Sapling and Seeds
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.