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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 8283228" data-attributes="member: 5142">That was far more thorough than I was expecting, [USER=70468]@kenada[/USER], but thank you. I was also a Kickstarter backer, though just at the pdf level, so I had been followingly loosely along through beta releases. But I have not forced myself to engage in a more concerted reading of the text. My own players may be more inclined towards the heroic mode, but I'm not sure how either feels in actual play, so I would definitely be interested if people have experience running both for comparison purposes. Aren't these in the tables or am I thinking of something else? This may be one of the problems of WWN transitioning from SWN, which is likely far less interested in wilderness exploration. IMHO, there is a strong conceptual link in SWN/WWN to Green Ronin's True 20 system from the d20 era. True 20 reduced classes to the 3e's NPC classes: i.e., warrior, expert, and adept. Each class would also get a special core ability that you would only get from starting in that class. True 20 also had mixed/partial classes in the core book with transparent math about making your own in the Companion. So when I see the duplication of the Warrior, Expert, and Mystic/Mage in SWN/WWN, then it's hard not to get a T20 vibe. Discussion of your WWN play sessions would definitely be welcome in this thread. This chapter is IMHO a real treasure of the book. Kevin Crawford does a good job of providing reasonable guidelines for world-building that is oriented towards (1) playable content and (2) effective use of the GM's time. He also de-mystifies the entire process of running a sandbox. I watched one GM on YouTube who was planning their upcoming WWN campaign and using this chapter to world-build. You could tell that this section riled the feathers a little for both the GM and their co-host, but I think that's due to the book basically calling out gratuitous, self-serving world-building rather than play-oriented world-building. I believe that at one point, Crawford even says that your players won't care about most of it. Crawford is far more of a pragmatist when it comes to his world-building approach, which I highly appreciate. As an aside, I wish that this book had existed for one of my old D&D GMs for this chapter alone. After our PF1 campaign was done, we got together to tentatively brainstorm a possible D&D 5e campaign. I recommended starting their focus on the starting town and the surrounding environs. We brainstormed the name of a town and a hook for its founding. I then let him due to the rest. We reconvened after about two weeks. When I asked his progress, he said the he had given the world two moons, calculated the size of the planet and its annual cycle, and whole bunch more. I was not surprised that he burned out on GMing after only about 2-3 sessions of play, though it's possible there were other contributing factors behind the scenes. So I think that this sort of world-building advice would have helped him considerably in keeping him grounded and focused. There are other GMs who I also have played with who have suffered a similar "world-building sickness." I definitely want to try working through the setting creation guidelines myself, if only to see how it plays out when one follows the guidelines as prescribed. I definitely have some tentative ideas. I have personally wanted to use WWN to run essentially "Islands Without Number." This would be more of a high seas island-hopping sandbox adventure. However, I'm not a fan of the Vancian cynicism of the Dying Earth genre, so I will likely change that, but it would be nice to potentially incorporate some of these science fantasy elements. I have been debating between two different versions of the setting. The first would be something more analogous to adventuring in an off-brand Middle Earth that has been shattered into islands rather than existing as a solid landmass (The Westlands of ME) or completely submerged (Beleriand) with various ruins and relics of the First, Second, and early Third age being hidden throughout the archipelago. The second idea is something more akin to a Maritime Southeast Asian or Pirates of Dark Water* fantasy that involves ascended ancients/aliens/"makers" (think Stargate SG-1) and their human/demihuman "progeny" who fathom only a remote, tiny sliver of their legacy. I'm leaning towards the latter. * PoDW was drawn by an art studio in the Philippines, and you can see SEA and Filipino influences in some of the aesthetics (cf. the Filipino kampilan sword and Ioz's sword).</blockquote>

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