The most enjoyable experiences I’ve had with role playing games are in those campaigns where players have been able to contribute to the game world beyond just the actions of their character. While the game master should be the last word on what is appropriate to the campaign, I think allowing players to contribute to the setting encourages a greater feeling of ownership which leads to more enjoyable game play.

I’ve been busy recently putting together a new game world and, while looking at numerous resources online, I ran across Dawn of the Worlds (pdf file). This game provides rules that allow players to construct a world from scratch. Each player takes on the role of a god helping to shape a new world. As each player takes his turn, he can do things such as change the shape of the world, cause catastrophes and create races. The game progresses through three ages and each player has a certain amount of “power” which can be expended on some of the activities mentioned above. Although a game in its own right, the most compelling use of this game might be involving players in the creation of the world in which they’ll play.

I haven’t tried using the rules yet with a group. When I do, I’ll post the results and give a more educated opinion.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 12th, 2006 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.