Mercurius
Legend
I remember fondly summer nights in junior high and high school (before I discovered "other things") spent random dungeon generating; creating a character or two, opening up the back of the Dungeon Master's Guide, and rolling dice. Now there is nothing quite like a good gaming group with excellent chemistry and a talented DM, but there is something to be said about the solo experience of engaging one's own imagination.
I still think that one of the Holy Grails of table-top RPGs is easy-to-use and enlivening solo play options. It is too similar in concept to the CRPG and, quite frankly, it is hard to compete with the ready-to-serve and pre-digested imagery of a computer game. That said, I think the potential is there for a solo RPG that inspires the imagination (I am familiar with Mythic GM Emulator, but have as yet not run it so bear with me if the Holy Grail has already been found).
20-25 years later, I have a hard time justifying spending hours upon hours random dungeon generating. I am married with two daughters, have a busy job, and some artistic and intellectual pursuits that fill most of my spare time. But I started thinking about the idea of creating an RPG that focuses not as much on dungeoncrawling and dungeon generation, but on setting or world generation, exploration, and creation. Think of including elements of Aria, Mythic, Dawn of Worlds, D&D, classic sandboxing, and a major dose of Jungian Active Imagination (or Shamanic Journeying) and you get the general idea.
Like Aria, I would want to be able to "telescopically" go in and out, change contexts and scales. One moment I would be exploring and creating the larger world; the next I might be simulating a party of characters exploring a set of ruins (which in turn could further explicate the back-story of the world).
The rules, I think, would need to be simple at their core, more akin to Fabled Lands than D&D 3.5 or 4E, although I would like them to be compatible with d20 games so that a campaign setting created by such a process could easily be used in a traditional D&D game.
So imagine this. You start with a blank slate and then brainstorm a few seed ideas for a campaign world, but flesh nothing out. Then you create a character or small group of characters and, in the process, start fleshing out some of the cultures and races of the world. You start with a simple adventure idea--the party of characters meet at an inn, hear about some ruins, set off on adventure...then, through the process of sandboxing, with a combination of die rolls, reference works, charts, and--most importantly--imagination, you flesh out the world as you go. The party comes to the ruins and everything they discover further unfolds the world. The characters discover hieroglyphic writing signed by the Archmage Laikharoth...who is/was Laikharoth? What is an archmage? What language did he write in? The characters find a magic sword with a poetic phrase inscribed on the blade...what does it say about the world? What history does it have?
To put it another way, I'm interested in a methodology of campaign setting creation that integrates actual game play, that actually arises from play, whether solo or in a group. The game itself would be a kind of "meta-game" that creates a campaign setting through exploration and play; what is created could be used in any gaming context or with any RPG. As I said before, the scale of "play" could range from cosmic ontology to dungeoncrawling, with everything in-between.
Any thoughts on this?
I still think that one of the Holy Grails of table-top RPGs is easy-to-use and enlivening solo play options. It is too similar in concept to the CRPG and, quite frankly, it is hard to compete with the ready-to-serve and pre-digested imagery of a computer game. That said, I think the potential is there for a solo RPG that inspires the imagination (I am familiar with Mythic GM Emulator, but have as yet not run it so bear with me if the Holy Grail has already been found).
20-25 years later, I have a hard time justifying spending hours upon hours random dungeon generating. I am married with two daughters, have a busy job, and some artistic and intellectual pursuits that fill most of my spare time. But I started thinking about the idea of creating an RPG that focuses not as much on dungeoncrawling and dungeon generation, but on setting or world generation, exploration, and creation. Think of including elements of Aria, Mythic, Dawn of Worlds, D&D, classic sandboxing, and a major dose of Jungian Active Imagination (or Shamanic Journeying) and you get the general idea.
Like Aria, I would want to be able to "telescopically" go in and out, change contexts and scales. One moment I would be exploring and creating the larger world; the next I might be simulating a party of characters exploring a set of ruins (which in turn could further explicate the back-story of the world).
The rules, I think, would need to be simple at their core, more akin to Fabled Lands than D&D 3.5 or 4E, although I would like them to be compatible with d20 games so that a campaign setting created by such a process could easily be used in a traditional D&D game.
So imagine this. You start with a blank slate and then brainstorm a few seed ideas for a campaign world, but flesh nothing out. Then you create a character or small group of characters and, in the process, start fleshing out some of the cultures and races of the world. You start with a simple adventure idea--the party of characters meet at an inn, hear about some ruins, set off on adventure...then, through the process of sandboxing, with a combination of die rolls, reference works, charts, and--most importantly--imagination, you flesh out the world as you go. The party comes to the ruins and everything they discover further unfolds the world. The characters discover hieroglyphic writing signed by the Archmage Laikharoth...who is/was Laikharoth? What is an archmage? What language did he write in? The characters find a magic sword with a poetic phrase inscribed on the blade...what does it say about the world? What history does it have?
To put it another way, I'm interested in a methodology of campaign setting creation that integrates actual game play, that actually arises from play, whether solo or in a group. The game itself would be a kind of "meta-game" that creates a campaign setting through exploration and play; what is created could be used in any gaming context or with any RPG. As I said before, the scale of "play" could range from cosmic ontology to dungeoncrawling, with everything in-between.
Any thoughts on this?
