Ponderings on Any Planet Is Earth v2

At the time of writing this, I've sold just over 400 copies of Any Planet Is Earth (with about 4,800 downloads). That's small beans, to be sure, in the world of publishing, even in the indie/niche corner of the RPG hobby, but I only ever wanted to release it because it's what I want to run. That said, I am warmed by it's name popping up from time to time on reviews or threads or discussions, and getting messages from strangers and close peers alike who like it a lot and have riffed about with it on their own time. That's neat.

I've had a "second edition" in mind for a while now since it's original release back in June of 2020. My original timeline was a release earlier this year before the arrival of Spring 2021, but then I had another kid and bought a house. There goes 6+ months of so-called free time. C'est la vie.

Jeff Woodman

A second edition has been in my mind if for no other reason but because I've learned quite a bit of layout after designing and releasing Weird North (I mean, seriously, the original six-page layout for Any Planet Is Earth is sophomoric at best, and really rather embarassing now that I think on it for any length of time). I've also had a lot of helpful feedback from those who have run and played it a lot, showerthought tweaks on some of the subsystems and initial character generation, and many considerations about more tables and tools I could cram in there (again, not so crammed as to resemble the text-mash I concocted last year... you know, good cramming, not aesthetically-bankrupt cramming). Additionally, I want to make a book that I'd like to hold in my hands, so I'm going to put a print option together for this eventual new version.

I also want to show off some of Jeff Woodman's excellent art which I commissioned for this second edition. Jeff is not an professional artist, nor does he run an edgy avant garde Twitter roll, but he's a good friend, brother in conviction, and a great enthusiast for bearing with the endless odd adventures I put him through during our continual online gameplay over the last four years or so. But full stop, his art is great, and after he did the initial (again poorly formatted on my part) cover for the OG Any Planet Is Earth release, I wanted more of his style, so he turned around with a great batch of rad, nails-my-headcanon-tone interior art for use in the A5 booklet format I'll release Soon™.

Jeff Woodman

There are a number of design tweaks I'd like to make, all of which better facilitate the underlying core statements I've previously made about the style, intent, and use as both game and toolkit. Some of this comes from simply further tidying, clarifying, and making more concise what is already present, but also stripping more away in terms of the very basics to make Any Planet Is Earth even more immediate and immersive. Yes, I'm talking about further streamlining to a game which is, in essence, already barely mechanical, but where I see cruft, I must delete it.

Here are the total player-facing rules reduced to the following, as pertains to risk, resolution, and action wherein the result of player agency is unclear:

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HOW IT'S PLAYED 

The referee is the rules. This is not an adversarial statement. Simply, the referee is the final and consistent authority over the game world, and as such, maintains the role of determining, establishing, and communicating the detail, risk, and impact of any given situation to the players. Common sense is the animating spirit of what happens in the fiction of the game. The referee describes the context, the players state their actions, and the referee explains what happens in response. Three consequent principles frame the rulings of the referee and inform the actions of the players: 

- Play the World: What makes sense in the context? What does the setting imply? 

- Be Consistent: Actions have consequences. Logic grounds experience and expectation. 

- Ingenuity, Not Ability: Leveraging tools, wit, and the environment overrides numbers. 

When these principles cannot determine a clear outcome amidst a dire or uncertain situation, the referee can call for a player to roll 2d6 in reaction. They avoid the danger on 7+ if they have a clear advantage in the situation, or on 9+ if they do not. After the roll, the referee describes the impact, settles the consequences, and progresses the circumstances. Actions are accomplished without dice and by description only.

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So, keeping the latter summary simple, expoused, and foundational, we have our game. The changes that come as a result include:

Remove initial stat rolling. Originally, this was to add a few modifiying adjectives to each character, but the results are narrow, redundant, and then jettisoned once play commences. Related entries on the term result tables will be swapped out for likely more side-table moves like boons or mishaps (because those are more vague, narrative, and fun). I'll likely be doing something more along the lines of what I have done for Galaxy Far Away: choose-your-own natural strength/flaw, history with an NPC, backgrounds/jobs/talents etc.

Clarify armor and hits. PCs still have 4 hits. Armor (light) now reduces incoming hits by 1, while standard armored gear reduces incoming hits by 2. That said, damage reduction is only ever capped at 2 hits. Additional sources of armor, such as Armor (heavy) or other equipment offering reasonable additional coverage/reduction, instead grant PCs additional hits beyond their starting 4. So the powered battle dress you might have as part of an elite military detachment offers you both an Armor rating of 2, and adds 2 hits to your pool. So you have 6 hits and ignore the first 2 of any attack.

Add more careers. Because they're fun. In addition to Military, Expeditionary, and Mercantile, I could see something along the lines of Infrastructure, Underworld, and Political. Or break up Military into Navy, Marines, Scouts, and Army like Marc Miller originally delineated. More Boon/Event-esque tables could be fun here? Also I'd include a note on hacking the game for ease of use in other genres or settings (not unlike Paul Elliot's excellent Mercator, which is Classic Traveller except it's ancient Rome). This would include guidance on careers and skills and such.

Simplify space trading. Do you like the weird original rolls I came up with for surplus and demand? Neither do I. This can be as simple as any port of call having 1-2 exports that can be purchased for 1 asset each, and 1-2 imports than can be sold for 2 assets each, with the option for contraband purchased at sketchy ports for 1 asset each and sold on civilized ports for 3 assets each, but, you know, it's illegal and you could get searched. 

Enhance the impact of jumps. Whether or not FTL jumps between systems end up in your games, I'd like to make them a bit punchier than the current misjump table, which is both wonky and would better serve as a deep space encounter die table. I'd like to add a "jump-in roll" that's a standard d6 in civilized systems, with something like 1-3, standard traffic; 4-5 faction patrols; 6 trade convoy. Then in sketchier systems you could add 1-3+ modifiers for results like 7, pirates; 8, big faction battle; 9, anomaly; etc.

Spice up system generation. I currently have this under "Starting the Game" rather than it's own section (see point below). I came across Lexi's one-roll space exploration and the approach there towards system generation is really, really good. I don't think I care for quite the level of information density provided in that seriously excellent post, but I do want to better model complexity and decision-making while generating sectors and filling them with points of interest.

Make the layout not suck. Because it currently sucks. It's hot garbage. 

Include a sample sector. You know, immediately-gameable content. Plop some patrons in there.

Pack in more random tables. I mean, duh.

What else do you want in Any Planet Is Earth v2?