I admit it. I'm a sucker for shout outs. Just today CanHammer tweeted about the blog
and I couldn't help but put a link of their show on the side (you should notice
it there if you look under awesome links).
I listened to their show as well (at least episode 1) and it seems
really well done. Good sound quality,
intelligent conversation, excellent music, all in all one of the better
podcasts I've listened to (and I listen to about 15 or so). The show has actually gotten me a little
interested in Fantasy just so that I could understand a little more of what
they were talking about. You guys should
check it out if you can and are interested in Fantasy with some glimmerings of
Flames of War and 40k. If any of you
give the blog a shout out elsewhere I will check out whatever you do to see it
for myself and then give you a plug (Its pretty much guaranteed that I'll plug
you, just want to check to ensure that you are legitimate and not some
badmouthing whiner that I really don't want to be associated with *cough cough
Stelek yesthetruthhurts cough cough*).
So just make sure you actually are supporting the hobby and not just
b$#%#ing and I'll help you out (as much as a blog with 5 readers can).
On to the grand
finale of Designing a Planet! In this
exciting post you'll see words that reflect my infinite wisdom and inspire you
all to great things as you worship the divine author who spouts nothing but
genius for the masses because of the goodness of his holy heart. Ahem.
So what to do now. You've created
a finished product and are done with your planet right? No.
What good is the planet unless you plan on doing something with it? Now you have to decide where you want to take
it in the future. Do you have any back
up issues that could be resolved by your heroes in the role playing party? What about those details that you didn't use
initially because you wanted to save them for later in your adventure. Yes there was a reason that they did not play
a major or any part at all in the current events. Why was that?
Were there some details that were missing? Did something about the concept of it strike
you as 'off'? In essence ask yourself
what you could do to spruce it up and make it into a desirable addition to your
world in the future. Granted you could
have done this when deciding the current events, but the beauty of this is that
you didn't need to! You already devoted
so much work and material to it that you had plenty of material to make an
interesting world that will foster a compelling narrative just by being what it
is.
An additional part
of designing the future to the planet involves more brainstorming. This could be related to your planet as it
currently sits or could come out of nowhere.
Curveballs are always a good thing (not to be confused with non
sequitors in movies and stuff. When
there is no rhyme or reason for something that just sucks. Make sure your curveball does actually come
from some path or another and would fit the concept for the setting you are
designing your planet for, whether it is starwars, 40, etc.). A new development can really hold the
interest of players in an RPG because they don't feel like the adventure is
blah since they can't predict stuff that you haven't given them hints
about! Be careful when doing this
though, don't overuse this strategy of adding to a story or campaign as it will
in fact lose its luster because it will start to feel like the players are
simply there for the ride and aren't actually solving anything when they can't
do anything but wait for more tidbits from you since they can't read your
mind. The strength of this is its
weakness, so make sure it is infrequently used.
But how can you
brainstorm these ideas for things to add to your planet or to happen to
it? Lists often help, the thinking web I
mentioned last time also functions well.
Look for inspiration from anything and everything. If a thought occurs to you, file it away for
later use (generally by writing it down.
If you are confident you will remember it then don't. I won't criticize you on your personal habits
regarding memory). Books are always a
good place to look, talk to friends that aren't involved and ask what kind of
thing would be cool if it happened to a setting that they are familiar with
(using star wars for instance since people not in 40k generally know that
setting: if your world was a hoth-like world or somewhat similar ask what your
friend would love to see happen to it just for fun or entertainment. You might get feedback of things such as more
exposure to those weird yeti things we see in that room for no apparent reason,
perhaps a resurgence of the CIS from some cave that was unexplored, perhaps a
mini-adventure as an underground rebel cell continues the fight against the
empire after the rest of the Rebellion has fled the planet). You may not have thought of any of these
ideas and they are perfectly valid for your battle reports or so.
The final question
is how to implement these ideas. This is
the tricky bit as I can't predict every scenario in which you can implement
every possible idea for every possible planet that might be created. As such my answers must be vague or else it
might limit your creativity or put a cap on your courage to try something new
because I said otherwise. When a moment
seems right to have something new happen, that is (obviously) when you can add
something. If you are writing a story
oftentimes authors get hooked on just the main plot and don't go into any side
stories and they avoid adding anything beyond what is necessary for the main
script. I've always enjoyed the most
complex of books (Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time for instance) that have all
sorts of perspectives, intrigue, and plots going on simultaneously so that you
never know what is going to happen next and it is just fascinating to watch how
everything interacts and unfolds despite or because of the different interests
involved. This may not be best for a RPG
unless you plan on running one that involves multiple different parties that
will interact with eachother through you mostly because of their actions. This would take a very skilled GM who has a
LOT of free time to devote to keeping the adventures all interesting for both
players while logically keeping the parties separated so that it doesn't just
become one massive party that joins together just because they all have giant
PLAYER labels on their forehead. Or on
the other side of the token they could all kill each other and then no one wins
and you are left with an awesome story to tell but no survivors or way for
those survivors to get it done.
Another method of
implementation could be using a random chart you create. If you feel the need to add something you
could compile all the ideas you have, assign each of them a number, and
randomly determine (through dice, calculator, coins, random number generator,
random number chart, etc.) which one will come to play or light at that
moment. This has its risks as well since
it may not seem logical for something in particular to happen, but you always
have the option of trying again and deciding on something that would clearly be
a better idea.
Ways to tell that it
is the time to advance your planet farther is when a campaign in an RPG is
drawing to a close you can throw the players another hook so that they keep on
going and the energy doesn't die (timing is key in case you didn't notice). If players seem to be getting off topic and
having side conversations that is another clue.
For a tabletop campaign if one side is beginning to dominate with no
obvious end in sight you can throw in new abilities, technology, what have you
that you created for the future of the planet to support the losing side so
that it isn't just a slaughter-fest. As
I have always said just go nuts if you are writing a story. Too many potential situations, so the only
advice I have is run with it. If it
feels good keep going, if not get rid of it.
If you can't tell ask someone for their opinion on it. Sometimes just pushing through the
awkwardness you are feeling will solve the problem, or at least show you the
way to fix it.
Jungle planet… I
can't give you an example because that would be spoiling where I want to take
it and we can't have that now can we? ;)
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