Now, I need to be clear, this article may shock people who have been following me for a while, especially given my known stances about creating holistic, balanced worlds that have strong internal consistency. But those kinds of worlds often miss out on the fun and focus of a world that’s obsessed with something to the point that activity is the source of the internal consistency. So let’s dive into XYZ Obsessed World design!
Background
This kind of world is often seen in anime, manga, manhwa, and videogames. They’re worlds where one particular activity has become the driving force for everything. Everything inevitably points back to this activity. Examples include the auto racing obsessed worlds of GPX Cyber Formula and Speed Racer, or the slightly more subtle fighting obsessions of the Street Fighter and Fatal Fury/King of Fighters worlds. A near-perfect example are the various regions of the Pokemon world. In these worlds, power, prestige, and influence are gained by proximity to, participation in, and control over whatever activity has become the driving obsession of the world.
The New Norm
A key thing to establish with this kind of world-building exercise is that the obsession isn’t hidden. It’s everywhere. It’s the baseline of everyone’s existence. It’s the dominant part of history, it’s what drives scientific exploration, it’s the cornerstone of the economic and power structures of the world. And that can give off a weird vibe initially as you’re working on the bones of your setting. After all, we’re used to the spirit of exploration and/or the greed of capitalism driving the quest for spaceflight, not the opportunity to race cars on impossible track designs only possible on different planets.
But here’s the trick. The obsession, the XYZ, isn’t a destructive force on society (usually). It’s just a weird glue that holds everything together. Or, better yet, it’s like a spiderweb. At the centre is the XYZ, the obsession activity. Then radiating out from it, but still connected to it, are all the expanding lines and connections. All there to feed back into the centre.
Internally Sound
Building up from that last bit is that the XYZ and its surrounding connected activities are in of themselves internally consistent. The system is sound. And therein lays the first challenge of your creation. XYZ Worlds aren’t microcosms. It’s easy to create a game about people obsessed with say, Bowling. But that’s not an XYZ World. On an XYZ World, Bowling is the dominant sport, and its related sports are specialties within it. In this world, The technology for bowling balls, pins, and the entire apparatus need to make them work is as important to and closely guarded by corporations as drug chemistry and trade secrets for car design. But the key is that the XYZ doesn’t mean that other technologies and things don’t exist. There’s still cars, spaceships, and geopolitical conflict. It’s just that bowling is a constant, for everyone, and fits into places you might not think.
For example, national teams are a big deal. Conflict by proxy through bowling is common; a summit between nations in or near conflict will absolutely include their national bowling teams in a “friendly”. Schools have bowling teams. The highest-paid athletes are bowlers, and you see their faces everywhere. The release of a new composite bowling ball is a big deal, especially when corporate teams are deployed to steal it to learn its secrets. Anti-Bowling groups are a problem, and target events and prominent bowlers to end the grip Bowling has on the world.
The key thing here is that “obsession” doesn’t mean “to the detriment of everything else and themselves”.
System Choice and Game Design
Here’s the real kicker. Unless you’re already using a game built for the type of XYZ you’re world building around (like Fight! or my own Fight City game for one based around martial arts mayhem), you’re going to have to do some legwork here. This is not a good place to palette swap existing games and classes in the bulk of cases.
Right away, pick a system that supports the XYZ of your world. It might be a genre agnostic generic game like Cypher, Genesys, or FATE. It could be an SRD, like 24XX, Breathless, Year Zero Engine, or 2d20. My point is that the system needs to fit hand in glove with what you’re looking to do, because it’s going to make your life as the GM easier and let the Players get into the game faster.
Next is the real hard part. You need to do some base-level design work. Skills, abilities, character classes/archetypes, equipment, vehicles, and the rest of it. Why? Because you need to come at this from the perspective that you have few supports to get things going. Some players need this stuff to kickstart their interest in the setting, in making characters. So spend the time to put it together. It’s not going to be perfect, and that’s fine. It just needs to be there to get the ball rolling.
Go Off the Rails
Once all your baseline stuff is done. GO NUTS. You’ve got a world where people are obsessed with XYZ, so it’s time to take it all to the logically unhinged extremes. Zero Grav Bowling. The Aphrodite 1000 Rally Race on Venus. Kumite style tournaments literally everywhere. Have fun with it, and encourage your players to have fun with it too! What’s great about these worlds is that once your players have even a shred of buy-in, they’re now creating new nonsense too, often at an alarming pace.
Media Examples
Time for the fun, some media examples of worlds where one thing has become an XYZ level obsession and power:
Fighting (Martial Arts):
- Street Fighter/Final Fight
- Fatal Fury/King of Fighters
- Mortal Kombat
- Tekken
All are notable for having a combination of magic/mysticism and era appropriate ultra-tech. All are worlds where prowess in martial arts is a path to local, regional, and global prestige and power. The most powerful people in these worlds are all martial artists or control martial artists. Firearms and stuff exist, but pale in comparison to the powers of a fighter with the bare hands or chosen melee weapon.
Racing (Automotive):
- Speed Racer Universe
- Future GPX Cyber Formula
- MF Ghost (but not Initial D, weird, right?)
- Immortal Grand Prix
These worlds are ones where racing has become a world obsession, past the likes of real-world cricket or football. Billions of fans tune into the biggest races, and even minor leagues have millions of fans and budgets that eclipse those of small countries. Technologies, drama, and politics swirl around these leagues and races, and there always seems to be space for an underdog team to take a win.
Dungeon Clearance:
- Delicious in Dungeon
- Solo Leveling
- The Tower of Druaga
“Hold up! This is just regular fantasy gaming!” some might think, but it’s not. These are worlds where dungeons, the ownership or claim or control thereof, and treasures within form a key part of the world’s socioeconomic and political realities. Adventures are specialists in dungeon clearance, and hold unique status based on their power levels and capabilities. And at its lightest, these are worlds are dungeons are industries and economic drivers.
Final Thoughts
XOW World Building is fun and offers unique and tailored experiences past those of a conventional or less focused game. These types of worlds can also offer a variety of quick and long term game experiences, depending on how wrapped up in things the players and GM get. That said, they’re also not to everyone’s taste. Some people, players and GMs alike, prefer games with more “realistic” worlds that aren’t fixated on one thing (at least overtly). And that’s fine too. But, in my experience, these are fun to make and fun to use, so give them a try!
