Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Arawn76 Oct 02, 2014 1:55:23	So apart from wanting to run a Birthright campaign I was thinking that it might be fun and interesting to develop a setting with the group I play with…as we play!   How supportable do you think this is? Is this the DM giving up too much power over the setting and trusting the players not to make silly choices? How much, if any, veto should the DM retain?   What are your thoughts on this rambling idea?   As a running example of what I mean sorta.   Keeping the premise of D&D as a fantasy medieval setting we could start with;   Character Creation: Taking the players choice of class and races as the first brush stroke for example. I use the exotic races here to make a point.   Step1: Races Player 1: Dragonborn Player 2: Gnome (Forest) Player 3: Human Player 4 Tiefling Player 5: Human   So to my mind my players are telling me that these are the races they’re interested in so I take that a step forward and make them the main (perhaps only) races of my setting. As we have a majority of humans we decide they are the most prevalent race (at least in the corner of the world we are playing).   Next ask my players to briefly outline the culture and several customs of the race.   Step 2: Classes Player 1: Dragonborn / Paladin Player 2: Gnome (Forest) / Fey Warlock Player 3: Human / Wizard Player 4: Tiefling / Rogue Player 5: Human / Cleric   Extrapolating from the player’s choices and obviously discussing this with them we see that religion plays an important part of two of the classes so that’s a setting point we can work on. The one play pictures his gnome as fey and wants to see that as contributing factor. The Wizard decides that all mages (possibly) learn their art at the Great College of plothook far to the south.   Step 3: Skill and knowledge rolls. Instead of supplying the information to the player on a successful roll let him decide on the result. For example in a great underground city our wizard rolls a history check and being successful notes that a proud underground race once dwelt there but that this race was destroyed when they delved into the grave of one of the forbidden gods.   Some DM control probably needs to be maintained for consistency between different ideas.
#2 Oraibi Oct 02, 2014 3:47:16	It's a valid way to play, but it might not be right for all groups. You may find that option paralysis is a bigger problem than players making dumb choices. Also some players just wanna experience what someone else has prepared and don't really want to be worldbuilders. Have you played Dungeon World? This style of play is well suited for that game and may give you some hints on how to do it here. One thing to look out for -- someone may want to play a rare race so they can be a novelty. If suddenly 20% of the NPCs are dragonborn, that may take away some of the fun. So be sure to maintain a dialogue instead of drawing conclusions alone.
#3 Arawn76 Oct 02, 2014 7:55:06	I like Dungeon World a lot.   Mostly this is hypothetical but I found the idea at least interesting enough to see what others thought.
#4 BRJN Oct 04, 2014 15:27:44	Schedule a game session every once in a while just to do world-building.  Discuss ideas through the group.  Somebody might get inspired over a point during the evening, and bring a chapter for "Fun with The Party in XYZland" next week, to be worked in as background information over time.   The more the players help to create the world, the more invested in it they become.   And - who knows - you may end up with two saleable e-books: one for your campaign world, on of your party's adventure log.