Make It Yourself (MIY)

[Admin Pete]

To get this party started I would kick this off with a few of my rambling thoughts regarding Make It Yourself (MIY).

Bitd I went to class and studied all week and then on Friday night for 8-10 hours and Saturday for 12-16 hours I would ref for 12-16 and sometimes as many as 30 people and fly by the seat of the pants the whole time making it all up as I went and my only goal was that every player was involved and every player had fun. I did not ref in the same style as the guy who taught me - we each had our own style - he really liked to play so I did most of the reffing. I never worried about what someone else was doing and bitd how it was played by Dave or Gary never crossed my mind. They were authors of something I enjoyed and that is about all I knew at the time. The admonitions in the text about making the game your own I took to heart. I enjoy hearing about other campaigns and stories from bitd, but I have no desire to try to imitate - unlike (not a criticism play what you enjoy) many I have no Greyhawk or Blackmoor or Kalibruhn or _____________ in my world, nor will I ever. I happen to really love these campaigns, but I have no desire to spend my time trying to recreate them. IMO the way to honor those early campaigns and the pioneers/creators of the hobby is to make something of my own that is truly unique and different and can not be found anywhere else.

Let me be clear here, IMO there is NO ONE TRUE WAY to play the Original D&D and NO ONE TRUE WAY to Design a world or campaign or setting. There are Bottom up Designs, Top Down Designs and/or a mixture of the two and there may be other ways that I don't know about. None of them are sacred, these labels are just design tools, they are not design. Shared wisdom is a good thing, locking all designers into a specific methodology is not a good thing.

IMO you make it, you assess it and then you try it out. What kind of a response did those ideas get? Did what you designed work? Did people have fun, were they interested, were they bought in with this thing you did? Then make decisions based on the data. If you are reffing your own campaign this is a constant ongoing process. If you are writing to publish, this is your play-testing process to find out if what you did, works.

That is the hope that I have, that what one of us does that is new and fresh and living will inspire others to create something new and fresh and different.

As MIY designers we get the unique privilege found in no other game that ever existed prior to OD&D to sculpt something completely new. We can make it all up and follow our muse where ever it takes us. We don't have to worry about Rules & Procedures, we can make our own procedures and our own rulings. OD&D is like Silly Putty in the hands of the Designer. It is amazing what you can do with Silly Putty and likewise for OD&D.

So what I hope to explore in this forum are the tools that both allow and encourage thinking that is both free and creative and wild - very wild. Blackmoor was a bit of everything and so was Arduin, in Greyhawk one could travel to Barsoom. Where can they go in your world?

[Admin Pete]

I took part of the above and expanded it into the following post at my blog for Blackmoor Week 2016.

I have learned that this is Blackmoor Week 2016, I was already aware of Saturday, October 1st being Dave Arneson Game Day (his birthday) and was planning for it and I am happy to find out about this too. So the question is how are you going to celebrate Blackmoor Week 2016 (or perhaps Dave Arneson Week)?


Many fans of Dave Arneson and of Blackmoor, spend a lot of time learning about Blackmoor and running their own Blackmoor campaigns built on the Blackmoor Canon as they best see it. Nothing wrong with that at all, I am not critising that, so let's be clear about that.


I enjoy hearing about other campaigns and stories from bitd, but I have no desire to try to imitate them. I have no Blackmoor or Greyhawk or Kalibruhn or _____________ in my world, nor will I ever. I happen to really love these campaigns, but I have no desire to spend my time trying to recreate them. Those worlds belong to those who created them and although there is nothng wrong with playing in those existing worlds, IMO the way to honor those early campaigns and the pioneers/creators of the hobby especially Dave Arneson the prime mover and primary creator of the game we love is to make something of my own that is truly unique and different and can not be found anywhere else.

That is what I have always striven to do. Bitd (1975) I never worried about what someone else was doing nor did I ever worry about how it was played by Dave or Gary - it never crossed my mind. They were authors of something I enjoyed and that is about all I knew at the time. The admonitions in the text about making the game your own I took to heart.Those things were written to me. So as I read and learn about Dave Arneson and about Blackmoor - The First Fantasy Campaign, I am inspired and given a vision of where imagination can take you and I - and that is anywhere our minds can conceive.

So no matter how you celebrae Blackmoor and the life and work of Dave Arneson, take a moment to tip your hat to his genius - the fruit of which brings you so much pure joy and game like Dave Arneson - without limits - always searching and exploring and as they said in Star Trek "To boldly go where no man has gone before."

[hengest]

Solid post here, Admin Pete!

As much as I "lean classic / basic" and now with the communities online and more experience, to OD&D, I need to remember that the most solid fun I ever had at a table was not at a table and was based a WOTC "product" (well, SRD, you know). Making it your own goes a long way.

[DeWitt]

Sorry, I didn't quite catch the purpose of this sub-forum. What kind of content do we post here? Reports on ideas, how the played, and what conclusions came from that?

If so, I go back and forth on place my campaign in the real-world. I'd really like to read anybody else who has runs a historical campaign and how they turned it on it's head, so-to-speak.

[mormonyoyoman]

Well, there is always One True Way, and that's My Way. It only depends on who is "My" at any given time.

[Admin Pete]

Sept 28, 2016 9:12:21 GMT -5 hengest said:

Solid post here, Admin Pete !

As much as I "lean classic / basic" and now with the communities online and more experience, to OD&D, I need to remember that the most solid fun I ever had at a table was not at a table and was based a WOTC "product" (well, SRD, you know). Making it your own goes a long way.

Thank you!!

[Admin Pete]

Oct 1, 2016 5:37:11 GMT -5 DeWitt said:

Sorry, I didn't quite catch the purpose of this sub-forum. What kind of content do we post here? Reports on ideas, how the played, and what conclusions came from that?

If so, I go back and forth on place my campaign in the real-world. I'd really like to read anybody else who has runs a historical campaign and how they turned it on it's head, so-to-speak.

Please do read the thread Help with making a Sandbox, that will provide you the context of the six new sub-forums. In that thread the following was posted and seconded by two people:

Sept 24, 2016 7:15:17 GMT -5 Crimhthan The Great said:

Perhaps a bit of reorganization of the board. The main forum below is Campaigns & Settings Resources, so how about dividing that into two forums - one for creating campaigns and one for running campaigns with appropriate division of the existing subforums between them. Your three groups above could be split between the two, as in advice for all three about creating in the one forum and advice about running the game in the other forum.

For example:

Creating Worlds, Settings, and Campaigns (as the main forum heading)

* Advice for the MIY Designer creating All Original Material directly from the Primary Sources

* Advice for the DIY Designer creating Significant Original Material from Primary Sources and Using Published Resources

*Advice for the Time-Strapped DIY Designer Weaving Together Mostly Published Resources

and then the other

Running Game Worlds, Settings and Campaigns

* Advice for the MIY Designer On Running the Game

* Advice for the DIY Designer On Running the Game

*Advice for the Time-Strapped DIY Designer On Running the Game

So the first three forums are about making/designing/creating campiagns from three different points of view. I am hoping that people will pick the one or two that apply most to them and write about how they go from (to greatly simplyfy) source to inspiration to creation or write about what you consider a combination or a sub-point or lot of other things.  The second three forums are about after you have made/designed /created a campaign (again from three different points of view) how do you run it/use it/implement it. How do you wing it when the players do something really unexpected. How do you pull it together when all your time to prepare was eaten up by real life. And many, many other things.

[elanfanboy]

Sept 27, 2016 14:56:04 GMT -5 Admin Pete said:

 We don't have to worry about Rules & Procedures, we can make our own procedures and our own rulings. OD&D is like Silly Putty in the hands of the Designer. It is amazing what you can do with Silly Putty and likewise for OD&D.

    That's a bit of a bad analogy, I would use clay, you can really only squeeze silly putty and let it drop. Still overall good though, no trying to criticize.

[mao]

Dec 19, 2018 9:38:12 GMT -5 elanfanboy said:

Sept 27, 2016 14:56:04 GMT -5 Admin Pete said:

 We don't have to worry about Rules & Procedures, we can make our own procedures and our own rulings. OD&D is like Silly Putty in the hands of the Designer. It is amazing what you can do with Silly Putty and likewise for OD&D.

    That's a bit of a bad analogy, I would use clay, you can really only squeeze silly putty and let it drop. Still overall good though, no trying to criticize.

I second Clay!

[Admin Pete]

Dec 19, 2018 9:38:12 GMT -5 elanfanboy said:

Sept 27, 2016 14:56:04 GMT -5 Admin Pete said:

 We don't have to worry about Rules & Procedures, we can make our own procedures and our own rulings. OD&D is like Silly Putty in the hands of the Designer. It is amazing what you can do with Silly Putty and likewise for OD&D.

    That's a bit of a bad analogy, I would use clay, you can really only squeeze silly putty and let it drop. Still overall good though, no trying to criticize.

If you look at the dates in my signature, that post was from when The Perilous Dreamer was the Admin so I am tagging him so he can respond.

[mormonyoyoman]

Dec 19, 2018 9:48:23 GMT -5 mao said:

Dec 19, 2018 9:38:12 GMT -5 elanfanboy said:

    That's a bit of a bad analogy, I would use clay, you can really only squeeze silly putty and let it drop. Still overall good though, no trying to criticize.

I second Clay!

Clay has changed his name to John-boy. I think the family changed the name of the mountain too.

[ripx187]

Dec 21, 2018 0:18:31 GMT -5 mormonyoyoman said:

Dec 19, 2018 9:48:23 GMT -5 mao said:

I second Clay!

Clay has changed his name to John-boy. I think the family changed the name of the mountain too.

The motion to change silly putty to clay has been approved by the board, however if he wishes to now change his name once again he must resubmit his claim to the Department of Analogies for review. As far as the mountain is concerned, this board does not recignize the clay nor his supposed family until some form of identification can be obtained.

On to more important matters, I would like to see my name and telephone number be scrubbed off of the wall in the Ladies restroom as there have been too many complaints that it was not a fun time.

[mormonyoyoman]

Dec 21, 2018 10:36:34 GMT -5 ripx187 said:

Dec 21, 2018 0:18:31 GMT -5 mormonyoyoman said:

Clay has changed his name to John-boy. I think the family changed the name of the mountain too.

The motion to change silly putty to clay has been approved by the board, however if he wishes to now change his name once again he must resubmit his claim to the Department of Analogies for review. As far as the mountain is concerned, this board does not recignize the clay nor his supposed family until some form of identification can be obtained.

On to more important matters, I would like to see my name and telephone number be scrubbed off of the wall in the Ladies restroom as there have been too many complaints that it was not a fun time.

🤣