Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

[TheRavenIs]

What are the important things you do to make it.

 

1. Do you spend time working out the backstory/history first or later?

2. Do you set up your limits for you PC's first or later?

 

Basically how do you do it?

[JmOz]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

What are the important things you do to make it.

 

1. Do you spend time working out the backstory/history first or later?

2. Do you set up your limits for you PC's first or later?

 

Basically how do you do it?

 

I normaly answer the question of what do I want to acomplish, then I figure out basicaly what comics are the most like what I want to run (Or movies, or tv show, etc...)

 

I then set power level, talk to the players, figure out what I have to deal with

[OddHat]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

Well, I tend to:

 

1) Ask what kind of game I want to run. What's the genre? What sources (books, movies, TV shows, etc) am I going to use, and how faithfully? How important are the PCs to the world? How powerful are they compared to the rest of the world? How tough are their enemies? What kinds of SFX are allowed? What powers?What origins? What's the tech level that normals have access to? What are the demographics of Supers, Monsters, Mad Scientists, etc.? Do those demographics make sense?

 

2) Now I build a world history, in brief outline only, that allows for what I decided above.

 

3) Go back to the choices made in #1, and ask if I still want to go with them based on the back story. For example, in #1 I may have decided that there were only 200 or so Supers in the USA. In my world history, I may have decided that there have been Supers since the Civil War or earlier. Now I need to decide if 200 is too high or low a number, and why there are so few.

 

4) I'll try to make sure I've left plenty of room in the world for my players. All these questions and answers are meant to build a framework in which I and the players can have fun. Part of that is making sure that they won't feel straightjacketted by my choices, and that there's plenty to do. Player input at every stage can help as well.

 

5) As the campaign goes on, I'll fill in more of the world's history, and I may choose to change some of my answers in #1. Again, player input can make a difference.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

I usually use established gameworlds, simply from the acknowledgement that anything I make won't be as cool as some of the stuff I've seen.

 

That said ...

 

Pretty much what Oddhat said.

[csyphrett]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

I usually take what characters I get, run a simple adventure to get the feel, then start adding stuff on.

 

As an example in one game, two of the characters were demons/half demons which suggested using Yama Kings and their hells. That led to an Underworld war, which led to the players accidentally installing another NPC as a king of two and a half hells.

 

Basically the players write the game for me.

CES

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

I think my official answer is -- "It depends."

 

For the most part, the character limits came first, and then the game world, but it has been the other way around on a few occasions. Most campaigns I've run haven't been interested in a game world that makes sense -- the players were more interested in busting supervillains.

 

Matt "Yeah-I'm-old-school" Frisbee

[OzMike]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

Hmm... backstory/history versus PC limits... tricky.

 

I'm assuming you mean CV and DC levels by PC limits.

 

Well, limits are all relative really - and too much history means that the world might not be dynamic for PCs.

 

I'd say I go for a vibe that I want to capture, fill in a few relevant details about the now, and chuck the PCs in.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

I come up with a general world idea - what kind of thing I want to run - both in world and campaign tone. If it is a superhero kind of thing, I figure which "metal" I want it to be.

 

I come up with a general world backstory, with basic timeline for major events and what the situations is now. Then I come up with the character building guidelines, set at whatever level will re-inforce the tone and style I am looking for.

 

Then I present that much to the players who thencome up with character concepts, and /or build thier characters. I work whatever changes are necessary for the world to fit those character into the world, or if they can't be fit in, work with the player to make something more fitting - but that doesn't happen much.

 

Then I get into building villians, and detailing the stuff that needs detailing to go along with the characters, and what first few plots I plan to run.

[Great Beyond]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

1. Do you spend time working out the backstory/history first or later?

2. Do you set up your limits for you PC's first or later?

 

Basically how do you do it?

 

Well, I havent set up a champions game ever, but I have done several Star Wars games - not quite the same thing, but close enough. What I've done first is set up the playground. Playing in a canned universe, the Big Picture backstory is done for me, so what I'll do is come up with a sector the players will be hanging out in. Flesh out the worlds with broad strokes, come up with a general theme of the sector and that sort of thing. Once I get that done, I find out what characters I'll be working with and adapt what I have so far - see if I can tailor anything to what they'll be playing. And of course leave things open ended enough that I can adapt as the game develops.

 

Assuming that I was building a world for Champions, I'd probably do something similar. Built the home city (plus a couple of other near by areas), breaking the neighborhoods up into fleshed out chunks. Throw a couple of colorful landmarks into the mix ("Oooh, here's where the theme park goes! Everyone needs a theme park!") and go from them. Refine as the characters come in and build as I go.

 

Simple, no?

[prodigyduck]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

How I develop a world really depends on what kind of setting I am doing.

 

If it is a superhero game, I usually base what I want to do on particualr visual queues I want to hit, what kind of villains I want to exist, and particular historical events (not history as a total, but specific events that shaped what happens now).

 

Fantasy settings are all visual for me. What things look like and the why and how it looks as it does. (Fantasy settings are fairly interchangable for me and my friends; and considering I am an artist, each world is really only seperated by its visuals).

[AliceTheOwl]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

What are the important things you do to make it.

 

1. Do you spend time working out the backstory/history first or later?

2. Do you set up your limits for you PC's first or later?

 

Basically how do you do it?

I've only made up one, so far. Basically, I came up with the tone first, then I figured out how it came to be, and why. Then I structured everything around that.

 

If I ever do it again, I might do it differently. I dunno.

[Blue]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

Mechanics have to help the characters fit the setting. Therefore, the back story and mood take the front seat.

[pinecone]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

I tend to make world creation a colabrative effort...I always look for hooks in the characters to incorparate into the "game world"...it also removes the effort involved in disadds, they "come up" because they're part and parcell of the world...I also brainstorm ideas with players that like that sort of thing...so 50-50 mix, with extra cheese...

[AliceTheOwl]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

I tend to make world creation a colabrative effort...I always look for hooks in the characters to incorparate into the "game world"...it also removes the effort involved in disadds' date=' they "come up" because they're part and parcell of the world...I also brainstorm ideas with players that like that sort of thing...so 50-50 mix, with extra cheese...[/quote']

That seems to work really well when you have players who are interested in contributing a whole ton of stuff. But I have one very intensive player, and two who are a lot more passive and want me to tell them all about the world.

 

Ah, well.

[zornwil]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

The process will depend a lot on the type of game. I'll stick to Champions type games given this is the forum.

 

Within that, I have either started with the "feel" of the world or a metastory. Bear in mind I have run only 3.5 real campaigns, all somewhat to fairly lengthy. I say 3.5 because the first campaign in Boston was extended for a couple people I played with down in South Carolina, before the full campaign started in SC. That extension was a bit different but not by too much, so that's the .5. Then a long campaign in SC and a long one up here in Portland, each with different worlds, the SC one was based heavily though on the world I had used for the first 1.5 campaigns, while the Portland one is clearly distinct, albeit with lots of elements and characters borrowed from the prior ones.

 

Once I had the feel/metastory, I worked on either the geographical setting or history, and some of both naturally at the same time. NPCs tend to come after that. During that I think a lot about geopolitics and culture.

 

I don't do campaign limits, and the effective limits come after I review PCs and reconcile them among themselves and the setting.

 

Of course, player feedback is important throughout all steps, though I was less thoughtful about that early on.

 

This is the short answer, anyway.

[Narratio]

Re: Just a simple ? When you design a game world.

 

Backstory and history first and foremost. All else follows on from that.