Hidden 8 yrs ago 8 yrs ago Post by Gaebrael
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Gaebrael

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So, I had this idea for a sort of round-robin world creation. To some degree, it is less roleplaying than collaborative worldbuilding, but I plan to host a few other things in the world once it is finished.



So this is a blank map. The world will be named at the end of the entire thing that will hereafter be referred to as a game, and until then shall only be referred to as the world.

The idea of the game is that everybody contributes to the world from its origin to the renaissance that the Gods depart from. I didn't want to make the game too tabletop-y, so there is really only one mechanic with numbers instituted so that everybody contributes fairly. It should be noted that when I mention the players are Gods, I do not mean that we are roleplaying in a Pantheon. Really, there isn't much character interaction per se as much as worldbuilding through legends.

Before I get into the bones of it all I will talk briefly about the setting. As far as magic and Gods and divine intervention goes, it is very low fantasy. The central point of the world is that everything remains very much internally consistent. The best way to not screw this up is cut down on magic things. Channelers, be they arcane, druid, or divine in nature, should be very rare and poorly understood. That said, spooky stuff exists. The most critical point when dealing with magic is considering the long-term practical implications of this type of magic existing. For example, consider the implications of phoenixes existing in a world. Whenever they crash into tall buildings, as many birds in our world do, giant fires would erupt. The people inhabiting places where they are common would have a few options. Hunt them, make stone buildings, or both. The inhabitants of a certain place known as Firewood, where nests of phoenixes were once common in ancient times, the entirety of Oldtown is made of stone, whereas newer buildings are made of more inexpensive wood and stone combinations. Forest fires naturally created large glades towards the edge of the forest where the Fireland hunters couldn't reach. As a result, the rich, volcanic-like soil across the forest gave way to a successful agriculture industry. Rather than just making them a cool flavor wizard pet, think about how they would act in every society. Think of the types of magic you create in an evildoer's hands, as well as a government's. Don't assume any given magic would just belong to the good or righteous. I suppose the main another piece for the setting is that we will eventually reach something akin to steampunk (I hesitate to use that word, but rather think of the Industrial Revolution + Fantasy races) influenced by low fantasy elements. For fantasy races, keep things interesting, avoid tropes, but also think of the realistic implications of the traits that you bestow upon races. The one hard and fast rule with races as a whole is no immortality. Maximum lifespan should be around two hundred years at a maximum. Minimum lifespan, although encountered much less often, should be twenty-ish years, although softer, and do consider that this is a minimum average lifespan. Note that races at both of these extremes or cool to play with, and the limits are set just so it is possible to write them realistically.

Points:
Every turn, each player has 24 points. All players must use all points, no more and no less, every turn. Each point represents approximately one sentence of writing, so posts should all be of generally uniform length. The only rule for posting schedules is that you may not double post. Various actions can be taken at various times for different amounts of points, more points implying that more explanation and backstory is necessary for a certain topic. As an example, the creation of a new race will warrant significantly more description than the evolution of a new family of the butterfly. Phases of creation allow certain actions at certain times. Phases begin and end basically whenever I feel that they are complete. That said, here are the phases and their various actions and point costs:

Origin:
Sculpt World [12]: Alter the world's coastlines, or create a new continent or island. Describe in detail what circumstances or cataclysm caused the island/continent/coastline to be created.
Designate Terrain Type [3]: Designate certain areas as swamps, forests, wastelands, etc.
Add Flora to Index [1]: Add three types of flora to the index of flora. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences per entry.
Add Minerals to Index [1]: Add three types of minerals to the index of minerals. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences.
Add Fauna to Index [1]: Add three types of fauna to the index of fauna. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences.
Fabricate Sentience [16]: Create an entirely new archetype of sentient creature from the fabric of sentience. Note that the race is not actually created as a group until a culture is created for them in the age of Myth. Note that immortals are strictly prohibited. The maximum average age for a sentient creature is 250 years and the minimum average age is 15.

Myth:
Fabricate Culture [8]: Create an entirely new cultural archetype for a group of sentient creatures.
Fabricate Nation [8]: Create an entirely new nation for a group of sentient creatures with either the same cultural archetype or of one cultural archetype with other creatures of assimilated cultures.
Evolve Race [8]: Alter a creature archetype to create a new creature type. This new creature should bear some resemblance to their original archetype, but still can be considerably altered. An example would be evolving a Yeti from a Giant archetype. Fur and frost resistance are appended, but the creatures and generally recognizable. It should be noted that this is the biological point at which the Yeti and Pureblood Giants can no longer mate.
Add Flora to Index [2]: Add three types of flora to the index of flora. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences per entry.
Add Minerals to Index [2]: Add three types of minerals to the index of minerals. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences.
Add Fauna to Index [2]: Add three types of fauna to the index of fauna. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences.
Designate Terrain Type [12]: Designate certain areas as swamps, forests, wastelands, etc.

Rise:
Fabricate Culture [8]: Create an entirely new cultural archetype for a group of sentient creatures.
Fabricate Civilization [16]: Create an entirely new nation for a group of sentient creatures with either the same cultural archetype or of one cultural archetype with other creatures of assimilated cultures.
Evolve Race [16]: Alter a creature archetype to create a new creature type. This new creature should bear some resemblance to their original archetype, but still can be considerably altered. An example would be evolving a Yeti from a Giant archetype. Fur and frost resistance are appended, but the creatures and generally recognizable. It should be noted that this is the biological point at which the Yeti and Pureblood Giants can no longer mate.
Add Flora to Index [4]: Add three types of flora to the index of flora. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences per entry.
Add Minerals to Index [4]: Add three types of minerals to the index of minerals. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences.
Add Fauna to Index [4]: Add three types of fauna to the index of fauna. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences.
Evolve Culture [3]: Denote a cultural shift in some nations of groups of creatures. This shift creates a new type of culture, recognizable as a descendant of the original archetype culture, but altered dramatically enough to warrant a new strain. This is the point at which physical separation and/or biological differences have created to homogeneous cultural groups.
Alter Race [8]: Create a subtype of a creature type. The alteration that causes this rift between the subtypes should generally be the effect of cultural separation evolving into a physical and finally a biological separation. Specific physical alterations should be minimal, but still, denote the unique and newfound identity of the subtype. It should be noted that subtypes are significantly more disposed to possess the ability to be unified into one nation, whereas types will struggle to identify as a single culture.
Create Nation [6]: Create a new nation of sentient creatures within one civilization.
Chronicle Event [2]: Although the cost of this action is two points, it is expected that events be at least a paragraph. For the Rise, legends are best suited for how ancient heroes triumphed over real or perceived evil. Although myths from this early in history are by no means reliable historical records, they should all contain at least a few grains of truth. When creating a myth, reference as many landmarks as possible. This action may be performed twice with no point value per turn, meaning that this action could be performed twice in addition to a series of actions costing 16 points.
Designate Landmark [4]: Although the cost of this action is four points, it is expected that landmark is at least a paragraph. Landmarks at this stage are best thought of as cradles of civilizations or places of strategic importance. Think of landmarks during the Rise as seeds that will be watered in later ages. This action may be performed once with no point value per turn, meaning that this action could be performed once in addition to a series of actions costing 16 points.

Antiquity:
Add Flora to Index [6]: Add three types of flora to the index of flora. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences per entry.
Add Minerals to Index [6]: Add three types of minerals to the index of minerals. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences.
Add Fauna to Index [6]: Add three types of fauna to the index of fauna. Give a brief description of each, no more than two sentences.
Alter Race [16]: Create a subtype of a creature type. The alteration that causes this rift between the subtypes should generally be the effect of cultural separation evolving into a physical and finally a biological separation. Specific physical alterations should be minimal, but still, denote the unique and newfound identity of the subtype. It should be noted that subtypes are significantly more disposed to possess the ability to be unified into one nation, whereas types will struggle to identify as a single culture.
Chronicle Event [2]: Although the cost of this action is two points, it is expected that events be at least a paragraph. For the Rise, legends are best suited for how ancient heroes triumphed over real or perceived evil. Although myths from this early in history are by no means reliable historical records, they should all contain at least a few grains of truth. When creating a myth, reference as many landmarks as possible. This action may be performed twice with no point value per turn, meaning that this action could be performed twice in addition to a series of actions costing 16 points.
Designate Landmark [4]: Although the cost of this action is four points, it is expected that landmark is at least a paragraph. Landmarks at this stage are best thought of as cradles of civilizations or places of strategic importance. Think of landmarks during the Rise as seeds that will be watered in later ages. This action may be performed once with no point value per turn, meaning that this action could be performed once in addition to a series of actions costing 16 points.
Alter Culture [3]: Create a cultural sub type.

[More Coming Soon]

If this gets steam, I will post the general phases of creation and the "points" system.
Hidden 8 yrs ago 8 yrs ago Post by Polybius
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If this gets steam, I will post the general phases of creation and the "points" system. Until then, ask as many questions as possible and good night!


Wow I was literally working on something similar to this when you posted it! Witholding interest until the 'points' system is revealed, however I agree with the 'phases of creation' bit, I have something similar worked out in my RP. Basically, magic and wars were extremely expensive in the earliest phases (called Ages: Archaic, Mythic, Civilization, Twilight, respectively) of play. This seems a bit more freeform than the ridgid tabletop ideas I had bouncing around for a few weeks (there were grids!) and I'm looking forward to see what you have worked out.
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Gaebrael
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<Snipped quote by Gaebrael>

Wow I was literally working on something similar to this when you posted it! Witholding interest until the 'points' system is revealed, however I agree with the 'phases of creation' bit, I have something similar worked out in my RP. Basically, magic and wars were extremely expensive in the earliest phases (called Ages: Archaic, Mythic, Civilization, Twilight, respectively) of play. This seems a bit more freeform than the ridgid tabletop ideas I had bouncing around for a few weeks (there were grids!) and I'm looking forward to see what you have worked out.


So glad to hear some tentative interest-like qualities! I am working on the points and phases now. It goes something like what you were describing, as I think we most likely have looked at a few of the same systems before, or at least I would guess.
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Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Lauder
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I watch from the shadows~
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Polybius
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@Gaebrael if you need any help with a system let me know
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Gaebrael
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@Gaebrael if you need any help with a system let me know


Sorry, just been a bit busy. If you want to sugguest actions and point costs though, that would be great.
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Voltus_Ventus
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I would like to participate in this. Seems like it would be good fun.
Hidden 8 yrs ago 8 yrs ago Post by Gaebrael
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I would like to participate in this. Seems like it would be good fun.


Cool! I will finish up everything tonight and wait for two more before the OOC.
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Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Polybius
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Ok, here is everything I've written up on my game Tabula Rasa. As you can see, it gets a little dense but that's too be expected in a first draft of a game. Basically, players give actions or orders (similar to a NES ((Never-ending-story)) that seems to be popular on Civilization game fan sites) and the game master interprets those actions. I borrowed ideas from a dice-heavy world creation game my friends made a few years ago and the idea for The Void is directly pilfered from "Jerrys Map" (just google it) in order to introduce an end-game type scenario. Totally up for getting help in finishing and eventually playing this so comments/criticism are great guys! Also, @Gaebrael I hope I'm not hijacking your thread man, if I'm overstepping shut me down anytime. Thanks!

Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Gaebrael
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Ok, here is everything I've written up on my game Tabula Rasa. As you can see, it gets a little dense but that's too be expected in a first draft of a game. Basically, players give actions or orders (similar to a NES ((Never-ending-story)) that seems to be popular on Civilization game fan sites) and the game master interprets those actions. I borrowed ideas from a dice-heavy world creation game my friends made a few years ago and the idea for The Void is directly pilfered from "Jerrys Map" (just google it) in order to introduce an end-game type scenario. Totally up for getting help in finishing and eventually playing this so comments/criticism are great guys! Also, @Gaebrael I hope I'm not hijacking your thread man, if I'm overstepping shut me down anytime. Thanks!



This is cool. I will certainly be stealing a good amount of the actions from here. Also, sorry for the delay. I will finsish the system very shortly.
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Gaebrael
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Tad burned out for today, but I will plow through more ASAP!
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by LordZell
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So I'm somewhat interested in this depends get how things go.
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Gaebrael
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So I'm somewhat interested in this depends get how things go.


I am somewhat glad to hear as such depending on how you go.
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Legion02
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I'm interested. But the system looks REALLY strict here. A cap on how much you can write? Seems a bit harsh. Still, I'll keep an eye on this.
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Gaebrael
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I'm interested. But the system looks REALLY strict here. A cap on how much you can write? Seems a bit harsh. Still, I'll keep an eye on this.


It isn't strict to the point that I will kick you for being one sentence off, but things like the index entries should be of uniform length. The rest is more of a guideline. I just don't want eight paragraphs on the origins, chemical layout, and practical applications of Quantonium whereas more familiar minerals such as steel would only be one sentence describing the material as "Shiny strong stuff." It should also guide where the focus of the posts should go. If you think there is something that specifically needs increasing, tell me, and if you have a better way to make things like this uniform, tell me as well.
Hidden 8 yrs ago 8 yrs ago Post by LordZell
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So I just realized someone will have to use 16 points to create sentience.... who wants to use them?
Also I'm confused as to how some of the points/powers work.
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Gaebrael
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So I just realized someone will have to use 16 points to create sentience.... who wants to use them?
Also I'm confused as to how some of the points/powers work.


Please be more specific. Creating sentience means creating a new creature archetype, so the incentive is having an entirely new type of people in the world.
Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Polybius
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Still keeping tentative interest but I do have some (hopefully) insights into your decisions for game design:

1. Points seem like a good idea, but if your just using them to limit post lengths and actions a player is able to take each turn why not make it simpler and just say like 'take 2 actions per turn & write a minimum of X paragraphs for each action'. It seems counter intuitive and more complicated unless this is a PvP type thing, which it does not seem to be-rather a co-op world building type thing.

2. You need to determine clearly when phases of play are over. "Whenever I feel like" is not good enough for me as a player. Maybe when X amount of actions are taken or other certain criteria is met. (X amount of races, or X amount of terrain is filled in etc. depending on the phase)

3.
As far as magic and Gods and divine intervention goes, it is very low fantasy. The central point of the world is that everything remains very much internally consistent. The best way to not screw this up is cut down on magic things.
Gaebrael


I can't reconcile these design choices for a few reasons:
A) We are literally playing gods so reducing the level of magic is inconsistent with the setting/system relationship.
B) If the reason behind A) is to reduce inconsistency in magic creation, I would just use my GM powers as the need arises. Otherwise, it just seems like 'cut(ing) down on magic things' is a cheap way out and again, not consistent with the "your playing gods and creating a world, but it's low fantasy so no god stuff".

I really do want a 'god-game' to play and this could be good, but it seems like you want a more realistic (flora & fauna, index etc) world building game with a 'fantasy' tag slapped on it rather than a 'fantasy world building game' Finally, I hope you take this as constructive criticism to improve your game, not personally. .
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Finally, I hope you take this as constructive criticism to improve your game, not personally.


Of course. That said, perhaps I did not explain as well as I could have that you are not truly RPing as anything. You are writers, not writing from any specific perspective and definitely not your own.

1. Points seem like a good idea, but if your just using them to limit post lengths and actions a player is able to take each turn why not make it simpler and just say like 'take 2 actions per turn & write a minimum of X paragraphs for each action'. It seems counter intuitive and more complicated unless this is a PvP type thing, which it does not seem to be-rather a co-op world building type thing.


I had thought about that, but I want certain things to be longer than others, naturally. That also seems like the same thing, just swap paragraphs for sentences and less uniformity.

It is not intended to limit people, but rather make sure there are clear-cut expectations.

2. You need to determine clearly when phases of play are over. "Whenever I feel like" is not good enough for me as a player. Maybe when X amount of actions are taken or other certain criteria is met. (X amount of races, or X amount of terrain is filled in etc. depending on the phase)


That is fair. When the OP goes up and as I continue I will put that in. What I can say right now is that it will have to do largely with how much has happened rather than a hard turn limit.

I can't reconcile these design choices for a few reasons:
A) We are literally playing gods so reducing the level of magic is inconsistent with the setting/system relationship.
B) If the reason behind A) is to reduce inconsistency in magic creation, I would just use my GM powers as the need arises. Otherwise, it just seems like 'cut(ing) down on magic things' is a cheap way out and again, not consistent with the "your playing gods and creating a world, but it's low fantasy so no god stuff".

I really do want a 'god-game' to play and this could be good, but it seems like you want a more realistic (flora & fauna, index etc) world building game with a 'fantasy' tag slapped on it rather than a 'fantasy world building game'

A. I believe I covered this in my heading. Based on my RP experience, playing as a legitimate God is boring as hell because you have infinite power and anything less is pretty much just bullshit mechanics rather than story-driven limitations.
B. I think calling it the cheap way out doesn't really do the idea justice. It has worked for many fantasy authors, including George R. R. Martin, and we see that the most inconsistency comes in, even for him as a solo and professional author, when magic is used.
C. That is perhaps a more fair description than what I displayed originally. I would still maintain the fantasy tag on the basis of there being Elves and Men and Orcs and Giants and Dwarves and whatever else, but you are correct that my goals are very far from common high fantasy. It is intended to be as realistic, and therefore as immersive, as possible. I may at this point be speaking purely subjectively, but whenever I come across or even hear of a logical inconsistency in pretty much any fantasy media, it is the first thing that always comes to mind and from then on the setting ceases to excite me and begins to disappoint me, where as my favorite setting pieces are generally the proving grounds of the less-than-morally-white rogues and Robin Hoods ad the hideously corrupt yet still charming politician, not mage towers or floating cities.
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Hidden 8 yrs ago Post by Gaebrael
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I still exist. Been a bit busy lately, sorry.
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