The Edge of Space - Vol. 1 Ed. 48
Jun 21, 2021 8:06 pm
World Builders' Guild Newsletter
The pale sun burns eternally over the wind-swept desert that blankets half the planet.
A night without end chills the remainder of the world to below freezing.
There's a brave contingent of life in the band of perpetual dusk wrapped around the poles like a verdant urban ring.
Those that venture out into the vast daylight of Fullbright in search of artifacts endure blistering heat in the face of decreasing survival odds. A parley with a band of desperate exiles miles into Darkside could end a journey before it begins.
Carving antipodes across Verces, the world cleaved in twain by a tidal lock, leaves one wondering how to manage success outside the tense comfort between the extremes.
Maybe the real danger lies among the masses.
Perhaps the exiles had it right all along.
This is a glimpse of but one of dozens of brilliantly orchestrated worlds in the sci-fi/fantasy RPG setting known as Starfinder. Starfinder is a technomagical mashup of mechanics and lore drawn from the popular, but not-quite-as-big-as-Dungeons & Dragons spin-off Pathfinder.
I wonder how long it took the writers and storytellers to craft the narrative that ties together an alien parallel solar system. How did they piece together an aeons-long thread that ties together all the disparate races, motives, and political machinations across multiple systems?
As builders, we struggle with the massive nature of the worlds we forge. The challenge lies in establishing meaningful boundaries without stifling the potential of the stories within. When, then, do we decide that the world is "done enough", to borrow a term from the Agile design philosophy?
We could create forever, but that guarantees nobody gets to enjoy the place.
How do you decide when it's ready to open to the public?
To future worlds,
Matt Ventre
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