Lately I've been playing some RPGs, or role playing games. The most popular RPG—and probably my favorite—is called Dungeons and Dragons. One of my best friends, Samuel, first introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons. For a while we were content with our awesome Dungeon Master (who basically controls the world we are in) and Dungeons and Dragons, in general. But then we began to see certain things that were missing, or that we didn't like, in D&D. Flaws we thought, and still do think, that we could fix. Then we got a brilliant idea. Why not create our own RPG? So, together, we began to create our own RPG called Fallen Kingdoms.

We began with our RPG by writing what we loved about fantasy…what kinds of monsters, races, and classes (like warrior, archer, etc.) we would like to see in our RPG. Then we began to expand. Who were these monsters, and how do they work? Why are they here? We created powers for our classes and special abilities for each race.

But these monsters, races and classes didn't just come from nowhere! We were influenced by hundreds of different cultures, as we were intent on creating a diverse world. This was not easy, and we are still working on it. We began with our basic knowledge of fantasy creatures, before we expanded and branched out into different cultures and ancient mythology from around the world. A genie? Let's take a look at what ancient Arab mythology has to say about genies. What do they look like, how do they act? Of course we added some things for the sake of gameplay, but we tried to stick with Arabian myths and legends for this character as closely as possible. We did this with many more creatures, classes, and races, and soon we were rolling in the tons of ancient knowledge that we had acquired. Now, with our newfound knowledge of the world and other cultures, we could create an RPG that would hopefully be fun and enjoyable to play.

The final step for this game will be up to the High Lord, our version of a DM. What kind of world will he create? What will he do with it? How will he form an amazing storyline to throw characters into? The only limitations are those of the mind.

Jackson Duckworth is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program

All photos courtesy and copyright Jackson Duckworth