Problems, Possibilities and Complications

I’ve been thinking, as usual, about how things should be and how things would be. I’ve studied or at least observed and read a lot of fantasy-world fictions and compared a little here and there to how it’s possible to create a world with a touch. It’s not easy and even though I try I still have some complications to overcome or to clarify to make it better.

In some fantasy worlds, there are no countries. This is actually quite simple and an easy way to solve things. In most worlds they see themselves as the centre and then everything else is far away or mystified strange countries over the seas or whatever. Everything is bound close and everything not close are enemies or people you don’t know a lot about.

In the few worlds I’ve encountered with a lots of different countries, which seem to be a more modern thing in the fantasy genre, they still have managed to mystify the countries in some way and make them enemies or allies in natural order throughout a chain. Most of these worlds are divided or controlled by a central thing such as a higher power or a country that indirect controls the others to some extent. Until something breaks or push the countries to disobey the chain.

The original idea for the new world of Nianze, where I downsized everything circulated only on the war of the three governments. None of them evil, but all of them struggling for word domination on what they think was a righteous basis or even a must for the world. I then added four numbers, magical numbers in which I would control the structure of the world; 3, 4, 8 and 12. The rest of the structure grew forth as time passed. I later used and changed the idea based on my ideas and my thoughts from the first game and the animation Juuni Kokki, The Twelve Kingdoms.

Know, several years later, things have developed but I still haven’t infused my players with the understanding of the world since I haven’t had a clear idea and it takes quite some time for someone to really understand something about a world this big. But to return to the first subject, a world like this with the geography Yurin has is an isolated place. Either I make this world a highly magical world, where information is as easy to come by as our world, which will make it like impossible for my players to play since they cannot understand the flows of the world. Or I make it a non-magical world with magic. Thus, creating mystical powers which cannot be understood or used in all ways and also make the world not understand everything.

But still a world needs to be connected and no country can be pushed out of the picture. For that we’ll have history. But that’s the hard part. A world with an extensive history must have a history of connections here and there, and for a player to understand a world he or she must know everything about it. Or he or she cannot thin outside the box. But this also makes the complication with just that. You want to create something and then filtering out what you know and doesn’t now become like a blur and you cannot see everything as you should.

For instance, in ADL you are newborn. I explain pain, I explain suffering, I explain your memory loss. You experiment with your memories, which are like amnesia. You now, but you don’t know at the same time, so far so good. Then comes the transformation and the process in which you need to understand something that even though I explain it, you are not sure what to filter out or include. You know something, you want to use it as you know it, but you don’t want to step over the line, or you just assume something and try anyway.

That’s where things go wrong and well it’s just a game, so it’s okay but that’s the complication. Where you assume from your own knowledge, either too much or too little and in the whole process forget about the whole thing. My own personality versus what I’ve become and what I want to become. My own knowledge versus what I know and what I want to know. Two clear examples;

“I try to run across the room as fast as I can.” – PB, A Dark Life – 1×01 – The Awakening
“We saw a green light about a year ago, what is a God?” – Danne, A Dark Life – 1×04 – Single Session
“I try to find something to pick the lock with.” – Ankan, A Dark Life – 1×06 – The Trip

No blame here, but just think for one second. Why would Loke, start running back and forth in a room just because of something? He haven’t even seen anybody run and why did he get this impulse? I myself can only think of one thing, he wanted to feel a difference or something else that could be expected from vampires. Which Loke didn’t know about. I can’t see any real reason for anyone to run in a room, if he isn’t a nutcase or someone that desperately needed to express his aggressive energy. Which was not the case. Well, curiosity is the only reason I see there.

Why would anyone ask a fleeting question about something that happened a year ago, which most likely is like a LIFETIME of impulses and more important things, even though the original moment wasn’t spectacular and the most memorable that night was the smell of blood from a human? If you are completely new in this world, you don’t think about things like if people say that they don’t matter. Then even a question about grass and stone is more relevant. There too, is curiosity outplayed for Daniel. He sees Magnus as a curious person and therefore wants to now things, but if you ask yourself, a fleeting thing like a plane cross the sky when you’re little you ask your parents what it is, they say it’s a plane. Then they start to talk to you about ice cream. Five years later you don’t ask about where the plane was from or where it was headed. The only thing you remember from that moment is my sister got lost and I got to taste my first ice cream.

Magnus and Shurren don’t like confined spaces. Naturally they search for other areas to go to. Then they find a locked room. Ankan looks at his formula and sees the skill Lock pick and then tries to find something to pick the lock with. This is too obvious and too faulty a decision that I must stop it. Picking locks isn’t something natural and something you do without realizing your skills and actively trying to do it when a problem occurs if you don’t have anything in your memory to refer to as you do when you do stuff. Thus, not right thing to do. BUT at the same time, this is the right thing to do. When you encounter a problem usually you are expected to look at your formula and character sheets and use everything possible in the best way you can to solve it. But this is where confusion about what I know and doesn’t know makes the stuff tricky.

This is not criticism. It’s only examples to prove my point about something much more important. I know that Daniel probably won’t agree with me, he doesn’t agree to almost anything I say without a discussion that will make the god’s ears bleed. However I use my Game Master veto and continue with this post.

To sum it up so far; to make my players understand the world they must know about it. This will cause troubles for them when they will play to filter out what they know, should know, and want to know. If Nianze were only a book, I wouldn’t have any problems at all to make my world realistic. Because I will control everything completely and people would act and think as they should, most likely. In role-playing however people are free to do as they want and that’s the interesting as well as complicated part.

I want a realistic world, which will put limits on things. You cannot play something that isn’t realistic or isn’t within the worlds perimeter. If you are from one country, you should act as in that country. If you are from one race, you should think and act as you are one of them. I’ll take dwarfs as an example.

If you are a dwarf from Katia, you are more or less a minor race in this country. You are most likely a technician or mechanic in some way. You are used for physical labour and administrative jobs. You are book-keepers and you are mostly bitter or drunkards since you aren’t fairly treated. You lead a hard life and you are mostly regarded as slaves and or, a lower working-class people. You might be a warrior, magician, tyniker or doctor, but never a healer. Most likely you’ve spent most of your life struggling to live in the society and you might even have succeeded by kissing ass and bribe your way through your life. Bribing would then be second nature, and you would always be open to bribes. Honour for dwarfs in Katia is more moral honour. You are greedy and you dislike a lot.

If you are a dwarf from Lantor, you are the superior race in which controls the countries. You are full of principles and you are a major racist. You like wars, gamble and drinking. But all in different ways depending on where in the society you stand. You respect your elders, but fight them on the same time. You are even greedier than the Katian Dwarf and you use dwarfs to dig in your mines. You even look down on your own race and you fight amongst yourselves. Being a healer is nothing for you, doctors are unnecessary since scars are proof that you’ve been in battle. You dislike dwarfs from other countries, except for Icea, and to you gold is the only metal worth trading. To you, profit is everything and nothing is free, bribes though are immoral.

Just a shallow reflection of how different two dwarfs can be in two of the main countries. Every country will form you after their will and to think differently in some extent might be possible but thinking too differently will make you strange. That is why a fantasy world will limit players. Players often have their own ideas and concepts and sure they want to play it but they often are to set in their own thinking that if they don’t understand the dwarfs they will revert to themselves and more or less just play themselves in their characters and not a dwarf.

Well, even so a world like mine will need isolation and explanation of a race or a people. Most countries in Nianze are isolated, except a few who are either merged with other countries or super isolated like Taraien, Exile, Sancho and Icea. Travelling such distances with those problems aren’t easy in this time and age. And those countries are even more mystified than the usual countries. What will bind them together are but one thing, the gods.

But actually almost every country is quite many countries to explore in their own way. Every country is built upon counties, provinces, districts, areas and other things that will distinguish them from eachother. Magicka have four parts divided by four mountain ranges, Aguin have their main channels, Katia have their borders, Meno have theirs and in Taraien there are unseen borders which mark areas to different kind of people and races. Note that actual travel is not something that is that usual in worlds like these and even the people who travel have a set route and in the end, end up somewhere. There are few who have seen all countries, just like in our world. And if you are one of those who actually travel a lot then you need a good reason to do this and those reasons are often of a very special character. Not something you usually do. Debians have their tradition to travel throughout their principalities when their boys are coming of age. But few (mostly nobody) leaves the country at all. Katians might travel to another city to find luck or work, but there are a lot going on in their own country that travelling to other countries are rare and expensive. The only people who travel a lot are the people of Aguin. But even so, most of them stay and quarrel for the favour of the emperor instead.

I will push this limit to make my world better. And therefore most countries are mystified by other countries and things should be very, very prejudiced and tense. This is a problem, but it also gives possibilities to a group and to workings but note that things need to be really thought through when you create characters that isn’t where they would usually be. But even so, knowledge is an important part, which I need to work on. What is likely for people to know, think and feel of different nationalities, races and places? I need to clarify this or you will not be able to make a distinct impresson of your character without making something weird out of it.

Well, with two new races I need to remodel history, change some countries and give countries more purpose and more goals and more characteristics so they actually could fit as one country even though they are different. Every place should be interesting and should have it’s own appeals. And in the same time I need to build up a better international structure, which will probably mean that I will have to change some of the heroes¹ and the relation with the gods and half-gods.

Best regards,
Herid fel

1. Which I mean with everyone that is special in any significant way, good or evil ↩