/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

>How comfy is your world?
I can already predict that a lot of answers will be "depends on where you live". I guess my world is pretty comfy, because there are a lot of places that you can have a quite peaceful life. There are a lot of conflicts of course, wars, nations against nations, tribes against tribes, believers against other believers. But the world is vast, with still a lot of room to settle in for yourself. Not that many world-ending threats around as well.

File: Aquasque.png (68KB, 1080x1080px) Image search: [Google]

68KB, 1080x1080px

>>52170063
>/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

Neat, I have something to share that I drew a few hours ago that might peek /tg/'s interest.

This isn't really a complicated idea (I actually stole it from a friend), but in my current setting I have three sub-species of 'Asque: Aquasque, Terrasque, and Ignasque who all basically live and terrorize the respective living creatures in their environment before going to sleep once they've had their fill of everything.

The Aquasque specifically though is a MASSIVE fucking whale-like creature (about 200ft/60meters long) and makes a living filter feeding basically everything- it doesn't have large gnashing teeth as it doesn't need them: it opens it's mouth, water floods in, it closes it's mouth, water filters out, and the food stays behind to be swallowed whole.. It's quite a passive aggressive living natural disaster in retrospect, but that's nature.

>>52167688

Checked to see if I got a (you) and saw (you) so:

I used Azeroth as a quick example because I couldn't think of a clichea kind of world with really egregious climates. I guess Faeun? Faerun? I always forget if the r exists or not.

Looking at it for a glance: Quel'thalas is the same latitude as howling fjord and grizzly hills of northrend but is standard continental. Could be due to climatic patterns like how L O N D O N is on a latitude with abysmally cold Canada but I am not sure what climatic patterns and not interested in charting a gulf stream system.

-Mulgore is the lush and verdant region on the interior of the continent, surrounded by arid barrens and arid desolace. Begs the question how it gets lush and greeny.

Barrens and Durotar (whatever that starting area is, the peninsula where orcs and trolls start at) is same latitude as frozen Dun Morough and verdant and wet Wetlands and Loch Modan. Could be due to climatic stuff same way SE USA is humid and wet and SW USA is dry but in my experience taht means barrens/durotar should be wet and Dun Morough and Wetlands/Loch Modan should be drier.

-Mountains are used way too much a'la some Hyboria maps to divide provinces to the point that it looks artifical.

File: 1477468043792.png (461KB, 870x722px) Image search: [Google]

461KB, 870x722px

>>52171261

-Far South Kalimdor has Tanaris desert on right, Silithus desert on left and then super fucking jungly Un'goro in the middle.

-On same latitude you have the rapid and stark shift of Stranglethorn vale into the dry steppe of Westfall next store and the less stark but still off transition of darkshire and Elwynn. Darkshire has kind of a humid pseudo jungle feel to it but Elwynn and Stormwind never felt say, Mediterraneany to me.

-Winterspring is same latitude as Tristfall glades and Lordaeron but is wintery.

How do you build tall, like the watch tower in OP, without nails or mortar?
Just the most basic primitive building.

>>52172327
Mud brick.

>>52172393
You can't build tall with mud, the lower layers collapse under the weight of the building.

>>52171314
Un'goro crater is, well, a crater, and has its own micro climate.
Also in lore it was used for genetic experiments by the gods while they were creating life elsewhere.

>>52172407
The walls of Assur managed to become 25m high, and they had towers. I'm sure that if you make some more broad base that you can make a tower that is as small, compared to Assurs walls, as in OPs pic.

What would the economy be like in a world with necromancy?

Consider that it would require very skilled labor to produce, and the undead resulting from it would be durable enough to work for maybe 12-15 years.
I propose that the undead would be owned by the relatives of the deceased, or if nobody wants to, or can afford to, raise them, the state can raise them after some time.

They wouldn't be good for war or any mental work, but they can farm, dig, move stones, work in construction, stuff like that.

Write down some policies on how they should be used, the different political movements to liberate the zombies, to attack other states for zombies, etc.

>>52171314
How you can miss so many environmental ques is beyond me.

>-On same latitude you have the rapid and stark shift of Stranglethorn vale into the dry steppe of Westfall next store and the less stark but still off transition of darkshire and Elwynn. Darkshire has kind of a humid pseudo jungle feel to it but Elwynn and Stormwind never felt say, Mediterraneany to me.
Un'goro is a specifically managed micro-climate for use as a testing pot by the Titans. Same reason there's a similar area in Northrend. It's climate is artificial.

The only issue with Elwyn and Westfall's border is how abrupt it is. prairie and forests exist neighboring one another in the real world in several places. Texas, for example.

Duskwood's got a slightly altered version of Elwyn's tileset. The only major differences are the cobwebs in the trees and the glowing eyes in the bushes and dying vegetation. These all exist because Duskwood is cursed, not because of the local climate.

>-Winterspring is same latitude as Tristfall glades and Lordaeron but is wintery.
Winterspring is also at a really fucking high elevation. It's something like halfway up Mount Hyjal, the largest mountain on the planet while being far enough from the World Tree that it doesn't get any of that sweet, sweet druidic magic falloff.

Hmm... for the time being the civilized nations are at peace with eachother (tensions are brewing though). Monsters are always a problem but not to larger settlements or those with a proper adventurers' guild. However, the so called "monster races" are beginning to create their own civilizations and the hatred between arcane magic and "Orcs" runs deep as always. The civilized races live in a Medieval society however relics from the past civilization have allowed for greater crop yields and safer harvest so famine rarely strikes so I'd say things are great but hardship looms around the corner. Also adventures might mess it all up by activating the greatest work of the ancient civilization. Haven't gotten to specifics yet.

>>52172617
Because I'm tired and just realized I'm being an ass: The regions in Azeroth don't actually make any real geographic sense, you just chose poor examples.

It helps to remember that the different regions were literally carved out by Deathwing while he was still the Earth Warder as opposed to having developed naturally.

>>52170063
>>How comfy is your world?
It's a world stuck in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, populated by people destined to destroy and rebuild it again and again to serve as a prison for Satan. So pretty comfy.

File: world map with mtns and rivers v1.jpg (2MB, 3185x2027px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3185x2027px

posting again looking for more advice since the last thread died
>>52164382

hey /wbg/ this is my first time ever really seriously putting a world together, so I'd love some input on the initial draft of my mountains and rivers. the northeast is going to eventually be a pseudo-Europe with the southwest being pseudo-Africa
what do you think? where did I go right/wrong and what should I add/remove?

>>52172500
They are made of brick where they are tall, and basically artificial hills where they are not.

>>52170689
Pretty cool. Is it large enough that it creates disturbances on the surface when it feeds, from the water stirring up?

>>52172761
I'm not sure that little chokepoint you have in the middle would be enough of a divide to prevent more cultural homogenization. It'd be very easy to sail across. Your mountains and rivers look great though. My only question is that some of the rivers look like they just kind of end. Do they terminate in lakes?

>>52170063
>How comfy is your world?
While a lot of people live perfectly normal and comfy lives, the world as a whole is not comfy. Its undergoing the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Commercial Revolution, and the Enlightenment at the exact same time and within the time frame of a century or so. Of course it isn't all happening in the same place and since creation was recent (a little over 2000 years ago), the Renaissance isn't really rebirth, its just birth.

>>52173824
Sounds interesting, though odd. Historically speaking each one of those had to be in place somewhat before the others could flower. How do you reason them all happening at once?

>>52173585
Yet there was a cultural divide between Persia and Greece, and Carthage and Rome.
They were very close too, and definitely exchanged people and goods for a while.

>>52174575
Well, the Scientific Revolution going into its later phases, it had started as a period of advances in astronomy owing to the world's rings, so they have about the same amount of knowledge in that field as the mid 20th century in real life. This jump started the equivalent of the Age of Sail, something that would soon allow the fast transport of goods and labor throughout the world, one half of the Commercial Revolution. The other half would come out of the island colonies that began several centuries earlier. By then the colonies were acting essentially autonomously and had a very private system of property considering people were given individual plots of land during the colonization. The system was adapted by small, poor states along the coast of the nearby continent. Not only would they stay afloat from the profits, but soon several states merged into a confederacy that could more effectively exert its power, now primarily economic. Nobles across the world became convinced by the new capitalists to privatize the lands within their holdings, filling their coffers with greater rents in the more rural areas and taxes in the more urban ones. To justify this change in politics, the supporters of the market system employ the ideas of Renaissance Humanism and the Natural Law aspect of the Enlightenment, ie Humans, when meeting in the islands, they were all used to different systems of government, but eventually drifted toward the same, thus that system is the most natural AND Humans, being created specifically by the gods, and having such dominion over the world, are its rightful rulers, therefore, the most exploitative forms of government and economics, capitalist systems, are the most in line with humanity's place as a species. This is really crude right now, and i'm probably going to get further in the nitty gritty later, I might even move the time period forward to the revolutions that are probably about to take place.

>>52175333
That's a lot longer than I expected.

File: WIP Giperboreyia.png (70KB, 1865x1097px) Image search: [Google]

70KB, 1865x1097px

>>52145694
>>52145714
>>52145735
>>52145754

Separated from the fractured and warring principalities of humanity by the Nohoch Mountains and the great Kavir Desert is the greatest empire that is was and ever shall be (or at least that’s what they tell themselves and any foreigner that asks). The oldest of the Elvish realms, there was a time when the rule of the Shahenshah of Parishahr stretched over most of West Giperboreyia north of the Nohoch Mountains (the nomads of the northern steppes never bowed to the Shahenshah in Tyspwn). The current ruling dynasty is the third to hold the imperial title, though they claim descent from the first dynasty. In part because of the age of their civilization, the Pari don’t pay much attention to humanity, or to anyone else for that matter. The era of the warrior Shahenshah has long since passed and the current Shahenshah sits in the Sun Throne enjoying the vast wealth of his empire, loving his sister-wife and his many concubines and smoking hookah while the imperial bureaucrats and priests do battle behind the scenes to decide which direction the empire goes in.

>>52175283
yeah, this. my plan is also to have that range contain a volcano (pictured) that erupts frequently and spews ash near constantly, creating a large ash desert that would act as more of an impasse before the age of sail.
>>52173585
the ones that just sort of end will either terminate in lakes or keep going in later drafts of the map. i havent decided yet. i looked at maps of europe for inspiration and some of the rivers seem to end inexplicably there (likely they just go underground or something) so i have some more thinking to do.

>>52171261
>>52171314
>>52172617
Pandaria is absolutely terrible, though. Same distance south as Northrend is north, northern region is central Asian steppes, the southern most is jungle, its like they flipped the development map upside down during a meeting for the expansion and never bothered to fix it.

File: world map with climated and kingdoms v1.jpg (2MB, 3166x2009px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3166x2009px

>>52172761
>>52176496
ok, I've moved forward a bit to laying out climates and some potential kingdom/culture boundaries
what do you think, /wbg/?

>>52177985
boreal islands? does that happen?

>>52178048
idk, its pretty far north so im not sure temperate forests are appropriate. cant find any boreal islands irl though so i guess not?

worldbuilding is a lot of work

>>52178899
Double dubs of truth.

File: map.jpg (83KB, 960x540px) Image search: [Google]

83KB, 960x540px

hello guys, what do you think of my map?

https://gifyu.com/images/VelikaJebenaMapacc8f3.jpg

I posted in the last thread but it was near dead.

It's huge as fuck, too big to post here. Here is a foot size comparison, by the way.

>>52172511
>I propose that the undead would be owned by the relatives of the deceased, or if nobody wants to, or can afford to, raise them, the state can raise them after some time.
I would find it much more interesting to have the custom emerge of people selling the rights to their corpse's labor. It would be an almost flawless means of supporting the poor in retirement without the need of a state welfare program.

It could even be a status symbol for the wealthy to retain ownership of their bodies and be buried upon death.

>>52180039
You really need to get the whole thing scanned bro. It's pretty great.

>>52180081
wait, there are scanners that are big enough?

File: lg-mouse-scanner.jpg (27KB, 600x378px) Image search: [Google]

27KB, 600x378px

>>52180119
I have a mouse-scanner. I was expecting it to be a piece of garbage but it's actually not half bad.

File: Timeline.png (112KB, 388x361px) Image search: [Google]

112KB, 388x361px

So I could use some advice on a very early stage setting I've had pieces of bumping around in my brain for a while.

The abridged version since I assume most people don't care much for the details.
>Setting background guts are a mishmash of Elder Scrolls, Dragon's Dogma, Legacy of Kain, and Inception
>God is dreaming
>Becomes aware he is dreaming and doesn't wake up
>Realizes after dicking around a bit that these people in his dream are actual living things somehow
>Comes up with a plan to hand the dream off to the dreamers so when he "wakes up" reality isn't unmade
>Forces himself into a super-coma, except for a single Avatar he created with only a few memories related to this task
>Plan is basically to get several Mortals to ascend to a God of an Aspect (Think Pillars of Nosgoth/Towers from TES)
>Each aspect is tied to an "element", with his own Aspect being Void
>As mortals ascend, reality becomes less likely to crumble and less prone to wild magic surges/Outsiders from another layer of Dream fucking with it/etc.

TL:DR setting is in what would normally be the "dawn ages" or "ancient ages" of other settings. Gods don't exist yet.

The issue then mechanically is what to do about Clerics and such.

Ideally I'd like to let PCs use whatever classes or Cleric Domains they'd like, however I feel like it'd be a bad kick in the dick to tell them "oh yeah btw your deity isn't real, you just willpowered those spells yourself."

Do I
>Make the cosmology more like Forgotten Realms, with lesser deities ruling planes (And obviously not considering themselves "lesser")
>Make the setting godless- Gods never reply to prayers or such (Because they dont exist), and could make an entire campaign about learning that Cleric spells are closer to 5e Paladins powered by Oaths than directly from Deities, this truth potentially causing chaos worldwide if it got out
>A mix of both- as Mortals ascend they take the place of well-known (to players) Gods- ie the Aspect of Metal becoming Primus)

Looking to steal some holidays from you guys.

I've only came up with Warday, in which people gather, commemorate and tell tales about past wars and fights, go on friendly brawls and such.
Also, a certain not!Greece city-state confederacy organizes a special not!Olympiad every 5 years which lasts about two weeks, with numerous physical competitions, chess championship (gotta have dat dere strategy), bards disputing for best warstory and such.
It all leads up to a massive brawl on Warday involving hundreds of people, with the last one standing being declared Warchosen by the Warchurch.
Is it bad? Share yours as well.

>How comfy is your world?
Depends on who you are in it.
Overall pretty comfy. Affordable magic compensates for the limitations of ~15th century technology. And no big wars now that the elves are gone.

Perhaps a longshot, but I was hoping someone might know offhand the image that looked very much like it was done in MS paint, that started with a basic shape outline, then put mountains in, and then tutorial'd how to build a map that makes logical sense, such as how one side of the mountain got rains, so the other side is arid, and then settlement placement. It was a basic goofy little mspaint style drawing of mapmaking and I cannot seem to find it in my saves to look at again. Ring any bells for anyone?

>>52172617

It's been a literal decade since I quested in Un'goro as for why I forgot that, and if you just use magic to handwave then that's fine and it works within a high magic setting but it also means you concede to your setting having abnormal climates and a rather silly approach to it. And then what >>52177775 said.

Azeroth having absurd landscapes doesn't mean the setting is bad There are other reasons why the setting is bad, but you can never really pass off something that handwaves "because of magic" as a proper model for anything other than other "because of magic" handwaved worlds.

File: JUxyVOc.jpg (924KB, 1016x6090px) Image search: [Google]

924KB, 1016x6090px

>>52186580
Well, shortly after posting this I was struck by inspiration and checked browser history, and managed to find it there in a map thread archive over on /v/.

>>52180039
Velika Jebena Mapa indeed. I have to commend you on actually hand-drawing on such a scale and I love the level of detail.

You could gain a lot by digitally transcribing it with GIMP or similar software onto an A2 or A1 format, by using the photo as a base layer, as you scribe over it. Then you have a digital copy to fuck with, + you can then print a whole, handy map at a stationery or wherever the fuck, instead of lugging around the delicate original.

>>52180070
This sounds pretty legit actually, its the kind of thing I'd expect to see develop.

What would a world without wind be like?

>>52189663
No temperature exchange, no rain except above water bodies, maybe even no air regeneration. Luckily, as long as there is atmosphere and temperature diferential, there would be wind.

>>52189663
Any kind of plant that reproduces via anemophilous pollen won't exist.

File: OCdoNotSteal3.png (960KB, 771x533px) Image search: [Google]

960KB, 771x533px

>>52186650

What do you feel about my map? I intend to make some kind of crazy robo-apocalypse game set mainly in the mountains to the west

>>52189663
>What would a world without wind be like?

No atmosphere. Not that this follows from no wind, rather the only way for there to be no wind is to have no atmosphere.

>>52189831
>No atmosphere. Not that this follows from no wind, rather the only way for there to be no wind is to have no atmosphere.

If we allow "wind so still, nobody can feel it", you open up a bit.

The game might be set in one big underground cave.

It might be set in a deep circular recession into the earth (if it's too wide compared to depth, you'll get stronger winds again)

It might be set in several deep recessions with tunnels in between. That could get you some air flow through the tunnels but not necessarily a lot - especially if the geography isn't favorable to it.

What is water to a fish? It might be set in a deep still lake. There'd be no real feeling of streams except for the place the water comes in and the water runs out. If the water diffuses in on one end and out in the other, you might not have any noticeable current at all.

>>52189695
>as long as there is atmosphere and temperature diferential, there would be wind.
This actually answers my follow-up question.

File: tmp_22717-14890856372231773133254.gif (114KB, 544x720px) Image search: [Google]

114KB, 544x720px

>>52190613
This face?

>>52170063
>How comfy is your world?
Not comfy at all.

>>52190685
Face of someone who posted into the wrong thread.

And it should be more like "point and laugh" face, because it means everyone suffered but me.

>>52170063
My world is pretty comfy. Seasons are exactly 91 days each, there are basically no bad harvests, and natural resources abound. This is all so people can focus on waging war for the glory of god, though.

>>52190685
Eruka Frog is best frog.

What is the most optimal ear shape and size for hearing in mammals?

Why is everything blurry in shitkarnate?

>>52182010
I think your idea is fine but for some reason the word "warday" feels weird to me. Maybe because I'm parsing it like it's the name of a weekday since it's all one word.

In real life most holidays serve one of a handful of purposes: appeasing or thanking a diety/force of nature, reestablishing connections with nature or the divine or the ancestors, reaffirming the power of the ruler or ruling class, giving the working class a break, or temporarily smoothing over social unrest.

Usually they do several of these at once; a harvest festival, for example, often involves some manner of sacrifice or ritual to thank the forces responsible for the harvest while at the same time getting the farmers out of the fields and silos after a grueling season of work to feast and drink freely, and for a brief moment at least the resources are flowing freely amongst the community and the uneven distribution of harvests isn't so important.

Think about what activities a holiday might entail. Feasting? Drinking? Travel? Fasting? Not working? A holiday that requires a lot of labor for preparing food and drink is more likely to take place while the supplies for those things aren't running thin. Traveling a week to watch the god-king ritually commune with his holy father at a sacred site probably isn't going to happen when the seasonal weather is poor (unless the struggle is part of the journey, of course).

Think about how long a holiday lasts as well. An afternoon? A day? A couple weeks? Is it repeated throughout the year at certain times, or just once? Longer holidays mean less time working on normal social functions, and more resources burned up during that time. Revering a local spirit might be best served with a night of fasting and observance, but taking two weeks to host a country that could push your shit in for some decidedly less bloody competitive sports is probably worth the strain on resources if it prevents war.

I know these are vague but hopefully they help.

>>52172511
Zombies = robots.
Magic upkeep for zombies = electricity upkeep for robots.

Are there mana batteries for upkeep? How portable are they?
Maybe some rebellious undead rights unit can attack the mana upkeep stations to release the undead unto their final rest, and the police hires the adventurers to investigate.

Could nomads use elephants as their main means of transportation?

>>52195262
theyre used a lot around indochina irl so probably? they could potentially be difficult to domesticate and i think theyre resistant to moving around a lot, which would make it even harder for nomads though.

>>52195262
>elephants don't have a lot of resistence, because they lack fat, actually most elephants are underweight and have to spend most of the time eating
>elephants to give milk, though considering how much you have to feed them to get them to maturity, it overall isn't worth it
>elephants are great as a source of labor, but for nomads that would not be very important, unless your setting demands some heavy duty lifting
>elephants give ivory, which is a great instrument for very low tech societies, and a good decoration for any society in general
>elephants go into heat, males and females, so you will have horny male elephants wanting to kill and main anything they see
>elephants can't be castrated, their balls are inside their bodies, where your kiddies are, so you can't avoid the horny roid rage
>elephants are very smart, they can tell languages apart, and they can tell your mood by body language and voice, you won't trick them
>elephants can communicate via infrasound over several mile distance, so taking one out of the herd to kill would enrage the others over a very long "earshot"
>animal domestication takes several thousand generations, and elephant generations are slower than human ones, so domesticating them is a mythical task

So basically you are better off having some sort of partnership with really smart elephants, an alliance they understand and consent to, this would solve a lot of problems and would honestly be more interesting.
The elephants can gain blankets over their low isolation bodies, medical treatment, other perks, humans gain labor, transport, defense is mutual task, etc.

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

1MB, 1024x768px

Posted this in one of the last threads, and someone said there was issues with the rivers, but the thread died before I could get a follow-up response from him. Can someone help point out what's wrong with them (other than lack of tributaries, Inkarnate has a limit on its scaling and it sucks)?

So, what's the hook of your setting? Why should anyone care? What's special (and also interesting) about it?

>>52193780
Yeah, I'm still thinking about a good name.
Those pointers sure as hell help, I'll use it as guidelines for the holidays I still have to come up with.
Thanks man.

>>52197952
>Why should anyone care?

That is a question that /wbg/ struggles with on a daily basis.

>>52198612
>>52197952
It's hard enough to answer that question about the real world, let alone a fictional one.

>>52197161
The Ghafji region looks weird, what's happening there?
The island of Suta is peculiar, was it natural or there's a special story in it's formation?
Also, purely graphical stuff: north of Drak'Tul the mountains are extending a bit into the ocean and, south of it, a bit into the lake.
Other than that, it looks pretty good. I'm not an expert, tho.

Hey /wbg/, I have a question I've been pondering.

Would a species of sapient beings that are exclusively carnivorous ever develop permanent settlements??

My thinking is no, but I don't really think I know much on the subject of farming and ranching to know.

My reasoning is that the discovery of farming by herbivores or omnivores would encourage them to settle down, as settled living is better for a farming lifestyle. But for carnivores, who would develop ranching and animal domestication instead of crop-raising for food, a nomadic lifestyle would seem better suited, to allow the animals better access to grazing lands.

So what do you guys think?? Would carnivores ever settle down, or would they be more inclined to nomadic life??

>>52198665
The island Sutaq is in need a bit of shaping, I know that. Its too cookiecutter. Ghafji's region is just kinda supposed to be a large lake with a large island in the middle.

And yeah, there's a lot of places where the mountains stick past where they should be. Inkarnate sucks.

File: cows_in_pen.jpg (227KB, 425x282px) Image search: [Google]

227KB, 425x282px

>>52199649
Oh, I see. Bifurcation lakes aren't common, but it's alright.

>>52199500
It depends, man.
If you're going for a similar population density as that of other species, then I think the land would be well demarcated and fenced, and consequentially there would be plenty of settlements. That's because you need much more space for cows to graze than you would use just farming stuff in order to feed a certain amount of people.
So you can have your sparsely populated nomadic area or a decently populated country filled with ranches for more effective use of terrain. Or something in-between.

>>52200279
Well, with the heavy forestation there, I'm thinking of turning it into a swampy area by the coast, make it the draining point of the lake and the mountains to the south. Pull the 2 major rivers and fill it with smaller waterways.

Hey /wbg/ maybe I'm just a blind fool and missed something in the OP, but I can't seem to find any resourced that say where settlements actually pop up and what places create the most successful settlements. Anyone got a source for this kind of info? All I can seem to find it population density and distribution, not /where/ they actually distribute themselves to geographically.

File: 1485562136733.jpg (2MB, 1016x6090px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1016x6090px

>>52201788

This picture from one of previous threads has some pointers.

>>52199500

Industry. Smelting copper/bronze/iron happens where the ores (and wood) are. The nomads would trade foodstuffs with the settlement in return for tools and weapons (and trinkets).

The industry part could be done by another species, if there is one close enough. But even then some of the carnivores would set up in the settlement - like outcasts or novelty seekers.

Also magic. If its a wizard thing, needing spellbooks/scrolls and research then there would be settlements with paper manufactories, magic laboratories, teaching services and so on


>>52200279

Land enclosures seemed to come pretty late in development. True nomads might never get to that point.

>>52199500
>>52202046

Forgot to mention.
Exclusively carnivores does not automatically mean hunters.
They might be living near a (large) body of water and get their food from fishing or whaling. This would mean a more settled life as boat/ship workshops wouldn't move and population would concentrate at natural ports.

Any tips on making maps in GIMP 2? I have limited experience with it and it'll be my second attempt making a map with it. I can only find Photoshop tutorials around mapmaking sites.

I like Inkarnate too, but after the most recent update I want to give GIMP a try before resorting to Inkarnate's downgraded system.

How do you define your Hell? What about your Devils? Are the tempter adversary or part of the structure of faith as testers and punishers?

File: 2303be9394051b70667ba8ca37acd732.pdf (410KB, 1x1px) Image search: [Google]

410KB, 1x1px

Rate my derivative shitbrew if you even care to read it

>>52181075

Option 2 for sure, with the PCs keeping the secret and potentially aiming to become the first gods themselves. Would be FUCKING AWESOME.

great ideas btw, enjoyable read.

>>52203480
Seems interesting, though it uses Planescape Cosmology so a lot of people will be turned off immediately. If you want feedback, try posting specific parts of your world here with a question or two you might have.

Is it fucking retarded to have a world where the races are wolfman, sheepman, and Hue(hu)man?

>>52203908

For the most part it's never been relevant in my games because I don't run high level stuff - I've originally made it to accommodate an epic 7 pathfinder game, although I've abandoned the system long ago.

As such, cosmology isn't set and I am looking for interesting ideas for it.

Otherwise, I'd like to know your guys opinions on:
>What things immediately put you off as unrealistic (within logic of a low-magic fantasy world of course)

>>52204671
Animal people acting out animal stereotypes are dumb, but can still work.

File: Map landscapes druhý pokus.png (6MB, 4025x3105px) Image search: [Google]

6MB, 4025x3105px

>>52170063
>How comfy is your world?
Depends on whenever you consider Central Asia and Middle East comfy. If you don't, you are probably going to be shit out of luck. A lot of Himalaya-esque mountains and extensive steppes, Black/Caspian Sea-like coasts, lower-flow of Volga like valleys and wetlands, grassy highlands and a few major sand deserts etc... Forests are rare and rains are sparse and usually seasonal across most of the settings.

File: 1367509430070.png (70KB, 534x443px) Image search: [Google]

70KB, 534x443px

>>52170063
>magic runes as an optional substitute to gunpowder
>runes just recharge for a few seconds, no reloading or powder re-filling required
>however, they are limited to a number of shots, greater runepower = more shots

thoughts?

>>52207653
I think you basically invented a magic want.

I used idea of runes as a source of magic once to explain why guns are not widespread. You need to cover all parts of them with tiny runes so it's really expensive compared to drawing a big ass bulletproofing rune on your cloak.

File: 1409960043012.jpg (154KB, 1600x817px) Image search: [Google]

154KB, 1600x817px

Tell me about the deities of your setting.

>Did the Gods create the universe or did the universe create the Gods?

>Are they Gods in the mystical sense or just beings beyond mortal comprehension? Can they be killed? Are they even real? Are they merely mythological interpretations of nature?

>Do different races and cultures worship different Gods? Are there overlaps in worship between different cultures?

>Is there religious intolerance? Is there religious warfare?

>How do souls work in your setting? Where do mortal souls go when they die?

File: 1487551223838.jpg (45KB, 500x406px) Image search: [Google]

45KB, 500x406px

>>52180039
very impressive, I second this being scanned.

>>52205839
I really like this idea of putting example landscapes on your map. I think I might have to copy this.

>>52207758
>>52211275
Thanks. I was struggling for a good while to figure out how to visualize the environments in the map and this proved itself to be a useful method. Personally though, I would REALLY want to make a proper interactive map, where clicking on individual region would create a pop-up window with sets of images and accompaning text. I suppose that it should be very easy for anyone with basic knowledge of web design or something, but I have no idea how to go around it. I guess what-you-see-is-what-you-get editors of some kind might work? I'm completely technically inept though...

I don't suppose anyone knows a software that would allow to create interactive maps? Nothing fancy, just a background images and overlaying items that prompt a pop-up would do...

File: 1482684520886.png (345KB, 687x663px) Image search: [Google]

345KB, 687x663px

It's been a while since I've browsed this particular general but I realized why I left: there is absolutely nothing of note/discussion that happens. its just circlejerking and self-masterbatory posts about your own OC setting. no innovation or any creative productivity, just fucking around "detailing" a world no sensible player will care about to the extent you do. if this was /lit/ and was about creating a setting for a book or something I would understand, but in the context of TRPGs this is absolutely autistic and retarded.

>>52211781
Sometimes I have a question about rivers, though.

What kept ancient peoples, or even, say, peoples during the middle ages, from deforesting their countryside? When Americans expanded West in manifest destiny, deforestation was rampant and seen almost as a goal, since people thought that American wilderness was inexhaustible. did they just realize the limitations of their forests? were the forests just too big? were the tools too shitty to get the job done?

>>52211878
Nothing. Anatolia was a big forest once. Though people were not dumb and knew that when a forest is gone there won't be any wood left, so they would tend the forests they own. Lindybeige may be full of shit, but he made an interesting video about this. Though I don't recall any ancient records on something like this.

>>52211878
In the UK ancient peoples basically did deforest most of the island by the late bronze age, they generally did this to make as much space for agriculture and pasturing. Though they would leave the woods near to their homes and treat it as a sort of garden for various resources (pollarding).

Look up Dartmoor if you want an example of what happens to the land a thousand years later.

>>52211781
>You should only make things that other people will like
ok

>>52210784
I'm brewing a setting with multiple deities and pantheons, not sure yet how they may of may not overlap.

>the great empire of the sun
Once a great empire now in a deep crisis after 3 of their most important regions were "profaned". they belive that they were cast down from the heavens and are now stuck in a kind of limbo that is the earth. So most of their "good" deities are conected to the air and celestial bodies and most of their "earthly" deities are considered evil. They belive that the earth was created after the land god suicided himself to their could be a barrier between the world of mortals and the underworld, after this sacrife the lords from below began to rot the soil itself and so the people of the sun do regular blood sacrifices to keep the corpse preseved and to gain once more the favor of the celestial pantheon.
TL;DR: not!aztecs

>The independent city-state
Once part of the sun empire they acurred the favor of a sea-god and so shunned the celestial deities, since they were cast to a land ruled by the gods of below by the sun they didn't se a reason to pay him and his kind any tithe while the sea protected them and taught them to fight to ensure their survival. Most of their gods overlap with those from the empire (mostly the lesser deities that they still worship and do smaller sacrifices to). their main form of worship is in athletic events , a way for the sea god see what they made of themselves after his teachings. The main event, and most important sport are pugilistic duels that happen on the seaside arena, here is where the greatest warriors prove their worth to the god. Since most of theese fighting events usually have a execution happening as well (a way that the athletec warm up is by pummuling prisoners to death in the arena) the empire of the sun agrees that they still pay their tithe to the god-corpse.
TL;DR: edgy not!greeks
(cont'd)

>>52211781
>but in the context of TRPGs this is absolutely autistic and retarded.
Depends on how autistic your players are.

What would you rather people talk about then? The world building is in itself as much fun as playing in the setting is, that's why people get so autistic about details that probably won't even show up.

>>52211968
>>52212220
thanks m8s

File: Like this but no volcano, tower, lava, orcs, nazgul, lightning, and the clouds are gray.jpg (111KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

111KB, 1920x1080px

What sort of bullshit geological shit would have to align perfectly under the stars for this region to occur?

>Always freezing flat near featureless landscape of black stone, snow is almost always falling (or blowing violently) however never accumulates (due to said stone being hot because of geothermal heat), the only water in the region is if you catch the snow before it evaporates

Easiest solution I can think of
>Region is a massive caldera for a supervolcano like Yellowstone

And the part that can be handwaved with magic
>Absolutely no life can grow in this region, not even Lichens and such (If the PCs had access to modern tech they'd see even microbial life doesn't exist), there stops being life a few hundred feet into the region, making a visible line where grass and other things just doesn't grow. Things can still walk into the region though, however nobody has returned from past a certain point.

>>52212287
(cont')

>the profane city of the god-king
Once a slave that showed martial prowess and rose the throught the ranks in the army until he became a general. his wife was cast down to the underworld. He went in to the realm of the dead to get her back, in his journey he had a crisis of faith and began to doubt the power of the gods, when he got to the deepest layer of the underwolrd he stole immortality from the death god and made himself a god. of course the human body wasn't made to withstand the eternal so he now is something not quite human and not quite god. he made his way back to the city and overthrew alone the ruling class and priests. After that he banned the worship and sacrifice to any other gods but him, the empire tried to challlange him but he was too strong and other tow cities were falling as well and the god-king seemed content with his city so they made a truce, he allowed those that still adhered to the old faith to go to the imperial capital while the ones that were loyal to him stayed by his side.

>the city of the spider gods
once a haven to a powerfull mage's guild the city has fallen after a spider "god" apeared and promised to teach them the true power of magic. now they live to bargaind with the various spider beigns that apeared, but they also learned that a human can become a spider since the magic warps the body and mind to a more "perfected form".

(more?)

>>52212835
I'm reading.

>>52212626
If you are very high in the atmosphere (tall mountains) the clouds get scraped and release their load, so it would rain.
And if you have a lot of wind movement this way, it would rain a lot.

However I can't think of a way where it would be cold enough to snow, with that geotermal heater nearby.
And if its far enough from the clouds, it would scrape, so they won't rain all the time.

If you google for "russia snow cave" you can see how it happens with hot springs and a lot of snow/ice on top of them, maybe nice inspiration.

File: kamchatka-russia-ice-cave-6[1].jpg (133KB, 964x656px) Image search: [Google]

133KB, 964x656px

>>52212626
>>52213034
Forgot my image.

>>52170063
Would it be weird to put a few dinosaurs in a low magic, down to earth fantasy setting?

>>52210784
>Did the Gods create the universe or did the universe create the Gods?
Neither, the universe existed and the gods came.
>Are they Gods in the mystical sense or just beings beyond mortal comprehension? Can they be killed? Are they even real? Are they merely mythological interpretations of nature?
If souled humans were around to interact with them, they'd seem normal, just immensely powerful. They died shaping the universe and giving birth to humanity though.
>Is there religious intolerance? Is there religious warfare?
The myths of creation are debated endlessly and there are a variety of sects. The most prominent differences are between the 'civilized' and the more tribal areas of the world. The civilized areas have recently been influenced by a more scientific look at the myths, comparing how it all came to be with what actually is. One good example is the stars, according to the myth, they are holes in the sky from when reckless spirits came in, but they know the positions of the stars are well as their distances to the planet, so they can't be holes. The solution that many natural philosophers point to is that the spirits made holes in a higher dimension sphere. On the other hand, the those living a more tribal life take a simpler approach, accepting both realities as a contradiction inherent in the universe, one that could only be made by the Gods.
>How do souls work in your setting? Where do mortal souls go when they die?
Nowhere, the creators never got around to that before dying, though they probably never intended to make an afterlife/reincarnation system anyways.

>>52211878
In many cultures you had the nobility preserve and sometimes plant entirely new forests in order to hunt in them. Medieval France (and England after 1066) in particular had many laws to ensure forests were managed to suit the desire for hunting grounds.

Population can also play a role; if due to war, disease or lack of food surplus (due to poor soils or crops unsuited for the area) the population remains stable or only grows slowly then there is no need to chop down vast swathes of trees as the society can only work so much land and consume so much fuel. In some parts of the world you can see boom-and-bust cycles of population expansion driving deforestation followed by recovery in periods of reduced population.

The big reason though is that some land is just not suitable for crop cultivation but can support trees. Even if a portion is cleared for agriculture it's just not worth the effort and soon reverts back to woodland. The surviving forests tend to be in areas that can't support economically viable farming, because the land that can will be colonised sooner or later.

File: Capture.png (694KB, 537x740px) Image search: [Google]

694KB, 537x740px

>>52203505
Yeah that'd be best too I think, I'll probably just make a bunch of existing religions and let Clerics choose to be from one of them- after all, gods not responding to prayers hasn't stopped them from forming in reality, and in reality they don't even give you magic.

At the moment there's 9 "aspects", one being Void. The Aspect of Metal has an NPC approaching Apotheosis, and that'd likely be a campaign in itself- either the PCs would help him on his quest or try to stop him.

>>52213034
That's about what I came up with too, really I'll probably just handwave it as magic.

At the moment the region is in a near inhospitable giant peninsula caused by three tectonic plates squeezing together, as shown on this outdated map, so it's at an extreme altitude.

The region is where Aspect of Void has retreated from society to do plot related things and be the first true God, god of orphans, outcasts, others who have no family of their own, all those kinds of emo motherfuckers. And Undead. He's just recently ascended and in doing so remembered parts of himself, and is now pulling strings and leaving breadcrumbs for others in the world through his undead minions to find so they can also ascend.

The reason it's otherwise inhospitable is because it's where the sleeping God left half of his "soul". Being in proximity (As in several hundred miles) of it has not-so-good effects on mortals, so it'd be easy enough to say it's also fucking with the environment.

>>52180039
Impressive map, ugly toe. Can't have it all, eh.

>>52210784
>Did the Gods create the universe or did the universe create the Gods?
see >>52181075
>Are they Gods in the mystical sense or just beings beyond mortal comprehension? Can they be killed? Are they even real? Are they merely mythological interpretations of nature?
At the moment the positions for almost all the Gods are empty, they'd likely fall under the category of "mortal beings beyond comprehension", however even after ascending they'd still keep a large part of their personality so I could end up with great benevolent gods or horrible tyrants, depending on who gets the seat first.
Also the mechanical reason Aspect of Void exists. If a god starts threatening the dream, he is strong enough to solo the entire pantheon to kill them. Otherwise they'd be Lady of Pain/Caine tier in their domain, and probably about CR 100 (d&d 5e) outside it.
>Do different races and cultures worship different Gods? Are there overlaps in worship between different cultures?
Oh absolutely, there's a million religions and theocracies are one of the most common kinds of governments. After all, if Clerics of a church are able to cast spells thanks to their god's favor, clearly that deity must exist, right?
>Is there religious intolerance? Is there religious warfare?
A regional thing, some nations are at war with each other because of Religion, some nations are at war over "Religion", (ie: we want access to that resource), and some nations don't have any real religion at all. It's generally considered Heresy to suggest that it's odd that nobody's heard from any gods personally in any region though.
>How do souls work in your setting? Where do mortal souls go when they die?
At the moment I'm thinking a 1:1 ripoff of the Elder Scrolls "Dreamsleeve", where those who were completely alone in life or otherwise have shit lives are taken in by the Aspect of Void instead.

I realized that some regions of my world (settled ones, not the places no one cares about) are criminally underdevelopped compared to the "main" regions.
Does anyone have ressources for quick preliminary worldbuilding?

>>52211878
Take a look at the Monegros in Spain, once a forest, used as material to build the "Invincible Armada" to invade Britain, which was sunk by a storm.

File: Waaaabuh.gif (55KB, 248x248px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 248x248px

I'm doing some world building for a series of erotic short stories I want to write (Just for the fun of it).

I was wondering, what are some tips or things to keep in mind regarding "Savage" races? I'm making a race of goblinoid/wood-elfish people that live in small jungle tribes.

Any ideas, regarding this sort of thing?

>>52214417
World-building for a PORN?
I think you are writing porn wrong. I mean - it actually makes sense to spent extra effort on say, characters or maybe stylistics in erotic stories (it's a bit of a waste of effort, if that does not bother you)... but world-building?
Just do what ever you need to keep the erotic tension up. You don't fucking need elaborate consistent universe to make things sexy.

Think of what tickles your dick and use that. You don't need to keep in mind anything but what keeps the tension up and arouses people.

>>52214522
>He doesn't read Alfie

>>52207653
Seems like you're not going far enough.
>magic stone that's imbued with a small smell like magic missile or the equivalent, in the shape of a bullet
>place six of these in the revolver's chamber and an activating rune on the striking surface of the gun's hammer
>whenever you pull the trigger, you fire a bolt of magic or whatever
>stones obviously have a finite charge of magic but six stones in the chamber and the fact that they rotate with each shot means you'll have a large battery of shots and run out at roughly the same time for each stone

File: Alfie.jpg (260KB, 1473x1480px) Image search: [Google]

260KB, 1473x1480px

>>52214582
>Alfie
You mean THIS Alfie, by Shirley Hughes? Because if yes, I fail to see how that relates to erotic fiction. Or rather - I don't want to know how that relates to erotic fiction.

>>52214613
very interesting anon, thanks for the additional info

i'm also thinking of putting runes in crossbow strings so that it can have the same speed/power as that of gunpowder, but i assume it's gonna have some problems

>>52214639
No, its a webcomic by InCase.

>>52214849
Oh, this thing. Yeah, sexy art. But I doubt anyone gives two flying fucks about the world-building. Frankly, it's just using the most boring sexualized generic fantasy tropes possible.
Oh, elves are sluts. Wow.

>>52214522
>He doesn't pop a big ol' throbbing vein burster while reading a piece set in a well thought out, immersive setting.

I definitely think that it's a rewarding prospect, giving some forethought to the world my stuff's gonna be written in. I enjoy world building, and I want it to be a little more realistic than something like CoC's setting. Have you ever heard of the Gorean series?

>>52214953
I actually do care about the setting, and the shit about the Redwood is going to be interesting since everyone fucking claims it's dangerous as hell.

>>52214522
No, that's how you do shitty erotic stories.

The story in porn movies is bad because of your thinking.

If I wanted just wank material, i'll watch something that has no story.

>>52214953
I thought the author's choice of classical "shoemaker" elves over tolkien-esque elves was an interesting one, and the concept of nomadic clans of adventurers making scheduled trips was a good plot device.

Also, the cultural views of sexuality are insightful and interesting.

And these are all thoughts that I had, the first time I was reading it, no less.

File: vaginal spasms.jpg (165KB, 800x1200px) Image search: [Google]

165KB, 800x1200px

>>52214522
>>52215044
you actually can, just don't go too deep or rather keep it short and simple

this is probably why a lot of storyporn is either a parody, comedy, or both

>>52214417
Regardless!

Does anyone have any thoughts regarding primitive cultures? Particularly of the violent raider variety.

Also, how might such a culture view sexuality?

>>52197952
I'm trying to dabble in worldbuilding, and I think it's really more up to the players than you. I can flesh out all the lore I want, but if the players don't like it, it's just wank for them to wade through. Give enough details to have a plot, but don't make everything so grandiose that the players and their actions don't matter.

I nearly made the gods too important, for instance. I realized that with all these angry, neurotic walking TPKs around, everything would center on them, and everything would be decided by them, and I don't think my hypothetical players would enjoy that.

>>52214973
>Have you ever heard of the Gorean series?
No. But let me try to make a point, adresing both you and this >>52215044

Let me make this perfectly clear:
WORLDBUILDING DOES NOT MAKE FOR GOOD STORIES. That is a sad, sad reality that anyone who has world-building AND literary ambitions will have to face at one point.
I've said that it makes sense to study either stylistics, or character writing if you want to write good erotica - simply because those things can make your story better.
But world-building won't. If you actually have ambitions to write something "more" than just erotic stories, focusing on world-building of all things is just the worst thing you can do.
And if you want to focus on world-building, then doing it through erotica is the least efficient way to go around it.

My point is: I think you should straighten up your priorities. If you want to write erotica, focus on that. If you want to write good erotica, add good characters, good psychology, and good command of literary language.
If you enjoy world-building and you want just a platform to exercise it, you are better off writing anything but erotica. Seriously, anything else. Erotica both limits your audience, AND further draws people who will find your world-building at best irrelevant, at worst distracting from the point.

Erotica does not have to be bad fiction. But adding world-building is definitely not going to make it better.

It's just a friendly advice. But I do have some experience on this subject. You can do what ever you want, but if you have ambitions beyond killing time, this is just a very inefficient and illogical way of going after your goals.

>>52170063
Tell me about your fantastical forces of nature, /wbg/. Your storms that rain frogs or purple lightning, titans that sleep underground and cause earthquakes like that one chinese/japanese catfish, whatever. Hit me with 'em.

>>52215281
But, I'm not doing it for any sort of profit, or trying to get a lot of readers. I just like world building, and I like writing smut. It seems a bit silly to think you can't have both. Explicit content doesn't keep readers from being interested in the other stuff going on. It can lead to interesting scenarios to understand the cultural motivations behind actions. And it actually comes across as off-putting when things seem unrealistic.

I don't understand why world building would be anything but helpful. If you're writing a fantasy story, it needs to be put in a setting. Like someone said in an earlier post, "Alfie's just set in a generic fantasy setting". Isn't world building the step in that process that would prevent that world from seeming generic?

>>52215594
>It seems a bit silly to think you can't have both.
You can't do both and do it well is my point. At least not unless you are a member of VERY exceptional group of uniquely gifted people.

Look, if you don't have any ambitions, if you have no externally defined goals: what ever I say should not matter to you in the slightest. If you do it for yourself, opinions of other people are irrelevant to you. I think I've already said this: seeking external advice only makes sense if you define your goals externally.

>I don't understand why world building would be anything but helpful.
This is subject for a bigger discussion. I'm trying to find a fantastic article that I've read a few years ago that sums up the problem better than I'd probably be able to, but:
Basically: good story telling is (nearly) ALWAYS a matter of good observation good characters, good and meaningful plot development. World building actually does not involve any of those. In fact, as a speculative fiction activity which is at the same time not rooted in relevant contemporary knowledge, it usually makes those MORE difficult to achieve.

Focus on world-building is why there is so little fantasy fiction worth actually paying any attention to. This applies DOUBLE to "passive" media such as literature or cinema (games and Tabletops where stories are often constructed emergently rather than linearly are a bit of an different case).
The mistake is in thinking that people care about your world. They don't. What people care about are good, relatable stories: reflections of reality (however transformed through abstractions or symbolic language).
But again: this does not have to bother you unless you have actual literary ambitions.

You claimed that you don't, and if that is really the case, then the only thing you should ever worry about is whenever you are having fun writing or not.

>>52170063
Does the following make any sense, or do I need schooling on how military was/is structured?

o Drake Legion
 The Drake Legion is a small, but a well-trained and cohesive elite army commanded stationed in Harthlon, commanded directly by an Emperor, but may be given to command by the Chancellor or a Archcount.

 Purpose is to rapidly deal with all threats directly to the motherland, and the Imperial Crown. They rarely find themselves in instances needing to fight, but are kept on their toes with regular drills, false-threats presented as serious happenings to this Legion. Failure is not taken lightly in any Legion, least of all within Drake Legion.

o Wolf Legion
 Stationed along the Imperial borders, the Wolf Legion’s purpose is continental expansion, to further the Empire. Whenever they are not doing this, aid the Bear Legion in defending the Empire’s borders. Usually commanded by a highly esteemed member of the Emperor’s court, they can also be commanded by any superior, and are occasionally assigned to a Archon

o Bear Legion
 Stationed throughout the Empire, the Bear Legion are more like a grouping of separate, loose sentry battalions, though are very similarly trained and each Archon gets command of a group in their province, but higher authority can take reigns of all at moment’s notice, with permission from Emperor.

 Their purpose is to deal with threats to the provincial Empire, without and within

o Chimera Legion
 The Chimera Legion is an adaptable, multi-purpose Legion that fills any gap when and where more Legion is needed. More often than not however, its battalions are often The Harthen Empire’s representative allying forces in foreign wars.

 At some point or another, each battalion also serves time in The Bright Guard, which represents The Empire’s regular agreed-upon contribution to the collaborative forces along Vauln’s northerly borders, to defend against goblinoid hordes.

>>52215918
And to elaborate on a few details:

Archcounts are motherland nobility that are only outranked by the Chancellor, and then Emperor.

Archons are the top governors of the Empire's provinces. They are from the motherland, and tell Princes (the figurehead native provincial rulers) what to do.

>>52215918
I'm not an expert, but a few things I find off.
First of all:
>Legion
Legion means "a unit of army". Specifically it's an administrative body that consisted of between three to five thousand men. It does not mean "an army". It was usually divided into ten cohorts - smaller strategic units that worked together on the battlefield.
In comparison, when Rome established it's famous elite squad of Rome-based soldiers, they were called "The Praetorian Guard" (which I suspect is what inspired your Drake Legion) and they were never considered a "legion" - because it was a prestigeous label of a type of soldier (or post), not a singular administrative body of a specific head-count.

Legions were formed and disbanded according to needs, and they formed armies based on the current needs of the empire. Specific legions were not systematically ascribed to specific guard, armies had.

Second of all: Even empires usually do not keep particularly big armies IN THEIR OWN TERRITORY. Rome had it's Praetorians, but they were not a singular unit and their role was protective: they were groups of between 50-500 people (single cohort at most) assigned to individual prominent politician, noble house etc. as personal bodyguards.
Keeping a stable, stationed army inside of your empire is silly. You have them on borders (if the borders are under consistent pressure), or you have them stationed in occupied areas, but you don't keep armies on-duty stationed in your mainland. If there is something like an uprising,
you summon warriors that are not on active duty. Or deal with it using your guards. If that is not enough, you summon what ever nearest army you have, usually from the nearest border or campaign. But that should not happen often.

The theory is: unless you are having a major civil war going on, you should not have large scale military conflicts INSIDE YOUR BORDERS, unless they have been breached.

>>52170063

Actual world ending threats arn't that common and people are about as comfy as they try to be in a world where they share along side god spirits and monsters.

For instance, in the country I've dubbed Tioria which has a sort of European Spanish/Central America type of vibe one of the things to do is to watch and bet money on female fighters who learn a sort of Dance Fighting that is also a legit martial art in the world.

In another part of the world closer to the Frozen North people regularly make use of Bath Houses as a daily part of life. Then in another part of the world there is literally a sentient building-Golem who's body is an extra dimensional space that houses a traveling circus/amusement park.

>>52212946
well sorry for the delay needed to get some shit together.

>the last profaned city
this one was overrun by the cult of the scorpion goddess (think Glorantha's Bagog) and so the part of the city that didn't become food was "elevated" to a true form. so now you have a shrine city in the middle of a tropical jungle teeming with scorpion people ravaging the tribes.

>vampires of the great swamp
The sun empire belive that a spiteful god created them out of jealousy of humanity and the fertility goddess cursed them so that may never reproduce, but a demon taught them magic so they could share their curse. after seeing what his brother had done the sun cursed them once more so that his gaze would destroy them. the vampires acttually belive that they were created by a being they know simply as "the one that slumbers" to be his slaves, but that, with the help of the spiders they managed to get him into his present state, as they had nothing else to lose they saw to plunder the world for their use. their society is divided into clans and might makes right, you get what you kill. given this worldview the vampires plunder people from the jungle tribes and the empire, or to use them as thralls to guard their tribes during the day or to force the strong into the clans (a thrall is basically a smarter attack dog). the shamans in the soceity manage to invade the dreams of The One who slumbers and steal his feelings and emotions to use their power in the physical plane.

>>52216302
>closer to the Frozen North people regularly make use of Bath Houses
I know it's a popular trope, but Bath Houses weren't particularly common among societies that live closer to the poles.
Bath houses were completely normal part of life of most societies all over the world (including western Christian one until maybe 16th century, or even perhaps later), but their popularity vanes very quickly the colder your climate is.
Because generally speaking: getting your body wet when it's freezing is not a good idea.

>>52216233
Thanks anon, that does make sense.

>>52216877
What about hotsprings? Thought I heard the Finns historically loved them, but it was just what someone told me.

>>52216877

I understand that but this area has a volcano that essentially creates natural hotsprings that people have built cities around.

>>52217042
>Thought I heard the Finns historically loved them
Not regularly. Fins have their saunas, but those are (or at least the older ones used to be) rather explicitly based on dry heat. Steam sauna is a much later (second half 20th century) invention.

It's not that people did not take advantage of hot springs on special occasions, it's that they definitely did not do it on a regular, common basis.
In mediterranian and to a lesser degree in temperate climates, people regularly visited bath-houses on a weekly basis during warmer seasons. But further to the north, people prefered not to take their clothes off very often, and definitely avoided getting too wet as much as possible. Inuites often bathed only few times a year.

If you have full fucking certainity that you won't get stuck somewhere on a cold or freezing wind, then OCCASIONALLY you might take the risk and enjoy hot bath. But it's definitely not a common part of public life, like it was in say, Rome, Middle East or Japan.

>>52217063
Well, see above. Though I have to say I understand what you are going for. In fact, in the past I've invented exactly the same bloody thing: a major city build in a volcanic caldera that was entirely fueled by hot springs. In fact it was almost like a hot-water Venice, torrents of hot water were running through channels through the streets, a hot water pool was part of every house.

That said, to make it less completely implausible, I've framed it in a backstory where the city was established by a mad king driven by a prophetic dream, and did not last more than a century before it was nearly completely abandoned.

Here is another thing to consider: I don't know how cold environments are we talking, but historically, cold regions (like scandinavia) had VERY few actual urbanized regions. All of them were - exclusively - ports in uniquely non-freezing waters.
Feeding a city in a region where you have little to no agriculture is not easy.

File: rigelian_bath_by_wickedraiden186-db2kd1y.jpg (551KB, 1600x2311px) Image search: [Google]

551KB, 1600x2311px

>>52217136
forgot to spoiler the first time
fuck yeah bath houses

>>52211781
I'm not building a world for a TTRPG, I do it just for myself. I might never get to run a campaing set in my world, but just fine, since I don't really intend to.

File: 1459929317757.jpg (135KB, 800x1187px) Image search: [Google]

135KB, 800x1187px

Hey, can anyone provide a bit of feedback on my fire druids? I want to see if they sound sensible and iron out any kinks in their creation.

>>52215946
The gap from emperor to count tickles my paracuck bones. Why no dukes? Archduke even sounds better, imo.

File: fire_giant.jpg (69KB, 849x1200px) Image search: [Google]

69KB, 849x1200px

>>52210784
>>Did the Gods create the universe or did the universe create the Gods?
The True God exists as long as the universe does, the question of Him creating it or being some sort of manifestation of it's Will is up for debate, but that doesn't matter because is true nature is incomprehensible. He then felt lonely and decided to create his happy bunch of friends, who were the First generation of gods.
>>Are they Gods in the mystical sense or just beings beyond mortal comprehension? Can they be killed? Are they even real? Are they merely mythological interpretations of nature?
The True God is beyond anyone's comprehension(especially to the gods he created). The First generation of gods can be comprehended by mortals but was insanely powerful. The Second generation was born out of their universe shattering(and shaping) battle and are very powerful beings who have power over a certain geographical location which grows by receiving tribute and by mortals spreading their cult. The Third generations is on the level of Demi-Gods with limited but still awesome power. Only the gods can kill each other, and can be killed via the artifacts of their kind.
>>Do different races and cultures worship different Gods? Are there overlaps in worship between different cultures?
They usually worship the God that created them, although different cultures within a race see their god differently, different cultures and races usually worship the same Second and Third Generation gods though.
>>Is there religious intolerance? Is there religious warfare?
Of course, it's central to the setting.
>>How do souls work in your setting? Where do mortal souls go when they die?
Reincarnation unless you've committed your soul and mind to some other being.

>>52210784
>>Did the Gods create the universe or did the universe create the Gods?
God created the universe. But first he created more gods.
>>Are they Gods in the mystical sense or just beings beyond mortal comprehension? Can they be killed? Are they even real? Are they merely mythological interpretations of nature?
What is god in mystical sense? They can be killed. They are real, though the first god is not available now.
>>Do different races and cultures worship different Gods? Are there overlaps in worship between different cultures?
Gods are tied to nations and regions. However worship of the primary god is getting more popular
>>Is there religious intolerance? Is there religious warfare?
Worship of the primary god is expanding since worship of regular gods became dangerous. They will go burn the witch mode any moment now. Pagans (Worshippers of minor gods are the tolerant ones)
>>How do souls work in your setting? Where do mortal souls go when they die?
Souls reside on the moon where they are washed in an ocean. Once someone is born soul leaves the ocean and inhabits the body until the person die. After this soul returns to the moon and has its memories and personality washed away until it's ready to return.

>>52221526
To be honest, it's kind of hard to give feedback on something you haven't provided.

>>52221526
How can druids be fire? Doesn't fire burn the stuff druids are druiding about?

>>52223692
>Souls reside on the moon where they are washed in an ocean. Once someone is born soul leaves the ocean and inhabits the body until the person die. After this soul returns to the moon and has its memories and personality washed away until it's ready to return.
That's pretty cool anon

>>52221526
you mean a shaman?

>>52221526
Sure; tell us about 'em.

adapting the Might & Magic world into a setting for generic tabletop adventuring.

Yea or Nay?

>>52172511
Eh, comes back to "why isn't everyone a wizard and using magic to never work a day in their life?". Wouldn't golems make more sense? All the programmability, none of the smell, disease, or being sad that grandma died and will work the field until she literally falls apart.

Anyone got some good mapping tools for space campaigns?

I named a kingdom in my world "Fnoria" or "F'noria". How much did I fuck up? It's a kindgom that is a mix of mongolian and gypsy culture.

File: orc grill.jpg (100KB, 736x1151px) Image search: [Google]

100KB, 736x1151px

Me and a friend is creating a setting for our future campaigns. But he insists orcs should be peaceloving vegan commie faggots like the Warcraft orcs.

Meanwhile i've suggested a more classical orc, heavily inspired by warhammer orcs, and early warcraft orcs.
They bastardize other religions and rituals into their hoodoo pseudo religion, and are basically a band of wandering warriors plundering and razing towns because orcs.

That's how i like them. Also they are all born males, but the less fighty ones are bullied into becoming breeding stock and cooks. I haven't decided if they should just be smaller orcs with some t&a, or cute gobborin girls like pic related.

Tell me my friend is a faggot, and talk about orcs!

>>52229202
Both is bad. That's my elaborate commentary. Your friends orcs are worse, though

>>52229263
What's so bad about it?
I like my orcs cunning rather than intelligent, and rather than having a single deity i prefer spoogy hoodoo orcs wielding magic they don't understand with their superstition.
I like orcs to live in nomadic warrior tribes, that determine everything from who eats to who's boss through fighting.

With regards to reproduction, i just wanted something that wasn't "grew from mushrooms", and was a bit more orky than regular sexes.

TALK TO ME ABOUT ORCS

>>52229319
There is nothing wrong with most of this, but as damaged by /tg/ I am, a sentence like
>Also they are all born males, but the less fighty ones are bullied into becoming breeding stock
sets magical realm alarm clocks off. Also
>plundering and razing towns because orcs
is probably all you need for a campaign where you want to cut down orcs because orcs, but is pretty lame for world-building.

>>52215783
You keep saying shit like, "World building will make written prose boring!" But you don't provide any explanation or examples.

I think you have some preconceived notions regarding how you would do something and how other people should.

I see where you are coming from, but I think it's a pretty narrow way to view things.

>>52229426
>sets magical realm alarm clocks off. Also
How so? It happens in the animal kingdom. If there is a shortage of females, some beta puts on a dress. Though it is less common in humanoids outside of Thailand or Sweden.
>is probably all you need for a campaign where you want to cut down orcs because orcs, but is pretty lame for world-building.
Orcs aren't really meant to be much more than a uncontrolled force. The world revolves around them, because it's forced to react to them. The other races only get along because fighting each other would leave an opening whenever the next big orc tribe explodes over their borders.
Conflicts are solved outside the established kingdoms and factions territory, within the "green zone". Areas no one really bothers to control as they are considered likely to be destroyed by orcs, yet they still have enterprising individuals trying to get to whatever resources might be there. This is where most of the adventuring takes place. The wild west so to speak.
The setting will be dealing with politics a lot, and more than often dealing with the after effects of orc attacks than orcs themselves.

File: 15805479d44fb3bba444d2f7ec5e24e7b4b91f84936f983232d0e205a08ba898.gif (2MB, 540x540px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 540x540px

>>52229488
I don't think it's necessarily a binary thing of "more worldbuilding = worse story," but there are two concerns I can see arising. For one, amateur writers often have a tendency to sacrifice narrative flow to inject information about their setting into the narrative. The other thing is that a well-built world won't necessarily be conducive to a satisfying narrative (Genghis Khan falls from his horse and dies, Stonewall Jackson is the victim of friendly fire, etc.).

The note of people being unconcerned is also relevant because you'd be amazed how carefully you can craft a setting, with rich details and intricately crafted scenarios, only to find the band of typical adventurers doesn't stop to make smalltalk with the innkeep, they just ask where the bandits are doing the raping. See every storyfag GM trying to run for a group of murderhobos ever. The fact that this is prose and not a game compounds the issue, because it's an even less interactive medium. It takes a special kind of autist (myself included) to jerk off to setting details.

File: horn dude.jpg (143KB, 589x800px) Image search: [Google]

143KB, 589x800px

>>52229731
>typical adventurers doesn't stop to make smalltalk with the innkeep, they just ask where the bandits are doing the raping.
Not the guy you're replying to. But #notallgroups are like that. My groups all seem to be more interested in fucking around with the village than trying to save it from whatever is threatening them.
Having played in a lot of different groups, i see what you mean, but at the same time i've found that the narrative is suggested by the players, and only moderated by the DM. If you want to tell a specific story, you're better off letting the players come up with something they want, so you can weave it into the story.
In short, i think the players will be more likely to enjoy a story that extends from their own narrative, rather than a preset one.
Maybe i misunderstood you, so have a spoogy forest guy for your troubles, i hope you like him as much as i do.

File: 1488498100217.jpg (133KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

133KB, 640x480px

>not taking adderall in the morning and cannabis in the evening for maximum worldbuilding performance

>>52230058
Do you actually spend the whole day worldbuilding?

>>52229870
Yeah, I know not all, that's just been my experience. Now and then my players do get pretty invested, but I've found that >50% of my worldbuilding tended to be irrelevant, so that's just a suggestion from personal experience, though I also write veritable litanies of useless information in my spare time. My problem is the opposite of players suggesting the narrative, though. I tend to run, I don't want to say sandboxes because of the negative connotation that's picked up, but I do typically drop players in a world with several ongoing plot threads and leave them to their own devices. The problem I often find is that players simply go from immediate obvious task to immediate obvious task, and fail to create their own narratives or take any of the bait I offer them for a more substantial plot, the not smalltalking with the innkeep just happens to be a symptom of that. And forest guy is pretty cool, saved.

File: 08e5469fef08427924c9be3f4206f507.jpg (491KB, 1080x1080px) Image search: [Google]

491KB, 1080x1080px

>>52223806
>>52225478
Alright, sorry for the wall of text. I put it all in a pastebin so I wouldn't flood the thread with my posts. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated: http://pastebin.com/etd7rMCx
>>52224355
These guys don't commune with sporits or anything, so not necessarily.
>>52223878
The druids in my setting are seperate tribes based off of certain elements and landscapes. This one's just the one I'm fleshing out the most first.

>>52230091
nah only like half the day

>>52230106
>I also write veritable litanies of useless information in my spare time.
It's not useless if you enjoy doing it, and it might still be conducive to a better roleplaying experience for both you and the players. It's to give you a sense of the world and the characters in it, as much as for the players.
>The problem I often find is that players simply go from immediate obvious task to immediate obvious task
Yeah i can relate to that, usually i combat this by adding a motivator to whatever main story i have going. Maybe the group wants to start their own outpost, to do that you need gold to pay off the nobles. That kind of gold only comes from the dragons lair, or whatever else the main story leads to. Another thing i like to put in restrictions on level advancement, the party can continue to get exp, but at certain levels they have to perform a great deed to advance beyond mediocrity. F.ex the thieves guild will never show the secret ninja technique until you steal the golden buddha, or the old elf mage will never teach your wizard how2magic properly.
I don't really like letting people gain levels just by smacking goblins or bluffing their way past guards. They should do something class related to elevate themselves. And it puts their own interests in the middle of whatever i want, and makes them care about succeeding(i will outright tell them that failure means starting over on a new quest from scratch).
Also, be cheap with exp. And reward bonus exp for good roleplaying and playing to their class strengths, that's a great way to help things in general.
Those are some of my best tools, i run very sandboxy campaigns too. So it's necessary to figure out how to motivate the party to engage in the world, instead of just looting it and trying to take over every town. If all else fail, have a high level baddie or x-treme dogooder chase them out of whatever place they're spending too much time on.

File: 1472876656507.jpg (121KB, 600x595px) Image search: [Google]

121KB, 600x595px

>>52230335
That's a good point. I'll have to try pushing them into some more demanding scenarios in future. Have some scheming nobles in return for forest guy.

File: comfy island.jpg (56KB, 650x500px) Image search: [Google]

56KB, 650x500px

>>52230951
Hope my methods can work for you. It did wonders for my murderhobo management skills when i realized that players don't really give a shit about the big bad evil of the week, in the end they are motivated by their own desires. Combining them makes everything easier.

I appreciate the nobles. Though they look a bit more stabby than scheming. I wont be inviting them to my comfy island retreat. They will instead be stashed in my character portrait folder.

>>52230115
Looks solid to me, anon. There's not much here on how their magic and such actually works, but you have a pretty solid basis for a culture.

Can a river flow out from an arctic region?

>>52231724
Alright, cool. If you wanted the magic aspect of it, I basically have two sets of magic branches in my campaign, druidic magic and arcane magic. Duidic magic, dealing with beast affinities and the natural elements, has its source based in the leylines criss-crossed inside the world. Each climate corresponds with a greater affinity towards certain elements, making them easier to perform and master: dry and arid regions have a greater affinity towards fire based magic, whereas woodland and jungle regions have a greater affinity towards earth based magic. It's the oldest form of spellcasting and often times the most straightforward when starting out.

>>52231986
Yes. It will likely be frozen for a good chunk of the year, leaving the lower course of the river dry until spring brings a torrent of meltwater. If the river is a tributary to a larger river outside the artic circle this probably means seasonal flooding as the water level rises past the banks of the usual course of the river most of the year when the headwaters of the artic tributary are frozen.

File: Tyne (full scale).png (2MB, 1505x1524px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1505x1524px

Has my map become too busy in being blown up to a more full scale? I've yet to specify how a lot of these distributaries end (be they in lakes or springs or what have you), but I can't decide if I even want to bother. I think its important to know the landscape, but I can't decide if detailing it to this degree is overkill or not. Obviously I still have a lot of features to add besides even those mentioned already.

>>52197952
Its Hellgate: London. Humanity discovers "magic", goes into a golden age, and it ends badly when they over do it and things start exploding and opening holes to "Hell".

>>52233123
which way are those rivers running? toward or away from the sea?

>>52233287
They run toward the sea, down from the mountains into lower land.

>>52233300
so why do the ones in the middle of the continent run _away_ from the sea before joining toward the main spur?

>>52233370
Land is uneven, my dude. This is how rivers work in real life.

>>52233388
Not him, but I think he's asking about the weird way the rivers split up as you near the coast, which shouldn't happen most of the time. If that's the case, this is still odd to look at. It's like a huge river delta all along the actual river.

>>52233721
Ok cool, that's a much more cogent point without the smarm.

>>52233756
No prob. Just reverse the direction of the little river "trees" and you should be fine. I mean, I personally feel like the river is still too smooth, but that's partly personal taste and having no perspective on the real distances involved.

>>52233775
This particular area is meant to be about the size of France, actually a bit larger. So yeah, it could probably do with some more twisting and turning, but I think that the more I busy it up, the less natural it feels somehow- like it ends up being overdesigned.

>>52233804
That's entirely up to you. I've done enough maps and studied enough geography to have a good handle on things, so that's just what I see. I would point out that the coastline is very detailed compared to the river, so if that's fine by you.

File: dreammap-olderversion.jpg (2MB, 1440x960px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1440x960px

Where should I put a classic mystery/horror story a la X-Files?
Classic Fantasysetting with fantasy races and magic?
Science Fantasy Setting with crystal-tec, where magic is used to fuel science?
Would it even work in fantasy settings?
I have been struggling with both setting for weeks now, trying to figure out what to build.

Pic not related.

>>52233844
>Where should I put a classic mystery/horror story a la X-Files?

Low magic or at least low level, so the mystery can't be solved instantly.

File: 1392706304655.jpg (176KB, 684x720px) Image search: [Google]

176KB, 684x720px

>>52233943
That was the plan anyway because otherwise the whole mystery and horror thing wouldn't work because powerlevels.

But I think I have decieded. I will set the story in a kind of crystal-punk setting, where crystals are kind of batteries and store raw energy/lifeforce which fuels machines/golems/constructs. The world outside of the human realms is ranges from exotic to alienlike to straight up deadly and monstrous.

If anyone has some ideas or buzzwords, just throw them at me!

>>52234183
>ideas
Crystals have to be protected from coming into contact with things. Due to the magical energies within, they have a habit of fractalizing reality when struck in such a way as to produce an echo. This typically creates magical clones of people, which then go one a rampage to kill the original.

>>52202841
Is it weird that I'm working on a kitchen sink setting, and yet have not thought about devils or demons once for it?

>>52202841
My whole world is hell. In "What if Earth is hell of some other planet?" sense? It's normal medieval fantasy world, but it exists as a prison for the Devil. Devil was equal in power with God (Formerly god's favourite son), and wants to break free, to fight him again (Imprisonment left him underpowered). And God is comatose.

File: castian 33 mbw.jpg (949KB, 3300x2550px) Image search: [Google]

949KB, 3300x2550px

Current world map of Castian, a setting I originally was developing for a Sinbad-vs-Cthulhu-vs-Darksun type campaign. Now it's getting repurposed for an Age-of-Sail-vs-Cthulhu-vs-Pirates-Of-Darkwater campaign.

Races include:

>Humans
The scrappy survivors and Empire-builders. Humans survived a Cosmic Reboot that occurred/didn't occur over a thousand years previous, when a Time God died/didn't die in a Paradox War with Nyarlethotep.

>Morpheans
Ooze-folk. Created as a servant race by alchemists, they quickly proved unmanageable as slaves due to being thoroughly unoppressable. Incredibly durable and slippery.

>Ogren
Big, strong, but also deeply knowledgeable. Ogren are basically Horned-Dwarves with a thing for Martial Arts and harnessing their "third eye".

>Samali
Gypsey Sharkfolk. Once a mighty empire, now laid low by their hubris. They ply the ocean as traders, and have earned a reputation for culture, as well as piracy and general thievery.

>Guppi
Small, cannibalistic frog-people. Vicious little shits who excel at ambush and poison. Also enormously talented artists and singers.

>Elohim
Human-Plus. A semi-immortal race of Psions who prefer to manipulate events from the shadows. Low-key Time Lords.

Thoughts?

File: HELLO MY BABY HELLO MY HONEY.png (309KB, 600x437px) Image search: [Google]

309KB, 600x437px

>>52237019
>Guppi
>Small, cannibalistic frog-people
>enormously talented artists and singers

Say the world we know now ended in mid 1983 due to a large conventional war getting out of hand between the major power players of the world and going nuclear. (IE: NATO, Warsaw Pact, China, NATO's east asian allies, pakistan and india.) It is now 2010 and the first story of the world takes place in the United States or should I say.... the lands that once were the united states.

What cool enemies can you see inhabiting the wild america? No mutants.

>>52237019

Might be harder to get that "nameless scary island in the middle of nowhere" feel with all the places grouped up like that.

Maybe some Iceland like place very distant from everywhere? Volcanic hotspots are pretty randomly spread.

>>52240189
That big north island is basically Iceland+Norway. The scale might seem a bit off, but that really is the entire world at the moment.

>>52240189
>>52241074
Wait, shit. I just got what you meant. Where do you recommend placing the volcanic hotspots?

>>52241086

Randomly :)
A few linear archipelagos, like Hawaii, and a larger island. Far away from anything, including each other.
These could be the places that are not drawn on maps and can only be found by following signs of madness

>>52241214
Madness is fun.

"An island what can't be found, except by those who know where it is!"

>>52241214
>>52241319
But who will live there?
Should he just rip off Samoan culture, island cannibals and stuff, or maybe exotic non-humans?

>>52237019
My thought is that your first idea was better.

>>52241850
>setting races already include oozefolk and cannibals
What if instead they find a bronze age Greek island? Full of cyclops and monsters and shit?

>>52241858
Possibly, but I have a crippling musket fetish.

File: 11267467423_e25dc600cc_o.jpg (605KB, 1637x1041px) Image search: [Google]

605KB, 1637x1041px

Hey guys
I've been using The British Library's massive Flickr dump for worldbuilding purposes.
There is a lot of stuff that can be re-purposed for a number of settings.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/albums/

if if you don't find a use for it, there is still a bunch of neat old crap there.

>>52243612
Maybe something like the siege of Troy that has been going on for decades

>>52241850

The ruins are strange and unsettling but also silent.
They have been dead for millions of years and dreaming

File: 6Honor.png (99KB, 1200x433px) Image search: [Google]

99KB, 1200x433px

I could use a second opinion on something.

I'm working on an order of magical warriors. In order to combat the many, many malevolent and supernatural forces in my setting, members of this order bind their souls to weapons (typically blades). The weapon itself is capable of harming supernatural beings, and the processes of creating and using them greatly enhance the user physically. Creating one of these weapons also grants the user access to magic, which humans in my setting can't naturally use, provided they wish to put in the long hours needed to do so.
However, if their soul weapon (I am so not calling them that) is destroyed the user dies, and vice versa.

The idea was to create a group to which an entire party belongs. Or, rather, to create a unified origin for why a party of PCs is so damn powerful.
All players would make one of these people, but the applications would be broad. Effectively, each player would start with a template to make a basic magic weapon. As they level and grow, they can choose to improve themselves, their weapon, or both.

What do you think?
Too constricting? Too anime?

>>52246806
I think the idea definitely has merit. A few things though

>processes of creating and using them greatly enhance the user physically
This is something that might get out of hand and turn the setting into "DBZ, but with swords" if not handled well.

>grants the user access to magic, which humans in my setting can't naturally use
This seems a bit constricting. I understand you want there to be a good for people in the setting to use, but making it a hard rule that this is the only way for humans to use magic seems harsh. Like, if this were a game and the GM used this setting, combined with the above, it would scream "Use my stuff or die" to the players.

>However, if their soul weapon (I am so not calling them that) is destroyed the user dies, and vice versa.
This is just my opinion, but I'd just make the weapons unbreakable in the first place. I can see the weapon disappearing if the user dies, but I don't really agree it should work the other way around, if the weapon isn't just outright indestructible. Maybe it just hurts the person a lot, but doesn't kill them.

I'm actually developing something kinda-sorta similar myself, and personally, I think the way to balance this concept would be to make these people uncommon, so it could be feasible that they'd get murdered by being ganged up on.

>>52170271
I'd like to say the same. There are smaller scale conflicts, and low level shit every where but stuff that is taken care of by adventurers. There is one continent/country that you simply do not want to be in but for the most part if you're anywhere that can be considered civilized, you're fine. And if you're in the wild you just need to find somewhere far enough away from the rest of the wild fuckers.

>>52247366
The DBZ thing is what I'm most worried about, to be honest. I'll have to figure out a way to limit it.
I probably should have clarified that there are other ways to get magic, some much faster as well. It's just that the weapon-granted magic is one of the most reliable, and safest to use, forms. In all cases magic has a cost of some sort.
For example, one of the main types of baddie mage are people who've allowed themselves to be possessed. Each of their spells costs blood or sanity.

You certainly have a good point about the dying, though. I do still like the idea, but it may be too much of a weakness, as you say. I diet of feel like the damage caused by literally having part of one's soul being destroyed would likely be character retiring in scope anyway. I'll keep tinkering.

And I agree completely that they need to be uncommon or even rare.

Thank you very much for the feedback!

>>52247466
How do you mean?

>>52247578
>The DBZ thing is what I'm most worried about, to be honest. I'll have to figure out a way to limit it.
I think it's mostly just going to be a problem of scale. But if you wanted to put a limit on it, maybe make it so the powers aren't permanently "on", and whenever they are "on" they take power from the person using them.

>>52247578
>>52248224
Anyway, tell me more about your setting. I'm curious to see how the two of us handle a similar idea differently.

Also, I have to ask, were you inspired by Bleach at all?

>>52197161
1-The 'rivers' should represent the navigable parts.

2-No passes through the mountains?

3-Make sure to address the Sutaq channel?

>>52250728
The rivers are the main parts. Inkarnate doesn't allow smaller, so I'll have to expand on the offshoots and lesser waterways.

The thinnest part of the western mountain range is where Drak'Tul lairs, and no one fucks with dragons. In fact, only the crazed Drak'iiron tribes in the vicinity of dragons, as the dragon's mere presence warps the land and wildlife.

And yeah, the channel by Sutaq needs help. I'll post a correction when I get a chance.

>>52197161
the rivers appear to be flowing out of the sea. in real life, that's not how they work. rivers form when water spills down from high land, i.e. mountains, down toward low land, carving a path along the way

File: wholesome.png (264KB, 760x760px) Image search: [Google]

264KB, 760x760px

>>52170063
Kinda comfy, but of course, not all so.
It's not necessarily setting of strife
I've generally have done sily / lighthearted art of setting, so it was about time I drew something darker.

>>52210784
Short gist of things is that universe sorta created gods, gods created physical plane as barrier against chaos. This didn't include life, though.

>>52233844
Really depends how fantastical and magical the settong is. Getting supernatural story going in setting where supernatural is commonplace eats away at the premise of mystery. "something's out there" doesn't kinda work in such.

>>52251134
But they are. If you look, most rivers are coming from the mountains or a lake and moving towards the sea. The only one that really doesn't is the one that runs by Burj, and that's because upriver was destroyed.

>>52251290
Not him, but even the Burj river seems fine to me. Take a look at central Russia sometime and you'll see a shitload of rivers seemingly appearing out of nowhere. That's not really going on, but still.

>>52248271
Funny you should mention Bleach. It was the realization that I was making something similar that lead me to asking for a second opinion.

I had several inspirations for the setting and the order. There's some Star Wars (Jedi, in particular), Berserk, Claymore (only the monsters), and a few others, but the shardblades from the Stormlight Archive are probably the most direct inspiration.

The tech level is late medieval. People have figured out how to weaponize gunpowder, for example, but can only really use it in large cannons. Most government is decentralized feudal, with kings only having nominal authority over other lords.
Settlements tend to be isolated and organized around large keeps. Monster attacks are common enough that even peasants (and some serfs/slaves) are required to maintain weapons. Overall, these fortress-towns can hold off the supernatural, but never really "win."
That's where the order came in. Originally the group was founded to protect travelers, and this is still their primary mission, but now many are employed to defend a single settlement or keep. Their influence is enough to help humanity expand a bit more, but the War could still go either way.

In addition to providing a single origin for my PCs, this system also explains why random adventurers can so easily find work from strangers with no one batting an eye. Traveling and doing mighty deeds, for pay, is just expected of them. Getting hired to stay on permanently is seen as a retirement job they have to earn by becoming well known.

>>52253662
The monsters in my setting are demonic in origin. Spirits in general are "made" of magic, but can't do much with it without a physical body. Demons, therefore, have to possess people or animals (physical objects do nothing for them) to affect the real world. Humans have trouble fighting them because destroying a possessed body simply means the demon has to find another; it stays in the physical world. People have to burn bodies of friend and foe since demons can still easily possess corpses (though they are weaker this way).
The order's soul weapons exist on the physical AND spiritual planes, and so can actually harm the demon's spirit body, driving it back to hell where it has a very difficult time coming back.

Creatures like minotaurs or trolls are demon-possessed bodies that have reproduced in the physical world. Their magic is reduced, but they are much more stable. All demonic entities feed on humans, but ones "born" into their possessed body need to feed far less often.

Like most dark fantasy settings, it appears like only the forces of evil are active and that heaven does fuck all. Unknown in-setting, however, this is not true. Human souls ARE heavenly spirits, which is why demons need to eat humans. Eating a cow would only help their possessed physical body, eating a human soul enriches their soul.
It takes an incredible amount of willpower to harness one's own divine nature to be a threat to a demon since being human robs us of perspective. Basically, the natural "magic" a human's soul could do is to provide life.
The soul weapons are effective since the user is symbolically honing their power, focusing it into a weapon.
But that's for me to know, not my characters or players.

>>52253667
Sorry for the wall-o-text dump.

Now that I see it all written out, even as a summary, it seems kinda silly. Anyone else ever have this problem?

>>52253682
Yeah lol, in your imagination it all sounds cool, unique and amazing but when you write it down it feels meh
This is me>>52222074
I think it's mainly because we can't convey the imagery we think up to other people

>>52253982
I've always liked the idea of the afterlife being determined by your choice of deity to worship.

>>52254066
It depends on the god but usually it's less of an afterlife and more of getting reincarnated in their service. Also most of the world is made out of the bodies of dead gods so you just might end up in the same hellish carcass mining job you had for the previous 40 years.

>>52254102
Ha! That's an interesting idea.

File: nig kills nig.jpg (3MB, 1594x3386px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1594x3386px

>>52254106
I got it when watching Guardians of the Galaxy. I suck at art of any kind and map drawing so I can't really convey my idea well. However the afterlife thing gives birth to some wicked death rites to pass into service(or to avoid service) to the god you have worshiped.

>>52180039
Gde zive crni andjeli?

Here's a bump, hopin' the thread is alive when I get home from work.

>>52253662
>Stormlight Archive
I was thinking about that one too when I was reading your post. Though to be fair, all I know about it is that the author was mad that the coolest swords were from sci-fi (lightsabers), so he wanted to make better fantasy versions.

>The tech level is late medieval.
Mine is basically set in the Wild West, the special weapons in this case usually being types of firearms.

>Overall, these fortress-towns can hold off the supernatural, but never really "win."
How did these people ever live before these people were around? Like, how did these settlements even exist if they're under constant monster attack?

>the War
???

>>52253667
>(physical objects do nothing for them)
I would've suggested saying "inanimate objects" instead of the very vague "physical objects", but I guess possessing corpses kinda kills that.

>Creatures like minotaurs or trolls are demon-possessed bodies that have reproduced in the physical world.
I like this. Are these races inherently evil/demonic? Or can they be like Paarthurnax?

>Like most dark fantasy settings
Wait, this is dark fantasy? I mean, I guess it kinda makes sense now, but the idea behind the weapons made it seem like more of a high fantasy kind of thing. Like, I couldn't begin to imagine something like this fitting in, say, Dark Souls, these people with special weapons, enhanced abilities, and access to magic. But that could always just be me.

>only the forces of evil are active and that heaven does fuck all.
I would've thought the weapons would be gifts from heaven, but OK.

>Human souls ARE heavenly spirits, which is why demons need to eat humans. Eating a cow would only help their possessed physical body, eating a human soul enriches their soul.
what

>It takes an incredible amount of willpower to harness one's own divine nature to be a threat to a demon since being human robs us of perspective. Basically, the natural "magic" a human's soul could do is to provide life.
what

File: desiretoknowmoreintensifies.jpg (7KB, 251x201px) Image search: [Google]

7KB, 251x201px

>>52255240
Yeah, I'm not too good at explaining this kind of thing. These are good questions, and I've expanded some things as I've been working.
>set in the Wild West
see pic

>How did people ever live before these people were around?
Cold iron (defined as iron that has never been made into steel in my setting) and ancestral silver are able to hurt demons, but the earliest way to fight demons was by letting oneself become possessed. Fighting fire with fire and all that.
>the War
>???
Sorry, in my notes that's how I refer to the constant battle between humans and monsters. I need to avoid jargon in the future.

>I would've suggested . . . possessing corpses kinda kills that.
Indeed. I should have said non-living, like metals or rocks. The more intelligent and aware a spirit's host is, the more powerful they can be. A spirit CAN possess an object, but it takes a lot of energy to do anything with a body like that. Corpses are a grey area, since they were once alive. Demons are weaker in corpse bodies than live ones since they have to exert extra power to keep the corpse animated.

>Are these races inherently evil?
Depends on the race: how close they are to their demonic ancestry and how much "human" is in their gene pool.

>this is dark fantasy?
>could always just be me
Good point. It certainly STARTED as a dark fantasy, but it has rather moved away from that.

As for the "what" entries, that was a terrible explanation on my part.

As established, "monster" races are descended from demons who possessed living bodies. Their "souls" are largely evil and they share aspects with demons.
Humans are the same thing, except their ancestors were of divine origin. Humans can't typically use magic, despite having magical souls, because they are too far away from their ancestors.

As for the weapons

>>52255798
The weapons aren't gifted by heaven, they have to be made for each individual person.
The three main material components are:
Meteoric iron
>originally the only way humans could get iron at all; also symbolic of a gift from heaven
>as a side note, meteoric iron is much, much more common in my setting; I may even give the world a ring
Iron distilled from the user's blood
>only requires a very, very small amount, symbolic of sacrifice, also used to establish the user's connection with their weapon
Silver, preferably ancestral
>many families hoard silver in the hopes of one day being able to pass it on to a child who can join the order.

Also, the materials used for the hilt, pommel, grip, etc are typically something meaningful or symbolic. As is the shape of the weapon.
Aspirants are required to gather their materials themselves with very little guidance. The materials the aspirant gathers and the shape they choose for their weapon can determine what type of person they are or will be. Sort of like the "good for charms" or "good for curses" bit about wands in Harry Potter, except the person getting the weapon chooses the materials.

The weapons themselves often look rather poor. Since they need to be "cold iron," they aren't forged into real steel. Many actually look like pieces of cast iron. They are only strong/sharp/powerful/etc because of the magic used to make them.

--------
This is all still a work in progress, of course. I'm trying to work out the kinks.

I'm developing a horror setting based in the Victorian era. A problem I'm having is justifying the existence of smaller settlements when there are dangerous monsters around. I could include some localized aspect of the town that keeps monsters away or restrict smaller settlements to only being in areas that are naturally defensible. I want smaller towns to be somewhat frequent so players have more places to stop on their travels, but I also want the world to still feel dangerous. How can I include both?

>>52256126
First, what do you mean by horror?
Horror typically has one scary thing, one monster or set group of monsters. I can't recall any Lovecraft stories in which Dagon worshipers, cultists of Yog Sothoth, and Nyarlathotep himself all show up at once.

Just have the monsters and scary stuff be uncommon, or even rare. Have the baddies be smart and subtle enough that much of their work can reasonably be attributed to accidents or foul play by humans. Hell, throw in some red herrings.
If your players/investigators have an equal chance of finding out that nothing sinister was happening at all as they do running into a madman or an actual monster, it will help put them on edge.
If every strange happening is a monster, then that certainty will rob tension from your story. The best horror stories are all about the suspense.

>>52256126
If you can defend your home reliably, it might make sense to build small, self-sustaining enclaves, rather than urban monstrocities reliant on influx from outside. What if ogres take over the roads to your city? Famine.

I am currently considering writing some supernatural lore which makes magic being incapable of attacking humans in their homes, which makes any kind of settlements fine. Farmers might need to make sure they live in the fields so they can never be caught outside, or something.

>>52237019
It looks flooded out, in truth.
Too many mountain ranges as well.
For all those mountains, you sure are severely lacking in hills.
Lots of your deserts seem to be on the mountains as well.
You also wouldn't find so many deserts on islands, as the moist air constantly bombarding the place would hamper desertification.

>>52256231
>I am currently considering writing some supernatural lore which makes magic being incapable of attacking humans in their homes
I have a go-to way of working that.

When God, or the gods, was/were creating reality, they granted magic to their creations only conditionally. Those to whom they granted magic first had to agree to be bound by certain laws, such as not being able to enter a human's home without permission. Breaking those laws has bad consequences.
That's why demons can't lie, fairies can't enter your house without permission, vampires can't enter a church, magic has rules, and wizards never get laid.

>>52256313
I myself didn't actually make it so they can't attack people in home, period, but rather established that all fae are bound by sacred hospitality. They can break or sneak in, but if they are invited, they can't harm anyone under the roof unless they attack first. As an amusing side-effect this means that any supernatural attack can be instantly thwarted by saying "Please come in".

>>52256362
Have you ever read the Artemis Fowl books? It has something like that in it.

If you are doing the hospitality thing, though, the usual Western tradition is that the host has to offer food and drink, which the guest has to eat and... drink, before it actually kicks in.

I could go into the logic behind that, but it's too early to be talking about semen.

>>52256193
The setting is somewhat similar to Bloodborne, but with a larger variety of monsters and spread across the world instead of just in one area. Of course, there are human antagonists as well, like cults, though the setting is low magic.

>>52256231
That was sort of the idea. In the past, before monsters became more common, settlements were more common. But those in areas that aren't safe were wiped out. The ones that survived were large cities that were already heavily fortified, or that had some sort of natural defense, like needing to cross a bridge or having that localized anti-monster substance.

>>52256399
>If you are doing the hospitality thing, though, the usual Western tradition is that the host has to offer food and drink, which the guest has to eat and... drink, before it actually kicks in.
Yeah, I'm aware of the tradition, but I've decided to make it more unilateral than regular tradition.

>>52256275
All fair points, though I will say the mountain markers are abstractions. They also aren't super high. The deserts are helped along by largely being based in the horse latitude. There might also be some looseness to the islands' scale. The larger of the muddle isles is between Britain and Ireland in size.

>>52256433
Works for me.

>>52256404
>The setting is somewhat similar to Bloodborne
Not either of those anons, but I saw this coming as soon as you said "horror setting based in the Victorian era." And I'm telling you this because I bet others will too. You should definitely make sure your setting is different enough that people won't just dismiss the setting as a Bloodborne ripoff.

>>52256573
While I am inspired by it, I wouldn't say I would avoid being different to it on purpose. It would be like D&D trying to insist it wasn't inspired by Tolkien. I'm going for an audience that would probably enjoy a game set in a world similar to Bloodborne, but there are other cultures too, as well as the ability to use your own setting, as long as the right horror tone is maintained.

File: drifter_by_tsabo6-d8o2v7x.jpg (174KB, 797x1003px) Image search: [Google]

174KB, 797x1003px

>>52255798
>see pic
There's a god, El (yes, I'm unoriginal with names) who created this group, which I haven't named yet, which functioned essentially as magic cops, though of course in the West they function more like sheriffs. There are seven different divisions, all named after different angels and having different specializations. So, members of the Raziel division, because that name translates to "secrets of God" are more into knowledge, so they know more about magic and work more in things like labs and libraries than hunting down criminals themselves. They have a bunch of Judaism and Christian influence, including Kabbalah and apocrypha that I find interesting, but they're not like typical paladins at all. Part of El's shtick is he wants people to be self-reliant, so he'll teach them things, but he almost never helps them directly. They have magical badges which they can use for abilities, like they can make a shield for shootouts. They also have magical guns, usually revolvers, that are similar. But their powers are on the low side, they don't turn the setting into DBZ. Part of this is because one of the old divisions, Azazel, had a lot of power, but they started abusing it, so the entire division was destroyed and a new division, Sataniel, took their place. But there are still quite a few Azazel members out there, dealing with demons and other dark forces, becoming a fallen angel analog. The Sataniel division was designed to prevent something like that from ever happening again, so they function as internal affairs. They're not evil, obviously, but they are certainly looked down on by the other divisions due to the nature of their job.

Anyway, other than the regular crimes of the various races of this North America analog (Occidia), a lot of their time is taken up defending civilization from the dangers of the unsettled wilds. Including demonic invasions, cults headed by insane necromancers, and wildlife right out of Monster Hunter.

>>52255798
>>52257502
OK, enough about my setting.

>Cold iron
So, why don't people just use that then?

>Fighting fire with fire
How could that ever turn out well?

>A spirit CAN possess an object, but it takes a lot of energy to do anything with a body like that.
I guess if you wanted to justify it, you could say something like it's easier to possess a body because a body is made to "work" with a spirit/soul. I do like the idea of demons possessing corpses though. Seems like it could be an interesting take on zombies.

>Depends on the race
So, what races do you have in your setting anyway? Are there any sapient, non-demonic races besides humans?

>It certainly STARTED as a dark fantasy, but it has rather moved away from that.
Yeah, I think the genre is definitely something you should keep checking up on, because it certainly seems to me that it's changed. There are elements of it there, like fighting demons with possession, as you said. Since you're still developing it, I think it's fine for now, but the finalized version definitely should have a consistent mood/genre.

>"what" entries
I guess I'm most confused over how exactly the should work, especially in regards to magic.

>>52255959
>The weapons aren't gifted by heaven, they have to be made for each individual person.
Ah, mine are similar. Anyway, I feel like there's a bit of a disconnect in this post and what you originally said the weapons were like. Like, these sound like something I think I could see in a dark fantasy setting, as they're basically fucked up metal wands. Actually, that might be something interesting, making them poor for actual combat, or maybe making it so the more magical-oriented ones are less combat-efficient. Could just be me though.

>>52257715
>>52255959
Thinking about it some more, I think that when you made the weapons more powerful is when the dark fantasy feel of the setting started getting drowned out. I just feel like what you describe here >>52255959 is far more fitting of a dark fantasy setting than what you describe here >>52246806

>>52257502
I like it. The idea of each division having its own angelic patron and a different specialty is great. I assume a party could include a mix of divisions?
I'd like to hear more about the weapons. What type of powers do they have, and do they need specialized ammo or will any bullet of the right caliber work?
How about races? Is it an all human setting?

>why don't people just use that then?
They do, a lot. But regular iron, and silver for that matter, isn't a very good material for a weapon. Iron and silver hurt spirits, but make poor weapons. Steel and bronze make great weapons, but don't harm spirits. This matters when a spirit possesses a body.
A spirit weapon user is an experienced warrior trained to kill demons and armed with a weapon that can kill a possessed boy and banish the demon at the same time.

>How could that ever turn out well?
It didn't. Doing so is currently outlawed.

>races?
Only 2 playable: humans and sorcerers. Sorcerers are my tieflings. They operate a bit like DnD sorcerers and are descended from humans who used the willing possession magic. They tend to have horns, tails, and other demon-like features.
Everything else is an npc race, and probably a monster.

>they're basically fucked up metal wands
That's what I'm going for. Warrior-oriented ones have to use their "magic" to make their weapon effective, mage-oriented ones don't bother.
>magical-oriented ones are less combat-efficient
Spot on. Most mage ones just make a ritual dagger.

I'm still working on the magic. I have a vague idea of it being powered by the soul, and needing blood to work outside of the body. Not in a blood sacrifice way, but that you need to form a connection to whatever it is you're magic-ing, and blood gives you a very strong connection.
Still only a basic concept at this point, though.

>>52257502
Is this organization run independently or by the government?
Also, what is the government like in your setting?

It think it's time for some good 'ole questions.

>Who is the greatest hero of our setting?

>Does this person still live?

>What is their greatest exploit?

>How do the people of today view this person?

>How do this person's enemies (or their descendants) view him or her?

>What is the most obvious way this person has affected the world?

>What is this person's greatest secret? What would embarrass them the most if it became public knowledge?

I need some help with Rangers (Well, one in particular, a character).
I am taking a more light-armored warrior approach to him, closer to LotR. (Unoriginal I know, but its literally the source material.) However, I think it would be interesting to have him use a spear as a main weapon. How pointless would that be with a bow? (Im talking less mechanically more design wise.)

>>52262991
The biggest issue would probably be having to carry two long, heavy pieces of wood. A spear is a great weapon, but it's awkward to carry if you happen to have a bow (even a small one) and supplies as well.
But then, the same can be said about the classic longsword, and there are are historical instances of spearmen with bows. At least, I know of one: the Persian Immortals. They carried wicker shields, spears with butts shaped like apples, and short bows (with five arrows, if I recall). They weren't exactly rangers, though.

>>52263073
Should I swap it out for a short sword or something then? Its not exactly a high fantasy setting.

>>52263227
choose what you want. a spear and a really short mongolian style recurve would probably be fine. he could have a spear and 10 javelins to throw, etc etc

>>52263227
You could go really off the rails and have him use a spear and a sling. You can do some nasty shit with a sling and lead bullets.
The Rhodian slingers used to carry three slings of different lengths, one each for short, medium, and long range. They're better weapons than people give them credit for.

Just a thought.

>>52211968
>>52212220
>>52211878
What the two other guys said is bullshit. In Tribal Regions of Europe (including Britain, deforestation wasn't big in britain before the romans came along) people believed everything had a spirit and a life energy, and trees were only cut down if necessary. that stopped deforestation.

>>52263306
That sounds like a really kick ass combo, might go with this.

>>52263417
It's also rather practical. Both slings and spears are far easier to maintain or replace than bows and swords.

>>52213068
Dragonball got away with it just fine

>>52260142
>The idea of each division having its own angelic patron and a different specialty is great.
Thank you very much.

>I assume a party could include a mix of divisions?
Yes, though divisions usually keep to themselves.

>I'd like to hear more about the weapons. What type of powers do they have, and do they need specialized ammo or will any bullet of the right caliber work?
To be honest, I haven't really gotten that far with the weapons themselves. Kinda embarrassing now that I think about it. I'll try to flesh this out next. Thanks for pointing this out.

>Is it an all human setting?
No, I really like doing the fantasy kitchen sink thing, though humans are pretty common. Other than them, you have the wild elves, the Native American analog. There are other races from other places, but these two are the most common in this setting.

>They do, a lot.
Huh, seems interesting putting weapons in a duality like that.

>It didn't. Doing so is currently outlawed.
Saw that coming.

>Only 2 playable: humans and sorcerers.
Ah, OK. Man, I need to incorporate tieflings too, I just keep flipflopping on them.

>needing blood to work outside of the body
Like, do you have to smear blood on something to affect it with magic?

>>52261121
Damn, good questions, haven't thought about this much. Well, I guess they would be run by the current government, which would be democratic or republic. It may have been created by El, or maybe he just gave people the idea for it. The government is secular, and has no royalty or caste system. It basically tries to be a meritocracy.

File: Birds ARE Dinosaurs (Bearded Vulture).jpg (165KB, 500x500px) Image search: [Google]

165KB, 500x500px

>>52213068
I guess it depends on the dinosaurs. But in all seriousness, I asked more or less the same thing a while ago, and the answer I got was basically that it was absolutely fine as long as they gelled with the setting.

>>52264448
You may want to check out the "Wild Cards" pages on 1d4chan. It was a magical west setting /tg/ worked on several years back. It might provide some inspiration, especially since it also had a focus on magical guns.

Weird est settings are a hell of a lot of fun. There's an interesting indie skirmish game called Exiles, by a small company called Mindworm (I think). If they're still around, you should check that out too.

>Like, do you have to smear blood on something to affect it with magic?
That's what I'm leaning towards, but it would only apply to magic used by the soul weapon users. Or at least it would be necessary for some of their magic. Like I said, still a work in progress.
I might have that be a restriction for people who only dabble in magic, with mage-focused characters eventually being able to work past that requirement. Sort of have it be like training wheels.

>>52264583
>Google Exiles by Mindworm
Wow, that blog page is not doing them any favors.

What are some good non-ghosty, non-skeletal undead to use?

>>52266088
Zombies. But I'm just going to assume you forget them in your exclusions. Why are you asking exactly, anyway?

90% of my world is owned by a consortium of 25 trade families. Each race originated in a certain section, elves being Mediterranean-y etc. but as their nations grew the land turned into basically one big melting pot. Since borders became essentially non-existent nations barely functioned in governing. Instead a group of merchants gained all the power simply through money and now basically control the entire world.
It's pretty comfy, there's no outright war, and all things are kept fairly in check, but most of my stories have the players trying to subvert the Jewish control. Usually exposing some sort of corruption at the core of their practices.

>>52266139
I'm trying to flesh out the types of undead in my setting. I already have things zombies, mummies, ghouls, vampires, and wendigos. The undead and necromancy in the setting is powered by a callous god of life that doesn't care about the state of life, just life in general. Because of that, I'm trying to go with the fleshier takes on undead.

>>52266386
Fallen Lamassu. Once protective forces for a deity, now they serve darker purposes

>>52243794
Neat, thanks!

>>52262818

>Who is the greatest hero of our setting?
Rolan the Plunderer
>Does this person still live?
No, he died
>What is their greatest exploit?
He travelled across the known world, establishing trade routes and stealing gold from zombie orcs
>How do the people of today view this person?
As a great folk hero
>How do this person's enemies (or their descendants) view him or her?
Nobody really remembers his enemies. He used to be a pirate and smuggler in his youth, but nobody remembers him from that time. His famous deeds mostly revolved around fighting mindless beasts
>What is the most obvious way this person has affected the world?
Aside from establishing trade routes and spreading a lot of information about various cultures, he also established one of the most influential feudal powers (Although he didn't leave heirs himself, his close friend became the ruler after his death and started a proper dynasty)
>What is this person's greatest secret? What would embarrass them the most if it became public knowledge?
He did found the promised land he was looking for. But it's a smoldering wasteland.

>>52262818
>Who is the greatest hero of our setting?
The Cynosar
>>Does this person still live?
Not really. He is reincarnated.
>What is their greatest exploit?
Ripping individuality from the Unmaker.
>How do the people of today view this person?
Hero God.
>>How do this person's enemies (or their descendants) view him or her?
Heretic and food.
>>What is the most obvious way this person has affected the world?
He brought about the free-thinking Nexians.
>What is this person's greatest secret? What would embarrass them the most if it became public knowledge?
The Unmaker may have let him go, rather than ripping himself from it.

>>52268618
To have your world's favored hero be a man of peace instead of a great warrior or conqueror is an interesting idea.
Can I take it that his native language became the lingua franca in your setting?

>>52268746
You hint at a lot here.
Might I ask what a Nexian is?

>>52269550
>Might I ask what a Nexian is?

Nega-Buddhist Ooze people. Once part of a collective that came about essentially by the Instrumentality of Evangelion, the Cynosar tore individuality from the collective god known as the Unmaker. They now practice living a life with attachments, to focus form and keep the self.

>>52269601
I just got the image of Jabba the Hutt surrounded by a hoard of riches saying, "I own, therefore I am."

>>52269616
That's an interesting way of putting it, but I was thinking of attachments in a more metaphysical way. "I am the tree, therefore I form the tree" Their entire homeland is basically a giant silver sea made of themselves, with islands, plants, animals, buildings, and all composed of a Nexian who has focused to live that way.

I do like the idea of Nexian Trade Princes through.

>>52269616
>>52269637

I may still play around with this idea though. I really like the concept of Nexians equating the self with their possessions.

"I own the sword, therefore I am the sword."

>>52269637
"Hey, Bob. Let's go back to your place. Where do you live?"
"In Jeff."
"What, is he your roommate, or something?"
"He is the room."

In all seriousness, though, that is a very striking concept I haven't heard before. I imagine a human visitor would get really freaked out after awhile. Can they form more humanoid bodies to travel with, or something along those lines?

I could never be a Nexian. I'd spend all day singing the "Be Our Guest" song from Beauty and the Beast.

>>52269701
>Can they form more humanoid bodies to travel with, or something along those lines?

They can if their focus is to do so, though the form is difficult to maintain when they're too young and get too old. Too young and their thoughts are scattered and focus is easily lost. Too old and the strain of keeping focus becomes too much to maintain. Eventually each Nexian returns to the silvery sea from which they're birthed and reincarnate into a new young Nexian.

So my setting has many celestial bodies that represent the elements of reality.

It's a geocentric model, but im curious if they should all be moons, or should some be moons and others planets?

There are 7 celestial bodies in total. The main world, and six others.

>>52271058
It can't be all moons. Moons are just natural satellites, they have to orbit something. Just please don't make it as headache-inducing as Mirrodin, planet orbited by five celestial bodies that are referred to both as suns and as moons.

>>52271170
Actually, in a geocentric universe, everything (Moons, Sun, all other plantets) are orbiting around the fucking planet by definition. To be honest, defining moon as a "natural satellite" makes no sense in this context. No. Moon is the BIG SHINY THING that can be seen better at night. That is all the relevant understanding of a "moon" in a world that has completely different cosmology than our. You have to abandon scientific perspective here.

>planet orbited by five celestial bodies that are referred to both as suns and as moons.
That actually sounds interesting as fuck.

>>52271170
Only the Sphere of Fire is the sun, it only produces light.

There is still the Spheres of Earth, Air, Water, Mind, and Body.

As it's a geocentric model, should they all be moons, or should some be moons as in the BIG SHINY at night, or should they be more distant planets sort of thing?

>>52271225
>That actually sounds interesting as fuck.
Ugh, fine. These... things were actually giant sources of mana, that apparently were once held inside Mirrodin (this is assumed since releasing the green one is a plot point). Mirrodin is actually pretty interesting, it's an artificial plane (dimension/world) where metal is a part of nature. Like, most lifeforms have some sort of metal growth on them naturally. Vamps don't suck blood through fangs, they suck blood through foot-long metal syringes that make up their middle and ring fingers. And their exposed intestines are basically just metal tubes. In addition, many of the species on Mirrodin were abducted from other planes and evolved to adapt to Mirrodin. MTG has some awesome settings. The sun-moon thing still bugs me though.

>>52271248
Bleh, geocentrism confuses me. Only thing I can think to say is that opposing spheres should be oppisite of one another. Doesn't help much I know, sorry.

>>52269550
>Can I take it that his native language became the lingua franca in your setting?
Only maybe because he is basically Franc.

>>52273725
Fellow con-langers, how might the languages of mankind change and adapt over 1,000 years following a nuclear war that blasted everyone back to the age of early agriculture?

>>52274783
A lot probably. Have you seen middle English? Especially if exchange is still possible between people.

You are probably better off to never elaborate on this, because there's no way to produce something that consistently doesn't sound stupid and just claim someone speaks language you do not understand/provide translation in modern language when they do.

>>52274783
Please just make it mostly similar to modern languages. I remember reading a comic called Spaceman where most of the dialogue was in this futuristic, pseudo-ghetto slang, and it was kind of irritating having to decipher what every single sentence meant. Could just be me though.

>>52274822
I don't really plan on having to show many conversations in it, it'll mostly be written background filler. I'm just working out the mechanics of it because I want to.

I imagine cultures would probably intermingle moreso, what with all pre-existing countries totally wiped out. I'm kind of imagining a shuffling of languages, so English would probably start to blend with Spanish in america, and all of the European languages would merge together again. As technology progresses though, lines would end up drawn in the sand again, and new languages formed independently behind borders. So I'm thinking about languages from the time looking like a mashup of everything in the rough area, and then developed over a long period of time.

I'm wondering if, given that amount of time, how recognizable the original languages would look, how much the phoneme library would have changed, etc.

File: 1490044258105.jpg (118KB, 1024x798px) Image search: [Google]

118KB, 1024x798px

bump

>>52170689
congratulations you reinvented the leviathan?

Exactly how do you keep a mostly unified culture scattered?

>>52278340
Research Jewish history.

File: penko gelev telepathist.jpg (137KB, 900x703px) Image search: [Google]

137KB, 900x703px

What kind of art inspires you most

>>52274903
The author probably just read A Clockwork Orange.

File: 1381461872635.gif (94KB, 325x244px) Image search: [Google]

94KB, 325x244px

>>52170063
I can't come up with a name for my setting's magic for the life of me.

It's essentially reverse engineered from eldritch beings

What are some names I could use? The only ones I can think of right now is Aethermancy or Aethertech

>>52279318
Elsarchy

>>52278761
Nah, I'm thinking more Kurdish

>>52279341
Elsarchy? What's the root word? Elsa?

Disney Princess-omancy?

File: anatomy_shite.png (312KB, 794x1157px) Image search: [Google]

312KB, 794x1157px

>>52279318
Here's bunch of words that might help you out forming/choosing it:

>Thaumaturgy ( miracle work )
>Theurgy ( work of deity )
>Animism ( everything natural has spiritual qualities )
>Occultism
>Evocation ( calling worth higher being for magic spell )
>Malificium ( malevolent sorcery )
>Mediumship ( intermediating between living and spirits of dead )
>Enochian ( occult / angelic language )
>Nagual ( Mesoamerican term for person with power to transform into animal form )
>Stregheria ( Italian-American witchcraft )

>>52278794
Hard to say.
Sorta comfy high/medium fantasy stuff, not necessarily realistic. Intriguing, comfy, exotic locales and landscapes. Etc.

>>52266088
Repurposed corpses. Undead constructs. Naturally undead creatures?

Is integrating Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs into a mythology too silly or just silly enough?

>>52279690
I think you could get away with it if you just re-flavor it.

>>52279874
Well if I could sum it up

>Beginning of time: Humans were super powerful and awesome
>Guy in charge discovers they can die
>Decides to fuck with science and stuff and creates first undead
>Realizes Gods don't like this
>Decides to make a Civil War happen
>A load of shit happens including a beautiful Goddess gouging her eyes out and declaring herself ugly, Head God eating his own son in insanity
>War were declared
>Youngest daughter of human royal family (who is sickly and weak comparatively) runs away because daddy is cuckoo
>Runs into what will become the Seven Great Ancestor Dwarfs (who at this time were weak and only mined a little
>They protect her, build a huge fuck off fortress and slowly become more dorfy
>Dad manages to poison her
>Similarly sickly human comes along and wakes her up with a kiss because reasons
>They become the ancestors to all humanity, meaning humans are much weaker now than they used to be

That's pretty much the jist of my creation myth, leaving out a shitload of stuff including not!Fingolfin and a Jester god trolling the evil human king. Submitted for your approval I guess.

File: ghibli.jpg (372KB, 1366x768px) Image search: [Google]

372KB, 1366x768px

>>52170063
>Starter question

Well, I'm super new to this but I'm aiming for VERY comfy, since I'm going to be making my world a mosiac of Miyazaki-type works. Probably going to be doing something in Ryuutama or Golden Sky Stories

This is more daunting than I thought...

>>52280071
oh

>>52279630
Not the original anon, but Malifiturgy sounds bretty cool

>>52170063
>>How comfy is your world?
If you consider a fantasy world going through the industrial revolution, with all the socio-economic consequences that go along wiht it, as a comfy place to live, than sure. If you're of the working class though, chances are that life is going to be pretty miserable for you.

Is it really worth trying to do something on the scale of Elder Scrolls?

I just fucking love how weird MK's writing is and want to capture it in a bottle to use in my own settings.

>>52280911

>Is it really worth trying to do something on the scale of Elder Scrolls?

Weird question. Do you think it's worth it? Does your players think it'd be worth it?

>>52280911
I want to do the same, but know I wouldn't survive what it takes.