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Let's Talk About RPG Worldbuilding
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8325516" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>If I am doing any significant world-building before the fact, then that means I've got a concept that players desire to use, so there will be specific parameters. Here's an example:</p><p></p><p>A few years ago some of the people I have played a lot of RPGs with were talking about various ideas. I don't recall who suggested what exactly, it was mostly emails and exchanging some ideas for character backgrounds and whatnot, but in the end we all decided we wanted to create a mini-campaign to make a classical Arthurian Romance kind of story, but for some reason that I fail to recall now, decided to invent a sort of fantasy France to set it in.</p><p></p><p>So, I built the outline of 'Fantasy France'. It has a map, some regions, towns, and castles are indicated on the map, along with some dark forests, an area which is a separate kingdom said to be the abode of giants, etc. Most of it was pretty vague and few details were filled in. The players were busy making PACE characters and figuring out their backgrounds (basically various knights and ladies and such, IIRC one character was a 'Druid'). This filled in a few missing bits in terms of the rulers of the country, Alleterre, a curse of some sort, and a starting point for play.</p><p></p><p>To kick things off I did create a few NPCs that would be required for the starting part of the story, and a few more that I thought would tie in later to the existing plot strings. Since all the people playing were either super experienced RPGers and/or writers, I didn't really have to try much to get a decent starting scenario (IE asking people questions or anything like that) but normally I'd do that if it was needed.</p><p></p><p>Decades ago I might have done much more 'high prep', but IMHO it really just gets in the way. I am not telling MY story, it is coming out of play and will be about what interests the players. I make up a good chunk of it, but it is rare nowadays that I add something whole cloth which lacks any suggestion that it would engage the people playing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8325516, member: 82106"] If I am doing any significant world-building before the fact, then that means I've got a concept that players desire to use, so there will be specific parameters. Here's an example: A few years ago some of the people I have played a lot of RPGs with were talking about various ideas. I don't recall who suggested what exactly, it was mostly emails and exchanging some ideas for character backgrounds and whatnot, but in the end we all decided we wanted to create a mini-campaign to make a classical Arthurian Romance kind of story, but for some reason that I fail to recall now, decided to invent a sort of fantasy France to set it in. So, I built the outline of 'Fantasy France'. It has a map, some regions, towns, and castles are indicated on the map, along with some dark forests, an area which is a separate kingdom said to be the abode of giants, etc. Most of it was pretty vague and few details were filled in. The players were busy making PACE characters and figuring out their backgrounds (basically various knights and ladies and such, IIRC one character was a 'Druid'). This filled in a few missing bits in terms of the rulers of the country, Alleterre, a curse of some sort, and a starting point for play. To kick things off I did create a few NPCs that would be required for the starting part of the story, and a few more that I thought would tie in later to the existing plot strings. Since all the people playing were either super experienced RPGers and/or writers, I didn't really have to try much to get a decent starting scenario (IE asking people questions or anything like that) but normally I'd do that if it was needed. Decades ago I might have done much more 'high prep', but IMHO it really just gets in the way. I am not telling MY story, it is coming out of play and will be about what interests the players. I make up a good chunk of it, but it is rare nowadays that I add something whole cloth which lacks any suggestion that it would engage the people playing. [/QUOTE]
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