Time again for a Blue Planet update. And speaking of time…
Timeline
The first of this month’s layout previews is the timeline. I shared in an earlier update that I dig a good timeline, and I love Blue Planet’s in particular. Relevant historical events add essential context, plausibility and realism to a game’s setting. I think I also mentioned how the BP timeline was the very first text written for 1st edition. In an unsolicited, creative frenzy, Jason Werner stayed up late the night I first pitched him the premise and presented me with the first draft the very next day!
For Recontact, Jason not only updated the timeline but punched up the content as well. He included the past 25 years of real-world scientific advancement and sociopolitical change. He leaned into the future effects of Earth’s ongoing ecological crises, dirtied up the GEO’s white hat and further complicated the situation on Poseidon. The end result is plausible historical context that complements the hard sci-fi of the BP setting.
The second preview is of the future history chapter itself. This chapter puts the outline presented by the timeline into prose that sets the stakes for present-day Poseidon. The history details how the colony world’s present came to be, focusing on the Athena Project, the Blight, the rise of the GEO and the Incorporate, the discovery of Long John and the factionalization of Poseidon - essential background for the living setting that is Blue Planet.
As usual, a backer’s-only update will follow this one, containing links to these previews. Also as usual, if you want to hunt typos and layout issues, please use the form linked therein to report any you find.
As I put the finishing touches on this update, Robert shared the draft layouts for the View from Orbit and Wild Wet chapters. At first glance, they look great, but I want to give them a good once-over before sharing them out - probably after the weekend.
Final Files
I know there are concerns about how long it is taking to get Recontact to the printer, but I promise I am more anxious for that than any backer on this blue planet. That’s why I am super excited to share that we have only a handful of chapters still in final proofreading – two cete sections as well as the nereid and the Sol system chapters. That’s it! Once Rachel sends those back and I get them reviewed, Robert will have everything he needs to finish the layouts, and we will finally be able to share out full drafts of the books. We're so close I can smell the salt air…
Storm Surge Update
This month, the campaign playtest was back on pace, and wow, did a lot of stuff happen. The fact is, however, the players’ decision to use an EMP took their Incorporate security arc characters well beyond the charted waters of the campaign as written. I can’t overstate the impact detonating the EMP had in our current instantiation of the setting – the chaos, destruction and loss of life in Haven was massively impactful to the stability and economy of Poseidon. It took months of in-game time for them to escape immediate pursuit and get back on course. Even now, they remain uncertain if they have ultimately evaded the authorities (spoiler: they haven’t). To avoid actual campaign spoilers, I won’t even go into how – unrelated to the EMP – one of the characters also managed to accidentally destroy Lesear Station!
Turns out genestealers make pretty good proxies for niños muertos...
Like I said, however, they did finally get back on track. They infiltrated Baffin Island and after an uncannily coordinated attack by a hunting pack of niños muertos, discovered why the island is opaque to remote surveillance. They figured out that GEO Internal Security appears to be training and equipping the Baffin Island insurgents. They also closed the story loop I opened months ago with a mission to eliminate their own native arc characters. We paused the action at the moment of their attack, and next week we will start the third of the interwoven story arcs with the first session playing their GEO HCIS operatives.
I worry I may have bitten off more than a Greater White can chew with the three converging arcs structure of this campaign, but it’s been a blast so far, and I am excited to see where it goes. Wish me – and more importantly my players – luck!