Fantasy Game Design

[Super Squirrel]

My pursuits to run a fantasy game have led me to an interesting point. I have begun to design a very detailed city. The City of Chrystis is so well detailed (or at least heading in such a way) that I can tell you the names of ever member of the assissins guild (as well as what poisons they have access to) and have write-ups for the normal, poor, and rich average folk. I can tell you the "alignment" of the Thieves' Guild and can give precise detail to the patrons of the three different taverns. I also have plans to create a random chart for who is in each of the taverns at any given point.

Basically, I have a growing three-ring binder for about everything one would want for the City of Chrystis. My question is, what should I do with this information? Keep it to myself, place it on a webpage, submit parts to DH, or maybe e-mail Steve a proposal?

I'd hate to spend this much time on something like this and not share. So feel free to give me your input.

[Monolith]

It might make an interesting ebook once Fantasy Hero comes out. You might want to submit some of it to DH first though. That way people get a chance to see if it really is interesting or not. I am not trying to be discouraging or anything, but, like myself, you might just be full of ideas but a terrible writers. At least with DH you could guage yourself to some extent and see how people respond.

[Super Squirrel]

Heh, you couldn't discourage me on my writing skills. Thanks for the input though, appreciated that the first response wasn't "Webpage" or keep it to yourself.

[Agent X]

Originally posted by Super Squirrel
Heh, you couldn't discourage me on my writing skills. Thanks for the input though, appreciated that the first response wasn't "Webpage" or keep it to yourself.

Who would do that?

Sounds really cool. What kind of page length do you envision?

[Spence]

Lots of detail usually translates to a very large book regardless of medium. Just a thought, but have you considured pitching the basic city and map first and then the secret GM style stuff as a second book. That way when everyone buys the "basic" city it would only be all the public knowledge stuff. The one reason I never really used a "bought" city as a GM no matter how well done, was everyone would buy a copy and read it. That is what happened to MC. Everyone read the GM Vault. So I just use it as a guide for making my own. As soon as I find the box with my copy of Campaign Cartegrapher (add-ons) I'll start mapping.

[AlHazred]

Ah, man, reminds me of at least three attempts I made to be that comprehensive in a Fantasy campaign. In one I started with the map (detailed down to peasant hovels). In another, I started with the regional map, screwed down to the major cities (albeit not as detailed as the first attempt), and then moved on to cultures/kingdom details. In the third attempt I started with extremely detailed kingdom writeups (down to the officials), then did the regional map, and then screwed downwards. In each case, my players quit four to twelve weeks after I began work. Then, when I decided not to do any work on the campaign at all and run by the seat of my pants, the campaign lasted for three years...

More power to you.

[Steve Long]

Before you submit a proposal to me for anything like that, you'd better rack up a significant number of DH writing credits (or other credits). It's virtually guaranteed that I'm not going to accept a proposal from someone to do a book until I'm satisfied he can write reasonably well, has good, creative ideas, and so forth. And even that might not be enough if the proposal isn't sufficiently interesting, etc.

Don't want to be discouraging, but I don't want you to spend a lot of time doing work on something unless you're clear on how the process works up-front.

[Markdoc]

Unless you really, really want your name on a Hero system book or you have a dynamite idea, my suggestion would be webpage it.

I've done that with my now-finished Japanese campaign, which takes up TWO good sized printed books.

Given that the Hero writers I know don't seem to be living lives of sybaritic luxury surrounded by adoring groupies (well, apart from Aaron Allston :-)) you probably aren't losing out financially.

And I, at least, have gotten tons of great feedback, which is nice: websites and yahoo groups devoted to my game, hundreds of emails and literally thousands of hits.

By all means, share. :-)

cheers, Mark

[Nightshade]

My first inclination as to what to do with your city/campaign is to run it! That's another way of sharing your creation. I have several hundred pages for my fantasy world (and a lot more to write) and I really have no intentions of doing anything more than simply having it for my players. I even have sourcebooks and supplements for it.

I know (or at least am pretty sure) that I don't have the time or the polish to get my work published, but most players will appreciate a nice detailed setting that gives them the ability to create an interesting character and for me to have an interesting campaign.

IMO, there is no better way to share your hard work, sweat, and blood. If you get a lot of positive feedback from players, and would like to do something more, submit parts to DH. Who knows where it goes from there?

Nightshade