There's still a whole lot about this enterprise that has to be made clear. I'm thinking largely in IC terms here, which of course have OOC consequences. This is long, bear with me.
The Guild of Writers as yet has no "mandate" from Cyan/the DRC, so we don't know how, for example, a bunch of explorers from the surface are supposed to be taught how to use this most cryptic and arcane art of D'ni Writing to summon new worlds from the void. (That's an exciting, awesome concept, and the idea that it's on the same level as greeters and map-makers is pretty funny.) I imagine that the DRC will come up with some newly-discovered explanatory texts on the Art, from which we (who must all naturally be more than proficient in the D'ni language, including the subset of jargon and formal language specific to the Art) will presumably be able to successfully teach ourselves how it's done. Having no Bookbinders or Inkmakers nor (surely) the technical knowledge to replicate these trades, we will naturally be using the materials happily discovered somewhere in a stockpile of Writing supplies (overlooked by Gehn and Atrus and everyone else who has been ransacking D'ni's last stores).
So then, as contemplated by Dr. Watson, it will be our task to write new Ages. Ages in which, perhaps, some resolution to the Bahro conflict can be found. As events have been shaping up, that will be the ostensible reason for our existence. How many playgrounds can we really make? I guess we will just be experimenting, since we have no idea what we're looking for, so we may as well create what we want, and we want to play.
Watson: Have you found anything yet that might help us in this Time of Peril?
Writer: No, nothing yet...hey, but there's a party on Waterslide Age tonight, wanna come?
(Incidentally, has anyone else begun to suspect that "Find a way, make a home", combined with the new suggestion of Writing new Ages, means that we might be asked to Write a new home for the Bahro?)
So what kind of Ages will we be Writing? I've seen a lot of talk of puzzles and whatnot, which is of course what we have come to expect in an Age, but if we were really creating worlds -- if someone gave you a kor'nee and a pen and said, "go on, Write anything" -- would the fantastic world that you create really have a lot of puzzles in it? Or would it just be a beautiful place to go?
I've also seen a lot of plans for D'ni worlds and backstory, but, if it hasn't been said somewhere explicitly (since again, we don't have that mandate), it can at least be inferred -- we aren't just people programming Ages, we're explorers who have learned the Art and are writing new Ages. Not rediscovering old lost D'ni ones. There shouldn't be a scrap of D'ni technology in sight, unless we bring it with us (setting up D'ni book pedestals and lamps around the link site, say).
Should the worlds be inhabited? Could be. There will be a little grist for the mill of the many writers and storytellers we have signed on...there can be indigenous cultures with their own histories and backstories, provided, I imagine, that they're all long gone and we never see them. There can be structures and things that they've built, remnants of their religion and language and industry. All that can be created, completely original, since no one from D'ni or anywhere else in the D'niverse will have ever been there before the Writer makes the first link. (In an IC context, we should note that during the process of Writing, the Writer would have no idea whether an Age is inhabited or not -- the Writer can only create conditions conducive to life, and then see what happens the first time she links to the Age. So no talking about the in-progress Age of the Fascinating Mountain People or anything.)
Now here's a question -- will we have to follow the rules of the Art as we've been told Atrus and the D'ni Masters before him followed it? Apart from things like no major revisions once the link is made, the one aspect that really concerns us is: should we Write man-made structures? Obviously, as Age-builders we can easily create man-made structures...they're much easier than natural features, in fact. But these should be for the most part structures purportedly built by previous inhabitants of the Age. Should we be able to actually Write in features like Atrus's Stoneship, that no human ever built, that was just there? Will we have access to all of Yeesha's paradigm-breaking secrets, or will we have to play by the old rules? (I'm saying "have" to because I'm assuming we'll want our Ages to be consistent in an IC context. Sure, we can slap a Stoneship down on an Age. But should we be able to?)
I'm hoping that out of this discussion we'll be able to form, as the topic suggests, a rough set of precepts and guidelines that will set out the sorts of things we will be trying to accomplish.
Some that I would propose based on my ideas so far:
1. We aren't Cyan programmers and we shouldn't pretend to be. We are not making the next Journey, D'ni area, pod age, bahro cave, Relto, or door garden. We are making experimental explorer Ages, both because we want a solution/answer/way forward and because it's cool, and that's something different. It's its own format, and we shouldn't try to replicate one of the others (designing it like, say, a new Prime Age), just because that's what we're familiar with.
2. Ages should be primarily in the form of natural worlds. Rock, water, sky, vegetation. As students of the Art, we should be experimenting to see what we can do with these basic forms.
3. Ages should not have man-made structures Written in.
4. Ages may be (previously) inhabited, and may contain structures built by the inhabitants and other remnants of their presence.
5. Ages may additionally have what limited D'ni and surface elements could have conceivably been "imported" by the Guild shortly after the link was made.
6. Puzzles, if there are any, should be organic to the world; either naturally-occurring obstacles/impediments to exploration, or contraptions created by inhabitants for a specific and plausible purpose.
7. Ages should be original. No D'ni anything, no connection to the rest of the known universe. These will be virgin Ages, and the first time the Writer puts his hand to the page will be the first time anyone from outside that Age has ever visited it -- with the POSSIBLE exception of the Bahro, who may actually have the ability to link anywhere.
8. Ages should be serious. I don't think that's a concern with the people here, but elsewhere I've heard concerns voiced about how giving Age-creation over to the users might result in the Shopping Mall Age and the Harry Potter Age and Phred42's Phat Phun Age and all kinds of abominations...but I'm sure the Guild won't undertake any such projects, and, for that matter, I'm sure the product of our labors will be subject to some sort of Cyan/DRC approval. Right?
One last thought -- I think that as members of the Guild of Writers, which, at least for those who are going to be doing the real meat-and-potatoes work of modeling and coding, has perhaps the most intensive duties of any of the guilds, we also have a greater responsibility to address the IC issues of our work and present ourselves and our projects in a plausible, realistic, consistent way. This is much less of a concern for, say, Cartographers, who, no matter how you cut it, will be A. visiting places, and B. drawing maps of them. There's not too much fudging or roleplaying going on there. We, in contrast, have a sort of double role to play, and I think we should be responsible stewards of the illusion.