When it comes to purely creative endeavors, I’ve got both hands full these days: On the one hand, I’ve been writing up some crazy theories about the systems and merits of fractal world-building. On the other, I’ve been filling in some of the finer points of Karthador, my swashbuckling sci-fi roleplaying game. Today, I’m going to smoosh both hands together in order talk about Karthador as a fractal storyworld.
First of all, we need to define the core premise of Karthador.
Characters: Swashbuckling adventurers
Conflict: Seek fortune and glory while facing tyrants and monsters
Setting: Across the nine nations of a pulp science fiction planet.
That’s a bit broad, but it has to encompass a lot of different stories, so it kind of needs to be. As we zoom in on various nodes within the premise, we can put some finer points on it.
Now, as I mentioned last week, the point of a fractal storyworld is to led you tell a bunch of different stories on different platforms, while maintaining the core premise. To that end, let’s look at some sample nodes and their potential products.
Sky Traders of Karthador – a board game
Characters: Bold airship captains
Conflict: Compete for profit by hauling cargo, transporting passengers, and hunting air pirates
Setting: Across the treacherous air lanes of a pulp sci-fi planet.
This was actually my first Karthador product. Before the RPG, I designed this board game, which recklessly smashed up the pick-up-and-deliver mechanics of a train game with the random encounters and combat of a Talisman or Runebound. (Never found a publisher for it, but I still have the playtest files if someone wants to try a prototype.)
Payback in Porothon – a novel
Characters: A desperate noble, faced with losing everything
Conflict: Seeks vengeance on the corrupt merchant guilds
Setting: Across the industrialized cities and pastoral plains of eastern Karthador
Here’s an example of zooming in on a single, specific person in a single, specific part of the world – in this case, the nation of Porothon, where the landed nobles are losing their power and wealth to the monied merchant class. (Think Downton Abbey with more swordplay and rayguns).
From the Black Woods – a television show
Characters: A small ragtag band of rebels
Conflict: Strike against the aristocracy’s violent oppression of the commoners
Setting: From their secret camp in the deepest woods of Ursicor.
A TV show? Sure! Why not? After all, there’s nothing more swashbuckly than a ragtag band of rebels – especially when they’re written by Joss Whedon. (Hey, if I’m going dream, I might as well dream big.)
Crown of Karthador – a trading card game
Characters: Rival nations, free at last of the Imperial yoke
Conflict: Strive for dominance
Setting: In a sci-fi world in which the technocratic Empire has fallen, creating a power vacuum.
This is kind of the opposite of the novel project. Rather than zooming in on a single person, we’re zooming out so far, each of the free nations of Karthador is its own character — which is a great example of the node matching the product.
I could go on with other examples. I’ve got a notebook page full of ’em, but you get the point. We’re starting with a single Karthador product (the RPG), but with the power of fractals, we can expand on that core premise to any number of products, each with its own particular Karthador tale to tell.
…and now I want to start outlining that novel…
