POTW: A Universe of Stories

[Diana]

Did you know that our World Building section isn't just about creating planets.. but about making universes or settings. When a game master says "this roleplay is set in the Buffyverse" or "this is set in a Firefly-like universe", or even the Naruto universe our our favorite thing to hate, the Twilight universe - they are talking about the developed unique universes that the story exists in. Anyone that has seen or heard about the series will know how vampires work in the Buffyverse, or how space smuggling goes in Firefly.



Setting is a really awesome way to make your roleplay more unique and enriched. To make the world seem more real and the characters in it more dimensional!

Do you create your own universes to roleplay in, or do you use already established settings? Or is setting something you just don't think about at all?

 

[Ochalla]

Universes, parallel dimensions, long histories. The place the story is almost as important ad the characters in it for me.

 

[October Knight]

I like to think all my rps, and all the characters I create, come from the same universe. Although I haven't really thought about it much more than that.

 

[nightingale]

i live in my own little universe ^_^ the real world is boring so i created the land of coomanitins. ^_^

 

[Malkuthe Highwind]

I have multiple universes. In fact all of the roleplays I am GM-ing right now have unique universes all to themselves. However, they are all linked in one over-arching storyline of hubris, insanity, megalomania, betrayal and hopelessness. All my universes also exist in the Third Sphere of my multiverse. I can say I have a looooooong way to go before I can compile my work to any level near acceptable.

 

[Villamvihar]

I absolutely love world-building, so I always create my own settings to RP in, but every single setting I use or create is a part of the universes that I write about and add to on a regular basis. I have four of them, and between the four, almost any kind of plot is possible to construct. Most of my replays tend to take place in my fourth universe, which could be likened to a shared world, or a universe made out of universes.

 

[Faulkner]

I have an insanely over-active imagination. Pretty much every time I get into a new series/fandom, within a couple of days, I start churning out my own universes inspired by the characters or ideas of that series/fandom. Case in point: for a brief while, I was way into Hawaii Five-0, and during the two weeks I was obsessed with it, I managed to turn out 18 entirely unique (from each other, I mean) universe settings with which to play with the characters. It's rather frustrating, actually, because as fun as it is to create and flesh out these universes, I never actually get around to writing anything, unless it's a roleplay (cuz then I'm not doing all the work myself, haha!)

 

[Astaroth]

Hahahahahaha. Oh man. Do I.

*Nudges folder upon folder of universes*

One of the sucky things though is when you roleplay or collaborate on universes with a partner and then have a falling out. There was one universe my ex and I spent about five years developing together, and since it was originally her pet setting, I can't touch ANYTHING I came up with for it. Which blows because it was one of the settings I put the most work into. Plus we had something like 600 or more pages of actual written story set in that universe, one of which was a 400+ page novel in progress. D: And the characters, you guys. Oh my god the characters.

I will admit to sometimes regretting breaking up with her JUST because of all our writing projects. >> (But then I remember all the crazy.)

At least I came out of it with all my other pet universes intact! I have more settings than I can count, but there's a handful of universes I keep going back to. I have the best names for them, too. 8D "Hunterverse", "Guildverse", "Ozverse", "Agencyverse", "Dinoverse", "Wereverse" (which is kind of blurred with my Hunterverse, I keep implying it and then tweaking things again and it's complicated), Tiefertraum, "Tobiverse", and Potter's Field a.k.a. "Penumbraverse".

And then we get into Alternate Universes of my own universes. And the questionable timelines. Like is my "Agencyverse '50s Chicago" setting canon to the main storyline? Even I'm not sure.

 

[Little_Heathan]

I have so many universes in my head that I lost count. With each roleplay I create I usually create new universe, most of them are weird and strange but that's the way I like my universes. The real universe lacks scary little creatures that lurk behind dark corner and every little nook and cranny.

 

[Minibit]

I love making my own worlds! I'm sure others have created worlds similar to mine, but I usually start with a "what if" question to get the ball rolling and suddenly BOOM its a new world and it just needs a name~<3

What if there ARE magical creatures like fairies and elves, but they're hunted and have to keep themselves hidden, masquerading as humans?

What if various things in nature, like rivers and mountains, were living things that could manipulate the areas around them?

What if everyone could fly and use magic, but it's illegal because of previous chaos caused?

What if there was no such thing as electricity OR steam power? We would live in a world built of entirely manual things with perhaps some help from basic magic

What if humans were slaves to intelligent animals?

The list goes on~

 

[Love_Is_Lovely]

The more wild a setting the more fun it is I believe!

 

[Delnoir]

I'm actually in the process of creating a universe. o_o

 

[Laggy Lagiacrus]

My universes are usually a conglomeration of so many others, only the most prominent one is even vaguely detectable. I create them on a whim,and then forget them.

 

[Psycho Zazu Kurosaki]

I live in my own little world of fantasy and such making up roleplays as I go. hehe.XD. but; i also take some from a few books i read and such to maybe help me gain a bit of points plus respect a bit.

 

[Drew]

I love to make mine gluten free too.

 

[Six Million Dollar Man]

I consider many of my favorite characters to live in the same universe, but I do wish to expand and set stories in entirely different universes, as well as alternate/parallels and such.