Topic: World Building

[merctime]

(warning, long post)

Hi everybody,

  Just figured I'd throw this out there.  My intentions with this post are to chat in general with a fun project I'm currently doing in my spare time, and to elicit RM specific advice from the Guru's on this board, and to invite other world-building project ideas from other gamers out there, be they fully functioning and realized worlds allready in place at the game table, or just ideas people have.  This is NOT to rob you of 'intellectual property', just to chat about cool world ideas.  I'm sure I won't be publishing in the near future, it's all in fun.

Ok...here goes.  I have this idea, that I have allways enjoyed really...to create a world from the bottom up that is reasonably original.  My personal preference is a world inspired by the writings of Robert E. Howard, the original author of the Conan short stories.  Love his world, and love swords and sorcery as a genre. 

So, basically what I have, and what I have been doing, is a map with a few layers of it (so far, physical layer which is the basic geography, a national layer which shows the locations of the various nations, and next I'll work out a climactic layer showing the differing weather fronts and climate zones), and some ideas and names of different nations that will exist in this world.  As I type this up, I'm going for a strictly swords and sorcery game (I.E., magic exists, is very strong, yet not terribly common due to many people not sticking with it to master it, and fewer still even attempting it due to rational and irrational fears of its use;  no real representation from the typical 'fantasy' races....no elves and halflings, only different humans as 'races';  going along with the magic idea mentioned, fewer magical items in the world, with most player rewards in that regard being superior crafted items instead of magic ones;  monsters and such are still encountered and usable as oppenents, but are far less common...while most of the world's citizens have HEARD of goblins and skeletons and believe them in general to be real, if they really SAW one it would be the subject of discussion for months at a time, and cause for political interest, etc.). 

I'm using a map I found on the Hero system website, available free for personal use.  It's they're 'Ambrethel' map.  It consists of 2 major continents, and a few major/minor islands.  Works good for me at the moment.  On this map, I've got the names of 26 different nations, that I hope to write up, but that I basically 'know who they are' in my head at this time.  Most are 'fantasy' mock-ups or fusions of one or two real world historical peoples...I've done that on purpose to lend them a bit of realism, and to help people to identify with each one (hey, so they are like...egypt, but more wicked right?  Ok, cool..I get it).  These nations are each a part of 6 major cultural 'archetypes',  Like Americans could be considered in the European archetype, and Syria could be considered in the Middle Eastern archetype.  This will help me sort out linguistic families.

Going along with the above, I've got a small page write up about who were the initial people on this planet, where they originated from, and some ideas of migratory patterns, not as a history, but as a picture of who went where and established what cultures and became what nations.  I also have a page on which of the existing nations are older or younger than the others.

Still have some work to do, got to work out some more map layers to show weather/climate, animal, vegetation, and the cultural archetypes.  Got to write up the actual nations.  Would like to eventually get to the point, that I can create geographic/nation specific equipment tables, but I'll need to detail in the write-ups who has what tech levels, etc.  Also and obviously, need to write the nations up in a fashion that follows RM's 'culture' template.  At this time, I'm considering not including High or Common men....and just using the stats for Mixed men in Character law as the 'default' human statistical write up.  On the map, I've left some areas 'unpopulated' as it were, I.E., no national boundaries or settlements, need to write up notes or even name those areas with ideas of what non-human creatures might live there and might hassle the PCs or be great places to journey to find old ruins, etc.  Along those lines, I'd like to, near the end of this effort, write up a backwards-planned history or time-line that includes nations that have died out or are no longer existing and why they are gone...and where they were physically located (might need a new map layer for that, as I think about it right now).  That might help with the aforementioned old ruins.  And, probably other stuff that I can't think of off the top of my head.

Got to say, that for all of the game systems I've played so far, RM source material seems to be the most in-depth in regards to helping with the world building process....I've allready posted how great I think the Treasure Companion is for things to consider of a world economy, and I've just begun to break into GM law for it's tidbits. 

So...this is kind of a rant...just throwing out some ideas, and talking about some fun stuff I'm doing.  Anyone have some critiques, advice, on RM specifics, or their own world building ideas to add?  Hoping this might become a fun discussion.  Cheers!

Happy gaming you guys

Merctime

[markc]

 IMO you can start fro scratch and create your own races if you have RMFRP GM Law or RMSS Talent Law. IMO this can be very rewording as it is all your own and you can have specific talent and flaws to fit your game world and its unique environment.
 It sort of sounds like Shadow World a little bit to me but SW has a lot of fantasy races and your world does not.


 In the TC post I gave you a list of books that I think will help out a lot and I will repeat them here as well as a few more. They will also be in the order I would pick them up.
 Note RMSS and RMFRP are almost the same system with just a few updates and can be used with each other with some minor adjustments.


[#0 and #1 are almost equal in my eyes. But if low magic then #2 wins; MAC all the way or Mix MAC with RMC CC]
First No Matter What: Pick up RMSS book, RMSS Spell Law and RMSS Arms Law [95 not the 2000 one]; from anywhere you can find it as it has everything in 4 books, and is IMO a better way to go then RMFRP books. But that is just me.
0) Channeling Companion; For unique spell list and skills for clerics based on gods.
1) Martial Arts Companion or RMC Combat Companion; for Combat Arts
2) Mentalism Companion: Mental magic since it is less flashy then Essence
3) Essence Companion: Lots of spell lists but Essence tends to be flashy magic
4) Castles and Ruins: In Depth look at how to create, build and plan for upkeep of a Castle; also some spell lists and Training Packages that are very good.
5) School of Hard Knocks if you want detailed skill description and use.
6) RMSS Firearms Law if needed for your game.


MDC

[Arioch]

My 2 cents:

- start small: once you've decided more or less how the setting will be (basically what you've done until now) pick a small area that inspires you, detail it a little more and start playing. You'll fill additional details on other regions as you play. Writing everything before is a huge task, and it's very easy to get lost in the details before the end.

- involve the players: if someone is playing a member of a particular or uncommun culture/profession, make him flesh it out for you. If the PCs are exploring the ancient ruins of a lost civilization and a character has many ranks in that culture Lore, ask the player controlling him how the pillars of the temple are designed, what's the name of the god represented in that sculpture, etc... This makes the players feel more "at home" within your setting and makes you feel as if you were exploring it together with them.

[merctime]

Sorry about the late reply here....had some out of town things to do, and for the last couple of days have been working out the details for an online game over at real roleplaying (cheers!).

MDC said, " IMO you can start fro scratch and create your own races if you have RMFRP GM Law or RMSS Talent Law. IMO this can be very rewording as it is all your own and you can have specific talent and flaws to fit your game world and its unique environment.
 It sort of sounds like Shadow World a little bit to me but SW has a lot of fantasy races and your world does not."

I think this is a great idea, and one that I would really love to explore.  I like the idea of having 'races' that correspond with the world itself.  My initial thoughts for the humans is to have each nation as it's own 'race', with only slight variations as they are all humans.  I am thinking, looking over GM law, to look at the various point builds of the 'mixed men' races, and use those as a base.  I.E., averaging the race costs of those races, and using that somewhat as a boundary or guideline, with nation specific tweaks for each race.  I'm right there with you on this one, Mark....we are definitely on the same page.  It will also teach me a bit about RM I hope   

Also, I really appreciate your pointers on which books to get....that is always helpful and thank you!  Initially, I bought a value pack from I.C.E., and then a couple of individual books, so the only book I have that is not RMFRP is the castle one (rmss of course).  I will definitely look into the '95 version of arms law!  I also have school of hard knocks and really love this book so far.  I love skill-oriented RPG's personally, and I think even if I intend to play another system later on I'll still use this book.  Doubt I'll need to, RM will most likely be my flagship system from now on.  I am VERY interested in getting the various 'companion' books relating to magic, but that will take time as I have some financial responsibilities that keep that from happening now.  But, I just want you to know, your expertise is appreciated very much, Mark.

Arioch said, "My 2 cents:

- start small: once you've decided more or less how the setting will be (basically what you've done until now) pick a small area that inspires you, detail it a little more and start playing. You'll fill additional details on other regions as you play. Writing everything before is a huge task, and it's very easy to get lost in the details before the end.

- involve the players: if someone is playing a member of a particular or uncommun culture/profession, make him flesh it out for you. If the PCs are exploring the ancient ruins of a lost civilization and a character has many ranks in that culture Lore, ask the player controlling him how the pillars of the temple are designed, what's the name of the god represented in that sculpture, etc... This makes the players feel more "at home" within your setting and makes you feel as if you were exploring it together with them."

First, I have to make it clear that I am not shrugging off your advice because this is VERY sound advice.  My only inability to make good use of it, is that I have no players or a group to game in at the time, so I figured I would engage myself in this project in the meantime.  Otherwise, this is very much the way I would proceed, and have done in the past for sure, as it takes alot of the initial GMing pressures off so you can get the ball rolling as it were. 

"You'll fill additional details on other regions as you play. Writing everything before is a huge task, and it's very easy to get lost in the details before the end."

Absolutely!  For the first part, I'm trying something a bit new for me at least, as in the past I have tried to 'fill' the land mass of my world with nations, place names, etc....leaving no room whatsoever for expansion (my older worlds were alot smaller, this wasn't terrible hard due to the scale of it all).  This time, I am purposely leaving around 40% of the total land area undeveloped (that number is just a guess, what I did was place the general locations of the various peoples, and left some areas completely alone, even areas that make sense that people would have settled there).  My idea is really just to leave it open for some of the reasons that you have allready brought up, and maybe even to open up places to introduce ruins of older nations who do not exist any longer, or allow players (when I find a group) to grow to be able to generate their own 'nations' if they would choose to do so. But, it IS a huge task, and getting lost in the details is well, lets say that its holding me back a bit right now haha, and I'm happy I have an online game opportunity to break some of the GM's block as it were.  Hopefully, as you have suggested, once I get some players, they will also have character ideas that will actually fill in some of that free space with other ideas of culture and race that they introduce, as you say.  All in all, I appreciate your advice...and thank you for your time in reading my post. 

Happy gaming everyone, I'll update what I'm doing here just for fun as I have opportunity.  I hope all of you are having movie-quality roleplaying sessions and are in good health.

Merctime

[jolt]

If you can find a copy of it, D&D 2E has a supplement called The World Builser's Guidebook.  I thought that was one of the best sourcebooks they ever came out with.  They give you numerous blank maps for everything from the whole world down to the local village.  It also gives advice for starting small and then going big or starting big and then going small.

I agree that Talent Law is great for giving ideas for races as races should certainly be customised to your world but keep an eye on what you build as many of those Talents are severly undercosted.

jolt

[markc]

 There is also a generic world building guide in a game/book called Aria. The book uses a very open framework IIRC that I liked for world building ideas but did not like the actual rules for running the game. But it is still one of the best world building books I remember. I just wish I could find my copies of the red and blue books IIRC.


MDC

[BoV]

merctime,

I have been working on my own gameworld, "Shades of Vanatar", for years now. I liked starting out with a vision of the big picture and creating the entire world, geographically speaking. I think to be able to capture a consistent climate in anyway,that makes sense, you have to create the map of the entire world. It also helps shape the background of various races, nations and historical eras that impact the game. Then, choose a small area and let your imagination run with it.