/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

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Evil can be many things but if your looking for pure evil, its the foreign virus that infects the eternal wound of the world.

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Tell me your thoughts on my setting's religions:

"The Church of the Maiden is the most popular faith in Athene. It's monotheistic, worships a goddess known as the Maiden of Light, and it's somewhat similar to Roman Catholic Christianity aesthetically and hierarchically, though with far less actual dogma. The Maiden is an exceptionally benevolent goddess that mainly teaches compassion and the sanctity of life. Other than in Carysia, it's the most popular religion in the rest of Athene."

"Adrasteanism is a religion based on the teaches of the ancient philosopher and sage Adrastea, who led a rebellion against Old Altisia and killed off some of the old gods. It's an ascetic faith which is rigorously atheistic, the chief platform of its dogma is that "There are no gods, no masters." That said, Adrastea is known to be real, and if not divine, at least immortal, and she has carved out an afterlife for her followers, which is also widely believed to be real."

"Kantor was one of the Four Great Emperors of the past, who was also an extremely knowledgeable mage. In order to thwart some unknown catastrophe, he sacrificed himself, but his power was such that he did not truly die. Instead, his essence diffused into the very fabric of the world. Kantorists believe that this was his apotheosis, and they erect shrines in nature to worship and give thanks. A shrine to Kantor can range from something as simple as a rope enclosing some trees to an elaborate temple complex. Space, and the arrangement of objects within it, is believed to have critical importance by Kantorists."

>>52693725
>Tell us about the nature of evil in your setting. Is it a tangible, measurable force
No, nor could it be. Evil is the term used to describe things that are considered inappropriate according to a particular moral framework, as it necessarily always is.

>>52693725
Requesting again.
Does anyone have a cool program that can be useful to make timelines? I need to keep track of important events in my world history and shit

>>52693725
Evil's a bit of a general topic, really. There's your carbon-copy evil - 'I do bad things for personal gain' - which comes from having a working brain. Doesn't come from anywhere necessarily. Most people would equate evil with the Void - the end of all things. Demons come from the void, but they aren't inherently evil - they're insane. They are being eroded away into nothing by entropy itself and there's nothing they or you or any ody can do about it. It's the nature of things.

Sin, which is really a blanket term for something not inherently evil, just the slow end of all things, is a solid material that corrupts those who handle it. It's the rot of the universe in it's purest form. Demons are made of mostly this stuff.

Souls of 'evildoers' go where everyone elses' go - Twilight, basically purgatory, and then either to the Nether, the negatively aligned planes which are closer to the void, which is nothing, or to the Aether, which is where the gods live. I haven't quite determined how that works necessarily, but hey, it isn't going anywhere.

Haven't gotten far enough to have substantial information on evil organizations yet.

It's pretty much a social construct, though some actions are definitely more evil than others. Evil actions are rationalized as having your bodies inhabited by demons during the act. The demons are understood in the same sense as the Id is in our universe as whispering's constantly present in the back of ones conscious, suppressed by our better nature.

Ultimately, evil can be found in almost all aspects of society and evil actions are usually justified by organizations as necessary for the greater good of the nation. Even horrific revenants, vampires, and Elder Gods can't be understood as "evil", as they're often just acting upon their base instincts. It's the people that willingly commit evil yet attempt to justify it that are viewed as truly monstrous.

>>52694026
I like these. They feel very real, very distinct.

>>52694842
Any word processor.

>>52694026
>No, nor could it be. Evil is the term used to describe things that are considered inappropriate according to a particular moral framework
Have some imagination. We're talking about fictional worlds. Why couldn't they have a single, absolute moral framework?

>>52694026
They're neato! Are you looking for any sort of criticism or commentary in particular? Also, if you've written more about them, I'd love to see it.

When worldbuilding, do you tend to be inspired more by visual mediums and if so what artists inspire you?

>>52693725
>>52694026
>>52695041
>>52696517
Sin is Evil because God says so, and he will smite your ass and send you to the Evil Afterlife if you do it

When he's drunk (which is usually), he has to walk his shots, so he'll probably smite everything around you also

>>52696629
I tend to be inspired by random shitposts on /tg/ more than anything else

>>52693725
>Tell us about the nature of evil in your setting.
It's all relative.

In practice, 'evil' usually ends up meaning 'working against the PCs'. I'm fine with that.

>>52693725
>Is it a tangible, measurable force or social construct?
No, absolutely not. It's when people screw others over for whatever reason.
>Is it black-and-white or relative and situational?
Relative and situational. Nobody thinks they're evil, and they usually have a point.
>How did evil arise in the universe?
How can friendship or logic or evil arise? As long as there are conscious creatures, there's evil.
>Is there an ultimate evil being like Satan or Morgoth?
Oh yes, I have a Satan, but he's most definitely not evil. He's tasked with preventing souls from returning to their origin - the magitech reactor at the heart of the world, which is actually a colossal spaceship. Eventually, as lesser gods came into being and created various afterlives for their followers, only wicked souls were left to enter his soul repository, and it evolved into Hell. The guy has a wicked sense of humour and loves experimenting.
The guy who is considered the absolute evil by most is the original creator of the world. He requires the destruction of all life to power up his ship and leave his eternal confinement. But, again, can you really call him evil? The life was created by his enemies to imprison him, it's only natural that he would want to destroy it all.
>Where do the souls of evildoers go?
See above.
>What are some notable evil individuals or organizations?
Various conquerors and usurpers, mostly. But, as I explained, they generally have a good point. For instance: there's an evil vizier who's in fact the legitimate heir to the throne; there's a genocidal crusader who does humanity a great service by drawing the wrath of an enemy race to himself; there's an elven dictator who thinks that elves have grown too weak and pathetic, and he's actually right.
I don't like alignments.

>>52694026
>Tell me your thoughts on my setting's religions
I think they're all extremely unoriginal, down to the names.

>>52697868
Well, that's not very constructive.

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R8 my map.

>>52698157
>Catholic Church
>The religion from Dragon Age, down to the name
>40k meets Feng Shui

>>52698208
Why are there so many strange scattered mountain ranges in the desert?

>>52698379
Yeah it is based on Catholicism in an aesthetic sense, but isn't really similar outside of that.

I honestly didn't know about the Dragon Age thing until you mentioned it, the name and faith were both actually based on Astraea from Demon's Souls more than anything else.

The last criticism just seems silly to me.

>>52698421
I see no differences at all from Catholicism.

Well tough luck, because you fully recreated the religion from Dragon Age.

Facts are silly to you? Oh well.

>>52698390
Partially because I misjudged the size initially (thought the map would be smaller scale than it ended up being), and then I simply liked how it looked.

>>52698421
It doesn't seem like you want actual constructive criticism given that your immediate reaction is to go on the defensive.

The first religion is boring femYahweh Catholicism but with none of the actual depth and richness of that religion... It reeks of "I don't actually know anything about Catholicism, but I've heard its dogmatic and shitty; this would be good Catholicism"

Second one makes no sense. The dude is known to have killed gods, but they're atheists? and an atheist religion? The fuck? Boring vanilla godkiller shite

Third one is starting to be interesting, but you need to flesh it out. Why is space so important? Tell me about ropes around trees. Describe the temples

>>52693725
I literally have an Evil Incarnate kind of creature in my setting who rules over a hellish plane. But there's no objective evil. Rather than dictating what is and what isn't evil, this Adversary figure adopts and masters everything that mortals and inmortals consider to be evil in order to be the most massive cunt to ever exist. He/she/it embraces this self contradiction with gusto, as there's very few cultures that appreciate it.

Souls of evil doers just randomly reincarnate unless they're tricked by this or other powerful entities to sell their souls.

Sup /wbg/, I have been busily writing away at a setting I hope to play in with my DnD group (eventually), and while I've made a lot of points about the basic Shape of the world and what its like, I haven't been able to make much headway in the basic premise of the setting, which is basically that I wanted to make a Tolkien-like classical fantasy world that incorporates Great Ones/ cosmic horrors into the setting in much the same way that Bloodborne did for its setting.

Basically I was inspired by Bloodborne, and can't help but think "How would Elves be effected by a Great One's influence? Or what if the Dwarves uncovered a Great One when they dug too deep?"

The problem is, I want to incorporate these into the setting in a more meaningful way than just hamfisting them into everything while muttering "muh Lovecraft".

I was thinking of maybe including them as a recurring cycle, like the Reapers form Mass Effect, or something. Like part of the world's history would read

>It was Their coming that drove the Dwarves to their under-mountain homes, it was They who shattred the empire of men, and They who drove the elves to quarrel amongst themselves

But I'm not sure if that would be too blunt for these things.

>>52694842
You can use paint.net

>>52698444
>Well tough luck, because you fully recreated the religion from Dragon Age.
Having googled this, I cannot really identify any commonalities apart from some similarity in name and the fact that both of the founders participated in rebellions.
>>52698617
>It doesn't seem like you want actual constructive criticism
I just don't feel that the criticism offered was particularly constructive or even valid.

>It reeks of "..."
Well, no, again, it really isn't Catholicism beyond the aesthetic style and hierarchy. And yeah, it's intentionally like that because I want to invoke that institutional trope within the setting. But as far as the religion itself is concerned, no, it's got next to nothing in common with Abrahamism of any variety apart from monotheism.

>Second one makes no sense. The dude is known to have killed gods, but they're atheists? and an atheist religion? The fuck? Boring vanilla godkiller shite
Atheistic religions are quite common, even in our modern world. Adrasteans deny the divinity of the creatures that had been called gods, but they believe in souls, the afterlife, and a host of other clearly supernatural phenomena.

Here, some more details that I think address your concerns about depth and such:

>The Maiden of Light is the single god recognized and worshiped by members of the Church of the Maiden, known as Luminaries. She is understood to be a benevolent guardian and guide of all living peoples, who earnestly desires to help everyone. Luminaries believe that the Maiden did not create the world, but instead somehow came upon it, saw its people suffering, and decided to care for them. The chief holy text of the Church of the Maiden is a book of songs known as “Hymns of the Blue Moon”, which contains over 400 songs that refer to everything from love and marriage to battlefield tactics. Obviously, music and, in particular, the chorus, is a key part of Luminary ritual, but just as prominent are bells and shawls.

>>52699168
>Adrastean services take place in temples, in which a special blessed water is set ablaze with a quasi-magical blue flame to absolve the sins of its members. Fire (especially blue fire and magical fire), water, and cloth have special significance to Adrasteans. “Ten Thousand Broken Promises” is the name of their holy book, a compilation of works written by contemporaries of her rebellion, and it relates the tale of the Sage Adrastea as well as numerous proverbs. Adrastea herself authored a number of texts before taking up arms, though they are mostly theological works analyzing and critiquing what are now regarded as the Small Faiths.

>Rope, plants, paper, and doorways are all commonly used in the creation of Kantorist sacred spaces. Kantorists do not have any hierarchical religious organization, and do not worship gods, though they do recognize the existence of many. Instead, they believe that they, and everything else in the world, is part of the divine, as it is infused with Kantor’s essence, and strive to achieve harmony in all things. Kantorists have no single holy text, but most regard Emperor Kantor’s own “Horticulture and the Eighth Plane” (oftentimes instead titled “Order and Disorder”) as their primary theological treatise.

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Here's something old that I forgot about.

I should update it sometime soon, eye genetics have gotten more complicated. I need to add specific rare mutations that completely override the basic eye color mechanism.

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>>52699198

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How do you get in the mood for worldbuilding?

>>52699370
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyz5ql87ls4
incense, [REDACTED], and ritual music

>>52699370
I'm always in the mood for worldbuilding.

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>>52699370

I don't know. I haven't been in the mood for months.

>>52694842
GIMP works if you don't want to pirate photshop and make a nice visual element for players.

Google drive has all the programs you need to sort and store all you're material.

This is also good to make node maps for how things are interconnected.
https://www.draw.io

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>>52693725
>Tell us about the nature of evil in your setting. Is it a tangible, measurable force or social construct? Is it black-and-white or relative and situational? How did evil arise in the universe? Is there an ultimate evil being like Satan or Morgoth? Where do the souls of evildoers go? What are some notable evil individuals or organizations?
Nah, there really isn't evil, and both sources of creation are neutral. Demons are bit vague on that, since they are kinda programmed to destroy and torment life, but they can stray from it for selfish benefit...

Of course, dickwads exist, and terrible things are done for good reasons.

>>52698907
What are motives of the old great ones? Are they actual deities and/or how they relate to pantheon/gods? Are they malevolent or just neutral and do things arbitrarily?

>>52699616
Thabks! Ver y helpful

Im stuck for names for my secret, thought-dead space colony. Their planet is harsh, And has caused low level mutations in the 'native' population.

Think pandora meets helghan

>>52699370
The actual problem is getting OUT of this mood when you need to get something else done.

>>52702620
Deathrock.

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My players generally aren't interested in an information dump or setting homework before the first session of an adventure.

I've been thinking of accomodating them by building adventures around the core concept of the characters waking up in an unknown world with no memories. They will all be the same race or species, and capable of recognizing each other as 'one of my kind' despite their lack of memories. They'll have to set out into the world in order to find food and shelter, and eventually find a raison d'être beyond that.

By that point, I hope to have been able to throw enough varying hooks at them to find out what they're interested in playing.


I've also thought about a possible variation on their character origin. The characters will be built as everyday people from our world in the year of our lord Yahweh 201X. I'll briefly describe a snippet of their boring, everyday life before moving on to a world-ending nuclear apocalypse that ends all life on earth. I hope to be able to paint a vivid enough picture of the sensation of dying in a world-encompassing fiery holocaust.

After that, they wake in an unknown world with no recollection of how they got there. The last thing they can recall is having the flesh blasted off of their bones, but they seem to be completely uninjured, if a bit tired and hungry. And what were supposed to be the charred ruins of civilisation are an inexplicable verdant forest, lush field or sunny beach.

Is there anything about this that sounds either appealing or unappealing to you? How would you change that, if necessary?

>>52702620
The lazy solution is to go with various names for parts of hell/underworld

Tartarus/Gehenna/Dis/Acheron/etc

>>52703041
I would have no interest in playing a generic amnesiac
But I also wouldn't mind infodumps so I guess I'm not a suitable example

>>52702620
What's the climate like specifically? Hot? Cold? Stormy? Any specific weather anomalies? Ash rain? Ice geysers? Poison gases?

>>52703139
You wouldn't be entirely generic, though. You would have a perfectly regular recollection of your 21st-century life. All that's missing is how you ended up in a wilderness you can't readily identify, and which will turn out not to be any place on earth fairly quickly.

>>52698208
Mediterranean/10

>>52698208
Seems good. Would play

rivers feel a bit odd tho

>>52702620
Outer Eden.
Mind, it was named when people were bit more optimistic about the colonization-aspect.

I kind have worked myself into a corner, in my setting dwarves associate mountains with their religion and culture and are based off of different mountainous ethnic groups.

However, I want to have a group of dwarves based on the Netherlands. This is a problem, because the Netherlands is below sea level. How do I explain the Dwarves that migrated to such an area.

>>52704234
One option that comes to mind is that they aren't willing imigrants. They could be exiles, they could be looking for specific ores, they could be setting up a position for trade even.
Or go the dwarf fortress route.

>>52704234
Expand the cultural area of the Netherlands slightly to the south and east. Have the dwarves primarily be inhabitants of the hilly and mountainous regions in that area. They will project their influence over the low-lying river delta to the west, even if they do not strictly have permanent settlements there.

If there even are settlements in that area (as well there should be, it's rich in food supplies and timber), they could be vassals to the dwarves.

>>52700005
>What are motives of the old great ones? Are they actual deities and/or how they relate to pantheon/gods? Are they malevolent or just neutral and do things arbitrarily?

Well, if I'm following Bloodborne's lore right, the Old Ones use our species' to reproduce, to create new Old Ones, but it always irrevocably curses or changes the rest of us to do it. It twists people into beasts and takes away their sanity.
It was the fact that the Church in Bloodborne wanted to become as great as the Old Ones that the Hunt never ended; one of the Great Ones cursed them to be stuck there, with the sympathetic Moon Presence providing Hunters a refuge in the Hunters Dream.

So I suppose if I use a similar model; the Old Ones using us to reproduce, but that always causing some calamitous upheaval in the process, I could make something off of that?

>>52704234
Is there a particular reason you want to base Dwarves on the Dutch?

Their proximity to the sea and their position as a gateway to the British Isles (and later on, the world) played a massive part in shaping their mercantile mentality, but I don't generally think of dwarves as a seafaring race.

In my mind, dwarves are fearful or at least suspicious of any body of water that's deeper than they are tall.

>>52704262
>>52704335
>Started in the Ardennes and moved out to the lowlands for economic expansion.
That might work, thanks /tg/

>>52704774
In my setting dwarves have no native dislike or affinity for the sea. The region experienced a boom as an economic breadbasket and neutral trading hub for the human states to the south, and the Elven kingdoms to the north who were both concerned with civil wars at the time. Fast forward to modern day the dwarves run a trade empire using their religious connection (regardless of culture all dwarves claim descendance from the same deity, who scattered them among the world's mountains) and reverse engineered elven naval vessels to get early footholds in new regions and exploit them for profit.

>>52703163
Its earth like, to a degree.The dominant biomes are swamp and jungle , it rains alot ,theres a massive rocky desert below the equator. And you It has a heavy nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere with slightly more toxins in the atmosphere than ours and elevated radiation levels which has caused mutations in the people.

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What's your favorite way to get inspiration ideas? Looking at art, reading random history, etc.

>>52707204
Interesting books. Fox tossing, octopus wrestling, and other forgotten sports for example.

Who knew that would have an entire section talking about a lost/dying french subculture of nomadic stilt walking swamp herders. Like how could you not steal that idea, transplant it to some deep snowy land, give them guns, and have them worship long legged fairfolk?

I also listen to a lot of vaguely historical or paranormal podcasts, art is a pretty obvious one, its just so easy.

Sometimes I get ideas while just out walking about.

>>52708351
>nomadic stilt walking swamp herders
Didn't Eberron have their orcs do that?

>>52698907
I actually wanted to do something similar, and the reason why Elves don't sleep and resist charm effects is because they cut themselves off to resist the Old Ones influence.

>>52700005
>What are motives of the old great ones?
As for this. I had the idea of they just want to sleep. I think sleep and dreams are a big deal in this campaign in some way, They want to sleep but the clangor and prayers of the mortal races make them restless. Some try to placate, other to silence.

>>52699370
I don't really do dedicated worldbuilding sessions, but write pieces here and there and slowly put the puzzle together.

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>>52707204
Art. Medieval period to renaissance and surrealists works. Weirder the better.

Right now working on a Gnomish mechanical city inspired by the works of Oleg Denysenko.

>>52698208
I like it.

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Would using our world circa 1620, slapping on some magic that gets crazy and manic over the top of it, then extrapolating out from there to 1640 be a good idea for setting? I'm wanting to run a Lamentations of the Flame Princess game where a coven of witches actually do bring magic into the world and it's been a while since then. Shit is going nuts all over the world and peasants, adventurers, armies, clergies and kings are all trying to get something from this.

Here is the 'starting map' for my game. Willing to take tips and pointers for it.

>>52703208
Yeah, for some reason I simply find maps centered around a sea comfier than maps centered on a continent.

>>52703280
They do, right? Dunno what to do to make them feel more natural, but they seem weird to me too.

>>52693725
Evil is not some tangible, detectable thing in my setting, theres no major ultimate evil, or even evil souls. But as for evil individuals, theres the majority of Dragons, who just hate existing, the Dredbreg Orcish forces, who are mostly nasty savage fucks, Demons, who are corrupted machines of destruction, Vann Doran, an immortal knight who just wants to fight shit, and the closest to a "ultimate evil" is the Ink Burner, a being who exists solely to unmake reality, but he's not explicitly evil, it's just what he is.

There is no objective evil but there are certainly evil beings present. The nature of souls in my setting being that those driven by powerful emotions overtime become them, essentially spirits of people essentially degrade overtime until they become powerful spirits and essentially aspects of whatever they embodied.

For instance, people who saw themselves as guardians become guardian spirits who's existence hinges on the fact that this what they are. They may or may not remember why they do what they do but it's all they do now. Similarly, people driven by hatred or sorrow can become truly dangerous and powerful demons who's very presence can be poisonous

>>52698208
Great map, would definitely Mount and Blade that shit up.

>>52699370

I like nice atmospheric music that puts me in the mood, often stuff that reminds me of campaign music from total war but nto always.

I have to have time on my hands and not be a sad cunt at the moment.

>>52699370
I like looking at images, watching fantasy and sci-fi flicks, playing games and reading books. Pretty much everything gives me inspiration.

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>>52693725
>/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

Nothing to report besides this lovely Easter-themed picture I drew of a family of Gnomes having a nice little dinner- maybe they're celebrating the coming of spring, or perhaps their son has finally earned his +embarrassingly+ traditional Red Cap.
Either way his father is making him wear it, damn it; those hats are expensive!!

Happy Easter, /wbg/!

>>52716401

Excellent art. Happy Easter!

>>52716401
On a semi related note; i would love to use david the gnome as a setting one day

>>52699370
I don't. Mood gets into me and I start worldbuilding.

what conditions would an ammonia world have? I have some aliens that have to wear suits as tey evolved in an ammonia base enviroment, also what mix of gases would cause a red gas giant?

>>52699429
me neither anon, its sad desu. I have all these ideas I wanna put on paper but no desire to do it.

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Which style of drawing mountains and hills looks better: left or right?

I asked this last thread but I don't think I framed the question as well as I could and the conversation got derailed.

>>52721304
Right.

>>52721304
Right

>>52721304
It depends on the time of day / position of the sun.

>>52721304
Right is right

>>52721304
Right motherfucker we told you this last thread goddamn.

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>>52704471
Guess it could work.
You don't have to make their motives to be too obvious ( so that players have to rely on guesswork / etc. ), but it is good to have them thought out. Part of Lovecraftian charm is that the whole basis of the horror of it is insignificance of man, and what uncontrollable and unknowable things can threaten that existence or life as it is. Or not.
Although, that is if you want to go with horror, but I think it is more satisfying when setting delves into more themes of it.
For example, my setting's universe is in bit of an azathothian conundrum, being born in psyche of vegetative Great Beast of Void, with some other beasts occasionally making contact with the world, out of curiosity or sympathy, such as when THVBH made contact with Adel ( which kinda caused him to become more lucid ).

>>52707204
Music and environment/equipment pictures usually.
Sometimes I get some ideas in middle of the night, which I sometimes I just put in notebook of my cellphone.

>>52716401
Loving the red caps.

>>52693725
How do I know if my made up language makes sense? Is there any website with comprehensive examples of how languages and sounds evolve? For example, does it make sense for the suffixes -in, -on and -an to mean the same in different dialects? What are some sounds that never evolve into the other?

>>52724053
Just go to college and get a four year degree in linguistics and you'll have a rough idea

>>52724118
I don't mean this degree of knowledge. I mean, people here talks about climates, tectonics and such without a degree in geography. I'm sure the same kind of half-assed basic assumptions can be made about languages without a degree.

>>52724178
>I mean, people here talks about climates, tectonics and such without a degree in geography
To be fair, a lot of them are wrong

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>>52724240
Well it's not relevant if it's right or wrong as long as it provides an illusion of coherence.

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Posted this up a few times already but my settings map is finally almost done. Last time I ever listen to my players suggestion that I should colour it in.

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First shitty attempt at a map, any suggestions?

>>52724623
Your map looks like someone's ass and thighs from behind. You better have a gaping maw to the underworld somewhere in the center of those arctic mountains

>>52721321
>>52721357
>>52721382
Thank you!

>>52721374
Lol.

>>52724715
Wow I was actually planning a pit into the center of the world right there

>>52712107
what a eye sore to look at

Do Russia and Dwarfs go well together? In context they're evil dwarfs who are greedy bastards who exploit "lesser races" for gold, are as sane as Dwarf Fortress Dwarfs with no booze and have a vast bureaucracy that's completely insane. I was thinking of giving them a sort of Tsarist Russia look rather than the Soviet look.

>>52725674
What exactly is wrong with it?

>>52725989
>Do Russia and Dwarfs go well together?
This comparison is made on /tg/ often enough.
>greedy bastards who exploit "lesser races" for gold
>no booze
You have an extremely weird image of Russia.

>>52726328
Well it's not that they have no booze, it was jut for comparison. They're as if not more drunken than regular dwarfs.

>>52726386
At any rate, fucked up bureaucracy is the only really Russian thing you described. If they're like the Imperial Russia, they should a) have absurd inequality across the social classes; b) extremely diverse society that barely holds together; c) messianic complex and strong emphasis on extremely obsolete values that overshadows everything else.

>>52698208
7.5/10, decent organic lines and the general shape is nice, but i think the names get a bit samey

>>52721304
right

>>52724623
Left rivers are fucked. Rivers don't split up like that, nor as much.

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>>52726872
Thank you! On one hand, all this unanimous feedback is nice, but on the other hand I now have to redraw my entire map.

>>52693725
Okay /wbg/, give me some advice.
I'm working on a science-fantasy setting for a game I'm running (yes I know it's shit), and as there are probably going to be clerics in the game there should be some gods as well. Since the old gods were destroyed along with the world, the most prominent religion in the campaign is going to be mostly be practiced by sailors and those inhabiting the asteroid belt.

I currently have Dusk, a Death stand-in, and god of the Void, an unnamed goddess of technology, knowledge, and magic, a goddess of the Sun, life, and light, and a fourth one I'm having trouble coming up with the concept for. There's also the entity who killed the world in the first place, but his worship is outlawed because many of his followers start trying to finish the job and destroy the colonies. Right now I'm looking for thoughts, feedback, and suggestions.

>>52730307
>yes I know it's shit
You're not shit, anon. You and your world are wonderful, just the way you (and it) are.

t. Mr Rogers

>Dusk
I almost would rather you name this one Dust, as in Space Dust. The only thing that exists in the void, as it were.

>goddess of technology and magic
Hekate/Hecate could work the magic angle. Muse would also work for both magic and science.

>goddess of the sun
Aura? Solia? Ignara? Phota

>no concept
That's... odd that you want another god but don't have a concept for them yet. The other three cover a ton of territory, so I would almost suggest keeping it to 3 Gods. If you MUST have 4, take one of the more distinct aspects of one of the others and make that its own god.

>World Killer
No idea what to do about this unless I know more. Depending on how crazy the tech/magic will be, they could be a real frightening foe.

>>52721304


Right. Mountains are not hershey kisses.

>>52693725
>Is Evil a tangible, measurable force or social construct?
There's a few large-scale instances of necromancy or malicious states, but evil tends to be a by-product, rather than a tangible cause.

>Is it black-and-white or relative and situational?
Very situational. Individuals tend to have justifications for their actions, and this extends all the way up to nations. One faction might view another as irredeemably wrong and vile, and their gods may even empower agents to enforce this, but there is no grand cosmic doctrine.

>How did evil arise in the universe?
Through the follies of man... and other humanoid species.The interference of mad titans, greedy demons, and other powerful self-serving entities doesn't help.

>Is there an ultimate evil being like Satan or Morgoth?
Depending on which religion you ask, yes, but it goes back to the relative good-and-bad.
There is a major force of mindless destruction in the form of the Wyrm of Entropy that is trying to eat the after-realms, but it's a fairly indiscriminate force.

>Where do the souls of evildoers go?
There's a few different methods of getting there, but all 'bad guys' end up somewhere in the underworld, in one of the kingdoms of sin to enduring everlasting ironic punishment. You mess up there (which is kind of an accomplishment all on its own) your soul gets chucked into the maw of the Wyrm.

>What are some notable evil individuals or organizations?
The Dwarven senate is pretty darn antagonistic to everyone. Including its own members.
Followers of the black dragon make it their life's mission to make everyone else miserable as a 'lesson'.
werewolves and other werebeasts cause a good bit of panic, but this might be general madness.
A nigh-druidic sect of ents have gone on a crusade against all fire-making species.
Ogres, gnolls, and other goblinkin are typically destructive, but as they maim themselves in effort to resemble their one-eyed god, they tend to lack... focus.

>>52730307
>Death/Void (afterlife)
>Tech(artificial creation)
>Sun (life, illumination)
Sounds like you're lacking a general god of the planetoids. Braces itself against the Void but isn't strong enough to directly confront it. Takes warmth from the Sun, and provides material to the Tech.

While the Sun is a benevolent factor of sustaining life, it is distant.
A planetary, or for lack of a better word, Terran god would be personal and supportive. It represents the ground we walk, no matter what planet, and the metal ore it yields. It is the ice that encrusts those worlds, which is used for fuel and drink. It is atmospheric pressure and gravity that keeps us rooted, plants that produce oxygen (with a bit of help from the Sun), and nebulous clouds of gas giants that obscure radiation.

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>>52693725
This isn't so much of a world building question but a system question and I really didn't want to eat up an entire thread spot to ask it so I'm sorry for being a cock guzzling fagbutt

My system is made of handfulls of contested d6 rolls. For example, a guy shooting at another guy would roll a number of d6s relevant to their stats, add any mods, then compare the final result to the target's defensive roll. Whoever rolls higher wins the roll

The system doesn't have critical hit mechanics, so is there something I could try to implement or is it even worth implementing at all? The only idea I've had so far is a static number difference (like a difference of 10 would be a crit)

To stay somewhat on topic, what's a good reason a religious sect would splinter off of humanity's one and only ark to live on a nearby planet with a toxic atmosphere instead of safely in space? Maybe the gases give them hallucinations of sorts that they misconstrue as some kind of communication with the divine?

sort of expanding on an idea I've been exploring on an off for a while.

The key area of interest is a group of islands referred to as "The Bridge" because it is in between the northern and southern continent. Geologically speaking, it is actually part of the northern continent. To the east is a vast and deep ocean, to the west is a much tamer sea. Forts constructed in the isles keep travelers sailing through The Bridge more or less safe from pirates.

Eventually a curse fell upon the world. Beasts became more aggressive, and while crops continued to grow fine, they took on a bitter taste. Grasses started to grow spines, fruits slowly turned poisonous, and the animals became larger and deadlier. People noticed that The Bridge was somehow immune to this curse, so they migrated there en masse, or at least whoever could.

The world is/was inhabited by a number of peoples:

>Fey aka fuccbois with animal ears
The primary inhabitants of the world. They live in clans all other the place with each clan being its own thing. Some clans like each other, some hate each other. They are mostly indifferent about humans so long as they have their space, though their are exceptions in both directions. No they cannot interbreed with humans. When the curse came most of them did not migrate. Whatever came of them is uncertain.

>Humans
Humans in that part of the world mostly fall into one of two allegiances. The two are not presently at war, but there is some animosity between the two. The northern group (of course it is north vs south lol) is a loose collection of smaller states, each run differently, while the south is a republic.

>The People From Across the Sea
Pale skinned, pointy eared, beady eyed, hairless people who migrated to The Bridge and began construction of a new city with great efficiency. Previous contact with these people had been very limited. Nobody is sure what to make of them, other than that they like precision and efficiency in all things.

>>52731307
>To stay somewhat on topic, what's a good reason a religious sect would splinter off of humanity's one and only ark to live on a nearby planet with a toxic atmosphere instead of safely in space?
Maybe they wanted to try and tame the toxic planet, or maybe they wanted some space of their own, maybe they wanted resources on the planet, or maybe another reason.

Living in space has a lot of complications, and even if your setting has space magic gravity or spinning space ships there are still challenges such as very limited resources.

>>52731534
>(continued)
In the years that have passed since people migrated to The Bridge, the land outside the area has become twisted. The once gentle sea is not filled with large dangerous monsters. Giant demonic wolves the size of horses prowl the land. The grass is barbed and sharp as a razor. The once great cities are now filled with wild and dangerous humanoids. The animals around The Bridge seem unaffected by the great curse, and monsters born of the curse do not go within the area. Try to capture one and bring it to The Bridge resulted in disaster.

Adventurers and other transients have started investigating why The Bridge is unaffected by the curse. There are ancient remains of multiple different inhabitants, some older than others. So far nobody has found anything. normal people are starting to settle into their new lives in the island cities.

Hello /wbg/
Do you just enjoy world building or do you actually use that stuff? Arent your players bothered if you make some things unique, for they have difficulty of relating to them?

>>52731663
I have an incredibly autistic player seemingly every group I play, so I'm used to REEEEEEEEEE'ing over not following the FE Guidebook religiously.

>>52731663
I do it mostly for my own fun, but I do use it in my campaigns.

>>52699370
Stepping away from the computer is the most critical step for me or I'll just read all day. Then I grab my material, and a fresh pad of paper and pen. Maybe do some basic creativity exercises just to get myself in the mood. I never force it though if I'm really not feeling it.

>>52732122

>basic creativity exercise

What are those?

>>52726864
I originally intended for names to be from various world cultures, but logically it made no sense because the world is "young", the entire civilization comes from the same group of ~5 gods and for the last 1000 years every city from the regions with red names was part of the same empire.

>>52731307

Depends on what you want the criticals to do.
If you want "exceptional rolls result in killmoves or other impressive shit" then number difference works.
If you want "sometimes rolls turn out better than everyone expected" then you can make the rolls open ended. Meaning roll again on a 6 and add up, up to X times.

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How long is too long for descriptions for a typical week? I just started really getting into descriptions and I don't wanna over due it. Is this enough for a 4-5 hour session?

>>52693725

> Tell us about the nature of evil in your setting. Is it a tangible, measurable force or social construct?

Social construct, some societies do not agree with parts of it. "Glorious raid" to one might be "despicable banditry" to others.

> Is it black-and-white or relative and situational?

See above.

> How did evil arise in the universe?

Societies formed and made rules for themselves. With time, tradition and numbers those rules became reflected in the spirit realms.

> Is there an ultimate evil being like Satan or Morgoth?

No. The magics of dark and light are closest to it as they are used to animate soulless bodies and bodiless souls respectively. But even these can be used for nice things like healing, with a careful enough practitioner.

> Where do the souls of evildoers go?

Same as others. To the spirit realm dominion formed by the minds of their people. Most of them have sub realms set aside for punishment or rehabilitation.

> What are some notable evil individuals or organizations?

Halfmen tend to be upset with humans (or "true men") over past history of conquest, displacement and slavery. A number of thief and assassin guilds exist, as well as hidden and forbidden cults of the Five Dark Lords.

>>52699370
I take a walk. My mind starts wandering around whenever I walk without caring where I'm going.

I need a world map for a fantasy setting, but I can't make one due to lack of any sort of knowledge on how planets work. What's a good planet map generator, that would preferably also give me deserts and stuff marked?

>>52693725
Gods are largely nonexistent in my setting. Instead, there are intangible spirits that are born through belief, and their influence occasionally empowers certain mortals into becoming demigods, but they don't last long if they go about inflicting their will in conflict with the established orders and governments. There is good and evil, though.

So you have the main planet. It's a pretty fucked up place that's suffered from global warming due to unchecked use of magic. There's lots of ruins from past empires that no longer exist, and an evil warlord can do pretty good for himself considering there's no UN to stop him, and sometimes it's easier to pay off the legions than fight them head on.

There's two moons to this planet- one is kind of like heaven, but not really. Nice place if you're among the aristocrats, but it's not peaceful. Sure, you'll never die of old age or disease, but the death rate is high due to constant border skirmishes and feud settling between Eladrin and Deva landowners. The population is strictly controlled and the hierarchy is strictly maintained by ancient heroes who have no other purpose than to keep this archaic class system in place.

The other moon is definitely hell. The demons and devils fight their wars of attrition and scheme and plot against each other because there's no better enemy than your neighbor. They don't have universal healthcare like their good aligned cousins on the other side of the gravity field, but they're far more dangerous because there are no limitations on technology or sin. Anything goes so natural philosophy progresses at an alarming rate, but only the privileged few have access to it.

Occasionally an Aasimar, Eladrin, Demon, or Devil gets bored and decides to land on the planet and fuck with the locals. That's usually against the rules, so they do this alone, but then again some have done so in the past and profited from it greatly. The current BBEG is one of these: a high elf on steroids.

>>52707204
I steal great ideas form anime and manga then Americanize them so they're not so fucking gay. A dash of southern gothic, western horror, and hard-boiled crime does wonders for settings plagued with effeminate pretty boys and annoying hybrid animal sidekicks.

>>52736403
Being lawful good doesn't do you any favors in this setting. Mineral resources are high and abundant, but life and arable land is not. Moral compromises are necessary for the terra-based inhabitants to survive, and when you're out in the wastes you can't really trust anyone but yourself. My players have often gotten into arguments over whether or not to back stab their current employer, and I must say it's quite delicious to see a normally cohesive group break down and bicker over imaginary people.

In short, it isn't bad if it means you get to live another day. There are some people you don't want to fuck with, but there's certainly a faction that wants to fuck with them. Pick your sides, build a reputation, and hide the evidence.

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bump

>>52693725
(pic)

I love non-perspectival landscapes like this.

>>52736275

Literally any strategy game with a planetwide setting and a random map mode.

>>52736275
Honestly you're better off making a horrendously unrealistic but original and handmade map. It's more important for a map to have character and originality than it is for it to be geographically realistic.

Check out donjon if you really want to randomly generate stuff.

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>>52738827
Alright, well, critique pic related. Tell me what I could add to maybe make the simple continental shapes more interesting. I'm not sure if it looks too Earth-y or not as well.

>>52724454
once you are done a scan of that would be awesome.

How do you consolidate a setting with a low number of gods with your standard D&D game?

how would you pronounce this word, /wbg/?

Enferæn

>>52742038

En-fear-an

>>52716401
Happy Easter

>>52739265
Looks fine, but as there aren't any details there's really nothing to critique. Landmasses can really be whatever you want them to be. Keep at it anon!
Just remember that rivers only split at rare sea deltas, otherwise they just merge together, that's the most common nonsense that rookie map makers don't know about.

>>52742038
en-feh-rain

>>52742038
Ehn-Fur-Ray-Ehn

But make the last two syllables into one syllable, so that they run together to sound more like rayun, and less like Ray Un.

Does anyone else borrow maps to plant their own private worlds on? I'm making a world for myself but am never satisfied with any shit geography i make myself

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Decided to make a bit of code for doing the gravity model of trade to calculate trade routes. Here's it on the eberron map (but using the 3.5 city populations). Sharn irl wouldn't be quite centre for trade it is depicted in the source material, largely because Flamekeep has 3/4ths the population and a ton of major cities nearby.

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>>52745155
And here it is without the background map.

>>52742038
En-Feh-Ŕain

>>52739961
Just don't play D&D. Real simple.

>>52742038
In-fair-aye-n

>>52745155
>>52745197
How'd you go about doing this anon? Seems like a neat tool to use.

>>52739961
Ignore this shithead >>52746972.

Gods just have multiple domains.

This is the beginning of the continent's culture basically,very generalized with some of the major things that will go to characterize its fate.
Is it good enough? Too generic? First time building a world and I figured I would start from the beginning of history with some sort of chronology and talk about gods and metaphysics elsewhere.
Any sugggestion appreciated.

Year 3130
Thanks to the abundance of raw materials, the rejects are able to enstablish a
wealthy town and some start leaving to settle elsewhere in the continent.

Year 3145
The many villages help each-other and the chief of the first founded town,
Sammonon the Redemptor, becomes Partunnok (wise ruler) of the nation of
Shibalta (land of abundance)

Year 3153-3155
War starts between the Partunnok's elite guard (Bloodwardens) and the
priest's caste (Sons of Ulir) leading to the enstablishment of another
regnant concurrent to the Partunnok which is now called Sah-Partunnok
(Partunnok of blood), the Ulir-Partunnok.
To avoid impasses on the ruling a third regnant from the magicians'caste (the
Brotherhood of Fire) is elected, the Dragonlord.

Year 3158
The Dragonlord grows increasingly intimate with the Sah-Partunnok, to the
point where every decision is starting to become unilateral in the
Brotherhood's favor.

Year 3160
The Sons of Ulir elect a novice female they control as Ulir-Partunnok, so that she can
seduce the Sah-Partunnok and spawn a child that will be the true
unquestionable heir of the throne.

Year 3161
Tensions grow as the plan doesn't seem to bear fruit and the Sah-Partunnok
gets ever more wary, even lowering the powers of the priests by reducing their
number with new laws approved by the Dragonlord.

>>52748674
I have to say, after all the really creative names, "Dragonlord" sounds a little generic.

>>52694842
A pad of paper and a pencil?

>>52693725
Evil comes really in two broad flavors, there's the mundane forms that mortals commit, your robbers and murders and all sorts of foul ill-begotten folk and then there's the Dungeons and their filth which covered the world in Eternal night. They're not Evil persay(though say that near anyone in the Luminous Crusade and they'd certainly knock you silly for it.) Rather, dungeons and their component organisms are incompatible with life upon Advernis, their ichor is toxic and the miasmas they exude taint the lungs. Of course there are those that harness the innate albeit dangerous magical energies bound and damn themselves to a slow death as corruption eats away at their bodies and minds before they're either put out of their misery or turn into something much worse than a mere monster.

>>52748776
That's what I though. I really like how it sounds though and there's a reason for it to be that way.
Maybe I could call it Dracoster.
There will be no dragons where this world is going anyway so it will preserve it's mysterious aura and won't be all in your face either.
Bonus aftermath

Year 3162
Sammonon is killed when the whole caste of the Sons of Ulir rushes the palace
at the Day of Deliverance, when the Sah-Partunnok prays alone in the Chamber
of Ruby with only two guards outside of the palace representing Mercy and
Redemption.
The Grand Master of the Bloodwardens, Nalveran of the Oath is one of the guards
and gets murdered, taking eightysix people with him before being pierced by
Karammon, the spear that is said to have been forged by Ulir himself and infused
with his blood, weilded by Padriant the Shining, Grand Master of the Sons of Ulir.
Sammonon decided against fleeing through the secret passages of his palace and
instead battled the entirety of the Sons of Ulir along with their mercenaries
and managed to eliminate Padriant and one hundred and ten of his peers before
a mercenary general, Koripsos Partunnoksbane, cut off his head with his giant
blackgold Halberd, Grigbarr.

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What would be a cool view to have on a different planet? multiple moons, orbiting a gas giant, a dust ring or what? Maybe a molten moon , so on some nights you could see the largest volcanoes spewing magma out into space.

>>52748948
A dust ring is cool because it would reflect the sun's light during the night the same way our moon does.

>>52748948
>What would be a cool view to have on a different planet? multiple moons, orbiting a gas giant, a dust ring or what?

The only other thing I could think of to add to that list would be binary stars, I.E: multiple suns. Which we actually found out recently (like the past 5-10 years) are pretty common!

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>>52748776
It does sound like a powermetal album.

>>52739961
What is the issue? Domains? Multiple domains per god, or scratch domain-system from get-go.
Or is it something else?

>>52749466
i think in mass effect andromeda, shit game but it had some good planets, theres a world with a view of a black hole. That would be cool.

>>52748948
The planet's orbit runs right alongside the asteroid belt for parts of the year. One can see many captured satellites, as well as those still flying through the void. Meteor showers are a common occurrence.

>>52748674
Do you have an actual etymology for these words or did you just make it up case by case?

>>52739961
Do you mean low number of worshipped gods, or low number of actual gods? Cause the two do not mean the same thing

I love dinosaurs and want to include them in my setting but without using time travel because fuck that mess. Its sci fi where humanity has colonised and contests the solar system with itself (nations of earth v mars and venus) and we have offshoots in alpha centauri but sol isnt aware they're still alive.

Should it be ancient aliens took dinosaurs to preserve them or a rogue AI or science group has brought them back with gene wizardry?

>>52757037
Rogue science group would probably make the most sense, unless there's anything else in the setting that points towards ancient alien civilizations.

I'm working on my demons/devils/otherworldly entities for my setting.

So far I have that such beings are summoned and tied to reality to complete a task specified for them. The setting's magic is the use of spells carved into an item to use as a focus, and is powered by directing the flow of magic into it, so going very much with the flavor of stories like with genies and other spirits bound to a specific item.

The most common use is to summon an imp that can do a single task, usually something simple, like helping manipulate the flow of magic, whisper otherworldly words of inspiration, or inflict bad luck on a chosen individual. The more mundane the task, the longer the imp can be kept in service; imp that gives inspiration can stay in reality for a period of time, while one that directly gives the idea disappears afterwards.

Djinn are more powerful beings that can be summoned. They have enough power to do multiple things, but because if this, are limited to only completing a few before returning to where they came from. Usually it is 3, but there have been records of more powerful Djinn that can do more.

The most powerful of the known entities are the Ifrit. What they can do is near limitless, but are rarely summoned because their power is so great, there are stories of a novice mage summoning one only for it to break free and cause disaster to the surrounding area before returning. Legends speak of a few powerful enough that they've taken up residence on this reality, hiding away in old ruins and caves, biding their time.

How's it sound so far?

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I feel like drawing 'outsiders' of sort occasionally, but setting-wise they rarely show up such forms.
They are kin to the universe, and sometimes take notice to their broken brethren, and innumerable consciousnesses inside it.
I was thinking that their form usually more reflects psyche of the person who they make contact to, at least when not in physical world. In physical world they don't usually care for form, it is completely vestigial to them.
Tehom is sort of Nyarlathotep-esque figure, although not very malicious intentionally. Curious, spends lot of time in guise of mortals, sometimes spinning various plots for its own reasons, only few times using otherworldly powers to ensure that the universe remains in its coma. Kinda of opposite to sympathetic THVBH, who told Adel secrets of universe and outside to push them into awakening.

>>52759376
Sounds pretty neat, I enjoy Solomonian conjuring of sorts.
Although there are strong associations with the names ( djinn's is cool because of the associated 3 tasks thing , ifrits might kinda associate too strongly with fire, unless that's what you are going for ), I like them.
Sounds something that's expandable, ex. with specific spirits for very certain tasks, with associated dangers and preparation.

>>52760104
Love that picture. Love my outsiders weird.

I went with Ifrit because historically, they are more powerful Djinn, and the main human civilization of my setting is Arabian Nights inspired. I may go with smokiness and a cold unearthly flame for them. The biggest theme with my outsiders is ink and darkness. The world creation "myth" is existence came into being when the Void bled itself onto the pages of a book, and creation filled where the Void drew ink from. Its a "myth" because its how everything started, but few think it anything more than an old myth from the old days. So there's a running theme of things associating with this; spells are written word given power, there's crystalized fire like embers eating a page frozen in time, etc. So that's why you summon the outsiders to complete a task, very written contract like.

Bruh making a map is hard as fuck

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>>52760104
I have outsiders divided into roughly two camps, the old ones, which are classic cthonic horrors, and the archangels, which are very Old Testament and just as horrifying and unknowable but follow some inscrutable grand design for good. My players don't know it, but they're aiding an archangel aligned cult.

>>52759376
>>52760395
I dig it, are the devils actively malicious? Does society accept their use or is it done in secret?

>>52761713
Noone really know the intensions of them. The imps only to show a rudimentary level of intellegence, acting more like trained animals than anything else. Djinn seem all too willing to help and serve, worse is some with a terrible sense of humor, a bit of the ironic genie wish, but not as malicious. The Ifrit, however, do seem to have ulterior motives. Even the ones that serve willingly seem treacherous.

It depends on the culture that summons them. Imps are a common sight when there's mages about. Djinn are rare in the human lands, most aren't skilled enough to readily summon them. The Sobki have a longer life, so many talented mages gain the skills to summon them. The Dwarves find it taboo to summon anything bigger than an imp, its not forbidden, due to commerce with the other lands, but its a social faux pas to be associated directly with Djinn dealings. Due to their magical nature, the Elves have a hard time summoning anything. The only people that actively use Ifrit are the Arraoki that come from the east, who are known to bind Ifrit to suits of armor and use them on the battlefield.

>>52760586
Yes, but it can also be rewarding.

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>That feel when Windows Update restarted your computer while you taking a phone call and you lost a ton of mapmaking progress

>>52762816
Well, remember that spot that was kinda meh?
Time to make it awesome.

Is it considered fedora to feature a Snake God as a benevolent-if-dickish Knowledge Deity? Like a reverse Garden of Eden story?

>>52764284
>reverse

>>52764335
Sorry, I meant: Good thing the Snake saved us from being zoo animals in that goddamn Garden.

My apologies.

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If the Red Sea was a range of mountains like the Pyrenees or the Himalayas, for exemple, would the Arabian Peninsula still be a desert?

I'm working on a setting that kinda has this arrangement, but I want to know if this is realistic

>>52764370
I'd avoid something like that because it's too much of a 1:1 copy of the bible to be honest and I like at least trying to make something as unique as possible when I'm building a world but I guess it's up to you.
I mean, I personally wouldn't want people to instantly link my world to another one in their minds when they play because in the end they will be playing in THAT world if it happens and it's kind of a failure when building your setting, don't you think?

>>52764569
Fair enough. It was just a passing fancy I wanted to run by /wbg/.

>>52764547
Yes. The Horse Latitudes are places of light winds and moisture. Unless you moved the planet's latitudinal arrangement, nothing would change on that front.

I'm working on a map for a Fallout game set in Arizona, and the process I've been using is getting pretty tiresome.

Essentially, I grab screenies from Bing's satellite images from a certain zoom level, then I take those screenshots to GIMP and stitch them together.

It's simple, yet time consuming. Even more so when I have to upscale the new additions to fit the full map, I stopped working on the map, and forgot that I scaled it up, so I can't just take a screenshot, copy-paste, and align; I have to take a screenshot, copy-paste, align to an "original" sized version of the map, scale it to a specific width or height depending on the direction of the expansion so that everything lines up properly, THEN align it.

So, are there any ways that I can improve my process? A program that automatically stitches sat images (with labels, hopefully), or something like that?

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>>52765177
Take this map. Use GIMP or PS or whatever and just recolor over it however you like. Or just straight use it. Or whatever.

Simplify your process.

>>52754875
I don't have that but I have good memory and know the meaning of each part of the composite words I used.

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>>52746995

>how do you go about using GIMP/Photoshop to draw maps in layers

So the Bible is required reading for authentic worldbuilding, right?

>>52762816
This is why you always have backups of your time-consuming projects.

>>52757037
Dinosaurs were alien cattle planted on Earth and they were destroyed by industrial sabotage by other aliens.

Worldbuilding question - would you be interested in a world that has NO magic or alien creatures and everything is based on science (not similar to anything out there at the moment) so no dwarfs elves aliens and so on ...

>>52766691
Sure, but you have to account for superstition still being part of the human condition. Otherwise you just end up with a very autistic setting.

>>52766691
I'll be blunt: no.

>>52766691
So, sci-fi? Not a big fan of sci-fi.

rate my huge ass map
https://gifyu.com/images/VelikaJebenaMapacc8f3.jpg
took me 3 weeks to draw.

>>52766691
Real world can be interesting. But don't claim credit for it.

>>52766916
I suppose your world is called Velika Jebena?

>>52766925
It's not real world - imagine huge catastrophy that almost wipe human nations of the face of the earth but then add 500 years

>>52766940
nah, that means "big fucking" and mapa means map, so it's "big fucking map"

but you also might be another slav trolling me.

>>52767166
>you also might be another slav trolling me
This is correct
Very cool map, the world looks inviting, but I can only hope that the lore behind it is as large and detailed as the map itself.

>>52742038
Æ is pronounced similarly to the A sound in apple. Now you know.

>>52768183
Different languages have different pronunciations for different letters. Now you know.

>>52768659
There is only one way to pronounce that letter in english. It's the same vowel used in old english and nordic languages.

Other examples would be ash, fan, happy etc.

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>>52766691
Personally, no. But I amsure there are people who'd enjoy such.

>>52768780
English does not have this letter.

>>52757134
>>52757134
What to call them though? Cerberus in mass effect have thr perfect name for a paramillitary human centric group, Heimdall? Advent? Apex?

>>52769268
That does not excuse you from pronouncing it wrong. I don't understand if there is any coherent argument in those last comments or if you were just upset by the smugness of my first post. I did not mean to be condescending.

>>52760104
hello gaping dragon

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>>52770138
>That does not excuse you from pronouncing it wrong
How can you pronounce wrong something that doesn't exist?

>>52770138
>autism speaks

>>52771234
>it doesn't exsist

It exists, but it's not a letter in the modern English alphabet. And the original post was asking how to pronounce a name with æ in it.
If you don't like how it sounds why are you trying to use it?

>>52771741
You are giving a wrong answer to this question. The correct answer is to pronounce it however you feel like because there are no rules in English that specify its pronunciation. You can pronounce it as a, ai and e, and none would be the sole correct option.

Also please don't delete your posts to fix a minor formatting error, it's super annoying.

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Whats a good reason for space race 2.0? Im trying to write a sort of blurb for my thing and i dont want to resort to the standard reason of nuclear war and resource greed.I need something good for the background as the setting is about an ark of colonists thought lost with all hands after a solar flare/ meteor shower arriving in a new star system to set up a new civilization to prevent total extinction of humanity and earthly life. Maybe lots of different types of strife from viruses locking down major cities to large scale conflicts between shitter nations with bigger nations being forced to step in just, something that makes the governments, if only in secret start supporting space programs more because of extinction fears like why the ark ship left sol entirely.

>>52771775
So it's just a typographic thing then.

>>52771464
You haven't seen nothing yet. Here I go.

I see the typographic argument, but if you apply that to another example you could say that あ is pronounced ei or even further that kanji "X" is pronounced like whatever because there is no rule for pronouncing it in modern English.
Japanese letters may be a bad example since Æ is a roman letter, but Æ still has rules in old English for how to pronounce it.

You may say I am stretching your argument, but do you see my point? If modern English HAD rules for pronouncing it another way then that would be the correct way, but since there are no rules then you should refer to languages using the letter or a source that explains how it was pronounced.

Scandinavians rarely ever use the letters Q and C despite them being in their alphabets. If a Scandinavian insisted that Charles's name was pronounced "Sarls" because it fits with the Scandinavian pronunciation of the letter C he would still be wrong because the name is English and follows those rules.

>>52726156
Change the font to something easier on the eyes, and place some simple black orders around the maps. As it is, the font you chose is very difficult to read at that size and the maps are disjointed and there is no flow of what goes with what.

>>52698208
Looks breddy gud Anon. What program did you use?

>>52766916
Some of those names are hilarious.

>>52772234

Sun acting up in a way that suggests it might go red giant early perhaps?
Could explain why they had to leave the Solar system instead of just going to Mars or one of the Jovian moons.

Page 10 bump

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>>52739427

It's done. Pretty much anyway. Just some more detail stuff needs to be put in for the northern islands though I can't come up with any good ideas for them. Anyone know any good filler stuff for the right side? I was gonna add a scale but I have no idea about the rest.

>>52766916
sick map brah

>>52768183
I was the poster who posted that (havent checked thread in a bit)

Yea, I was more or less trying to gauge how people would see the word

The pronunciation I've gone with is En (as in end) fur (fur) an (ash + n)

>>52749466
But how likely is it for binary stars to have habitable planets?
As I understand, binary stars are two stars orbiting each other. Wouldn't their moving around each other make it hard for planets to form very close around them? I think while far away objects could have a stable orbit the gravitational center of the two stars, anything too close ( solid stuff ) would be shot out of orbit by the gravitational pull the single moving stars, without having the chance to form a planet. But I don't know much about how the habitable zone works for binary stars, if there is one at all.

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I need worldbuilding help.

I've got two of everything. The Empire is two-headed, with a Holy Roman Empire-style State government and an ecclesiastical Latin-style Temple. Naturally, the HRE side of things is feckless and corrupt, while the Space Catholics consist of good people working for corrupt people working for good people who work for Satan because they think he's the best of a bad situation.

I've got two kinds of fiendish monsters from beyond: I've got not!devils, which are lawful evil and neutral evil tempt-you-to-the-Dark-Side fuckers, and I've got demons, which are chaotic evil and neutral evil mutate-you-into-a-goblin-made-of-dicks fuckers. And that's not to mention the geographic situation, which duplicates everything. Two of the continents are just different parts of Europe, and the third is North Africa.

There's a lot that needs to be cut, but I don't know where to begin. Every time I try merging ideas, I just get 40k in Fantasy.

How do I decide what needs to be eliminated? How do you figure out what's essential to a setting, and what isn't?

>>52778449
10/10 would play in. Any chance of a scanned image?

>>52780141
ill get around to it. i have a game tonight so might not be until next week. ill be sure to post it up around the place

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>>52779628
If it's for a tabletop game, I try to focus on stuff that will be relevant to my players. Generally that means focusing on smaller scale issues over larger ones, with the larger scale issues being set dressing if they come up at all.

Example:
there's a group of dwarves that culturally and ethnically resemble Sikhs on a foreign continent that trade spices and lacquerware with the dwarves of this continent.
Is largely set dressing and may not even come up besides in passing descriptions. But:

Four centuries ago, on the eve of battle, the first dragon emperor received a vision from a divine patron that if he wanted true greatness, he would abandon the twin evils of slavery and necromancy. The dragon emperor won the battle and declared both outlawed. when news of this proclamation reached his enemies, they suffered slave revolts that allowed him to easily conquer and unite most of the continent. This has led to a healthy middle class of skilled craftspeople and small scale farmers appearing and a widespread cultural taboo of slavery and necromancy.
Is relevant to the players as it is a major historical and cultural event relative to the setting. It's worth expanding upon as the players are likely to fight necromancers or slavers as villains and it gives them context as to why they are being paid to fight them.

I want to include the Dark Water from, well, Pirates of Dark Water in my nautical campaign. But I don't want to directly rip it off.

>>52703041
sounds like river-world

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>>52693725
>there's a worldbuilding server
Goddamn I love discord. /sig/ (self-improvement general) and /wbg/ all in the same place. Lately I have been finding ways to socialize with people who share my old, neglected interests more and more. I feel as though the world is significantly changing for the better. I have improved so much over the last few years, and socially too. Not only am I finding more communities that share my interests, I am also making many high-quality friendships. In this moment I am at least quite happy if not hopeful for the future. I'm wondering if anyone else feels the same way, in regards to finding more people to socialize with on obscure interests besides worldbuilding, and whether that's improving their subjective well-being in general.

Closest I have to "evil" is a young, nonsentient deity existing in the space where you go if you die in the afterlife (essentially nowhere, but you respawn eventually after a random amount of time. It's also where gods go when they're killed), he absorbs the power and identity of dead gods and is slowly growing in influence. He's basically Yahweh.

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Working on a not!Europe setting, any thoughts ?

>>52783664
Did you composite that off from Google Earth?

>>52783664
doesn't even look that much like europe desu

>>52782492
yeah I've been on the /wbg/ discord for a while now, its nice to be able to talk to people regularly that share the same interests

>>52783931
I did. I was pretty much uninspired so I figured I'd go with real world elements to help me flesh it out

>>52783664
>https://gifyu.com/images/VelikaJebenaMapacc8f3.jpg

I liked your setting more when it was called Westeros.

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How do you/how is your setting unique from others of a similar genre?

>>52784106
Not really critique, that's certainly unique way to do it. My only issue is the yellow border-lines around some places.

>>52784152
Try to come up with ideas instead of stealing them.
Don't touch history books.
Look for inspiration in things that have absolutely no relation to fantasy.

Let's bump this with a question.

Has anyone tired to create a world that is explicitly not a round globe?

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>>52783664

I'd say good job. It only in the most vaguely of ways looks like Europe, you have the jist of it but it's far enough removed like a Hyboria.

I was looking to have second pair of eyes as I return from geographical touchups to political layouts. I am not happy with how snowy non mountain terrain looks so far with tutorial work so I am using more the climatic look of the far north (Finland and such) in summertime as opposed to winter. The northernmost stretches of the map are in that Scandinavia/Northern Russia or Canada kinda latitudes of around 60 degrees plus. The southernmost is just past equatorial.

In terms of latitude distances, the western coasts to that eastern island are roughly in the range of Spain to India, at least 5000 miles and probably more.

The large empty space to the SE and to a lesser extent SW slightly irritates me but I do not know what to fill it with. I already am largely at my limits for cultural human references and particularly so for that kind of arid to humid climate zone. I could:

1) Move the mountain highlands eastward again like the black mark http://i.imgur.com/BSD8VPE.jpg that would put my maghrebi area (that desert stretch next to the fertile river valley) closer to the Italian-Spanish analog of that island continent's southern region. Gives more empty desert for saharan style tribes where right now my Arab Harbanu and Berber/Tuareg Ekaggari are kind of smushed together.

I worry that it might make the main continent look rather off, being almost a mutated Y on its side (the two river subcontinent the pre-fork, the northern steppes bordered by mountains one short forked road and a long africa the other forked road.

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So I've established that in many of the wooded areas of the region, the apex predator is this species of gigantic spider 30ft across and possessing a deadly venom to boot, it's a hunting spider so it goes off to pursue it's prey rather than wait for something to get stuck in a web.

So the question is what might communities do to keep a creature like this from wandering into their settlement(s) and causing havoc?

We're going to assume that for one reason or another trying to exterminate them is not a viable option.

>>52788914

Actually just doing that sketch makes me think stretching the african analog(ue) out will be the best option. Right now my Arab style bedouin and deep desert Tuareg are balls-to-balls, the longer circumnavigating not-africa is the more trade has to go cross-land, it might give me the room to slide in an Egypt analogue. The other options would be extend the island continent (I don't like how it'd look), a new continent in the region (Don't know who would inhabit it), a caribbean style of island region (don't see that working tectonically). I just need to do a draft to make sure the outline of the land mass doesn't look too stupid. I'll bug you guys with one in a lil bit.

>>52788942

Perhaps burning a very wide killing field kind of open 'moat without water' around their settlement. The spider may prefer to meander through the forests and not venture into such an open field.

Have their cattle and livestock located within the palisade.

>>52784152
Not taking anything for granted is a good place to start. It's easy for differences to be pretty superficial when the majority of a settings components are assumed. How beings interact with each other and the universe, how societies form and change, fundamental cosmological questions should all be addressed. That should aid uniqueness beyond "a round planet with a sun and a moon occupied by feudal humanoids, but the people are blue and the days are 27 hours long"

Does your world have unique sports that aren't either gladiatorial blood sports or wacky magic sports that only wizards play?

I want to hear about your make-believe guildball shit, I live for that stuff.

>>52788942
What does such a huge active hunter normally eat?

>>52789076
well, other over-sized spiders, large scorpions, young dragons, probably deer and moose, inattentive adventurers who wander into it's hunting grounds. it's an apex predator, it will pretty much eat whatever it can catch.

>>52788942
THIRTY FUCKING FEET? thats huge man, no way thats sustainable. Try like 15, thats STILL a huge ass spider, but less insurmountable.

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>>52789355

If it's high fantasy it can work.

>Beastmen, gobbos, spiders, spiders, more spiders

You...you ever think humans weren't meant to inhabit Middenheim?

>>52789384
>If it's high fantasy it can work.
Hell, how many B-Movie scifi flicks are out there where the monster is a 100-foot-tall tarantula?

>>52788942

No man in the history of Earth has ever had the need to fend off such huge, active carnivores, so you have to consider that fact right at the start of your community-building. Would man even settle in their territories? Might be smarter to live farther away, even if it means less productivity/farmable land/other resources being more scarce.

Assuming they have an exoskeleton that's comparable to their status as apex predator and to their size, I reckon most stone and simple iron weaponry won't hurt it. Steel? Perhaps. Do you have any magical rocks or such shit in your setting that's lightweight and produce sharp, tough edges? Spears would be the best option for bringing them down, I believe. Think mammoths.

Other things: Sacrifical decoys in form of cattle, perhaps even outlaws, leading them away from civilization. Eggsack hunting (unless the females carry their youngs until they are old enough to hunt). Building an extensive bunker system under the city to house people and livestock during emergencies.

Please, go into more detail regarding the creatures and your setting.

>>52788942
Train a legion of professional spiderslayers. Develop firearms.
Monsters stop being an issue when you have access to artillery.

>>52783664
That looks really cool.

>>52786725
Yes. I wanted to try to make an actual disc world, but gave up partway through when I realized I was trying to map wind and ocean currents and make them seem feasible on an actual disc shaped planet.

>>52791499
You probably have to give up on that or give it a more fantastical explanation. The world already doesn't adhere to our worlds principles of metrology, so its fair game.

>>52789001
So it doesnt particularly matter if on a surface level something is similar to another its more about how the people and socieites within it work and interact with one another? What about when it comes to monsters or mysteries? How do tou distinguish your ancient aliens from a differet popular sci fi's?

Had to turn off the color layers because they wont line up with the new mountains I'm drawing, but I'm having a damn blast

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>>52791708
woops

Glass-Shaping Magic

Fire or Air... or Earth?

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Would anybody mind critiquing my settings rock people? There are a few redundant things I need to clean up as well with minor grammatical errors. So barring those, how do is it?

>>52792261
Fucking mobile.
So barring any grammatical issues, how is it?

>>52791566
Yeah. I reasoned that a spinning disk will have highly circular wind patterns, organized into bands that radiate outward from the center. I also had a stable, orbiting sun, that due to the spin would appear to rise in the east, and then set back down in the east, usually at odd angles.

>>52791954
Earth for sure, glass is silicon

>>52791729
Too much yellow in the fungal swamp

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>>52792878
its because boys can go potty outside

>>52784152
Nobody plays Spelljammer.

So I'm writing a Strangereal-esque Not!Earth setting for my players to do an Ace Combat-y game and, although I'm usually decent at writing up countries for SF and fantasy, I find myself drawing a blank in trying to write countries for a modern/near-future setting.

Anyone have any experience in modern stuff?

>>52793861
No, but I'll bump the question until someone does.

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I figured it might be good idea to list up some setting-element that could be used for adventures and things. I guess I should expand some in coming days, too.

>Unnamed Beast of Abyss, Universe/Cosmos
>[Spooky concepts] Non-linear time, beasts of void, lucidity
>THVBH, Beast of Abyss
>Tehom, Beast of Abyss
>Adel, Receiver of Wisdom
>Hekate, Non-Linear
>Calamity Event, of Zere
>Displaced Temple City of ????
>Lunarians
>City on Moon
>Lost Civilizations
>Sheol and Gan
>Buried Continent
>Hidden Isles
>Spirit Emperor of Desw
>Shüka-Oshu & Demigod Kaomu
>(Diary of Recipient of Wisdom)
>Treasures of Zere

>>52791954
Earth frankly, but nothing will stop you associating with other elements as long as you explain it sufficiently, I think.

>>52793861
Easiest way is proxies, but hardly the most unique way. I suppose you should first figure sort of general brief history ( ex. last century or so ) to sorta define alliances, and perhaps work there how they differ, etc.

>>52784152
It's not really, it's just making a setting that I would like to write about by combining a whole bunch of aspects of the late Victorian era, Colonialism, Modernism, and Industrialization, and thrusting it into a fantasy context, while trying to make it less about the "fantastical magic and adventure" and play up the oppressive and terrifying experience it would be to live in such a world.

>>52793861
I did this once where I gave modern countries "fantasy cultures". So one human nation had an Elven aesthetic, while another had an Orcish aesthetic, another a Dwarven, another an Undead, another a Lovecraftian and so on.

So im generating a hexmap for a space fantasy campaign and I came across an interesting thing. A ringworld with a planetary ring. How would this look? Is the planetary ring perpendicular to the ringworld or would it be cooler if the ring was around the ringworld and trailing as it spun?

>>52786725
I'm developing a setting currently where the entirety of the cosmos is a flat impacted plate with a column of aether swirling above it, tethered by the stars and given mass by the relative motions of the sun's disk and the lower planar disk. The continents (or clusters of continents) on this world are really just huge, free-floating sheets of minerals that eventually cool, break apart, and sink back into the dark nether of the plane-wide ocean from whence they came.

It's a bit difficult to work with at times, but the basic premise was "clockwork renaissance world where intercontinental travel is the stand-in for space travel."

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>>52693725
For setting reasons, there exists people who prefer to fight ayylmaos with updated versions of ancient melee weapons in a gritty low sci-fi kind of setting. Because of that I'm writing a melee "class" of sorts for a homebrew system that expands on melee fighting.

The question is: what's a good name for this class/vocation/archetype? I had planned on Marauder but that kind of puts a banditry connotation on it that I'm not a fan of. My other options were Adept, Crusader, and Knight-Gallant but I'm looking for other options that wouldn't sound out of place in this sort of setting

>>52796206
Perpendicular might look coolest from the, uh, ground. Or whatever the inner part of a ringworld's called.

Does anybody have any resources for Mesopotamian civilizations?

What's a good rule of thumb for the amount of planets in a solar system?

Developing a hex map star chart for a space fantasy campaign I'm going to run, so I want to know how much I need to go into each system.