/WBG/ - Worldbuilding General

>>50885284
That is what I try to reach. City that can influence others nearby through trade and financing their wars.

Thought the city cannot be immortal, but has fallen several times during the history. But it has to be either very powerful empire that can hold the trade there or the capturing of the city is not beneficial enough for invading party.

>>50893503
>What are the Dark Arts of your world?
Because all magic is based on life energy and using the excess energy without taking some of your own or others. Using your own life energy will shorten your lives drastically so it is not advisable to do so. Blood magic especially is centered on using someones life energy as the fuel source for magic, be it a sheep or a person. This is considered barbaric by some of the more "civilized" nations, but is very common form of doing mass rituals or trying to foresee future in many different cultures. Human sacrifices are usually seen as very barbaric and they are rarely done by magis. Of course this happens and if it happens in those "civilized" nations where it is illegal there will be legal consequences which usually lead to death of the magi involved in it.

Necromancy is another Dark Art which is not really liked. Resurrecting people into zombies/thralls is seen as very bad thing. Basically going into gods territory, but if the magi doing it is very good and highly regarded. He can technically resurrect person properly back into living. This thought is much harder than basic necromancy.


>Why would anyone use such a power?
https://youtu.be/-1TTN-Ev2KI?t=55s
Well till point where you run out of people to sacrifice.

>Is there any coming back for someone who uses the Dark Arts but later repents, or is Death the only just end?
There might be if the person is seen to be very talented magi and if the persons crimes were small. But most of the times the person is judged and executed.

Heres what i got
>2051
>Technology has advanced a lot, space stations, moon outposts, robots, cyborgs and lasers
>Revival in old styles and alternate forms of technology
>World war 3 breaks out between the powers of the world, unbeknownst to the powers, secretive societies and organisations have been pulling the strings, one even lacing atomic weaponry with magically reactive materials, another hoarding unreleased tech
>World gets fucked, flash forward 100 years to the in-game present day

Would it make sense to have things like data tapes and more analog control things? The reason being that people started using these alternate forms of technology to prevent digital hacking

>What are the Dark Arts of your world?
Before my latest revision of the world, any magic that controlled and manipulated the earth was considered a dark art.
>What separates them from the usual sort of magic?
At the absolute highest levels through magnetism repulsion one could get a flying country
>Why would anyone use such a power? Who is it's greatest practitioner?
The one instance of it being used as mentioned above was to gain total supremacy over the other nations, a flying country could pepper anywhere below with artillery and have their troops never be far from their supplies, plus its a pretty intimidating sight.

Thankfully for everyone else it failed, but that region of the world was a disaster zone for a century. The prominent religion of the world created a military order in the region to see that it never happened again, though it seems unlikely anyway as the original mages who knew how to do it died when the flying nation crashed back into the earth.

>>50895952
Well we got to moon with them so yeah. It can work.

File: E6A61D9E-E0AB-47E4-AF9D-CA9D2D95041B-2499-000004C619BD0832_tmp.png (3MB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1920x1080px

How would a subterranean forest work? I really wanna have an expansive, scary, and mysterious forest below some mountain range or something. I assume that if it's a cavern sort of deal, it would need to have a few cracks in the cave-roof to allow a tiny amount of light in, so where would something like this be geographically possible?

>>50899748
You might be better off having a mushroom forest instead. No point having leaves when there's low-to-no light to soak up.

File: Primer- Factions.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

Can I get some input on this?

These are the main factions for the sci-fi setting I'm building. Each one is going to have its own full-fledged write-up but I wanted a quick paragraph length description of each for new players to get an idea of the current political scene.

Players of course have the option to be members of any of these or to create their own factions, which is a major avenue of gameplay.

I'm most uncertain of the Gardenim, primarily because I'm not solid on the name. I wanted to invoke the idea that they view themselves as ecologists who are closer to nature than mainstream society (which is why they creep everyone else out).

>>50899748
I mean scientifically it makes no sense, so you'll have to come up with some magical thing. Maybe a forest crafted by a wizard to impress his love, showing how his great art can make life bloom anywhere; or maybe the forest was grown out of seeds pinched from the Underworld by an immortal escapee who now tends to the wood as if it is his personal garden, while making sure to keep the paths and brushes twisted and confusing to throw off the minions of Hades who seek to drag him back down to their master's domain.

>>50899748
Maybe it's a volcanic area and the forest formed underneath a massive lava dome? Volcanic soil is highly fertile and cracks in the dome would allow light to come through.

There's still problems like >>50899773 pointed out but it's a start. Of course you can also say a wizard did it like >>50900418

>>50900951
>>50899773
If you use a mushroom forest, you also have a reason to include bio-luminescence.

>>50899748
Any ecosystem needs constant input of energy from outside, lest it would be a perpetual engine and those are impossible.

People suggested geothermal activity - that's probably a good enough excuse. Especially if you don't have to explicitly name the process behind your not-photosynthesis. Although I'm not so sure about forest in this context - I see no evolutional advantage in growing up in a cavern. If it's outright fantasy or very soft sci-fi, maybe magic energy is flooding your cavern, allowing life to thrive.

Energy might also be brought from the surface with a rive that runs from the surface, but again, why would there be trees?

>>50901135
What if the underside of the cavern is studded with some kind of radioactive element which the plantlife photosynthesizes instead of visible light? Then you have the advantage of trees needing leaves AND the cool effect of a glowy psuedo-skyscape.

>>50899748
Ever considered trees made of flesh, with roots draining hell itself for nutrition?

>>50901135
>not having your universe be an open system
>using 100% real-world physics in a fantasy setting
>allowing for eventual heat-death

>>50900062
This seems pretty neat as a starting point. I would say that each faction seems a little single-minded and archetypal, but hopefully fleshing them out will help avoid cliche.

Let's say there's a planet, just like Earth, but it only has a single landmass the size of Australia. Any important climatic effects I should consider? Some freakish tidal waves or something?

Regarding underground people, I could see them being blind due to not needing eyes, but they have superb hearing or taste. Also albinos, all of them.

Same way there is no need for them to be stupid or savage. Being blind makes their architecture very bland looking in colour. But the clothing and structures would be the way to show how rich or important the person is. Touching the other person would also be in great importance as some clear thing like different castes having certain necklaces or clothing to be different enough from others.

>>50901311
I think infra-red vision could still be useful. Everything radiates something, most things just aren't hot enough to glow in spectrum visible by human eye.

Though land of the blind sounds cool too. Don't forget sensing air flow, that'll help in the darkness.

>>50900062
Under any other circumstance, I would complain that you are ripping off a lot of other ideas, but seeing them all together and in the greater detail of a setting people will play in sounds cool. I also think that name isn't the best, maybe try to use a translation of garden, probably something from the romance languages that is both less obvious and still recognizable.

>>50901295
If its just that one small landmass I feel like large waves would be a frequent occurrence as well as hurricanes/tropical storms/heavy rainfall.

>>50901295
Think Kamino, but with kangaroos, fosters and Bruces.

>>50901295
>Any important climatic effects I should consider? Some freakish tidal waves or something?
If it's got a moon just like ours, then the tides will still have their usual height.

As for weather, there's a lot more going on in Earth's climate than just the ocean/land mass interaction - you've got to consider sea currents, how much sunlight is now being absorbed due to a lack of land mass and ice caps, that sorta stuff.

I imagine it'd be hot, rain a hell of a lot, and have very strong tropical winds and cyclones that may wreak havoc on the coastal parts of your fictional country.

File: Z5zLMvV.gif (2MB, 300x300px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 300x300px

>>50893503
Might not be quite the right place to ask, but I remember seeing a cool site about how to generate settlements by rolling a handful of dice. Their numbers and die size correlated to certain facilities within a town and the dice pool's physical layout on the table reflected the town's layout. Does anyone happen to have a copy or link to that?

File: 1429732313911.jpg (2MB, 3023x2144px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3023x2144px

What is more likely to happen to humanity in the near future: A incredibly short yet deadly war(like the One Year War in Gundam, where the near half of humanity is dead after only a few months), or a long, drawn out war(think One Hundred Years War or Thirty Years War, but with warcrimes and giant robots)?

If it is the former, I feel as though I'd have to put that devastating war further into the future for it to be a couple decades or even a few years before contact.

If it's the latter, I feel that's not very realistic, considering the types of war we fight now. Everything is so much more sophisticated and things are decided so much faster. Major conflicts just don't get bogged down like they used to(as far as I know).

>>50904950
>Major conflicts just don't get bogged down like they used to

You mean like anything the US has done in the Middle East? Russia fucking around in Ukraine? The shit going on in Syria?

Wars still go on for years, but these days it's mostly proxy warfare with some of the big players (Russia, USA, EU members) projecting their force into smaller countries like Syria.

These kind of proxy wars will continue indefinitely until one of the larger countries with nukes manages to piss off one of another nuclear country and everything goes to hell. Both Putin and Trump are pushing to rebuild and enhance their respective nuclear stockpiles, so don't expect any kind of disarmament to happen in the next 10 years or so.

How to do plate tectonics? Also post maps.

File: Hey guys whats going on in this battle.jpg (24KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

24KB, 640x480px

>>50905078
Good points.

I just feel that current technology, strategies and generally the way war is fought would not allow for a century or two long war. It would be resolved far before it could reach a century.

Also, what are the predicated super powers of the future? I hear China and Russia, and India sometimes, but I assume that I can just make that shit up, yeah? I'm not wanting to have a one v one sort of thing, I want to have a plethora of super powers and their pawns fighting each other.

>>50906076
>I just feel that current technology, strategies and generally the way war is fought would not allow for a century or two long war.
I agree with you there, sure. There's an old saying, something along the lines of;
"World War 3 will be fought with nuclear weapons. World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones."

That's pretty much my general outlook, but I don't know enough about the politics between nations to make any kind of accurate predictions about who, when, or why there will be nuclear rain, or if it will even happen.

>>50901266
The idea is to sort of outline what characters not related to one of the Factions would know about them, hence their archetypical nature.

Also I subscribe to the Alpha Centauri design path where Factions are built less around race, history and politics and more around ideology.

>>50902261
I'm definitely wearing my references on my sleeve here. I read a lot of sci-fi and I don't mind bringing what I've read to the table. Ludox, for instance, is inspired jointly by Iaian M. Bank's The Player of Games and Hannu Rajaneimi's The Quantum Thief (as is the concept of a nanomachine cyberdemocracy).

>>50906076
India as a superpower is a meme. China is only a superpower economically.

Could go with Neo-USSR and a NWO Europe for your superpowers.

File: Sandcrawler.jpg (112KB, 640x538px) Image search: [Google]

112KB, 640x538px

>>50893503
Is there a general list of things that I should avoid doing when constructing a new world and 'rulebook' from scratch? I've honestly never done any kind of GMing before, but there's an idea or two that I really want to put to paper; stuff that, even if I never actually run the show, would be quite fun to play out.

I'm mostly focusing around an alt-Earth, around the time of WWI, where something similar to a Stargate is found and activated by one of the major European countries. On the other side would be a high-fantasy, medieval realm with all the usual mix of races (sans ordinary humans), which the players, either as part of a special reconnaissance branch or as a group of mercenaries/scientists, will get to invade/explore.

There will be magic, tanks, fire-breathing dragons, rifles, knights, airships, elves, all mixing together - is this biting off way more than I can chew, and what are some typical pitfalls I should steer clear of when designing this setting?

>>50906076
>Also, what are the predicated super powers of the future?

The geopolitical situation currently is most comparable to pre-WWI Europe. There's the globe-spanning superpower (USA), the upstart industrial powerhouse (China), and decaying has-beens (EU, Russia), all of which have the potential to emerge on top of a survival-of-the-fittest matchup, but none a shoe-in.

India, Brazil, and South Africa are extremely unlikely to inherit the earth, though. The BRICS meme is mostly dead except in the minds of the ill-informed.

Some kind of pan-Islamic empire is possible, but the entire middle east being glassed by Israel/Pakistan/Russia/Iran is about equally as likely. Africa will never amount to anything. Europe is highly likely to continue its decline and decay. The EU will never become a United States of Europe.

China may very well begin to decline without ever getting their "moment in the sun", due to the environmental and demographic disasters they have engineered over the past 20 years, and the fact that they have surrounded themselves with enemies through poor diplomacy.

No other Asian country is large enough to become a superpower except India (most of which is still pre-industrial, and which is paralyzed by corruption and incompetence) and maybe Japan (they want to remilitarize but their economy is weak and they show no signs of fixing up their demographic decline).

Russia would like to regain its Cold War era power, but lacks the money (not that it's stopping Putin from trying).

America's prestige and influence have been damaged by domestic and foreign policy failures under the Bush and Obama administrations. If Trump does what he says, and it has the results he predicts, we could see another 25-50 years of American hegemony, in part due to a lack of plausible competitors. If his presidency fails, we will see a continued slide into decline, and a power vacuum which nobody is able to fill.

Can anyone tell me what would be the objectives of an Adventurer's Guild? Should it be something that pertains to finding and discovering cultures and civilizations like treasure hunting, dungeon diving into lost ruins, and meeting an undiscovered society? Or should it be a 'protectors of the realm' sort of deal if the world super powers are too busy to deal with every single orc raid on a tiny hamlet or have their hands tied from investigating leads on that ancient cult bubbling up again?

>>50908563
It probably shouldn't be called "adventurer guild". "Adventurer" sounds unprofessional.

The duties you described would either be self-financed or fall onto someone who identify as sellswords, bounty hunters or knightly orders.

File: 1469341808897.jpg (1MB, 1280x704px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1280x704px

Why do you guys worldbuild? Do you do it just for fun, or do use the world you've built in games you run?

>>50909102
For fun and as a platform where I can put my ideas in.

>>50909102
For the games.

>>50909102

Game.

>>50908851
That's not really the answer I intended.

>>50909102
Both. I love coming up with new worlds to think about and extrapolate histories and politics in, and I love making new worlds for my players to explore. But since we've been on break since October, I'm really just doing it for fun these days. Or short stories.

>>50909236
What I'm trying to say is that your typical fantasy adventuring would likely fall under either mercenary work or knightly order, depending on how for-profit it is and who's paying their bills. There would not be a specific guild.

>>50909134
>>50909203
So do you just focus on elements the players might run into, or do you also include things you and only you will ever know?

>>50909411
Maybe in your world. My Adventurer's Guild is a cross between the Hero's Association from OPM and the Hunters Association from HxH.

What makes swamp and swamp, sompared to, say, a lake?

Also, is it possible to have swamp in the elevation by any means? My understanding of swamps says it isn't, but I really want to stick one in the place that should be elevated.

>>50910350
Drainage, amount of water buildup, quality of soil.
Could have a swamp on a plateau, provided it's being fed by streams coming down from higher elevations.

File: 1455297380087.jpg (421KB, 1298x973px) Image search: [Google]

421KB, 1298x973px

>>50910350
>What makes swamp and swamp, sompared to, say, a lake?
A lake is a solid body of water.
A swamp is a landmass that is just very wet, which results in mud build-ups, large numbers of ponds etc... Swamps can also be frequently formed around river banks, sometimes around oxbow lakes or river deltas.
In general, swamp is a land where the earth is highly saturated with water and the underground level of water is very near the surface, so the soil is drenched and the water can easily surface, but never forms one solid water surface. The term swamp is sometimes more broadly for any kind of "wetland", other times it may be used more specifically as a term for "(relatively highly) forested wetland".

>Also, is it possible to have swamp in the elevation by any means?
Swamps exist in ALL elevations. All you need is a basin with underground water level close to the surface enough. Swamps of higher elevantions (usually existing in mountain plateaus that have poor drainage and the water tends to cumulate in them) are often heavily populated by peat, which makes them valuable sources of coal. Highland wetlands are also sometimes called "moors" in some regions, peat-heavy swamps are also sometimes called "Bogs".
Coastal swamps which come from salt-water saturating the land with water are called "mangroves" and since those are dependent on the sea level, they obviously cannot exist at any elevations above sea level. Other than those those, you can find beautiful swamps and bogs up to 6k meters above see level in central Asia.

>>50909102
Both
I just never run any of them

How do you guys come up with "original" gods? I´ve been trying to create a pantheon for a pseudo greek setting and I simply can´t come up with anything new.

>>50910576
I ask myself "Why is this god here?", "What do they bring to the pantheon/setting as a whole?", and then I do that without researching shit.

>>50910576
By not trying to be original for originality's sake, and actually drawing inspiration from real world religions. The key is to understand how and why the real-world gods looked and felt like - understanding the patterns of religion and the role the gods have played in the their understanding of world.
That way you should start being able create god concepts that don't sound nonsensical, but also play around with variations and occasional subversions of the existing mythological "tropes".

So really, the best way to go around it is to read a LOT about existing religions, preferably some anthropological materials as well, and just do more and more research until you start feeling like things are starting to make sense and ideas start flowing in on their own. That is at least how I do it.

>>50910350
Swamp can be classified as a land with 15cm of peat on the surface. As others said it is very broad term. In nutshell Swamp is a area with peat covering of at least 15cm or more. Tree growth can be slow and too much water will turn the swamp into marsh/wetland proper.

>>50911012
Actually, swamp is not defined by peat. In fact, peat-less swamps, such as coastal marches and mangrooves exist.
From national geographic society dictionary:
>A swamp is an area of land permanently saturated, or filled, with water. Many swamps are even covered by water. There are two main types of swamps: freshwater swamps and saltwater swamps.
>Swamps are dominated by trees. They are transitional: neither dominated completely by land, nor by surface water. They vary in size from isolated prairie potholes to huge coastal salt marshes. Some swamps are flooded woodlands. Some are former lakes or ponds overtaken by trees and shrubs.

From wiki:
>A swamp is a wetland that is forested.[1] Many swamps occur along large rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations.[2] Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes.[3] Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation.[4] The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps.

Peat is characteristic specifically for bogs (or muskegs), which can be argued to be sub-types of swamps.

>>50910128
Really? I'd like to hear more on that. HxH was one of the reasons why I wanted to have one in my setting. That and Konosuba.

>>50910520
What kind of cultures can develop in colder wetlands?

>>50914438
Some kind of nomadic, probably. Having to remain on the move to find food.

Or very insular, having to stick to few livable arable places.

>>50914438
Depends on how cold. Wetlands in general are not ideal for forming dense populations. Not unless the region is otherwise highly favorable for farming AND you find the manpower and organization to regulate and drain them. If you combine wetlands with cold (like central Siberia or Scandinavia cold), it's a pretty inhospitable place to live in.

"Cold wetlands" can range anywhere from high-altitude steppe regions like the Himalaya peat lands, to low altitude Siberian marches (which gradually transform into taiga), to what basically covers half of Scandinavia. All of those mostly developed nomadic and very primitive, tribalistic cultures: Sami, Inuit's, Samoyeds. Most of them are basically hunters and gatherers, sometimes migrating and semi-herding animals like reindeer.

/wbg/ tell me about your magic systems

Those of you without thought out magic systems, what do you think makes a good system? What are your favourites?

A few threads ago, I posted complaining that I wanted to integrate in something I'd seen on Wildest China (people who get around primarily by zipline) but couldn't find a place to fit it in. Well, I have now.

In the mining nation of Meride, people often traverse the caves by ziplines. The ziplines are made by a domesticated species of spider-like creatures the size of small dogs, tentatively called "frost spiders" ("frost" coming from their tendency to store meat in patches of snow). It can take over a year to train a frost spider to properly weave a line, but when one is properly woven, a line can support up to 150kg. It's not usually used to transport ore up, but this system is useful for the movement of people and supplies. The lines are even faintly bioluminescent, making them easier to use in the deepest, darkest mines.

What about you, /wbg/? Any interesting domesticated creatures in your setting?

>>50914958
I've talked about it before, but magic in my setting is essentially the act of one's will temporarily overriding the will of the universe (AKA physics). Creating or destroying matter or energy, spontaneously moving from one point to another, those kinds of things.

>>50912115
Basically; My world is a kitchen sink of Monster Hunter and various other sources of inspiration. In-setting, the Adventurer's Guild was established by the winners of the Great War as a solution to the trans-national defense of civilization [/spoiler]and to "We have these trained, battle-hardened soldiers. wut do?"[/spoiler], adopted continent-wide by the fantasy equivalent of the League of Nations.

The Adventurer's Guild, as an organization "above" individual national law, enforces certain requirements on its Adventurers in return for certain inalienable rights including: Right to Property, including the right to carry and display dangerous magical artifacts and weapons of war; Freedom of Movement, including the ability to pass through national borders with said weapons/artifacts; Freedom of Speech coupled with a Right to Publicity, protection of the Adventurer's personal persona.
There are some minor stipulations, such as "Adventurers cannot hold public office" and "Adventurers cannot be drafted into or train a national military".

Like both mentioned settings, Adventurers are rated based on general combat effectiveness and sub-divided based on merit. Most minor villages can issue Copper or Iron-level Guild Insignias, while "real" badges are granted by Guilds in any major city. Metals used range from commonplace to fantastical, reflecting the skill level of the wielding Adventurer.

Etc, etc. Would need to answer questions to explain more.

>>50914958
Some people are born with connection to one of the classical elements, usually able to infuse things with its power to produce magic items.

Large groups of people usually have a deity that they can sustain with worship for benefits, but it's a two-way street - if deity is affected, so are all its worshippers. Dangers associated with worship has driven people toward a religion that shuns those deities as false gods.

Sometimes people are picked by spirits and infused with powers. However no verified case happen for at least a hundred years, since a woman chosen by a trickster spirit brought ruin to an entire nation.

Finally, it is possible to kill god and eat its flesh to gain its great power. However many adverse effects are associated with it.

>>50916035
I just noticed that I fucked up the spoiler tag, not that it matters.

File: 1461478208094.png (441KB, 1050x925px) Image search: [Google]

441KB, 1050x925px

>>50916035
Wow, that really does sound cool and interesting. I hope you don't mind me asking you a ton of questions cause my curiosity is piqued. Mind expanding on what exactly was the Great War and its role in convincing the nations to form the Guild? What are the sort of threats adventurers are expected to protect? What's the underlying bureaucracy of the Guild, like do the adventurers get their jobs issued by the guild itself or do they get them from the local region that they're in? Do they need to pay a fee for the use of special services? And lastly, two things: What are the higher level guild members most known for, and how does the guild deal with anyone going rogue?

>>50916904
What exactly is going on in that picture?

>>50916916
An anime version of REMOVE KEBAB

>>50916916
I'm not entirely sure. I just had it saved in my /tg/ folder.

File: Manticore.jpg (43KB, 720x523px) Image search: [Google]

43KB, 720x523px

>>50916904
>Mind expanding on what exactly was the Great War and its role in convincing the nations to form the Guild?
The Great War started with a slave revolt; Humans learned how to be Wizards and started roasting Pig Orcs by the dozen. The war wasn't won until certain powerful heroes slew the Crimson Dragon. Several nations were founded out of the ruins of the Crimson Empire, all former allies during the Great War. Since there were still so many remnant threats (IE: Goblins, a multitude of Chimera, Undead), and no single nation wanted to give up their own heroes for the sake of any other nation, a trans-national organization was founded at the big "Meeting of Like-Minds For the Sake of Future Peace" that follows any war.

>What are the sort of threats adventurers are expected to (defend against)?
Lower-tier Adventurers ward off bandits, demi-human raiders, and the Undead, while stronger Adventurers protect cities from rampaging Chimera. Pic related would be a high-tier Chimera.

>What's the underlying bureaucracy of the Guild, like do the adventurers get their jobs issued by the guild itself or do they get them from the local region that they're in?
Most regional Guildmasters are retired Adventurers themselves, to answer a part of that question. Jobs are assigned through contracts, which literally anyone can submit including the occasional Fairy under orders from some Fae Queen.
Contracts fall under 5 major categories: Protect, Search, Capture, Slay, and Explore. These contracts include bodyguard work, bounty hunting, a culling of dangerous wildlife, ruin or crypt exploration, or property defense (to name a few).

Cont (1/2)

>>50916947
My best guess is that the young lady on the left is suffering from scurvy and so is eating a lime to help treat it, but the sour taste is causing her eyes to water, as she's unused to such sharp flavors. Meanwhile the girl on the right is so inspired by her bravery that she has abandoned the pursuit of war to follow her true dream as a polka musician, but she's filled with self-doubt about the prospects of her new career.

File: Baby Gorehunter.jpg (163KB, 781x730px) Image search: [Google]

163KB, 781x730px

>>50917151
>Do they need to pay a fee for the use of special services?
Most processing fees are included with a contract, with contracts that aren't free-for-all first-come-first-rewarded costing more. Hiring an Adventurer to perform a contract directly is the cheapest, and Adventurers don't have any guild dues to pay apart from buying a Copper or Iron Insignia to join.

>What are the higher level guild members most known for?
Heroic Adventurers are national celebrities, often wielding strength or spellpower at the peak of mortal potential. For instance, a top-tier Wizard would be able to fly while launching bolts of lightning or utilize NSA-level scrying spells. You'd see a lot more (minor) resurrection magic and herculean feats from the Guild's best, albeit sometimes exaggerated.

>How does the guild deal with anyone going rogue?
There's two distinct versions of "going rogue".
Any Adventurer who settles down, purchases a home, and stops adventuring for a year is considered "Retired" and no longer active. They still have standing within the Guild, but their ranking plummets. Most Guildmasters and other Guild higher-ups are retired Adventurers.
"Rogue" Adventurers are a tough subject, as they might only be "Rogue" in the view of one country. Until a proper investigation is conducted, they're under the authority of the Guild. If someone is considered "Rogue" by -everybody-, then there will be open-ended "Slay or Capture" contracts posted in every member nation.
There hasn't been a case of a rogue Adventurer that couldn't be defeated by another Adventurer or a group of Adventurers.

Pic related is a minor Chimera. Chimera are adorable.
(2/2)

File: images.jpg (7KB, 339x148px) Image search: [Google]

7KB, 339x148px

Do you have a BBEG? Whats he/she/it like? Whats their goal, motivation, aspiration etc?

>>50917328
Right now morality of my story runs more on themes of eternal recurrence and death and rebirth of the world, but focal point of the conflict is a cult leader who killed his god and ate his flesh to gain his powers and now seeks to kill all other gods to finish the world off and rebuild it in his own image.

>>50917328
She's the task-general (officer temporarily put in charge of a specific large undertaking) of her nation's military. She's cold, cautious, and ruthless when necessary, but fair and not bloodthirsty by any means; like Sun Tzu, she believes the best battle is the one you never need to fight. But more than anything she's obsessed with getting the job done, whatever the job may be and whatever it may take. She's also a seasoned warrior who's highly proficient with time-based magic.

Her task is to resurrect ancient technology which she believes will allow her nation to lead the world to a new utopia.

I usually go for the "noble, but misguided, goal" angle.

>>50914438
One note is that swamps are good source of frost that kills the crops. Take this in account.

>>50914958
Take this old post I did to /wbg/

>Magic, is your setting low magic, high magic or no magic at all?
Low magic. Once in the past magic was much more powerful, but due to decline of gods the ability to control magic has went down.

>If you have magic, how do you power it? Where is the source of the power?
Simple term is life energy. Every living being has life energy inside them. Magis use the excess life energy they gather inside them to do magic. If magi uses too much life energy, he/she is going to use their own life power basically shortening their lives. Trained magis gather excess life energy all the time, especially if they rest and are not stressed or fatigued. Life energy being in everywhere means that animal/human sacrifices are viable way to power more powerful magic or rituals.

>What makes you mage? Is it born power only given to few chosen or can everybody use it?
Everybody can learn magic, but it would take lifetime for normal human to learn the basics so it isn't really viable. Normal people can learn how to control rune magic, magic struck into runes a lot easier. This is the requirement for usage of rune weapons.
For somebody to be able to use magic properly they need to be attuned to life energy, usually this does not show up at all and the lucky person will live long and good life with good health. Most roving magis can feel if the person is magically attuned and this is the way they are spotted most of the time. Of course children of magis have bigger change to be attuned and if both parents are magis and their grandparents also it is more or less guaranteed.

>>50918325

>How does the magic users do magic? Do they need staffs, long rituals or just by flick of a finger?
They draw the power inside them. At least that is how they explain it. Most magis have some kind of equipment with different runes to channel life energy from land around them and from within. This equipment can be a staff, sword or even a normal household item. Runesmiths can make "batteries", basically items with runes that can store life energy. These "batteries" have limited usage, but are important for magis if they need that extra pinch of power.

Normal magis can do magic quite fast, but in limited power. If enough magis band together they can coordinate their rituals to do much more effective magic. While more primitive tribesmen do not have as high quality magical training, they can use sacrifices and mass rituals to get effective magic going.

>How effective is the magic?
Normal magi well versed in combat magic can fling half a dozen small fireballs or similar magic. Set their sword on fire for longer periods of time or enhance their bodies to be better than trained knight. Mass rituals are powerful, but the magic they can make is restricted. Usually they are different buffs or enhancing magic, but wishing for good luck from gods is common in countryside.

>Is there taboos or forbidden things in magic?
Necromancy and playing with godly thing or things that should stay dead. It is universally seen as taboo to mess with dead. Resurrection magic is a thing, but it is very hard and only a handful of magis in whole world know how to do it. Even they require a lot of resources and assistants.

File: fea2b2e27dc64aed4228bb3697018436.jpg (35KB, 400x563px) Image search: [Google]

35KB, 400x563px

>>50918343


>How does new mages learn their craft? Schools, apprentices or something else?
Most likely they become apprentices to wandering magis who teach them slowly how to do magic. This is the basic teacher-apprentice system. There is several schools that teach magic, but most known is City of Magis. Whole city started by magically attuned people, because in that place there is more life energy than in other places in the world. City is the place where all magis who want to be something great go in hopes of learning from the best of the world.

>Pointy hats Yes or No?
No. Clothing does not hinder the usage of magic. If your equipment can be inscribed with runes that help in magic it is done so. Combat magi with rune inscribed full plate is very dangerous opponent.


Hopefully this gives some idea and helps you.

>>50910576

I have went with mixture of Greco-Roman shitloads of gods and single god above all. Completely depends on the culture. In reality many of the distinct gods people worship are just one aspect on one much greater god.

>>50915065
Well the Mallard Folk that are not!durulz habe domesticated ducks as farm animals they grow. While they understand what they are speaking, they do not have no qualms on butchering them and eating them. This horrifies neighbouring humans, eating your retarted cousins.

>>50916916
ISIS-chan is eating watermelon as Serbia-chan is preparing to REMOVE kebab

>>50917328
World ia too large for singular BBEG, bit if I would name one I would name still WIP god. This god arrived to the planet later and made a mountain humans to worship him. In progress God corrupted them and turned their skin to grey/brown. While The god doesn't have much power atm, It is still there influencing minds slowly. Pic related

I do have debated myself if I should add some properly fantastic race that has arrived to this world in bit similar way as Orcs or BC to Azeroth in Warcraft. A completely hostile outsider faction to stir the pot.

File: Primer- Factions.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

Faction Primer again. I changed the name of the Gardenim to Ex Anathema, as they're comprised of exiled members of another Faction, which works nicely as the name of a sort of secret society.

I also added another (and final) faction, the Remnants (again not super sure on the name), which is basically just a huge horde of displaced cultures and races that endlessly fly around the edge of civilized space. Their largest population are the z'haks, a race of desert dwelling reptiles that once controlled a large piece of the galaxy before aggressive strange matter coral ate their entire empire.

File: Black magic.webm (2MB, 640x640px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 640x640px

>>50914958
>Common
>Weak
>Makes up for it with special effects
>Comes from magic items or powerful entities, it is never innate in someone.
>No clue how magic items are made, but shouldn't be harder than a good sword.
>Magic loosely cannot create or destroy (fire magic requires an existing fire, plant magic requires seeds)
>Magic items don't do all the work for somebody, mastering them is just as hard as mastering a gun or a sword.
>The shape of the magic item affects the magic it puts forth. (Staves are slow but strong, wands are weaker but offers a lot of control.)
>Powerful beings sometimes grant mortals power in exchange for carrying out their will.
>Magic defies scientific explanation.

>Using magic a lot gets really hot, so mages usually have to have either loose robes or be basically naked to sustain over a battle.
>Since the shape of the magic item affects the magic, magical armor can sometimes look extremely impractical in order to create the right spell.

I'm thinking that magic items are created using some sort of intensely complicated runes/rituals. It gives wizards a reason to have a shit ton of books around and allows even someone really poor to have magic with dedication.

The runes will be more of an art than a science, they can come in the form of an engraving or a small intricate sculpture or something. There probably isn't rune dictionaries but it still requires a ton of knowledge to be able to create them properly with good quality.

Since you're reading this entire post at once you can't tell, but this actually helped a fuckload in cementing my setting's magic system down. Thanks m8s.

File: 50 ways to prepare spells.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>50914958

I believe that the best magic systems are the ones that tie themselves in with the core values of the game itself.

For example, modern DnD loses some points because it uses the oldschool Vancian magic spell-slot system BUT it doesn't do old school dungeon exploration as the primary form of gameplay anymore as much.

Good examples of magic systems is Vanican/D&D magic for OSR style dungeon crawlers, and another good one is Unknown Armies for having magic that makes sense in the real world. Pretty much all but the strongest magic effects could be seen as coincidences or are entirely subtle in how they operate, which makes sense in the modern fantasy game where magic is a 'secret'.

Right now I'm making an OSR game. Wizards cast spells which are memorize and prepare spells from a spellbook, of which all spells are basically first level with a few methods to cheat in there so it isn't like the older more broken DnD spells. As soon as a spell is cast, you can memorize another, but it takes time and every minute spent preparing spells or healing uses up rations, makes wandering monster checks, etc. Time is a very valuable resource in OSR games.

However I don't tie my players down to the in-game fluff or preparing spells that way. My world is high fantasy and I say that every mage can come from a different crazy ass school of magic that prepares spells in many different ways.

I even wrote a list of examples of 50 examples of crazy ways to prepare spells.

File: HappyElf.png (25KB, 1000x1000px) Image search: [Google]

25KB, 1000x1000px

>>50917151
>>50917307
Wow, thanks for the response! This is really gonna help me work out some kinks in my setting's guild. Thanks a bunch man, your game sounds like fun too. Hope it goes well.

How does one into a sci-fantasy setting like 40k, without just ripping off 40k?

>>50919860

What elements exactly of 40k are you after? Massive intergalactic war? Space magic?

I prefer my sci-fi settings like star wars.

>>50919494
>tfw not a game, just a thought exercise

>>50916916
left is isis eating a melon. why a melon, fuck if I can remember. Right is that guy from the remove kebab video.

>>50919978
Does she need a reason? Most melons are delicious.

>>50919898
I like the dangerous space magic and the massive scale wars. I'm not a fan of the Force style space magic, I like mine primal and hazardous to use.

>>50919042
Is the apostrophe a sound or just a glottal stop?

File: 8d57307a-4c4b-4a6a-9c42-259a82bec7fb.jpg (397KB, 650x850px) Image search: [Google]

397KB, 650x850px

Question here, what use would mass producing different types of golems have for dwarves? What jobs or assignments would clay, stone, and metal each be used for? Also, what would be the reason to making them human-like and sapient rather than replacing them with a human?

>>50921144
Using different types of metal and lighter materials would allow for heat resistance, durability, and overall weight to vary based on function.
One of my Demigods has Wooden Golems in his earthly residence, Stone Golems guarding the entry areas of his domain, and a variety of Metal Golems guarding his sacred crafting halls.

File: 0794298c74ff7f8d7604f56048675775.png (78KB, 546x1116px) Image search: [Google]

78KB, 546x1116px

>>50909102
Preapre for autism.
Long ago, i was an edgy 15 yo, by that time i was just starting to experience a taste of what roleplaying and tabletop games where. And as most people of that age these days i ended up in a freeform RP forum. The place was shit in all senses except for two people. A mexican girl and a girl from my country.
Mexican girl was the joy of my life at the time, since im a nerd that has lived too much of his life online. and we were in a e-relationship for 6 years.
Girl from my country is still a friend to this day.

The thing is that, during my days of freeform, i did the mistake of becoming the admin of a forum, and as you might know, this attracts way too much drama. and boy, we had drama, i spent 4 years in the forum i made, fighting either other admins whom had turned on me because i didnt bend over to their requests, struggling to keep an extremely broken "system" i had made for the forum working as well as going through the obvious problems of being a teen.

In the end, my administration came to an end when a bunch of the mods simply decided they could do without me and kicked me out of the place. comically, they self destructed after a few months just as i predicted.

My setting as it is now was a last ditch attempt at making a place that me and those two women could spend their days just lounging in, without the drama from our previous attempts.

Sometimes, me and these girls still talk and come together to talk, and i intend my setting to be both a tribute to them, a "reward" for being the friends of a nerd for so long, as well as a test to my writting skills.

and yes, i do have nudes of them but i wont share
pic related, a poem mexican girl showed me, seemed oddly ontopic for the situation of my setting.

>>50909446
I mostly focus on the elements that players interact with, but the doesn't stop me from putting more into it. If its good, it'll draw players in and they'll want more, better have some for them.

File: 9va6Rcg.jpg (76KB, 583x800px) Image search: [Google]

76KB, 583x800px

Consider the following:

Instead of having earth/water/fire/whateverthefuck elementals, have elementals of abstract concepts

>Justice elementals
>Art elementals
>Communism elementals
>Science elementals
>Freedom elementals
>War elementals

>>50921761
Interesting.

>>50921761
>communism elemental
People would make it. The elemental would be an unstable, radioactive mess that can only be contained under measures and conditions so extreme that it is ultimately redundant at best and superfluous besides. It would be the pride of the megalomaniacal arrogant twats that create it as if it's the future solution to all golemdom.

And then after the Communism golem fails to do anything good at all, the creators will claim they failed because it wasn't a real communism golem. A REAL communism elemental wouldn't have failed or done /that/!

File: wasnt real socialism.gif (1MB, 800x667px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 800x667px

>>50921843
God bless.

>>50921761
I think "incarnations" works better as a title than elemental. Elemental implies that you can't break it down into smaller bits, while incarnations or avatars imply that they are physical embodiments of a thing, such as a concept.

>>50922203
this

>>50922371
>>50922203
I looked it up and it seems like it's an acceptable usage of the word elemental.

I'd say it comes down to personal taste. I use elemental for themed spirits because it's a nice looking word that fucking world of warcraft has made me strongly associate with the concept. From my perspective incarnation connotates a system of reincarnation and avatar implies a divine being; but they're equally valid and all three can be used to mean what's basically the same exact thing.

I'll use them interchangeably, elemental if I'm planning on showing it to normies and avatar and incarnation for semantic purists.

>>50922203
>Elemental implies that you can't break it down into smaller bits
Our idea of the elements comes from the Greeks and what they thought was the most base-forms of the universe are. Plato actually believed in elements like >>50921761 which he called the Forms. Anon might have tapped into an obvious subversion that nobody thought of before

>>50914958

There are two kinds of Matter: Physical matter, and Spiritual matter. Physical matter is what we currently think of as matter, while Spiritual matter is a mirrored copy of the physical albeit with some differences. Likewise, there are two kinds of bodies, the physical and the spiritual. A physical body without a spirit is a corpse, while a spiritual body without the physical is a ghost. Together they make a living soul. If it doesn't have both aspects, it isn't alive.

Ethereal/Spiritual/Magical are all basically synonyms (I haven't determined if there any significant differences between them). There's no distinction between divine and arcane magics. And also, since every living being needs a spirit to be alive, every living thing can manipulate or be manipulated by magic. A beings' aptitude for magic depends entirely on how much effort they put into exercising it. Physical things largely affect physical things, and magical things largely affect magical things. You could technically use magic to light a dead log on fire (no spirit to affect), but it will take much more effort to get that ignition than using physical fire.

cont...

>>50924018
(2/3)

Going back to how magic and spirit are synonyms; the creators of the world and denizens are a Holy Family consisting of Father Sky, Mother Earth, Brother Fire, and Sister Water. They each represent an aspect of the 4 core elements or creation in both a physical and metaphysical sense. The Sky brings change, the Earth brings stability, the Fire consumes, and the Water replenishes. Each of those above elements are divided into 3 sub-elements each, which is where the "real" element system lies. Aero: Wind, Thunder, Lightning Geo: Earth, Plant, Metal Pyro: Fire, Arid, Bio Aqua: Water, Steam, Ice (Thunder is Sonic, Arid is Erosion/Time, Bio is acid/poison/radiation, Steam is all gases). Each sub-element houses some fairly generic aspects that can be applied to magic as a whole. Spells themselves have a "body" and "soul". The body is the form the spell takes (projectile, wall, beam) while the soul is which sub-element is being used. For example, you can make any spell a "cloud" if you use Steam as the body, regardless if its a poison cloud (bio/steam), dust cloud (earth/steam), or actual cloud (steam/steam). Each sub-element is also the domain of one of 12 "main" races which has helped define their cultures.

>>50924040
(3/3)

In a more mechanical sense, there's also a difference between combat casting and ritual (non-combat) casting. Ritual casting is your utility stuff like Consecrate/Desecrate, Speak with Dead, Flight, Teleport, etc. The primary resource of ritual casting is time. The more complex you want to make the spell, the exponentially longer it'll take to cast. Casting a spell that affects a person might be counted in hours, while a spell that affects a town would take weeks of casting, and trying to affect a planet would be counted in centuries. Combat casting is a subset of this. It's designed to always fit into 1 combat round (6 seconds), so the main limiting factor is your Mana as opposed to time. You create your own spells by combining the "body", "soul" and additional effects and can cast whatever you want as long as you've both prepared it and have the mana available. Mana fully replenishes after every round, so its assumed you're spending as much of it as possible. (The prepared spells limitation gives incentive to use downtime to prepare ahead, and keeps the game from getting bogged down in combat).

Overall I'm pretty happy with this magic system. I'm worldbuilding and homebrewing for the same game, so considering fluff and crunch combined, it feels pretty solid. I don't know if I'd even consider this kind of system my favorite, but I definitely like it and its what I wanted to do for this particular game.

>>50924018
>>50924040
>>50924051
Seems workable, but it's not really clear how it would work with more complicated spells (if those are at all possible) like Divinations and various Summonings or personal buffs.

Also, for example, how would you set the limitations on Teleport within your magic system, or how does Teleport work at all?

>>50924472
Some things haven't been fully fleshed out, particularly ritual specifics. Combat magic is already pretty decent from a mechanical framework pov. Effects have a base cost that stack additively. Metamagic effects are a multiplier that stacks additively with other metamagics, so spells become a simple X*Y=cost. Ritual spells will use a similar system, but with Time and materials replacing Mana.

Divinations should work just like praying. You entreat a higher power to answer a question, or provide guidance, or whatever. Just the communication doesn't take too long (probably hours or less), but you're leaving it up to that higher power after that. That higher power may/may not answer, but at least you don't have to be stuck casting for days or weeks at a time.

Summoning works just like it does in a lot of literature: draw your diagrams, get some people do your incantations, and summon whatever. A Demon summoning this way is part of a world-changing event. DnD style "Summon Monster 1" would be handled under combat casting. Limited time investment for limited effects.

Teleporting is interesting. I'm currently leaning towards making it fairly expensive, and changing people affected or distance would fall under the metamagic portion. I might include a Blink type spell that has decent usefulness (and is also expensive in mana), but I personally don't like wantonly dimension hopping. By making teleportation expensive, I could justify a trade network where nations might try teleporting on a monthly or quarterly basis. I could also price it so that teleporting isn't significantly faster than traveling by conventional means, but it might be more secure. And if cities are already doing mass trading on a timed schedule, then that could be taken advantage of for traveling purposes.

It boils down to keeping combat useful for combat, but also keeping potential save or suck magic abuse down. The fluff and crunch are intertwined, so explanations might come with baggage

File: 1480405096057.jpg (51KB, 519x412px) Image search: [Google]

51KB, 519x412px

>>50919384
that is fucking awesome pal. If you dont mind, I'm saving it and pasting it in future pdf threads

>>50926088

Go ahead. I enjoy writing gonzo shit and getting it spread around.

>>50926185
do you have more ideas like that? i often come to lurk worldbuilding threads to find gems like this.

>>50893503
Hey guys, I hope this is the right place to post this.

So I'm hoping to run my first 3.5e campaign sometime in the near future, and I had this idea of a low level magic world where magic is being brought back in as events unfold.

Very Low Magic Campaign
>PCs with magic get special treatment (good or bad depending on NPCs/current town)
>EXTREMELY LIMITED DIVINE (No clerics, paladins, etc., only druids and rangers, subject to same rules as arcane as below)
>Arcane magic users get 1 less spell known per spell tier, 1 less cast per spell tier until event triggers, wherein they get 1 more spell known per tier and 1 more cast per tier

Fate points (To make up for more limited magic)
>1 earned at first and second levels and every 2 levels thereafter
>Using one allows for on an auto success on any die roll
>Using 2 during character creation gives one more ability point OR grants arcane spells earned at the same speed as rangers WITHOUT the above +1 to spells known and cast by magic users upon triggering of the event

Event involves an action being taken that allows magic back into the world in a significant way (device activated, BBEG being summoned, etc.)

Any critic or advice is welcome.

>>50920797
It's a glottal stop, so it's pronounced "zuh-HACK".

It's also a contraction; the proper name of the race contains a largely unpronounceable sound for most people who aren't space geckos, so in Analog, the common language of the galaxy, it's cut out.

>>50926211

I mostly write Encounter lists for OSR general, but I do random stuff like that sometimes. I usually need a prompt and I can write whatever.

>>50926325
thanks anon, i'ts for guys like you that /tg/ is so awesome

>>50926261
You could try the DnD General, it is gaster than /wbg/ and they know the system better.

That being said I do like the fact that magicians are either liked or hated depending on the place they are

>>50921419
Alright, gotcha. Because mainkybI'm thinking of a dwarf kingdom to mass produce golems to act like crash test dummies for schools of magic testing new spells on them. I wanted to figure out what other jobs they could have that didn't involve fighting, since golems have a very destructive nature and are hard to control once they have a taste for violence.

File: Gethsemane Noble.png (741KB, 674x1410px) Image search: [Google]

741KB, 674x1410px

Ok so I've got the notion that the major city states and the territories around them in my game are mostly controlled by super wealthy family dynasties (inspiration taken from the Rockerfellers, the Borgias and the reclusive Howard Hughes) where things have taken a kind of feudal system as heirs act as barons and in turn feud and scheme to stab each other in the back.

What other sources could I draw from for corrupt idiosyncrasies? (The technology level is pretty high so things like brains in perpetual jars is entirely possible)

File: maxresdefault.jpg (91KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

91KB, 1280x720px

>>50929827
A good heat-resistant Golem would make an excellent autohammer for a Dwarven smith.

>>50930227
Yeah, they'd probably be super cheap too.

>>50931417
Depends on if your Golems can be hollow or not, and if they can be non-Humanoid shapes.

File: fire_clay.jpg (59KB, 485x500px) Image search: [Google]

59KB, 485x500px

>>50931432
My golems are actually made out of dense fire clay, but that's super cheap to get. The general template is humanoid, so it would have a roundish face, a torso, and its appropriate appendages, but they could be shaped accordingly for a certain task sending it off to the magicians to animate it.

I'm having trouble fleshing out my goblins, /wbg/. They're important to the story behind the elves and undead in the setting, but they themselves are not much more than spirit worshipping primitive tribes. I was thinking of giving them a Gypsy-Romani feel, have them be nomadic tribes living near the eastern forests and mountains.

>>50932611
Tell us more about your gobbos. What kind of the society is. How do they look. The whole deal.

>>50932611
Which part are you trying to flesh out? You said they are forest and mountain nomads, it seems enough to me to unfold their way of life.

File: bezaaz.png (260KB, 1614x843px) Image search: [Google]

260KB, 1614x843px

Left or right?

>>50933119
I love the one on the right because it looks like a frog monster waiting to swallow the world whole.

But do mountain ranges split like that?

>>50932692
I'm definitely stealing inspiration from pic related for them. The problem is I don't really have a natural social set-up for them yet, other than the spirit worship. The role they play is that they were tribes enslaved by the human of the Shazriq Empire, and while enslaved, used for alchemical experiments, create stable sub-breeds, like the hobgoblins, bugbears, and elves. When the Shazriq fell, the elves led them in rebellion, overthrowing the humans in the eastern lands, only for the elves to install themselves into power and re-enslave the goblinoids.

Recently, there's been an underground freedom movement, where a few goblins have learned to ability to resurrect the dead through the secret arts of the God of Life, taught by his disciples, the Lich Priests. These arts are incomplete, so the goblins are limited to empowering themselves at the cost of a vampiric hunger for blood to sustain the rituals, and the ability to return life to the dead, but not to restore them to a state of fully healthy being. Now the Strigoi use the corpses of their loved ones and kin to fight for freedom.

>>50932835
I'm just trying to avoid making the aspect of their natural existence not seem 1 dimensional, since most of the story focus isn't on the aspect. Like how settings like DnD has them as evil cannon fodder for the sake of being evil cannon fodder.

File: goblin_sketches_by_ulafish-d5g48cv.jpg (455KB, 1600x1955px) Image search: [Google]

455KB, 1600x1955px

>>50933397
Forgot pic.

>>50933397
Well, you seem to have most nailed down, they are outcasts who discovered a twisted way to protect themselves from oppressors. So build on this insular rogue nation of runaway slaves.

If you are going for the gypsies (prepare to be called racist), then have them roam the land camping in the wilderness outside human settlements, sneaking in and stealing shit, deal in illegal and unusual.

Being runaways from tall people and living of crime would warp their values toward weird criminal honour system, like omerta or ponyatiya, shunning honest work and having no concern for outsiders, but having strict in-group honour.

File: 1483052814743.png (2MB, 3900x1820px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3900x1820px

Is it bad that my map is so uncreative and uninspired that I can only copy the world map?

>>50933530
I figured in the human lands, it would be partly similar to the post-slavery movements in the late 1800's, since it was banned by the humans, believing it was part of the sins the Shazriq committed that lead to their destruction (the Shazriq Empire was destroyed by a large pillar of crystallized fire crashing into the center of the continent, creating a massive ashen desert, while a few satellite territories still exist, the main body is gone and a new ruling power controlled by the cult of the Fire Goddess said to live in the pillar rebuilt on the desert lands). Goblins and other creatures that were originally slaves are free, but old hatreds and views remain.

I could see goblin tribes taking in the other goblinoids and keeping their nomadic ways, since hobgoblins would create tensions (hobgoblins were bred to be soldiers and are prone to fits of rage).

>>50933119
They are the same map with different scale so right.

>>50933140
They can. But it requires 3 different tectonic plates hugging each other.

>>50933906
One can use our world as inspiration. Check Warhammer world for good example. As a advice look into how different continents where in earths past.

>>50933971
I do like your stuff about your gobbos. One thing on Gypsy caravans is that they could be very tribe centric. Honour forbids inner fighting, but everybody else is free game.


The gnolls which I have thought and sadly lost my notes would have caravans. They wouldn't be as hated, just not liked. They would come to a city. Do their trading and leave for another. Unless someone wants to hire the caravan as mercenaries they would roam the lands until they gain employment opportunities. Caravans would also work as a homebase for different gnoll bands. As young gnoll males might find caravan life boring, they can leave it for few years when they find employment in form of armed guards or soldiers.

The thing is thought that all gnolls are not nomadic or caravaneers, but instead they have their small villages with farms and mines.

>>50934147
>They are the same map with different scale so right.
What?

>>50934165
No wait I am fucking idiot. Left one is better purely by not going for complicated mountains.

I need to grow pair of eyes

>>50914958
There is no magic.
Only alchemy.

>>50934147
Although that does bring up another point, I already have a nomadic tribal race. My gnolls travel the southern desert, hunting earth elementals and harvesting them for stone and metals, and trading them with the local crocodile people.

>>50914958
One of my ideas is to have magic be done by drawing runes on things to change their property. This also what prevents guns from being popular in my setting - too hard to enchant all parts in alignment, much harder than mass-producing bulletproof cloaks. so pistols and rifles are seen as hunting weapon. But richest people can actually pay for magic guns and it's the ultimate killing machine.

>>50934805
That's actually a fairly clever way to keep close quarters weapons relevant in a setting with firearms.

Aight, /wbg/. I need to flesh out my antagonist faction. Ask me anything you can think of about them.

>>50936162
Who is their leader? How are they organized? How large are they? What are their goals? How are they gonna carry out these goals? What is their insignia? Where do they get their money from? Where are they located? Why do people want to join them? If they don't join willingly, then how do they get their henchmen?

> want to make a fantasy setting with multiple different worlds/shards/realities
> think it'll scratch the itch I have for fantasy settings where I always end up feeling like I need to incorporate everything
> sounds like a bad idea, but might try it anyway
Isn't Magic and their Planeswalkers essentially that? I don't know if their lore is any good because I've never actually looked into it.

I actually have several quality (Or at least I think so) settings but I keep getting fucking hung up on not having a real 'high fantasy' one. H E L P

>>50936238
Well, as it currently stands:
1. They're lead by Saint Gaerthal, their founder. She's a batshit insane half-elf that is convinced that everyone except her and her followers is evil, including the gods. All of them.
2. It's a theocracy of some sort, I'm honestly kinda fuzzy on the details.
3. In the span of about 20 years, they've managed to expand to have either governmental authority or at least significant influence over most of the (as-yet unnamed) eastern half of the continent the party is currently on.
4. Their (official) goals are to bring everyone into their faith. Gaerthal's personal goals, however, are to acquire a magical macguffin (The exact nature of which I'm not sure of yet) that will basically give her Yahweh-tier reality warping power.
5. At the moment they're building up their forces to attack the western half of the continent. While the western half of the continent has far more powerful and experienced mages and warriors than the eastern half (primarily due to Gaerthal's aggressive expansion and purges of those deemed disloyal), they intend to bridge the gap with heavy research and development of advanced magitek (Powered armour, magically assisted firearms, battle automata and the like.)
6. A large gear with a sword through it (Admittedly this is tentative, and may only represent some of their black ops divisions.)
7. Taxes, extortion and illegal trade in magical artifacts.
8. The eastern half of the continent. Before they showed up, it was broken up into dozens of smaller nation-states, but now it's one big, angry blob.
9. In the younger generation's case, because they believe it's the right thing to do. In the older generation's case, because they pay semi-decently and you're less likely to die that way.
10. They do have cannon-fodder penal regiments, but these are generally fairly rare and only used for the dirtiest of jobs.

That's my idea of them so far, and it still clearly needs work.

File: biome.map.jpg (493KB, 2816x2112px) Image search: [Google]

493KB, 2816x2112px

>>50934147
Oh, well this makes me less depressed. Although another question is how do you guys figure out the biomes and topography in your settings? I'm having trouble npt defaulting to everyday standards. And do you just plan to stick them every which way for your preferred setting or do you tend to craft it ahead of time and base the specifics of the setting afterwards?

>>50936315
I generally advice against multiple shards/worlds/dimensions settings if you want to do "serious" and detailed world-building. I can make up for fun crazy stories, but it's generally a death of any consistency, sense of self-contained world building and makes it very hard to keep the setting serious.

In world-building, as with most creative effort, constraints fuel imagination, less tends to be more, and narrower focus pays off more than broad ambitions. It's hard enough to keep one world feeling consistent and fleshed out.

If you really want to go after multiple worlds settings anyway, I recommend abandoning traditional world-building sensibilities. Don't try to make fleshed out, consistent worlds. Instead, embrace the plurality: embrace the "anything can be true", the sense of wonder and the scale that can't really be comprehended by an individual. Don't try to invent complex stories and histories, instead think of individual episodes, elements, fragments of the worlds: don't try to explain shit, but rather try to invoke wonder and sense of mystery: each world being a little taste of craziness and strangeness, a small episode of imagination.

Well, that would be my advice at least. Sorry if it sounds pretentious.

>>50936403

>it's generally a death of any consistency, sense of self-contained world building and makes it very hard to keep the setting serious.

Maybe I'm just a dummy, but I do not understand this reasoning. How can several worlds in a setting make it less serious?

>>50936345
So, an evil zealous theocracy of pure dickishness lead by crazy female cult-leader threatening the world with domination?

I don't want to be mean, maybe it's intentional but... that really isn't very interesting.

The problem seems to me really in the very idea of anatagonist faction being defined by... well, being evil, zealous and religious. They are evil because their leader is crazy, and they are religious fundies. It's just very cheap: the kind of plot device you'll find in every second fantasy and that really does not leave much things to be curious about, or that would hint on some deeper interesting layers to the settings.

>>50936645
Hmm. That's a fair point. Any ideas how I can "fix" them? Dial down the "Evil for the sake of it" and crank up the "We think this is best for you guys, but we're also kinda dicks" options?

>>50936674
But then again, that's the same problem all over again. Damnit, this shit is hard.

>>50893503
>What are the Dark Arts of your world?
Almost all magic is considered a dark art. Within the confines of the setting, magic can be derived from one of three sources:

1. The user's will and focus. Most "acceptable" magic is will-based, in part because it is "safe." This is only partially correct, as mage can easily overexert himself, causing him to pass out, or in more extreme cases, die of an aneurysm.

2. Blood, be it the user's own, or another. Blood magic is looked down upon and actively preached against by the Faith, as it is seen as too dangerous and barbaric. Again, this is partially true. Simpler spells don't require much blood at all, but more powerful spells demand more blood. In theory, a mage can consume their own blood without drawing it, but as blood burns to ash when used for magic, this almost always would result in the mage's death as ash clogs his veins.

3. The most powerful magic comes at the cost of a life. Unlike blood magic, life magic is not preached against; instead, the Faith actively tries to censor it entirely. Magic that calls for a life is incredibly powerful - the kind that can warp reality and time, and raise the dead to true life - but few are willing to pay the price.

>>50936674
Well, the first thing to consider is that someone being "an antagonist" is mostly just a matter of perspective. In reality, antagonists are not evil people, they are people whose interests are contradictory to yours, and they are bent on following them through.
And the fact that it's about perspectives, rather than some fundamental moral/cosmological principles usually actually makes them more interesting. There is this stereotype about best villains being the ones whose reasonings are equally as strong as the protagonists ones: it exists for a reason. It's actually fun to learn and explore and speculate about how different may be views of different people: it forces one to expand his own view.

I think it may be a mistake to invent an "antagonist faction" to begin with. It makes more sense to invent a conflict: without viewing any side as the "bad guys": experiment and think about what may be fueling the conflicts, and what are the perspectives of both sides.
Only then you can go and say: but my player/viewer/audience will see the conflict from the perspective of only one of the sides, making the other "antagonistic".

Do the "moral" judgement post-hoc: flesh out factions and their conflicts first, purely by their internal logic. Then go and say: well from the perspective of this one side, these guys are the "evil" ones.

Also: "they are evil because they are religious zealots" is really just a very cheap explanation of motivation. In reality, there has almost ALWAYS been more to acts of aggression than that. Even the fucking ISIS, an almost bond-villain level of evil religious movement, was really actually primarily driven by economical and ethnical tensions rather than the religion itself.
So maybe look into more interesting explanation for their expansion that ultimately makes them antagonistic to the rest of the world. You can keep the religious zeal, but make it a tool, or a symptom, rather than cause.
(cont.)

>>50936403
I can understand that reasoning. It'd be hard to keep everything consistent. Thanks for the advice.

>>50936607
In order for there to be multiple shards/worlds/dimensions/realities, they'd have to be vastly different to keep up consistency, and unless you did it really well, you'd end up breaking consistency anyway by needing to essentially build a new setting from the ground up with new rules and everything in the separate realities or whatever. That's the best explanation I can give, I'm not great with words.

File: yokohama-kaidashi-kikou-ykk-20.jpg (399KB, 767x1100px) Image search: [Google]

399KB, 767x1100px

>>50936859
Perhaps, have the region ecologically unstable. Something like a changing climate: draught, or longer winters fucking up the local economy, local leaders being driven to increasing tensions, whole region destabilizing. Maybe their leader did not come to unite them because she is crazy cultist, but rather she actually really wanted to stabilize the region and unite her people, and the religion was a tool she used in that process. Maybe she sincerely believed the religion will help them save the region, maybe she was just cynical about it. Maybe there was a major ethnical conflict involved: two parts of the local populations hating each other: she could have been a member of the weaker one that was getting the shorter end of the stick and she wanted to end that oppression: but of course, once she succeeded gaining power, things swung back the other direction and her people started oppressing and fucking up the originally stronger ethnicity. It's what usually happens.
Maybe once she united the region, she realized that she can't keep it stable, and that she is losing her control over her warlords and servants. Maybe she figured out that focusing the attention of her warlords outward was the best way to draw their attention from plotting against her, and that is why she is so hell-bent on going into war.
All of these are pretty clichéd in their own rite, but still it's something that actually ties the motivations and actions to some more sensible logic.

It might be a good idea to look into real world history, especially into cases of "evil empires", like the Mongolians, Huns, Turks and the logic and events that lead to their invasions.

It's usually more fun if the things you see (an evil kingdom is attack you) actually turns out to be only the begining of the truth: when there is shit to explore behind it.

>>50936859
Hmm. Alright, that sounds good. Perhaps the reason that htey arose in the first place was an unstable political situation in the eastern half of the continent, which lead to people desiring security, which lead to them easily gaining support when they expressed any ideology which would lead to a safer situation for the common man.
And once they started gaining ground, the people under them went "Hey, this is pretty great! Better than living in a feudal shithole, that's for sure. We should try and bring this awesome, safe lifestyle to our neighbours!"
Of course, certain elements of the leadership are still batshit insane, but they're also talented enough speakers to make people nod along and go "Yeah, makes sense."
What d'ya think?

>>50936977
I really do want to hold onto the idea that their founder IS batshit insane, though. Kinda important for the overarching dealio i'm going for when interacting with the PCs.

>>50937010
Okay, well maybe batshit insane is the wrong word.
After a very specific event that shattered her trust in anyone else, she no longer feels like she can leave the world in anyone else's hands. Not mortals, not immortals and certainly not gods. So, she tries to surpass all of them and recreate the universe in such a way that she *can* control it. If that makes sense.

>>50937010
Then it might be interesting to ask what drove her insane (was she insane when she started uniting and forming the faction?). And perhaps, it might be even interesting to explore what role does she really play in the faction. Is she the head of the cult? Ceremonial leader? Leader of the armies? Political leader? All of those at once?
One-leader driven factions tend to be relatively boring, by the way. It's usually more fun (and also incidentally more belivable or "realistic") if the leadership of the faction is divided upon multiple people and there are multiple roles. Think of Japan and how it was at times rules by Emperors, their main generals, regents, boards of elders, at one point by a crazy random monk even.

>>50937065
Character like this actually might be more interesting if she is not the direct leader, but plays more of a ceremonial or advisory role. You know, the character pulling the strings rather than being the armor-wearing general/king/warlord front face of the faction. Might create a more nuanced and interesting image.

>>50937106
Hmm. Yeah, that might actually work better. You have some big bukly dude as the figurehead, while St. Gaerthal's pulling the strings from behind the curtain. As for *what* inspired this change in mindset, it's kinda a long-ish story. I have a screencap of it if you're interested, but tl;dr:
She used to be a paladin in the western part of the continent, questing with a merry band of misfits (including her sister, her brother-in-law, and a few other gits).
During their final adventure, the last proper BBEG to exist in this setting (Ancient evil of some sort, it isn't really that important) managed to convince her sister that his plans were the best possible outcome, by projecting images of what would supposedly come to pass if they weren't completed into her mind as he died.
So, her sister (who up until this point had been her role model and who she had looked up to for basically everything in life) turned on her comrades, near-fatally wounding one of them before vanishing with the Macguffin.
This shattered her. The one person she had been able to rely on had betrayed her, and everyone else. So, she decides to do two things. Firstly, to hunt her sister down. Secondly, to find a way to remake the world so that she would never have to let anyone experience that kind of tragedy again.

(Her sister later realised that everything she had been told was total bullshit, and the BBEG was just fucking with her in his last moments.)

At some point, this general distrust of any authority higher than her melded into a genuine contempt for the gods, as she felt that if they were truly as wise as they said they were, then none of this would have happened. So, she's trying to surpass them. To do that, she's also trying to cut off their main power source- Belief. (Little does she know that, by redirecting that belief towards herself as the ceremonial figurehead, she's creating some sort of proto-god that follows the values espoused by her, uh, organisation.

is there something like a guide for different types of settings? something like:

Dark Fantasy: everyone dies there examples:this setting and that setting

Sword & sorcery: wizards and warriors,knives and wands, you know hehe, examples:that setting

>>50937259
I would suggest looking at tvtropes, reading their descriptions and then consuming the media they list in the page to give you an idea of the variations that each type of setting contains.

>>50921843
>Communism, as defined by the guy who literally coined and invented the term, is stateless
>Look at all those states that said they were doing communism! They said they were doing communism so it must be communism!
Amazing
Not a communist by the way, someone autistic about definitions. This "those were all communism because the states said they were" is the same kind of bullshit that made literally not mean literal anymore.
Using that logic DPRK is really a democratic peoples republic because they said they are.

> get the feeling I'd be better at GMing and doing system mechanics stuff than worldbuiling
> want to worldbuild to make settings not seem so shallow
Is there, like, worldbuilding-lite? Is that a thing I can do?

File: John_Bauer_-_The_Princess_and_the_Trolls_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg (4MB, 3047x3042px) Image search: [Google]

4MB, 3047x3042px

>>50937259
>is there something like a guide for different types of settings?
Guides like this tend to be very dangerous, and can quickly cause more harm than benefit. Excessive categorizaton and labeling tends to do no good to genre fiction. It just further constraints a genre that already struggles with repetition, overindulgence of tropes and (ironically enough) lack of actual imagination. Not to mention, guides like that are often made by insecure people who really need to prove their own understanding of settings (including their own preferences) are somehow more academic and "correct" than those of others: you know, the kind of people who need to argue that they are right about entirely fictional stuff.

So I just thought I might warn you: don't take such guides very seriously. Most of the time, completely breaking the expectations and traditions associated with different types of settings and sub-genres yields more benefit than following them.

>>50937238
Sounds reasonable to me. That said, if I were you, I'd probably put some "distance" between the events turning Gaerthal into this state and the actual forming of her faction, so that the connection is not immediately obvious. And yeah, I think it would be more fun if her role in the nation was not immediately obvious (just as her own personal story driving her should not be). Plus: exploring more intricate political structure of the faction can be fun too. Like having the army lead by a burly warlord, the state officially rules by an infant, pragmatically rules by a regent and a council of elders, and in reality all of them being controlled by priestess who managed to get into their heads through her religious advices, to a point that regardless of their official status, nobody actually dares to do anything without her approval. Something like that.

>>50937480
I love it! You've been a great help, anon.
Gonna go write up some new stuff now.

>>50937480
i understand what you mean, i found this
http://bestfantasybooks.com/fantasy-genre.php#sword-and-sorcery

and it recommended some books that i think are worth reading, i will try that this dont halt my imagination

Does anyone in your setting have a super secret base, /wbg/? I want details for purely recreational purposes.

>>50938847

Pretty much every Wizard over level 7 or 8. You need a place to store your swag, open portals and shit, etc.

However they have secret magic bases, warriors have very overt powerful fortresses (castles, etc) but if you want to talk about SECRET secrets then that's your Rogue characters. I like my games a bit high fantasy so even Rogues can do some magic; as in not only is the secret rogue base and treasure trove in the middle of a city slum, but you need to walk around it counterclockwise on a full moon and so on.

File: rawr.png (162KB, 674x928px) Image search: [Google]

162KB, 674x928px

I'm at a loss right now /wbg/. Should I have my beast people be a populous and naturally occuring race in the world, a transformation process that some druids undergo the more they use their animalistic abilities, or a result of long dead wizards that wanted to tinker with animal and human hybrids?

>>50940008
What kind of story/game do you want?

Any worldbuilding is teleological, you don't start with basic rules, you start with the story you want to tell or play through and then justify it.

Had an idea for a setting.

>Pirates of Dark Water + The Elder Scrolls + Industrial Revolution

It might be the drugs talking, but I think this one's a winner.

>>50940142
Considering how much of a kitchen sink TES is, you aren't saying as much as you probably think.

>>50940155
Probably not.

When I say Elder Scrolls, I pretty much mean "All the wacky meta-physical/spiritual shit Vivec talked about".

File: beastman shaman.jpg (149KB, 762x1048px) Image search: [Google]

149KB, 762x1048px

>>50940008

The Beastmen are the eternal stain upon the world.

I like the old DnD alignments of Law, Neutral, and Chaos. The Humans are created by Law, but their opposite are Beastmen. The arisen by Chaos.

Beastmen are everywhere, they can reproduce with anything large enough, keeping traits of the animals molested by the beastmen. This includes humans too, and entire broods have been produced after raiding a town. Beastmen have traits of many parents and most appear as a sort of animal chimera- the pig like beastman has goat like horns, or a long necked alpaca beastman still finds a way to tear into people with wolf teeth. The leaders of Beastmen clans, typically those born from rare and powerful animals such as lions or rhinos, are even stronger then a normal beastmen and lead them into raids on human territory to capture food, treasure, and mates. (average Str and Con of 15+)

All beastmen who live within civilized society are gay or castrated without exception. They would be driven out or executed for their tendency to rape any fertile womb they can otherwise.

Here you go, your setting's beastmen. Free of Charge.

>>50914958
I once tried to organize magic into categories associated with vices, for example various illusion spells would be vanity and, vampiric-esque magic would be greed and fireballs would be anger, but I never finished working it out.

But that would be pretty grimdark. Imagine a world where being an asshole would be the way to get superpowers.

>>50940556
>a world where being an asshole would be the way to get superpowers
Sounds kind of like Bartimaeus.

>>50940575
Never heard of it.

>>50937480
Well said, Anon
Also, that's one of my favorite paintings!

>>50936384
For me if I think of a region, I first try to see how the region was formed in its closest real world comparison. Then I would add the region to my own.

Doing a Wikipedia binge on how rainfall works or how mountains are formed do help a bit so that you can have smooth borders between regions.

>>50937463
You could always either
>worldbuild as you go. Bullshitting your way through everything
Or
>take existing setting and use it and change few things.

Nevertheless going fully worldbuilding-lite can be hard as there is too many holes where to fall.

>>50919042
I just strolled in here and have zero context but this pdf, but it seems to me that the 'The Sternrichten' should be Sternenrichter.
Richten is a verb and means to fix something that was misaligned. Richter is a noun and means Judge.

>>50919042
>>50941585
Just to elaborate, if you judge somebody it would also be called 'jmd. richten', which is how that might have happend if you looked it up in the dictionary, but if the guys going around are Judges you should call them Richter.

>>50936967

>In order for there to be multiple shards/worlds/dimensions/realities, they'd have to be vastly different to keep up consistency

Neither do I understand this. Is it with a specific game in mind? If you are simply building a world with no previous rules to follow, surely the consistency is all up to you? Say, several worlds all identical in their laws and natural rules. It's fantasy, after all. I do not want to come across as crass or unpleasant, but this line of thought strikes me as "weird as hell".

>>50936607
The reason why I believe that it's difficult to keep multiple realities-style worlds serious consist of several arguments.
The first one is that it's incredibly difficult to keep things consistent when you present multitude of settings that can have often even contradictory rules and principles. You'll get invested in the principles of one world, only to be swiftly faced with a another world where the things you just grew to consider, suddenly don't apply anymore and that retroactively diminished the importance of them: they become just "another set of arbitrary aspects". It's more difficult to get invested in something that really matters to only like 1% of the entire settings?

This makes investing yourself into the fiction harder, and that makes it inherently more difficult to take it seriously. It makes it also much more difficult to create a sense of "identity" to the settings.

>>50942041
>Say, several worlds all identical in their laws and natural rules.
Well, that is just kinda contraproductive now, isn't it? Why do you make multiple worlds, when you make them all basically the same? "Hey, the are multiple fucking dimensions to visit. I mean: they all work the bloody same, but isn't that cool?"
Why not make them all just one world instead? Why dilluste your already stretched imagination across multiple worlds if your not benefiting from the possible hugely varied principles of each?
The whole point in multiple-world approach is that it allows multitude of hugely different systems existing at the same time, where otherwise they would be contradicting each other.

>>50941585
Primer writer here. I'm aware of that (I'm actually a student of german); the idea is that "Sternrichten" refers to the group as a whole whereas "Sternrichter" or "Richter" refers to an individual member. I've fudged the grammar in that case, which I'm not proud of and I'm currently looking for a different approach.

The proper grammar in the case should be "Die Sternrichter" when referring to the Faction as a whole and "Der Sternrichter" when referring to an individual member. That's not exactly intuitive to an english speaker though, so I'm not using it.

Along those lines, I may change Ex Anathema to "Aus Anathema" to keep the stuff related to the Gestalt in the same language group instead of venturing into Latin.

>>50942185
>Along those lines, I may change Ex Anathema to "Aus Anathema" to keep the stuff related to the Gestalt in the same language group instead of venturing into Latin.
I'm not sure that is a good idea. I mean it makes sense, but Aus Anathema does not sound very good, for many reasons.

>>50942122

I think I see what you mean, but I do not agree with you (perhaps due to my lack of experience, time will tell). I believe it comes down to the skill of the writer and the type of setting they are making.

>>50942185
>which I'm not proud of and I'm currently looking for a different approach.

>Organisation
Interstellarer Gerichtshof
Justitzamt für Interstellare Angelegenheiten
Justizministerium
Interstellarer Rat für Recht
Interstellares Rechtskonsortium

Or just use an abbreviation. German ministries and military uses those excessively.
There's even an abbreviation for that obsession with abbreviations.
AbKüFi - Abkürzungsfimmel

>>50942185
German anon here. If I may propose something. How about you call the group Kammergericht or simple Gericht? That´s the place a Richter usually works at. Kammergericht being the highest institution in Berlin.

As for Aus Anathema. No objections there, though it does sound a little bit weird. The words I would describe them with like former or previous are quite long in german.

Sorry, if I sound rude or pretentious. Isn´t my intention,

>>50942290
>>50942288
You guys are actually being huge helps with this and I appreciate it.

If I could work out a really good abbreviation I'd go with that in a heartbeat but I'm still an amateur with the language so I don't have that much wherewithal yet.

>>50942231
>I believe it comes down to the skill of the writer and the type of setting they are making.
There is a general rule in fiction that says that anything works if the author is good enough. Sure. But it's usually a good idea to start with the assumption that you are NOT good enough, not yet at least. Setting yourself up for projects that actually require you to be EXCEPTIONALLY good to be even working is contraproductive when you can focus on something that does not requires the odds of you being a genius to even begin being decent.

It's generally good to know what you are working with, and work with your strengths and limitations from the start.

>>50942305
>If I could work out a really good abbreviation I'd go with that in a heartbeat
>>50942290
>How about you call the group Kammergericht or simple Gericht? That´s the place a Richter usually works at. Kammergericht being the highest institution in Berlin.
Irdisches Kammergericht - IKG
maybe? if it's on earth anyway.

>>50942331
>IKG
That´s a keeper.

>>50942288
>Justitzamt für Interstellare Angelegenheiten
What's the proper translation on Justitzamt? I'm reading Interstellare Angelegenheiten as "Interstellar Affairs" which I really like.

>>50942860
Department/Ministry of Justice basically.
Come to think of it Justizamt is informal. More appropriate would be Justizministerium.

I want to include a high altitude freshwater lake that drains into smaller streams into a large river, the mountain range runs N-S parallel to the river, between the two is a fertile basin with a thick forest. Anything specific to high altitude lakes I should know before sprucing up my mountain range?

File: 1438799779549.jpg (2MB, 1920x1280px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1920x1280px

>>50943298
>Anything specific to high altitude lakes I should know before sprucing up my mountain range?
Not really. High altitude lakes usually form when you have a high altitude basin (like a plateou) that is build of poorly water-conducing substrate: the water collects there as it can't be absorbed into the substrate. As for how the water gets there, it's usually one of two options: accumulated rainfall (and snowfall), or remnant of an iceberg that thawed away. Highest-existing lakes (often at the very tops of mountains) are formed in former volcanic craters, which form a natural basins even at mountain tops.
Other cases of natural high-altitude basins might be natural plateaus or remnants of tectonic rifts.
If you want a lot of rivers and waterfalls coming out of it, it makes sense to chose the first way of water supplying it (rainfall/snowfall) as you are going to have a pretty high water turn-around going. So make sure it's not set in a rain-shadow or deeply continental region if your world follows real-world climatics.

A very interesting category are high-altitude salt lakes and salt flats, which are usually formed when there are salt deposits right under ground and the collected water seeps into them, dissolving it and becoming highly saline. That said, high-altitude salt lakes and salt flats usually don't have distributaries (e.g. rivers flowing out of them) and form in regions with little stable water income.

Maybe read a bit on famous existing high altitude lakes such as Sevan, Issyk Kul, Yellowstone lakes, Titicaca or Baikal. Perhaps even study their geography and watch how their distributaries work and look: perhaps even look into cultures and biosphere that surrounds them. Or just open google maps, find a mountain range that is similar to the one you want to make in your world, find a lake and draw from there. As always, finding real-world analogies and researching the FUCK out of them is the absolute best path to take in world-building.

>>50942307
And if you're not sure if you're good enough, writing exercises always help.

Though I'm not sure which exercises would help with the problem of balancing an interdimensional setting. I guess just standard worldbuilding exercises taken to the extreme.

File: 1466036968268.jpg (249KB, 1210x630px) Image search: [Google]

249KB, 1210x630px

What's the oldest city in your setting, /wbg/? Do you have more than one that would qualify as ancient?
Which is the most storied; appearing in myths and legends, home to numerous kings and courts, or the seat of power for ancient empires?
Do any of them have old tombs or labyrinthine crypts beneath the modern structures? What about sewer systems, or transportation tunnels?

>>50946071
A temple ground that had been destroyed during a war a thousand years ago, It was build near a cave, where humans first emerged into the world. Nowadays the self proclaimed successors of it have build a resettlng process. It had been used as a prison by the gods for centuries though. The guy who lead them out of the cave with the discovery of fire is still chained somewhere underground.

>>50946071
>What's the oldest city in your setting, /wbg/?
Well, that's a bit complicated, being that many of the major cities in my setting are built into (or at least utilizing) the ruins of an empire that collapsed 5,000 years ago. If you're defining the age of the city by the structures themselves, they pretty much all qualify as ancient.

But in terms of the oldest contemporary civilization, the oldest city in my setting is Alle Reveste, capital of Reveste. It's been around for about 1400 years. A few other cities in the region date back to just a few decades later (Dal Vestes, though it has been periodically abandoned) or a little under two centuries (Alle Temarchus). Most of the major cities and settlements in the region are centuries old, though they rarely stay very much the same for that span of time.

>Which is the most storied?
Temarchus didn't have a formalized written language for the first hundred and fifty years of its existence, so much of what is known of its early history comes from an amalgamation of early accounts. Before the creation of its official written language, most of the people there used pictograms to write things down, and these were very open to interpretation, leading to a dozen widely-varying interpretations of the story as each different version was passed down in concurrent games of intergenerational telephone. Gradually these differences lead to more stories being created, branching off of the central quasi-historical accounts.

While historians were able to more or less piece together the true story much later by comparing these different versions, they continue to exist as folk histories.

However, if you open up the definition of "storied", then Delta City is probably the winner. It's had a bustling theater scene for nearly its entire existence, so that's where most of the playwrights live, so that's where most of the playwrights set their stories.

1/2, because I suck at being concise off the cuff.

>>50946496
>Do any of them have old tombs or labyrinthine crypts beneath the modern structures?
Many of them!

Delta City's is the most famous. It was built atop an expansive ancient irrigation system, which weaves through and under the city streets. Thanks to its diverse and intricate infrastructure, this creates (at varying points) narrow passageways, navigable canals, and public swimming pools. It's joked that you can fall into a well and wind up downtown.

Dal Vestes is a city built into a truly massive ancient castle. Like, that castle in Ico ain't got shit on this. There are still large unexplored areas throughout.

And Meride, which I mentioned earlier in the thread, is a massive hive structure of caves and mines built into a mountain. When a mine ceases being productive, it's abandoned; as a result, the mountain is littered with empty caverns.

File: Overseermusicbox.jpg (118KB, 626x694px) Image search: [Google]

118KB, 626x694px

How do you feel about religion that shuns gods that are confirmed to be real because they don't like them?

>>50946937
That's fine, its the atheists in a setting with gods that sucks. Nothing wrong with hatin' the gods.

>>50947642

Wouldn't that make them antitheists rather than atheists if gods are proven to exist?

>>50947812
Atheists would be ones that deny the gods' existence, antitheists would be the ones opposed to the gods.

>>50946937
So wait, there's a group of people that, despite there being actual, factual proof of gods and that prayer to them works, deny the gods exist. Wouldn't that denial in turn and through the belief system create a kind of god of their own?

>>50948098
That depends on where do gods come from.

And the guy I stuck to my original post just think god is a cunt. And he's right, in a sense.

>>50948098
I mean, it's no different from Warhammer. Everyone shuns the Chaos gods knowing full well that they're real. A god that goes against what your people stand for would logically be shunned.

>>50948098
I think in those situations is more like:
>Those things that call themselves gods? I don't think they're really gods. They're also huge dicks.

>>50940008
I think the transformation explanation is the most acceptable. It ties them into the magic of the setting, avoids the odd biological/evolutionary questions of the naturally occurring route and lets them be more thematically versatile than the wizard mistake route.

>>50899748
Ancient underground arboretum built by a long gone race that sustains itself on decaying life and underground springs/water sources in conjunction with geothermal activity.

Has anyone else here read The Letters of JRR Tolkien? I think they have a lot of good worldbuilding advice in them, since Tolkien delves deeply into explaining some of the ideas and thoughts that went on with The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.

>>50952902
Well there's one right in the front of the Silmarillion so it's sort of unavoidable reading. Does a good job of elaborating on his thought processes when creating the world's background, and of conveying just how much of a linguistics nerd he was

>>50952983
Is there? I have a paperback copy and I don't remember that.

File: shadowmoor_elves_by_bridge_troll.jpg (99KB, 827x615px) Image search: [Google]

99KB, 827x615px

Wanna help me with my elves /WBG/?
I'm not even 100% sure I want them at all, but if I do, I'll have them more focused on nature rather than the light/dark dichotomy. I'm thinking about having at least frost/snow elves and wood elves, but it's the wood elves especially that I'm having trouble with. Where would they live? It makes no sense for them to live in trees or use wood at all if they worship the forest and all. Having them live underground makes them seem redundant compared to all the other races that already live underground. In general I have difficulty imagining what sort of lives they would even live

>>50954543
Are all the elves (snow and wood and whatever) different species, different races or just different cultures?

>>50954594
Enough that there's visible differences in each type of elf, so I guess they're different races.
Snow: blue - white skin
Wood: green - tan skin (maybe antlers or horns)

>>50954713
If they're different races, do they have different cultures among themselves?

Anyway, for your wood elves, you'd do well to keep in mind that practical survival concerns tend to trump spiritual and religious concerns in successful cultures, and a lot of religious laws and teachings have their origins in the practical concerns of the time.

For inspiration you could start with looking into how the Celts went about their tree worship.

>>50953694
Neat map, got any lore to go with it?

>>50954543
Dude

Instead of having them live underground, just have them live under bigass trees. The trees trunks are up in the air because they're supported by giant ass roots that make good elf homes.

Worshiping the forest doesn't mean that you can't use its resources, in fact there would be little reason to worship it if it didn't give back to the elves. Beavers aren't evil when they make their dams out of wood, birds aren't evil when they make their nests out of twigs. The elves should celebrate nature by taking part in it. There could still be sacred, untouchable groves though, they just don't have to live in them.

It could also be that the plants somehow naturally house the elves as symbiotic relationship developed over millions of years. The trees protect the elves, the elves protect the trees, yay.

The elves could also just live in the forest like a bunch of fucking animals, sleeping on the ground because nature would never harm them. The trees give the elves fruit in exchange for them planting the seeds on the edge of the forest to slowly expand the tree's territory. Maybe in addition to the fruit they also fucking cannibalize other races that they go to war with like the disgusting fucking beardless knife-eared twig-dicked scum that they are.

>>50954815
I'm actually in the process of re-writing/clarifying lore for an already written setting that I think deserves more written about it
Japan bails America out of a major economic crisis (Great depression tier) in 2080, but in turn, ends up owning nearly 90% of all American industrial capability. The United States begins to function more like a puppet government under Japan than it does a sovereign nation, and the country is exploited to no end by Japanese businesses due to low cost of labour.

Mass riots against "Japanese ownership of America" turn in to armed insurrection and martial law is declared in America. The country teeters on the verge of collapse as an incompetent dictatorship runs the country.

Eventually things come to a flashpoint in 2134 as the Southern States, wishing to go back to American democratic ideals, attempt to overthrow the government. This results in a spiraling civil war that, long story short, ends up with America splitting in to the 18 separate nations you can see in the map. The reason for this is primarily because of all the Reunification groups. Since no one army could seem to overpower the other 6 or so fighting for rule of America, they eventually ground the nation down to nothing with 10 years of bitter warfare, and the bloodiest civil war to date.

That was sort of a poor way to explain it, but I hope it kind of made sense. I have yet to write everything in more detail and such.

>>50954990
Well the set up made enough sense to me. Anything up with Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. held territory or still figuring that out?

>>50955081
Alaska is independent, and in the original source material it never mentioned any of the U.S. territories, so I'm thinking how to divide those up.

Hawaii may go to Japan? Or just be its own thing. I'm not sure.

>>50954783
>If they're different races, do they have different cultures among themselves?
Minor variations. Snow elves really only live in one place, Wood Elves live all around but probably spread far from one place (sorta like the Celts in fact).
>>50954824
Also yeah, you guys are right, it does seem unreasonable for the elves to never use the trees as resource. Still treehouses seem so bland, maybe they live in fortified palaces and hamlets on hilltops overflowing with vines and moss and trees. I don't want them to be completely savage, their societies are loose with a lot of things, but ultimately they can organize

>>50955137
You can always have them live in earth-sheltered houses and maybe have their cities be artificially grown forests, groves or gardens instead of living in the wild.

>>50946071
>What's the oldest city in your setting, /wbg/?
Ataliar, the City-Ship. Approximately the size of the RL Orkney Islands, Ataliar is a truly titanic ship hewed from one of the Earthbones themselves, "crewed" by the Altian people, and "captained" by the immortal God-Tree Kapuelas the Mad.

>Which is the most storied?
Ataliar itself. It tends to pop in and out of human history and myth, usually in order to utterly fuck someone up. This generally is chalked up to a 20-mile long broadside and cannons the size of castles. It's history tends to read like Atlantis and Avalon as written by Homer, full of magic, monsters, war, romance, prophecy, etc.

>Do any of them have old tombs or labyrinthine crypts beneath the modern structures? What about sewer systems, or transportation tunnels?
The city-ship is large enough to require a fairly efficient sewage system, and certain regions in the "hull" possess their own weather patterns.

>>50904778
Never heard of that before, but it sounds interesting so I did a quick google on that kind of description and came up with these:

http://www.gnomestew.com/game-mastering/tools-for-gms/how-to-make-a-drop-map/

http://www.lastgaspgrimoire.com/in-corpathium/

http://www.lastgaspgrimoire.com/welcome-to-scenic-whereverthefuck-if-you-lived-here-youd-be-caught-up-in-drama-by-now/

Is that what you were looking for?

>>50946937
They are just another group of religious people in the world. Many cultures and nations have their own set of god/gods they follow and most likely they shun other nations and their gods.

But most gods are just different faces or names of one singular god. People might not know that they are praying for same god as their heathen neighbours.

Most common gods were heroes or semi-historical people in ancient times who have survived as stories to current generations. At some point somebody started to pray to them and it just caught. Fast forward 2000 years and you have them as true gods or semi-gods. In reality they do not have no power, but the praying and ceremonies through them do have maybe some effects. This is because those heroes usually represent some aspect of some major god, a real god.
This >>50948870 is also a very good point.

>>50900062
I like it, keep working on it

File: Just Equestria.png (70KB, 3580x1080px) Image search: [Google]

70KB, 3580x1080px

Paint is fun.

It seems colorful and all, but the game takes place in a world where it has been night for 1000 years and through propaganda and military action, words like sun and day simply no longer exist. The world exists in a constant state of cold and dark, except for a government controlled cult of fire enthusiasts who use their magic to help grow food and keep town and whatnot relatively warm.

>>50957805
North America but with a giant island+lake in the middle. Guest appearances by Europe and Africa

>>50957805

What happened to the sun? I'm getting some Dark Souls-vibes here. Tell me more about your setting.

>>50957834

A powerful immortal overthrew the kingdom and brought upon a solar eclipse that threw the world into darkness. Their opposite, another immortal who could potentially undo this was banished somewhere. In the first decades after, all opposition was destroyed and there was a lot of hands on work, but eventually the populace was defeated and they just tried to live in the new world. It got colder and colder quickly, now a warm day is maybe 10f, and outside of settlements and cities it is pitch black. The rest of the world suffers the same darkness, and the cult that helps keep the local population alive is rented out to the rest of the world, so essentially they are being held hostage as far as resources are concerned. Since it has been 1000 years there is a tenuous balance in the world. Anyone beyond the cult's influence has been lost to the cold and dark, or changed into things that can survive it.

The world itself is incredibly magical, and life continues in all but the darkest areas, but those who venture beyond the veil are never heard from again.

>>50957934

probably not 10f, maybe more like just at freezing, or a little below. Altitude matters a lot less without the sun around.

>>50957934

So the sun is an actual physical object? Is the eclipse itself a physical object or mere magic?

>>50957934
>>50957969
Does your world even have an ecosystem? Nothing would grow below freezing, and there wouldn't even be flowing water.

>>50958001

They moved the moon in front of it and tidally locked the moon and the planet so the moon is always in the way. The moon is quite a bit larger than ours.

>>50958014
Magic

>>50899748
Volcanic Activity leads to rivers of underground lava where the light is bright enough to simulate daytime. The extra heat and humidity leads to the creation of an underground tropical jungle.

>>50900062
leviathan body or bust
hail hydra

>>50958028
That's an incredibly weak excuse. "Magic" isn't enough to explain how an entire population of people gets enough nutrients and energy to survive for 1000 years.
Just saying "lol the world is magical" doesn't excuse shallow worldbuilding.

>>50899748

Miniature sun fastened to the ceiling. Eerie pale-blue light instead of common gold.

What famous stories or authors are present in your settings ?
What are some 'in-jokes' between your characters ?
How is the music in your setting ?

>>50958055

That's what the cult is for. The control light and fire and keep people warm enough to survive, and to grow food. They are government funded/controlled and there are thousands of them.

At this point, people beleive that before the darkness the world was bathed in fire a lot of the time, killing and destroying, but it's light was necessary for growing things. The people see the fire controllers as a necessary evil, tapping into the monster that used to wage war on them to get the energy they need to survive.

>>50958122
You're implying that the power arises from magic, though. What's stopping *everybody* from being able to generate light and fire through their own magical willpower, if the world is "incredibly magical".

>>50958138

By the world I mean physically, the world itself. The land, the creatures, etc. And I guess nothing, everybody could be a druid if they wanted to, set out, git gud and grow whatever the hell they wanted. but most people aren't the adventuring sort, and it's difficult to even get started when just travelling to the next town might get you eaten by a gru.

>>50958170
You're depicting a world where the only method of survival involves learning magic, while also saying "only a small cult of weirdos learns magic". It would make far more sense for *everyone* to know enough magic to boil water, light a torch, or create a magic lightbulb with only the cultists being strong enough to create mini-Suns to grow food.

>>50957652
>>50958054
I appreciate the credit!

Couple changes I'm making:

>Sternrichten
I'm thinking about reflavoring this faction a bit to be more open for development. The idea I'm thinking of is that they are kind of a culture of deep space ascetics who never colonize planets but exclusively live in habitats and spacecraft from cradle to grave. They've developed an extremely serious, contemplative and ritualistic society with shades of nihilism, best embodied in their militant wing, the Vollstreckers ("Enforcers") who pretty much act as interstellar police.

I think it could work but I wonder if I'm diluting the brand of "Samurai Space Cops" with this or enriching it. I also need a name for the group as a whole.

>>50954543
Even the hippiest treehuggiest Green Partiest environmentalist in the world wouldn't say we shouldn't use nature. They'd just say we should abuse nature.

For wood elves, it could just be that philosophy taken further. Take the fruit, but scatter the seeds when you're done. If you need wood, take a branch, not the trunk. If you must cut down a tree or kill an animal, don't do so wastefully or destructively--pick one that's old and has already produced offspring.

And bear in mind that trimming forests--even starting controlled burns--is actually a good thing in that it decreases the severity of wildfires. Ditto limited hunting.

As for the cultural component, you could go with the Things Fall Apart angle. They worship nature, but that doesn't mean they can't still use nature. If they carve an idol out of wood, it has power BECAUSE it came from the earth. Or alternatively, one of those tribes from the Amazon. And many Native American tribes worship the land on which they live. There was one in particular that comes to mind--I read about them in an anthropology class once--but I'm blanking on the name. Basically they remember the names of places because they remember and recall the stories of the things that happened there, which I thought was interesting. I'll see if I can find the name of the tribe for you.

Their population would probably be spread out over a wide area to avoid overtaxing any one part of the forest.

>>50959827
>>50954543
It was the Western Apache of Arizona. The book was Wisdom Sits in Places.

File: North America.png (281KB, 2147x2215px) Image search: [Google]

281KB, 2147x2215px

>>50953694
And here's a map of all of North America I did. I still need some names for some of the places, but it's in progress.

Anyone here have a PDF of Microscope, or at least a link to a good rundown of how the system works?

>>50961610
https://dropfile.to/8TODaqb

Here you go

File: Volans' Familiar.jpg (155KB, 858x620px) Image search: [Google]

155KB, 858x620px

>in-setting lore states that demigods have a weapon or piece of equipment that represents their domain
>always an object of great power, which grants control over the domain's defenses when wielded (think Gungnir or the One Ring)
>need to think of 5, with their associated supernatural power
I need your help, /wbg/. I figure the Lord of Giants would have a huge axe, but I'm stumped as to what it would do. Likewise, I need items for the Solar Lord, Lunar Lady, Fae Queen, and the Necromancer Pieter Volans.

>pic unrelated

>>50961699
Thank you. Looks like it takes a notably different approach than Dawn of Worlds.

>>50961744

>Lord of Giants

Huge axe/hammer with a very simple apperance (rock, masterfully carved granite with a simple but sturdy handle of finest oak). Unbreakable and sentient, it obeys the will, any will, of its Lord.

>Solar Lord

A great spear, it pierces the sun every morning which allows the Lord to pull it up onto the heavens.

>Lunar Lady

A hand scythe of silver, it directs the movement of the stars as well as the moon.

Something like this? Maybe not much to go on, but I prefer simple things like these.

>>50961744
Fae Queen has like a magical hand mirror which lets the user see/pass into the fae wylds, or trap anyone in the wylds whose reflection it catches.

>>50961744
For the Necromancer:
>Tome of the Damned, a book that can bind souls to the mortal plane and raise powerful Undead

>>50961744
Lord of Giants: An Axe. Big, straightforward, and powerful. The ground itself becomes the wielder's ally, varying from slightly messing with the opponent's balance (when fighting upon sand or dirt) to outright fragmenting and launching portions of itself at the foe to injure and distract them (upon solid rock). The more powerful and strong-willed the wielder, the greater the scale and magnitude of the effects.

Fae: A glittering ribbon. It appears peaceful and beautiful, but can turn into a wafer-thin blade of unparalleled strength and sharpness. The wearer or wielder may magically compel anyone to uphold their end of a bargain, no matter how ruinous.

Happy new year to you lot. May 2017 lift your writers blocks and inspire you to create wonderful things!

Does a setting based around the nations that rose up post world war 3 sound cliche to you guys?

>>50964305
Only as cliche as you make it.

Accept that nothing is original, free yourself from limitations, and have fun making a fun setting.

File: 21FzpZl.png (3MB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1920x1080px

>tfw you would prefer your setting over this world

Does a group of post human body bending slave masters based out of the grand canyon sound like a suitably evil faction to you guys?

Gonna have the american remnant based out of the PNW remnant go up against them as they slowly sprread out.

File: Magic v2.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>50909102
A bit of both. I use my fantasy setting for my D&D games, my sci fi setting for my Traveller games, and my cyberpunk one for my cyperpunk games. But I also have three other settings that are just for fun (primarily for writing though)
>>50914958
The one that I've done the most work on was one that I started work on after I was heavily inspired by Nanoha and Mahouka. I like it but have no idea how I would incorporate it in a real game. To me a good magic system is a system that can't just handwave everything with "its magic lol". It has to have rules and logic that work internally. Rules and mechanics must be present for games to work.
>>50946071
Out of all the nations in the world, city-states of the Mage-Cities have stood the longest. Long ago, they were united under the Mage-Emperor Malthen III under the great Tolrathi Empire, an empire that spread across all of southern Devia. Although the empire crumbled after the emperor's defeat against the armies of the nation of Rha'Zhir in the deserts to the south, the old foundations of the cities remain, testiments to the mage-emperor legacy. Old tombs for the Imperial Family lay scattered across the cities, as well as under the large Calisynna Mountains. None dare enter them for fear of disturbing the unruly ghosts of the emperor's ancestors.

File: BlankMap-World-v2.png (49KB, 1425x625px) Image search: [Google]

49KB, 1425x625px

Tell me how to fix my near-future setting, /wbg/.

File: History.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>50966842
And here is the setting history.

>>50966842

First off I don't wanna shit on what you got going on but.... fucking somalia as new isreal? Nigger what the fuck are you doing?

I need backstory desperately anon otherwise i'm gonna sperg.

>>50966873

Oh fuck that moment when you post premature before the guy can update his shit. Sorry bud.

>>50966888
>>50966873
It's all good. It was a miscolor on my part anyways. The new israel nation is supposed to be Ethopia, not Somalia.

>>50966842
Nix the megastates, unless you're going for something purposefully not realistic. You can have economic/military blocs, but I'd recommend noting the sovereign nations and not alliances.

Also, I see everyone ever say this to you, but why the hell does the Soviet Union not have its territory? The slavic states are FAR more likely to stay with the sovs than the Islamic states. The Soviet Union was an atheist state, and that pissed off the Kazakhs and Tajiks enough, nevermind Iranians and what have you.

Also why did the People's Republic of China not support North Korea (And the U.S.S.R. for that matter) and why is Japan providing military support of all things. If America isn't involved, it's likely the Soviet Union would directly involve itself in the war similar to how China did in the real world.

>>50967193
>I'd recommend noting the sovereign nations and not alliances
What do you mean by this? Would you rather I list the separate nations and then have nations that are influenced by others?
>The slavic states are FAR more likely to stay with the sovs than the Islamic states
The Islamic states were taken over by the USSR. Which slavic states do you think would join the USSR though?
>Also why did the People's Republic of China not support North Korea (And the U.S.S.R. for that matter)
Russia did not want to get involved in the war (it was focusing its efforts on the West at the time) and China was still recovering from the Civil War that had just occurred.
>why is Japan providing military support of all things
It was a joint operation in an American-occupied Japan.

Hope this clarifies things.

File: Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics.png (95KB, 704x463px) Image search: [Google]

95KB, 704x463px

>>50967261
>What do you mean by this? Would you rather I list the separate nations and then have nations that are influenced by others?
Yes, list each separate nation. You don't make world maps out of alliances, you make them out of nations, and then denote alliances.

>The Islamic states were taken over by the USSR. Which slavic states do you think would join the USSR though?
You seem to have done at least some research on cold war things, so, how did you not know about Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all being part of the U.S.S.R? Like, not allies, part of the nation, annexed. Also, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and the German Democratic Republic were all firmly in the U.S.S.R.'s sphere of influence, and it was willing to use military force to keep it that way (Praha Spring, Hungarian Revolution, Martial law in Poland, etc). Speaking of which, why is Germany unified, and not split in to East/West?

Also, remember the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the real world? That was a fucking nightmare, and though they managed to capture the cities, it was a hellish guerrilla war that was more or less the U.S.S.R.'s Vietnam equivalent. They went in trying to support the DRA and managed to occupy the nation, but got beaten down by resistance groups.

Now imagine that, but with Iran, Iraq, Turkey, etc, as well. Also, Turkey is NATO.

>Also why did the People's Republic of China not support North Korea (And the U.S.S.R. for that matter)
They intervened in the real world, and even if they did end their civil war in a stalemate, they'd definitely give the DPRK direct military support.

Do you think it's reasonable to have early designed skyscrapers, electricity, and steam cars, while still including 18th century battleships, flintlock pistols, and sabres as weaponry?

>>50967261
>>50967327
Also, here's some more beans:
Someone being dubbed "Stalin's Successor" is a very very silly thing. Also the USSR was an athiest state, and Stalin did his best to crush the church, as did the rest of the USSR's leaders. Why, right after Stalin, one would make a state religion makes zero sense.

Also, if America got full balls to the wall expansionist, the USSR would threaten to start World War 3. That, and the USSR would likely have started MAJOR operations in Europe if the west for sure didn't have the USA protecting it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention in the previous post, that one of the most common WW3 scenarios involves the USSR invading Iran. I can name at least 4 pieces of fiction that have that as the flashpoint. So, if popular media is worth anything, the USSR expanding so heavily would piss NATO off enough to kick off a conventional war.

>>50967382
>>50967327
So what you're saying is that I should start over.

>>50967418
As harsh as it may sound, yes.
Mind you, that's only if you want to go for a semi-believable setting. If you want to go for something that is completely out there and impossible, go ahead with what you have now I guess.

>>50967445
Thank you for your advice, I will think about which one to go with. I will most likely scrap it and start anew.

>>50967455
Well, what do you want the final product to be? Maybe I can help with some rewriting.

>>50967492
My original idea was a world divided between the European, East Asian, and Russian powers, with a Middle Eastern war igniting a defensive pact by the North Africans. There was also the small issue of the Isreli/African racial conflicts that I wanted to touch on, as well as an economic collapse of once-1st world countries like Britain and France. An isolationist America was another idea I had. This is all mixing together with a near future sci-fi aesthetic, complete with robotics and cybernetics.

>>50967543
Well, what point do you want the timeline to split? Because that sounds like more of a modern idea than something worthy of some 1980s cyberpunk alt history.

>>50967601
Well one obvious point is around the Cold War but maybe sometime even farther back, possibly in the after math of WW2.
>this sounds like more of a modern idea than something worthy of some 1980s cyberpunk alt history
What do you mean by that?

>>50967627
I don't know, I'm just not getting an alt history vibe from it.

Either way, a good solid split is always in 1991, with Janajev taking power in the Soviet Union with a successful coup. If you wanted to go further back, you could say, Japan never decimated its military when capitulating to the US, and became one of the biggest NATO member states. The US ends up being on the decline and the Soviet Union never dies because it doesn't get horrible reformists like Gorby and Khruszczjov. Possible reasons for US isolationism could be massively rising crime rates and an economic crisis, something great depression tier. If the US has no power to spend on itself, nevermind other countries, it would have no choice but to hand over the NATO torch to, say, Japan.

>>50967627
>>50967678
I should also add, you can't make Germany unified unless you have the Soviet Union lose a lot of power, collapse, or have the Federal Republic get overthrown in a coup. You could make West Germany a power, if you wanted, but that's kind of stretching it.

>>50967678
>>50967728
>Japan never decimated its military when capitulating to the US, and became one of the biggest NATO member states
I do like this a lot, especially when paired with economic disasters for the US as well as high crime. This would mean that it would have to pull out of Japan earlier than expected and it might be comfortable with them taking over as leaders of NATO.
> have the Federal Republic get overthrown in a coup
That's sorta what I was thinking. The GFR gets overthrown, Germany is unified, and they go on to strengthen their economy.

>>50967808
Mind you, after that, they WOULD be socialist, and probably a puppet state of the USSR.

>>50967354
Why not? Eberron did it through magic.

Otherwise, no. Look:
Skyscrapers require steel, otherwise you'll get stuff like Westminster Parliament or the Roman Colosseum. Iron is simply too heavy and fragile to have anything like a skyscraper and wood lacks the strength for anything more than 4 stories. You could also have brick buildings but again you won't exceed 4 stories.

They can have electricity, but what for? Why would they have flintlocks if they can generate electricity through steam turbines? The electrical battery is a way better trigger than a flintlock.

>>50967844
I realize that. The main idea of a european alliance would be to resist the Russian forces, which could still be done if the Western European countries recovered from their economic collapses.

>>50967922
I figured the electricity would be for lighting and convenience, while flintlock rifles and pistols would be used for warfare.

I want to make a setting based around the Great Lakes.

>>50968007
Even if that were why electricity were invented, anyone experimenting with electricity would realize it can set off gunpowder far more reliably than flint and steel.

Basically electricity upends the old world entirely. And steam does the same; once that appears, those 1700s ships of the line start becoming obsolete.

>>50968124
How would a gun like that look like? Electricity and steam are fine, so long as it isn't widespread. In my setting this country is the most technologically advanced, while most other countries have large swathes of land still occupied with wilderness and monsters. It's not all that conventional.

File: North America.png (309KB, 2147x2215px) Image search: [Google]

309KB, 2147x2215px

Might as well post once more before I sleep:
All is finished except naming one or two places. I already mentioned what happened to America, but Canada's confederation was dissolved peacefully after several provincial special interests. Mexico suffered a civil war not too long after the second American civil war. The nation made an attempt at becoming an empire, and ended up collapsing thanks to the chaotic world that spawned said empire. It occupied Texas, California, and the Southern Commonwealth, until its collapse (Which was partially due to massive resistance in the aforementioned states).

Again, any advice on how to edit this, or things to elaborate on would be appreciated.

For everyone who's been using Inkarnate, they actually put up an update on their website.

>tfw you were the second person to link Inkarnate to /tg/

>As we head into the new year, I want to share some news about the beta, as well as what's next for Inkarnate. When we first launched the beta last Summer, we were a small community of just under 5000 early adopters. Today, the community is over 150,000 strong! To everyone that has taken part in the beta, shared maps, helped others learn the tool, or shared your ideas, thank you! The community continues to grow and evolve, and that is all thanks to you.

>So, what's next? In the next few weeks, we will begin releasing new map styles. To start, we will launch a new full color world map style. Many have asked about commercial licensing, and we will be making that available with the new map styles. Going forward, we will move all newly created maps over to the new map styles so we can test and refine them. You will still have access to view all of your existing maps. If you want to make any edits to those maps, please get those in during the next few weeks before the update (Jan 21), after which they will be viewable only. We have several other map styles in the works, including a parchment world style, top-down dungeons, and additional city mapping capabilities. We will be sharing more details as those are developed.

>In addition to the new map art, we have been working on a new version of the app. This will be Inkarnate's first commercial product offering, which will eventually replace the current beta app. Higher resolution maps, and advanced blend modes (e.g. multiply, dodge/burn, etc.) for brushes and stamps have already been implemented. And we have many more features on the roadmap, some for launch, and some after. We will continue to share details as the tool progresses.

So, you're going to lose free Inkarnate soon.

>>50968248
Easy: just have a trigger assembly that discharges an electrical spark upon striking. That'll ignite the gunpowder or, even better, ignite the quicksilver in the percussion cap that then ignites the gunpowder. You have single-shot pistols, but with batteries that you put in like clips, until someone figures out how to make self-contained bullets.

>>50968457
I think he was referring to late 1800s electricity through massive generators and dynamos, not batteries.

Hell, we don't even use electricity to fire modern rifles, inventing large batteries just to fire a gun seems impractical and economically unfeasible, assuming we're looking through a purely technological perspective and not magic or steampunk superscience.

>>50968422
So who is the glorious bastard who is going to buy it and then share it with us?

>>50968497
Depends. If it's only like $5, why wouldn't you buy it for your PC/Tablet/Smartphone?

>>50965686
Body bending?

>>50968545
True, true, but some of us are very cheap bastards :D

Nevertheless Inkarnate is neat programme, but I am more Gimp freehand autist.

File: 5rAmyFo[1].jpg (84KB, 569x880px) Image search: [Google]

84KB, 569x880px

>>50893503
>/WBG/ - Worldbuilding General

I'm getting the hard tail-end of this thread (so I might post this in the next gen), but, sure I got a question:

What are the necessary resources for a "successful school/university" besides: books, teachers, and students?

I'm doing up a college/university of Necromancy (for the living) in a country that's become completely plagued by the undead (haunted woods, zombies, the works), but I'm not sure if I'd be able to justify what I -want- to be the continent's most infamous/desired school of necromancy just chilling out in an abandoned castle town they've converted into a campus grounds.
The idea was the country fell to festering undead'ness quite a while ago (50-70 years ago) with the school later establishing and forming from the necromancers who came to study, learn, and take advantage of the unique environment.

>>50971568

>What are the necessary resources for a "successful school/university" besides: books, teachers, and students?

High-quality education stemming from good material (books and equipment) and reputable teachers are the most important aspects of a real university. Have you fleshed those aspects out?

>>50968704

Drastically changed from the normal human body shape. They do it regularly as well almost re-engineering their form from time to time as fashion choice.

>>50971568
What's people's actual opinion on the necromancy and undead? Are they in the middle of zombie apocalypse and necromancers are to blame? Then people would probably try to wage war on them so they better find something more secretive. Or perhaps people are too weak to attack them and those with talents for necromancy are the ones who can march through zombie fields unmolested and this is like an entry exam for them.

Or perhaps necromancy is good and helps control zombies and keep them at bay? Then taking over a town they cleansed from feral zombies would be convenient and an reminder of their utility.

>>50971568
Well, it needs some labs. And a regular supply of... raw materials... if you know what I mean.

>>50895465
god damn that video....I havent seen it in a while. Its fucking terrible

>>50973321
You are welcome.

Hey wbg, I've started making a map for my world. Right now I'm placing down mountains. R8 my progress so far. Also, what do you thing of the general shape of the continents?

>>50975272
Looks pretty good, bro. Less is more.

>>50975272
8/8 good job there m8

File: Another map.gif (648KB, 5000x3500px) Image search: [Google]

648KB, 5000x3500px

>>50975272
>>50975322
>>50975434
Shit, forgot the picture

>>50975272
Nice, best so far in the thread

>>50975491

Shapes are fine, when it comes to continents they can have any shape and they look pretty good here in my opinion.

>>50975491
That's an odd place to put your mountains in and why do ones of the Eastern continent end so abruptly.

Also, your south-western landmass looks like a pony with a giant dong and eastern landmass looks like a gaseous jew (With mountains being mouth, peninsula being his nose)

>>50975547
>That's an odd place to put your mountains in and why do ones of the Eastern continent end so abruptly.
Why do you say it's odd? Also, they end abruptly because I am still working on them.
>Also, your south-western landmass looks like a pony with a giant dong and eastern landmass looks like a gaseous jew (With mountains being mouth, peninsula being his nose)
Cannot unsee now.

>>50975604
>Why do you say it's odd? Also, they end abruptly because I am still working on them.
On second thought it's probably not that odd, although this perfectly round arc bothers me a bit. I guess the eastern one was an another tectonic plate rammed into mainland? Why does it start at the ocean and disappear in the middle? I don't think mountains do this, at least not that abrubtly. It was growing all the way there.

>>50975668

>I guess the eastern one was an another tectonic plate rammed into mainland?

Or maybe a god placed them there.

>>50975668
I am adding more mountains to that range as we speak. As I said, this is a very early WIP.

So I decided to stop giving a fuck about anything, so my new world will be alternative history where Thomas Edison discovered a new form of energy that allowed levitation but pollution from use of this energe caused land to break away from the crust and become floating islands, fought for by aristocrats in the floating cities/aircraft carriers jumping from biplans wearing powered armour.

>>50976165
>Thomas Edison
>discovering anything himself
You're already deep into alternative history territory, anything else is secondary.

>>50976206
Everyone always have Tesla to be the mad scientist, I was trying to spice it up.

>>50976215
Have it so that Edison and Tesla were bros instead, and Edison managed to market some of Tesla's weirder doomsday-tier inventions to a wider crowd. Give there a reason for aristocrats to own floating cities, and you can have fancy tesla coil weapons.

File: one of the earliest official War of the Worlds fanfics ever.jpg (74KB, 600x428px) Image search: [Google]

74KB, 600x428px

>>50976215
Honestly, everybody making Edison into some kind of super scientist has historical precedence.

File: buff_wizard_is_best_wizard_by_xxmuppetguruxx-d6ud9ah.jpg (91KB, 675x1024px) Image search: [Google]

91KB, 675x1024px

>start applying actual numbers to a demigod's power level
>terminator wizard dude can carry around ~500 pounds of armor and weaponry without breaking a sweat

File: 1451185360413.png (28KB, 213x256px) Image search: [Google]

28KB, 213x256px

>>50976846
>his shortstack wife can carry thrice that

How does a pirate crew in control of pre-dreadnaught era battleship sound?

>>50978877
Unless you justify it with an environment and circumstances, the world powers are gonna do their damnedest to sink that battleship, the pirate crew would have trouble finding the resources to keep it fueled and going at combat capability, and they'd do better just selling off the battleship to a world power in exchange for a cruiser (i.e. a ship better made for raiding, not slugging it out on the battle line)