What if the 2012 Setting was Fan Created?

[delericho]

A truly new setting would be a good thing. A new Setting Search would also be a really good thing - it built a huge amount of buzz for the game.

A collaborative fan effort, in the form of a wiki or similar... well, I would wish it luck, but not hold out any hope (either that it would work at all, or that the end result would be of any quality). Too many cooks, and all that.

 

[Scribble]

Yeah probably just opening up a wiki and saying "Have at ye!" would be a mess... But I DO think there are ways it could be done to good effect.

Maybe combine a free for all with more along the lines of the creature competitions.

 

[DracoSuave]

Legend of the Five Rings is how you do a fan-collaborative setting right.

As in, you don't let the fans decide anything... you let them compete with each other to earn certain story elements for their clans. This way, you can have the depth of world that having a unified vision gives you, while still giving the players agency in what goes on.

 

[the Jester]

What would everyone think if the "twist" was that it was a setting created by fans for the fans so to speak?

And I don't mean in the "Best design contest" sort of way Ebberon was done. I mean in a collaborative anyone can get involved (or maybe anyone with a DDI account) sort of way.

I think it would be a complete and unmitigated disaster.

You'd have the Margaret Weises trying to ban all references to evil or anything too mature for a ten-year-old competing with the Book of Erotic Fantasy fanbois who would be trying to stick phallic towers and vaginal subways in every city competing with the guys who loved Castle Greyhawk and see it as the mark of good design.

 

[Scribble]

I think it would be a complete and unmitigated disaster.

You'd have the Margaret Weises trying to ban all references to evil or anything too mature for a ten-year-old competing with the Book of Erotic Fantasy fanbois who would be trying to stick phallic towers and vaginal subways in every city competing with the guys who loved Castle Greyhawk and see it as the mark of good design.

Ok... so now explain to me the disaster part.

 

[catastrophic]

One would assume that such a 'setting' would be based around a far more solid contrbution scheme than a wiki.

So for instance, the setting might be a sort of group sandbox, where each hex is competed over using a voting/report system. OTOH, people could design hexes, and then WOTC could slot the most popular ones into a map.

Other 'bits' of design could work the same way. Just as there are a finite number hexes on the map, there might be eight 'knights of hexadia' who rule over keeps in the region- who those eight knights are and what they're up to could be defined based on people voting for their favorite fan-made candidates.

Contributors could be scored on their support from the comunity, and then from that, given larger bits of the world to work on.

IIRC KQ does similar things in their patronage projects. And it would not have to be a closed or pre-release process- the release would obviously be part of the second phase of such a product.

Certainly, design by comittie has some pitfalls- big ones- but it could still be an interesting model.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

I think i'd cut my wrist open if that happened. That's saying "let's create a new setting which is mainly influenced by the hardcore fans who scream loudest and have the most time to spend on the Interwebz".

It would be Frankensteins monster: "The Red Hand on the Keep of the Border-Tomb-of-Horrors: Story-Heavy Sandbox Adventures betwixt Medieval Fantasy and killing Mobs by impaling them on your Spiky Hair." Artwork would be created by sewing Elmore, WAR, and Laubenstein together, but giving them only one hand they have to constantly fight over.

Thank god that they said the twist would be about how you "play".

 

[Dice4Hire]

I think some kind of a world designed by WOTC in-house (not fan created, that is a mess) and then the players help decide plot outcomes could be pretty cool, ala Lord of the Five Rings.

Some input, helping make the campaign more living could be interesting, having fans make it, even with WOTC oversight would be a nightmare. Fans have tried to make worlds before, many times, but I have yet to see one I wold like to play in.

 

[catastrophic]

Every world made has been made by a fan.

 

[Matt James]

It needs to be managed within confines of a defined scope. Sorry, I can't help but to put on my project management hat. You need to corral the herd or else you will get nothing but chaos. The Midgard project over at Open Design is probably the best example. There are specific guidelines and a structure already built, then patrons can come running in and help flesh out the world.

It can work, but not without strict guidelines and oversight.