Bringing it together?

I thought that interest is now going again it would be time to start a new thread. I was getting confused with all the ideas that were brought forth. Organization is not my strong point but I was trying to wrap my mind around what we have.

Settings?

Akershule: Like many others I would love to learn more about this city.

Green:

Sky Mountain:

Any others? Does anyone else have any plans.

Would be nice to allow for:

The Realm from Basic Fantasy.

Alternate Earth (lots of BRP stuff for that now and more on the horizon)

The world from Light Without Shadow

Trollslayers (this could easily fit into the Green).

There are actually a host of really good others from BRP Adventures.

Not that we would want to get into any trouble messing with anyone else’s works. Just allow space for them if someone owns the Monographs and wants to use them.

The ongoing question of whether the shared world is a single world or multiple setting, sharing themes may need some ironing. It seems like the consensus is both:

1. There is one central world that can be developed containing Akershule (I think this is what Rurik has in mind), and possibly the Sky Mountain concept as well as anyone else who wants to add to it. (I find the Sky Mountain idea cool, but it makes things hard for other potential world makers as well as map makers). The Green could also go here, but it may work better in the second option. (At least I think this is what people have in mind).

2. This world can then be connected to other individual worlds that may have different tech levels or backgrounds by Gates, misty seas or whatever. I think it would be fun to come up with skills, spells and stuff detailing possible options of how worlds interact- possibly another setting in itself. Gm’s could then play mix and match with the settings they would like to run.

Different settings could still interact with one another through seas, gates or whatever based on the world builders or Gm’s.

Again, at least this is what I think is going on.

Would be nice to allow for:

The Realm from Basic Fantasy.

Oh great, now not only is there a Basic Fantasy, but it also uses The Realm?

Let me know what you end up doing and I'll add something like a gate to other worlds as a notation on The Realm map. I'll leave it suitably vague for game masters to do what they want with it.

Rod

Oh great, now not only is there a Basic Fantasy, but it also uses The Realm?

Let me know what you end up doing and I'll add something like a gate to other worlds as a notation on The Realm map. I'll leave it suitably vague for game masters to do what they want with it.

Rod

You'll have to do a supplement now won't you ?

On the question at hand I must admit my prefernce is for option A. That is one world with varying regions rather than magical mists seperating wildy varying worlds. Might as well just have lots of different worlds if you're going to do that.

So....one world, varying regions. You'd need to fix some parameters. For example

Minimum/Maximum technology level

Minimum/Maximum temp

Low/High magic level

So on and so forth, all these can be argued back and forth, until people are happy. Once that is done, you can move onto geography. I reckon that a lot of people have their own ideas about what they'd like to tackle. That's fine, consider our own world we've got everything from snowy wastelands to rain forests and deserts. Island chains to super continents as long as it hangs together well there's room for all sorts of weirdness. Strange and unusual things can be explained away by high background mana or magic levels.

etc etc etc

Let me know what you end up doing and I'll add something like a gate to other worlds as a notation on The Realm map. I'll leave it suitably vague for game masters to do what they want with it.

Exactly. The transfer mechanisms really must be vague so players can't use them until the GM wants them to. A 'menu' of (unreliable!) methods is good idea.

Even a particular place defined on a map may be too well-defined. It could lead players to expect that if they go there, they will be able to plane-hop, somehow. Plane-hopping that players control could too easily wreck a GMs whole campaign.

I liked the way it was for Moorcock's Corum in the first story - he managed to 'fade' from one world to a nearby one only in extremis (when the bad guys had maimed him), and even then only in a limited fashion; and in a later story he was summoned against his will, IIRC. More like that, perhaps.

Exactly. The transfer mechanisms really must be vague so players can't use them until the GM wants them to. A 'menu' of (unreliable!) methods is good idea.

Even a particular place defined on a map may be too well-defined. It could lead players to expect that if they go there, they will be able to plane-hop, somehow. Plane-hopping that players control could too easily wreck a GMs whole campaign.

I was thinking of an area that has had a history of disappearances, but it couldn't be depended upon. Think the Bermuda Triangle. That way, the players can tramps around all they want, but until the game master decides to send them someplace, nothing will happen.

And of course it works both ways, if the GM wants to pull something in from another world, that would be the place to do it.

Rod

...my prefernce is for option A. That is one world with varying regions rather than magical mists seperating wildy varying worlds.

Different worlds don't need to be very different. Players could pass from one to another without even realizing. My version of SharedWorld would have a normal sun, but be otherwise similar to everyone else's version. Maybe future contributors might prefer my version, who knows? Fortunately, we don't have to make that decision. Or any such decision.

So on and so forth, all these can be argued back and forth, until people are happy.

What I'm suggesting means we don't have to argue. Everyone should simply contribute whatever they can, whatever they like - building on other people's ideas or ignoring them or contradicting them - it doesn't matter. Even alternative, contradictory geographies: they can just be different parallels (or used as false maps...)

Certain ideas, presumably the better ones, will gain a consensus.

I was thinking of an area that has had a history of disappearances, but it couldn't be depended upon. Think the Bermuda Triangle. That way, the players can tramps around all they want, but until the game master decides to send them someplace, nothing will happen.

Brill - that's spot-on. I shouldn't've worried!

Would be nice to allow for:

The Realm from [Classic] Fantasy.

Alternate Earth (lots of BRP stuff for that now and more on the horizon)

The world from Light Without Shadow

Trollslayers (this could easily fit into the Green).

There are actually a host of really good others from BRP Adventures.

Not that we would want to get into any trouble messing with anyone else’s works. Just allow space for them if someone owns the Monographs and wants to use them.

The ongoing question of whether the shared world is a single world or multiple setting, sharing themes may need some ironing. It seems like the consensus is both:

1. There is one central world...

2. This world can then be connected to other individual worlds...

Absolutely - both. They are completely compatible ideas.

If we just adopt a "thin veil between the worlds" approach, then there's no need to go messing wiith anyone else's work. Any author who actually wants a more direct connection with SharedWorld, or even a place in it, can just 'contribute' their idea of where/how it fits (or anyone else could for that matter, as any GM might, without interfering with the creation itself).

While I will probably not contribute to the Shared World (language and lazi-

ness ... ), I look forward to using it as a part of my Call of Cthulhu set-

tings' Dreamlands.

For this purpose it is not really important whether and how the various re-

gions / worlds of the "Shared World Multiverse" are connected to form one

world that avoids contradictions, each of the regions / worlds can exist in

its own right with its own special properties.

Therefore I tend to see the Shared World more as a kind of a "network" of

more or less unique regions / worlds, probably with a number of more or less

unreliable methods to move between its parts.

Some of the parts can be close to each other and share certain properties,

others may be "further out" and have less in common with the "core", con-

taining even other genres (e.g. steampunk instead of fantasy), and the re-

lations between the parts may also change over time, increasing or reducing

the similarities.

The "mechanism" behind all this should probably remain undefined and unde-

scribed, so that each of the "users" of the Shared World can decide for him-

self how he wants to handle this during a specific campaign (and remains

free to change this during another campaign).

And of course it works both ways, if the GM wants to pull something in from another world, that would be the place to do it.

Absolutely - both. They are completely compatible ideas.

Some of the parts can be close to each other and share certain properties,

others may be "further out" and have less in common with the "core", con-

taining even other genres (e.g. steampunk instead of fantasy), and the re-

lations between the parts may also change over time, increasing or reducing

the similarities.

The "mechanism" behind all this should probably remain undefined and unde-

scribed, so that each of the "users" of the Shared World can decide for him-

self how he wants to handle this during a specific campaign (and remains

free to change this during another campaign).

I think we are coming to a consensus. :thumb:

Does anyone object?

I think we are coming to a consensus. :thumb:

Does anyone object?

...time passes...

...a whole week...!

I guess we DO have a consensus on this approach! Hurrah! :thumb:

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Back to the other aspect of "Bringing It Together" (what, now how is settled)...

Discussions going on in other threads ( How could BRP be more popular, My set up for a Future*World inspired campaign) might lead to a SharedUniverse based on the old WorldsOfWonder FutureWorld.

If so, I think it would be somehow right also to include the (few) setting details of WoW MagicWorld into SharedWorld. Instantly, we'd have a world with not only great fresh ideas but also a long-established BRP pedigree...

In support of combining MagicWorld with SharedWorld, it clearly has it's fans, as in this MagicWorld thread.