Dev Diary #1 - Inspirations and Design Goals

This is the first dev diary of several, which I hope to publish weekly. I wondered what to talk about and I thought I'd talk about my vision and inspiration for Fire of Rebellion.

The idea came to me when I was re-watching Star Wars Rebels. Around that time, I was also growing more familiar with the Powered by the Apocalypse framework, and I was delighted by its fiction-driven focus, something that most other games lacked in my experience. To my disappointment, I could not find any PbtA game that dealt specifically with Rebellion. Odd and rather disappointing, given how common Empire and Rebellion seem to be in speculative fiction.

I grew up with these kinds of stories, both fictional and historical. I wanted to create a game that will allow people like me to recreate these stories ourselves.

I wanted a game that would simulate the righteous overthrow of overwhelming might, but wasn't limited to specific settings or even particular genres like fantasy. I wanted a game that would allow players to act like rebel heroes, lighting the fires that would burn the Empire down. But I also wanted a game that would simulate the dangers of fighting Empire - and the risk of losing.

So I came up with Fire of Rebellion, distilling down the various plots and archetypes used in those stories so players can hopefully use them in any setting of their creation.

I hope that for everyone who grew up on these stories, this game will be to their liking.

Next week, I'll talk a little more about the core mechanics, specifically the stats and the basic moves.