Author Topic: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?  (Read 6180 times)

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Offline Rose

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #20 on: December 13, 2019, 04:13:00 PM »
World building is part of the joy of being a GM. My world started in the early 90's, and went with me as I explored different systems. I borrowed from games, books, etc.
I have tried to play in established settings, but feel constrained, so I just use elements I like.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Offline Druss_the_Legend

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #21 on: December 16, 2019, 03:36:30 PM »
World building is part of the joy of being a GM. My world started in the early 90's, and went with me as I explored different systems. I borrowed from games, books, etc.
I have tried to play in established settings, but feel constrained, so I just use elements I like.

nice! i have done something similar and for same reasons. off the shelf campaigns just seem to lack what i like and i also have been heavily influenced by films and books (esp David Gemmel's novels eg. Drenai Saga).

Offline KPadish

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #22 on: January 15, 2020, 03:58:50 PM »
I tend to use the geography from some book (i.e. Thieves World, Thomas Covenant, Belgariad) and then populate it with my religions, RM races, etc.  I do this because it saves a lot of work and because I really don't have a good grasp on how geographical features affect weather. 
I also am currently using the Norse gods as a basis for religion because I think that it helps the players to have a basic grasp of the gods since the characters, even the nonreligious ones would have some knowledge of the gods (and my group doesn't like to do a lot of homework).  :/

Offline arakish

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #23 on: January 16, 2020, 06:24:39 PM »
Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?

Yes.  Always.

rmfr
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— RMF Runyan in Sci-Fi RPG session (GM); quoted from the PC game SMAC.

Offline arakish

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #24 on: January 18, 2020, 03:15:11 PM »
Thot,

I answered quickly without reading the thread.  Here is more...

Am I alone with that?

No.  I know for fact that most persons who gravitate towards being Gamemaster always create their own worlds.  I'd even be willing to say that at least 9 out of 10 GMs have at least made the attempt.  I'd even be willing to say about half succeed in creating a campaign world.  If like my wife and I many decades ago, the GM can even make it collaborative effort between the GM and the players.  Although my wife and I were the co-GMs, our players also aided in adding things, places, cities, islands, etc., etc.

What kinds of worlds have you created for use with RoleMaster?

Same as anyone else.  A rock planet similar to Earth.

Do you use the concepts of good and evil, of immortal elven races, high and low men, extremely powerful magic at high levels, etc.?

Good and Evil?  Of course.  No matter what, there is always good and evil.

Immortal Elves?  No.  But there are some species very similar with some very long life spans.

High men?  C'mon.  This is a clean game.  Got enough drug addicts in reality.  Don't need any in role playing.  >-P

My wife and I, and me by myself, have renamed them to Noble Humans.  On my current world of Onaviu, there are the Alnara Altais (similar to Common Humans), the Alnara Anur (similar to the Noble Humans), and the Alnara Avari (no RM equivalent, but human-based).

As for magic, our world of Udava was a very low magic world.  Magic Items tended to have also been lost items and in the interim became very potent items.  On Onaviu, magic is sp prevelant, anyone with the abilities can wield Power.  They could also wield Psion.  However, Psion is viewed as being EVIL.  Wielding Power is neutral, depending what the wielder does with it.

Now for some addenda.  I am a very accomplished astrophysicist focusing into Celestial and Orbital Mechanics (stellar system construction).  In fact, I have even constructed the entire stellar system of which Onaviu is an intricate part.  If using the software Celestia, you could travel all over this stellar system to see the other worlds there.  Unfortunately, the amount of data defining that system is incredibly huge.  Even zipping still leaves it at over 12GB, mostly due to the texture files.    I know for fact that you cannot have orbiting celestial bodies without an eclipse occuring.  I just did not know when it was occuring until I looked at Onaviu, with its moon Ondero, one day and realized the next play session was the eclipse.  And it was through the use of Celestia that I found how the eclipses occur at a regular pattern.  Here is PDF export from the ODT file I have.


I am also a geologist and volcanologist working at the world's largest land-based caldera.  Super-volcano for those in the civilian world.  I work at Yellowstone National Park as a Field Technician and Data Analyst.  I have another degree in Global Climatology, thus I have a very good understanding how landform assemblages affect the global climate and local climate patterns.

All of my studies, whether personal or profesional, have given me the knowledge to know how to create a stellar system, its planets, and the focus world in particular.  With the Onaviu system, three worlds ended up within the "Goldilocks Zone."  However, I have only focused upon Onaviu for now.  Perhaps my players may step up and work on the other two worlds.

rmfr

"Beware those who would deny you access to information, for they already dream themselves your master."
— RMF Runyan in Sci-Fi RPG session (GM); quoted from the PC game SMAC.

Offline Ginger McMurray

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #25 on: January 18, 2020, 04:08:32 PM »
No.  I know for fact that most persons who gravitate towards being Gamemaster always create their own worlds. 

A fact?
No pre-written adventure survives contact with the GM.

Offline arakish

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #26 on: January 18, 2020, 04:13:23 PM »
No.  I know for fact that most persons who gravitate towards being Gamemaster always create their own worlds. 

A fact?

Yes.  Every GM I have ever known personally always ended up making the attempt at creating their own world.  Until I met another GM in person who has not, then I shall revise that statement.

rmfr
"Beware those who would deny you access to information, for they already dream themselves your master."
— RMF Runyan in Sci-Fi RPG session (GM); quoted from the PC game SMAC.

Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #27 on: January 18, 2020, 07:42:41 PM »
Well, a fact for arakish. ;)
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Offline Ginger McMurray

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #28 on: January 18, 2020, 09:18:44 PM »
Well, a fact for arakish. ;)

Yeah. More "subjective personal experience" than "fact." :)
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Offline arakish

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #29 on: January 19, 2020, 10:44:49 AM »
Well, a fact for arakish. ;)

Well, a fact for arakish. ;)

Yeah. More "subjective personal experience" than "fact." :)

ROFL  :wave:

Yeah, it is a more personal experience than fact, but it all I got to go on. ;)

rmfr
"Beware those who would deny you access to information, for they already dream themselves your master."
— RMF Runyan in Sci-Fi RPG session (GM); quoted from the PC game SMAC.

Offline OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #30 on: January 21, 2020, 05:46:24 AM »
What kinds of worlds have you created for use with RoleMaster?Same as anyone else.  A rock planet similar to Earth.
Errr, not anyone else, I think. My main world is a ball of chaotic matter surrounded by magical energies, the interaction of both creating "stability" in form of islands, thus floating on an ocean of chaotic matter. The ball itself is floating over a cup made of black crystal, standing on the back of one of the five Divine Beasts, who take turn carrying it. The journey through the heavens (a "year") takes the form of a eight-shaped figure and lasts thirteen months (of three weeks, each of thirteen days, each of twenty-six subdivisions [comparable to earth's notion of hour]), each Beast carrying the cup holding the world for one month in each "loop", then all of them resting the sixth month; the thirteen month, the gods reshuffle the state of the world.
So, not a rock planet, and hardly similar to Earth.  ;)
The world was then consumed by darkness, and mankind was devoured alive and cast into hell, led by a jubilant 紗羽. She rejoiced in being able to continue serving the gods, thus perpetuating her travels across worlds to destroy them. She looked at her doll and, remembering their promises, told her: "You see, my dear, we succeeded! We've become legends! We've become villains! We've become witches!" She then laughed with a joyful, childlike laughter, just as she kept doing for all of eternity.

Offline arakish

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #31 on: January 21, 2020, 07:50:20 AM »
Well, I stand corrected.  Cool world OLF.

rmfr
"Beware those who would deny you access to information, for they already dream themselves your master."
— RMF Runyan in Sci-Fi RPG session (GM); quoted from the PC game SMAC.

Offline OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #32 on: January 22, 2020, 06:07:00 AM »
Thanks arakish.
OTOH, I don't know, but I feel surely there are many GMs whose worlds aren't similar to Earth. I mean, what's the point of playing a medieval fantasy game if your world is merely a scifi world with magic replacing ESP? Where all modern laws of physics hold true? Especially since the inhabitants of your world would most certainly hold such a point of view! Medieval people think the world is flat? Make it actually flat! After, probably your world has gods, such as, for instance, a sun god who carries the sun in his chariot every day around the world. So, how could it be that your world is actually a rock planet circling a giant ball of fire? ;)
Us modern boring people say people from ancient times imagined a world with gods to explain all the natural phenomenons they couldn't explain, and view the world in an incorrect way because their understanding of the laws of physics were incorrect. But a fantasy world is such a world where gods are real so why wouldn't the world itself be exactly how its people view it?
The world was then consumed by darkness, and mankind was devoured alive and cast into hell, led by a jubilant 紗羽. She rejoiced in being able to continue serving the gods, thus perpetuating her travels across worlds to destroy them. She looked at her doll and, remembering their promises, told her: "You see, my dear, we succeeded! We've become legends! We've become villains! We've become witches!" She then laughed with a joyful, childlike laughter, just as she kept doing for all of eternity.

Offline jdale

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #33 on: January 22, 2020, 12:12:27 PM »
I think it's pretty hard for most people to get past their preconceptions of how the world works. That's great if you can break those expectations, it forces players to think from a more in-game perspective.

My RMU game has real-world physics because of what I'm doing with the magic system, but in our LARP, the stars are actually features of the dream realm, which is visible from the waking world (this is why astrology works, glimpsing the movements of the stars gives you hints about what most people are dreaming about). The moon is literally the celestial palace where the guardians of the dream realm are based.
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Offline Spectre771

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #34 on: January 22, 2020, 04:56:02 PM »
I fell in love with Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.  I've woven a lot of bits and pieces into my game world.  8 day week, "Heere be monstyrs", "and heere", "and heere too", The mysticism of the number 8, the Colour of Magic (Octarine), etc.  Lucky for me, the players haven't explored much by sea, but the rumour is that the world really is flat. 
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let's all be heroes and run away!

Offline Keen_Man

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #35 on: February 09, 2020, 11:25:21 AM »
mapping my worlds for my players to see is one of my joys :D


Offline Spectre771

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #36 on: February 09, 2020, 03:29:18 PM »
mapping my worlds for my players to see is one of my joys :D


That is eerily similar to the game world I played in while back.  Extremely similar to the game world we played in, including the marsh and the rivers.

Do you know Mike??? 
If discretion is the better valor and
cowardice the better part of judgment,
let's all be heroes and run away!

Offline Keen_Man

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #37 on: February 09, 2020, 04:32:17 PM »
mapping my worlds for my players to see is one of my joys :D


That is eerily similar to the game world I played in while back.  Extremely similar to the game world we played in, including the marsh and the rivers.

Do you know Mike???

mike who lived south of SAIT in calgary? or mike from the tailor park?

Offline PiXeL01

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #38 on: February 24, 2020, 06:49:17 AM »
I tend to create my own worlds although I do try to use established settings. The problem I have, I feel I cannot do them justice or run these settings correctly.
My worlds are usable only skeleton frameworks with only the basic map and starting location completed. The rest, including pantheon, would be created as needed.
The latest I made was set right after the fall or withdrawal of the dominating power of the region (they kept themselves hidden, but was in fact Fair Elves). They used crystals as conduits for Agony spells to keep the population enslaved.
All I had mapped out was the starting area and city which was walled off into sectors.
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Offline Ruffie

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Re: Do you build your own worlds for RoleMaster?
« Reply #39 on: February 25, 2020, 05:22:20 AM »
I adapt existing worlds. I've been playing Merp and then RMSS for about 16 years now (damn just scared myself with that number) and we started out in Middle Earth. A few years after the war of the ring. In the years that followed the group fell apart and got rebuilt a few times.

Somewhere along the line I became GM and started a campaign 200 year after the war of the ring. It gave me enough freedom to play with politics, war and even to some extent geography. Now at the end of that campaignarc (which lasted several years and multiple GM's with me as 'head') we opened the doors of Midnight and Morgoth placed part of his essence in a boy.

At the same time Mentalism escaped into the world. (We switched from Merp to RMSS and this justified the presence of Mentalism in the world)

Now we're playing 200 years later (so 400 years after the war of the ring) and have departed greatly from the lore of middle earth. Yes some cities are left but the political landscape has changed and we are very much a part of that change.

In this adventure the group will be transported for the first time to Shadowworld. I bought a boatload of Shadowworld stuff in an online auction a few years back and I've been dying to use it. They will (shortly) be transported there and I will build a completely new Island.

On the topic of worldbuilding:
I'm going to try my hand at it with the introduction of a new realm where the players are displaced. If it catches on and the players like it I will most likely expand on it in the years to come.