GMs -- Don't we all want to roll our own?

[Mr_Sandman]

When I first started playing and GMing, no one I knew really thought much about "settings" or "worlds." D&D was played in a series of dungeons and towns, in a vague default D&D setting. Traveller was played in a random series of GM made up planets in a vague Traveller setting. Villains and Vigilantes was played in our home town, but our characters had superpowers.

So at the start, I never purchased setting materials and the only prepared dungeon I ever bought was "Dark Tower." Most of the games I've run in a commercial "setting" are those where the game itself is tied to a particular setting: James Bond 007, Paranoia, 2300 AD. I also ran a fairly "off the shelf" GURPS Mage the Ascension campaign.

I've also run and played many games in completely homemade worlds, or worlds adapted from books.

What I have found to be the advantage of a published setting isn't that you don't have to build your own world, that part is fun. It is that is is easier to achieve that "common frame of reference." It is much less work to get players to read a relatively attractive, comprehensive, professionally written and edited book that describes the world they will be playing in -- especially if it has new skills, powers, equipment and other toys and fun concepts that they can use to create their characters, than it is to compile my scattered notes and ideas into a comprehensible document and then persuade players that they have to wade through all my intricately thought out setting concepts before they can sit down and have fun playing.

The alternative is to just give a quick verbal description of your world, tell player what they can and can't do when making a character, and dole out setting information as it comes up in play. That works against a really immersive world though, since players wouldn't know many basic things that their characters would, for example, tribesmen only drive their flocks into town in the rainy season, or technology malfunctions around wizards, unless you tell them when it comes up.

So to sum up, I like making up My own completely original world, but getting players immersed in it takes more work that way. If someone comes up with a really cool idea for a setting, I'm open to paying a little to use it, as a means to get a shortcut to player immersion and common knowledge base. This could be either through buying published setting, or using a setting that all the players are already familiar with -- from novels, TV, movies, or history.

[balzacq]

Originally Posted by whswhs

But by the time I was done, there was no question that this was MY Middle-Earth, to do with as I saw fit.

But all that sort of proves my point -- you weren't using Middle Earth off the shelf in a period in which its history is known (as did MERP). Doing that much of a change to an established setting is almost as much "work" as creating your own, and alters enough things that the "common frame of reference" must be established anew.

Perhaps I should have said "that's why I won't run canonical Star Wars, Star Trek, or Middle Earth."

ETA: On reflection, I suppose I wouldn't have as many problems running a published setting that didn't try to do too much -- Roma Arcana, for instance, is more of a "campaign frame" than a fully fleshed-out campaign, giving much more room for my creativity; I could see myself running "Bryan Lovely's Roma Arcana".

[Parody]

Originally Posted by balzacq

What do you mean by "world bombed"?

The FR has been reset at each major revision of the (A)D&D rules, complete with in-game reasoning, gods and major characters dying/changing/appearing, map alterations (sometimes major), book tie-ins, plenty of new rulebooks to buy, etc.

Originally Posted by balzacq

Perhaps I should have said "that's why I won't run canonical Star Wars, Star Trek, or Middle Earth."

I've played in plenty of Star Wars and Star Trek games and have yet to have anyone whine about canon issues. Maybe it's just the groups I've been in, but everyone seemed to accept that in our adventures, things may be different from the sources.

That doesn't force things to change, though. One of my favorite Star Wars adventures was when our group of "honest businessmen" had the misfortune of taking a delivery to Alderaan. Captured by the staff of everyone's favorite small moon, we escaped when some farm kid came by to rescue his girlfriend, or something like that. We grabbed a few stormtrooper outfits and worked our way back to the hanger. There was a tense moment when we ran into the folks who unwittingly let us escape; we decided to shoot at them but intentionally miss so as to not blow our cover. Once at the hanger we sneaked back into our ship and got the heck out of there in the confusion.

[sgtcallistan]

Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip

Umm, should we consider pre-gen settings a resource for GMing-with-training-wheels?

On a personal note, we are just about to achieve five GM's out of five players in my gaming group. We ALL consider the solo creative aspect of setting part of the enjoyment. THEN we get to enjoy watching our friends trash it, take it apart, kill the carefully crafted NPC etc.

A metaphor could be buying a chainstore junk food meal, as opposed to cooking for yourself and friends. I'm being judgemental, aren't I...

Pre-gens could reach the level of Japanese 'table-talk' games, where (reputedly) the game is scripted. Apparently these things exist for the 'training-wheel' reason.

These could be fun for a change, too. Tho' I don't think my group would wear it...

The risk of the players trashing your carefully-constructed world and plot is irrelavent to someone having fun, and vital to prevent for 'controllers'.

Anyway; I certainly find the consensual creations more satisfying.

[sgtcallistan]

Originally Posted by Bending Arms

I feel so lazy compared to most here. When I GM, get the ideal of a place and make the rest up as I play. The ideal consist adventure set in some genre and as the player like the game I move where they want. I just write down Npc names and what they are doing in game. I do let ideas from books, comics, games, life, and TV filter themselves into the game. I do admit that the private throne room is my ideal chamber.

Do not be ashamed of laziness, grasshopper: rather call it 'efficiency and self-sufficiency' ;)

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by sgtcallistan

The risk of the players trashing your carefully-constructed world and plot is irrelavent to someone having fun, and vital to prevent for 'controllers'.

For me roleplaying is a cinematic journey. IMHO, the task of GM's is to try to set up interesting circumstances, settings, and NPCs with which to interact, and to cope with the chaos which ensues when you let players lose in it all. Not deal with, just cope. If the players are having fun running an orphanage, an inn, or a brothel, rather than dealing with the Big Bad, heck that is the campaign you have, rather than the soul-less scripted sketch plan you might have come up with weeks or months earlier.

The real question is "do the players enjoy playing in the setting?" If the answer is yes, then it is mission successful. If it is enjoyable for the GM, he or she might do it again some time. Like next week...

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by Parody

That doesn't force things to change, though. One of my favorite Star Wars adventures was when our group of "honest businessmen" had the misfortune of taking a delivery to Alderaan. Captured by the staff of everyone's favorite small moon, we escaped when some farm kid came by to rescue his girlfriend, or something like that. We grabbed a few stormtrooper outfits and worked our way back to the hanger. There was a tense moment when we ran into the folks who unwittingly let us escape; we decided to shoot at them but intentionally miss so as to not blow our cover. Once at the hanger we sneaked back into our ship and got the heck out of there in the confusion.

That is golden. Very nice cat cradling.

[Anaraxes]

There are eight million stories on the naked Death Star. This has been one of them.

[Irish Wolf]

Originally Posted by Parody

We grabbed a few stormtrooper outfits and worked our way back to the hanger. There was a tense moment when we ran into the folks who unwittingly let us escape; we decided to shoot at them but intentionally miss so as to not blow our cover.

So that's why the stormtroopers in the chasm couldn't hit Luke and Leia (and what the heck is a chasm doing in a space station, anyway??). Bummer about the one that fell down the hole, though. Or was that a real stormtrooper that you pushed down?

[Anaraxes]

what the heck is a chasm doing in a space station

It's required by code. All villainous lairs must have an infinite pit.