Intro to the Shared World(s) Project

[Trifletraxor]

So, I thought it was time for a new subforum, so we can discuss the project in more detail. All threads in this subforum should be related to the project.

The way I see it, we probably have two projects on our hand:

1) A shared world, one setting, where several members work together to create an open world setting for BRP (somewhat in the same line as Gwenthia was made).

2) A shared universe, with several worlds/settings. These settings can be connected by gates or FTL travel if the individual GMs would like so. The settings would mainly be developed by individual members. The setting developed in project 1 would form just one world among the many in the shared universe.

How to you view it?

Please post in how and in what way you would like to contribute.

SGL.

[Trifletraxor]

By the way, for myself, can contribute by providing the resources needed for the coordination of the project (forum, wiki, download section?), and I would also like to join the shared world project if we decide to go for a fantasy setting for that one. Otherwise I would maybe like to work on a fantasy setting for the shared universe project.

SGL.

[rust]

As mentioned elsewhere, I could contribute a science fiction world (a work
in progress, currently ca. fifty pages of material plus some maps), but unfor-
tunately it is in German, and I would hate to have to translate it into English.

[drohem]

My contribution would be of an island continent. The dwarves are the main protagonists and a magocratic human empire is the main antagonist. It is a fantasy setting. A new race and cutlure of anthropomorphic humanoid animals is emerging and carving out their slice of the pie.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Trifletraxor

So, I thought it was time for a new subforum, so we can discuss the project in more detail. All threads in this subforum should be related to the project.

The way I see it, we probably have two projects on our hand:

1) A shared world, one setting, where several members work together to create an open world setting for BRP (somewhat in the same line as Gwenthia was made).

2) A shared universe, with several worlds/settings. These settings can be connected by gates or FTL travel if the individual GMs would like so. The settings would mainly be developed by individual members. The setting developed in project 1 would form just one world among the many in the shared universe.

How to you view it?

Please post in how and in what way you would like to contribute.

SGL.

Farily similar, although I'd be inclined to subdivide 2 into magic and Sci-Fi. Basically the two usually don't mix well. Either tend to mess up the verisimilitude of the other. So I'd suggest keeping any Sci-Fi settings separate from the fantasy ones.

Plus it doesn't help for Drohem to work up a island in lots of detail if someone can fly up in a Klingon Battlecrusier and fire photon torpedoes at it from orbit and take over the whole planet.

So lets keep the advanced cultures (if any) in a different universe.

[tzunder]

I'd suggest that we avoid retreading the Gwenthia alien fantasy route.
I would suggest we don't do another cookie cutter fantasy world with all the usual cliches. On the other hand, we want to be able to pull in familiar tropes and stuff, so how about a RIFTS/GURPS Yrth/multiverse setting where all sorts of stuff from Earth's history and myth have become sucked in and mixed up?

Or.. and this is my favourite option that I would work on.. a universal city, with a faded baroque style, but just as home to trolls as bon vivantes..

BUT, and this is key.. by making it explicitly for BRP then the whole licence thing raises it's head. Maybe it's better to say "Suitable for popular d100 based rpgs"?

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by Trifletraxor

2) A shared universe, with several worlds/settings. These settings can be connected by gates or FTL travel if the individual GMs would like so. The settings would mainly be developed by individual members. The setting developed in project 1 would form just one world among the many in the shared universe.

How to you view it?

My view is people could publish their already-developed worlds/universes*, and others can contribute to them if inspired to do so. It would be up to the Author of that world/universe to accept any particular contribution or not. I'm hoping that some settings will get popular and they won't have to be developed just by the one individual author - although he/she would retain editorial control.

* Yes, this might lead to some settings having to be in separate universes (for example, if their Authors have defined all galaxies or said their world is Earth, or said it's a cube floating in an infinite sea of chaos...). But 'gates' (of whatever form, and I think it should be up to individual Authors to decide) cross that barrier just as easily!

Although my own setting is just continent-sized and fairly bog-standard fantasy, it probably wouldn't fit too well with anything else in the same universe: Future-Earth, following a mystical coalescence of many alternate Earths; All histories are true; Many pantheons of gods from the astral plane and native star-sized planet-consuming Cthulhoids fight it out - via mortal pawns, of course. History will be chosen by the victors. For added drama, I might like to define it as the last living planet remaining (although I haven't, yet).

Would the proposed framework accommodate that?

[soltakss]

Well, Gwenthia could just be a world accessible via a Gate, so it could be part of the Shared World but separate.

As could any other BRP/RQ-compatible Shared World. So, you could go from BRPWorld to Gwenthia to The Young Kingdoms to Berlin61 to Glorantha in some mad, meaningless campaign. There's not much point going to Slaine or Newhon, though, as not a lot happens there.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by frogspawner

My view is people could publish their already-developed worlds/universes*, and others can contribute to them if inspired to do so. It would be up to the Author of that world/universe to accept any particular contribution or not. I'm hoping that some settings will get popular and they won't have to be developed just by the one individual author - although he/she would retain editorial control.

That could be a reasonable way to go with the worlds/settings in the shared universe(s).

Although my own setting is just continent-sized and fairly bog-standard fantasy, it probably wouldn't fit too well with anything else in the same universe: Future-Earth, following a mystical coalescence of many alternate Earths; All histories are true; Many pantheons of gods from the astral plane and native star-sized planet-consuming Cthulhoids fight it out - via mortal pawns, of course. History will be chosen by the victors. For added drama, I might like to define it as the last living planet remaining (although I haven't, yet).

Well, the universe might have several dimensions of different probablity etc., and the gates could as you say cross time-space barriers and different dimensions without much problem.

SGL.

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by soltakss

Well, Gwenthia could just be a world accessible via a Gate, so it could be part of the Shared World but separate.

As could any other BRP/RQ-compatible Shared World. So, you could go from BRPWorld to Gwenthia to The Young Kingdoms to Berlin61 to Glorantha in some mad, meaningless campaign. There's not much point going to Slaine or Newhon, though, as not a lot happens there.

Yes - madness, meaning and the point of a campaign are supplied by the GM. GMs control use of the gates - so they could say 'never!' (and probably should say 'almost never'). The important part of the 'gates' idea is Authors collaboration on each others settings.

If we publish some settings, hopefully one or a few will be interesting enough for other people to add contributions to them - and they will grow, faster than a lone author could make them.