For my Worldbook #1 Science-Fiction (which should soon be out), I tossed on at the end a number of short worlds that could with care be run (the Saplings), and some even shorter ideas that could serve as the start of a world for a GM to work on (the Seeds).

Now, for Worldbook #2 Fantasy, I would like to do likewise.

If you can type up in reasonably literate fashion five hundred or a thousand words on a Fantasy world design, then you can have undying fame as a game designer.  It should be able to be run with care.

If you can do fifty or two hundred words, and have a nifty idea then we need even more Seeds.

Let me give you an example of a Seed or Two:

In Kalisand, (NAME--HMMH, LETS CHANGE THAT TO 'HEARTLAND'), an Alliance world (NOT NECCESSARY TO Describe Alignment, BUT HELPFUL), the reigning deity is the Giftgiver(YOU CAN HAVE A HISTORICAL DEITY, MAKE UP ONE, OR SIMPLY IGNORE THIS PART--NOT ALL WORLDS NEED TO HAVE THEIR DEITY EMPHASIZED).  His primary doctrine is for people to offer unsolicited kindness to other human beings.  So while people do work to aid themselves, much of the time is spent on trying to find ways to aid other people.  This has some strange effects in that sometimes people spy on each other, which is wrong, in order to figure out how to help each other.  Another effect is that some people feel that they don't get enough gifts from other people.  One other effect, that can be shocking, is when a person gives you a gift that is something you really like, but never thought you would like (this can be embarrassing when the reality of your character conflicts with your self-image.)

This world might not work, except that of the five major races, three of them (Elf, Dragon, and Nereid) are Unfallen, that is, untouched by Sin or Death.  While they can still make mistakes, and are still physical, they don't have the capacity for malice.  The other two races, Dwarf and Giant did succumb to Temptation, but Evil has a very faint grasp on their daily lives.  And yes, you read that right, there are no Humans in this world.(OKAY, THAT IS ENOUGH, IF THE GM ADDS SOME GEOGRAPHY TO START RUNNING THIS WORLD.)

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You wake up as a verser in a new world.  This world could be a modern day world, or some time period soaked in black shadows and style like Paris in the 1870's.

  A tear-streaked person of the opposite gender is hugging you, and kissing you.

They are so glad to see you back, even if only for a little while.  You don't recognize them.

And then you see you are standing in a grassy field with mounded dirt underneath you.  The gravestone behind you has your name on it.

Your 'love' has called your doppelganger back from the dead, or tried too.  It did not quite work.  You, a verser, arrived, and the ghost of your doppelganger makes itself known too.

Your ghost is either furiously wanting revenge, or it needs closure, or it needs its love protected(this depends on the GM's assessment of the verser's personality).  There are very bad people who killed your doppelganger, and they want to finish the job with the love, although she or he is not aware of this.  The love wants to see you again, and wants revenge.  A further complication is that something bad has come across as well, a spirit of darkness, which will turn the merely evil foes into monstrous and grant them powers as it corrupts them.  Worse, it will corrupt the ghost so that the ghost will have to separate from its 'frame of Earthly reference' and be ejected back to Glory.  This ectoplasmic frame of reference will then give the spirit of darkness a chance to manifest a quasi-physical form where it will reveal that it was the manipulator behind the whole thing.  Its goal was to get a body it could use, and to destroy some good people while it was at it.






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The next is a Sapling, I hope.

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In Status-Games 2020, a modern-day world with an Anarch (EVIL, REBELLIOUS) Power in charge (NOT NAMED YET, NOT SURE ITS NEEDED), the world is run from Sydney, Australia (WHY? OH, IT JUST SEEMED DIFFERENT, AND COOL) by the Status Games Corporation, Ltd..

With the rise in corruption in politics, and the explosive popularity of reality-tv, a door to a dark place opened.  There arose the Status Games Show where one unsuspecting person was given as prey to a hunter.  The Hunter has a week, and specific rules that limit him.  These rules serve to heighten the suspense, and keep the prey alive (no loaded guns is one normal rule), and simulate various pschyopathologies.  The hunter wins, and gains status if he causes the prey to break down mentally, or be imprisoned for disturbing the peace, or go to the police for safety.  He loses status and the prey gains status if the prey resists for the whole week.

Thats where it started.  In an Alliance world, counter-vailing forces would likely have arisen and stopped this.  But not here in this world where some of the rich and powerful got that way through demon-summoning.

Soon enough, it went world-wide, and any politician who resisted got targetted by hunters and usually broken.

Now, the world listens to the SG Corporation, and checks their mailbox every week for the notification.

1% of the letters say.  "You have been chosen as a Hunter. Report to the Choosing Board to choose your Prey."  The rest merely say to watch your neighbours, and watch your back.

Spying on each other, and deceptiveness about personal flaws, and phobias is rampant.  Because when its your turn, you want to know who is 'the weakest link', and who can be easily broken.  But at the same time, you want to keep that information about yourself from others.

At eight years to fifteen, the child is given five status points, and is Yellow for Probationary.  Only Yellow can go after Yellow.  But some of the most vicious games are Yellow Hunter on Yellow Prey.

At age sixteen, you get five more status points, and are now White Status.

If you are related to the executives/workers in the Status Games Corporation, you are Green or Red.  Red are like White, but they are able to use guns in self-defense.  Green are like Red, but in addition, they can choose to Hunt one week a year in addition to their drawing, and its at their discretion.

If you are an Exec in the Status Games, you get Green advantages, plus anyone who hunts you  gets half points, and whoever you hunt loses double points. (Yes, thats unfair, and your point is...?)

Those who are Status Zero are frequently hunted, sometimes every week.  They are typically despised, and the fact that they have zero status means they are not good at the games, and therefore are an easy target.  Bullies love an easy target.

Blue status is highly despised, but at the same time highly regarded (but only in secret).  These are the people who have to have their jobs, or things will fall apart.  They tend to get hunted more often, but they are immune to one of the effects of the Status Games.

Jobs are distributed on the basis of Status.  This means your boss at the company really is a pschyopathic monster....

The verser arrives in this world, and will soon be contacted by a secret resistance movement known as the Status-Free Group.  They are magically enhanced superheroes who are trying to overthrow the government/get through the day.

Magic exists in this world, but most people don't believe in it.  However, each and every one of the Board of Directors of the Status Games Corporation has sold his soul to a demon patron for success for himself and for the Status Games Corporation.

The leader of the Status-Free Group is the magician, Magius.  A huge, overweight man, seven feet tall and four hundred pounds with skills in finding magical items, archives, and some minor spells of fear and fog.  He has created this group, and their base in a junkyard near the Tricities.

The base is in the back of the Mayhem Junk-it with cars blocking the paths, and spells of mislocation, and spells to make sure you notice the toxic waste barrels (empty but menacing), and a pack of ferocious dogs to keep outsiders away.

Inside, a trailer that is nicer on the inside than the outside, and a car generator provide residence and power and a place to hide from the cruel world.

The other supers are Swordmaiden who prefers the name Headsmasher, and is the great-great-great...daughter of Mordred, son of Arthur, the High King of Britain.  She carries Excalibur and its sheathe which Magius found for her after he found her with one of his spells.  She is a loud-mouthed gothic princess, and tends to strife to cover the pain inside.

The Invisible carries a cloak of invisibility, and a tranq pistol, and a .38 revolver loaded with the bullets "Saint" Mike used. Mike Cameron was a member of the Untouchables, and famously incorruptible.  His gun enchants ordinary bullets, and replaces them with the ones he had.  These bullets can hit ghosts, kill vampires, slay demons, and they refuse to fire on an innocent man.

Fire Child is the youngest, and he has a chip of an angel's sword, part of the ruby that was in the pommel, implanted in his heart.  He was born with this.  He can shoot out flames of Obliterating damage (He can melt a car into a puddle), but afterwards he is exhausted, and rarely can do it again without risking his life for at least ten hours.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:09, Thu 22 June 2006.

Sapling:

1. In a modern-day world, there are places where the maps should still say 'hear be dragons'.  Alleys that extend beyond the city limits, and mirrors that show other worlds, and pools that have no bottom all exist here.  And next to this ordinary world, a bare tissue of dimensional fabric away lives small bubble universes.  Some of them connect to each other, some don't, but all connect to the Ordinary.

Grimm's Forrest can be reached via way of a mirror in an antique shop in Chicago where the proprietor really doesn't like children, but lets them in his shop anyways because the things in the forrest like children with a little salt on top for seasoning.

The forest is filled with wolf-men, each with his own territory, and an evil witch who is very good at corrupting the promising hero into being her pet monster.  But the king of shadows is a wizard who cannot by slain by a sword or a bow.  Only an axe can kill him.

For there is an Order of Woodsmen who tame the Dark Forrest, and bring lumber to the terrified villagers.  They serve the Light, and carry magic wood-cutting axes that can cut through anything.

And every challenge is done in threes, because that is the way things are.

And inside the highest tower of the True King's castle, the King who sleeps enchanted, is a pool through which one may step, and enter...

Now outside the castle, in the garden is a gate of roses, which is called by some who know deep things, Gabby's Gate.  This leads one into...

The Wood of Small Things....

In this wood, which does not deserve the grand name of forest, each and every visitor becomes the animal closest to his or her nature when they enter.  But only the small animals with no predator larger than a fox living in this wood.

Here rabbits debate the sharing of corn, and mice plan strategy to evade Mr. Owl, geese squabble over food, and the deer talk of art and beauty and love and family for they are the most noble minded of all the intelligent animals of the Wood of Small Things.

Now, it is possible, although not probable for a human, with their great variability of nature, to change their animal form.  This is most easily done when entering the Wood by the solid ruby gate called the Summer Queen's gate, which is a simple arch standing in the Wood, but if one enters, and begs the permission of the Summer Queen, one is then transported either back to the Ordinary Earth, or to another place.  However, with sufficient concentration, one may change one's form even amidst the wood, and there are stories of great heroes of the forest who can do this already.

Now the ruby gate, the Summer Queen's gate may bear you to Earth, or it may take you to the Summerlands if you ask her too, or to Courts of Fog, or if you durst it, and are very brave it will take you to the High Rock of the Kings and the Knights.

Now, the Summerlands are reachable by taking a boat out San Francisco harbor through the Golden Gate right as the sun hits the horizon you must pass, and if you bear a four-leaf clover in your hand, you will find yourself on a boat made of silver and pulled by laughing elves while brownies fix your shoes, and nereids refresh you by giving you drink from the Freshwater Sea which laps on all the shores of all these worlds, but few have the presence of mind to do more than soak up the beauty of this place for the passenger on the boat you ride on is the Lady.

Her beauty is such that you cannot recall it for more than snatches, or your joy would be burnt from you for life.

Here, in the Summerlands, all is always happy and good.  For this is the Border Supernatural between the material universes and the Celtic Heavens.

It is difficult to stay because after a while you will become tempted to sleep,a nd if you sleep, you will wake where the goddess wishes you to wake.

Now, the Courts of Fog are black wet rocks in a cold, salty sea, and are continually wreathed in the deepest of fogs.  Here mysteries are found, and things that were lost may be recovered if the seeker is willing to pay greatly for them. Here secrets may be sought if the seeker is clever, or again willing to pay deeply.  Figures swing out of the shadowed fogs, and they may ask a question, a riddle, challenge one to a duel, or give cryptic warnings about other denizens of these mystic islets.

But many are those who have come,a nd have ended up leaving part of their mind or body behind, and even versers may not be immune to this charge for the residents of these isles are well able to alter a verser's mind so that his identity changes and he knows himself to be a man without an arm.  However, before all fear is filled to the top, it does happen at times that a great loss, such as an arm is done on purpose for a goodly reason, and that a silver arm may be given back that more than compensates the loss, and solves some great problem.

--This isn't done yet...I still need to do the Rock, and probably another couple bubble verses

To add to the preceding Sapling, let me only say that there are a number of other small universes attached to the main universe.  There are elvish forests, and a Native American influenced dessert of the Southwest, and so forth.

Most of these realms are roughly a thousand miles across, but some are far less.  The Courts of Fog are merely twenty miles across, and are the most extreme example.

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A Seed:

In Machinia, the transport devices are intelligent and aware.  Boats, planes, cars, helicopters, submarines, and all the rest are quietly chatting with each other, and helping maintain the civilization they are a proud part of.  Most humans are not aware of this, having forgotten their experiences with it, due to an ingrained tendency to forget magic.  But children, and those who are in close contact with reality (farmers and machinists) do not forget.  The children because their minds are open to seeing what actually happens, and the machinists and such have this reality ground into their faces until their inborn resistance to magic crumbles.

The deific pantheon in charge of this world is Alliance.  They are the Lords of Order.  But, there is one malefic entity in the world, the Black Smog.  However, it is a lower-level demon, and not up to handling even the least of the Lords, and even many of the greater machines or people can satisfactorily deal with the Black Smog.  So he tends to prey on the weak when he can.

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Design Lab is a world run by a Neutral power.  It is a quasi-stable reality with peculiar physics, and bias levels that are set by the verser.  For here, the verser is given the chance by the reigning deity to design their own universe.

They are given ten choices to make, and then the result is projected on the Omniview Screen for the reigning power sees itself as more akin to a computer than anything else.  These results are merely projections, and not a reality.

Note one: Messing around with the rules of physics can be immensely tricky.

Note two: Enabling free will among sentients, while keeping them from becoming rebellious and disregarding sensible guidelines is extraordinarily difficult.

Note three: This requires quick and logical thinking on the part of the GM as to the logical consequences of a player's choices.

At the end of this world experiment, the Omniview Computer will thank the visitor for his input, and escort the visitor out of his universe.

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I have some more like the Dead Planet, but I'll post those later.

PT

Lets add the Century Castle to this set-up, and Le Citie Fantazie, the Master Oak-the tree of worlds.  All these shall be seeds.

1. Master Oak is an ancient oak tree in the very center of the Wood of Small Things.  No one really knows how old he is, except for himself, and he is fairly reticient with information.  And that if you can manage to wake him from his musings.

He also has few if any oak acorns, and those but rarely fall.

However, he is known to be ancient, and to be a friend to the Small Things of the Wood, and to have some magics which he is able to use in certain things.  Nothing flashy, but just the right touch for the peculiar situation.

What is not known is that he is the Protector of the Wood, given charge over it by the Powers, and sworn to shield it from the Greater Evils with his considerable even if hidden might.  Also, he is the oldest thing in the wood, being first planted by the Gardener on a day so long ago that the rise and fall of empires is but a short thing.  Lastly, he is a World Tree.

Like Yggdrasil, his roots extend into other worlds, and through his branches one may walk into all the worlds so connected.  And like Yggdrasil, this tree bears worlds on its branches in acorn form. Each acorn is another universe, usually a small one, a mere bubble, perhaps a hundred miles wide like the Wood of Small Things, and once they take root in the soil, they open up, grow and expand into new universes that are still attached by threads of remembrance, and by a branch or root to the World Tree.

But to the rabbits, and the voles, and the porcupine families who live happily in the Wood, he is a very good place to spread a picnic blanket under.

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The Century Castle is divided into three sections as follows: The Inner Castle where the Clockwork Mages live, and the Time Lord and Time Lady make their home; the outer demenses which are inside the outermost walls of the castle extending out dozens of miles to shield the countryside from raiders; and the Outside where no Clockwork Mage may go.

From left to right, clockwise, the Castle, the Demenses, and the Outside are divided into Hour Bands that circle the castle entirely for twenty four hours.  Each band is just as wide as it needs to be, and no wider, but usually that means about five to ten miles wide.

From 12 Noon to One is First Century Rome, and from One to Two is Second Century of the Middle Kingdom, and so forth until you reach the Future Bands in the 22nd Century which is in the  9 to 10 PM position. In their you enter the Shattering of the Land by Kinetic Energy Weapons and the 23rd Century is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with the 24th being a slight improvement with a bizarre sort of motorcycle feudalism growing up.

The various bands are forbidden from meeting with each other by the Clockwork Magi. Inside the Castle, a year passes for a hundred years outside.  And at the end of this time, a Great Clock is reset, and everyone lives their lives all over again.

For the Clockwork Magi are trying to discover the Secret of History, and they plan to rewind the Century Castle as many times as neccessary until they do.

The Time Lord, whose word is Law, will forbid this, but the Clockwork Magi have him trapped in a Slow-Time Field inside his courtyard.  Every rewind, he moves forward a couple steps to go toward the Tower of the Mages and order them to stop.

The Time Lady is lost, stripped of her memory, and wanders in the Outside.  Now the influence of the Great Clock is weaker in the Outside, so some of them remember faint bits of previous lives, and their is a conspiracy among the various bands Outside, which stretches across the bands.  Every rewind, they piece it together a bit more faster, and try to foil the Clockwork Mages yet again.  Unfortunately, the Magi have no such memory loss, and they well remember those rebellious sorts.  Fortunately, they have not yet discovered the Conspiracy of the True Clock.

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Le Citie Fantazie is a splendid place full of carriages, and dancing instructors, and rapier duels at dawn, and vampires down the street, a goblin for a bartender, a djinn for a shopkeep, and a passing elf lady is walking her dragon in the park.  Every creature of myth and legend lives here, including some who claim to be Lesser Gods.

The only thing that is truly mythical here is Man.

It is Paris of the late eighteenth century with Humanity, but with Kobolds, Revenants, Trolls, Wyverns, Jotunn, Salamanders, Werefoxes, and Talking Ravens.  Democracy seems to be slipping in around the cracks, and the old king, Lewis the Great Wyrm, the Sun Drake is worried.  For he can see the future even if his nobles cannot.  He knows the Age of Monarchs is coming to a close, but so many of these Democrats are not merely rude, they are scary.  He fears that the New Age will not be Wise or Kind, but merely lynch mob rules with better press.  So as he struggles to hold back the reactionary nobles who desire to cling to the past; he has to find proper guardians for a future he does not truly understand.  And the meanwhile, he has a powerful need to sleep for he truly is of a great age.

But then a Man comes, and smells of Democracy.  A verser, and suddenly the verser will find himself with a secret patron who will guide him, and shield him as needed, and thrust him to the top without the verser knowing his patron, or so goes the King's plan, at least until it starts to go awry for there are indeed factions in Le Citie Fantazie who desire nothing more than a New Age of Blood.

One last bit, I think this world will be one of the ones attached to the Woods of Small Things.

PT