Games with shared setting creation at the start

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Dr. Mindermast

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I enjoy games that have structured setting creation during Session 0. So does the rest of my group. But I only know a couple games like this, so what else is out there?

Kids on Bikes has a fun system - there is a set list of questions about the town where the game will be set, and everyone takes turns answering one off the list and building on what others have said so far. The questions are geared toward giving the town a lot of flavor, and giving the GM a foundation from which to build the central mystery (plus some red herrings and/or side plots). I ran this for the first campaign with my current group and we had a great time with it.

My own game Arcanes Majeures also starts with a list of questions about the setting, which are answered by tarot cards that the group then interprets to make a coherent narrative. The questions are framed to define the conflicting factions, and also a bit of the general vibe of the place. I'm running this for my next campaign with the same group.

Only other one I can think of at the moment is something called Instant Game that I picked up off Drivethru some years back but haven't gotten to play yet. The hook is that it starts with the group rolling for everything - not just setting details, but also genre, plot, and other story elements. Sounds like very much my kind of thing.

Some things I am not looking for:
-Microscope, A Quiet Year, or other games where creating the setting is basically the entire game. That's also cool, just not what I'm looking for.
-general recommendations for Fate, PbtA, or other systems where players define setting aspects over the course of the game. Again, still cool but not matching my specific request. Although specific games in those systems that do have more structured setting creation at the start are welcome.

So, what other recommendations do you all have?
 
The shared setting creation in the Dresden Files RPG is really good. It interfaces with the characters and mechanics really well without it seeming like the player decision are imposing on the GMs ability to rationalize the setting. Might be my gold standard.
 
Apocalypse World, the Sprawl, and a few other PbtA game have shared world creation.
 
I only know of Dawn of Worlds. It has rules/guidelines for collaborative world creation applicable to any RPG. You just need a generic or quasi-generic system (like D&D) to serve as the game engine and follow these steps to come up with a rough map, geographic regions, races, cultures, etc.
 
Apocalypse World, the Sprawl, and a few other PbtA game have shared world creation.
They do, but the Dresden Files has a system, which is easier to port to other things IMO. The PbtA world creation is very much baked into the playbooks and session zero in a way isn't as easy to port to other systems. IMO anyway.
 
ICONS has its Universe Creation rules (originally in the Team Up book, now included in ICONS Assembled). We used them once to good effect. Among the Universe Generation steps there is one in which each player creates an supervillain nemesis for another player.

I created a quick and dirty Wild West, system-agnostic collaborative setting creation rules for the Lawmen v Outlaws campaign I am currently running which you can find here https://ukrpdc.wordpress.com/2021/02/15/town-creation-for-lawmen-v-outlaws/.

I'll be honest, I can up with this rules having been talking into GMing the next game the group I play with at a time my creative fires were burning low. It worked out really well. It may have started in part as a ruse to offload the initial campaign setup work, but on the upside, it does mean that they are much invested in the setting and its NPCs. And it was fast enough that we got to play the very same session. so it wasn't strictly a Session 0. So far (5 sessions in) it's worked out pretty well.

As it all happened online, I used a Google Jamboard for the session creation with virtual Post-Its. The rounded rectangle is the town, the circles are out of town locations. I've recently updated the Jamboard to also include a list of major NPCs which is think is a useful memory prompt.


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On Mighty Thews has shared setting creation, sort of. You draw a map with moral/philosophical as well as physical locations on it. Basically every player's central trait becomes a “pole”, and everybody can add “exciting locations” to the map, and the distance from a pole gives an indication of how much that place embodies the pole's quality. Or something.
 
Amber Diceless begins with a character attribute auction where you bid directly against other players to get attributes. That's pretty much as shared as it gets.
 
The shared setting creation in the Dresden Files RPG is really good. It interfaces with the characters and mechanics really well without it seeming like the player decision are imposing on the GMs ability to rationalize the setting. Might be my gold standard.

Do you know if that system is present in the Fate Accelerated edition or only in the original?
 
Flatland Games' Beyond the Wall has a supplement called Further Afield that has a collaborative sandbox creation system during session zero. Essentially players take turns filling in the gaps around their player character's starting village, but the players have no idea if their presumptions about what they are creating are accurate, partially accurate, mostly wrong, or disastrously wrong (based on secret attribute/skill rolls by the GM). I haven't used it in practice, but it does seem like it could be a good way to increase engagement with players without them having editorial control the way some story games do.

It's worth saying that Beyond the Wall's mechanics are pretty firmly in the OSR/D20 lineage, even though they do have playbooks etc. So that may or may not be a selling point or a deterrent.
 
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Dresden Files - you are playing in Butcher's world, but the players set up the personalities and conflicts for the city the characters are in.

Spectaculars - Everything if "fill in the blanks, build the world on the fly"

The Sprawl - The players all create corps and other organizations that they will cross in their jobs.
 
Do you know if that system is present in the Fate Accelerated edition or only in the original?
I didn't do a side-by-side, but there is a system in Dresden Files Accelerated, but it seems a little less regimented, a little more freeform from what I remember.
 
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