Burning RPGAish

[jmhpfan]

I am working on a concept for a world where various gaming groups would be able to run adventures in the same campaign world. There is a place in this world for all the lifepaths from the Character Burner as it stands now. The Dwarves live in the farthest northerm mountain of the souther mountain range. The Elves live on the north-eastern pinnsula with their citidel on the tip with miles of ocean and forest between them and humans or dwarves. The Humans have a large capitol city on an island a day's sailing from the main land as well as several smaller settlements on the edges of the forest on the mainland. I am still working on the Orcs.

What I am trying to find are the big points of tension in the world. What I am thinking is that each month or few months I can update the players on what has happened in the world and where new oppertunities for adventure exist and then give GM's a few weeks to respond back with what their group is doing so that that can be added in. What do you guys think?

[stormsweeper]

First let me offer the disclaimer that I am not a fan of "living games" in any form that I have experienced (both in D&D and Vamire LARPs).

The major system issue I see is that BW supports a playstyle that is focused on the characters and driven by them, not events of the world.

[Dwight]

I'll add to stormsweeper's list that BWR stresses collective agreement and communication between all players. It's going to be much harder to have high-bandwidth communication and collective agreement when there are going to be people that don't even see each other.

Further the details of the world are defined in play with people having a collective knowledge of these. So you'll have to figure some way to share that info too.

[jmhpfan]

I agree with both of you that the focus of BW is characters and also that none of the "living" worlds have been worth the hassle. The plan as I have concived it is to only give the basics of a setting and let the players fill in the details. What the various groups are doing in their individual sessions will be reported in to the main hub and distilled down to what is most important and then dissiminated back to the play groups. The plots going on in the world will be in the hands of the players.

[jmhpfan]

I have been trying to think of the benefits of doing this in a quantifiable way and this is what I have come up with so far:

1. More BW scenarios available for new GMs who want to demo the game to their group.

2. A way for those who are only able to play BW at conventions to keep their characters and build their characters' stories over time.

3. To have a story that the whole community will be able to gather around and effect.

4. New players will have a low barrier to get into the game.