Virtual Femme

I am a gigantic fan of seamless, realistic worlds. In the old days of multi-user dungeons (MUDs), players would always start in a central city, and devs simply tacked on cool areas onto it. There really was very little rhyme or reason when it came to world and area design. “That’s cool!” became the standard of which new areas got implemented and “This seems like a good spot!” was the mantra for where the area got added.

Things are a bit different now in worlds where roleplaying is required. While most players can admirably suspend disbelief and take the world as its given, roleplaying becomes far more easy when the world is as believable as possible as well as basically correct when it comes to details. The average roleplayer playing a text game does a fair amount of reading, and they possess a good deal of information on various topics. When a detail runs contrary to what they know to be true, players are jarred out of their state of suspended disbelief, and they have a “WHAT?” moment. So, designing areas and instances in a roleplaying game requires at least rudimentary research in whatever type of area I’m building unless it is purely fantastical.

There’s no point in trying to be an expert in a subject before coding it whether it’s a system, an area, or an item. Basic information is all that is required. These are the steps I usually take in reseraching for areas, systems, and items.

1) Decide how complicated the area or system needs to be. (Keeping it relatively simple is better unless you already know a ton about a certain subject.)

2) Do basic research on the type of area you are creating. Here’s a list of good places to start.

• The internet - You can find lots of basic goodies on the internet. Most .edu sites are a wealth of excellent information on biomes and ecologies.

• Children’s books - Children’s non-fiction books are excellent for research. I usually go for elementary level books. They’re short, and they hit all the highlights.

• Hobbyist books - Gardening books and sites are wonderful for explaining how certain biomes and systems work. It can give you a basic understanding of an ecology. They’re also usually easy and fun to read.

3) Pick one or two prominent feature from your research to showcase in your area, and feel free to use a few new words that you learned from your research. You’ll be educating your players and encouraging them to find out more about the area itself.

4) Keep it simple and purely descriptive. Don’t tell your players how they feel or how they react to something. Just tell them what is easily noticed!

Obviously, this is advice for a text-based game, but it can be used by devs who need to write a descriptive blurb about an area or for devs speccing out an area for their artists. Happy writing!

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