Creative Exercise -- NOW LAUNCHED, but moved to rpg.net. URL Inside.

[Desdichado]

Hey, the Mouse's thread is really cool! Too bad I didn't find it until it's pushing 800 posts long... For those who haven't read it, he essentially started off a group homebrew; everyone just jumps in an posts a very quick sentence or two addition to the setting, and it gradually grows. There are some other rules, about how often you can contribute, and stuff like that, but I don't need to get into that here. Anyway, looks like tons of fun, but like I said, I arrived a bit late to the party.

But I have a question. Would folks be interested in doing something like that for a not-so standard D&D or d20 game? I mean, is it too soon to try one again, for one thing? And if I put a handful of parameters out there to start, would that crimp everyone's style too much?

My thought is this; I've had the d20 Wheel of Time book for some time, but I've spectacularly lost interest in the setting. I haven't even read the last two (or maybe it's three, I don't even know) novels and I don't intend to until maybe they're all written.

But it's a really nifty ruleset, and I'd like to do something with it. So, hey, homebrew with those rules! The rules are d20 and largely compatible with D&D (could use D&D monsters, for instance, or races if I wanted to) so anyone who plays D&D could feel close enough to home.

Anyway, what are your thoughts?

EDIT: Anyway, now it's at rpg.net instead of here. In case you're a cross-poster (or would like to be) here's the link: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=3681197#post3681197 so you can contribute over there.

 

[Rystil Arden]

There have been two attempts at new creative exercises so far, but neither of them have really taken off much.

As for me, I know that what kept me contributing from Creative Exercise 2 [which had a map to start] was when the thread creator told the first contributor that he his post was wrong because of something really specific on the map (no areas of extended elevation based on the colour-coding), and it felt like not knowing about the Dark Crystal movies was too big a disadvantage for me.


Creative Exercise 3 was interesting but a bit off-kilter with cities on the backs of dinosaurs.

As fpr WoT, I really like the Wheel of Time setting, but I actually couldn't abide the d20 rules for WoT (the opposite of you then; to each his own), so I probably wouldn't be interested in contributing to your CE#4, but there might be people who are. My advice is to mostly just give free reign and not force them to have read the ruleset, but make sure your first post leads in a direction similar to where you want to go.

 

[Sarellion]

You can still come in. There is the Wiki you found and an occasional summary and NPC encyclopaedia. I check them all the time if I am contributing something.

 

[Campbell]

While I wouldn't really be interested in a Wheel of Time - Ruleset creative exercise, I'd heartily contribute to a creative exercise focused on creating a gameworthy setting without dealing with D&D-specific baggage.

 

[Khorod]

I think the Creative Exercise style of development is pretty awesome. My primary RPG hobby is World Design*, so its kind of a novel experience to have other people changing the river's course on me mid-stroke.

The number one key to these Creative Exercises is keep the pace up (with these rules, anyway). When the pace slows down interest starts to wane, because no single poster's enthusiasm can keep it alive. That's a danger.

Oddly enough, I thought about my WoT book on the shelf behind me for the first time in a while. It had some good points, the magic system was fairly nice. I have no particular desire to design worlds for it though.

I think this type of project is most successful when it starts with either minimal or vague assumptions, and if its got a map at start, its clear and the entirety of the world you need to worry about.

I also think that calling out a specific rules-set and designing for it is not that great an idea. I think world design should lead, and the rules should follow. If the world forms up, and it looks like AU with massive house rules around combat, then that's what it should be. If it looks like D20 Past, then that's it. If somehow it's Shadowrun 5th Edition, we have a winner... in another 10 years.

All Wheel of Time really is, is a d20 system with a particularly flexible, flavorful variety of magic. Think about the novels. The Aes Sedai were called witches, sorceresses... what have you. The particular nature of their power was irrelevant to the world at large, just the fact they had divination and combat magic established there authority. So D20 WoT specific is not all that different from anything else in d20 fantasy.

* I don't call it a homebrew when it comes entirely from my own brain

 

[Desdichado]

Maybe I wasn't really clear on the WoT element; that's what sparked me to think about this, but it isn't the kind of thing that has much impact on the process. I primarily brought it up only to show that there would be fairly broad compatibility with D&D, but not necessarily the same assumptions; i.e., different classes and the like. I honestly don't like specifying a ruleset when designing a world; ideally, it'd be completely rules-free, like a setting a writer of fiction would develop, and at most, a certain type of ruleset would be implied, but not specific rules.

I also imagine that any setting that could be played with the WoT ruleset could also fairly easily be played with the Black Company ruleset, or Grim Tales, or Arcana Unearthed, or heck, even D&D itself if you come right down to it.

But as Campbell said, I think it'd be interesting to get away from the D&D baggage a bit. Eyros is a fascinating setting, but it's focused on being a core rules D&D setting, and much of the stuff that's gone into that have been reflective of that fact.

 

[Doug McCrae]

One thing I didn't like about the Eyros thread was that broad, negative posts were allowed. Stuff like 'There are no gods' or 'There are no dragons'. I just don't see how that helps in group-oriented development. What if one contributor really likes dragons and has lots of great ideas for them? That's all been wiped out just cause a negative post got in first.

 

[Janx]

Conversely, didn't the rules allow you to modify someone else's statement to some extent.

So if you posted
"There are no dragons"

I can clarify it with
"There are no dragons in the northern islands"

Janx

 

[der_kluge]

Where is this thing of which you speak?

 

[Desdichado]

Well, I haven't started it yet. The original Mouseferatu thread is here, though.