Re: World sizes and such

[Wright Frazier <khelek@ns1.cioe.com>]

a) I'm moving this to the Geleia list since it is about Geleia.
b) Your presumption of 'air of distrust' is incorrect I feel.  I'd like
	everyone's imput, but if people aren't going to put in the time
	and effort, then I'm gonna listen more to someone who is.  Someone
	who writes up 20-30 pages of good quality material shows they
	have some serious dedication to this project, and those are the
	people I want to listen too.  Not the people who say "I'm working
	on such and such" but never have anything to show for it.  We
	have about 3 weeks left to get this done.  The clock is tickin
	and its looking more and more and more like I'm gonna have to
	be the one to write all of this up personally.  Not because I
	particularly want to, but because noone else is, or they are
	saying they will, but then don't.  This is already the case
	with at least 2 assigned projects.  So yeah I'm gonna be a
	bit picky, and this will probably turn out to be "Wright's
	campaign based on Dana's campaign", because I'm the one doing
	the majority of the fucking work. 

	I'm not in any way knocking the work folks are doing, I can't
	express just how much I appreciate it.  However when people
	accuse me of "You are just trying to make this into your
	campaign and want no other imput"  It really pisses me off,
	because despite asking at least 3 times now for help on many
	things, folks aren't helping, or only willing to help on minor
	things that really could wait till later to get done when
	we still have major things to get done.

	Again as for me 'hand picking' people to listen too.  I respect
	people who walk the walk, not just talk the talk as the saying
	goes.  Kris is writing up a pile of shit, making the maps
	of Geleia and making them in an online format that is totally
	kick ass.  Jevan is one of the originators of the idea, has
	currently run there the most, has provided a damn pile of beautiful
	setting and background information on the main campaign setting,
	and truely set the tone for the place in player minds and the
	minds of the GMs who have been on his games.   He's also written
	up a damn big chunk of info, esspecially on the leaders of the
	city.  Joel is writing up Kraelthon, a completely kick ass
	weather system for the islands, including WHY the weather is
	like that.  He's also writting up the Orc tribes that live
	on geleia, and something on "What it means to be an Orc" for
	players and GMs to help them(if they choose to use it) get the
	mindset for what it really is like to be an orc.  Aaron was
	the impetus for the meeting, and he has written up a bunch of
	stuff on geleia and Kieron's Watch, and also provided us with
	a huge amount of information on the original Geleia campaign.
	Then there is Sean.  Sean is in the proccess of writting up
	the 2nd major city for the campaign, Northham(2nd major because
	its the closest).  The writeup goes quite indepth into the
	mindset of the citizens, its form of government, politics
	of the city, and what life on the roads is like.  Then lastly
	there was me.  I won't go into what I've done.  

	So I'm sorry if you are offended that this wasn't posted
	to everyone, but a) we were meeting in a restaurant over
	lunch b) the tables there only seat 6 c) too many chefs
	spool the soup, and large groups get dick done when they
	are trying to have a serious planning session.  This one
	was still littered with talk about other things, something
	that only gets worse proportional to the size of the group.
	I know, I've run meetings at work, and the more people that
	are in it and it is informal, the more it devolves.  If
	Steve were on this list, he would back me up on this.  


c) Not asking for the imput for some people, and questiong
	whether or not Geleia is a good idea.  Rougtero fell
	apart because noone cared enough to kick people in
	the ass when it was needed, and because people had no
	direction or idea what the hell the setting was like.

	Creativity?  No, we aren't short on that.

	Some people not GM'ing there.  Correct, some people
	will not be allowed too.  These are the people that
	give out the +11 swords; the items that give +8 CDV and
	+2 to all other DVs; the items that take 4 dice off of
	all attempts at mind control and are invisible and can
	only be removed by god like beings; the boots of effect
	lightfoot; the caps of effect translator; the +5 flaming
	long swords that do an extra d8 damage; the effect magic
	matrix items; the ability to cast spells when they 
	should not be allowed too; the ability to gain the knowledge
	of every person the character kills; finding magical items
	and adamantite items in the, and I quote "junk drawer of
	a shop"; etc...  This kinda thing really does need to
	be policed, this kinda thing should not be given out, and
	the fact that they were given out with little to no effort
	on the parts of the players is what is wrong.  I don't
	mind too much seeing big gobs of magical items being given
	out, it happens, but make the players earn it.  I gave out
	a pile a few months ago, and I killed the majority of the
	party, and made 2 rate 100+ characters completely spend
	damn near everything they had just to come out alive.
	Granted the characters dead were returned to life, but there
	was nothing I could do about that.  *shrug* They had the
	ability or the contacts to get it done.  But still the
	majority of things given out were charged items, and everything
	in there was makeable in the book. 

	Also some of the aboved folks who I look down on for their
	insane magic items also have a very nasty tendancy to either
	plan deathtraps and let the characters then walk through, or
	just outright destroy cities, kill MAJOR actors, and then tell
	noone about it, so that when a GM starts planning to run
	and adventure and just finds out the week before that "Oh
	by the way, that city was BLOWN UP!" it isn't a complete
	blind side.  The odd nonbook conforming things is spiffy and
	often neat, but it should not be the hallmark of someone's
	GM'ing(note subtle twists on book stuff are not included
	in this). 

	As for an open campaign where people can interact and any GM can
	run an adventure.  Fine, but I got handed the duty of being
	campaign coordinator for this shindig, so(not trying to
	sound too power trippy here) I'm gonna balk a bit if I see
	someone who is going to tear up the landscape about to
	run.  I don't enjoy GM'ing adventures to clean up someone
	else's mess, I've had to do it too often.	

d) Where were these ideas when it came to working in Rougtero.
	simple, nothing was ever done with the place cause noone had
	an interest in it, and when intersted was attempted to be
	established at the beginning, it did nothing.  So people 
	didn't give a shit.  Geleia is older, harkens back to the older
	days of the campaign(7years now), and people always look more
	favorably on the past usually, and it is and will be more
	defined.  You will know what kinda government rules in Southham,
	you will have some idea of the mindset of the Prelate, you will
	know something about the King, etc...

	re:Pirates moving it.  was discussed, didn't fly in the beginning.
	It was one of those voting topics:
		a) new setting all together
		b) Geleia
		c) revamp Rougtero.
	b won, so here we are.

e) more on nobody is perfect and bad GM'ing.
	That is my deepest and most sincere hope that people WILL learn
	from it, and so I don't have to be a bastard and say "No you
	are a bad GM and can't GM here."  However this has not worked
	over the past few years, hopefully by moving and getting people
	motivated with something new and well planned, we can change this.


Also, do not take this too personally Matt, just I am getting really tired
of this whole attitude of "Lets bitch and whine, but then really do nothing
about it" and "Well its just going to be Wright's world anyways".  This
place I hope will be different, and that folks will have serious and
lasting imput into it.  The question is are we going to suffer from
a bunch of chefs who want to just contribute to the recipe, but not
to making the soup.

Wright