/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

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Does anyone have any industrial-era settings?

>>52282808
How does "Dys" sound as a magical particle discovered via science?

Comes from the Latin prefix dis

>>52283991

What do you mean by industrial era?

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>>52284143

Anything that might resemble our world from around 1870-1945. Widespread pre-information age industrialized technology.

>>52284328
Not him, but I LOVE this sort of setting. If I wasn't revamping an older, Early Modern Planeshift War setting, I'd be down for some Not!-WWI shenanigans.

Jesus, I just described WWI as "shenanigans".

>>52284070
What does "dis" mean in latin?

>>52284328

Well then I guess I have that in my post apocalypse setting. No internet, nothing like that.

Hell my federal remnants out of the PNW are pretty much 40's america only well... the year is about 2030.

>>52284408
I'm pretty sure both "dis" and "dys" both mean "bad" in Latin.

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>>52284432
So we're talking about Evil/Black Magic? But also scientifically discernible?

I like it.

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>>52282808

Not fully formed in my head yet, but I kind of like the idea of titans/giants waking up from the earth every X years

>>52284070
Is it supposed to be named after a circle of Hell?

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>>52284464

>>52284432
I'm not Latin expert, but dictionary says nothing of the sort. It's mostly known for being a negation prefix in both Latin and English.

>>52284522
Original anon here. Went to eat

No, but it's a happy little accident. Magic is a field of science that people /really/ shouldn't be tinkering into but they do anyways because of their overwhelming curiosity

Where do humans come from in your fantasy worlds?

>>52284395

I had a pretty expansive Freemind thing set up with the details of a WWI-Inspired setting. It was kind of all pointless though, there wasn't any room for character individuality really since it was all centered around a non-human race with very few emotions and such.

>>52285014
Yeah, that doesn't sound too conducive to player input.

>>52285216

I like thinking of such things though, even if just for the sake of it. I should come up with something a bit more subtle.

>>52284771
The sunken continent of Atlantis.

>>52285298
I admit it's fun, but then you got a setting no one wants to play. ;_;

>>52285321

Truth be told, I've always been more interested in dreaming this stuff up than actually playing anything.

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>>52285417
Well then you be you. And never let the downers here tell you otherwise.

Tell us of your setting anon. I got to get to sleep, but I can see it later.

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>>52284771
Like all intelligent creatures, they emerged from primordial chaos and eventually transistioned to physical plane along with Caowe.

>>52284771
Evolved from elves, as a result of the magical fallout from a not!Nuke

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>>52282808
>>What sort of wildlife inhabits your world?
All kinds of animals, however since the world is covered in bodies of dead gods, large worms, parasites and carrion eaters are the norm.
>>Are any of them sapient?
The great beasts with magical powers usually posses a measure of intelligence.
>>What is your world's equivalent to a Leviathan?
You mean giant scary sea monster that breathes fire or just a creature with awe inspiring power?
>>52284771
They were created by the god of thunder near the southmost seashore before the Second war of the Forefathers.

>>52284771
Made from some manner of earth like all the terran races
Humans came from dirt
Halflings from clay
Dwarves from deep stone
Goliath from high rock


On another note: I need advice on creating a social structure for my goliath. I want them to be pastoral nomads, but I also want to involve their skin markings, which they believe tells their fate, as central to their culture. I was thinking to make a caste system based on what kind of markings they have, so are there any examples of caste structures among nomads I could draw from? My google-fu is weak and I'm getting surprisingly few examples

>>52287674
Are these skin markings genetic or are they random? What if a child with the skin markings of a higher caste is born in a lower caste family

>>52284452
>>52284563
Ah, looked it up, sorry. "dys" can mean "bad" but it's Greek. "dis" is Latin, but it doesn't have the meaning I thought it did. I was fooled by false cognates.

>>52282808
>>What sort of wildlife inhabits your world?
>>Are any of them sapient?
How precisely can you have sapient wildlife?

>>52288058
Inheritable, though I am open to suggestions. Mainly I'd like to understand how a caste society would play out among nomads and then adjust as appropriate

>>52285308
continent?

How much is too much in making your world alien in Worldbuilding?

I am making a setting that is post apocalyptic but the apocalypse happened to a cyberpunk world (yes the punks caused it). This means that the apocalypse has fragments of cyberspace and robots as ruins and some hanging around. However as I started building I felt increasingly restricted by Geography (either europe or North America) and I would rather just make an entirely new world, so I can make my geography and places without any restrictions.

At that point am I putting too much in my setting? The setting idea is hard enough to convey, so saying its in a fictional world is pushing the weirdness. Most post apocalypse usually restrict itself to Earth to not be too alien.

>>52290251
What's the exact issue with Earth geography you're dealing with?

>>52290292
Mostly, that I designed factions first before geography (I usually build fantasy worlds) so when I looked on the map for where those factions would fit, I found that the geography did not fit, ie. The factions I meant to be next to each other and at conflict instead had several others inbetween them. I guess I could twist some geography, but at that point I asked myself what's the point with even keeping Earth Geography.

What programs do you guys use to collate your worldbuilding information? Mines just a loose collection of .txt files, poorly drawn .jpg maps and a boatload of inspiration fodder

>>52290341
Not him, but just say that it's far enough ahead that people have either gone to other planets or made large space stations to live in, like ringworlds.

>>52288302
>How precisely can you have sapient wildlife?
Theoretically (at least within the realms of fantasy) you can think of non-social sapient creatures: creatures that possess human-like mental capacity and perspectives, but do not form civilization or use tools. From an evolutionary perspective, it may not make sense, but from a symbolic or mythological point of view it's fairly common.
Think of the speaking animals from various stories, like the wolfs, boars and monkeys from Princess Mononoke. Sapient dragons are a common trope too.

>>52289491
>Mainly I'd like to understand how a caste society would play out among nomads
If real world is anything to go by, then not very well. Non-settled life does not play very well into social stratification and perhaps more importantly - institutional role distinction. To put it bluntly: it's much more difficult to separate people by wealth when you can only own shit you can carry around yourself (of course, size of your herd is indication of your wealth, but it's not quite as big of a social startificator as say, the size of your house). And more importantly, when on the road, you need a solid degree of versatility: everyone kinda needs to furfill any possible role, because your social group is never going to be quite large enough to afford reliable number of specialized workers. Everyone needs to be an animal herder. You can't have a chef or a blacksmith or specialized priest if you are a member of a 50+ tribe consistently on a road, constantly having to tackle your restless herd and rarely staying at any one place for more than a few days.

Nomadic societies tend to be fairly socially and culturally uniform. Ethic bounds between individual tribes and families exist, but not castes: those require a more complex social hierarchies, more differenciated occupation roles, and those need higher population density and more settled lifestyle.
At least that is the theory here in real world, anyway.

>>52290365
That's a really good idea. It would actually totally fit with the general tone of the world I am trying to build.

>>52290377
>To put it bluntly: it's much more difficult to separate people by wealth when you can only own shit you can carry around yourself (of course, size of your herd is indication of your wealth, but it's not quite as big of a social startificator as say, the size of your house).
From what I understand most pastoral nomads weren't truly nomadic, but had seasonal settlements they'd migrate to and from as cattle grazing required, so there'd be opportunity to splurge on opulent homes and other more stationary commodities. Probably not all that much since they're not gonna live there half the time, but it's something

>>52290398
This would just go back to my original problem however. I am really stacking a lot of premises on top of each other, and that might get wa too confusing.

>>52290377
Castes are usually insular, so an entire "tribe" may simply be of a single caste. Maybe the different castes travel separately most of the time, only getting together for political/trade reasons.

One idea could be that the different castes specialize in husbandry for a particular kind of herd animal, and get together to trade for what's needed - get dairy/meat from the cow herder caste, wool and such from the sheepherder caste, riding beasts from the...whatever can carry a goliath caste, etc. Perhaps there's a caste just for the people who go between the different herds. Dunno how all that would interact with the birthmarks though.

>>52289802
It's like an island, but bigger.

>>52290617
>From what I understand most pastoral nomads weren't truly nomadic,
Most pastoral nomads were fully nomadic. Seasonal camps don't make you not-nomadic, and even though you might stop in your tracks for longer (few weeks, upwards of a month or so), the defining characteristic of nomadic people was that they did NOT build permanent settlement. Even their seasonal camps would usually not be at the exact same spot. They would not build permanent structures there either.
You don't build an expensive fucking house to leave it rotting, free for anyone to loot it or take it over just so you could go there once in a year for a month.
Nomadic people carry their homes with them. That is the definition of being a nomad.

>>52290860
All of that requires A) reliable infrastructure and B) reliable centralized government. Nomads generally lack both. Again: you are a nomad. On the move 90% of the time. Spread very thinly across huge open landscapes.

You can't specialize. You can't rely on other tribes to raise food: you are going to be wandering around on a MASSIVE territory without being sure that you'll even fucking run into anyone else for months. Much less being sure that the one you run into is going to be a fucking diary caste nomad.

Again: you can do anything you want in fantasy, but from a real world anthropology perspective, this makes ZERO sense. Imagine having to rely on baker and a butcher shops that move in random direction upwards of 40 kilometers EVERY FUCKING DAY. Not a good idea.
Nomadic tribes need to be self-sufficient because nomadic lifestyle means you inevitably going to be relying on yourself and only yourself for absolute majority of the year.
And that is why significant social and economic specialization makes little sense for nomads.

>>52290840
I mean, the folk in this thread seem to get what you're going for. I know it seems contrary to logic, reason, and Almighty God, but have faith in your players.

>>52291116
Hey I'm just going by the wiki pages
>Nomadic pastoralism is a form of pastoralism when livestock are herded in order to find fresh pastures on which to graze. Strictly speaking, true nomads follow an irregular pattern of movement, in contrast with transhumance where seasonal pastures are fixed.[1] However this distinction is often not observed and the term nomad used for both—in historical cases the regularity of movements is often unknown in any case.
>Transhumance is a type of nomadism or pastoralism, a seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (vertical transhumance), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Generally only the herds travel, with a certain number of people necessary to tend them, while the main population stays at the base. In contrast, horizontal transhumance is more susceptible to being disrupted by climatic, economic or political change

And as it turns out there are semi-nomadic people with a caste system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuareg_people#Social_stratification

Need some help with some sci-fi worldbuilding.

I'm putting together a random planet roller that uses an expanded form of Stars Without Number's Planet Tags, based on a d100 instead of d10+d6; they're also divided into 10-line categories.

I'm looking for some suggestions to fill some of them out.

Here's my Resources column, one of the ones that I'm most stuck on:

RESOURCES
>1- Fuel
>2- Industrial Ore
>3- Precious Stones
>4- Arable Land
>5- Medicinal Plants
>6- Miraculous Elements
>7- Natural Polymers
>8-
>9-
>10-

I'd appreciate suggestions for the other three.

>>52291919
How about some animal stuff? Animals that can be harvested for one reason or another. Maybe fish?

And water is a huge one, I'm surprised you don't already have that.

Then there's always unobtanium.

>>52292516
Unobtanium is what I mean by "miraculous elements".

There's another column for kinds of native life, but that entry fits here too.

>>52292565
Ah, I see.

How about archaeotech? Ruins, technology, and info from ancient alien cultures.

>>52292596
That works too; I'll add "Salvage" and "Livestock", which means I need one more. Thanks for the help!

>>52292623
Maybe 10 is a combination of two different resources on the same planet?

>>52292623
Water. Fresh water is super, super important.

>>52292856
that I think depends upon the setting itself. In a lot of softer SF water is fairly plentiful; in harder SF, liquid water is a rarity.

I wonder if I can differentiate between "Fuel" as "the stuff spaceships run on" and "Fuel" as "the stuff cultures use for power."

Here's another one I'm working out. It covers natural hazards other than native life that will kill you or basic characteristics of the planet (such as gravity or atmosphere):

HAZARDS
>1- Radioactivity
>2- Toxic Water Supply
>3- Disease
>4- Bollide Strikes
>5- Seismic Instability
>6- Megastorms
>7- Solar Flares
>8-
>9-
>10-

Any ideas?

>>52293233

Should add the following to that list
> Weak Magnetosphere - The Weaken Magnetosphere makes the planet more to outer space radiation, and solar winds. Planets like these could still exist and be habitable but would require a thick atmosphere kind of like Venus.
> Wobbling Axial Tilt - Axial Tilt of the planet is unstable to Tidal Forces from other celestial bodies or rarely internal forces of the planet itself. You get really wild seasons/climatology with this scenario.
> Hazardous Alien Elements - Imagine going to a planet and discovering an element endemic to that planet in a large enough quantity that life is made to exclusively adapt to this element. Can be a Solid, Liquid, or Gaseous element.

>>52282808
How long is your war right now? The current Ibacca war has been going on for about 41 years now.

>>52294219
The war of Ibacca was basically a "Space Blitzkrieg" in the earliest stages. The Merlods, genocidal extragalactic invaders started attacking it. On that fateful day, January 31st, 2399, the world of Rebirth was lost. All communications were lost, nothing was there, no signals. The last message was
>"WE ARE BEING ATTACKED I REPEA-"
It ends there. Sooner or later, Athena, Juno, and Babylon were attacked as well. Sector command was completely taken by suprise. Sooner or later, the main worlds of Akkadia, New Jeruselem, and Horus Prime were starting to be attacked.

>>52283991
>>52284328

Mine is. It's mostly set in a fantasy version of 1800's Europe and Asia, with the unification of not!Germany by the Orcs in order to form their own nation state. It's very low magic though, as I felt that having magic play too large of a role would ruin the aesthetic.

I'm a history dork, so I love making allusions to real world events in my setting. What would y'all recommend I add in order to really capture the aesthetic of the period?

>>52294532
I'm a sci-fi worldbuilder, and I make allusions sometimes as well. I tend to make them very subtle. Also, can you tell me about a war in your universe,
>>52294219
Just like my original comment.

>>52294567
>Also, can you tell me about a war in your universe,

Currently, we have a low level conflict going on between the people of the partitioned kingdom of Skael, which was divided up between the Gothmaren Imperium and the Kingdom of Illuvan, the former being essentially a fusion between Russia and Mordor, while the latter is aesthetically an Elvish France.

The partition happened 60 years ago, the then High King of Skael had died without an heir and so had plunged the numerous tribes that made up the federation of kingdoms to fight one another to claim the throne. The neighboring Gothmarens and Illuvians saw this bloodshed, with both deciding to bring an end to the conflict before it potentially becomes out of hand. Their armies met at the gates of the city, with war being threatened between both sides before peace talks began so as to prevent a major war between the great powers, resulting in temporary dividing the kingdom in two, for as long as it takes to "bring peace to the region".

The Skaelings, natives of Skael, are traditionally pastoral and as are considered to be quite primitive. They are having their lands currently being bought and sold to outsiders who are colonizing and driving away the natives. Though the land is officially partitioned, neither power exerts its authority for fear of enticing the other. As a result, the region is currently faced with a flood of migrants and fortune seekers who pour into the land, setting up towns that develop into petty fiefdoms and republics that swear loyalty to their respective lieges.

The Petty Realms, as it's now called, is currently in a state of flux. The pre-partition clans who incited the initial conflict still exist, and continue to battle for supremacy over the Skaeling Throne. The natives raid and fight off the colonists in defense of their lands they've lived on for generations, while the colonists fight in order to drive back the uncivilized savages. etc. etc., Would you like to hear more?

>>52284771
They evolved naturally as opposed to being born from the original god of the setting. During the time of the previous race's dominance they were barely-evolved and kept by said previous race as cheap labor and experimental guinnea pigs. When the original race fucked up big time and wounded god, the resulting magical feedback explosion jumpstarted their intelligence and left them the only sentient species on the planet amidst a world full of ruins. They were basically left to their own devices at this point since the original god was split in two and too weak to interact with them, so they could only watch as humans did what they do best - kill each other and fumble in ignorance. It's been about twenty thousand years since then in the setting timeline, and humanity is well into their own version of the Renaissance. Firearms are becoming abundant, art and science are starting to flourish, and humans are starting to become truly curious about the ancient ruins of what came before them.

>>52284771

>>52295080 here

They came from the stars originally (you can breath and fly around in the Aether) riding the backs of flying serpents while conquering and pillaging most of the main continent. They were drafted as mercenaries into some Dwarven and Elven armies, and many eventually became accepted into society and came to settle and interbreed with the native Elves, Orcs, and Dwarves of the world. The Orcs have a special hatred for Humans as a result of them being similarly nomadic, and thus most susceptible to raids while the elves and Dwarves could just hide in their cities.

Thousands of years later, humans have become the majority of the planets population, as well as developing into a multitude of different cultures and ethnicity's. The only humans who still hold on strongly to their ancient nomadic roots are the Skaeling and Iniluuk peoples however, and as a result are deemed to be more primitive and uncivilized, their ancient legends of their origins being noted as mere fairy tales with no basis in science.

What human culture would you say be interesting to integrate into a Goblin race?

I'm going for "former slave/bandit race united under a king and a prophet". I was also thinking of them integrating some human tribes into their warband.

>>52295559
Brazilian desu

>>52295581
They're kind of more northern, guess I should have explained they were in a not!Russia area. I was actually thinking maybe Mongolian.

I could do a Brazilian offshoot faction I guess.

How would you recommend I capture the lightning in a bottle that is the tone and lore style of the Elder Scrolls for my own world?

>>52296461
What specifically do you want? What do you like about it?

>>52296520
The weird mythopeic ramblings and world details mostly.

>>52296992
I guess your main goal should be to show you're "inspired by" rather than ripping it off. Try look into the cultures they were inspired by and twist them to be a little different.

>>52296992
Read Hindu scriptures like the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita. A lot of TES is derived from Indian religions

How do you flesh out a world? Every time I come to these threads, I realize how undeveloped all of my settings are.

>>52297544
You focus on one region at a time, explaining how the people got there and how their individual cultures developed, then go from there to explain how conflicts and rivalries came to be between them.

OK, I give up. I want to use magic weapons in a low(-ish) fantasy setting without ruining the setting and turning it into Exalted or DBZ. Any pointers?

>>52300341
Sounds like you just need the "magic" part of magic weapons not be allowed to get too out of hand. What are some examples of magic weapons you want in your settings, and what are you afraid of happening?

>>52300341
Just keep it simple like Ice enchanted swords, Flaming axes, Weapons that are the bane of a certain race or creature, Maces so heavy they leave small craters upon impact etc.

>>52300408
>>52300750
Well, thanks, I think. Honestly, now I'm wondering why I should even bother with magical weapons. What exactly is the point of them, beyond being MacGuffins?

>>52301871
>What exactly is the point of them, beyond being MacGuffins?

>Ice enchanted swords, Flaming axes, Weapons that are the bane of a certain race or creature, Maces so heavy they leave small craters upon impact etc.
shit's cool yo

How important do you guys find realistic topography and city placement?

I started a campaign without a worldmap and now I'm in a bit of a bind because I have messed up the distances and locations for what I want to do in the end

>>52301882
Sorry, let me try again. Is there any point to magical weapons other than being MacGuffins or "cool"?

>>52301896
Is there any point to worldbuild other than "cool"? Hard to give advice on their purpose when I don't know what you want out of your worldbuild. "Purpose" is a relative term.

>>52301966
OK, I know this sounds stupid, but what about practicality in whatever fantasy world they're in? The people I've thought would use magic weapons are pretty utilitarian, they don't care about cool, they care about what works.

>>52302055
As mentioned, differing damage types have better effectiveness versus certain monsters, as well as some magic weapons just being better than normal weapons, like a longsword that's inexplicably lighter or sharper than it should be allowed to be.

Or to turn things around, what sort of magical effects would make weapons more useful in your setting?

>>52302055
>OK, I know this sounds stupid, but what about practicality in whatever fantasy world they're in? The people I've thought would use magic weapons are pretty utilitarian, they don't care about cool, they care about what works.

A magical weapon is something that takes a certain kind of effort to create. You should not be able to buy them in magic item shops, or enchant them yourself.

Magical weapons should be crafted by a lame fire giant in a hidden mountain, with rare metals said to be the blood of a dead god, and the core of the bone of a demon prince. Or something equally as epic in scope.

It should be a big deal. They were all created for a purpose, and they will be incredibly effective when used for that purpose.

If you're talking about things like +1 weapons, they're just better. You can make them just as interesting by making the requirements of their construction strange. Like, humans cannot make enchanted weapons. They just can't. You need an elf or a dwarf to do so for the minor kinds.

At no point should magical items be considered a mundanity.

>>52302306
>>52302123
I'm really starting to regret this decision. Thanks for the feedback.

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My setting features a race of Ooze-Humanoids, a sort of chimera created by ancient wizards. They are highly fluid (obviously), capable of surviving a lot of punishment due to lacking real organs, but chemically unstable. This last part means they are partly elemental (fire, cold, acid, etc), but also short lived.

I don't know what else to do with them, however. I like the idea of them, but I want to come up with more racial character so players will have some real meat to dig into.

How do you write for a really "alien" race in your settings? Pic unrelated.

>>52284771

From the Clay. They where the most adaptable, so the most widespread.

And the primogenitor of the most subraces, which has made thier stake in the modern world tentative at best

>>52290342
I mostly just fill blocks of paper with sketches, maps, and information about history, cultures, religions, politics, and linguistics.

When I use a computer I do with something basic like notepad as the most important task ahead is getting information out of your head and down in writing, and too many functions and features will distract you from this.

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idea for mappe

>>52302828
Ancient asteroid collision?

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>>52302849
iunno, the idea just evolves as time goes on, the only thing that stays is that it was dickass wizards going fucking apeshit with raw magical power (like they all do, vicious cycle) and dividing everyone in this general area to one of two fates, either they were obliterated in the red zone, or the saw a huge explosion and had a lot of questions until they could get scouts back and forth

>>52296461
>How would you recommend I capture the lightning in a bottle that is the tone and lore style of the Elder Scrolls for my own world?
By studying a lot of actual (preferably lesser known/popular) real world mythology and religionistics.
The only reason why Elders Scrolls is better than most fantasy is because - like Tolkien and unlike most other fantasy - it's not based in other fantasy. It's based on real world oriented research. It's not using tropes because they are common to the genre, it's trying to reconstruct eastern real world philosophies and religions - it's attempting to re-create mythological feeling, not recreate fantasy feeling.
That is what sets it apart. It's not a small goal though. Achieving something like that requires talent and massive amounts of research and effort invested.

>>52300341
>OK, I give up. I want to use magic weapons in a low(-ish) fantasy setting without ruining the setting and turning it into Exalted or DBZ. Any pointers?
Make magic a matter of perspective and narrative, rather than a trope or a system.
Consider item magical only if it has a really interesting STORY behind it. You know - the sword that was the last thing a famous artisan before he commited suicide due to tragic love - the sword that participated in every major historical battle of the last four century - that sword that was used to murder the good king by his very own daughter: that sword is magical.

Magic is boring if it's meaningless: if it does not serve to actually tell interesting stories. Magic as a mechanical property is dull. And actually complete misunderstanding of what magic is supposed to be about: in fiction and real life.

Things should be magical because they represent strange stories. Not merely because you add unrealistic properties to them.

>>52301887
>How important do you guys find realistic topography and city placement?
Depends on the type of settings and fiction you are creating. Some settings are entirely unrealistic, strange and magical. In those cases, unrealistic topography is not only tolerable, it's downright desirable.

If you are making a more grounded settings, however, blatant misunderstanding of basic geography will easily become jarring and distracting from the fiction though. Not a major one - if your players have not actually realized that you messed up some logic of your environments so far, they should not be bothered by it on a map unless it's something REALLY stupid.

Don't forget that if you want to make a map, you don't need to make the map realistic. You can go for highly stylized form to make illogical shit less blatant and evident.

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>>52290342
Why are you not using MS Word or Adobe PDF to store info?

At the very least, use adobe Bridge or a folder to collect everything in one place.

Help whenever I try to worldbuild I spend hours and hours just fleshing out this one little part of my world and then I get sick of it and I have one duchy that is really cool and the rest is almost empty except links to the one duchy

>>52304563
Then just keep doing that for five years and you'll have a full setting

>The moon is a giant congealed mass of horrible monsters just kind of mashed together
>Bad guys create spawn points that's literally just a portal to the moon. This is where every monster in the setting comes from.
>not weird Cthulhu tentacle monsters either. Basic stuff like goblins, skeletons, and dragons and shit.

Is this as awesome and stupid a I think it is or just stupid?

>>52304738
Why is the moon there?

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>>52304738
At least it's not the Lunar Cry.

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>What sort of wildlife inhabits your world?
The regular array of Earth wildlife, plus a few more fantastical plants and creatures such as carniverous vines, unicorns, wyverns, sapient funghi and mimics to name a few.
>Are any of them sapient?
Aforementioned sapient funghi (or not-myconids I guess)
The vast majority are dumb animals and dumb animals with magic powers. There are an array of exhumans that retain their sapience and tend to hang around human cities.
The game I'm worldbuilding for really only takes place in one city so I'll focus on the ones hanging around there.
>Vampires
Mostly street predators preying on the weak and sickly, though their vampiric powers suffer for it. Transmission happens via fleas but you can intentionally infect someone with vampire's blood.
There's a few vamps secretly hiding amongst human nobility and drinking from them who have more developed powers like hypnotism and shapeshifting. They're conspiring to take a more active rule over humanity a la the Camarilla/Sabbat.

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>>52304904
>Werewolves
A cult that worships a the brood mother, a nature spirit that takes the form of a wolf. The infection is spread by being bitten by a werewolf, and the more "steps" you are away from the brood mother the less wolfy your transformation is. 6 steps away you get a bad temper and a thicker beard every full moon.
>Zombies
Corpses infested with candleflies and their maggots. The insects/larvae glow green and have a natural gestalt necromantic aura- get enough of them in the one corpse and it rises from the dead, seeking other corpses for the flies to infest or making its own.
>What is your world's equivalent to a Leviathan?
A long time ago terribly powerful nature spirits roamed the lands, skies and seas, though most of these have now been hunted by man. Deep below the city, in a labyrinth of tunnels of its own design that connect to the sewers and the canals lies the Aboleth (aka the Leviathan, aka the Kraken)
If you're a woman and you pray to the occult forces for power, sometimes Aboleth will answer your call. He promises anything you desire and will lend you great magical power just to prove it, if you agree to be his bride.
If you do, he'll call you down to the canals where three mermaids will ordain your marriage. There you'll drown in the water, and your body will be dragged down to his lair where your corpse will be remade as a mermaid, or bride of Aboleth.

Then you go out being shitty to humans from the water.

>>52302530
I am by means an expert in worldbuilding, but when I decide that I want a certain race in my homebrew, I ask myself "What does this race provide the setting with?"
As in, are they there to be the antagonists, or are they there to the victims of some great injustice so as to high-light the perpetrators, or is the race there to be comic-relief, or to challenge some moral or ethical stance what we as humans hold?

Now, Ooze-Humanoids: You say they were created by ancient wizards, my first questions to this is; how and why did the wizards create them?
Were the Ooze-folk created by accident - some experiment or ritual gone wrong, or maybe just some kind of by-product of such, or was there a great need from the wizards to have 'Ooze-people' on hand?
Were they created to be servants or to be soldiers, or was it some kind of punishment that the wizards had for their enemies or criminals in the wizards' society, transforming people into Ooze-folk?

>>52284771
>god makes army of stone titans to fight off the aliens invading the new world
>Titans shitstomp the aliens and their alien gods they brought with them
>Now that they have nothing to do the Titans just kind of sit around all day for eons
>In time their bodies atrophy into small, weak, fleshy versions of themselves. As a consequence, this also creates mortality.
>completely fucking baffled by this whole death thing, the new humans get off their asses for the first time since creation and race to figure out how to counteract it
>they do this by realizing you can create gross tiny versions of yourself if you fuck enough

Think this is too generic?

>>52304797
A wizard did it?

>>52304805
I had to look this up. I don't know if I should be dissapointed or laugh my ass off that someone actually beat me to this

>>52305023
Why was it important for god to defend the 'new world'?

>>52305042
The new world is actually the corpse of a much larger god. The "aliens" are the inhabitants of the world it collapsed in coming to devour it. The god that creates the titans is one of a handful of maggits that grew out of the body. Without the corpse to provide sustinence, all the other newborn deities will die. And without the world to house the ones that are already fully grown, they'll be torn apart by the predatory "alien" gods living outside the body. It's all about self preservation.

>>52305073
I like it. So what did early human society look like?

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Does anybody have any good resources for religious practices throughout the ages? I've had a god written up but for the longest time I haven't been able to really nail down what they'd declare as proper forms of worship, or what their followers would either. To sum it up.
>Multiverse worldbuild
>Space inbetween universes is ruled over by a god, and they derive their power from this limitless source
>Said space is referred to as the Void, and is incredibly volatile, basically death but on a cosmic scale
While that's the case, it's not really the god's choice to have been tied to that, so in the end they don't really care all too much. Though they're not big on the idea of "rip open your universe to get here" or equally crazy things.

>>52303669
It's more me being a perfectionist. Like a capital city wouldn't be next to a mountain away from major waterways. Because of that I'm moving it a tad and placing it on a giant lake/sea but it has a very mountany name so I'm putting hills nearby with valuable minerals

>>52304738
Honestly it sounds pretty dumb. Is there any solid ground?

>>52295581
>>52295701
What is brazilian culture even supposed to mean?
There's the favela monkeys in the southeast, peixeira-wielding desert dwellers in the northeast, literal indians who block the few roads and demand money for passage lest they shoot you with arrows in the north, swampfolk who kill jaguars for breakfast in the center-west, german-wannabes in the south, animist niggers in the northeast as well, just naming the most proeminent stuff.
t. monkey

What are some systems of governance that existed alongside feudalism?

>>52305039
>A wizard did it?
Well if that's the case it's dumb. A compelling why is needed to be elevated to awesome

>>52306242
prince-bishopric, free city, byzantine bureaucracy
even feudalism itself had various aspects depending on country and period.
The HRE and France were very different stuff, so you can have many differents flavors of feudalism in your setting

>>52306242
Merchant/Noble Republic, Italian City States, Muslim Iqta system, Tribal Federations, Theocracies.

>>52306203

>What is brazilian culture even supposed to mean?

Michiko and Hatchin

>>52306203
Just the stereotypes like favelas, football fanatics, friendly people, crazy amounts of corruption, promiscuous sexuality etc. Brazil is a colorful country in pretty much every respect in many people's minds. The polar opposite of "boring".

So I'm building a continent where there are two major forests. One of them is linked to the shadowfell and the other is linked to the feyland. Encounters and visuals in the two woods would change appropriately as will the flavor of nearby kingdoms. What kind of creatures can I utilize between the two to add more encounter types rather than just undead for shadowfell and fey for the feylands? I imagined goblin tribes that collect flowers for they fey and more bluish pale orcs who practice necromancy around the shadowfell woods

>>52305011
Ooze-folk/Morpheans were an experiment in Golemcraft to create golem servants out of more readily available materials (island-based setting, so water is quite common compared to rocks). The Morpheans turned out to be both sapient and chemically unstable, with a 30 year lifespan. They either fled captivity, or were simply dumped by the wizards (haven't decided which) when they proved to be more trouble than they were worth.

>>52307462
Shadowoods: nightmares, shadows, cultists, blights, banderhobbs, catoblepas, cloakers, dark mantles, wendingos, mothmen, shadar-kai, anything that sticks to shadows

Bunch of spoopy encounters where various monsters simply watch the pcs, but fade into mist/turn into mundane objects when approached.
Monster assail them in dreams, sometimes awaking them to actual attacks.
Dark mantles and cloakers burst out of shadows if players linger in one place too long.
Lost souls wander around complaining of personal dilemmas, some calling for help while appearing as real people, but simply disappear or turn hostile after leading the pcs on.

Feywoods: Giant animals, wisps, gremlins, bullywugs, surface drow, werebeasts, enchanted knights/hunters, oni, trolls, witches, kenku, elementals

Various giant animals going about their lives, some engaged in odd, almost human like rituals. Wolves sitting in a circle seemingly having civil discourse entirely through barks, Giant insects travelling along paths like roads, building human like structurses uot of wood or dirt, etc.
Mischievous fey stealing random items from players and leaving them in odd/hard to reach spots just to laugh at pcs while they try to retrieve them.
Enchanted humans singing to trees, knights guarding watering holes, hunters chasing wisps around
Bullywugs fishing for mermaids in lakes said to turn them into princes
Imprisoned drow desperately trying to escape sections of the forest but enchanted to continuously get lost
Trolls watching over nurseries of human/elven children
Witches engaging in weird, vaguely sexual pagan rituals by moonlight

>>52308487
Thanks mate. I was thinking of stealing 4e shadowfell flavor for my 5e campaign so it's not simply "undead spooky stuff" and you gave me a bunch of great ideas to add

Long phonepost inc

In my high fantasy setting, magic is scientific in that it follows a defined set of rules and tends to be extremely consistent. There are alternate planes (elemental and metaphysical) but no true divinity or gods, only very powerful beings. Furthermore, like science in our world, there are rules but the collective understanding of said rules are constantly evolving and presently prinitive

One more key fact for this post is that primordial creatures largely lacked sentience, but latent magical energy causes evolution. Too much exposure to one sort of magic evolves it not to sentience, but instead to great power, whereas true humans are a product of a balanced magical ancestry and are the most sentient

>now to the actual question

Some centuries ago, there was a great empire who can be credited with the first usage of agricultural magic, over employing it to provide for their vast population. This slowly drained the resources of the area (both consuming latent energy faster than it could replenish itself and physical reagents themselves, such as highly energetic minerals) and attempted to bring more magic to their empire--which resulted in a great disaster, bringing the vast inperial territory massive, ground-splitting quakes and spreading unhealthy amounts of chaotic magical energy

Many died both of famine and overexposure and the land itself became hypersaturated with magic, evolving the survivors into human-earth elemental hybrids

>ok now the question for real
Does it seem more reasonable for these people to be humans with malleable (for mobility) stone skin, magic- and nutrient-rich mud flowing through their veins, but otherwise human with regards to reproduction, the need to consume food (magically charged, but still food) water and air? Or does it seem more reasonable for them to more or less be golems who consume stone and shear their own limbs off to produce offspring via animation magic?

Sorry for the needlessly long post and tyvm

>>52311156
Why not both?
Have the general populace be of the first kind, but in some places where shit hit harder you have the second type.

Does "Dwarf Fortress mixed with an Aristocratic hierarchy lust for gold" sound like a good idea for Evil Dwarfs?

>>52311282
That sounds like a reasonable compromise; additionally, while weighing the pros and cons, it came to mind that while i like the idea of a more human society more, having possibly immortal golems (those who are respected, wealthy, or powerful enough to consume enough to survive weathering) who remember the old days could be interesting.

Having both could be the best way to get both worlds!

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Rate my map

>>52311983
Southwestern continent, excluding the ice bit, look just like a lying guy.

>>52311333
Yeah man, I can dig that. Post more stuff as you go along building this world.

>>52311983
>>52312295
With a bad case of diarrhea

>>52282808
My idea for a setting, please tell me what needs fixing:

Part 1: environment

It's in a stupidly big hollow-Earth-style plane (think so utterly enormous that a continent on the other side of the hollow sphere looks about as big as a speck of dust). It's mostly cold and dark, because the only light comes from a large number of miniature, magical suns that orbit about 100km above the surface, and project massive forcefields around themselves that prevent most of the heat from leaking out. These suns move at a fairly fast speed, and with the exception of a few that orbit giant stone monoliths embedded in the ground, move along enormous orbits around the centre of the sphere. Areas directly under a nomadic sun are always extremely hot deserts, while areas further out are more temperate, but have plant life that grows and dies very quickly. Areas around tethered suns are usually heavily forested and tropical. In areas with no light but plenty of heat, often deep underground, vast forests of fungi grow. Around the monoliths, there is very little stone or ore to be found, and the monoliths are indestructible.

Occasionally, one of the stars will burn out and fall, leaving behind a massive ball of meteoric iron. This phenomena is only observed in nomadic stars, not in tethered stars.

>>52313433
Part 2: society

Because of the nomadic nature of the suns, most of this setting's inhabitants are nomadic themselves, the exceptions being a few small empires of humans, half-elves, elves, dwarves and halflings infiltrators. In the past, most of the areas around the monoliths were ruled by human empires. However, due to the limitations of the available resources, all of them were reliant on wood and leather for clothing, armour and building materials, and all of the old human kingdoms have since either turned their lands into deserts through over-use, or have been forced to form alliances with elves. These alliances usually result in empires’ human populations dwindling, as they are replaced by their half-elven offspring.

Both types of empires are highly xenophobic as desperate nomadic groups have been known to ally together and attempt to invade unprepared empires, especially since the nomadic tribes often have access to iron or steel weaponry and armour, while the empires are forced to use various alternatives, none as strong or sharp. The dwarves are the only race that live outside the areas touched by light, as their stubbornness and pride will not allow them to abandon their underground fortresses. Instead, they use magic to generate vast amounts of heat, which they use to cultivate bioluminescent fungi for light and food, and prevent themselves from freezing to death. They also maintain vast networks of tunnels, and act as a go-between/transport network for anyone willing to pay enough. The halflings of this setting are indistinguishable from half-elven children or short humans, depending on the sub-species, and many of them act as scouts, spies and sleeper agents for the dwarves.

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>>52311983
What did I miss?

>>52313259
It's been in the works for probably over a year, but work has been very sporadic

There's an island a few miles off a coast that itself was very far from the epicenter that houses both a university and an aristocratic palace from the height of the empire. Before I'd thought of causing those caught in the disaster to mutate in accordance with the laws of magic, they were to be the last bastion of the empire's dignified heritage, working with the great great grandchildren of the survivors to restore their empire

Now, they (the "Blooded") consider the earthen people to be monsters, remnants of the disaster plaguing their ancestral homeland, while they continue to refinr and attempt to tame the chaotic magic that caused the disaster

This leaves two factions; the "blooded" who seek to slaughter the earth-touched peoples to reclaim their homeland and the "earthen" who seek to re-establish the empire whose ruins they revere and whose lands they occupy, led by the ancients who are the few remaining citizens of the original empire

Still have to figure out how the neighboring states align themselves, but I'm glad this came to mind--this area was one of my least developed previously

>>52287674
The pale-skinned Aryans who conquered Vedic India & enforced the caste system (called the 'varna' system in Sanskrit, varna meaning color, implying a skin color based social hierarchy) were pastoral nomads.

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>>52313553

What's your setting's apex predator, /wbg/?

>>52315937
Humans

I have a race that's a take on the old Elans from DnD 3.5. But instead of being a race of ritual-born immortals, I had a thought I wanted to pass by /wbg/.

This race, called Elohim, are sapient mana crystals. When enough power concentrates in these crystals, they "birth" a physical manifestation of themselves into the real world. They are a sort of echo or resonate of the original crystal. They travel the world in order to gain new experiences, and to found new crystal colonies.

Does this sound interesting. I feel like I'm not describing them properly.

>>52318357
post more about them

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>>52318357
Sounds like something else entirely

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>>52318357
That sounds almost exactly like Steven Universe.

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>>52318593
Elohim appear to mimic the appearance of other races. They aren't easily discovered, and prefer it that way. They are all naturally magical/psionic, and biologically immortal. All Elohim are (initially) united in the preservation of mortal life and independence, partially so they are able to hide amongst our number, and partially because of an ancient oath during the stereotypical God-War at the beginning of time.

Elohim are inquisitive by nature. Their initial existence as crystals leaves a lot to be desired, and due to magic and knowledge being intertwined (Wizards and book-learning as example), they see learning more and more about the universe as being a prime concern for themselves. Whether other races benefit from this research is incidental.

>>52318642
That looks neat. What are they?

>>52318726
Should...should I just kill myself now?

>>52315937

Humans.

>>52318797
>initially
Derp, forgot. Some have gone rogue, looking to become masters of the world instead of shepards, observers, and guides.

>>52315937
Humans

>>52318797
>What are they?
Shardminds, fragments of the living gate, a barrier between the astral sea and the far realm. It broke and scattered crystal shards which awoke into sapient crystal people. They're from DnD 4e

>>52315937
Elves

>>52315937
The cold.

(This setting:
>>52313433
>>52313449 )

>>52311312
sounds fine with me, more underground than sun god though

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>>52318952
Sounds neat. I'm trying to avoid too many D&Disms this time around, so I may have to shift stuff around a bit. Also, I already have a weird alien race (Ooze-folk called Morpheans).

But Shardminds sound sick! Tell me more!

Pic unrelated. I might need more Crystal people pics.

Bump for posting later

Is it just me, or do Ghosts and Pirates go together like nothing else?

>>52311983
It is kinda nice

>>52284771
Proto-humans were created to be mindless builder automatons for the titans who were the original inhabitants of the main world.
They were originally not sapient or truly living but things happened and they became the dominant race after the titans fell.

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>>52285502

I've forgotten most of it and the more I think of it the dumber it sounds.

It was set on a vast, quasi-infinite terrestrial plane inhabited by a species of drab-skinned, vaguely sluggish humanoid creatures racially predisposed to:

A. War
B. Industry.

Tribes, or nations, of this race are interspersed throughout the land, and have since time immemorial conspired to expand their influence. Even in peace ("peace" being a relative term comprising all time prior to one nation spanning the often-vast distance between themselves and another), they have evolved (or were perhaps created with) a genetically ingrained militant societal structure that differs only slightly from one group to the next. This means that there are very clear class distinctions that are never questioned and stop just short of being anatomical in nature. Almost like an ant colony.

As an example of this militant nature, even newer nations at "peace" would send new settler expeditions into uncharted territory in motorized wagon-homes that included defensive machine gun turrets. These wagon-homes would be modular in nature. Once a permanent colony was established, the machine gun turrets would be detached and integrated into defensive lines, mounted into concrete bunkers linked together with trench systems on the perimeter. The engines of the home would be separated and used to power industrial machinery, while the small habitation section would become a semi-permanent housing or storage structure. Eventually the new settlement would become a fully-fledged fortress-city. Likely, this city wouldn't actually be anywhere near any actual enemy, so the old original defenses would be built over almost as a matter of habit - improvised trench lines replaced with massive concrete redoubts, anti-tank ditches, interlocking fields of fire from defensive gun batteries, etc. Your average city being a cross between a Maginot-esque bunker complex, a star fortress, and a 40k forge city.

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>>52322350

The character limit is stopping me from saying everything I want to without shitting up the thread. It's probably not even worth getting in to regardless.

>>52282808
>What sort of wildlife inhabits your world?
Fairly normal but there are a lot more bird and canine variants than reality as well as some draconic creatures.
>Are any of them sapient?
There are a lot of very smart animals that are not quite sapient. Some draconic animals are sapient but barely. There are some forest spirit-possessed animals around and these tend to also be just above the line of sapience.
>What is your world's equivalent to a Leviathan?
The sea gods are huge symbiotic amalgam creatures the size of mountains. They don't usually pose a threat to sea travel since they're so massive they don't give a shit and being of divine nature, don't need to sustain themselves by physical means. They also spend most of their time slumbering at the bottom of the ocean.

>>52282808
I replace bears with owlbears.

I call them Big fucklers.

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>>52319469
I was gonna type out a bunch of shit but then realized I could just post the pdf. There's not much, as they were from the PHB3 aka the weird psionic shit book, and a combination of weirdness and late publication meant not much attention was given to them. Still, I liked the concept enough to use them in my setting.

Also a detail not in the article: there are three main schools of thought among shardminds about rebuiling the gate - Thought Builders believe it necessary to build a new gate, God Shards believe they still contain the power of the Living Gate and must now fend off Far Realm intrusion themselves, and Shard Slayers believe their life force returns to the site of the old gate to upon death to re-empower it, and thus believe that they, and all other shardminds, must die.

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>>52323377
Also crystal people images

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>>52323441

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>>52323453

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>>52323465

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>>52323482

>>52284328
I've got a vaguely 1910's setting and a vaguely 1930's setting.

First I've talked in these threads too much about months ago, the second is basically porco rosso the rpg.


>What sort of wildlife inhabits your world? (world 1, world 2 is literally not earth)
Quite a lot, much of it partially magical. I'm rather fond of the avatar school of stitching together 2 animals. The rest are largely "what if magic was literally part of the world's evolutionary history". So you see a lot of things that boil down to "what if a species solved x survival issue through willpower".
>Are any of them sapient?
I'd stop calling them wildlife and start calling them non-humans by that point. My non-humans are very not human.
>What is your world's equivalent to a Leviathan?
Take the myth that lobsters live forever. Add that "what if a species solved x survival issue through willpower" thing, and a few epochs. They live in the depths of the oceans and might literally be gods. The Aether also likely has massive low density creatures floating about. Also depends if you consider a living sun to be a creature.

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What the fuck were they thinking with this fuckass ugly island?

How does magic work in your setting? What's the most powerful spell that you can cast?

Im working on a GURPS campaign where humanity managed to colonize Mars, the players are from earth and visited Mars for a space vacation to one of it's moons. Well while they were gone there was some Chernobyl style planet wide power accident and when they return to Mars, it's reverted to a Mad Max / Borderlands sorta place, their main objective being to get a spacecraft up and running to get their ass back to earth. I habe a few little faction ideas made up. The most fleshed out being a guild of masterful engineers that have gone missing since the accident (the players show up llike a month after shit hit the fan)

>>52325398
Sounds interesting. Are you leaning towards it being more serious and grim like Mad Max, or silly and wacky like Borderlands?

What are common first and last names for people of the various races and cultures of your setting?

What do you think /wbg/ having locations with English names, or locations in a different language?
Examples of English and (google translated) German
>The city of Lionspride
>The city of Löwenstolz

>>52325807

>Agarthans (Underground Romans)

First names : Publius, Gaius, Maximus, Julius, Tyranus, Severus etc.

Their last names are their clan title: Gorclan, Mitclan, Furclan, Orclan, Denclan etc.

>Drorok (Orcs)

First names: Ug, Gorrok, Kadrin, Shinok, Drogor, Okrah, Remor; very guttural sounding.

Last names go by the region they're from: Ungral, Morachi, Arcann, Svorog, Druul. If more than one orc of the same name is from said region, than they're addressed as Gorrok 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc., going by age with the oldest being the 1st.

>Kingarn (Vikings)

First names: Olaf, Bjorn, Snorli, Erik, Khagar, Harald, Ragnar. Typical Nordic sounding names.

Their last names have to do with their proffession: Smith, Cutter, Shipright, Knight, Cook etc.

Except for sailors and raiders, who are designated by the town they come from: of Yarland, Ukosul, Thortuun, Yägorolsalla, Rejikyager etc.

>>52282808
>What sort of wildlife inhabits your world?
Aside from the real animals, I created at least a single fictional animal for every region in the game. It would take a lot of time to describe them all. Off the top of my head, I remember Dali-esque mammoths who walk on spindly spidery legs through a lava lake, giant moths who cause undead plagues by spreading the dust from their wings, and hermit crabs who turn themselves into cyborgs by seeking out technological waste and integrating the parts they found into their bodies.

>Are any of them sapient?
No, unless you count the talking animals, who can't really be considered wildlife because they have hidden cities in their forest.

>What is your world's equivalent to a Leviathan?
There's a sleeping dragon big enough that there's a whole country on top of him. They pump up his blood, drink it and turn into weredragons.

>>52325807
I wrote name generators for all of the races (subraces, really) that have been used as characters in my setting's campaigns (one campaign, really) so far. Check them out:

http://randomnames.co.nf

>>52323377
>>52323441
>>52323453
>>52323465
>>52323482
>>52323638
Cheers mate!

What makes a world interesting? How can you get people to actually care about a fictional world? I mean, people say stuff like depth and inspiration from real cultures, but if that's all you want then there's no reason to explore a fictional world at all because the real one already has all that. I don't think anyone really cares about how realistic your rivers are, or what kind of bread your peasants eat. So what else makes a fictional world attractive, in comparison to the real world and other fictional worlds? Interesting personalities? Cosmology? Weirdness?

I know there's no one answer, so just tell me whatever you think is important.

>>52328455
>people say stuff like depth and inspiration from real cultures, but if that's all you want then there's no reason to explore a fictional world at all because the real one already has all that.
And fantasy has some more. No reason I can't be fascinated by both

>>52328455
>I mean, people say stuff like depth and inspiration from real cultures,

That's a meme. It's bullshit people spew, don't listen to them.

For example, if I have a cult of animal worshippers like cow worshippers from India; but they worship snakes and use snake venom to assassinate people or something, that's a LOT different from real life. People use 'take from real life' excuse as to justify shitty worldbuilding. You should be taking from real life and twisting it to make something interesting.

>>52328666
Well Satan, I'm not saying those aren't aspects of a good setting. I just mean that they don't do much by themselves. They can make a fictional world more attractive than another fictional world, but they can't make a fictional world more attractive than the real world, not without other elements. I'm just wondering what those elements might be.

Can someone dump a few maps? Need some inspiration from fellow anons. preferably an island that is being colonised or something

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>>52328455

It's subjective. There's no catch all. Stick as much sensible depth on as possible, and have key points that stick out from the crowd that draw people in initially. Anything that's two steps above a generic D&D setting with a pointless custom continent map that might as well be shaped like a giant penis will get someone's attention.

I've got very strange tastes, which means I'm not really terribly interested in a lot of the settings that get posted here, but it's still easy to at least appreciate good effort.

>>52328455
>What makes a world interesting? How can you get people to actually care about a fictional world?

You make it about something that you're interested in, filling it with things that you like, that you know a lot about and can really flesh out to its fullest potential. That's how you make an interesting setting, if you try to appeal to everyone by including things that you aren't passionate about, than it's going to be dumbed down and ultimately appeal to no one.

>I mean, people say stuff like depth and inspiration from real cultures, but if that's all you want then there's no reason to explore a fictional world at all because the real one already has all that.

The key is to apply real world issues and events and fuse them with something completely different, which will let you think about how it would play out differently in you mind.

>I don't think anyone really cares about how realistic your rivers are, or what kind of bread your peasants eat.

Many don't but some do. Again, you're creating a world that fulfills the niche you want it to fulfill. If you don't care about geology yet you try to force explanations of it into your setting, than it's going to be boring and turn away people who would otherwise be attracted to your ideas.

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>>52328857

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>>52318797
>Should...should I just kill myself now?
Spoilering since I doubt some fa/tg/uys want to hear about this at length but.
Steven Universe/Crystal Gems/Homeworld/whatever the fuck you want to focus on is the definition of mixed bag. The lore has a lot of neat ideas held back by ridiculously stupid execution, a lack of any actual direction, and uncoordinated writing. It doesn't expand upon anything it has that the fans actually want to learn about, rather we learn about stupid doughnut shop owners and other assorted bullshit.

That being said...there's nothing wrong with the idea. While it may sound a lot like the Crystal Gems, there's also a character in star trek (don't have the link on hand) that predates them, that for all intensive purposes functions basically the same. Android/AI that is a hard light projection and has a core(gem), and if they sustain too much they just poof.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that what you're done is fine. If you took purposeful inspiration, that's fine, take something and make it your own. If you didn't? Well that's also fine, coincidences exist, and they happen a lot more often than you might think.

tl;dr stop giving a fuck and just do what you enjoy and makes you happy

>>52328455
>I mean, people say stuff like depth and inspiration from real cultures, but if that's all you want then there's no reason to explore a fictional world at all because the real one already has all that
I hear you. Such settings also have the right to exist, as they have fans. It's just I'm not one of them, and I won't stand for that when people tell me that borrowing from the real world is good.

>>52328845
I don't understand why it has to be more attractive than the real world. It just needs to be an attractive setting to have fictional stories/adventures in. Whether or not it somehow outdoes reality irrelevant. I imagine most of us won't be having ritual dances with Maasai or walking through ancient Babylonian temples, so it's nice to have some similiar instances in our escapism

Also, fiction can have impossible things. Like, you know, magic.

>>52326383
How did you make it?

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>>52329341
No, I know about SU. If I'm not here I'm at /co/.

Thanks for the advice though. I sometimes get worried about tripping over the local hivemind, ya know? Silly, of course, but there you have it.

One thing I'm not certain about: Should Elohim carry their "crystal" around with them, or should it be more like a Dryad sort of thing, where it exists somewhere in the world and the character is technically bound to it?

>>52329844
Carrying it give better opportunities for cool visual designs

Though having a mound of them hidden in their crystal colonies offers more chances for peculiar cultural practices

>>52302986
You got this full size version without all the colors and writing on it, perchance?

Cause that's a really fucking cool map.

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>>52330341
I think I'll go with this:

Eloh are mana/psionic/leyline crystals that reach a level of size and power at which point they become sapient. When they do, they typically created Elohim, which are sort of living avatars of the crystals.

Elohim physically are identical to another race in the world, chosen when they are created. Thus they are able to hide amongst the people of the world unmolested. But their physical heart is still a shard of their original crystal, leading to some oddities. Visual quirks include eyes the color of their original crystal, and bright tattoo-like marks tracing their body's natural chakra/mana lines. Most ignore these due to the setting itself being quite weird anyway, so what's so odd about glowing people? Probably mages or something.

There's no real difference between cutting out their crystal and cutting out someone's heart (so there's no mechanical difference), but many evil wizards and spellcasters like to kill Elohim and steal their hearts for magical item creation and other dark rituals.

Elohim are immortal, unless killed, and have been around long enough to have contended with many Planar threats, making them the main frontline for mortals against aberrations and demonic invasion. The only mortals they don't seem to like very much are Morpheans, the Ooze-folk from earlier here >>52302530, >>52307872. Partly this dislike is because Morpheans are the only race Elohim can't mimic, and partly due to not believing they are really alive, as opposed to being a mere science experiment allowed to go on too long. This isn't a universal opinion.

>High Fantasy Transportation

How do you accelerate transportation to facilitate character adventures and cultural interaction without falling into everyone teleporting everywhere?

Enchanted ships, supernatural beasts of burden, and the like come to mind, but I'm curious if anyone has any actually interesting ideas

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how does this map look? I've been trying to make things less not!europe

>>52331738
Given that you literally have the Bosphorous/Sea of Marmara/Peloponnese on your map, I'd keep working on it.

What diseases are endemic to your setting? What about parasites? Have there been any pandemics? How vulnerable are your cultures to a sudden outbreak of disease?

>>52332008
Overexposure to magic has progressively worse symptons based on amount and duration (earthdudes from above)

Sadly the aforementioned symptoms are on my list of things to write after gym tofay so i can't actually contribute

>>52331595
On a blog that I read on occasion, the author mentioned something like using a real simplified 40k warp kind of land travel.

From what I remember, if you wanted to travel long distances you'd have to go into the fey wilds or shadow realm/plane or whatever. It wouldn't make travel instant, but it would make it go faster - like the distances in the other plane would be shorter relative to earthspace (One meter on the feywilds = 10 on the material or something, maybe it could vary sonce the feyqilds are weird). You could still roll on tables if you wanted sonce you're still walking someplace in a foreign plane with living things in it, but you'd get there faster if you knew what you were doing. Easier than a snap of the fingers via teleport and provides a little spice to travel. I think the source material he had was from a tabletop that used shadow roads or something like that, can't remember. I'll find the article if you want to read it.

Alternatively, dwarven underground highways. Not tremendously faster, but it's a straight line (Relatively) and not over hill and dale. Some of the same bonuses as above.

>>52332008
>parasites
The Molsk is a flat, centipede looking motherfuker about the size of a small dog that crawls along the bottom of oceans, lakes, seas, and rivers. It sneaks up on shore at night and latches onto people, becoming a second layer of skin as it grows over you in the night. After a few hours, the host collapses entirely into a clutch of Molsk eggs that hatch and crawl back into the sea before dawn.

Basically fucked up Trilobites.

Is the concept of a vampire pantheon too silly? I mean I want to have good and evil and neutral vampires in my setting with VTM style clans, and I thought having gods would be a good way to have them be in clans besides "just cuz".

>>52333884
>Vampire Pantheon
Wait, so the pantheon has Vampires in it? Or is is a faith the Vampires follow?

>>52333936
The latter.

In my world they were pretty much wandering monsters before their gods found them. Which seems to be a recurring thing in my world.

>>52329504
Rather simple scripts, you can copy the page's code and modify it.

>>52334001
Did you already have some of the deities of this pantheon? Or did you want suggestions?

>>52334275
I just wanted to see if the idea wasn't too silly. I got some basic ideas for three. A Benevolent God (good vampires) Might makes right God (Bad vampires) God of Knowledge (Looks-like-Orlock vamps).

I'm open to suggestions though.

>>52334334
Seems like the most important God(s) would be the one that made them sapient, and not just mindless monsters. So perhaps a God of Memory, or Consciousness?

>>52333824
That's nightmarish.

>>52333824
>Basically fucked up Trilobites.
Except in no way at all like trilobites, but yeah.

>>52334416
That's a good idea. Maybe twin goddesses of thought and memory.

Actually there is a concept in my world that when the body of an undead rots the soul and mind does too. Basically you can't hold onto your mind or your soul if you look in the mirror and see a corpse (there are exceptions but they have extremely strong will) so maybe they prevent the rotting process too.

Thanks Anon that's a great idea.

>>52334484
Physical resemblance only.

>>52334449
Thank you.

>>52334669
That sounds like a neat bit of info. Perhaps the vampires would add an Anubis style Death God into their pantheon? Like the Embalmer, who protects against the ravages of rot.

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So a lot of these threads seem centered on fantasy settings, which I get, but does anyone here actually have any modern/sci-fi settings they're working on? It's late in the thread so I guess I'll just bring it up in the next one, but I'm curious to see how many people actually experiment with those kinds of settings.

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>>52335338
The trouble is, at least in my case, that my players are big Sci-Fi guys, which unfortunately makes them a particularly nasty sort of autist about SCIENCE.

If I try for a Hard Sci-Fi setting we get into bullshit arguments about Muh Singularity.

I go for a Star Wars style Space Opera, and suddenly it's Muh Fantasy in Space.

I can't win with these fuckers, so I don't try anymore. Hope you've got better situation going on, anon.

>>52331595
Just use TES style mage guilds

So guys I'm having my game take place our current solar system.

Currently looking how to develop the planets of the system. Earth while a nation divided it is also united in the form of a possible multi-national coalition. Want input on what you guys would think would be cool. Nothing to crazy outlandish.

>>52336452
corporatist jupiter

orbital stations harvesting gases populated by the wealthy executives in the luxury stations and the poor laborers in the cluttered city-stations

the executives are known to be heartless, depressurizing entire cities at the first sign of revellion

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I have a race in my setting called Ogren, a combination in style of Orcs and Dwarves. They are brawny, horned warriors from the high mountains who typically made their way as raiders and war-craftsmen. But with the age of gunpowder sweeping aside so many of the old wartime paradigms (we're hitting 1600-1700s style weaponry), the Ogren find they are drastically losing out against their rivals.

Besides a rush to modernize within their society, what else can I do with such a race? I often need a little input before I decide such things. For those of you who need a specific reason for a race to exist, they fill the roles of the brutish warrior, honorable knight, and cunning artificer. They are also one of the only "Earth" related races due to my setting being heavily sea-based.

Pic is most current map of setting.

>>52337032

Are they allied (or often friendly) with any other races?

>>52337320
I think they could be friendly with either the Samari (sharkfolk) or the Guppi (cannibal frogfolk), but it's just as likely that they are all at war with each other.

Let's go with the Samari, since they lack a real nation to wage war on the Ogren. The Guppi are ambushing fucksticks as far as the Ogren are concerned.

>>52324483
Its 4 islands that collided or some shit like that

>>52324483
I like how they named the provinces. "Gorontalo" lmao.

>>52337429

I was going to suggest that they could find a niche in rapid modernization by being dwarf China and building cheap weapons in their forges for the humans or something, but it doesn't really seem to fit in your world.

>>52337866
>it really doesn't fit your world
How so?

>>52337032
Ok, so first off, who is innovating in the field of weapons technology and tactics and why? Remember, technological development isn't linear, people develop better and deadlier weaponry to address a need, why are the Ogren incapable of adapting?

They sound like from your description to be smart enough to be on the cutting edge of things

>>52338225
Humans are in constant military one-upmanship in the setting, along with a general level of lethality inherent to a fantasy world like this one. Humans are the ones pushing technology forward.

Ogren, in my mind, are very isolated. They've lived up on their mountains being a wild a free folk for a long time. And while they occasionally roll down the mountain and RIP n TEAR the valleys, their contact has traditionally been minute. Their traditionalism also made them resistant to changing tactics until after it had started to bite them in the ass.

They are basically Tokugawa Japan JUST after realizing how fucked they are if they don't adapt Western technology NOW.

>>52338383
So is their society structured like Japanese society? How many people are literate? Who makes these kinds of decisions?

Think about what your average Ogren would think if they learned that their leadership wants to abandon their traditions. Will there be violent resistance to change? How will the government deal with such dissent?

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>>52338583
>So is their society structured like Japanese society?
Not at all. More like Scandinavian/Iron Age Europe. Chieftains/Kings in charge of their Warbands/Knights in charge of peasants. Although now that I say that, how is that different? What do YOU see Japanese society acting like?

>How many people are literate?
Almost no one outside of priests and possibly what passes for merchants amongst them.

>Who makes these kinds of decisions?
Kings/Chiefs need to consult their vassals, but otherwise may do as they please unless someone stronger kills them.

>Will there be violent resistance to change?
Most likely, especially from those most likely to lose power (Knights).

>How will the government deal with such dissent?
Different governments will handle it differently. Mostly via immediate violence and rebellion-suppression.

>>52324483
>tfw you saw this post this morning
>tfw you thought "what game is this from?"
>tfw burning curiosity, you eventually google it, hoping for some shit like a MYFAROG honorary aryan spinoff

>mfw im retarded

>>52335338

There was one I thought about some time ago, but did not detail it much.
Inspired by various sci-fi 4X games.
Basically two large highly advanced aliens each controlling a sizable cluster of stars. They went to war, along with their vassals and hangers-on.
When it got one sided, the losing ones activated a contingency that fucked up FTL travel and comms for everyone in and around the two clusters.
Well organized and stable systems became stellar realms, with some splintering further. While places dependent on imports or outside administration collapsed or went feral.
Then for some centuries or millennia everyone was on their own - changing, diverging, forgetting.
Setting present is when FTL is starting to finally come back. So it would be big on exploration. Ancient ruins, lost worlds, recontacting other survivors. And the old enemies out there - though some might have forgotten they are supposed to be enemies.

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Working on a Spelljammer-esque Sci-Fan setting. Space ships, magic, yadda yadda.

Currently constructing a setting primer for my players. Letting them pretty much make up whatever for their character/homeworld, as long as it's reasonably balanced. I'd just like some input on what worldbuilding would be needed as a framework for my players to get a basic idea.

So far I have:

>The Void/Void Travel
>Gods and Magic
>Basic History/Major Factions

Any other bases I should be covering?

>>52339166
Technology? Stuff beyond FTL and such. Major worlds?

>>52339292
>Tech
Yeah probably, though what I'm picturing is most everything is magitiek and highly variable, so that's kinda difficult to encompass succinctly.

>FTL
Covered in Void Travel

>Major Worlds
Suppose I can roll that into Major Factions

>>52339337
Common tech then. Basic transportation? Cybernetics? Internet? Healthcare?

How do you dragon, /wbg/?

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>>52284771
They sailed here across the cosmic sea before the edges of the world became so stormy, when navigating the starry waters of the Void were simpler

>>52339585
Possibly demigods, possible magical super dinosaurs/reptiles

>>52338880
>What do YOU see Japanese society acting like?

Very subservient to authority, not trying to challenge inate power structures too much. It's arguably what made the Tokugawa period was so peaceful.
>Almost no one outside of priests and possibly what passes for merchants amongst them.

To be honest, that doesn't sound like a society that's likely to succeed in its endevour. Japan modernized due to having a large literate population as well as unity under a single Emperor. What you described would basically impossible to modernize unless a single person united everyone via the use of brute force

>>52339710
>Very subservient to authority
Then no.

>To be honest, that doesn't sound like a society that's likely to succeed in its endevour. Japan modernized due to having a large literate population as well as unity under a single Emperor. What you described would basically impossible to modernize unless a single person united everyone via the use of brute force

Well I guess them's the brakes for the Ogren then. I imagine SOME modernizing comes in from Humans dominating and turning them against one another, arming factions to keep them at war with themselves.

Because, like you said, it's not really possible otherwise.

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>>52339585
dragons with a lower case d are similar to pic related. Bestial apex predators. Rare, but not unheard of, and not civilization ending, but certainly a major ticking time bomb for a frontier town, or to have nesting dangerously close to civilization that needs to be dealt with or driven back to the wilds.

now, Dragons with a capital D are the thousand thousand progeny of the Seven Headed Dragon of Chaos, who is banished outside of time and space. The children of The Dragon, called Dragons, have potentially nothing to do with our conventional ideas of dragons. Think more Ogdru Hem than Smaug.

>>52335574
pretty much sums it up for me as well

>>52339750
It would still be possible, if not likely, that tribes living closer to human societies would be able to at least partly indilustrialize and then use their modern weaponry to conquer and unite the inferior tribes.

>>52340052
Hmm. It's not looking good for them, honestly. Like, total societal collapse.

Fuck, it's Africa.

>>52340113
You're gonna have to give them a religious prophet who unites them under the one true faith with himself as the one final arbiter as to what the gods will are. Surely nothing can go wrong then.

>>52340206
What exactly are you referencing?

>>52340242
Not him
Isn't it obvious what he's referencing? The rise of Islam, and Muhammad the illiterate prophet and professional pedophile.

>>52282808
>What sort of wildlife inhabits your world?
Animals and dire/giant versions of them. The world is largely inspired by Dwarf Fortress but without animal men.
>Are any of them sapient?
There are no sapient animals. Although astral 'animals' are occasionally,
>What is your world's equivalent to a Leviathan?
Probably some massive ocean swallowing beast from the Ether, waiting for ships to sail into a moonless sky and be swallowed up to the place forgotten things end up. Not like anyone realizes the ocean of lost treasures is an Etheric entity anyways.

>>52335338
I'm working on a near-future sci-fi setting set on Earth after demons invade.

>>52336452
Back in a day, a handful of nations tightly packed in a small region together, laid claims on areas way bigger than any of them. While still being packed. If we are to develop technology to make mass space travel (hauling lots of people and cargo to other planets and back like in space operas, not just mining fistful of palladium from some asteroid) chances are there's going to be American Mars, Chineese Mars, Russian Mars, Inidian Mars, French Mars and some other marses too, each pretty big and Earth will stay as divided as ever.

Tell me about your creation myths, in detail if you wish.

>>52343589
Once upon a time there was The Progenitor and pretty much nothing else. Progenitor was lonely so he started creating the world and populating it with beings (collectively known as firstborn) he shared his power with to make them his equals. However one of them, known now simply as "The Firstborn" (A bit confusing, but I'm low on names currently) convinced himself that the world they live in is the worst of all possible worlds and Progenitor kept really good stuff for himself. His followers waged war on the Progenitor and his followers until nothing remained but The Progenitor and The Firstborn. As as The Firstborn was ready to destroy Progenitor for good, he created a different world to serve as Firstborn's prison, that is the world as we know it.

>>52343681
You just described The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever lol.

>>52344544
Interesting. I heard this title before, but I never heard what it is about.

>>52344601
It's not for everyone, but it's my favorite fantasy work of all time. It's basically two trilogies and a quadrilogy of a misanthrop getting transported to a fantasy world that believes he's their messianic archetype, no matter how much he tries to prove otherwise.

You basically described the origin story of the Big Bad, Lord Foul the Despoiler. The absolutely best written villain in fantasy, ever.

>>52339585
Some are near demigod and generally don't give a fuck until the aliens invade, some of them are much weaker and stupider but still dangerous (these are the ones knights usually deal with), Eastern ones gave up their wings in order to assist humanity.

Also don't get Dragons and Wyverns mixed up unless you want to get your ass roasted.

>>52347449
T

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Some new questions to save the thread (or die trying).

>What sort of unusual world-types have you tried building?
>Were any oddly shaped (giant squares, flatearth, hollow earth, etc)?
>Do you prefer Single-Biome or Earth-like worlds?
>Have you ever made a setting set on a moon?
>Your current setting is now set in the eye of a giant. How fucked are you?

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>>52350267
>What sort of unusual world-types have you tried building?
Tried multiple things: from very generic fantasy back when I was a kid, past Last Exile-style shattered worlds, infinite ocean world, past completely symbolic worlds where metaphysics override actual spacial relationships - to flat out space opera set across thousands of planets.
The most interesting experiment I've done with my friend was relatively high-realistic world we attempted to create heavily relying on simulationism. It was an attempt at a reasonable speculation about a tera-like moon of a gas giant.
The experiment failed, but it was an amazing and learning experience.

I eventually discovered that gimmicky concepts are usually harmful to the fiction and eventually went back to very much classic earth-like world with more sci-fi than fantasy grounding that does not go too crazy.

>Do you prefer Single-Biome or Earth-like worlds?
Is there ANYONE in the world who would think single-biome settings not an utterly retarded idea? Seriously, who the fuck would even do that?

>Have you ever made a setting set on a moon?
See above: we tried. We simulated it in multiple space-sandboxes too, including Space Engine and Universe Sandbox.
Estimating the impact of tidal forces and shit was a LOAD of fun. We realized that the tidal forces would be enormous on highly eccentric gas giant moon, the result was a world where tidal floodings came in 7-day cycle and tide-line could move around 20 km up and down the coast. The coastal biomes were CRAZY as a result.
Also - as we simulated the whole system, we discovered the celestial movements was absolutely batshit too.
I think I will salvage a lot of the shit we discovered one day.

>Your current setting is now set in the eye of a giant.
It's just impossible, as my current setting is very much a vanilla earth-like planet with some quirks, set in a very much physic-obeying universe.

>>52282808
>5e setting
>halflings and rock gnomes start a industrial revolution, first guns
>elfs are religious like space marines from wh40k towards their light god
>islands region
>most contact with humans so far was with pirate scum
>Halflings start colonizing other places to aquire resources and spread, since their main island isnt big enough
main portion of land has a nazi hobgoblin nation

Opinions on this idea:

>>52351422
Shit.

>>52351422
Write an atlas. Then post it.

>>52284771
The Protogon, the first mortal race made by the gods, treaded the Amalgam many, many ages ago.
When the Amalgam split into the 56 dimensions and the Earthly Plane, the Protogons were abandoned by the gods for some time. Eventually it evolved into the Aelf, the Golofn, the Steget, the Ningen and the Proto-Human. All these races split and searched for other lands.

The Proto-Humans found a bountiful landmass on the north and lived there until ice and snow suddenly came, apparently from nothing, though many speculate it was a god's doing.

As they couldn't grow crops and hunting was harder amidst unending blizzards, they moved to the seashore and gathered as many materials as they could so three great seaships could be built.

A ship landed on the western continent. The Proto-Humans eventually originated the Humans and the Qaranliq, which are basically dark-skinned humans.

Of the two other ships, one sunk in the sea and the other reached the eastern continent. The Proto-Humans living there eventually mixed with humanoid Fey (Dryads, Nymphs) and originated the Sulkai. Another group mixed with barbaric Ningen and originated the Hunos.

In the future, humans and elves will turn into only one species, due to apocalyptic events happening on the western continent

>>52284771
They were an experiment by not!satan and were sent to not!earth, where they became purified by not!god.

Something to think about, which I found very interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide
tl;dr Infanticide has been recorded in pretty much every culture ever. This is probably a major reason for the incidence of human sacrifice in Canaan, Carthage, Mesoamerica, and so on. People didn't suddenly decide to sacrifice babies to their gods, it is far more likely that they had already been killing babies on a regular basis and made baby-killing into a religious sacrifice so that they could feel good about themselves doing it. If not for the Romans, Christians, Muslims, and Chinese purging human sacrifice traditions, things would look a lot different.

Page ten bump.

>>52284771
They evolved from human-like apes, the same with proto-elves and shortfolk.

Has anyone ever made a fantasy setting that was able to fit firearms into the setting just as well as any other weapon or magical item? I found myself really loving Enter the Gungeon, and some of the details of the setting and the brief pieces of lore you get has really made me want something somewhat similar, but of course takes itself more seriously. I realize this might sound dumb since we're talking about a game which seems to be one quarter puns, but still.

>>52357250
Is there a common ancestor?

>>52357291
Tell me more about this Gungeon. What makes it stand out to you?

>>52357291
What exactly is the problem you need to solve here?

Arcanum comes to mind as a setting with both guns and magic(al swords) in a balance but it treats technology as pretty much magic by other name.

>>52357291
Firearms are a Gnomish invention, spurned on by the advent of a meteor falling from the heavens, Forest Gnomes being exposed to it, and being driven invent by it, like technology is an invading force.

>>52357310
Probably just the way it blends different elements together almost seamlessly. The unique gun-flavored lore is probably one of my favorite aspects. The Gundead, when killed, are sent back to the Breach to be reloaded. Some gain gifts from this and become Hollowpoints, others are turned into the mindless Spent. But I can't really tell if it's just because of the stupid gun puns, which I love, or if there's actually something deeper there to explore. I want to say it's the latter, but me an optimism don't do so well.

>>52357327
Guns in fantasy, mostly. Well, more of a high fantasy slant. And isn't Arcanum more of a steampunk thing? And, I dunno, I guess I want the firearms to not just be fully rooted in technology, but to blend in and play around with a bunch of fantasy elements as well. Like, I dunno, a gun carved from the bones of gods, firing bullets filled with souls of the damned. I dunno, I think I just have a problem telling my left brain to shut up and let my right brain make things that aren't totally realistic.

>>52357356
That seems like it could be interesting.

>>52357438
>And isn't Arcanum more of a steampunk thing?
It's industrial revolution coming into medieval fantasy. In a sense, yes, steampunk. But with elves and magic.

>>52357291
For one thing: fucking Warhammer.

>>52295559
>What human culture would you say be interesting to integrate into a Goblin race?
Jews
>former slave/bandit race united under a king and a prophet
Are you kidding me? Of course Jews!

>>52357438
>That seems like it could be interesting.
I have this whole Ferngully thing going on between Forest and Rock Gnomes. Rock Gnomes have constructed a massive puzzle city in the crater of the meteor, using the resources of the surrounding forest to fuel their industry without abandon.

>>52357461
>Goblin race
>Jews
I was actually kinda wondering about that watching Harry Potter a while ago. Like, big noses, working with money, seen as greedy. The Goblins do seem to be a bit similar to the stereotype there.

>>52357294
Yes. It evolved into two sub-species, the proto-human ape and the proto-elven ape. The proto-human ape eventually evolved into the humans and the short folk, also known as halflings. The proto-elven ape evolved into the proto-elves which, thanks to some magical happenings, evolved into the elves of today.

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I wanna do a setting with western kingdoms (not Europe) fighting an eastern Empire (not Ottomans). The trick is that the Ottomans are basically a magocracy, and the western countries have forbidden use of magic for religious reasons, meaning they have gunpowder and such, but don't use magic at all to fight the not-Ottomans.

How should magic be like to sound both powerful, and balanced to lose sometimes against technological weapons ? I thought about doing shit like magi regiments where they need to be well concentrated and synced to be able to cast big spells against fortresses or armies, meaning a cavalry charge could put them into disarray. Also weather based spells, which would require long preparations and risks. The reasons for the latest defeats of the empire could also be caused by more political and systemical reasons rather than pure militaristic ones.

My second problem is that there are still practionners of magic (deemed heretical by the church) inside the western kindgoms, and the party should also meet some and fight some. So magic is rare but also scary in this part of the world, but what should it look like ?

>>52357615
It's very easy. Magic is vastly more powerful, but it requires extensive study. Any dirty Peasant Joe can handle a gun with minimal training.

>>52357476
A bit similar? It was totally intentional. Anyone who's lived in Scotland can confirm it.

>>52357760
Hm yeah you're right, it's like the gun against the sword, except the sword is the scroll. Good point. But my trouble is more around the precise capacities of magic, I guess it has to stay mysterous, so it feels more threatening and surprising, but it also has to stay believable. For example I thought that druids are ancient pagan followers who still can interact with nature and steal the skin of animals, listen to the spirits of trees and so on. That way we don't know if it's a superstition or not until he takes the control of a bear and starts rekting shit.

>>52357615
Probably a shitty solution but you can make the empire arrogant and full of themself.
Since they have magic, a lot of thing become really easy, so they become engrossed and lazy.
Since they are "more advanced", you can consider they have less child and less warrior too even with strategic advantage thanks to magic.

While the kingdoms live hard life and have a population more violent and stronger since accustomed to harsh treatment. And they still have a high fertility.

can anyone give me any examples of cities in swamp/swampy environments? i'm gonna research new orleans and other louisiana cities but i was wondering if there was anything anywhere else in the world i could base it off of, specifically cities with history that go back to renaissance and medieval times although they don't have to be exclusively those

>>52360303
People don't actually want to live in swamps. The Native Americans who did live in the swamps of Florida were forced there. And even today, it's not like the shopping mall is right next to the swamp. What happens is that swamps are destroyed and totally redeveloped so you can actually build stuff, and in order prevent flooding from the water that the swamp would've contained, you basically make little ditches, ponds, and lakes absolutely everywhere. I live in Florida, trust me, when it rains for an entire week on end, you realize how fucked you'd be if we didn't do this.

>>52360366
i'm making a location in my setting inhabited by lizard-people who have adapted to the swamp and find the harsh environment homely. i was wondering if there was any viable way to build a city on/near a swamp since it seems like the humidity and constant flooding would create problems for infrastructure.

>>52360303
Saint Petersburg?

But yeah, >>52360366 is right, swamps are usually dried and paved on, otherwise you can't have build shit.

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Does anyone know the name of that pseudo history about the humans that fought some aliens and ended up having about 10 distinct and grotesque mutations?

>>52360454
is there any way a city could be built within a swamp without completely drying and paving over it? i'm thinking wood from a unique type of tree that is incredibly resistant to rot from moisture. place would probably be a shit hole by normal city standards but super tough lizard people live there, it's not like they want paved roads and dry floors 24/7

>>52360551
Maybe with stilts you can get somewhere? And some kind of swamp agriculture? Rice is growing in swampy places, right?

>>52360551
Everything is on stilts and/or up high in the trees.

>>52360572
>>52360592
i like this idea. a wooden layered swamp-city built on stilts and supported by old and ancient trees. rich get the nice, cozy, dryer homes at the top while the poor labor in the swamp-fields and live in more run-down lower-tier housing.

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>>52360551
Human planet had an episode on it. Everything on stilts, houses are open, canoes to get around.

I would strongly recommend watching human planet for material on various niche lifestyles

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>>52360632
Human planet also did a thing like that

>>52360479
It's like, History of Evolution, or something similar. Goddamn that thing is nightmare and why-boner inducing.

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>>52362099
Someone found it for me in the PDF share thread so I'm posting it here.

>>52361475
>>52361519
Got any more info to make, you know, finding the episodes easier?

I've been building a setting based on a pantheon of 13 gods who are all brothers/sisters, sort of like in Greek mythology. They all bickered during the creation of the world, but generally worked together more or less to form the mortal realm. I'm still thinking about the main gameplay part, though.

One of the gods is a PC, with a couple followers who are either half-deity assistants or larger-than-life heroes who have earned immortality somehow - these also being PCs. However I'm having trouble thinking of meaningful plotlines for why the PC god would descend and muck around with mortals on their terms. Like maybe they've had a falling out with a group of other gods, but wouldn't it their efforts be betters spent in the heavens marshaling their powers or forces?

One idea I don't want to do is the whole 'the god's power is dependent on the number/quality of their worshipers'. Gods in this setting are forces of nature that don't need worshipers, even though they might really enjoy having them.

So far, I've come up with the idea that the player god needs to raise up some kind of heroic figure from typical illiterate-farmhand level, making a wager with another god not to use 'too much power' or something or else forfeiting the bet. Like I'll train this guy for 20 years, you train that guy for 20 years, and we'll see who wins.

Or maybe they've just come down after creating the world, and are going about enjoying creation and adding more animals/magic/whatever over a period of hundreds/thousands of years.

Another option on the table is that the player's race of people they created got wiped out by their jealous siblings, and they're left depressed and out-of-touch with reality. Like they've cast themselves out of the heavens because of grief and anger.

I'm just having a tough time figuring out a good system of progression for a god who should technically have all their powers up-front - kind of like a superhero, but fantasy-style.

>>52362340
I feel like the god should just be the DM. Then whatever you give to the players will just fall naturally in-line with the god in the game. A bit on the nose, I admit.

>>52362333
It was human planet: rivers. Aired on bbc. I suppose it's on their app or something?

How do you do "elite warrior" types in your settings? Are they pretty uniform in terms of weaponry and equipment? Do they march to war, or do they function more as guards? Are they made up of multiple species, or just one? Are they divinely empowered? Do they have access to special equipment?

>>52364693
I like doing some kind of pretorian shit for elite warriors. Veteran guys in uniform who go to melee when shit is going down, and act as guard the majority of time. One species, usually, except if it makes sense (for example neutrality of the guardsmen ensured by the fact they're all strangers and don't give a fuck about politics).

>divinely empowered
For religious forces yes, otherwise no.

>Do they have access to special equipment?
Of course they do

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So, I cant decide what I want because Im an indecisive prick.

Here are my notes so far for a series of world wars that will bring humanity to the brink of total annihilation.

I cant decide between letting humanity sort this shit out for themselves, and one hundred years later after rebuilding themselves they set out to colonize the galaxy as a meritocratic republic empire, which will put human interstellar civilization at around the 2200s.

Or if I want aliens to come down and try to reestablish peace in some kind of space UN peacekeeping bid. This would take a decade or two, ultimately putting the interstellar human civilization somewhere in the early to mid 2100s.

I want to go with the former, so that when humans are going out into space and making contact with other species, the rest of the milky way is going "wtf who are these fuckos?", and overall a more independent human civilization.

But on the other hand, I want to put it near to the present, so I dont have to imagine a whole society and culture that's vastly different to our current one in terms of entertainment, ect ect.(Also I want to meme hard and make references to shit I enjoy without it sounding like people commonly enjoying watching two or three hundred year old movies).

There is a third idea Im amusing myself with, one I aped from Macross. During the war, just before everything truly starts going to shit, a big-ass ship crashes, carrying a cache of information in a giant data bank. This would ultimately propel us into spess in a matter of years, maybe a decade.

I like this third idea because it allows modern, currently existing countries to be involved in the narrative, which mite b cool.

THoughts? WHich one would you like to see?

>>52365905

You could have it be when the nukes start flying, someone detonates one in space to knock out all the enemy's comm satellites (China, I'm looking at you) - however, the EMP also fries the circuitry on a cloaked alien observation ship, and it crashes bringing alien technology to the world. Maybe aliens don't even know the ship crashed, or assume it exploded. Maybe it's an independent surveyor so nobody would know where it was anyway.

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made in gimp and as rough as rough can be the first draft of muh worlds main continent is complete. opinions criticisms and general commentary is appreciated from you fine tg folk.

I'm developing the environment. Only focused on one element, which is this forest that basically has shadow magic poisoning. Wonder what I'm gonna do with it all. Favorite kinds of forests, go. I imagine it's a mix of spooky and tranquil - a personification of darkness itself.

>>52365905
Few notes. First of all: without a bigger explanation why, it's actually very unlikely that the world would head in the direction of greater unification and formation of larger political blocks. The idea of nations joining together to form larger blocks is largely a remnant of the cold war, during which the radical ideologies briefly overrided national interests, but it's highly unlikely that that would happen again any time soon. Unless you can explain what kind of solid ideological reasoning there would be for countries like Indonesia, Fiji and Philipines would join with Australia and New Zeland, I would advice against such ideas: because as it stands, it's extremely unlikely.
Second of all: While concerns about China becoming the new militaristic antagonist of the far east are understandable, actually the real conflict is much more likely to arise between countries such as India and Pakistan.
Third of all: Maybe this is because I'm Czech, but the likelyhood of Czechia joining with Germany, Switzerland and Italy of all countries, rather than with Poland, Hungary just seems unlikely. In fact, the idea of eastern europe forming united blocks rather than increasing hostiltiy between one and another again seems unlikely.

Finally, if you are going to set your story another 200 years into the future, I think detailing near-future politics is fundamentally kinda pointless.Focus on the transitional era, the era during first space expansions, rather than shit happening two hundred years prior.

Personally, I'd recommend either going full space-opera and setting the story in a distant future (Crest/Battle Flag of Stars had some interesting ideas about marrying earth history to far future space-opera settings, for an example), or very near future settings with more emphasis on hard-sci-fi elements.

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>>52368823
I just figured it would be easier to lump nations together, and I could rationalize it as people flocking together for protection, but in reality they would be extremely unstable and fall apart eventually due to infighting and such.

For example, certain countries would try to make their defensive coalitions into hegemonies, angering all the other nations,

Basically, everyone is at war with everyone, even their own allies and everyone hates and mistrusts everyone, even their allies.

Honestly, I just wanted a backdrop for some near future war short-stories.

Would you recommend turning the balkans and baltic area into just one big shitfest of dozens of nations forming and splitting and growing and shrinking, all while other powers have their fingers in it to make sure it's a buffer zone between east and west?

Because I'll be honest, Im new to thge whole "paying attnetion to global politics" thing, and I cant seem to find a good website that just states what is happening. It's all biased nowadays.

Im tempted to abandon this and starting from scratch.

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On the left is the map I'll be using for myself in a Pirate-Sinbad-Cthulhu-Darksun campaign. The right side is the in-universe map the players will get.

Who else loves fucking with IC and OOC knowledge while worldbuilding? Secrets the PCs will/can never know?

>>52369093
Why would the in-universe map lack any sort of information about the land other than its shape? Not even mountains?

>>52369093
>>52372325
And why does that sea between the two big islands look like a dick and balls?

>>52372325
It's a do-it-yourself model.

>>52372470
>dick and balls
Whelp. Can't unsee.

>>52291919
Where would 'Fresh Water' fit?