A quilted rpg is a game design wherein every player is a coGM with a limited sphere of influence. You build the world together and dynamically as the player character group moves through it. In this particular game, theme will determine who is GM at any given time. For example if you chose the nature theme then you would post as GM as the party progressed through a dense forest. When that forest opened upon a dragon infested mountain the GM for monsters would start writing. Should the players need to enlist the aid of a local duke to slay the beasts, the GM for civilizations would chime in. Finally one GM (ie me) would fill the gaps whenever needed so the story would never grind to a halt due to a coGM failing to post when needed. The process is organic with coGMs posting anytime throughout a story arc. The product of this intertwined and hopefully interactive creativity is a holistic world which is unlike any a single GM would/could have written.

The only rules for generating content in the game as a coGM are....

1) Stay within the fantasy genre
2) Respect canon (previously created content)
3) Limit content generation to what's necessary (the world should be built as the players adventure not beforehand)

The coGM 'spheres of influence' will be as follows

1) Civilization: All civilized beings which live apart from the wilderness their societies and people.

examples: a human port city, a high elven scholar, a dwarven gold mine, a slaver gang

2) Monsters: All supernatural creatures which lack civilization (yet not necessarily intelligence)

example: a fire breathing dragon, a manotaur, a zombie, a swarm of addled pixies

3) Nature: Wilderness and those animals/races who live close to it.

example: a forest, a pack of wolves, an elven tree city, a druid henge

4) Spirits: Anything otherworldly in nature and those who study/worship such things

example: a wraith, an angel, a temple to the Goddess Itharia, a priest of Chul

5) Elements: All nonliving/nonmagical forces and those who live close to them.

example: a hurricane (&^%$ you Irma), a desert wasteland, a house fire, a barbarian tribe from the frigid north

6) Magic: Magical forces and those who wield them

example: a magical university, a sorceress, an enchanted mirror, a cursed artifact, a blow-up-everything spell

Obviously there is potential for overlap here and that's when coGMs will become cowriters. I may also add more spheres of influence and reduce existing ones if we get more players. Feel free to ask questions and post suggestions. This is definitely a work in progress.

Greetings,

I would be interested in this idea, potentially looking at the civilization or monster spheres. I'll keep an eye on this.

Greetings,

I would be interested in this idea, potentially looking at the civilization or monster spheres. I'll keep an eye on this.

Thanks. Civilization is possibly the most involved though hopefully with Elements and Nature picking up some of the more tribal/primitive cultures, it won't be as demanding.

Elements? hah, I can make it rain 24/7 or just cast a random hurricane... but every part of the world has some ind of physical phenomena and people live in the world so I cross paths with civilization.@Too Old 4 This

I'm interested in this, especially in the Spirits or Magic coGM categories. We would also have characters, right?

Elements? hah, I can make it rain 24/7 or just cast a random hurricane... but every part of the world has some ind of physical phenomena and people live in the world so I cross paths with civilization.@Too Old 4 This

Yeah, elements would be fun because you can throw a storm at the PCs when you feel it's appropriate, invent new fantastic environmental hazards, and run adventures in the more hostile areas. Obviously there are reasonable limits, but this is why it's on advanced. Would not trust a casual with the power of lightning bolt.

I'm interested in this, especially in the Spirits or Magic coGM categories. We would also have characters, right?

Yes, though you would want to try and avoid crossover as much as possible. You shouldn't play a wizard if you are GMing magic, a forest elf if you are GMing nature, etc.

Honestly I almost called Magic. I have a personal pet peeve regarding fantasy worlds where magic is just arbitrary hocus pocus with no underlying theme or arcane logic that unifies it. Decided it would not be fair, though.

Honestly, I was leaning towards the Spirit category. I have a predilection for thinking up mythologies and religions. I do agree that magic is most interesting when it follows some form of logic, though.

Yeah spirit would be fun. You'd be the end word on the world's creation myth(s) not to mention any other planes which existed in addition to the material world.

I'm thinking to start I'll ask for a very rough summary of the sphere of influence. Widely known aspects that every character would be familiar with from the start.

I'm thinking of starting my quest like this:"On the distance the travelers could make a high mountain. A mountain constantly surrounded by storm clouds and lightning. The clouds only kept expanding at an increasing rate. They couldn't leave it alone. They had to investigate the cause of all this lest the whole continent be engulfed by the ominous storm."

I'm thinking of role-playing nature as something with a purpose instead of just based on cause and effect and laws of physics. I mean, have you heard of a lightning striking from a clear blue sky? They still can't explain why it happens. That's the fun behind it.

I'm thinking of starting my quest like this:"On the distance the travelers could make a high mountain. A mountain constantly surrounded by storm clouds and lightning. The clouds only kept expanding at an increasing rate. They couldn't leave it alone. They had to investigate the cause of all this lest the whole continent be engulfed by the ominous storm."

I'm thinking of role-playing nature as something with a purpose instead of just based on cause and effect and laws of physics. I mean, have you heard of a lightning striking from a clear blue sky? They still can't explain why it happens. That's the fun behind it.

You may be thinking about things the wrong way. I don't want to artifically dice up the world and story along these lines. Rather GMs should chime in organically as any story arc progresses. If you think there needs a storm you post the description in the IC. If Magic wants to write in a rogue wizard then they do the same. This requires a sense for pacing and narrative which is why it is here in advanced. If done right, the end product is a whole that is greater than the parts, one no single GM could have or would have created.

This confusion is my fault and I've modified the intro blurb so it's more clear we are going for a blended story rather than a rotating GM hat.

The problem with putting purpose into Nature is that is what Spirit is for. The point of Nature is that it lacks purpose. That being said, Nature can certainly be mercurial and hard to explain. Also beings like wood elves (should you choose to create them), unicorns, and Nature Gods would have purpose. The later however would require input from whoever is doing spirit as it is certainly crossover and would depend on how the spirit GM is dealing with deities.

This sounds really interesting, and I'd be so down for handling magic or monsters, but I have to see if another Rp I'm interested in goes anywhere/ the charcter I idea I had for that RP is acceptable.

This sounds really interesting, and I'd be so down for handling magic or monsters, but I have to see if another Rp I'm interested in goes anywhere/ the charcter I idea I had for that RP is acceptable.

Sorry for the late reply. I'm in Florida and Irma sent me back to stone age for a few days. We'd be glad to have you. One of the fun things about a quilt is that you're not always forced to draw within someone else's lines. Not only can you construct aspects of the world, the nature of the coGM interaction results in an unpredictable product.