A NOCTURNE — progress update
Still plugging away at v0.8 which, as you can imagine, is morphing in the writing as the play-test game continues (we’re playing another session tonight after a short hiatus, so keep your eyes peeled for an actual play report soon). I’m deep into craft write-ups right now.
I also decided that I wanted to get even more detailed with the cluster descriptions, even starting in on some abstracted orbital diagrams for each system, ‘cos it wouldn’t be Blades without copious maps to pour over while you plot.
This is a sample of one of those maps for Fitzwilliam’s Ashes, in the Ram’s Horn cluster (which I’ve now decided is going to be the default cluster for A Nocturne, at least for now). I’m even tempted to do rough broad-strokes maps for the most prominent worlds in each system, but I’ve not gone that mad quite yet.
Oh, and I forgot to add: I’m doing some proper character playbook write-ups for the new version, in the style that’s become established elsewhere. Here’s a sample:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d3LXDZTf9wbarC4jL7rGkGS03_K-VkqD5Kr9dyja_2l2AH67_mQriTGNfx8iufQca2kgc4RRVdtDvivaZCBvGXTF0H_1GtO4Pyw=s0
I really like the messiness of the brushes you’ve used, it adds a sense of malaise that feels appropriate to Nocturne. Maybe all the best astrological charts are suffering from glitches or data decay?
Love this!
A sneaky suggestion, if you can spare the time and wordcount; have you thought about Look pick lists, to help players make appropriately-freaky transhuman weirdos?
Charles Simon Thanks man, that’s definitely part of what I’m going for here. Also: I have a whole section of the technology chapter on how glitchy and messed-up most Panhuman data, records, and networks are. Don’t go wireless unless you wanna catch something virulent and cunning.
Lex Permann I already have some basic Look lists in there, but they definitely need spicing up with even more freaky details. Might well have to fold a “make shit even creepier” pass into my rewrites for v0.8
What’s the rough shape of the road between here and 1.0? The game feels pretty close to complete, not that I’d mind more content.
Lex Permann Honestly I need to see how this play-test shakes out, but so far so good. I was also gonna be a little cheeky and say “MORE STUFF” but that’s kind of true. The play-test is helping me to flesh out the cluster and my view of the Diaspora at large, and I definitely want to filter that stuff back into the .pdfs going forward.