Poll Results

The First Poll

The WRAF exercise started with the builders polling the interested audience to help set some basic parameters about how the adventure would be written. The first poll, which ran for a week and was advertised heavily on the streams of all of the builders, asked five questions. Thirty-nine people responded as follows:

1. What mood should the world around our adventurers display?
• Oppressive, fatalistic, "evil" (Warhammer, Dune, Game of Thrones,1984) (17 votes)
• Bright, optimistic, positive, "happy" (Narnia, Star Trek, Disney, AnneMcCaffrey's Pern) (6 votes)
• Neutral -- elements of both (ForgottenRealms, the real world(?), Babylon 5,Eragon) (16 votes)
The winner by one vote was the Oppressive, fatalistic, "evil" mood.


2. What mood should the adventure itslef display?
• Bright - "If we win, we can make thingsbetter!" (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars VI) (6 votes)
• Hopeful - "If we win, things will be betterfor now" (James Bond, The Hobbit, StarWars IV) (18 votes)
• Dark - "Even if we win, the world won'treally be any better" (Judge Dredd, StarWars I, II, III) (15 votes)
The winner by 3 votes was the Hopeful Adventure.


3. What time/tech period should we build in?
• Bronze/Iron (Mesopotamian, Celtic, Nordic) (2 votes)
• Classical (Greek, Roman, Byzantine) (2 votes)
• Medieval / Dark Ages (e.g. Tolkien, Willow) (14 votes)
• Renaissance - City based (e.g. Intrigue in Florence, Italy) (4 votes)
• Age of Sail (Age of Exploration through Golden Age of Pirates) (2 votes)
• Colonial / Pre-Industrial (late 1700's thru American Civil War) (1 vote)
• Industrial / Age of Steam (mid/late Victorian thru World War I) (7 votes)
• Modern ( post WWI to early 21st century) (17 votes)
• Near Future Dystopian (the next 100 years, and things are going downhill) (1 vote)
• Near Future Uptopian (the next 100 years, but things are getting better!) (1 vote)
• Far Future Post-Apocalyptic (The Time Machine, Shannara Chronicles) (2 votes)
• Far Future Quasi-utopian / Space opera (3 votes)
This one was interesting. For a time during the week, Age of Steam was in the lead. Renaissance Urban had a brief stint on top as well, but the ultimate winner was Medieval/Dark Ages , which amassed 7 votes more than its nearest competitor.


4. What about magic?
• No real magic - Charlatan magicians orpriests don't wield real magic. (our world) (2 votes)
• Subtle magic - Magic exists, but effectsare subtle - often unrecognizable. (Bene Gesserit) (8 votes)
• Low magic - Magic is rare and hard to do / takes a long time to cast) (Conan the Barbarian) (18 votes)
• High Magic - Magic is common, often replaces technology (Typical D&D) (11 votes)
This one was never close. Low Magic led almost from the outset, and kept a commanding lead.


5. Who and What Lives in the world?
• Fantastic / magical creatures and multiple sentient races (24 votes)
• Fantastic / magical creatures but only one sentient race (6 votes)
• Conventional creatures, but multiple sentient races (6 votes)
• Conventional creatures and only 1 sentient race (3 votes)
This one was also never close. The overwhelming winner right from the beginning was Multiple Races/Fantastic Creatures.

The results of this poll can be viewed in pie-chart form here.

Subsequent Detail Polls

Once the event started, and we had the results of the first poll, the builders still had some questions for the audience. Four more polls were run, each with one question, to get greater clarity. Here are those results:

1. We were to build a dark, oppressive world. What was the source of the oppression?
• The Political Powers that hold sway are evil and the source of the oppression that is felt by the commoners (2 votes)
• Internal political struggles and conflicts among the powerful are creating undue suffering and instability among the common folk. (6 votes)
• The region is constantly being invaded by "others" (which could be a different species) that raid, pillage, and destroy. Local leaders have been powerless to put a stop to this. (1 vote)
• A terrible magical creature dominates the area, demanding tributes/sacrices/etc. Local leaders have decided to survive by appeasement (and may even be in league with the creature and receiving kickbacks!) (3 votes)
• Some terrible outside threat (dark necromancer, deranged wizard, evil cult) is threatening to gain a foothold in the area, and intends to do terrible things to the folk already there. (4 votes)
• An evil force permeates the very nature of reality, ultimately corrupting all things good. (4 votes)
Twenty people responded to this poll, and the winner by two votes was for Internal Political Struggles, as can be seen here.


2. Next, we wanted to know what sort of adventure to build. We drew on the GreatGM's list of 4 adventure types, but threw in a couple of extras of our own devising. What sort of adventure should we build?
• DISCOVERY: The party must figure out what is needed to defeat or thwart the Big Bad Evil Guy. The BBEG will be acting to prevent this, of course, or may be seeking similar knowledge to know how to carry out their own plans. (The adventure ends and the party "wins" when the knowledge is obtained.) (4 votes)
• COLLECTING - The party must go and secure something (an item, information, a person) necessary in the battle against the Big Bad Evil Guy. The BBEG may also be looking for this thing, and/or may be trying to actively prevent the party from succeeding. (The adventure ends and the party "wins" when the item is obtained.) (1 vote)
• DELIVERING - The party must take something (an item, information, a person) from Point A to Point B in order to continue the fight against the Big Bad Evil Guy. The BBEG may want to steal or destroy the item, but will certainly not want the party to succeed. (The adventure ends when the party gets the thing to its intended destination.) (2 votes)
• THWARTING -- The Party must actually seek out and defeat the Big Bad Evil Guy to prevent horrible things from happening or continuing, or must change the circumstances so severely that the BBEG cannot complete their plans. (The adventure ends and the party "wins" when the BBEG is either defeated or definitively thwarted.). (2 votes)
• NEGOTIATING - The party must convince hostile factions to put aside differences and face a greater threat. (6 votes)
• QUESTING - The party must undertake a series of tasks to prove their worthiness to a power that can help. (2 votes)
Sixteen people responded to this poll, and the winner by two votes was to build a Negotiating adventure, as can be seen here.


3. The original poll demanded multiple sentient races, so we asked, Who are the good guys? [choose 3] A list of 19 possible sentient races was provided, and there was an "Other" option that allowed the responders to select something not on the list. Rather than list the all here (and then do it again in the next question, you can follow the result link to see the list yourself.
   
   With 21 people responding, Humans and Vampires came out on top, with Elves a close third. Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings amassed zero votes between them! The detailed results can be seen here.


4. And the final question asked the converse: Who are the bad guys? [choose 3] The same ilst was offered, and once more there was an "Other" option that allowed the responders to select something not on the list.
   
   With 21 people responding, Humans and Elves were clearly going to be the bad guys (as well as the good guys!) These two had a commanding lead, and there were too many others tied for third to select one. We decided that there would certainly be other bad things, but they wouldn't be any specific race from this list. The detailed results can be seen here.


And so... armed with these mandates from the viewing public, the five builders began their labors.