Guidelines Question

[Mourngrymn]

I realize that this is not a specific RPG related site. So any format is welcome, however, I have noticed that there are a lot of quality work being done with a setting and places I am not familiar with. That being said I can only assume that the people involved with putting their hard work up here have either their own system/ world/ setting that they are using, or are using a group setting.

Now, I have also created my own gaming system and a new world in which this syetm plays out on. What are the guidelines that I would need to follow to put information up about them? My first post having had some quick remarks about it working in other settings.

I have a few ideas I need worked out but how they work in a setting other than mine I can not say. I would just post these ideas up but I want feeback about them and I would hate for them to be over looked because I am not following a set of rules or guidelines to help make it clear.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you for your time.

Happy Holidays.

[MoonHunter]

1) If your post is going to be setting specific, make sure to note that in the first line. Repeat after me... The first line.

2) You will also need to explain EVERYTHING in your post. We do not know what the Crimson Guard or a Gkyveki is, so that will need to be explained in the post. The only time that not explaining everything is okay is IF the information is either the setting is defined ON THE SITE, a link is included to where all the information is, or is in a commonly published setting. In the case of the last two, some explanation is still required as most people will not want to go to the the other site or have the game book.

3) Be warned that if it is not adaptable to a variety of settings, it will still be rated lower than it could be.

4) If you want to work on your setting with us, then create a thread for your setting in the setting forge. Start and explain the basics of your world. Then expand it to include various things about your world.  You can ask the community to help you by simply asking them specific questions.  

Please remember you get as much out of us as we perceive that you put into it.  So if you post short, minimally descriptive posts... you will get back short minimally descriptive posts.

Personal advice: Read the various forums for the settings (like Arth or Armorican Kingdoms  http://www.rpgcitadel.com/guild/index.php?board=34.0  and then read some of the setting forge threads.  Once you have done that, you will have a feel for what we are looking for in a complete post and the things people will find useful about your game world.

5) There is no place here for working on game mechanics, unless you are giving the game system away on an open license or freeware sort of arrangement.

If I can make a personal comment. I have worked in the industry. Everyone wants to design a game and it will be great, but most people do not have the drive to do it.  After all, you will need to put together 32-96 pages of single spaced, two colum, text defining your game setting. You will need a RPG system that works and can be explained to others easilty. Your game will be measured by what is on the market, so it must be as complete and developed as any game on the shelves of your friendly local game store. The internet is littered with people who have "good ideas", but do not have the language skills and the drive to actually finish their work.  This rpg trash are the things that give web and indie games their bad reputation.

Don't believe me... PM Kinslayer here. He has done it.

6) If you are working on a game system and setting... might I suggest that you go play with the appropriate big kids.

www.openroleplaying.org has a somewhat strong developer community. They are very serious about their work, but can be helpful.

http://forum.rpg.net/forumdisplay.php?f=5
RPG net has a strong developer community as well. It is filled with well meaning amaturs and some professionals.

If you are serious about game design. Then The Forge is the place for you.
www.indie-rpgs.com    If you can't make it there, then you are ill equipped about your design and probably will not finish it.

And there is also
http://www.gama.org/
GAMA is a non-profit trade association dedicated to the advancement of the hobby game business. Our mission is to promote the general interest of all those involved in the business of games. We do this by providing trade and consumer shows, bringing positive attention to the industry, and investing in membership programs that advance hobby games into the mainstream as well as providing benefits for our members.

http://www.thegpa.org/
The Game Publishers Association is a professional organization of publishers and manufacturers in the adventure and family game industry. Our mission is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, offer mutual support and assistance, further the entrepreneurial aims of our members, and collectively promote our companies, industry, and hobby.

[Mourngrymn]

Actually the entire manual is finished. It sits at roughly 250 pages so content wise I'm not concerned with.

I was mainly asking about ideas, for adventure ideas, special places, etc. Information to flesh out the history and the world, not the mechanics. I have three seperate gaming groups playtesting it and the reviews so far are good. Only one group I game with so it is the only one who would even slightly be biased. Luckily I have a bunch of grammer hungry, nit-pickey, power gamers in the one I am running so I found the flaws early on.

My goal in having done this in the first place was all personal. I know that I probably wont make millions doing this. Reality checked in a long time ago. I am doing it mainly for myself and my gaming group who are tired of the store bought carbon copy games out there. It's not a marketing thing, it's a principle thing. Im doing it for me.

I have put nearly a decade of work into it and the system itself is complete. I am just working on adventures, plot, scenario, history, etc. That was my main question.

However, not to sound like I am being a little bitter, I appreciate your info and I will endevor to do what you requested. I like that site here, and maybe I will entice someone here to take a gander at the pages I have written and enjoy it.

[Kinslayer]

Don't believe me... PM Kinslayer here. He has done it.

Well, if that wasn't bait...

Creating a game because you want to, for the enjoyment of that new system in play and the enjoyment of design, is perhaps the best reason of all.  This way, you've avoided setting yourself up for failure, unlike creating a game for fame, wealth, or acclaim.  

I also highly recommend OpenRoleplaying.org for it's developer community.  It's not as large as the others, which lends greatly to its friendliness.  

As for guidelines, I can only second MoonHunter in that they should be as complete as possible.  Of course, many of your ideas might currently only exist half-formed, as a sentence or two of a vague idea.  This is true of settings, et al. for widely popular game systems, and a new idea isn't going to be familiar to anyone, at least until you tell us about it.  As for specific data blocks:  population size, imports/exports, magical features, etc. there isn't anything specific, as settings are as varied as the characters that dwell there and the game systems used.  Just try to include all of the pertinent information, and you should be fine.

[Ancient Gamer]

This thread here was very helpful and would give answers to alot of would-be developers.
It could be made a sticky in the articles section...

[Strolen]

It has been mentally pegged and personally bookmarked as "FAQ" for future exploitation.

[Mourngrymn]

Thanks, guys. Sorry I've been home for the last few days because of the holidays and my internet is down at home so I can only check this here.

But thanks for the help and the push to put some things up for critique. I'll try to do that today.

[Fallen Angel]

Where would I post questions relating to the basics of a seting?..

[MoonHunter]

Sage Advice in the Forums

[Murometz]

While googling stuff for inspiration for Scras' green dragon challenge, i came across this on a yahoo community board, titled "Society-Building." Credit goes to someone named "David-Zahir13". There is not much here, that most of us don't know already, but it seemed a succinct and useful world-building outline, so i thought I'd put it here.

I. Questions of Place
(a) Describe the geography of where your society calls home.
(b) Describe the climate your society deals with. How severe are
their seasons?
(c) What kinds of natural disasters has this society gotten used to?
(d) What are the most commonly-grown foods?
(e) What are the most commonly-eaten meats?
(f) What foods are considered exotic or expensive?
(g) What forms of alcohol are common? Rare?
(h) Is there usually enough food and water for the population?
(i) What is this place's most abundant resource?
(j) What is its most valuable resource?
(k) What resource is it most lacking?
(l) How do people travel from one place to another?
(m) Are the borders secure? In what way?
(n) How many people live here?
(o) Where in this place to they congregate?
(p) What part of this place do they avoid? Why?
(q) What are the most common domesticated animals here? And what are
they domesticated for?
(r) What are the most common wild animals?
(s) Which animals are likely to be pets? Which ones won't be?

II. Questions of Time
(a) How far back does this society's written history go?
(b) How far back do its people believe it goes?
(c) What is the worst disaster they believe they've faced?
(d) What was the best thing that every happened to them?
(e) What in their past makes them feel ashamed?
(f) What in their past makes them proud?
(g) What are they afraid of happening again?
(h) What are they hoping will happen? Do they think it likely?
(i) What do they assume the future will hold?
(j) How has this society changed? Do its current members realize this?
(k) What are the most popular stories about the past?
(l) Who in the past is the greatest hero? The worst villain?
(m) Do people think the present better or worse than the past?
(n) Do people believe the future will be better or worse than the
present or past?

III. Questions of Sex and Family
(a) How many spouses may a man or woman have?
(b) Who decides on a marriage?
(c) Can a marriage end in divorce? How?
(d) Who usually takes custody of children if a marriage ends for some
reason?
(e) How is adultery defined? What (if any) is the punishment? Who
decides?
(f) How are families named?
(g) What happens to orphans?
(h) How are boy and girl children treated differently?
(i) Are premarital relations allowed?
(j) How does your society define incest? Rape? How do people react
to these?
(k) What, if anything, is considered a good marriage gift?
(l) What secret vice is believed to be widely practiced?
(m) What secret vice actually is practiced?
(n) What sexual habits are widely believed common among foriegners?
(o) How do people react to homosexuality?
(p) How do the genders dress?
(q) Is prostitution legal? How are prostitutes viewed? Is this
accurate?
(r) What professions or activities are considered masculine?
(s) What professions or activities are viewed as feminine?
(t) What inanimate or sexless things are considered male or female?
(u) What is the biggest sexual taboo?
(v) Does this society connect the ideas of marriage with love?
(w) What does this society mean by the word "virgin" and how
important it it?

IV. Questions of Manners
(a) Who speaks first at a formal gathering?
(b) What kinds of gifts are considered in extremely bad taste?
(c) How do younger adults address their elders?
(d) What colors are associated with power? With virtue? With death?
(e) If two men get into a fight, how is this supposed to be resolved?
(f) If two women get into a fight, how should that be resolved?
(g) When is it rude to laugh at something funny?
(h) What kinds of questions cannot be asked in public? In private?
At all?
(i) How do people demonstrate grief?
(j) What does this society do with their corpses?
(k) What kinds of jewelry do people where? And when?
(l) Who inheirits property? Titles? Position?
(m) What happens to those suffering from extreme mental illness?
(n) What are the most popular games? How important are they?
(o) What parts of the body are routinely covered?
(p) How private are bodily functions like bathing or defecating?
(q) How do people react to physical deformity?
(r) When and how does someone go from child to adult?

V. Questions of Faith
(a) Is there a formal clergy? How are they organized?
(b) What do people believe happens to them after death? How, if at
all, can they influence this?
(c) What happens to those who disagree with the majority on questions
of religion?
(d) Are there any particular places considered special or holy? What
are they like?
(e) What are the most popular rituals or festivals?
(f) What do people want from the god or gods? How do they try and
get it?
(g) How do their religious practices differ from their neighbors?
(h) What is the most commonly broken religious rule?
(i) What is the least-violated religious rule?
(j) What factions exist within the dominent religious institutions?
How do they compete?
(k) Are there monastic groups? What do they do and how are they
organized? How do you join one?
(l) How are those who follow different faiths treated?
(m) What relationship do religious and political leaders have?
(n) What superstitions are common? What kinds of supernatural
events/beings do people fear?

VI. Questions of Government
(a) Who decides whether someone has broken a law? How?
(b) What kinds of punishments are meted out? By whom? Why?
(c) How are new laws created or old ones changed?
(d) Is there some form of clemency or pardon? What is involved?
(e) Who has the right to give orders, and why?
(f) What titles do various officials have?
(g) How are the rules different for officials as opposed to the
common person?
(h) How do government officials dress?
(i) Is the law written down? Who interprets it?
(j) Once accused, what recourse does someone have?
(k) Is torture allowed? What kinds?
(l) How are people executed?
(m) Who cannot rise to positions of leadership?
(n) Is bribery allowed? Under what circumstances?
(o) What makes someone a bad ruler in this society? What can be done
about it?
(p) What are the most common or dangerous forms of criminal?

VII. Questions of War
(a) Who declares war?
(b) Who has the power to declare conditions of peace?
(c) What happens to prisoners taken in battle?
(d) What form of warfare does this society use?
(e) Who are the Elite warriors? What distinguishes them?
(f) How does someone get command of troops?
(g) Where do the loyalties of military units lie?
(h) Are there professional soldiers? Do they make up the bulk of the
military?
(i) Has this society ever attacked another? Do they want to? What
would make them do so?
(j) Who are their enemies? Who's winning?
(k) What do soldiers do when there's no war?

VIII. Questions of Education
(a) Does this society have its own language? Its own writing?
(b) How common is literacy? How is literacy viewed?
(c) What form and value are books?
(d) Who teaches others? How do they teach?
(e) Who decides who learns to read or write?
(f) Who teaches professions, like carpenter or scribe?
(g) Are foreigners ever brought in to teach new skills? Who does that?
(h) How do this society's doctors try to treat wounds and sickness?
(i) Which medical assumtions of this society are wrong?

IX. Questions of Art
(a) What are the favorite artforms?
(b) What are the least-favorite?
(c) How respected are artists?
(d) Do artists require official or unofficial protection?
(e) What kinds of trouble are artists in particular likely to find
themselves in?
(f) How might a very successful artist live?
(g) What forms of theatre does your society have?
(h) How naturalistic or stylized is your society's art?
(j) What shapes are most common in your society's arts, like
embroidery or architecture?
(k) Which artforms get the most and least respect?
(l) What form does censorship take?
(m) Who may not be an artist?
(n) What qualities equal "beauty" in this society?
(o) What makes a man or woman especially beautiful?
(p) How do people react to tattoos? Piercings? Facial hair? Make-up?