Systemized Setting Design

[gooderguy]

Okay, so a player named Matt (who i've played burning wheel, riddle of steel and burning empires with) decided to combine a group of his friends for a new campaign.

on the internet, we were shooting ideas around about who would run the game and what system/setting we'd play.
the last few games we'd played together fell apart because not everyone was interested in the setting, system, etc. 
it's been a real problem for us between scheduling, taste or just bad luck so I suggested to the players (none of whom i'd met besides matt), instead of pre-determining system, setting and GM, why don't we meet, discuss it, and then decide.

i proposed that we do it in four steps
1. design the setting together
2. decide on the system based on the setting we designed
3. decide on the gm based on their familiarity with the system
4. create characters

we started by chatting around the table about what interested us, what kind of stuff we read, eatched, what systems we were familiar with, style of gaming we liked. we weren't really getting anywhere, as any decision we made at that point would have been arbitrary.  one of us could have easily railroaded the rest, but my friend matt and i sort of wanted to avoid that, especially since this was a relatively new group, and railroading often ends up with a semi-disfunctional group.

having wanted to playtest this idea for systemized setting design another friend and i had brainstormed
(see this topic here for the basic idea ... http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=21944.0)
i suggested it to the group in front of me, saying "i have this system for designing a setting we should try. we'll see what comes of it. if we like it, we'll go for it.  if we don't, we'll scrap it and play a riddle of steel or burning wheel game in a traditional fantasy world."

so, i explained the gist of the setting design system.  basically, as i see it, there are 9 main categories in every campaign:
Technology (level of scientific advancement)
Geography (physical surroundings)
Physiology (physical bodies of the settings inhabitants)
Faith (reigning dogmas and beliefs the inhabitants live by)
Population (density, organization, dispersion and quantity of the settings inhabitants)
Politics (distibution and management of power amongst the population)
Supernatural (the nature of the unexplanable)
Affiliation (the reason the players' characters are together)
Conflict (the focus of tension and drama for the characters)

everyone gets 10 priority cards, with numbers ranking 1-10... starting with one category at a time (feeling free to strategize for later categories if you wish) everyone denotes a number to each category, in order as listed.  the number of words you can use to describe that category is equal to the number you rank the category. the higher the number, the more power to trump lower cards. there is also a veto category, in which you can assign a number at any time during discussion of a category and strike-out a # of words=your veto pts in that categories final description.  veto's can be spent to counter veto.  once the group moves on to the next category, that category is locked. (you can't save your veto's til the end and then spend them.  spend them before the category closes)

so this is how play actually went.  it was me (jonathan), my friend matt, and his friends marsha, adam and alan.  the rest of them all knew matt and at least one of the other people at the table, although no-one except matt knew everyone.

I announced that the first category would be technology. this is the first category because it would set the paradigm for all the rest of the setting categories.  everyone is meant to scribble down their interests independantly and silently, (although i announced my first couple for the sake of example) then we counted down from highest priority to lowest.

Technology (the level of scientific advanced achieved in the setting)
8 Matt – black-powder era mixed with some sci-fi technology
6 Adam – bioengineering, chrysalis, farseeing, ?energetics?, extensions, implants
4 Jonathan – swords, steel, aqueducts, chariots
3 Alan – no time travel
1 Marsha – whatever

matt had been reading the three musketeers, and playing burning empires, so he was really interested in swashbuckling tech, but didn't mind some sci-fi stuff.  oddly enough, adam was all into sci-fi stuff.  now, according the idea of my 'rules' matt could have decided which 'some' of adam's sci-fi stuff he didn't want, but since nothing was mutually exclusive, we decided to allow it all.  this REALLY defined our world, as you'll see later.  i kept mine simple, alan's only speculation was that time travel wasn't possible (he'd had some bad experiences with it in the past) and marsha didn't care about the setting's tech level at all

so, we went on to
Geography (the physical nature and terrain of the setting)
6 Jonathan – one tree, magma oceans, underground tunnels
5 Matt - non-standard day-night cycle
3 Adam – everything is nearby
2 Alan – varied terrain
2 Marsha – don't care

i really liked the idea of a centralized plant system, and decided to call it 'one tree,' cuz i felt it focused the geography and made for some cool fantasy shit.  none of the rest were really invested in geography, although matt was keen on the idea of a non-standard day-night cycle.  the cool part of the system was the sort of fun excitement it created when i said 'one-tree'.  everyone seemed really interested in what i meant. we chatted a bit to get everyone on the same page and moved on.  open-clarification and even justification is an important part of the system, all done through excited table-chatter.

it's interesting to note how intensely focused people were when writing their priorities. the table chatter was raucous, filled with laughter and wild imaginings, and then when we moved on to the next category, it was like dinner was served to starving children and there was 3-5 chewy minutes of silence after each category was announced.

Physiology (the physical make-up of the life on the setting)
7 Jonathan – only some sentient insects, bipeds and undead
7 Adam – one mutable race, gene-splicing, ever-changing
5 Alan – two character's of same race
4 Marsha – cyborgs, robots without angst
3 Matt - multiple character races

i didn't want silly talking animals or dragons, etc., and i wanted the game to have a bit of that horror feel, so i threw in creepy insects and undead as sentient beings.  adam seemed keen on the bioengineering and mutations while alan just didn't want a player group of five different races and Marsha wanted cyborgs and robots but none of the cliched angst so common with them. let me note, that according to 'technology' matt could have told marsha that wasn't possible, but since it wasn't mutually exclusive, we all thought it was a cool twist and moved on to

Faith (what people 'pray' to)
8 Matt - All worship is results-based and immediately effective
8 Marsha - Fake polytheism sucks, no familiar religions, tree worship
6 Alan - Conflicted science beliefs, conflicted science beliefs
5 Adam - The tree is our mother
5 Jonathan - Plant worship is main religion

it's hilarious how this one turned out.  we were all keen on the idea of tree worship, despite having written our priorities in silence. matt wanted that d+d prayer to results cleric abilities and marsha didn't want a world of christianity, etc.  there was a lot of discussion to confirm what exactly each player meant, but that was part of the fun and we ended up satisified.  i'd like to note, alan used a 6 point card, and wrote the same-phrase twice for emphasis.  he was really into the idea that science worship was in major conflict with other beliefs

Population (the locations, density, where people are ...etc.)
7 Marsha - cool is post-apocalyptic spikes on cars
3 Jonathan – floating insectoid hives
2 Matt – overpopulation concern
1 Adam - broods
1 Alan – whatever

marsha had a poetic way of describing a post-apocalyptic society 'mad max' style, i was interested in insectoid cities of floating hives, matt wanted a problem with overpopulation, adam wanted huge broods of alan's whatever.  (marsha could have argued that post-apocalyptic and overpuplated were mutually exclusive and matt's would have been trumped by her priority, but she was fine with the idea that the apocalypse was at hand BECAUSE of the overpopulation)

Politics (the political nature of the setting, powers that be, factions, etc.)
9 Jonathan – sentient undead concern controls overpopulation, guardian treehuggers rule tree
7 Matt - people blame their leaders for the apocalypse
7 Alan – powerful, crushing and/or altruistic, many factions
6 Marsha - Democratic royalty, voting, no coups allowed   (Veto – Matt 6 pts)
4 Adam – queen rules undead rebellion

i really wanted to push for an major undead society with political power.  they eat the living to control the overpopulation.  matt was interested in seeds of rebbellion (adam had that in there too), alan wanted some very powerful political factions, both good and bad and marsha wanted a democratic royalty which matt was against he used our first veto, wiping our her entire 6pt priority.  he felt that a democrac was too nice for this world...

Supernatural (the 'unexplainable' magic-type stuff)
10 Matt – our freakish planet is experiment by all-powerful alien race (JJ 2pt Veto)
10 Adam – fruit causes mutation, undead experience memories from those they consumed
10 Marsha – world fucked up, mind fuck characters, creepy (words missing here)
9 Alan - Animism, non-plant-based, persecuted, metal magma wind rot
8 Jonathan - Spirit binding, necromantic, no teleportation, magic powers science

big points allocated to this one.  among everyone's top priority.  suited for a rpg.  matt saw the planet as an experiment for a Q-like all-powerful alien race.  i chewed over veto-ing his whole 10 points 'til the last minute, but decided to go for a 2-word veto.  adam wanted freaky memory eating stuff, and marsha wanted weird mind-screwing, all which fit.  alan and i were big into spirits and animism, and i wanted our 'science' to be powered by magic.  adam toyed with veto-ing my 'powers-science' and we discussed what i meant and in the end he thought that it created a cool point of conflict

Affiliation (why the PCs are together)
8 Adam - Share memories acquired by consuming each other's flesh
4 Alan - Fun involved group explanation
3 Marsha – still don't care
1 Matt – Undead (Alan 8pt Veto)
1 Jonathan – mercenaries

adam nailed this one.  really cool, really twisted, and fit everyone's idea.  alan didn't want everyone to be the undead, so he vetoed matt's one-word.  i liked the idea of mercs for hire in this world, but wasn't that attached to it, so only gave it 1 point.

Conflict
10 Alan – scheming, priorities, trade-offs, avoid impending death, some black comedy
10 Jonathan - Elite attack unit gathering magic energy for experimental creator discovery (Marsha 1 pt Veto)
9 Marsha – significant green dog is born, no pirates or ships
9 Adam – hired by queen to quell rebellion of the undead (Marsha 4 pt Veto, Alan 2 pt counter Veto)
4 Matt – everybody needs food badly

another big spender, mostly cuz everyone held onto their 10-points just in case.  alan wasn't sure where to go, so he had some general ideas.  adam's and mine wer specific but marsha didn't like the idea of quest-like 'gathering' magic or being 'hired' to 'quell a rebellion' so she spent her 5 pt veto.  adam counter-vetoed with his last 2pt veto brining back his 'quell rebellion'

so the point of conflict is that the PCs are an elite attack group of mercenaries in a world where the everyone, from the undead to the treehuggers are starving and a significant green-dog's birth has catalyzed a magic-energy fueled experiment to discover the world's creators while the queen is trying to quell the undead rebellion lead by an undead queen (presumably her relative)

we were all psyched, thinking this was fuel for awesome setting, filled with color and an interesting conflict.  only matt and i felt ready to handle running a game in such a freakish setting and gmd me last, so i took it upon myself.

the big question was 'what game system works with this?'  familiar with burning wheel, i knew i COULD do it, with some major Monster Burner crunch time, but i felt it was way too much effort to come up with all the lifepaths, etc. we wanted rules that were smooth enough to capture the setting without having to prep too hard and decided that The Shadow of Yesterday is great for this weird supernatural science fantasy type setting, with secrets and broad skill categories and keys are a great motivational force in any setting.

and this was all done in less than two hours.  we spent the rest of our short time last night discussing how the shadow of yesterday works and sketching our some character ideas.  everyone seemed really psyched.  the idea that we all have some piece of our story desires in the setting is great. it was also a fantastic ice-breaker as we got to know each other's interests and styles. it was also pretty quick, and efficient, although i feel if we do it again, more familiar with how it works, it'll only provide for more focused settings and ideas.

the one thing i was worried about with 'strangers' was that perhaps in 'trumping' another player's priorities or outright 'vetoing' their ideas, feelings might be stepped on, but in this case, everyone was really cool about finding a way to fit everyone's ideas into the game, and the few veto's were for the sake of setting continuity more than any kind of spite.  all in all, we are all happy with the outcome and more psyched for our weird-fantasy setting than we would have been if we just played a 'campaign world' designed by some-one else.  not that i don't want to check out Clinton's Near, but I feel overall, the trend of 'systemized in-game setting design' is a much better way to get everyone on-board, invested and focused. 

it cuts out tons of GM prep-time, contact-time, handling time and adds tons of cool color.  best of all, it guarantees that there is something for everyone.

if anyone is interested in trying it out and has questions, feel free to ask. it's a great system for efficient world-building, although i suggest take more time with it to come up with more specific ideas and use real hard-backed flashcards or write everything down on one sheet as it's announced (our group was ripping pieces of paper which ended up in losing a few words here and there when i went to compile it all).  it could work pretty cool for a long one-shot, or as we plan, a longer campaign.  and it defintely doesn't have to be as wild and weird a world as we were going for. 

-jonathan

[baron samedi]

Wow, that's an impressive endaevour, for sure, that invites respect! I wonder if you'll be able to make it work in the end. My take would be that it will, for the very fact that you've all honestly negotiated everything in good faith: this emotional investment should pay off.

It strikes me however that (perhaps on purpose) you didn't adress the "players' OOC Creative Agenda" or if you will "the game dilemma" in your questionnaire. Am I wrong or it was assumed from the start that the game would be about simulation-exploration of the world you're constructing together, not (say) something like more Narrativist games centered around a single premise (e.g. MLWM minions fighting the masters' dominance, POLARIS knights accepting inevitable corruption, etc.) as is common on the Forge? Just curious.

BTW You might want to check out the World Tree RPG by Bard Bloom and his wife Victoria for your gameworld seems to share some similarities to it.

Hats down, I'm impressed by your negotiation tool. You might want to work out a professional product out of it, or (why not) an article for a magazine like Pyramid or the like. Robin Laws did quite a few in a similar vein, and yours got potential.

Erick

[gooderguy]

thanks baron s.
this thing was designed to address things 'surreptitiously'
i didn't ACTUALLY use any 'forge' terminology, which is why there was no specific 'player creative agenda' section, but i feel that without using the terminology, we still got a pretty good grasp on everyone's creative agenda.  it's evident in the way they prioritized their word usage in each category.  sure, it takes some analysis, but doesn't it always.  we'll see if it works, and then maybe i'll re-think for the next time i use this tool.

i've been thinking of 'marketing' it, or something, but i want to see it come to full-fruition first. keep watching for more AP...

[gooderguy]

so we've made character's and played a couple of short sessions, and it has worked out pretty well so this is how it went

system The Shadow of Yesterday
characters
C-6 (Matt) - a cyborg with only his heart and brain left as a biological component. vigor 5, instinct 2, reason 4
        Abilities - swordplay 3, endure 2, black-powder weapons 2, battle 2, past lives 1, resist 1, haggling 1, guerilla warfare 1
        Secrets, secret of disarm, secret of flying leap, secret of polymath
        Keys - Grief over lost humanity, key of rationality
We (Adam)- a corpulant undead feeder, composed of multiple parts from different people with 3 Vigor, 2 instinct, 6 reason
        past lives 3, anatomy 2, endure 2, distillation 2, react 1, aim 1, first-aid 1, herbal lore 1, enthrallment 1
        Secrets: Polymath, Metastasis, Contacts,
        Keys: Eternal Question, what is self-hood, key of fraternity to Marie Anne
Marie Anne Merriweather (Marsha) - an undead revenant eugenecist dog-breeder Vigor 3, Instinct 5, Reason 3
        Animal Ken 3, React 2, Eugenecist 2, Creation 2, Endure 1, Past lives 1, scrapping 1, haggling 1
        Secrets: Sudden Knife, Polymath, Canine Familiarity, Create Anything
        Keys: mission to find the green dog, key of the litter, fraternity to We
Zylig (Alan) - a bipedal insect (2 legs, 4 arms) vigor 3, instinct 5, reason 3
        Stealth 3, React 2, Mantis-combat 2, tunnel-wise 2, endure 1, past lives 1, music 1, adaptability 1, deceit 1
        Secrets: polymath, adaptability, constant motion
        Keys: outcast from the tree-huggers, key of renown

i'd like to point out here, that i was very free with giving out initial advances (10) as we don't see the game lasting too long and it was the only way to really fit the character's into the world/setting we created.  they were all required by the setting design to have secret of the polymath and the 'past lives' skill to account for the affiliation decision that described them of having shared memories from feasting on each other's flesh.  i encouraged them to use their secrets and keys to reflect the uniqueness of the setting and they jumped to it instantly. character creation took less than 20 minutes.

then we dived right into the game.  i planned out my scene by picking words from the ascribed conflict and using other setting words to give the feel and color. these words will all be itallicized in the description.

i opened up the first scene, describing a gruesome scene of giant demonic green dog feasting of Marie Anne's corpse, pulling at her intestine's.  and i told her it HURT.  (Being undead, she can't really feel pain... but for some reason, this hurt). she jumped right into it, using animal ken and her secret of canine familarity to command the dog to stop.  this bounced her out of the 'dream' and into reality, where her hounds were howling like she'd never heard them before.  she ran off to check on them, as did C-6 and Zylig (adam was missing from this session so his 'We' was out foraging).  she already earned xp for her key of the mission.

they came to the dog cave, closed off by a chickenwire fence, to see a pulsating green chrysalis attached to the ceiling, oozing green mucous onto the canine's.  the player's started feeling out the system with simple tests to calm the dogs, bring the chrysalis down, etc.  marrie anne earned some xp for attempting to protect the dogs for her key of the litter.  some entitity mind-fucked marry anne when she rushed into the room to calm the dogs, freezing her with an image of two green dogs, one feindishly demonic and one calm and collected.  she failed the 'resist roll' against the 'enthrallment' and i gave her the option of bringing down the pain, but she didn't want to enter mental combat, as her mental skills were lacking.

the cyborg C-6 cut down the chrysalis with his sword and dragged it out of the kennel.  knowing marrie anne was more adept with eugenics and chrysalises, c-6 had the sentient insectoid zylig go in to calm marrie anne.  i told him he needed 'counsel' to calm her, but he didn't have it, so he used his 'past-lives' skill to access a shared memory acquired by consuming another's flesh to counsel her.  i told him if he failed, he'd be pulled into the thrall.  he failed and i had him make a resit roll with a penalty die to resist the thrall, which he also failed. now, C-6 was left alone. rationaly, the cybrog tried to counsel his two friends, accessing his own past-lives to get counsel, succeeding in Zylig, but not Marrie (i made him overcome the 'difference' in their resist success levels).  he played up his grief for lost humanity well, earning xp for both keys.

giving up on marrie, C-6 cut open the chrysalis to find a small green canine puppy among the ooze. A singificant green dog is born . Zyllig pulled it out, and awkwardly put it in marrie anne's arms, pulling her out of the enthrallment and ending the scene.

the group were already engaged in the world, and jumped right into their own direction with only a little push from me. zylig mentioned eating the chrysalis while they were studying it so i mentioned 'it looks very appetizing, seeing as you've no other food source' and boom, they jumped on the idea that everybody needs food badly .

the group of mercenaries decided to go 'hunting' for some fuel and some living flesh in the varried terrain.  (the undead only feed of life-energy) and the insectoid is so hungry, he'll eat anything not rotting too much.  the cyborg needed fuel, also a rare commodity.  they had a ship in the harbor, the last on this side of the magma ocean.  they moved towards it, looking for food and fuel.  a pointer dog sniffs out a group of humans and zylig uses his mastery of stealth to advance, discovering the humans are chained fodder surrounded by an organized group of undead.  in a greedy fit of some black comedy, he leaps in for a surprise attack, bites off the hands of one of the humans, only to flee before they grab him. he fails to escape them, instead bringing the undead down on the rest of the group. they try to fight the undead off with C-6s black-powder weapons, but only get themselves surrounded in an underground tunnel.  rationally, c-6 gives in (earning xp)

the leader of the undead (unbeknownst to the PCs, she's the queen who rules the undead rebellion, wants the merc's ship, and enthralls them, convincing them to tade-off for a mere days worth of food and to avoid impending death. zylig brags to her about his renown as an outcast (earning xp) and then the dogs marrie anne summoned as a surprise attack show up, and there is another face-off.  the green dog is with them, suddenly full-grown now, and the queen wants it badly. 

deciding to bring down the pain, marrie anne does everything she can do to protect her dog and keep it, earning more xp, but the queen overcomes her with her powers of pursuasion, forcing marrie anne to give-in or be broken.  the queen takes the dog, and the ship, but leaves all off their 'pirate fodder' as compensation.  in the last moments before the ship leaves, the undead queen and her undead feast off one of the last pirates to experience ther memories of those they consume to get the skills to pilot the ship across the magma ocean towards the one tree

this ended the session

so far, the players had been completely engaged, both in the ideas of exploring this messed-up world, and especially in the way the conflicts they wanted have been tying together.  it was a short session, and lots happened, with very little story guide prep (i made up the one 'Undead Queen Almacoa' Story Guide Character and decided to hit the green-dog story-line right away).  for me, this is the real key to the value of a shared and systemized setting design.  if the story guide focuses on bringing in the words from the setting design, it triggers entertaining laughs, ideas, and excitement from the players and keeps them engaged as they see the world THEY created, spring to life before their imaginations, mostly in the form of color, which triggers them into engaging their own conflicts. 

it has worked out as i'd imagined.  using a free-flowing system like TSoY to flesh out the mechanics of a weird world, everyone was extremely satisfied with the session and excited for the next one, which i'll detail in a later post.

i'd love to hear any theory of how the systemized setting design made things work in the game.  for me, i feel i mostly created bangs from player-scribed creative agenda.  i basically used each player's 'priorities' as methods of enticing them into an entertaining exploration of their world/agenda...  and it can only get better as they become more comfortable with the situation.