Conflict is the heart of any story, and it as the heart of every fictional world/universe. I think the more conflict the better, but at this step I want to keep it pretty open and general. Back to Wenninger - you don't solve something until you have to. You don't have to know the entire history and backstory of the conlict between the various groups, you just have to know the basics. To whit:
Star Wars: An evil empire holds control over most of the galaxy, and rebellious freedom fighters are rising up to challenge their rule. Got it.
Lord of the Rings: The dark lord of old is returning, and several peoples must make amends to work together after a long period of antipathy.
Indiana Jones: A plucky adventurerer seeks to protect ancient artifacts from those who would use them towards evil purposes.
So, basically: who are the 'good guys', and who are the 'bad guys'?
However, I don't love this for gaming because (spoiler alert), the PCs often resist being the good guys. I mean, yeah, maybe I'll be a rebel and join the resistance against the empire... or.... there is probably coin to be made in this situation. In effect, there has to be some kind of viable third option. That's what I'm trying to do here. Furthermore, for each I want there to be a 'hook' or a 'yeah but' or something that makes this side of the conflict a little different or gives it some flavor.
Moving to Shards, the primary conflict is between the Terran Commonwealth (re-named for copyright clarity purposes) and the messari. I like actually going with Terran Commonwealth as a name, because it implies that they are nice and want to work together. Which is what they think about themselves. I think of them a lot like British Imperialists - we are going to conquer everything, because we are really, really good at being in charge. This, of course, despite their history of literally killing their own goddess and tearing the fabric of creation. But, to their credit, it is not as bad as if some other species had killed THEIR god and torn the fabric of creation. It would be much worse then. They are lawful neutral with big starships and a lot of confidence, despite their terrible track record. In this game, humans are generally bad guys, too.
The messari are not redeemable. They are not able to be fixed or brought to the light or any of that jazz. I see them as primarily demons and undead creatures, so just all bad. Unlike in Lord of the Rings, I don't think there are any living creatures that are willing to serve them. In fact, this becomes their hook. They feed on fear. I have a little note-machine in the back of my head that kicks in here - fear must be an important game mechanic - and then go back to worldbuilding. More on them in a later post. The messari are chaotic evil.
In the middle are the guilders. These are business people. I know that games have presented corporations as monolithic entities that control everything, but my own experience with corporations is that once they get big enough, the knives come out and things fall apart. Yeah, they work together for some mutual benefit (see: tax law) but then try to rip each other apart when the opportunity arises: and the opportunity often arises. They lack military discipline (unlike the Commonwealth - rule everything) or a single shared purpose (unlike the Messari - kill everything). I like it that the Commonwealth and messari don't dislike each other by default - but the Commonwealth will have nothing to rule if everyone is dead (so that's a problem), and killing the messari gives them a 'noble purpose' (which helps them write poetry about their divine mandate). Guilders just pursue the almighty dollar, which the Commonwealth has more of right now. But, if the messari ever decide that money would work towards their purposes, then some guilders might be willing to chat about it... guilders are neutral, but tend towards chaotic.
This doesn't mean that these things HAVE to frame your game. The Mandalorian works, in large part, because this conflict is in the background; he is not actively seeking to fight against the remains of the Empire, or to join the emerging New Republic. He's just trying to stay off everyone's radar and make some cash. That works only because the primary conflict is so well established at this point, we can tell smaller stories inside of it.
I want to leave lots of room for these smaller conflicts to play out (since that is where the games are going to take part), but these give me enough hook points to build other things on.
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