Korad: A Crowd-Sourced Setting
Of the possible new Friday features I floated last week, the runaway winner, with 57% of the vote as I write this, is a crowd-sourced setting, followed by a play-by-blog set in that world.
So we’re going to create a world together. I’ll guide the process by posing questions, sometimes adjusting participant input, and by establishing a few foundational elements I need to make the game work. I’ll be making the process up as I go along but anticipate using a mix of polls and comment feedback. The results will be compiled into a setting bible, which will be revised as we go. I’m open to suggestions as to where to maintain the Bible document. Scribd, maybe?
As this is a group effort, it’s only fitting that the results should be available to all. The bible will be promulgated under a Creative Commons license. Anyone who wants to use or adapt the world to games, fiction, or any other use will be able to do so.
Here are the keystones for the setting:
* it’s a fantastic world
* its central region, Korad, is urbanized on a scale comparable to the late Roman empire
* the cities of Korad are tied together by economics and a common belief system
* however, that belief system is about to crumble
* to the extent that magic exists, it is not a reliable source of objective truth. People might claim to have visions of the divine or a map of metaphysical reality, but they can’t cast a spell that incontrovertibly proves their point. If you already believe as they do, you might see what they see. If you don’t, you know that you’re dealing with an illusion or delusion.
* no one has indisputably traveled to realities beyond our own, visited divine realms, or conversed with gods or their messengers on earth.
The first step is to establish the physical outlines of our main region. Commenters are encouraged to submit a bare coastal map of the Korad region. (Korad is a corruption of “crowd”, the resource we’re assembling to create it.)
The object of this exercise, should you choose to take part in it, is to create an area that would give rise to a far-flung ancient economy, but doesn’t look like the Mediterranean.
Stick to a simple line map. At this point, we’re choosing our coastlines and river features only. We’ll get to terrain and city locations later.
Although your map shows only the Korad region and perhaps pockets of hinterland, we’ll later zoom out to establish the neighboring regions outside of its economic orbit.
When you have your sketch map, upload it to an image host and insert it in a comment to this post. Consult this LJ code cheat sheet, if needed, to find the format you need to insert images.
Next week we’ll hold a vote between competing starter maps as we decide what Korad looks like.
If anyone wants to volunteer to maintain our evolving map in Campaign Cartographer, let me know. This would be a fine opportunity to show off your CC prowess.