The Theme [Archive] - Wizards Community - Pages Merged by Solauren

The Theme [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Mak
09-29-03, 08:22 AM The most interesting shared worlds usually have a theme or mood to the setting. For example, Ravenloft has horror. Rokugan(of Legend of the Five Rings) has honor, duty and al that samurai stuff, while Krynn (Dragonlance) has drama and personal conflict on the epic level. So I think it might be nice if this world had its own feel and flavor.

I know it might restrict or stifle some ideas, but hear me out. When a world has its own theme it gains coherence, and an identity of its own. It can also give us new ideas, instead of having us start on a blank slate. Please give the idea some thought before saying "nay".
Mak
09-29-03, 08:40 AM Here's my idea.

I've been reading everything in this project, including the stuff on UBB, and one sentence captures the essence of everything in a metaphorical nutshell:

Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Whenever an idea comes up, it either exists on its own isolated pocket of reality, or gets bogged down by continuity. So I thought, why not make that the theme- a melting pot?

Millennia ago, a massive cosmic event compressed several dimensional planes into one. The resulting single world, because of the concentration of so much mass and energy, then underwent a century of cataclysmic natural disasters- storms, earthquakes, volcanic activity, you name it. Every civilization that survived the merging of worlds then perished.

But life endures. Now, thousands of years later, new civilizations rise from their ashes. Each one has fragmented memories of the past, but because of their limited understanding, none know the truth of how their world came to be. The races even disagree on their world's name, but all of them believe that they are right, that they know the truth.

The world possesses a vast energy field, left over from its creation. Those who have learned to tap into it know it for what it is- Magic.

Because of the world's unusual beginnings, the geology and fossil record is unique. One might find what used to be a city miles underneath the ground. The bones of a dragon might be found imprisoned inside a massive tree. Everything points to something strange and disastrous that happened in the distant past, but what?

Well, what do you think? It's original, interesting, and it can account for almost anything anyone dreams up on these boards- hehe.
nick012000
09-30-03, 03:10 AM Dude, you are brilliant.

You realized we needed a theme.
Dream Spinner
09-30-03, 04:37 PM That really is great. :)

And because of the clashing of the beliefs, nobody really can divine the truth because the truth would...be...all...wacky. Right, wacky.
Kavu Overlord
09-30-03, 04:39 PM So does this mean I could bring back the Kavu?
Mak
10-01-03, 02:43 AM Of course, you'd have to find a reason for those silly things being on the world.

Also, this is just my suggestion for a theme. You can pitch yours if you want, that's the purpose of this thread. I just made the "Melting Pot" so we could have something to fall back on if we couldn't agree.
Kavu Overlord
10-01-03, 04:10 PM Good. Here's my pitch. Yavimaya was producing Kavu when the multiverse crashed together. The Kavu were mutated a bit, with more intelligence, and basically put into a world with no sense.
Dream Spinner
10-01-03, 04:16 PM This world is in a completely different planar system than the Magic multiverse. At least, I think so. It is, right?
Kavu Overlord
10-01-03, 04:26 PM read the first part.
Dream Spinner
10-01-03, 04:27 PM First part of what?
Mak
10-01-03, 11:53 PM I'd like to have some sort of continuity with both Magic and D&D, but not too much- this is an entirely separate world and should cross over with Dominaria and Greyhawk rarely, at best.

Dominaria still exists, as far as I can remember, so it can't be one of the destroyed planes. It wasn't the whole multiverse that came together, just a hundred or so different planes. Perhaps you could have some of them come over during the Planeshift instead.

I don't know... this is just my opinion, but intelligence doesn't seem to fit the Kavu. Of course, if they're more comic relief than anything else, that would be nice.
Mak
10-02-03, 02:45 AM This thread is open to suggestions for a theme. We don't have to follow mine, it's just a template I'd like to use if we can't agree on a theme.

What do you want to have after roleplaying in this world? Pride and a sense of achievement at changing the world for the better? Gratitude for having survived the experience? Or just a lot of loot and plunder? C'mon people, the theme is the heart and soul of the world! This should drive everything else we make!
Mak
10-07-03, 03:14 AM Oh my God. This place really is dead.
nick012000
10-07-03, 05:31 AM I'm just waiting for somebody to post something worthwhile to respond to.
Mak
10-12-03, 05:14 AM No suggestions? So does everyone want to keep my theme?
nick012000
10-12-03, 05:34 AM Yes.
Mak
10-13-03, 05:08 AM HAHA!

(Wears a yellow hat that reads "Supreme Lord" and brandishes his whip.)

WA-PISH!!!

It's time to whip this forum back into shape people! Report!
Obsidianjaerc
10-16-03, 01:56 PM I think that is a pretty good theme abd the orcish begging legend already starts with coming from another place and then a lot of destruction so we have at least one reaces mythos that will mesh.

I say Yay
Mak
11-05-03, 02:51 AM I'm starting to think my theme suggestion is rather hard to integrate into this world. Doesn't anyone have any suggestions?
Obsidianjaerc
11-05-03, 06:32 PM Dont give up. It is a wonderful theme and followup idea and I think everyone has been counting on it. I say it stays.
Mak
11-06-03, 12:41 AM The problem is that it still doesn't give this world we're making an identity, it simply makes a giant excuse for the jigsaw-puzzle approach we're taking in creating this world.

As I've said before, each idea is quite independent, so this "world" doesn't have an overall "mood" or flavor.
Xavim
11-12-03, 06:32 AM I haven't been perusing this forum for very long, more like 2 mins or so but if you've got a plethora of elements such as cultures and races. Why not make the theme morality/equality?

Each and every race would be in a constant state of unrest as they compete for resources. We see this enough on our own world with different races of the same species, let alone different species entirely. This world could be a setting where the D&D sacred cow of speciesism is confronted and the heroes are driven to unite the varied peoples of the realm to keep the conflict from ruining the very world in which they live.

The morality would be to seek to understand the world from many perspectives and could focus moreso on the relations between the varied races rather than the normal humans vs. the world attitude of most D&D worlds.
Leaves
11-16-03, 04:36 PM The old ubb World Creation Project was littered with flame wars over attempts to suggest any sort of central theme, so Mak, I salute you for bringing it up. A gutsy move, to say the least.

Like you said, "melting pot" doesn't exactly help anything.

I think a morality/equality theme has potential. Consider how it could work in with the idea of the ETRs (Extinct Technological Race). The ETRs were supposed to be a race that lived long ago and developed very advanced technologies, set up a continent-covering civilization, then disappeared (mysteriously). They were literally god-like and unsurpassable in their time. Isn't that the kind of thing that would create a sort of common bond between the other, "lesser" races? The elves and men and dwarves and orcs and whatnot had to band together in the face of these god-like people. On the other hand, you have the gnomes, who were the right-hand-men of the the ETRs, and therefore believe that they are superior to everyone. Fast-forward to the "modern day", and say that the world is coming out of a dark age and starting to come into contact with races that never had contact with the ETRs (Virix, Aquatic Races, underdark races). The "civilized" races are trying to decide, one the one hand, are the new races inferior because they didn't have contact with the ETRs, or are they equals? And the new races have rivalries and conflict among themselves, so some members of the "civilized" races are trying to introduce them to the idea of equality and cooperation.

Ouch, that was quite a bit of rambling.

OK, a second idea for a theme: I think one of the more interesting ideas that has emerged here has been the idea that faith has an impact of reality. It's like the Forgotten Realms idea that the deities become more powerful depending on how many worshipers they have, but in this case the belief of a large number of people can actually cause a god to spring into being, or even change other aspects of the world. The theme then is the way that history/reality can be influenced by the will of large numbers of people.

http://www.geocities.com/leaves_or/leafsmilie.txt (She's not dead yet!)
Mak
11-19-03, 04:30 AM The theme is a rather sacred part of the world, I think. If this world is to become coherent the theme must influence everything, from the magic and planar systems to what Jerliks eat for breakfast.

It has to come from all of us, so I ask you all the question, what do you want?

What do we want this world to be? The simplest answer would be a world compatible with both Magic and D&D, but we need more than that. If you're still interested in this project then answer this question honestly, and then all of us will try to reach a consensus, or at the very least a compromise.
Lord QZip
11-21-03, 10:41 PM A lot of people would automatically get rid of this idea but what about a good vs. evil? Each has it's own god that has power in this world and you can draw on that power (kinda like force in the Star Wars world) and use it in your battles against the opposing force. Anything that's called magic came from one of these gods. The difference between good and evil would be that evil wants to conquer the world and good wants to surpress evil and keep peace (and other noble intentions).
Mak
11-24-03, 03:56 AM Kind of like what Dragonlance used to be? Interesting.

Everybody, let's stop with the suggestions for a while, I'd like to get some answers to my previous question.
Mak
11-24-03, 10:30 PM I guess too many cooks do spoil the broth... I'm giving up now.

It would be a shame to see everything made here go to waste, though... you guys should move them to this Homebrew forum I keep hearing about.
nick012000
11-25-03, 04:12 AM Why? The threads belong here!
Kywyn
11-25-03, 02:01 PM Just an idea about relating Magic and D&D concepts to a setting. I haven't read everything here, so if this doesn't work with what has been outlined, sorry and please ignore.

What if everything has a "color" in their blood, depending on factors of heredity and place of birth (leylines and areas of strong connections). This would naturally lead to conflicts along colorlines, even though blood color is independent of actual alignment. Maybe as one color's forces and lands grow, every single creature of that color blood grows stronger as well (minor variable modifier in game mechanics).

A theme could be fate and destiny versus free will. You are branded at birth, but do you accept it as unchangeable? Maybe there was a time in the ancient past when everything was one, and there was some forgotten fracturing. So people could see signs of a golden time when things were not so divided, but have no idea how it is possible. (like people in the dark ages finding Roman ruins around them)

This could tie into the destiny theme because it would seem to most that they are living in a fallen age and might just be going down til the end. Heroes, then, would be people who challenged this conception and managed to keep some sort of hope.

So, themes: fate, destiny, will, dark age, hope.

Thanks for reading (and ignoring if it doesn't make sense)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mak 09-29-03, 08:22 AM	The most interesting shared worlds usually have a theme or mood to the setting. For example, Ravenloft has horror. Rokugan(of Legend of the Five Rings) has honor, duty and al that samurai stuff, while Krynn (Dragonlance) has drama and personal conflict on the epic level. So I think it might be nice if this world had its own feel and flavor. I know it might restrict or stifle some ideas, but hear me out. When a world has its own theme it gains coherence, and an identity of its own. It can also give us new ideas, instead of having us start on a blank slate. Please give the idea some thought before saying "nay".
Mak 09-29-03, 08:40 AM	Here's my idea. I've been reading everything in this project, including the stuff on UBB, and one sentence captures the essence of everything in a metaphorical nutshell: Too many cooks spoil the broth. Whenever an idea comes up, it either exists on its own isolated pocket of reality, or gets bogged down by continuity. So I thought, why not make that the theme- a melting pot? Millennia ago, a massive cosmic event compressed several dimensional planes into one. The resulting single world, because of the concentration of so much mass and energy, then underwent a century of cataclysmic natural disasters- storms, earthquakes, volcanic activity, you name it. Every civilization that survived the merging of worlds then perished. But life endures. Now, thousands of years later, new civilizations rise from their ashes. Each one has fragmented memories of the past, but because of their limited understanding, none know the truth of how their world came to be. The races even disagree on their world's name, but all of them believe that they are right, that they know the truth. The world possesses a vast energy field, left over from its creation. Those who have learned to tap into it know it for what it is- Magic. Because of the world's unusual beginnings, the geology and fossil record is unique. One might find what used to be a city miles underneath the ground. The bones of a dragon might be found imprisoned inside a massive tree. Everything points to something strange and disastrous that happened in the distant past, but what? Well, what do you think? It's original, interesting, and it can account for almost anything anyone dreams up on these boards- hehe.
nick012000 09-30-03, 03:10 AM	Dude, you are brilliant. You realized we needed a theme.
Dream Spinner 09-30-03, 04:37 PM	That really is great. :) And because of the clashing of the beliefs, nobody really can divine the truth because the truth would...be...all...wacky. Right, wacky.
Kavu Overlord 09-30-03, 04:39 PM	So does this mean I could bring back the Kavu?
Mak 10-01-03, 02:43 AM	Of course, you'd have to find a reason for those silly things being on the world. Also, this is just my suggestion for a theme. You can pitch yours if you want, that's the purpose of this thread. I just made the "Melting Pot" so we could have something to fall back on if we couldn't agree.
Kavu Overlord 10-01-03, 04:10 PM	Good. Here's my pitch. Yavimaya was producing Kavu when the multiverse crashed together. The Kavu were mutated a bit, with more intelligence, and basically put into a world with no sense.
Dream Spinner 10-01-03, 04:16 PM	This world is in a completely different planar system than the Magic multiverse. At least, I think so. It is, right?
Kavu Overlord 10-01-03, 04:26 PM	read the first part.
Dream Spinner 10-01-03, 04:27 PM	First part of what?
Mak 10-01-03, 11:53 PM	I'd like to have some sort of continuity with both Magic and D&D, but not too much- this is an entirely separate world and should cross over with Dominaria and Greyhawk rarely, at best. Dominaria still exists, as far as I can remember, so it can't be one of the destroyed planes. It wasn't the whole multiverse that came together, just a hundred or so different planes. Perhaps you could have some of them come over during the Planeshift instead. I don't know... this is just my opinion, but intelligence doesn't seem to fit the Kavu. Of course, if they're more comic relief than anything else, that would be nice.
Mak 10-02-03, 02:45 AM	This thread is open to suggestions for a theme. We don't have to follow mine, it's just a template I'd like to use if we can't agree on a theme. What do you want to have after roleplaying in this world? Pride and a sense of achievement at changing the world for the better? Gratitude for having survived the experience? Or just a lot of loot and plunder? C'mon people, the theme is the heart and soul of the world! This should drive everything else we make!
Mak 10-07-03, 03:14 AM	Oh my God. This place really is dead.
nick012000 10-07-03, 05:31 AM	I'm just waiting for somebody to post something worthwhile to respond to.
Mak 10-12-03, 05:14 AM	No suggestions? So does everyone want to keep my theme?
nick012000 10-12-03, 05:34 AM	Yes.
Mak 10-13-03, 05:08 AM	HAHA! (Wears a yellow hat that reads "Supreme Lord" and brandishes his whip.) WA-PISH!!! It's time to whip this forum back into shape people! Report!
Obsidianjaerc 10-16-03, 01:56 PM	I think that is a pretty good theme abd the orcish begging legend already starts with coming from another place and then a lot of destruction so we have at least one reaces mythos that will mesh. I say Yay
Mak 11-05-03, 02:51 AM	I'm starting to think my theme suggestion is rather hard to integrate into this world. Doesn't anyone have any suggestions?
Obsidianjaerc 11-05-03, 06:32 PM	Dont give up. It is a wonderful theme and followup idea and I think everyone has been counting on it. I say it stays.
Mak 11-06-03, 12:41 AM	The problem is that it still doesn't give this world we're making an identity, it simply makes a giant excuse for the jigsaw-puzzle approach we're taking in creating this world. As I've said before, each idea is quite independent, so this "world" doesn't have an overall "mood" or flavor.
Xavim 11-12-03, 06:32 AM	I haven't been perusing this forum for very long, more like 2 mins or so but if you've got a plethora of elements such as cultures and races. Why not make the theme morality/equality? Each and every race would be in a constant state of unrest as they compete for resources. We see this enough on our own world with different races of the same species, let alone different species entirely. This world could be a setting where the D&D sacred cow of speciesism is confronted and the heroes are driven to unite the varied peoples of the realm to keep the conflict from ruining the very world in which they live. The morality would be to seek to understand the world from many perspectives and could focus moreso on the relations between the varied races rather than the normal humans vs. the world attitude of most D&D worlds.
Leaves 11-16-03, 04:36 PM	The old ubb World Creation Project was littered with flame wars over attempts to suggest any sort of central theme, so Mak, I salute you for bringing it up. A gutsy move, to say the least. Like you said, "melting pot" doesn't exactly help anything. I think a morality/equality theme has potential. Consider how it could work in with the idea of the ETRs (Extinct Technological Race). The ETRs were supposed to be a race that lived long ago and developed very advanced technologies, set up a continent-covering civilization, then disappeared (mysteriously). They were literally god-like and unsurpassable in their time. Isn't that the kind of thing that would create a sort of common bond between the other, "lesser" races? The elves and men and dwarves and orcs and whatnot had to band together in the face of these god-like people. On the other hand, you have the gnomes, who were the right-hand-men of the the ETRs, and therefore believe that they are superior to everyone. Fast-forward to the "modern day", and say that the world is coming out of a dark age and starting to come into contact with races that never had contact with the ETRs (Virix, Aquatic Races, underdark races). The "civilized" races are trying to decide, one the one hand, are the new races inferior because they didn't have contact with the ETRs, or are they equals? And the new races have rivalries and conflict among themselves, so some members of the "civilized" races are trying to introduce them to the idea of equality and cooperation. Ouch, that was quite a bit of rambling. OK, a second idea for a theme: I think one of the more interesting ideas that has emerged here has been the idea that faith has an impact of reality. It's like the Forgotten Realms idea that the deities become more powerful depending on how many worshipers they have, but in this case the belief of a large number of people can actually cause a god to spring into being, or even change other aspects of the world. The theme then is the way that history/reality can be influenced by the will of large numbers of people. http://www.geocities.com/leaves_or/leafsmilie.txt (She's not dead yet!)
Mak 11-19-03, 04:30 AM	The theme is a rather sacred part of the world, I think. If this world is to become coherent the theme must influence everything, from the magic and planar systems to what Jerliks eat for breakfast. It has to come from all of us, so I ask you all the question, what do you want? What do we want this world to be? The simplest answer would be a world compatible with both Magic and D&D, but we need more than that. If you're still interested in this project then answer this question honestly, and then all of us will try to reach a consensus, or at the very least a compromise.
Lord QZip 11-21-03, 10:41 PM	A lot of people would automatically get rid of this idea but what about a good vs. evil? Each has it's own god that has power in this world and you can draw on that power (kinda like force in the Star Wars world) and use it in your battles against the opposing force. Anything that's called magic came from one of these gods. The difference between good and evil would be that evil wants to conquer the world and good wants to surpress evil and keep peace (and other noble intentions).
Mak 11-24-03, 03:56 AM	Kind of like what Dragonlance used to be? Interesting. Everybody, let's stop with the suggestions for a while, I'd like to get some answers to my previous question.
Mak 11-24-03, 10:30 PM	I guess too many cooks do spoil the broth... I'm giving up now. It would be a shame to see everything made here go to waste, though... you guys should move them to this Homebrew forum I keep hearing about.
nick012000 11-25-03, 04:12 AM	Why? The threads belong here!
Kywyn 11-25-03, 02:01 PM	Just an idea about relating Magic and D&D concepts to a setting. I haven't read everything here, so if this doesn't work with what has been outlined, sorry and please ignore. What if everything has a "color" in their blood, depending on factors of heredity and place of birth (leylines and areas of strong connections). This would naturally lead to conflicts along colorlines, even though blood color is independent of actual alignment. Maybe as one color's forces and lands grow, every single creature of that color blood grows stronger as well (minor variable modifier in game mechanics). A theme could be fate and destiny versus free will. You are branded at birth, but do you accept it as unchangeable? Maybe there was a time in the ancient past when everything was one, and there was some forgotten fracturing. So people could see signs of a golden time when things were not so divided, but have no idea how it is possible. (like people in the dark ages finding Roman ruins around them) This could tie into the destiny theme because it would seem to most that they are living in a fallen age and might just be going down til the end. Heroes, then, would be people who challenged this conception and managed to keep some sort of hope. So, themes: fate, destiny, will, dark age, hope. Thanks for reading (and ignoring if it doesn't make sense)