But Ralf, how do we go from Character to world?

So you are beginning to understand character creation well take what you have learned and create that world. Sometimes it’s that easy the answers to who your character is works to explain the world they are in. A good way to learn about world creation is to play in other people’s sandbox.

How did you do this your asking me well it’s as simple as taking your favorite world and just writing a story. Let me show you with this example

The sun was setting even though you couldn't really tell, the sky had been over cast the whole trip up to the old mansion. The rain had been threatening them the whole ride. The sky kept lighting up as if a fire work show was going off in the distance and the rumble of thunder spoke in whispers.

He almost did not take this job, but the pay was too good to pass up. They had even covered his expenses for the trip here. That alone made it worth it but that also had triggered a tingling feeling he could not shake. As they drove up the long driveway his hairs stood completely up. It was as if electricity were coursing through him. He looked over at his brother who had long since fallen asleep and tapped him to awaken he added,

Luigi get up we are here.

Luigi jumped up grabbed his wrench and was about to swing. He blocked his brother and said

Woe, down soldier!

Luigi gazed at his brother as if still stuck in the lands of the sandman but soon his eyes sparkled to life.

Sorry Mario, i had a bad dream.

Mario smirked as he said,

I can see that. Get the gear together we have a job to do.

Mario's stomach felt like someone had let loose a bag of snakes inside of it as he and his brother stood there in front of the huge mansion. Each seemed to feel something ominous from the house but neither uttering a word.

Mario went up to the door and used the enormous door knocker to knock on the door. Each pound of the knocker sounded like a crack of thunder. After a moment the door slowly opened and a short strange looking little man emerged. He looked at both Mario and luigi and said,

How can i help you gentlemen?

Mario's face lit up as his charm bubbled up and he said cheerfully,

Its me Mario and this is my brother Luigi we are here to do that job.

The old man looked at both brothers for a long moment. His strange silver eyes just staring at the uncomfortable brothers before saying,

Yes, follow me young sirs i shall lead you to the problem.

The brothers enter and follow the odd little man who moves quite sprite-fully for one so old. He leads the through the mansion down many twists and turns til finally they are at these stairs that seem to go down to the depths of the earth. At last they arrive at a system of pipes some large others small. He walks over to one pipe in particular it is painted green and covered in green slime. The huge pipe is broken and looking within the darkness feels as if it will pull you in and be never heard from again.

Here is the problem.

Mario looks at the huge pipe and says,

Wait a minute...

Before he can continue the ancient small man says in a mocking tone.

Is something wrong? You are being payed well enough. Cant handle it? You were told money is no issue. In fact...

Of course we got this!

Luigi chimes in.

Well then i will leave you to your work.

Starts to walk away and then stops and adds,

I must warn you the last group to work here disappeared. Have a nice day.

Turns and walks away.

Mario hits Luigi and says

What the heck is wrong with you this is a huge job much bigger than the two of us.

Yeah but with the money they are paying us we can get all the help we want.

Luigi says with a cheer in his voice Mario just looks at him and shakes his head and then adds

What the heck was that ominous warning about the last group? And how do you just disappear? I don’t see where they could of gone.

Luigi smirks and says

I think the old man was messing with us trying to scare us. Don’t let that insidious old man rattle you Mario.

Mario gets insulted and ads he didn’t rattle me, I am just saying that was such an eerie thing to say.

Mario then hears in a raspy whispered tone.

Get out while you can!

Luigi! That’s not funny! Stop speaking that way, I told you I wasn’t rattled.

What? I didn’t say anything.

Luigi protests as he works on one of the broken pipes. Mario looks around cautiously for a long moment but gets down to working when nothing else happens. The two men work hard and get most of the smaller pipes down in a quick period of time before luigi stops and stands stretching and saying,

Hey you think that they would let us investigate this place for spirits?

Mario stands up quick and surveys the area saying,

What!? Did you hear something?

Luigi laughs,

well look who's all in a panic now. Relax I was just contemplating cause this would be the perfect house to investigate.

Mario relaxes and says

Its just that I thought I heard something before.

Luigi gets interested and says,

You did? What did you hear?

At that moment a raspy whispered tone says,

Leave now or you will be lost forever

At that exact moment both men hear something from the big pipe. It sounds like someone is moving around inside it. They look at each other and slowly walk over to the pipe. When they peer inside they see it glowing green and in an instance Mario and luigi are gone. Nothing is left of them not even their tools. As the short old man pops out from behind the huge pipe and smile mischievously.

So if you know the Super Mario brothers you can tell that I’ve used them to tell this story. I’m playing in this sandbox so I can understand the rules of this world. I come back to this piece often so I can work and re work it as an exercise for my writing. That’s also why I’m sharing a work in progress to show it raw before it’s finished.

We know who Mario and Luigi are, plumbers and heroes. We also know that Luigi has hunted ghosts so I use that in this story as well. Lovely mansion with strange happenings gives us our story.

Some people don’t like Fan Fiction but I think it’s a great way to sink your teeth into writing. Also why I like role playing games like D&D and Vampire the Masquerade. It’s a huge sand box to make stories in and helping understand world creation by creating in worlds already made.

As we understand the worlds we partake in we also begin to understand world creation. The more worlds you see the easier it is to create or tweak worlds for your story. As always if you have any questions feel free to ask and join us for next time when I’ll share more on world creation.

Heck since it’s Halloween let’s go all Vampire the Masquerade. Especially since it was my first go at tweaking an already established world to create my story.