Communal Setting Building after the Apocolypse

From the mailing list‘s Morgan Ellis:

Here’s the Con Guide Blurb:
Eons ago the world was sundered in a great cataclysm, the cause of which can never now be known. Humanity’s civilization was cast in ruins. In its place lies The Shattered Earth! A world of savagery, mutation, super science, and sorcery. But a few heroes still fight for freedom and justice against the forces of evil in a world gone mad.

Since Mike brought up my setting creation here is the way that I do it. Firstly I have sheet of a few Macro Setting Aspects that can be tagged at any time, and as usual the first one is free. Since the Shattered Earth setting is based heavily on 70s Post-Apocalyptic comic books I really want to make sure that feel comes across in play.

Shattered Earth Universal Aspects:
-Comic Book Panels
-Splash Pages
-Kirby Dots
-Catch Phrases!
-World in Ruin
-Familiar made Fantastic

I start the game with opening the Shattered Earth comic book and seeing six panels one for each of the Player Characters. I go around the table and ask What does your character look like and how are they traveling across the Wasteland of Shattered Earth? Then there is a rise in the Wasteland landscape and as they come over the rise page is turned to reveal the first part of the Setting Creation:
The Monument So I ask the players to name a Monument or Landmark that might still be around hundreds or thousands of years after the Apocalypse. I only have two caveats No Statue of Liberty, it’s been done too many times already, and has to be something that someone from this time would be likely to recognize.

So the players shout out different Monuments, and one of them starts to stand out and the players get excited about it. On my Setting Sheet I have space for two Aspects for the Monument. Once the players and I agree on the Monument I write it down on the sheet. Then for the second aspect I ask what is Post-Apocalyptic about the Monument. The players again throw out stuff and when a cool Post-Apocalyptic Aspect is agreed on then it gets written down. Presto two more Setting Aspects. Once the Monument’s been decided next up is:
The Menace Two more spaces for Aspects defining the danger that surrounds the Monument. I as the players what the Menace should be and usually it flows from the location, and post-apocalyptic nature of the Monument. For instance the Lincoln Memorial and the Swamp Delta that had flooded Washington DC, had the Pirates of the Potomac and Underground Cult as the Menace. The ready to launch Space Needle in the Emerald Jungle of Seattle, had Starbuck the Seattle Warlord and his Highly Caffeinated Super Soldiers. But it can be as simple and generic as something like Cannibal Mutant Raiders. Once the Menace has been created and the next step is:
The McGuffin This is the reason the Player Characters are traveling to the Monument and/or what they’re likely to find when they get there. Free the Slaves, learn the Teachings of a Wise Prophet, find the Solar Scepter, discover an Ancient Cache of Knowledge, or some Forgotten Technology. All of these can be one of the two McGuffin Aspects. Mainly it gives
the players something to focus on besides just beating up on the Menace.

The last six Aspects are the for the Environment and Post Apocalyptic Touches. These are Setting Aspects that help to define additional parts of the game. Environment Aspects are things like strange monsters, mutated flora and fauna, and other hazards of the Shattered Earth. While the Post-Apocalyptic Touches are all about injecting all those strange and wonderful possibilities into the setting.

Once it’s all done I’ve got a sheet of 18 Setting Aspects for that particular game of Spirit of the Shattered Earth, and the location and basic outline of a game and all the Post Apocalyptic madness I can handle. The best part is that almost of it comes straight from the players.

Followed up later with:
How do Universal Aspects work differently from regular aspects though? Are they like aspects anyone can tag or anyone can be compelled for?

Yep they’re just Aspects that anyone can tag or compel, but they’re specifically for that game and the setting rather then for a character. I leave the filled in Setting Sheet right there on the table, those aspects are free for anyone to use, then once they’ve been used I put a check next to them, after that it costs a fate point to tag them.

Probably the best way to think of them is as the Aspects for the Shattered Earth Comic Book Series and for that particular Issue or Game session. If you think of them in terms of Pulp Novels and Movies; Universal/Setting Aspects are the things that will likely show up in a given Pulp Series, and for that Novel/Movie/ etc. in particular.

For instance the Indiana Jones series might have ‘Redline Airways’ as a Setting Aspect to explain the travel sequences where a red line travels across a sepia toned map with superimposed images of various planes and other modes of travel to get the heroes from point A to far off exotic point B.