Thought of the Day Thursday: World Building OCD

So, world building… yeah. Not really a thought of the day but more of an open question today. Yesterday I did a review of Holly Lisle’s Create a Language Clinic. Very good stuff that. Unless you are bipolar in your creative nature like me and then it just adds fuel to the creative nightmare that I habitually impose upon myself. Anyway, one of the biggest problems I have is to recognize when enough is enough and just let things go. On one level, the egoist in me aspires to be the next Tolkien – flesh out a world to the nth degree complete with languages, religions, and culture. On the other hand, my natural laziness overcomes my ambition in most cases and I end up wallowing in a morass of indecisiveness. The OSR has an entrenched mentality of “STFU and game already!” and is eschews lengthy character development, plot development, or any of the other fluff in favor of quick game play. I have no problem with that. In fact, unless there is a good hook, my eyes tend to glaze over if there is a lot of background and fluff to read. I like that stuff but sometimes I just breeze through it cause, I’m just gonna ultimately go the way I want to go. So from a player perspective, I DEFINITELY get the OSR mentality and take the party line. However, when I switch over to my DM/demigod hat, I just cannot seem to let it go. I want to create alphabets. I want to write the major philosophical/religious texts for my creation. I want to write the epics and the eddas that surround the mythology of the world. I want to write histories. I want to change the course of rivers and move mountains… I, well, um, OK. Even if anyone playing in this world never encounters any of this, or just doesn’t care, my OCD flares up when I go into creation mode and I cannot help myself.

So what has this got to do with anything? Weeeeeeeeeeelllllll, when do you say when? I guess it all boils down to your gaming group and their particular predilections. How about if you are releasing this for the greater RPG community’s consumption? Yes these are the kinds of things that keep me up at night ;). And yes, I am looking for others thoughts/feelings/experiences on the matter.

Comments

  1. netherwerksDecember 16, 2010 at 7:05 AM

    Worldbuilding is an organic process that shouldn't interfere with gaming. You can use worldbuilding in the background of a game, but in the end, your worldbuilding efforts need to be in service to your own imagiantion and creative muse--the gaming is a collaborative process and needs to breathe and be open to outside inputes and contributions.

    I run games in some of my worlds, but I do not build my worlds for just gaming. The games are just one adjunct to the overall process. One finger on the hand, if you will.

    Create alphabets, philosophies, myths--by all means. Just be wary of imposing them on your game until you're ready and you have like-minded or sympathetic players on-hand to test things out.

    But if you're going to make this sort of content, then use it in a game-context, what's in it for the players? There needs to be a point to this stuff in the game, or else it's useless chrome on a car with no wheels. If you invent an alphabet, how can you use it in your setting? Cypher-scrolls that once decoded result in new spells? Cryptic inscriptions that offer potentially life-saving clues? Long-lost or forgotten magical symbols that players can recover from old ruins, study and learn to use themselves as possible new weapons, tools or defenses?

    Invention is fun, but invention solely for the sake of invention is something that I tend to regard as a form of creative bloat or in teh worst cases imaginal cancer--endless creation without a point. Yick. But that is an opinion. It is probably wrong.

    Put the horse in front of the cart and invent the sorts of things that will enhance and enrich your campaign. Give these new creations a context that encourages their use, and make them worthwhile to the players. Do that, and you'll have harnessed the creative impulse to very good ends. Just make sure that you're still ahving a blast creating this stuff--and that the players are enjoying the process as well.
    Best of luck on the worldbuilding!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownDecember 16, 2010 at 8:01 AM

    I take two approaches that almost allow me to keep things going and allow me to indulge my over-creation.
    When world creating I get many many cool ideas I want to use/make. What do invest my time in? I have a rule that I will only work on things that will get used in a gaming session by the players. If a new language is part of a puzzle in my game then I will create the language.
    If it is not I go to Plan B, which is to write the idea down on a piece of paper or file. This idea will sit until I have extra/free time to indulge the unneeded material.
    This helps me keep writing up the "important" stuff, the things the players will interact with, while giving me something to look forward to when I "catch" up of what I "have" to do.

    ReplyDelete
  3. XyanthonDecember 16, 2010 at 9:00 AM

    Thanks for the input!

    @NetherWorks I do want to aviod bloat and only create useful things. However, since I'm currently without a gaming group, I tend to indulge in Tolkien style world building. But, for the campaign stuff that I do inetend to put in front of a group, yeah, you're spot on, I'll just have to force myself to focus on things that will be useful to the players.

    @Callin, those are great ideas and I think I'll adopt that approach myself. Time is always scarce so your approach really could help in the prioritization process. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. netherwerksDecember 16, 2010 at 10:50 AM

    Don't force it--look at things in terms of how it would be for a group of characters to run into this stuff. You might want to develop a set of stock characters to test things out with. A lot of writers do this kind of thing for writing fiction, it can just as easily serve the more gaming-oriented end of the spectrum.

    Just watch out if you start to talk to yourself...

    ReplyDelete
  5. XyanthonDecember 16, 2010 at 11:06 AM

    Hahaha, Ok, I'll watch it. Although I'm sure my wife wouldn't think it unusual for me to be talking to myself.

    ReplyDelete

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