As far as I can recall, some of the initial Universalis seeds germinated here. I thought that some of you might appreciate the trip through history to see where it all started....

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

Yup. That's the thread that started it all. About mid way down the first page of discussing whether or not Alyria should have a map, Mike and I hit upon similiar ideas for a mechanic that would allow players to have the ability to design the map / world in play. The emails Mike and I began to have on that topic led to us deciding to see what we could come up with once Seth indicated it was too mechanics heavy for Alyria (which it likely was). That was the beginning, of what would become Universalis.

Interestingly, my last post in that thread had already begun musing about the possibility of eliminating the need for a GM.

Of additional interest to me is in examining the type of mechanic Mike and I were throwing around at the time for world creation. A very different mechanistic approach from where the final version would wind up.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Seth.

That was really cool to read!
The seeds were there right from the start...

You're welcome, Ralph.

I'd really like to try Universalis out again. The only time that I had a chance to play was at Origins 2001, which was a very early playtest draft. Perhaps we could give it a shot some Saturday night....

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

So what Seth is saying is that I can blame him for Universalis (and the fact I only got to play the damn game ONCE and someone [NAMED MIKE] never put the experience online so my reminiscence is limited to what feeble mnemonic capabilities I have...).

Durn you, Seth.