Most of the Worlds of Design columns begin out “shotgun” (bottom-up) and is probably not completed till years after they had been began, however there are others that I’ve drafted from begin to end in a single sitting (related, however not fairly, top-down). Can I inform now which of them had been performed a method, which one other? No, as a result of regardless of the way you get to a draft, there might be revisions and additions, simply as there might be for any RPG setting or world.
The Gardner vs. the Architect
High-down usually means you begin along with your purpose after which determine how you are going to get there by fleshing out a lot of particulars, usually an overview within the case of writing, all of sudden. Once you truly begin crafting, you comply with the define intently.
Backside-up means you begin with particular person items and steadily construct one thing up; it’s possible you’ll not even know precisely what the purpose is till you get close to it. George R. R. Martin (Track of Hearth and Ice/Sport of Thrones) writes that manner. Martin calls how he writes the gardening technique, and calls prime down the architectural technique.
The query is, do you begin along with your goal and work your manner down or do you begin with particular person components that you just suppose are going to suit into one thing and work your manner as much as an entire? The underside up model could be fairly incremental and created over an extended interval as you add issues to it, however you may also get in hassle with contradictions. The highest-down technique is extra organized however requires way more effort initially.
High-Down
I recall one creator, Maxwell Alexander Drake, describing at a Gen Con panel how he spends many months making an in depth define for a novel, after which follows it precisely as he writes the e book. That’s an excessive of top-down.
There are much less extremes after all; writers who begin out with an overview might change course as they write, simply as sport designers might adjustments guidelines as they design a sport. You’ll usually hear writers talk about how their characters did one thing the author did not count on, and the plot modified accordingly: the character turns into a separate entity to them, plotting their very own course and never adhering to the define.
Backside-Up
You even have individuals like Martin who simply begin writing and go wherever the story takes them, roughly an excessive of bottom-up. You may design video games the identical manner, maybe extra RPGs than board video games or video video games. This will likely range based on your temperament, or might range with the person sport.
I’ve performed this. I’ve made what I name “shotgun notes” about video games (or articles) and generally these would prove to grow to be one thing helpful and generally would not; or it may be months and even years later after I went again to these notes and got here up with one thing helpful.
A Spectrum of Design
Like most conditions with two extremes, individuals are someplace in between, and will go to 1 excessive or the opposite (or each) in sure instances; as with how I write Worlds of Design.
Clearly, the identical distinction of technique applies to setting and world constructing (and to journey creation). Some settings will “simply develop”, others might be consciously created in main define in a short while. Many GMs in all probability determine particulars of a setting as they go alongside (backside up, with the acute being sandbox model play). However others might determine to start out from scratch and write down an entire lot of details about the brand new setting (prime down).
Backside-up design depends closely on improvisation whereas top-down design requires vital planning. Backside-up design was widespread in early Dungeons & Dragons campaigns as a result of there weren’t revealed worlds to start with, and the idea of a “milieu” the place the adventures befell was developed by means of play. As the sport matured and dungeon masters had time to develop their worlds, extra and more-top down design grew to become attainable. A GM’s consolation degree with one or the opposite largely is dependent upon their inventive imaginative and prescient and luxury with the foundations. It is lots simpler to develop a setting in actual time (bottom-up) when the GM can simply whip up NPCs on the fly, whereas techniques that present guidelines for world-building lend themselves higher to planning forward (top-down).
I do not suppose both technique is essentially “higher.” For some, the enjoyable is within the surprises created by bottom-up design; for others, management and narrative could be satisfying as the main points are crammed in from top-down. The trick is to search out what fits you and your gamers.
Your Flip: Once you create a setting or a whole world for RPG, how do you go about it?
