Signed off

Made some adjustments to our proposal form yesterday and today we got it signed off. So that's good.

Last night I wrote up some possible settings that might work for a game. Showed it to the group to see which ones they like. All of the settings come from my dreams, which are pretty crazy most of the time.

There are four worlds that are suitable for a game and might be interesting to think about. They are: World of Magicians, Winter Wasteland, Tower, and Snake Worlds.

World of Magicians

In this world magic is relatively common and very real. The only difference is how people treat it in different cultures.

On the fringes of a relatively wealthy continent is a small town. Here, being a magician is an honour and using it to benefit society is nearly an absolute responsibility. Families and people with magic here have a strong sense of noblesse oblige. However, one witch hated her family for caging her up like a bird, forcing her to be someones she's not.

In a poor, industrial country where parents throw away their children for food, knowledge is power. That power is magic. A slum boy and his friend, scrawny like a bundle of twigs, are in an orphanage. The bullies make them eat mud every day and they beat them bloody. They tore out the slum boy's left eye and killed his friend. He ended up learning, and learn he did.

In the desert as wide as the ocean prosperous towns spring up here and there where the water glitters and date palms sway. Houses made of orange mud bricks all decorated colourful and bright stand draped in silks and precious fabrics that shimmer with every breath. Here, you're not a real magician unless you've had an adventure regardless of your power.

In another country of cold, white stone, faith is purity and justice. Magic is only for the unclean; the Untouchables. They're really just afraid of things they don't understand. A vengeful, wounded ghost seeks help from a young boy who is an alchemist's slave.


Winter Wasteland

Here, snow blankets the land and the trees are all black with death--strangled by the frost. Here, the sun doesn't smile. The night is eternal. The moon is nothing but an empty shell and the stars don't sparkle like ours. They're dull and faint, like stale bread crumbs scattered across the sky.

Fire is a rare gift, but make sure to panic if you see that friendly, warm, yellow light. For dwarves have resorted to cannibalism and they're not the only ones. Everybody wants to live.

It's so cold that you can't even feel your hands. Oh, that's right. You don't have hands any more. You had to get mechanical ones because yours froze and broke off years ago.


Tower

Welcome to the afterlife. There are many strict rules here that you find out as you go along, but beware. If you break them you die. Rather unpleasantly in fact. This is because the number rule is that you can't die again, and if you do you're very, very naughty. There are many doors in the tower, behind each is a world to explore. Try as hard as you want, there's no escaping this tower or its worlds. Sucks to be you.

Snake Worlds

It's okay if you get eaten by a snake, because there's a strange world inside every snake. Inside every snake world is also an exit snake. Just gotta get the exit snake to eat you without knowing so you can get back out to your world.



And that's all four worlds. Winter Wasteland we all agree is the best one for us and we want to incorporate the industrial aspect of that really poor country in World of Magicians.

Notice that in all of these little blurbs the tone is rather dark. Ben said that it wouldn't be suitable for younger kids and he wants something that people of all ages can enjoy. Basically a game for everyone. I disagree with him though. If you try to make a game that actively tries to please absolutely everyone it's impossible. You end up with a mediocre game that has a bit of everything in it but none of the aspects and faces are good. They're not bad, but they're not good either. I think it would be better to focus on the story and what this story is all about rather than worry about the audience for now. Personally, I think children can appreciate scary, or dark stories. Why else would you find anthologies of scary folk tales for children?

We all have different ideas on how this game should be and that's really frustrating me because we're all thinking in different directions. It's hard to agree on one thing when we all want different things. It frustrates me and it worries me when that happens and it's putting me on edge because decisions haven't been made yet.