Black Genie Centre

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Genie Philosophy

BLACK GENIE CENTER PHILOSOPHY

It is not easy to get proposals accepted in the Black Genie Center. There are several high hurdles that must be passed. Proposals must be Necessary, Balanced, and Woldian.

In a regular face to face game, with a single DM and five to eight players, if one in eight players is creative and wants to make a few new spells or magic items, no harm is done. But in a game with 12 to 15 DMs and 100-plus players, one in eight creative players means ten or more people generating new content. And the Wold is a long-term game, so over time, more and more new things appear. Moreover, we rotate DMs regularly, and it is hard for a DM to take over a new game and get up to speed on eight new PCs -- it would be even harder if many characters sported lots of novel, unique, non-core items, spells, feats, weapons, and prestige classes.

In short, in a game like the Wold, a high level of new-stuff-generation makes all games harder to run. And after a while, with enough new things, the game grows to resemble D&D less and less. We add new players all the time. It is hard enough for a newbie to figure out the Wold -- how much harder it would be when everyone is using new spells, scrolls, races, classes, feats, and skills!

So the solution is to keep the level of new content generation down. The way we do that is simple. Not only do proposed new things have to be balanced for play, but they have to be necessary and they have to be Woldian. For example, yes, you could create the mattock as a weapon for humans to use. But would it be necessary? Would it enhance the flavor and atmosphere of the Wold?

By imposing all three tests -- Necessary, Balanced, and Woldian -- we keep new stuff to a minimum. Moreover, and most importantly, we make sure that the new things that ARE allowed in fact enhance the Wold experience for everybody!

A final factor is character investment. A high character investment means:

• (1) The proposal is created by a specific character.
• (2) The proposal really fits a character concept particularly well.
• (3) The proposal follows in-game effort (quest for components, research, roleplay, etc).
• (4) The proposal comes to the PC at a cost -- gold for spell research, feat slot used for an item creation feat, skill ranks devoted to the proposal, etc. A proposal that is directly tied to your Woldian character is more likely to be approved.

NON-CORE RULES ARE NOT ALLOWED

We stick to the Core books because we know some folks prefer not to buy every book out there. So if we let players use stuff from non-core books, we could get in a situation such that a DM has to make a ruling on something but doesn’t have the sourcebook for it.

We used to allow non-core rules if the player retyped the entire rule in his or her PC sheet. I remember Kim McCoy had about 20 pages of psionics stuff typed into his sheet! But there are copyright issues in going that route -- especially if we ever get around to putting all PC sheets up online at some point. Since we are getting more ambitious and are eyeing publication of some of our Woldian content someday, we decided to put a lid on that kettle of fish by sticking exclusively to core content plus Wold-only content.

It is also worth mentioning that the atmosphere and style of the Wold is important. For example, we do not allow oriental weapons in the Wold, and monks tend to be more wrestler oriented than martial artists. We also do not allow psionics. You cannot shapechange or polymorph into any dragon shape. These house rules, set down by the Gericko, are intended to preserve a certain flavor.

NEW PROPOSALS HAVE TO BE WOLDIAN

The Gericko gave a great explanation of why we want all proposals to be Woldian. He said:

“For me the issue is more of a quality issue. I see no need to just add ‘stuff’ to simply add it. If it doesn't enrich the world we play in, why waste time on it? We want to draw the line for quality as high as we can. That's why we spent so much time on the gods and their PrCs. We wanted the quality to be there. Plus if we were going to spend our valuable time on these things, then these things should be something that makes our world distinctive. Something that adds to the flavor of the world. In my opinion Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk have no flavor or very little. They are very generic. I hate generic. For that reason I've always liked the non-generic stuff better: Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Al Qadim. No area, spell, PrC nothing gets approved unless it helps us be ‘non-generic.’ When you say ‘The Wold,’ it should conjure up a specific set of images and flavors.”

So the question of "Is it Woldian?" boils down to: Does it make our world distinctive and add to the flavor of what we have already done?

How can you make a proposal Woldian? I think there are two ways. The first and best way is to come up with a niche or hole in the Wold and think of a way to fill it. Create a proposal specifically because you see that the Wold needs a particular something and your character wants to explore it. The second way is to have a good non-Woldian idea, and then find a way to make it fit the Wold. This can work too -- in fact, I suspect that most proposals have a bit of both in them.

Read through the Wold geography section -- make a prestige class that is tied to a local fact or legend. Maybe there is a secret society of rangers in Izen devoted to hunting orcs and goblins. Maybe they have a special Orc-Hunter PrC. Or in the Cinnamon Valley, some people are blessed with special magical Talents. Maybe a new PrC called the Talented would work there. Or maybe a few new feats for Talented people only!

Browse the Woldipedia, especially the organizations, prestige classes, and gods -- tying a new PrC to a new Woldian organization is a great idea, for example. A prestige class designed exclusively for Mailed Fist members would be way cool!

If you are interested in creating something that is not for your character, then there are options for that outside the Black Genie Center. There are secret development boards used to create new game settings, places, and organizations in the Wold. If you are interested in contributing to Wold development beyond your own character, please talk to Cayzle or Jerry.

My point is, look aroud the Wold, and build off of the work of others. Not only is it rewarding to build on others' foundations, but your ideas are much more likely to fit into the Wold.

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GRANDFATHERED STUFF

It is true that some things in the Oshirr House do not meet the current requirements -- because they were added to the Wold before the current guidelines were put in place. For example, Renik’s Shades of Bluffing, and the Euphoria spell. But these things have been grandfathered in, and so they remain.