Setting Burnout

[whisperwind1]

Not sure if this is the right subforum for it, but i'm in a slump. I like to build settings and have done a few, except when I do so, they're always unfinished. I've done original stuff and stuff adapted from existing properties (my longest work is like 125 pages long so far), but I always run into the same snag sooner or later. Basically I run out of steam, I lose interest in developing the world further, and I don't think i've ever been able to muster the creative urge to revisit and complete a setting.Maybe it starts to feel like work or the idea gets less appealing the more I write, but there's always that moment where I stop and never really go back. And whenever I sit down to continue the work, i'll inevitably get the gut feeling that I really don't want to be doing this because its tedious or work.

So do you guys know what the best thing to do in this situation is? Forcing myself to press on doesn't seem like the right thing, but I still have the ideas floating about in my head. How do you guys keep the inspiration train rolling?

[HammeredWharf]

Why do you need to finish them?

[LoyalPaladin]

How do you guys keep the inspiration train rolling?
Sometimes it helps to get a friend or two to read over your ideas. I know that helps me. I've got one guy who knows a ton about D&D and one that knows nothing about it. So I get the consensus about whether it will work technically and thematically.

[Zubrowka74]

Leave it unfinished and DM a few games in them. Through character backgrounds and action you might get the spark to add to your setting. When designing villains and adventures you'll sometimes have to dig deeper and ask yourself questions.

[Flickerdart]

Getting ideas is easy. Fleshing them out will always be work, and if you find that tedious, maybe setting-writing isn't for you. Have you tried short stories or novellas? A linear medium handles incomplete settings much better since you can build up only what the story needs.

[AmberVael]

Sometimes it helps to get a friend or two to read over your ideas. I know that helps me. I've got one guy who knows a ton about D&D and one that knows nothing about it. So I get the consensus about whether it will work technically and thematically.

Yeah, I've found that working with someone else really helps me- I always talk to people about what I'm making and get them to give ideas or make suggestions.

The most productive and motivated I've ever been is when I had someone else actually developing the setting with me. When they did something I felt pressure to produce to keep up with them, and when something stumped me I'd drop it and see if they had some ideas while I turned to parts I had inspiration for. Our constant communication on the topic, our mutual suggestions, and deliberation on the subject kept interest alive, while having someone help me made the work go by faster. The cooperative effort with someone I knew and trusted just really made the entire thing come together, and it is one of the largest setting documents I've actually finished.

[daremetoidareyo]

Your setting is like a relationship. When you have new relationship energy, everything is great. After a few weeks, you see a wrinkle, the jokes are starting to get repeated, they leave shavings all over the shower, etc.


You have a couple of options:

1.Cheat on your setting, play some one shots on the side, and come back to your setting re-energized by the novel experiences. Plus, you can get all sorts of ideas that are better for introduction to your relationship with the old ball and chain.

2. Have your setting cheat on you, put a guest DM in charge of it for a while, and seeing as how this is an opportunity for spice, make that DM be significantly different from you; grab a VtM or GURPS person, give them a rundown, and ask them to tie that setting up and whip it until it is satisfied. Believe me, for better or worse, your setting will come back to you re-energized, one way or another.

3.One setting can hold many genres. You can do a Trainheist in Ravenloft, a love opera in Dark Sun, or vigilante superhero in kendertown of Krynn. Take a break from the genre you are familiar with (typically deliver "x" to "y" by defeating "~") and switch it up, in setting. Here is one approach: (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?384582-Ideas-for-a-quot-Beach-Episode-quot&highlight=beach+episode)


4. Different players. Some players get stale even though their PCs are different (but manytimes, PCs play some iteration of the same marysue). Get a wildcard to join you. Find a larper, a little brother, even a powergamer (if you don't have one). These folks will poke and prod your setting in different ways that will make you excited again.

5. Introduce the apocalypse to your setting. Kick that sandcastle down. It's done. You'll love it. Have the PCs surf on the tsunami born of the ragnarok as a charge attack against tiamat. Balance check modified though, cuz the ocean turned to blood about 2 days ago and it is starting to coagulate.

[aspekt]

Why do you need to finish them?

Exactly this.

There aren't many authors I can think of who fleshed out an entire planet. They fleshed out entire worlds, but that's not always the same thing. Tolkien is a great example of this.

Faerun would be our game setting example. Purportedly, Faerun is a continent on a world larger than our own. Yet it's never been finished, nor is it likely to be so.

It's the same way in visual art. Note how many times a simple line or three define not only a face, but an entire character. The art analogy works further in that many artists fight the temptation to overwork a piece. It just doesn't feel exactly right or if they could just adjust that one shade of orange...but it's rarely the case that there isn't a feeling of "just one more line" or "just one more brush stroke".

So maybe you're brain is trying to inform you that the piece is done, now move on.

[Red Fel]

Why do you need to finish them?


Leave it unfinished and DM a few games in them. Through character backgrounds and action you might get the spark to add to your setting. When designing villains and adventures you'll sometimes have to dig deeper and ask yourself questions.

These.

With regard to Hammered's point, not every world has to have every aspect defined. Having a few threads left hanging means you can be inspired on the fly - as you should be. A player asks a perfectly reasonable question, and it gets you thinking. "Why not?" So you add, tweak, or adjust your world. No plan survives contact with the players, so leave a few things open and you may find your world evolving during gameplay.

With regard to Zubrowka's point, the same thing can happen before gameplay even starts. Some players like to be creative when generating their characters, as is their prerogative. So if a player tells you that his PC came from a small coastal fishing village, and you didn't have one already... Once again, "why not?" Bam, you've got a small coastal fishing village. More than that, the player likely just handed you a bunch of named NPCs, some plot devices and hooks, and so forth. Sometimes, the players create the world without even trying - let them!

It's absolutely hard to create a world. It can get particularly disheartening or boring when you start getting down to the nitty gritty. Letting the players, deliberately or accidentally, contribute to the world can be a great way to both get them more invested and to reduce the burden on you. And what results, more often than not, is wonderful. Best of all, you can totally steal their ideas to be applied in future settings, because, as I've already said... "Why not?"

[whisperwind1]

This is good advice I have to say. I guess my main problem right now is that I am sick to death of Heroic Fantasy, or permutations of the fantasy genre in general. The vast majority of my settings have been "Its a fantasy world but" or "Its a fantasy world influenced by x mythology". I've come up with a Dark Fantasy setting, a mysterious/horror fantasy setting, an pseudo-historical fantasy setting, a weird Goblin Commander-esque mad wizardry science fantasy setting and a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting (not counting the ones I haven't yet put to paper).

The only non-fantasy setting i've done is alternate history science-fiction (basically Gintama but actually serious), but I tend to be less confident in my ability to create in a more sciency or realistic frame. For instance i tried to make a post-humanist, post-apocalyptic setting with religious undertones, but then scrapped everything when I realized that I was basically doing the same history/races/faiths thing I always do for fantasy. What are other genres that I can explore for setting creation?

[BilltheCynic]

This is good advice I have to say. I guess my main problem right now is that I am sick to death of Heroic Fantasy, or permutations of the fantasy genre in general. The vast majority of my settings have been "Its a fantasy world but" or "Its a fantasy world influenced by x mythology". I've come up with a Dark Fantasy setting, a mysterious/horror fantasy setting, an pseudo-historical fantasy setting, a weird Goblin Commander-esque mad wizardry science fantasy setting and a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting (not counting the ones I haven't yet put to paper).

The only non-fantasy setting i've done is alternate history science-fiction (basically Gintama but actually serious), but I tend to be less confident in my ability to create in a more sciency or realistic frame. For instance i tried to make a post-humanist, post-apocalyptic setting with religious undertones, but then scrapped everything when I realized that I was basically doing the same history/races/faiths thing I always do for fantasy. What are other genres that I can explore for setting creation?

How about steampunk? It still allows for fantastic and crazy shenanigans, it's seperated enough from reality that you don't need to worry about 'hard' science, and it allows for a lot of creativity in design.

If you need some inspiration, check out the excellent webcomic Girl Genius.

[HammeredWharf]

You could integrate your ideas into preexisting settings. Much less work. For example, the horror/mystery setting could be a domain in Ravenloft. Ravenloft can house dark fantasy, too, as can a number of other settings, including Eberron. Mad wizardry and pseudo-science sounds like Spelljammer or Eberron. Et cetera.

[Rowan Wolf]

@daremetoidareyo

I really just want to see a summery of your post as: Have an open relationship with your setting.

[atemu1234]

Not sure if this is the right subforum for it, but i'm in a slump. I like to build settings and have done a few, except when I do so, they're always unfinished. I've done original stuff and stuff adapted from existing properties (my longest work is like 125 pages long so far), but I always run into the same snag sooner or later. Basically I run out of steam, I lose interest in developing the world further, and I don't think i've ever been able to muster the creative urge to revisit and complete a setting.Maybe it starts to feel like work or the idea gets less appealing the more I write, but there's always that moment where I stop and never really go back. And whenever I sit down to continue the work, i'll inevitably get the gut feeling that I really don't want to be doing this because its tedious or work.

So do you guys know what the best thing to do in this situation is? Forcing myself to press on doesn't seem like the right thing, but I still have the ideas floating about in my head. How do you guys keep the inspiration train rolling?

I do it in the simplest way possible. I let the party into the world. Invariably I wind up designing something new, gaining inspiration from their antics, and it works well. Though, to be frank, I didn't need to stat prostitutes when one of the players asked where the "red-torch" district was.

[Knaight]

Part of this is that things are just too long. You have a 125 page unfinished work, might as well aim for a complete one that takes less than 125 pages total. As for the genre burnout, I'd recommend doing something non-fantasy for a while. Maybe that's just reading books in a different genre, maybe it's playing a different RPG for a while, maybe you even have to work on a setting that isn't fantasy. Eventually the burn out will probably fade, and you can aim for a setting in the 80 page total range (which is plenty, and which will probably grow to be longer than that anyways) and shoot for it.