lostlittlebear
2010-06-11, 11:18 AM
Hi Playgrounders, I have a Homebrew Problem and I need help!
It's the school holidays, most of my good friends are overseas, my internship is winding up and I can't bring myself to start studying yet. So, as always when I find myself in these situations, I've decided to start a writing project!
This year I've decided to work a bit on world-building. I've done this a lot as a GM, but mostly as a skeletal outline with a campaign in mind where most of the details are made up on the fly. This time I want to really try and build a world from the ground up, fleshing out its details and history without caring how the mechanics work.
So I did a bit of brainstorming, and I've come up with 3 separate ideas based on mash-ups between fantasy archetypes. Here's my problem: I can't decide between them, but I only have time for one!
Idea 1: WUXIA+WHAT-IF HISTORY! A gameworld based on Louis Cha's novels and other modern Chinese wuxia works (not those dull stereotypes that a lot of RPG 'oriental' material seems to be based on), probably set around the Song-Era with heavy influences from Chinese fantasy and myth.
Idea 2: KNIGHTS+LAZGUNS! I just re-read Gene Wolf's Book of the New Sun and the thought of creating a world based on some of its concepts intrigues me - a world low-tech in many ways but incredibly high-tech in others.
Idea 3: WILD WEST+MAGICAL WAR! Another idea I've been kicking around for a while is a magical resource war involving ley-lines centered around some vast unexplored Wild-Westish terrain. Combining Western movie tropes with high powered epic magic seems like an interesting mix to me :smallbiggrin:
I'm leaning more towards Ideas 1 and 3 at the moment, mostly because 3 is my most original one while I'm most familiar with 1's source material. Which do you think would be a worthwhile investment of my time and (admittedly mediocre) writing skills?
Sorry to bother you with such a trivial matter, but the ideas have been bouncing around in my head all day and I needed a decision made so I can start fleshing them out - and what better people to help me with this than the good folks of GiTP.
Thank you in advance and cookies all around! :smallbiggrin:
It's the school holidays, most of my good friends are overseas, my internship is winding up and I can't bring myself to start studying yet. So, as always when I find myself in these situations, I've decided to start a writing project!
This year I've decided to work a bit on world-building. I've done this a lot as a GM, but mostly as a skeletal outline with a campaign in mind where most of the details are made up on the fly. This time I want to really try and build a world from the ground up, fleshing out its details and history without caring how the mechanics work.
So I did a bit of brainstorming, and I've come up with 3 separate ideas based on mash-ups between fantasy archetypes. Here's my problem: I can't decide between them, but I only have time for one!
Idea 1: WUXIA+WHAT-IF HISTORY! A gameworld based on Louis Cha's novels and other modern Chinese wuxia works (not those dull stereotypes that a lot of RPG 'oriental' material seems to be based on), probably set around the Song-Era with heavy influences from Chinese fantasy and myth.
Idea 2: KNIGHTS+LAZGUNS! I just re-read Gene Wolf's Book of the New Sun and the thought of creating a world based on some of its concepts intrigues me - a world low-tech in many ways but incredibly high-tech in others.
Idea 3: WILD WEST+MAGICAL WAR! Another idea I've been kicking around for a while is a magical resource war involving ley-lines centered around some vast unexplored Wild-Westish terrain. Combining Western movie tropes with high powered epic magic seems like an interesting mix to me :smallbiggrin:
I'm leaning more towards Ideas 1 and 3 at the moment, mostly because 3 is my most original one while I'm most familiar with 1's source material. Which do you think would be a worthwhile investment of my time and (admittedly mediocre) writing skills?
Sorry to bother you with such a trivial matter, but the ideas have been bouncing around in my head all day and I needed a decision made so I can start fleshing them out - and what better people to help me with this than the good folks of GiTP.
Thank you in advance and cookies all around! :smallbiggrin: