I finally got down to it, myself and the space monkeys.
First the social contract, we decided to do a fantasy game. We also decided on few silly elements. Next, component building. I've been paying attention to this board, so I told the other players how important this step was. And we never got past it.
We spent three hours building components. We now have a stack of twenty components and a promise to play again soon.
I would call it a failure in some ways, but we had a lot of fun.
-Jeremiah J Davis

Wow...three hours building Components...I've never seen that before, you must have really worked at them.

I wouldn't consider it a failure though (unless at the end you were like "this really sucked"). One of the ways to play Universalis is to start off with a predefined setting. For example, one of our groups chose to play in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade.

They took the easy way out. What I call the "Inspired by" method. As veteran V:tM players they knew all of the clans and NPCs and the like, so rather than spend time creating them all they just Created them on the fly when they needed them, and bought for them Traits appropriate to the that setting at that time.

The other way of doing it would be to actually Create dozens of Components in advance. Instead of being "Inspired" by the world of Star Wars, you actually start by Creating the Millenium Falcon and buying SW appropriate Traits for it.

You basically did this latter method (what I call Full Conversion), although instead of converting an existing setting, you worked up a new one of your own (I assume it was a new one anyway).

That simply means that when you play next you'll have a foundation to start from that most Universalis games don't (we haven't used the pre-defined setting very often ourselves).

So give me some details on these Components you Created, I'm intrigued.

Yeah, lay it on us. What did you take three hours making? Does it sound like a Fantasy setting that would be cool to play in? Did you create any characters in there? Or was it just world level stuff like the nature of magic, etc. Did it go well? Were there any problems with the session, or things that could be improved?

I think that you took the notes from the Forum too seriously (or perhaps your players took your admonishments too seriously). The cautions of late were against beginning with too few Game Structure elements like mood and premise, and such. You really need very few Components per se to begin (I like to create a character and a scene right off and just build from there). You didn't spend three hours on just Game Structure, did you (that would be interesting to hear about; I can't imagine more than say fifteen minutes of such chatter)? Interestingly, Ralph's pacing mechanic Add-On in version 6.1 would have forced you to start story play, eventually.

As a note, many people have suggested using Universalis as you have to create a world in a collaborative manner, and then using other RPGs to play out the game. Not that I'm suggesting this here, please playtest it out some more if you can with some actual story creation. But eventually, maybe, or perhaps with another world later that you decide to use for this purpose, before-hand.

Mike

What did you take three hours making?

I think that you took the notes from the Forum too seriously (or perhaps your players took your admonishments too seriously).

Hey, if that's where gameplay took you, then cool. Like Ralph said, if it's fun then you're playing it right.

I sort of skipped ahead in my questioning. What Game Structure stuff did you agree on that led to what you got? Did you decide on a Fantasy setting? And then romance for mood? Etc. And did people stick to whatever conventions you set up? Or did thngs just drift to where they were.

Did these components have lots of traits, or did they only have one or two apeice? How many traits did the most detailed character end up with? (I'm still reeling that you created seven characters and all this setting, and nobody felt the urge to start a scene)

And you didn't mention any problems. Perhaps only using Component building you just didn't run into any complexities that would cause any problems? It all went entirely swimmingly? Or are you just waiting to hit me with the bad news?

Just to satisfy the pure gamer in me, what was the coolest name created?

Mike

Mike Holmes:

What Game Structure stuff did you agree on that led to what you got? Did you decide on a Fantasy setting? And then romance for mood? Etc. And did people stick to whatever conventions you set up? Or did thngs just drift to where they were.

Did these components have lots of traits, or did they only have one or two apeice? How many traits did the most detailed character end up with? (I'm still reeling that you created seven characters and all this setting, and nobody felt the urge to start a scene)

Component building you just didn't run into any complexities that would cause any problems? It all went entirely swimmingly? Or are you just waiting to hit me with the bad news?

Just to satisfy the pure gamer in me, what was the coolest name created?

Cool stuff.

amiel wrote: The weird love triangles and such just evolved.

It went fairly well, I would say, but I think we were putting too many coins in the complication pot...we had trouble understanding this aspect. Other than that, it was rather smooth.

Personally, I favor Ketesh. Ketesh is the moon goddess.