Yeah, so I sent you two links via yahoo mail previously. One was for a google docs folder and the other was for a google docs file. A lot of my stuff on Waterdeep is scattered across many files and folders. The problem I have is it's all written in a shorthand only I would understand, lol. So I'll probably need to go through and edit some of it. Of course, some of it's only in my head. Anyways, it might be easier if we have something like google docs to share through.
What is your computer situation at the moment? I remember you saying you were using school for internet, but it's the summer now. What kind of browser and computer capabilities can I expect you to have? Something I'd like to address as soon as you get the chance is a question regarding a file I want to use, which can be downloaded here:
http://www.candlekeep.com/downloads/ez_waterdeep.zip. This is an amazing map of Waterdeep, accurate down to a 5 foot grid. Since you have the software, I'd like to know if you can edit/manipulate the layers. I'm thinking I might need them in JPG form, IDK. It would be brilliant if we could just use this map for an entire map of our gameworld basically with minimal effort in mapmaking. For important areas we can paint over much more pleasing scenery. I know Roll20 at least lets you upload a JPEG as a map foundation of almost any size. It also lets you upload PDFs, but this one is too big.
In your last post you mentioned previous questions; that wasn't you hinting that I've left some unanswered, was it? I thought I got them all, but I could be wrong.
Concerning worlds, I think John's point was legitimately good. Building worlds based off of our own psyche's doesn't make sense in a game where repairing those psyches isn't central (like what happened in Nick's TX game). I mean, those worlds could still exist, but I really can't think of any reason they would ever be explored in game by the central characters. Therefore, I wouldn't want to do it in my game. That being said, there are at least two worlds we could invite players to create. They can create their colosseum world. This may look like what would have been their psyche world, but it still doesn't really matter. PCs in this world won't be exploring the psyche world, they'll just be fighting one another. The other world(s) would be origin world(s) for their characters.
Of course, with this being a collaborative game between you and me and with players being invited to build their own worlds, there are some interesting questions about players becoming DMs and vice versa. I'm open to suggestions.
So I guess I should just let you know some of the central themes of this game world. There is the time travel aspect which sets up the existence of the multiverse, the connection of parallel dimensions, and the variety of reality in the game. Something which I've mentioned in passing is the existence of a potential apocalypse. Unlike Zane with Dragons, I've not just fixated on illithids because I like them. If you've skimmed a book like Elder Evils, you may be wondering why out of all the various potential end-times causes I settled on the illithids. Partly, because it just makes sense. Even the most powerful elder evil is only one being. One being is not actually all that hard to defeat for an epic party. The illithid, however, are an entire extremely advanced race. Secondly, the illithid are actually from a future where they succeeded in enslaving the world, which was basically that world's end. I've actually worked a lot on this end-times business. I've incorporated some stuff from the Age of Worms adventure path from Dungeon Magazine. Kyuss as you may know is an elder evil who threatens to turn all the world into worm food. The interesting thing about worms of Kyuss is that they kill a person (and later zombify them) by first eating their brains. Basically, the first worm of Kyuss was made by a mad spellweaver named Ma'kar who wanted to destroy the illithid at any cost, even if it meant destroying the world he was originally trying to protect. And an undead with its brains already eaten is basically an illithid's worst nightmare. There's no food left in the skull and the creature which threatens them is immune to telepathy. In Lords of Madness, the illithids flee the future to find refuge in the past because of some terrible evil that befalls even their great civilization. My interpretation of this is that Ma'kar's century-spanning plot eventually worked. Kyuss turned the world into wormfood, starving the illithid and even threatening them. But that was just the future of one universe in the multiverse. And even then Kyuss could possible be stopped (though unlikely if he got so far). In any event, an end game campaign in my world would look something like trying to destroy the illithid race, which would probably involve killing some central elder brain. Note, I don't really think that campaign would ever actually be played.
Lol, it's late, I just typed all that, and I don't really remember why. I guess I was just trying to inform you of the setting.
I'm very much open "to adding in extra stuff for players such as gangs/factions/guilds type of stuff." I don't recall, was there stuff like this from Imperium you wanted to add? Mind, there's a lot of stuff already in Waterdeep, so you may want to modify rather than add, but whatever.
Having said all the stuff earlier about end-times, there can still be an overarching plot for this particular game (you know, from levels 1-25 or whatever we decide). There are already three campaigns specifically published for Waterdeep: Expedition to Undermountain (levels 1-10), The Dragon's Legacy (level 13), and Vampires of Waterdeep (Dungeon Magazine 126-128, levels 13-20). We can use all, some, or none of these. If it was left to me, I'd probably use these (as long as they're not crap - I haven't read them yet), just because I'm lazy. But if you want to come up with different mini-campaigns, that's fine. I could certainly use your help coming up with an overarching campaign.