/wbg/ Worldbuilding General

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Alright I have a setting in mind for my players to explore and its been in the works for a bit.

Well the setting takes place upon a world that has long since passed the zenith of its golden age. An age where civilization reached such heights that commoners lived the lives of kings. As all things however this golden age came to an end. Not from an invasion from beyond, nor from internal struggle. The Old Ones ascended leaving their civilizations earthly aspects behind.

So the primitive races arose amid the decaying ruins of a race of gods. Those who can still use the technology of the Old Ones are deemed wizards and rise to positions of power in the urban ruins. Just beyond the cores of their domains lie miles of overgrown urban jungle where tribes and gangs roam looting, raiding, and simply trying to survive amid things they can never understand.

The common adventures are whats known as Pacts as the Old Ones designed all the races they also hardwired the genetic codes so that every so often a group of individuals would be drawn by instinct to work together gaining a type of psychic bond. As they adventure they uncover lost magic (technology) of the Old Ones. Using it to either carve out their own domains, aid a powerful Wizard, or simply fuel their destruction.

If an Old One awoke or returned to the settings present they would find themselves overwhelmed by the primitiveness of it all. Having never faced violence, hunger, the elements, or disease in the golden age.

Should they find their mothers corpse mislabeled in a museum they would be horrified at the barbarity of it as well as the fact it was incorrect.

>>49821705
>ancient, peaceful civ
>hardwired genetic slaves
Seems a bit incongruous. How did this enlightened people justify such a thing?

>>49821370
>>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting? If not, what is the state of Civilization at the moment?
Yes, the Dwarven Empire of old is a long gone institution that was destroyed from the inside out due to a horrible plague unleashed by the Dwarven sorcerer kings.
>>If so, what were they like? Warlike expansionists? Peaceful, enlightened uplifters?
They conquered the world through a use of magical golems, automatons, bio-medical monstrosities, and a slave race. They were far too expansionist and self destructive for their own good.
>>What happened to this civilization? Destroyed by war? Environment? Extraplanar fuckery? Was there a plague? Did their fall happen all at once or slowly over thousands of years?
See above, the reason for this fall came about due to the Dwarven kings, who by this point managed to become increadibly powerful and terrifying vampires, had been convinced by the whispers of a Star God that they were the ones to pave the way for the arrival of the "Fallen Children", who would later beomce the Elves who'd found the second great empire through much similar violent conquest.
>>What did they leave behind? Architecture? Weapons? Magic? Successors?
Only one Dwarven Hold remains locked away deep in the most inhospitable mountain range on the planet. They still make extreamly high quality weapons and armor but have been reduced to paupers compared to their previous selves. Otherwise, the golems, robots and other creatures that they created still exist, some being more friendly than others.
>>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?
They'd find undead, lots of undead. Many dwarves would go on to be raised by the Sorceror kings as army's that they used to fight one another in their madness.

>>49822155
Not that guy, but if they have the power to sculpt multiple genome's like clay they probably don't consider the the lesser races to be 'people' in the same way they are.

>>49822284
So are Dwarves still a thing? Like, with only one stronghold left are they a common race at all?

>>49822306
Fair enough, and quite a different look at it if that was intended. Truly enlightened, peaceful, always Good races are boring.

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>>49821370
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting?
Yes, there are a few. One seems like a grand, golden civilization though: the Regic Empire (aka the old empire)

>If so, what were they like?
They were enlightened, and seem so to the modern folk, but were warlike in the end after only other large nations were left to expand into.

>What happened to this civilization?
It was destroyed by two wars and the environment. The fall occurred over the course of three decades, but a more gradual descent into a dark age took another century and a half. The first war came from dwarves, the next came from goblins whose population swelled during a warm period.

>What did they leave behind?
Only one or two buildings remain from the original empire. Its legacy was in what little literature survived the goblin ransacking and dwarven burning. The literature spoke of medicine, justice, statesmanship, agriculture, and many other surprisingly advanced concepts. Magic came after the empire, but a book considered only a fairy-tale about a fire breathing man might have been about a real man.

>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find?
Nothing anymore. Maybe some pottery shards and discarded everyday items. Shiny items attracted scavengers well before modern times. If they were to hunt objects, it would be for the advanced metallic objects that the old empire. They made alloys that held up for centuries. Worth lots of coin.

>What would go through the mind of someone from that civilization's zenith if they suddenly found themselves in your setting's current time?
They would weep. The old empire WAS humanity's finest achievement. Anything the modern kings and emperors accomplished, even magic, would only be copying or parlor tricks.They would find the large population in cities to be comfortable, but the welcoming of elves would be totally alien. Not wrong, just alien.

>>49822325
No, they aren't. They're extreamly insular and are extreamly weary of outsiders.

Half Dwarves on the other hand are quite common. They're also known as Hillfolk, and are basically the descendants of humans who interbred with the Dwarves who survived the plague in the hills after fleeing the mountain homes. They're quite prolific and tend to follow several traditional Dwarven religious practices.

My groups current setting is a collaborative effort.
The primary old empire was sorta like the roman one, and used the tippyverse as a starting point, with appropriate modifications (so they had to hold territory and couldn't rely on just fabricate traps for everything).
They were brought down a combination of factors: a peasant revolt, an incestuous royal family that started a civil war over a favored sister, another civil war started by nobles trying to stop the royals madness, a goblin slave revolt, and a magical resonance cascade that blew up 99.99% of their magical traps. It took about 2 years to fully collapse into savagry in the cities and a bandit raided countryside.
They left behind plenty of ruins, filled with the wreckage of their magical infrastructure. On occasion, a working one is found and wars will be fought over them. The best that can gleaned is bits of knowledge that can hopefully lead to working fabricate traps being makable again.

An urban person from the zenith of the empire would be shocked at the lack of magical infrastructure, pleased at the invention of the printing press, and curious over the placing of science and alchemy above magic. And they would be horrified at the fact that their mother was removers her grave.

>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting? If not, what is the state of Civilization at the moment?
Not really ancient, but fallen, alright. Culturally it occupies place that Ancient Rome occupied and now it's middle ages.
>If so, what were they like? Warlike expansionists? Peaceful, enlightened uplifters?
Military and economic expansionists. They controlled Southern entire half of hourglass-shaped continent and started branching further North when doom came
>What happened to this civilization? Destroyed by war? Environment? Extraplanar fuckery? Was there a plague? Did their fall happen all at once or slowly over thousands of years?
One of the major cultures has something happened to their god. His rotten corpse contaminated their souls turning them into murderous zombie-orc-like freaks.
>What did they leave behind? Architecture? Weapons? Magic? Successors?
3 colonies up North are still up in running with various degrees of success. Magical college built in faraway place of power, tyrannical and insanely racist nation famous being broke as hell while having delusion of grandeur and a city-state that became a major trading hub.
>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?
Lots and lots of arts and crafts, with masterfully crafted precious metal items being the most prominent. Red gem-like growth from blood spilled by the forsaken would also make some interesting but deadly things.

>>49822155
Well I'm that guy and honestly anon was right, they simply didn't see the lesser beings they created as the same thing as them. It wasn't anything overtly malicious on their part

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How does this map look? Good? Like shit?

I'm not great at things like climate and meteorology. Is there anything really glaringly stupid that I need to fix?

>>49825991
It's not bad, though the tectonics of this world certainly seem interesting. You've got most of it down, I like the way the giant deserts set up between mountain ranges it makes good sense.

But tell use anon, what populates this settin?

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>>49826017
Well, there are basically four sapient races on the planet. Two of them are native, two of them aren't.

Of the native beings, the first are these sort of bird-like things that mostly live in the South and East. Egg-laying omnivores, sort of akin to a cross between a terror bird and a monkey, on average about 4-5 feet long from beak to tail. They originated in the far south, being relatives to the wyverns of the Jakhan Mountains and the great raptorlike predators of the desert. They have spoken languages like humans (most of their languages have weird phonology; lots of clicks and glottal stops, and some of them use whistles), and, though definitely non-human in their way of thinking, they and humans are actually potentially capable of comprehending and understanding each other. Pic related is an old pic I put together in GIMP.

We'll call them Dawakhoids, or Ts'a'a, since that's the name of the culture of theirs that I have most fleshed out.

The second are mysterious sea-dwelling beings. I would call them merfolk, but that implies something much too human. Picture big things, 10-15 feet on average, with rubbery, grey-white skin, black eyes, wedge-shaped heads with no necks, beak-like mouths surrounded by tentacles, and vaguely fish-like (or perhaps lobster-like) bodies, on each side of them rows of four tentacles connected with membranous fins, and a pair of longer "arms" akin to pedipalps under the base of their wedge-shaped head, topped with a three-clawed "hands". They communicate through electroreception, with an electric organ at the tip of their heads. They are obviously completely incapable of verbal speech and in fact the concept is alien to them, and are obviously completely unknowable to humans.

Cont.

>>49822284
>>49822768
Oh, almost forgot.
>What would go through the mind of someone from that civilization's zenith if they suddenly found themselves in your setting's current time?

Probably a mix of anger and confusion. They'd consider the Hillfolk to be abominations and probably be angered by their contemporaries inability to not take back the Dwarf homes and reestablish their hegemony
>What things would be familiar to them?
Almost nothing, the land has been altered so much since that time. Their former homes are now Dens of Horror for all sorts of monstrous creatures.
>What would be alien? How do they feel about their civilization's legacy?
See above, they would lament how their leaders had betrayed them and what they did to their people. They'd feel pride, but also immense shame and depression as they come to realize they will never attain their former gloryagain.

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how many sentient species are in your setting? Are they protected by gods or is there a non-magical reason one group didn't extinctify the others?

Also r8 my script

>>49826332
Humans arrived later, possibly. I'm not exactly sure of how or when humans ended up here, but then again neither are any humans.

During this era, most human populations are clustered along the Sea of Ghosts and the Rift Sea. Mostly it's small bronze-age civilizations along the coast between the two continents, with more primitive stone-using peoples further inland - save for around the Yevean Sea, which actually has a few reasonably large, reasonably developed small bronze-age farming kingdoms. In the south, around that mountain next to the lake on the right side of the big peninsula/subcontinent east of the Rift Sea, a fair developed chiefdom or proto-kingdom, that the Ïmk'ïte Ikhu, or the Obsidian People. However, by far the dominant civilization is a strange theocratic empire centered on the island of Akewan - the larger and further west of the islands west of the Ushaurian Coast, ruled by a cult created by beings from the stars.

These star beings, called the Heavenly Ones by the Akewhawi and the Star Demons by their many enemies, are mystical, vampiric beings, very bizarre in appearance. Bulky bodies and awkward, tentacle-like arms topped with starfish-like "hands", membranous vestigial "wings" connecting their bodies and "arms". Long necks with heads vaguely reminiscent of flowers with writhing, phallic tentacle stamens, and black eyes on their petals. Fat, wedge-shaped tails. Strange, small, clawed feet.

They are utterly alien to Ebaea (the world), and are actually stranded. The environment is actually extremely harsh to them; they require a great deal of a certain type of mystical life-force that is carried in small amounts on the winds and in the sea, and in the blood of every living thing - it's actually what souls are made of. They have strange, powerful magic, and used this to set themselves up as gods over the primitive islanders they first encountered, as humans are not naturally capable of using magic.

>>49826397
>Sentient

>>49826397
10/10 script. Does it mean anything?

In a setting I'm throwing around, most races are either newcomers to the planet, or the geography delayed contact until the differing societies had outgrown "genocide before anything else" as a political tactic.

>>49826977
oops
>>49827031
it's a currency conversion
>four grains to a pin, three pins to a thorn, five thorns to a bloom

>>49827031
I'm trying roughly the same; the !new world has monkeyfolk that fill most of the 'short race' niches.
I'm not sure if i should have them know about each other beforehand, and make the ocean small enough to have maybe the occasional leif erikson voyage but too large to make war/trade viable

Does anyone have a good info on medieval weights and measures? How precise they were? How little amount can be used reliably in medieval fantasy?

>>49826518
>Anonymous
I like it especially the Star gods, really interesting how. They have to struggle to survive on a world that's hostile to them.

>>49827171
They where highly precise and accurate.
Money is serious stuff even in a bartering society

>>49821370
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting? If not, what is the state of Civilization at the moment?
The most prominent is the first human kingdom: Krigm'ythiu

>If so, what were they like? Warlike expansionists? Peaceful, enlightened uplifters?
Peaceful expansionists. After the unification of the four realms, M'ythiu wished to unify all the scattered human tribes into one great kingdom which would encompass the world. After his death, his wish lived on in his heir. But after M'ythiu's brother, Th'ydiu, seized power, the kingdom continued with a warlike philosophy.

>What happened to this civilization? Destroyed by war? Environment? Extraplanar fuckery? Was there a plague? Did their fall happen all at once or slowly over thousands of years?
Krigm'ythiu lasted about 30 year, while Krigth'ydiu still lives on today under the Thidium Empire, although far from it's original location. Krigm'ythiu fell as a result of political uprisings and weak rulership.


>What did they leave behind? Architecture? Weapons? Magic? Successors?
Ruined Achitecture and some bloodlines which live on today. Also in those days weaker-magics was popular, so advanced magical research can be rediscovered by visiting.

>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?
Advanced techinques to creat stronger and more creative spells.

>What would go through the mind of someone from that civilization's zenith if they suddenly found themselves in your setting's current time? What things would be familiar to them? What would be alien? How do they feel about their civilization's legacy?
Only magic would be familiar to them. Their language has dissapeared, and culture has changed. Everything else would seem so alien to them.

>>49827171
weights were precise, but non-standard. a pound might mean one thing in village A, less in B, and something else when guaranteed by the capital

>>49827173
Thanks.

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What would a world without goats be like?

I know most tribes use rivers and mountains as borders, but what about forests?

My confusion stems from how world building guides say certain areas of continents should be forest if a certain amount of precipitation reaches it

What stops things from being unbroken forest then?

How do you get the forest of X and the woods of Y if it should all be covered in trees? It's not like Bronze Age people can cut down huge swathes of it beyond regrowth ability

>>49828117
>How do you get the forest of X and the woods of Y if it should all be covered in trees?
Living in New England, everything "is" one giant forest. It's only broken up by deforested farmland , bodies of water, and human infrastructure.
90% of the time fantasy settings are copying medieval Europe, with a great deal of land reclamation.

>>49828117
forests are more easily traversed than mountains, are easier to effect than rivers, and are usually more valuable as a part of your territory than a demarcation of its extent.

Unless you have elves or whatever that kill men who go into the forests

>>49828117
>How do you get the forest of X and the woods of Y if it should all be covered in trees?
local names. Village A calls it X, village B calls it Y. Maybe they war over it sometimes

>>49828214
Interdasting

>>49828216
This is what I wondered about

The Romans looked at this forest and said fuck it, too hard

And the Germanic tribes had one hell of a difficult time purging or assimilating the Celts

>>49828413
Damn it all

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercynian_Forest

>>49821370
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting? If not, what is the state of Civilization at the moment?
The original elven civilization. The former biggest human empire might also count, but they're not really fallen per say, just ended up losing pretty much all the land they had conquered. They're still around, just no longer a hegemony.

>If so, what were they like?
They mostly stuck to themselves, ruling most of their home continent and with no particular need to expand themselves to other continents. They had cordial relationship with the dwarves who lived nearby, but didn't really interact with them either.

>What happened to this civilization?
Extradiomensional fuckery due to trying to generate unlimited power by drawing magical energy directly from its source outside the bounds of reality. Short story, they ended up poking an Elder God and it poked back.

>What did they leave behind?
Most of their weapons and magic was (thankfully) lost, although high elves keep some under lock and key. High elves are probably their closest living equivalent culturally, but very few in numbers. Dark elves are their direct descendants, but their culture is completely different.
>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find?
Lots of magical devices that probably don't work anymore, as their power source no longer exists. Likely some still functioning artefacts, and if they're lucky, surviving writings. Those would be potentially the most valuable, as they might contain insights into nature of magic nobody else has discovered.

>What would go through the mind of someone from that civilization's zenith if they suddenly found themselves in your setting's current time?
If they ended up in their former homeland the primary though would probably be something along "Holy shit, what the fuck are these idiots doing? And why the fuck is there a huge crater where half of our empire used to be?"

>>49828117
Hey, cool, so you're also doing a bronze-age setting? Feel like dropping any interesting details about it?

>>49827799
It'd be awash in Islamic extremism. A bunch of Middle Eastern males, already sexually pent-up, denied their primary outlet for that testosterone? No bueno.

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I've got a few ideas for OP links:

>https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/
Because it's a great way to learn what not to ever do. Despite which, there's some genuinely okay stuff there.

>the OSR general
Some guy said they were very good at worldbuilding; given their matter, I can believe it.

>historical threads on /tg/ & "inspiration" threads
An excellent source of /tg/ targeted information.

>/his/
A less excellent source of /tg/ plunderable information.

>>49829101
Oh yeah, and /lit/ for books (really just to emphasise that reading shit is a good way to git gud at worldbuilding/writing) and libgen.io if we're 1337 enough.

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>>49829101
>/r/worldbilding
'what not to do' isn't strong enough a phrase

I have this fantasy campaign where the basic premise is that the Houses of the Gods are empty. They're either gone or dead, and the races roam their ruins, wielding their power for their own means. The whole thing is coloured with Hindu, Buddhist, and Vodoun mythology.

I can't decided if long distance travel between worlds and realms.

If it's done in a Spelljammer kind of way with fantasy ships going from system to system. If I go this route I think a large inspiration would be Star Wars, namely the Hutts and the space they control. Many worlds are ruled by glorified criminal syndicates. Also Warhammer 40k would be a big one with the crystal spheres being the individual systems and the space between being a mix of the Astral Plane and the Warp.

If travel is done in a more Planescape way, with gates and portals, inspiration will more fall on things like Stargate, with incredibly personal and direct travel. It won't have the connotations of space travel or the age of sail like the first option, but a literal road that can be walked from world to world, gate to gate. Worlds and gates being owned by all manner of powers.

Which makes the most sense/sounds the most fun?

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>>49829318
consider giving Kill Six Billion Demons a quick read-through

>>49829399
That is actually a direct inspiration for this campaign. I love that comic.

I didn't want to copy it wholesale though, so that's why i'm undecided if I want gates akin to K6BD or fantasy spaceships.

>>49829494
>k6bd with treasure planet ships
sign me right the fuck up
alternatively, consider The Road Not Taken by Harry Turtledove

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>>49821370
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting?
Oh, yes. Gotta have ruins and shit to explore, plus ancient threats to rise again, after all. Currently, the world is at an early Interbellum tech level, having just borne witness to its first instance of total war.

>If so, what were they like?
Fairly advanced, of course. Enough to have command of gigantic golems with which they built many huge structures. Exactly how advanced is a subject of debate; there's apparently some schizo-tech going on. Even the point of whether they HAD command of titans or WERE titans themselves is contested.

>What happened to this civilization?
Destroyed by the aforementioned golems, in a war of unprecedented scale.

>What did they leave behind?
All manner of mega-structures, plus the scars of their titanomachy. There are numerous sites which obviously were not naturally made, yet whose scale defies human ability. Their legacy is also shared by numerous civilizations on the planet. Similar to how the story of a global flood is shared across many cultures, the story of a war of giants (and giant-slayers) is repeated across the globe.

>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find?
Not a whole lot, actually. There's a reason the legends of the titanomachy are so cataclysmic--all parties agree that it all but sundered the very earth. Just finding remnants of the civilizations of this period is difficult enough; finding anything of value beyond what an archaeologist would consider valuable is a long shot. However, if they were to, say, find one of the ancient golems, it'd be a hell of a boss fight.

>What would go through the mind of someone from that civilization's zenith if they suddenly found themselves in your setting's current time?
They'd probably be amazed at inventions like flying machines and high explosives (like I said, schizo-tech), and would be surprised that those plucky dragons are still around.

Time for some sci-fi for a change
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting? If not, what is the state of Civilization at the moment?
Yes. Discovery of two precursor civilization is what drives main conflict
>If so, what were they like? Warlike expansionists? Peaceful, enlightened uplifters?
Nobody quite sure. Back in a day galaxy was big but the two civilizations were at war
>What happened to this civilization? Destroyed by war? Environment? Extraplanar fuckery? Was there a plague? Did their fall happen all at once or slowly over thousands of years?
They destroyed each other for the most parts
>What did they leave behind? Architecture? Weapons? Magic? Successors?
The first one built megastructures that span entire star systems with technology inside that can manipulate properties of hyperspace. As a result their systems are locked out of FTL travel. One of the major development is that one of their structures finally broke down and system became accesible, but nobody knew it. Second civilization created the final boss - a sentient self-propelling planetoid that's been hollowed out and filled with a giant sentient superorganism hell-bent on eating everything.
>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?
Mostly ruined ringworlds filled with corrosive atmosphere and metallic alloys that are harder than anything. Most of actual technology is either incomprehensible or broken.

>>49829529
That's a great story, and yes probably the height to technology in this world would be flintlock firearms, with them getting more advanced through enchantments rather than complexity.

As for K6BD with space ships. The only difficulty I see me having is a hub city. I don't see a massive hub city for all of the multiverse happening, but smaller locations that are like waystations. Unless maybe there is some sort of hub city possible, something like the Citadel from Mass Effect?

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>>49829629
why not an 'all roads lead to rome' deal?
you can have waystations and long travel times, but most reputable traders will go to the hub before heading to one of the spokes, rather than risk what lies between

>>49829680
That makes sense but i'm having difficulty consolidating it with Spelljammer's Crystal Spheres and the Astral/Warp between them.

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how does your setting deal with the dead?

I'm debating whether or not to mix in some of the more recent proposals, like turning your ash into a grown diamond or using your corpse as the seed for a new tree.
Namely, i think it would be cool as hell to see glittering mausoleums, or a nomad wearing his ancestors.

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>>49829717
that's fair. do what feels right.

>>49829101
>>49829174
>what not to do
I don't use reddit so I've never seen this, what's the problem with /r/worldbuilding?

>>49829753
>this is the sacred forest where we bury our dead
>storm comes through, trees fall
>2spoopy

>>49829753
Since the gods are gone the dead have nowhere to go, so they either fade away into the Aether, get captured by a Fiend, or bound into flesh or clay and made for labour. Certain wealthy and powerful individuals can become more powerful undead, carrying much of their station they had in life., becoming an Undying Lord.

>>49829174
Well, I did say "what not to ever do".
>>49829833
Pic related re: uniqueness - they're obsessed with subverting tropes and being "original"; also xtreme realism mentality; obsessed with geography; general inability to accept that worldbuilding is not the aim of worldbuilding (i.e. don't shove shit in just because you can). That's without mentioning the literal "who's world is the best, and why is it mine?" threads.

But they still have some good people with some good content. I don't want to shit on everything.

>>49829833
my problem with it is always that there's way too much detail on the wrong things, and no reason to care.
Example: >how does your setting deal with sewage?
>the grand z'x'c'tchuib imperium, during its war with godknowswhatistan lost too many men due to disease and implemented the
it goes on.
It's a wank over who has the world with the most trivial detail

>>49829174
Yeah? I get tonnes of upkarma there. Fight me, faggot. God knows this place doesn't jerk me off.

>>49821370
As a chem major fire being one of the four elements triggers me.

I assume i am not the first to come up with this solution.

3 elements Air Earth Water

2 children of the elements: Fire, Frost(Ice)

My Pantheon Has these 5 as the only "Real Gods" with all others being ascended mortals.

>>49829780
Maybe have a large neutral ground city akin to Sigil, but also like the Citadel it's not necessary to go to for travel. If you're passing by it, it makes sense to stop there. It will likely be placed in a high traffic area.

>>49830070
4 elements don't really work unless you decide to abandon every notion of real chemistry. Originally, everyone was supposed to have 4 elements in it in different combinations, like now everything is composed of how many there is now?

If you don't roll with those rules, it's really unclear what things like "air", "fire" and "earth" really are and what aren't. Especially earth. Where does it begin and end?

>>49830070
as a physics major, I always thought about it more in terms of energy.
Firebenders don't shoot fire, they happen to make specific things combust.

>>49830070
One of the five elements*

Also fuck you it's plasma. Spiritually it makes sense, too—You've got earth, the solid basis to the whole world. You've got chaotic water—which also brings life. You've got air, all around you, and then you've got fire, energetic and destructive and tamed by mankind. It's not hard to imagine the soul as fire.

And then you've got obligatory aether.

>>49830119
>Firebenders don't shoot fire
Yeah, if we are talking about Avatar, you can see that shit like lightning and lasers are considered an outgrowth of firebending.

>>49830070
>>49830119
This is autism.

>>49830134
Basically everyhting is comprised of the combination of the 5 elements, and medicine deals with the balance of these elements in the body.

>>49821370
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting? If not, what is the state of Civilization at the moment?
Yes, there is one ancient fallen civilization.

>If so, what were they like? Warlike expansionists? Peaceful, enlightened uplifters?
Peaceful isolationists after it was foreseen that one of their uplifted civilizations would become imperialists.

>What happened to this civilization? Destroyed by war? Environment? Extraplanar fuckery? Was there a plague? Did their fall happen all at once or slowly over thousands of years?
The King of Dragons threatened to destroy the world, so they wrapped their entire country around him, forming a new moon above the planet (the people still live on the inside of the sphere).

>What did they leave behind? Architecture? Weapons? Magic? Successors?
Most of the architecture was taken with them into the new moon, but there are some ruins scattered about. They left highly advanced magical knowledge with their two uplifted civilizations, but the rest of the continent has caught up to various degrees. Both of these civilizations qualify as their successors, though in different ways.

>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?
They would find powerful crystals that still give life to advanced magitek complexes hidden underground, full of experiments that have run amok. Stealing these crystals would be the most lucrative loot in the world, but most just come back with smaller magitek wonders. The continent is in the grips of an industrial revolution and many nations are interested in replicating magitek without the magic.

>>49830109
>If you don't roll with those rules, it's really unclear what things like "air", "fire" and "earth" really are and what aren't. Especially earth. Where does it begin and end?

Air Gas Phase
Earth Solid Phase
Water Liquid Phase

Fire vaporizing boiling sublimating
Frost Freezing condensing

>>49830266
>Earth Solid Phase
That's some unorthodox take. So water vapour is air and ice is earth while lava and liquid nitrogen are water?

>>49830289
joint domains
overlaps in the venn diagram of the elements

>>49827188
Correction. They TRIED to be very precise and accurate within their allotted area. The different trade hubs had difficulty coordinating their weights together based on the difficulty of travel and distance.

The whole passed along problem with words also had difficulty with weights.

Can anyone suggest an atmosphere chemical composition or generally hostile element a planets atmosphere might have that would be hostile to regular earth life but still could possibly sustain a similar kind of life.

I ask as I'd like people on the planet to have to use breathing apparatus to operate in but it still have flora and fauna but stuff a bit more diverse than Avatar's Pandora

At the moment I'm thinking something like carbon monoxide or cyanide but I don't know enough chemistry/biology to suggest something reasonable.

(I could fumble the science but I'd like to make up a semi-plausible reason as to why its not a dead planet but humans can barely breathe on it)

>>49830562
Humans are pretty picky, so anything probably goes. Too much or too litle of anything and you are done for.

Anaerobic respiration seems to be less effective, but I'm not sure. It never had a chance to flourish into plants and animals.

>>49830562
>Can anyone suggest an atmosphere chemical composition or generally hostile element a planets atmosphere might have that would be hostile to regular earth life but still could possibly sustain a similar kind of life.
>I ask as I'd like people on the planet to have to use breathing apparatus to operate in but it still have flora and fauna but stuff a bit more diverse than Avatar's Pandora
>At the moment I'm thinking something like carbon monoxide or cyanide but I don't know enough chemistry/biology to suggest something reasonable.
>(I could fumble the science but I'd like to make up a semi-plausible reason as to why its not a dead planet but humans can barely breathe on it)

you dont need a new part of the atmo. Just fudge with the ratios

Human lungs are designed with an assumtion on how much oxygen is in the atmosphere.

earth is about. nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%)

Now you could just lower the oxygen content and increase the CO2 content (saying that the plant to animal ratio is much more weighted to the plant side)

Or even more simple just change the pressure at "sea level" so that the air is much thinner and basic such that walking around is the same as if you were walking around on the top of everest

you could even make it so gentically modified humans with bigger lungs can breathe fine(or just a bit better)

>>49821370
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting?
Yes, there are a few, but the greatest rose to prominence roughly one thousand years ago through what could generally be called an irresponsible approach to blood magic

>If so, what were they like?
They were generally expansionist theocrats with a thirst for sacrifice and growing their considerable sorcerers power. But on the other hand, they were deeply invested in poetry, public works, and the advancement of the arts.

>What happened to this civilization?
The empire ended abruptly after it pushed the only culture that could stand against them, the Grand Tyranny of Dragons, to the brink. The empire made it clear that there would be no acceptance of surrender on equal terms, and that their foes were to be utterly enslaved. This ultimatum pushed the dragons over the edge, and responded by dragging a passing comet out of its orbit and dropping it on the capital. This action had some unforeseen consequences.

>What did they leave behind? Architecture? Weapons? Magic? Successors?
Architecture is still around, a a lot of old structures exist in more outlying territories, and in the resulting destruction of the starfall. Magic and weapons are everywhere, but generally unreachable, until the last twenty years. Successor states, however, are everywhere, and much of the south claims heritage in one way or another.

>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find?
Wealth beyond measure in precious metals and art and resources. However, much of their weaponry and magic is hopelessly primitive compared to modern day, and have barely a chance of penetrating current wards.

Of course, the real danger is lingering death curses, golems, traps, and wild magic creations that linger in the more lucrative ruins

>>49830562
too much oxygen would do it, too. It would also allow the locals to grow to megafauna.

>>49830874
Would it actually mean more wildfires or not?

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I made an outline of a map with coffee stains. Does it look okay thus far or does it look entirely too uniform?

>>49830906
I think it's OK, although placing each continent in its own quadrant seems artificial. Move them around a bit.

>>49826518
this is good and cool, particularly the alien gods. any more you can post?

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>>49830897
not necessarily. If you shove more oxygen into the air and then up the temperature and/or pressure just a little you can get higher water saturation, thus you can have highly varied megalife, hard to maintain fires, and also subject unprotected earthers to oxygen poisoning.

>>49827199
what do the apostrophes signify in the names?

>>49831045
The part where speaker winced from tongue trauma.

>>49828117
>>49828231
as an example, the battle of tannenberg/grunwald has three different names because of this (i forget the third name)

>>49829174
>>49829833
it's just so milquetoast and prudish and generally insufferable

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>>49831045

>>49831010
Interesting; could this also mean people would have to live in sealed environments due to the increased pressure?

With megafauna/flora is it restricted to the jungle/deathworld kind of thing or might it also change other types of environments? Might it make seasonal weathers more or less pronounced?

>>49821370
>Are there ancient fallen civilizations
Yes. Several, in fact, most of them pretty horrible.
>What were they like
In reverse chronological order: the Atlanteans (better name pending) were the setting's Rome-equivalent, with all that implies, before their homeland was sunk. Uruk before them was the first real human civilization, and it fell with the Tower of Babel. Before them there was a pair of nonhuman empires, extraplanar/extraterrestrial colonists, which destroyed each other.
>What did they leave behind?
The not-Romans left behind a language group, a calendar, and knowledge of plumbing. Babel left behind the city-states of Uruk, who still maintain secret knowledge hidden behind complex mystery cults. The nonhuman empires left behind a few hundred survivors each, which still have enough power to change the face of the planet.
>Adventurers
The ruins of the Drowned Kingdom are either underwater or long since comprehensively looted. Dives would find magical objects and precious metals- everything else would long since have decayed. Most valuable would likely be any surviving spellbooks or high-power magic items. Babel's ruins still stand, and are larger on the inside; most valuable would be the knowledge of its architecture and samples of the occasional extraplanar thing that leaks through its walls. The ruins of what are now Nyarlat and Carcosa hold treasures beyond compare. The most valuable thing that could be recovered is, again, knowledge; all of time and space could be opened up. However, their old masters do not take kindly to looters, and have left guardians.
(cont.)

here's an idea for a location in a space setting.

A small solar system with one star, three to five planets with hardly any size variance, and a single moon. the planets orbit the sun in a fairly uniform fashion. what makes this solar system unique is the fact that the moon is shared between all of the planets, orbiting one for about a single solar day or maybe even a week and then essentially gets slingshot to the next planet and the process repeats.

This travelling moon is used as a central trade hub and basically a giant freighter since it goes from planet to planet on a regular schedule. It could also be used as a tourist trap/pseudo cruise vacation spot.

Some options for fluff would be that the inhabitants don't have FTL capabilities and using the moon is just way more efficient than spending fuel to go from planet to planet. It could also be a non-natural occurance. Like the inhabitants were originally on one planet, with the moon in a stable orbit, but some scientists thought of a way to knock the moon out of its single planet orbit and into this crazy multi-planet orbit, which they used to colonize their system.

This is just something I came up with earlier in the day and thought it was good enough to share. I'm not a GM or anything, so if you like the concept feel free to use it how you please.

>>49831415
>Hard Mode
A not-Roman would find most of the basic forms of life familiar, but be horrified at the fall of the Empire. Someone from Babel would find Uruk a horrifying parody and reduction of what once was, and swear undying vengeance upon whoever brought Babel down. A being from Nyarlat or Carcosa would be utterly unsurprised, for the same reasons someone from 1962 would be unsurprised to be transported to a nuclear wasteland and told it was the year 2000. They would likely attempt to assist in their race's rebuilding efforts.
>Dante Must Die
Both the not-Roman and the Babelite would be horrified at such desecration of a corpse, and try to get it properly buried. Neither extraterrestrial race actually have mothers, but both would attempt to annihilate the offending civilization. Not for any sentimental purpose, but because the lesser races might learn something actually dangerous if given time to study one of their corpses.

>>49831182
In my experience, people who use the term "generally insufferable" are generally insufferable.

I've no idea how /r/worlbuilding is milquetoast.

>>49831492
>A small solar system with one star, three to five planets with hardly any size variance, and a single moon. the planets orbit the sun in a fairly uniform fashion. what makes this solar system unique is the fact that the moon is shared between all of the planets, orbiting one for about a single solar day or maybe even a week and then essentially gets slingshot to the next planet and the process repeats.
I'm confused. Care to draw a diagram?

Also, one solar day seems too short for any interplanetary travel on gravity alone.

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>>49830981
Does this look adequately better?

>>49831601
at work right now, so can't draw anything, but think of it as the planets are in a close knit orbit of the sun all going in the same direction and the moon circles one for a short while and then moves on to the next. Like planet A is at 1 o'clock, B at 4 o'clock, C at 7 o'clock, and D at 10 o'clock.

>one day seems a little short for between planets
I meant that the moon stays at a planet for a day or maybe as long as a week or two. Travel time between planets could be like a month or two. Nothing's set in stone here though, it's open to be changed or interpreted as you see fit.

>>49828626
Yes and no

I'm building a back history for my main setting and fell in love with the ancient era too

The main chunk of the setting is a blend of modern, early modern, and late medieval

"Ancient times" is a pseudo-mythical blend of stone, bronze, and iron age aspects

In this age long gone magic is largely the art of invoking and controlling spirits through the scientific application of various formulas. The 2 other arts are alchemy and astrology.

A wizard wearing sanctified clothing and wielding a staff or wand inscribed with occult symbols could by speech and symbolic gestures control the unseen beings.

Several schools of magic have perverted magic the art and use it for dark purposes. These schools flourished in a mighty empire now in decline but determined to maintain its hegemony

A new empire has emerged to the west among people once considered mere barbarians. Science and magic flourish here, and glorious monuments are erected.

Over time foreign sorcerers infiltrated and seized control, turning the emperor into a puppet and building an inheritable caste of priests resembling the IRL Brahmins & Druids.

Magic was banned except for priests and the rare handpicked initiate. The priests introduced idol worship which the commoners begin to genuinely worship as a means of retarding their spiritual and magical development.

Fortunately, true wizards were able to flee with their books of knowledge in the 4 directions.

The universe has an equal counterpart. The 7 upper planes are the abode of beautiful and righteous spirits, and the 5 lower planes are home to evil spirits under the leadership of the BBEG and his 4 princes and princesses.

As a general rule good spirits only help mortal sorcerers if the cause is righteous, evil spirits seek to pervert and destroy things.

(Cont.)

>>49831398
again, not necessarily. Newcomers might want pressurized habs, but people who live there for a while would be able to acclimate to just wearing a gas mask.
Or you can do whatever you want

>>49831559
how about this, why is /r/worldbuilding worth defending?

>>49832223
>I'm building a back history for my main setting and fell in love with the ancient era too
Wow, same here actually. I was mainly working on a much later era, but then I started working on the Age of the Star Demons and I just fell in love.

>>49831004
Thanks. And sure, I'll talk a bit more about the Heavenly Ones/Star Demons.

First off, some extra details. Their coming was heralded by a red star streaking across the sky. The Ts'a'a obviously have never encountered them and most likely no Dawakhoid will ever even see a Star Demon, but the stories of the Ts'a'a speak of this red star appearing once every shèèláá (about 700 years), always heralding a dire omen; sometimes good, sometimes apocalyptic, but always something of dire importance.

Now, as I mentioned, they essentially are forced to feed on mystical life-force, called ūrim in the Akewha language (called Lam-Iwa, or "Correct Speech"). The Heavenly Ones demand frequent human sacrifice, feeding on life-force gotten from the blood of sacrificial victims to make up for their lack. However, even this is still just not enough. Early on, they had no leadership as their main goal was survival. But of course, over time, the pod - they reproduce with egg-sacs reminiscent of pods, and a pod is sort of analogous to a family unit - of the one that first made contact with humans has become the absolute leader, and the only one who gets enough sustenance.

Cont.

>>49832437
Also, the Heavenly Ones cannot communicate verbally, and instead communicate telepathically. Normally, they communicate by transferring sounds, visions, feelings, sensations, etc. directly to others' minds. However, those who spend time around humans have fallen into the habit of thinking/communicating in the language of said humans - namely, Lam Iwa; more specifically, the Piziri dialect, which has become the official, "proper" dialect of the Star Cult. As they have no native "language", their naming customs are weird. Traditionally, their "names" are feelings, visions, senses, etc. transferred by thought. But now that they've fallen into the habit of thinking in Lam-Iwa, they essentially convey their unspoken names in human language, resulting in names like Iwab Wagwa (literally meaning "Flowery Heartbeat").

I could also drop some minor deets about the Akewhawi Empire if you want.

>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting?

Only elven and fomorian.

>If so, what were they like?

Elves were a decadent magocracy that abused magic.

Fomorian were a warlike empire that ruled all giants and was just a tribal confederation ruled by fear, sacrifice and tribute. The ruins are huge though

>What happened to this civilization? Destroyed by war? Environment? Extraplanar fuckery? Was there a plague? Did their fall happen all at once or slowly over thousands of years?

Fomorian were cursed while in a war with the first elven queen. Then the giants were crushed.

Elves used their skill to navigate dreams to get more and more magic until they woke five dragon-like nightmares that crossed the dream realm and anihilited the elven empire.


>What did they leave behind?

Elves mostly magic and weapons, their isle was sunken in the ocean. The legacy of their mad sorcerers is the basis of arcane magic.

The fomorian architecture is so huge their kingdoms go from the tip of a mountain to their valleys. The secret to keep fairies, genies and other beings in magic items lays in their civilization too.

>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?

Probably the sunken island of the Hybelia (elven cizilitation capital) because the jewels, magic items and probably the secret to make more elemental golem slaves.

Hard Mode
>What would go through the mind of someone from that civilization's zenith if they suddenly found themselves in your setting's current time? What things would be familiar to them? What would be alien? How do they feel about their civilization's legacy?

Many elves still remember the end of their empire. Everything is more primitive and all the infrastructure they built is gone, so like going from Renaissance to High Middle Age.

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what is going on and who lives in the top left section lands of the map.

>>49832364
Well planetwise the first colonists were stuck using their evo suits which evolved into hardsuits over generations. The cultural and technological oddity though is that crawlers and walkers became favoured designs

>>49832223
Good spirits typically depart after being summoned. Evil spirits on the contrary linger for the remainder of the summoner's life. when the summoner dies they are the servant of the demon they summoned. This causes most dark wizards to spend much time attempting to extend their lives or making themselves immortal. Methods range from vampirism to lichdom to attempts at godhood.

The continent can be divided into 3 major ethnolinguistic groups. The Diade inhabited the north. These are a very primitive people, still new to the ways of agriculture, though it's expanded to a reasonable extent. A few have reached the level of tribal kingdoms. The Diade are a swarthy folk with piercing blue eyes and a grim temperament.

On the plains live the various tribes of the Zajarut. They are tall, light haired and light with medium complexions, and the peculiar ability to shapeshift into terrible wolves at the onset of puberty. Their genetic abilities and horse archery skills make them horrifying enemies who not only pillage in their raids but devour anyone foolish enough to fight back. This has led to their foes gaining a dependence on silver for warfare, one of the few things capable of putting one down for good aside from burning and massive blunt force trauma. These frightening people are known for their heroic poetry, devotion to God, expert goldcrafting and their code of hospitality to guests.

The third group are the Henos. Fair skinned and brown eyed farmers. Very industrious and skilled in magic they build cities everywhere they go. Their people split in two, one founding a coastal civilization and the other looking inwards towards the continent and mixing with some Diade.

>>49827199
>>49831045
In that tongue, long and short vowels. If an apostrophe comes before the vowel, it changes it to a long vowel.
M'ythiu would be pronounced:
>My
>The (as in thesis)
>Uh (this becomes an 'a' later).

How do you isolate a civilization in a non-bullshit manner? I have a late 18th/early 19th century civ with a focus on naval power and I can't come up with a good reason why nobody's encountered them and/or they haven't run roughshod over the world conquering everything.

>>49833512
Logistics maybe? Like one side of the world is very far away from the other, with no islands in between to establish waypoints?

Or maybe they're so tied up fighting amongst themselves they never bothered with anybody else, like China

>>49833512
you could use galleys. up until the europoors made their big fancy ocean ships that was the main naval technique pretty much anywhere.
it's worth noting that aforementioned euroboats encountered a lot of galleys in the places they peacefully contacted

>>49833512
Yeah that does seem really weird that they'd have that level of technology -- especially naval technology -- while being isolated and unknown to the rest of the world.

Is there any reason necessarily for them to need to be isolated?

>>49833617
The rest if the world is more or less standard fantasy. Mental picture was magicless Napoleonics vs technologically inferior magic users.

>>49833685
Maybe they're stuck in some sort of magical warp or magical storm. Maybe they're on a continent (probably a small one, like the size of Australia, or maybe something like if China were surrounded by ocean) that is surrounded by some sort of anti-magic storm. Maybe there were originally numerous peoples, but they've all been absorbed by a single great empire.

>>49833512
>cluster of giant islands
>several small island chains
>entire thing is a long ass distance from anywhere else
>Local belief is that the rest of the ocean is empty and therefore not worth exploring.

So even if someone does decide to go exploring, the logistics make it really hard to follow up on the opportunity.

>>49831559
i agree with everything here >>49829887

the majority of what gets posted there is bland unfi ished maps

any time there is a post with any adult material the general reaction is shock

the last post there i remember getting upvoted highly there was a (well done) drawing of variant elves and dwarfs - elf was a skeletal alien thing and dwarf was a furry animal creature. the subreddit went nuts over this and thought it was the height of worldbuilding. it's the kind of stuff that gets mocked elsewhere regularly

i've been subscribed to it for a couple years at this point and never seen a really insightful or valuable discussion there. it's even more insular and detached than /wbg/ but with none of the spice or fun you get from these threads

it's not offensively bad at all - just boring and dry. that's why i called it milquetoast

>>49833986
oops meant to say i agree with everything here >>49829912

>>49833362
why not use a diacritical mark?

>>49832798
If there's trade with the unmaped land to the east and in general sea traffic in that general direction, be sure that top left is famous for being a hive of pirates.

>>49821370
Anyone here ever do the collaborative thing? With folks here or elsewhere? Did you end up actually playing the thing, and if so how did it turn out?

>>49834476
In the middle of a collab effort with my group. We're actually building the world around us as we play.

>>49834102
I would, but I'm terrible with remembering which ones to use.

>>49834804
What's the core gist of the mechanics?
What sort of timescale are you working with?

I have a world that's essentially like Dark Sun except underwater. There was this massive apocalyptic event that caused the water levels to rise to cover 99% of the world. All that's left of the societies before is ruins and cities magically preserved underwater and ruled by mages that keep the water at bay, like bubble cities.

Whatever land there is, is ruled over by savage peoples that need it to survive like Lizardmen.

My problem is with Humans. I want to have them in the game, but I can't think of a way to have them be able to go around underwater freely.

>>49835060
Pathfinder. What basically happens is we each have the ability to create facts regarding spheres our characters are connected to, as long as it doesn't directly benefit us. We currently have two religions, one that used to dominate the others, an ancient empire ( >>49822768 ), multiple regions (our current one is filled with city states and used to be/is a hotbed of heresy according to the state religion of the fallen empire), and various little details. But hey, we've barely hit 3 sessions, give us time.

>>49829570
How exactly does one go about wiping out an entire galaxy full of advanced worlds and their populations?

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I like the idea of a traditional fantasy world suddenly hitting the industrial period, so I'm fiddling with the idea of a setting that takes ques, motifs, and styles from the late 17th through early 19th century. Global warfare, soul-crushing industrialization, revolution, religion, etc. Plate armored knights fighting vainly against the rising tide of rifled muskets and automated war golems, tricorn hats, militarism and republicanism. All that good shit.

Trouble is races. I don't want to just grab the standard lot, but I don't want to go full snowflake mode. I had a rough idea of an Aberrant Empire at the dawn of time being replaced by the current civilizations, so I have an idea to introduce more strange, alien, even monstrous races alongside Humans.

So outside of Gith, Orcs, maybe Goblins and some sort of Half-Flayer, what sort of underused races would sound like fun for this sort of world?

>>49835154
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_5F1zYQF5M

>>49836343
Lichatron

>>49833747
Storm got me thinking...if that area of the water had a LOT of underwater volcanic activity, raising the temperature of the water there, could it be feasible to have a permanent hypercane?

>>49836762
Mecha-Mummra!

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>>49821370
>>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting? If not, what is the state of Civilization at the moment?
Yeah, kinda. The kingdom of Crematos was the first kingdom in the region to succumb to undeath, although it was the second youngest ironically.
>>If so, what were they like? Warlike expansionists? Peaceful, enlightened uplifters?
They were a normal monarchy like everyone else at the time. Except those fucking Astartans and their weird democracy things.

>>What happened to this civilization? Destroyed by war? Environment? Extraplanar fuckery? Was there a plague? Did their fall happen all at once or slowly over thousands of years?
It got destroyed by undead and the local evil empire.
>>What did they leave behind? Architecture? Weapons? Magic? Successors?
Zombies.
>>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?
Zombies.

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>>49836576
>So outside of Gith, Orcs, maybe Goblins and some sort of Half-Flayer, what sort of underused races would sound like fun for this sort of world?
Elephant seal pirate people.

Imagine like an ogre, but with an elephant seal head. It'd be cool as fuck.

>>49821370
There was a continent spanning seminomadic culture, which left few permanent fixtures. There are only two major signs left of them:
grave sites, which are small mounds with trees planted on them.
and previously existing firepits, used for cooking and warmth in their yurts.
unbeknownst to almost everyone, the tree-mounds have benjamin button thing going on: they were magically created as mighty, aged trees, and have been shrinking over centuries.
in 200 years, the oldest will be saplings again.

>>49821370
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting?
At least two, one Aztec-ish one in the far north-east. It was pretty seperate from the rest of the world, but they had pretty advanced tech/magic and worked alongside Titans, godlike precursors to Giants/Ogres. Eventually they all just up and vanished, leaving their sprawling stone metropolises eerily empty and the arctic snows washed over the walls. I haven't actually decided yet what specifically caused their disappearance, they were fairly isolationist, but did some trading with some tribes from my oriental-ripoff subcontinent. Only recently have those tribes/city-states begun to coalesce into a greater civilization, but with it they have launched themselves into a relatively high-tech state compared to the rest of the world, I have the area themed as proto-steampunk; big ironwork structures in the larger cities, prototype airships, strange inventions, etc.
The other fallen civilization was a huge elven nation with advanced magics and culture. The entire nation and more is now desert, the one-man Wizard illuminati summoned a fragment of the sun right into the middle of their capitol, and that literally vaporized massive swathes of land. He then painted it as an accident caused by the elf magicians, calling for stricter governing of magicians and witch hunts on elves, a whole race war to boot. That was a few hundred years ago so the overlying tones of human-elf conflict have mostly worn off and are just background for underlying tensions.
>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find?
For the latter, sand, sand, sand, and more sand, but countless archeologists and would be elven reclaimers have been trying to delve into that desert and recover hints of the civilization for over a century.
The former nation would be really cool, but the whole place has been overrun by arctic orcs.

>>49837323
Sounds intriguing. Tell me more.

>>49821370
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting?
The Underworld, a massive system of caves, tunnels and underground rivers where the Drow lived for centuries, most of it was natural formations but some sections were made by the Drow as the population grew.

>If so, what were they like?
They hate the surface and generally hate all those who live on it, they see themselves as the superior race and constantly raided settlements and small towns at night, digging close to them and attacking at the right momment. The Underworld also served as a hiding place for crimminals and other vermin, a heaven for illegal stuff if you knew how to move around it and make the right friends. At first the world through that the Underworld was just an oversized bandit camp, but as the Drow grew in numbers, became more organized and the place started to turn into some kind of nation some finally saw it as growing threat.

>What happened to this civilization?
The elves, humans and dwarfs came together and decided to put an end to the Underworld. They sent their armies down the tunnels with the mission of killing everything they could find inside the caves. After two years of constant raids the Underworld became a shadow of its former self and the Drow "nation" collapsed after tens of thousands of its citizens were killed.

>What did they leave behind?
The Underworld still exists, but now its mostly empty and filled with animals and monsters instead of crimminals and Drow. Some parts of it still have small Drow communities but nothing big, other sections have been conquered by the Dwarfs and other chunks by the Mechanoids. Some crimminals still use it as a hideout but it is way more dangerous and wild now.

>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find?
Monsters, lots of spiders, bandit camps, witch and necromancer covens, cultist, bazaars were people buy/sell illegal stuff, Drow villages.

Might a little late to the party here, hopefully somebody reads this and is entertained/inspired.

>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting?
Yes! The northern realms were once ruled over by a rare breed of humans who had VERY potent control of magical forces, enough so that they crafted pillars of special materials to permanently alter the magical forces for almost half of the main continent. For great benefit of course.

>If so, what were they like?
They sought the advancement of magic above all else, even if it meant committing terrible acts, this is what eventually led to their downfall.

>What happened to this civilization?
The specific event that destroyed them was a single spell. Pushed through their altered magic network, it should have enhanced their entire race, imbuing them all with "immortality", it backfired, they lived forever, in an instant, and were destroyed.

>What did they leave behind?
They left behind their altered magic network, now abused by the civilization that has settled in those lands.

>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?
Old spellbooks and research notes mostly, anything that survived would be incredibly valuable. Lost magics surely exist within their ruined cities somewhere.

>What would go through the mind of someone from that civilization's zenith if they suddenly found themselves in your setting's current time?
The magic network is basically the same, they might seek to abuse it once more, and would likely ally themselves with the current ruling body, sharing knowledge for power.

>The time traveler finds their mother's corpse in a museum, mislabeled. How do they react?
They'd be insulted. Surely their great legacy left more of a mark than this.

Ancient race was a bunch of assholes...
Anyone has any questions..?

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>>49831835

It's still somewhat at right angles. Part of that may be due to the smaller canvas side requiring you keep everything in a neat and tidy box.

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>>49839201

Both are five second jobs, but I think avoiding right-angles can be solved by expanding the canvas so as to allow for an irregular continental shelf outline.

>>49821370
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting? If not, what is the state of Civilization at the moment?

The entire world is composed of a jigsaw of fallen worlds and civilizations.

>If so, what were they like? Warlike expansionists? Peaceful, enlightened uplifters?

All of the above, they just had to survive the Convergence.
>What happened to this civilization? Destroyed by war? Environment? Extraplanar fuckery? Was there a plague?

The true cause was causing an imbalance by embracing and ascending to one of the six elements. This caused the catastrophic multi-dimensional collapse known as the Convergence. That they embraced one of the elements let them survive the event.

>Did their fall happen all at once or slowly over thousands of years?

Instantly, and it seemed it has also always been this way, and time and space merged into a single possibility from the collapse.

>What did they leave behind? Architecture? Weapons? Magic? Successors?

All of the above, including false gods.

>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?

One possibility is the unfinished head of a technological god-king built by a civilization that embraced Earth, that is sought after by a false god of Law that ascended to Mind to incarnate into an avatar of his power.

>What would go through the mind of someone from that civilization's zenith if they suddenly found themselves in your setting's current time? What things would be familiar to them? What would be alien? How do they feel about their civilization's legacy?

They would recognize ruins, some names, broken pieces of language, echoes of technology and magic they developed. Alien things would be the pieces, remnants, and peoples of other ascended civilizations. One question: "What have we done?!"

>>49839201
>>49839211
Have you considered glueing yellow spots together, like Europe and Africa?

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Oh, shit, I haven't seen a world building general in a while.

Here, have this little picture/doodled I did up of how Demons, Devils & HELL in general work within the setting I'ma cookin' up.

>>49829753
In the north lands, where they take the threat seriously, all corpses are cremated and scattered so they cannot be used to create (or become) undead.

In the south lands this is less strictly enforced, due to religious reasons corpses are buried, cremation is seen as an affront to the mother goddess, as the body cannot return to her if it is burned.

One specific race of sentient hive-mind plant people returns to it's hive cluster upon the approach of death. If the body cannot return to the cluster, it's usually tracked down by other individuals and brought back, but occasionally bodies are lost, nothing you can do sometimes.

>>49839298
I recognize this art style. I think I've seen your tumblr.

>>49833986
>but with none of the spice or fun you get from these threads
Yeah, you barely ever have the thread-long shitflinging competitions I come here for.
>>49839298
So what's with the hotdogs?

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>>49833986
Also, their highest upvoted image was made by us. That's how you know they have no taste.

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>>49839333
>I recognize this art style. I think I've seen your tumblr.

You MAY very well have, but just in case: http://spaghettiart.tumblr.com/ here it is.

>>49839547
>So what's with the hotdogs?

The Hotdogs are also made out of Demons.
They're really good though.

>>49834840
you can invent meanings for them. they already do different things in different languages

>>49839547
some of the most interesting worldbuilding discussions i've seen in thesethreads have been in the mjddle of bitter arguments. there was one a while back about whether the classical earth element is more about plants/soil/agricultural life cycle or whether it was about rocks/mountains. it took up a huge chunk of the thread which was annoying but there were thoughtful points in the middle of the shitflinging and i still think about it occasionally

that said i went back to the subreddit and it wasn't as bad as i remember. it's definitelygood for the occasional high quality post, and if a focus on realistic maps are your thing then it's probably great. i just personally find the discussion there bland and prudish more often than not. this place has its downsides too of course

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>>49839284

That's not my map I was just helping coffee guy but you have a good idea. Coffeeguy, maybe consider merging some of your splotches together.

I'm mildly worried with how many (almost all) of my nations use a in their names. But then again there's a reason they say "Name a country without the letter a" rather than "name a country without the letter e". Surprising then that e and t are more common letters than in words.

I also wanted to avoid having any two supra-national groups (the black text with white border vs white text with black border for smaller sub-nations) sounding too similar as I get a bit close to with the Makhenai, Mazhran and Maharasham. But contextually a Maharashi will rarely be in the same storytelling context as a Makhenai, and one can just deal with makhenai vs mazhrani. Or maybe Mazhri or mazhranian.

Need to redo the political maps in the north-east to have lots of smaller polities though.

Setting is actually two settings in one. We have Earth, 2016, but technology hard-stopped developing in 1985 because magic came back once contact with Hell was reestablished.

Hell is by no means biblical. It's basically a medieval world inhabited by the whole gamut of fantasy races that have been lumped under the title "Demons." Due to contact with Earth, Hell is seeing some weird anachronisms of its own, neon signs on ancient temples, wealthy feudal lords with color TVs and wedge-shaped hot rods.

Yes in Hell, not on Earth.

They were terrifying opportunists, based on the lower power scale of Lovecraftian mythos. They made it into human history books as the legends about gods and angels.

The current races of Demons were all slaves to them. They organized, rose up, and won a battle of attrition against their cruel masters.

They were exterminated. Some of their ruins remain, but they are in crumbling shape. No living race has any love lost for them.

Most humans cannot cast spells on their own, they need a demon to do it for them. The Old Ones were rumored to know the secrets that would allow humans to manipulate magic on their own.

Anything from Earth would be new, if not necessarily interesting. They probably would have infinite disdain for the lesser races for attempting to erase them.

"Those cavemen couldn't kill Mom. Shit, I could barely kill Mom. Bastards stole my credit!"

I have an idea for a a game I would like to run for my playgroup. Set in a mostly historical Mediterranean, players would be working as traders/mercenaries/etc in the employ of a phonecian company.

The question is, what timeframe would be best to set this in? I was thinking about having it during the later reign of Darius, so that players would have a large group of backgrounds to design characters, and many different pies to meddle in once they start accumulating wealth, armies, and reputations.

If this is the wrong place to ask, apologies.

>>49840325
I was (kinda) serious, for the reasons you said.
>>49840570
It's a fine place to ask, though you might also want to ask in the Song of Swords general.

If you're counting Carthage &c., Punic Wars might be interesting, given -- the wars. Smuggling and so on, too.

You might wanna go WAY back, to the Dark Ages -- Homer and sea peoples time.

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>>49838804
They're elephant seal people. That's all I got going. Maybe they, like, have void magic or something?

In a world where the basic needs are almost free, could a labor backed currency work?

I'm trying to flesh out my cyberpunk guild world

>>49821370
>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting? If not, what is the state of Civilization at the moment?

Just your typical Cthullu stuff in Not!Antarctica.

>If so, what were they like? Warlike expansionists? Peaceful, enlightened uplifters?

They were pretty much advanced scientists. Their civilization looks like a mix of 50 pulp sci-fi and The precursors from Jak and Daxter

>What happened to this civilization? Destroyed by war? Environment? Extraplanar fuckery? Was there a plague? Did their fall happen all at once or slowly over thousands of years?

They made contact with some powerful beings beyond the stars. Who were willing to grant them their every wish.

This did not end well.

>What did they leave behind? Architecture? Weapons? Magic? Successors?

Architecture and some tech. It's mostly under the ice though.

>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?

Very advanced weapons. Probably the security systems as well. They'll have a hard time getting through them seeing as the most advanced civilization is just at renaissance level. Oh there's also the former inhabitants.

>>49842330
What else would it be backed by? Ultimately, I mean.

>>49842691
the people who own the yeast farms feeding everyone

>>49842804
Isn't producing yeast labour?

>>49842821
It's almost entirely automated

>>49842839
Still labour, no? They're giving people the product of labour in return for money, which the people themselves got by doing stuff for other people. Right?

>>49829101
>https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/
>I've found an amazing website I'm sure nobody had ever heard of it!
it's fucking donjon
>Shit tons of awful maps made in inkarnate
>scanned notebook pages with elementary school quality drawings
>threads where nobody understands anything about biology, physics, economics, warfare, etc.
>Humans in fantasy settings
>Humans in fantasy settings
>Humans in fantasy settings
>Humans in fantasy settings
>Humans in fantasy settings
>Post apocalypse setting
>Post apocalypse setting
>Post apocalypse setting
>Post apocalypse setting
>Post apocalypse setting

Holy fuck

>>49843111
>threads where nobody understands anything about biology, physics, economics, warfare, etc.
Where? I can't see any right now.

That's surprising, though. They're obsessed with it. There was some faggot trying to make up "biological rules". I just avoid those threads generally, but I assumed they knew what they were doing.

Also, you missed the
>How do I avoid the OFFENSIVE noble savage stereotype?
>How do you handle sexuality in your worldbuilding?

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>>49843161
>How do you handle sexuality in your worldbuilding?

This is distressingly common which is irksome because the answer is so simple. I've been browsing the NaNoWriMo forums as of late, and seeing people use the term "cis-gender" unironically makes for some poor reading. Yeah, I get it, a lot of them are teens for whom sex is some big scary unknown thing, but again, the answer does not require several pages of posts to arrive at.

>>49843369
I don't think it's without credit -- automatically tumblr. Sexuality is a fairly big part of worlds, and it's something you might want to consider if you're not building for a game. But it doesn't deserve its own thread with over a hundred replies...

The noble savage one is much worse, because it's about avoiding a "cliché" -- itself bad -- because of its offensiveness (which isn't even to do with the cliché, it's about how YOU interpret savages in real life), as if examining the Noble Savage isn't valid in its own right.

Also, I'm pretty sure they were posting to get patted on the back, because the normal response would be "don't use it?". But that could just be projection.

>>49843161
>>How do I avoid the OFFENSIVE noble savage stereotype?
As opposed to defensive noble savage stereotype?

>>49843472
Ha ha, hilarious my friend.

>>49843490
Please upvote.

>>49843502
No.

>>49843472
>>49843490
>>49843502

Thanks for the gold, kind stranger!

>>49834476
Kinda. Maybe crossover would be a better word. Both our settings were limited to one continent with the implication of a undiscovered far away lands existing, and mine already had a couple of cultures making fast technological advances so the start of an age of discovery seemed plausible. We advanced the respective timelines some decades collaboratively, which was easy considering we had played quite a lot in both worlds.

We ended up not playing though.

>>49843616
Yeah alright.

r/worldbuilding's flaw isn't directly a result of being on Reddit. I think it's just a result of the inherently less autistic userbase it can attract (autism in this case being a "good" thing).
>>49834476
My world was originally made when I was a kid playing with friends (and my brother), so kinda. I still bounce ideas off my bro.

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>>49843646
>inherently less autistic userbase

That, and they're overall younger. A lot of young adults, a lot of inexperienced people who just KNOW that they're out to make the biggest, bestest new thing despite their inexperience. Hence, a lot of amateur questions which could easily be resolved by lurking and studying more.

>>49843701
That reminds me.

People there often ask "how do I get started?". This is interesting, because to me there is no question of how you start -- you semi-randomly get an idea and, as soon as you have it, have already begun the process. There's no point of wondering.

How do you guys get started? When you're starting a new part of the world, or the whole thing, whatever. Do you use a method? Do you get stuck? Or is that only later?

Perhaps more importantly: when you start, what do you start with?

>>49843751
Well obviously my idea for my world came from the "fantasy novel that will make me a gorillion dollarydoos".

>>49821370
>No one saved the fucking archives Edition
YOU'RE A ZOGGER
http://archive.4plebs.org/tg/search/subject/%2Fwbg%2F/
FUCKING STOOPID ZOGGER

On designing cultures:
http://www.frathwiki.com/Dr._Zahir%27s_Ethnographical_Questionnaire

Random name/terrain/stat generators:
http://donjon.bin.sh/

Mapmaking tutorials:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48

Free HTML5-based mapmaking toolset:
www.inkarnate.com

Random Magic Resources/Possible Inspiration:
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/magic/antiscience.html
http://www.buddhas-online.com/mudras.html
http://sacred-texts.com/index.htm

Conlanging:
http://www.zompist.com/resources/

Random (but useful) Links:
http://futurewarstories.blogspot.ca/
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/
http://military-sf.com/
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/
http://donjon.bin.sh/
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html
http://kennethjorgensen.com/worldbuilding/resources

Why do all setting seem to have ancient civilizations?

Why aren't there any campaigns set at the dawn of civilization? I think it would be interesting for a campaign to forego the whole "here's a list of all the spells ever invented, take your pick" and instead go "Congrats, you can cast third level spells. Too bad there aren't any libraries or anything where you can actually go learn some."

>>49843783
I still can't believe they said that. It figures that a YA "writer" would think they need to worldbuild, though.
>>49843796
A lot of those OP links suck, to be fair.

Also we should include Fountain: https://github.com/Mavichist/Fountain/releases
>>49843820
Some are. Ex. Glorantha. Discovery of all spells is a bit much for me, though -- a campaign focused on discovering one part of a magic system would be fun, though.

>>49843820
Because the West has a hardon for ancient civilizations, their ruins and their knowledge. Must be a result of the Roman empire and the Greeeks. A setting that is just coming into the Iron Age would be interesting.

>>49843842
>I still can't believe they said that

Sorry you lost me there. I was the YA writer (read:I had some random ideas) who worldbuild-ed.

>>49843859
I still can't believe (You) said that.

>>49843820
Pre-existing knowledge is convinient. It's easy to just accept ancient people knew how to do this and that, how to do magic or what kind of minerals are best of forging demon-slaying swords but it's harder to depict it in real time. Ancient evil, ancient ruins, ancient artefacts are just more interesting than living surrounded by no man's land in which only occasional lion sometimes tries to eat you. And ancient science was kinda bad. It's only recently we accelerated our progress into reasonable timeframe for meaningful progress. So it's easy enough to believe in scientists discovering brand new shit right now, or in the future, but in ancient time it's kinda hard to picture a wise man doing monster autopsy and figuring out how to slay the Recent Evil. So it brushed into past. Evil is ancient and so are means of slaying it.

Blank slate setting feels more fit for a strategy game than for role-playing. Both can obviously work as a novel, though.

>>49843842
>Discovery of all spells is a bit much for me, though

I think it could be fun. Instead of having the players pick from a long list of pre-baked solutions to a problem, have them created targeted solutions to problems. I think it would be entertaining to see what kings of spells a group would create.

>>49843943
But what kind of rules would govern spell creation?

>>49843820
In my case there isn't really an 'ancient civilization' when you're only 4 generations new on the planet. The orbiting colony remains that everyone came from are the oldest things known to exist there and the tech that falls down is of great use to whatever nation finds it given that it was far more advanced than what the colonists ever had. Exotic energy sources, terraforming equipment, super hi-tech weapons etc.

>>49843915

I see your point. A lot of players like to rush past the whole research and information gathering parts so they can get back to the dungeon diving. A dawn of civilization campaign might not really be for them.

I think for players that enjoy the information gathering part, it could work out a lot better. Information that could be readily obtained from other adventurers in a tavern in some settings would have to be gathered from research and observation done by the players.

>>49843987

A good question. I don't really consider myself a D&D expert by any means, so I can't really say for sure. I think I'd start by creating a base line for damaging spells. Adding additional effects for damaging spells would push it up or down a level. For utility spells, I think their levels would depend on the threats they are designed to counter. You wouldn't want a spell that removes certain curses available at level 2 if the only creatures who can apply that curse are level 12, for example, because it would trivialize the curse.

I think it could be done, even as a core game play mechanic.

>>49844039

Have you ever played RimWorld? Sounds similar in some ways. Whenever I play it I can't help but think that RimWorld would make for a very fun campaign setting.

>>49844086
You better be a very good poet who can make bare nature interesting, I guess.

>>49844231

It doesn't have to be bare nature. I don't mean for the setting to be set when humanity first crawls out of the caves and creates its first cities.

I was thinking something a long the lines of pre-Roman times rather than post-Roman times. For more than a thousand years, kings and emperors across Europe fought to carry on the legacy of the Roman empire, to capture even a portion of its glory. It wasn't even until 1806 when the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved that that particular dream was put to bed for good.

I merely propose a world in which the giant empires haven't happened yet.

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>>49843820
>Why do all setting seem to have ancient civilizations?

Because this is a trope that's been around since some dudes on a peninsula named after what comes out of bacon when you cook it started looking at their belly buttons. The ancient Greeks loved the idea of the present world being but a shade of some past greater age--not necessarily a "better" age, but nonetheless a "greater" one, where gods walked the earth and things were happening. When the Romans annexed Macedonia, they also adopted this trope.

And then the Roman Empire fell, and by the time of the Renaissance they'd become the new lost civilization that everyone got hard for. And then the Enlightenment happened, and everybody started getting boners for all this ancient stuff all over again, especially stuff like Egypt and shit. And then during the 20's, King Tut's tomb was found, and everybody got boners for ancient civilizations again. And then some British guy with too many words in his head wrote some books with way too much history in them, and those books became the foundation of a genre.

And that's why settings often have ancient civilizations. Humans love to reminisce about times before they were born, because in your head, that's when things were really cool, you guys.

>>49843820
moreso I'm always miffed that settings always seem to have a not-rome as the ancient civilization ending by apocalypse.
As opposed to say, china, where the ancient civilization is more or less also the current civilization, but maybe with a name change and a different flag

>>49844703
Cataclysmic ending for an ancient civilization is a good source of ancient ruins full of mystery.

>>49844761
post-apocalyptic has its place, and that place shouldn't be 'every setting that swords exist in'

>>49844792
People lived in someone's post-apocalypse ever since some troglodytes bashed some other troglodytes' heads in.

>>49843820
Because unless the people of your world only just developed agriculture, there is always going to be some earlier civilization that preceded their own.

And if the people of your world only just developed agriculture, then they're a long way away from developing anything else. The people of your world will still be at the point where "living in one place all year round" feels like the height of modernity.

>>49844158
Sort of like the Epic Spell Crafting system from 3.5. You pick base aspects of a spell, with bigger and more debilitating/enabling effects having a higher cost, and then the Player records their favorites for later use.

Damn. Now I wanna homebrew.

>>49843845
Greeks and Romans already had a hardon for what they themselves considered ancient civilizations.

>>49843751
Actually it's very hard for me to "start" too. I can have an idea on my head and develop it for years, but I'm normally unmotivated when it comes to write it down. I've already told the story to myself after all.

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>>49839595
>real life doesnt work that way
>fantasy map

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>>49845783

>Are there ancient, fallen civilizations in your current setting? If not, what is the state of Civilization at the moment?
Kind of, the setting is a future earth where humans has just started mastering FTL. Outside of our solar system there are several fallen civilizations at about their own level of development, because something is wiping out species when they become too advanced.

>If so, what were they like? Warlike expansionists? Peaceful, enlightened uplifters?
All kinds.

>>What happened to this civilization? Destroyed by war? Environment? Extraplanar fuckery? Was there a plague? Did their fall happen all at once or slowly over thousands of years?
Destroyed by an alien race that has not developed through evolution, and is scared by the creatures evolution creates, so it destroys them when they are deemed a threat.

>>What did they leave behind? Architecture? Weapons? Magic? Successors?
Different kinds of technology from what has devolved on earth. Definitely architecture and such. And hints of the coming apocalypse.

>>If adventurers were to dive into this civilization's ruins looking for loot, what would they find? What element of their technology/magic/architecture/etc would make for the most exciting/daunting/lucrative challenge for adventurers?
Possibly raw materials and advances within theoretical or medical science. Too practical science wouldn't be possible since that would candidate them for destruction and psychology/sociology wouldn't be great for humans since they are alien.

>Hard Mode
>>What would go through the mind of someone from that civilization's zenith if they suddenly found themselves in your setting's current time? What things would be familiar to them? What would be alien? How do they feel about their civilization's legacy?
They would probably feel alone and alienated. Their own ruins might be the most familiar thing to them, depending on just how human they are.

>>49842882
The difference is the production cap of yeast calories. It's not an unlimited nonsense like fiat currency is.

Building a tower to produce edible yeast is a multi-year long process, it surprises no one. They're built for reliability, etc. etc.

Here's a question about technology.

Is it wrong if the main human faction have Renaissance/Warhammer Empire level tech while the "Undead lands" (Transylvania with a main city like Yarnham from Bloodborne) be more advanced?

I was thinking that the Main human lands rely on magic while the Undead lands have only really necromancy. But the Undead lands also have a faction of scientists who are allowed to do far more experimentation than they are in the human lands, and thus they have greater tech, not quite Victorian level but defiantly some of the most advanced in the setting. Ironically it's probably the nicest place to live....relatively speaking. Does this sound okay or does it sound too much like bullshit?

Also how do you deal with tech in a fantasy world? Especially when it comes to the Dwarfs assuming they have no magic?

>>49846640

Too big a gap in technology leads to one side steamrolling the other. See: colonization of the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, and possibly more places that being with an A. Also, the Russian conquest of the Steppes. Also, many more times in human history.

Unless there is some particular reason that one faction is isolated from the other, technology is going to spread between them. Most of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa was at roughly the same technology level for pretty much all of recorded history.

I don't think technology differences make much sense, personally.

>>49846841
Can that gap be closed with magic though?

>>49846872

I don't really see how. One side isn't going to say "fuck magic, man" and focus entirely on technology while the other side says "fuck technology, dude" and focuses on magic. No country would ever willingly cripple themselves like that; the very thought is absurd.

>>49846966
Okay you're right. Maybe I'll tone down the mad scientist side of the undead faction.

I've been thinking of, and building, this setting where I'm trying to go for a bit more fantastic take on fantasy. For me, a big pull of the fantasy genre has always been encountering and experiencing the weird, whimsical and, simply put, fantastic. It can be dangerous, but it's also weird and should be an experience unto itself. Now, I'm not sure it's actually gameable too well like that. I don't really care so much either. I like this vibe, so I guess I'll see what to do with it when I get that far.

I've also liked the idea of smaller societies and communities as opposed to grand kingdoms and such you often see in fantasy. Smaller scope and scale, in a way. Something more personal. Politics and warfare and all that don't really appeal to me too much.

These in mind, I've been building a setting whose basic concept is that there once was an Underdark equivalent under the ground. A place so deep that reason and the laws of nature wouldn't reach it, filled with things that were simply not meant to be. Weird things in a weird, deep place. Luckily, they were down there and far away from the surface world.

Then they started coming up.

Hell itself, under even that deep, weird place, expanded upwards. It pushed into the dark tunnels and drove their denizens and their Weirdness into the only direction they could go, up. And it just so happens that the surface was in disarray due to reasons at the moment, and no organized response could be mustered. And so, humanity found themselves being pushed off from their own lands as the Weirdness and the denizens of below pushed up.

Fast-forward to now, and you have a weird world full of weird things, where humanity consists of divided, small tribes (not primitive savages or anything, but there's nothing as grand as nations). The world out there is strange and often dangerous but at the same time it can't really be ignored.

>>49847027

I don't think mad scientist is ever really a bad idea, per se, but scaling it up to a national level is where it gets silly. By all means, have mad scientists, just don't pretend that anything they invent won't be adopted by the opposing faction as soon as possible.

Having one side gain a temporary upper hand with mad scientist shenanigans could be a very fun plot point. It could involve the PCs trying to steal the new invention, or assassinate the inventor before he can deliver blueprints, and so on.

>>49847107
Hmm, that does sound good. Thanks Anon.

>>49847036

I had an idea for a similar setting some time ago that never really got beyond the imagination phase. The idea was that Magic was a real, tangible thing that had a Source. The Source radiates Magic, so the closer you are to it the more strange shit you find. Much of civilization exists beyond its influence with very little strange shit going on, but things have a tendency to creep in.

The setting would involve the player(s) exploring deep in to Magically influenced lands encountering new and strange races, creatures, and monsters.

I think the idea of fantasy creatures creeping in to normal life certainly has potential.

>>49843161
>Where? I can't see any right now.
Look at basically any of the sci-fi threads that aren't explicitly made by someone with project rho level autism. Particularly ones about alien races.

They're nonsensical clusterfucks.

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>>49843820
>Why do all setting seem to have ancient civilizations?
Can't speak for others, but one of the major themes that I'm trying to convey and emulate in my world building is the inevitability of entropy. I draw a lot of inspiration from Japanese fiction, and they have a aesthetic school called "mono-no-aware", "the sorrow of things". It refers to the melancholy one experiences when he sees the inevitability of things slowly fading a away, falling apart, the wheels of time grinding on the world.

And that is the kind of feeling I like. It's a natural and relatable notion, and I think there is a lot of value in teaching people to find peace and beauty in this aspect of our world, rather than desperately avoid thinking about it as we tend to do in our modern society.

So that is why "ancient history and ancient civilizations" are a cornerstone of my world building. In fact, it's a setting where the number of them is nearly countless.
They are there to remind us of what power has time over us, and that nothing last for ever. That history is cyclic just as much as it is linear. And that one should learn to find peace in his lifetime, not to dwell on dreams of grand future, or grand past.

In a less pretentious way, it also simply gives me an array of tools that I find useful: existence of old technologies allows for liberal use of anachronisms, fantasy can come from misunderstanding of advanced technologies, and landscape can be dotted by impressive sights that inspire awe and curiosity into the players. It imposes an entire new history-scape of mysteries to uncover and learn, hidden connections, pieces of information to put together.

I'm aiming for a feeling much like pic related, by the way.

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>>49846640
>Does this sound okay or does it sound too much like bullshit?
The main problem that I have here is that you are using magic as an element in your world, but still trying to explain it, and explain technology within the same framework. That is something a lot of people do, but it's almost inexceptionaly a bad idea to begin with.

The notion of an industrialist, technologically advanced "Undead lands" is not in itself bad, in fact it could be pretty interesting if it seems to me a bit tired and obvious decision for the sake of subverting expectations. I'd be still down with that.
But when you are trying to explain technological gaps in a world that has magic in it, you are already setting yourself up to be trapped in a closed loop of explanation-circlejerking that leads nowhere. If you really want to do this, having Renaissance in one culture and Victorian tech in the other AND have magic on top of that, just do it. Don't try to pretend it has a real-world-like-logic explanation behind it. At max make some throw-away lines to excuse it, but your world is already following rule-of-cool principles anyway. You don't need to explain jack shit.

>Also how do you deal with tech in a fantasy world?
By not REALLY having both at the same time. My world does have magic in the sense that people understand the notion, and many (most) believe in it, but it works the way magic worked in real world: it's a mixture of genuine knowledge and skill and understanding of real world, belief, superstition, a different perspective rather than an entity or power of it's own.
Then there is technology, most of it left-over from previous, older societies, which is inexplicable and seems supernatural to people (even my players), but in reality there is always a (admitedly often soft-)scientific explanation behind it.

>>49847617
I definitely think I need to think about this more. Thanks Anon.

Maybe I can rule-of-cool it away, but I'll try fleshing out the Undead Lands a bit to see what tech I want them to have as opposed to the main human lands.

>>49847679
The rule of cool does not mean it has to be not flashed out. It just means that you should think about it differently than in terms of real-world socio-economical logic, but rather to make it seem meaningful and interesting to explore as part of the grander narrative of your settings.

You don't have to explain why there is a major technological gap between the human and the undead land cultures in no other way than you have to explain why there are undead lands in your world to begin with.

>>49848329
I'll probably go with rule of cool in that case.

Tell me about the most valuable things in your setting

>>49850200
The people who live in it.

No but seriously it's either all the shit the Dwarves have horded or the Great City of Gold.

>>49850200
Vestiges of dead gods that allow the wielder incredible power.

Whole spheres can be conquered by their wielders.

>>49850200
Fallen stars.
It's a good thing the world's inhabitants don't know just how -valuable- they are, and the potential they represent.

>>49850200
Source Code to make an artificial intelligence

>>49850200
Priceless:
>Artillery (origin and means of production unknown, most are in disrepair)
>Gunboats (same as the latter)
>Artifacts of the Wayward Ages (most are lost or secretly kept)
>Ong, a legendary outsider substance, the holy grail to thaumurges
>Vampirism of the 2nd generation
>usom, the extraction of the metaphysical self from the physical form

Extremely valuable:
>Ironclad Ships
>Relic Firearms
>Bombs
>Thaum, to people who know how to use it. Thaum is an oil found in various sources that must be tampered with to vastly alter its effects. Used in explosives, firearms, enchanting, potions, forging, and thaumaturgy.
>Dragons and the heirlooms to bend them
>Mortifax, a thaumic elixir that prolongs a vampire's lifespan and delays their mortification into nosferatu
>Lich hearts
>Grand Barges (see: Zheng He)
>Mithril, a magical infusion of steel and silver kept stable through thaum
>Urgic Crystals, used in thaumaturgy
>Vampirism of 3rd and 4th generations

Exceptionally valuable:
>Dryak bark
>Modern Firearms
>Bullets and gunpowder
>Silver
>Vampirism of 5th and further generations

>>49850200
The secrets hoarded by the last remnants of the Old Ones. Eternal life. Interstellar teleportation. Artificial gods. Terraformation. Interplanar gates. Although they have lost the infrastructure needed to do these things, the knowledge remains.

>>49850200

Gold.

There aren't any fancy sci fi gadgets or mythical rare ores. If you want power, you need money.

>>49850200
Functioning examples of colony environmental suits. All of the originals have long since degraded and a number of their potential functions have yet to be decoded by current inhabitants.

Alternatively, the one shot use Colony Terraformers as they allow anyone who gets their hands on them to turn a small portion of the otherwise hostile environment into livable, breathable land. They could also potentially turn a city into a rotting mush if calibrated so.

>>49850200
sea routes to either the uncivilized sphere or the near-legendary strait of basolagos, as always. currently they are heavily guarded secrets by a couple of countries who have a monopoly on trade/resources in those areas.

legendary items exist but are actually fairly worthless at the moment, most of the major spheres of influence are either in the middle or just out of pricey wars that have caused minor to major famines and interruptions in trade. there's just very few people that can buy or bargain for such priceless items without kneecapping themselves.

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>>49850200
>Tell me about the most valuable things in your setting
Golden Seeds.
A strange, magical substance that can be only obtained by trade with the Celestial, and strange race of seemingly divine race from across the sea.
They can be used in variety of magical potions and preparations, but most commonly, if grounded into fine powder and mixed with other ingredients, they can be turned into magical stuff that can revitalize the body, give one great strength, even prolong his life.
It's wheat. My world barely has any agriculture, a lot of food needs to be "imported" from the trade with the Celestials. Wheat is considered the most valuable thing in the world, and is generally used as main currency too.

Admitedly, the theoretically most valuable object would be unsterilized samples of Gold Seeds, that would make humans capable of growing their own. But the Celestials would not let anyone steal that shit too easily.

>>49850200
In general?

Spelljammer Helms.

Hey /wbg/, I've had a homebrewed setting that I've been sitting on and developing for almost a decade now just out of sheer autism, and my DM has decided to take an indefinite break after our last session (also a form of loose homebrew, so my group is pretty open to it).
The world itself has hundreds of years of history, detailed geography, species(es?), and factions with their own beliefs and motives and I've spent a long time sealing any cracks in its multiple foundations, so I feel it's pretty solid.
I'm curious if any DMs with experience with these kinds of things could give me any advice on how I would try and run a game for this kind of thing.

What kind of system could be easily applied? The world wasn't built around a ruleset but it's kind of flexible.

Is it easy to jump into DMing a custom setting? I've DM'd before but only with systems I'm very familliar with, and my main problem was always that I didn't know enough about the universe to take my campaigns in the directions I've wanted.

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>>49850200

Gemstones capable of storing and releasing energy. They're basically glorified fantasy batteries and almost all of the setting's technology runs off of them, yet nobody actually knows how to make them. Everyone just loots them off of the ruins of the previous civilization that disappeared after fucking with the ecosystem and making large parts of the world uninhabitable wilderness that corrupts you if you stay there too long. They probably just left the world after realizing they fucked it up badly enough that starting over somewhere else would just be easier. Eventually the lesser races grew intelligent enough and took over

The most valuable of these gems are the white ones which are massive and can store enough energy that they've yet to be depleted after decades of constant use. There's seven known ones of which only three have actually been discovered. There's a huge search for the remaining ones as one is enough to power an entire city seemingly forever. That or a superweapon which is how one of the countries owning one is maintaining its independence despite being more or less just a single city.

They're refractor crystals from Megaman Legends. The whole campaign stemmed from me secretly wanting to run a game set in the universe. None of the players have caught on.

>>49850922

Why not use a system you are familiar with?

>>49850200
There's an extremely valuable metal only found in one region of the world.
It has a huge ratio for expansion and contraction along its grain structure when exposed to energy/heat, while still retaining the same strength.
The properties of this metal allow for unique mechanical designs, and most of its known supply was used in the construction of a single airship.

Then after the first era the airship was blown up and the metals were scattered to the elements before the dust could settle, and most governments/organisations can only get their hands on small amounts of it, usually by accident or chance.

>>49851100
I'm only really intimate with 5e and a few other 1-10 page rulesets designed for smaller, less organised games.
None of them right for the setting, although I could probably bend a few of the simpler ones to work I'd like to explore some more complicated ones to see if they could yield better results.

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>>49839211
>>49839284
Thanks for the advice! Expanding the canvas helped a lot. Is this any better?

How does this sound for a title for the leader of the major religion? I want to try and make it longer if I can.

His Most Divine Majesty, Herald of the Faithful and Leader of the Divine Council, Arch Patriarch Leodondas III, Ruler and Protector of Valentia.

>>49850200
A special gem called Blasticite which acts as a substitute for gunpowder in the setting (no smoke but a bright flash instead), the high price being due to very few being released to the open market as they're kept aside for the military.

>>49850200
There are ancient creatures that roam the lands in isolated regions, or dangerous regions, etc.
These creatures have been around since the dawn of time, and feed on people emotions passively, so, if left alone, will just chill forever, as they're effectively immortal.

They happen to be made of incredibly magically unique materials. Magic cannot touch them, but spells can be "burned" into the materials to make magical items.
So they are hunted down and slaughtered, harvested for their component parts.

Giants made of wood and stone.
Whales made of air.
Sharks made of water.
Etc.

Most of them are difficult/impossible to actually hurt, since they have varying levels of physicality, and magic cannot touch them.
People find a way, as they always do, and the beasts are being slowly hunted to extinction, driving up the prices of objects made from them.

The entire magical item economy has maybe 50-75 years before it collapses on itself, nobody seems to care, but groups are rising up to fight against the hunting, hoping to save the last few beasts in the hopes that they can re-populate.

The beasts have an indeterminate amount of intelligence, and may be sapient at the very least, not much is known about them other than that they are valuable as heck.

Some of them are made out of Dirt, so are basically useless. They feed on surprise, and so flock to human cities hoping to create more surprise. They are shaped like cats.
They call them Scaredycats.

>>49851424
Add on what regions of the world he has dominion over. "Highlord of the Emerald Bay", etc.

So I have a campaign that takes place entirely underwater. The world's water levels have risen to cover 99% of the world and any land is ruled over by savage creatures like Lizardmen.

The whole thing is inspired by Sword and Planet stories like John Carter of Mars except the alien world is exploring the strange things that are underwater.

I've got many races figured out, I haven't decided how I want to do humans yet though. I want to include them so my players have something familiar to work with and there's always the "normal person" in sword and planet stories. I know I want human communities called dry cities which are like bubbles underwater, but how should I let a human character leave these cities for extended periods of time, like say in a party with other underwater races.

>>49851941
Symbiotic fish/jellyfish/leeches/some sort of underwater creature.
Can be attached to the humans somewhere, maybe it pierces their chest with a proboscus or something? Or maybe they wear it over their nose and mouth. Either way, filters air out of the water for them. Tada!

Or a wizard did it. Your call.

>>49851941
Magic Seaweed, use it like bubblegum to blow a bubble helmet.

>>49851941
That is a pretty fun and interesting premise, but the execution is going to be pretty hard.

Basically, it's a matter of how much you want to make the whole "it's under water" really factor into it. You could give your people some magical mcguffin that just makes them breathe under water, but then you kinda devaluate and downplay the impact that being deep under the sea has.

Alternative, make the water a real serious obstacle, force humans to wear diving suits or use complex devices that allow them to maintain bubble of air around them, magical submarines etc... But that is going to make every single type of interaction more complicated.

Also, decide on perspective. I think that with a settings like this, you really NEED to make it clear to yourself if its about humans exploring alien underwater world, and their perception is the key, or whenever it's about the underwater world and humans are just another element of it.

>>49851986
Wizards did the bubble cities so they can't do everything.

I like the weird bio-tech breathing apparatus. I've already got something similar with living and coral armor so this isn't that far from something that's possible in this world.

>>49851998

A weird silly idea, could work.

>>49852020
Well of the former surface races it's only humans that managed to survive the drowning of the world, and at great cost. All other races existed already underwater in some capacity that's only grown since the real estate market really opened up for them.

I like the imagery of weird enchanted diving suits for humans, i'll ponder on that some more.

As for perspective, Humans are just another element of the world. They're the strange outlier to this underwater world. There are like three known dry cities, which are less built places and more preserved sections of larger cities that managed to put up a shield as the world drowned.

>>49842330
anything that can't be automated (like entertainment, custom item design) would be valuable, as would handmade items.
Depending how "free" the stuff is, raw materials and power to run the autofacs would be pretty valuable too.

>>49852155
You projected way too hard into the setting.

Basic needs are shelter, 3000 calories a day, and clean water. Maybe a high speed internet connection as well.

The setting is not post-scarcity.

Working, once again, on my Space opera setting, and I am trying to come up with the kind of society that would develop out of one species.

Here's what I have down:
>reptilian species
>Males are small and physically weak
>Females are built like 40k space marines but with ovaries.
>eggs are laid in clutches of 6 - 8, but take a full (Earth) year to hatch.
>Lots of deadly creatures populate their world
>Klinefelter syndrome is a more serious problem for them. and due to their physiology behaves differently.
>Those with the disorder are universally male but rather than just being sterile and having some lerning troubles like in humans, they become physically more like Females in build, usually mentally retarded but not always, and at puberty, the hormonal imbalance and a physiology not geared to handle it leads them to become homicidally psychotic, killing and/or raping anything in their path, what's more, should the father of an egg clutch have Klinefelter syndrome, there's a good chance most of the males in that clutch will also have the disorder.
>Alone they are a menace and can reek havoc on a community. but in large numbers they can, and have, formed into these 'great hordes' that have toppled past [insert species name] civilizations.

So with that said, what kind of culture(s) do you think would develop given these broad strokes as to their species' characteristics and environment?

>>49852424
Here is the problem with any society that primarily lays eggs and where females are the physically stronger ones:
It's parental and kinship system is going to be all fucked up. There is a reason why humans have their biological sexual dichotomy the way they do, and it's heavily related to the very fact that we are a social species.

Really, in order to get that concept running well, you will need to first explain how their kinship system works. From there on, you can extrapolate the basis of their small social units, and from then, you can start modeling their culture in general.

Who protects the eggs and takes care of the young? And how? How do they form partnership bonds? What "keeps the family together"?

>>49843751

> People there often ask "how do I get started?

I tried starting 99 times and failed. The 100th time I started it clicked for me.

>>49852521
>Who protects the eggs?
That would be the females.
>takes care of the young?
That would be the Males.
>And how?
Females hunt, build shelters, and kill the ever-loving-fuck out of anything they believe to be a threat to their family, and train the daughters to do the same when they grow up. Males tend to farm, forage, do the more domestic work (cooking, making clothes, etc) and teach the young about the world and their culture.

>How do they form partnership bonds?
It's the males that traditionally court the females. I imagine with song and poetry, since there's no way in hell he is going to impress her with his physical prowess (nor would she find that attractive in males, yeah, as a general rule women of this species prefer their men to be small and non-threatening, and the men, likewise, have a thing for the amazonian warrior-woman thing, go figure )

> What "keeps the family together"?
I imagine the same basic instinctual need Lions, Wolves, Chimps, and even Humans to form family groups; further underlined by the long-ass-time it takes an intelligent species to reach maturity (humans, as an example, take almost 20 years to reach maturity) and the need to care for those young during that entire time.

>>49852696
>Females hunt, build shelters, and kill the ever-loving-fuck out of anything they believe to be a threat to their family,
So basically, it's identical to humans, except for an arbitrary reason you swap the terms "male" and "female" around and put the ovaries on the male. Even though that would not evolutionary be a very sound strategy for a social species...

>It's the males that traditionally court the females
Courting does not matter. In any social species, it WILL inevitably end up being 90% strategical and planned anyway. The question is how does the family work. How many partners, how lasting relationships etc...

>I imagine the same basic instinctual need Lions, Wolves, Chimps, and even Humans to form family groups
Each of those species does it in a FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT WAY. That is the bloody point. Chimp clans are entirely different from human ones, and those are entirely different from lion packs which are completely different from wolf packs.

Using GURPS Space to randomly generate species is the best.

I ended up with a race of 600lb, 12 legged, 10 armed, silicon based, carnivorous pseudo-insects with a combination internal skeleton and exoskeleton and have ultrasonic hearing. By pure coincidence they also ended up with a hive based social structure, which in turn led their racial "personality" to be both completely selfless and surprisingly empathetic.

And also something else which I guess is something like a paranoid sapient clam.

>>49852808
>randomly generate species is the best.
Don't care much for GURPS, but tell me more about this random species generator?

>>49852893
GURPS Space is essentially a reference material for creating sci-fi settings. It has an Alien generator in it that enables you to generate an alien species, it covers everything from their basic biochemistry, body plan and native environment to mating strategy and general personality and accounts for how their biology affects all of those factors.

>>49852808
>Using GURPS Space to randomly generate species is the best.
From your description, it sounds awful. A completely random collection of ideas that don't make any sense together one way or another... That is not good world building.

>>49852806
>So basically, it's identical to humans, except for an arbitrary reason you swap the terms "male" and "female" around and put the ovaries on the male. Even though that would not evolutionary be a very sound strategy for a social species...
okay fuck you too, the attitude is totally uncalled for...

>The question is how does the family work. How many partners, how lasting relationships etc...
well you did a shit job explaining the question then.

>How many partners, how lasting relationships
Generally monogamous, and they are life-bonds, yes this is also a thing in nature.

>Chimp clans are entirely different from human ones, and those are entirely different from lion packs which are completely different from wolf packs.
Yes, but what do you expect of such a vague question? they all have a basic need to form a family and desire to make it work, so what keeps it together is instinct. Were you talking about hierarchy? are you talking about social etiquette? values? family roles? What?

>>49852998
do you have a link?

>>49853047
>okay fuck you too, the attitude is totally uncalled for...
Sorry for being harsh, but that is the reality. What you created is a male that produces unusually large sperm. That is it. Sometimes, it's good to stop and think about what "male" and "female" actually mean to us. If your species have roles identical to ours in function, just switched gonads (which again, by the way, really does not make much sense because eggs are more "expensive" to produce and thus are in limited supply, while sperm is cheap and thus we have bukkake - so risking the egg-producers in violence, for a social species where roles are divided, isn't a very sound strategy...), calling them males and females does not add anything, or change anything. Functionally, the way you described their society, they are mostly identical to us. The differences is purely the size of the gametes they produce.
When you want to play around with gender roles, it's really good to double check to understand what gender roles are, what relevance and meaning they have for us.

>well you did a shit job explaining the question then.
Not really. In all species, forming partnership bonds is a matter of how the two cohabitate (if they do at all). Not partner seeking.

>Generally monogamous
But you just said they work like wolves, monkeys or lions. That is very much not like wolves, monkeys or lions. This was what I was ACTUALLY asking about, because it's what actually matters.
They don't LIVE in pairs though, right? They form larger societies, not live in solitary couples? How does that work? Same as humans - that is merging several family units? How large are the units? How do they deal with having 6-8 new members of the family with each generation of offsprings?

>Yes, but what do you expect of such a vague question?
Monogamy, polygamy, alpha adult lead pack, with sexual priority or sexual exclusivity etc... it's not vague. It's broad, but not vague.

>>49853009
>A completely random collection of ideas that don't make any sense together one way or another... That is not good world building.
but sometime it can spark inspiration. even if you wind up dropping half the stuff you rolled, it still got you thinking.

So I have this weird fantasy kitchen sink setting where the multiverse has collapsed into itself leaving only a single world, called Locus.

Those that survived the collapse are the ones that also caused it by embracing one of the six fundamental elements of reality. As such, every survivor and their societies are each focused around some aspect of these six elements.

The world itself is a jigsaw of pieces of these other worlds, meaning there are many ruins of all kinds of societies.

I'm hoping to pick your brains on what kinds of things could be in this world. I had an idea of having a few of each, and letting the players also create their own that I would integrate into the world. If I go this route, how many of each is a good number?

>>49853307
I prefer making combinations based on meaning, rather than novelty. Either narrative or symbolic, or logical. When I look for world building inspiration, I look for things to talk about, and then imagine concepts that convey that kind of message. And I wish more fantasy did thing that way too, instead of slapping together random tropes in endless chain of meaningless permutations.

>>49853253
>(which again, by the way, really does not make much sense
The idea came from Alligators and, Side-blotched lizards, wherein the females are in-fact larger than the males (in the case of the latter, that's where the idea for a psychotic off-shoot came from)

In the family unit the males are suppose to be physically weaker but generally smarter, so in the household the Male makes the decisions while the Female implements them. They do form larger communities wherein those roles are further expanded so that the Male roles would be to administrate the community and scribe their history and make new discoveries, while women saw to the physical Work, less because of being expendable (such as in human societies) but because they are far less likely to be killed in the endeavor in the first place. I figure those roles may shift from region-to-region slightly but that was the overall idea. But I can imagine a tonal shift as technology comes closer to that of 20th century and being physically mighty to accomplish goals is when you might see those gender roles become more fluid, or even fuzzy.

I would Imagine that... Honestly probably older children being given a larger responsibility to raise their younger siblings. But that is a valid question that I still need to work out.

>>49853354
Sounds pretentious.

>>49853313
Tell me more senpai.
What are these elements you speak of?

How many races do you have planned so far?

What's a very brief summary of them so I know what I can work with?

Any ideas on what world chunks you have already?

For an immediate contribution, I've always like the idea of a super duper mountainous region, with cities built onto the mountain tops, big ol' bridges a rickety walkways connecting it all together. Stuff built into mountain sides. Maybe bird people lived there. Maybe they still do? It's probably hard to get up there, and get around once you're up there, without flight or levitation of some kind. Would make the entire region easyly defended, since it's hard as hell to march an army through mountains. Maybe the people who lived there took advantage of the fact that they never really had to worry about war to pursue other pursuits, like magic or science.
Or if you want to ride the stereotype train all the way to the station, maybe they sought enlightenment.

>>49853313
Also, not that it matters much to anyone but me, Locus is the name of the god of magic and knowledge in my home brew world. Talk about coincidences.

Ever read the Deep-gate Trilogy?

>>49850200
Ancient plasma weapon technology

Knowledge on how to reproduce plasma cells

Knowledge on how to make plasma weaponry

Buried Nuclear warheads

Mutagenic vaccine

Weapons of power (Inexplicably powerful artifacts, ultra rare)

Is there any way to give a region/country of people a common language, religion, and social structure without resorting to an ancient fallen empire sometime in their past spreading all this around?

>>49853559
The six elements are Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Body, Mind.

As for the races, I can give you one of each element.

Monadics are embracers of Earth who have a theology of a Prime Mover and the mechanism of life, meaning to purify the world and other elements through technology and work. Ripped time and space with their technology. Not in the Techpriest sense either.

Zoa were beasts who slaughtered everything and each other, and from their blood they embraced Body to become 4 different kinds of beings, each masters of another element. Zoa of Earth are like Insects. Zoa of Air are like Birds. Zoa of Fire are like mammals. Zoa of Water are aquatic animals. Each further does body modification to emulate a totem animal, which they consider their progenitor.

Akasians are a people that embraced the Mind, creating something of a hivemind society and the Great Record, the sum total of all knowledge. Since the fall this record has been lost and the hivemind weakened. They're obsessed with recapturing this knowledge, recording nearly all they do. Their mastery of the mind let them manipulate other elements with a thought.

Nix were a people that ascended to Water, becoming an immense gestalt entity akin to NGE Instrumentality which consumed their world. Since the break, individuality was sparked inside the gestalt entity and their Hero-God known as the Cynosure won a self from the whole. Now these amorphous silvery beings live their lives through attachments like reverse Buddhism.

Atem are a people that ascended to Fire becoming like the heart of creation, beings akin to stars. This apotheosis broke their world. In the new world they attempted contact with the new faced, and caused a terrible mark like a nuclear explosion by their mere presence. They now keep to the Sphere of Fire, creating and destroying at their whim.

>>49853705
>Is there any way to give a region/country of people a common language, religion, and social structure without resorting to an ancient fallen empire sometime in their past spreading all this around?
Yes. Look at ancient Greece. Dozens of small city-states, sharing the same language, similar social structure and religion, but not united under one power until - well, officially Alexander The Great, but unofficially, I guess, Perikles? It's a rather unique historical case though. Usually, lack of uniting legacy or power over the regions leads to slow diversification.

Anyway, Greeks have been culturally very unified for half a milenia without having an ancient empire backing them up.

Similar things could be said about early medieval states that emerged from tribal societies, like the Franks for an instance.

>>49853559
>>49853776

Sonandi are a people who embraced Air by understanding the song of reality. The underlying frequency of all and how to manipulate it through a power called the Voice. This power could call things to being by mere sound. This power was so great and terrible as schism formed in the Sonandi, forming the Sona; those who believe life is a harmony, and the Din; those who believe life is cacophany. this schism caused such a clash it broke their world. The Voice and the verses have been broken and lost, and the Sona and Din blame one another for the fall.

For world chunks I have things like ruins of the Monadics which are entirely city, not a natural thing in them. A mountain range the Sona formed with the Voice so the wind sings as it passes through it. The Backwards City of Zoakhan where beasts walk as men, and men are treated as beasts, and the Silver Isle, an isle composed entirely from Nix who have chosen to live this way.

>>49853776
Hive mind knowledge seekers sounds rad as fuck. Imagine the ease by which knowledge could be disseminated among the populace? (I'm guessing that was the point.)

I'm kind of imagining them having something like library cities, or, depending on how their knowledge is actually stored (maybe it's magic crystals or something), giant collections of knowledge displayed for public use. (With backups of course.)

Sending out wave after wave of "adventurers" and the like to gather knowledge and bring it back to the collective. Perhaps they also gather experiences in addition to knowledge, seeking to record the actions and lifetimes lived by their people, to further the grand collection of everything that is their world.

Perhaps these people are fairly open minded when it comes to going and experiencing things, as long as it contributes some sort of experience or knowledge.

"Hey man, wanna go rob this bank?"
"Absolutely, I need to know what it's like."
Extreme example but you get the point.

>>49853776
Can the Nix attach themselves to people... or...?
Do they just kinda blob around?
Can they hold a form?

Tell me more about these watery people, I'm interested.

>>49853889
I really like the concept of library cities so much that I don't think they consider their settlements as cities but more as living Archives. I imagine the knowledge is free to all, so long as something can also be contributed in exchange. The destruction of knowledge is anathema to them and they probably have some weird way of keeping this knowledge, be it crystals or catatonic "server" people. Also I like that all experience is needed, so they would probably try something if they know the knowledge hasn't been collected before.

>>49853907
Nix basicallty attach themselves to a focus of existence. If a Nix chooses to be a tree, it takes the form and lives as a tree. One that is aware, and subtly silver, but still a tree. A Nix that would be in a party attaches themselves to a people, taking a rudimentary form of them, and living as they do. When they're really young, a form is hard to maintain, as they're easily distracted. When they get older, the form is harder to hold as their mind and "body" go with age.

>>49853939
Awesome, glad you like the idea.
In my world there is a giant palace/library/church to the god of knowledge. It's technically the capital of the country, but its barely even a city, most of the living quarters actually being outside of it's walls. People spend lifetimes there, pouring over the sum of current knowledge. Offerings of knowledge are brought, records are updated. It's a hell of an undertaking.

>>49853959
Ah, so they basically want to be "adventuring age" when they go out to help with maintaining a form.
Go to young and you might get distracted and decide to be a dog.
Go to old and you might turn into a puddle.
Love it.

I like the idea of an entire island being made of them, like, that's just how they wanna be. They want to provide for their people, what better way to do that then literally being their home? Kind of poetic really.

Could they become weapons? Maybe you could have some of them who choose to become powerful artifacts. Sentient items that bestow great power, but they're stuck in that form forever. It'd be kind of a sacrifice, and also a promise of power for the race. Could be really rare to have one, a real show of wealth and importance.
I'm assuming they have pretty lax ideas about what is and isn't acceptable behavior as far as how to treat those of their race who have chosen to become inanimate objects...

>>49853313
>So I have this weird fantasy kitchen sink setting where the multiverse
I just got through reading the SUEfiles, I cannot get into anything to do with a "multiverse" without thinking about Vamp!marty

>>49854016
I imagine some could become weapons, but I don't think any could become powerful artifacts. The sum total of what they are and their power is theirs alone. You can't say enchant a Nix in the shape of a sword to be flaming or something. You can converse with the Nix sword to grow in power with you, provided it doesn't clash with their identity of wanting to be a sword.

As for what behavior is and isn't acceptable, they look down on those who change their shapes frivolously. You are essentially your attachments, if you don't maintain your attachments you are essentially nothing. These changes can even apply to others not of their race. It took them a while to get used to the idea of changing clothes, got forbid cutting hair.

>>49853799
How did that happen? Why weren't the Greeks conquered by stronger powers before then or didn't conquer one another?

>>49854091
Mmm, makes them fairly mundane as far as weaponry could be concerned. Still awesome though.

I like the concept of literally being what your attachments are, helps remove the social awkwardness of "My chair has feelings you monster!" and so on. They just consider it to be a chair.

>>49853939
Jumping back to this really quickly. "Server people" could be a cool thing to expand on. Being chosen as/offering yourself to be a server person could be a big deal. Maybe they see these people in a really positive light? Giving up the freedom of self in order to preserve knowledge for their entire species? Could be an honored position amongst these people.

>>49854214
Being chosen to be a server is definitely couched as an honored position and most consider it as such. It think it may have been used as punishment before, essentially making them the only thing they're good for.

>>49853776
So what's your plan for making these playable?
Is that the plan?
They seem to possess pretty potent abilities inherently. Could be problematic in game play, unless the game is built around it.

Additionally, letting players create a race is both the best and worst idea. It instantly ties them into your world, and inspires them to participate, since they have some stake in everything now.
But, depending on the person, they can try to break things, create something overpowered, or just generate issues.
Do it anyways, fuck the consequences.

>>49854198
Well, I'm DEFINITELY no expert. But the way I have been taught this has a lot to do with natural geography of Greece. Most of habitable spaces in Greece was in valleys and coastal regions that were separated from each other by pretty inhospitable and steep mountain ranges. When the proto-hellens begun colonizing the region, they were basically just offsprings of few tribes, all sharing similar land of origin and thus same language and similar customs, and they arrived on sea, sailing around the coast finding new places to settle in.
These new settlements were generally speaking poorly connected with each other by land. Which made maintaining their political independence pretty easy: it's easier to defend if there is a massive fuck-off wall of razor-sharp rocks between you and your potential enemies. At the same time, the limited space meant limited production, and the naval paths meant actually pretty easy trade and communication. Hence the cities were both culturally in contact with each other, thus consistently influencing each other and not deviating too much from the shared cultural background (like language), but well defendable against attacks, as pretty much the only way they could be invaded was largely by sea.

There were wars between them, of course, but they were more about raiding than taking land, because again: it's difficult to control a different region if you can only contact them via sea: if your fleet isn't there, you are fucked, basically.

So they remained in this odd state: integrated culturally, but (relatively) independent politically, for most of their history. The first real threat to them was the Persian invasion, and they fought that off with 300 men. Second threat was Pericles, who used the threat of an external invasion into making most of the states his colonies volutarily, by pretending helping them to build an integrated fleet.
It really took Alexander to first unite all the city-states together.

>>49854313
All but the Atem of the examples are playable.

Like Glorantha or Talislanta, the "people" you pick is basically your class, but you can learn other kinds of skills from there, but nothing unique to a people. You can choose to invest in your inherent abilities more as you level up, or spread things out.

If I let players make their own things, I need to devise a way to make it easy to build and implement, but this is more into system territory.

>>49854348
Oh yes, firmly into system territory.
I would put some thought into it at least to the point of them having to choose an element to be bound to like the other races.

Would races of the same element be allies?
If some new Fire race popped up would the Atem see them as rivals?

Actually, tell me more about the Atem, they sound like they're made out of nukes/stars, I am intrigued. How do they fit into the world?
How do they even exist near/on it?
Do they even exist on the world at all?

>>49854382
Yeah, if you were making your own people you would have to pick an element to be bound to. This relationship can be very flexible though as you've seen.

Races of the same element aren't necessarily allies, more likely to be rivals and sometimes straight up enemies depending on their dispositions.

The Atem themselves essentially achieved apotheosis with their ascendance to Fire. They basically became gods, but are doomed to exist only on the Sphere of Fire, which is one of the six moons that orbits Locus, physical manifestations of the six elements and the acting "sun" for Locus. Other people, possibly associated with fire, would likely worship them. I had an idea for a people that were caught in the initial contact and blown in two peoples, a mutated sallow "wax" people savaged on the nuclear plain, and their "shades" which was blasted from them. Their lives intrinsically are linked.

Apotheosis isn't new either. The Gestalt entity the Nix emerged from still exists and is essentially also a "god" if only one of total destruction and likely bound to the Sphere of Water.

>>49854447
>I had an idea for a people that were caught in the initial contact and blown in two peoples, a mutated sallow "wax" people savaged on the nuclear plain, and their "shades" which was blasted from them. Their lives intrinsically are linked.

This would be something I've never seen before if you pulled it off.
Two technically separate "races" of people, each paired up and bound together, maybe even sharing a soul.
The "wax" people would likely be what is actually played, with their shadow being a sort of companion or advisor, maybe the shadows can't really interact with the world and live vicariously through their partners? Maybe every once and a while the shades can ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL
Heavy radiation saturating the area they are from would make them all inherently radioactive, which could have some cool effects on magic or technology.
Could be some social stigma associated with these people. As people that they spend a long time with have increased chances of becoming sick/mutated etc. Could be a trade-off for their otherwise unheard of magical abilities. (Firing radiation at stuff. "Healing" by rapidly mutating people. Etc.)

>>49854525
I didn't initially think of them being connected physically but I like that idea more than just having two closely linked communities, one despising light, the other mutated by it.

I'll have to think on this more because I really need to sleep. Thanks for this anon.

>>49854552
No problem friend. I too will retire to the sleep chamber now. It's been fun chatting with you.

Megaflora - what interesting variations of it further than the typical jungle type could there be?

With the atmosphere skewed towards plant life, the fauna be rather simple and small?

>>49854825
For both those, I'd suggest looking at coral reefs for inspiration. Its one of the most interesting diverse yet integrated biomes on earth. And while coral is technically fauna, not flora, it would still be a good source of inspiration for how things interact.

>>49854825
>Megaflora - what interesting variations of it further than the typical jungle type could there be?
Naushicaa, man. Naushicaa and it's Sea of Decay. Massive fungi are always fun, especially since you can play with the whole "90% of it is really underground, that thing peaking over the surface is just the tip of the iceberg" thing. I think fungi also fits your inhospitable settings pretty well, as they are associated with surviving in even some of the most inhospitable environments in the world, and feel creepy and alien.

So get your mold-based steppes, puff balls size of the house capable of firing their spores five kilometers in the atmosphere, your gargantuan Prototaxites, your sentient lichens.

>With the atmosphere skewed towards plant life,
Not sure what that means. How is atmosphere skewed more towards platlife or fauna? Surely both are equally suit to live on the planet and exist in some form of balance...

Scifi worldbuilding question: if we developed a new technology that allows us to transform heat into electricity directly, without having to go through the mechanical 'spin this wheel' step, are there any serious implications of that tech beyond the obvious of more efficient and compact powerplants? And cooling systems, I suppose, if you can draw power from heat sinks and funnel it away in the form of electricity somewhere useful.

>>49856619
depends on many factors you haven't considered

efficiency
size
rate of production
weight
expense of the module
etc.

>>49856699

Expensive and big enough that it won't be in anything smaller than a car, but cheap enough that its not like it drives the price up to anything unreasonable.

The goal of it is to explain power sources for futuretech that solve the energy consumption issue less by going SO MUCH HIGH POWER MAN with antimatter and fusion, and instead just dramatically increase the energy efficiency of other forms of power.

The in-world explanation for it is that it is a traded technology with aliens. We made spinny generators, they made heat-sink generators. Neither of us knew that the other form of energy production was even a thing until we made contact with each other and looked at the other sides dramatically different tech tree progression. And on that particular issue, their idea turned out better than ours. The goal is to reinforce a setting theme that aliens don't just look differently than we do, they think differently. There are major ideas and discoveries we take for granted that have never occurred to them at all, and vice versa.

They, for example, never invented concrete or an equivalent.

>>49851424
Arch Patriarch sounds a bit redundant given it has 'arch' in it twice. Maybe Grand/High Patriarch or just Archfather? Also Leader of the Divine Council sounds a bit clumsy, maybe Speaker of the Divine Council?

>>49856993
Archfather sounds as good as Allfather, which is one of the best titles the head of a pantheon can have.

>>49856802
What you're describing sounds like it probably violates the laws of thermodynamics.

I'm kind of waffling back and forth between having actual magic and just having 'magic technology' in my setting, and by that I mean like Real Alchemy. The setting is just for my own amusement, so I don't have to worry about RPG stuff like spellcaster classes or whatever.

What are some cool things you can do with Real Alchemy?

I have images in my head of people carrying around homunculi in bottles as some kind of talking/comic relief companion who also serve a function (what though?).

Zombified/artificial men who work as servants.

Golems animated by strange rituals, but they are rare and require a live human to be encased in them in order to provide the soul for the machine.

Knight mecha armor suits that combine artificial life alchemy with Golem 'technology' to create stuff like WH40k terminator arm, but with swords and shields.

I don't know much about alchemy but I'm planning to read up more on it.

>>49857195

Maybe? But doesn't seem like a worse offender than most scifi tech. The idea is to just get electricity with a single transformation of energy (heat->electric) instead of a multi-step process (heat->water->turbine->electric). New energy is not created, but it seems logical that much less energy would be wasted in the process, resulting in more electrical power in hand for the same about of starting heat, regardless of how you produce that heat.

>>49857372
>Maybe? But doesn't seem like a worse offender than most scifi tech.
It really is, it sounds like it's essentially a perpetual motion machine.

>>49857266

The alchemy you are talking about is mostly anime-alchemy, which is just magic with fancy magic circles.

Old style alchemy was basically just chemistry, with an optimistic streak of presuming that alchemical science could accomplish more than it really could.

Most of what you describe is imbuing life into objects, which isn't quite alchemy. Golems, for example, were not alchemically based. A golem was a man/man-like being made out of earth and clay in an explicit reproduction of how God created man in the garden of eden. So basically if you were wise enough, you could make a really shitty copy of one of gods own miracles.

You are basically toying with the idea of magical artificial intelligence in a fantasy setting. Which isn't necessarily a bad starting point, but you should probably put some thought into where these minds/souls are coming from, and what are the ramifications of that. Is this basically necromancy? Are you binding nonhuman spirits? Are you magically manufacturing souls from the aether?

>>49857392

How does that follow? You have a source of heat, you draw electricity from it, you use that electricity to power things, that electricity is now lost. Used up. Its not coming back to your system any time soon.

So how is this perpetual motion/energy?

If I am legitimately just missing some massive implication, please tell me.

File: HRE.png (680KB, 787x1024px) Image search: [Google]

680KB, 787x1024px

>>49853705

Sure, just make them all part on a current empire. The Holy Roman Empire was an absolute clusterfuck of relatively independent states, and the majority of the core regions in Germany all shared a common language, etc.

>>49857503

Electricity doesn't just disappear. It is "used up" by transforming in to an unusable type of energy: heat. If you have a machine that can turn ambient heat back in to energy then you have a perpetual motion machine. All you'd have to do is stick your magic energy machine in a closed system to suck up the heat and have another machine using the energy it produces to create heat. Such a system is a physical impossibility.

>>49857704
Could it have the unusable energy as light or sound?

>>49857704

Of course its impossible, you would never be able to get ALL the produced heat back into the system. You might be able to recycle some of it, but energy is still going to be lost as heat at multiple steps during that process, such as radiating out from wires and being absorbed by the various materials that make up the machine that are not, specifically, the heat collection apparatus that feeds the electrical convertor thing.

And that's just trying to set up a self perpetuating loop that has the same net outcome as just leaving the energy in whatever stable form you started with as fuel. The moment you start actually using that electricity for anything, even something as simple as powering your lights, the heat loss over an area makes any idea of keeping this reaction self-perpetuating laughable.

>>49857461
>with an optimistic streak of presuming that alchemical science could accomplish more than it really could.

That's what I'm trying to get at, yeah. By Real Alchemy I meant alchemy if it could do all the stuff it wishes it could do and the effects of that were normal in this setting. But just without the instantaneous of Full Metal Alchemy, so the effects of it are only really seen in the setting's technology. You can't do fireballs by snapping your fingers, but you could grow a homunculus in an expensive laboratory over several years.

Also I know Golems are not alchemy, but there was some overlap between Kabbalah and alchemy which is what I wanted to play on.

Your points about souls are well taken though, I'll spend some more time thinking about that.

One thing I liked the idea of was playing up the connection between the blood and the soul, so by taking all of someone's blood you were taking their soul, and could use that to perform alchemic rituals, and transfer it into objects.

Is this just for Campaign settings, or is any worldbuilding allowed?

>>49857777

The problem, though, is that even if your whole system radiates heat, you're still going to be getting free infinite energy from it. Because when you have a machine that can collect ambient heat and turn it in to energy, it doesn't even matter how much of that energy ultimately makes it to the machine you need to power. Any and all energy lost to inefficiency becomes heat energy which can then be used again as energy. When you can suck heat from the surrounding environment you are cooling it down. Temperature will always equalize itself, so you are going to have a constant influx of new heat to convert to energy.

No matter how you look at it, it is infinite free energy.

>>49857862
any is allowed. a lot of people are doing it for RPG settings but a lot are just doing it for their own amusement or writing projects or whatever.

>>49857862

Any world building, I suppose. Some people share worlds they are writing for stories, some for games, some for campaigns. If you have a world you want some feed back on, feel free to share.