Author Topic: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best  (Read 15475 times)

Morningstar

  • Noble Lord
  • ***
  • Posts: 251
    • View Profile
Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Topic Start: August 01, 2011, 08:38:03 PM »
Call it nostalgia. Call it me trying to remember why I quit 3+ years ago and why it still doesn't feel the same.  Whatever the case, I went back last night and read through a lot of the old posts on the old RP list.  And I mean "before you could physically have characters on FEI because right now it's only a map" old.  And I was reminded of the incredible community that was built on three simple tiers. A singular jpg image of a map. A collective of creative minds. And a desire to build an incredible story.

Ultimately, mechanics were necessary to resolve conflict and to prove in game terms what had been narratively described. But the heart of FEI was always in building the world together. And now, looking back, I'm confident in saying that's why the island lost its luster and why long ago it lost its "RP Island" description.  Once the characters dropped in, the world was populated, the secessions started to happen, and mechanics could replace a good story, it did.  All three of the tiers fell down or were replaced.  What was once a simple sandbox map became a tactile simulationist playground. Still good, still fun. But not equivalent.  Where once we had a community banded together by creativity, we now felt fixated on the mechanics and how to get the game to do what we wanted instead of simply roleplaying it to be so, and then rolling with the punches.  And then, our "story-first" mentality went down the drain and was replaced by a more "me-first" gamist attitude. Again, not a horrible thing. Most people like a game they can win. But it's not what the island was built on.

So what did that original worldbuilding, story first community turn to? Again with Tom's help, we attempted to revive SpellMaster. Characters were made and developed through interactive narrative, creative juices flowed about simple mechanics, and again we only had the flat map to unite our vision.  Touting a lower playerbase, we had some good fun for a few months until we got bogged down again in the mechanics issue and people started losing interest when story alone seemingly couldn't resolve issues and they felt the mechanics were not coming soon enough. So again, it eventually fell flat.

Dwilight showed up but from day one, that project seemed all about the simulation and not at all about the story, so it never drew the same crowd.

I guess what I'm getting at is that in my opinion (and I don't think I'd be alone- though a number of the original worldbuilding crew has moved on like I did) BattleMaster has never been better than when it truly operates as a group of friends sitting down with just an image and some creativity to build an amazing story.  So... who wants to build a world together?

((Tip of the cap to such sources as this and this, where I've learned much, as well as learning and losing a good bit in my own tabletop RPG writing endeavors.))

Zakilevo

  • Guest
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #1: August 01, 2011, 08:57:39 PM »
So.. you want a lot of RPs on FEI? or do you want to gather friends who would do RPs together?

(Sorry.. I might have misunderstood your post.)

Morningstar

  • Noble Lord
  • ***
  • Posts: 251
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #2: August 01, 2011, 09:01:22 PM »
Ha. Neither.  I miss the community created by working on a project like FEI before it opened.  It would be fun to develop another setting, but maybe knowing this time it would eventually be turned over to the gamists/simulationists for them to have some fun too.

Anaris

  • Administrator
  • Exalted Emperor
  • *
  • Posts: 8525
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #3: August 01, 2011, 09:05:57 PM »
So, basically, you want a shared-world play-by-post roleplaying group, where the world is based on a BM or BM-style map?

Sounds to me like that's something that could be done pretty well through the forum, in the RP board. Perhaps with some people "rediscovering" a South Island?  That's a map we've got ready-made, and it's got some potential built in.
Timothy Collett

"The only thing you can't trade for your heart's desire...is your heart." "You are what you do.  Choose again, and change." "One of these days, someone's gonna plug you, and you're going to die saying, 'What did I say? What did I say?'"  ~ Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

Bedwyr

  • Mighty Duke
  • ****
  • Posts: 1762
  • House Bedwyr
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #4: August 01, 2011, 09:07:46 PM »
Or, once the current coding pushes are done, I can bug Tom again about the idea of a human-led Invasion.  He seemed at least open to the idea, and that would pretty well fit the idea of coming up with a big, coherent story and then turning it over for gaming uses.
"You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til ya understand who's in ruttin' command here!"

Morningstar

  • Noble Lord
  • ***
  • Posts: 251
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #5: August 01, 2011, 09:13:23 PM »
Funny you should mention that, Bedwyr. The last SM revival we had was just as Tom was preparing for another invasion on BT. We tried to convince him to have this one lead by human-controlled SpellCasters. :D

But yes, either of those ideas are right on the mark and have promise.

Solari

  • Mighty Duke
  • ****
  • Posts: 968
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #6: August 01, 2011, 09:25:14 PM »
As one of Those People Morningstar is talking about re: FEI, I wholeheartedly support this idea, and would even support it with a couple of kidneys and a spleen if it were tied to a human-led invasion.

Zakilevo

  • Guest
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #7: August 01, 2011, 09:43:30 PM »
That sounds very interesting :) A human-led invasion. But how will this be different from a GM controlled invasion? Would it be like a bunch of players from other continents invading BT?

Indirik

  • Exalted Emperor
  • ******
  • Posts: 10849
  • No pressure, no diamonds.
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #8: August 01, 2011, 09:48:04 PM »
I think the idea for a human-led was to have human realms invade the mythical daimon/undead/monster homeworlds. Kind of a reversed roles from the previous invasions.
If at first you don't succeed, don't take up skydiving.

Morningstar

  • Noble Lord
  • ***
  • Posts: 251
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #9: August 01, 2011, 10:33:05 PM »
Yep, I think that's what I had gathered. And the homeworlds need to be generated and have some flesh to them or they'll feel cold and unbelievable.

Zakilevo

  • Guest
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #10: August 01, 2011, 10:41:49 PM »
That is a cool idea. but doesn't that mean Tom has to make like three different maps?

Bedwyr

  • Mighty Duke
  • ****
  • Posts: 1762
  • House Bedwyr
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #11: August 01, 2011, 11:23:22 PM »
Mm, keeping in mind this was a two minute conversation I had with him a year ago, he seemed at least somewhat interested in the idea of humans Invading the Blighted lands to reclaim them, or, alternatively, another continent Invading Beluaterra to either help or hinder efforts to reclaim the Blight.
"You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til ya understand who's in ruttin' command here!"

Zane

  • Knight
  • **
  • Posts: 70
  • Ignore that sociopathic stuff. We're quite nice!
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #12: August 02, 2011, 03:45:56 AM »
As one of those early FEI denizens, I'd love to see something like that again.  It was intense, it was engaging, and it was utterly irresistible.  It's been too long since I woke up in the middle of the night and got out of bed to post something Zhao just had to say right now before I'd forgotten it.
 
I'm game for anything that might capture that magic again - a freeform forum+map, "rediscovery" of one of the islands, or fighting the daemons of BT or the Blighted Lands using the current game mechanics - all sound very appealing to me.  How can I help? :-)

-Greg

Chenier

  • Exalted Emperor
  • ******
  • Posts: 8120
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #13: August 02, 2011, 05:29:20 AM »
Mm, keeping in mind this was a two minute conversation I had with him a year ago, he seemed at least somewhat interested in the idea of humans Invading the Blighted lands to reclaim them, or, alternatively, another continent Invading Beluaterra to either help or hinder efforts to reclaim the Blight.

If BT is lost in the next invasion, a later counter-invasion to free it would be awesome. The Blight could have changed BT's geography too (an excuse to change it for an original map, if desired).

I'd rather we not lose it to begin with, though.
Dit donc camarade soleil / Ne trouves-tu ça pas plutôt con / De donner une journée pareil / À un patron

Daycryn

  • Noble Lord
  • ***
  • Posts: 353
    • View Profile
Re: Worldbuilding - BattleMaster at its best
« Reply #14: August 02, 2011, 05:32:22 AM »
Discovery and detailing of places is one of the great things about Battlemaster, and you don't need a whole new continent created specifically to do that.

Here's something you could do right now: pick a region. Find its population. Then figure how many villages, towns and/or cities would be in it. Then write the names of some of those smaller settlements. Make up a tiny story to go with each one. Put it on the wiki, and/or forum, and go to town in it (ha, no pun intended) in roleplays.
Lokenth, Warrior of Arcaea, former Adventurer
Adamir, Lord of Luria Nova