About worlds and sharing them

[dray]

Does anyone here have their own world (or worlds) that they enjoy building up, and are interested in having other players import characters (or create new ones, specific to the world) to run around in? It's a very common thing for group roleplays -- it's almost a necessity, really!

But... I never see this sort of thing in one-on-one ads. That could be because I'm looking in the wrong places (most ads include people speaking about what fandoms they play and what characters they seek/are willing to write for, and that's so very not my cup of tea!) but I so very rarely find anyone who has a world that they're building and is exuberant about it and wants to share it as a setting and a possibly massive plot bunny to work with. Or if they do have one, they're very hesitant to speak about it at all. What's with that?

Comments

[amethystfirefly]

I have a world (the one that's ended up being my faux-NaNo product) that I'm so in love with. -laughs- I'd love for people to RP in it. But I'm a bit worried that if ideas tossed around in the RP show up in the novels that will eventually come out of the world, I might get people pissed at me because "zomg, you stole my idea!". Theoretically, you can avoid that by setting the world in a different time line, but y'know how people are when there's money involved, and money would be involved if I ever got published. (Even if it's just a tiny, tiny bit of money.) So there's an element of cover-my-ass there.

Plus, honestly? I'm kinda scared that someone might steal my idea. -lol- I don't mean to sound egotistical. It's not that it's "zomg, BEST THING EVER", but it's my baby, too. So I'm a bit overprotective.

So that's why I'm hesitant about speaking up about my world, though I've been rolling about in it the way a puppy rolls in stink. (Not that my world stinks! But, y'know, rolling in the same eager "omgomgomgbestthingever" way. XD)

[scarlet]

$0.02 Well, you can marry your original idea with the suggestions of someone else. That way you won't have to spend too much juice banging up something "original" but still - in some way - share your world with the rest of the world.

[scarlet]

I do not have completely original worlds per say... My main group of characters live in a sort of alternate reality corresponding to the cities and events of this world. Eg. The main character resides in NYC and I consulted a friend who works in trade and finance to ascertain the effects of the current economic situation on her (She is the COO of a technological corporation.)

I have a secondary group of characters that I am working on in NaNoWriMo (I've been working on them for years, really) that started out as being based in San Francisco. However, as the plot progressed and as the drafts multiplied, I ended up creating a new world (or country, at least) for these characters. I created a few new (not original) races of magical beings and developed a variant political system...

Th world cited in the opening paragraph is already being role-played in. It is managed by my co-Admin and me. We try to keep everything very grounded in reality - save all the nutty hijinks our occasional special events toss all the characters into...

The world in my pseudo-novel I have not shared with anyone. I wouldn't mind sharing it if it is necessary but because I am an absolute nutcase of a control freak, everything will be written out in a very detailed format. I do not take kindly to people (especially nitwit RPers) fucking up my ideas. For some strange reason, it always seems to be the nitwits who want to break all the rules. >.

[syntheid]

Personally, I really like coming up with ideas/characters/worlds, but I tend to do so on an "as needed" basis. So the worlds I have in development are primarily for my personal projects and I'd feel a little uncomfortable having people running around in them before I really get my own story/ies written out? Afterwards it'd be fair game, and there are a few that would probably be fun to play in.

But I'd certainly be open to coming up with worlds specifically for RP, too. I actually did so before, but the game didn't really go anywhere. I probably have a half dozen half-created worlds like that that I could and would expand on if it made sense to, but otherwise I tend to put my focus elsewhere.