The places, peoples, and realities that I've imagined over the years. This is a gallery of samples, but each one contains a link to an off-site wiki with the full story.
AlsaraI've made worlds before, but this one is the biggest. It was created during a fit of interest in real-world history, and it was a world as cynical, brutal, and beautiful as our own.
In a world defined by the ancient rule of immortal Dragons--now sleeping--the denizens must find a way to define themselves in an era where they stand alone. It is a world where the truth was lost millennia ago, the gods have fallen silent, and civilization is a matchstick house that has just begun to burn. |
The Reaping RealmsAfter working in Alsara for several years, I felt a calling to the more fantastical elements I had denied when trying to create a world that felt real. The Reaping Realms was the result: on the ground, in the day-to-day, the world can almost feel normal. But, always close at hand, nearly at the edge of vision, there is a terrible and eternal war being fought by factions beyond human comprehension. It is a world filled with things that are impossible to understand, a world where every scrap of safety is something hard won.
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Shattered Metropolis
This was a project for school, but I took to it so strongly that it remains very close to my heart. Unlike the previous two examples, Shattered Metropolis is not a world described by geography, languages, religions, and cultures; rather, it is a theme, a set of rules designed to invoke a specific type of experience. In Shattered Metropolis you are a vigilante, but not a superhuman one. You are a human being, transformed by circumstance into a killer of others. The cost of such a dedication is high, and before long, you will pay it. As long as the enemy hurts twice as bad as you do, you can call it a victory.
Comairos
(The Name Tag Game)
See the Name Tag Game Timeline section for the work that is exclusively mine.
There was a game played by the kids in Project Fun between their classes. It was sort of like an RPG, and it was sort of like a card game, and their progress was tracked on their nametags. It was called the Name Tag Game, and the year I started working there was the year right after the creator and his team had just left. With nobody to manage it, myself and several others stepped up to the task.
I can't lay claim to even a quarter of what we all did, but I can still recall the question I asked them in one of the earliest stages of planning the new season: "Do you think we can stick some story in here?" They doubted me severely.
The story of the NTG was built in sections. I did all the writing, but the kids hardly read, and the real storytelling would be through mechanics. It would be through theming. It would be done by deciding what to call things, and what events to run. It was tricky.
It began with factions. Everyone would pick a side, and it would get them bonus rewards. All of the staff were the bosses, and they'd all have to be brought on board. They'd all have to agree to modify the themes of their boss, so they could seem to be a part of a unified army. They would follow rules about what their abilities could do, since the world would have to account for those abilities.
Really, it was like topping on the cake when they told me I could run dungeons for the kids.
The wiki we wrote for this game was partially reference material for the kids, and partially a way for us to add a bit of extra information to the curious. However, it never was rolled out as a major feature, and there wasn't much demand for improvements. As a result, it is very patchy in places, and contains a few contradictions. I apologize for the incomplete state of things.
I can't lay claim to even a quarter of what we all did, but I can still recall the question I asked them in one of the earliest stages of planning the new season: "Do you think we can stick some story in here?" They doubted me severely.
The story of the NTG was built in sections. I did all the writing, but the kids hardly read, and the real storytelling would be through mechanics. It would be through theming. It would be done by deciding what to call things, and what events to run. It was tricky.
It began with factions. Everyone would pick a side, and it would get them bonus rewards. All of the staff were the bosses, and they'd all have to be brought on board. They'd all have to agree to modify the themes of their boss, so they could seem to be a part of a unified army. They would follow rules about what their abilities could do, since the world would have to account for those abilities.
Really, it was like topping on the cake when they told me I could run dungeons for the kids.
The wiki we wrote for this game was partially reference material for the kids, and partially a way for us to add a bit of extra information to the curious. However, it never was rolled out as a major feature, and there wasn't much demand for improvements. As a result, it is very patchy in places, and contains a few contradictions. I apologize for the incomplete state of things.