Recently, I started a new Friday night Pathfinder game that has been an experiment in collaborative world building, where the players take a major role in determining the feel and history and social dynamics of the planet. Since then, we've gotten 5 players through the first session, I thought I would start sharing some of the results and my own personal observations.
So I got this idea about a year ago of a world where solar wind started degrading the atmosphere of a planet, essentially turning the surface into lifeless wastes. However, long, long ago, the planet had been struck by a catastrophic meteor that had blown a deep crater into the planet. As the atmosphere was drained away on the surface, this crater had become the last refuge of the plants, animals, and intelligent races that used to be separated over the surface.
Within this crater, I created circular biomes reaching from the outer edge of the crater to the deep center where the fragment of the meteorite still lie. The outer ring would be the high wastes, a region transitioning between the hell-like surface and rocky barren terrain at the outer edge of the crater. Slight closer to the center would be a broken ring of mountains. Inside that would be a scrub plain with low vegetation. Further inside the crater, there might be a partial ring of desert. Then there is a large region of plains with high and low forests within. In the deep center there would be a small sea and then finally a dead zone where radiation from the meteorite permeated the region. Somewhere underneath, there is a series of caves and caverns to support other kinds of life.
To further change the natural dynamic of the world, I put this crater in a region where it never gets completely dark. Then I covered the hell-like surface with devils, demons, and other unnatural creatures that periodically try to invade Krasis. This common enemy would give the races in the crater, Krasis, a reason not to kill each other.
Now, what this backdrop needed, was races. I am tired of using the tried and true dwarves, elves, half-orcs, gnomes, and halflings. This world deserved something better. I considered building the races myself, but I chose not to because it was a huge undertaking. My first goal with this project was building a world in a crater. My second goal was reducing the Pathfinder ruleset to something manageable, so I wouldn't have to spend a lot of time on the campaign. Giving the races to the players fit with this second goal.
So I put out my roll20 LFG, with a pretty simple ruleset. Core Pathfinder Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, and Advanced Race Guide were the only resources allowed. You get 15 race points to build your race with ecology, and then you get to build your character with a 15 point buy. All backup characters must be of the same race, but a different class. I encouraged coordination of character building so all the party's abilities were covered. Initially 7 players showed interest, but halfway through the week, players fell behind and left the campaign, leaving me with 5 races, characters, and players by the time Friday rolled around. What happened in that first week was pure magic.
The players, all of whom were experienced, some of whom had GMing experience, started building the world from the races. They added gods, which I required only to be reskinned from the deities in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. They added conflicts and history. They added culture. Some even added or requested new creatures to support their races. My simplistic framework in one amazing week sprung to life with the creativity of the players.
After the races were solidified, I added some new races to fill a few holes. I also shared my plan to use some non-core races from the Advanced Race Guide to play "dying races" to fill in NPCs and foes. I had the players publish their races, deities, ecologies, and such in the forums. I was surprised to find a cross-race lore forum topic appear. The players were coordinating the world building on their own.
Our first roleplaying session, last Friday, was pure magic. Five strange races came together during the journey to answer the call from a central republic, taking shelter in an old tomb together. Each character had its role, broken from the mold of the old races, with innovative new abilities. Some were more tribal; some were more intelligent; some were more animalistic; some were more exotic. All together though, they were all magical from a GM's point of view. The players had done a far better job with my vision than I would have.
The moral of this story is when you have experienced players, give them control. True, you are GM, controller of the world and all the obstacles in the party's path, but there is no reason not to give the players a balanced hand in building the flavor of the world. If your players are like mine, you might be really surprised at how wonderful the outcome is.
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| Krasis: The Crater Planet |
Within this crater, I created circular biomes reaching from the outer edge of the crater to the deep center where the fragment of the meteorite still lie. The outer ring would be the high wastes, a region transitioning between the hell-like surface and rocky barren terrain at the outer edge of the crater. Slight closer to the center would be a broken ring of mountains. Inside that would be a scrub plain with low vegetation. Further inside the crater, there might be a partial ring of desert. Then there is a large region of plains with high and low forests within. In the deep center there would be a small sea and then finally a dead zone where radiation from the meteorite permeated the region. Somewhere underneath, there is a series of caves and caverns to support other kinds of life.
To further change the natural dynamic of the world, I put this crater in a region where it never gets completely dark. Then I covered the hell-like surface with devils, demons, and other unnatural creatures that periodically try to invade Krasis. This common enemy would give the races in the crater, Krasis, a reason not to kill each other.
Now, what this backdrop needed, was races. I am tired of using the tried and true dwarves, elves, half-orcs, gnomes, and halflings. This world deserved something better. I considered building the races myself, but I chose not to because it was a huge undertaking. My first goal with this project was building a world in a crater. My second goal was reducing the Pathfinder ruleset to something manageable, so I wouldn't have to spend a lot of time on the campaign. Giving the races to the players fit with this second goal.
So I put out my roll20 LFG, with a pretty simple ruleset. Core Pathfinder Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, and Advanced Race Guide were the only resources allowed. You get 15 race points to build your race with ecology, and then you get to build your character with a 15 point buy. All backup characters must be of the same race, but a different class. I encouraged coordination of character building so all the party's abilities were covered. Initially 7 players showed interest, but halfway through the week, players fell behind and left the campaign, leaving me with 5 races, characters, and players by the time Friday rolled around. What happened in that first week was pure magic.
The players, all of whom were experienced, some of whom had GMing experience, started building the world from the races. They added gods, which I required only to be reskinned from the deities in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. They added conflicts and history. They added culture. Some even added or requested new creatures to support their races. My simplistic framework in one amazing week sprung to life with the creativity of the players.
After the races were solidified, I added some new races to fill a few holes. I also shared my plan to use some non-core races from the Advanced Race Guide to play "dying races" to fill in NPCs and foes. I had the players publish their races, deities, ecologies, and such in the forums. I was surprised to find a cross-race lore forum topic appear. The players were coordinating the world building on their own.
Our first roleplaying session, last Friday, was pure magic. Five strange races came together during the journey to answer the call from a central republic, taking shelter in an old tomb together. Each character had its role, broken from the mold of the old races, with innovative new abilities. Some were more tribal; some were more intelligent; some were more animalistic; some were more exotic. All together though, they were all magical from a GM's point of view. The players had done a far better job with my vision than I would have.
The moral of this story is when you have experienced players, give them control. True, you are GM, controller of the world and all the obstacles in the party's path, but there is no reason not to give the players a balanced hand in building the flavor of the world. If your players are like mine, you might be really surprised at how wonderful the outcome is.
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