Lair of The Tark
 
Recently I was asked some very good questions by a commentor in my last post and I felt that it was necessary to answer these questions in a post where people might find it more convienient to see the answers.

I really like the setting, but what kinds of stories are the players likely to be telling in it (apart from Secrets of NIMH)? Are you thinking about gnome politics? Exploration? Defending their homes? Interacting with humans? Or will it be a kind of Gnome physics toolkit for the GM to do what they like with?

How about all of the above?  Essentially the players are people within the gnomish community, leaders, heroes, or simply concerned citizens with perhaps some luck and special talent that makes them specially qualified to deal with the current crisis or need.  It all depends on the flavor of game a GM wants.  Certain cultures are more predisposed to one set of stories then another but again a GM could easily adapt to fit their needs.  The Cloud People and Dwellers can just as easily work on exploration as interacting with humans while Wild Gnomes will be defending their homes from deforestation (a.l.a. a less musical and more hardcore Fern Gully)



Re: "Through the lens of history" does that mean you can play at any time in history? Is this going to impact how the game plays?

Yes and no.  The game itself is set in the year 2001 (so I can make a grab for the badge).  But I feel a need to give a brief overview of gnomish history and a few options or legends concerning or gnomes came into the world in order to give GM's enough material to play practically in any time with a little work.  Feasibly if I were doing this as a big project for a company that plans on paying me I would propose a Dark Age Gnome and Gnome Future book. :)

As far as impact it does have an impact on how cultures live.  Early humans might find it a little easier to deal with the fact that tiny men live in the world alongside their other superstitions.  While gnomes ina  futuristic setting might find that living with humans sudddenly becomes more difficult as they are forced to advance technologically.

Have you considered only giving a brief outline of each gnomish culture and letting the players fill in the gaps? It could really let the players feel invested in their little gnomes, involved a lot less writing and assumes the players will do less reading (which is generally a good thing).

I can see where this is coming from.  Too much info and a player might feel rather restricted in their characters.  Too little and I find players feel at a loss or tend to make characters that fail to match the vision a GM had in mind for the game thus creating a different kind of conflict.  I've always tried to write to find a sense of balance between the two in order to give enough information that a player unfamiliar with the game can have plenty of symmetry with other characters and the GM's vision in order to feasibly exist in the world without becoming too much of an outlier by pure accident.  Also I don't mind writing alot if that's what it takes to get the message across. :)

I still have had zero responses in regard to the things I asked for yesterday.  Please don't be afraid to work with me I have nothing typed right now, everything is notes in my notebook or ideas and pages floating in my head so that means everything is subject to change according to the whims of someonelse's good idea if they're willing to put in the work with me.