beauty and usable by other systems. So a brief and basic conversion guide might be appropriate.. and if releasing as a PDF, might be an option to provide alternatives with those stats.) Much the same with expanding the setting... Each "printed" supplement, would be a gazetteer further detailing an area (or organisation) mentioned in the core-book, with suggested scenario ideas, at least two maps of highly of detailed locations, and ending with a selection of NPC's (or sample characters) suitable to that area/location (One page for each, like the bestiary). Doing it this way improves the overall usefulness to the user. |
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Post by Pawel on Sept 29, 2019 19:02:34 GMT
Looks like plenty of useful design ideas here, yeah.
Content aside, layout design is an art in its own right and can significantly enhance aesthetics and user-friendliness of a book. Having said that, sometimes adhering to strict chapter layout ideas may be artificially restraining. The author might have more to say about Leviathans than about Echo/Fish. Likewise, freeing yourself from a strict catalog structure let's you write larger umbrella chapters with your main actors (say, Second Try in the Haven Cluster chapter), mixed up with smaller entries (Circumstance in the same chapter) and even smaller bits (the Wall, with tiny entries of its own there). But I'm sure there are layout designs out there that allow to incorporate all of this in a systematic way.
Personally, I just hope for a large quantity of high quality artworks. The two we've seen so far are awesome. More of those please!
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Post by grinnenbaeritt on Sept 30, 2019 6:57:36 GMT
I had a look through all my BP v2 books yesterday, and before I start, I'd need to say I'm a ref, more often than not when I play... because utility makes a very great difference with regard to layout/artwork required.
Rating by utility:
Players Guide (ALL games and Prep), Moderators guide (Some games but Always prep), Natural Selection (Some games, mostly prep), Fluid Mechanics (Few games, some prep), Ancient Echoes (Some games, Some Prep), Frontier Justice (skimmed once, but did run a scenario using it), First Colony (read completely once, but never used).
It could just be me, but the important point I'm making is in reference to the later three books. Of the three, the rarest (Ancient Echoes) easily had the cleanest and neatest layout. That made it easy to read and was well ordered. Whether that makes it a better "written book" is in question, but it does mean it's been of greater utility to me. i.e. It will get used more in games.
In comparison, Frontier Justice, which had a far broader scope, should have the potential to have been used more, and in my case, despite having had it for several years prior to Ancient Echoes (and having run several Crime/Law based games) has barely been touched.. In fact, I'd rate it very poorly because of that fact alone... whilst as a reading book for inspiration, it might be better, had it not seemed so cluttered (at least in comparison to Ancient Echoes.)
Conversely, First Colony is only last on the list because I've never run a game in Haven.. but I'm afraid it seems just as cluttered (but at least has useful maps..)
However, from what I've seen so far of the Recontact layout, fonts and formatting, I'm impressed and it's a definite improvement.
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Post by Pawel on Sept 30, 2019 17:14:54 GMT
Hmm, interesting point and indeed an interesting list! I'd probably say I fondle the Moderator's Guide first and foremost and then the Player's Guide right after that, but I'm primarily a moderator and a writer-to-be. After that it's definitely Natural Selection and after that Fluid Mechanics. That's that in terms of utility - I never looked at things this way, but you're right, mate, these books are there exactly for that, along with of course describing the setting in general/detail. It just occurred to me - has the interplanetary distances table made it into PBv2? I can't remember... I quite often rely on that. Ooh, and I also use the BlueDive's date conversion calculator quite often, that is such an awesome tool! Err, but I digress. |
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Impatience is killing me!
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