Late last night after I awoke from a tryptophan induced coma (yay turkey!), my brain started firing on all cylinders and I decided that rather than waste the opportunity, I’d do something creative with it. I pulled out my old GURPS books and focused my creativity in a fit of productive insomnia and started to work on my fantasy campaign world for the first time in at least a year.
I decided that rather than stick with the previous incarnations of the world that I’d used in the past (3rd Ed GURPS and 3rd Ed. D&D) I was going to completely overhaul things and use the 4th Edition GURPS books. I wanted to use them partly because I had the books right in front of me but mainly because I love the system and have been itching to use them ever since I bought them.
After looking at all the information I had written down piecemeal here and there and going over the notes in my head with a critical eye I realized that there was a lot of excess fluff and dross in the mythology and some very clumsy plagiarisms that I just couldn’t stomach anymore so I figured that while I was changing the rules I might as well change everything that needed it at the same time.
So for most of yesterday, last night and today I’ve been doing double duty. On one hand I’m scribbling away like a madman, writing down imaginary histories for imaginary countries and populating them with imaginary races and on the other hand I’m critically examining the “whys”, “how comes” and “what else can I try” of each situation as I try to streamline what is in essence at least 15 years worth of notes and half formed ideas. I’ve invalidated almost a two whole chapters worth of character creation notes and religious back story in a single fell swoop just because I felt they were too cumbersome and clichéd. I haven’t had this much fun in ages!
This might take me awhile, but honestly its something I wholeheartedly enjoy. I love the tinkering and world building aspect of it almost as much as I love playing in the world once it’s done. Here’s hoping I can keep up the enthusiasm and actually follow through on some of these ideas that are coming fast and furious before the muse leaves me barren once more.
Of course because I’m without a computer for the foreseeable future, it will probably be a long time before I manage to get any of my notes transcribed and uploaded so none of you will see anything anytime soon. But even if all this is just a tad premature, I figure I might as well throw up this link to the site in the meantime in preparation for the day that I get it all down on paper. Perhaps having the link up there will give me some sort of mental deadline and encouragement to get it all done. Then again perhaps not but that doesn’t really matter now does it… at least not to me. I’m having fun and that’s really all that matters.
Enjoy
Interesting. I’m building a world at the moment as well, but I haven’t even got a name for it yet, let alone names for any of the countries and whatnot. Fun stuff.
Talk to Trev, he may be able to work his magic on your comp.
@Jon – Heh, I have the benefit of being older and wiser than you Jon boy… I also have had this damn world (and all it’s stories) kicking around in my head in some form or fashion since I was about 15. Maybe I’m just a one trick pony, but I likes it.
@Allan – Talked to him already and we pretty much eliminated what we thought it might be so barring a lump sum windfall in my immediate future it’s on the back burner for now.
Also, you were a gamer geek before I was, by which I mean, at a younger age.
I just started working on my world about a week or so ago, so… yeah.
Yup that’s me Jon. Older, wiser and infinitely better looking. Suck it up Princess.
Well, you got two out of three right. You are older. You’ll have to figure out which of the others is true, as one of them is definitely not…