summer project

[Tobynator]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here on this forum.

Me and some of my friends are planning to have a little project for fun this summer. What we are going to do is trying to create a sci fi universe from scratch. We are going to need to work on a lot of different races and societies and develop background stories for the seperate races. And I was hoping that you might be able to help with some advice. We are trying to make it as uniqe as possible on a cultural level. Technology and such will be pretty pretty basic though. Our eventual ambition is to see a game made out of it although that isn't a very realistic endeavour.

so my first question to this forum is how to best describe a race from an article sort of perspective (like say a wikipedia style article)

I'll try to do some reading in the meantime.

[Malloriel]

I'm actually doing something the same, though in the vein of fantasy. The world I've worked on for about eight years now is rather in depth and I noted that it could easily be modified to fit both table top and on-line free-form role playing. I even put up a description of some of the modifications I'd done to one of the races that had been around since I first started development on the forums here. It's a bit more flowery than you'd find in Wiki, but it's 'Description of an Eleasian Race. Critique?', but if you wanted to check that one out it's on page two of this forum, about half way down.

If I were to describe the same race in a Wiki type fashion, I suppose I might say this:

Of the maeyenin races, which number four in all, those who developed the skills and attributes to survive within the forests became known as the Glaiden Imae, a maeyenin phrase quite simply describing them as the forest kin, a title in wide use long before humanity gained a grasp of any cohesive spoken language.

Living approximately 3,000 years, the reproductive rate of any maeyenin is low, for the Glaeden the process is even further complicated by their bond to the Airynfval Fierae, literally dark spirit wolves but more commonly referred to in the common tongue as Spectral Wolves. A race of creatures born of shadow, but not strictly Dark in essence, they were natives to the forest in which the Glaiden settled.

Long ago the Airynfval Fierae had been bound to a race of beings that died out due to unknown circumstance the fierae seem unwilling or unable to recall. The relationship had been symbiotic and without the return of energy from their hosts the fierae began to slowly die; their lives long, but without the ability to reproduce alone, the generation that had last been born before the deaths of their hosts remained with only the vaguest of memories to guide the Glaiden, who wished to help and volunteered to be their new hosts.

There are fewer fierae than Glaiden, and as both are extremely long lived very few of those who settled in the forest, later named Glaiden Rhon, have bonded with the fierae, a new pup born only as often as a new host.

The wolves themselves bond at their discretion and so choose their hosts based off of their own ideals of strength, beauty, and wisdom, which allows most of the hunters, trackers, and fighters to supplement their skills with an ancient ferocity, wisdom and power. This also means that the fierae are not restricted to bonding with the hosts born at the time a pup is born, but that the pup has all of the Glaiden society to choose from.

Through the generations, exposure to the fierae aura and power changed the Glaiden fundamentally, their physical forms reflecting that of their companions with elongated canines, love of fresh (but cooked) meat, heightened senses of smell, taste, and hearing, the latter most aided by the severe elongation and widening of their ears to something resembling the wolves as well. Their eyes changed last of all, narrowing, lifting, night vision enhancing, and completing the image of kinship to their companions.

Their social structure grew to reflect that of the fierae as well, with an alpha male and female at the head of the entire society, though they base nearly all their final decisions on opinions expressed, and discussions made in a council composed of betas (voted upon by the rest of the local Glaiden), and one representative of the Soulorian, the group of maeyenin who have access to the magical forces of the universe. The Soulain provided isn't always the same as the Soulain are prone to travelling, but the views more or less remain fairly fixed between them, and often bear more weight than the rest of the council put together. Such is the regard given to any Soulain, who only stands below the alphas because of their collective respect to the alphas and their position.

The Glaiden worship Driana, goddess of earth, with domain over nature and animals, though rather than conducting elaborate ceremonies of worship and praise, they consider it prayer by respecting nature, taking care of the land, and protecting all within their personal domain, doing what they can to preserve what it is the goddess had given.

While they do not have a warrior society, violence is a part of life. Fights occur, scuffles and the like, and are usually over quickly with a decided victor who rises up a little in the regard of the collective, though how much or how little frequently depends on why the fight began and who started it. For all their ties to the fierae, they've maintained their own identity as a civilised group and seamlessly merged the two into one.

---

And so on and so forth. Obviously there's much more to be written about them, and the language can be even further refined to fit a Wiki type situation, but that's just one example, ja?

Good luck with your game.

[chopper]

ey peeps

ever heard of Traveller or Megatraveller? the old 1980s RPG did a lot of "library-data" style reference books and seems to be roughly what you have in mind. the very basic thing i'd say is that if there's several of you contributing to this project then you need to agree a template for all the entries, just so that everybody is marching to the same tune. makes things a lot easier to read.

have a look at the Traveller Wikia, see whatcha think.

s

[jenna]

Originally Posted by Tobynator

Me and some of my friends are planning to have a little project for fun this summer. What we are going to do is trying to create a sci fi universe from scratch.

That is AWESOME. I wish I had friends like that when I was young.. Can I come play for the summer? It's too cold here and I'm sick of my job and my boss yelling at me all the time!

[Tobynator]

I like that Standard template idea. It'll make it a lot easier to make sense of it all. I have a feeling there will be a lot of articles that are going to be written.

[ctg]

Originally Posted by jenna

That is AWESOME. I wish I had friends like that when I was young.. Can I come play for the summer? It's too cold here and I'm sick of my job and my boss yelling at me all the time!

*huggles

Tell your boss sod off and shove it where it belongs. They've become bigger assholes since the dark clouds of financial troubles arrived on the horizon. Don't take their sayings personally, because that's what the stress does to the people.

[ctg]

Tobynator, like Chopper says, I would recommend for you to pay a visit in your local gamestore and look sourcebooks that deals with the world/universe building. Learn from them and follow their examples. If you want to do reading, then I recommend google keywords: World building, Universe, How to, Creation,