I’m thinking of running some writing exercises over the next few weeks, just to get the grey matter ticking. Ill start with this one, and if everyone enjoys it I will post some more: ++ World-building exercise++ Instructions: Pick a random number from 1-10 (with a dice, in your head; however). Go to group one and make a note of which line this corresponds to. Do this again for group 2 and 3. You must now create a setting for a story (can be for movies and novels as well as games) based on those words, with what words you got from the groups at the top. Also, it should only be a brief explanation, but if you want to post an essay, go ahead. Example: Say I choose After the bomb, Hot Rods and Gun Bunnies, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten. My story could be: In the year 2015, a bomb from an unknown source obliterates most of the world. Only handfuls of people survive to grow up around the broken machinery left behind. With such a culture on fixing machinery in place, groups of car fanatics start to appear in large numbers. Gang wars become a daily occurrence, but when the living dead start to wander the earth, differences must be put aside to fight this new menace. The player is a new face in one of these gangs, and is ready to work his way up the ranks. ++Group1++ 1- After The Bomb 2- Against the Giants 3- End of Eternity 4- Lost Colony 5- Alien Encounters 6- Reign of Steel 7- Fading Suns 8- Fool's Errand 9- The Fires of Heaven 10- A World of Rage ++Group2++ 1- Mystic Warriors 2- Covert Ops 3- Hot Rods and Gun Bunnies 4- Psionics 5- Furry Pirates 6- Furry Outlaws 7- Defenders of the Earth 8- Mutants & Masterminds 9- Ninjas & Superspies 10- A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) ++Group3++ 1- Howls in the Night 2- Demon City 3- Darkness Falls 4- All Flesh Must Be Eaten 5- Barbarian Adventures 6- Out of the Silent Planet 7- Rage Across the oceans 8- Ravaged Planet 9- Realms of the Unknown 10- The Burning Plague If you were wondering, most of the names above come from either RPG's or books. Have fun! [Edited by - boolean on June 23, 2004 11:23:03 AM]

35 views and no posts. Come on people, these threads arnt going to write themselves!

well, boolean, although it is an interesting exercise, the probability of working a serious game idea out of it are relatively small.

the scenario you introduced, for instance, is very inventive. but so implausible that only a young player base (ages up to 12) might be very interested in it..

but i agree. this is a good exercise for realizing possible game ideas and storylines, just not a very practical one.

The idea of this isnt to get any basis for real games going, but simply to practise coming up with the ideas themselves. This is just a group exercise; it helps with writers block, it forces you to come up with setting ideas that you might normally avoid, it gets you thinking about what other people were able to come up with from the titles they got etc...

This is just for a bit of fun, nothing more.

Ok, heres mine. I ended up with Alien Encounters, Furry Pirates, The Burning Plague.

Everything is good for the pirate ship the ‘Deadly Fang’, steered by the brave badger captain and his crew of misfit animals. Life was good. But when the crew come across a space ship on a deserted island, they accidentally set free a colony of aliens trapped in suspended animation. Convinced they are on their home planet and have travelled back in time, the aliens vow to become the best pirates on the seas, and set off a virus amongst the animal cities to destroy every last one of them. Since everyone at sea was not affected, all the pirates that travel the ocean have become the last hope to stop this invasion; The Aliens Vs the Animal Pirates. Who will win?

Heres my attempt. Ummm, you may want to just ignore the second one

After The Bomb
Covert Ops
Darkness Falls
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Many years ago, one group of elite men joined as a team to protect the world as it was known, but their one decision, their one mistake has left the world as it is today... a empty pit of never ending darkness. The cities remain with the lingering smell of death and decay. This is the resolution of one attack that was destined for the greater of man kind. Now, it is up to those who remain to learn from these mistakes and once again join together. It is now up to them to now fix a mistake that should have never of happened in the first place.



End of Eternity
Furry Outlaws
Howls in the Night
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With the eeirie sounds of things howling in the night, the most wanted, criminal mastermind hairy bob decides to rid of his cronic hair problem. With his new invention of hair removal products, a mass load accidently spills and infests the world as it is known bringing near the end of eternity!!!

shuld folks practice making worlds and plots and stuff based on random words? i think not.

Quote: shuld folks practice making worlds and plots and stuff based on random words? i think not.

Could you clarify why you think 'why not'?

If you're asked into a production team and asked to design a city/world/religion/society based on someone else's preconceived notions...doesn't it amount to basically the same concept?

Example. I worked with a graphical MUD several years ago (never went into production) that had a large turnover of staff - largely because the work was voluntary and all internet-based. They started out with a rough concept of the world, the races, and the factions - and that was about it.

What happened is that individual builders pretty much made up what they wanted, so the cities and npcs/mobs lacked any kind of cohesion or rationality to bind them together. There was no real history to the world, or background on the races or their conflict.

I made it my job to go through each and every area with a microscope, take every npc's name down and any descriptive hints given about them and flesh out their stories. I created a pantheon of gods and demi-gods, a book of folklore and mythology based on the world and the cities, and then began dissecting each race. For each I outlined histories, cultural beliefs, social structures, politics, and interactions with the other races - all based on the loose ideas and concepts previously created. Before I left the project I'd considered the location of each city relative to the world and it's poles and equators (based on a provided map design) and began a whole review of each city's (potential) flora, fauna, geology and climate to assist the rest of the staff in creating the game world. Why this was never done boggled the mind, but in a large way I suspect it to be a big reason why the project never picked up the steam I felt it should have.

This exercise, to me anyway, seems similar. You're given a set of seemingly random concepts - now make sense of them.

I'd think it would be an interesting challenge (in theory) to any world-builder; I'm curious to see why you (the AP) would think otherwise.

Great! i would be nice to also have a list for possible action\reaction to the specifique story line.

hum... synergy

i think you shouldnt because i dont think you should be given the game and then make the world or any thing, but you should make the story, then make a world that the story fits to, and then make the game and stuff after that. Its best i think to have the world adn story be most important in a game, like final fantasy