a.k.a. Just Keep Talking
Maximum Lore is about giving everyone all the time they want to tell us everything. Just start talking together and don’t stop until you’ve all run out of things to say. Put it all on the table, and maybe take a lot of notes.
The Maximum Lore method is best for when you have a lot of time to just put things out there. If you have all day and nowhere to be, this can be a really fun way to spend it. If everyone’s in a group chat together on Skype and you know you won’t be able to play the game for a week, you can start establishing lore immediately. Just start typing up ideas. Chat rooms are especially ideal for this because they can save a log, and you don’t need to take notes so closely when everyone can go back and look at exactly what everyone said later.
It can help to make a map. Draw a rough shape on a big piece of paper or a shared painting room online, and then just let people start filling it in with stuff. Mark out the regions your people control, and label dots and terrain features and Notable Places You Probably Want To Go At Some Point. Figure out where you want your adventure to start, and then put a big dot somewhere far away from that point where the Overlord’s base is.
When considering your people’s culture, it can help to think about the things they value most and work backwards from there. What is the absolute most important thing in your culture? What values and norms and laws came about because of that? Then, what is the absolute least important thing to your culture? And what values, norms, and laws does that answer bring you?
It’s also important to remember you’re all establishing a world together, not alone. Listen to other peoples’ ideas, and make changes accordingly. You have the final say on everything related to your people, but the whole world doesn’t revolve around them (probably). If someone else has a really good idea about something you said, listen to them. Maybe its cooler than what you had in mind, and you can work that into what you had going on. Maybe it isn’t, and you should tell them about your better idea and make it clearer for everyone so we all know about it. But it’s important that you at least listen.
The other important point of establishing a world together is that your people are not in a vacuum, and exist alongside everyone else’s. Consider how they react to each other, how they relate to one another on both a personal and international level. Are they friends? Enemies? Trading partners? What superstitions do your people have about the Dwarves, the Harbingers, the Elves, or whoever else? Are relationships good, rocky, or completely busted?
And lastly, consider the Overlord. The Overlord should establish their own Lore as well, and its important for you to consider how your people are reacting to their sudden conquests. Who was hit hardest? Who has the
Overlord done nothing to yet? Who reacts poorly to the situation, and who reacts quickly and decisively? What does the world at large think about all this?
As for the Overlord player, you are allowed to be cagey and secretive about your details in a way no one else is allowed to be. You are a new power in this world, sudden and strange. You have secrets and twists none of the others do, and you may even lie to them about some things. You cannot lie about your Stats or Weaknesses, and you probably shouldn’t lie about what your army is, the territories you’ve seized, and how much harm you’ve already caused. But you can absolutely lie about your Generals, your past, and what you do with those you capture or conquer. Strike terror into their hearts and undo what they know and revere, Overlord.
An important note about the Maximum Lore method is to not go on too long with any one player. No matter how cool your Elves are, people will get tired of hearing about them for 20 minutes if no one else gets to talk about their cool people. So if you’re going over one thing about your people, instead of moving on to the next thing about them when you’re done, have someone else tell them about that same thing with their people, and go around with everyone. This helps keep interest high and improves everyone’s engagement with the world you’re all creating together.
Of course, sometimes you’re the only one in your online chat and you have a lot of ideas - if there’s no one else you need to keep interested, feel free to just keep typing into that chatroom for everyone to see later. If no one wants to read your five pages you put up, give ‘em the cliff notes later.
There are a lot of subsections to Maximum Lore, but feel free to skip any of them that don’t interest you. As long as you write down your ideas, have fun with everything, and (most importantly) stop establishing when people get bored, you are playing the game correctly. The right moment to move on from establishing the world to playing in the world is the exact moment someone wants to start playing in the world, and not a moment sooner.
When everyone’s got everything out there, you just need to establish everyone’s Bonds, and then you’re ready to play!
Going Over The Highlights: If you end up using Maximum Lore, it can
be easy to forget some things here and there. If you have time and a real love for your setting, going over the Guided Establishment method before the first session may still be a good idea, so everyone’s on the same page and knows what’s most important from all you’ve talked about so far before you get to the game.