World Building
So recently I've been working on a new project. Some of my readers will not be overly thrilled with me starting yet another thing, but it's what I have to do at times to keep the ideas flowing.
Anyway, new project. As some readers might know, I'm a big fan of gaming. When I say gaming, I mean both varieties, tabletop, and video. My new project is a tabletop game world.
Now for those that aren't sure what I'm talking about, let me explain.
There are various rule sets for tabletop games out there. One of the more famous being Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). There are others, such as the Pathfinder Role Playing game, Savage Worlds, Champions, the Dresden Files, and many more. With most of these games, you get a set of rules that determine how you play the game. In general, you have a Dungeon Master or DM, sometimes they are referred to as a Game Master or GM. They are responsible for telling the story, giving the other players an idea of what is going on. They also play the enemies. Then you have the player characters or PCs. They are the heroes, usually.
Each of these rule sets has a sort of generic world, sometimes a very specific world, where these games can take place. The common setting for D&D used to be Greyhawk, don't know if that's changed or not. Pathfinder has Golarion, and so on. What these worlds do is provide a quick and easy place for DMs and players alike to have their fun. They are full of history, culture, monsters, and gods.
What I'm doing, and what many DMs like to do, is creating my own world for people to play in. When people create these settings for personal use they are often referred to as homebrews. There are sites where they can put them up for people to use as well. What I'm trying to do is create a world for lots of people to use. The goal is to publish it so anyone who wants to can use it.
It's quite the experience. Right now I'm aiming for compatibility with the Pathfinder ruleset. I do hope to do a D&D version as well, though I will have to familiarize myself with their current rules.
The funny thing about it is, I've never done world building quite like this before. With Hero Unit I didn't have to, not really. It's set on an alternate version of earth. The physics are basically the same, except when it comes to Exceptionals, people are already familiar with names/places so there wasn't a lot for me to do.
With my other books, I've always had a general idea and worked from it, sort of an internal world book. I've never had to codify it, because I'm the only one that needs to know all the details. The readers of those books will get the information they need to see the world in their minds eye, they don't need to have every aspect of it spelled out.
For a gaming setting, that's not the case. The DM needs details, the players need details, sometimes those details are the same, sometimes they aren't. Thankfully, I have the models of other settings that I can use as a template, I just have to fill in the relevant details. I have to create cities, towns, villages, ruins, caves, forests, mountains, rivers, swamps, oceans. I have to understand how trade routes would have developed, I have to understand how weather patterns would have affected each aspect of the world I'm building, so the people who use it for their games can create a realistic idea, and an engaging story for their characters. In some ways it is easier, in others it is proving to be a bit of a challenge, but it is a challange I'm enjoying.
Anyway, new project. As some readers might know, I'm a big fan of gaming. When I say gaming, I mean both varieties, tabletop, and video. My new project is a tabletop game world.
Now for those that aren't sure what I'm talking about, let me explain.
There are various rule sets for tabletop games out there. One of the more famous being Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). There are others, such as the Pathfinder Role Playing game, Savage Worlds, Champions, the Dresden Files, and many more. With most of these games, you get a set of rules that determine how you play the game. In general, you have a Dungeon Master or DM, sometimes they are referred to as a Game Master or GM. They are responsible for telling the story, giving the other players an idea of what is going on. They also play the enemies. Then you have the player characters or PCs. They are the heroes, usually.
Each of these rule sets has a sort of generic world, sometimes a very specific world, where these games can take place. The common setting for D&D used to be Greyhawk, don't know if that's changed or not. Pathfinder has Golarion, and so on. What these worlds do is provide a quick and easy place for DMs and players alike to have their fun. They are full of history, culture, monsters, and gods.
What I'm doing, and what many DMs like to do, is creating my own world for people to play in. When people create these settings for personal use they are often referred to as homebrews. There are sites where they can put them up for people to use as well. What I'm trying to do is create a world for lots of people to use. The goal is to publish it so anyone who wants to can use it.
It's quite the experience. Right now I'm aiming for compatibility with the Pathfinder ruleset. I do hope to do a D&D version as well, though I will have to familiarize myself with their current rules.
The funny thing about it is, I've never done world building quite like this before. With Hero Unit I didn't have to, not really. It's set on an alternate version of earth. The physics are basically the same, except when it comes to Exceptionals, people are already familiar with names/places so there wasn't a lot for me to do.
With my other books, I've always had a general idea and worked from it, sort of an internal world book. I've never had to codify it, because I'm the only one that needs to know all the details. The readers of those books will get the information they need to see the world in their minds eye, they don't need to have every aspect of it spelled out.
For a gaming setting, that's not the case. The DM needs details, the players need details, sometimes those details are the same, sometimes they aren't. Thankfully, I have the models of other settings that I can use as a template, I just have to fill in the relevant details. I have to create cities, towns, villages, ruins, caves, forests, mountains, rivers, swamps, oceans. I have to understand how trade routes would have developed, I have to understand how weather patterns would have affected each aspect of the world I'm building, so the people who use it for their games can create a realistic idea, and an engaging story for their characters. In some ways it is easier, in others it is proving to be a bit of a challenge, but it is a challange I'm enjoying.
Comments
Post a Comment