Over the years I have started to realise that I am going round and around the same sort of circles, researching and designing the same sort of thing over and over again as I work on different games playing environments.

I have three different fantasy settings -  one based around the AD&D rules, another generic world for which I co-ordinated the build and now another world designed primarily for D&D 3 or similar D20 games.  The same is true of the Traveller games I have GMed, I have re-invented the same wheel over and over again and when I was working in NWN  worlds, I used the same sets of motifs over and over again -  quite often re-writing chunks for the setting from scratch each time.

I do this every time because I want consistency in the worlds I game in.  It is important to me that the setting holds together and ‘feels’ realistic.  Now I know that is a bit silly when I am playing a fantasy game that deals with magic and dragons and then, in a different game, I pop off into space trading around a make believe universe - but I can’t help it.  Much as I expect a good book to have a well thought out and consistent background, I expect the same sort of consistency from a game. Consequently I feel an overwhelming need to provide a consistent, realistic backdrop for my own games.  Ironically, they rarely impinge on the game itself, but (IMO) a good consistent background can add something to a game - especially if you are playing in an online game set in a geographically small area.

Not only that - I enjoy researching, designing and building worlds, but I am started to get frustrated that I work on the same bits over and over again.  This is my attempt to move my game world design on a bit, working out a few basics that can be portable from one environment to the next.  It is a hobby, I only get to work on game worlds sporadically and occasionally and maybe this will help me move on to  other parts of the setting.