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I live in a loneliest part of the gaming community. No, you're
right, I don't, really. Changeling players live in the loneliest part of the
gaming community; I'd be a Goth freak, too, if my pastime was a text-book case
of a bad role playing game. I may not have it that bad, but I'm sure I live
right next door to the loneliest place in the gaming community: I detest the
Forgotten Realms. And after a quick breeze through the 3e FAQ, I have decided
that I hate Greyhawk, too.
The Disclaimer (it's a long
one, so I'll make it all one paragraph if you want to skip it.)
I am a very open-minded person. I am not a very complex person;
I understand many complex things, but I myself am not a very complex person. I
completely stand by any gamer's right to choose whatever world he wants to play
in, and encourage and cheer for any gamer who wants to try every setting he
across which he comes, and I do the same for the FR groupies who won't roll a
single die if you won't tell them that Drizzt is somewhere in the setting. I
think the latter suffer from a certain narrow-mindedness, but I would never in a
trillion years discourage them from gaming, since I want everyone in the world
to embrace this glorious hobby. I personally think R.A. Salvatore eats raw goat
ass, a trait not uncommon to the writers of RPG based books. (I have a very
large bullet in my pocket at all times in case I need to ram it through Troy
Denning's eye.) Also, although I do not own anything other than the campaign set
of FR or the recent main book for Greyhawk, I have perused many of the FR texts,
and armed with my above average understanding of the FR setting, I stand by my
original hypothesis that I think everyone would be better served with an enema
of molten lava than a second session of Forgotten Realms. I am aware of the
vast, vast majority of AD&D players out there who disagree with me. I have
heard many of your arguments and been to many of your web pages. It is not that
I am closed to your opinions (but yes, the god of feedback-craving is asking you
to shut your pieholes about this particular issue.), it is merely that I have
heard them many, many times. As such, throughout this article, I am going to be
talking about my own views, my own opinions, and not giving much attention to
the counterarguments; on the other hand, I have tried to include parenthetical
comments relating to potential fact oversights. Please assume that all the
sentences in this article have the prefix "IMHO."
The Excuse
But, I will also promptly and readily make one exception. There
are people who play AD&D who are simply chronologically unable to create
their own campaign world. These people are exempt from this tirade. I can't
think of anything that would reasonably prevent anyone from taking an two hours
a week and preparing a game, but my experiences are simply not broad enough to
be used as an example. Nonetheless, there are few people who truly have no time
for such things. But not many. If you ever find yourself complaining about not
having any time on your hands but you find yourself watching any television
program that you don't find to be rabid genius (I feel this way about Late
Night with Conan O'Brien, Friends, and Frasier. You may have
your own ideas.), then you are wasting your time, and you should not complain
about a lack of it. If you watch movies just to stay abreast of what Hollywood
is churning out and actually attend such filth as The Specialist and The
General's Daughter, (both of which I walked out of.) then you are wasting
your time. In my honest opinion, anything you do to pass time is a waste of it
and is self-indulgent and/or lazy.
It bears repeating that I am still aware of the counterarguments
to the following statements, and if you have such a thesis for me, please take it for
granted that I am aware of it. I will thank you in advance for your courteous
faith in my open- mindedness.
The Argument
Forgotten Realms is an excuse for players to be lazy. The
decision to make Greyhawk the default world for AD&D 3rd edition similarly
enables players to put their imaginations on autopilot and let other people do
the work for them. Dragonlance had similar problems, but since it has its own
system, then I can't complain about it anymore. I think that many of the characters of FR and GH are
interesting; in addition, both Oerth and Toril are nothing if not well-crafted constructs in and of themselves. The problem arises in their
existence as generic high fantasy worlds.
The AD&D game system is written and designed generically.
Throughout the core set, we are encouraged through the language and art of the
books to perceive AD&D as a high fantasy game. The only time any proper
reference to a game world is made in the main rulebooks is in the spell
appendices. (Otiluke, Sustarre, Mordenkainen, Bigby, and any other capitalized
names are all denizens or gods of Oerth.) Even in those spell descriptions,
there isn't a single reference to the individuals behind the magic; all we have
are the relics of their arcane studies. We have nothing to make us feel
compelled to play in the world of Greyhawk. Everything is neutral.
Because of their settings, the Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms
game worlds encourage players to forsake their own creative abilities as far as
world creation goes in order to partake in the prearranged political and
ecological conflicts that the worlds' authors have laid out for them. The
option to pursue those worlds is especially attractive to new players, I think,
because once they have the rules, they want to jump right in, and the idea of
creating a functioning and believable world seems daunting and sometimes even
pointless when there are developed and excellent (yes, excellent) wares out
there describing worlds into which to place your characters. Incidentally, I do
not see this as a problem for the Al-Qadim, Kara-Tur, Ravenloft, Planescape,
Dark Sun, or even Birthright settings since they are perfect examples of how to
add innovative touches to your own game world without being confined to
traditional high fantasy. (I am aware of the Al-Qadim and Kara-Tur connection,
thank you.) While it would be absurd to say that the presence of the FR and GH
campaign settings overtly harm anyone, imagine what beginning AD&D players
would do if they did not have an immediate and massively developed game world
open to them in the forms of either FR or GH. I think players would be more
likely to develop their own worlds, to make the game system "theirs,"
because they would invest more of their persons into the development of the
world as a whole. And if I may say so, the proliferation of main characters
throughout the source material for FR doesn't help anyone play a hero in a world
absolutely brimming with them. The thrill of seeing an 22nd level NPC who was once your
scrawny wizard from a hamlet down south is significantly more thrilling than
encountering some Drow you've read about in a novel. An entire group can
cultivate the premise for a complete world, which can make the AD&D
experience a much richer experience than can be described to anyone who has not
taken part in the formation of a world around the table.
I realize that GH and FR do not actively discourage players from
exercising this creativity. I also acknowledge that some players who are going
to create their own worlds will create them regardless of any product on the
market. But these players are the exceptions. There are many players who adhere
viciously to the rules and only use the FR (and soon, I'm sure, the Greyhawk) set. The existence of a ready made,
easily accessible world, while obviously delightful from a sales and marketing
standpoint, stymies the creativity of many beginning gamers, discouraging them
from engaging themselves in the creative process because someone has already
been there, and they probably did it better.
The World
I can't create your world for you, but I have some tactics which
can make anyone's job easier. To speed up the process, I highly, highly
recommend the AD&D Core Rules v2.0 CD-ROM and its expansion. Maps are almost
a laughable snap with them. Also, this is information tailored to a person who
doesn't feel he has the mental equipment, time, or whatever to make his own
world. If you are simply someone who doesn't want to because you like FR, then
sorry; I tried to help, and we can't all be perfect.
The following is excerpted and paraphrased from my reply to a
beginning DM who mailed the list about his misgivings about starting a game in a
published world and about creating his own. To date, he has not replied.
1.) Start very small Start as small as you are comfortable with. A hometown can have plenty of intrigue, and it doesn't have to have a full map. In one hour or prep you can have a general idea of
the general locations of important buildings and a list of ten half-developed NPCs.
As far who to half-develop, the choice depends on the group. Consider the people
who would be closest to the PCs, and create two or three of them for each PC, including
at least one weird neighbor and/or parents, etc. Encourage the PCs to have close-knit backgrounds
like family or childhood friends so there's less work for you. Consider who rules the town, or, if you want to go that far in advance, who rules the country.
Decide the general moral outlook of the area and what the town might be known for. Also consider the general economic prosperity of the local region and the availability of magic in the area. For simplicity's sake, have the mage who trained any M-U PC(s) be the town sage, and give him whatever power level you want.
A similar approach with a local healer or patriarch works for the group cleric(s)
2.) One adventure at a time If you are not ready to plan
a disturbance caused by the strange blue star that has appeared in the sky that only mages can see and how it connects to the armies massing in the north and south and why has that dragon appeared on the same night as the star and there who are the strange men in cloaks who have been stealing the babies...
Don't.
Have the PCs courier a message to a town to the west for someone whom they owe
(this is where the sage or patriarch or an old debt of a character's father can
be useful. The person isn't there. What happened? He hung himself in the woods. They go back and tell the person who hired them. Bang. That's an adventure, and you have catalogued two areas in addition to the original
town. (The woods and town to the west of the original.)
3.) Every adventure leads to another Never have a dungeon just sitting there to be plundered. Why are the monsters there? Who raised the undead that defend it? Is anyone else trying to get there? Etc. This will ensure that the world keeps growing.
Still, be careful about going too far. Evil wizard is fine for the man who
created all the undead in the crypt. Go into his motivations later.
4.) 9 Hours Total of initial prep before the first
adventure That's two hours a week (+1, wherever you can fit it in.) for a month. Not much. 1 Hour for the starting point. 8 for any direction in which the PCs choose to head. If they go
north "2 Points," move something around, but don't confine your PCs to a restrictive game because you didn't have anything that far to the Southeast.
5.) Be consistent. Be consistent. Be consistent If there is a castle to the
aoutheast that was originally to the north in your notes, keep it there. Keep records of all the names of all the gods you mention, even if you make them up on the spot. If they ask for the name of the bar where they're staying, tell them, write it down, and make sure you know what town they're in. Do this with every detail you can manage without slowing down the game.
6.) Three lines three times You should be able to write a description three lines long (12 pt font.) about any person you have mentioned more than three times. Any more than six, and they should have all the stats that you have collected from the PCs for your own use (THAC0, AC, HPs, etc, right?). If they appear ten times and/or you KNOW, by the gods, that they are going to have some role critical to the lives of the PCs, give them a character sheet with their three lines.
In the same vein, all towns that have been mentioned should have a three line description as well.
7.) They'll never meet a god Very, very, very,
very, very, very sentient beings will ever come face to face with a god. In my
opinion, a PC never should. So don't rewrite Faiths and Avatars, since all they'll need to know is what the god's portfolio is and whether he requires them to leave the seat down. Save
the advanced stuff for much, much later down the line.
In the same vein, it will be a long time coming before they can get a good shot on a lich or fiend.
If they stumble somewhere on your almost developed map and they shouldn't be
there, don't be afraid to let them die. Don't kill them; that's mean and it's
bad DMing. But don't pull your punches if you think they are stupidly over their heads.
Litter the path to the lich's castle with heavily armed dead people if you like. Then have the dead people
rise as zombies and fight the PCs. If they don't get the message, kill them... or at least have some session ending thing in the uber-creatures
utility belt as a contingency. Obviously, don't use this technique liberally, but when you are caught with your pants down, don't be afraid to shed some blood.
I hope your worlds are ten times better than mine, Scrite, because creativity is
one of the most important things in the world, and there is little in the world
that can be as creatively stimulating as the creation of an entire world.
-N |
