Worldbuilding letter 2019
Jan. 27th, 2019 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marsdragon...already?
Large chunks of this are just copy-pasted from last year because, well...my tastes haven't changed. If I miss adding prompts for any tags in this years set...well, use your imagination. Go hog wild.
Overall I like explorations of culture and morality from the perspective of the characters in their worlds, how technology has effected a society, myths and legends, pop culture, and explorations of daily life, away from all the world-saving. I like finding out how characters fit (or don't fit) into the restrictions of their culture, though I'd like to avoid issuefic. I also like explorations of mechanics for my game canons.
Don't feel like you have to include all characters. I'm not sure that's even a rule for this exchange. Whatever, write what characters you feel like.
Chrono Trigger
Any/No Characters, Original Characters
WB: Life in Zeal, WB: 1999 Communications Centre, WB: Zeal, WB: Telepad, WB: Magic, WB: Day of Lavos and aftermath, WB: Archaeology, WB: Ripple effects from the defeat of Lavos
Let's Play of SNES version
Let's Play of the DS version
Canon notes: So let's just pretend Chrono Cross never happened, okay? Including the extra ending in the DS version. None of that happened.
A lot of these tags overlap in one or more ways, so I'm not really doing individual prompts for all of them.
Prompts: So...what kind of historical record are we looking at, after our merry band of time travelers runs through history a few times? Between Zeal and the party, Chrono Trigger's world should be a goldmine of out-of-place artifacts, what do people make of them? Are theories about Zeal taken as seriously as theories about Atlantis here? What about the entire Reptile civilization? Does anyone ever perform a scientific investigation on the remains of Tyrano Lair? Do the theories about it change over time? Where the hell did the Rainbow Shell come from, anyway? And what changed in the future after Lavos was destroyed? Were there any changes earlier in the timestream?
What sort of civilization existed in 1999? Did they try to fight Lavos at all? Did they have any sort of space program, and if so, what did the astronauts see? What was the immediate aftermath like for the survivors? Did they have robots to help them, or did Mother Brain immediately rebel? If she didn't, how long did it take her to give up? How did people survive for 300 years? And during the good ending, how do they react to this giant space bug rising from the ground and just kind of dying instantly? Does anyone see the kids?
I'm down for any sort of worldbuilding about magic. Once the game is over, do any of the party keep researching magic? What abilities do they find? Who originally discovered magic? Did it help humanity survive the Ice Age? What kind of discoveries did the early mages find? When did they split off from the rest of humanity? What about mystics/fiends, we see some on the Mountain of Woe in Antiquity, and they seem to have their own magic. Where did they come from?
And then Zeal, which offers a ton of possibilities on its own. What's their culture like? Religious beliefs? Festivals? How many of them are there, and can they actually sustain their population as-is? How long have they been living above the clouds? How do they replace all the water they lose in that pretty waterfall? What are their crops? The cuisine? Writing? What kind of stories did they tell? Was any normal citizen worried about the Queen and the future? If the four magical elements are light/fire/water/shadow, is there any significance to the fire/wind/water books?
And all the cats! Cats through history. Cat to the future.
Giant Robo
Any/No Characters, Original Character(s)
WB: Magnificent Ten, WB: Giant Robots, WB: Experts of Justice, WB: Newspapers and the media, WB: Governments, WB: BF Organization, WB: Special powers in a world of science, WB: Shizuma Drive
Available: DVD in English, horrifically expensive Blu-Ray in Japan, *coughcough* List of torrents. (you want the EG release)
Laserdisk linear notes, with lots of extra details about the characters and setting.
Extra info that's literally friend-of-a-friend, so take or leave it as you will. Might inspire some ideas, though.
Prompts: This is another big one, because there's just so much room to worldbuild here. Really, if you want to take any of the little scraps from the linear notes and expand them, that would be wonderful. More about the GR Project! More about the Magnificent Ten! More about backstories! More adventures! Anything.
More specifically, what sort of governments are there in the GR world? Do they openly know about BF and the IPO, or is it a secret? How much are they controlled by either organization? How good are they at navigating a path between the organizations? How about the media, do they know? What's the reporting like? Have reporters ever gotten where they're not supposed to be? If the public knows about BF vs the IPO, are there movies? TV shows? Books? Any scandals been broken, on either side?
Technology! Tell me all about the robots. Small ones, big ones, helpful ones? Supposedly the BF Organization has most of the robots, but are there any being used outside the two organizations? Or outside of robots, what was it like when the Shizuma Drive was first revealed? Did anyone hold back on upgrading their old car? Were there laws passed about it? How long did it take to take over the world? Is there anyone still using old technology? Did they get super smug during the seven days? Or how about after the series ends, what do people think of the improved Shizuma Drive? Does anyone ever try to clean up the atmosphere with the incredibly dangerous chemical just hanging out up there?
And then the two primary organizations, BF and the IPO! Tell me all about how they're organized and the nitty-gritty of working for one of them. How do they recruit? Do they ever try to recruit the same person at the same time? I'm picturing an IPO stand right across from a BF stand at a job fair. What does a propaganda poster for either side look like? How do the mooks get health care? Can they take vacation? How do you get promoted? A day in the life of a mook at any of the bases we just hear about in passing would be so great. Does anyone know someone on the other side and just kind of overlook it so they can keep their drinking buddy/gaming group/knitting circle? How much does anyone know about Big Fire himself? (and how did a teenager end up in charge in the first place?) And hell, what are Achilles, Garuda, and Neptune doing when they're not going along with Komei's plan? Speaking of that, tell me more about Komei's schemes and annoying all the rest of the Magnificent Ten. Does the IPO have any plans to assassinate him, and how do those work out? There's so much more I could ask here, but I'll leave it to your imagination. Just tell me more about this world!
Psychic Force
Links to playthroughs, the OVA, etc
Any Characters, No Characters,
WB: Psychic labs, WB: Human-Psychic relations, WB: Governments
Prompts: This is another "write me literally anything" fandom. I love Psychic Force, and while the world isn't nearly as consistent or fleshed out as Giant Robo, I'd still love anything expanding on what we see in the games/anime. Or at least making some wild guesses.
So, psychic labs! We see some glimpses of them, but what the hell are they even trying to do? Where do they get their generic evil scientists and evil lab equipment? What do their expense reports look like? "Requesting replacement of $12,000 worth of equipment after subject went rogue for the third time this week"? Some scientists probably have trouble running human experiments, and then a bunch more don't, so there's something to poke at. A scientist or guard getting too close to one of the psychics and how that's dealt with? It's kind of just waiting for someone to try and run a tell-all expose, which may or may not do anything in the long run.
And that brings up human-psychic relations, which is something the games never touch on but would logically be a huge thing. When did psychics start appearing? Most of the characters we meet in-game are pretty young, but Wong and Gudeath suggest older psychics - did they all die, or...? I imagine there are a bunch of families that weren't too happy about their kids getting dragged off to the labs, so something exploring that would be neat. Any groups that try to get humans and psychics to live in harmony? What do they think about NOA? Basically, how are regular folks reacting to all the insanity going on in the games?
And governments. What are they doing about the whole psychic problem, especially once NOA and the army get going? Hell, what is even the army trying to do? Someone's probably dealing with them, so what's up with that? And if all else fails, follow some peon around as they try to deal with all the unrest and trouble that's going on in the games.
Keith and Wong are mostly around because they're in charge of the most organized the psychics ever get, so feel free to use them to investigate more about how NOA and the army actually work. What are they actually doing? Who else is in there? How big are they? A ground-level view of these two would be really interesting too!
Sailor Moon
Any Characters, No Characters
WB: The Silver Millennium, WB: Crystal Tokyo
Official Viz stream
Prompts: Well, really anything about these civilizations would be great! How the people live, how the society is arranged, politics, common people, art and culture, anything. Is there booze? (there's probably booze) Interplanetary politics? How to handle dissent? In fact, what are the complaints of living in either perfect utopia? What kind of social commentary do they put in their media? Do Usagi and the others take any lessons or warnings from the Silver Millennium when they're building Crystal Tokyo? Honestly just any ground-level view of these societies would be really interesting.
Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse
Original Character(s), Any or No Characters
Worldbuilding: Hunter's Guild, Gods changing or merging, Food, Enslaving demons, Demon Fusion
You're stuck buying these. They're available on the eShop, though.
Canon notes: Bringing in Apocalypse stuff is fine.
Prompts: I'd like ot find out more about the Hunter's Guild. Apocalypse does a great job with filling it out, but I'm always ready for more. A look into other Hunter's daily lives? Special missions, routine missions, making reports, handling logistics for such a big and important organization? Maybe some conflicts with the Ashura-Kai and the Ring of Gaea...or unexpected co-operation? Or a look into the early days, or an incident that forced a rule to be created or changed.
The identity of gods/demons is weird and fluid in SMT, so I'd love anything dealing with that. Beelzebub in Apocalypse was changed from Baal and manages to come back, what was that like? What about any of the other gods related to Baal? What happened to them? Or Danu merging with Black Maria and passing her power on to Nozomi, but then she remains as a spirit in Apocalypse. What's up with that? Does the Black Maria Danu still exist? Can Nozomi meet up with Black Maria...or even have her in the party? What kind of tensions would that cause? Then Odin and Dagda were once the same god, but split apart. What caused that? Human worship, another force, what? (How awkward is it when/if Nanashi fuses Odin later?)
Food! Everyone eats demons in Tokyo, but they don't seem to have livestock per se. Has anyone tried? Why did they stop? What do they do for vegetables and spices? What new kinds of cooking have come about since the Ceiling? Are there still restaurants besides the Hunter Bars? What would a menu look like? Maybe a rich person sends hunters out on a job to get some rare ingredient... For the end of SMTIV proper, how does food change once the Ceiling is gone?
We meet an enslaved demon during Apocalypse, is this common? Do other demons try to mount rescue parties for friends? Dwarves usually count as part of the fairy kingdom, so does the enslavement of one or more cause problems for Nozomi? And since the demon is introduced as specifically enslaved, how does that differ from making a demon part of your party and fusing it away at will?
Speaking of demon fusion...I love this part of the series, and I've love anything that goes into it. The mechanics? Fusing away a beloved demon? The demon's perspective on it? Can a demon refuse to be fused? What about special fusions? And the compendium! Demons are just data that can be stored in a guantlet/smartphone then combined to make new demons, which raises all SORTS of metaphysical questions. Have any scientists really studied this (besides Stephen)? Has Stephan written any reports, or notes on the Demon Fusion Program?
Suikoden
No Characters, Original Characters
Worldbuilding: Academic Writing, Worldbuilding: Runes, Worldbuilding: Technology
Let's Plays for I-V
Canon notes: I've only ever actually played I and II, though I more or less know what happens in the other three. I'm fine with referencing all of them if that's what you need, but if you're going to specifically focus on one I'd rather it be the ones I've played.
Prompts:
What does history have to say about all these wars and revolutions? What do future historians argue about? Are there camps that refuse to acknowledge any influence of the True Runes, or are destiny and the 108 stars accepted thing in the Suikoden world? How about some discussion of the fallout of the wars, or trying to fit the games into a larger narrative? Do people argue over Silverburg strategies?
Or political analysis, either current or historical. Highland entirely predictably rebels later, does anyone lay the blame on Jowy's terrible, terrible decisions? Barbarossa's backstory is remarkably like the story of a Suikoden game, what do people make of him getting overthrown within a generation? What does that mean for the Toran Republic? And actually, how does the transition from Scarlet Moon Empire to Toran Republic go? Are there even any major differences?
Or how about a treatise on runes? I'm really curious about how the Vancian magic system works in-universe - it always seems like such a game thing. How can you tell how many spell charges you have left? What does it feel like to have an affinity for a class of runes? Are there any runemasters besides Jeanne? Are runes used for anything besides battle? Do hospitals eventually just start buying Water and Flowing runes by the dozen and handing them out to nurses? Can regular, non-True runes influence their masters in any way?
How does technology evolve in the Suikoden world? Every game has an elevator, but does anyone ever get beyond that? Rune-powered technology? (it's entirely possible other games have that and I just missed it) Does any one country get an industrial revolution before the others, and how does that tilt the balance of power?
Large chunks of this are just copy-pasted from last year because, well...my tastes haven't changed. If I miss adding prompts for any tags in this years set...well, use your imagination. Go hog wild.
Overall I like explorations of culture and morality from the perspective of the characters in their worlds, how technology has effected a society, myths and legends, pop culture, and explorations of daily life, away from all the world-saving. I like finding out how characters fit (or don't fit) into the restrictions of their culture, though I'd like to avoid issuefic. I also like explorations of mechanics for my game canons.
Don't feel like you have to include all characters. I'm not sure that's even a rule for this exchange. Whatever, write what characters you feel like.
Chrono Trigger
Any/No Characters, Original Characters
WB: Life in Zeal, WB: 1999 Communications Centre, WB: Zeal, WB: Telepad, WB: Magic, WB: Day of Lavos and aftermath, WB: Archaeology, WB: Ripple effects from the defeat of Lavos
Let's Play of SNES version
Let's Play of the DS version
Canon notes: So let's just pretend Chrono Cross never happened, okay? Including the extra ending in the DS version. None of that happened.
A lot of these tags overlap in one or more ways, so I'm not really doing individual prompts for all of them.
Prompts: So...what kind of historical record are we looking at, after our merry band of time travelers runs through history a few times? Between Zeal and the party, Chrono Trigger's world should be a goldmine of out-of-place artifacts, what do people make of them? Are theories about Zeal taken as seriously as theories about Atlantis here? What about the entire Reptile civilization? Does anyone ever perform a scientific investigation on the remains of Tyrano Lair? Do the theories about it change over time? Where the hell did the Rainbow Shell come from, anyway? And what changed in the future after Lavos was destroyed? Were there any changes earlier in the timestream?
What sort of civilization existed in 1999? Did they try to fight Lavos at all? Did they have any sort of space program, and if so, what did the astronauts see? What was the immediate aftermath like for the survivors? Did they have robots to help them, or did Mother Brain immediately rebel? If she didn't, how long did it take her to give up? How did people survive for 300 years? And during the good ending, how do they react to this giant space bug rising from the ground and just kind of dying instantly? Does anyone see the kids?
I'm down for any sort of worldbuilding about magic. Once the game is over, do any of the party keep researching magic? What abilities do they find? Who originally discovered magic? Did it help humanity survive the Ice Age? What kind of discoveries did the early mages find? When did they split off from the rest of humanity? What about mystics/fiends, we see some on the Mountain of Woe in Antiquity, and they seem to have their own magic. Where did they come from?
And then Zeal, which offers a ton of possibilities on its own. What's their culture like? Religious beliefs? Festivals? How many of them are there, and can they actually sustain their population as-is? How long have they been living above the clouds? How do they replace all the water they lose in that pretty waterfall? What are their crops? The cuisine? Writing? What kind of stories did they tell? Was any normal citizen worried about the Queen and the future? If the four magical elements are light/fire/water/shadow, is there any significance to the fire/wind/water books?
And all the cats! Cats through history. Cat to the future.
Giant Robo
Any/No Characters, Original Character(s)
WB: Magnificent Ten, WB: Giant Robots, WB: Experts of Justice, WB: Newspapers and the media, WB: Governments, WB: BF Organization, WB: Special powers in a world of science, WB: Shizuma Drive
Available: DVD in English, horrifically expensive Blu-Ray in Japan, *coughcough* List of torrents. (you want the EG release)
Laserdisk linear notes, with lots of extra details about the characters and setting.
Extra info that's literally friend-of-a-friend, so take or leave it as you will. Might inspire some ideas, though.
Prompts: This is another big one, because there's just so much room to worldbuild here. Really, if you want to take any of the little scraps from the linear notes and expand them, that would be wonderful. More about the GR Project! More about the Magnificent Ten! More about backstories! More adventures! Anything.
More specifically, what sort of governments are there in the GR world? Do they openly know about BF and the IPO, or is it a secret? How much are they controlled by either organization? How good are they at navigating a path between the organizations? How about the media, do they know? What's the reporting like? Have reporters ever gotten where they're not supposed to be? If the public knows about BF vs the IPO, are there movies? TV shows? Books? Any scandals been broken, on either side?
Technology! Tell me all about the robots. Small ones, big ones, helpful ones? Supposedly the BF Organization has most of the robots, but are there any being used outside the two organizations? Or outside of robots, what was it like when the Shizuma Drive was first revealed? Did anyone hold back on upgrading their old car? Were there laws passed about it? How long did it take to take over the world? Is there anyone still using old technology? Did they get super smug during the seven days? Or how about after the series ends, what do people think of the improved Shizuma Drive? Does anyone ever try to clean up the atmosphere with the incredibly dangerous chemical just hanging out up there?
And then the two primary organizations, BF and the IPO! Tell me all about how they're organized and the nitty-gritty of working for one of them. How do they recruit? Do they ever try to recruit the same person at the same time? I'm picturing an IPO stand right across from a BF stand at a job fair. What does a propaganda poster for either side look like? How do the mooks get health care? Can they take vacation? How do you get promoted? A day in the life of a mook at any of the bases we just hear about in passing would be so great. Does anyone know someone on the other side and just kind of overlook it so they can keep their drinking buddy/gaming group/knitting circle? How much does anyone know about Big Fire himself? (and how did a teenager end up in charge in the first place?) And hell, what are Achilles, Garuda, and Neptune doing when they're not going along with Komei's plan? Speaking of that, tell me more about Komei's schemes and annoying all the rest of the Magnificent Ten. Does the IPO have any plans to assassinate him, and how do those work out? There's so much more I could ask here, but I'll leave it to your imagination. Just tell me more about this world!
Psychic Force
Links to playthroughs, the OVA, etc
Any Characters, No Characters,
WB: Psychic labs, WB: Human-Psychic relations, WB: Governments
Prompts: This is another "write me literally anything" fandom. I love Psychic Force, and while the world isn't nearly as consistent or fleshed out as Giant Robo, I'd still love anything expanding on what we see in the games/anime. Or at least making some wild guesses.
So, psychic labs! We see some glimpses of them, but what the hell are they even trying to do? Where do they get their generic evil scientists and evil lab equipment? What do their expense reports look like? "Requesting replacement of $12,000 worth of equipment after subject went rogue for the third time this week"? Some scientists probably have trouble running human experiments, and then a bunch more don't, so there's something to poke at. A scientist or guard getting too close to one of the psychics and how that's dealt with? It's kind of just waiting for someone to try and run a tell-all expose, which may or may not do anything in the long run.
And that brings up human-psychic relations, which is something the games never touch on but would logically be a huge thing. When did psychics start appearing? Most of the characters we meet in-game are pretty young, but Wong and Gudeath suggest older psychics - did they all die, or...? I imagine there are a bunch of families that weren't too happy about their kids getting dragged off to the labs, so something exploring that would be neat. Any groups that try to get humans and psychics to live in harmony? What do they think about NOA? Basically, how are regular folks reacting to all the insanity going on in the games?
And governments. What are they doing about the whole psychic problem, especially once NOA and the army get going? Hell, what is even the army trying to do? Someone's probably dealing with them, so what's up with that? And if all else fails, follow some peon around as they try to deal with all the unrest and trouble that's going on in the games.
Keith and Wong are mostly around because they're in charge of the most organized the psychics ever get, so feel free to use them to investigate more about how NOA and the army actually work. What are they actually doing? Who else is in there? How big are they? A ground-level view of these two would be really interesting too!
Sailor Moon
Any Characters, No Characters
WB: The Silver Millennium, WB: Crystal Tokyo
Official Viz stream
Prompts: Well, really anything about these civilizations would be great! How the people live, how the society is arranged, politics, common people, art and culture, anything. Is there booze? (there's probably booze) Interplanetary politics? How to handle dissent? In fact, what are the complaints of living in either perfect utopia? What kind of social commentary do they put in their media? Do Usagi and the others take any lessons or warnings from the Silver Millennium when they're building Crystal Tokyo? Honestly just any ground-level view of these societies would be really interesting.
Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse
Original Character(s), Any or No Characters
Worldbuilding: Hunter's Guild, Gods changing or merging, Food, Enslaving demons, Demon Fusion
You're stuck buying these. They're available on the eShop, though.
Canon notes: Bringing in Apocalypse stuff is fine.
Prompts: I'd like ot find out more about the Hunter's Guild. Apocalypse does a great job with filling it out, but I'm always ready for more. A look into other Hunter's daily lives? Special missions, routine missions, making reports, handling logistics for such a big and important organization? Maybe some conflicts with the Ashura-Kai and the Ring of Gaea...or unexpected co-operation? Or a look into the early days, or an incident that forced a rule to be created or changed.
The identity of gods/demons is weird and fluid in SMT, so I'd love anything dealing with that. Beelzebub in Apocalypse was changed from Baal and manages to come back, what was that like? What about any of the other gods related to Baal? What happened to them? Or Danu merging with Black Maria and passing her power on to Nozomi, but then she remains as a spirit in Apocalypse. What's up with that? Does the Black Maria Danu still exist? Can Nozomi meet up with Black Maria...or even have her in the party? What kind of tensions would that cause? Then Odin and Dagda were once the same god, but split apart. What caused that? Human worship, another force, what? (How awkward is it when/if Nanashi fuses Odin later?)
Food! Everyone eats demons in Tokyo, but they don't seem to have livestock per se. Has anyone tried? Why did they stop? What do they do for vegetables and spices? What new kinds of cooking have come about since the Ceiling? Are there still restaurants besides the Hunter Bars? What would a menu look like? Maybe a rich person sends hunters out on a job to get some rare ingredient... For the end of SMTIV proper, how does food change once the Ceiling is gone?
We meet an enslaved demon during Apocalypse, is this common? Do other demons try to mount rescue parties for friends? Dwarves usually count as part of the fairy kingdom, so does the enslavement of one or more cause problems for Nozomi? And since the demon is introduced as specifically enslaved, how does that differ from making a demon part of your party and fusing it away at will?
Speaking of demon fusion...I love this part of the series, and I've love anything that goes into it. The mechanics? Fusing away a beloved demon? The demon's perspective on it? Can a demon refuse to be fused? What about special fusions? And the compendium! Demons are just data that can be stored in a guantlet/smartphone then combined to make new demons, which raises all SORTS of metaphysical questions. Have any scientists really studied this (besides Stephen)? Has Stephan written any reports, or notes on the Demon Fusion Program?
Suikoden
No Characters, Original Characters
Worldbuilding: Academic Writing, Worldbuilding: Runes, Worldbuilding: Technology
Let's Plays for I-V
Canon notes: I've only ever actually played I and II, though I more or less know what happens in the other three. I'm fine with referencing all of them if that's what you need, but if you're going to specifically focus on one I'd rather it be the ones I've played.
Prompts:
What does history have to say about all these wars and revolutions? What do future historians argue about? Are there camps that refuse to acknowledge any influence of the True Runes, or are destiny and the 108 stars accepted thing in the Suikoden world? How about some discussion of the fallout of the wars, or trying to fit the games into a larger narrative? Do people argue over Silverburg strategies?
Or political analysis, either current or historical. Highland entirely predictably rebels later, does anyone lay the blame on Jowy's terrible, terrible decisions? Barbarossa's backstory is remarkably like the story of a Suikoden game, what do people make of him getting overthrown within a generation? What does that mean for the Toran Republic? And actually, how does the transition from Scarlet Moon Empire to Toran Republic go? Are there even any major differences?
Or how about a treatise on runes? I'm really curious about how the Vancian magic system works in-universe - it always seems like such a game thing. How can you tell how many spell charges you have left? What does it feel like to have an affinity for a class of runes? Are there any runemasters besides Jeanne? Are runes used for anything besides battle? Do hospitals eventually just start buying Water and Flowing runes by the dozen and handing them out to nurses? Can regular, non-True runes influence their masters in any way?
How does technology evolve in the Suikoden world? Every game has an elevator, but does anyone ever get beyond that? Rune-powered technology? (it's entirely possible other games have that and I just missed it) Does any one country get an industrial revolution before the others, and how does that tilt the balance of power?
