In which we recount our first attempt at worldbuilding

 

Whoever labeled this “lonely fun” was spot on. It was the mid-late 80's. I'd been playing for almost a decade but I felt something was missing. I played a LOT of board games, mainly from AH and SSI, always looking for things with solo playbility. I wanted to understand the system AND the situation/period simulated. So when I decided to try my hand as world building I started scavenging bits from other games, using them to assemble a Frankengame.

First step was geography. I grabbed my copy of “1776” from Avalon Hill. The eastern seaboard from New England to Georgia. Four regions. Terrain hexes. A transport system. Good city placement. I plopped Thieves World where NYC was and had my own CSotIO. Empires of the Middle Ages had good mechanics to handle languages, expansion, diplomacy, internal affairs and random events. Myriad Dragon Magazines provided a ton of material for designing pantheons and deities. The whole thing was HOURS of “lonely fun.” And never saw the light of day. A handful of sessions were set therein but otherwise it met it's demise when I abandoned the game before I turned 30.

So now as I embark on a new campaign, a new world, and all that that entails I am VERY aware of all the rabbit holes that I can fall down. The lonely fun is still fun, just not quite as much. I've spent a TON of time on world building websites, but instead of input and ideas from 5-6 sources I'm getting it from hundreds. And I'm feeling paralysis by analysis. Never good. I need to stake a few claims, commit, and move on.  Because
players don't care as much as we think they do.

Else it all ends up in a cardboard box being passed on to posterity.