Expendable
I was linked This a little while ago, and it is likely the funniest little spoof I have seen in a long time. As are the build up movies to it. I highly recomend checking the creator's Youtube profile and watching the rest of the A.R.A.C.H.N.I.D. videos.
Just thought I would share the video with you lot who browse this from time to time.
It also had the unfortunate side effect of kicking my creativity in the crotch to get it going again. D&D style (I know I go on about it, but I really have little else), a game set similarly, where the PCs are the nameless henchmen in the big bad organisation, fending off spies and government agents and the like. It could actually be amusing, and possibly a lot of fun. I could write it up as a sort of one-shot, short campaign, which could develop into something else if it really feels like it should.
Pity its not what I really should be working on. I really should be thinking about both Eberron and its grand finale, and this homebrew setting that is developing here. Up to Gods, and this is where I tend to fall down. I always have difficulty creating the pantheons in fantasy settings. I've got vague notions, namely a male woodland god, patron of the world's elves, and a 'Death' God who can be a hot chick. That's pretty much it. Its the mechanics that are lacking, and anywhere that can tell me how to create them.
Seriously, I have been back and forth through the DMG, DMG II, PHB, PHB II, the articles on the Wizards.com site, world development sites by the people who work for Wizards of the Coast, DMing for Dumbies, and so forth. Nothing. It comes down to 'Use your own judgement' which becomes a problem when you really don't have anything to base said judgement upon. I'm down to scouring the god entries in the PHB and the Eberron Campaign Setting to try and gauge an idea of how the hell it is supposed to work. Its enough to drive you mad.
That, and names. Names are a real issue, since I have such a hard time coming up with them, and names are usually what spur on the creative juices. Without a name I can become bogged down against the writter's block. I'm surprised I have as much as I do considering I don't even have a name for the world yet, or the people, or the countries. The name of the place is going to stem from the way the language works, but if I get too rigorous in defining it, it risks limiting my players' creativity too much. I don't want that. While I would like them to create characters with identies that fit the context of the world (No more damn Weeabo Fightin' Magiks names), I do want them to come up with things and to have interesting, detailed backgrounds.
Ah, the trials and tribulations of being a DM, creating worlds, cultures, plots and adventures.
There's a website I know of, I think by Holly Lisle, that goes into creating fantasy worlds and how to develop them (I may have even linked it in the past) based on the way that cultures in the real world developed. Language defines a lot of it. I'd rather not sit down to develop a whole other language from which to springboard my created society. I'm no Tolkien. I'm just a day dreamer with a lot of time on his hands.
Looks like its back to hammering random generators on Seventh Sanctum, Nine.Frenchboys and RinWorks until something decides to stick.
Maybe in subsiquent posts, I might detail some of what I have already come up with, since I know like 4 or 5 of you will probably be involved to some extent. At least until I give up and fall through on the whole thing, as I usually do.
~TBA
Just thought I would share the video with you lot who browse this from time to time.
It also had the unfortunate side effect of kicking my creativity in the crotch to get it going again. D&D style (I know I go on about it, but I really have little else), a game set similarly, where the PCs are the nameless henchmen in the big bad organisation, fending off spies and government agents and the like. It could actually be amusing, and possibly a lot of fun. I could write it up as a sort of one-shot, short campaign, which could develop into something else if it really feels like it should.
Pity its not what I really should be working on. I really should be thinking about both Eberron and its grand finale, and this homebrew setting that is developing here. Up to Gods, and this is where I tend to fall down. I always have difficulty creating the pantheons in fantasy settings. I've got vague notions, namely a male woodland god, patron of the world's elves, and a 'Death' God who can be a hot chick. That's pretty much it. Its the mechanics that are lacking, and anywhere that can tell me how to create them.
Seriously, I have been back and forth through the DMG, DMG II, PHB, PHB II, the articles on the Wizards.com site, world development sites by the people who work for Wizards of the Coast, DMing for Dumbies, and so forth. Nothing. It comes down to 'Use your own judgement' which becomes a problem when you really don't have anything to base said judgement upon. I'm down to scouring the god entries in the PHB and the Eberron Campaign Setting to try and gauge an idea of how the hell it is supposed to work. Its enough to drive you mad.
That, and names. Names are a real issue, since I have such a hard time coming up with them, and names are usually what spur on the creative juices. Without a name I can become bogged down against the writter's block. I'm surprised I have as much as I do considering I don't even have a name for the world yet, or the people, or the countries. The name of the place is going to stem from the way the language works, but if I get too rigorous in defining it, it risks limiting my players' creativity too much. I don't want that. While I would like them to create characters with identies that fit the context of the world (No more damn Weeabo Fightin' Magiks names), I do want them to come up with things and to have interesting, detailed backgrounds.
Ah, the trials and tribulations of being a DM, creating worlds, cultures, plots and adventures.
There's a website I know of, I think by Holly Lisle, that goes into creating fantasy worlds and how to develop them (I may have even linked it in the past) based on the way that cultures in the real world developed. Language defines a lot of it. I'd rather not sit down to develop a whole other language from which to springboard my created society. I'm no Tolkien. I'm just a day dreamer with a lot of time on his hands.
Looks like its back to hammering random generators on Seventh Sanctum, Nine.Frenchboys and RinWorks until something decides to stick.
Maybe in subsiquent posts, I might detail some of what I have already come up with, since I know like 4 or 5 of you will probably be involved to some extent. At least until I give up and fall through on the whole thing, as I usually do.
~TBA