Wherein I blather more about my aforementioned project

Galaxy Black is a setting that I began working on maybe a year ago, but the elements therein have been assembling themselves in the background all my life.  GB is a bunch of different urges and design directives (re: things I wanted) and no too few contradictions - Over the last 18 months Galaxy Black has been a setting for both Stars Without Number and Traveller but I’ve decided it stands best as it’s own thing. At heart it’s a kitchen sink space opera/SF setting that tries to do for SF what D&D did for fantasy - here meaning a creative space wherein any kind of F or SF could be found to have room.  In a universe billions of light years across, I figure any type of SF has to fit in there somewhere. I like to think of it as a universe large enough to encompass any kind of SF somehow without seeming forced.   Kitchen sink here is not meant in a pejorative sense. Not at all.

Mentally speaking it’s what I’m thinking of when I am thinking “science fiction” (though the overall result is probably closer to "Science Fantasy" in the same sense that most Supers games tend to be generic in that you can dump anything in there but it is still a Supers game) in much the same way that Jaldapor (link to kind of lame wikia opens in new window) is kind of my take on sword & sorcery/sword & planet*. I do tend to get my genre conventions all mashed together because 90% of the time, I really don't care about genre emulation or whatever.  Much like in my brain, all the food on the plate touches here in a glorious mess.

Anyway I’m blathering.  Let’s talk a bit about one of the focal points of the project, the world of Maleth Noir.

Noir started life as a classic 70s ecumenopolis turned MegaCityOne style shitworld for the Drune’s absolutely brilliant Humanspace Empires that I could never quite get together. Only later on did I realize it fit perfectly into the (early and very primitive) Galaxy Black setting.   The initial pretentious

idea for the world was basically Francis Ford Coppola’s Star Wars Episode One;, a very golden age retro Big Ass Galactic Empire ™ as a backdrop to some Orson Wells-in-Vienna action (the Third Man, go see it!).  I gave a LOT of thought to how to set up the world and how to do a world city as something that would be maybe a fresh take on the thing, and hopefully have a recognizable signature of my own to the idea.  Ultimately though the goal is playability and FUN.  

And a world custom made for black and white tales of betrayal?  I’m sure it’ll degenerate into Space Opera Shadowrun with Plasma Rifles and Full Conversion Cyborg Alien insect Uplift Super Soldiers real soon now, but hey that’s half the fun.  Lock and load detectives….

Noir is an old, old world, in a future variation of the galaxy called Via Lactae. In the larger, Galaxy Black, setting in which the world exists (in my home game any way, should I ever do something with this)  a very progressive yet dystopian galactic empire has a (non-civillian) super-science tech base allowing for full grand high space opera world wrecker type stuff. Each star system in the empire is linked by a single central ansible  ala leguin which is under military control. Consequently, each world only gets what news it needs to.  Indeed, some worlds are deliberately maintained in artificial states of cultural or technological stasis (Through massed behavioral modification via memetic engineering, pharmaceutical or psionic manipulation or the like) where it benefits the Empire. 

(Besides, it never hurts to provide the rationale for the existence of a worlds known to the empire where it’s to their advantage to keep the locals mired in at best pseudo medievalism. I've run Swords & Wizardry Complete and Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG games on such worlds Speaking of which, magic - frequently alien - exists in the setting but is dangerous in a very DCC way.) 

So that's a very broad stroke introduction, mostly to Noir but also in part to the larger setting. (Damnit I am prone to ramble....)  I’m been slowly wrapping my head around the notion of making some sort of first make  shift and now more refined rules to support play in this environment and hopefully posting them here, with the ultimate aim of compiling   I’m no great shakes as a game designer but if there’s interest I’ll share.  In the meantime I’ll be throwing little snippets out, like this.  Hopefully semi regularly but we’ll see how that goes. 
More later.

So. Much. To. Do.

So I seem to have jumped with both feet back into game design, albeit on a limited basis (not so interested in reinventing the wheel for it’s own sake this time).  The setting I’ve been working on for the last year has decided it needs to be it’s own thing.  So for the last month I’ve been revising, writing, and adding to my setting bible and now I have:

A revised system-less setting book I’m working on (closest to completion but moving the slowest as it’s all revision and editing).  A sort of stylized Space opera far future SF kitchen sink.  So far expressing itself (systemically) in the below.

Noir Basic

A (very) basic, OSR derived, somewhat introductory game set on a particular place in universe (for tighter focus of both game and system elements)...focusing on high tech urban low life, and very noir/pulp/crime inspired;  the intro adventure is a citycrawl in the bottom levels of an ancient arcology that has been opened for Urban Renewal basically.   Trying to shit an intuitive but simple investigation system that fits OSR style play and isn’t just GM fiat is somewhat more difficult than expected.  Aside from that, trying to distill things down into their most simplistic, easiest to grasp forms without relying upon any one else's design space is proving a rewarding challenge.

Galaxy Black RPG

And (finally) a big ass sprawling kitchen sink of a thing that is the very definition of a big ugly baby right now but once I’m done I think will be one of the best things I’ve ever written.  It started as a variation on the above (OSR derived) but there’s a pretty good chance it won’t be backwards compatible, though until play testing starts in earnest there’s no way to know which option I’ll take.   At the moment this is the project packed to the fullest with bizarre, and strange ideas. Wondrous, strange, and bizarre ideas jammed together in ways that, so far, only I can appreciate. But I'm chipping away at it daily.  

What will become of this I don't know. At the least, much of it can be cycled back into Noir if I opt to just push the one (at least at first). All very theoretical, I expect the writing on this and the above will continue for at least a month, maybe until the end of May (hoping not too much longer).

Plus, you know, other writing, other work stuff (though precious little of that this past winter) and day to day.  So...creative and busy and all that rot.    Good times.   It feels good to be writing again.