There's been a lot of discussion in the past about the merits of collaborative worldbuilding so I thought I would show an example of what can be done. This is a setting me and my group have just put together for a new campaign of Other Worlds, this time based around the idea of doing a really epic fantasy saga (that's eventually going to turn into a global conflict a la the War of the Ring). It's a fair bit more detailed than is usually needed, and we ended up fleshing out the player characters afterwards via email, but most of this was done in one session. I would love to see other people post similar examples of their own!
The World of Amar
Broad Concept
An epic fantasy quest with many different factions, like in LotR or Babylon 5.
Politics, economics, and tensions between different factions should be a factor. A war is brewing.
The game starts in a neutral place between the races like Babylon 5 or the UN. A treaty city.
The characters are all representatives/champions of their races like the Fellowship of the Ring.
Some kind of common enemy has emerged that threatens all the free peoples
The characters are put together on a mission to stop it
Everyone has a special reason to be on the mission - some quality or power that will be needed
Characters may also be pushed/manipulated by their own faction who may have a separate agenda?
Threat could be a new land mass emerging from the sea - a relic of ancient times? 'The Tenth Kingdom'. A returned god? Some strange and powerful items might have been salvaged from this place already.
Or a new evil religion - led by an Osama Bin Thulsa Doom type figure. A false prophet. The rise of this cult could be what is causing the war (religious vs secular?). He could be an avatar or have some special item.
Or demons, planar invasion, dragons (allied to the forces on the island maybe?), gnomes, etc
Tone
More serious than comic (where possible). Magic is low key. Gritty. Characters can get hurt, even killed
History
Legends of the creation of the world
Unseelie war
The evernight
The Age of Darkness - lasted 3,000 years
Now = The Age of Twilight
Once a year the unseelie come back on winter solstice - longest night of the year
The unseelie have their sport - consume life, keep races down
Next = age of the sun? or age of darkness? - could go either way
Recent events:
New landmass emerges - its a prophecy or just discovered by ogres
Vision, ancient scroll
Lights of the world are getting dim
The dwarves have discovered something?
Ogres want to cross the great ocean
Geography
Huge staircase going down
frozen wastes
remnants of old civilisations
giant statue of unknown origin
city on stilts in marshland
incan temple in the firests (tie to beastmen?)
city states
treaty city - mos eisley-like lawless ankh moorpork
valley of the dead
Seas, lakes
An island
Gates/dimensional rift
Woods/forests
the underdark
swamp
floating rock cities in the sky
volcanos
Mordor
Indiana Jones-style dungeon/temple
A tunnel between two races (like the channel tunnel) as the surface is very dangerous
other continents are held at bay by some sort of magic barrier – invisible mist which sweeps ships away like bermuda triangle myths;
lots of dangerous/strange animals
centipedes
six legged riding cats - ridden by beastmen, minotaurs - fox guys, bull guys
flying monkeys
treehounds
Silly animal hybrids - rhinoroo, paul the dogtopus, duck-billed badgerpuss
Drakh keepers
Weird mounts
Unusual species abound - normal stuff like cats and dogs simply don't exist
Technology
Primitve tech - swords and shields and bows. Not a lot of armour. Chariots. Catapults.
Night steel/cold iron - dwarves invented after industrialisation - found the secret of reliably creating it.
Conan, Runequest, bronze age feel
Strange riding beasts as transports
Lizardmen - Star Wars lizard (from Revenge of the Sith).
Ogres - ships, dolphins, walk on land. Sea lubbers - prefer sea to land. Flying stingrays.
Dwarves - giant worms - tunnel underground. ride them like in Dune.
Faeries - giant dragonflies, lots of giant insects in their home forests. Unseelie ride horses in hunt.
Magic
Celtic style magic - leylines, faerie toadstool rings, dolmens and stone circles, potions/cauldrons, pagan nature worship, rituals, poisons, scrying the future, subtle magic rather than obvious fireballs, runes, weather influence, influencing natural world, speak to animals, cause fear, curses.
Harness power
superhuman jumps
rituals, grimoires, sacrifices
alchemical
morgoth/sauron-like - drain energy from self
spirits
leyline at midsummer's eve
faerie glamour - appear as other things
black obselisk
Different races draw energy in different ways
Dwarves draw energy from ley lines, which tap into the spirit world, stone circles and chasms - leaks up to the surface from the Earth's core
Ogres - where it's stormiest (ley lines). Small rocky island where the sages live - Isle of the Sorcerers.
Some live on boats - The Waterbound
Lizardmen = magic from smoke - rituals, capturing it. firestones. Look into the smoke = see into the other realm
Faeries: faerie gateways, wardstones - portals into the other realm
Failure = drains own energy/lifespan? attracts unseelie?
Unseelie give magical energy when destroyed
Dead spots where magic has been drained away
Factions
There are 4 races on Amar, representing the 4 elements.
Richard's race: The Ohmryn
Ogre-like in appearance. 7-8 feet tall, strong and tough like Conan. Skin shade varies by region.
Embody the element of Water.
Warriors, barbarians, traders, explorers.
Surprisingly cool and laid back. They invented surfing. Philosophical. But they can be stormy.
Honourable reputation - so know can talk in good faith
Spread out across the world.
Ben's race: The Basites
Earth elemental/dwarf types. Made of rock. Sandstone yellow in colour.
Embody the element of Earth.
Solitary, religious, stubborn.
Can talk to stone.
Don't breathe air. No eyes - magical senses.
Live underground. Industrial mining - uranium? They pollute the atmosphere.
Worship stone effigies? An obelisk/stonehenge
Steve's race: The Phae-touched
Insect-like/plant-like. 3ft tall. Skin made of wood, golden brown in colour. Butterfly wings
Embody the element of Air
Fickle and curious. Good at climbing. Lot of bards.
Live in the forest realm. Hive-like society. Share a collective subconscious.
Trees have personality
They are a good faction of faeries - most other faeries are evil
Dwarves mine the night steel - cold iron - that hurts them. Source of conflict.
Paul's race: The Kasheeta
Githzerai-like. Scaly grey-green lizardy-Cardassian colours
Embody the element of Fire.
Regenerate. Infra red vision. Ritualistic daggers
Peaceful society. Mountain monasteries.
Caste system. Workers - no lives. Warrior caste - angry, expansive. Religious caste - mystics.
Breathing in the mist from the sacred volcano
custodians of the flame. tempered the volcanos
lived in the world when it was dark - before there was a sun. Created the sun?
Enemies
Seelie/Unseelie - good and bad faeries.
Enemy = Unseelie: trolls, redcaps, pixies, fomorians.
Cruel and capricious, sadistic. Treat the humans as animals.
Balorians - one eyed giants with eye blast from their single evil eye
Undead - wraiths. realm of the dead. spirits.
Afterlife - no one knows what's beyond death
Curse of the unseelie - they are collecting souls for some ritual
Demons - but could be superstition
Dragons - or not?
Jason and the Argonauts skeletons, harpies, medusa
Giant scorpions, hydra, kraken
Conflicts
Tensions between the races, particularly Fire vs Water and Earth vs Air
Earth vs Air = the Basites pollute the atmosphere with their mining, forge weapons of cold iron, and chop down the forests to fuel their machines/expand their territory (thus destroying the Faetouched's habitat). The Faetouched are very unhappy about all of these things.
Fire vs Water = clash over the seas between their lands. The Kasheeta call it the Strait of Muldrasa, while the Ohmryn call it the Alamin Channel. The Ohmryn have spirit bonds with many sea creatures that live in these waters, from sharks and whales to dolphins and octopuses. But the Kasheeta hunt them for food and also for food (a lot like the Japanese and whaling). This is a big source of conflict.
Game Length
One 'movie length' adventure - about 12 sessions.
Player Characters
We said that we've done games at the lower power level so we should try something a bit more epic and fantastical. So we intend to try a power level of 40 and 2 trademarks. This puts the characters somewhere round the Aragorn/Legolas level in terms of both power and world-significance.
Future Adventures
Campaign = LotR style trek across the world.
• Consult with a great sage or dragon - he releases great energy when killed
• Government has the group's souls - thus the PCs must serve the state?
• The PCs are drafted into being heroes? Like the dalai llama?
• There could be specific set pieces - events that are prophecied to happen but the characters may be able to manipulate or prevent them and thus change the future?
• Need to deliver a princess for sacrifice?
• Need to persuade a high level character to assist the group?
• Must travel through a barbarian land?
• Maybe stop some foe from gaining magic item we later hear about, that might control the source of elemental powers/races – a gem that controls fire, water, wind and earth?
• A wagon or chariot chase, or rooftop pursuit
• Is there some horror emerging in new town that was built over site of horrific battle, but for 50 years had seemed fine? Maybe to investigate?
• Maybe there are still lots of starving, homeless refugees around, after catastrophe destroyed their nation – and we need to help them, as no one else will?
• Maybe we need to fight off attacks by separatists or ultra-nationalists who see our fame, and the new international unity, as threatening their way of life?
• Do we carry out assassination?
• Are we just used as celeb-like figureheads to make displays of new peace and progress, even though horribly assassinations/poverty/arms deals/deadly research/experimentation on underclass/slavery is still going on, and we just have to do interviews for local media, or make speeches about how life has improved? Or are we used to break strikes and protests, or defeat guerilla freedom fighters, or other ethically dubious things?
• Is one of the character's family held hostage to ensure loyalty?
• Negotiate with huge dragon would-be ally, once we have delivered sacrifice?
• Do we have to rescue hostages? Or do we rescue people after natural disaster-type cataclysm?
• Great sea journey
• Does an ocean run with blood?
• Demons possess all the children of village and attack their parents?
• Do we lead forces in huge battle, including maybe one of us fighting against our own kinsmen? Maybe a great siege?
• Face the Unseelie Wild Hunt
• Do we enter underground complex, and have to escape in a tunnel that turns out to be the belly of a great demon worm?
• Demonic doppelgangers posing as refugees?
• Do we face fetches (when Unseelie steal children to take back to phae court as slaves or converts, they leave artificial children in their place, made of glamour, magic, sticks and blood and leaves and leeches – homunculi)
• Do we have to infiltrate the Unseelie court itself? Or ally with them against greater threat? Or are we sent to them to negotiate peace, which our superiors believe will fail, and we were just sent as decoys whilst our governments prepare military strike?
• Is an entire civilian city or region quarantined off and left for dead by its government?
• Do we have to enter the dream sea, or climb the endless stair? Or delve into one of our nations' worst military secrets?
• Visit a strange, maddening city, with its towers and architecture all jutting in impossible directions, and inside-out buildings
• Monsters that draw water from foes' bodies, or manifest from air or water inside people's bodies and kill bunch of NPCs before we get magic protection set up
• Visit/consult with the great elusive desert caliph, who is a spirit of sand and manifests from the dunes itself, surrounded by fellow djinn nomads, made of sandstone, burnt wood and blue firestones
• Do we have to tame riding beasts, from flock of giant eagles, or pteranadon-types?
• Encounters with talking animal people – maybe all the beasts in Unseelie infected area are possessed by spirits, or all the villagers have been shapechanged into beasts, and their personalities begin to change to reflect their new forms?
• Do we have to navigate great underground twisting tunnels of water ways? Or visit hell to bring someone back? Magic-infected area where walls and floor and sculpture is infused with graspings arms and hands and teeth, and blinking eyes, and moaning voices, begging for release?
• Do we have to do subterfuge work whilst great parade or musical carnival is ongoing
• A race that only communicates in song, or through braille or sign language – or borrow others voices, or speak through musical instruments?
• A being that constantly dies and is reborn every 6 hours
• Deal with maze-like catacombs criss-crossed with deadly traps
• Or are we possessed and forced to do horrible things, or do we have to hunt down doppelgangers and clear our names?
• Does someone have to fight a duel, atop 30' high pillars, or leaping from platforms made of raised crossed swords, by a tribe of swordsmasters? Maybe the swordmasters gather once each year, mass bouts and competitions, and allcomers must join the sport and try to not get knocked out of competition – but also try not to win and defeat the royal champion (who everyone else allows to win, otherwise face repercussions and execution), but just put up a challenging fight, to get in his/her good graces
• Race of medusa children, sort of like tieflings, in that they are distrusted and reviled, but most aren't evil, and are trying to make up for their ancestors' demon pacts
• Bear or walrus-people ice nomad cannibals
• A merchant people who don't trade in money, but in dreams or secrets or hope or emotion, or years of people's life
• A religious people who consider it the greatest honour to be sacrificed to a blood thirsty deity, or ruler, who stays young and ever-beautiful, through bathing daily in blood
• Rescue dragon or beast's lost children?
Opening Scene
Start in fellowship of the ring/council of elrond style meeting - all the races, deciding what to do
Place = like green zone in iraq, a safe-ish fortress surrounded by hostiles
It's a giant standing stone /ley line nexus/ancient meeting place - forbidden
Beastmen patrol it / it's under siege?
Get given the mission and sent off on their way
Quote from: soviet;582281There's been a lot of discussion in the past about the merits of collaborative worldbuilding
Big difference between collaborative worldbuilding and narrative games. The former leads to the awesome, the latter is a wargame. I don't think there's been nearly enough discussion hereabouts on collaborative worldbuilding, if any.
Quote from: The Traveller;582286Big difference between collaborative worldbuilding and narrative games. The former leads to the awesome, the latter is a wargame. I don't think there's been nearly enough discussion hereabouts on collaborative worldbuilding, if any.
Well I think the assumption here has largely been that it's swinery, at least in some circles. I agree with you it can be awesome, and that's why I chose to post my example here, to show what can be done. I'm the GM of this campaign and I would never have come up with half this stuff on my own.
Soviet, go post this in thecbg.org. The campaign builders guild will eat this up.
Quote from: soviet;582290Well I think the assumption here has largely been that it's swinery, at least in some circles. I agree with you it can be awesome, and that's why I chose to post my example here, to show what can be done. I'm the GM of this campaign and I would never have come up with half this stuff on my own.
Ah that explains why my last few threads in that direction went nowhere. Crazy talk really, you can play a perfectly good RPG in milieus that a bunch of strangers on a forum came up with. Those were the only threads I bothered reading on rpgnet actually. It might have been more constructive had you not opened the thread with [your product] though, all things considered. Yeah I get it but still.
In fact this (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=23587) is pretty damn engaging.
Quote from: soviet;582281There's been a lot of discussion in the past about the merits of collaborative worldbuilding so I thought I would show an example of what can be done. This is a setting me and my group have just put together for a new campaign of Other Worlds, this time based around the idea of doing a really epic fantasy saga (that's eventually going to turn into a global conflict a la the War of the Ring). It's a fair bit more detailed than is usually needed, and we ended up fleshing out the player characters afterwards via email, but most of this was done in one session. I would love to see other people post similar examples of their own!
The World of Amar
Broad Concept
An epic fantasy quest with many different factions, like in LotR or Babylon 5.
Politics, economics, and tensions between different factions should be a factor. A war is brewing.
The game starts in a neutral place between the races like Babylon 5 or the UN. A treaty city.
The characters are all representatives/champions of their races like the Fellowship of the Ring.
Some kind of common enemy has emerged that threatens all the free peoples
The characters are put together on a mission to stop it
Everyone has a special reason to be on the mission - some quality or power that will be needed
Characters may also be pushed/manipulated by their own faction who may have a separate agenda?
Threat could be a new land mass emerging from the sea - a relic of ancient times? 'The Tenth Kingdom'. A returned god? Some strange and powerful items might have been salvaged from this place already.
Or a new evil religion - led by an Osama Bin Thulsa Doom type figure. A false prophet. The rise of this cult could be what is causing the war (religious vs secular?). He could be an avatar or have some special item.
Or demons, planar invasion, dragons (allied to the forces on the island maybe?), gnomes, etc
Tone
More serious than comic (where possible). Magic is low key. Gritty. Characters can get hurt, even killed
History
Legends of the creation of the world
Unseelie war
The evernight
The Age of Darkness - lasted 3,000 years
Now = The Age of Twilight
Once a year the unseelie come back on winter solstice - longest night of the year
The unseelie have their sport - consume life, keep races down
Next = age of the sun? or age of darkness? - could go either way
Recent events:
New landmass emerges - its a prophecy or just discovered by ogres
Vision, ancient scroll
Lights of the world are getting dim
The dwarves have discovered something?
Ogres want to cross the great ocean
Geography
Huge staircase going down
frozen wastes
remnants of old civilisations
giant statue of unknown origin
city on stilts in marshland
incan temple in the firests (tie to beastmen?)
city states
treaty city - mos eisley-like lawless ankh moorpork
valley of the dead
Seas, lakes
An island
Gates/dimensional rift
Woods/forests
the underdark
swamp
floating rock cities in the sky
volcanos
Mordor
Indiana Jones-style dungeon/temple
A tunnel between two races (like the channel tunnel) as the surface is very dangerous
other continents are held at bay by some sort of magic barrier – invisible mist which sweeps ships away like bermuda triangle myths;
lots of dangerous/strange animals
centipedes
six legged riding cats - ridden by beastmen, minotaurs - fox guys, bull guys
flying monkeys
treehounds
Silly animal hybrids - rhinoroo, paul the dogtopus, duck-billed badgerpuss
Drakh keepers
Weird mounts
Unusual species abound - normal stuff like cats and dogs simply don't exist
Technology
Primitve tech - swords and shields and bows. Not a lot of armour. Chariots. Catapults.
Night steel/cold iron - dwarves invented after industrialisation - found the secret of reliably creating it.
Conan, Runequest, bronze age feel
Strange riding beasts as transports
Lizardmen - Star Wars lizard (from Revenge of the Sith).
Ogres - ships, dolphins, walk on land. Sea lubbers - prefer sea to land. Flying stingrays.
Dwarves - giant worms - tunnel underground. ride them like in Dune.
Faeries - giant dragonflies, lots of giant insects in their home forests. Unseelie ride horses in hunt.
Magic
Celtic style magic - leylines, faerie toadstool rings, dolmens and stone circles, potions/cauldrons, pagan nature worship, rituals, poisons, scrying the future, subtle magic rather than obvious fireballs, runes, weather influence, influencing natural world, speak to animals, cause fear, curses.
Harness power
superhuman jumps
rituals, grimoires, sacrifices
alchemical
morgoth/sauron-like - drain energy from self
spirits
leyline at midsummer's eve
faerie glamour - appear as other things
black obselisk
Different races draw energy in different ways
Dwarves draw energy from ley lines, which tap into the spirit world, stone circles and chasms - leaks up to the surface from the Earth's core
Ogres - where it's stormiest (ley lines). Small rocky island where the sages live - Isle of the Sorcerers.
Some live on boats - The Waterbound
Lizardmen = magic from smoke - rituals, capturing it. firestones. Look into the smoke = see into the other realm
Faeries: faerie gateways, wardstones - portals into the other realm
Failure = drains own energy/lifespan? attracts unseelie?
Unseelie give magical energy when destroyed
Dead spots where magic has been drained away
Factions
There are 4 races on Amar, representing the 4 elements.
Richard's race: The Ohmryn
Ogre-like in appearance. 7-8 feet tall, strong and tough like Conan. Skin shade varies by region.
Embody the element of Water.
Warriors, barbarians, traders, explorers.
Surprisingly cool and laid back. They invented surfing. Philosophical. But they can be stormy.
Honourable reputation - so know can talk in good faith
Spread out across the world.
Ben's race: The Basites
Earth elemental/dwarf types. Made of rock. Sandstone yellow in colour.
Embody the element of Earth.
Solitary, religious, stubborn.
Can talk to stone.
Don't breathe air. No eyes - magical senses.
Live underground. Industrial mining - uranium? They pollute the atmosphere.
Worship stone effigies? An obelisk/stonehenge
Steve's race: The Phae-touched
Insect-like/plant-like. 3ft tall. Skin made of wood, golden brown in colour. Butterfly wings
Embody the element of Air
Fickle and curious. Good at climbing. Lot of bards.
Live in the forest realm. Hive-like society. Share a collective subconscious.
Trees have personality
They are a good faction of faeries - most other faeries are evil
Dwarves mine the night steel - cold iron - that hurts them. Source of conflict.
Paul's race: The Kasheeta
Githzerai-like. Scaly grey-green lizardy-Cardassian colours
Embody the element of Fire.
Regenerate. Infra red vision. Ritualistic daggers
Peaceful society. Mountain monasteries.
Caste system. Workers - no lives. Warrior caste - angry, expansive. Religious caste - mystics.
Breathing in the mist from the sacred volcano
custodians of the flame. tempered the volcanos
lived in the world when it was dark - before there was a sun. Created the sun?
Enemies
Seelie/Unseelie - good and bad faeries.
Enemy = Unseelie: trolls, redcaps, pixies, fomorians.
Cruel and capricious, sadistic. Treat the humans as animals.
Balorians - one eyed giants with eye blast from their single evil eye
Undead - wraiths. realm of the dead. spirits.
Afterlife - no one knows what's beyond death
Curse of the unseelie - they are collecting souls for some ritual
Demons - but could be superstition
Dragons - or not?
Jason and the Argonauts skeletons, harpies, medusa
Giant scorpions, hydra, kraken
Conflicts
Tensions between the races, particularly Fire vs Water and Earth vs Air
Earth vs Air = the Basites pollute the atmosphere with their mining, forge weapons of cold iron, and chop down the forests to fuel their machines/expand their territory (thus destroying the Faetouched's habitat). The Faetouched are very unhappy about all of these things.
Fire vs Water = clash over the seas between their lands. The Kasheeta call it the Strait of Muldrasa, while the Ohmryn call it the Alamin Channel. The Ohmryn have spirit bonds with many sea creatures that live in these waters, from sharks and whales to dolphins and octopuses. But the Kasheeta hunt them for food and also for food (a lot like the Japanese and whaling). This is a big source of conflict.
Game Length
One 'movie length' adventure - about 12 sessions.
Player Characters
We said that we've done games at the lower power level so we should try something a bit more epic and fantastical. So we intend to try a power level of 40 and 2 trademarks. This puts the characters somewhere round the Aragorn/Legolas level in terms of both power and world-significance.
Future Adventures
Campaign = LotR style trek across the world.
• Consult with a great sage or dragon - he releases great energy when killed
• Government has the group's souls - thus the PCs must serve the state?
• The PCs are drafted into being heroes? Like the dalai llama?
• There could be specific set pieces - events that are prophecied to happen but the characters may be able to manipulate or prevent them and thus change the future?
• Need to deliver a princess for sacrifice?
• Need to persuade a high level character to assist the group?
• Must travel through a barbarian land?
• Maybe stop some foe from gaining magic item we later hear about, that might control the source of elemental powers/races – a gem that controls fire, water, wind and earth?
• A wagon or chariot chase, or rooftop pursuit
• Is there some horror emerging in new town that was built over site of horrific battle, but for 50 years had seemed fine? Maybe to investigate?
• Maybe there are still lots of starving, homeless refugees around, after catastrophe destroyed their nation – and we need to help them, as no one else will?
• Maybe we need to fight off attacks by separatists or ultra-nationalists who see our fame, and the new international unity, as threatening their way of life?
• Do we carry out assassination?
• Are we just used as celeb-like figureheads to make displays of new peace and progress, even though horribly assassinations/poverty/arms deals/deadly research/experimentation on underclass/slavery is still going on, and we just have to do interviews for local media, or make speeches about how life has improved? Or are we used to break strikes and protests, or defeat guerilla freedom fighters, or other ethically dubious things?
• Is one of the character's family held hostage to ensure loyalty?
• Negotiate with huge dragon would-be ally, once we have delivered sacrifice?
• Do we have to rescue hostages? Or do we rescue people after natural disaster-type cataclysm?
• Great sea journey
• Does an ocean run with blood?
• Demons possess all the children of village and attack their parents?
• Do we lead forces in huge battle, including maybe one of us fighting against our own kinsmen? Maybe a great siege?
• Face the Unseelie Wild Hunt
• Do we enter underground complex, and have to escape in a tunnel that turns out to be the belly of a great demon worm?
• Demonic doppelgangers posing as refugees?
• Do we face fetches (when Unseelie steal children to take back to phae court as slaves or converts, they leave artificial children in their place, made of glamour, magic, sticks and blood and leaves and leeches – homunculi)
• Do we have to infiltrate the Unseelie court itself? Or ally with them against greater threat? Or are we sent to them to negotiate peace, which our superiors believe will fail, and we were just sent as decoys whilst our governments prepare military strike?
• Is an entire civilian city or region quarantined off and left for dead by its government?
• Do we have to enter the dream sea, or climb the endless stair? Or delve into one of our nations' worst military secrets?
• Visit a strange, maddening city, with its towers and architecture all jutting in impossible directions, and inside-out buildings
• Monsters that draw water from foes' bodies, or manifest from air or water inside people's bodies and kill bunch of NPCs before we get magic protection set up
• Visit/consult with the great elusive desert caliph, who is a spirit of sand and manifests from the dunes itself, surrounded by fellow djinn nomads, made of sandstone, burnt wood and blue firestones
• Do we have to tame riding beasts, from flock of giant eagles, or pteranadon-types?
• Encounters with talking animal people – maybe all the beasts in Unseelie infected area are possessed by spirits, or all the villagers have been shapechanged into beasts, and their personalities begin to change to reflect their new forms?
• Do we have to navigate great underground twisting tunnels of water ways? Or visit hell to bring someone back? Magic-infected area where walls and floor and sculpture is infused with graspings arms and hands and teeth, and blinking eyes, and moaning voices, begging for release?
• Do we have to do subterfuge work whilst great parade or musical carnival is ongoing
• A race that only communicates in song, or through braille or sign language – or borrow others voices, or speak through musical instruments?
• A being that constantly dies and is reborn every 6 hours
• Deal with maze-like catacombs criss-crossed with deadly traps
• Or are we possessed and forced to do horrible things, or do we have to hunt down doppelgangers and clear our names?
• Does someone have to fight a duel, atop 30' high pillars, or leaping from platforms made of raised crossed swords, by a tribe of swordsmasters? Maybe the swordmasters gather once each year, mass bouts and competitions, and allcomers must join the sport and try to not get knocked out of competition – but also try not to win and defeat the royal champion (who everyone else allows to win, otherwise face repercussions and execution), but just put up a challenging fight, to get in his/her good graces
• Race of medusa children, sort of like tieflings, in that they are distrusted and reviled, but most aren't evil, and are trying to make up for their ancestors' demon pacts
• Bear or walrus-people ice nomad cannibals
• A merchant people who don't trade in money, but in dreams or secrets or hope or emotion, or years of people's life
• A religious people who consider it the greatest honour to be sacrificed to a blood thirsty deity, or ruler, who stays young and ever-beautiful, through bathing daily in blood
• Rescue dragon or beast's lost children?
Opening Scene
Start in fellowship of the ring/council of elrond style meeting - all the races, deciding what to do
Place = like green zone in iraq, a safe-ish fortress surrounded by hostiles
It's a giant standing stone /ley line nexus/ancient meeting place - forbidden
Beastmen patrol it / it's under siege?
Get given the mission and sent off on their way
There's nothing in this description, first of all, that implies to me that its somehow a better result than if a single GM with an actual Vision of what he wants had made a setting. There's a place to argue that it might be worse; or rather, that it may manage by sheer consensus to avoid some of the worst excesses of really stupid world-building (by bad GMs) but at the cost of never being able to allow the really great moments of genius that can only happen when you don't have to go along with what a committee wants. Its always going to be middle-of-the-road and formulaic, and specific visions diluted by the need to make everyone happy and being forced to introduce bob's stupid idea about scimitar-wielding dark-elves because he really wants that.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;582730There's nothing in this description, first of all, that implies to me that its somehow a better result than if a single GM with an actual Vision of what he wants had made a setting. There's a place to argue that it might be worse; or rather, that it may manage by sheer consensus to avoid some of the worst excesses of really stupid world-building (by bad GMs) but at the cost of never being able to allow the really great moments of genius that can only happen when you don't have to go along with what a committee wants. Its always going to be middle-of-the-road and formulaic, and specific visions diluted by the need to make everyone happy and being forced to introduce bob's stupid idea about scimitar-wielding dark-elves because he really wants that.
I don't think that collaboratively built worlds are necessarily any better than those solely designed by the GM, at least not from the perspective of a third party. Both approaches have their merits. I think the advantage of collaborative worldbuilding is that the players are more likely to feel engaged in the setting (because they have had a hand in creating it and also by extension because it contains more ingredients that directly appeal to them). Amar isn't some Tolkienesque masterpiece, but it means something to us because we're the people who created it.
I don't think you can say it's middle of the road and formulaic, either. You may not like it, sure, and maybe it's not startlingly original, but it's certainly not just Tolkien or Forgotten Realms with the serial numbers filed off. At the very least it's a slightly unusual spin on some of the standard fantasy archetypes.
I'm the GM for this campaign. We brainstormed the key details but mostly it was a case of going 'Yeah, cool' and then building on each other's ideas. There weren't any votes or arguments or compromises about what to include. The races in particular were created entirely by their 'owning' players with basically no input from anyone else. As GM there's nothing in there that I don't like or wish I could change. No-one has put a gun to my head or to the head of any of my loved ones to make me go along with things. I enjoy being given a set of basic ingredients and then going away and shaping a campaign backstory from that. I have a ton of surprises up my sleeve about what's really going on and I believe the players are going to be shocked (in a good way) by some of the things that happen next.
I understand your line of reasoning when you say "players will be more engaged with their setting", but I don't think think its true. I think you may be able to say "collaborative setting design means players will be less likely to outight reject the setting", that's true enough to be likely.
However, what happens in other situations, where the setting is created by an individual with a given vision, is that others will either reject or accept that vision. They'll either like the setting or not. But to do that, they'll also have to discover that setting.
Players who made a collaborative setting will of course like at least the parts they contributed to the setting; they might not like parts others gave to it, or they might. But they're not getting to DISCOVER the setting.
This takes something serious away from the game. Even if its the Forgotten Realms or Middle-Earth, you'll be discovering the GM's take on the setting. But when you are expecting that the setting was created by consensus, you don't WANT the GM's take on it, you want it the way you all agreed it would be. It thus takes away from the possibility of being surprised, and is even likely to take away the possibility of Immersion.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;583304I understand your line of reasoning when you say "players will be more engaged with their setting", but I don't think think its true. I think you may be able to say "collaborative setting design means players will be less likely to outight reject the setting", that's true enough to be likely.
I find that established settings are difficult to play in. Basically because no-one other than the GM tends to read all the material. This puts the players at a further remove from the setting and can also create a kind of analysis paralysis for the GM out of sheer weight of information.
This is a pity because detailed and engaging settings
that everyone gets are fucking awesome. One way round it is to play in an iconic setting like Star Wars or Middle-earth where everyone in the group already knows it inside out. The second way round it is to make up the setting yourself as a group (so instead of reading a shitload of stuff you just have to be present for the worldbuilding session) and continue building on it as you play (so you can start out with something sketchy and only add the details you need as you need them). The third option, lending people all the sourcebooks or writing up your own potted introduction to Synnibar and expecting people to read it, is in my experience just a pipe dream.
A detailed 'GM vision' setting that only really exists in the GM's head solves the problems from the GM's side but not the problems from the players side.
Quote from: RPGPundit;583304However, what happens in other situations, where the setting is created by an individual with a given vision, is that others will either reject or accept that vision. They'll either like the setting or not. But to do that, they'll also have to discover that setting.
Players who made a collaborative setting will of course like at least the parts they contributed to the setting; they might not like parts others gave to it, or they might. But they're not getting to DISCOVER the setting.
This takes something serious away from the game. Even if its the Forgotten Realms or Middle-Earth, you'll be discovering the GM's take on the setting. But when you are expecting that the setting was created by consensus, you don't WANT the GM's take on it, you want it the way you all agreed it would be. It thus takes away from the possibility of being surprised, and is even likely to take away the possibility of Immersion.
So far I've done four campaigns based around group worldbuilding and I don't find that the sense of exploration and discovery is any less than in our other games. The group worldbuilding bit sets the tone of the campaign and gives the GM their basic ingredients, but the GM still has a huge role to play in shaping those ingredients into an actual world. For example, in the fantasy setting outlined above, I've since made up loads of details about the unseelie (what they want, where they live, who their most powerful champions are and what they can do), the secret agenda of each race's rulers, the secret history of the last war with the unseelie 10,000 years ago, precursor races, a terrible secret about one character's origins, what's on this mysterious island, and a wide variety of other key NPCs and locations that they might come across. None of the players know about any of this yet, it will all be discovered by them during play. This is how I've done all 4 of my group worldbuilding campaigns and it's worked out fine.
Quote from: soviet;583825This is a pity because detailed and engaging settings that everyone gets are fucking awesome...
A detailed 'GM vision' setting that only really exists in the GM's head solves the problems from the GM's side but not the problems from the players side.
I'm pretty much a 'GM Vision' setting kind of a guy, and have not before considered letting the players create the setting. I was always under the impression that if players really wanted something in a setting they would put together a campaign setting themselves, and then run that campaign for everyone at the table. Doing it this way keeps GM burnout down as well, as there is a round robin series of games going on, so if a GM gets tired of running a game they can sit in and play for awhile in another campaign.
I also don't see any problem with GM's collaborating and sharing common elements (races, locales, unique features, etc.) between gaming worlds. This could get sticky though if a GM ever plans on commecially publishing the setting.
One other thing that may help, in introducing new settings, I always have some common touchstones that players are familiar with be it races, classes, equipment, or themes that allow them to easily engage the setting even if most of what is in the setting is new or unfamiliar to the players.
Quote from: soviet;583825One way round it is to play in an iconic setting like Star Wars or Middle-earth where everyone in the group already knows it inside out. The second way round it is to make up the setting yourself as a group (so instead of reading a shitload of stuff you just have to be present for the worldbuilding session) and continue building on it as you play (so you can start out with something sketchy and only add the details you need as you need them). The third option, lending people all the sourcebooks or writing up your own potted introduction to Synnibar and expecting people to read it, is in my experience just a pipe dream.
There's a fourth way around it - introduce the setting in small, bite-sized pieces that players can digest a bit at a time, but still stick to a single vision. In my experience, that's a much better way than the three you mentioned.
Quote from: soviet;583825So far I've done four campaigns based around group worldbuilding and I don't find that the sense of exploration and discovery is any less than in our other games. The group worldbuilding bit sets the tone of the campaign and gives the GM their basic ingredients, but the GM still has a huge role to play in shaping those ingredients into an actual world. For example, in the fantasy setting outlined above, I've since made up loads of details about the unseelie (what they want, where they live, who their most powerful champions are and what they can do), the secret agenda of each race's rulers, the secret history of the last war with the unseelie 10,000 years ago, precursor races, a terrible secret about one character's origins, what's on this mysterious island, and a wide variety of other key NPCs and locations that they might come across. None of the players know about any of this yet, it will all be discovered by them during play. This is how I've done all 4 of my group worldbuilding campaigns and it's worked out fine.
09-17-2012 09:07 PM
Just to clarify my previous comments here, collaborative worldbuilding is fine
online, where you have a group of experienced people that will probably never play at the same table picking and choosing what they like from a thread (what I thought you were talking about). That can get epic. I'd rather read one of those threads than fifty edition war/OSR/kickstarter/gossip threads. Sadly there only seems to be the shadow of one on the main page at the moment, this (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=23103) is what I'm talking about.
What you seem to be talking about is the GM and players sitting down and putting a world together. That's a whole other condiment which I can't see working at all, it does tend to lead to design-by-committee, which is derivative and tedious most of the time.
I mean if you can't get players interested, engaged and involved in a paragraph or two the milieu probably wasn't worth much anyway. Part of the joy of reading a new book or seeing a new movie is tripping over weird stuff that everyone else takes for granted.
Quote from: The Traveller;583900What you seem to be talking about is the GM and players sitting down and putting a world together. That's a whole other condiment which I can't see working at all, it does tend to lead to design-by-committee, which is derivative and tedious most of the time.
Well, as I say, I've done it four times now and it's worked out every time. We've done a cyberpunk game, a victorian horror game set in an asylum, an alternative history WW2 zombies game, and now a fantasy game. If you look at the write-up of our fantasy game I don't think you can honestly say it's derivative and tedious. I'm not saying it's amazing, but I think it is proof that this approach can work with the right group.
Collaborative world building is an interesting concept indeed. I've, at times, had particularly active players present ideas to me on how the world could/should work and encourage players to come up with unique facets about their characters both when being presented with their backgrounds and during play. I do feel that the GM should be the final arbitrator as to what gets accepted and what doesn't as the GM is and should be the primary world builder. I don't see anything inherently wrong or inspiring about this write up and I'm going to assume it is a case of "you had to have been there" but if everyone involved enjoyed it then I say keep it up.
I remember one time I had a player who's barbarian character was... critically insulted by another character. So, on the spot, he made up a ritualistic duel of sorts that his tribe, according to him, performed in order to air out grievances between members. He even gave rules. You can bring whatever you want to the duel, size of the makeshift arena, no magical aid right before or during the duel, no outside help, etc etc. All of this, even the kind of "glove slap" you do to challenge someone to it, right on the spot. He ran it by me, I accepted and it was a go.
The funny thing about this story is that the opposing player decided his character was truly sorry about what he had done and, when he went to shake his hand before the start of the duel, he healed him in order to make it a more fair fight (the barbarian had been injured thanks to this character's buffoonery earlier). Now I was ready for the duel to commence but then the barbarian called it off and everyone at the table was confused. The player than recited his own rules, that no magical aid was to be given right before or during the fight. That meant that he just lost by forfeit.Having lost the fight, and having done so by dishonorable means, he now could not act upon his vengeance because of the tribal law he had just made up 10 minutes prior.
Its a story me and mine still tell to this day and is pretty much what had me start to encourage the behavior to this day.
Quote from: soviet;584069If you look at the write-up of our fantasy game I don't think you can honestly say it's derivative and tedious.
I rarely if ever criticise any attempt at a creative endeavour.
For my part, I have no problem at all with the players NOT being familiar with a setting; on the contrary, I think that's fine because it means the players won't be trying to "read in" information about it, they'll be basing their actions and choices on what their PCs know about the setting.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;584130For my part, I have no problem at all with the players NOT being familiar with a setting; on the contrary, I think that's fine because it means the players won't be trying to "read in" information about it, they'll be basing their actions and choices on what their PCs know about the setting.
RPGPundit
Except the characters will know a lot more about the setting, because they've been living there for however long before the game starts. Collaborative world building brings in an element of that.
Quote from: Ladybird;584138Except the characters will know a lot more about the setting, because they've been living there for however long before the game starts. Collaborative world building brings in an element of that.
No, the characters will know what the players know, because when they need to know what the players would reasonably know about the setting, I will tell them.
For example, if they ask "What would I know about what's beyond the Misty Mountains"?
I could tell them "you've been told its a vast trackless wasteland that was once the home of a mighty empire, laid waste by the gods. There are rumours of terrible mutant races there".
If the players and GM end up making the world through collaborative consensus process or some other such bullshit, the players will end up knowing that the Scorpionmen live in the trackless wasteland, and that there are ruined cities, and the spaceship, or whatever; and so they won't be surprised by fucking anything. And we'll have to trust that they'll roleplay their characters as being ignorant of all those details, which they should be. Its an utterly sub-optimal situation for good Immersion.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;584311No, the characters will know what the players know, because when they need to know what the players would reasonably know about the setting, I will tell them.
For example, if they ask "What would I know about what's beyond the Misty Mountains"?
I could tell them "you've been told its a vast trackless wasteland that was once the home of a mighty empire, laid waste by the gods. There are rumours of terrible mutant races there".
If the players and GM end up making the world through collaborative consensus process or some other such bullshit, the players will end up knowing that the Scorpionmen live in the trackless wasteland, and that there are ruined cities, and the spaceship, or whatever; and so they won't be surprised by fucking anything. And we'll have to trust that they'll roleplay their characters as being ignorant of all those details, which they should be. Its an utterly sub-optimal situation for good Immersion.
RPGPundit
A) How is that any different from using a published setting?
B) Can't the surprises be what the scorpionmen want, or who they are in league with, or what dark powers they have developed? Or what's in the ruined cities and why they were ruined? Or who built the starship and who lives there now?
Even in the most heavily developed and mapped out published universe imaginable (Forgotten Realms, maybe?) a GM will always be able to make new shit up.
Quote from: soviet;584364A) How is that any different from using a published setting?
B) Can't the surprises be what the scorpionmen want, or who they are in league with, or what dark powers they have developed? Or what's in the ruined cities and why they were ruined? Or who built the starship and who lives there now?
Even in the most heavily developed and mapped out published universe imaginable (Forgotten Realms, maybe?) a GM will always be able to make new shit up.
Pretty much this. Just because a player had a hand in presenting an addition to the setting there really is no reason you can't take what they've given you and develop it. I require players to give me a background for each of their characters. I take that background and adjust it to fit into the setting and any spin I wanna put on it. Even if I don't actively change it there's nothing keeping me from expanding upon what they (the players) present to me.
Quote from: soviet;584364A) How is that any different from using a published setting?
B) Can't the surprises be what the scorpionmen want, or who they are in league with, or what dark powers they have developed? Or what's in the ruined cities and why they were ruined? Or who built the starship and who lives there now?
Even in the most heavily developed and mapped out published universe imaginable (Forgotten Realms, maybe?) a GM will always be able to make new shit up.
Quote from: MGuy;584413I require players to give me a background for each of their characters. I take that background and adjust it to fit into the setting and any spin I wanna put on it.
Its a very ambiguously titled thread to be honest, with at least three completely different concepts floating around so far. We have:
- Players and GM actively sitting down and working together to build a new world from scratch
- Unrelated people on internet forums kicking around ideas and producing multifaceted resources on themes or worlds
- A GM working with players to weave their character backgrounds into one another and the existing world
These are systemically dissimilar, and each produces a different effect on gameplay. I'm in favour of the latter two, but the first not so much. Players don't take ownership of the game world, their characters do. This is true for all such fiction, else every book would be prefaced by a world encyclopedia for the comfort of the reader.
Quote from: soviet;584364A) How is that any different from using a published setting?
I hope I understood the question right: are you asking how player knowledge of a setting the player collaboratively made with a group is different from player knowledge of a published setting?
The answer is that it isn't tremendously different except for one important thing: If a GM is running a published setting, there is an unspoken understanding that the GM can CHANGE whatever the fuck he wants. Just because you read somewhere in an FR book that Waterdeep has a shop that sells widgets doesn't mean in that GM's campaign it will have.
On the other hand, if a Player has explicitly insisted that in the Collaborative Setting there be a widget shop, there damn well will be a widget shop or the whole premise of collaborative setting-creation falls apart. So the one BIG difference is that if a player collaborated to creating a setting he will DEMAND that the setting be the way it was laid out; whereas if he just knows about it as a published setting he can make no such demand.
QuoteB) Can't the surprises be what the scorpionmen want, or who they are in league with, or what dark powers they have developed? Or what's in the ruined cities and why they were ruined? Or who built the starship and who lives there now?
Sure, it CAN be but none of that takes away from the fact that the GM has been stripped of the authority to decide if the scorpionmen are there at all or not, or from the fact that the players will all know FOR SURE that the scorpionmen are there (or else!).
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;584807I hope I understood the question right: are you asking how player knowledge of a setting the player collaboratively made with a group is different from player knowledge of a published setting?
The answer is that it isn't tremendously different except for one important thing: If a GM is running a published setting, there is an unspoken understanding that the GM can CHANGE whatever the fuck he wants. Just because you read somewhere in an FR book that Waterdeep has a shop that sells widgets doesn't mean in that GM's campaign it will have.
On the other hand, if a Player has explicitly insisted that in the Collaborative Setting there be a widget shop, there damn well will be a widget shop or the whole premise of collaborative setting-creation falls apart. So the one BIG difference is that if a player collaborated to creating a setting he will DEMAND that the setting be the way it was laid out; whereas if he just knows about it as a published setting he can make no such demand.
Sure, it CAN be but none of that takes away from the fact that the GM has been stripped of the authority to decide if the scorpionmen are there at all or not, or from the fact that the players will all know FOR SURE that the scorpionmen are there (or else!).
RPGPundit
Well, yes and no. I think you're right that a GM using a published setting has more leeway to change things than a GM using a group built setting. Although it's worth saying that the GM is part of the group that built that setting, so there shouldn't be anything in there that he finds totally objectionable in the first place. It's not as though the whole thing is just presented to him wholesale. He's been involved at every stage.
However I think that even in a published setting the GM doesn't necessarily have a totally free reign. This is a social contract issue. If the set up of the campaign is something like 'We're playing in Gary's campaign, whatever that turns out to be' then yeah, Gary can do what the fuck he wants, even if he is using a published setting as his starting point. But if the set up of the campaign is something more like 'We're playing in Middle-earth during the War of the Ring because we love the films', then for some groups, a GM adding a new Scorpion Men faction and a crashed starship in the middle of Mirkwood is taking a big liberty with the setting. He is breaking the unspoken agreement as to what the campaign will be about just as surely as the GM in a group-built setting would be if he unilaterally removed those self-same elements.
By the way, I'm not sure where the 'stripped of authority' and 'or else!' stuff comes from. Presumably if the GM is choosing to run a group worldbuilding game it's because he likes something about that approach. He's not being held hostage by his players, he
wants to do it this way. So why would it be a source of conflict later on?
Quote from: soviet;584861Well, yes and no. I think you're right that a GM using a published setting has more leeway to change things than a GM using a group built setting. Although it's worth saying that the GM is part of the group that built that setting, so there shouldn't be anything in there that he finds totally objectionable in the first place. It's not as though the whole thing is just presented to him wholesale. He's been involved at every stage.
However I think that even in a published setting the GM doesn't necessarily have a totally free reign. This is a social contract issue. If the set up of the campaign is something like 'We're playing in Gary's campaign, whatever that turns out to be' then yeah, Gary can do what the fuck he wants, even if he is using a published setting as his starting point. But if the set up of the campaign is something more like 'We're playing in Middle-earth during the War of the Ring because we love the films', then for some groups, a GM adding a new Scorpion Men faction and a crashed starship in the middle of Mirkwood is taking a big liberty with the setting. He is breaking the unspoken agreement as to what the campaign will be about just as surely as the GM in a group-built setting would be if he unilaterally removed those self-same elements.
By the way, I'm not sure where the 'stripped of authority' and 'or else!' stuff comes from. Presumably if the GM is choosing to run a group worldbuilding game it's because he likes something about that approach. He's not being held hostage by his players, he wants to do it this way. So why would it be a source of conflict later on?
Copy paste this as my thoughts.
I'm not going to say anyone's "doing it wrong", as that's not my place. If folks like the way they do things, then rock on. However, I can say that I do not now nor have I ever had a desire to collaboratively design a setting with a group that I was then to go play in the setting with. As Pundit says, it would destroy my sense of discovery and exploration, which are the main things I enjoy about RPGing, especially fantasy and sci-fi RPGing. I would, however, love collaborating with some folks on a setting that I would then use to run other people (non-collaborators) through, and in fact I have shared plenty of feedback and input with several of the designers that frequent this forum. That I see no problem with that at all.
Quote from: Sigmund;585063I would, however, love collaborating with some folks on a setting that I would then use to run other people (non-collaborators) through
Yes, Setting Riffs, the reason the internet was invented.
Quote from: soviet;584861By the way, I'm not sure where the 'stripped of authority' and 'or else!' stuff comes from. Presumably if the GM is choosing to run a group worldbuilding game it's because he likes something about that approach. He's not being held hostage by his players, he wants to do it this way. So why would it be a source of conflict later on?
You have a point of course, that unless the GM is a doormat who let's himself be pushed into running this, it shouldn't be a source of conflict.
Of course, time was when the Forge wanted to try to fundamentally change the entire culture of gaming to try to FORCE everyone to play this way. Some of them would still wish that; if you try to indoctrinate all RPG players with the idea that "I should get to have as much say in the campaign's setting details as the GM", it makes it harder for those who would like to actually play a more regular RPG with traditional GM/Player roles.
Luckily, the Forge lost that war. We live in the OSR's world now.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;585525Of course, time was when the Forge wanted to try to fundamentally change the entire culture of gaming to try to FORCE everyone to play this way. Some of them would still wish that; if you try to indoctrinate all RPG players with the idea that "I should get to have as much say in the campaign's setting details as the GM", it makes it harder for those who would like to actually play a more regular RPG with traditional GM/Player roles.
I agree there's a place for both types, absolutely. The game I GM'ed before this Other Worlds campaign was AD&D 2e, and I didn't use any group worldbuilding style techniques at all. I just made up a town and a dungeon and let the players loose on them.
Quote from: soviet;586062I agree there's a place for both types, absolutely. The game I GM'ed before this Other Worlds campaign was AD&D 2e, and I didn't use any group worldbuilding style techniques at all. I just made up a town and a dungeon and let the players loose on them.
Ugh. You would use 2e! ;)
Quote from: RPGPundit;586524Ugh. You would use 2e! ;)
Heh, well it was sort of a hybrid actually. I used the 2e PHB and MC but the 1e DMG. I also used the 1e GP=XP rule. I didn't use any of the 2e Complete Guide books or any of the established settings (in fact I used the set-up from the solo adventure in red box basic, with the group heading out to get the bounty on Bargle, the evil magic user that killed Aleena!).
So, this campaign is in full swing now. I thought I would post the ongoing journal of what's happened but also add in some notes about the game mechanics side or any other bits of play advice I learned from the experience.
(Remembers the site he is posting on: yes, this is a storygame, albeit a fairly middle of the road one. If you've got questions about something, ask away! But let's please not turn it into another 'storygames are rubbish' thread.)
Worldbuilding Summary
On the world of Amar there are four great races, each drawing their power from one of the four elements. The Basites embody the element of earth; they are dwarves with bodies made of raw stone, known for their love of mining and solitary, stubborn disposition. The Kasheeta are scaly grey-green lizardmen who embody the element of fire; they are deeply religious and consider volcanos to be the most sacred places in the world. The Ohmryn are great blue seafaring ogres who embody the element of water; they are honourable traders famous for their laid back attitudes, but can be stormy if wronged. The Phae-Touched are small and insect-like faeries who embody the element of air; they all share a direct connection to the Hive Prime and live in an alliance with the Wildren beastmen.
The current Age of Twilight has lasted for thousands of years. The whole world is dark and gloomy and full daylight is considered a faerie tale of the olden days. Relations between the four races are fractious at best; disputes are handled in the Great Council chambers in the neutral ground of Sanctuary Island. The most common source of trouble are the unseelie, who raid the free peoples of Amar every winter solstice and cause untold amounts of pain and suffering.
Character Summary
Goldrock of the Basites is a Runesmith Guilder with all the elemental powers of a Stormforger Runesmith. His key abilities include Beacon to the Unseelie, Build the Ultimate WMD, Call Lightning, Feared, Granite Skin, Nightsteel Armour, Reduced Senses, Rune Lore, See Through Illusions, and Tremor Sense.
Zhel'darax of the Kasheetans is Captain of their noble order of Fire Guardians. He was raised on sacred Mount Hilipha is an Acolyte of Cyratha (a dreamseer). His key abilities include Apprenticed by the Oracle, Burn Infidel, Cold Blooded, Filter Smoke, Impart Wisdom, Lonely Widower, Read Object, and Step Between Moments.
Sharl of the Ohmryn is a hunter with a spiritual connection to a berserker shark spirit named Ghar. His key abilities include Avoid Unnecessary Violence, Blackouts and Memory Loss, Dislikes Dishonesty, Treated with Suspicion, Uneasy When Away From the Sea, and Wielder of the Relic Spear Haon-Sri-Hu.
Fleet of the Phae-Touched is a Way Warden of En Jaides who was promoted to the status of Greysmith Mediator. His key abilities include Connected to the Web of Life, Fascinated by Mortals, Hero of Mherun Vale, Insectoid Wings, Saddened by Violence, Treestep, Vulnerable to Night Steel, and Windshard Staff of Office.
1. Prophecy
The four heroes were summoned to the Partitioned City on Sanctuary Island. [1]
Fleet was the first to arrive. He had spent the last few years travelling the world, mediating in disputes with both the Wildren and the Basites. He flew in from the Wychlight Forest on a giant dragonfly, landing by the great termite mounds in one of the Phae-Touched quarter's many parks.
Sharl came next. He had recently been helping to block Kasheetan hunting expeditions in the contested waters of the Alamin Channel when an argument escalated into violence and he killed several Kasheetans. This had led to increased tensions between the two races and Sharl knew that things could easily tip over into all-out war if he was not careful. He arrived at the bustling docks of Sanctuary Island's Ohmryn quarter by boat, heading inland through the canals and passing its famously colourful stilted wooden houses on the way.
Zhel'darax had been busy meditating at home near Mount Hilipha in preparation for being entered into the Order of Siratha next year. He had also been helping train his daughter Lyzara train so she can attempt the gruelling initiation rites of the illustrious Fire Guardians, an order he is himself a Captain of. He arrived at the island by boat and immediately sought out one of the round stone temples in the Kasheetan quarter so he could filter holy smoke and clear his mind.
Goldrock came last. He had been very busy in his homeland chopping down woodlands and strip mining ('landscaping') the lands near the border with the Phae-Touched, in order to provide enough fuel for the creation of some new war machines. No fan of boats, Goldrock had arrived by simply walking along the sea bed. He emerged in the polluted workshops and narrow gothic streets of the Basite quarter looking sodden and exhausted.
All four characters then made their way to the Sanctuary Temple itself to meet with their respective race's ambassadors and discuss recent events. The temple was essentially a large dome built over the sacred circle of standing stones that provides much of the island's natural arcane power. Powerful runes of warding protect this holy site from potential attack. Soon enough the heroes and their advisors were summoned to a council meeting in the adjoining chamber.
The seer of Sanctuary Island, a venerable Phae-Touched called Swiftstream, laid out the reason for the summons. With the winter solstice fast approaching all four races had begun to suffer from raids by the Unseelie on outlying villages. But this year was different. This year was the year of prophecy, the year of the Grand Convergence when the moon aligns perfectly with the sun. As had been foretold over a thousand years ago, this was the time when the Unseelie would launch their biggest attacks yet, when they would make their great play for the control - or destruction - of the world. Would the current Age of Twilight be replaced by a glorious new Age of the Sun - or a terrible new Age of Darkness?
Our four heroes were the chosen ones, a fact signified by the birthmarks they bore carrying the rune of their people's sacred element. What could they do to help save their peoples? Swiftstream read out the Scroll of the Prophet:
When the sky turns red with blood
And the darkness surrounds us all
Four heroes will emerge
Bearing the hearts of their people
And the keys of their fathers
And step forward to claim their destinies
Last night the sky had indeed turned red as blood, so there could be no doubt that this was the signified time. Scholars had debated endlessly over the full meaning of the ancient scroll, but the 'keys of their fathers' line was a clear reference to each race's sacred elemental key - the Firestone Amulet of the Kasheetans, the Gate Key of the Phae Touched, the Unbreakable Pickaxe of the Basites, and the Echo Shell of the Ohmyrn. These keys would have to be collected from their appointed guarding places and given to the heroes for use in the battles to come. The line about the 'hearts of their people' had been taken to mean that if any of the chosen ones fell, or if any of the sacred keys were captured by the enemy, the race in question would face a rapid and terrible decline (not to say destruction) regardless of the outcome of the larger war.
The full council meeting began. As per tradition, only the individual bearing the speaking stone, a heavy piece of basalt carried by a frail and diminutive looking Phae-Touched clerk, would be allowed to speak [2]. The clerk fluttered around the room, passing the stone round to those that signalled for it. But many other issues were raised before this most important of crises could be addressed. Ambassador Snowfall for the Phae Touched rose to complain about Basite pollution and tree felling, calling on the council to sanction them for their actions. The Basite ambassador in turn rose to defend the merits of Basite industry and tried to portray the Phae Touched as enemies of progress. The Kasheetan ambassador rose to condemn Ohmryn acts of aggression in the contested waters of the Strait of Muldrasa, while the Ohmryn condemned the Kasheetan's repeated hunting parties into the same waters (which they call the Alamin Channel) and threatened a repeat of such blockades in the future. Discussion turned into debate and debate turned into all-out argument.
In the end Goldrock had had enough. He rose to his feet and slammed his mighty hammer down onto the table. 'Order, order!' he cried. 'We must discuss the seer's prophecies while there is still time to do something about them!'. [3]
Swiftstream asked the council for permission to use the sacred stone of seeing, to understand more about the threat they faced. There was also the question of how long they should look into the stone - the more time they spent, the bigger the risk that some kind of magical backlash would take place. After a vote the assembled council agreed to use the stone on full power, regardless of the risk, and so all parties reconvened in the great stone circle itself.
Swiftstream looked into the stone. 'I see a vision of an island emerging from the depths of the ocean', he said. 'It is shielded, somehow. It lies to the north west, beyond the mists. It is a place of great magical energy. It beckons us, we must go to it and find out what is there'. Pushing harder, he said 'I can see some sort of structure on it, made of black stone. There is a terrible stench of death there.'
'The worldbound unseelie stir in the darkness. Four dark princes watch from beyond the realm. A black-armoured figure riding a two-headed pterodactyl. A towering figure of orange rock with six spider-like legs. A black-sailed ship covered in severed heads on spikes. A flaming man on a great chariot, pulled by giant steel bulls. A great needle-like tower stands over a dark and twisted city.'
'I see Kasheetan soldiers marshalling for war, clad in strange armour and bearing strange and powerful weapons. I see a squid-faced unseelie striding through the Phae-Touched capital, leaving puddles of dark water in his wake. I see a great fleet of Ohmryn setting sail, their prospects uncertain. I see the Basite capital fall totally silent, the emissions from its chimneys guttering and dying. I see this city, this island, our most sacred of places, on fire.'
'There will be much slaughter and torment. A great flood, a terrible fire. A city will fall. A great battle where one of you will die. One race in civil war, another race swearing a terrible oath. The seas will run red with blood, the sky will turn black with smoke. It will be a time of great darkness, but also of great hope. There will be heroes, and victories. But one of you is not what he seems.'
'Do not awaken the sleeping goddess! She slumbers beneath the earth. If she were to awake, all would be lost. Let her be!'
And with that final exclamation Swiftstream collapsed to the ground, the spell broken. Arcane energies crackled through the air, as though something on the other side was trying to break out. It could be a chaos moth, an elemental backlash, or something much, much, worse. The four heroes stepped forward, working together to wrestle the magical energies back under control. With grim determination they were successful and the room was silent once more [4].
******
[1] This whole section came about because the characters and world were pretty weird. So to help set the tone I asked every player to describe what their character had been doing when they got the summons, how they got to the island, and what their race's quarter of the partitioned city was like.
[2] I actually did this. The person whose house we were playing at had some kind of rock/mineral thing that we literally passed round during the scene.
[3] Using his prologue ability of Slams Down His Hammer and Calls for Order. There was a lot of exposition to get through in this session, so most of the other prologue abilities didn't really get used until session two.
[4] This was a big mistake on my part. Having the chaos moth come through the barrier would have been a great way of ending the session and would have let the players show off how their new characters behave in a fight. Instead I framed some bullshit conflict about controlling the ritual with success stakes that ultimately boiled down to 'nothing happens'. That's a lesson I've tried to bear in mind since - 'roll to prevent cool shit from happening' is usually just bad play.
Session 2. First Blood
After Swiftstream recovered he spoke to the chosen ones. All four agreed to pursue the quest that had seemingly been laid out for them. They would collect the sacred keys of their peoples and investigate this strange island.
Now came the bad news. This was still a bureaucracy. Tomorrow there would be another committee meeting, with such items on the agenda as: what should this party of heroes be called? What will be their stated objectives? What will be their agreed code of conduct? Should there be a uniform? What is their diplomatic status, and what level of access will they have to each race's capital?
Further points of discussion had been added by the various ambassadors. The Phae Touched wanted to enforce a minimum number of good deeds on the way and include a ban on any further forest destruction. The Basites wanted to make Goldrock the leader of this party and give them all an instruction to kill all faeries on site (the fact that the ambiguity of the term faeries would also include the Phae Touched was surely a simple oversight). The Kasheetans wanted to add a statement condemning Ohmryn expansionism in the Strait of Muldrasa. And the Ohmryn wanted the heroes to travel in a party boat with a full entourage.
All this was to look forward to tomorrow. For today each hero still had other meetings and preparations to attend to.
Fleet returned to his office to find a vast queue of visitors. This was something he had gotten used to over the years. His assistant Leafthorn also provided him with a big pile of paperwork and complained about having to always stay late due to Fleet's many visitors. Fleet decided he had time to see three visitors but no more [1]. The first visitor was desperately ill, having contracted Dutch Elm disease due to his severe beetle infestation. Fleet was not able to heal him personally but recommended the services of Fieldshadow, a local healer/varnisher. The second visitor was Knick-Knack, a 'businessman' of dubious honesty who offered to cut Fleet into various get rich quick schemes. The third visitor was a concerned mother whose son had fallen in with a bad crowd and had been arrested for various misdemeanours; she asked Fleet to look into his case and see if there was anything he could do to help him out. Just as Leafthorn was about to send everyone away a fourth visitor stepped forward. It was Bethran Highhill, his old Wildren comrade. Bethran explained that he would very much like to meet the seer and see the standing stones before he died. Fleet passed this request on to Swiftstream who agreed to make this exception to protocol as a personal favour.
Sharl had a meeting with Ambassador Makrun and other political advisors. In the light of Sharl's recent 'indiscretion' with the Kasheetans, they had decided to give him some much-needed diversity training so as to avoid upsetting the other races any further. After a brief period of relaxation, including the smoking of a large amount of sea weed, various scenarios and strategies were explored. Sharl seemed thoroughly bored by the whole endeavour, but the politicians would not give up. Sharl left several hours later feeling none the wiser, only to bump into one of Sanctuary Island's guards - in this case, a Kasheetan. The guard seemed to recognise him and launched into a tirade of abuse, saying he had Kasheetan blood on his hands and was not fit to even step foot on Sanctuary Island. Sharl tried to remain cool but as soon as the Kasheetan started making threats and shoving him, he lost it. He went into a berserk shark fury and blacked out.
Zhel'darax was to greet the Sorcerer-Poet of Kratos Dai, the new Kasheetan apprentice to the seer of Sanctuary Island. They filtered smoke and then conducted a ritual of sacrifice [2]; the Sorcerer-Poet surprised Zhel-darax by asking him to take over this important ritual, but Zhel-darax proved more than up to this task and impressed his visitor with his insight. A poetry duel conducted afterwards only cemented this relationship. The Sorcerer-Poet has the ear of the Grand Matriarch so this was an important connection to have. During the period of meditation afterwards, however, Zhel'darax once again had his recurring dream. A younger-looking Grand Matriarch approaches a simple Kasheetan hut with two of her guards. Inside there is a female Kasheetan lying on the bed. The child she has just given birth to bears the sacred rune of fire as a birthmark. A Kasheetan man stands in the corner. The guards draw their weapons. And then the dream ends, as it always does, with no other clues as to what it's about.
Goldrock attended a guild meeting in the Basite temple in the east wing, where there was a small circle of standing stones. In union the Basites present performed the holy ritual of veneration and then announced the time of grudges, where Basites could present their grievances and seek restitution from one another. One of Goldrock's main customers, Stalag, complained that one of the runehammers that had been sold to him had broken and must have been substandard. Goldrock's whole reputation as a craftsman was on the line, not to mention his pride. Stalag demanded a full apology and 17 free replacements! An attempt at negotiation failed so the matter was escalated to a full duel of honour before the sacred ancestor stones. At first it seemed that Goldrock was on the back foot, if only because he was holding back so as not to risk seriously injuring or killing one of his best customers. But then Stalag made a particularly cutting jibe about Goldrock's martial prowess and the gloves were off. Within seconds Stalag was lying on the floor with a sore head and Goldrock stood victorious. The pair shook hands and agreed to resume their working relationship in full.
Sharl woke up in the corridor. His knuckles were bloodied and bruised. The Kasheetan guard lay on the floor next to him, beaten to death. In panic, Sharl picked up the body and threw it into the nearest room. He could not remember the fight but did not want to be accused of a crime he may not have committed.
Fleet flew over to the sacred chamber to see how Swiftstream and Bethran were getting on. Along the way he passed a pair of Basite guards, but then when he went round the corner he passed another pair of Basite guards who looked just like them. He had the briefest feeling of deja vu and then carried on his way.
Just then shouts were heard coming from the inner sanctum. The elderly Phae Touched who had carried the talking stone around during the council meeting came flying down the corridor raising the alarm. 'Help! Help! Swiftstream has been murdered!' she said. People started coming out of their rooms to see what all the fuss is about. All four heroes ran towards the chamber and opened the door. Inside they found a circle of magical energy crackling around the stones. Within the circle lay the bodies of both Swiftstream and Bethan; both had been stabbed multiple times. A chaos moth was in the process of emerging from the astral plane, attracted by the wild energies of Swiftstream's now-fizzled ritual of seeing; anyone inside the circle who was still alive would not stay so for long.
Fleet threw his javelin through at the chaotic creature but missed. Goldrock ran in but the giant moth unleashed a storm of electricity, trapping him in a cage of pure lightning and fusing the hinges of his nightsteel armour. Zhel'darax threw his bolas but the dread creature used its telekinesis to bat the weapon straight back at him. In the end it was Sharl who saved the day, barrelling towards the creature and running it though with his ancient relic spear Haon-Sri-Hu. [3]
By this time there was a crowd outside. The heroes worked together again to take control of the fizzled ritual and drain away the wild magical energies that were surging through the room. On examination it was clear that Swiftstream was dead; he had been stabbed multiple times, and judging by the burn marks the assailant had used some kind of nightsteel weapon to do it. Bethran was gravely injured but still just about holding on. Zhel'darax tried to heal him with his Breath of Life but all that could be done was to make his last moments more comfortable. Fleet was beside himself with grief.
To try to shed more light on what had happened, Fleet used his power to Sift Through Memory and Borrow Senses to replay Bethran's memories. He saw two figures come into the room - a Basite and an Ohmryn. The Ohmryn was none other than the supposed hero Sharl! It seems Sharl had approached the seer, pulled out a nightsteel dagger, and leaped on him in a frenzy. The unknown Basite did the same thing to Bethan and then both assailants left. At this time Bethan began to drift away, and Fleet had to move quickly to avoid being left inside his mind at the terrifying moment of death itself. Bethan died. [4]
Outside the Sorcerer-Poet and members of the guards were busy organising a full lock-down of the building in case the perpetrators had not already escaped. Goldrock joined the search. Soon enough the bodies of two Basite guards were found in a small closet, with a weird pile of skin flakes on the floor next to them. Skinchanger assassins! Those rare snakelike creatures can alter their appearance at will, and they are as deadly as they are fanatical. They could be anyone, or anywhere. From the success of their infiltration they must also have a set of keys.
The Sorcerer-Poet explained to the heroes that although skinchangers may well have been involved, they still had to investigate every lead no matter how unlikely. Some reports had also come in of Sharl being seen throwing a body into a deserted room, in which the body of a dead Kasheetan guard was subsequently found. This was clear evidence against Sharl so he and his quarters needed to be searched. Sharl refused, bristling with pride and fury at being suspected of such a crime [5]. The other heroes offered to be searched as well, and for their quarters to be examined, but this turned up no additional clues. Next stop: Sharl's quarters.
[1] Fleet's visitors were roleplayed by the other players (that's why there are three). I gave each player a one-sentence brief and let them improv the rest. It was quite a fun little diversion.
[2], [4], [5] Prologue abilities driving the fiction!
[3] This is the fight scene I should really have run in session one.
3. The Equinox
The characters searched Sharl's room and, as anticipated, found two bloodied nightsteel daggers. Sharl denied having seen them before. Goldrock examined them and explained that although they are of Basite manufacture he could not tell precisely where they were made as the normal runes of craftsmanship had been left off. At this point the evidence against Sharl was clearly mounting and with the permission of Ambassador Makrun he was placed into custody. [1]
Zhel'darax used his powers of psychometry to determine how the daggers found their way into the sanctuary. He had a vision of a cloaked Kasheetan entering a bar - the Spotted Dogtopus in the Ohmryn quarter - and meeting with three Ohmryn. The Kasheetan handed the Ohmryn some daggers wrapped in a leather pouch, a set of keys, and three pass bracelets for the sanctuary. The three Ohmryn then disappeared into the shadows and emerged as Basites before making their way towards the sanctuary compound. The Kasheetan fled.
So there was a third assassin and the plot may have had a man on the inside (a Kasheetan?). The heroes spoke to the Sorcerer-Poet of Kratos Dai and the other two apprentice seers, Galdr of the Ohmryn and Baldurr of the Basites, but not before Goldrock surreptitiously examined them to make sure they were not really skinchangers. A check of the inventory revealed that one of the Ohmryn's sets of keys for the building were missing - presumably the ones used by the assassins. Was this proof of Ohmryn complicity or merely their incompetence?
Either way, as skinchanger assassins can only maintain their form for so long, and the whole building was in lockdown, they agreed to assemble everyone in the main voting chamber. Between the Basites' ability to see through illusion and the pressure of everyone being all together at once, any remaining assassins were sure to be revealed. Due to concerns over Sharl's safety it was agreed that he would be released from his cell under armed guard, his manacles removed as a gesture of diplomatic courtesy for such a public arena.
As the room began to fill up, Fleet's clerk Leafthorn darted into the chamber holding a message scroll. Heading straight for the Sorcerer-Poet, he pulled out a nightsteel dagger coated in orange poison. Zhel-darax saw this and responded immediately, hurling his firestone bolas at the would-be assassin and knocking him to the ground. The Sorcerer-Poet himself, seemingly taken by surprise, lifted his firestone staff to finish the job. Fleet, wanting a live prisoner to interrogate, shouted across the room to intervene but was too late - a white hot beam of pure energy burned a channel through the skinchanger's head and ten feet into the stone floor. The assassin was dead! The Sorcerer-Poet thanked Fleet and Zhel'darax for their assistance and then moved on to the next item on the agenda - determining who would succeed Swiftstream as the next seer.
This was a contest between the three apprentices - the Sorcerer-Poet, Galdr, and Baldurr. There would be no candidate for the Phae-Touched as they had been the last ones to hold the position, although a new apprentice would be sent over from the Wychlight Forest as soon as the vote was decided. Each race had one vote. Out of embarrassment due to Sharl's alleged crimes and their own apparent loss of the keys, the Ohmryn abstained. With no candidate of their own, the Phae Touched also abstained. The Basites and the Kasheetans both then voted for the Sorcerer-Poet to formally become the new seer of Sanctuary Island.
The characters now went to investigate Fleet's office to see if they could find the real Leafthorn. Which they did, snapped in two and stuffed into a cupboard. The body was still warm so it was clear that this had happened after Sharl had been arrested. This along with the evidence of the seeing stone was enough to prove that Sharl could not have been the murderer and so he was exonerated of those crimes. The matter of the dead Kasheetan he had woken up next to was less clear - possibly this murder was committed by the same person who had planted the daggers in his quarters, but it could not be proven - but was simply glossed over in the interests of diplomacy. However, Sharl would still find that the shadow of these allegations hanging over him in any future dealings with the Kasheetans.
Now that everyone in the building had been cleared of being a skinchanger, the lockdown was removed. The Sorcerer-Poet gave the group permission to carry on with their quest immediately, promising to resolve all the bureaucratic issues on their behalf. It also emerged that Swiftstream had left them something of a legacy - being a fervent believer in the ancient prophecies, he had commissioned the creation of a medium sized boat to take the group on their quest. This boat was named the Equinox, and came equipped with wind spirits bound to the sails, and broadside cannons loaded with nightsteel ammunition [2]. At its prow was a figurehead of the four races together holding up the sun, a symbol of unity intended to have an inspirational effect on all concerned. It was also agreed that the ship would be crewed by 16 members of the sanctuary guard, ensuring an even split between the four races and reducing the risk of inter-species conflict.
Later a messenger relayed the news that two skinchangers had been found and killed in the Ohmryn quarters while trying to get a boat off the island. The immediate problem had been resolved. However, it was still clear that security needed to be beefed up. As the Basites can see through illusions, their guards would be allowed to stay on. And as the Sorcerer-Poet could personally vouch for all the Kasheetans, they too could stay on. However, the Ohmryn and Phae Touched guards would have to be temporarily suspended until their background checks could be fully completed, just to make sure there were no more incidents.
After a brief fanfare the Equinox and her crew left for the first leg of their journey. As the rocky cliffs of the Kasheetan Empire came into view, the crew found themselves mesmerised by a strange and beautiful song drifting over the wind. Fleet recognised this straight away as the call of the Siren, an aquatic form of Unseelie that tries to lure unwitting sailors to their doom. As he looked more closely he noticed two such creatures in the waters ahead of the ship, darting gleefully between the waves and drawing them towards some very sharp looking rocks. Fleet began a powerful countersong in an attempt to protect himself as much as the crew - in the past he has felt vulnerable to the call of the Unseelie, and if he was not careful he could easily find himself reinforcing the Sirens call rather than opposing it. Due to this internal conflict he was only partially successful - some of the crew were broken out of their trance, but not all, and this risked spilling over into a fight between the two camps. Taking advantage of the time Fleet had bought them, Goldrock summoned a brief but terrible lightning storm straight ahead to smash the Sirens into submission. Sure enough two burnt and broken mermaid-like bodies floated up to the surface, still hissing in the boiling water, and the ship was able to continue safely on its way.
[1] Sharl's player wasn't present at the session so this was quite a convenient way of writing him out of the action for a while.
[2] The Equinox came about entirely from the imaginations of the players. I had no involvement. They had the idea that such a ship might have been built and then used spotlight points to stat it up and buy relationships to it. One player also drew a picture of it afterwards. Giving players creative input into the game really works.
Hey a blog repost (http://otherworldsrpg.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/amar-session-three/). I believe actual play goes in the DD&G forum though.