/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

What can I do to convey a more fairytale kind of world?

>>50475538
>>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
Serfism is not uncommon in the rural areas. True slavery is uncommon, but it exists in the wilderness region, and there is a form of debt slavery/indentured servitude that harlots and others might find themselves in.

Also, serfism varies from nation to nation. Some are not awful, some are, and include up to primae noctis

>>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?
The holdfast of Rekke almost 50% of the population is enslaved. But it a small nation.

>>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people?
There has been a number of peasant revolts, and in the old past (about 1,000 years prior) There was a major slave revolt that ended slavery in most of the world. The most recent peasant revolt was 14 years ago sparked by a food shortage.


>>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?
The 2nd empire of man fell due to a cult leading a assassination campaign and revolt. The cult leader was Philippi de Vort, a member of the large council.

>>Who are the most famous traitors?
Philippi de Vort, and Queen Nersa, who killed her father in law, 3 brothers, and husband to place her son on the throne.

>>50475705
Well, for starters, you should read a shitload of fairytales and absorb the common themes.

The most difficult thing to convey about fairytales is that they are largely moral-driven, in that every story tries to teach some kind of lesson (even if sometimes the lesson is something horrible by today's standards).

What a fairytale is, most of all, is fairly short. There aren't many stories that extend across arcs and arcs of adventure that can still be called a "Fairy Tale" so whatever the campaign may be, it'll likely end up being a oneshot or twoshot.

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>>50475538
>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
True slavery exists among goblins and the most fringe groups of humans. They keep it plain and simple: I own you, you are property. Whatever the culture's laws say about property pertain to the slaves. Goblins look at them as not even being goblins or humans... they are something less

Necromancy enslaves plenty but for the most part they were already dead. Those who gave up their souls while alive walked into slavery willingly for eternal life

The Elves keep slaves but slaves are second-class citizens. They have separate courts, code of ethics, laws, and housing projects to name a few things which separate slave from master. It is considered completely normal to sell yourself into slavery for a few years to work off a debt, escape crimes outside of slave life, and even to discipline children

>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?
Though not nations, the goblin tribes living in the badlands and flood-plains keep one to two slaves for every three tribe members. Fear and violence keeps order for them

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people?
The Necro Rebellion was created, populated, and led to victory by common people and mages. Some nobility ended up going against it because they could not stick their fingers into the rebellion to gain control

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?
Hanno's rebellion and eventual "expedition" - really just his surviving allies, soldiers and their families fleeing - comes to mind. Had he not been so against bringing other ethnic groups into his cause, they would have won

>Who are the most famous traitors?
One of the four dragon gods betrayed his siblings in a bid for ultimate power. Although a religious figure, anyone who embodies just one of his traits is considered a grave sinner. More mundane, famous traitors include Rodrero da Golva & Aethelwold

>>50475538
>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?

In terms of legal slavery, the most you would probably see is contracts drafted up to pay off debts through servitude, but even that's less likely to be full on slavery. Aside from that, you may see some trafficking of smaller or lesser races in major port cities, but that's more black market activity.

Demons also practice it extensively.

>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?

Likely the one with the largest port focused heavily on trade, though again, that's more black market activity.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people?

I'm still working on the full history of the world, though so far rebellions seem like a less likely occurrence. One major one would have been on the isles to the east, being halflings and dwarves rising up against human colonists. Outside of that though, nobility tends to be those with magical bloodlines, so they've got a fair bit of claim to rule.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?

Well, this is more ancient history, though long ago the gods killed the primoridal who spawned them. Then a member of the first race of elves rose to godhood and killed most of the other gods. The main god of the elves asked for help but they said no and left. So it was a really long chain of people being dicks. However, that elf did make the rest of the races and didn't exactly share a lot of this ancient history, so it's not very well known. Instead, he painted himself as a god of justice, law, oaths, light, and all that nice stuff.

Aside from that, any rebellions would have been infighting between nobles, most likely.

>Who are the most famous traitors?

This is a bit more twisting of history, though one of the gods who escaped that killing spree did so due to being a sneaky asshole. He's viewed by many as a scoundrel, and he's betrayed many

> Does your setting have sex slaves?

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>>50475705
You can off the walls insane with it. People being ten feet tall and it is totally normal, animals talking, it rains iron on Tuesdays, the government isn't corrupt. Y'know... just to name a few examples.

You could also do small things to convey a fantastic setting. A fairytale setting in the sense of Brüder Grimm stories need only one or two things to make it. A gingerbread man come to life, a house made from bread and sugar that also houses an old woman/witch cannibal, and so on

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>>50476267

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So I'm basically creating my first ever high fantasy world and I've decided I want it to be very noblebright-ish, a bit like final fantasy in tone if that helps.

What should I do to present this idea and to make the theme resonate throughout? Just everyone is more or less nice or?

>>50476267
yes

>>50476339
I'm assuming you mean a bit more towards earlier final fantasy rather than later?

That aside, the thing to keep in mind with noblebright is that people are largely noble, and the world is bright. Evil people and monsters can still exist of course, but there's going to be the prevailing theme that good will triumph over evil in the end.

I'm not sure what the best method would be to show that, rather than simply telling the players.

>>50475705
Take your fantasy setting, and completely excise all the game-of-thrones grimdark political horseshit from it. I know you have some going on somewhere in there.

The kingdom is prosperous, the king doesn't murder his wifes or fuck his children, there's no entire family of lesser nobles who are famous exclusively for skinning people why is this a thing? and the primary conflict is that a witch has places a curse, or a dragon has plopped its fat ass in the castle and everyone had to flee for their lives.

What a fairytale is, at its core, is uncomplicated. A simple tale, with a simple solution, trimmed of court politics and intrigue and difficult moral questions. Break the curse, slay the dragon, outwit the trolls under the bridge. The conflict is simple, and so is the moral.

>>50476339
>What should I do to present this idea and to make the theme resonate throughout

Show that that the lords are noble.
Knights are expected to do honorable things
Perhaps the king is selected from the knights by the gods in some ceremonial manner, and the gods choose the most noble person. Thus everyone strives to be noble.

also, might be good to define what noble is...

>>50475705
I would take a look at Lorwyn from Magic: The Gathering. It actually gets across a very fairytale sort of tone

>>50476452
If you want to do some court intrige, make sure the bad person is some sort of easily identified as bad person, a wormtongue or rasputin type who dresses in dark clothes, whispers bad advise to a worried king, and must be defeated

extra points, he must not be killed, as that would be not noble

>>50475705

The most important thing for a world to be a fairy tale world is all the weird little rules: Beans grow into giant beanstalks that pierce the heavens. Saying somebody's name makes them poof. Bears leave porridge leaving all over the fucking place, etc.

Everyone here tells me that slavery is inefficient and that no culture should have it if you want to be realistic.

>>50477702

Well those people are both retarded and wrong.

>>50477702
Depends on the time period and region. There are points where slavery becomes less efficient, but if it was universally inefficient (ie, having a slave work a farm didn't give you more food than the slave ate) then it would have never occurred much at all in history, because there'd be little point.

>>50476452
But anon, you're excising the best parts of fairytales. Things like abusive husbands, or woman who cut the thumbs off naughty children with giant red scissors, and other really fucked up shit.

>>50477702

Slavery died out the same reason feudalism did:

It's much more efficient to just pay someone 5 dollars an hour to do whatever shitty work you need to get done than it is to pay "nothing" to do whatever shitty work you need to get done (which actually means hiring other people to get your slave and bring it to you, hiring people to guard them so they don't escape, paying for their food, paying for their shelter, paying for a doctor if they get fucked up working etc)

>>50477911
I wonder if there's an alternate universe somewhere where Europeans offered African tribes entry level agricultural work in the Americas and it actually worked.

Noblebright Earth.

>>50477985
Not worth the cost of importing unintelligent, tribal savages.

>>50477985

The Transatlantic slave trade happened because Africans and Muslims were already enslaving each other in their wars and had plenty of surplus in stock. Meanwhile, the workers that were moving into the Americas had trickled to a crawl as economic conditions improved in Yurop and people didn't wanna go anymore. Faced with a labor shortage and imminent economic downturn, indentured servantry began to shift to full life-time slaves and the rich began importing more from Africa.

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I'vve been trying to make a world for the longest goddamn time. Been trying to detail histories and ethnic groups and monsters and all sorts of things, just so I can have a playground to work in for stories.

And I'm sick and tired of it. I just ran out of steam. I'm going to write a bare bones high fantasy story. Good V Evil, ect ect.

It's gunna be like bonkles or something i dont fucking know.

Do you guys ever feel like this? That trying to assemble a web-like framework adorned meticulously with fucktonnes of detail just sucks all the imagination and livliness out of the world?

Like, I feel like we worry too much about wind patterns and philosophical movements of the late 34th century Elven Kingdoms than the important stuff: Like the themes and whatever.

Like, why are we building this world? What do we want to explore in it? What's it got to say about the human condition/existence?

>>50478141
I very often scrap and start over to try and figure out what I want out of a setting, though luckily I don't often get into too much detail before the broad strokes.

I feel like I don't ask those sorts of questions about theme enough though. I feel like I know the tone I want to aim for, but I'm not reinforcing that as much as trying to piece together cool stuff I want to include.

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Going for a Celtic vibe for a new Dnd5e setting, wanted some input on races.

So far I got Gaelic and Norman Humans, Norse Elves and Half Elves, Gaelic Firbolg and Halflings, Anglo-Saxon Wolfmen, Giants, and Catfolk based on the Cat-Sidhe.

Good? Bad?

>>50478141
I often feel that way. I start over with something simpler, which then turns into another overcomplicated mess, which I then abandon then start over with something simpler etc.

>>50476339
Civilization is the source and centerpiece to Good. Your Knights are Paladins and your Paladins are Super Paladins. Kings are unwaveringly benevolent, and the churches only exist for the betterment of their towns. Corruption does not exist where people are.

Evil lies elsewhere. It might be in Goblin or Orc camps far off in the wilderness. There might be a Kingdom of Evil, but its never one of your neighbors. If that kingdom is human, there's something obvious that makes them distinctly different from the Good people (other than being evil obvs).

Townsfolk are uniformly optimistic. When something good happens they are elated, while a bad event trends towards a more neutral reaction. People are curious, joyful, and friendly. There is scant superstition that isn't also tongue-in-cheek. Wizards are seen as wise sages rather than with apprehension.

If you want to try something new, it works more often than not. People want to learn, experience, and expand themselves. They're more trusting with less foundation needed. Populations are more unified than not, and demographic differences aren't particularly important. Honor goes a lot further and with less evidence expected.

There's also plenty of ways to corrupt all of this if you ever have the desire. Noblebright is very idealistic, and subverting that is its weakness.

>>50475538
>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
One nation has some nobles who employ indentured servitude to the lesser human-things. Through technicality, there's also a hivemind nation who enslaves its people based on geographical proximity to a Queen. Messengers between kingdoms have instructions to deliver messages either to the Gate or the Inner Chambers depending on how much a Queen wants their messenger back. And of course the monstrous races practice traditional slavery as they're wont.

>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?
The Hivemind nation for sure. The Nobility/Servant nation employs very few to do labor and the Monstrous races are too small and disorganized to compete.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people?
Somewhat of a rebellion, a !America was established by multiple small refugees all finding each other in the wilderness. People leave their homelands and try to establish another village/town/city all the time, but for it to happen nigh simultaneously for each "important" nation is noteworthy.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?
Within that !America, there was a cult that rose to power under the guise of Organized Religion. They were attempting to summon a Demon Lord to enslave the entire world. !America had representatives from each of the 12 Blessed races, which was a requirement for the ancient magic. The ritual only partially worked. The earth was reformed, almost every living thing's genetics were altered, and the world restarted. This was less of a traditional rebellion and more of a "rebel against life". I'm sure some traditional rebellions happened, but I haven't gotten to that overall level of detail yet.

>Who are the most famous traitors?
Each of the 12 Blessed races had a leader for their refugees. That part of history hasn't been forgotten. Same with the leaders of the demonic cult.

>>50475538
Tell me more about this free mapmaking toolset.

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So I have a setting where I am basically "changing the meta" of Wizards and magic then in most settings.

Instead of Wizards being powerful 'artillery pieces' feared by all, Wizards are helpful kooks with a grimoire of useful charms, hexes and transformation spells of all kinds.

Wizards are significantly weaker then in traditional DnD on purpose here; for one thing they absolutely require a wand to do any magic at all and do not have powerful spells. They can cast an unlimited number of useful but small spells and cantrips, allowing them to do small and simple tasks. Very powerful magic, anything even closely resembling a fireball or summoning a demon would be something special and encompass an entire campaign worth of character growth and great archmage-level status.

How would the average fantasy world change if magic users are almost entirely supportive instead of power houses, and who the majority of spells they have access too are Hearth-spun enchantments to help out around a house or campsite?

How would you incorporate Wizards of this stature into your own fantasy setting, or what do you think is their proper place in society full of muggles and fantastic things alike?

>>50480487
They would probably be everywhere and people would treat them with more respect than traditional powerful wizards. Since you mentioned hexes, some people may be paranoid that a wizard is targeting them. The general quality of life would be much higher based on the specific spells I'm picturing from your description, and that would lead to quicker technological development.

They would be somewhat out of place in my setting, magic is everywhere in mine but it can only occur in ways that cannot be proven to be magic. While they aren't as powerful as my wizards, they would be far easier to spot and magic would be much easier to study. My wizards essentially work like this:
>They are adept at imposing their will on reality in seemingly unnatural ways.
>Achieved through different methods like prayer, obsessive-compulsive (often placebo derived from experience) rituals, confidence, or simply because the wizard thinks it's funny.
>The wizard succeeds in a field without the benefit of as much talent as you would expect should be necessary
>People seem to have an irrational hate for the wizard that is not entirely explained by the wizard’s actions.
>Wizards are often more ambitious, and often more aggressive, than you think is normal.
>One or more major reputation disasters define the wizard’s history.
>The wizard has a gift for simplification.
>Observers detect a reality distortion field.
>Wizards have an ability to succeed where other fail by changing the entire game as opposed to winning at the existing one.

>>50480695
Additionally
>Have very distinct appearances and mannerisms, which they are obsessive in maintaining. Part of their power comes from this persona.
>Illicit joy, confusion, and even fear in times when they seem absurdly out of place, creating surreal environments simply by existing. Something is very off about their aura.
>Addicted to having their persona imprinted into the minds of others.

>>50478374
Neat

>>50482091
Thanks! Any suggestions for keeping the setting feeling Celtic?

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Hey /tg/ can I get some constructive criticism on my map?

>>50483161
Think GURPS had a 3rd edition Celtic book, GURPS books are great for worldbuilding, even if you ignore the crunchy backside of the book.

>>50483235
looks like it is upside down...

What is the big wall protecting?

>>50483235
Why did you do this to my picture /tg/? I thought we were friends

>>50483249
That is built by the large empire to protect against the evil one that rules the middle empire there.

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>>50483235
Let's try again

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>>50483272
I am a horrible with drawing, but a easy way to make mountains look better is to give them off center sub ^ to give them better definition.

>>50483236
Sounds like a plan! You don't happen to know the full name of it, do you? Would cut down on the time it'll take to dive through the archive in the general.

>>50483433
It is called Celtic Myth, its under the historical section of their files.

>>50483340
Good advice.

>>50483476
Thank you sir. You are a gentleman of taste.

>>50483618
You are welcome.

And now comes the great debate.

Been working on some world building. And have a key question.

Which is better suited - low fantasy or high fantasy?

>>50483741
Depends on the world. Each has it's pros and cons. What kind of world we talkin about?

>>50483741
Not that guy but high fantasy is always better if you want to have fun since it have more room for creativity to maneuver.

>>50483741
For your Celtic setting? Go with high fantasy for the initiated, low fantasy for the common man.
Have weird shit like the realms of the Seelie and Unseelie, etc be relegated to the informed, with the majority of the population kept in willful ignorance.

>>50475538
>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
Mostly indentured servitude. Debtors can sell themselves when they've got nothing else left to sell. The conditions of servitude can vary widely; often the deals are worked out to be pretty humane, but unscrupulous businesses have been known to strike highly unfavorable, even cruel, purchases. In the worst cases, they specifically target the illiterate, making strict contracts and telling the debtor the deal is much more favorable than it is. An appointed legal official is supposed to oversee all servitude contracts to ensure this doesn't happen, but those same businesses usually have at least a couple such officials in their pockets.

Most contracts are for a theoretically limited period, but depending on interest rates of debt and the rate of pay, that can stretch far longer than anticipated.
>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?
Meride, known as an economic powerhouse, has purchased miners from all over the world. Dwarves typically live near the poles, but close to 4% of equatorial Meride's population is now composed of dwarves. Maybe. I don't know for sure what I'm gonna do with dwarves in my setting or if they're gonna exist at all. But I do think I'm gonna have Meride own lots of indentured servants.

That actually fits in really well with another feature of Meride: twice now they've outright purchased other countries teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for easier access to their natural resources.

1/2, because apparently I can't keep myself from rambling.

>>50477702
Depends on certain factors. In a super-simplified nutshell: if you can pay people to do the work for less than the upkeep of your slaves then slavery becomes less cost-effective.

>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
On the Hammer Isle people are born into slavery. Strong racial divide exists with Greek-looking masters and Irish-looking slaves.

In the Ilem Wildlands people Ilemites would kidnap people in raids and make them work for them and also make criminals work for them sometimes. Traditions demand to release them once in a while.
>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?
Aforementioned Hammer Isle has ridiculous percentage of slaves. Not really because they need them, but because they need to keep them down.
>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?
A succession crisis. Accusation against the crown prince's mother's fidelity caused his half-sister and her husband to raise a rebellion across the country in a bid for throne, after the old king died.

>>50484189
>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people?
The most notable turned Reveste from a pure monarchy into a constitutional monarchy of sorts, where the sovereign (or a representative) shares power with elected officials.
>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?
Dozens have occurred over the millennia, most of them unsuccessful. Pretty much any time a new ruler takes power, you can expect at least one noble to revolt.
>Who are the most famous traitors?
Alveila Tenvaas, the first Reveste sovereign of the current dynasty, who seized power one hundred and forty years ago.

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>>50484220
>pay workers to work your fields/assembly line/etc
>they have money, pay for their own upkeep
>occasionally give you money back for the products they help produce

>>50484279
Muffled sixteen tons playing in the distance

>>50478088
The reason why African slaves prosper in Americas and not in the Middle East where most African slaves are actually bound to is simply because Muslims castrate their male slaves and impregnate their female slaves with their own seed. This had resulted in several African tribes been wiped out of existence.

>>50483313
Make it in Inkarnate.

>>50477911
>>50477758
>>50484220
Why did ancient empires have so many slaves?

>>50484344
Depends which ones you mean. In the case of Rome, constant wars and the ways the laws worked meant slaves were rather plentiful. Furthermore, it was basically the only good way to move a ship quickly.

>>50477702
Slavery gets you some cheap but motivated labour. Which is great for picking crops, but not so good for anything else. It also gives you some greedy unmotivated businessmen which can potentially slow down your economy consistently. Which is why it had to be outlawed. It's not 100% inefficient, just not being a slaver, pays better, especially as knowledge pool expands demanding for more sophisticated workers.

Wage slavery is much more efficient, and you can still keep your workers in debt and suffering until they position improve more with rise of even more sophisticated know-hows and general humanism in society.

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>>50484393
Remember, kids; if you need unintelligent, unskilled labor in a fantasy setting, just call your friendly neighborhood Necromancer.

>>50484344
Once again, a lot of different factors. Generally, if your free people can gain a good living working for themselves, then you're going to have to offer them sufficient incentive to work for you instead. If that incentive is greater than the cost of purchasing and upkeeing slaves, then you're saving resources by using slaves. It's sort of supply and demand. If there is a high amount of available resources and a small amount of free workers, the price of hiring free workers rise. If resources are scarce and free labor plentiful, the price of free workers goes down. Tangentially, you have a legal right to force slaves to work for you, which you theoretically don't with free people, meaning you can keep your labor costs steady even if you're having them performing increasingly unpleasant tasks.

Also, it can be a "good" way to handle criminal prisoners and captives of war. If you're going to keep them alive might as well put them to work.

>>50477911
wrong.
slavery died out because of the enlightenment.
i dont know why i even goto this site anymore. arguing with literally thousands of 16 year olds is just.... a waste of time

How long does it take for a human to walk about 100km assuming they take a few breaks a day and sleep maybe 6-7 hours a night? Like 3 days?

>>50484618
It's about 20 hours of walking, I think. Assuming it's not a difficult path.

So I guess 3 days is a reasonable estimate. 7 hours of walking per day, more than enough left to rest.

>>50484618
Depends on the terrain. If it's just, like, a flat meadow or a dirt road or something, then a rate of 6-7km/h is on the high side of reasonable. If they walk 14 hours a day (7 hours of sleep and 3 hours for meals/rests), then they could cover 100km in about a day and a half.

>>50484337
What's that?

>>50484700
It's a drawing program made for fantasy maps.

Is there any way to take a hand drawn map and recreate it in inkarnate? Or another program? I know I could scan it and throw it into gimp but I don't have a tablet or anything so I can't draw on my computer. Also I'm no good at art all I can do is basic map shit.

>>50484782
I think just set the paper copy in front of you and draw a copy of it in the computer. You can take the opportunity to refine it at the same time.

>>50475733
What kind of country is Rekke? Agrarian, manufacturing, that kinda stuff.

>>50476109
The divine mandate of rulership has been a myth perpetrated by pretty much every ruling class in every part of the world, and they still have rebellions. Hell, a watered-down version of it still exists ("I'm rich because I'm smart and I worked hard"). I don't think a "magical bloodline" would be enough to keep people from revolting against a shitty leader.

>>50484908
>Idon't think a "magical bloodline" would be enough to keep people from revolting against a shitty leader.
In mine the ruling family's bloodline can literally shoot lightning from their hands, but that doesn't protect them from an angry enough mob. That's what the jackboots are for

>>50484908
Magical bloodline in the sense that the nobility can cast typically cast charm spells and fling a few firebolts.

It isn't going to make them immune to resentment, but it's harder to assassinate them. I think you'd have far less rebellions when the divine mandate to rule was backed up by someone shooting lighting.

>>50484946
Unless a rebel leader could also shoot lightning

>>50484976
Which makes him the bastard son of nobility, in league with otherwordly entities, leading to the mistrust of the populace, or just someone who's heavily outnumbered because one wizard against 5 or so sorcerers is a bad fight even for a higher level wizard.

>>50484908
>What kind of country is Rekke? Agrarian, manufacturing, that kinda stuff.
The holdfast is basically a wilderness fort. They are used for raising crops, (and most likely bedwarmers). It is viewed as a evil place. but as said, the holdfast is something like 800 free folk and 650 slaves... So we are not talking huge numbers.

>>50483313
Is this a logical map? Does it at least not too overtly trigger the autisms of the "muh realism" players?

>>50483313
>>50486156
Biggest things I see are a desert being right next to all the towns names snow, making me thing that place is supposed to be cold, and the giant straight wall.

That desert would be a tundra if anything, which is fine, but should be labeled better. And the wall shouldn't be perfectly flat, but follow the countours of hills and mountains and other obstacles, sort of like the great wall of china. Unless there's a perfectly seared line in the earth, it won't be perfectly straight.

>>50484782
Take a photo with your cellphone and download it to your computer, then try to match it up with your export from Inkarnate

>>50475538
>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
All kinds, we don't discriminate. Race based chattel, debt slavery, non-race based chattel, thralldom, concubinage, the works.

>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?

The glorious Zunbilid Shahdom has gathered a great host of slaves to serve in its fleets, fields, arenas, and on the battlefield. So great in fact, that over 65% of the population consists of foreign slaves of varying levels of societal status.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people?

The Free city of Gogow exists due to a slave rebellion in which the reveling slaves managed to seize the cities harbor, along with the 3 great warships that came with it. Unfortunately for the Zunbils, they had just came out of a war with its neighbors that left its navy crippled and unable to respond with haste to the rebellion. Being surrounded on all sides by mountains, the Shahs generals were forced to approach the city from the sea, a tactic that proved disasterous as the Gogowian Slaves manned the battleships and drove off the invading shahs forces. Even many decades later, the well trained forces of Gogow continuously repel all Zunbilid attempts at getting close to the city.
>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?
Unrelated to the previous event, a state run by communist technocrats had recently broke away from the Golden Khanate to form their Utopian state. War has not yet been prosecuted by either side however.
>Who are the most famous traitors?
More legend than anything, the tale of Durgen the Horrible and how he damned the dwarves to near extinction is one that's rather infamous, and the Clanfolk that roam the hills of Lorn take it upon themselves rename those who commit a crime against their kin after him as a mark of shame deserving revulsion.

File: Lost Legions.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

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Might be autism, but i just wrote a 1000 word short story on a obscure bit of history of the world I am creating - elder scrolls style.

>>50478374
Good. I'd be interested if you wanted to talk more about it

>>50486381
and yes, would need to copy edit it better if I was to really publish it.

>>50486216
Have to agree with my label, didn't really think it through. Figured that side of the mountains got all the wind rain and snow, no fall on the other side would logically be a desert. Also the wall looks mostly flat-ish, since the land there doesn't get more than rolling hills

>>50486411
Well, it is still technically a desert, it's just that the people wouldn't call it that. It would be all permafrost, rather than sandy and hot.

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>>50486442
Well I could just call it the frozen north, I guess, but still. The point is that there's literally nothing up there Maybe. Probably. No one who has went deep enough in that territory was ever seen again, so they must have starved or gotten lost right?

Anyone using/has an interesting take on wendigos in their setting?

>>50487054
Have you played Everyone is Wendigo?

>>50487196
Is that like Everyone is John, but with cannibalism?

>>50487054
Always wanted to to a GURPS horror in a Mexican american war setting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjvXL0vXt8Y

Dwarfs, do you use them? How do you do them? What do you do with them?

Im stewing with an idea that Dwarves and Giants come hand in hand. Dwarves are like maggots in the flesh of giants, so wherever Giants are or were, Dwarves are.

>>50487254
It's an old setting I saw on /tg/. There were no more humans left, everyone was some form of shapeshifter pretending to be human, but no one knew anyone else was a shapeshifter

>>50487426
Wasn't that the original Dwarves in Norse myth (something was made from maggots, but I don't remember exactly what)?

I have mine as a merchant navy mercenary and privateer force with a Phoenician flavor. They come from a northern mountainous region that centuries ago, the natural seawalls gave way and flooded, turning the valleys into waterways. They are pretty standard Dwarves; stubborn, honor-bound, and obsessed with money, due to their beliefs that when you die, you must pay the toll to enter the afterlife, which increases the more sins you've committed in life.

Everything is seen as business to the Dwarves, even war. Dwarven military is made up of mercenaries and sellswords. Privateering is a common practice, pirate companies are hired to attack tradelines, and combat is done in a relatively orderly fashion, only involving combatants. The pirates will capture and hold the target until ransom is negotiated and paid, the release it and compensate for any damages caused to non-risk items and personnel.

>>50488010
>Wasn't that the original Dwarves in Norse myth (something was made from maggots, but I don't remember exactly what)?

They were maggots in the flesh of Ymir given reason by the gods. They're ugly hairy short men who are lecherous and obsessed with beautiful things. They're incredibly skilled in craft, having made mead from the blood of a skald, and a necklace that a goddess wanted it so bad she had sex with the dwarves for it. Dwarf women are rare, but apparently there was a Dwarf woman seductress.

What evolutionary niche might dwarves fill?

Maybe they were just there first but are inferior to humans and fell from glory due to humans being better fit for the dwarves' habitats?

>>50488239
Built for high altitudes
Hands and feet evolved for climbing and gripping
Can sniff out edible plants in the ground
Winter hibernation

Didn't think of these until immediately after I asked the question

>>50488059
Dwarves are neckbeards incarnate, god bless.

>>50488239
lil mountain moles.

>>50487426
It my current worldbuilding, they are literally carved from stone, and their patron god grants them a spark of life. They do not understand (nor claim to understand) their god's overall plan, but the Dwarfs are part of it.

They are still stubborn, proud, and love gold and wealth. It is known that Dwarves wish to be noteworthy enough that their soul is allowed to reincarnate.

if need be, they can produce more dwarves in a hurry, and well established Dwarfholds will have carved dwarfs ready for "birth" if a crisis happens. And in a true crisis happens, it is assumed the god will send their great fighters and kings to return again to defend them.

Most surface dwellers have no idea the amount and scale of underground warfare the dwarves do.

>>50487426
My current plan for dwarves in the setting is that they were the second attempt by an upstart god to create life, alongside halflings and humans.

I do have them as fairly typical, with thanes and clans, though the dwarves to the south had a 'dug too deep' situation and had to abandon their mountain becoming a demon volcano, so there's a bit of racial tension between northern and southern dwarves for that reason.

>>50488989
>>50489230

I think if it's one thing I don't like at all is how it's all because of gods doing things.

I much prefer races and peoples defined in the now, leaving creation myths as just that, myths. The truth is lost.

>>50489262
Well, to clarify with mine, this all happened a long, long time ago. The truth isn't taught as 100% historical fact, as the history of those three races still wouldn't go back that far except in the barest of oral traditions.

The god himself uplifted a bunch of races at once, so there wasn't much time in his eyes to stick around and babysit, meaning any legends are basically going to be the god giving them fire and allowing them to progress. It'd still take a while for them to get past tribalism and form actual societies and cultures. And a while still from there for the 'dug too deep' part to happen.

I like creation myths to be more mythical in-setting, though as the person making the world I want to know what happened so I can make sure things are consistent with that.

>>50489262
In my setting, the dwarves are rather unique in the sense that many view them as complex automations of flesh then the normal being.

The other races just have old myths that may or may not be true, and the main organized faith has altered the old tales for their own gain. The oldest PC race (A lizardman variant) thinks they have always been there.

Heck, most villagers would think if they cut open a dwarf that cogs would fall out of them and such. (they are flesh for the record after creation.)

>>50489355
>I like creation myths to be more mythical in-setting, though as the person making the world I want to know what happened so I can make sure things are consistent with that.

I tend to try to worldbuild with relevancy to my players. Things like Creation myths rarely have any importance to a player unless they're looking for/fighting something relevant to it. Also following this model, there are many kinds of Creation myths, no definitive gods, and as many hooks as needed.

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Maybe you guys can help me with a dilemma. I'm sure some of you have faced it in the past.

How would you approach a setting you created long ago when you where a teenager? I love it a lot, of course, but some of the main elements are things that I would find unforgivable mistakes or simply silly today.

Would you start retconning left and right in order to "update" it? Or would you simply leave it alone, unperfect as it is, and focus on new things (maybe taking stuff from the other)? If I take inspiration from it but I'm doing a completely new thing, how do I present it as such and not a hardcore retcon to those who enjoyed the previous setting?

tl;dr I kinda want to "save" my teenager-started fantasy world, but I'm not sure it can or should be saved.

>>50489589
My setting basically has multiple facets or windows, with location names, characters, races, some magic, occurring in multiple settings. No canon linkage between any of course.

For example, a hypothetical MMO for my setting (just something I brainstorm for fun with no real goal) has a much smaller map with lots of locations being absorbed by others and themepark type locations being built in. Most of my races persist between fantasy, scifi, and abstract settings.

Just put the old one through a filter and build something new starting with whatever is worth keeping, I constantly retcon for this purpose.

>>50489589
I always harvested the best ideas from my older worlds and gone from there.

>>50489687
Mine was a bit more rigid. Not gonna enter on details since it's a bit late here and I don't feel like it, but basically there was a well defined divine structure that shaped the world and the whole thing didn't work without it. It was hard adding more lands or peoples without contradicing myself and stuff like that, and changes had to be made as from what already existed without real innovation. All pretty simple truth be told.

>>50489728
Picking old ideas and putting them into new ones may be the best.

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Tell me what you guys think of my map /wbg/

>>50487426
The dwarves in my setting live in mountains and have clan wars with each other. Some have migrated to the hills near the mountains and spread north but besides that the only "real" dwarfish nation is one of the northern kingdoms.

>>50490267
If South Africa is still Afrikaner rules, Nambia need to be part of it as well.

>>50490267
What's the setting?

>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
In the Northern Kingdoms there are general slaves and indentured servitude among the fiefdoms and kingdoms there. The Kingdom of Dayvn holds slaves for the citizens of the Ghorod Empire while the empire holds the Dayvnians prisoners. The nation of Rha'Zhir has typical concubines and servants but besides that many people are equal. The "uncivilized" tribesmen are second class citizens though. The Empire of Onrenia follows a similar system, but they are a major exporter of slaves in this case, slaves they get from trading with the pirates of the island-nation of Alsentius. The Six Clans have a more tribal structure and as such have no such slave economy.
>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?
Probably Dayvn. They enslave a lot of people from Ghorod as well as import many more from Onrenia and Rha'Zhir.
>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people?
The Rebellion of the Fallen Crown was caused in a massive uprising by the oppressed mages in the mage-cities, ending the three hundred year rule of the Tayrafel Dynasty.
>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?
Most notably there was the Second Northern War, which was orchestrated by Councilman Jorive, who would go on to become the first High King of Dayvn. He organized the many petty kingdoms that were taken over by the Ghorod Empire 50 years ago and rebelled against the empire, causing the creation of the Kingdom of Davyn.
>Who are the most famous traitors?
Rasmir the Brave, who betrayed the Mage-King Malthen III and led the Rha'Zhir armies against his forces Battle of the Holduin. There is also Yungrim I, Hero-King of the Central Kingdom of Karav who became its king after a rebellion. Finally there is Arast the Betrayer, who orchestrated the massive slave revolt of Onrenia and almost overthrew the nation before he was slain in the siege on the imperial captial.

>>50490384
South Africa is very heavily influenced by Japanese corps. It's not ruled by the Afrikaners.
>>50490440
Used to be cyberpunk, but made it into near future sci-fi. No full integration with machines and stuff like that but there are mass produced robots/augmentations as well as massive corporation control. Governments still have power over these companies though and still take part in world affairs.

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>>50486394
Don't know if you're still around friend, but I do have a question about my Celtic setting if anyone would like to help out real quick.

Basically, Humans. Where the hell do I fit them? I had the idea of a Gaelic Human people living in Not!British Isles for many ages, and a new group of Not!Normans moving in and taking over what they can.

Does that feel right, or should I leave the Gaelic folk stuff to the Firbolg and Halflings?

>>50490522
>South Africa is very heavily influenced by Japanese corps. It's not ruled by the Afrikaners.
That a good idea.

I might have to make a cyberpunk or transhuman setting with a /pol/ south africa

>>50487426
My Dwarves are basically the lynchpin of my setting in that they're responsible for creating a massive amount of advanced technology, nuclear power, dimensional gateways, even warping their very own biology was not beyond their grasp. Their former empire stretched across most of the known world before it collapsed into internal strife, the Sorcerer kings that had once lead their people willingly unleashed a hemoplague that doomed them to sure destruction, having been driven mad by whisperings of Star gods.

Now only one Dwarves hold remains unmolested, being extreamly weary of outsiders and not commanding a fraction of the splendor that it once did.

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>>50475538
Need a bit of help /wbg/; I've a basic idea for a setting and it has no map.

I've been trying to work on it for a while. It's mostly involved research into the technology of the late 17th, full 18th, and very early 19th centuries because I'd like for it to take place in a period that mirrors those; the more advanced parts of the world being the most similar with the later period.

Magic is more Mythos-inspired as opposed to Vancian, closer to a Dark Heresy or Iron Heroes style of how you can actually really hurt yourself or do damage to those around you if you fuck with it alone. Rituals (in particular, those with groups) are damn near required to do magic in any kind of safety, and even then it can prove hazardous if mistakes are made.

The danger of the magic (from both a practical and mental perspective) and the manner in which many civilized cultures have mostly spurned it guarantees that cults and conspiracies try to survive in the shadows; following dark gods and wicked entities. Supernatural creatures are more akin to things that go bump in the night as opposed to elves, dwarves, and dragons flying across the sky. Human-only, if one hasn't caught on so far.

The eras it draws inspiration from mean that while there is still room in the world for adventure, the things of the darkness have been mostly driven out of operating with abandon; stealth and cunning paired with overwhelming force against the unwary is their weapon now. Humanity has become dangerous in numerous ways, and some have the potential to rise to greatness; though curiosity of the eldritch and the pathetic will of others makes them tools to the more intelligent creatures of the night.

I've difficulty finding a map I like; it rather bothers me. Without a map I have a hard time writing cultures and governing bodies, as a great deal of culture is influenced by land (and the infinite modifiers that implies) and interaction with neighbors. Any map offerings/suggestions are appreciated.

>>50492956
What do you want in a map? A single region? A continent? The globe? Mostly land? Right-justified? Left? Mostly ocean or coast?

Specifics man! We need specifics!

>>50493025
As far as map visuals go, I have literally nothing. If you want a direction, I suppose I'd like some continents. I can stitch them together into an over-world as I like.

Or if, for some reason, you think that's a terrible idea, I'm more than willing to look at any full world maps you might offer.

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>>50493067
Try this one and see me in the morning.

>>50493444
Appreciate it.

>Regarding elvish sleep nonsense

Elves, much like humans and other races, experience exhaustion overt time due to the buildup of toxins within the brain due to prolonged activity. They, like any other animal life, need to cycle down their brain activity in order to filter out these toxins.

The problem is that Elves, as a race, are born insomniacs. It's not that they don't require sleep, they very much do, it's the they physically can't. The subconscious process through which an animal goes into auto-pilot for all its essential functions (breathing, not shitting their pants, etc.) is not present in elves. They are basically blinking, breathing, and some theorize, regulating their heartbeat manually at all times.

If an elf falls asleep, they forget to breath. So their body prevents them from doing that.

Elvish meditation isn't some hokey spiritual trance falderal, communing with "the spirits." That's just something that say to lesser races because they can't stand to admit they're shitty at something on a basic biological level. The Elvish trance state is, instead, the Elf manually forcing their brain into a state of reduced activity, placing all their concentration into breathing and maintaining their bpm while doing so.

>>50493909
That's kinda cool, although I don't think it's really needed if you just dislike the elf sleep nonsense. It's one of the less well known and less common of the elf stereotypical traits and you can remove it without fear of haters. Most people will not even notice it as something important. It's not like removing pointy ears or longevity. I've never made a single setting that had elves with any feature related to sleep, good or bad.

Go on with it if you just want to experiment rather than remove something that you dislike.

>>50495482
It's mostly there because, in my setting, Drow are a kind of mix between L4D Witches and the Reavers from Firefly: Self harming, immortal lunatics that have been left unable to sleep or even trance due to night terrors induced by contact with a Lovecraftian horror. They've fled underground, not to worship spiders, but to hide from light and sound in an attempt to find some kind of rest, as their contact with said eldritch horror has also left them pretty much unable to die, no matter how much they want to.

They've gone so long without rest that, for the vast majority of them, any kind of external stimulus is enough to throw them into a berserker rage. Explorers unfortunate enough to happen upon Drow are often found beaten to death and half eaten. Other cave dwelling fauna refuse to touch a corpse that's been so much as lightly chewed on by a Drow.

>>50475538
>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
The Luwasati elves practice absolute slavery of any other race as well as their half breeds. Other cultures have varying forms from serfs common in Gedask to chattel slavery common in Sha'hara. The Xuande elves of the far west is the no slaves exception.

>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?

Gedask if counting serfs which is at least 60% of their population.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people?

In Sha'hara that's the Wasunkar insurgence.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?

In Sha'hara that's the Sunfield Riversong Rebellion.

>Who are the most famous traitors?

Sunfield Riversong is the granddaughter of the last Elven King of The Illuminated Forrests, a forested region to the west of the Stormbreak Mountains before it came under the rule of the expansion of the Sha'haran Empire. It is not clear what her true motives were as she was educated in the Empire and some scholars lay the blame on her advisors. It did not help that she was never captured, though never proven to have died at the end. Some say that she had been captured and was taken prisoner at the imperial palace but no evidence has been provided.

She led the uprising of her native Illuminated Forrests province and proceeded to gain the support of neighboring elven and human provinces. She had argued that the region was nothing more than a military buffer for the Empire and was not treated fairly in terms of taxes not trade.

After a long and sometimes bloody campaign that lasted 20 years, the rebels were defeated when the Empire conducted an all out war just before winter and razed the majority of their food stores and farms forcing the population into the major cities before razing those as well and let whoever survived escape into the forest as winter fell, only pursuing those that appeared be military groups.

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How do Wands work in your setting?

>>50491091
I like the idea. I always like fantasy based on history. It feels more real and genuine that way. So I'd say go for it

>>50487426
I don't have dwarves per sae vut Myrkaelfen (murky aelves). They live underground, are greedy, are very proud, and are kind of twisted compared to the Losaelfen (light aelves).

They are essentially notdwarves

>>50475538
>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?

There are multiple different models, though I suppose I haven't expanded on them enough. Particularly for Waster clans (called that by outsiders because they live in a wasteland), joining the clan usually requires 5-15 years of slavery to the clan as a whole, until you either break, or prove strong enough to be vouched for full membership by a high ranking member of the clan.

>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?

Far to the east of those Wasters is a continent that has been rife with conflict for hundreds of years. Once ruled over by a court of Winter Fae, when human technology was introduced to the Orcs, they salvaged what they could (as most human technology is no longer in working order. something something ancient war, humans from another world etc) and turned on the Fae. Then they just started enslaving everyone else for fodder. Slaves make up about 30% of their whole population, and that's saying something, because there are a lot of Orcs now that their natural predators are gone or have become their prey.

As for the other questions, I haven't really gotten too deep into cultural history for smaller places just yet. Still trying to make everything click together reasonably no the timeline and overall history of the world.

>>50496887
They're disposable magic items that multiply a single spellcast into many. Not too difficult to make, but are heavily reliant on the crafter's spellcasting ability to be effective.

Basically, you load a primed wand with a weak spell and it'll duplicate that *exact* spellcast a couple times.

>>50475538
>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?

Not!Arabia has a romanticized version of slavery, where some slaves are given autonomy to carry out the will of their masters. Still treated like people. On average slaves are treated well as a slave's physical condition and skillset is reflective of the slave owner.

The Drow of the setting have slaves that have been breed for servitude. Think generations of slaves being indoctrinated into believing that this is their purpose in life.

The Dao are the cruel slave masters, forcing slaves to mine jewels and ore to the near point of breaking.

>>50497532
>Think generations of slaves being indoctrinated into believing that this is their purpose in life.

Man, I've always liked this concept. Like in the Demon Cycle books, one of the Mind Demon starts going on about how he loves the taste of human brains on the surface because all they do is breed unthinking human livestock below the surface. Not exactly slavery, but being bred to one purpose and never knowing another way is just one of my favorite tropes.

>>50489728
Mah compatriot of African descent.

so fatguys, have you finished any maps for your campaigns recently?
I did, link related - and critique welcome :) :D

http://thomads3890.deviantart.com/art/Darpatien-1031-BF-649043348?ga_submit_new=10%253A1480707836

>>50498888
hehe

>>50497532
>Not!Arabia has a romanticized version of slavery, where some slaves are given autonomy to carry out the will of their masters.

Real Arabia had that, slave soldiers and courtiers were a common feature in a number of Muslim cultures.

>>50493909
I just keep the elvish sleep as is. Some kind of holdover from the timeless realm of the fey, or being the behaviour of trees, but ultimately elves don't use beds, lots of rugs, cushions, and low tables, but no beds.

>>50493909
For my setting:
>Sleeping allows your soul to travel back to the [Dream World/Collective Unconscious/Plane of Psychic Energy] to recharge
>This doesn't apply to Fae, Outsiders, or the Undead
>Elves are a form of mortal Fae
>Turn into wisps when they die, enter a trance as opposed to sleeping

>>50490267
>UK
>Crimea+Ukraine+Belarus+Sakhalin
>China
>Commie ME
>Mono NAm
Consider me triggered.

>>50501419
What triggers you so much?

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>>50490267
>blobbing up nations rather than balkanizing them

>>50501509
>implying this isn't what will happen in the future
Not even the anon that posted the map, but come on.

>>50501429
You've kinda shat over most politico-religious, national and economic borders I can think of. It's like one of those Risk maps with random blobbing.

>>50501527
I know, it's just something that is really distasteful, it simply isn't as interesting as a modern or historic world. I would keep at least 100 countries or do an alternate history with 300+ countries.

>>50501550
What would you fix about it in that case?

>>50501568
>I would keep at least 100 countries or do an alternate history with 300+ countries.
Please. At least 1000+ countries at the absolute minimum. Any less and you are making your setting as bland as mayo.

>>50501838
This t.b.h. if you don't return to city states but globally don't even bother trying.

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>>50501801

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>>50501801
china

>>50502578
>tfw evil empire's fall caused my setting's South Shore to balkanize, forming individual (economically-hostile) city-states

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>>50501801
atheism

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>>50501801
europe

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>>50501801
mid east

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>>50501801
yanks 1

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>>50501801
yanks 2
This is to get you started. Go do your own research.

>>50502815
75% of china is atheist? that can't be right.

>>50502589
>>50502650
>>50502815
>>50502857
>>50502870
>>50502901
>>50502919
How is any of this criticism at all? You are literally just posting maps/diagrams and acting like they are making a point or something. Say something in your own words if you find something wrong with it.

>>50475538
>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
Do we count serfdom as slavery? Or old good knight happy peasants relationship is too much romanticized to count serfdom as slavery?

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>>50501801
Oh and if you want to get blobbing, unite Russia and EU for a noblebright commie dystopia. It's at least somewhat grounded in a theory of politic development.

Am I creating a too mishmash of a world if the threats for just one tiny are of it include:
>Cult that worships the desecrated child of the spider goddess (the child being a horrid centipede-butterfly monster) who wish to bring about His resurgence into the world through polluting the giant river the divides the lands
>Corrupted pet of a god that resides on one of the moons are drops pieces of itself to grow and strangle the planet below, mostly focusing the area where everything actually happens
>Stone giants the size of buildings reemerging with their mountain sized god-king, ready to tear civilization a new one
>Insane dwarf civilization trying to bring down the entire continent with earthquakes
>Wasps that infect creatures with their eggs and turn them into bloodraging mindless beasts because ohgodthepain
>Remnants of an insect people civilization who are trying to zerg things, but lacking numbers they just agitate wildlife with drugs and mutations
>Anarchist necromancers who want to bring down the bureaucratic empire of necromancers by deposing the OPplzNerf lich ruling over it
>Military rebellion in the land of the trolls
>Ice trolls dropping glaciers over people from their floating ice castle
>Slave rebellion in the swamp lands of the lizard people
>The inevitable end of the world as the entire universe collapses in on itself as all the gods have abandoned it to make way for the new gods who are to come in their wake, chosen from the civilizations who they have deemed to be worth, and the coming of the Ultimatun of Gods, a being comprised of all the magical energy of it's planet hellbent to destroy all life on the planet, but just powerful enough that if all the people of the planet have united into one force able to take down the beast
>The mages going on a strike due to mismanagement and lack of recognition for upholding the magical television-radio-telephone-internet network and slowing down the services

>>50502922
Communism.

>>50503026
>unite Russia and EU for a noblebright commie dystopia
>implications

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Working on a Cyberpunk-Transhumanish campaign (Cyberpunk with genetech as much as cyberware) Any big "WTF" placements into blocks?

(South Africa never ended Apartheid, and allied with Iran for self protection)

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>>50502922
According to official census.

>>50502956
Corpuscular theory of light was refuted by a picture like this one.

>>50503026
>Turkey
>Potential EU member
Now that's a laugh

>>50502956
>not understanding the point of the maps
no wonder yours was so bad

>>50503101
damn, forgot to key Russia in Gray.

>>50503101
Pacific alliance is a basically US's bitch?
Add a China-India warzone in Pakistan.
You forgot to denote grey area.

>>50503101
US and Russia are allies right?

>>50502922
Atheism is China's state religion, and although people are relatively free to practice whatever religion they want, its indoctrinated throughout school that no religion is best religion.

If you want to get anywhere politically, you cannot practice a religion. That doesn't really stop anyone from doing it anyway.

>>50503148
>Pacific alliance is a basically US's bitch?
It is the Unions best butt buddy. And the Union wears the pants.

>Add a China-India warzone in Pakistan.
Good idea, might make it a 4 way with India-China-Free State-Islamic all fighting it out.

>You forgot to denote grey area.
As >>50503129 it is Russia.

>>50503150
Vs. China - yes. Still not happy about some other things.

>>50503026
Balance of power is so much in favour of EU that it is no fun.
You'd need to add China to make it more balanced.

>>50487426
Neighboring villages and cities don't know the difference between an earthquake and dwarves using explosives in the mines deep beneath the countryside

>That feel when you know literally no one will care about your world and you can explain shit with "fuckin' magic" but you still try to make the geography and climate hyper realistic and study air currents and shit

Send help.

>>50506570
Worldbuilding is its own reward. You subject yourself to these challenges because you love it.

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>>50506570
>elaborating on your personal fantasy world is bad
Maybe, if you flesh it out enough, it'll become real someday.

>>50506835
>>50506759
I do appreciate it myself, but yeah I just hate putting in all that work for something that people won't notice or even care about.

>>50506859
You care. That's what matters.

>>50506859
And just so it's not wasted, tell me something about your world that you think is really, really clever.

>>50506988
In terms of the climate and geography, nothing in particular is interesting. It's your typical desert and plains with mountain ridges separating the drier areas with a slightly more lush side, one set of extremely high altitude mountains the Dwarves carved a city into, and an open mouth bay and cluster of varying sized archipelagos to the south.

>>50502922
It's not so much 'athiest' as 'no religion'. People in China and Japan are no less superstitious than people in the West, but they tend towards local folk practices with some Buddhist stuff mixed in rather than specifically joining a single religion.

>>50507792
>Folk practices
Those are basically a religion, it's just not the same thing as an organized Western religion. There are specific rituals, holy days, gods, etc.

>>50507792
>>50508288

Not to mention Chinese 'cut off a tiger dick and snort it to get my 1 inch pecker up' traditions basically among themselves.

How do we fix /wbg/ guys? These threads are just filled with autistic self-wank of people's settings without any real discussion or criticism. Is there anything we can add or change to make these threads actually have substance?

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>>50509989

Back in the day when I would make these threads I would make the disclaimer or rule of 'Reply to another user's post before posting your own.' Obviously that couldn't actually control people but I felt like it helped.

Truth be told the purpose of these threads is at least partially wankery, and some people enjoy just lurking them and absorbing ideas, so who knows. Form your worldbuilding posts less like a blog about your own worlds and more as questions or critiques.

Naturally you could always take the first step and give feedback instead of wanting it yourself, but that's the rub. Everyone's greedy here, so somebody has to step up to the plate.

>>50509989
Have more creative people show up.

Oh wait, you can't, they got chased off. Looks like it's all on you guys. Good luck!

>>50510105
>Have more creative people show up.

Are you implying there isn't a single person in this thread who is 'more creative'? How do you even judge 'creativity'?

>>50510173
"More" is also a numerical value, dipshit.

>>50510080
I was more so referring to the reputation /wbg/ has on /tg/ as a bunch of autistic retards that never get things done and just circlejerk.
>>50510105
When/how did the "creative" people get chased off?

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>>50510259
>referring to the reputation /wbg/ has on /tg/ as a bunch of autistic retards that never get things done and just circlejerk.

Well then, let's get something done.

Personally, I've never been a huge fan of the 'adventurers are special people' meme. I much prefer lower powered campaigns and stories, and I play in more lethal campaigns and rules to make this evident.

But then again, I like magic and supernatural abilities to not be common or easily acquired, and since I also have some semi-supernatural or at least super-human styled powers for every class I currently am running, I suppose it wouldn't be wrong to therefore MAKE adventures special people.

However I also don't really want to handwave it away as being genetic or some kind of standard god/spirit blessing. So instead; I was thinking why not implement a sort of 'spark' kind of thing. As in, every adventurer is a little bit special, badass, crazy and tragic because in order to be adventurers and be crazy enough to go into these places and do what they do they had to have gone through some kind of great experience- some kind of physical, mental, or spiritual crisis that forged them as a person.

This explains a lot about how to make adventures seem like real people and not magical mary sues, but simultaneously explains why adventurers are more badass then most.

Any opinions?

>>50506570
I take pride in being able to answer the questions my players ask without having to resort to "fucking magic."

I also absolutely hate when somebody explains stuff as "fucking magic" because it's not really an explanation.

>>50510587
>I've never been a huge fan of the 'adventurers are special people' meme
Same here. To me, adventurers are simply people who got caught in tough circumstances (sometimes circumstances of their own doing) and chose to overcome, or lucked out into overcoming.

In the end, they aren't born special, they make themselves special, and if there are any gods in the current setting I'm running, we'll they might take notice, but only after the adventurer is already special.

>>50511028

You misunderstand. If somebody says 'it's magic' or 'nobody knows', they aren't just handwaving away things, it's literally that nobody can explain it (yet), and may not be relevant at all to the player characters. You don't have to know, or even have the ability to know, why exactly this mountain range is shaped like a face of an ancient king. But that's part of the fun, it's mystery and could be revealed later.

>>50511085
No, you misunderstand.

I get that characters, or even nobody in the game world knows. Thats fine, I do that all the time, it's great fun.

But I, as a worldbuilder, know exactly why that mountain is shaped like the face of an ancient king. I know exactly why in certain instances teleport magic works and in others it doesn't. I know exactly why your character is so attractive to demons.

So when a player asks me OOC, about stuff that doesn't directly affect the story, or why I made a certain decision as a GM, or why certain abilities just aren't possible in this world, I have a real answer instead of "I don't know, fucking magic or something."

>>50511116

Why can't you, the world creator, act as a character in your world and simply say "I don't know"

People's interests, creative vision and so forth change over the years. There is no reason, nor is it practical, for you to determine the cause and effect relationship between every single minor character, faction, landscape, building, item or creature in your campaign or narrative world. Some things can simply 'be'.

>>50511129
Because I made the world.

Of course, you have to work from some basic assumptions at the start that simply are (magic exists, for example). The way I do my world building is that I make a few initial assumptions about how that world is different from our, real, world, and then work from there. I try to have as few things as possible that just "are that way" and do my best to have an explanation for every fantastic element of the world stemming from these basic principle I introduced.

In particular, I pay very careful attention to how magic works and what can it do, because to me, consistency in that respect is very important.

So yeah, I might not "know" why magic exists in my world, but I know exactly why you can't teleport into that cave, for example.

This is important to me so that when I tell the player "your spell fails" or "you can't do that," I have a real, internally consistent, reason for it, even if I never actually tell the player.

Of course, you have to also know how to pick your battles, I don't really know why the baker hates the blacksmith, but I can easily make that up and write it down when the player asks, but I do have to know why this kingdom is at war with that other kingdom before a player asks, that's important.

>>50476339
Counterpoint, how might I go about making a world that looks on the surface like a bright kind of world but it's filled with casual dangers and petty assholes without making it just feel like shiny grimdark? I want it to still have that fun and whimsical tone while being a dangerous hellhole if you're actually paying attention.

I have a friend designing a campaign.
Standard dnd 5e he wants to involve sprawling winter tundras and dense rainforest (separate of course)
How would he go about doing that. Have Any of you done things like this
What world building tips would you give for those environments?

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>>50475538
>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
Pretty much whatever variety you can think of; The mines and latifundia of the Empire of the Tetrachy is full of chattel-slaves, the houses, estates and various enterprises of the rich people are full of servant-slaves of all sorts and types. Serfs are not all that uncommon in the barbaric relams to the north either. Only in the Arsanid Empire exists a bann on slavery, which crafty magi and noblemen find routes around.

>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?
In the known world that would be in the Empire of the Tetrachy which is a slave-state. Many wars have been fought for the real purpose of procuring fresh slaves to satisfy the great need of the State.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people? The plutocracy of the Empire of the Tetrachy means that in principal anyone can become a "noble" as the only qualifier is wealth. However, determining the true orchestration behind any rebellion is hard work as the realm is full of crafty, well-influential men (and some women) who wouldn't think twice about puppetering a "peasant"-revolt if it increased their power.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?

Most notable rebellions have been caused by military leaders who seek to take power or claimants making their bid for the throne.
A great exception to this is the rebellion/cessation orchestrated by the High Priestess Himala which drastically speed up the collapse of the Tetrarchy of the Empire by her, through her influence and new found religion (found in the old tomes in the section on forbidden knowledge in the Nyhemian Imperial Librarby) taking control of Gastram, the second city of the empire and the "capital" of the southern parts and from their quickly taking control of most of the imperial south, by declaring the birth of the Second Gastramic Republic.

>>50475538
>>50513289
>Who are the most famous traitors?

That would be the formely mentioned Himala and the emperor Haraldus III Bilda Aisillus (The Heretic) who abandoned the four gods in favour of the heretical Gullveigian cult. At long last, after he was practically married to the High Priestess and living reincarnated god of the cult and had sired a male child with her the senate finally had enough when Haraldus III proclaim this unholy bastard the rightful heir to the throne. In a quick uprising the senate, the priesthood and the closest military commander seized the royal "family" after a brief siege inside their palace. Gullveig and the bastard son was burned alive on the stake while Haraldus III was castrated and sent into exile. He soon thereafter took his own life.

>>50511216
You'd want to go for a fairytale sort of world, I'd say. Everthing is idyllic forests, tranquil meadows, and homely villages, but for an outsider who doesn't know what they're doing, it's very likely they'll get murdered by elves, Beguiler by fairies, put in a cage by a giant, or replaced by a shapeshifter.

Does art deco meets solarpunk sound like a good does for a setting aesthetic? an emphasis on everything being sleek, colorful, stylish with curves and geometric shapes, like what they envisioned the world would look like in the future in the 30s.

>>50514251
The sort of curved art deco fans sound like they'd work great for a solar powered future. Sleek, colorful, and stylish fits well with that sort of environmental power source.

>>50486381
Story was better then I expected.

Dumb question.

In my world I have a Empire that was very important history wise, and now fallen into smaller states.

Is it pure autism to create a list of the emperors of said empire though it history, or is that something that would be neat to see?

>>50514977
Depends how long the list is.

>>50514992
Will be most likely 60+ as the empire existed for 981 years.

>>50515022
>Will be most likely 60+ as the empire existed for 981 years.

Well is it just names or are you going to also include their deeds as well. Could be pretty neat though. If you're planning to use this setting more than once do it.

>>50514287
Fans?

>>50515036
The plan was to include any children, deeds of note, and so on.

>>50514977
Both.

>>50515156
Well like I said do it if you're going to use this setting multiple times, otherwise it's a waste of time desu.

I need a symbol for a knight-like brotherhood, sort of like the BoS, they're based in england, so maybe the templar cross could be used?

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I've been spending the last week making a planet. This is what I've got so far.

Anyone here know a decent amount about Wilbur.exe or any other height map generation/modification programs?

If I get a good head of steam, Imma start finally putting cities in places.

>>50510587
I personally like the idea that some special circumstance or event drove adventures to become special. There was a thread that talked about how adventurers are servants of spirits (magical beings/gods/demons) that made contracts with them to save them from death. I like things like that, events that tie adventurers together.

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How many NPCs do you have fleshed out for your campaign?

How do you keep track of them? Individual character sheets? Just a few stats and personality traits? How far do you go?

This seems to be the most time consuming part of worldbuilding to me...

If I just make a setting guide and say you use D&D 5e or Pathfinder rules, would that be something people would buy for $0.99?

>>50516091

Random tables tbqh

>>50516091
I build huge lists of randomly generated characters, then pull them when I need NPCs.

>>50515158
>>50515235
Well I am working on it. So far I have completed the first 124 years.

>What different models of slavery exist in your setting?
The city states of the archipelago of Onium practice slavery extensively as a major part of their economy. The details vary region to region, but generally it's fairly "soft" slavery. A slave is treated similar to and lives a life in similar quality to a lower class an. Their are laws in place protecting slaves and limitations on what master may do to/make them do. Most slaves are simply contracted members of the lower class, criminals serving a sentence or conquered people. A slaves duties and value depends on their skills, and come in many more professions than physical labor including: housekeepers, military/security, white collar workers, skilled tradesmen(bronze smiths carpenters), artists and in some classes even upper class roles such as politicians or philosophers "contracted" to their roles. Though slaves are born, captured or indebted into their roles, it is considered unusual to die a slave.

Slavery varies distinctly in different cultures/nations, especially the underworld

>In which nations would you find the largest portion of the population being enslaved?

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people?

In the Overworld the city states of Onium likely employ the most slaves, having as much as 20% of the population under contract at some times. In the underworld factions take slaves as spoils of war often. The underworld kingdom of Xolal utilizes Animation magic(basically necromancy) to create a workforce of zombies and golems to offset their low and difficult to grow living population.

Cont.

I noticed the oops above, the second paragraph is about the commonness of slaves not rebellion.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by the common people?

Countless rebellions and coups have been staged by Underworlders in an attempt to overthrow their Daemon lords. Generally these are the whole of the social classes working in tandem to bring down their (think even beyond upper class, more deity like) Daemon Lord's. Most of these were unsuccessful or did not last long before the mortals annexed back to Daemon rule. Small groups of peasant defectors have ran off to make Daemon Lord less communes in the wilderness. Typically they are left unchecked not being worth a Daemon's time. Without a patron Daemon they have little or no magical power. Daemon's are outnumbered by mortals by thousands to one and without any means of intentionally increasing their numbers (they spontaneously generate) they focuses mostly on controlling medium to large cities.

>What notable rebellions have been orchestrated by high ranking traitors?

Effective rebellions against Daemons are not fought by farmers and potters. underworld factions view warfare in a honorable almost sacred light, battle is a privilege reserved for a chosen few. As a result noble castes of warriors and mages compose traditional armies. Revolts against Daemon Lords are the result of the typical reasons for revolution in history: The second rung down of nobles (mortal nobles) become upset with the tippity top (Daemons) and pick the whole pyramid up by its roots. In most cases these coups are a means of destabilizing the system enough a new more favorable group of Daemons will take power. Few underworld civilizations have been successful without patron Daemons

Cont.2
This is because in my setting mortals have poor magical capability on their own. Without semi-God like beings to enhance the sorcery, it is unreliable and underwhelming. Daemon lords basically take a "mana tax" of their population during daily prayers or meditation and later redistribute it to mages in need they deem faithful. The Daemon's of course cut themselves a tasty slab of mana off the top (yay for pseudo communist Daemon's.)


This is not to say mortals cannot beat their overlords. Primordial Daemons (Daemons generated at the beginning of the underworlds conception) have been killed before by mortals and factions without patron Daemons have existed. However this is not the norm. Daemons in my setting are not inherently evil and don't harm their subjects without a good reason. It's arguably more beneficial for both mortals and Daemons to cooperate.

>Who are the most famous traitors?
Notably the Ozorok house. A noble family that ruled the city state of Plutpolis after defecting from their previous Daemon Lords. Most of the city population suffered a weakening of their magic. The Ozoroks however found an alternative source of power worshipping cosmological eldritch monstrosities (titanic Daemons too deep in space to have any direct affect on the world). Plutpolis stood as a mortal run political entity for a few centuries before the majority of the underworld unified a crusade against them. They put up a hell of a defense, killing more Daemons than will generate in a few millennia, though the city eventually fell.

>>50509989
If you'd like to start some discussion or criticisms you're going to have to do it yourself. Honestly I'm not too bothered with how it is currently because it's perfect. It helps me to build my worlds by providing inspiration and ideas from other people's. I also wouldn't worry about what anyone else thinks, that's pretty autistic in itself. World building obviously isn't going to be the same, and honestly I think the immense amounts of WH40k threads and other bullshit is more retarded than these threads.

I really enjoy conlanging, but I never get far with it. I can make naming languages with maybe a hundred or so words with proper derivations and some sorta loose grammar. I want to make something that I'll be able to write a short story in, but I can never get to that stage. What do?

Also if anyone thinks it's at all worthwhile, I have been meaning to make one document with the five main languages I've made on it with their respective vocabularies too. If anyone hates conlanging?

>>50509989
I do my best to discuss things and offer advice where I can, but I'm not an expert on a lot and I don't have an opinion on many things.

We already have prompts for people to discuss various facts of their settings, but those just offer a chance to dump exposition, rather than promoting discussions as much.

A better idea would be to ask people what something they want to see more of or things they think they need to work on or things they're having trouble deciding between.

>>50486381
I love doing that shit

Godspeed

>>50475538
>4/5 Players only want to play humans
It's a harsh life.

>>50475538
Slavery is mostly limited to mind control (like mind flayers). In a fantasy setting, regular slaves are kind of risky unless they want to be slaves.

>>50517416
Personally, I don't mind it when the party is mostly human with one or two people being something different. I find it's easier to justify them meeting up and being together in one place and working towards a common goal. It also means they'll get less strange looks in cities.

>>50517416
That'd be ideal for my setting as humans are 71% of the world population with the remainder being 16 other races

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>>50514977
There's nothing wrong with autism

>>50516214
>>50516567
What about major NPCs? Surely you need to flesh out the details of the royal family and other prominent figures?

How many major NPCs do you guys currently have?

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>>50518601
Good to know, here is the first three generations.

>>50518840
Alexandros formed the empire and now acended to godhood.
He married Bridget of the Cynars, but took a captive elven Maiden queen as a cocubine.

The half elves became House Adferos - a important royal clan.

Telkos inherited from his father. younger brother rufus formed House Newbar, who still around in the Cynar areas in a few kingdoms.

Telkos had 4 legit children, Heroeos died without issue. Basilus formed House Basil.

Yelenos married a Adfrios, and produced three children. Roberto ended up as Delos XII (the 12 pope basically),

Might make Helene and Georgios have some incest children to make a cursed house, but Game of Thrones did that.

Still not generated Georgios marriage or kids yet, but he might outlive a number of his kids.

>>50518764
Yes, most of the time I just do the current ones, but in my current world I am building 900+ years of history, since I am going autism.

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bump

Here a question.

I am half tempted to do something really unique, and not have the usual races and so on. is that a huge turn off for players?

>>50521376
It's only risky if you don't have humans.

>>50521376
Depends on the degree you do it to. If everything is super unique, it'll be a lot for the players to take in, especially if there's also a lot of other stuff present. If there's no race that's familiar to them, thematically or biologically, they're going to have a tough time looking at the world.

To use an exampe, say Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. That's got Moogles, Nu Mou, Viera, and all sorts of weird things, but it's still got humans, and those other races are still familair. Viera are graceful and like nature, like elves. Bangaa are reptilian warriors that don't use magic easily. Nu Mou are slow and scholarly and like arcane magic.

It's all about delivery and making sure there isn't ever too much to take in at once.

>>50515158
Seconding this.

>>50521427

>Look at Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: It's got humans, sexy bunnygirl race, a mascot race, and some other stuff no one cares about

Trying to go for a 1600s, religious wars, inquisition, dark fantasy vibe. Any tips?

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>>50521986

Welcome to one of the least glamorous periods known to history

>>50521986
Well, it's important you have an idea where the players will be in all this. Are they going to be members of an inquisition? Caught between? Are there multiple inquisitions?

I think the important thing for that kind of vibe is that there should be a very dark and real threat that the inquisition is helping to curb. For example, if there's regular witch hunts, then there should be witches in the world that are very real, very evil, and very dangerous. Even if not all witches are that way, there should be enough to justify the church aiming to put them all to the torch.

Essentially, to get that dark vibe, they need to be sort of a necessary evil.

>>50521986
Riff off of Warhammer Fantasy, which got there first.

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>>50522042
It's literally when the most famous adventure novel ever written takes place.

That moment when you come up with a better idea, and scrap your old idea.

But on the bright side you have some nice pieces of salvage from the old world to collect.

>>50522155
I'm flip flopping if I want to keep my current world or switch over to something more focused and thematic.

Right now I've got a world that pretty solidly accounts for a lot of things, but I'm not sure how much I like it as a whole.

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>>50522203
I decided after a fair amount of work that it didn't have a focus or any charm, and lacked anything noteworthy.

Made a new map, placed some logical cities, and now I am focusing on a completely alternate theme. also shrunk the size to say, 1/4th of a world.

>>50522401
Yeah, I feel like that's the main thing my current world lacks. Focus. I've got a bunch of different things set up to cover the typical fantasy things, but all it's doing it making me realize how disjointed they all are at the basic level.

>>50522638
Having a small portion of a world built around a specific concept will typically be more engrossing and "real" than a patchwork. Try starting with a single strong concept and work outwards from that.

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Other than rivers, what are national borders typically based on?

>>50522824
Mountains, wars, canyons

>>50522824
More rarely, lines of latitude/longitude.

>>50522709
Hmm...I may try that instead. I sort of just started with a handful of concepts that I absolutely wanted to include, and then worked backwards to try and have them all fit.

>>50522852
What seems cool to you? What haven't you really seen before? A rocky desert? A snowy tundra? A tide pool? A city built into a system of caves? Whatever it is, start with that.

>>50522638
Yep, that was my issue, so I am downscaling.

16 major cities/capitals

Few will be city states, few will be kingdom or duchies. While the culture is not the same, the cities will have the same religious framework.

>>50522889
Lots of stuff, though I don't usually like starting with terrain. The only time I did that was with an all undergound setting

>>50522938
>16 major cities

Geez, I've got maybe half that and I still feel like it's too much

>>50522980
>Geez, I've got maybe half that and I still feel like it's too much
1 kingdom, 2 duchies, 3 republics, a elven city, a hated city, a ruined city is nine already.

>>50523212
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've only got like 8.

Maybe the real answer is that I just need to plan something with a smaller scope than trying to build a grand world from the dawn of time. Start with a city, focus on that, etc.

>>50523285
Sometimes that is the best idea. I had a workable campaign that was nothing more then the starter village. Just put in enough hints about the outside world as the players cleared out local ruins.

>>50523330
Yeah. I guess I'll try and nail down what tone/theme I'm after and build a town around that.

>>50521986
Don't forget that inquisition was so humane that common criminals tried to pose as heretics to get themselves into church trials.

What are some real life cultures that prominently featured lightning as a motif? I have some decent imagery in my head, but I just can't think of a relatable culture to incorporate.

>>50525214
https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-symbols/lightning-symbol.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt

>>50525214

Well, there's Thor, Perun, Jupiter/Zeus... Lightning god is so often a chief or THE chief deity

>>50525302
>>50525365
I forgot to mention I already have Nordic and native american cultures covered, but it still helped.

Perun, Zeus, and even the Aztecs (with Xolotl) are all options. I'll have to dig deeper and see if Slavs, Romans, or Aztecs can fill a niche. Thanks

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>>50476267
It's not found everywhere, but it would be a pretty whitewashed setting if it had NO sex slaves.

>>50475951

>"True slavery"
>Not treating the individual as humanoid at all, but as something else entirely
>Kind of like the Negroes of America, using the bible´s explanation that "oh noes, they are not humans at all" thus creating a loophole.

Is that really true slavery?
To me, true slavery is when you accept the idea that everything has a price, even freedom.
I raided your village, beat you and took you away to my place. Now I own you until you manage to purchase your freedom, alternatively gets purchased by someone else. I accept this, and know full well that the same might happen to me.

This is true slavery, when you know the value of freedom, not some stupid excuse of "well, its no more than an animal", because that takes away the whole idea of slavery and makes it in to a regular "beast trading business".

>>50525672
>Now I own you until you manage to purchase your freedom
That was true for debt slaves, but war slaves usually got sent to work the mines or the fields or other hard labor and died there. Usually they had little to no ability to earn their freedom.

House slaves and more skilled slaves could probably work their way to freedom even if they weren't debt slaves, though, depending on the enslaving culture and time period.

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Is there a random generator for modern/futuristic city?

I remember seeing a program that generate full city before, it look kind of like this.

>>50525702
>>50525672
Will say this - slavery was much more complex then some people are willing to acknowledge.

People where willing to own slaves even when many them understood them to be human. Cultures ranged from letting slaves go if they earned freedom to denying owners the freedom to emaciate slaves. Some slavery was for labor as the main use. Other times slavery was for many times sexual/reproductive reasons.

Fun fact - right now the smallest percentage of humans are enslaved. Also right now there are more slaves then any time in human history, and they are cheaper then they ever have been.

>>50526822
>the freedom to emaciate slaves
*Manumission

Jesus I should not post before getting some caffeine in me.

>>50526852
bump

>tfw want to combine cassete futurism with art deco and elements of solar and dieselpunk
>tfw not sure how to make that work as a setting and aesthetic
help?

Hey guys quick question. I remember a while back i saw a tool used for cooperative world creation. It was a game where each player played as a god essentially, and then they went through creation in turns, using points and stuff to effect changes in the world, and the end result was a setting. You all wouldn't happen to know what that it's called and where i could find that would you?

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This is my current brainstorm on city "two word" outlines. Any thing obvious that I am missing?

>>50529369
Dawn of worlds. Google it.

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>>50528685
Art deco and solar panels would go well together.

The general shape of Manhattan-style art deco, with the upper tiers and setbacks, means you have lots of flat roof space to install panels, or you could mount them at 45 degree angles, making ramps from tier to tier.

Grim Fandango has a great mix of mild dieselpunk and art deco, with some clunky computers thrown in.

For your cassette-future, don't forget your big-ass floppy discs that contain "The Plans".

Economically, you have to say solar panels are crazy-cheap if you want them to exist in the same universe as diesel-punk. Diesel punk is about abundant natural resources, so any threat to resources is a great place to start a campaign.

Eliminate battery technology so alternatives to diesel (like electric cars) don't exist.

>>50528685
Look at Grim Fandango

>>50529572
Thank you kind sir, currently im doodling a building called Hurst tower to try and get an idea of what buildings would look like.

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>>50528685
It depends if you want to blend them fully, or have them be separate and the cause for division.

For the latter, it's as simple as having a diesalpunk setting below causing a thick layer of smog, while the rich sit above it and use clean solar panels.

If you want to mix the two more , you could have dark solar panels be basically everywhere to collect sunlight, giving a lot of things the dark diesalpunk colors and shapes. Then, you have that solar energy converted into a strange fluid fuel source that can be easily stored, essentially working as somewhat cleaner oil for the dorsal engines.

Pic related for art deco solar panels

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Here what i have.
set between 2020 and 2033 , a technology boom happens which results in all manner of flashy gadgets and new toys, robots, holograms etc. The modern iPunk style blends with Art deco, buildings , machines , products and ads have a mix of curves, color, patterns and sleekness. Because tech is advanced , buildings arent so expensive to produce so buildings in other countries can look more traditional but still remain advanced. Elements of solar punk are thrown in with the artistic emphasis for technology, architecture and advertising, with lots of greenry being present to make cities more attractive and eco-friendly, even though the main power sources of this world are 'green' nuclear and coal power. The main problem of the world are corruption, crime and shadowy societies pitting the powers of the world against each other, so beneath the prettiness of everything is crime, degenerate cyber-punky shit where people abuse technology and vaguely supernatural groups manipulate the strings. May or may not include magic and/or a new cold war. Thoughts?

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>>50528685
I think of stuff like this, holding data media, in skyscrapers with decorative solar panels.

While the peons work in the smoggy bottom area.

>>50530298
>>50530110

>>50528685
>elements of solarpunk

An aesthetic where every building is designed by Apple, is white and has round corners, and the sidewalks are covered in lots of green trees? As far as I know that buzzword was invented a few years back and there's never been any punk in it. Why not just call the few examples that are barely connected to it "ecofuturism", a "hippie utopia", or something similar?

>>50530339
Eco-futurism has a nice ring to it, i found solar-punk by browsing the cyberpunk derivatives page. Really i like the idea of neat and clean society with a vehemently corrupt underbelly.

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How do I into accurate biome placement?

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Thought I'd post this here and see what you guys have to say about it.
It's the royal bloodline, from the first king of the Ger line, to the current one. Cousins and siblings of king Semr Ger I excluded.

>>50530601

Not enough incest

>>50530601
Forgot to mention. The people whose names are boxed in are the kings, the else are just relatives.

>>50530720
One would think that royalty wouldn't really copulate with their own family members too openly. There might be a lot more incest behind the scenes. I haven't really thought about it, mind you.

>>50530510
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_circulation

Combine this with geographic features (mountains being the most important) to figure out where rain falls. Rivers come off of those and form lakes and basins in flat areas, which in turn create marshes, swamps, and mires.

You've got a bit more freedom with coastal areas, since a warm or cold ocean current can have a dramatic effect on a place (Europe is several degrees warmer than it would be otherwise thanks to the mid-Atlantic current).

Assuming your world has an earth-like seasonal tilt, regions closer to the equator will have much more stable ecosystems. My favorite example of this is that there are butterflies who feed almost exclusively on the droppings of birds who feed almost exclusively on prey snatched from army ants. I don't know if that's relevant to the problems you're having, but it's weird, right?

Maybe look into keystone species--individual species which have a disproportionate role in the structure of an ecosystem relative to their population size.

Check out Planet Earth if you get a chance. It's on Netflix.

>>50510587
I always like casting adventuring as being just another job. In my setting, adventurers are freelancers, but there's a whole quasi-military government service essentially devoted to performing standard adventuring duties (in addition to other duties). Freelance adventurers are left to be--for lack of a better comparison--what private investigators are to the police, taking on jobs that are too obscure, personal, or trivial for the government service to handle. They spend a good chunk of time handling paperwork.

I learned that setting out a concept to keep a idea on task is the best thing to do.

For example Current one I am working on.

1. Low fantasy, but no Tolkien (no halflings)
2. 95% of the people follow the same religous tradition, even if they might not worship the same god in that tradition.
3. buttloads of ruins
4. Altering some of the most common baddies to be not being the same.
5. Altering dwarves and elves so that they are not the usual.
6. Replace hobbits with a lizard race that fits the same mold (since I am playing B/X style games)

Those six concepts which could be boiled down to three is really helping keeping a focus on what needs to be added.

>>50530110
not sure if i should change the timeline so that 80s style tech is the tech of this timeline, like how in fallout the computers are both more primitive yet more advanced than ours.

>>50532034
Wait, so should we be keeping one, three, or six ideas in mind? You lost me.

>>50526227
That was a proof of concept for a thing that didn't end up happening.

What 20th century eras are cool for a mini campaign?

>>50532899

Pre-WW1
WW1
Post-WW1
WW2
Post-WW2
Cold War

>>50533073
don't forget the 90s

>>50533139
>>50533073
would the soviet union surviving into today be a good one?

>>50533167
Not unless you want to get really political, with your setting receiving immediate scrutiny.

>>50532554
The idea is to establish goals that you want in worldbuilding and stick to it.

>>50502857
>Listing Slovene, Croat, Bosnian, Serbian and Montenegrin as different languages
Dude the Slavic Balkan sprachbund has a lexical similarity of like 85+%, and native speakers can communicate with other Balkan Slavic language speakers fairly well.
I'd be fine with it, yet you were so inconsistent on dialects like Macedonian versus Bulgarian and French versus Occitain.
Also, very few people speak Gaelic or Scots.
Bad map.

>>50533167
I like the idea of a cold war setting, justifies advanced technology. Aside from america and Russia/china who would be good opponents for cold war 2.0? I like the idea of Great Britain vs someone else

>>50534159
>>50533167

Full Metal Panic is a universe in which the cold war continues with overtech mechs

Front Mission is Americas vs Europe vs Asia vs Oceania vs Africa with mechs

The parody documentary Tribulations 99 supposes a universe where the Cold War was really about the CIA battling aliens under the cover of fighting Communism

>>50534346
>>50534346
>>50534346
new
>>50534346
>>50534346
>>50534346

>>50475538
What does /tg/ think of my map?

https://gyazo.com/e0c9d2a133995e400be59c4dfde0bb7b

>>50476452
>>50477825

This, it's "simple", but the kinds of things that are taken for granted are often shocking to pampered contemporary audiences. For instance, a young girl who answers the door for a peddlar who immediately stuffs her in the wicker basket on his back, takes her off to his village shack, and chops her into pieces with an axe (this teaches children the moral never to trust drifters). Or the Jew in the Thornbush, which teaches children that the Jew can always be spotted by his horns and fluffy goat-tail.