World building: The Truth

[RandomNPC]

A friend of mine turned me on to what he calls the truth system, I thought I'd share it here and see what everyone thinks.

Before game starts, each player comes up with a truth about the game world. It could be that it's always spring, it could be that Kobolds are all bright pink, or everyone can see their breath when they exhale out their mouth, not just in winter. You could also hop on things like Armor doesn't restrict casters as much (DM let us reduce spell failure by 10%) and Armor is easier to move around in (Reduced check penalties across the board by 1.)

At first we went nuts trying to change game mechanics, my gnome is in decent armor with only a 5% spell failure and no check penalty.

Now? My most recent game, we haven't even started playing yet, one per player?
1: Dwarves are like skyrim, disappeared forever ago and nobody knows why.
2: Dragons are just fairly tales.
3: Kobolds have an empire.
4: Humans dropped the ball a long time ago, and are now nothing more than high intelligence animals, sometimes kept as pets because of the high level of training they can handle.

My players helped shape the world, and I think I like it.

Made the kobold empire a business one, they've got high security warehouses all over the place, kind of like Amazon does today, lots of transportation and communication magic for deliveries, and a 10% danger fee if they have to bring you anything outside of common trade routes.

People are terrified of what may have happened to dwarves, so mines tend to not go to deep. If there's a dwarven ruin nearby odds are most building don't even have a root cellar. That makes metal rare, I'm making the party use trade goods to some extent. Metal costs 5sp more per pound.

Thoughts?

[Geddy2112]

I like this idea, I am going to try it out for the campaign I am starting up in a couple months.

[DigoDragon]

Oooh, that is a NICE combo to work with. I am totally stealing the idea. It could be a lot of fun!

[sakuuya]

This can work really well if everybody is on roughly the same page, but if not...

My friends were setting up a game of Diaspora (without me, grumble mumble), a hard sci-fi FATE game that does something like this for gameworld creation: Everybody gets to design a planet that are then all linked up through wormholes (or something) into what's called a cluster. There's some randomness involved with the resources, environment, and tech level of each world, but the players get to define a lot of the specifics.

Anyway, when my friend The Druid (she always plays a druid or the closest available equivalent) started planet creation, she immediately decided her world had the aspects Animals Can Talk and Unicorns Are Real. And then she rolled the highest tech level in the cluster, which meant that her planet was going to be very important. And that's how my friends ended up playing a "hard science fiction" game that mostly revolved around a unicorn rebellion.

None of that is to say that letting players define the world is a bad idea. I really wish I'd gotten to be in that unicorn game, honestly. That world-building system (and yours, for that matter) sounds like a blast. But even broad games have some assumptions, and it's a good idea to make sure everyone knows what those assumptions are.

[YossarianLives]

Nice system! I think I'll try this for the next time I run a campaign.

[Mr.Moron]

I think this works with players a of a certain mindset, but not everyone. If I did something with my group I'd probably get responses like this.


Player 1: The world's most powerful nation is led by an immortal warrior-queen.
Me: Ok!

Player 2: All the different races communicate in really different ways. Like dwarves can't talk but communicate through stubtle facial hair movements, elves can speak by only in high-pitched clicking noises... stuff like that
Me: That works I guess.

Player 3: Can you come back to me?

Player 4: Hypnotic Penis.
Me: What?
Player 4: I wanna have a hypnotic penis?
Me: That's not a fact about the world
Player 4: Fine. All gnomes have Hypnotic Penises. I'll be a gnome.
Me: I'll get back to you.
Player 4: It's gonna be the penis!
Me: It can't be the penis.


Player 3: I'm still thinking.

Player 5: Humans get +4 to attack with guns.
Me. Guns aren't a thing in the setting though.
Player 5: Ok Guns are a thing and humans get +6 with them.
Me: That's two things, and also didn't you just say +4?
Player 5: OK fine +4.
Me: You have to pick one thing.
Player 5: OK can guns be a thing, but maybe just I get +2?
Me: No. One thing.
Player 5: OK humans get +4 with bows.

Player 4: I know what I want!
Me: Not a penis?
Player 4: Nope I changed my mind! Guns are thing! Guns are a thing everywhere!
Player 5: What? No. You can't make guns a thing, guns were gonna be my thing.
Player 4: Well now a guns are a thing, you should be happy you get +4.
Player 5: Yeah, I'm going to change it back to that thing I wanted before.
Me: Uhhh... sure guys.

Player 6: Clouds are yellow or something, I don't know?
Me: If you want that.

Player 3: I know! The all the PC races are animals and stuff, like and the humans and elves are all bad guys that we build burrows to hide from. *makes a digging gesture*
Player 5: What? How am I supposed to use a gun If I'm a Badger?
Player 3: You don't have to be a badger, you could be like a rabbit or something.
Player 5: I don't wanna be a rabbit! I wanna have a gun.
Player 4: Horse. I'm a horse.
Player 4: Horse Penis.

[Luminestra]

I really enjoy this idea. It sounds like it would help make the game world more interesting and make the players more invested. Its a win-win. Thank you for sharing.

[Lord Torath]

I do kind of like the setting there, Mr Moron. Most of the players spend their Truths making their favorite races better, and then the last player makes it so their favorite races are now the bad guys.

[Malimar]

This is interesting, albeit potentially wacky. I might try it for the next world my players visit in my Spelljammer campaign, which is wacky anyway (and if it gets too wacky, we can just move on to another world).

[SiuiS]

This can work really well if everybody is on roughly the same page, but if not...

My friends were setting up a game of Diaspora (without me, grumble mumble), a hard sci-fi FATE game that does something like this for gameworld creation: Everybody gets to design a planet that are then all linked up through wormholes (or something) into what's called a cluster. There's some randomness involved with the resources, environment, and tech level of each world, but the players get to define a lot of the specifics.

Anyway, when my friend The Druid (she always plays a druid or the closest available equivalent) started planet creation, she immediately decided her world had the aspects Animals Can Talk and Unicorns Are Real. And then she rolled the highest tech level in the cluster, which meant that her planet was going to be very important. And that's how my friends ended up playing a "hard science fiction" game that mostly revolved around a unicorn rebellion.

None of that is to say that letting players define the world is a bad idea. I really wish I'd gotten to be in that unicorn game, honestly. That world-building system (and yours, for that matter) sounds like a blast. But even broad games have some assumptions, and it's a good idea to make sure everyone knows what those assumptions are.

...




That.


Is.


Amazing !


A planet where the tech level advanced so far that inherent nanotechnology have pervaded the ecosystem and force-evolved the local fauna on a track equivalent to human language progression and technorganic integration.

[Joe the Rat]

This could be interesting. Or silly. Something I will definitely consider next time I start a world.
In a sense, this just formalizes the process behind a half-built world. The characters created start defining traits via their backstories, particularly in areas not already codified. But this is better in that it gives influence beyond the immediate scope of the characters.

A planet where the tech level advanced so far that inherent nanotechnology have pervaded the ecosystem and force-evolved the local fauna on a track equivalent to human language progression and technorganic integration.

So unicorns have really good wireless reception through that antenna? Or is that an emitter? Hmmm... Laser Unicorns!

[Maglubiyet]

What a great idea! There are groups that I've played with that would probably come up with something like Mr. Moron's, but still it sounds like it would be fun.

[sakuuya]

This could be interesting. Or silly. Something I will definitely consider next time I start a world.
In a sense, this just formalizes the process behind a half-built world. The characters created start defining traits via their backstories, particularly in areas not already codified. But this is better in that it gives influence beyond the immediate scope of the characters.


So unicorns have really good wireless reception through that antenna? Or is that an emitter? Hmmm... Laser Unicorns!

They were psychic, I think? And I'm pretty sure they were the result of bioengineering rather than nanotechnology, but yeah, Unicornucopia was great. (Oh, yeah, also, the planet was called Unicornucopia.) It just wasn't what the DM had envisioned running, and eventually the game petered out because it got too grim. Mismatched expectations. The DM wanted to run a gritty sci-fi game, and the players wanted to have space unicorn adventures. Believe it or not, those two things didn't work great together.

[Othniel]

1: Dwarves are like skyrim, disappeared forever ago and nobody knows why.

Thoughts?

Oh, oh! I know what happened to the dwemer! *Ahem* Sorry. Actually, players participating in worldbuilding is an awesome idea. I'm going to have to borrow that.

[BayardSPSR]

I love this idea. I will write it down in a notebook and copy it obsessively.

Metal costs 5sp more per pound.

One thing, though - a low-metal world would also have less metal for currency. Currency shortages might mean that metal costs about the same, but everything else is half-price, and coins are half as available.

Or paper money.

[Gritmonger]

I love this idea. I will write it down in a notebook and copy it obsessively.



One thing, though - a low-metal world would also have less metal for currency. Currency shortages might mean that metal costs about the same, but everything else is half-price, and coins are half as available.

Or paper money.

Druids run the currency exchange, with carved ironwood enchanted chits as the currency, and crystalline amber as the highest denomination.

[SiuiS]

So unicorns have really good wireless reception through that antenna? Or is that an emitter? Hmmm... Laser Unicorns!

Yes. n.n

They were psychic, I think? And I'm pretty sure they were the result of bioengineering rather than nanotechnology, but yeah, Unicornucopia was great. (Oh, yeah, also, the planet was called Unicornucopia.) It just wasn't what the DM had envisioned running, and eventually the game petered out because it got too grim. Mismatched expectations. The DM wanted to run a gritty sci-fi game, and the players wanted to have space unicorn adventures. Believe it or not, those two things didn't work great together.

Huh. Guy should check out Fallout: Equestria.

[(Un)Inspired]

...but horses aren't burrowing creatures.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

They are in this world.

Their hooves are wider than normal and used to shovel dirt.

[TheCountAlucard]

I will happily let players introduce details into my games, as long as they don't contradict anything established, and make for a more fun game. As such, I'm not gonna make my players each introduce one truth (and in doing so limit them to only one such truth).

The Storm King's player wants there to be a tribe of thunderbird-worshipping barbarian nomads who sail from isle to isle in search of glory? That's bodacious. He later says that the tribe's origins are rooted in the southwest, giving them a darker complexion than the locals? That's also bodacious. The Seamstress of Dissolution's player doesn't want to introduce anything new to the Skullstone Archipelago, and intends to use it for her backstory? That, too, is bodacious.

[BayardSPSR]

The Storm King's player wants there to be a tribe of thunderbird-worshipping barbarian nomads who sail from isle to isle in search of glory? That's bodacious. He later says that the tribe's origins are rooted in the southwest, giving them a darker complexion than the locals? That's also bodacious. The Seamstress of Dissolution's player doesn't want to introduce anything new to the Skullstone Archipelago, and intends to use it for her backstory? That, too, is bodacious.

But why do you require that so much of your setting be bodacious? Is that also the result of player-input, or is it something established?

[TheCountAlucard]

But why do you require that so much of your setting be bodacious?

I generally play the likes of such games as Exalted and Shadowrun.

[BayardSPSR]

I generally play the likes of such games as Exalted and Shadowrun.

Established, then. I see.

So while the players can supply details, but those details will not conspire to make the setting other than bodacious, which is already determined. That makes sense.

[veti]

My party achieved something like this once, when we travelled back to the beginning of time and spent some days hanging out with "the gods" at the time of creation. ("The gods" at this point being, basically, boring-as-paint peasants in a single small village, which had nothing outside it.)

While I was focusing on the primary mission (which was "to find the true name of this horrible monster, which turned out to be their distillery, but that's another story"), one of my friends somehow - to this day I don't know exactly how - talked them into writing a rule into the world that "chefs, and only chefs, were allowed to carry and use guns". (Guess what his PC's profession was. Go on, guess.)

The DM liked it so much, he kept it in the world thereafter, through at least three more campaigns. Let's say it radically changed the nature of the catering profession.

[RandomNPC]

Few things I'd like to add.

DM always has veto power, forgot to mention that, it tends to be an assumption around here so often it's not even asked about, you can always be turned down.

To clarify, metal costs 5sp more per pound, as compared to normal costs. I already said I was going to have them use trade goods. We're keeping standard prices and doing math at the end of transactions to start, because we're used to standard prices.

The first game we saw it in is still going, and we've been promised more truths every 4 levels, as long as it doesn't retroactively nerf/buff something established.

A few truths from the other games I've been a part of:

~Value of money from least to most expensive:
Silver Copper Platinum Gold.
~Goblins names: Female names end in vowels, males do not.
~Two sun world.
~At night "monster" races go wild and get buffs.
~There are 30 days of high noon in mid-summer, and 30 days of dark night in mid-winter.

The last two? same world. during the 30 days of dark they get really strong....

[SiuiS]

They are in this world.

Their hooves are wider than normal and used to shovel dirt.

Also: drill horns.

I will happily let players introduce details into my games, as long as they don't contradict anything established, and make for a more fun game. As such, I'm not gonna make my players each introduce one truth (and in doing so limit them to only one such truth).

I actually like contradictions that aren't flat out stupid. Or even some that are!

For example, I had a player tell me, when asked, that the reason the power generator they found wasn't working because it was unplugged. That's weird and contradictory! But I figure, if you have an established fact, and you have this new, equally valid fact, and they conflict? There must be some interesting Hurd fact which brings it all together. In this instance, the generator would be able to power itself and not much else but could charge batteries or run insividual appliances with some additional input and a capacitor. So now I've got a weird power generator bolted into the back of an abandoned ambulance that has two bays of bicycles hooked up to it to start it and supplement its energy output, giving the PCs a mobile energy and command center.

If i inatead went with "generators don't need to be plugged in, pick something else" that would have been less cool.

[DigoDragon]

Huh. Guy should check out Fallout: Equestria.

There's... not much 'space adventure' in that though?

Also: drill horns.

But this. This is cool.

[Sha'uri]

I'm the reason dragons are mere fairy tales. Now one of the other players claims we are fighting because of my truth, lol

[SiuiS]

There's... not much 'space adventure' in that though?

There's not much space adventure on a planet in general.

But this. This is cool.

XD.

I'm the reason dragons are mere fairy tales. Now one of the other players claims we are fighting because of my truth, lol

Congrats!

[Maglubiyet]

For example, I had a player tell me, when asked, that the reason the power generator they found wasn't working because it was unplugged.

Maybe he meant unplugged from the fuel line or battery?