I have been slowly chipping away at my worldbuilding project for my next TTRPG campaign. It’s slow for multiple reasons; in addition to dealing with writing priorities, energy, and a little bit of writer’s block, it also turns out my hiatus hasn’t started yet. Yeah, I ran a game session on Sunday, and while this is not going to be a full campaign, I can’t help but writing a little plotline and not relying on modules even when I’m just doing a placeholder game. We’re figuring things out, though, and my placeholders should come to an end in another month or so. When that happens, and the excuses have been depleted, I would really like to make some headway on this setting that’s been brewing in my head.

One of the things that has tripped me up a bit is that the writing schema I’m using (mostly from the game Electric Bastionland) is a bit removed from how I actually want to start the game. I am writing a Bastion, so to speak; a giant city of roughly the vibe and tech level of the city in Electric Bastionland, but the actual game will start in a village that will be roughly equidistant from that city and a chaotic, magic-inflected hinterland. While I definitely see the city evolving as a ‘character’ in the game (I’m very much drawing inspiration from Electric Bastionland both for the city and the notional ‘Deep Country’ that surrounds it), it’s also not where I want to focus things, at least at first. So, of course, I’m writing…the city…first?

To be fair I don’t actually view that procedure as a problem. Deep Country as it’s defined in Electric Bastionland is defined in part by its distance from the city, so figuring out what the city is and how the starting village relates to it is an important part of actually providing context to players (and their characters) once the game starts. The other problem, though, is that I’m also envisioning a game where that starting village is of primary importance, to the point where multiple sessions may take place just in the village and its surroundings. I’m imagining a parallel to something like Stardew Valley, which I did write about at Cannibal Halfling…a setting with some depth where the other inhabitants are known, understood, and (if I’m ambitious) cared about by the player characters before they set their sights further afield.

None of this is a problem with the process, and I do ‘trust the process’. I’m just in that early stage of worldbuilding where I haven’t even built the foundation for what I’m eventually going to create, and as a result everything seems that much more nebulous. Luckily, I’m not going to run this game for a while so it’s OK that everything is a bit nebulous. It’s why I have checklists. Now that I’m trying to go through the checklists, though, everything seems more scattered.

I’m weighing a number of considerations about what makes this a game, and trying to do them in order so I continue to have a stable platform on which to write. That said, the one detail that keeps on rearing its head (as much as I try to push the thought down) is that of system. I could conceivably run this game in a d20 D&D-alike, and I could conceivably run it in GURPS as well. I think I could also run it in Cortex Prime, though that would require an additional layer of work that I haven’t done yet. Part of me wants to poll my group, see what everyone prefers. Another part of me is saying to just go with my preference…but I’m not entirely sure what that is yet. Admittedly, while I got excited about the news that Cortex Prime is now available on DrivethruRPG, the reality is that that system would simply be too much work. Both d20 and GURPS have separate and distinct advantages: A d20 system would allow for a massive breadth of stat blocks to be brought in, making the monster and encounter building much easier for me. On the other hand, I think GURPS, between its magic system and the general granularity of the system, is actually closer to how I envision this. I’d need to convert some monster stat blocks, but that’s not necessarily difficult, especially since game balance is a distant fantasy the way I intend to run this. I think I know the answer, but polling my group is a fantasy of legitimacy…the idea that by running what they want things are going to go better. In all honesty, though, I should know better.

This is a short post, all I’m really doing is (metaphorically) slapping myself and getting in the mode to do worldbuilding. I’m mostly in a place where I have some bandwidth; I did have a rough allergy weekend and I haven’t completely jumped off the GMing mantle, but these are temporary setbacks. Ultimately I just have to do the work, and some of that is exorcizing any second thoughts that are lingering around the process. Am I going to do some excess writing? Of course, that’s the nature of writing for a game. My hope, though, is that I’m going to produce something that encourages the players to expand their horizons naturally, and make the whole thing feel a little less linear and less, well, plotted. I’m still working on how to do that, and sometimes that work means venting outward. It’ll all come together, though.