back from illness

I haven't been on in a day or two, I've been sick and I never work well while sick.

Secrets of Cats is a cool and well written supplement but I don't think it serves as a good model for what I am trying to do. Not directly at least. By that I mean I cannot just do what they did and fill in my info. I plan a more and less detailed world. I want to describe enough to make it feel like the world is living and breathing place, very different from this one, but with this world as its distant past.

back to the drawing board

I have finally read the first few pages of Secrets of Cats. I don't really like the premise but it is a good study in how to create a world and how to write about it. The first draft I posted yesterday is not up to par in the writing, I need to come at it from a different angle. I need an outline to work from. I can envision the world I want to write very clearly but that is only the first step in this process. I need to go back to planning and get that right before I write anymore.

First Draft

I said that I would post the basic description of the world I am building when it was more polished. Here it is. Its not perfect and only gives a basic overview of the background of the world, but I think it at least gives the flavor I am looking to convey.

400 years ago Earth was invaded by aliens, they were both inscrutable and capricious. These alien conquerors did all the thing that alien conquers always do. They enslaved a large portion of the human population. They forced these slaves to destroy the great cities of the past and build cities of soaring crystal that no one lived in. They changed, modified, destroyed and rebuilt almost everything and everyone. They were cruel seemingly for cruelty’s sake alone.

Then, one day 100 years ago the aliens and most of their technology disappeared. They did not return to their great warships, they did not travel across the planet and meet to depart, they were simply not there one day.

This departure left all the humans that had been workers or slaves abandoned with nothing. People began to die without the support networks that the aliens had put in place. Cyborg slaves succumb to rejection syndrome, farmers that grew exclusively alien crops died from starvation with full storehouses.

The aliens had experimented on their slaves modifying their DNA to create abominations. Many of these twisted creatures died without their masters to care for them. Many others moved out of their cells and hid themselves in holes or wherever they could find. A few, monstrous beings raged across the land, feeling nothing but hunger and rage, killing to satisfy both. Still others had become hateful of the un-mutated and skulked around the edges of burgeoning societies to take the straggler or the stray child.

As the aliens enslaved mankind they likewise enslaved animals. Teaching them to talk and reason just make them more effective in the gladiatorial games the aliens never tired of. Some developed psionic powers that made them even more interesting to the aliens. Most of these animals have now returned to the wild though some live with humans. It is now impossible to tell if that dog can talk or a crow can use a gun or if that squirrel can read you mind.

They awakened machines giving them emotions and a desire to be real lifeforms, only for the amusement of watching the failure. Now robots roam the world looking for purpose. Advanced AI live on the remaining computer systems ruling over small data nodes that no longer connect to anything. Living appliances with no movement capabilities hope to be found and allowed to fulfill their function.

The aliens had used their advanced technology to keep one group of humans from communicating with another by changing the language spoken by different communities of slaves. This created little nations of humans that were goaded into wars that were not of their desire, but could not be avoided.

Clouds of nanite robots were unleashed. They destroyed and rebuilt buildings, towns, people, animals, even geological features, at random. These nanites lingered in pockets across the earth and some people learned to use them. Now wizards of nanotechnology cast fire and death at will. Some have the power of healing and some have even been rumored to bring people back from the dead.

World Building

I simply cannot get through secrets of cats. I am procrastinating, not just on this but on things in my life that could have serious consequences.

Creating a world is an ambitious goal, I am finding it so daunting that I am avoiding it. I have a brief intro to the world done but it is poorly composed and not very interesting. I will post it here when its a bit more polished.

I have had a week or two with the FATE system in my mind and have come to what I think are good insights. 

First, FATE allows players to help build the world and I have not been making use of this in my planning for my setting. I need to make the world interesting but open enough so the players can say what their town or city is like and who is there. I need my world to be more like a backdrop than a traditional campaign setting.

Second, the rules of FATE are a good deal less the GM's friend than rules of other systems. The rules cannot and should not be used to reign in the PCs. The PCs should abuse and break the rules of the game like they should abuse and break the rules of the game world. The best thing that a GM can do is think of himself as another player not the god of his little world.

Discouraged again

Still haven't made any significant progress one secrets of cats. getting kinda discouraged again. Family problems mostly.

The world I am making is going to take a lot more planning than I thought. I knew that it would be a lot of work, that's not the problem. Planning is the stage before writing when you decide what to write. I am working on a bare bones document to explain the basics of my world. I will post it here as soon as its done.

adventure 1

No progress in secrets of cats yet. had a busy weekend.

I have decided on the basic structure of the adventure I'll run at Pacificon, but as some people that want to play it also read here I wont spoil it. What I will do is chronicle the steps I go through in its creation and how they also serve as stepping stones for creation of the campaign setting I intend to publish. I find that the most difficult part of the creative process for me is the blank page. I have an idea now and that is the toughest part.

Pacificon 2

No progress on secrets of cats. 

Decided that I'm defiantly going to Pacificon this September, so I'm going to start work on an adventure to run. I think I'm gonna go with something like the seven samurai set in my post apocalyptic world. I have some good ideas of how to set it up and make it feel fleshed out and deep.