TVTropes builds a campaign setting!

I'm good with this as well.

I think we should start with questions. "What should be this?"

New Domhain Sceal topic then?

Soire

Before anyone posts there, we need to determine organisation for things.

Any suggestions?

As I said, we start with a question, "How should <blank> be?" And then we don't ask a new question until we agree on the answer.

Seems like a good enough plan, I think we should start from the ground up. What is reality kinda qustions, what is and isn't possible, why, how and where are the limits?

edited 21st May '13 4:45:45 PM by Vyctorian

First thing: hey guys. Been busy for a while, but got the mental energy for now for more creativity.

Secondly, I'm not sure if we should set "limits" because that would mean that we will end up excluding ideas that will come later. After all, it is a setting built by tropers, not built by a few tropers and every other troper have to follow them.

I'm thinking that given the initial idea is that the setting should be "flexible" as in being able to be used in any genre and theme, not to mention that it needs to be able to incorporate random tropers ideas (after all, it is a setting for TV Tropes, not just for the few of us. Not to mention that we can get busy with Real Life and might have to let the project fall to a successor or other hands), we should make it a sort of multi-universal setting like Magic The Gathering with only the pantheon of gods/god-like beings uniting them together. That way, we do not end up with the problem of the new setting dying we are too busy with other stuff but what is available is too complex and intimidating for new people to come in and take over.

edited 21st May '13 4:49:05 PM by IraTheSquire

Hi again. I'm just posting here because of this last post, because since I've first tried to join I managed to screw up my schedule and since then I haven't been able to come back here. But since this is starting from scratch I'll try to force my little time to help if possible. (probably after the next week, because I'll be having exams)

On the post from @Ira: to make it as free as possible I suppose it'd involve some magitech? So we can have all the ranges of speculative fiction (magic and science). Actually, would it be possible to make an extense timeline to the world, in a way it's possible for a GM to choose in which era the campaign will occur (medieval time, republic(?) time, futuristic time, etc.)

I'm a be follower of Sanderson's First Law, so I believe limits are the back bone of a truly great magic system and world.

I'm also not for Ira's idea way too complex thats what bogged down the first attempt.

edited 21st May '13 5:11:28 PM by Vyctorian

Well, the idea behind a multiverse style setting is that you can have a world where there's magic, a world where there's science/tech, and a world where there's both, without concerns about whether they interact or not because you can then do things with either "before and after the portals open and the worlds interact" or there're never been any portals from this world and that at all.

It is complex only because we have only one world, and everything people suggest will have to mesh in well with everything else that has been accepted. With a multiverse-type setting you can do things like "right, I like this idea, but it is not going to mesh with everything in World A. Let's dump it into World B where it meshes/a new World, and it can stay there and do its own thing and not interfere with World A".

Also, if this kind of thing becomes popular and we should aim for that, people who are not happy with what we come up with will start their own settings, and then someone will come up with a cross-over between them. Which would end up being the same thing.

edited 21st May '13 5:20:13 PM by IraTheSquire

I didn't mean using multiverses, those would get complicated soon. And I didn't know that Sanderson's First Law, I'll make sure to see it soon.

First: Hi, Ira and Victin! Nice to see you again! I guess another reason for starting Domhain over is indeed that it gives everybody a chance to start at the beginning.

Second: I think we should start a new thread for this topic. Proposed title: Domhain 2.0 (or however the correct spelling is this time.)

Third, while the project should be open to any troper, they should officially sign up first (on the new thread.)

And Fourth, definitely, let's discuss each issue one at a time, and start with the basics, then get more specific.

I'd suggest we follow Exelixi's suggestion on the last page and start discussing how magic should work on the new setting. But until the new thread is created, I think the discussion going on here is how the thread should work? One topic at time seems fine, for the start at least. Or until it grows (should I hope so?). Either way, @Sijo: why and how do you think people should sign up first?

Well, if we're going to do "sign up only" and that's the direction we're going (it'll end up being "the World of several Tropers" as opposed to TV Tropes setting, but I'm fine with it if that's what people want) I think that should be done and organised first.

And if that's how we're doing it, definitely we should start with how the Physics/Magic/Gods (including Gods because in some settings like the Scion, reality can be linked to some supernatural beings) work.

edited 21st May '13 5:26:48 PM by IraTheSquire

I want to make clear, my suggestions above are just that, suggestions, and we should go with what the majority wants.

I just feel that we should start the new thread right away, and that anyone who is going to become an active participant should say so. In the past we had some people who made some interesting suggestions but then vanished and never developed them.

I'm still adverse to multi-verses. I read DC comics those get too complex, too quick. I'm also pro-sign ups, and I think we should pin down magic and it's affects on reality before anything else.

Only because DC and Marvel like their alternative universes interacting with each other. Which they shouldn't (not all the time at least), as the point of multiverse is that you can have two competing ideas in different worlds so that they can do their thing independently without interaction.

edited 21st May '13 6:11:29 PM by IraTheSquire

I think that's too much work and upkeep, plus one world almost always ends up getting under developed, or the team gets divided because they are all developing different worlds.

edited 21st May '13 6:27:40 PM by Vyctorian

Eh, if you're going to make separate settings, make separate settings. A multiverse is fun if and only if certain things (cough protagonists cough) can travel between the worlds. If there's no linking thread, it isn't a multiverse, it's just a bunch of universes. A sense of continuity is also important; I don't think things should be kept vague to make way for the idea of 'freedom.' Limits are what makes things shine.

I think ideas should be freely contributed by whoever, but I also think there should eb structure, which is where the sign-up bit comes in. People should sign up for positions of administration (IE voting, organising), but people who haven't signed up should be able to contribute if it's on-topic.

In essence, something like a pyramid.

At the bottom of the pyramid- random contributors. They can contribute things that hold with the current topic freely.

At the second step, full-time contributors. There is no formal power here, just a sort of promise to contribute steadily to the setting.

Above them, administrators. These are the people who vote and make the decisions regarding what gets put in the setting. These should be judicious people who can take the time to poke holes in things and say "no" anywhere they have found a hole. These are the people who ask the uncomfortable questions.

At the top, the executive. Primary function is to decide when a topic is concluded and set new topics after each concludes. Of note, the executive does not vote on what gets included in a particular topic, just when it begins and when it ends. Executive position could pass from person to person between topics.

I think the executive, admin thing sounds too much like a business-like and strict. I think we should keep the current voting system but move from ideas to topics, when someone thinks a topic is finished we all a vote of the full timers, majority rules.

That's too much work. It may not have been work for you, but it was a shit-tonne of work for Sijo. The concept of a free-flowing direct democracy is a cute idea, but it doesn't function. There has to be someone to turn the wheels, always; this system just designates who that person is outright instead of leaving whoever is the least lazy to pick up the slack. And yes, it is a bit businesslike- that's rather the point. DS 1 failed because nobody took it seriously enough. To fix that, and make the redo flourish, a proper structure is needed.

edited 21st May '13 7:03:23 PM by Exelixi

I vote for a two tier deal: those who sign up for specific jobs, and everybody else who can freely contribute their ideas when they want. But only those who sign up get to vote.

And I'm still willing to keep track of votes and such. But lets discuss one topic at a time, please.

As for the multiverse deal, I think what Ira means is that we should use that option in case we want to develop more than one version of the same setting. I agree, but only if we work on one version at a time. For example, we are going to begin Domhain 2 now, but if we ever want to work again with the original, it would still be there.

Also, continuing this conversation *in a new thread* would attract potential new members to the project (as opposed to one already up to nearly a hundred pages.)

edited 21st May '13 7:18:06 PM by Sijo

Domhain Sceal didn't fail!

We created a massive back catalog of ideas and stock to work with, many of the ideas consistent and able to be pieced together, certain ideas didn't work well and it got bogged down. Any old GM could take the elements and run a campaign in this setting fine, if you can run a campaign in the setting that isn't a failure. Right now it just takes too much work than should be necessary to do that because some of the original ideas were poorly formed but if someone wanted to run a bare-bones campaign in this setting with little left out they could.

We can make this work better but switching away from a democracy isn't the answer, yes we all need to take on more responsibility and work load, I'm willing to do that and I'm sure others are too but I won't work under that kinda structure.

edited 21st May '13 7:20:41 PM by Vyctorian