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Problem #17: Defining the Setting
142 Plays14 days ago
This week, Kristian and Tracy talk about the process of defining the setting and the creation of a "setting bible" whatever that may look like for you. Tracy talks about the concept of the "Axes of Conflict" and how they can help you define what's most important about your setting for PCs to engage with. We also touch on this problem in terms of defining the setting's in-game goals. What do you reward your PCs for doing in the world, and what are the variety of ways they can accomplish them? All this helps create a congruent, coherent universe that has something to say and makes players excited to engage with your creation.
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Transcript
Introduction: Defining RPG Settings
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Designing Problems RPG Podcast, where we explore RPG development and all the intentional and unintentional problems we create along the way. I'm Christian Serrano. And I'm Tracy Sizemore. We're your hosts for this dubious insight.
00:00:19
Speaker
And this week, we're going to talk about problem number 17, defining the settings.
00:00:44
Speaker
Yes. So of the things that we have to do when we're creating a setting or an adventure or both is we have to figure out what's this world, right?
00:00:55
Speaker
We have to define certain things because we're going to be writing against them, right? with With these assumptions, with these ideas, these themes, these characters, these places, right?
00:01:07
Speaker
And sometimes we kind of, you know, it's easy to just jump in and just start, I'm just going to start writing things. And then we go and revise and we revisit and we change. And that's, like that's great. I'm a big fan that. I love it. It's fun. It's chaos. And I embrace chaos because I'm ADHD. Yeah.
00:01:22
Speaker
But at a certain point, I feel like like now with Explorer, for example, like we got our outline for our, you know, plot point campaign. But now we're starting to ask questions. Well, does this make sense? Or like, what would this really be like in this world? Or how would really how does this look if you're living in this experience? You know, those kinds of things.
The Role of Setting Bibles
00:01:43
Speaker
And one of the things I recently started kind of getting obsessed about, Tracy, you've heard me talk about this, is is the idea of a setting Bible. Mm-hmm. Right? Where, you know, I actually went so far as to reach out to to keith Keith Baker, Eberron, Gloom, all the other awesome stuff he does, um to you ask him it. Because he's had experience, right, with setting Bibles. One for Eberron, obviously.
00:02:10
Speaker
Yep. and then he's also done some like video game you know design as well where they're setting bibles involved and and so on and it was a fascinating conversation because it was it was very much about like well well so so here's the other thing setting bibles aren't really just for you they're actually for anyone else who's going to be touching your setting right so it's something you kind of build it's like a living document you build it along the way But it's that codified reference for framing like, okay, how how does somebody who's going a video game for this setting think of you know understand this world?
00:02:45
Speaker
How does somebody who's going to write an adventure understand this world? And so i i've I've found that fascinating. So what I'm actually doing personally is I'm trying to go back and and you know create a sort of setting Bible for Explora.
00:03:00
Speaker
Um, Tracy, I'm sure you're asking, well, what the hell is a setting Bible? What the heck is a setting Bible? Right. So basically a setting Bible is a collection of chapters of different aspects of your setting.
00:03:15
Speaker
And these, these chapters can be things like, you know, it could be history, um, could be major characters like NPCs and such major groups, organizations, cultures, factions, or just powers, so to speak.
00:03:29
Speaker
Um, um, It also has the locations, the important locations that that are... that and and And it's not just naming them, it's defining them. and like This is what this is about thematically, and this is what happens here, and this is how these people think and feel and in this region, or you know whatever it might be.
00:03:52
Speaker
um I'm sure Keith could probably talk about this way better than I do, but... I'm going to fight the imposter syndrome that we talked about. yeah So, um, just keep swimming.
00:04:02
Speaker
just I'm going to keep swimming. Um, so yeah. And then, and then of course, major themes, which you had, you've introduced me to a really cool concept that I think ties into this. And that's the axes of conflict.
00:04:14
Speaker
And when you explain it to me, i ah i just fell in love with it. And so tell us a little bit about that. This is something I think would fit really well in like a themes chapter. But if if you think it fits somewhere else, feel free like to elaborate.
Tools for Consistency: Timelines and Axes of Conflict
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, ah first, i it's interesting because I've a setting Bible. It's not something that I've really written for Hancluster. It's not something I've really done. I've gotten i've got aspects of it.
00:04:42
Speaker
Right, right. I've got my the biggest sort of demonstration of that I have for Hancluster is my master timeline. Right. So the secret master timeline that covers from hope Expedition, well, before that actually, it covers from way before, um all the way up to the present day.
00:05:04
Speaker
And part of part of it's important to me to have consistency and specifics about what happened when, because the history of the Hong cluster is important.
00:05:15
Speaker
Right. When was Carina Lotz living? When did the Draxel communication network get developed? When did, you know, Fast and Light Travel get developed? And when was this planet discovered or that planet discovered?
00:05:28
Speaker
It matters. It just does. And at least at least to me, and especially when when you're starting to... engage with some of the things that I do in the plot point campaign. So that I consider my my most important part of my setting viable as in as much as I have one.
00:05:49
Speaker
That said, the rest of it came with you know writing the book. So I wrote locations of places. I wrote groups. I wrote, you know, like organizations. I wrote these things and they all sort of came together from that central idea.
00:06:06
Speaker
And part of the central idea that I really did think about um early on with Han Cluster, and this is again, partly inspired by Daryl thinking, his thinking along these lines is the axes of conflict.
00:06:21
Speaker
And i can... I can define like the major a lot of the major settings that i like. i can help you I can help point out what the axis of conflict of those settings are.
00:06:37
Speaker
And what I mean by that are in han Cluster, I've got six different viewpoints, six different things that are important on a day-to-day basis in the setting.
00:06:50
Speaker
These six things are things that PCs or NPCs or characters in the setting will all have some kind of opinion about. They may have an extreme opinion on one side or the other of these axes, as I call them, or they may be more in the middle.
Dynamic Interactions: Axes of Conflict in Action
00:07:05
Speaker
But somebody, everybody, is going to have a strong opinion, usually, about at least one of these. right So the axes of conflict for the Han Cluster, for example...
00:07:16
Speaker
are freedom versus safety, meaning is it more important to be free or to be safe? these this These things are on the opposite end of a spectrum. And the people who live on Venen and Tract are all about freedom, right?
00:07:31
Speaker
The people who live on the government of Edenic is all about safety. It doesn't mean either of them is wrong, but if the extreme ends, those things are a problem.
00:07:42
Speaker
Right. Right. Yeah. Well, too far safety, too far freedom in like in the real world. It's it becomes a problem. Right. And somebody almost every character in the in the setting is going to have some opinion on that.
00:07:56
Speaker
Where they fall. If you're from Venon, you're going to be more generally on the freedom side. If you're more on from Edenic, you're going to be more accustomed to the safety of the laws that are there and the comfort with which you live because of security that's around you.
00:08:10
Speaker
Right. Another axis of conflict is next versus reality. That seems like an obvious one. Is the next good or is it bad? right right And I want to create a setting in which people will have views on both sides and they will be in some way valid views. right um And the other one is Earth versus Edenic.
00:08:34
Speaker
Earth is out there. We are paranoid about Earth. Earth is a threat. And you know that's going to enter into our daily lives. yeah right All three of those axes come up regularly.
00:08:48
Speaker
in the Hanclister setting. there That does not say there's not more of them. there's not this That's not to say that there's not ah that there's there are adventures that don't directly deal with these three axes.
00:09:00
Speaker
But most adventures in some way will engage with them. you know Or atll it'll at least come up yeah in some context. right Yeah, it'll come up, right? And the reason I bring this up is that if you have a—you don't have to do it in the way that I'm describing it, but it's it's really good if you have a very clear idea of what your viewpoints, what your conflicts are in the setting, what your themes that you're trying to convey with your setting are.
00:09:35
Speaker
Star Wars is an easy one, right? Yeah. we We came up with a couple—Christian and I—before we recorded, we have dark side versus light side. Clear axis of conflict in Star Wars.
00:09:48
Speaker
Force versus skills. I have the force. i i I have what I see. have what I can do. Right. Freedom versus order. Empire versus rebellion.
00:10:00
Speaker
Like whatever way you want to put that, that's obviously an axis of conflict in Star Wars and it's going to be in almost every adventure in some way. Yeah. We've even seen in films where characters, like using Star Wars as the example, where characters um step out of one to the other. I mean, Anakin, obviously. Yes. Light side, a dark side.
00:10:19
Speaker
Yep. Finn, right? at the He was a stormtrooper. And he's like, this isn't right. He's just a regular skills dude. Yeah. Yeah, just a regular skills dude. He's like, this is, well, there's, there's room, there's suspicions and theories. sure, sure. she But, um but generally speaking, he, he starts reflecting on what's, what he's doing as a storm trooper. And he's like, this doesn't feel right.
00:10:41
Speaker
Right. And then he ends up, you know, defecting to, to the rebellion. So that, so. Even if these things seem extreme, that's not to say that a player, for example, can't go you know in and in one direction or another.
00:10:57
Speaker
right Like Anakin was a main character. That's what that's his arc. you know Right. that's That's part of the fun. isn Yeah. is that that that this These axes, when well done, pit characters against each other in a fun way.
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah. Right? If Han Cluster, if if like there there may be a character that says, i don't trust the next. Next is bad. That's Crack Bailey, the one of the archetypes in the Han Cluster.
00:11:24
Speaker
Next is bad. I don't trust it. Versus Cicada, who ends up in so in many of the games that I play becoming sort of best friends with Crack by the end of the campaign. Whereas the Crack has come around.
00:11:38
Speaker
He's moved away from reality toward the next. Yeah. Right. Yeah. But at the same time, you could have somebody that moves in the opposite direction. And since there are three axes and this is there's more than that, this simplified, but but it's it's ah it's exemplary of what I'm talking about.
00:11:57
Speaker
where it allows both PCs and NPCs to move along those lines, make decisions, and help define their characters based on these main conflict areas of the setting.
00:12:13
Speaker
right And if you don't have those, if they're not there, whether you define them like this or in some other way, it becomes a little harder to engage with the settings.
00:12:26
Speaker
Right. right because Because it's like where when i when I create a character, one of the things I love trying to to think about is how do I view this world? right How do I view this setting? What are what are my viewpoints exactly in this setting? you know um what What are my convictions? yes That kind of thing.
00:12:46
Speaker
And I think having a tool, out honestly, I'm really wondering if this is something that should be in the book, you know like just as a sidebar you know for players even. Yeah, i i i've came i came to the conclusion, and I could be wrong, that this is much, much better suited as a designer behind the curtain thing.
00:13:04
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Because the players don't need to know. yeah They don't need to know necessarily that it's dark side versus light side or that's force versus skills or that's freedom versus order. youre You don't need to define those axes for them.
00:13:17
Speaker
Because if you do your job well enough, it'll come out anyway. That's true. In a much more immersive kind of way. Yeah, organically.
Evolving Settings: Flexibility and Player Input
00:13:25
Speaker
Organically, exactly. It'll be like, I want to play a Jedi.
00:13:28
Speaker
I'm obviously on the side of the Force. right Right. Well, for now. I want to play a smuggler who does nothing to do with nothing to do with the Force. Right. I don't want anything to do with that crazy mysticism stuff.
00:13:41
Speaker
Right. and Until you get, you know, on the crosshairs of the Empire. Right. Exactly. um But yeah, so, I mean, it's going to come out. is If you define it well, it will organically come out for the players to engage with. they'll They'll sort of just automatically understand. Ah, it informs everything. It informs your archetypes. It informs how you design adventures. It informs the skills that are in your game.
00:14:06
Speaker
It informs the edges that you have. All of that yeah is in there. That's powerful. And if you can think about it in those terms, it'll help you create a setting that is playable and interesting to engage with for players.
00:14:25
Speaker
And that's why I bring it up. That's why I'm sort of passionate about it. It doesn't necessarily mean it has to be in that form, but it is something you need to think about in one form or another. No, I think I find it fascinating because...
00:14:38
Speaker
You know, I, I'm, I don't want to say I'm stuck. It's not stuck. Like i I don't know what to do, but stuck in terms of like, I'm in the midst of really thinking about the shape of the world before I go back to working on the plot point.
00:14:54
Speaker
and And because I know that the shape of the world is going to inform the plot point, you know, you know what i mean? Like, and, and, and it's the, or the plot point campaign, I should say, not just one plot point.
00:15:05
Speaker
There's several, um, and And so this is one of those tools that when when you were talking to me about, I'm like, and okay, this is fat like, I never really thought of settings like this. And, and you know, now you got me thinking like, oh yeah, like I'm thinking of all these different settings, media games, whatever. I'm like, oh yeah, these are the different axes. And you know, this is, these are the things that come up in those stories.
00:15:29
Speaker
Yeah. And so, you know, I kind of want to do that for Explora as well. There's definitely one key one that we're, we're I mean, it's going to be it's going to be hitting you over the head with it.
00:15:41
Speaker
But i I want to find other opportunities for others, I think, that'll then i'll add some depth, yeah you know, to to the to the story. Yeah. I'll mention one more before I go off on another little thing.
00:15:54
Speaker
ETU, East Texas University. Yes. That's really, really obvious ones. Really simple ones. Yeah. Right? Grades versus heroism. Like, do we go? do we do we are we looking for good grades? Are we trying to do our thing or we do we need to stop this bad thing from happening? Or I got that social event at the frat party that I'm supposed to go to. you know yeah Right. Or school versus terrorism. Yeah. Or even like, you know, do I embrace the occult or do I fight against it? Right, like innocence yeah or purity versus corruption.
00:16:26
Speaker
Right. Right. Do you do embrace the powers that will help you fight the demons? Or do you shun the powers that will help you fight the demons in so that you don't become corrupted and become a demon yourself?
00:16:39
Speaker
Right. These are things that are in almost every ETU adventure. Right? they're um They're always there. You're going always have that temptation.
00:16:49
Speaker
Right. Of one or the other. Right. And you have to make decisions. And sometimes those decisions are going to change who you are. And that makes it fun.
00:17:00
Speaker
It also creates conflict between characters in a fun way, not in a PvP way, but in a way that's like, oh, I believe we should really, we need to do our studies, guys. We need to, you know, I'm i'm failing my...
00:17:12
Speaker
My whatever, my major, right? I got to study. Or are we going to deal with these ghosts over at this place that are harassing all these people? Right. you know I'm going to lose my work study job if I don't get over there. And if you can, if you can, the designers have done this work.
00:17:34
Speaker
yeah And if the GM can really bring that home, you've got something that's very special. And ETU is very popular because of all these very clear decisions that you have to make.
00:17:44
Speaker
Right, right. But one thing I wanted to say also was that these axes of conflict and what you're trying to do with Explora can come out...
00:17:56
Speaker
Not necessarily like I'm going to sit here and think think, think, think, think and have my axes done and now I can do my adventures. No, no, no. Like what we were saying in the beginning, start and, you know, previous episodes to start in a small microcosm, like it's starting a town, create an adventure, put it in front of players, see what they do.
00:18:18
Speaker
You will find the axes as you go. Right. You will find them. You just have to recognize what they are. Right. And so it's okay to play in order to discover what they are, because yeah you'll have your idea and the players will have theirs and then you'll find out.
00:18:38
Speaker
Right. and And that's, that's the thing about the setting Bible too. It's not, uh, it's, it's not etched in stone until you publish, I guess. But even then you might have a second edition where you make some changes, you know?
00:18:52
Speaker
Yeah, or yeah the the world might change. and The world might change, right. Yeah, exactly. And um so, you know, it's not etched in stone while you're designing, as as i guess is what I'm getting at. yeah You can, you know, if through playtesting or if through talking with somebody about your project or whatever it is, you're like, actually, no, that doesn't make sense.
00:19:12
Speaker
You're allowed to go and change things as you need to. yeah it's It's not etched in stone. it's a living document. um And then even after you're done with this book, you might come out with another adventure or a supplement where you're going to add to it or expand on it.
00:19:26
Speaker
You know, so it's not, you it's not end all be all. Um, but yeah, I, I, you know, i don't want to be, you made a good point.
00:19:38
Speaker
as far as like getting too caught up in creating this and not doing anything in design wise. Cause you know, cause like part of me is like, well, you know, i should probably just start running some sessions. Like we talked about last episode. I should probably just start. highly recommend it.
00:19:53
Speaker
Right. But I'm afraid to because I'm like, oh, but I'm going to be, you know, sitting there like, oh, but I don't know how we we haven't defined that yet. You know, that's OK, but that's OK. Right. exactly that's That's the point is that's OK, because this is helping you define it.
00:20:08
Speaker
It's right. So. That's right. I mean, the other thing is, um like, you just don't want to do over overdo it. You don't want to be like we talked about last episode, head down, all by yourself, whatever you're trying to do about this setting, working in isolation. Because this is a game. Yeah.
00:20:30
Speaker
It needs players in order to live. if you The more you exclude the players from your design process, the more exclusive your game will be of of PCs, of players. right The more the more the stuff is going to be already solved before they get there.
00:20:47
Speaker
Yeah, just that. Especially if you're new to this. I think an interesting thing, too, One of the things I like about everyone is there's several things that are undefined.
00:20:59
Speaker
And, you know, like what caused the day of mourning, which is when Seer was completely wiped from the world and it's just a magical wasteland now. That question will never be answered. That question isn't even answered in the setting Bible.
00:21:14
Speaker
And it's intentional because they wanted to leave that open for GM to run with. So it's okay to even leave those blank spots. Right. Those things that are unanswered, you know, and not, not even define them for yourself. Maybe you have an idea of what your version of that is, you know, but i think, I think it's okay to like, just, yeah, just leave a couple of blanks for sure. there I've done it with on cluster.
00:21:40
Speaker
Yeah. Deliberate unsolved things. Awesome. And, uh,
00:21:48
Speaker
Because as David Lynch says, once you solve the mystery, people don't want to engage with it anymore. Yeah. They're done. Yeah. They leave. They don't even think about it. They don't. It's gone from their head.
00:22:00
Speaker
Well, it's kind of like, you know, the monster that's no longer scary because you've seen it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Right. You've had the cathartic moment of seeing the monster. And now, now what? Yeah.
00:22:13
Speaker
It better be a really dangerous monster like a xenomorph to be afraid of. still But even still, you're going to put that xenomorph in shadow and not be able to see the whole thing. Right. You know mean? Right, right, right.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah, it suddenly comes out of nowhere. yeah Right. The other thing that I wanted to to mention is is there can be very subtle differences in how you engage with some of these conflicts and in in the sense of, and I know we're like,
00:22:38
Speaker
We're concentrating on this, but I'm passionate about I'm really interested this. No, I think it's fascinating. I think it's a central aspect of the setting. is I could have done machines versus humans in in the Han cluster.
00:22:51
Speaker
right I deliberately did not think of that as an axis of conflict. It is, but it's more along the lines of next versus reality.
00:23:03
Speaker
That's why next versus reality is a conflict and not machines versus humans.
Handling Serious Themes Thoughtfully
00:23:07
Speaker
Because if it was machines versus humans, and it it is to a certain extent, but deep down, it's actually next versus reality.
00:23:14
Speaker
If it was machines versus humans, it turns dark. Yeah. It turns ugly. And I'm trying to make an optimistic setting. There are certainly people who don't like machines, right? They don't like the linked machines and or or they feel that they're bad or whatever.
00:23:33
Speaker
But I'm framing it instead as they don't trust the next. Right. And the next created linked machines or at least has something to do with them. right They don't know what, but it has something to do with them. And now it's become ah it's a conflict between X versus reality, which is much more interesting and much more sustainable than sort of stepping back into a more racist sort of thing, which is a machines versus humans thing.
00:24:02
Speaker
Well, and it and it gets uncomfortable even when, especially because these are these are ro character types that ah player can adopt. And so if you have that even in your group, it can get ugly fast. I mean, you you know, there's a certain amount of trust in your player group and maturity that, you know,
00:24:20
Speaker
you you you can have but in a con game let's say you don't know what you're going to get you know and that can be kind of kind of it can get ugly like you said um it's a subtle difference but it's it's a difference and it actually works And like even in, know, like in Ebron, Ebron has some of that too, like with Warforged, for example, where, you know, there's a lot of people who, you know, because they are, they're living weapons, they, you know, are reminders of the last war, which just ended.
00:24:51
Speaker
And, you know, the they were previously property. And so people are like, no, they shouldn't be free. No, they they they're they're just tools. And I don't like seeing them because they can immediately just go berserk or whatever and cause damage as a living weapon.
00:25:06
Speaker
It's literally like, ah you know, a living sword walking around, you know, um and, and you can, you can ramp that up, you know, but it, you know, it can become, it can be, be either intriguing where you're fighting against the racists, so to speak, yeah or it can become interpersonal conflict where a player might be like, you know what My character doesn't like Warforged.
00:25:31
Speaker
He doesn't like you. And, you know, that can get kind of ugly and and uncomfortable. Yeah, it depends on the group. but Yeah, it depends on the group. Right. You know, but if you're if you want to create a in your case, your setting is about hope.
00:25:44
Speaker
Mm that's not a very hope thing, you know, like it's kind of, it's, it's conflict that historically just has never really gotten completely resolved, you know?
00:25:56
Speaker
yeah So it's, it's kind of hard to try to make that happen in, in a setting as well, you know? what if Yeah. if you concentrate on, on that, if that little tweak makes, makes a difference, yeah it's still going to be there.
00:26:09
Speaker
mean, preserve is after linked machines. They think they want to, they want to kill them, but they're the bad guys in the setting. Right. right They're the bad guys. They're the bad guys. Right. And one way or the other, you're going to realize they're the bad guys.
00:26:21
Speaker
You know? Yeah. um Yeah. And and even in Explorer, one of the, one of the axes I started thinking about, um, it actually, Jen and I were thinking about this before I even heard this concept of the, of the axes of conflict.
00:26:38
Speaker
And it's that, um, Player characters, for example, can can play a character that has innate powers. right For some reason, it's unexplained. itll It gets explained in the story, but at the beginning of the campaign, you don't know why. you just For some reason, some people have innate powers. and you know i raised the question of, well, here the here's a community that they're trying to survive in this new world.
00:27:04
Speaker
there It's been maybe a year. you know we haven't fully decided that yet. but not a long time, and they're trying to get whatever resources they can to survive.
00:27:15
Speaker
Would they see these people as, you have an obligation to help us survive, use your power to you know go out and explore or you know find food or you know heal us or you know provide comfort?
00:27:29
Speaker
you know Would they be pigeonholed into a role as a sense of obligation that's imposed on them Or would they you know would it be more of an altruistic thing? Like it's our responsibility to help the community, you know and and that's what we want to do with these powers.
00:27:45
Speaker
you know and Yeah, and that could be like ah an access of freedom versus responsibility. Right. And so we're trying to figure out if we want to amp that up some, um, because it, but it could get ugly, right? Like, yeah you know, it could become, you know, or it could be a, ah like Magneto and mutants thing, right? Like, no, we should rule, you know, cause we're the next evolution.
00:28:09
Speaker
Um, and so that's something we're trying to figure out. So I think it's not just about like whether or not the axes exists, but maybe how it's framed and presented. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know, you know, i don't know if you've wrestled with that, you know, in in terms of the axes that you've designed for Hancluster or are there, were there aspects of it where you're like, well, i need to be careful on how, you know, I'm framing freedom versus safety. Like, is it like, are there rebellions happening where, you know, there's like violence in the streets?
00:28:36
Speaker
Is that something you bring focus to? Or is it just more of like political viewpoints? You know what i mean? Or something in between. It's it's both. It comes to a head in both ways. Yeah. Right. and And I was okay with that.
00:28:47
Speaker
Because ah that that feels that feels like ah it's interesting without super triggering, you know, in most most circumstances. Of course, everything can can can cause anguish just to somebody. Sure, sure.
00:29:03
Speaker
But certainly next versus reality over machines versus humans is one I did think about and deliberately decided I'm i'm i'm in in the subtle ways that I am describing this setting and how I create adventures and how I do things.
00:29:24
Speaker
I'm framing it in next versus reality versus yeah instead of machines versus humans. Honestly, when when I played in Trinity's Mustang, I loved how integrated it felt that machines just lived among humans.
00:29:37
Speaker
e It was just matter of fact. On Edenic, it is matter of fact. Right. Yeah. And there's other planets where it's like. Where it's not so much. Right. Yeah, I only saw Edenic.
00:29:49
Speaker
Right, right. But it's not realistic if I don't have that. True. So it's gots it's got to be there. It's just ah how much I engage with it is is and how much a GM engages with it is really up to their to their group.
00:30:03
Speaker
But it you know but it is there yeah All these human conflicts are always there. It's a matter of how much you engage with them. Right. Yeah. how How they're framed and how you engage.
00:30:15
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. but But yeah. So...
Adaptive Setting Bibles
00:30:21
Speaker
Like, there's that. There's the axis of conflict. And weve we've spent lots of time on it. I just, I find it so important and so interesting. And again, you don't have to do it like I'm describing it, like we're describing it. It it can be, it just has to be there in some way.
00:30:39
Speaker
Well, like even in a lighthearted way, like let's let's take necessary evil, right? Where you're villains saving the world, but not for, you know, altruistic reasons. yeah It's your world. That's my rule.
00:30:53
Speaker
You know, step off. But that could be a full kind that could be an axis, especially in a specific GM's game. Yeah. altism Altruism versus villainy. Right. And, and, or even, ah the idea that you are villains, you're doing this for the sake of just like reclaiming your world.
00:31:12
Speaker
All of a sudden though, the people in your neighborhood, in your city are revering you as heroes and they're calling you heroes and they're giving you gifts and they're showering you with adoration, which is not something yeah know i mean Unless you're a megalomaniac character, you're typically not okay with. You're like, no, stop giving me gifts. like um I'm going to conquer you one day.
00:31:34
Speaker
i'm go i just stole from you. Stop. right you know and um and And then you know how do you shift as a character? Do you shift as a character? Do you start thinking in terms of, no, yeah, we should be helping these people?
00:31:47
Speaker
i and or I think in in one of Daryl's teams before i was I was back there, he had one one character by played by my friend John Eddy who was moonlighting as a hero.
00:31:58
Speaker
Mm-hmm. um secretly yeah away from the party so they didn't find out oh wow and part of his motivation for that was just like looking at his fellow party members and going man you're terrible you're a terrible person wow i know but I don't know if I want to be that terrible anymore and that's part of that's part of the arc right altruism versus villainy or heroism versus villainy or whatever that's definitely a hero kind of thing yeah yeah There's a lot of fun things you can do, i think, on the on the creation side.
00:32:32
Speaker
Now, is is this something that you know you you have people writing for you, right? yeah Is this something you present to them and say, hey, keep this in mind as you're writing? Yes.
00:32:42
Speaker
In fact, I have it in the book. um The Creating Adventures chapter has these axes in the book. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it is in the book. It is. It is in the book. It's just not in the player section. Right. Okay. Right. That makes sense. It's in the, if you want to create adventures, here are the three major axes of conflict in the Han cluster.
00:33:03
Speaker
Here are the, here's a couple of important things. One of like precepts or, or concepts. Governments are not evil in the Han cluster. Right.
00:33:14
Speaker
They're just not evil. And I explain it. I explain what I mean by that. yeah They're all trying to do their best for the people that they have. Nobody's out to get anybody. yeah They may make mistakes.
00:33:25
Speaker
They may inadvertently oppress somebody, but they don't they don't mean to do that. they mean they want They want what's best for you earnestly. Earnestly, right. And if you make it's it's one of the precepts.
00:33:40
Speaker
if you If you make a villainous government, You're not playing the Han Cluster as I've envisioned And that's in the book. Like, you don't have to follow it.
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, was going to say, be fair. If you want it to feel like a Han Cluster adventure, this is what you do. Yeah, that's that's right. If you want to take this and use it as inspiration for a different story, have at it.
00:34:01
Speaker
Right. You know, yeah. Right, right. right Right. But yeah, it's in the book. and And I also want to reiterate, like, the setting setting Bible, like,
00:34:13
Speaker
It implies that there's this big tome. It might be. like It's like this like tissue paper thin pages. Right. Thousand page book.
Maintaining Consistency in Collaborative Works
00:34:25
Speaker
Here's my setting button. Yeah. You know, thump. There it is. But it's it's not that. It's more... It could be organized piece of of chaptered material. Right. Or it could be just a sort of disorganized collection of things that you've developed for the setting. Yeah.
00:34:45
Speaker
Including a timeline, a map, ah major places, or gazetteer, or whatever you're going to do. Or or it could just be a how you wrote the book, eventually. Yeah.
00:34:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's your studying Bible. i think it has to I think the important thing is to be flexible about what that means. Yeah. Because some people will say, do I need this thousand-page studying Bible? whoa look at some published settings. like i i I love the idea of Hal Frost, by the way. I just want to be clear.
00:35:14
Speaker
like I have the core books still and many PDFs. But man, is the amount of content daunting. And Wiggy, he was very prolific when he was creating Hell Frost and writing for it and publishing for it.
00:35:30
Speaker
But some of those books are thick. Like, you know, that Atlas book he did, thick. You know, there's a lot in there. And I can see as a creator, you know, like, yeah, that's so fascinating.
00:35:45
Speaker
fun to produce, you know, but if that's something you're trying to work into the, into the published product, then it, it, it can immediately become overwhelming, you know? And so I think, you know, or even if somebody else, again, somebody else stepping in to try to create for you, um, you know, that can be, that can be overwhelming, you know, oh yeah and even counterproductive in some ways.
00:36:10
Speaker
So i think I think you're right. i think I think using it just enough so that, you know, don't let it enslave you. Right. If somebody's going to write an adventure on, you know, one of the other planets in Hancluster, there's a reference there.
00:36:26
Speaker
They can look at it. Okay, here's the gist of what that life is like on that planet. Here are the important people. Here are the important groups. You know, this is sort of the culture there, you know, whatever it might be, you know.
00:36:37
Speaker
as As a Delphi mission author for TORG, they gave me the source book for that particular cosm,
Reflecting Conflicts in Goals
00:36:43
Speaker
and i read through the source book. I didn't read every word. ah read...
00:36:47
Speaker
what I was interested in and to to find the holes and hooks that I could use to create an adventure. Right. Hopefully, whoever you're turning it over to is also looking over your work and saying, you know, trying to catch anything that might not jive. asking questions Right. Yeah.
00:37:09
Speaker
You know, and the other thing about the Sitting Bible for Explorer, it's just me and Jen, but but that's part of it, too, is that Jen and I are both writing. Yeah. And so it's important for us. Common reference. Exactly. That we're, we're on we have and a mutual understanding of certain assumptions about the world, you know? And so, yeah, that's kind of, that's kind of where we're coming from with it.
00:37:29
Speaker
um Yeah. One more, one more thing that was related to the, to the axis of conflict again is, is goals. It's another way of looking at it, right? Yeah. What are the goals that you're going to reward PCs for pursuing?
00:37:43
Speaker
You know what? Right. What each setting has different ones. You know, are you going to reward them for killing people or killing monsters in dungeons and taking their stuff? Or are you going to reward them for brokering trust and ah ah compromise in a political situation or whatever?
00:38:03
Speaker
Right. And. That's important. It's important to figure that out. You know, unless, unless part of that type of story is, you know, like, like with Eberron, things don't always end well.
00:38:16
Speaker
Yeah. Right. That could be a thing. Right. Right. It could be a goal that could be accomplished in multiple different ways. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You succeeded in that thing, but at the cost of that thing happening, you know, Like, yeah, Indiana Jones got the arc, but now the U.S. government has it.
00:38:30
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah. but that's just another way of looking at those axes of conflict is is what are the goals of the setting? Yeah. I like that. I like that. Anything else?
00:38:43
Speaker
Well, a quick question regarding the goals with the axes, the because the goal isn't
Conclusion and Community Engagement
00:38:47
Speaker
necessarily like one end of an axis or the other, right? No, not necessarily. Right. it's it's it's It's just a different way of looking at defining the setting.
00:38:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. of Of what's important. Right. You know, what are the, what are the, what is the, like again, we've talked about this. What is the iconic adventure in your setting? Right.
00:39:09
Speaker
What are you trying to do? Right. Yeah. What, what is the, what is the player expected to do? Yeah. Right. All right then. Awesome. I feel like an expert now.
00:39:20
Speaker
Oh, good.
00:39:22
Speaker
Well, you, you let me know how you embody that feeling and convince yourself that it's true because I'm still working on it. Yes. It'll, it'll fuel me for the next, uh, you know, month.
00:39:34
Speaker
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00:39:51
Speaker
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