Game Overview
Atlas (working title) is a game that combines cooperative worldbuilding and roleplaying. Influenced greatly by games like Lexicon and the Microscope game, (which I've never actually played..) I think this would work out rather well in Forum format for pacing and record-keeping. Read on brave RPer!
Every decision is democratic..
First we have to choose a basic world Premise. Premises are big ideas. A summary of our cooperatively built world in a sentence. This could be Fantasy or Science Fiction. Dystopian Fiction/Utopian Fiction, whatever really. This will get everyone on the same page and thinking along similar lines.
- Mankind has taken to the stars since Earth was destroyed long ago...
- Since the return of Magic...(and then another player could add something)
- The dark gods have seized power from those of the light...
We could go a couple rounds working on a Premise for the game. You could even add onto someone else's idea for a premise (i.e. Example 2..Since the return of Magic... and then someone could add: "the world has been destroyed by powerful sorcerers." Alternately someone might add...Since the return of Magic... "mankind has prospered alongside creatures of myth" or whatever. You see what I mean. The premise is the most zoomed-out descriptor of the world.
After we work out a premise we can start on the Timeline. We have to choose where we start and end the game. I think this is important for setting canon and consistency (just trust me on this). So yea, we all know how it's going to end, but let's be honest the fun part is in the middle of the story. We all knew Sauron was going to be defeated but we still stuck around for the Grey Havens. After we choose the start and end of our story no Events may be added before or after these points on our Timeline.
With Timeline and Premise out of the way, we get into the juicy bits. We get to start developing the rules of the world. Each player will get to add or ban things from the universe we are all playing in. The only restriction on this would be obvious things within the genre. Like you couldn't ban swords from a fantasy epic or spaceships from a Space Opera. Just...no. Unless you have a super-duper majority supported reason. Probably still no. This will probably take a while to hash out, but is the greatest opportunity to work out a setting that you can put characters you want to play as in.
Now come the guts of our story and world. Periods, Events, & Scenes. Periods are great swathes of history: The rule of a dynasty. The era of a dominating technology. The famine that killed the lizard-people. etc. Periods can only be placed between other periods or at the beginning and end of our Timeline. (duh.). Events happen within Periods of the Timeline. Major things. Big things that are critical to the plot and the history. Within Events are Scenes, the furthest zoomed in we can get in the game. Scenes are invented and actually roleplayed. This could be the storming of Black-Rock Bastion or the assassination of Emperor Guo Jia, etc. This gives a chance to really define the tone and nature of the world while skipping all the boring crap.
Game Terms
Premise Think of this as a big picture of our world. The theme and genre. The furthest zoomed out view.
Timeline The beginning and end of our story. Two landmark points in the history/world we build.
Periods Ages of history within our Timeline. Will help organize the timeline and keep Events & Scenes in the proper place.
Events Events happen within a given Period. The things that shape and define the world.
Scenes Want to roleplay the scene where the Dragon King finally retrieves the Sword of Narthraxus from the Cave of Demons? Well you can. Scenes happen within events and should make sense within that context. Scenes give a better idea of what the world and characters are like within the story.
Just an idea. I actually want something MUCH simpler but this is the core idea. Alternatively we could just use Premise, Timeline and then have two types of player written entry: "Narrative" which would basically be scenes and "Descriptive" where players could pick an item, character, location etc. and write an encyclopedic entry for it. Then other players could use those items in "Narrative" posts. Ok Discuss!