Jeff Rients is trying something interesting with his current campaign: he’s letting his players ask questions about the setting via email, and incorporating the answers (which he provides) into the game.
As Jeff says, “So far I really like this approach, as it forces me to think in directions maybe I wouldn’t explore myself and it let’s me know what interests my players.”
This sounds like a pretty cool worldbuilding technique to me: low prep, promotes player buy-in, encourages creativity and helps you take your game in new directions. Have you ever tried something like this?
No, I’ve never tried something like this. I’ve kept notes about player’s preferences ad referred to those while worldbuilding, but I think I like this approach better. I’ll give it a try.
Oops! I was unclear in my post. The players are asking the questions and I am making up the answers. But now I might try it the other way.
I’ve tried this approach. I posted a thread on our personalized forum for my players to ask questions about the organization their characters will be a part of. I only got one response, I was kind of disappointed. I’m going to try again asking for questions about the world in general.
i’ve found that my players, at least, are willing to help world-build before the game starts, but after that they switch to ‘discovery mode’. they want to explore the world, learn its secrets, and stumble upon the nefarious plots of the villains; helping set up anything beyond what’s already in their character backgrounds ruins it for them. they don’t want spoilers, much less to help write them.
While it is a cool technique, I think it would be working better if I weren’t the only one asking questions…
When I first started up my Iron Heroes campaign, I started by writing a single page short story about the world, and gave it to the players via email. Then for the next month they asked me questions about the world, which I answered for them, thus building parts of the game world.
Our game is now 1.5 years old, and along the way I ask my players to define parts of it. Just recently I asked the players to come up with how the moons of the world work. So one of the players posted a page on our campaign world wiki, and wrote down some ideas, which the rest of us are now fleshing out.
I love letting my players come up with parts of the world, it takes work off of me, and it also gives the players ownership in the campaign world as well.
You know, Jeff, I’m starting to think that the answers are not even really the important part.
The questions the players ask are about as clear an indication as you’re ever going to get about what parts of the adventure are interesting to them.
If a player keeps asking you about regional cuisine, heck, that tells you something important about what he wants to see in the game. Your particular answer, in comparison, isn’t really all that important.
In Burning Empires, this isn’t just a good idea… it’s a requirement. “World Burning” is done in the first session, where you sit and answer several questions about your game world as a group.
The answers also tie into the mechanics. It’s a little complicated to go into here, but basically it helps determine who has the advantage at the start of the game.
(Jeff Rients) Oops! I was unclear in my post. The players are asking the questions and I am making up the answers. But now I might try it the other way.
No, you weren’t unclear — I’m just a dork. Sorry about that, Jeff. I grokked your post, but cocked it up when I went to write the blurb. I’ve changed the title and text accordingly — thanks for pointing that out!
(I’m kinda-sorta “back” — Alysia and I are moved in, but obviously not completely settled in. My goal is to have the house ready for possibly gaming this weekend, so we’re cranking on it every night.)
Yep – Done it, loved it, still do it. This is a great trick I’ve used for years. I’ve had players contribute to the very world they play in, remove some of my burden andshed them the responsibility of being a GM but wanting to build a world. It’s wonderful!
My players know that a lot of what they will do will end up being cannon. When we are playing they will step aside every so often and say “This isn’t going in the book is it?” or “I so want to see this kind of stuff in the book!” We also break down into impromptu world building every so often. They ask if there is something that would fit an idea they are looking for, and we kind of flesh it out from there.
“While it is a cool technique, I think it would be working better if I weren’t the only one asking questions…”
In my experience some players don’t want to do worldbuilding. They want the DM to do all the heavy lifting. And some aren’t interesting in setting matters at all. They just want to kill the Dire Crayfish the DM has on the table when they walk in. Those kinds of players are totally cool by me.
Oh, BTW, tonight you are totally fighting some Dire Crayfish that’ll be on the table when you walk in.
Rock.
After trying this full-scale in Burning Empires, I’m sure to bring it over to other games, too. Worked like a charm – zero wasted effort!
I can’t find the page at the moment, but a friend of mine has been working on a game which is all about worldbuilding, with an eye toward using it for other systems.
It’s called “Lego of the Gods”. Our gaming group used it to build a world that we later played Burning Wheel in, and it worked very well.