Here's some quick bits from my current Notes on Fate Galactic. I'm trying to organize these into a more coherent and logical sort of document, but if you are curious on some of ideas I've been chewing on, here yah go.
Civilization Advancement
Over time, things change. Generations grow, get old and pass things onto the next generation. Technology
changes how civilizations used to function. What they believe changes. What the Civilization Is changes.
In Fate Core, this change is measured through the passing of milestones. Also in Fate Core, settings have
Issues, threats that need to be taken care of, problems that plague the setting over the long term. These
serve as part of the long term measure of time for Fate Core, and in Fate Galactic we need something
similar.
You can take two approaches to this, you can choose to do this without a GM at all, and instead let things
play out in a cooperative fashion until you are certain each Era has been achieved. The other approach, and
the approach I'm going to use, requires a GM- they play the environmental forces of the universe, and play
antagonistic forces, and they determine when Eras are past or completed.
ERAS.
At Major Milestones, each Civilization marks the end of the current era. Time advances forward, and most of the current Icons and forces in the setting fade away, if they hadn't already. In addition to all the juicy stuff you get at a Major Milestone, you also take on a Era Aspect, which is an additional Trouble aspect for
your Civilization. Era Aspects should reflect a longstanding problem your civilization created during the last Era. This could be the Civilization's own fault, the signs of a potential civil war, or the first pangs of your civilization's eventual decline.
If at a Major Milestone you have more than one Era Aspect, your Civilization has to deal with a Crisis. This
means it could fall to pieces at the current moment, with all the troubles its accrued. Crisis might mean
your Civilization enters a period of civil war. Colonies go into open rebellion, becoming independent
states. A catastrophe destroys the homeworld. Whatever it is, there isn't really a roll here.
Your Civilization might survive this, but it won't be your Civilization anymore, but probably will be many
more civilizations. It fades out of history to make room for new ones. Make a new Civilization out of the ruins. Everything dies, and sometimes they survive in others.
Minor Milestones, Significant Milestones and Major Milestones otherwise stay the same, with the bonuses and things they provide.
STUNTS AND TECH TREES.
I had been thinking for awhile about how to best approach this. In traditional civilization type game, there
is a tech tree you climb in order to advance your civilization, always moving up on the tech to certain
levels, and so on.
That makes certain assumptions, I think, but one of the biggest those games tend to make is equilvalency.
Techs tend to feel equivalent, or all eventually destined to happen. And some of the myriad of tinier techs
never get any limelight at all.
Fate Core doesn't do that many specifics- its not a gear totting game. I don't see a reason to make a
predominant tech tree. Instead, tech is represented by two parts of Fate Core: Stunts and Aspects. I'll
make some examples at one point, but these are intended to help provide the narrative flavor of your
civilization. Some Stunts should unlock certain skills, like say, Neo-Corporate Capitalism should unlock the
Industry and Economy skills, for instance. Some Aspects should do this as well. Again, I'll try to create
some preset versions of various civilizations I know from various media.
Its going to be the part I'm going to spend the most time playing around with, to be honest. But all Civilizations are going to start with 3 Stunts and acquire Aspects along the way that might do the job of a
Tech Tree without a Tech Tree.
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