So to Start: Setting Design - I basically had the players build the world. They designed a pantheon each, using a cooperative minigame I came up with, we played dawn of worlds to populate the map and get some idea of the political state of things, I had each player describe a race and design the culture and a State using RQII Empires, and I then had them go through some themes and types of NPCs they'd like to see in the plot, like a simplified version of the dresden files city design process (using those sheets): All before getting to character design.
This means all the players have a good Idea how the world works, and they got to fill it with the things they wanted to see:
We ended up with Men with a theocratic nation who are interested in naval control, insular Vikings who are experts at trade, expansionistic hostile mariner Giants (Hostile NPC Race), aristocratic diplomat Pseudo Elves without magic, and a slave caste of dwarves, Magical insular Fey people, warlike gorilla men who mostly stick to the forests, and more civilized ourangutan men who like to build things (and share territory with the gorillas).
So far its looking like its going to go really well, and the players are enthusiastic, but our first session of actual play isn't until next weekend. I think I'd like to codify the process more in the future. Further ideas I'm interested in trying out if this goes well include troupe play (Players getting to play NPC roles when their PC isn't present - and possibly a shifting group roster).
Perhaps some unique mechanics might be good too, like adding a custom magic system that doesn't use "points" in as well. We shall see.
Only downside is the amount of time the worldbuilding took: two 5 hour sessions. Still far less hours than it would have taken for me to design such a thing by myself (but more weeks, due to scheduling difficulties), and this way I know the players are interested in the world.
Sharing in case people find this campaign idea interesting. I'll let you know how it works out.
This means all the players have a good Idea how the world works, and they got to fill it with the things they wanted to see:
We ended up with Men with a theocratic nation who are interested in naval control, insular Vikings who are experts at trade, expansionistic hostile mariner Giants (Hostile NPC Race), aristocratic diplomat Pseudo Elves without magic, and a slave caste of dwarves, Magical insular Fey people, warlike gorilla men who mostly stick to the forests, and more civilized ourangutan men who like to build things (and share territory with the gorillas).
So far its looking like its going to go really well, and the players are enthusiastic, but our first session of actual play isn't until next weekend. I think I'd like to codify the process more in the future. Further ideas I'm interested in trying out if this goes well include troupe play (Players getting to play NPC roles when their PC isn't present - and possibly a shifting group roster).
Perhaps some unique mechanics might be good too, like adding a custom magic system that doesn't use "points" in as well. We shall see.
Only downside is the amount of time the worldbuilding took: two 5 hour sessions. Still far less hours than it would have taken for me to design such a thing by myself (but more weeks, due to scheduling difficulties), and this way I know the players are interested in the world.
Sharing in case people find this campaign idea interesting. I'll let you know how it works out.
I've had some similar thoughts but never got around to using them. I am very interested.