/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

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>>51177100
>Does your setting have any global cities? If so, what are their demographics? Explain the history behind these statistics.
Yes, Fonteford. It becames Kingsford after the Empire declared it the capital where the elected Prince MUST reign. It allowed for a central bureaucracy to form and remain rather than move every few decades. The city has around 450,000 people in it and is the largest on the continent. The large underground aquifer nearby provides a good deal of fresh water, while nearby cities and hamlets base their entire economy on feeding the city.

>What places do towns, cities, villages and any other centralized settlements have in the political structures of your setting's states?
The capital is the center of the world. Everything flows to it at one point. Towns near the hills and mountains are tasked with drawing out minerals, ore, raw stone, or find artifacts that will be milled further down river in the plains. The coast towns bring in fish and trade while also exporting refined goods to other places. Only the city of Kingsford is a city that does it all.

>How big of a phenomenon is urban sprawl in your setting?
Almost non-existent. A large plague devestated populations for a while, and then a few waves of goblins came in ransacking whatever they could find. This encouraged tightly packed, defensible population centers. Forts survived more than villages.

>Do your cities have any "green spaces" (parks, culturally/religiously special naturals areas, etc.)?
Kingsford does not. It was not planned out or religiously required. The green spaces come from traveling out of the city into the neighboring burghs and towns to see the farms and pastures.

>>51177100
Currently working on a project I call Ghostworld. Looks like some interesting questions OP.

>Does your setting have any global cities? If so, what are their demographics? Explain the history behind these statistics.
Current one I'm working on is the city of Clayton. Known for both its deep red river clay (it's namesake) and the fact that it's one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world. Clayton is a huge center for industry nowadays, leading to the odd sight of smoke stacks tearing up millenia old archways and domes. Shit that Elves put up while humans were still hunter-gatherers covered in a solid foot of soot and grime. Being a center of industry and mad science, Clayton also features more Homunculi than anywhere else.

>What places do towns, cities, villages and any other centralized settlements have in the political structures of your setting's states?
Most smaller villages and towns are starting to vanish. Urban sprawl is overtaking a lot of the ones nearest the big cities, and the ones further out are being devoured by undead, monsters, eldritch horrors, and general irrelevancy.

>How big of a phenomenon is urban sprawl in your setting?
It's pretty recent, but it's become a big deal in the last century.

>Do your cities have any "green spaces" (parks, culturally/religiously special naturals areas, etc.)?
The city of Granporte, which is a mashup of Washington DC, New Orleans, and Karnak. While it's covered in painted marble and limestone monument-tombs and palaces, it also boasts some impressive parks. The Grieving Gardens specialize in summoning up shades of the recently dead so families can seek closure. The Elysian Field features a hall of dead heroes to speak with, for those of a historical bent. And the Slumbering Grove is perfect for anyone looking to die and stay dead (in a world where death is hard to finally achieve, that says something).

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What sort of civilizations or settings do you see working with this map?

>>51179189
Were those islands formed by some giant primordial being sitting down?

>>51179475
>ywn have a thick titaness sit on the world and thusly your face

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>>51179593
Everyone focuses their world's "Creation Myth" on whatever memory or hobby interests themselves the most. For instance, Tolkien was a polyglot who began Arda with the creation of a language and the singing of songs.
That world began with facesitting.

So im right now generating a system map for a space fantasy game im running, but I want to know what kinds of details should be known about a star and it's system?

Like how many planets make sense for a system, how many should be inhabitable. Does the size of the star matter, or the colour? The idea is that I have one important thing per system.

>>51179657
>planets
Few that aren't gas giants AKA resource bubbles.
>inhabitable
Almost none.
>size/color
Color is relative to size. Size matters a lot.

Could use Space Engine to generate believable space.

>>51179657
Watch these:
>https://www.youtube.com/user/Artifexian/videos

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>>51179698
>>51179722

I'm not looking for believable space. I'm basically using this to generate my systems, beyond a little hacking from Spelljammer.

>>51179652
This has gone to a weird place.

Let's see how far we can go with it.

>>51179765
Interesting. So what are you asking for exactly? Just ideas for making that chart thing better?

>>51180136
Well I suppose the first thing is if it's fine to have barren systems with just stars?

Since each system is within a crystal sphere floating in the Astral Sea, shouldn't each one have something in it, or is a barren system ok?

How many planets in a system make sense or are interesting? That's what the chart i'm using doesn't really tell me.

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>>51180208
>barren systems
Barren systems have nothing in them, which means that unless you are about to maroon a PC, they serve no purpose.

>How many planets
Random roll it. 1d20 plus or minus whatever modifier you desire, or whatever fits at the moment. Dying system? +5 (old) planets. New star? Minus 6.

Any number of planets could exist. Our RL system has 8-12 depending on who you ask. Some systems have none or one. Don't sweat it.

Is this gonna be realistic or total science-fantasy?

>>51180360
Total science fantasy.

The generator im using is working under the assumption that space is like a dungeon, so treasure and population distribution is like that of the placement of monsters, traps, and treasure. Every 12 of 20 systems is barren.

>>Does your setting have any global cities? If so, what are their demographics? Explain the history behind these statistics.
The world isn't interconnected enough to have any places that influence the whole economy.
>>What places do towns, cities, villages and any other centralized settlements have in the political structures of your setting's states?
They're important as centers of food production and religion, and as permanent residences of the rulers of the states, however no real trade and cultural centers exist yet.
>>How big of a phenomenon is urban sprawl in your setting?
Doesn't really exist.
>>Do your cities have any "green spaces" (parks, culturally/religiously special naturals areas, etc.)?
They're not very large, and situated in vast wilderness so there's no need for such things.

Speaking of cities and urban spaces, I need some insight and tips on conflict between fey creatures.

In my world Fey creatures are entities born from belief and concepts. When mortals appeared on the world and started thinking of things like Winter, Summer and forests as entites, fey creatures were made real.

For example, when people started thinking of the forest near home as an entity, a dryad was born. When the same people think that the forest is a scary and dangerous place, the dryad becomes scary and dangerous itself.

With the rise of cities, other fey creatures started appearing and growing in power, like the Green Fairy from abshinte or the Hearth Pixies.

What would be the interaction between the older and "natural" fey (divided in Summer/Winter Courts) and the new "urban" ones ? What kind of war they would wage aganist each other?

All right, I need help building a fantasy world for a 5e D&D Campaign the only thing I have so far is that one of my prospective players, wants the world to be named after a star, like Sirius or Polaris, and as an added bonus, pretty much everybody who wants to play is completely new to ttrpgs myself included, can anyone help me? if so, will you please help me?

>Does your setting have any global cities? If so, what are their demographics? Explain the history behind these statistics.
I guess. There's "crossroad of the worlds" kind of city-state which I haven't make a good name for. It's primary populated by not!Greeks, but also since it's a colony in not!Asia, it has quite a lot of former nomads who joined the population, although most reside in countryside. Expatriates from the further West are also common coming with caravans or merchant ships and for whatever reasons not leaving.
>What places do towns, cities, villages and any other centralized settlements have in the political structures of your setting's states?
In most nations, cities are the seats of power for dukes who rule large areas. Smaller settlements are subordinate to them with local adminstration usually being appointed by the dukes. If not this, it's probably one of the nations that doesn't really have population to fill the city.
>How big of a phenomenon is urban sprawl in your setting?
I don't think it's applicable for the medieval society.
>Do your cities have any "green spaces" (parks, culturally/religiously special naturals areas, etc.)?
Most cities are chaotically planned with borders between city and nature is not always being clearly defined. Leaders are usually having a large garden around their residence. The above mentioned city-state have a very big "Garden of Swords" around the place where historical treaty was made, decorated by large number of decorative weapon sticking out of the ground to commemorate tradition of burying one's weapon when making peace.

>put a few of my friend's ideas into my setting
>particularly fond of two characters he made
>become really attached to them and they are tangled into the storyline with increasing importance the more I develop them
>eventually get around to reading Berserk
>the two characters were clearly not-Griffith and not-Zodd that he came up with right after he started reading it
>have to take apart everything I wrote about them and rearrange it to make them unique
I feel like I have to read everything ever written just to make sure this doesn't happen for the twentieth time

>>51182814
Why does it matter? Nothing is ever original.

Originality is not a virtue by itself.

Being well done matters a lot more than being original.

>>51182814
>>51182866
Blatant copying is a thing of its own, but picking cool ideas from outside sources is fine. That's worldbuilding.

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I'm running a medieval campaign in a post apocalyptic US, specifically in an empire on the Baja peninsula that's culture is a mix of Classical Japanese/Song Dynasty Chinese/Spaghetti Western.

My issue is figuring out the timescale I want to work with, originally it was 400 years after the Great Apocalypse (so named because it followed 6 apocalyptic events that weakened but did not destroy civilization but left it unable to deal with the last).

However, I'd like to build a world that has had previous great empires and kingdoms rise from the ashes only to fall again, allowing for a mix of pre-apocalypse and medieval style dungeons.

Is 1100 years a reasonable time without expecting the tech level to have advanced too much? As well as being able to have some ancient magic artifacts (really highly advanced tech from before the fall) survive and able to function? Or do you guys think it'd be reasonable to push it back further? I'd like to have as much time between the Apocalypse and game start as possible while still making sense.

A little more info, the Apocalypse will have happened in the 2200s, allowing rudimentary AI, better medical technology, eradication of a number of diseases and nanobot devices to have entered mainstream use before the world ended.

Pic related is the feel of each region in North America. Loosely based off of the CK2 mod After the End.

>>51183486
>Empire of Moose
Go home, Paradox Interactive, you drunk.

Anyone familiar with Hindu mythology? On the topic of the Rakshasas and the ability to shapeshift:


-How easily do they do it - a puff of magic or what
-Can they take the form of someone and pretend to be them?
-If they become a dragon do they gain the abilities of a dragon?
-Their usual form (myth not D&D) they are depicted in - is that their normal appearance or is there no normal Rakshasa appearance?
-Are there good Rakshasa?
-Can they get along with and co-exist with humans without instantly wanting to binge on human tikka masala?

>>51184397
It's not an actual empire, just a bunch of poor frozen tribes that worship moose.

>>51184747
Not trying to bitch or bicker. I don't know specifically about Rakshasas, but of Hindu and Buddhism in general. I'd make a wild guess and say things probably aren't as simple as you think or put it. These things don't read out like a traditional bestiary. They dwell in metaphors and metaphysics.

>>51184810
Maybe you shouldn't call it Empire then.

I was joking about Paradox Interactive becuse in Hearts of Iron 4, apparently placeholder names for some fascist nations slipped through creating some empires of mascot animals.

>>51185769
That's a map of the world as my players know it. One of them is convinced the "Empire" of the Moose is the reason the Apocalypse happened and the Japanese people don't rule the world anymore.

Didn't know that about HOI4 though, haven't gotten around to playing it yet.

>>51185769
>Maybe you shouldn't call it Empire then.
Tell that to the Holy Roman Emperor.

>>51177100
So I'm taking the plunge and going full retard with developing a religion for my cleric/scholar character in an upcoming freeform rp I'm in. I've had a bunch of ideas floating around in my head but I've been having trouble stitching it into an actual religion that works and makes sense.

I want it to be focussed on the personal and public labors of individuals. According to the faith, it is every individuals obligation to strive and make the world a better place than what is was before, and even though it will often be hard and grueling it will all payoff for the individual and their friends and family. It took me a while to type this explanation up and I'm still not satisfied with it, but what do you guys think? Is there something here that works? Should I steer it for more of a lifestyle like Confucianism? Or perhaps make their be a diety involved, "The Labored One", or something?

Other random ideas:
>it is a true upstart faith mainly gaining followers in the peasantry and clerics from other faiths discouraged by the payoff for everyday folks that the main faiths provide
>whatever holy scriptures the religion has will be simple parables organized into tomes called "The Labors", it mainly features parables
>the religion is too young for central organization, but the founder, a Prophetic figure, occasionally gathers the priests together to discuss various matters
>priests often keep in touch with each other through messenger pigeons, if you happen to pass a priest of the faith on the road he is more than likely to have 2 or 3 pigeons in a cage with him
>priests often have secondary occupations, be it beekeeping, smithing, farming, and the odd soldier
>"Labor" doesn't necessarily mean mindless work, it is more focused on meaningful works that are performed with the intent of making the world a generally better place to live in for others at the cost of something for the individual performing them, either in materials or wealth or even just free time

>working backwards writing a backstory for a group of demigods
>ends up looking like a heroic epic; a biography of a legendary warrior
Now to iron out the logical inconsistencies, my favorite part.

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>Mention casual nudity is practiced and accepted in public spaces in this community
Entering the magical realm?

>>51189992
Depends if you're using the location. If it's just a far away place that is only mentioned, it's not magical realm. If it's directly shown then it's magical realm.

>>51189992
Aren't Americans the only ones who sexualize nudity? It's fine, bro.

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>>51190173
>Aren't Americans the only ones who sexualize nudity?

>>51179189
>>51179475
>>51179593
>>51179652
>>51180003
>Religious confession involves the priestess sitting on your face

>>51189992
See >>51189992

Now that's magical realm. You're fine, if your players are mature enough.

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Private wikis are rather nifty for worldbuilding.

>>51181274
What are the central ideas of the fantasy-setting? Themes, feeling of it, atmosphere, style of game?
It is a broad subject, and fantasy can be done in many ways.

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>>51189992
Depends both on how it's handled and how mature user/player base you have.
I have casual nudity a part of many societies in my world, simply because it's something that actually does appear in real-world societies as well, and I don't see any reason why to shy away from it. And like in most of those societies, the casual nudity in my world is rarely sexualized, but frequently associated with either ritual role, or simply with cleanliness and cleaning acts. Prudness is generally not much of a thing in my world, though rules for sexual conduct are in most societies relatively strict.

Then again, I also have rampant slavery, child marriage, human sacrifices and other shit that some might find "problematic" as part of the settings, so maybe it's more a matter of perspective.

>>51183486
>Loosely based off of the CK2 mod After the End.
that's like a one to one conversion of their map dude

I'm creating two dnd campaigns at the moment
>the players work as the secret police for a large empire
>the players are part of a criminal ring of alchemists that make illegal potions(basicallly fantasy breakIng bad)
What would be some good world building tips if I'm creating a world for these kinds of campaigns be

>>51185038

Oh yeah I understand where you are coming from. I'm just trying to get a sense of how it works in a pop cultural sense - same way while angels are technically "Do not be afraid" eldritch horrors the pop cultural perception is angelic cherubs or pretty elves with wings. Likewise while proper hinduism is metaphysical and esoteric there is still a popular cultural storytelling or imagination of it.

After all, you can't put a lofty philosophical twist on Rama leading an army of flying monkeys to invade Sri Lanka and rescue his wife from a big bad demon. Unless I missed e̶n̶g̶l̶i̶s̶h̶ ̶m̶a̶j̶o̶r̶ ̶1̶0̶1̶ Sanskrit major 101 interpretations of myth and how it's really an analysis on how our jealousy towards our spouses is really just a manifestation of our own emotional gestalt of the individualism felt since the arrival into adolescence and the paradoxical desire for acceptance and love with the ambition to set out our own identity and ego.

That or it's just because flying monkys are dope.

>>51191653
The map's very similar but the cultures and history are all different than those in the game

>>51177100
Would a ecumopolis be viable in real life?

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>>51191984
For the first one I'd make it a dark and edgy world where the Imperial secret police are the good guys compared with the degenerates they're hunting.

For the second, I'd set in not-Renaissance Italy. Since it's a fantasy game, get creative with what the illegal potions do.

>>51192874
I don't see why not.

It would probably have to get all its food shipped in from agricultural planets. And I would expect them to devote a lot of energy towards climate maintenance (generating oxygen and scrubbing CO2 using machines, algae, etc.).

The main question is how they get in and out of the gravity well, since it will have to do a ton of shipping. If you don't have space elevators, it would probably get too expensive to maintain the city past a certain size, and it would become cheaper to just build space colonies.

>>51191398
I kind of want it to highlight the general attitudes and influences that the religions have had, these crusader states have absolutely no nudity in public and a person will be shamed to be seen like that while these Earthy people have no problem with casual nudity, and bathe in public.

>>51184747
>-How easily do they do it - a puff of magic or what
Depends on the Rakshasa
>-Can they take the form of someone and pretend to be them?
Depends on the Rakshasa
>-If they become a dragon do they gain the abilities of a dragon?
Depends on the Rakshasa
>-Their usual form (myth not D&D) they are depicted in - is that their normal appearance or is there no normal Rakshasa appearance?
Depends on the Rakshasa
>-Are there good Rakshasa?
Depends on the Rakshasa
>-Can they get along with and co-exist with humans without instantly wanting to binge on human tikka masala?
Depends on the Rakshasa

But more seriously, for points 2 and 3, there are a few myths that indicate that some Rakshasa (which are basically fey/independently minded demons, depending on your source material) have to eat the flesh of something to gain its form. There are even a few where the Rakshasa automatically transforms into the last thing it ate, and can also be trapped in that form, so if you trick a Rakshasa into eating pork, it becomes a pig, if you tricked a Rakshasa into eating the ashes of your dead wife, it becomes your wife, etc.
Point 4: Rakshasa are demons, their default form is horrific, huge, and depending on who was doing the sculpture/relief at the time, may or may not have barbed/hooked/made of fire crotches.
Point 5: Rakshasa can be good, in the same way Jin in arabic folklore can be good. They could be pretending, they could be doing good because they are immortal semi-phenominal cosmic beings and they get bored with slaughter and mayhem all the time, or they could have been directly converted by a saint or god.
Point 6: See above.

>>51189992
just depends who you're running a game for. Including things that are taboo(in whatever country you may be in) is generally ill advised if you intend on using the setting with randoms. If it's just you and your mates, it just depends on if they're cool with that kind of thing.

Also, make sure you don't act like everyone being naked is weird. It really undermines your world in front of your players

Does anyone have a mega link or something for the Kobold Guides?

>>51195837
Kobold guides?

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>>51195837
This? It's a pdf.

>>51195878
Yes, but I want all of those kobold guides. Computer crashed recently and apparently my backups were glitched to all hell too.

Thanks for the pdf there!

>>51189992
No, in most developed and many undeveloped regions it's okay as long as it's something like your own property, the beach or a park. Really, it's only Anglo nations and nations the British colonized/conquered that frown on it a lot.

What's a good word for someone that wields powers stolen from dead gods?

>>51196950
Scion?

>>51196950
Haruspex(not 100% accurate but sounds good)

>>51197010
Doesn't quite fit the mood or idea I'm going for.

>>51197400
This is a little better.

The idea behind the setting is its a dying world where either the gods have died or left, and now the inhabitants are struggling to survive as the magic slowly drains. I need something that fits the idea of people who have recovered the powers of the divine through various means and are trying to gather as much power from the remaining fonts of magic.

Kind of the idea is faith fuels the gods and the gods fuel the magic, so icons of faith still have some magic. So groups are either trying preserve artifacts and holy sites in a last ditch effort, or draining them of the remaining magic and trying to install themselves as new gods.

A lot of the influence of the setting ideas is from Kill 6 Six Billion Demons, with the ideas of the keys made from the fragmented knowledge of God.

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How's this for a starting area?

>>51198065
The direction of the water seems a bit weird but it seems fine overall.

>>51198111
No it's flowing north to south, I just didn't realize i wanted it that way so i had to move the compass around, lol.

>>51198143
I meant more in relation to the mountains and swamp.

>>51198143
>flowing north to south
Rivers don't split like that, even if they do, they don't stay split for long. It would make more sense if they flowed south to north, but then it's still weird in relation to the mountains, since water flows away from the mountains.

Also a scale would help. Right now the rivers look way too wide, but I'm not sure if that's just the scale.

>>51198162
Well, I'm thinking it flows out of the swamp across the plains, and splits because of a natural cliff. the swamps are fed by mountain run-off and a spring, I think that'll be off the map.

>>51198199
they can when humans or magic is involved , and sometimes natural obstacles, and most rivers flow north to south in our world i used that knowledge as a base, not sure how to explain it yet, or what the scale should be,

Any good name generators for space/science fantasy games?

Im making a starmap but im crap with names and I need fantasy sounding things.

>>51198269
there's one in the OP. friend, Fantasy name generator has sci-fi stuff on the website.

>>51198268
>they can when humans or magic is involved , and sometimes natural obstacles
Naturally, rivers rarely split and never for long, one of directions will become silted up and disappear over the course of about 1000 years. "lol magic" is a terrible way to go about explaining such things. Humans can probably split a river, but it's a large undertaking, and the question becomes "why bother." Even when they manage it, it will still not be for long.

>most rivers flow north to south in our world
No, most rivers flow downhill in our world, that's it. A shitload of rivers flows north. Rivers also flow west and east. Downhill is all that matters.

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/riversno.htm

>>51198268
If you want to just use magic as a handwave then you don't really need opinions but this isn't really how any of this stuff works and that makes it look weird.

>>51198412
Okay, perhaps the event that made it split happened less than 1000, more than 500 years ago, say a mage wanted to see what would happen if he raised the land there and split the river, or he inadvertently caused the nearby volcano to erupt, large slice of rock landed there splitting the river and the forest there grew on top of the rock? and I'm sorry I was thinking of America perhaps, but thank you for the link
>>51198429
Okay, what should I change to not make it look weird? I don't know why but i originally had it going from the mountains near the volcano, and down from there but it felt wrong.

>>51198539
Well mountain streams feed downhill into lakes and larger streams and eventually rivers.
Swamps form when this downhill movement pools in a low area that doesn't have proper drainage for the water to continue on its way. That is, generally if there's poor enough drainage to form a swamp then it probably won't be feeding into a large river and if there's sufficient unrestricted water flow to feed a large river then a swamp probably isn't forming. That's of course not counting swampy areas that can form along rivers but that's not what you have in your map.

>>51198645
Well then, I'll change up the water some, although I think I'll make the swamp something to do with an evil Fey, (that's Unseelie generally right?) and have a tributary feed out of it rather than something as large as what I've got there.

>>51198750
If you added mountains to the south, so they formed a bit of a diagonal, and said that your river flows from south to the north, and also added some small rivers flowing east and into your large river from your western mountains, you'd have no problems.

>>51198837
Okay, I'm thinking you mean at sort of the bottom of the picture, I add some mountains going toward where the swamp is, at a diagonal. Then add a few tributaries from there to the river in the center and a few from the mountains already there down to the large river?

>>51198947
No, I'm saying add some mountains to the top left of the picture, so the mountains on top don't go in a line but in a bit of a diagonal or a curve, so it looks like the river originates in some mountains off screen and then flows parallel to the range. Then add some small rivers flowing from the top towards the main river. Then say that the river is flowing from left (south) to right (north) and into the swamp.

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>>51198980
Okay thanks for clarifying, is this better?

>>51199112
Yeah that's workable.

>>51199288
Thanks for the help, now I need to work out a scale and perhaps size the rivers around the Circle shaped forest down some,

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So how do you guys motivate yourself to worldbuild? Of your own will I mean, not because you're expected to by players

>>51199759
I just worldbuild whenever something inspires me to. Sometimes it's a series of song lyrics that cause something to click in my head other times I just rip things I like from other people's settings I like and adapt them.

If you don't feel like worldbuilding don't do it. If you're doing it for fun, only do it when it's fun

>>51199759
Because I see most of my settings as story-fuel. I don't usually make settings for campaigns (unless its my usual DnD one or my sci fi one for traveller).

Is there anything in particular that you are having problems with?

>>51199759
I only have to worldbuild when I get inspiration. I have a lot of indefinite projects, so I don't really feel the need to force anything.

I also divide worldbuilding into Adding and Refining, so doing one could inspire the other.

>>51199833
I only write something down when I get a particular idea. I just never feel any desire to actually expand on the initial ideas, so I was wondering how others got themselves to do so and create something actually tangible.

>>51199759
Well, high school math class provided good motivation.

I haven't stopped since.

>>51199855
I find that it's very nice to do ranking and hierarchy systems. Makes you get thinking about governments and how organizations work.

This works for militaries, religions, noble houses, governmental agencies, ect... It's also worth noting that not everything has to be super detailed. Just know how everything works in and the rest should come together. It also helps to think "how would i get a player/reader interested as playing as a person from this nation/race/ect". At least these work for me.

>>51199759
It's quite easy, whenever I should be doing something productive I usually retreat to my imaginary worlds

Guys I'm trying to come up with the basic factioms for a 70-90's styalized scifi skirmish combat game set on a massive privately owned asteroid that is now dubbed "Freeport."

Any faction ideas guys?

>>51200241
Mah nigga

>>51179652
My main hobby is creating creation myths. I have yet to create a creation myth that begins with the telling of a creation myth.

>>51200276
Rebel miners
Private security force
Local civilian terrorist group
Corporate soldiers sent to protect their interests on the 'roid
Invading pirate force

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>>51177100
What do you think of my Kingdom that I will use in D&D

General info:
>Nudora was founded roughly 400 years ago by King Francis the II of Vadaland

>The capital of Avon is a major hub for the trade in the region, with the exception of the merchant cityof Barnstaple. Many guilds of various kinds have their headquarters in Avon.

>The Dragonscorch Plains was the location of a mighty battle over 100 years ago between the Nudorian army and a mighty Red Dragon. Even today the area is still mostly burning and devoid of life.

>The Rocky Highlands is a small mountain range that is home to small stronghold of Dwarves that have proven to be good allies to the Kingdom. They are the main producers of armour and weapons to the soldiers of Nudora, it is said that the forgers inside Mahzak Runehold never goes cold. But the rocky highlands have also proven to be home to small goblin tribes and Troll lairs.

>The Druuss Woods is a large forest that is yet largley unexplored with the exception of a few forest paths and the main road that leads to the small city of Logton. It's from Logton where the best lumber in the realm comes from.

>The Greenwind Woods fairly large but still smaller than Druuss Woods. The main road that cuts through the forest leads to the small elven realm of Avineth

>The Wild Deep is the Ocean that leads down south to Kingdom of Vana and other more distant lands.

>The Border to Vana is nothing special as the relations between Nurdora and Vana are at this point fairly good.

>Tahm Lake is the largest lake in Nudora, and it is connected to the Toadblight Swamp and it's waters flow out into the Shimmering Bay

>The Pelor Shrine at the heart of Tahm is a large shrine dedicated to Pelor. Pelor is the god of the Sun, Light, Strength, and Healing, and many farmers, clerics and warriors often travel there at somepoint in order to wish for good crop yields, curing illneses or wish for greater power.

That's it for now, it's still WIP, just FYI.

In a setting I am working on, there is a country roughly analogous to the Ottoman Empire in both scope and terrain.

What makes this place special is that there are a bunch of eldritch abominations/demon gods trapped/sleeping underground that 'eat' bad things, for lack of a better term.

The five biggest ones:
Kresh - Murderer of Nightmares
Sulsh - Eater of Darkness
Meash - Thief of Lies
Wsoksh - Perverter of Illness
Fitsh - Pillager of Death

My question to you is what do you think a civilization would look like where 99% of the time the breath was stolen from your lungs when you went to lie (and the 1% is when the lie you would have told would begat much more lies), and you can't even put down falsehoods on paper? Where when you started to have a nightmare, a giant made of void and stars strode into your dreams and rent the nightmare in twain, leaving you to peaceful, dreamless sleep? Where a small but significant number of times someone would come down with an illness or die, there was a visible corona around them as that instance of sickness or death was forcibly removed from existence? Where, except for the magics granted by these beings and a few other special cases, in a world where minor magic is very common across the population, magic doesn't work or is severely curtailed?

I'd imagine that first and foremost, they'd be as xenophobic as you can get, given anyone from outside has grown up being able to lie. On the opposite side of that, books, plays, and stories from the outside world would be very valuable, given that its nearly impossible for anyone to make anything up. All foreign books would have to be prefaced in bold with "THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION! (FICTION IS SOMETHING THAT IS NOT TRUE)" even on necessarily scholarly works, if the lies thing functions on absolute truth.

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I was gone from the internet for a very long time, are there still write-threads? I love reading other peoples world-building ideas as stories.

Has /wbg/ ever done a collaboration project? Even one where you attempt to blend a bunch of different settings together?

>>51203550
>are there still write-threads?
There are "storythreads", which are basically writing (mostly short story and fanfiction) writing exercises. They don't usually overlap with world-building in my experience though.

They get made every other Thursday and used to stay alive for around 10 days, but lately we have been really sloppy in maintaining them, the last two archived before reaching bump limit. There should be a new one up next week, I think.

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Sci-fi game. The PCs were humans, rebuilt as robots following catastrophic accidents. Each one now has two linked bodies: a humanoid android, and a 15' colossus.

Which do you find most compelling:
>The PCs are part of a resistance movement against a totalitarian state. Light-hearted and more Jet Set Radio than Nineteen Eight-Four.
>The PCs wake up centuries after their human deaths, and find themselves the only things standing between the few remaining humans and the now-dominant machines.
>The PCs are the elite vanguard of an interstellar exploratory corps, built to conquer alien worlds - until they refuse to go back in the box after a mission.
>Something else.

>>51203721
>Has /wbg/ ever done a collaboration project?
There has been a lot of attempts and collective world building threads are being made every few days, but it usually does not work out very well, the results are usually pretty terrible. Collective world-building works among close group of friends with very united vision of what they want to make, but doing it randomly with a bunch of random folks on the internet does not usually work out so well.

>>51204302
>>The PCs are part of a resistance movement against a totalitarian state. Light-hearted and more Jet Set Radio than Nineteen Eight-Four.

THE CONCEPT OF LOVE

>>51205196
I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON HERE

What are some alternative forms of worshipping dieties? I'm trying to come up with something different than the rest for a god that's not used to being worshipped.

>>51205775
What do you mean alternative?
Anything that can be done in the name of god has been done.

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>>51205816
Prayer, practices, just general forms of worship. Without going on a holy killing crusade.
Some people have already done that and the Goddess wasn't too thrilled about it. It ended up with an entire universe being ripped open.
I'm just trying to think of some general rituals that could work well.

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Been working on a setting for some time now, working on maps. How's this for a basic map so far?

>>51207605
It's almost impossible to read hex maps like this, but from what I can say... it looks weird.
Why are the islands separated by such thin channels? I hope those things are not rivers...

>>51207605
That river branches in ways that make me unhappy. Why does it split before hitting the ocean? Why is that one branch so straight?

>>51205196
>>51204302
>PC robot dudes are -literally- controlled opposition
>exist, and are allowed to exist, for the sake of the Great Imperial Propaganda Machine

>>51207673
>>51207674
I'm not that Anon, but I know next to nothing about river placement, so can you tell me if I have done anything wrong with how the rivers, lakes, mountains, etc placed here >>51202329

>>51207920
The Divide is weird, but everything else is fine.

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Found an old map of mine, might start doing something with it. What do you think?
This continent is mostly unclaimed by civilation btw.

>>51207984
I wanted it to be so that the river split in two due to a large hill/small mountain being in the way

>>51207920
There's really two things you need to know about rivers:

>Rivers flow downhill, always towards the lowest point.
>Rivers rarely bifurcate, but they merge often. For a river to bifurcate requires exceptional circumstances, and it's rarely for long, one side of the bifurcation will pretty quickly silt up and you're back to one river. River deltas do happen, but very near the coast.

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>>51207920
Well, looking at it: it seems you have the river width wrong: they seem to be mostly becoming more narrow as they flow closer to the sea, and several of the rivers fork way too far away from the sea.

General advice on rivers and river-forking. River systems generally behave like trees: they are most narrow highest up stream, where multitude of them meets and forms wider and wider stream: as they flow downwards towards the sea, they become increasingly wide and slow, until they reach close to the coast, where they generally start forming river deltas. They rarely ever split: usually multiple rivers join together instead.

>>51208004
Seems familiar. Did you post it before?

>>51208015
>>51208068
Thanks for the help, I will think of this when I make more maps in the future

>>51208004
Seems pretty fine. Not sure how to understand the region south of Ejzaka with the odd network of lakes (seems fairly unnatural, but maybe that is the point) and I'm not particularly fond of the naming convention based entirely on made-up names, but that might be a completely personal bias. Othewise, it looks interesting.

>>51208072
Maybe I dont really know but would have been 2 years ago then

>>51208113
It is forest with lakes but I am the worst when it comes to drawing forests in Gimp...

>>51208113
>Finland

>>51208185
Well, any ideas to start us off with?

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>>51177100
WIP Inkarnate map, r8 dont h8

The crowding of the names is on purpose btw

>>51208431
I don't know what to put into the north, Ejzaka. It is like Alaska and the forest with the lake like Canada or Sweden. I want to put some interesting fantasy wildlife in it, but I don't know where to go other than bears and elks.
I thought of Skinwalker, but I just wanted it to be pristine and untouched of any kind of mystical force other than nature itself and its animals.
Also there may or may not have been the civilisation of magitech cyborgs before they retreated to their hold underground. The entrance can be seen in the mountains on the map.

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>>51208569
Make the bears and elks large. Runic, magical inscriptions on their pelts. Semi-sapient.

Big birds work well too. Roc-like eagles soaring down to grasp a runic giant elk would be a sight to behold.

Wild-magic golems like pic related fit well in pine forests. Could be the remains of the magitech cyborg civs.

>>51183486
Go 1000 years forward so all the countries in your setting have the timeline space to create their own separate culture and history.

Don't bother stating why the tech stagnant. As far as I can tell, nobody ever ask that question out of 4chan, which is deliberately to debate and waste time.

>>51207673
>>51207674

Yes, unfortunately those are rivers...I really wasn't thinking about proper rivers at 4am, I'll redraw it later today, make the river running down the center look more organic and change the far right branch entirely, have it branch off south-east so it makes more sense.

I'm using a hex map program just because I have it and it's easy for me, when I get a bit more detail into the world I'll take the time to draw up a proper map once I'm satisfied with everything.

>>51190355
>The priestess are all old ugly hags so that the faithful abstain from committing sin

>>51208606
Thank you! I will absolutly put different kind of old golem working units in there. Their fuel/radiation changed the wildlife in the areas so the animals grew larger and more intelligent/semi-magical.

>>51208680
It's generally a really good idea to think of your map in 3D from the start: think where the highlands, the mountain ranges, the plateous, the lowlands are. You'll quickly realize that the river flows will actually just logically stem out of that (you can make accomodations retroactively, as rivers have a tendency to carve their own valleys and shit) when you realize that rivers flow downhill, always from higher position towards coast, never coast-to-coast.
I'd maybe recommend drawing your map by hand (it does not have to look good, as long as you can read it) before transforming it into a hex map too.

How big should a starting starmap be?

It's going to be for a Space Fantasy game that's essentially Spelljammer meets Kill Six Billion Demons.

>>51208527
I wish I could make shit like this.
What's the scale?

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>>51208606
>>51208734
Also I will make it so, that the heroes can pilot/control one of the biggest working units/golems to fight an epic fight against some spider-kaiju who has been woken from its slumber.

Thanks again!

>>51208527
n00b map creator here, I like your work man... I need to know what program you used there tho

>>51199759
I like writing.

Beyond that, everything done in these threads are a waste of time.

>>51209662
He used Inkarnate, he says it right in his post.

http://inkarnate.com/

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What does /tg/ think of this map so far?

>>51210084
Needs more landmass. Why the fuck is everything all the way over to the left?

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>>51210084
Or would something similar be better?

>>51210116
There will be more land, I just worked on that continent first.

>>51210084
Is the pink line supposed to be the equator? If so, it looks like you tried to make a logical map with proper climate areas... and failed.

>>51210084
My first reaction is that it looks too jagged.

It's true that terrain is fractal, but overall curves tend to be smoother, and sharp corners appear only occasionally.

You can try doing what I do. Download a program called AutoREALM, use it to draw the continents using fractal lines, then move it to your favorite image editor for the rest of the work.

Additionally, something about your deserts seems off. Try looking here for a basic idea on how stuff works.

http://www.earthonlinemedia.com/ebooks/tpe_3e/contents.html

>>51200484
>The Great Scribe wrote worlds into existence as an author writes tomes...

Howdy /wbg/, what sort of hexagonal map-making applications do you recommend? I have a region I've drawn out, and would like to fiddle with as a hexagonal grid.

>>51177100
>>Does your setting have any global cities? If so, what are their demographics? Explain the history behind these statistics.

City of Lux, also known as City of Thousands. The name doesn't come from the large population it has, but that thousands of different cultures and people are in the city. The population of the Lux fluctuate a lot, but most of the time it is between 500 000 and 750 000. Largest minority is the Elven population of around 25 000, who at the moment also have most power and control.

Built next to a safe harbor and on a long Peninsula, the city was originally founded as trading station. A place for ships the resupply and trade their goods. With tge location of the city very central in worlds trade it started to prosper. Lux has changed its ownership many times within, but rarely succumbed to outside threats. Now the city is the biggest concentration of trade in the whole world.

>>What places do towns, cities, villages and any other centralized settlements have in the political structures of your setting's states?

In terms of neighbours of Lux, the main thing they do is to support the city and to fill caps. For example Bogdans Point is a smaller dwarven settlement 20km to east of Lux. Having strong dwarven walls and fortifications protecting its fleet of warships, they have been contracted to act as the Navy of Lux. White Sand in turn is nomad settlement just outside Lux where large amounts of camels and other trade coming from the drylands south are processed before moving forward.

>>How big of a phenomenon is urban sprawl in your setting?
It is somewhat big in places where the surrounding area can support the population in the cities. Most big cities like Lux have been there for thousands of years in different forms with the older being just piles of rubble that form hills now. Most cases of urban sprawl is due to uncontrolled building which leads into very fire hazardous situation. Good thing Lux is made mostly from clay bricks.

>>51212812

>>Do your cities have any "green spaces" (parks, culturally/religiously special naturals areas, etc
If you are rich, you have in most cases some kind of a yard. But public parks outside religious or cultural places is rare. All empty places have some reason ranging from marketplaces to mustering yards. In Lux more inner you go, you start to see small plants that can survive the dry weather and in the Inner City palm trees with well tended shrubberies can be found.

Questions! Describe one of the armies in your setting.

>Whose army is it? Nation, person?
>How big it is? What race is the army made from?
>What is the organization of the army?
>What kind of equipment do they use?
>How does the army fight?
>How does the ranks go? Is there way to advance to higher rank?
>Does the army have any quirks or special units of any notice?

If you have inspirational picture, please post it.

>>51213237
The Infernal Legions

>>Whose army is it? Nation, person?
A vast demonic army that reaches across thousands of realms, conquering and devouring what they can. Only a few ancients even remember how the Legions began, and most of them stay in isolation to avoid attention.

>>How big it is? What race is the army made from?
The Legions stand worlds strong. Made of the hundreds upon hundreds of various absorbed or enslaved species the Legions have encountered. The ones usually encountered are the ones that have survived and proven useful on the battlefield, the majority are kept as the slave backbone to run the worlds conquered by the Legions until they are overworked and worn down to extinction, leaving the strongest to survive.

>>What is the organization of the army?
At the top is the Tribunal, consisting of the Dark Lord, the Fallen Prince, and the Heretical Faithful. Not much is known about these figures except what filters down through the ranks of dukes, barons, and lords of the various hells. Each one controls vassals and troops.

>>What kind of equipment do they use?
Armaments range from the standard Helrifle, a crude but reliable firearm that fires a jagged chunk of demonic steel and has a searing felblade attached, to the bile cannon, designed to harness the Bile Toad's naturally produced stomach acids it vomits at prey and predators, to more unusual weapons, such as the Void Gaze, an optical blast of intense cold, or the Voidling, unstable mites which latch onto and enemy and explode.

>>How does the army fight?
The Legions tend to act as a shock force, prefering close range engagements. Though they have the resources to adapt to what the situation needs, using tools such as the Juggernauts or Helfire Worms to siege targets.

>Continued

>>51214043


>>How does the ranks go? Is there way to advance to higher rank?
The Legions follow a nobility style of ranks, favoring those that willing joined. Its not common but not impossible to climb to higher status, as seen by Archduke Mammon, the Merchant Prince, who bought, stole, murdered, and schemed to his position.

>>Does the army have any quirks or special units of any notice?
The entire army is a mishmash of demons and hellish contraptions. Ranging from the black steel clad Infernal Legionnaires, to the surgically mutilated Bile Legionnaires, to odd cyclopean Aether Priests, to the towering Lords of the Pit.

>>51213237
I'll do the city the players are in right now.

>Whose army is it? Nation, person?
It's the army of the city-state, under the command of the governor.
>How big it is? What race is the army made from?
Around 5000 combat ready soldiers, additionally there are some small units for special missions. Those would total maybe 200 people and they operate under a separate command structure, but still report to the governor. Additionally, the palace keeps around a guard of 300 elite soldiers. The army is almost entirely human.
>What is the organization of the army?
The army is separated into units of around 1000 soldiers I am calling battalions, each one has a commander, who gets a lot of authority for running his unit. Aside from the 1000 soldiers, non-combatant workers (smiths, healers, etc.) are attached to the battalion. Each battalion is split into units of 100 men, which are farther split into patrols of 20 people when the army is not in combat but doing local policing duties.

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In a world which does not use any real-world languages, should a katana be referred to as a katana?

>>51214929
>What kind of equipment do they use?
The soldiers are either heavy infantry or archers. Heavy chariots are used to carry archers, who either shoot on the move or dismount to harass. Mounted cavalry is non-existent in combat, although messages are relayed by mounted messengers.

The heavy infantry uses bronze corslets, bronze greaves, figure of eight shields and spears, with a backup short sword.

Archers on foot are unarmored, archers on chariots are equipped in a manner similar to heavy infantry. The bow of choice is a longbow, not composite. This civilization in general is proud of their bows.

All equipment is standard and provided by the city. It is property of the army, so when a soldier leaves or dies, his equipment stays.

>How does the army fight?
Infantry fights in shield walls, with archers firing volleys and then moving behind the infantry. Chariots most harass, look for exploitable weak points and run down fleeing enemies.

>How does the ranks go? Is there way to advance to higher rank?
Ranks go: patrol leader -> commander of 100 -> commander of 1000. Selection is on merit, decided by the commander of 1000, although usual favoring of sons of important people does happen.

>Does the army have any quirks or special units of any notice?
The army is standing and professional, which is somewhat unusual for the era. There is a special unit specialized in reconnaissance and subterfuge.

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>>51214945
>Tolkien's Literary Linguistic Rule #34
Whatever language(s) actually exist in your setting, the people experiencing it (readers/players) will always read/play it in the vernacular.
>GRRM's corollary
Don't be a clever little shit you cunt.

>>51214945
When referring to objects in my world, I prioritize conveying information to my players, so I use words that are familiar to them.

Saying "He is carrying a katana" is way easier than saying "He is carrying an Erkesh, which is a long, curved, single-edged two-handed sword." It is assumed that the people inside my world refer to things in their own language, but since my players don't speak that language, I just use the language they know.

This is the same reason that my long lived pointy eared people are called Elves and my giant lizard-looking things with wings that breathe fire are called Dragons.

Certain words invoke certain images far more effectively than any description ever could, as long as you and your players are on the same page, culturally.

This is also the reason why I oppose taking an existing word and making it mean something else in your world. If you say that your Elves are four-legged creatures with eyes in their hands and feathered wings on their ass, why even call them Elves? Just introduces confusion.

Or as >>51215637 put it more succinctly than I ever could:
>Don't be a clever little shit you cunt.

>Like battletech elementals and starship troopers
>Have a distinct love for drop troops and exoskeletal power armor
>Love underdog stories
>Love 80's aesthetic of battletech and warhammer

And thus was born a sci-fi story based around nomadic human space clans who have lost earth to alien hordes.

Fuck yeah.

>>51214945
If you write an entire book in made up languages, then no, if you want people to understand whats going on then yes.

>>51215805
No one cares you autistic sperg.

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>>51216010

Same to you. Enjoy your shitty saturday night and continue being mad.

>>51216091
>implying I'm mad

>>51216157

Awww so you are having a shitty saturday night?

Why don't you chillax anon go smoke a bowl and eat some tendies.

>>51209038
Can I get an answer for this?

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>>51216258
It depends. Ideally, as big as it needs to convey important information about the setting to your players. I stick to a simple rule of thumb: starting quest + 1. Show everything they will likely bump into in the first few sessions, and then extend the map just a tiny bit so they see that there's more out there.

Unless you want them to feel insignificant, in which case show the entire setting in one image.

>>51199759
I hate myself and my life, worldbuilding helps me to ignore reality.

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>>51216388
This is what I have so far, each box is a system with at least one thing to do. I'm basically generating the system, and from what is in it the party will get starting quests. I'm still not sure how long travel should be from each system either.

>>51216447
It's literally up to you. I seem to recall this coming up before, but if this is a Sci-Fantasy, then going full Star Wars is best. Ships travel at the speed of plot, no more or less.

>tfw trying to write something
>it doesn't sound as cool as I imagine and it ends up sounding extremely dull
>can't even find a picture related to it
how do you do it friends

>>51216487
It's kind of like that, but between systems are warp shenanigans where you can encounter demons, god viscera, or gith pirates and other things.

>>51216502
Ah.

So it's double-plot. Gotcha. Then don't worry about it.

>>51216501
I don't. There's a reason I am perpetually depressed about my writing.

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>>51216511
I just want to make a warband of vaguely mayan inspired giants obsessed with gathering loot who use a combat style similar to boxing while wearing most of said loot sound cool

>>51216575
That sounds good. Post some more examples and maybe we'll give feedback.

>>51216639
You mean examples of my ideas or what?
Also forgot to say they're getting most of their loot by robbing the bodies of dead gods or their tombs

>>51216677
You claimed you find your writing boring. Post some.

>>51216698
I never write anything, I just start writing, it sounds like shit, so I throw the paper away/delete everything I'm writing.

>>51216719
Then start writing nigga, and before you delete it, Post it here so we can encourage you/confirm what a faggotty shit writer you are holy jesus.

I like the looting mayan boxing guys so far.

What are your guys favorite FTL travel systems?
Gates? Jump points? Slipspace? What?

>>51216719
Here's a tip. Don't throw your shit away, no matter how bad it is. Also post it anonymously and get yourself a new asshole torn by vicious critique.

That's how you get better.

Aside from writing, you also have to read a lot. Read all kinds of books by all kinds of authors, fiction and non-fiction, from all kinds of genres, not only genres you enjoy right now.

Reading a lot is practicing a lot what you need to get better at writing.

>>51216780
I like gates and Warp. Gates because it suggests a powerful precursor that mapped the galaxy long before, and Warp because I like Warp shenanigans. You won't need eyes for where we're going.

>>51216780
I like it when civilizations that are more advanced have more advanced and versatile FTL systems.

Like, a new civilization would start out using naturally occurring wormholes, then move onto using gates. A more advanced civilization might use slipspace or hyperspace or whatever. Finally, the civilizations that have mastered the physical world might just appear where they need to be.

You guys think it'd be too far fetched to have humanity be kind of the universes traders, mercenaries, and nomads?

>>51216873
Nope, frankly I think they're best suited for that role.

>>51199759
I've been inventing settings and games since I was a young child, it's just what I've always done out of frustration with the limitations of current gaming/sims/stories that I've experienced. I've had to cut dnd with dwarf fortress canon and then reel it back to a more bronze age-like setting for it to even begin to stop annoying the shit out of me with lazy or uninspired design, and I still can't wait until I can test out some entirely original mechanics and settings.

>>51216873
In lots of fiction non-humans are defined by their difference from humans that makes humans the most average and thus best suited for interspecies interaction. traders, mercenaries and diplomats come naturally out of it.

Quick bump

>Detail the life of the founder of a dynasty in your setting

>>51220804
Shit, only one historical founder I established founded a republic.

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>>51185769
>Kiwi empire
>Rosa Luxembourg

>>51189992
Depends. Are you doing it because it makes you hard/wet?

>>51216873
Not necessarily. Though considering our fairly short lifespans, relative vulnerability to radiation, endothermicness, and high need to socialize to stay healthy, humans are probably not going to be the best at space travel.

Obviously if there's sci-fi tech involved the problem is mitigated (much, much faster than light travel is a big one, unless it all takes place within a single star system or something), but we'd still probably be outpaced if there's a spacefaring species that requires fewer calories, less shielding, or both.

>>51216719
Seconding this. >>51216787

Go ahead and write out what you've got no matter what, then go through it and figure out why exactly you don't like it. Really analyze it. Beat by beat, paragraph by paragraph, word by word. Go through it like a surgeon. The process of editing doesn't just make whatever it is you're editing better, it makes you a better writer going forward.

And don't forget to read/watch/play crap. Read stuff that's painful and laughable and trite and boring and tasteless. You can figure out as much by looking at the ways things go wrong as you can by looking at how they look when they're done well. If you've got the time and money, maybe check out How Not to Write a Novel by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman.

If the problem is you think your writing is boring, then analyze the boring parts. What can you take out? What's are you trying to achieve, and what's the fastest, easiest way to achieve it?

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bumpin

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>>51223843
>Post YFW GoT is a very good example of very bad worldbuilding

>want to draw a map
>spend an hour looking for your tablet pen
>cant find it, look what a replacement costs
>almost the same as a brand new tablet
what a way to spend my evening

>>51224414
Is it?

>>51224655
Yes. The characters are fine, but not the setting.

>>51224414
>>51224687
I'm curious now, can you elaborate on the ways GoT does poorly for worldbuilding?

>>51179189
Lots of maritime cultures

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>>51224859
Not the guy you're replying to and I wouldn't call GRRM's worldbuilding bad (bad worldbuilding is people who feel the need to put in elves and dwarves and wizards), but it does have its flaws

>white walkers are generic ancient evil with a lackluster background/explanation
>medieval stasis for way too long even if you assume the maesters hoaxed millennia of history
>naming structures of Westerosi regions are all the same, can't tell where someone is from based on their name
>the free cities of Essos have the same problem as the latter
>exploration status of the world doesn't make any sense, maps don't even give a vague outline of how large Sothoryos or Ulthos are
>Yi Ti, which IIRC is the largest kingdom/empire in the world, has extremely limited contact with the free cities and Westeros and is barely ever referenced even though their geographical location gives them relatively easy access to the entire world (compare this position to China in medieval Earth)
>GRRM didn't even make the map and it feels like an afterthought, for example Westeros is literally bits of England and Ireland cut and pasted together for an end result that looks okay on its own but is really awkward when placed on a world map, and Essos is a neverending rectangle
>really limited worldbuilding in Essos despite it having far more potential than Westeros (which only really shines in politics)

>>51190355
How do you confess your sins like that, though?

I mean, I'm just assuming you have to orally service the priestess in question.

At the risk of taking the thread too far off-topic, doesn't that hurt? Like, I'm pretty lightweight, but I can't imagine having someone my weight sit on my face. That's just too much pressure on the face and head and neck. And that doesn't seem like the kind of thing that'd be fixed with extra muscle.

>>51225296
What do you think about the theory that the white walkers are a metaphor for climate change? That while the kings and prostitutes and whatever quibble over power, they're ignoring the fact that they're going to be doomed without action? I think there was some other evidence. I don't watch the show or read the books, it's just something I heard about.

>>51225296

>bad worldbuilding is people who feel the need to put in elves and dwarves and wizards

Does having elves and wizards automatically make it bad? If so I am in deep shit.

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Alright folks, I need some help. I've been obsessively working on this reigon, to the point where I drew out the plates and determined the mountain ranges based on that. I'm trying to determine what the weather would be like and how each reigon would look in a geographic sense. Is anyone here good with that?

Hopefully this is clear enough. The thinner lines are mountain ranges, the thicker lines are either coastlines or major waterways. I'm trying to get a general idea of where deserts, jungles, forests, and canyons would be, so I can start developing towns in each area. Just having some troubles with that.

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>>51225853

M8, you better start detailing your wind and water currents if you want a 100% Earthlike world. Tectonics are baby-tier. The pic is pretty good for describing what you're looking for.

>>51225839
Not automatically, but it's a huge turnoff and myself and others will be mildly bothered and discard the setting/post before reading on to anything good. Something else I should have mentioned is having living gods that intervene with the world as well as things being explained as "created by X god" or "a wizard did it". It feels amateurish and a bit pretentious but plenty of settings start off like that.

>>51225839
>Does having elves and wizards automatically make it bad?
As far as I'm concerned, it's not automatically bad, just 99% of the time. But then again, it really all depends on the purpose of the exercise. If you are doing to merely satisfy the need for genre fiction, to satisfy some pre-existing expectations people (maybe say, your players) have about fantasy, it's fine. Good or bad work is usually most easily judged based on it's functionality, and from that perspective, if your world-building serves the function or role you do it for, it's not "bad".

That said, if you are a snobby cunt like me who is interested in world-building as essentially a literary exercise, as a display of one's imagination, creativity, and in a way his ability to reflect his own understanding of the world around him (or it's parts), you will probably just roll your eyes every time you hear about elves and dwarves and wizards and move on. Because nearly no good world building has come from them since Tolkien. They are boring and in absolute majority of the cases, exist within the world solely because "that is what you expect from fantasy". The problem is: fantasy should not be a check-list of tropes and established routines. The whole "fantasy" - referring to imagination - kinda hints at that.

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>>51225853
>>51225915

Another pic that might be useful.

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>>51225915
>>51225934

This is absolutely perfect, thanks anon. I've been using this PDF and its helped a ton, but I needed this bit broken down a little bit further, and you fucking nailed it. Cheers.

>>51225988
Normally I'd recommend that you figure out what you want your world to include, then build the geography to facilitate that, rather than the other way around.

But if you're worried about figuring out weather/climate, don't forget Hadley cells and the Coriolis effect when you're figuring out wind.

>>51226035
The best way to explain is this is 30% I want to build a sandbox so I can advance 100 years and have a war of gods compress all of the geography in a really drastic way, so I can run a sort of apocalypse setting; 30% I'd like the resources to run a campaign almost anywhere with some speed and having the lore for the 13th century is neat to me, and 40% compulsion. I'm doing this mostly for fun.

Can you expound on the Hadley and Coriolis bits?

>>51226138
There are other resources that'd give better answers, but in overview:

>Hadley cells
Warm moist air rises at the equator, the moves away from the equator. Because the warm moist air is carried to the north and south, where it gradually cools, and thus deposits the moisture it's absorbed as precipitation. The cool, dry air then travels low to the ground back to the origin of the Hadley cell at the equator.

So there's a big dry patch right above and below the equator (this is where most of the world's major deserts lie), and a big wet patch where the Hadley cell ends. This cycle repeats twice on earth--there's the two main Hadley cells to the north and south of the equator, then two smaller ones above and below those (sometimes called Ferrel cells), and then the "polar cells" which are what they sound like.

>Coriolis effect
The earth spins faster closer to the equator than at the poles. That means that air at the equator is moved faster than air at the poles, which in turn leads to wind cycles that move clockwise in the Northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern hemisphere. If you world spins in the opposite direction as Earth, that'd be flipped.

>>51225922
>>51225931

I strongly relate to both your statements. I never considered adding elves or wizards as something that should be done or is expected but something I wanted of my own design in my world. Heck, I got a dwarf analogy (in the sense that they are living in the mountains, but that's as far as it really goes). As I am not planning to use this in an RPG, pen n paper setting, I do not wish for myself to rely on old news, so to say, when writing. The only person I aim to please is myself. You guys got any tips on that?

>Something else I should have mentioned is having living gods that intervene with the world as well as things being explained as "created by X god" or "a wizard did it".

I think I know what you mean, but could you explain further?

>The problem is: fantasy should not be a check-list of tropes and established routines. The whole "fantasy" - referring to imagination - kinda hints at that.

Would you consider using a well-known mythological beast as a baset for building something that is (to the best of your knowledge) new and "unique" to fall into that trap?

>>51225931
I get elves and dwarves, but what do you have against wizards? Fantasy without wizards is like science fiction without scientists.

>>51216780
I prefer hyperspace kind of deal where you leave the normal space, travel for some time proportional to distance you want to travel and return to normal space.

Gates are fun, but always create logistical question on how to bring them to destination in the first place.

>>51225296
GRRM wanted his maps to emulate the way that medieval maps were made, that explains why the continents look odd

>naming structures of Westerosi regions are all the same, can't tell where someone is from based on their name
this is pretty untrue, don't know where you got this idea from. i've yet to see a Brandon or Rickon from Dorne or a Tybolt or Gerold from the Eyrie.

unless you're talking about peasants or something, which it's implied that they're names are just simplistic by nature (there's three different boys from the same villages named Wat in one of the Dunk and Egg books).

medieval stasis is true, though. they have crossbows but they aren't deployed en masse, not even a significant amount of archers on the field (from what I remember), or dozens of other weapons that are shown that would make a significant impact on the battlefield but haven't been deployed for some reason.

i know aSoIaF is supposed to somewhat emulate the War of the Roses, but it seems like even 1300s England would stomp all over Westeros with not too much trouble.

>>51226393
In a fun or limited setting, wizards are great. If you want your setting to feel unique or serious, or plan to publish it in a form where worldbuilding/story is important, stay away from wizards.

If I were to run a campaign with my friends (who don't play RPGs) I would include wizards because there wouldn't be any goal of having a deep story or unique world.

However, in my large setting that I've been working on for a year, I've completely phased out of having wizards. They are vaguely replaced by alchemists, which is my word for someone who studies and utilizes the plants, monsters, and substances that aren't present in our world. Alchemists can purify and seal wounds with ivory, ward off vampires with spicy incense, purge poison with hydras, prolong lifespans, "enchant" swords using special oils, and a lot more. So they perform magic, but they aren't teleporting around shooting fireballs and conjuring objects out of thin air.

>>51226679
Well, if you put it this way, wizards aren't necessary. But one way or another, magic will be, lest your world will be just historical fiction without research.

>>51226679

So it's rather the application of the wizard rather than the term wizard itself that's the problem.

>>51226679
In reading your posts, it has come to my attention that it's not elves, dwarves or wizards that you have a problem with, it's the D&D-inspired image of wizards, elves and dwarves that's really your problem.

Also, many people fall into the trap of thinking that unique means good, which is just not true, not by a long shot.

In the end, what matters is that your worldbuilding is good, and not avoiding some arbitrary words to describe elements of your settings. It doesn't matter if your wizards are called wizards or sorcerers or abracadabras as long as they are interesting within your setting. Same goes for elves or dwarves or dragons.

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>>51226935

You said it better than I ever could.

>>51226346
>I think I know what you mean, but could you explain further?
Not him, but being the other guy: concepts of divine interaction and divine interventions have their place in mythology, but they are only really actually evocative if they are - much like in real world - actually psychologically relevant. This might sound really pretentious, but really: mythology has a lot of psychological background to it and it plays on strings often very deeply borrowed in our minds.
That said, most fantasy treats it as a plot device, rather than a fundamental symbolic tool, and that is where the problem comes in. It becomes boring. It's suddenly just high-level NPC propelling the plot further by an arbitrary act.
It's ESPECIALLY clashing when the author mixes speculative and mythological narrative together - which honestly is the case with most world-building (this is a larger subject in general, but very broadly speaking - speculative world-building is based around maintaining consistency in your world, while mythological is more about aesthetic and symbolic storytelling in which internal consistency is replaced by alegorical and metaphorical thinking).

Gods being real and having direct interventions in particularly speculative-leaning worlds just not only tend to undermine the consistency, they just raise the question of why you have the concept of divinity - which is essentially awe for fundamental and broad principles of world and our abstraction of those) when it's more of a power-level dude thing. It takes the whole mystery and charm out of the story very easily.

>new and "unique" to fall into that trap?
It's not really about originality, it's about proper context and narrative and symbolic strength derived from the context. I would like to see people use old shit, but only when it REALLY makes sense and has a meaning within the narrative. The strength of the iconography is easily undermined by poor use, if that makes any sense.

>>51226393
>Fantasy without wizards is like science fiction without scientists.
Magic can be tackled in more interesting and subtle ways than dudes with pointy hats. Historically, magic was a matter of perception and interpretation, rather than a character stereotypes. Much like in sci-fi, it's not about the scientists, in fact some of the best sci-fi I've read worked well without them: it's about identifying relevant themes related to scientific understanding of the world (and sometimes not even that, I mean look at Bradbury or Wells, but man were those great anyway) to speculate around.

>>51226988

But surely consistency and the mythological can exist in the same realm? Having real gods coexist with the myths of man and all that.

> it's about proper context and narrative and symbolic strength derived from the context. I would like to see people use old shit, but only when it REALLY makes sense and has a meaning within the narrative.

Would that not depend on the world being made? As evil spirits and demons being the cause of disease and insanity in our myths, they could be real, physical beings in a world being designed. Like less focus on the narrative and more on the nature of things. Am I making sense?

>>51227331
>But surely consistency and the mythological can exist in the same realm?
Well, about as much as magic can exist in a serious hard sci-fi. I mean: yeah, in theory. In fact I know one at least two authors who managed to make that work absolute miracles. But those were extremely exceptional.
Mythology is profoundaly above consistency, which is a problem, because consistency that can be transgressed is... well not consistent anymore. Actually, one of the worst things you can do if you want to establish mythological narrative is to enforce consistent RULES on story, especially the magical elements of it. That literally contradicts the point. But consistency is ALL ABOUT rules.

So yeah. I mean most fiction does try to blend those, but I always advice people to make pretty clear decision which of the two are they primarily aiming for, because if you try doing both at the same time and can't commit to one of the paths, it tends to end up tragically. It's the kind of scenario where people want to have centaurs but at the same time wonder about diet and evolution, which almost without fail ends up being terrible and irrelevant from both speculative and mythological perspective.

>>Would that not depend on the world being made?
Everything does, to a point. That is a rather obvious and rather useless truism.
>As evil spirits and demons being the cause of disease and insanity in our myths, they could be real, physical beings in a world being designed.
And suddenly you are imposing rules and concrete forms to what was always most fascinating as a incomplete, symbolic notion, depriving it of just about any mystery and setting yourself up to a NIGHTMARE of explanations and justifications and reasonings why it's so that nobody really gives a fuck about anymore.

Making your plague-bearing demons real as part of a consistent world with consistent rules and physics and so such makes them about as interesting as bears. Keep in mind: some authors can sell a bear too.

>>51227491

I'm not sure if I follow you on everything but I appreciate the ideas and the time you took to explain your thoughts.

>>51226576
>but it seems like even 1300s England would stomp all over Westeros with not too much trouble.
Is that a matter of actual technological advances or just simply applying the right ideas and strategies?

>>51225399
Face-sitting can break your neck, but I mean isn't it worth the risk?

>>51228156
>Face-sitting can break your neck
Seriously?

>isn't it worth the risk?
I wouldn't think so. There are easier ways to enjoy an ass, anon, there must be.

>>51228149
applying the right ideas and strategies. westeros has what it needs to compete with them (aside from gunpowder, I guess, but cannons are pretty rare if we're comparing 1300s England I think), but they're just not being used in the right areas and, from what it looks like, not just being produced enough.

i can't help but think that the armies of Westeros (outside of Dorne, maybe, due to their preference towards guerilla tactics) would just get Crecy'd over and over again.

>>51226935
This guy understands

How important is the Human-Only rule if I'm building a setting meant for more horror-themed adventures? I've always heard that horror games work best if everyone is human as it grounds the setting, but how true is that really?

>>51229462
I wouldn't say it's strictly "necessary", but I understand it.

What I think it might be is that having other races and cultures and stuff necessitates the players to be curious about them. And horror often hinges on selectively punishing curiosity. It also tends to require a bigger world, and horror works best when things are small and personal. As well as the whole "grounds it in the setting" bit you already mentioned. But horror is hardly my forte, so who knows.

Pitch Black's main character was only half-human.

>>51229508
No Riddick was entirely Human, that universe only has humans, with varying evolutions but humans only.

>>51229615
They're called by different names, they have different native abilities, and some of them look fundamentally different from normal humans. At that point, it's functionally the same as having separate races.

How is "Furyan" that much different from "elf", from a purely storytelling standpoint?

>>51229508
Hm. Was afraid of that.

Well, in any case, I'm also having a hard time locking down a "time period" for the setting. I keep vacillating between Early Medieval, Early Renaissance, and Napoleonic/Victorian, and cannot come up with a compelling reason to drop one or the other.

I like the Early Medieval idea because I rarely see it mixed with Horror, and it lets me use a sort of Greco-Roman aesthetic for the more ancient evils and monsters (ghosts in particular).

I like the Renaissance because it involves the least amount of modifying the rules to account for tech level (D&D yo), and I feel like the society and cultures I can draw from are more familiar to my players. It's the "easy" option, in a sense, but since I like challenging myself creatively...

And I quite like the Napoleonic/Victorian vibe of traditional Gothic Horror novels, movies, etc. Frankenstein fits well in an early Industrial Revolution era where SCIENCE is seen as the spooky weird magic shit no one should trust. And of course Dracula comes in at the opposite end of the spectrum, in the late 1890's when Science has become respectable while Magic is now seen as the Other.

tl;dr Early Medieval, Renaissance, or Victorian Horror?

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What kind of a society would permit assassination? It seems to me like such a society would greatly want for civil protection too much to allow the risk that they would be murdered for pay, but for some reason a friend of mine seems to find nothing wrong with this.

Perhaps the assassins are lawkeepers of their own sort? But then wouldn't that just make them executioners who have no need to be sneaky about things? What do you fellows think?

>>51229896

Are you familiar with the Assassin's Guild of Discworld?

>>51229806
I'm not aware of any of them looking fundamentally different without having tech grafted to their bodies. The elementals look human, Riddick looks human, every sapient being we see looks human, none of them look different, save the Necro-mongers, and they really don't look different save for a more gaunt disposition.

>>51229926
Yes, but it's actually been a little while since I properly read those. I remember Vimes trapping his mansion so the occasional ones who would try would get trapped in grease pits and things like that, but I don't remember the justification for why putting bounties on people was legal in the first place. Wasn't it that you could pay them to be taken off their roster of "people we're willing to kill" or something like that? If you have any more details, please fill me in.

I mean, that was partially a comedy bit. Like I'm saying, I'm not certain something like that could exist in a civilization populated by reasonable people.

>>51229896

Wanna see something different that deals with assassination? Elites from halo.

Honor based meritocracy where one who think the clans leadership is weak has the honor bound duty to assassinate the leader for the good of the clan.

>>51229896
"Assassination" is murder. Any society that permits murder is a failed society, based on Human morality.

Could make them like Judges like Dredd, able to determine if someone "deserves" to die and carry out punishment. They'd be allowed to hunt down CRIMINAL SCUM too, and can be sneaky about it.

>>51230049
That's sort of my feeling too, except perhaps for the hard line on whatever "Human morality" is: there's a lot of different types of that, which is important to recognize from a worldbuilding standpoint.

That last thing is a bit tricky for stuff that doesn't take place in mega-cities, but perhaps it would work well enough in an isolated enough hive of scum and villainy.

>>51230023
This might actually work. Oddly enough, I'd thought about using something similar for an entirely different belief system in the setting, but somehow didn't connect the dots: I suppose because I was thinking of it more in terms of duels to advance as opposed to mere assassination. Thanks!

>>51230125
Probably should have said "Western morality". It's not hard to find barely "Human" morality in our real-life setting.

>>51230125

Duels happen as well. But it's meant to prove that either the elite commander in this case is either weak or strong. Either he's prepared for anything or he's weak and dies.

>>51229946
I dunno if "floaty ethereal wind-creature" is less significant a change than "tall with pointy ears".

I mean it's been a while since I saw the movies, and I think I've only watched them twice apiece, so maybe you're more of an expert than I am.

>>51229896
The Antivan Crows of Dragon Age, and the Smoke Knights of Girl Genius spring to mind.

They largely operate the same way. A Guild of sorts that trains and fields some of the best assassins in the entire setting. Due to their power and influence, the Assassins have a direct hand in politics. Cells of Crows/Knights basically pick a patron to follow and assassinate their enemies as well as act as bodyguards and agents.

Murder is only illegal if you're not in the Guild. They basically have a broad pardon for any acts they commit...so long as their guy ends up on top.

Just imagine everything is Medieval Italy and it all works out.

>>51229896
Necromongers are the only example that comes to mind, as long as we're talking Riddick.

The reason to assassinate is that you get the position of the person you just killed. The reason not to assassinate is that you'd be pissing off the biggest, baddest dude of them all who got there by killing the big bad dude everyone used to think was the biggest, baddest dude.

But realistically, it's hard to imagine a society which allows assassination. If you define assassination as killing a person in power, and if you define people in power as the people who get to make the rules of society, I'm not sure why have anything less than a pretty hardline policy on assassination.

>>51229986

Without looking it up, assassinations were legal as the assassins would work no matter if it's legal or not. I do not remember if you could pay to be taken off the list, but the more important/hard to kill a person was the more they demanded as you'd expect. The guild had a code of honour but as you said, it's played for comedy.

>>51230159
They're just humans with psychic powers as far as I know, the elementals are solid like other humans, but you can have your opinion. I'm just going off what I saw in the films.

>>51230682
I think they might go into it in some of the EU stuff? But I haven't really checked any of that out.

To the wiki!

>>51231220
Okay, so they were all humans originally, and they evolved different traits based on the planets on which they settled. The "humans" of the setting are the humans who settled on moderate, Earth-like planets. Furyans and others settled on more extreme planets and gradually evolved to the environments, granting them special abilities.

But in Riddick's bio information, they list "race: Furyan".

I guess it depends on how you classify fantasy races.

>>51231295
They're variant humans then, I would think, but yeah it does depend on how you classify them, lol.

How would I plan a riverside city a la>>51199112? i'm trying to think of a way to map it out but coming up with blanks.

>>51231563
Draw a river. Then put down the city where it'd be the most ideal. Everything else depends on setting.

>>51231599
I want to map that city by the river out, it's my map, it's where i'm planning to start my players. I'm looking to bounce ideas around, lol.

>>51231563
Most of the commerce would be concentrated toward the river--especially in a warm area, since the river acts as natural air conditioning. Rivers are good for trade and irrigation so it's usually where large cities pop up.

Depending on the size of the town and the size of the river, there might be one or more bridges crossing it, though they'd probably be built in such a way that they don't impede boats that are passing through.

But I'd need more information than "a riverside city". River City was, presumably, a riverside city. Rivendell was a river city. But they were very different places.

>>51231654
Well I'm thinking the river has carved a small cliff and is about a half mile to a mile wide One large bridge over the river with spaces for boats to dock near the bottom and plenty of space under the bridge for them to pass through as the river flows down to that swamp from east to west.

>>51231869
And I'm also thinking the city and most of the nearby towns and settlements are ruled by a merchant republic and the city itself has maybe 10-15k people.

>>51231869
Sorry, I wasn't very specific.

What's helpful is stuff like the population size (both absolute and relative--is it a big town?), the technology level, the tone of the setting (grimdark, noblebright, gritty, cozy, pessimistic, optimistic), the level of wealth, and the source of income.

Though you beat me to some of them.

With 10-15k people and a mile-wide river, I don't imagine they'd have built on both sides of the river, and there might not even be a bridge.

There would, however, almost certainly be plenty of docks.

>>51231961
Okay 10-15k standard D&D fantasy tech level, i'm thinking of moving the city farmland to the side of the river opposite the city proper creating a reason for the bridge, which was originally built by a dwarven clan in the citadel one of the roads leads to, as for tone of the setting I'm not sure waiting for my players to determine what they want. level of wealth is 5k or so poor serf types who run the farmland, with 3-4k soldiers/guards the rest of the population is merchants and various tradesmen, who pay taxes on income and have a vote in the laws put down the army is kept up by the taxes on merchant trade to the city from cities farther down the mountain range nearer a coast that I have yet to create. is that better?

>>51232105
Much!

I'm not sure if the population distribution is realistic. Without modern farming techniques, it takes a lot of people to grow enough food for everyone. Having 1/3 of the population be soldiers is a bit much unless it's an extraordinarily warlike town, since soldiers don't really "produce" anything.

You could sorta get around this by having the farmers not really be formally part of the town's population, or at least not all of them, and you just assume there's lots and lots more farmland further off in the same direction, but they don't really "count".

Ooh, maybe the farmers closer to the river are the relatively wealthier ones with bigger farms, who prefer being closer to the center of commerce because it means they have to transport their goods less distance. And they do count towards the town's population and get a vote (maybe not as much as the merchants' and tradesmen's) as an added perk. I dunno.

The dwarven bridge is a nice touch. How wide is it? As in, how many people can easily walk in each direction at a time? If it's being used to transport food across it, it'd have to be pretty wide, as all the farmers flood into town after the harvest and then leave to return to their farms, with incoming and outgoing streams overlapping due to slightly different harvest dates and travel times.

Just as the town is clustered next to the river, it'd be clustered next to the bridge. Especially if the bridge is part of a dwarven system, they'd want to take advantage of the roads that run off of it.

Some of the details depend on tone. Anything else you wanted help with figuring out?

>>51232264
Slaves work, too. Your town has a soldier for every other farmer, but each farmer has at least 3-4 slaves that don't count towards the total population.

>>51232339
"Serfs" are a kind of slave. I'm guessing you mean more of the chattle slave type?

Also, I think that'd still count towards "population". Maybe not "citizenry", but population's just counting how many people live in a place.

>>51232384
Yeah, population/citizenry dichotomy seems like it'd matter. You'd have the actual citizens well protected within the city proper, with the serfs/slaves out beyond the walls farming dirt and acting as cannon fodder.

>>51232264
Okay, i was thinking along similar lines for richer farmers being closer to the bridge being richer and being on the level of other richer merchants, and really farmer would be only maybe 3-400 of the 5000 serf types the rest being farmhands and maybe local protection from bandits and goblins and the like, the 4000 troops would be stationed mostly half in the city proper and the rest on patrols along the roads between the settlements. There'd be a garrison of 4 or 5 hundred in each settlement, like the one by the lake which would be a source for fish and meats as well as wood from foresters and trappers and hunters that hunt in the forests by the mountainside.
I'm thinking the bridge is very well made(as befits dwarves), about a mile wide itself, supported by two arches each a half mile wide at the bottom made out of volcanic stone that they made with the help of an ancient gold dragon that lairs in the volcano.

I'd also like a mapping tool so I can map it out as I cannot draw for the life of me.

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>>51229896
>What kind of a society would permit assassination?

File: map1.jpg (943KB, 3300x2550px) Image search: [Google]

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Rate my map anons?

>>51232970
I really like a lot of it, but I couldn't tell you why. It's oddly satisfying.

>>51233002
Thank you! That's very encouraging. I always need a good map before I can really picture what a setting *looks* like.

>>51233040
I might be able to give you better feedback, but I am very sleepy. But, y'know, thumbs up. I like the way the mountains flow together.

>>51202818
I would think the taboo would be opposite: outsiders would consider it a land both sacred and cursed, and therefore shunned or forbidden. The 'positive' effects are nice, but the nullification of magic would be pretty disturbing to those who grew up with it as a natural law. The people of the land, being cut off from magic, would probably be seen as cursed or inhuman – as if there were a people in our world that could not speak.

The population would probably not have a well-formed concept of lying or open falsehood – if 99% of the time you tried to lie that crazy shit happened, you would never even try after a month of it, let alone generations. On the other hand, non-verbal deception and technical truths will become extremely important. Diplomatically they'll have a lot of trouble with the outside world, but I can see spots along their border becoming sacred places of judgement or oathmaking for outsiders.

All in all I really like the idea.

Does anyone know of a good free city map making tool?

>>51232970
Any chance you could add some Croatian style islands on the southeast coast near those mountains?

>>51234039
The way I make the map in Photoshop sort of makes that tricky. I can give it a shot, but I don't think it will look too good. Just to be clear, you mean the single row of mountains on the East coast?

Any got some suggestions for names of arms manafacturers and firearms? Doing a not!WW1 technologly level game.

>>51234308
Mischittengwer No75
The Revanch
Luke & Earl 1256 Repeater
Oprekt Model 9

>>51234401
Sounds good anon, right now I have a few fake out ones based on real company initials like Samson & Wheeler or Heissman & Kellnerr to mess with the players.

>>51232970
Very interesting, I like the inland sea type thig going on towards the west. It seems like that northern region would be really arid though, what with mountains boxing it in.

What program did you use for this? Just paint or somethign more advanced like Gimp?

How can one avoid the Crystal Dragon Jesus and not!Christianism for a fantasy monotheistic religion?

I think I goofed up, as there are two figures central to the religion in question. Let's call them God and the Devil. God creates the ideal world and astral plane, while the Devil guards the entrance to the astral plane (aka the realm of God) and creates the sensible world.
The religion blames the Devil for everything wrong with the sensible world, from conflict to mortality, while they worship God as the one who keeps the ideal world.
The goal of the religious leaders is to reach the realm of God and unbind reality to make humanity trascend beyond worldy limitations and essentially become the immortal,eternal spirits they were meant to be.

Can I somehow dodge the not!Christianism flag?

>>51236109
You could start by looking at real world monotheistic religions that aren't Abrahamic.

Also depending on who you ask, Christianity is not monotheistic.

>>51236109
That's not not!Christian, that's just gnosticism.

Why do you want to dodge it, anyway?

>>51236109
>>51236147
But to actually answer your question: do shit with your religion. That's literally it. By doing stuff with your religion, you will make it different.

>>51236109
>Can I somehow dodge the not!Christianism flag?
That quite literally gnosticism. If you don't want to be associated with it, you better think of a cosmology that is not word-for-word taken from an existing real-world religious school...

>>51236136
Let's not get into saint worship, please. I'm kind of ignorant about non-abrahamic monotheistic religions. Could you give me some examples?

>>51236147
Just personal preference, I want to avoid copy-pasting stuff into my settings and I don't want a (rather major) plot drive to come out as uninspired. My players are of the "Why don't you just use catholicism?" sort.

>>51236186
>saint worship
Jews and Muslims don't consider Christianity a monotheistic religion because of the Trinity.

>examples
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism

Knock yourself out.

What about the religious organization?

>>51236171
The cosmology is just platonism with an intermediary step in which there are spirits who can act upon the sensible world as "magic".
It is not taken from a religious school, it is taken from a philosophical one.

>>51236219
>The cosmology is just platonism with an intermediary step in which there are spirits who can act upon the sensible world as "magic".
First of all, no. That is in NO WAY a platonic cosmology. That is a gnostic cosmology. Now granted, Platonism and gnosticism have a lot in common: both stem from similar source (indian and hindu thought influences) and later Gnostic schools even integrated a LOT of platonic teachings into itself directly, but what you described is actually really purely gnostic: Platonism does not have dualities or messianic dimension. It does not personify abstract concepts either.

>>51236109
That doesn't sound very Christian to me, actually. Maybe a bit Jewish, but I know little about Judaism.

>>51236281
I was refering to platonism as explained in the Theory of Forms or the allegory of Plato's cave, the dualism of the sensible world, perceptible but unintelligible, and the ideal world, unperceptible but intelligible.

>>51236694
I know what you mean by Platonism, but the cosmology you painted up has little to with it. The idea of a tangible sentient being of a god and more improtantly of a demon or lesser divine being creating sensible world is PURE GNOSTICISM. This is something Plato would fucking DESPISE and in many way the opposite of how he viewed the world. Platonic idealism is not about dualism and definitely not about messianism, and would never lower itself to an idea of sentient and will-full beings manipulating the state of the world by peforming things like creation acts.

>>51210116
jesus christ anon

>>51195902
I strongly advise you to buy them if you have an e-reader. It's one of the best RPG related book I've read.

>>51208527
mah french speaking niggah, from where are you from ? And how the hell do you do such good looking maps on Inkarnate ?

File: Khivaldryn v2.jpg (1MB, 1024x768px) Image search: [Google]

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Rate my map /wbg/!
I'm a first time map builder and DM so it doesn't compare to the thought and logic compared to all of your guys' but it looks like a fun place to adventure yah?

>>51202329
I like your map friend, makes me wish I did smaller sections instead of making a big'un like I did.

>>51237573
>Geld Tower
Ouch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelding

>>51237717
Oh shitty, I thought that was a word for gold
I'll change it so I don't learn about a friend's undercover horsecock fetish

>>51237849
Geld is also money in German.

How anarchistic is too much, like having broad swords and rapiers side by side?

>>51238920
Having broad swords and rapiers side-by-side, but creating a stateless society is a bit too anarchistic.

Seriously though, weapon exists for a reason. I'm not an expert on swords, but I presume broadswords are about killing armoured targets, while rapier is for times when armour is no longer useful, like post-gunpowder time?

How do you avoid the problem of evil in a polytheistic setting or the one of the first cause ?

I have thought about the primordial chaos or void actually being the closest to a creator god or that the setting is basically pantheist and the gods are just super powerful planar beings.
That or a zoroastrianism expy where a amoral creator created the world and the primordial gods of good and evil, except the god one is guaranteed to win at the end.

>>51239272
*is not guaranteed to win at the end.

>>51239272
Each god is backing his own group and clash between them is the primary source of suffering. Monotheism has a problem of evil, because it has single, all-purpose benevolent god. Polytheism doesn't promise flawless gods.

In setting I develop right now, small gods are benevolent (actually shaped by prayers in real time), but only to their constituents (And will help them screw over others) and require constant stream of sacrifice to stay powerful (Thus they can't power everything, pray for war success too hard and your crops will wither until you start slaughtering cattle on altars). There's the supreme unchanging god that people believe is benevolent but absent, however they are wrong and he is not particularly anything only concerned with keeping the devil in line, and, in fact, the whole world is the devil's prison and humans are just the cogs in this infernal machine of death and rebirth.

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>>51236109
>God worshipers are actually worshiping a primordial Chaos God from the outer reaches
>"The Devil" is a demiurge, protecting reality from this otherworldly threat
>The church of God literally wants to destroy reality to rejoin their Eldritch Lord

>>51239425
>He doesn't want to return to primodial chaos

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>>51239469
>rejecting true existence for a swan song of "immortality" as "eternal spirits"
>religion doesn't even attempt to define what "ideal" means; clearly a sign of cultish trickery
Do not fall victim to the followers of the Apocalypse.

>>51239536
I don't think you use "swan song" right.

>>51239569
Probably not, I just woke up.
The religion here: >>51236109 sounds sorta cult-y, could easily create a counter-group that believes >>51239425.

>>51239425
...You one of my players?

>>51239536
The faith just tells the people that the demiurge turned paradise into the mortal realm, corrupting it.

>>51239615
There's actually two churches with similar beliefs, the other one actually follows that idea. They worship the Artisan, who is equivalent to the Devil, and I don't know what they would call the equivalent of God, which is... well, a primordial chaos god.

As the players came from foreign lands (we crossed the sea to spice the campaign up), they saw these figures as amalgames of their own gods and found it quite awkward.

>>51238971
The rapier was meant as more of a weapon for personal defense IIRC, like for walking around a city or something similar.

>>51239847
That's what I was trying to say. Rapier is for the unarmoured targets.

>>51239835
I'm a fan of artisanal Creator-Gods.
My Dwarves worship my setting's Demiurge as a Forge God, while my Halflings worship it as a Harvest Goddess. All other in-setting religions focus on projected imagery (Sea/Death God along the South Shore comes from sightings of Leviathan and Dragon Turtles) or ancestor worship.

>>51239835
I goofed up on my own lore.
The other church believes the Artisan died or just outright left the physical realm unfinished, while the other god just screws around Creation. They do however think that the other church are primordial-chaos-worshipers, or, as they say, a strangely popular nihilist cult.

>>51239917
I'm personally a fan of different religions interpreting things differently.

The players came from a land where seven gods were worshiped, with four others being the missing gods that were behind the creation of the world and went missing at the same time as a civilization sublimated itself dwemer-style.

The Devil (aka the Manyfaced Devil) of the "Church" appears to be an amalgam of the seven gods mentioned earlier, with the gods being seen as aspects of it. And the God seems to be a combination of the four missing gods, missing because the Devil does not let it out of it's realm. And the ancient civilization being wiped out? Divine retribution.

Finaly, for the third religion, the Artisan seems to be equivalent to the four missing gods and the other god is equivalent to the seven others. That civilization just wiped itself out.

>>51233434
Thank you. There is always the question of "is it a good idea?" when coming up with something that seems original.

The setting has technology around the level of Europe in 1804, with the main action between nations and city states being who can create the greater empire, with Ishalkine (the nation in question) acting as a combination Papal States and Switzerland, being one of the largest religious authorities and not giving two shits about anyone else's wars, because "Neener neener neener, you can't hurt us except through trade."

Ishalkine can use magic, though it tends to be at a significantly lower rate than most other places (the 'good guys', Not-the-First-Fench-Republic, have a rate of a bit over 20%, Not-Han-Dynasty-China has a rate of near 100%, with the average across the globe being a bit under 60%), with less than 10% of the population having 'blessings' from the demons, like being perfectly aware of the distance and direction of everything that is stolen from you, or the ability to move yourself and anything you are holding backwards along your last six steps.

I didn't consider the non-verbal aspect of it, thank you. I would imagine that there might be two versions of the native language, a Low that is very plain and straightforward, that doesn't have any words or concepts that could accidentally trip you up (no absolutes or singular pronouns, for example, so "I have five apples" becomes "We may have a number of apples that is greater or less than 5"), and a High, that's nothing but flowery descriptive language that is true only technically, but in this technically is all that counts.

>>51239398
But if this supreme god is omnipotent and omniscient, why he created a rebellious devil in the first place ?

>>51240836
In my version, god was not truly omniscient at least regarding his own actions. Or perhaps he was just lonely. Either way, he created the universe and populated it with divine beings that were as powerful as he was to share the joy of creation. However some believed he was holding the best parts of creation for himself and waged war on him until it was down to only 2 survivors. The devil gravely wounded the god, but god has created a new world where devil will be trapped for all eternity (Hopefully) in the endless cycle of death and rebirth.

>>51210308
I wasnt saying that it can't be done, because of course it can. I was just disagreeing with the claim that everyone focuses their creation myths on the one thing that interests them the most.

>>51240836
>because he wanted

>>51240938
Yeah but..that's not really coherent or philosophicaly possible.

>>51241225
I'm ok with it.

>>51241376
War in heaven is coherent by me, although mortals can't appreciate it.

I generally of opinion that omnipotence and omniscience is cancelled out by having a fellow on the same level of reality. God can edit our reality, but not as good at editing his own reality that is way more real.

>>51241674
Well I'm talking about theology or the metaphysics branch of philosophy where there has to be a First Cause, and if a god is this first cause then he cannot have inferior and has to be omnipotent and omniscient.
A world could have been created by several gods and thus have several causes, but then these gods are only an intermediary between the world and a first cause who cannot be them.

>>51241828
If god created the universe, then who created the god kind of deal?

>>51241863
Well at least classist philosophers would say having an omnipotent and omniscient god as a first cause is a philosophically correct answer.
This is even a argument for the existence of a real life God as the first cause as to have all properties and qualities of everything originated from it (intelligence, existence, consciouness,ect...)
If the universe was created by a bunch of gods, this is not a problem as fire can comes from the fire god, evil from the evil god,ect...
They can even be opposed to each other, but they cannot be the First Cause and a true creator god is probably behind them whether or not they are aware of it.
A polytheistic setting is probably only coherent if the creator gods are actually a group of demiurges.

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finally a reason to post this outside of /x/

>>51242298
Yeah except the lower world could have been created by 393939298 demiurges of the same metaphysical order instead of only one and there can an infinite number of intermediary steps between the true creator god and our world as long as each one don't have any quality or attribute the superior one don't have.

bum

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>>51242530
We're autosaging, just let it happen.

For creation and demiurg inspiration check out hinduism.

Technicaly endless universes with their own demiurg.

http://decodehindumythology.blogspot.de/search/label/Creation%20by%20Brahma

>>51242594
thks.

>>51242564
Will there be a new thread ?

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>>51242775

New thread mates: >>51245005