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Post by LegendOfZia (formerly DM Phil) on Oct 13, 2015 3:28:29 GMT
Okay, so I'm wanting to say a little bit about my world here and get feedback and ideas the great people here might be willing to contribute. The world is called Rotas, and so far I've created a giant map of landmasses and water, with only a tiny portion being detailed. I've done very little else as far as physically developing it. It's a big, earth-sized world (roughly) with six moons, each of which is a different colour and has a different impact on the world (such as The Sea controlling the tides, or The Beast triggering lycanthrope transformations).
So far, the cosmology I'm using is the D&D 3.5 cosmology, including the planes and the deities, but I will almost definitely be adding more content as I fill in more details. The reason the world is subtitled "The Planestorm" is because there is an underlying creation to the world that I feel is a little strange--and it's not something I'm entirely positive I want to use, so I welcome comments on this. Basically, underpinning the world's entire concept, is that it (by which I mean every plane in the cosmology) is part of an enormous board game being played by higher-than-Gods beings that created the world for that express purpose. The game is played by opening portals and changing parts of one plane for parts of another, trying to move the "pieces" (which includes any conscious being in the world--from animals to deities) to more advantageous positions. Basically each of the Cosmic Players controls a monolith hidden somewhere in the world, and the goal is to defend your own monolith while destroying the others. Again, I don't know how much of this story I'm actually going to use, as it seems to cheapen any campaign that takes place in this world. As much as I liked the idea originally, it doesn't seem as though it's sitting right with me anymore.
What I do like about it is the idea of the world undergoing "upheavals," times of great chaos that affect all or most of the world at once. Deities rise and fall, the planes descend into flux, empires experience civil war--all kinds of chaos erupt, and after the fact, almost everything about the balance of the world has shifted dramatically. The way I would tie this into the "cosmic game" concept would be that an upheaval is the result of one or more players making aggressive power grabs, and an upheaval can be ended by destroying that player's monolith. With or without the game concept, I really like the upheaval concept, and possibly the monolith concept.
So, generally speaking, what do you guys and gals think of this world concept, and the "upheavals"/planestorm concept? And do you have advice regarding the idea of a "cosmic game"? Any thoughts on stuff you would include in a world like this, or how you would go about building from this core concept?
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Post by friartook on Oct 14, 2015 19:26:16 GMT
So, generally speaking, what do you guys and gals think of this world concept, and the "upheavals"/planestorm concept? And do you have advice regarding the idea of a "cosmic game"? Any thoughts on stuff you would include in a world like this, or how you would go about building from this core concept? This a cool and unique world-building idea! There's lots of room for creativity and weird stuff, which is a huge plus in my mind. As for the "cosmic game", I think this idea is still usable. Here are some things I'd want answers to if I were going to use this as the "creation myth" of my world: -What are the rules of the game? Every game has rules, and you can use these to create tension and dynamics in the world. These can also be used to limit the interventions of these great being in the world; they can only affect the game according to certain rules. For example: Perhaps one rule is that they must use the intelligent being of the earth to capture the monoliths. However, they cannot directly influence these creatures, so they have to create elaborate "macguffins" that push the players to take certain actions. -I'd want to add in some background/large theme tension surrounding the free will of sentient beings living in a game of the gods. The PCs have free will, and because of the rules of the game, these great beings cannot affect that will directly. What are the ramifications of this dynamic philosophically? Even if your players never find out about these larger machinations of your world, this question could be important to the underlying theme or tone of your campaign. -Is there a way to "break free" of the game? Perhaps insert a scenario by which the PCs find out about this cosmic game they are a part of, then are given the opportunity to break the game. You mentioned these beings being "greater than gods", perhaps some actual D&D style gods get wind of this game and decide to intervene for whatever divine motivation fits. This is a way to avoid "cheapening any campaign" in this setting. If the players have the chance (at very high levels I'd assume) to free their entire world, that's about as far from cheap as you can get. When building a world like this, I'd definitely take the "start small and build" approach. You said you already have a map of land masses and water bodies all laid out. I'd say, populate one corner of that map, start your campaign there, and see where it goes. Wherever the PCs go next, that can be the location for the next "upheaval" you plan for them to encounter. This will allow you the freedom to build your campaign in sections without appearing to railroad the players. I'd assume that societies would be quite isolated in a world like this. Who wants to travel far when you chance ending up in Hell just around the next river bend? This allows you to play up their ignorance and send them into all manner of interesting situations. You could map that all out ahead of time, but then you are locked in and need something planned for every area. The way I am suggesting will allow you to concentrate on the next area you want to send them to. Good luck! Please post how things go as you move forward, I'd love to hear how it all pans out! |
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Post by LegendOfZia (formerly DM Phil) on Oct 14, 2015 19:46:39 GMT
This a cool and unique world-building idea! There's lots of room for creativity and weird stuff, which is a huge plus in my mind. As for the "cosmic game", I think this idea is still usable. Here are some things I'd want answers to if I were going to use this as the "creation myth" of my world: -What are the rules of the game? Every game has rules, and you can use these to create tension and dynamics in the world. These can also be used to limit the interventions of these great being in the world; they can only affect the game according to certain rules. For example: Perhaps one rule is that they must use the intelligent being of the earth to capture the monoliths. However, they cannot directly influence these creatures, so they have to create elaborate "macguffins" that push the players to take certain actions. -I'd want to add in some background/large theme tension surrounding the free will of sentient beings living in a game of the gods. The PCs have free will, and because of the rules of the game, these great beings cannot affect that will directly. What are the ramifications of this dynamic philosophically? Even if your players never find out about these larger machinations of your world, this question could be important to the underlying theme or tone of your campaign. -Is there a way to "break free" of the game? Perhaps insert a scenario by which the PCs find out about this cosmic game they are a part of, then are given the opportunity to break the game. You mentioned these beings being "greater than gods", perhaps some actual D&D style gods get wind of this game and decide to intervene for whatever divine motivation fits. This is a way to avoid "cheapening any campaign" in this setting. If the players have the chance (at very high levels I'd assume) to free their entire world, that's about as far from cheap as you can get. When building a world like this, I'd definitely take the "start small and build" approach. You said you already have a map of land masses and water bodies all laid out. I'd say, populate one corner of that map, start your campaign there, and see where it goes. Wherever the PCs go next, that can be the location for the next "upheaval" you plan for them to encounter. This will allow you the freedom to build your campaign in sections without appearing to railroad the players. I'd assume that societies would be quite isolated in a world like this. Who wants to travel far when you chance ending up in Hell just around the next river bend? This allows you to play up their ignorance and send them into all manner of interesting situations. You could map that all out ahead of time, but then you are locked in and need something planned for every area. The way I am suggesting will allow you to concentrate on the next area you want to send them to. Good luck! Please post how things go as you move forward, I'd love to hear how it all pans out! Ooh, MacGuffins. There are things in the world that even the gods don't know the origin of, including the monoliths, but possibly also powerful artefacts (or at least legends of them) meant to lure mortals into other planes/onto paths that will lead them to enemy monoliths. That could be interesting. I agree that I need to think out the rules of the game a bit more. I was originally just thinking that it was an incredibly complex game with rules beyond comprehension--all I knew for sure was that it revolved around opening gateways between planes--but maybe if I specify a few more rules/ways the game is played, that will help me. And yeah, I definitely thought about a campaign leading to freeing the world, but in my mind, that's like videogame characters rebelling against the player. No matter what, the player can just turn off the machine running the game. But maybe there is a way and I just haven't given that idea enough of a chance. Any suggestions on ways you might free the world from this game? The most obvious answer is destroying all the monoliths, but I don't think that would do it--it seems to me that would just end the cosmos. The game would be over, so the players would just "turn it off." Same goes for helping one player in particular win the game. Once they've won, they'd just turn the game off or put away the board or whatever. If the PCs tried to communicate with one or more cosmic players (a monumental task in and of itself), it would be nigh impossible to convince them to listen to mere game pieces or to do anything for their sake. It would be like a peasant in a Civilization game trying to convince the player to leave their computer on all the time, forever, running Civilization because the game is actually real (to the peasant anyway) and they don't want their world to end. These are the difficulties I'm dealing with. Although, I agree, taking a world that was built as a game and turning it into a real world, free from the people who once used it as a game, would truly be a legendary act. |
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Post by friartook on Oct 14, 2015 20:00:41 GMT
And yeah, I definitely thought about a campaign leading to freeing the world, but in my mind, that's like videogame characters rebelling against the player. No matter what, the player can just turn off the machine running the game. But maybe there is a way and I just haven't given that idea enough of a chance. Any suggestions on ways you might free the world from this game? It's all in the rules! Suppose there are non-interference rules. Even if the characters in the video game revolt, they can't turn off the console (in this case, an entire cosmos). Or perhaps there are consequences for these beings. Like if they lose something bad happens to them, and quitting or shutting down the game means they all lose! The truth is, you don't really need to know these answers right now. Coming up with a few guidelines as to why these cosmic beings can't interfere would be good just for narrative continuity, and you need to have a plan as to how to free the world so you know how to steer your players. But all the minutia represent the types of things we DMs over-think and that never ever come up in an actual game. |
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Post by whipstache on Oct 28, 2015 15:07:07 GMT
It would be like a peasant in a Civilization game trying to convince the player to leave their computer on all the time, forever, running Civilization because the game is actually real (to the peasant anyway) and they don't want their world to end. You know, if one of the characters in a video game I was playing gained sentience and broke the fourth wall, I might be compelled to listen. It certainly would be a shock to me, the player. Maybe it's not that much of a stretch to think that if the PCs were able to find a way to communicate with the "players," the players might be surprised to find that the game pieces actually care about existing. Reminds me of this episode from Star Trek: TNG where the holodek Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes gains self-awareness, and they decide to find a way to keep his program running. |
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Post by LegendOfZia (formerly DM Phil) on Feb 11, 2016 19:30:51 GMT
I've definitely decided to just let the players figure it out, or let myself figure it out organically. With the party only at level 3, there's no need to worry too much about how this is going to all break down. I've been working the past few days on building a cosmology from scratch, rather than use the standard D&D planes. What I have is something that, I think, is fairly new and original, while still evoking some of the same feel as the D&D canon. My world now consists of three main classifications of planes (with "Special" being a different classification altogether): World/Core Planes, Elemental/Moon Planes, End/God Planes.
World Planes are basically where mortal races live and the majority of the action takes place. My main world plane is unnamed so far, but I'm toying with the idea of actually having different species originate in different World Planes. For example, there might be one World Plane that is where the orcs, dwarves, and goblins all came from, while elves and fae originated on a different World Plane.
Elemental Planes are also known as Moon Planes because each of them corresponds to one of the world's six moons. There are only five elemental planes, however, with The Spirit Moon being represented by a special plane, the Spirit Plane. The Elemental Planes (and their moons) are: The Beast, The Flame, The Forest, The Ocean, and The Storm.
The Spirit Plane is where "unfated" go when they die. It kind of works like D&D's astral plane, but this is inhabited by spirits of those who didn't show enough commitment to either a deity or a cause to be drawn to The End Planes. The spirits themselves eventually break down into the mist and energy that comprises the Spirit Plane. Sometimes these spirits or energy from this plane seeps into other planes. Often this results in the animation of a new creature, with undead being among the most common examples.
Finally, the End Planes or God Planes are the proper "afterlife" of the cosmos. These are where deities, demons, angels, devils, etc. reside. It is also where spirits who showed enough commitment to a cause or deity are drawn.
I still have some specifics to figure out, especially when it comes to game mechanics. For example, what defines an outsider in this world? If a dwarf from one World Plane travels to another World Plane, is he an outsider? My gut says no, but then I think of other outsiders that would fit better on World Planes than End Planes, such as formians, and they seem like they should maintain their canon outsider status.
Anyway, that's my basic structure. I'd like thoughts and opinions on it.
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