For the past few Shadowrun Sundays, we’ve briefly discussed worldbuilding (Part I and Part II here). Today we’re wrapping up with the central imperative of every game system: A Higher Power.
Religion is a touchy issue in real life. Even if insult is not intended, someone who looks hard enough can find something to take offense at in a fictional work. This is not to say we should pussy-foot around the issue in our worldbuilding. It is merely a caution that we should be aware of what we are writing about, to do our research so we understand our subject matter, and treat the subject with respect.
Earlier I used the term “higher power.” Every game has one. Sometimes it’s gods, or God, or AIs, or something that isn’t quite explained to the players. In Monopoly this power is the Bank. In Eclipse Phase it is the TITANS or the Exsurgent Virus (take your pick). In Shadowrun we have spirits, dragons, AIs, and pantheons of old and current gods. Some games even use real religions as the base of their game religion.
D&D uses opposed pantheons of good gods and evil gods. This is a cross between real ancient religions (like the Greco-Roman pantheons of gods who were not fully good or fully evil) and Zoastrian-influenced Christianity where there is a force of good and a force of evil. Gods work for a medieval period game. But if we’re designing a high tech, science fiction game (like Eclipse Phase), religion isn’t going to be of paramount importance to the NPCs or PCs. In some games, the Higher Power may in fact be a mere mortal that is just so awesome, he’s untouchable. When I look at the Doctor Who game, I see lots of higher powers.
Once we decide on the type of Higher Power our game will have, we need to decide how it affects the Way Our World Works and how NPCs and PCs will interact with it (or them). In some games, these higher powers need to be avoided at all costs. D&D actually requires many NPCs and PCs to pray and worship and tithe to the higher powers in order to gain their abilities.
Notice how I keep saying “NPCs and PCs?” There’s a reason for that. NPCs should always abide by the same rules as the PCs or players will not enjoy the game. NPCs might be normal humans like the PCs, but they can also be nasty critters (hellhounds, Beholders, demons, AIs) that live under the bed or in the dark. (Eclipse Phase has some really nasty nanite swarms that still gives me the shivers just thinking about them.)
Out of higher powers come the villains of our play. Once we understand what drives the rules of this world, we are free to have our TITAN create a nasty group of uplifted carnivores or our gods create a race of demons. Where do dragons come from, anyway? And how does a bumblebee know how to fly?
Once we know the answers to these questions, once we have our geography, peoples, time period, and gear thoughts, our worldbuilding is mostly complete. It only remains for us to tweak it as we discover that some things work better than others and some things just don’t work at all. But that will fall into place as we turn our attention to other matters, such as Game Rules.
Have you built a game from scratch? How easy was your worldbuilding, or did you even bother?
If you have any thoughts to add to these articles, I’d love to hear them. Comments are always welcome.
