Thanks for laying this out. It sounds like a great framework, and a lot more manageable than the default approach in Galaxies in Peril.
It worked for the idea I wanted. As I said, I made the setting a series of small islands close together. The city was spread across each of them. I divided it up into districts (mostly by island, but there were two larger islands that had more than one district on them). I made each district distinct in its own way; the nature of the place, the factions that tended to be there, the situation at the start of play. The district the players chose was a poor one, with a lack of basic needs, so that became the focus of our play. They knew this when selecting that district; if they'd wanted to focus on something else, they would have chosen another district as their home district.
This is all very similar to how Blades does things with Doskvol. Given that I was using playtest material, and the setting information was minimal, I felt it was better to create a setting that would fit with the rules system as I was familiar with it.
Having run one short campaign of it, and with the full book now out, I think I'd be comfortable running a more traditionally set superhero campaign. Though at the same time, I think my players really dug the setting we created. When we play again, that'll be the first big decision to make.
I was asking in part because I'm about to start a Star Wars campaign using Scum and Villainy, and I'm trying to figure out what to potentially tweak to keep things focused and functioning in FitD, while still capturing the planet-hopping and ship-based stuff that's such a part of that setting.
I'm much less familiar with Scum & Villainy than I am with Blades, so keep that in mind, but I think I know how I'd handle it.
Here's the thing with Star Wars... the setting isn't really that big. It seems like it because of our understanding of space and lightyears and parsecs and all that. But really, the majority of action takes place on a handful of planets. The planets themselves have like one defining feature and typically one primary location.
There's no reason you can't just treat the different systems like you would the districts of Doskvol. Take the systems you want to use in play... either existing ones like Hoth and Tatooine, or new ones you've created... and make entries for them like those that Blades has for the districts of Doskvol. List or create some interesting locations, some notable NPCs, general flavor and vibe, and then maybe some district stats. It may make sense to change from the default ones in Blades (Wealth, Safety & Security, Criminal Influence, and Occult Influence) to something more specific to Star Wars (maybe Rebel Influence and Imperial Influence would suit for a couple of them, depending on when you're setting it).
Instead of having an actual map, I'd just arrange the systems as a kind of flow chart, and use that to help track travel and all that.
But I'm also writing an FitD game set in the 1980's, and looking at whether to limit it to a specific city—such as NYC—or to leave that vague, and say the GM/group can pick whatever large city is closest to them. It sounds like city specificity was not a pro or a con for your Galaxies in Peril campaign, but not everyone's interesting in putting that much work in, and want details that are ready to run. At the same time, I've heard from people who are a little intimidated by Duskwall's specificity, for example, and I definitely bounce off of Band of Blades because of how simultaneously specific and generic its setting is. I guess I'm not quite sure where the line is for FitD to run properly.
I don't think it's city specificity that matters so much as it is having an idea in mind for what you want play to be about, and then designing or choosing a city that suits that theme. Look at Doskvol... depending on what kind of crew you want to be and what kinds of scores you want to see in play, different districts make sense. The setting was designed to deliver the different themes... crime, social class disparity, ghosts and the supernatural... those are all reinforced by the different districts and related factions and institutions.
So I think it depends on what you want your 1980s game to be about. Is it a crime game? Something else? Whatever it is, you'll want to make sure that it can be delivered by your combination of city and year. I mean, 1980s New York had the highest crime rate than it had since like the Gangs of New York days of the mid-1800s, so if it's a crime game, then I think you likely have picked a good year and city for it.
The other question is how to address travel... there's no electric ghost wall preventing people from leaving. But there's also no reason you can't tweak the rules to do something like tweak "Reduce Heat" to "Lay Low" or "Get Outta Dodge" and have that mean the character is not available for the next score. This way it matches the setting, but also has meaning in play.
If you have any more to share about this game and don't mind doing so, I'd like to hear about it.