Gone over the deep end

[McJesos]

This may seem like an odd thread to create, but I need to know.:small eek:
Is it just me, or has anybody else gone so far into devising and reading lore for settings, that in your spare time you just delve recklessly into the murky depths of 'canon' to create the perfect setting that will likely never run, because your friends are as crazy as you are?
Or am I just insane?:smallbiggrin:

[Jay R]

This may seem like an odd thread to create, but I need to know.:small eek:
Is it just me, or has anybody else gone so far into devising and reading lore for settings, that in your spare time you just delve recklessly into the murky depths of 'canon' to create the perfect setting that will likely never run, because your friends are as crazy as you are?
Or am I just insane?:smallbiggrin:

If you are enjoying doing it, then no, you aren't crazy, even if it never gets used in a game.

Creativity, like anything else, needs practice and drill.

I've made rhyming couplets that never became part of a poem, constructed arguments in favor of a position that never got posted to a forum, proved lemmas that never became part of a paper, and yes, designed encounters that never became part of an adventure.

[Dallas-Dakota]

This may seem like an odd thread to create, but I need to know.:small eek:
Is it just me, or has anybody else gone so far into devising and reading lore for settings, that in your spare time you just delve recklessly into the murky depths of 'canon' to create the perfect setting that will likely never run, because your friends are as crazy as you are?
Or am I just insane?:smallbiggrin:

It's how I ended up writing Lord of the Rings fanfiction about the eastern & southern lands in Arda and the Blue Wizards some years ago.:smallbiggrin:

[Proud Tortoise]

This may seem like an odd thread to create, but I need to know.:small eek:
Is it just me, or has anybody else gone so far into devising and reading lore for settings, that in your spare time you just delve recklessly into the murky depths of 'canon' to create the perfect setting that will likely never run, because your friends are as crazy as you are?
Or am I just insane?:smallbiggrin:

Yes. Yes I have. 38/

[Haruki-kun]

I started to create a setting with several countries with currencies a while back. I went so deep into it that I started to calculate the exchange rate for them until someone told me I was just making things hard on myself. :smalltongue:

[Maxios]

I'm currently the writer for an indie RPG. From a lore standpoint, it's set in a fantasy world that's gradually progressed to modern-day technology. From a gameplay standpoint; it's like ADOM, except the large groups of hostile desperados you encounter have AKs instead of axes.

As the sole writer, I'm pretty much in charge of all the lore. When it comes to writing out settings, I tend to go above and beyond with what has to be written down. The first bit of lore I wrote out was the history of a small, mountainous region that was home to an Orc kingdom. The kingdom eventually collapsed due to a succession crisis, and nine fiefdoms took its place.

This all happens roughly a thousand years before the game takes place, and has absolutely no effect on it whatsoever. It's not even set close to where this region was. Anyway, after I wrote out this brief overview, I went in-depth. I wrote out the history of these fiefdoms, the numerous rulers they've had, the wars they've fought, and their relations they had with the other fiefdoms.

Then I wrote out two different belief systems that were common in the fiefdoms (but not at all practiced when the events of the game occur). Then I was onto the culture of the fiefdoms, and how the nine fiefdoms were perceived by other kingdoms (hint: not very good).

Eventually, when I had nothing else to write out regarding the nine fiefdoms, I described the cuisine of them. I may have gone a little too detailed when it came to a particular delicacy. Which fiefdom it originated in, what's the earliest known mention of it, who does common folklore say created it, what's it made of, how common is it, what restaurants are it served in at this point in the setting, could the player able to purchase it, how the hell can I think of a sane way to let the player discover all this information about a random bit of food...

...I'm pretty sure the rest of the people working on the game think I'm nuts for coming up with all of this.