Building a city

It's not easy to build a city. Especially when you try to do it with words, a piece at a time, through the needs of the characters you're developing inside an rpg.

But our city of Fort River continues to grow. In the last several months, people have found ways to add a zoo, a 2nd hotel, an agricultural center, and in just the past couple of days a movie cinema. (And with the River Rats looking for a new tribe home, that gives lots of chances to explore even more of how big Fort River is and what lies within it...)

I know it sounds simple, but "growing" a city from the ground up is a hard thing to do. When I joined KTDARPG, there was a sketchy map of some boundaries for Fort River. It had a warehouse district, some strip malls, a train station, an army base, a VA Hospital and an airport. That was pretty much it. But step by step, we've added to the landscape, named the streets, enlarged the map. We've sometimes gone to the extremes of blowing parts of it up, just to force ourselves to keep broadening our horizons here.

This is truly all part of building the game-world itself. You start small, a character at a time. Then you find ways to have your characters interact. Then you have to build the sets on which they perform--whether its a parade down Fort River Boulevard or a challenge in the Fight Club Arena.

Our game-world is a complete "world" with sights, smells, sounds, atmosphere, weather. Hell, we've even got politics. Hard to get more "real" than that! -Chyna

Photo source: Webshots