MW Starter Module - Page 3 - OG Myth-Weavers

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MW Starter Module

 
Quote:
Originally Posted by World of L_Tiene View Post
for drawings or background data?
Sorry for my lack of clarity. But I meant art.

A note about clarifying why we are using Generic Concepts: this is taken straight from the GUIDES and is a direct quote from a user...

http://www.myth-weavers.com/wiki/ind...tting_Selected

do not mistakenly equate "more exotic" or "more powerful" with "better."

There are some players who turn up their noses at commonplace characters because they prefer "real roleplaying"--meaning they prefer to play something impossibly exotic and powerful (Undead half-dragons and half-demon/half-celestials, mineralized warriors, etc.) and believe lower powered characters are "boring."

Simply put, if a player isn't creative enough to make a human warrior "not boring"--if they can't come up with something unique and interesting enough to make the character exciting--then they very likely can't do it with a Royal-Cosmic-Vampiric-Dragon-Elf.

Instead of having a flat, lifeless, cardboard character, They will have a flat, lifeless, cardboard character with lots of powers and pointed ears and that is all.

There is nothing wrong implicitly with playing advanced character concepts with lots of powers, but in all cases take extra time to ensure your character has creative depth. What that means exactly, and what types of things you will want to include will vary drastically depending upon the game, GM, and other players involved.



Now lets get right to the meat of this side discussion:

The concept "Dwarf with axe" is literally a cliche trope concept. The background development is specifically where we will discuss the ins and outs of the character to make them interesting (however background will be left open enough where each person can interpret what the text means for themselves and customize their RP experience based on how they envision the character).

It is not equipment lists and special abilities that make an interesting character, it is the story and personality of the character and how the player utilizes that in the plot.

The idea of using easy to handle tropes and generic fantasy is because of who the target audience is:

NEW GM'S AND NEW PLAYERS

Throwing in the advanced and convoluted backgrounds and planar creatures and epic level gear and spells is only going to ruin their experience because it's just going to flat out be too much for a new player or GM to handle. Not to mention it's hard enough for new players to envision dragons and elves as commonplace, so lets not start throwing harder concepts at them like djinn and alien worlds where everyone has pyrokinesis.

As a matter of fact, part of the project outline, if read it, is specifically to take those old cliches, bundle them and package them in such a way that it's fun and interesting and geared for PBP from the get go.

PLUS: As mentioned previously, running a game with uber generic pregens is, speaking as a player and GM of twenty years, a great exercise that can really challenge your skills by forcing within the confines of a character you didn't design, not to mention but this exercise can also be a lot of fun for advanced players. But again, the target demographic is quite literally noobs, so lets save the epic stuff for once they have a few adventures under their belt.

I would think this should be obvious, but you need to learn to crawl and walk before you can run or even drive.

Being familiar with the guides is not a prerequisite for working on this project, but it certainly will help avoid more of this sort of discussion.

That post very nicely argues against a point I didn't make. Never said anything about power levels or overly complex character ideas. Just said that it would be nice to have some non-troperrific characters among the presets to demonstrate to new players that class/race/gender combos aren't (and shouldn't be) set in stone.

Simply adding a couple of curveballs like Female Elf Brawler and Male Dwarf Cleric go a long way to doing that. They can still be chock full of tropes to make them easy to understand.


Again, the idea is to keep things simple and relatable, easily identifiable. If someone wanted to there is no reason custom characters couldn't be included. I was intending on putting a note about this in the character section for the gm. I believe that more than covers that entire situation.

Realistically there is a cut off point for how much content we generate before the thing becomes too large and scary for new players and gm's, not to mention the time investment. Additional character concepts means additional art, additional backstory and additional plot elements that feature the character. I would prefer to start smaller and maybe later add an optional expansion set.

First off, let me say that I think this is an excellent project and one that I would be happy to take part in. I have been wanting to get involved directly with the Myth-Weavers community for a while now and I suppose this is a great opportunity to do just that.

That being said, I would like to compose / compile some of the text for the adventures and I have extensive experience with packaging and formatting adventures, rule sets, etc. I don't really know how to go about doing that at this point as I am not entirely sure where I should begin or if we are even at that stage yet. If and when this thread gets to that point, if the OP could kindly post, "Izual, do blah," I will hop right on it. I am a black and white kind of guy.

Last thing I want to say before you kind people continue on with your heroic efforts is that I think we should stick with the original idea to do a module for each system. In my short time with this site I have learned that many people have likes and dislikes for each system and everyone has a favorite. We could use this to our advantage and call upon people to come forward and help us with their favorite systems. This would do two very important things. One: It would check off many of the systems supported by this site, minimizing the need for us to compose modules for systems that we are not as familiar with. Two: By having the people who champion a certain system compose the starting module, we could address the issue of each system's focus on certain aspects of role playing. After all, who knows a system better than someone who loves it?

I know that composing a module for each system is a logistical nightmare but succeeding in this will place Myth-Weavers on a level all of its own. We will have succeeded in a massive collaboration and have one of the most comprehensive sets of ENTIRELY ORIGINAL modules on the web. There are many sites like this one but one thing unique to Myth-Weavers is the sheer diversity of the systems housed here. We owe it to our community to put in the extra effort.

At the very least we should "phase" the project and focus all of our effort on one module at a time; hitting the most popular ones first.

Just my two cents, let me know what you think.

Right now the project is being busted down into phases. Currently we've moved from rough adventure outline to character generation.

Currently there is one two-part adventure being written, and we can address systems once it is put together.

I believe that the same adventure outline can be utilized and tweaked slightly for most systems that aren't setting specific. Writing an entirely different module for each system seems to be much bigger in scope and as I've said, we can start small and if all things catch on well, once we achieve one we can move on to create more and expand.

At present the workload of achieving one adventure and then possibly adapting it to a few systems is already more ambitious than I am aware of what the community has put together previously, so lets start with baby steps...

now if we all get together and love working on this and it's a great idea met with lots of continued enthusiasm and support, then sure, why not make a module for every system under the sun? Until we get to that point though we need to fill jobs first and get the initial labor done for this single project. Once we churn out a single project then we can start thinking about how to branch it, but lets commit to do one first. Once that one adventure is written and illustrated we can then consider adapting it for systems. Once it has been adapted and play tested we can then consider starting another project.

I guess what I need to do know is to actually sit down and map out the jobs as well as the project outline and start getting people to audition/volunteer for those jobs. Once I organize that data it may be time to move this to an actual recruiting thread and game board, though I'd very much like to pull as many writers as I could from the guild as consultants.

More on that as it develops.

At present if you are interested in helping, please post what you do and a sample of your work that is in the spirit of the project.

I would like to have 1 dedicated artist, 1 dedicated cartographer and 1 dedicated writer before I even put up the game ad/board.

Just to be clear, I am not trying to stifle anyone's creativity, rather trying to avoid pie in the sky planning without the necessary muscle to make it happen. If things go well and there is a good reception I don't see why we.couldn't publish adventures regularly, but I don't see the point in trying to cross that bridge until.we get to it.

I'm certainly happy to help, WoLT, but right now, as you know, I'm on vacation and unwilling to specifically commit to anything until I get back home and (more importantly) school starts back up. Of the things that need to be done, I will probably best be utilized as an editor and concept collaborator, at least at first. Although I've GMed for a long time (like 15 years or so), I've never used a module, nor have I ever written my stuff in that sort of format, so I'll need a sort of guideline for what we're really looking for before I can offer myself to the actual writing.





 

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