Overprotectiveness Around Worldbuilding

[Sierra]

I originally talked about this in a reddit community. Suffice to say the gamut opinions there was rather narrow. Thus I want to poll RPG about this as well. Maybe an interesting discussion will spawn.

I have a world of the sci-fi variety called Stardust that I've built up. It originally started as a setting born out of a roleplay, but those of us that created it kept it going as a worldbuilding project long after. All of the other participants have since dropped it but I keep working and tweaking at it. By this point, well over half the body of work is mine alone and I'm a little attached. Suffice to say, the project has become pretty massive over the years it's been developed. The written documentation is over 150 pages (none of it formatted for ease of reading) and the unwritten documentation - stuff discussed and decided but just never made it to written form at the time - is equally as plentiful, and gets bigger anytime a new question gets asked.

The sheer volume of the body of work, the immensity of the task to distill it down into something more digestible for an unfamiliar reader, and my personal attachment has led me to be pretty closed off about it in the roleplaying world. I'm afraid that people will get key relevant details wrong that I'll need to correct and that I then look like an ass for it. I'm hesitant to let other people back into a position to have significant effect on the lore of Stardust. The people I originally wrote it with have since become close friends and I trust them and their visions for this. But introducing new faces to it brings unknown variables.

So I present this to all of you to ask whether or not this phenomenon of extreme stinginess with my world is not limited to me. The world is incredibly detailed and dense and I'm fiercely protective of it to the point it's likely to never be used in a roleplaying setting ever again, since that opens it to interpretation and adaptation that isn't within my control. Beyond “just learn to go with the flow” which is quite predictably out of the question at this juncture, what are you people's thoughts on potentially working past those mental blocks? Or am I completely justified in my overprotectiveness? Discuss.

[DocRock]

I'm to an extent the same with my personal canon Rockverse, as well as overall with the research I've poured into the Rune Factory series. However, I've tried to make myself more open to stuff.

To new entries into the rp world, the best thing to do is lay out a basic set of information, the minimum they'd have to know on entry. Like if they're making a character, what's the absolute minimum that's needed? More dedicated players may dig into more stuff. As someone who has overwritten stuff more than once, yeah.

In all honesty, even though I've been at work on chipping away on my personal stuff, I don't think what I have reaches that much. Granted, its mostly been me alone with my research. And a lot of stuff unwritten. As someone whose personal OC is in a sense a lore glimpse into an entire verse, yeah, loads of respect.

I'd say being protective is fine, but take it like this. A player is gonna make mistakes if new, if its not a serious one, correct them IC. Like have an NPC pipe up, if its during the course of a narrative. Otherwise, if OOC, feedback is key. You can either tell them directly, or pick them up in DMs and chat about it.

Dunno if what I'm saying is quite clear, its late, I'm tired, and mentally drained from a lot of writing today.

[fer1323]

I think it is good to be protective if you have poured a lot of time and effort in the project thou it does not mean you can get into a blind rage if someone dislikes or critizes it. Each to their own. As long as they respect it while doing so and if not, then you be composed about and kindly say screw off while finding someone who will enjoy the world as much as you. If someone gives their reasons why they dislike it or if they critize it, use that as a means to make the world better or different from others. If every sci fi world was like star trek or star wars, it would feel limited and boring imo. Add and make veriatiy while keeping somethings that poeple are familiar with and enjoy. Best of both worlds.

[Spambot]

It's not exclusive at all. I have a fantasy lore and a science fiction lore in pretty heavy detail; the former bleeds into my fantasy gigs to a limited extent and the latter simply doesn't show up at all. Both are too well defined to be more than self hosted GM concepts, given I've created the paradox of being the only one able to host the world and given the investment it takes that I cannot offer, stifling my chances to even use it in roleplay.

Personally? I consider it a necessity to be able to either a) work around your lore and simply make something new for the sake of roleplay, or b) wield the creative energy to twist the results into something mallable for your content. Both of the aforementioned canons are composed of roleplays that didn't fit the world at all, and were posthumously made to do so. Inapplicable details were tweaked, but the core experience and the personalities involved still remain as legitimate entries to pad the depth.

Or, as noted above, decide you want to try and host something in the world anyways and make the ground rules very clear. It would take a special lore that couldn't possibly be simplified into a format a reader (we read here right?) could understand the gist from in a few blurbs, and you're bound to get some bites who get it if you've done your job, though you'll inevitably get bites that you don't and you'll need to handle them accordingly. The key to all of this is clearly communicating that you are stingy about the content and that you are trying to develop an already well developed lore, and that you will have very high standards for keeping continuity. As long as you make this clear and stay consistent, you are Kenobi on the high ground.

But again, that is not to say you have to use it in a roleplay context at all. You can relegate it to a background personal work and then branch out to things your mind does not have so completely defined. But staying with the core question, no, there's probably quite a few people who are the same way to some extent or another.

You couldn't be more shamed than when I just tried to make the community happy and all my friends were launched into orbit by nuclear detonation.

[BrokenPromise]

It's not exclusive to you. The more you put into something, the more proud and protective you become of it.

Should you make an RP with it? Absolutely not, haha. Roleplaying requires you to share stuff and be accepting of others. I have yet to see a fan RP that was entirely true to the source material, and all the players had the advantage of watching a show instead of reading some 150 page info dump. At this point you're probably better off shelving it for a book project later. Or just keep building on it, since it seems to be a process you enjoy.

[coffeeflower]

I'm to an extent the same with my personal canon Rockverse, as well as overall with the research I've poured into the Rune Factory series. However, I've tried to make myself more open to stuff.

To new entries into the rp world, the best thing to do is lay out a basic set of information, the minimum they'd have to know on entry. Like if they're making a character, what's the absolute minimum that's needed? More dedicated players may dig into more stuff. As someone who has overwritten stuff more than once, yeah.

In all honesty, even though I've been at work on chipping away on my personal stuff, I don't think what I have reaches that much. Granted, its mostly been me alone with my research. And a lot of stuff unwritten. As someone whose personal OC is in a sense a lore glimpse into an entire verse, yeah, loads of respect.

I'd say being protective is fine, but take it like this. A player is gonna make mistakes if new, if its not a serious one, correct them IC. Like have an NPC pipe up, if its during the course of a narrative. Otherwise, if OOC, feedback is key. You can either tell them directly, or pick them up in DMs and chat about it.

Dunno if what I'm saying is quite clear, its late, I'm tired, and mentally drained from a lot of writing today.

@DocRock

I think it's your project/universe and at some point it will mean money so it's better to take good care of it but the only way for knowing how a world works or if it works the way/s we like it to work is living it, and the safest, cheapest way to test a world is writting/roleplaying it