The World Burner

[LordSmerf]

Before i get down to business, i'm going to stroke Luke's ego a bit more. I introduced another local player to the Wheel, she loves it a lot.

Ok, now for the real deal: The World Burner. This is actually bigger than the Burning Wheel, but the Wheel provides an excellent framework. I'll try to lay out exactly what i'm thinking as well as why, if i miss an explaination be sure to let me know.

Recently i've been contemplating a campaign involvoing world-shattering/changing events initiate by PCs. However, the local group spends a lot of time playing in our own little world of Trithofar. I can't very well have great world-changing/shattering events without throwing off every other campaign going on right now. Besides, it's been barely 100 years since the world was last shattered anyway...

So i begin contemplating putting a world together. Of course this is for a single campaign, after the PCs do whatever it is that they are going to do i don't think i'd really be interested in revisiting the setting. So, what does that leave me with? I need to develop a world which will hold up to signifigant scrutiny (10+ session campaign,) but which i will "throw away" after said campaign. This means that i want a world that is consistent and covers all the bases without having to spend inordinate amounts of time on it. Then i thought "hey, maybe other people have wanted the same thing, someone should write a book with guidelines to make it simple."

So, the World Burner is that book. At this stage it is simply an idea: write a book that takes you step by step through building your own little world. Hopefully you can whip up a world in an hour or two once you get the book digested. There are a couple of feasibility issues. Would anyone else want one? Would it be used often enough to warrant it's purchase?

I welcome any and all feedback both to the above questions and a few others such as: What elements need to be addressed? and In what order to they need to be addressed?

I'll try to get something a little more solid and get that up here...

Thomas

[eruditus]

May I suggest checking out an out of print game called Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth by the now defunct Last Unicorn Games. You may be able to find this if your local gaming store has used books (I do find them occasionally new but rarely).

Two books : Roleplaying and Worlds

World covers a more macro level with technology and various aspects of any gaming world. It does a great job in making civilizations. The Roleplaying book talks more about clans and families and then characters. It also deals with magic and religion a bit. I would be on board with a World Builder once I get my own piece out of the way. On the other hand, since the Monster Burner, Hero Burner, Adventure Burner and Magic Burners are on the way, maybe a focus on a smaller piece of the puzzle may be in order.

So to facilitate this, what part of the world would be created with the World Burner? Might this be a book that is released after all your options are laid out in the other books, with a way to navigate through them in a coherent fashion?

I think the source material planed thus far is designed because most folk have their own fantasy worlds (and beyond) and they hope to convert/reimagine their own worlds.

How I'd like to see all this would be to develop the Economy Burner, Environment Burner, Religion Burner, and then have a World Burner that gives you a way to chose these in a realistic fashion.

Ah - the dream!

[LordSmerf]

I guess what i'm looking for is a book that is more of a set of guidelines. Lifepath creation, race creation, religion development, economy, politics, magic systems, all that. This is something that goes beyond the Burning Wheel (though the Wheel facilitates this level of flexibility much better than anything else i've seen yet.)

I guess i'm looking for a resource that accumulates all the creation rules and throws in some guidelines for coherence. Essentially: "you've got your own world, here's how to put it into the Burning Wheel; you want to throw a world together, we can do that too."

I guess that gives us a two tiered produce, at least in terms of layout. All the conversion stuff will be needed for creation, but the layout has to facilitate its use for either purpose... Of course all that creation stuff needs to be assembled before this gets out of the theoretical stage. Since we are at the theoretical stage, here are some thing that i think need to be covered:

Magic
Technology
The role of Deities
Geography
Politics
Economy
Races (playable and monster, if there's a difference)
Society (ethics, religion, etc.)

That's all i've got off the top of my head, i'm sure there's more... Feel free to chime in.

Thomas

[eruditus]

That's an awefully big book if done right. I think just about all of these would make a great book in their own right then a seperate book on how to merge the aspects effectively.

And the set could be in a slip case... it could be our World Burner series.

:D

[ronnieB]

damn, no time to read all this post... i hope i'm not stating what have been stated...
a tip i once got when creating worlds is to start small and work your way: first the region and importent cutoms and places in which the campaign starts, then the sorrounding areas, and so forth and you leave the gods, cosmos, and anceient history for the end (or even do them after a few gaming sessions)
it works for me, maybe it will help you too