In my last world, Dancing Princess, MJ expected that I would save the princesses. If I didn't save the princesses, eventually, there would be negative consequences. Are there any such worlds for players that don't want to get involved?
So, you go and save the princesses, only to find out that the princesses are all ugly hags, the "king" is an insane nobleman that owns about 100 acres and is almost completely broke. However, the player who does what I did and does nothing, meets up with a wizard that offers to teach him any magic skill he can imagine. A world that caters to the non-interfering character?
Personally I think MJ was in error if he thought you would save anyone without the proper motivation (wealth, weapons, promise of gratification). If we used past behavior on worlds as a baseline, you weren't very heroic, nor were you looking out for others more than yourself.
MJ sent you there, to see what you would do, he has said he often sends people to worlds where he isn't sure what the character will do. It serves the purpose of giving MJ some enjoyment in seeing your reaction to a situation that he presents.
As for worlds that cater to those types of characters? Any world can be that, most have certain things that require you to interact on some level (getting a job, taxes, security/police, making sure you have food, shelter, etc). There are very few worlds that pigeonhole you into forcing you to do something. As for worlds that are non-interference, on the old boards there were at least 2 threads with such a world.
If we used past behavior on worlds as a baseline, you weren't very heroic, nor were you looking out for others more than yourself.
"I didn't want to be called a hero, I just wanted to live."
Nando Parrado
See Also: Alive, Alive 20 years later.
Personally I think MJ was in error if he thought you would save anyone without the proper motivation (wealth, weapons, promise of gratification).
Well, the motivation was wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, the hand of a princess in marriage, and becoming an heir to the throne. I decided to learn blacksmithing.
Which is more valuable? Gold or blacksmithing skills? That is the question I asked myself, and I decided that the blacksmithing skills were more valuable.
NagaWorld is such a world, and so is Bah Ke'gehn. I'd wager that the Triverse in which Graeme currently is is such a world, and so is The Playground. Really, there's also The Web--probably most of the worlds I run are places where you don't have to do anything.
The world in which you currently find yourself was such a world, until you prayed for someone to come into it which triggered a series of events, because the person who is coming (not the person already there, but the one you actually requested) is almost never sent to any world unless she is needed there, and I already know that it is fated that when she comes to this world, there will be a pending disaster requiring her to resolve it. Had you not prayed her into there, though, I probably would not have bothered with the pending disaster, as it's an unnecessary complication.
I use a lot of worlds in which something in particular is supposed to happen, in part because a lot of these worlds are drawn directly from existing stories, and the world is framed around the story--Dancing Princess, Prisoner of Zenda, Cask of Amontilado, Most Dangerous Game, Last Starfighter, If Looks Could Kill, scores of others, I'm sure. What makes these worlds unique is not so much the setting as the plot, and so I'm looking for how to make the plot happen.
On the other hand, I could drop you in NagaWorld or The Web or The Playground or Bah Ke'gehn or Post Sympathetic Man or New Ice Age or Orc Rising, and what makes these worlds interesting is the setting; there is no plot, nothing that you need to do. However, in every one of those cases you will be faced with the necessity of survival against strange dangers. Of course, you don't have to do anything--you can just die, and go to another world. If, though, you want to stay in such a world where nothing specific is expected of you, you are going to have to do something to keep yourself alive.
In fact, the very first world you were in, B Movie Columbus, was that sort of world. You don't have to do anything, but people do die in this world because of the mutants and monsters that appear sporadically, and you might wind up being one of them if you do nothing to prevent it. Of course, your stay there was complicated because you had one of those characters who is compelled to do something wherever he goes--and I think you'll find that any character I run who is a teacher does it because of that same inner compulsion to help others, and thus is going to have that same character trait of trying to fix things and make the lives of others better. It is very difficult to escape that combination. That's probably why Michael di Vars never teaches new skills to noobs: he doesn't care, and he isn't trying to make anything better. He cares about making himself better by gaining and honing skills that will be useful in the battles ahead, but that doesn't include training someone else who isn't going with him anyway.
What about meeting a wizard in a world in which nothing is happening, and learning from him? Pardon my question, but if nothing is happening in this world, why would anyone bother becoming a wizard? It's hard work, you know, learning to use all that magic. What's the payoff? There must be some problem that the magic allows the wizard to overcome--and if you're going to apprentice to the wizard, that becomes your problem, too, or why else would he train you?
I could put you in an idyllic paradise where nothing bad ever happens and let you use the time to learn and practice. I did that to Lauren Hastings in the third novel. Problem is, it was such a dull bit of story that I burned through a century in half a dozen chapters and blew her into the next world. A world in which nothing is happening is not worth posting about. It's dull.
--M. J. Young
Indeed. Its why I'm such a bloodthirsty GM. I get bored.
That said, it is possible to have a 'Learn things' world be interesting...but that requires making learning things to be difficult and occasionally hazardous. You have to as a GM sit down and think of various dangers that might happen in a learning situation, and create some of them.
Which I think MJ ought to do with his Paradise Island. Have Lauren realize she's not getting better on her own, and she needs to up the ante by as the game said 'juggling flaming dumbbells' or something.
Edit: Or at least some sort of difficulty. Now, it is true that say, the Leo Frankowski stories of Conrad Starguard were remarkably "I do this and build this" but still interesting. It helped that Conrad had an overarching danger at series' end--7 Million Mongols set to rampage over Medieval Poland, and he had a lot of interesting details about what it would take to turn a Medieval society into an industrial power. But its a rather unusual sort of series.
Blowing things up is easier. Have one chapter with Lauren struggling emotionally/spiritually. One chapter with a botch. One chapter with Lauren building a training device...like running a tightrope from volcano top to a palm tree, as she prepares to walk the half-mile long rope each morning. Rinse, repeat and recyle.
Its a thought anyways.