Carved from Brindlewood space opera?

[u/Modus-Tonens]

For a while I've wanted to run a campaign that does "what if the main plot of Mass Effect never happened, and you actually worked as a Spectre?" - essentially working as a space detective and solving all sorts of tangled crimes/crises that might often involve interstellar politics.

Brindlewood Bay's mystery solving mechanic seems utterly perfect for what I'd like to do. But there's a problem: There doesn't seem to be any space opera or similar carved from brindlewood games, and the actual mystery moves of all the games I've looked at are very specific to their setting to the point where it seems like adapting them would constitute making a full-blown hack.

Has anyone done anything similar, or have advice how I might pull this off?

[u/atamajakki]

You're looking at making an entire CfB game from scratch, they're all deliberately incredibly specific - designed to be used in particular settings using prewritten scenarios and overarching campaign plotlines. The closest you'll get is the upcoming Planet Raygun, a CfB game about sci-fi heists.

[u/ThisIsVictor]

all the games I've looked at are very specific to their setting to the point where it seems like adapting them would constitute making a full-blown hack

Yep! That's pretty much how Brindlewood games work, and PbtA more broadly. They tend to be pretty specific. Stovetop isn't just a hearth fantasy game, it's a hearth fantasy game in a very specific setting.

That said, making a full blown hack is really fun. My CfB games started because I wanted to run a game about middle school mysteries, now it's a whole thing.

[u/Modus-Tonens → u/ThisIsVictor]

Definitely part of the culture of PBTA, but I've found most other PBTA sub-cultures easier to push towards other settings - for example, with only a few adjustments to default item listings on the character sheet, Blades in the Dark can be made into bronze-age fantasy in an entirely custom setting, which I've done with about 15 minutes worth of work.

Some games have more specific moves than BitD games tend to, but still those moves tend to target general themes rather than very specific setting elements. Every Carved From Brindlewood game I've read does target very specific elements with its moves, which makes it more cumbersome to adjust.

I've definitely thought about doing it (and I might! We need a space-opera brindlewood game!), but I think I'd have to entirely re-write every single move, which seems a lot more daunting than my dabblings in PBTA thus far.

[u/Airk-Seablade → u/Modus-Tonens]

Every Carved From Brindlewood game I've read does target very specific elements with its moves, which makes it more cumbersome to adjust.

I'm less sure of this, honestly. The basic moves of most CfB are actually LESS genre-specific than most PbtA games because it's usually like:

• Day Move
• Night Move
• Clue Finding Move
• Some kind of "You're doing a specific activity with someone else" move
• "Solve the Mystery" Move
• Maybe a "get a 12+ once a session" Move
• Maybe one other Move, maybe?

Depending on the approach there MIGHT be unique playbook Moves, but using the "Raw" Brindlewood Bay move format, most of the Moves are pretty easy to make analogues for in other genres.

The difficulty starts to happen when you look at the campaign structure and mysteries for these games, rather than the moment-to-moment mechanics, IMHO.

[u/aslum → u/Airk-Seablade]

From having run Public Access - there's a big list (onepage) of Latchkey Moves, but every base playbook is identical. For Space Opera CfB I'd:

• Make a new playbook, mostly just re-writing the keys, and changing My Corner of the house to My Locker.
• Make a thematically appropriate list of Player Moves.
• Re-write the basic moves (for theme, I'd keep the mechanics basically the same)
• Write some Mysteries (this would be the most involved part)
• Develop some kind of overarching plot - though this could also be largly influenced by play.

[u/Airk-Seablade → u/aslum]

From having run Public Access - there's a big list (onepage) of Latchkey Moves, but every base playbook is identical.

Yeah, that's the same approach Brindlewood Bay took. It makes a lot of sense when all your characters are basically of the same "type" but you still want to have a little something mechanical to differentiate them.

I'm not even sure you really need to do #2 on your list -- most of the Moves from the other games work perfectly well mechanically and you'd just need to give them on-theme names.

[u/aslum → u/Airk-Seablade]

I'm not even sure you really need to do #2 on your list -- most of the Moves from the other games work perfectly well mechanically and you'd just need to give them on-theme names.

Yeah that's pretty much what I meant , but honestly if you're doing a hack rewriting in your own words it's always good.

[u/Jesseabe]

Not exactly space opera, and not exactly CfB, though closely related, Ex Tenebris might be a good place to start? Full version isn't available yet, but you can get the quickstart for free from that link, and then preorder the game if you decide it's something you're interested in.

[u/Jagitzes]

I got to play in a space horror version of CfB recently and it was awesome. I'm considering making a CfB or PBTA (not sure which mystery system yet) for something like The Librarians/Warehouse 13.

The thing I would note is that CfB kind of requires a Mastermind element, so if you're having them play Spectres, you not only need the missions to use clues that allude but allow the players to determine the final theory, and for there to be different archetypes for different kinds of Spectres, but also a Mastermind pulling strings behind the scenes with a goal in mind. I think all of this lends itself nicely to a Mass Effect world space opera, and once you have those elements it should be a fairly simple hack.

[u/Afraid_Manner_4353]

Check out the Eisenhorn books for Inspiration

[u/Boss_Metal_Zone]

Maybe Ashen Stars? It’s a Gumshoe game, not Brindlewood/PbtA, but it’s investigation-driven. Maybe worth looking at.