Editing Unwritten: System Reference Document/Starting a Game (section)

==Collaborative Game Creation==
Now that you have looked at the big picture, it’s time to get to the nitty-gritty. Below we present a structure for filling out your game, designed to give everyone a chance to have a hand in how the game is put together.

While we present the process in order, that’s not a hard and fast rule. If you have a definite idea for, say, how your characters fit together, start there and build the game around that. Or you may wish to start with the type of characters you want to play and then build your setting choices from there. Feel free to move back and forth through the process in a way that seems natural. Just make sure that all of the steps in the process are addressed in some way.

It’s easy to draw a blank as a part of this process. That’s fine; if you don’t have an inspiration, skip it for now. You can come back to it later. And if you still don’t have an idea you like, just leave it. Those are good things to focus on as you play.

===Declare Preferences===
Go around the table and ask each person to describe what they want to do in the game.

Everyone is likely to have something that they want to do. It may be as general as a category of activity (solving puzzles, exploring new places, etc.) or something more specific (exploring the limits of what is possible with the Art of Writing, preventing greedy explorers from exploiting native populations, etc).

GMs, don’t forget that you are a part of this process. Declare the sorts of things that you want the game to be about and what challenges you want to present to the players.

Now, go around the table again and declare what they do not want to do.

This is the place where people at the table can throw up their red flags. There may be elements that particular players find offensive or stressful. Or, there may be things that people just don’t like dealing with, feel have been done too often, or give the game a tone they would rather avoid for this particular game.

What is important to remember here is that no one has to justify what they do not want in the game unless they want to volunteer that information. The purpose of this question is to ensure that everyone has a game that they will enjoy, not put people on the defensive for their preferences.

===Build a Framework===
It is now time to create the framework, the basic details of your game. This is the scaffolding that functions as the foundation for the rest of the collaboration. There are sample frameworks at the end of this chapter. Mine them for ideas as you like.

Address the features we discussed at the beginning of this chapter. 
* What are the big questions of the setting? Choose one of the ones discussed previously in this chapter or use them as a starting place for your own.
* What will the role of D’ni be in the game?
* What is the role of the Art in the game?
* How will you handle puzzles and puzzle solving?

===Declare Details and Unknowns===
Each player gets an opportunity to declare an additional detail about the setting. Players, if you want to see something specific in the game, this is your chance to point it out. 

When you declare a detail about the setting, you have a few options:
* Add a new detail to the setting.
* Declare something specific about one of the details that already exist.
* Change a pre-existing detail to something new.

Potential details can involve any of the following:
* A location
* A person or faction
* A relationship
* A current event
* An important event in the past
* An environmental factor
* A particular item
* A technology

Next, what are the unknowns, the unanswered questions that the characters (and the players) care about? Each player now gets a chance to declare something that is specifically unknown. Phrase this as a question and write it down.

GMs, use these ideas from the players to build your scenarios and mysteries. Try to work them into your existing plans or use them as inspiration.

===Establish Issues===
Every setting needs to have something going on that the characters care about, often a peril they want to oppose or a mystery they want to solve. These are the setting’s issues.

You’ll come up with two issues as a group and write them down. The issues should reflect the scale of your game and what the characters will face. They’re broad ideas; they don’t just affect your characters, but many people in the world. Issues take two forms:

* Current Issues: These are problems or threats that exist in the world already, possibly for a long time.
* Impending Issues: These are things that have begun to rear their ugly heads, and threaten to make the world worse if they come to pass or achieve a goal.

The default number of issues is two: Either two current issues (for a story solely about trying to make the world a better place), two impending issues (for a story about striving to save people from threats), or one of each. The latter option is common in fiction: think about the stalwart heroes who work against some impending doom while already discontent with the world around them. Additionally, the unknowns defined in the last step can be the basis of an issue.

===Establish Game Aspects===
Turn the issues you have into aspects that you could conceivably use at different times in the story (often as compels to the protagonists or as invocations for foes, but clever players will always find other uses for aspects). Write them down, and then if you need to add a little bit to remember the context or some details, write those down alongside the aspects.

If you’re new to making aspects, hold off on this for now. You’ll get quite a bit of practice making aspects for your characters. Once you’re done with character creation, turn these issue ideas into aspects.

===Build an Age Library===
One of the key elements of an Unwritten game is the Ages that the protagonists will find themselves in. Each player will create an Age to add to the setting’s Age library. The GM will use these as backdrops for the game.

For each Age, write the answers to the following questions down:
* What is one distinctive physical characteristic of the Age?
* What is one important fact about the Age’s history/past?
* What is one thing that is unknown about the Age?

===Establish the Protagonists===
Here is where the GM and players begin to discuss what they want each individual character to be, how the characters know each other, and why they are together. This discussion informs character creation, especially the choice of High Concept.

The characters will be interacting, so it is important for the players to figure out why they are interacting and why they might continue to do so in the future. A lone wolf character might have a neat concept, but if a character ends up spending all of their time away from everyone else, then they are essentially playing their own game on the group’s time. This doesn’t mean that characters can’t split up and don’t get unique moments to shine, but the game is a group activity and the dynamics of the characters should support that.

Also discuss how characters might conflict with each other. Some groups have fun when the characters are at odds; some do not. That should be worked out up front.

Filling out the details of your characters is a part of character creation, covered in the next chapter. 

===Wrapping it Up===
By the end of this process, you have:
* A setting framework
* A list of what the players and GM want to do and not do
* A list of details
* A list of unknowns
* A current issue and an impending issue
* Two game aspects
* A list of Ages
* A reason the characters are interacting

With these in hand, the next step is to design the characters themselves. Move onto the next chapter: [[Unwritten: System Reference Document/Character Creation|Character Creation]].