World Building!

My first topic I wish to discuss involves the creation of a new game world that has never been seen before. I feel this subject is huge and hard to prioritize, but I will give it a shot. Hopefully this will help you create an original and different game world of your own... cause I know I look for stuff like this all the time.. and find it hard to come by!

First off in creating my game world I think to myself: What would I like to see?

This question is easy for me to answer, because when I see a new idea I can confidently run with it. And my idea for my game world is.... STEAMPUNK! I want to see the artificer D&D 3.5 class brought to its natural conclusion and I want AUTOMATONS!!! ROBOTS MAD SCIENCE AND CONSTRUCTS!!! HAHHAHAHHAHAHA! I want shape shifting wizards who know MARTIAL ARTS!! I WANT BIG THUNDERING SUITS OF ARMOR!!! NOT TO MENTION ROBOT MONKEYS!! YES MONKEYS!!! HAHHAHAHA - yes mmmm yessss mmmm - oh sorry got carried away!

Alright I went off a bit there, but this is raw thought process anyway. That's the most important thing when creating something new. GO RUN WITH IT! I wouldn't recommend saying stuff like that aloud as most people will think you're a crazy person (There are ways to avoid being seen as a crazy person, but that sounds like a blog for another day). ANYWAY, one thing to note: see how excited I was about the above? What would YOU be that excited about if you were to make a new world?

Next part What System?

I was originally thinking D&D 3.5, but the mechanics and class system doesn't jibe with the whole robots and mad science thing I'm thinking of. I'd prefer something d20 still as my players know the system pretty well, but if I could just get rid of the level system... mostly because of logic issues I have with it. Basically its stuff like:

Player: "So my character lifts weights for 3 hours a day for 3 months! How much does my strength improve?!"
To Which the GM (me) replies: "No strength for you! Quit your crazy talk before I smite you with lightning for undermining my authority! HAHAHHAHA!" (For this bit you're boned unless you are juuust about to level to 4th, 8th etc.)

Another favorite involves the scenario where you read an entire library of books, cover to cover, and don't gain any lick of knowledge more than maybe a temporary "+2 modifier" or more (if your GM is feeling generous) until you level.

So anyway trying to come up with a simple skill based system (like Shadowrun or White Wolf stuff or something) that still functions with d20 mechanics is iffy at best, so I decide to give d20 modern a look over... this system seems best for what I am trying to do even if it has levels to it, and it has accessories for Victorian era stuff too as I am totally feeling the steam punk angle. That seems like the best option.

That's it for the blog today, next time I will cover the Setting and the "tweeks" to the rules to make it pop. Also I will give a list of the best books I have for Game Mastering and world building (some of which are out of print, but may be available on PDF).

Chris Curran - World builder!