Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bobfred21 11-02-07, 12:16 AM	Well, my idea is basically that I'd create one world as far as general geography and general history goes, but between campaigns I'd make series changes to the setting. The players would encounter much of the same geography, many of the same characters and politics between campaigns but then there'd be something drastically different about the way the world works each time. Some of the geography would be different, they'd encounter the same NPCs in different roles, similar personalities but different too. In this way it's almost like my campaigns would have their own sacred cows, akin to the kind of recurrences you might find in video games and stuff like that. But I was thinking in one campaign maybe the world might be plagued by a mysterious mist or something that brought with it death and general mayhap, but then the next incarnation of the same world would say nothing of it and be extremely anti-spellcaster. Just vague ideas right now, but still. Has anyone tried anything like this? How did it work? Would you like this as a player?
Zousha_Omenohu 11-02-07, 12:49 AM	If I were playing in something like this, I'd probably find it very disorienting. You'd better let your players know that you've got this idea and let them offer advice as well, lest they mistake your planned changes to be shoddy or lazy DMing. How would these changes occur? Would the players be "world-travelers" as it were, travelling from world to world voluntarily, or are they just going to be walking along, minding their own business and walk into the next world without noticing. You'll probably want the players' stay on each world to be a certain length. Do it too often, and you're definately going to confuse them, and that can really derail the campaign. From what you've been writing, it seems that you're playing with the idea of alternate universes. Just remember that stuff like this needs to be handled carefully.
Bobfred21 11-02-07, 01:04 AM	Ah. I actually meant they'd stay on the same world for one entire campaign. And then when we were done with that story and those characters and were ready to start again it'd be the same world... only different.
Zousha_Omenohu 11-02-07, 01:27 AM	I see. For a minute there I thought your PCs would be "world-tripping", kind of like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five. I'm not sure how viable such an idea would be though. Campaigns generally take time, and there'd have to be a lot of tweaks made to the world each time before your players accept it as credible, otherwise it'll just be the same thing with a different wrapping. Will the PCs in each campaign be variations of the same person a la "The Eternal Champion"?
Bobfred21 11-02-07, 11:31 AM	Likely not, although it wouldn't be impossible for the players to meet different incarnations of their former PCs.
Tovec 11-08-07, 08:37 PM	I have done something like this, in fact I am working on another one. So long as your players know what you are doing I find it works well. In fact more often then not this encourages them to create things that would exist unto the next generation of the game. In my worlds however I try to make as much of the geography as possible so that when things exist in the next version/game the players aren't thrown because a mountain range suddenly popped out of nowhere. Like I said I did this before, it worked well enough but there were many things that I learnt from it and I have revised when making my new/current world. (The reason that I'm not using my old one is because they destroyed it.) Like I said, I would try and label as much as possible before hand, changing what you need to as you go and then keep the final result for the later game. Nothing is more frustrating travelling from one town to another and suddenly having to get across a lake that didn't exist before, or visa versa. I hope this helps.