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woodenbandman
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« on: May 17, 2009, 11:49:53 AM » |
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EDIT: Disclaimer: If there is any question in your mind as to whether or not you are a member of this game, please leave. This thread will contain spoilers. I have a problem that loads of other people undoubtedly have: I'm not very good at world building. I can't really build a coherent world with three-dimensional peoples in it from the ground up. Also I'm not very good at generating adventure hooks. Further, a few of the people who would play in this game aren't so great at writing adventure hooks/backstories into their character. So, rather than try to force everyone to be good at it, I'm going to try a little social experiment, which I like to call the World of Wonder. First, I'll sit down all players interested in a game. I'll ask them how broad they want the scope to be, whether it be spanning galaxies or just local. This determines how much work they have to do in order to write up a game. The next step is to get each of them to draw part of the world. I will have graph paper sheets for each person, and each person will get one or two sheets that they need to fill up with the exception of the edges with terrain (edges left blank to about 1" so that I can connect the pieces). Then they switch pages around, shifting to the left or something. Each person will then be responsible for putting one town or kingdom, depending, on that piece of the world. Their kingdom may not extend onto anyone else's paper without their permission. They'll need to flesh out the kingdom or town a little; there'll be a little questionnaire about what they create: how they make money, how their government is, what the leader's like, stuff like that. We now have a fairly complex world. We could have political turmoil, if we want, or the players can make places that get along. At this point, they will switch town statistics with another player. The players will now have to make a character who originates from the town that they receive. They'll have to work that town into their backstory. This will allow them some leeway to define the smaller characteristics of the town: NPCs, shops, guilds, criminals, the mayor, events from its past (orc attacks, great parties), holidays, as much as they want. Also thinking about having this included: Each player comes up with one NPC for every person that is at the table. Just a basic idea, nothing fancy. These NPCs are then given, one to each player, to be incorporated, at least passingly, in the character's backstory. Maybe they were childhood friends; maybe they were childhood rivals; maybe their character was nice to the NPC once because they were lonely on the teeter-totter. Now that our world has been filled, more or less, with good stuff, we need to put some of the bad stuff in. Each player will have to come up with an NPC concept for an antagonist, in secret. These will then be shuffled up and dealt out to the players like cards. Each player will have to incorporate the NPC they received, at least passingly, in their backstory. They were attacked by the NPC barbarian warlord's forces, they've fought the NPC all their lives, the NPC is their character's best friend, or he just used to own a store in their town. They should include it enough that they'd have heard of him, and depending on how much they put him into their story, they'll get free knowledge points related to knowing about that NPC. Also the more the NPC's in their story, the more crucial he'll be to the DM's overall plot of destruction. The players will then each skim through the Monster Manuals and pick out a few creatures that they'd like to fight or otherwise encounter (in secret, of course). I'll probably put some CR guidelines; so you could pick dragons, but not Great Wyrm dragons, and the Tarrasque is out unless you're extremely patient. So now it's starting to look like we've got a world. Well, that's not entirely true: where's the evil plot? That's the beauty of this experiment. There's no forced evil plot. The plot hooks are all right there. There's no need to toss an Evisceration Plague at the PCs, because they've already given me firepower to throw at them. They've given me the antagonists; they've given me the monsters; they've given me the things that they care about, which I can threaten with death. I don't have to hand anything to them, because they've already got it. This is why I think the experiment will work: because it's truly the players' world. Every one of them can look at a part of the world and say: Holy shit, man! I created that! Look how good it looks! They'll want to go to the towns that they've created, fight the NPCs that they dreamed up, encounter the strange and wonderful creatures that most interest them. As the DM, I don't need to work much harder to accommodate tastes of the players, because they've made their world in their own image. It'll be beautiful. As a DM, I'm not sure whether or not to participate in the worldbuilding or not. If I did, I'd be doing exactly what they're doing. Maybe I'll come up with examples to show them. Also considering giving them a little questionnaire for their characters, similar to this one: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976908598 , but maybe a little shorter. Thoughts on all of this? Things I should include in this? Should I just not do it? |
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« Last Edit: May 30, 2009, 06:47:18 PM by woodenbandman »
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j0lt
Hong Kong
Posts: 1317
Browncoat
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« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2009, 12:10:19 PM » |
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Sounds interesting, I think it'd work best with a group of players who are also DMs, but it's definitely a good idea!
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woodenbandman
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« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2009, 12:16:43 PM » |
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I'm going to try to streamline the process as much as possible, which includes defining how much work has to go into an NPC or a town. What would you suggest?
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AfterCrescent
Honorary Moderator
Organ Grinder
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« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2009, 02:26:56 PM » |
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This sounds awesome. I'd make sure, before rotating, that everyone decides how the map pieces connect. That way if kingdoms are supposed to cross boundaries or have rivals, you know how and where they meet.
If your group is not full of world building experienced people, I'd recommend joining in on the fun to give examples. Likewise if it's a group of close friends, join in and have fun with them, too.
It's probably also a really, really good idea to have the random tables for town creation and a random table for NPC concept generation for people that get writers block or aren't as skilled as others. Just to give them a bit of a nudge and streamline things.
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Prime32
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Modding since 03/12/10
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« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2009, 02:35:48 PM » |
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So, do you want to want to try this out for the anime game then?
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My workDeviantArtCurrent gamesThe tier system in a nutshell: Tier 6: A cartographer. Tier 5: An expert cartographer or a decent marksman. Tier 4: An expert marksman. Tier 3: An expert marksman, cartographer and chef who can tie strong knots and is trained in hostage negotiation or a marksman so good he can shoot down every bullet fired by a minigun while armed with a rusted single-shot pistol that veers to the left. Tier 2: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything, or the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy. Tier 1: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything and the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy.
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woodenbandman
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« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2009, 06:46:32 PM » |
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AC those are good ideas. Thanks.
That sounds like a lot of fun prime.
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veekie
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« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2009, 01:26:46 AM » |
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This sounds incredibly cool, though it'd take a while to setup for the game.
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The mind transcends the body. It's also a little cold because of that. Please get it a blanket. I wish I could read your mind, I can barely read mine. "Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill
To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
There is no higher price than 'free'. "I won't die. I've been ordered not to die." |
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woodenbandman
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« Reply #7 on: May 18, 2009, 09:24:34 AM » |
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Actually that's a problem that is solved too. Look at what I'm asking for: NPCs, both friend and foe. Countries, which are potentially hostile against each other. Monsters that they want to fight. The work for this is divided up among all the players, which means not only do I NOT have to do it, but this will also bring up interesting plot points. A character from the kingdom of Sacred Steel, a harsh dictatorship populated mostly by Warforged, is conscripted into the army by an NPC made by another person, and said NPC is enacting a secret plot featuring spellstitched warforged (chosen by a third person) to conquer a country created by a 4th person...
Odd combinations will come up in this game. The idea is to take what you receive from others and make a story out of it. It should turn out to be great fun.
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AfterCrescent
Honorary Moderator
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« Reply #8 on: May 18, 2009, 11:20:45 AM » |
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It should. And likely will. However, I think what veekie was saying is that actual setup will take a while. You'll probably have anywhere from 1-3 full sessions doing world generation before you actually play. That's a bit of a setup for people wanting to kill things.  |
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woodenbandman
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« Reply #9 on: May 18, 2009, 01:03:16 PM » |
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You might be right. I hadn't actually planned for it to take all that long, but it looks like it potentially could.
I was thinking that the players would give basic stuff, like "Small hunting town with a corrupt mayor" When it comes down to the towns and NPCs, and then when they're coming up with their character concepts (which they won't have before they come to the game), they'll define the statistics a bit more. Say one player receives these things from the group which he must incorporate into his backstory:
Metropolitan free market society with generous and just leader;
Nice NPCs:
Leader of huntsman's guild;
Old female wizard with a short temper;
Happy-go-lucky soldier who can't keep his mouth shut at inappropriate times;
Enemy: Lawful Evil cleric who hates freedom and fun.
He has the freedom to generate as much or as little inside the town as he wants.
So he could have maybe joined the huntsman's guild at the behest of the benevolent Leader, even though his mom, the old female wizard with a short temper, wanted him to follow the magic path. His friend, the Happy-go-lucky soldier who can't help but make inappropriate jokes, helps him on hunts from time to time. The guild is often plagued by the church, and the cleric often comes around the hunter's guild to bother the people there.
Or he could invert any number of those: he could be constantly pestered by the soldier, because he doesn't like working with him in the army, and the wizard could be the king's advisor, and the huntmaster could be his father, or he could be a robin-hood figure who helps them attack the enemy city, where the evil cleric resides.
I'm thinking that I'm going to make a big list of possible characteristics a person could have, such as occupation, traits, appearance, to help people generate some NPCs faster. I'll start the list on the next post.
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woodenbandman
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« Reply #10 on: May 18, 2009, 01:05:10 PM » |
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Town Characteristics: NPC Characteristics (I think that it might make sense to have them just pick adjectives and let the people who put them into your backstory fill in the other details. Thoughts? |
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« Last Edit: May 25, 2009, 10:26:08 PM by woodenbandman »
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veekie
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« Reply #11 on: May 18, 2009, 01:45:05 PM » |
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You could definitely speed the process up with templates containing the minimum requirements for the contributions(mainly to help the less adept players with worldgen, the skilled writers do whatever they want anyway). And heck, craft religions the same way, you could wind up with an interesting mix of gods.
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The mind transcends the body. It's also a little cold because of that. Please get it a blanket. I wish I could read your mind, I can barely read mine. "Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. At 2:15, it begins rolling up characters."
"Just what do you think the moon up in the sky is? Everyone sees that big, round shiny thing and thinks there must be something round up there, right? That's just silly. The truth is much more awesome than that. You can almost never see the real Moon, and its appearance is death to humans. You can only see the Moon when it's reflected in things. And the things it reflects in, like water or glass, can all be broken, right? Since the moon you see in the sky is just being reflected in the heavens, if you tear open the heavens it's easy to break it~"
-Ibuki Suika, on overkill
To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon.
Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei.
Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.
Khiliarkhou Astrape!
There is no higher price than 'free'. "I won't die. I've been ordered not to die." |
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woodenbandman
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« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2009, 10:35:12 AM » |
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Okay those lists are fairly complete. Any other lists/stuff I should make?
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bayar
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« Reply #13 on: May 23, 2009, 04:49:49 AM » |
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Okay those lists are fairly complete. Any other lists/stuff I should make?
Upload your world here for us to see how the experiment went. |
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woodenbandman
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« Reply #14 on: May 23, 2009, 10:26:58 AM » |
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The creation of the world is delayed until next week because of unforseen birthday parties. I swear, this guys is the only guy who could possibly make a case for being more disorganized than me.
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woodenbandman
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« Reply #15 on: May 25, 2009, 09:28:47 AM » |
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Update: World of Wonder will proceed as planned tomorrow, because we called an extra game session this week.
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woodenbandman
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« Reply #16 on: May 30, 2009, 05:58:36 PM » |
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MEGAUPDATE: Well, the whole thing went off splendidly. There were a few hitches in the thing, such as people jumping too far ahead in the process a few times, but it worked out fine. Our world is now populated by 6 beautiful nations. Just look at them:  Here's a run down of all of the cities, and overall countries. Editing ongoing Top Left country: Owned by KKalibri: Owned by CJamaka/Lothos: Owned by BStarstown? Owned by L[/color[
Unnamed Nation: By B, C, K, L
Whew, what a load of stuff. This doesn't even take into account the NPCs coming up next post. EDIT: Yay for color coding. |
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« Last Edit: May 30, 2009, 07:21:43 PM by woodenbandman »
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Prime32
Honorary Moderator
Organ Grinder
Posts: 7534
Modding since 03/12/10
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« Reply #17 on: May 30, 2009, 06:49:19 PM » |
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You might want to fix those spoilers there - some inadvertant nesting. I lol'd at some of the names. |
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My workDeviantArtCurrent gamesThe tier system in a nutshell: Tier 6: A cartographer. Tier 5: An expert cartographer or a decent marksman. Tier 4: An expert marksman. Tier 3: An expert marksman, cartographer and chef who can tie strong knots and is trained in hostage negotiation or a marksman so good he can shoot down every bullet fired by a minigun while armed with a rusted single-shot pistol that veers to the left. Tier 2: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything, or the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy. Tier 1: Someone with teleportation, mind control, time manipulation, intangibility, the ability to turn into an exact duplicate of anything and the ability to see into the future with perfect accuracy.
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woodenbandman
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« Reply #18 on: May 30, 2009, 07:22:46 PM » |
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Hehehe. I color coded the whole thing. The stuff in black is mine. I'm especially fond of that city full of Changelings. That could be a setup for quite a fuckin' nightmare.
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AfterCrescent
Honorary Moderator
Organ Grinder
Posts: 4220
Here After
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« Reply #19 on: May 31, 2009, 01:26:35 AM » |
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I'd love a rundown of how it went, if you remember.  |
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