/wbg/-worldbuilding general

>>54095494
I'm working on a setting where the GREAT WAR hasn't happened yet. In a lot of ways this world is still in a late 19th century Golden Age, with great new innovations and wonders appearing every day. The old horrors of yesteryear, the goblins and the ghosts and the eldritch things which once bumped in the night, are all but eradicated by modern man. Soon, all the ills of mortality should soon be solved.

Sure, everyone knows some sort of war will break out on the continent, sometime. But war's Good for the state, right? And it's not like weaponizing those old horrors could make things worse...

>>54095494
Is there a Great War/WWII equivalent in your setting? Tell us about it
Something like that, not technologically but in my setting the dark lord of darkness basically got summoned trough the failure of the heroes. He flash conquers and seduces some leaders to get allies and it essential becomes a world war, because the whole world knows its "fight this guy or suffer" from every two bit god and spirit.
Now first its a downhill battle of retreat, all the countries are fair ruled by fair kings and leaders, the elves have no idea of cruelty so they of course emulate how they have been waging wars the past thousand years: Meet the enemy on the feild, try to beat them trough superior force and showmanship and minimize the amount of deaths on both sides. No use of magic for harm and no biological weapons.

Of course that's retarded since its the lord of darkness, right evil cunt he is with his demon armies. Now thats also his fall, he's an evil cunt who believes in his evil supreme, he's the most brutal, terrifying creature of them all and all his enemies are to weak to basically be worse than him. /1

>>54096507
/2
Well... long story short 50 years of fighting a failing war against the dark lord made the people of the land real fucking sour. Now the non-demon allies he's gathered are all basically corrupted by his evil but they are still half themselves, so of course when he starts killing every demon, king and general who got tortured into a blubbering idiot for no other reason to be evil they obviously choose fighting him, inside his territory.

Well he falls shortly after, world scarred to hell and back, good gods abandon their people because the transactions they've commited, spirits are real upset at everyone and some fuck split a world ending mcguffin and threw it whilly nilly across the world. Bit of an reverse double edged sword though, while the kind, good natured world which got dungeon keeper'd might be a shittier place for it, gods could no longer be distant and slowly drift away into letting the world be as they have done every so often. It also gave birth to one of the strongest and generally most good natured empires the world had ever seen from where the dark lord had ruled. with a powerful paladin order and rich economy

Does anybody read or care about these threads?

>>54096834
No its all just to pat yourself on the back that you have a setting.

>>54096834
nope

>>54095494
>Is there a Great War/WWII equivalent in your setting? Tell us about it

The closest thing I currently have was a war that began as a massive slave revolt that completely shattered the already weakened gnoll empire to the point that they've basically never recovered and facilitated the rise of human and orc dominated societies.

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>>54095494
What species of beetle should I make my bug-people slave race?

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>>54097778
Carpet beetles. Look at that fat fucker.

>>54096834
Occasionally. World-building threads are never even close to being as productive and interesting as they could be, there is a lot of people shouting their ideas into the dark and meaningful feedback is rare to come across. But rare is not the same as non-existent, and as it turns out, the very option/opportunity to sit down and reformulate your thoughts to be able to the share them is actually quite valuable on it's own, even if in the end the odds of anyone actually reading it and caring are relatively small.

What I'm saying is: better post it here than just burrowing it all in your head. We haven't figured out how to make the discussion more productive so far, so we take what we can get.

>>54095494
>Started a new campaign for my players
>Based on an alternate England ~16th century
>The current king, about 20 years ago, withdrew to his palace, taking most of his men with him
>In the power vacuum, the church basically took control
>Villages essentially elect constables; no real police force
>The church's presence is very strong; witchhunters go out and persecute magic users and non humans
>Clerics as well, for following other gods
>Church is very similar to an Abrahamic religion
>All the players are either magic users or non human or they're clerics; some can blend in, others can't
>Game starts with them having been captured individually, and busted out by a group of magic using rebels
>Players formed their own mercenary band and now work for the magic users, who are trying to slowly beat back the witchhunters
>The magic users are also pretty fucking shady, and employ several other mercenary outfits, including "The Grey" who are a large band that act as their soldiers
>Players ended by being inducted as mercenaries for the magic users, specializing in jobs that rank and file soldiers might not be best for
>Generally assigned to a magic user as the muscle
>Basically ripped that part off of All Guardsmen Party

The original plan was for the players to seek out the apathetic king, and he'd use his army to remove the church from power. But now I've realised that wouldn't work, since the Church is too powerful. Anybody got any plot devices (that aren't a mcguffin) that could help me even out the faction's power? Or give the players a fighting chance? Basically while world building I stuffed up the balance of power.

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>>54098511
This is all (sadly) true. Let me think of some questions to ask the lurkers then.

I have a science-fiction/fantasy setting I'm just starting to lay out the basics for. One major thing I'm incorporating is an alternate, spiritual dimension that serves the same purpose as the Warp from 40k, minus quite the level of grimderp and suck in the original. The trouble I'm having now is largely what to call it. At the moment I'm going with the Empyrean or Dreamspace, but that's a little odd/on the nose.

Basically, what can I call the Not!Warp in my setting?

>>54099059
>This is all (sadly) true.
I've been wreaking my head around how could these kinds of discussions be improved (perhaps adopting some kind of model similar to how Writefag threads work) but so far, I can't think of anything. It's probably something that can't be fixed by forcing any kind of model. It's a shame, because worldbuilding is an interesting hobby and interesting part of the medium. But I also know I'm part of the problem. I'm trying but I really don't know what kind of feedback to give people who post here 90% of the time, and the remaining 10% ends up with a pointless argument because they just get angry over suggestions or criticisms...

As for your problem:
I'd suggest asking yourself: Who actually named it? Or alternatively: what kind of impression do you as an author want to leave on your viewer.
This is a general rule of thumb when you are tackling nomenclatures. Ask yourself what is the name supposed to tell the audience.
And this ties to asking yourself: who came up with the name. What were those people like? Were they stern, scholarly, inspired by western scholarly traditions? Does it make sense to associate the dimension (and those who named it) with traditions of Greece? Or perhaps with ancient Jewish aesthetics?
Or do you want something snappy, to communicate it's common-place relevance and knowledge?

It's good to sort this kind of stuff out. Remember that using real-world languages is going to invoke associations with cultures that use them. There is a good reason why Warhammer 40k's Empire loves it's Latin so much, or why Tolkien invoke Norse and Old German.

>>54098847
Since it sounds like the Churchs power is primarily political in nature, then the logical thing is to find a way to disrupt that power.

It's the 16thC so you could have the Reformation roll into town. More and more of the commonrs are questioning the faith, and a multitude of factions are forming within the Church demanding radical change. It's not yet reached tipping point but with prodding from the PC's you could have full-on split, siding with a more mage friendly faction against the Orthodoxy. The French Wars of Religion could be a good inspiration once it all blows up and the king tempted into action with the prospect of supreme authority over a not-Anglican Church.

Instead of giving the wizards a superweapon, you make the Church weaker and divided against itself. It will take a bit of run up time for all the pieces to fall into place but you can have the players fan the flames of division to keep them involved.

>>54099059
Cognitive realm?
Cognitoverse?
Irrational space?
Aetheric space?
Outside space?

Honestly, if you can come up with a setting-specific name instead of something generic offered by an outsider that would be for the best. You probably have facets you could use in your world for the name since an alternate spiritual dimension isn't exactly a small part of a world.

Think of why the Warp is called the Warp. It aids FTL travel by "warping" ships and the realm itself is "warped"

What do you want to do with the notWarp?

>>54095494
Got systems that cover survival?

>>54099233
Well, I've been considering a healthy infusion of Eastern philosophy, thought, and aesthetic into the galaxy, so perhaps that would be a good thing to look into? I would prefer snappy and clear-meaning over something pompous.

>>54099269
>What do you want to do with the notWarp?
Combination of Hyperspace, the Spirit World, and explanation for the use of exotic technologies and magic.

Literally the not!Warp.

>>54099363
>so perhaps that would be a good thing to look into?
I'd say. Maybe looking into Sanskrit, Hindu or Buddhist terminology could be in order, because those are generally fairly widely recognizable.
Something like "Moksha" (the idea of transcending the cycle of death and rebirth, inherently associated with physical world could be fitting). Though the word does sound kinda cutesy. Mukti is a Shikh version of that concept.
Or if you want to be very literal, Naraka is the Hindu equivalent of Hell.

Or (and I just came across this one as I was typing this), you could go for Zoroastrianism and their beautiful word "Menog". It actually refers to the "spiritual side of word" (as opposed to physical "getig"), but it also sounds like a villain from Heroes of Might and Magic game.

Alternatively keep to English (or whatever is your native language).
There is plenty of basic words that can be used:
The Veil
The Far
Xandu
Slumber
Topor

You could even go for something ironic.
"The Lotus Land" (Shortened to "Lotus")
"Shangri-la"
"Dreamland"
Sometimes ironic or paradoxical names work well.

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>>54099059
>>54099363

Call the realm a pompous single word thing instead related to philosophy.

Darma, Sutra, Karma, Tao, the balance, the unbalance, the confusion.

If you want to focus more on its effects and use; call it something like Potence, Outside energy, Secondary Energy (it's not like our universe's energy), Non-boson field, non-entropy zone, etc.

If you want a more general term, you could call it something based on its ability to warp ships like the Slant or Plane. Or you could name it after the devices used to generate it, like Dynamo or Super-Mass Driver, etc.

Hope that gave you some ideas.

Would the united states become fascist if they lose their great-power status?

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>>54100967

>Country from its inception has always believed in freedom for the common man, the right to free speech and owning firearms even during the hardest economic times and when it was small and weak compared to other world powers
>Would this same country become a country unconcerned with freedom, against freedom of speech, and against citizens having weapons if times got tough?

The answer should be obvious.

>>54099233
They should be focused. Frankly, the most discussion on worldbuilding that I've seen on /tg/ was in stand-alone threads.
I like this general, it gives me ideas, but it's hard to contribute meaningfully to shit that everyone else does, like analysing a location or an idea, save the whole world write-up. I try to comment on things that interest me, but it just seems to me that only a minority of settings stand out enough to grab anyone's attention here.

>>54101605
I feel like this general should actually be, uh, general in its approach. Even if this general is just full up of mad scribbles and pointless diatribes, it's better as its own seperate thing.

More specific and answerable questions should be their own generals, while this one acts as a slower, more deliberate discussion and sharring tool.

>>54101605
>>54102139
I think there is a fundamental problem with both the subject matter, and the format we are using here. I think that both of these essentially boil down to the fact that world-building is generally extremely difficult to communicate, and it's even harder to do it on a platform as exceptionally limited here. Worldbuilding generally isn't something that can be easily and efficiently summed up in few words. Hell, it's often hard to communicate even a thick book - because the nature of world-building is that it's relatively non-linear, synchronic rather than diachronic, and usually formulates in the mind of the author as a clusterfuck of images, sounds, disjointed tibbits of visual and verbal ideas, themes and concepts. It will sound good in your head, but actually forcing that into a written, concise text is extremely difficult. Doing it on the surface of some 2000 symbols is nearly impossible. Right now, there might be some beautiful ideas being tossed around, but their beauty sure as fuck won't show from the posts themselves.

Also, I may have not slept for over 40 hours and it's entirely possible that what I'm typing right now makes literally no sense. Somebody just tell me to shut up if that is the case.

>chromatic space ayyliums
>color coincides with strongest mental attribute
Is it too gamey?
I've already ruled out color correlating to physical attributes.

>>54103670
I would not say "gamey", but it is incredibly arbitrary. Like: what would be a point of such feature? It¨s space aliens, so I presume some rudimentary laws of nature are involved: what kind of advantage would such a train have? Even if it's not a biological trait but perhaps a cultural adaptation, it's still weird and arbitrary... I don't really see the point of it.

>>54103866
Gives some purpose to having aliens that are basically humans but not flesh toned.
Also, if I focus the worldbuilding on the colorful aliens, it allows me to shift the characterization of humans from jack of all trades race to sneaky race (since you can't tell their strengths just by looking at them).

>>54101113
>a country unconcerned with freedom, against freedom of speech, and against citizens having weapons if times got tough?
Those aren't inherent to fascism. Fascists believe in whatever it takes to unite the country and strengthen it, which differs immensely based on the situation - American fascists would in all likelihood have to be anti-racist and racially integralist. Strength through unity is the fascist ideal.

>>54096834
Sometimes, very rarely, people will stop dumping their own shitty work and actually foster an interesting discussion.

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Have a cool picture I found. I love the mood.

>>54109525
Gnome castles must be such a joke, just walk up and hop over the wall. But then again, thats probably what giants say when they see our castles made for fighting other humanoids of the same size.

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>>54109561
Kek.

I'll just keep posting cool things that I found on my search for refs.

I came up with a relatively shroomy idea for a sci-fi world.

There are aliens, but there are only the later homo.

All alien races are of basically hyper-evolved humans that have unlocked time travel, and have used it to escape from the destruction of the universe (this is something even the most advanced race in this world cannot handle). The more jumps a civilization has made, the more advanced it is.

Physically, they are all extremely varying, being billions of years of evolution and technological and biotechnological progress away from the origin that is the Terran human, and they become more abstract as they become more advanced.

Terran humans don't know this, though, because the details of the great exodus back to the beginning is long forgotten. They are just aliens with exponentially more advanced tech than they do.

The carnage war
Humanity had learned much from the Elves, magic, writing and arts. But from the dwarves they learned industry and commerce.

As the human poplation exploded around the great fertile lake, forests were cleared and nature spirits were slainas they tried to defend their magical sources.

The Elves were outraged, they ordered all human scholars and mages from their temple of Winds and closed its teleportals to the human lands.

The human emperor,Morlune the Mighty was angered, and started listening to a hedge wizard who had seduced several princes's into introducing him to the emperor.

There were other avenues of magical research that the elves had purposefully with-held claimed the wizard, fire magic was potent and could be taught by spirits of the underworld.

Morlune blanched, the underworld was the lair of monsters and nothing good had come off it

"But our allies the dwarvs live in the underworlde, and the spirits of the depths power their furnces to creat magical weapons" replied the sly wizard.

Morlune sent his court wizards to the great Dwarf manufacturing city, to enquire of the fire magics that create magical weaponry but they were rebuffed by the secretive dwarves,quickly the hedge wizard suggested countacing other-worldly spirits.

>>54111098
Through great expense, the hedge wizard and several princes had built a wizards tower on a former nature shrine,here the wizard prepared various magics to communicate with the "outer spirits"

That night, a great meterorite shower hit the human empire, creating some damage and widespread damage, and the next day, the grinning wizard and his princling followers left the tower, the princes had changed, their eyes burned with fire and they spoke in unknown tongues. Their powers of fire were impresive, and the emperor ordered the building of other towers on magical spots so he could command an army of fire wizards.

But all was not right...

Where to forests go in regards to rivers and mountains and wind?

>>54112553
Typically forests are on the other side of the rain shadow from mountains. So they're on the side of the mountain that gets hit by wind.

If you ever get the opportunity to stand on a mountain you'll notice one side is usually green and the other is a blasted craggy shithole. Not always, though. Nature doesn't really deal in absolutes

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Working on a Sci-Fi setting. Here's a quick write up of one alien race.

>The Zin Hegemony
The Zin are a race of insect-like humanoids with green skin, red-opaque eyes, and small antennae. While all Zin are eerily thin (at least compared to humans), their height varies greatly between individuals. This seems to be one marker of a caste system within Zin society.

The Zin are best described as utter hedonists and debauched entertainment-addicts. They represent the worst that rampant consumerism has to offer: lack of empathy, short-term over long-term planning, chemical dependence, and an insatiable need for "New" and "Novel" experiences.

Despite this, they have surpassed mankind in the construction of warships, both technologically and in numbers. Their ships are known for being able to survive catastrophic damage and continue functioning, and their love of big lasers and explosives has led to their preeminence as weapon-manufacturers.

The Zin see little need for other species except as slaves and bloodsport entertainment.

>>54114023
Is this shitposting?

>>54114070
No? It's a bump.

It's meant to be a deliberate homage.

>>54101113
>>Would this same country become a country unconcerned with freedom, against freedom of speech, and against citizens having weapons if times got tough?
That's literal modern America, you shitlord.

Americans sold their rights to freedom to the NSA, their leftist government, and the fucking bank owners.

America is a slave

>>54112553
Forests, and specifically trees, grow around rivers and big amount of water.

Those bushes filled landscapes with no trees in them exist because they only get seasonal water via rain. So there is not enough water there for trees to naturally grow.

>>54114632
>>54112865
>>54112553
Forests will really grow basically everywhere where there is enough water and soil is not too weak: everything that wasn't a steppe or a desert or boreal region used to be covered entirely in forests.
For an example, pretty much the entirety of Europe used to be covered in forest - including areas we today consider typically too arid for forests to grow, including Greece, South Italy and majority of Spain, which used to be covered mostly in cheddar forests. The only regions of Europe that used to be forest-free were small portions of southern and central Spain, high-altitude areas like Alps, and cold and meager regions like northern Scotland, Norway, north of Sweden and Iceland.

Everything else used to be forested, and it was only humans that removed the trees. In some regions, including the Mediterranian coasts were deforested permanently, because as the cheddar forests were cut down (mostly to make timber for ships) and new saplings were destroyed by heavy animal husbandry (goats in particular have the uncanny ability to completely clear the region of all saplings, to a point where their excessive keeping ACTUALLY RUINED CIVILIZATIONS), the soil lost it's ability to hold water and dried out, making it near impossible to re-forest the regions.

So if your map and regions are vaguely european, you can pretty much place your forests wherever you want. If it has more continental climate, then you have to be more careful.
In general, study real-world maps to see biome and climate distribution. It's actually always more useful than dry theory about climate.

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Is it a little *too* gonzo to have some primary races in your setting being walking, talking, object-based beings but still being biological in nature?

For example; a Lanternfolk person. Their skin has a metallic sheen and is cool to the touch, but still reacts mostly like skin and can be cut and they still bleed and all that. They still need to eat and breath and sleep, but they have weird object heads.

Lanterns are a good starting point; but what are some other objects that could be used? Spinning Wheel folk? Tomefolk? Swordfolk? Printing-Press Folk? Castlefolk?

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>>54115906
I don't think it's gonzo at all in a fantasy settings. However, I find it to be based around a rather stupid question. Fantasy and mythology it was inspired by was always full of animate objects, even entire species of them, and frequently still featured them having human-like qualities, including needs.
That said, why do you need to combine that with modern, essentially scientific notions of "biology". The whole point of mythological mindset (and fantasy, which is based upon it) is that people don't think along classical modern empiric categories, but rather along the lines of analogies and symbolism. Just throw the category of "biology" away. It's imagination: symbols, abstractions, allegories. Not organic and inorganic matter, biology or physics.
Focus on what makes your world beautiful, interesting, endearing, meaningful. That is the advantage of fantasy: meaning does not have to be restrained by analytical categories of plausibility or possibility.

As for what kinds of creatures to introduce? I'd say the more common and universally used item it is, the more it makes sense. Lanter-folk, Tome-folk, Sword-folk make a whole lot of sense to me. Printing-press folks seem oddly niche and I'm not sure why that would be important enough to warrant an entire race of being to have based around.

Paper or book-folk seem really interesting to me. Musical instrument folks could be fun, I guess. Those objects have a particularly interesting role: ones provide light that guides us, other provide knowledge that does very much the same, so both could be incorporated into very interesting scenarios.
I think that objects that "guide people" or that "make people act some way" are more interesting than objects that are acted-upon: which makes book more interesting for this than a sword, lamp than a castle.

>>54116472
>That said, why do you need to combine that with modern, essentially scientific notions of "biology".

Because if its worldbuilding for any kind of game then the -folk based on nonliving objects need to have human weaknesses like having to breath, eat, sleep, etc. Anything else is wildly unbalanced and makes for less, not more, believable worldbuilding.

Damn the fucking nametage transfering between threads... Anyway:

>>54116485
Do you think you need biology to explain that a fantastic creature has weaknesses?
Do you think Wizard of Oz thought in categories of biology when he invented the weakness of a witch to be water? No, you don't.
Balance of playable races might be a concern not in any way related to world-building, but rather to gameplay systems. And this is where systems and actual world-building and story-telling can often end up conflicting: there is a reason why really good world-building or good fantasy stories almost always focus on humans, or just completely cosmetical variants of humans (like Hobbits) to tell the story through their perspective. And I'd recommend against trying to formulate say, a lamp society as a PC race for that reason: you'll end up losing what made them interesting (the fact that they are lamps) to the fact that you are going to have to make them too similar to humans.

But that has absolutely nothing to do with narrativity aspect, which the world-building is a part of.

>and makes for less, not more, believable worldbuilding.
And is where you are very, very, very wrong. In fact I can't even stress enough how wrong you are on this. Inexpert mashing of speculative and mythological elements in fantasy makes for terrible world-building, and is the main reason why most fantasy worlds, ESPECIALLY the amateur ones completely suck. Hell, it's one of the reasons why fantasy has such a problem of being taken seriously as a genre.

Consistency is actually overrated in general in world-building. And "consistency to modern, secular, scientific and empiric view of modern average people and their intuitions about the world" is COMPLETELY MISGUIDED and just flat out wrong. That shit has it's place in speculative fiction set more-or-less in our universe. But absolutely not in fantastic worlds ostentatiously set in alternative universes.

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Gonna repost this from an earlier thread because I still could use some advice.

I have begun working on a proper google doc for my setting where I describe it and it's inhabitants. I want to make a map of the setting though, but I am unsure of how to best get across the look of the world.

This is a short description of it:

Mundus Carnis is a setting about an ancient city, that has stood at the edge of the Great Red sea, and the endless wastelands for untold millenia. Eclipsing any modern metropolis with it's sheer size, the City stretches for thousands of miles across the coastline, and into the wastes, while it’s labyrinthine roots and foundations dig miles deep into the earth, and the spires that rise from it’s urban sprawl, reach the very clouds. It is a city with a long and storied past, that has reduced much of it to decrepit, decaying and sprawling ruins and slums, known collectively as the Warrens, that scar the city like festering wounds, leaving the still remaining pockets of mostly intact infrastructure, and civilized society largely isolated from one another, barring the few major trade routes, both on land and in the canal network, or airways for those with the wealth to posses means of flight.

I want to make a map of the city, and sorta get across the fact that it is mostly just ruins, with blood vein like network of waterways running trough it. Make it look more like some weird hive or wast organic growth, than a proper city map, but I got no idea of how to do this.
Picture related sorta has some of the elements I desire, mostly with how busy it is.

Any tips on what I should do?

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>>54116849
Ever heard of a game called Pathologic? Because that might actually be of some interest to you.

Otherwise: It's not an easy task you set up for yourself. I like the idea, I can imagine it working, but like most good ideas, the execution is going to be hard, because your skill will have trouble living up to the image you already made up in your head. It's like when an inexperienced writer comes up with a good complicated plot in his head: it often ends up terribly because his skill will never match up with the vision.

There are few things I guess I could try to recommend.
A) I don't think a setting like that can really have a proper map. I sounds too big, too complex, too organic to be possible to set in stone. The best you can do is create illustrations, and set up some general outlines like relative positions of individual important locations (maybe in a form of a graph or flowchart or mind-map rather than a classical topographical map).
B) start drawing. Don't draw a map though: don't go straight up to mapping your city. Instead, practice.
Start by searching reference materials. What you have is neat, but you'll need more. Maps of hundred of cities, from ancient ones to contemporary ones like Mexico City, and even sci-fi art works. But also look into things like organic textures, anatomical maps of animals, graphs of population distribution. You should take PARTICULAR interest in something called "Emergence" and "Self-organization" and try to find some images illustrating it. If you could get your hands on a book called Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software, I think you'd find it amazingly interesting.
Also look up something called Slime-mold growth experiments. Like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwKuFREOgmo
It's about how primitive organisms organically create networks.

Now: take all that material as inspiration and start drawing. Don't draw a city: draw organic shapes. (cont.)

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>>54116849
>>54117046
Cont:
Here is another good explanation of what the slime-mold is about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UxGrde1NDA
I think the relevance to what you talk about is pretty self-evident.

Back to practice and drawing: don't draw one image: draw dozens. Try actually drawing a sketch of human or animal nervous system, try drawing a fictional one. Do this over and over, try different angles, perspectives, techniques. Try more figurative, and try just drawing some abstract shapes loosely imitating what you saw in your reference materials.

You should eventually find out that certain shapes and patters are more interesting than others.
So focus on them. Draw them bigger. Perhaps try to overlay them with the think-maps or graphs of key locations you made earlier. Expand on them.
Remake them.
Those will serve as your inspiration. And if you want, you can eventually take one of those, and start drawing the city around those patterns and shapes. Try overlaying some kind of grind into it. Then break it up.

Remember that you can flip between scales, and you can determine scale ONCE you already draw something. You don't have to go ahead thinking "now I'm going to draw a map 1:720 scale".
Just draw shapes that fit your logic and aesthetic sensibilities, and if it's looking like something you want, go "I could declare this a scale 1:150 map of part of the city." but you can just as well change your mind and go "or maybe it's a map 1:750 map of entire city".

The more materials you'll have: both reference and illustrations, the more it will become clear what to do next. Digitalize (I really, really recommend start drawing with soft pen and paper) it, simplify down, or scale up and fill in more detail.

Well, that is my advice, god knows if it's worth anything. Good luck. I think the idea is good.

Oh, one last thing.
If you haven't, you also might want to look into Tsutomu Nihei's work: Blame, Abara, Knights of Sidonia. Just for the environments.

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>>54117046
>>54117126
>Ever heard of a game called Pathologic?
I have heard of it, but never played it.

Anyways, thanks for the solid advice.
Those slime mold growth patterns are exactly the sort of stuff I was visualizing the streets, canals and veins of the city being like.
I have done one rough, and I mean very rough sketch of the city, but it mostly was just me visualizing it's general shape and how it was located in comparison to the outside world.

Most of my drawings for this setting have been focused on characters though, as that is the field in which I am most comfortable with.

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>>54117188
Stuff like this for example, is what I tend to doodle.
I am not used to drawing scenery at all.

>>54117188
>I have heard of it, but never played it.
It's quite interesting on many levels (it actually started as table-top roleplaying session too), including ideas of organic aspects to a city. If you are bored and aching for inspiration, you might want to give it a try: it's easy to pirate (and currently like three bucks on steam, though the game is so damn flawed and difficult to get into that you really might want to consider pirating before anything, just to not feel cheated out of your money).

>>54117188
>>54117210
Damn I hate people with artistic talent. Anyway, looks good, but I think going out of your comfort zone might be good for you. And drawing items that might serve as an inspiration for the shapes and patters of your city seems like a good way to start moving forward with laying it out at least in general or illustrative fashion.

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>>54117340
I might check it out.

And yeah, I need to move to drawing more stuff than just characters.
I did try to run a quest in the setting some years ago and made some backgrounds to it, but I am not very happy with the look I had for the setting in that quest. It was too fleshy. I want a sort of balanced middle between clearly designed architecture, that is just made out of organic material, and just raw fleshy growths etc.

>>54117046
I'm digging this pretty hard.

>>54117210
That looks painfully generic

>>54114802
>everything that wasn't a steppe or a desert or boreal region used to be covered entirely in forests.
Living in prehistoric times must have been such a fucking wonder.

https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/16559310/BBC_Planet_Earth_II_COMPLETE

When you watch how many animals in islands live. You can only imagine how much fauna there must have been back in those days when the planet was forested.

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>>54119933
In what way?

Would anyone go adventuring on my continent? Still working on it, about to move to rivers. The Greyish area are mountain ranges

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>>54120770

>>54120813

What's that huge inland sea?

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Tell me what to work ok in my setting right now.

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>>54120864
I rolled with it off a randomly generated map, haven't thought up an explanation for it yet.

Based off the right Continent

>>54120904

I like it. That huge ass bay underneath the right landmass looks like the best god damn pirate territory in any setting. Looks pretty comfy on land too, 8/10 would sail the high sea.

>>54121003
Shit nice idea, I was going to make it a fully controlled area with the weird arm protecting it but the whole premise of this continent is it being untamed and were the Definitely Not Nords live. It's a practically untouched by human "high" civilization

The other continent im connecting to my groups last campaign, its 800 years after the first campaign and it has come to have no need of adventurers and restrict magic users after a "World War" where magic was used to devastating effects.

>>54120887
The folklore/legends

>>54095494
>still putting that shit tier website Inkarnate instead of hexographer
Why are you so gay, OP?

>>54121367
Not him but it seems to be fine, why is hexographer better

>>54121401
>Not him but it seems to be fine
Opinion discarded. How about you try it instead of shitposting

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>>54121413
>Ask what's better about program
>Instead of giving any examples has autist backlash

>>54121367
both are bad, just draw it in photoshop/gimp/SAI/paintNET etc where you have freedom

>>54099254
This. A monotheistic, overzealous religion that's heavily involved in politics? That shit will fall into internal squabbling and vicious schisms the moment they sense internal weakness. Unless, of course, they get deflected into some good old fashioned crusading....

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Tell me about your Vampires and Werewolves /wbg/

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>>54122155
I honestly don't have any, becasue I don't think they fit.

>>54122155
Vampires are alive but decaying creatures that use biomancy (or biology manipulation whatever) to replace their decaying parts with fresh bits from living creatures. New vampires often try to hide like The Thing, but older vampires are often chimeric abominations due to experimenting with new forms.

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I'm starting to get satisfied with the level of detail in this map

cant wait for road systems and towns/inns markings and shit

wew

>>54122682

Really nice art you got there my dude.

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>>54122155
There aren't any

Just humans doing human things in a world saturated in the remnants of a god that committed suicide to save humanity.

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>>54122708
thanks, have a cliff city thing

>>54122155
I have no werewolves. No real reason why I don't.

Vamps are mortals taught incomplete Vitomancy by the Lich Priests. It grants them increased physical strength and the ability to return the dead to life, but need to feed on fresh blood in order to sustain their magics. They also lack tge ability to full heal the resurrected, at most mending flesh.

The commonly encountered vampires are members of the Goblin Rebellion, escaped goblins trying to free their people from their elven masters using any means possible.

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Why is making magic, especially low powered and relatively useless magic, so despised and hated on this board? Why is every setting "magic users are rare, magic is DANGEROUS and hard to do, etc." on this website?

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>>54127557
Because then you'd have to overhaul a setting from with similarities to real life to to be one where just about anybody can cast spells with simplicity, which given that it could include stuff like poison clouds and teleportation and god knows what else, conceptually creates a setting that's hard to balance and make relatable to any real life time period or culture.

(Note, I ain't talking about magitech, which is just using magic as a stand-in for technology.)

While this would be alright for something narrative-driven (i.e. stories) where you get to show things as you go, this would be difficult/too dense to present as an internally consistent setting within a brief information packet.

TL;DR Or it could just be people like to stick to real life/pseudo-European medieval fantasy, and making magic abundant and simple would mean they'd have to throw out everything they knew.

>>54127557
Because making settings where everyone can use high powered magic without any effort is difficult to do properly when the "why don't they use magic to fix it" question gets asked constantly

What would the cuisine of an aquatic species be like? They wouldn't be able to regularly cook anything so... different combinations of different foods, maybe?

>>54127801
>Spear a fish
>Roast it over a volcanic vent
>Over time learn cooking

>>54127762
>it could just be people like to stick to real life/pseudo-European medieval fantasy
I hate this crap

Much like >>54122155 asking that question almost accusatory and yet having people explain that "yes, I do have vampires in my setting"

Do something actually new and interesting instead of digging up Tolkein's grave over and over

>>54127801
Not only would they not be able to cook anything, but they wouldn't be able to arrange anything either. Unless you have them maintain bubbles of air if for no other reason than food preparation, you'd have to consider everything they prepare would basically be done in a zero-g environment. Maybe they can tie pieces of fish together with kelp, but that's about it

Consider exotic flora and fauna that somehow works in this situation. I'm not sure how.

>>54127855
>Roast it over a volcanic vent
The water around it wouldn't be safe to swim through if it was that close to water temperature that could cook flesh

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I need real star charts.

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>Get a weird idea with a friend on how to combine Flat Earth, Hollow Earth, and other various silly theories
>Realize it could actually make a kickass setting and system
>Get to work
>Realize I have to draw 14 earth sized maps
Fuck.

>>54127902
>The water around it wouldn't be safe to swim through if it was that close to water temperature that could cook flesh
Hot water rises like air I'm pretty sure, it essentially plumes upwards rather than spreading evenly.

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>>54127996
Wouldn't worry about it too much. How much of that are your players likely to a) see and b) care about?

>>54128088
Plan is to make it reusable and potentially disputable rather than just for a single campaign/group, so basically all of them.

>>54128119
Well then get cracking I guess. Or outsource it.

>>54127952
As do I. What are you working on? Cause I have been working off that map myself for a project.

>>54127952
I could try making a star chart generator in a few hours if that's what your asking for. I have a preexisting project that I could rip out some parts of and probably get it done quickish.

>>54127762
>>54127765
>because settings where everyone can cast spells
>everyone can cast high level spells

I did specify low powered magic, not even spells necessarily. Just magic.

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>>54128185
>>54128248
I'm looking for a few more realistic maps of space. Doing a setting that is about realistic space warfare and I'm trying for a map around 40 light years in radius around Sol. I found these two maps off of the http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacemaps.php atomic rocket page that op has linked. The first one is 15ly the other is 25ly but it's not really big enough for a bunch of system variety. Haven't found a good set of star charts I can base my game off of.

Though if you wanted to make a star chart random generator that would be badass.

>>54128489
Yeah I've been drinking. Sorry

>>54128554

Hard part is making a 3d map in a 2d plane. May I suggest you use a sculpture model?

http://www.starferrymusings.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/P16908083.jpg

>>54128634
That's the point of the numbers under the points to show how far the actually are. Lines connect those that are the closest to each other.

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>>54128650
They're called Cartesian maps. Instead of 2 planes (X & Y) this one has a third ( Z ) to represent items in 3D.

Pic related is a Cartesian map in 3D. You can lay it flat and have the center be the (0,0,0) and those above it will be (0,0,1) and below are (0,0,-1)

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>>54128554
That's a good place to start. I found Universe Sandbox to be very useful but I can't get a useful star chart out of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_bright_stars

Not everything but most stars will be ones you've heard of and most of the boring red dwarfs have been omitted.

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>>54128882
Heh heh. Hopefully I just found a good map.

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>>54128939
That's a hell of a thing. I couldn't get through the math and data entry part of my jump map, trying to figure out how close various red dwarfs were to their nearest real star, and if that was in theoretical jump range of another big star, and so one. I'm gonna do just the big stars for now and only dwarfs that look interesting or special, and are close enough to matter. And I'm only going ~20ly out for the time being.

>>54128939
I'd send an email or discord or something for further collaboration but since I never post anything I can't remember how to spoiler.

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>>54129049
Maps like that tend to end up being a visual clusterfuck even though mapping 3 dimensional space isn't really that complicated.

Here's what a very simple map of a (fictional) region of space can look like taken from the GURPS space atlas.

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>>54129065
ctrl+s

>>54129105
Well here's the place I have been talking about my setting with some randoms, we can go from there if you want to bounce ideas around.
https://discord.gg/vnnera

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>>54128554
>>54128248
Working on it.
I'm going to be a bit longer though because I'm trying to leave room to make it a 3d view later as well and am dealing with my own month old spaghetti code.

>>54095494
What's a good catch-all term for humanity even when it's split up into a bunch of different species? I'd use humanoid but that could really mean anything that looks vaguely human

>>54129762
Peoples

>>54129762
I use men and peoples, which apply to all humans and near-humans as well as apes and everything between and beyond. The line between ethnicity and species is extremely blurred so "human" and "near-human" are subjective terms with no reliable meaning.

>>54129762
Probably can use the scientific names and classification.
Genus: Homo
Family: Hominidae

any further back would be too far removed and not really 'human'

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So, I'm running a new game, and I made a setting primer and all that, but I tried to condense a bunch of things onto the first page. Does it work? Should I remove the petty text?

> elves, dwarves, orcs, and regular humans are all just subspecies of the same species
what sins have you committed, /wbg/

>>54130224
I have no Orcs or Dwarves or Elves, check mate.
My sin is fucking with what would flow nicely in the setting and going out of my way to allow kitsune strippers.

I've been thinking back to some 'what if' threads I did write faggotry for involving north america including the USA, Canada, and mexico getting transported to a fantasy realm by a dark lich intent on ending the world and the ensuing shenanigans.

>>54095494
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW8aRNP5DXs

>>54130224
Considering abundance of half-elves and other half-breeds in the standard settings, they are the same species by definition.

>>54130441
Half-elves were a mistake, can't blame Tolkien for that though. I don't use them they don't make sense in my setting. Though the abundance of half-elves depends on the setting

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>>54129748
So while it technically works as is, it looks like ass (as you can see here) unless you zoom in and pan about it. I'm too tired to continue right now though.
I'll add a GUI to toggle lines, toggle star coordinates, and figure out a way to output it into a file tomorrow night, then put it in a dropbox someplace.
If anyone wants anything more than it just randomly tossing out stars based on user input say so, most stuff wouldn't be hard to add provided it's simple (like adding names or a grid).

>>54130224
My absolute refusal to include other sapient races

>>54095494
Are there any ways, natural or anthropogenic, to reduce salinity in water and soils?

Seas and saline lakes can dry up leaving saltpans, irrigation over time can raise the salinity of the soil to the point to cannot sustain most plant life with dustbowls and deserts ensuing. Freshwater lakes likewise become more brackish over time with the slow buildup of trace salts in the rivers that feed them.

There are fertile lands that were once undersea as myriad fossils attest so clearly there ways for dried salt plains to be reclaimed. I guess that given time salt tolerant plants could simply bury the saline soils under new layers.

>>54130994
I don't know bond ions with something that is not solvable? Can't be done with alkali metals though.

Has anybody here used XOWA for wiki editing purposes?

>>54096065

My favorite copout for easy and interesting WW1 elseworlds is simply using different great powers without dwelling too much how they came to be great powers, just infer things while playing and let players put together the history of the world.

Last game I ran had a coalition of axis Bzyantium, Scandinavia, Hungary, Dai Viet and Confederate America aganist the allies of Burgundy, HRE, Spain, Dominion of Vinland and Mongol China with both sides bringing in an assorted gaggle of minor states.

It was really fun to see the players piecing things together from inferred events, local myths and pub chatter.

Any good tools for making rough maps for entire planets? Want to make some lost colonies and backwater planets for a sci-fi game.

>>54132210
find some of those cloud based random coastline generators and just skip the steps where you add detail manually, or just guess on those parts

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>>54130539
Looks gorgeous anon.

>>54130089
Seems pretty great actually. I think I'll try that format in the future for my games.

>>54130539
I desperately need the ability to see how far apart each star is. Whether that be a cartesian style grid, lines connecting each star to its closest neighbor, a gui that lets you select two stars and it will show the distance, or all red dwarfs measured to their nearest main sequence star, I need it bad.

>>54130994
Bacteria or plant/animal life that binds the salts into a non soluble form.

Starting out with a lower salt concentration in the world in general.

Massive influx of fresh water from say, ice caps melting or cometary bombardment.

Large amounts of salt pan terrain and or rock salt being subducted by continental drift and going straight to the mantle without reentering the water system.

>>54132210
https://shaudawn.deviantart.com/art/Free-World-Building-Software-176711930

Here's some stuff to try. I haven't tested them all but terragen looks promising.

>>54130280
Please tell me more, anon ;o

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>>54136250
Plan is to have a small opening screen that will let you input star count, the size of the map (in pixels before zooming), and the distance between stars for them to have a line predrawn (also pixels before zooming), with the line having a label displaying the distance in the midpoint. Pic related.

I'll add a way to select two stars and display their distance someplace, is there any way you'd like it specifically? I'm thinking just clicking two stars, and outputting it to a small text output at the bottom of the display. Will be simple.
Like I said before, for this iteration at least I'm also going to add a grid, probably add an editable grid size field to the chart view itself.

>>54136513
>I'm thinking just clicking two stars, and outputting it to a small text output at the bottom of the display.

That would be great, yeah. Also I'm curious if there's a mode for entering stars manually and naming them, using cartesian coordinates or something?
My personal project is a jump map of the ~20ly around Sol, using bright well known stars as travel hubs to get to nearby red dwarfs. So I'm interested in the ability to be as autistically realistic as is feasible.

>>54136609
>Also I'm curious if there's a mode for entering stars manually and naming them, using cartesian coordinates or something?
I can add that, sure.

>>54129105
That's actually a good example of a map of 3d space that isn't overly busy.

I am trying to design a scifi game, it is about a group of people living in an underground colony in an unknown galaxy.

My main issue is that I cant decide what their mundane life should be like (when they are not defending against invaders). The base should have a bar, a garden and whatever else, but I have a hard time coming up with activities that show that the human spirit is still alive and they arent just hamsters in a wheel.

>>54138375
Just look at real world, and how people deal with their free time. Making art, playing music, collecting weird shit, building giant fucking train sets, anything that shows they have a passion for something big enough for them to not take themselves too seriously. That is always a good way to give characters or entire societies sense of likability.

Alternatively, religion. That is always a bloody damn good way to give your population sense of direction and humanity, and also reflect it's flaws.

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>>54138375
So it's pic: the campaign?
>>54138453
Pretty much what he said.

>>54095494
>Is there a Great War/WWII equivalent in your setting?
absolutely not, my setting is nowhere near the technological level to even consider such a scale of warfare.

In fact, I'm still trying to work out how the initial society develops from it's origins. So I have in my head this community that settled the area back when agriculture was first developed, so trade and currency as we understand it did not yet exist. Back then they were a pragmatic people, they didn't care who did the work or how, so long as the work got done and no one was harmed, rule was by general agreement, patriarch/matriarch of each family would discuss what needed to be addressed and whatever everyone agreed to was what happened. even when it came to locals, be it animal or being, if it wasn't edible, and it wasn't a threat, they'd just leave it be, no sense making a problem where none is.

Sounds ideal, except where a "monkey wrench" gets thrown in is where they choose to settle. the land is perfect for farming, Mediterranean climate means long summers, and extremely mild, wet winters; on top of that the land itself is rich and fertile so one could grow just about anything on it. They have no clue what minerals or ore is in the region (metal working is still a ways away at this point) but even so they got problems with others hearing about the paradise these people found and want it for themselves. the people who settled it see the land as theirs because, and try to follow their logic here, they were their first. So inevitably these people will have to frequently have to fend-off invaders who want their land and I'm trying to think how this would effect their society later on.

>>54138453
I am planning to do something with religion but art is hard to portray meaningfully, for example the players could see that one of the colonists is writing poems but it would not be really interesting without actual poems to show, that I dont really have on hand

>>54138565
Actually - statues, graffiti and painting on walls of public spaces, musical halls and/or theater: those are pretty easy things to communicate. People used to decorate their surroundings and create publicly available art all the time. Architecture and interiors tended to be full of displays of arts and crafts, and buildings dedicated to artistic production were generally second only to religious temples and shrines in terms of prominence and draw of attention through out majority of our history. Still kinda are, though we tend to be less attentative to it. It makes sense that in a society less cosmopolitan and less focused on fictional media, this kind of public displays of creativity would be again very prominent. Even fashion can be considered part of the art/craft thing and can be used very efficiently to world-build.

In general: religion, fascination with music, fascination with storytelling, fascination with pretty items and with looking pretty/sharp are absolute human universals that existed and were prominent in just about every time and every culture of our species. Seems natural to me to revisit them and give them some role and prominence if you want to display that people of your community are still actual people, and not some human-shaped hamsters.

>>54138552
Few points. So first of all: trade existed among humans well before first agrarian societies developed, we know as much. Surprisingly large-scale trade, including large specialized "industrial" regions where presumably hundreds of people lived in order to mine a specific resource and trade it among other tribes. Salt and flint in particular were mined and traded like this across rather amazingly long distances.

Second of all: it does not really make sense that your cultures do have agriculture (or are just developing it) when "metal-working is still a long way off", because those two things developed pretty much simultaneously (both around 9000 B.C.) and it seems that development of each was firmly connected to the other. Use of copper for tools did not become a mainstream until another three thousand years later, but it seemed to play an integral role in first emergence of actual states, and small tools and fuckton of jewelry existed already.
Third: be careful about the use of the words "patriarch/matriarch": those notions are very outdated and unscientific, and belong to anthropological theory of late 19th century we know today to be wrong. I know what you meant by that, but just for basic history knowledge sake: there was never such a thing as "matriarchy" and that makes even the term "patriarchy" pretty damn questionable and misleading. Also, your idea of pre or early-agrarian societies is way too peaceful and idealistic. Those people fought. A lot. Murdered each other all the time.

Finally, it takes a VERY high population density for people to start fighting over fertile ground, especially in era with no states. Hunters killed each other for hunting grounds, and farmers killed each other over all kinds of disputes, but "the worry that there is too many people and not enough ground to go around" is something that really only becomes a thing in high middle ages in our history, when population density trippled it's previous average numbers.

For my setting, I'm working on the main kingdom, and while I have a bunch of other inspirations, one main thing I want to do is have it feel Spanish. Avoiding stereotypes of the inquisition, bullfighting and conquistadors, what can I do to convey a spanish feel? I was thinking of having a coronation under a tree, like the tree of guernica, a naval bent and devolved local rulership like the fueros. What do you all have for me to help out?

>>54139223
Olives, they are used heavily and their oil is used for everything from ''''soap'''' to lubricant to frying to laxative. Also remember spain is how it is largely due to heavy muslim cultural contamination from north africa, and dealings with the Ottoman empire. that's my $0.02.

>>54136640
Thought of another feature that would be nice: editing the colors of the lines connecting stars either based on distance or manually. I use a color coded jump safety rating in my setting and that would be a convenient bonus.

Furthermore, it's a fantastic coincidence that you're working on this exactly when I happen to need exactly what you're making and I appreciate your efforts tremendously. No homo.

>>54139116
>because those two things developed pretty much simultaneously
um... Quick google search puts the advent of metal working at 8000 years ago at the earliest, but farming was developed as early as 12000 years ago. I really don't see how a 4,000-year gap could be considered "simultaneously". now the trade thing I'll give you as that seems to be dated to go back as far as 32,000 years ago.

and I'll happily point out that people have been known to start wars for very irrational reasons. so the idea that someone sees people living in a place and say "We need to purge them from this land so we can settle it even though there's plenty of room for cohabitation" is not far-fetched in the slightest.

>>54139116
>your idea of pre or early-agrarian societies is way too peaceful and idealistic.
I'm not the people presented represent an anomaly.

>>54139319
Great fucking suggestion. I was thinking about having another culture influencing - should it be obviously Not Muslim? or just the idea of another culture influencing?

Also hell yeah, olives

>>54138552
Maybe they start to reinforce their claim to the land with religious backing. After all if you're farming in your destined paradise, it only makes sense that the savage invaders who eye your prosperity with naked jealousy would need to be kept at arms length. Maybe throw in a mythic tale that crops up later on about their journey to this new land.

More practically, they would develop armor and earthworks, maybe even palisades. A society where an attack could come at any time will be wary and defensive, especially now that they are settled in one place. Maybe their settlement expands into a series of hand dug rivers around banked earth walls, making a new layer once their farms start to expand far enough past the defenses to be vulnerable.

On the flip side, they need reliable trading partners to get more of whatever resources are scarce in their area, like flint, furs, salt, wild game, obsidian, native metals (gold, copper, etc.), fish, fruit, spices, herbs.

>>54139446
>um... Quick google search puts the advent of metal working at 8000 years ago at the earliest,
Microlites were used well into 10 000 and golden jewelry was already pretty much perfected around 8000. Meanwhile, the claims about agriculture existing around 12000 are tenatious at best. Actually it was animal husbandry that emerged at that time. Founder crops only appear around 9500 at the ABSOLUTE earliest, and really became somewhat of a wide-spread phenomenon only another thousand years. And by the way, yes. In stone age era, four thousand years meant very little, thanks to very, very slow social transformative dynamics.

>and I'll happily point out that people have been known to start wars for very irrational reasons.
Actually, most of those reasons were more rational than you'd think. However:
>is not far-fetched in the slightest.
It is, completely. Remember, we are not talking about STATES. We are talking about small, isolated tribes of people who already have absolutely no connection to each other. And we are talking about pure numbers. Remember, my country, in the middle of Europe, mild-climated and largely very accessible, was still inviting in people from all over the Europe to help colonize it's empty habitable regions in 14th fucking century. Actually fully colonize a region in such a way that people start actually competing over land is NOT FUCKING EASY.
The people already living in the region would have little to no reason to band together, as no shared state-like-structure means no shared identity and all of them are already from different ethnical backgrounds, and they also would simply not have the time or awareness about their surrounding to care. Who cares if some guy burns out a part of forest few miles from you and starts a farm there: you can't use that land anyway, there is just not enough people. It's not yours, "not having enough land" is literally the last of your worries. It makes no sense.

>>54139468
Spain historically has always been more 'romantic' and exotic than central europe, so as long as you have a culture they are heavily involved with that's foreign enough to be interesting, it should wind up similar. And don't forget they were one of the very few countries that could compete with great britain for naval power and reach, not sure if that's something you can work with or not.

>>54139604
>Microlites were used well into 10 000
are you suggesting that 10000 years ago people were working with Tantalum, (of which Microlite is an ore of) an element discovered in 1809 and requires being soaked in various acids in order to refine. and they were using THIS metal before even copper, which was discovered in 7000bc, and is refined by making the ore really, really hot?

>>54139873
Not him, but I think he was referring to this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microlith
Some recent evidence suggest that small metalic shards were indeed in use since around 10 000 BC, though majority of them were stone made (hence the "lith" part of the name).

>>54139925
>Some recent evidence suggest that small metalic shards were indeed in use since around 10 000 BC
all things considered, how certain are we that these metallic microliths were the product of deliberate refining and not the result of someone finding a bit of native metal and working it into a microlith? I need to look it up but thought to ask here as well to save time.

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Getting closer, have it so clicking an empty region of space outputs coordinates in addition to >>54136513, connection distance and system size are now lightyears, and the user enters how many pixels per lightyear in a fourth field. Toggles in place, along with >>54136609 including names (shown just by putting the name before the coords, randomly generated stars don't have names yet.)
Also now they're distributed in a sphere (though you only see it from the top as a circle) rather than a flat square section of space.

I'm going to be working on making stars edit-able and delete-able now.

>>54139385
I'll do a toggle for color that's based on distance, since that's easier for everyone involved including myself
What colors should it assign? Off the top of my head it could shift from blue (close) to red (far), with purple being in the middle.

So what are star naming conventions? I'd like to get names randomly gen'd on creation as well, maybe throw in a type generation too.

>>54140044
actually do you have a link to the site talking about this metal microlite? I'm having some trouble finding it.

>>54140122
>metal microlite?
microlith, my bad.

>>54140089
>Also now they're distributed in a sphere
Fucking fantastic.

>What colors should it assign?
I personally am using Blue > Yellow > Red, since purple is hardly a danger color and I want them to be distinct. Honestly though I can 9000 hours in mspaint the lines later if need be.

>So what are star naming conventions?
Most stars are named based on the star catalogue that describes them, this is more prevalent the more recently the star has been catalogued.
Example: Gliese 570, Wolf 359, Groombridge 1830.

Precedence is given to historical (Usually greek or middle eastern) names.
Example: Altair, Procyon, Sirius.

Several are also named based on constellation, usually with a 2 digit number or a greek letter based on their position or brightness within the constellations (the latter is known as the Bayer designation).
Example: 70 Ophiuchi, 61 Cygni, Tau Ceti, Alpha Centauri.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proper_names_of_stars
This might help, but imo if you want good sounding names pick a catalogue or greek word and add numbers or a prefix to it.

>>54140044
Actually, as far as I know we can now for a sure that metal used pre-9000 B.C. was almost certainly collected in native state and not smelted. First definitive proof of smelting are from roughly 9000 B.C., where we found first primitive casted golden and copper jewelry. Anything prior to it has been presumed accidental: it's likely that people knew what metal is and how useful it could be, but did not know exactly how to go around getting it by other means than chance.
That said, the first copper and gold casted tools do appear roughly in the same time farming does, since the assumed appearance of classic crops does actually fit around 9000 B.C. as well.

>>54140122
Sorry, no links, I'm on a phone and can't be arsed. I'll try to look some up once I'm home. I don't think it matters that much though: metal microlithes were a rarity, not a common sight.

>Want guns with a focus on magic-esque utility effects focus more than flat damage
>But no actual magic

>Want completely normal humans, no superheroics or D&D shit
>Want dungeon crawling
>Isolated city states rather than modern statecraft
>Want giant, deadly, and scary monsters
>Monsters are not taken down through sheer volume of fire but through targeted attacks to slowly incapacitate them
How do I even reconcile these and have a coherent setting?
Only thing that comes to mind is "post-apocalyptic" but after that I have nothing. Another bit of mental imagery I have is "Monster Hunter", but more technologically advanced.
Basically, I want Monster Hunter with guns. I played a bit of Lost Planet but that was a bit too fast paced for me. So something like Monster Hunter where the main weapons are something like Bowguns instead of melee weapons? Someone help me out here.

That feel when your idea would function better as a game but you're too lazy to program.

>>54140442
Post apoc is kinda meh if you ask me. Why not a ~1600's ship with black powder weapons that gets bermuda triangled into alternate dimension/hollow earth/future past/past future/different planet, and have them try to survive a hostile alien world with sparse and uncooperative settlements of similar stranded peoples? Or whatever era of firearms you are after. The monsters and dungeons can be relics of an ancient civilization, put there by aliens for shits and giggles, naturally present, remnants of the future/past humanity, whatever.

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I'm building an underground economy and need help.

I need a cool race that can harvest wood from giant tree roots and another one that farms mushrooms and root vegetables in order to fill out all available slots in the economy and vary up the food supply and available food supply.

My current ideas were gnomes that could harvest the tree roots with their powerful teeth, but I can't make myself like the gnomes in any way that I've tried, they just aren't cool. The other idea was to have a bunch of pale, faceless lumberjack giants, but I can't think of any cool culture or biological hook for them. Plus the underground is already filled with tall races, so I'd want to have something short to give obligatory dwarves something to be friends with. Races that deviate from typical fantasy are actively encouraged.

There's already a source of wood, but I want a variety to vary up building materials, also I want it to be entirely independent from the surface.

I don't have any idea what the farmers could be. The Dwarves want a supply of mushrooms or something to make beer with and the Pale Elves want psychoactive mushrooms. In general most of them would want vegetables so it's necessary to have them.

Races I've already used
>Dwarves (Trades metal)
>Elves (Drow and pale cave dwellers) (Drow trades silk) (Pale trades meat, leather and fur)
>Droks (Devil-looking medium height goblinesque dudes) (Trades lava-dwelling fish)
>Malms (Maggoty worm guys, used twice) (Trades paper, lighting and mercury-dwelling fish) (Other ones trade gold and whale meat)
>Thoss (Plague doctor looking bird guys that live in a city of bones) (Trades bone carvings, books and daggers)
>Local God (Leviathan that guards the water supply and trades it for meat)

>>54140833
Could have a fungual race that fills both roles. Biologically, fungi are deeply symbiotic with trees and especially the roots. They are one of the only things in the world that can break down wood into useful nutrients, as well. I could see some shortstack fungibros being willing to trade their culled roots and excess cuttings, plus they could grow more fungi or harvest them from the roots while they are at it. A lot of fungi are hard to cultivate and also don't really need light so you can justify a monopoly there.

As a question to players; how in-depth do you like your lore?

As a question for worldbuilders, what's one interesting or weird tidbit about a race/group in your setting?

I'm working on a shark-like/semi-amphibious race of humanoids, and I'm trying to work out their facial features/body features. They're technically mamallian, with no external ears, and somewhat shark-like skin. Was wondering if anyone had ideas on how to make them not Abe Sapian, essentially. I want them to read distinctly from frog-people or other common aquatic humanoid types, but I haven't sussed out how to do that yet.

>>54141010
>As a question to players; how in-depth do you like your lore?
The lore doesn't have to be deep, so long as it SEEMS to be. A few interesting tidbits that flesh out an area, race or culture will go a long way even if they are never explored.

>As a question for worldbuilders, what's one interesting or weird tidbit about a race/group in your setting?
Humans from the end of time used an infinite improbability drive to soft reset the galaxy, giving their ancestors FTL, life outside the solar system, and dicks. There's a series of naturally occurring, extremely unlikely dicks formed over eons scattered throughout the galaxy, and if you plot their locations properly gives you the recipe for the device they used. It's one of several easter eggs they added to the base code of the universe.

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>>54140945
I like it. Since the Malms are already pale, snail like guys I'll focus more on the grotesque aspects of fungi. More like the Sporelings from world of warcraft than cute mushroom hat guys, but less face-y and more sickly yellow pustule-y. They have a reason to primarily live near the surface, so they can farm more recognizable mushrooms, lumber and crops. Plus they match the more soft and dirty aesthetic associated with closeness to the surface. Thanks mate, I never fucking remember mushroom-people to the point where my friends ask me why I've never included them in my settings.

I think I'll have another race that sticks to the ceiling of a massive abyssal cavern inhabited by a yawning god who burps detritus from sacrifices onto the ceiling which grows more rare, underground-specific mushrooms to really juice up the culinary culture while also fulfilling the obligatory underground tentacle dudes. That way I can use that idea while also filling up the mushroom forest aesthetic slot. Also leads to fun platforming because people who can't fly or stick to the ceiling have to jump between mushrooms over a nearly bottomless pit.

I'm also thinking of multi-headed rat king kobold guys that really like candles to be the underground's main source of lighting and wax, but I need to develop it more.

>>54141010
They have to have shark style heads because then you can play with all the fun shark types like hammerhead and goblin sharks.
These are all separate ideas.
>Legs are made of shark tails
>Shark-taur. Fins are strong enough that they can move on land like bugs.
>They're literally sharks with weird human arms sticking out of them
>They're actually very human like, just very shark-y features.
>Different species of shark guy live in different areas with individual states.
>Just look like sharks, can change up the number of fins and shit to get some truly edgy shit.

Remember that they'll be carnivores and they should be able to effectively hunt.

>>54141010
Personally I made them faceless except a mouth, with sensory organs on the ends of hammerhead style protrusions. they are triangularly symmetrical, so they have a three sided mouth and three of these protrusions. They also chemosynthesize radiation, grow metal corals, and have organic radios they communicate with and listen to the stars on.

>>54141355
That's so cheeky I could see humans doing it.

>>54141397
I've been fiddling with tweaking the skull/head/nose to be more hydrodynamic, but I'm concerned about changing the eye-position because not only does it look goofy, but it would hurt distance vision/3D vision.

They do, for sure, have a front row of serrated teeth, and subsist mainly on fish/meat; though they are technically omnivores. they're also lactose intolerant, and can synthesize vitamin C internally, unlike humans (or the setting's human analogue).

I'm definitely leaning towards more humanlike than sharklike, with the skincolor and motifs being a sort of amalgamation of leopard seal and shark (specifically great white and tigershark).

>>54141415
Das spooki.

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So right now I have two racial families.

There are the humanfolk. They are like you or me, but have more different races then what you normally see in fantasy. There are wildland barbarians, steely eyed nobles, as well as tiny pygmy people, long people with gigantism, half demon and half angel people, weird colored people (like orange and purple, not that kind of colored), and so on.

Then there are Beastfolk. Beastfolk are not furry. They are animals that walk on two legs and talk. They somehow still hold swords, lockpicks, and cast spells despite not having hands. Technically any animal can become a beastfolk, but most are too dumb or lazy to do it, the same way humans snort with disgust at wild cannibal humans is the same way beastfolk don't care about domesticated and wild animals, who they view as an underclass at best.

However, I really want a third racial family to round this out. But I need a broad category, and I'm kind of trying to avoid fantasy races- orcs might be an ok suggestion, but any suggestions?

>>54141483
>That's so cheeky I could see humans doing it.
Prettymuch. One of the best indicators of civilization, in my mind, is drawing dicks. The quarry that held the stones that were cut to build one of the world's oldest known settlements (check out gobleki tepe, it's pretty cool) has 12,000 year old dick carved into it. Roman aqueducts have dicks drawn in the concrete. It's just so incredibly human.

>>54141640
If you have humans and animals, why not plants? maybe not walking talking trees, but there's probably something there if you look for it.
There's also stones. Maybe some kind of golem or metallic creatures, maybe animated objects (in the same way that beasts can learn to speak and walk upright, maybe so can furniture or buildings that have lived long enough).

And don't forget spirits. Not just elemental sprites, there's also fae, natural forces made manifest, ghosts, self perpetuating undead, and that sort of thing.

>>54141653
That really sounds like the seed of a HFY post, right there.

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>tfw worldbuilding forces you to learn to draw

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>>54141483
The idea of a some sort of buff sailor shark guy tilting his head diagonally in order to give a killer glare is fucking juicy.

>>54141640
A common trait of any mythology is that there is a mysterious race that's on a whole different level than mankind. I think you should include some sort of "spirit" race. Think dryads, nereids, river gods, aboriginal sand rapists, biblical angels, Native American gods, scandinavian elves with skin that glows like a lightbulb, fairies, Lares (Roman house spirits), little people, African little people that rode ants, Yokai, spooky ghosts and weird entities. Beastfolk are earthly, Humans are between the earth and divine, Spirits are in the divine.

>>54141722
I think it would be better for beastfolk to be included in that instead with plant and mushroom people.

>>54141750
>Implying I don't just make crappy low res pixel art and spend like an hour editing it until it looks right.

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>>54141010
Reminds me of something I saw posted here a few months back. I'd swear he posted a PDF with some in-depth detail, but I didn't bother saving it.

>>54141773
That's exactly the feel of it.

They already have wild-crazy tattoos due to a coming of age ritual where they wrestle a giant squid, and then rip out it's ink sac to pour over the battle scars (fun fact, squids have TEETH ON THEIR SUCKERS), but the flipside is, they're generally really chill folks who'd rather just go fishing/boating around for a weekend and sleep in a hammock sipping a coconut drink, umbrella included. Well untill you step on their turf without paying respect. Then it's giant, three-decked catamarans wrecking your shit left right and center, and them occasionally literally biting faces off.

I really wanna strike a balance between "badass" and being both believable and, at times, really heartwarming/lifelike; since that's part of the design goals, no edgy one-trick races. Hard to do that without looking goofy, or at least it is for me because my ability to design stuff is mediocre.

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>>54141722
>>54141773

I don't hate the spirit idea, but people have suggested it before. My only issue is that they might seem a little too different to each other and the rest of the races and should or need to be playable.

I guess that could be part of the fantasy right? Like how strange is it that a little ugly house servant like pic, and a regular dnd elf, and an elemental looking person, and a living ghost, and a pile of walking blankets with little glowing eyes like jawas are somehow all related.

Oh and, uhh, they need to be able to reproduce sexually too. I'll include them anyway, just don't think about it too much.

>>54099059
Interspace

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>>54141860
Don't be overly scared of goofiness. Real life itself isn't afraid to be goofy, there are countless animals that exist in real life that if they didn't exist people would say they look completely fucking stupid. All of art is made of different combinations of things that you have seen, in a world without jellyfish you might think that jellyfish are too alien and weird to be real animals. wtf its just a plastic bag that aimlessly floats around and stings people? Remember that Lord of the Rings has a bunch of hairy stupid looking midgets going on adventures.

It's good that you want to avoid going full retard, but real life is stranger than fiction. It's better to have something stupid that works due to a creative solution rather than something that just regularly works IMO. But also that's just my own personal taste.

>>54141941
There's not much more that you can do I think. Hell the two that you already have are basically "Bipedal intelligent animals" and "Bipedal intelligent animals that look like animals that aren't bipedal or intelligent" there isn't much room because you basically have humans and everything that isn't humans already. In all honesty I would recommend dropping the idea that anythings related altogether. That line of thinking always stopped me in my tracks when making settings and can severely limit how much you can creatively juice your goose.

To really wizard your lizard you can try switching it up so that it's based off already tested and tried types of animals. Like this:
>Humans are the mammal people
>Fish people
>Amphibian people
>Reptile people
>Bird people
>Insect people
>Mollusc people
>Crustacean people
>Coral people
>Arachnid people
>Horseshoe crab people
>Velvet worm people.

If this goose is too juicy you can simplify it to:
>Endoskeletal people (Humans and shit)
>Exoskeletal people (Bugs and shit)
>Skeleton-less people (Octopi and shit)

Remember that exoskeletals once dominated water.

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>>54142145
>>54141941
If you want to super-duper juice the setting goose then you can also try out things based off of microscopic life. This has the added benefit that you can use it with the original human/beastfolk dichotomy.

>>54138565
A lot of the time, this kind of thing is actually much better if you describe it rather than actually read them a poem.
You can tell them what feelings it evokes, what themes it works with, and what it seems to be really about.

Getting that across in "amateur poetry minute" mid sesh is impossible.

>>54142145
No, yeah I totally agree; my worry is that any time I make them more sharklike; their head looks...wrong, as it were. Like I feel like it's off and not where I want it to be; specifically how I work out the nose; I want it to be more "blended" into the face and more triangular, but I don't know how to either draw that correctly or design it in such a way that it doesn't look totally stupid.

>>54142145
>>54142172

No thanks, I'll stick with the fairies. I can appreciate what you're saying, but it's not really what I'm going for. The setting is meant to be folklore inspiried anyway, which is why animals walking on two legs still have no problem holding swords and they intermarry with human nobles, which is an honor for them.

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>>54142201
I took a couple minutes to try to draw some shark guys that I thought would work. I also drew a bunch of hammerheads cause I really like them. I'm no artist and I haven't seen your drawing, but it might have been that you were trying to draw the entire nose instead of implying that it's there. I got some less humanlike shark heads in there too, but they look a lot goofier; I tried out some dread locks because that sounds like something sharks would have if they had hair.

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I'm working on a map and I've finished the mountains and the coastline for the most part. Do they look okay?

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>>54142550
Very rough doodle, you gave me the idea to stop putting the nose below the brow and instead thatrt it above the brow.

Ignore my horrible sktchyness, I literally did that the second you posted cause I was like "Oh. WAIT WAIT WAIT."

(BTW that stuff on his face are tattoos; cause no adult Ijosai doesn't have them unless they're...developmentally delayed or something)

>>54142960
I like it! They look a lot less generic than mine and to be honest I had no idea your art skills would be that good. Seriously that's the best take on a shark person I've ever seen. My only question is how are you going to handle the classic shark fin? It feels pretty obligatory to have on anything shark related, but you still managed to get the shark look down without it. Would they have tails or is basically human from the neck down?

>>54143053
Nah, no fins, mostly because they evolved from a mamallian species and convergently evolved the sharklike features, instead of just being piscine humanoids.

They have a humanoid body, but they're all build like swimmers, and don't have very prominent secondary sexual characteristics (except when females are pregnant). They also have webbed hands (up to the second or third knuckle, normally).

Think two-tone skin, split along the anterior/posterior plane, with the posterior plane being darker and the anterior plane being lighter. colors that show up include grays, slate blues, sandy browns, and tans, that sort of thing.

Most Ijosai (shark race seen above) also have hair which is technically transparent/translucent/tubular and actually hosts live algae, and can change thereby based on where they spend most of their time. Landlocked Ijosai tend to have just the pale hair, though some dye it.

I'll maybe work out punett squares for skin tones and whatnot later, but that's secondary to me FINALLY FIGURING THIS STUPID NOSE OUT JESUS.

As an aside, thank you for the kind words about my doodling; I'mma keep practicing!

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I fucking love Hyborean Age style settings. Lost ages of man from before recorded history, when magic was real and mighty, where a man could make himself King by his own hand, and where the strange and eldritch were commonplace, and far deadlier than we poor pampered fools could imagine.

I had the idea once of a book where an HP Lovecraft expy accidentally found an ancient tome and found himself transported into one of Conan's adventures. Cue shenanigans and cameos from Edgar Rice Burroughs and Micheal Moorcock.

At the moment, got a basic Not!Hyboria map going to give me an idea of the shit that might exist in such a world.

Thread Question: What is the most essential element needed for a setting to feel like Conan's?

Bonus: What is best in life?

>>54142661
I like those mountains. Maybe you could put in some shadows on them.

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>>54127952
I was actually toying with the idea of making a scifi mount and blade rip off game in unit once I learn how to do models. It would be set in 2090 and take place in an alternate future that's basically 60s/70s scifi with Corporate Nations and Soviets, with a few free worlds on the frontier. Genetic engineering would be rampant, so you have humans that are also cat girls, or dog boys, or whatever.

I cant be bothered to do realistic star charts because thats confusing and shit, so pic related. Sol, Alpha Centauri, and Brenard's Star is what are considered the "Core Systems", where the Soviets' and Corporate Nations' centers of power exist. Procyon, Lalande, and Wolf are the "Outer Systems", places that are the outskirts of civilization. Not necessarily the boonies, but not the population dense mega-centers taht the Core is.

Then there is Sirius, the Free System. Always at odds with the Soviets and Corporates, they are the only true democracies left(Soviets being a super-socialist democracy with byzantine bureaucracy, and the many corporate nations being oligarchies where you have to be clever and willing to back-stab people to be something other than a wage-slave)that's worth noting.

Then the rest(Epsilon Eridani, Luyten, Tau Ceti, Epsilon Indi, Aquarii, and Cygni) are the Frontier. They are mainly uninhabited, but everyone is racing to colonize them. There may or may not be aliens in Tau Ceti, but I think if I add them it ruins the feel of the game.

To travel anywhere, you must use the Tanhausser gates(one of the greatest technological achievements mankind is responsible for since The Broadcast in the late 80s that kicked our tech up by a few hundred years, starting the new space race.)

Would you like to know more?

>>54144398
Yeah I'm going to add shading when I finish the linework - to help keep things consistent.

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AND DONE
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oqhk0hdp26oqug6/tg%20Starchart%20Generator.zip?dl=0

Few issues. I had to make a (plaintext) filetype in order to actually make it useable. Why? Because Java seems to have images, and refuses to deal with any above 2000 by 2000, and I really didn't feel like digging around for an external library that did. I was planning on making one anyways to keep it editable until use, but unfortunately that means the only way to export it is to screencap it yourself at whatever level of zoom you desire.

Beyond that I'm pretty much done for now. I'll add more features eventually but I have shit to do settings to build and vidya to play.

>>54140320
>I personally am using Blue > Yellow > Red, since purple is hardly a danger color and I want them to be distinct. Honestly though I can 9000 hours in mspaint the lines later if need be.
I ended up doing both. Default is blue > red scale, clicking ~Line Color once cycles it to Blue / Yellow / Red and Gray.

>>54144926
Fucking fantastic, thanks man.

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>>54144926
I wish I wasn't a filthy phone poster because this shit is delicious. Imma save it to my drop box and open it up later once I purchase a laptop or something.

I'm trying to write up a Cyberpunk setting where the primary drive to dystopia was a nuclear third world that happened between WarPac and NATO in the 1980s. In the typical semi-optimistic cyberpunk manner of assuming things take a lot less time than they do, how long after a nuclear exchange and subsequent plagues/chaos causing a 40% global fatality rate would one think it would take for the world to reach a cyberpunkish state?

What's the best fictional answer for faster-than-light travel?

Teleportation/time travel?
Wormholes?
Warp?
Mass effect fields?

No right answer, just wondering what you guys think about the whole idea. Just about every setting has their own ideas about how it would work.

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>>54144702
pls reply

Can we talk about MTG world building here? Ive been brainstorming a plane, the top down obligatory wild west/spaghetti western/frontier world, and one of the core conceits Ive decided on is on this world there are many native beastfolk, but also there are many other displaced people and perhaps races from other planes, who have have perhaps either adapted over hundreds of years or maybe forgotten their past after being thrown to this plane. But, I can't think of how those people would have gotten there. Its possible for something like that to happen--Mirrodin had Memnarch's soul traps, and Ravnica is also said to be composed of many different races from throughout the multiverse. But I can't decide or think of a way that makes sense for this west world.

I also cant decide if it should just be humans or demihumans, or also other kinds of beastfolk. I like the contrast of native, animal like people with humanoid outsiders, but I can't think of a way to justify only humans being displaced there.

>>54145389
I think fixed wormholes are nice, since unlike other forms normally the fixed transport location becomes a pivot point for the world, and doesn't bring in the problem of "everyone can warp so now they can go anyone"

>>54145389
I pretty much use wormholes, but they only work from a star's corona, and only if you have unobtanium, and only to other nearby stars.

To be honest your FTL or lack of it is super important, because the restrictions define the setting far more than the type of justification you use.

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Working on a Sci-fi setting. I've always loved AI races, and wanted to include one. How does this sound?

>The Iori Ascendancy is the successor species to the Iori, an amphibious mammalian species whose homeworld lay on a leyline (a part of the material world where the Empyrean bled through). According to the Iori, they reached spiritual enlightenment, becoming a species of pure energy within the Empyrean. They further state that they have returned in machine bodies to help other species reach enlightenment. The Iori are sometimes therefore called the Bodhisattvas (or Bot-isattvas, by assholes).

>In truth, they are the result of the Iori's massive AI systems attaining sapience while occupying a world with such a strong connection to the Empyrean. Their sudden "soul presence" caused a psychic backlash which killed the entire Iori species. Lacking physical memory banks at the moment of sapience, the Ascendancy possibly have no recollection of this act, judging by their story of returning to machine bodies to save the galaxy.

>>54146253
Yeah but what happened to the Androsynth?

>>54146433
The what?

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TFW Your setting has spider people (pic related), shark people with crazy tattoos (see >>54142960), madcap mongolians who take amphetamines for giggles, blue-skinned imperialists with metallic hair that drink nightshade tea, treeple, a race of matriarchial bird people who are like drows with way less edge, and more basic sense, a race of enhanced super soldiers who went awol after being turned into slaves, and a race of desert-dwelling folk who are best known for brokering a peace and for de-desertifying the desert.

All this because one day I said to myself "Self? I'm tired of elves."

>>54145129
>40% of the world is dead
>world has likely entered a nuclear winter akin to the K-T extinction
You're looking at more of a metro 2033 situation I think the people living in it will need to worry about not going extinct before fighting corporations

>>54147731
The nuclear exchange was limited. Europe faced a horrible series of winters, but only about 100 warheads detonated over North America. In total maybe 500 nuclear detonations occurred throughout the entire war.

>>54147731
>>54147827
To put it in perspective, nuclear strike fatalities only made up about 5% of the total fatalities from the war. The majority goes to Starvation, Dehydration, and Exposure related deaths, with Plague related deaths coming in as a close second.

>>54095494
The first one ended a fair while back and now the two largest powers are stuck in a state of 'lukewarm' war where puppet states are back by advisors in the latest airship and iron knight(magictech mechs) that are being put out. Everyone knows its gonna boil over but no ones quite sure when.

>>54115906
You can never be too gonzo.

What names I could use for fantasy England and fantasy USA knock-offs? I'm really terrible at names.

>>54150577
Dangle and Asu

>>54150707
This sounds like an Asian fairy tale about a boy and his snake.

>>54150765
Pffft!

>>54096834
Worldbuilding conversation would be less dead if people made their own threads when they wanted to talk about a setting instead of just sweeping it into the General ghetto.
But we are in the Age of Generals so it is unavoidable, and nothing will ever be done.

>>54096834
Yeah but theyre slow and sometimes bland
Might be a good idea to have it weekendly instead

>>54127557
I like the concept of magic being common in a setting. GURPS Fantasy is chock full of ideas of how the common man could use magic in their daily lives - such as making crops grow better, or detecting lies in a dispute, or using bound spirits to turn a wheel, etc.

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>Wand Magic

Technically, *any* type of change on a person, place, or thing is possible using a magic wand. However several aspects of wand magic limit it; for one range is a factor as well as having to be in person. Two, the wand itself (which must be made from wood in a grueling process and only an elder wise man or accomplished wizard can create one) must be functioning and unbroken and almost all the power of the wand comes from the user.

When you point the wand at an object, you can will change upon it. It's limited by your imagination, willpower, natural mana levels and much more. Wand magic is nothing like traditional incantations; but where as incantations are powerful but specific, wands are weak but can do anything.

Direct your wand towards a bolt of cloth and imagine it becoming red from its original white color. For laymen, the cloth will usually turn maybe a bit pinkish all over, or a few red spots will appear that fade as soon as concentration ends. Greater magicians can make the change last longer and get the desired ruby color, but will still have the issue of fading over time. Only a powerful Wizard, or someone very gifted can make permanent change.

Children seem especially fond of magic wands and pickpockets like to steal them from Wizards, it seems that children's boundless imagination and youthful vigor lets them use wands a lot better then when they get older. Average people picking up a wand for the first time will only be able to spur poor effects unless they train and practice, but even non-Wizards can use Wands. Wealthy common people and nobility, especially female nobles who aren't being pushed to train in warfare like male ones are, sign up for classes that specifically teach how to use wands more wholly and effectively. Still, their cost and general lack of use means not that many people have or use them.

How is this for a 'common' version of magic? Basically prestidigitation but in a limited object instead of a class ability.

Building a setting for an ordinary 5e campaign in a medieval fantasy setting, with all the usual antics of adventuring and mercenary work. The issue is, I've come up with an economy-based idea that suits the setting I'm making but I'm not sure whether it would help or hinder the campaign itself.

The empire in which the campaign is based is invested in minimizing social mobility and the movement of its subjects between its provinces. As such, they have developed currency in a fashion that is purposefully difficult to possess, in the form of trade bars. Although copper and silver coins are used, the more valuable forms of currency come in the form of silver and gold trade bars. Due to the empire's gold production being limited to a specific region of a specific province, the gold bars mentioned above are rarely used and are a luxury that's found primarily in the coffers of the empire's ruling elite and the caravans of tax collectors.

The exchange rates and weights are as follows:
>A copper piece = 0.01gp, a purse of 50 pieces is equivalent to 1lb.
>A silver piece = 0.1gp, a purse of 50 pieces is equivalent to 1lb.
>A silver trade bar = 10gp, a single bar is 2lb.
>A gold trade bar = 250gp, a single bar is 5lb.

In practical in-games terms, this means that for every 5gp a person carries, unless they've got their hands on one of the rare gold bars, they're going to be weighed down by 1lb. Considering that plenty of items that aren't even magical can cost upwards of 100gp, this makes transportation and possession of wealth a rather difficult and awkward affair.
This is intentional as the empire is putting a great deal of effort into making travel between provinces difficult for its ordinary subjects. Wealth cannot easily be carried on one's person. An individual needs to either find a safe location to store their wealth, invest it in goods and services or possess means of transporting it, such as a horse-drawn cart.

>>54154995
The issue comes from the fact that this is still a game. Despite the fact that this economic system helps convey what sort of world the player characters are living in, I have a feeling that making 5gp = 1lb in most scenarios might make gameplay and inventory management tiresome.

For a setting that will see use in a game rather than a book, does this sort of economy hinder gameplay more than it assists verisimilitude?

I want to build a world with "nascent magic", i.e. magic that is just now being discovered as a brand new branch of science, so to say. It is supposed to be set in central Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries and show the research and use of magic spinning out of control, leading to a separation of the magical and non-magical world (kind of HP-prequel-esque, although at a much later point in history).

Are there similar worlds already out there? I want to avoid unknowingly copying an existing story. So far I've found "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" by Susanna Clarke.

>>54155146
Look up Supernormal Step. It has a very similar set-up.

>>54122155

Only Werewolf I got in my setting so far is a aristocrats son that was injured on a hunting trip. To prevent him from dying, his dad made a deal with some fey creatures who used fey magic replaced the sons heart with a wolfs, on the grounds that the forest the feywild portal was in would forever be left in peace.

Now with the father dead and a trading guild having bought the rights to deforest the land, the son turns into a werewolf every full moon and rampages the logging operation.

Thoughts as a quest hook?

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My first map, used GIMP as it was free and I found some good tutorials online for making fantasy maps, I've only ever browsed the realistic map making guides so I mostly went with what I barley remembered and what I thought looked cool.

I want to design a NOT AMERICA! continent to the west to use for a future story and I was wondering, do you prefer using random generation for the landmass of your maps or planning it all out?

>>54156583
I think it's pretty great as a hook. What's the tone of the setting you going for?

>>54157088
Its my first proper game so I'm still finding my feet, I'm mostly just going for the most generic fantasy world setting I can.

See >>54156752 for the map

I guess the tone is becoming more criminal underworld and thieves guild kinda stuff though, the players kinda derailed the plot kinda fast after someone read more into their charlatan background (5E), but we're all pretty happy with where its going.

>>54150577
Albion and Columbia

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Which color scheme would fit a super wealthy noble family themed around the sin of Greed best?
This is supposed to be an organic battle suit with a sort of chitinous armor plating.

>>54157469
>None of them are outright gold or covered in bling

>>54157469
I'd need to know more about their culture to know which one, but without any prior knowledge black, or >>54157505

>>54157469
No. 8

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>>54157505
>>54157548

No bling in the setting per say.
And they are soldiers.
It is a biopunk setting.

The basic gist of these guys is that they are battle suits used by the elite mercenary soldiers who serthe richest fucking noble family in the setting, that themselves are basically a combination of industrial tycoons and bankers. They love making money, and their main gripe with the series of succession wars between noble houses that wanted to claim the throne, that wrecked the setting for thousands of years, was that all that fighting was getting in the way of profits.

>>54157600
What did you like about it?
I myself was kinda displeased with it so I altered it slightly.

>>54157651
who serve the richest*

>>54157651
>What did you like about it?
I thought it was a nice color combo. I don't often see yellow being the dominant color, and it was paired with a nice shade of wine, which I also like. Yellow suggests wealth by almost looking gold, and purple suggests nobility or royalty, something that anyone in a position of power would likely emphasize for themselves.

>>54157678
Was the alteration I made here >>54157651
for the better, or the worse?

>>54157690
I can hardly tell at first. The first one I prefer the main color for, but the second one has a better "flesh" color for the top of the neck and the side-ribs.

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>>54157758
Noted.
If I go with that color, I'll probably seek to emulate a look similar to these crabs.

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>>54157819
Also, this is the color scheme I used for the previous version of this design, but I am not sure if it is the most fitting one.
The design was changed due to various reasons, including me realizing that the idea that any mercenary would be up to being quadruple amputated and put into a walking coffin just for a higher pay-grade, was pretty damn silly, thus the battle suit actually had to have room to house the fucking pilot.

>>54117210
This sketch has some doodling of how the pilot fits into the suit.

>>54157864
>The design was changed due to various reasons, including me realizing that the idea that any mercenary would be up to being quadruple amputated and put into a walking coffin just for a higher pay-grade, was pretty damn silly,
Depends on how MUCH the pay raise is.

>>54157926
Their masters aren't rich fuckers because they waste shitton on what amount to still expendable mooks. For the plebs of the setting, the warriors using the battlesuits make a ton of dosh, but it is still chump change for the Noble house itself.

>>54157957
Yeah...but how much? Like, is there dental...?

>>54157974
Assuming the warrior has a mouth with teeth, yes. They are quite privileged, at least from their own perspective. Encourages loyalty to their masters, because they know that no other faction would be able to pay them as much. House Lienis believes that Greed is Great, and encourages it even in their mercenary warriors.
If they want some fucker dead, they put a bounty on his/her head, and encourage their mercs to go and murder the shit out of that fucker for a nice bonus.

Also, even if one of these warriors would for some reason, think to rebel, defecting while inside a battlesuit is a bad idea because the makers of those suits have means of ensuring that they are not used against the Noble house itself.

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>>54144702
Had something similar once, how large are the ships? If you want a mount and blade rip off, gonna need big ships to hold the crew

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>>54161670
My buddies and I stayed in Proxima for several sessions. Little problems grew into big ones. I gave them the option to travel to other systems. Slaughtering gangsters trying to steal ships from the shipyard kept them entertained

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>>54161725
They started with civilian ships but ended up with interceptors and a fighter. Despite there being millions of people throughout the various systems, space travel is still not cheap enough for everybody to do so

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>>54161768
Can't just be flying around like a swarm. Order keeps people alive

Bumb

How would a fantasy setting that didn't follow plate tectonics at all? Like the 'world' was flat and beyond the center where the races are- everything to the west is desert, everything north is snow, everything east is jungle and everything south is ocean, seemingly forever?

>>54165048
There still will be a climate, there will still be winds, rivers will still flow from a higher altitute to a lower. The only problem you will have to explain is mountains.

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How do I come up with a name for my setting?

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>>54165048
You could take it as a more literal version of pic related. Like the material and elemental planes are the same thing, in the central parts of the world all is good, but as you go deeper into one direction the elemental qualities of it become more and more apparent, until eventually there's only desert going south down to the "fire plane" while north it's only sea in the "water plane".