After a lot of careful consideration, I am blowing up my fantasy campaign world and starting from scratch. I don’t make this decision lightly, but I think it is time. Why? I think I need to change the way I viewing worldbuilding–and my world…
Why I Want to Change My Campaign World
Good question. Why would anyone? After all, I have put a lot of work into mapping it out and writing up a lot of the details. No one should throw that away lightly.
I have been building a world, off and on, for over 20 years. First for TFT, then for GURPS, and back again for TFT. When I got back into gaming a few years ago, I started building it in earnest. In fact, I have gotten to the point where I could run games in it.
The trouble is, I have gotten to the point where I feel it is too static. I guess the balance between the view of ultimate detail and complete rational process vs. small details and on the fly roleplaying is too much on the detail side for me. I want more of a mystical land with more room to grow than previously defined details.
This weekend, I watched an old movie again, Circle of Iron. It was a movie that came out in the 70s, and was originally written by Bruce Lee as the perfect Zen movie. It got mixed reviews, but I really loved it. The thing about the movie was that it reinforced in me the sense of mysticism, of mystery and the unknown. That is what I felt I was missing from my other world.
How Am I Going to Do This?
So, what now? If I am going to ditch my old campaign world for a new one–what am I going to ditch it for? And how am I going to change how I do the worldbuilding so that I get what I felt I was missing from my old world?
Well, based on Circle of Iron, I am going to develop a land of more varied cultures–Chinese, Middle Eastern and European. I have a rough map in my head, one that is part of a regular continent–not an island like my old world. Honestly, that may have been the biggest problem I faced: an island by its very nature runs out of mystery after a point.
My biggest uncertainty is folding in the Asian and Middle Eastern cultures. I know nothing about them! I have a few game supplements, so reading them will be a start, but I need to be careful about how much detail I incorporate. One of the things I started to not like about my old world was too much detail, and not enough room to grow. I want to stick to the basics, then let the gaming take me where I need to go for detail.
Am I Making the Right Decision?
That is the most important question. It is A Very Big Deal to me. On one hand, I don’t want to waste time on something new if I’m not going to use it. On the other hand, there is a lot that I am leaving behind that I will not use. Part of the process will be to see what I can take with me from the old world to the new one, even if I rebrand some things.
I guess in the end, if this makes me excited again about fantasy gaming, then obviously it was the right choice.
What do you all do when you feel like your worlds are stale or not what you want them to be? Do you ditch them, or do something else?
Marko ∞
(Originally published on inthelabyrinth.org, on 5/11/2018.)
