The Road Less Traveled

Early Worldbuilding, a roundabout journey

The seeds of my worldbuilding obsession were sown in 1983, during an early IFGS game called Quest of the Obi, written by Mark Matthew-Simmons. As a rookie live action role-player, I was initially drawn to the ranger class, but the loremaster needed a cleric, so, while I kept the basic character history, Brandis became a war-cleric. This seemingly minor decision would set the stage for a lifelong passion.

Brandis began as a spear-wielding elf, but as I delved deeper into the IFGS universe, I yearned to give him a unique identity through the first of many character history amendments. This led to the creation of the K'tath, a race similar to elves yet distinct in culture and history. A vaguely defined homeland, D'oril, emerged as a cornerstone for my newest foray into worldbuilding. To add a touch of tragedy and role playing depth, I made Brandis the last of his kind.

This dramatic backstory posed a challenge a couple of years later when I began writing and produced my first IFGS game, The K'tath of D'oril. How could I center a game on a people if only one remained? The answer lay in a deception I added to the backstory. Brandis had been misled by his goddess, Elorna, into believing he was alone. In truth, she needed an emissary to bridge the gap between the reclusive K'tath and the outside world, and she knew he wouldn't venture south unless he thought he was the sole survivor of a brutal attack by an ancient enemy. This intricate plot device became the foundation for the game, the first of many I wrote and produced, where players journeyed north to discover a hidden civilization and initiate diplomatic relations.

What began as a simple character concept had now begun to evolve into a complex and multifaceted world. D'oril, once a solitary point of focus, became a corner of a broader tapestry. A magical land arose, at times torn by strife between factions of light and darkness and fed by the manipulations of shadow. Civilizations with diverse cultures, from the enigmatic K'tath of the far north to the burgeoning Western Confederacy. The formidable Empire of Tallux, the primary antagonist of the D'oril games, stretched across two continents, and its efforts to bridge the treacherous "Endless Ocean" fed a string of IFGS adventures. By constructing a rich history that spanned millennia, I laid the groundwork for countless stories. The Rocke Stoene series is one of them,  taking place a few hundred years before Brandis's time, that first novice character who journeyed beyond the borders of his homeland to discover a new land. In Graveyard Blues, Rocke lives in a provincial capital of  "The Vast Realm", as that triumvirate-ruled realm begins a long slide into a darkness. A fall of a bureaucracy that will one day see the birth of the theocratic Empire of Tallux, the antagonist of many of the IFGS D'oril games that culminated in Sha'Te valley...

The long journey from a novice role-player to worldbuilder and now writer has been nothing short of exhilarating. I owe a debt of gratitude to those early IFGS experiences and the supportive community that nurtured my creativity. Along the way, I've met many folk who have encouraged me to look beyond the confines of the bureaucracy and madness of the FAA to rediscover my creative roots, but that's a tale for another time.

 

Clear Skies,

Jim