/wbg/ Worldbuilding General

>>54473395
>If your setting has magic, is there distinctions between different types of magic? (i.e. divine magic, arcane, primal, or perhaps split among schools)
Yes, in a sense. Psychic power is innate and a large number of people can use it but it's very, very weak (You can sense living things within 10 feet and have something equivalent to mage hand and not much else) where are arcane magic is studied and more varied/powerful but still tops out doing fireball at best.

>>54473395
>If your setting has magic, is there distinctions between different types of magic? (i.e. divine magic, arcane, primal, or perhaps split among schools)
No. Magic is the application of Chakra/Ki/Vite/Ka/Pneuma to affect the material or spiritual world. The source of power can be different, but the energy is all the same.

>>54473395
I'm considering just getting a tablet for drawing maps of dungeons and the like on the fly or putting together maps that aren't global. Probably a Wacom or something, those're supposed to be good.

Any tips? Good mappy brush textures?

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Okay, so I'm taking the idea of a World Tree and running with it, Norse style. A collection of 9 planes/worlds all accessible from one another via some sort of portal/leyline network.

So far I have:
>Midgard: Human plane, might go with either Roman or Hindu-inspired cultures, maybe mix
>Asgard: High Elf world, Tolkien Badass Elves mixed with Marvel's Asgard
>Hel: Undead world, might go Middle Eastern or Byzantine undead empire
>Jotunheim: Monstrous world, made up of trolls, giants, goblins, etc
>Vanheim: Wood Elves, something like a cross between Iroquois and DC's Gods of New Genesis
>Inferno: Actual, literal hell with Demons, might make a Crusader state style kingdom for the lulz

So I've got 6 worlds, but need an additional 3. Are there any major archetypes I'm desperately missing here?

My intention for this setting is both for some sort of wargaming.

>>54475871
Iceworld, Desertworld, Oceanworld, and Jungelworld are all archetypes you could use.

Alternate history or alternate worlds? Also what are your most popular reasons for two nations or multiple nations to go to war?

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Tell me your setting's premise, and this Wizard cat will give it a rating out of 10.

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>>54475897
While I like the idea of an Ocean and Jungleworld, does going by biome seem shallow?

>>54476258
I'm this guy >>54475871.

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>>54473395
>>If your setting has magic, is there distinctions between different types of magic? (i.e. divine magic, arcane, primal, or perhaps split among schools)
It all comes from the same place, though I'm still working stuff out

All magic is utilized the same way and works off of fundamental forces of reality. There are differences as to what effects are created, however.

Matter is basically a container for "waves" oscillating patterns of energy that give matter it's characteristics. So mass, thermodynamic energy, electromagnetic charge all that stuff is dictated by these waves. I'm still thinking if there are any more mutable qualities that matter should have in this system and where the containment mass comes from.

Speakers, people who can use magic, sing to affect these waves. By singing an interference pattern a Speaker can cancel the thermodynamic waves of an object and cool it. The extent of the cooling being how perfectly they can negate these waves. The opposite is also true. A Speaker can harmonize with the existing waves and amplify the power. This could lead to interesting effects like creating a flower that could set wood on fire. Because its intrinsic thermodynamic heat is being artificially excited, it doesn't burst into flames in spite of being past the flashpoint of plant matter.

This system was put into place by the creator deity. I'm still hammering the specifics out. Sub deities created by what is basically god created planets and one in particular created sapient life. The specific deity created Speakers by altering or creating a few score of women (as women are the genetic bottleneck) to have a connection with the deity. Through that deity Speakers can translate their intent to the divine language and melody that are required to achieve their intended effect.

There's a lot more bullshit involved like the importance of heatbeats, rhythm and the soul, but that's the basic gist of it.

>>54476317
Perhaps? You did ask for archetypes, which tend to be fairly shallow.

I feel that having at least one world uninhabited by an intelligent race would mix things up a bit, seeing that all the other worlds have some sort of culture.or race associated with them.

You could also do some sort of angelic realm, considering you have a hellish realm as well.

>>54476366
>you asked for shallow
Fair point. I can take shallow and make it better then.

>angelic realm
I was thinking the Asgard/High Elf realm would be this, but I always take suggestions.

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>>54476258
How long will cat be here? I'm still pretty vague on setting

>>54476403
You could also go full weeb and have an East-Asian themed world. Stuff it with Kistune and Oni.

>>54476493
>Full Weeb
You never go full weeb.

I dunno. That sounds like it would add a lot of variety at least.

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>>54475871
You have the world tree idea, but you made the worlds distinctly not Norse. In my opinion, this is actually a really good thing, makes the setting more diverse in a good way what with having entire worlds to play with.

Naturally it's not finished yet, and at first I was wondering how useful it would be to have these random separated worlds. Seems sort of pointless or even a little masturbatory. BUT THEN I read the bottom bit about how it's for wargaming and I instantly thought it started to sound really cool. Excellent way to mash really weird, crazy cultures together in huge wars with wildly different technology, magic, and tactics. It helps explain away a lot of shit.

Solid 8/10 so far, needs work to finish. You should certainly add in some kind of Eskimo and Aztec style culture, if you need some more ideas.

>>54476409
As long I'm here.

>>54476493
>>54476317
If you go Oceanworld, you could also add a Greek Mythology theme, make it something similar to the Odyssey. Although you do have Byzantine influences in Hel, so you might have too much greek influence overall.

>>54476525
>Solid 8/10 so far, needs work to finish. You should certainly add in some kind of Eskimo and Aztec style culture, if you need some more ideas
Oooh, I hadn't thought about Eskimo. Aztec feels a little played out, though if I strategically steal some of the juicier bits and add them to Eskimos.......

Thank you Cat Wizard! :3

>>54476533
>Greek Mythology
I really like this actually. I might switch up the Undead world then to make room for more Greeks. Perhaps I'll keep to the Middle East vibe? Or would some sort of Mongolian/Tibetan Undead Hybrid Civilization work better? Literally off the top of my head, but based on my love of throat-singers and cold mountain temple-fortresses.

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>>54476577
I think Tibetan works well, as death and life after death does play a role in Tibetan culture (such as mummified Tibetan monks). But unless your underworld is going to have rolling steppes, I don't think Mongols are going to work. Why use Mongolian culture if you're going to take out the pastoral nomad part?

One thing that was really cool about Hel being Byzantine is that you have a "dead" civilization. Maybe you could use Babylonian culture instead? You'd have a middle eastern culture and a "dead" culture as well.

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>>54476642
I hadn't considered Babylon, though mostly because of limited material covering them. I like to work from visuals. Tibetan Undead shenanigans have a lot more artwork backing them up in my mind, though I do suppose Babylonian myth has a pretty cool underworld.

>>54475871
Niflheim? Dwarves or dark elves. An underworld but nothing actually to do with death and demons just a nasty chasm of endless mist and selvishness.

I am going to GM for an Only War campaign soon. But I need to make maps that can work as frontline maps, do any of you know any good tips in order to make/find one?

>>54475871
>tfw post shockingly similar idea that I posed in a previous thread
>Low key proud

But for real though, sounds cool.

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I'm trying to come up with an evil empire thats taking over my post near-apocalypse Earth. I want them to be intimidating yet not over the top evil.Something on the level of the Combine.
So far all ive come up with as concepts are
>Ancient human empire awoken by nazis in antartica after the war and plotting their rise ever since
>Space biopunk people
>Alien collaborators
Would humans or aliens work better as a dominating empire?

>>54476258
My settings premise is that the land is ravaged by uncontrolled necrotic energy after a Lich briefly conquered the world. Storm of necrotic energy sweep past the land, simultaneously killing and zombifying anything in its path. Pockets of life still exist, but they're isolate and few and far between. Vampires now rule the world, being able to take advantage of the darkness the necrotic storms bring. They both directly rule with an iron fist and pull strings in the background, putting mortal men against each other for what little scraps of power they allow them to have. Vampirism is seen by upper rankings of mortal hierarchy to be a symbol of status and they're mortal bodies a barrier to what could be their life as a wolf among sheep. Desperate enough to become mere fledglings or thralls.

The Gods are mostly silent and their worship is outlawed. Hidden cults suddenly disappear with destroyed shrines and splatters of blood along the wall with no bodies in sight.

I give your wizard cat a strong 7 to and 8.

>>54476258
>tfw earthlike setting so no premise

>>54481717
Well, sell it then. What's going on in this earthworld?

>>54482019
Can't really, character limit and such. I would need to make a few posts and spend hours writing them. I haven't fleshed out most of the conflicts either, that will be a few years.

>>54473395
>If your setting has magic, is there distinctions between different types of magic?
Elemental magic that some people are just adept at and pagan magic that is about being favoured by gods and receiving their support. Both aint what it used to be.

There's also enchantments that are about infusing magical energy into objects, but it's a lost art on the continent where action takes place.

>>54476258
It is most medieval fantasy, except the world is trapped in endless cycle of death rebirth, controlled by a machine on the moon and serves as prison for Satan.

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>>54476258
Setting is focused on the West, a continent that was discovered by explorers from the Old World roughly a hundred years ago but has only been aggressively settled in the past three decades. The two most prominent factions behind settling are the magocracy of Carska -- for the sake of quick summation, Nazi Victorian wizards with no sense of right and wrong ruling over the non-magical masses and developers of magitech -- and a great deal of forcibly migrated citizens of Lorne, a neighboring rural theocracy which Carska recently crushed in the "Unification Crisis" in order to get their hands on the massive deposits of crystallized magic at the heart of Lorne's most sacred mountain.

Natives that already live in the West are all descended from the same stock with pointed ears and immortal bodies, though their minds aren't quite so sturdy. As centuries pile up, it isn't uncommon for powerful chieftain or shamans' minds to crack, their raw magical power focused upon some parable or story that becomes the crux of their existence. Warping their tribesmen and the very land itself as a stage and actors for their Fable, the process shapes different cultures differently, from the endless turn-over through violence among the orcs, ritualized suicide among the elven tribes of the High Lakes, and goblin's natural predilections for getting themselves killed.

tl;dr Wild Western Fantasy with orcish train robbers, Old Scratch waiting to make diabolic deals on a dark and dusty crossroad, and foppish magisters discussing vivisection and genocide while a construct butler serves them negronis.

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>>54476493
>>54476533
>>54476577
Alright, so three contenders so far to add to >>54475871.

>Eskimo Ocean World: Frozen oceanic world made up of ice and a few islands surrounded by black seas, monsters, and the entire population subsists on blubber
>Not!Nippon: Deeply magical forests and mountains, heavy spiritual activity, loads of oni and kitsune style samurai and ninja clans
>Trojan World: A world of mountain-chain islands, bronze-age inventors, warring demigods, and mercurial Titans

How do these sound?

>>54478162
If the Greek idea falls flat, I'll instead look to do an "empty" world. Can't see myself going with Dwarves this time, though that may change.

>>54478373
:3

>>54479667
I'd personally suggest the Alien Collaborators, with a slight twist to avoid the OTT evil and usual cliches.

The near-apocalypse has happened and Earth is rebuilding when a giant alien spacecraft crashes suddenly in a second-rate country that dreams of it's time in the sun. The aliens are highly advanced but few in number with a handful of small craft at most. Maybe they can't withstand Earth's atmosphere and need encounter suits which naturally constrains their activities.

The aliens do not care about Earth, they do not want to eat our brains nor do they subsist on human suffering. All the aliens want is to go home but without an FTL drive/Dimensional Portal/Whatever they are stranded. After brief first contact shenanigans they reach an understanding with the country they crashed into; supply advanced technology and weapons in exchange for the manpower and (rare and exotic) resources needed to repair the ship. The empire exists because the human government wants it to exist, and while oppressive and cruel it is no more so than others in our planet's history. Beyond an empire having more resources to devote to the mammoth task of repairing the ship and synthesing exotic particles for fuel, the aliens don't care and certainly do not require any evil acts.

Fortunately, the empire cannot produce the best alien tech without infrastructure but even the monkey model equipment is way ahead of humanity (both in cost and effectiveness) and it's elite forces do have a limited supply of the good stuff.

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>>54479822

Seems bleak. At first you mentioned 'pockets of life still exist, but they're isolate and few and far between'. This implied to me a sort of post apocalyptic setting, but then you basically stated that the vampires rule the remaining mortals as nobility, with mortals hoping to become vampires themselves as a way of moving up in class. Not only does this make zero sense; nobody wants to become a rich person who abuses other people. They want to become a rich person and be the GOOD boss or the GENEROUS rich guy, nobody wants to become a tyrant or villian just because somebody did the same to them.

>The Gods are mostly silent
>their worship is outlawed

Fucking why? Especially if classes like Cleric or Paladin exist, who are specifically all about countering undead creatures, they would be extremely active. Even if nobody worshipped them because the vampires cruelly cut down any cults, sacred holy swords and armor would no doubt appear on young promising adventure's doorstep, as though inviting him to take up a mantle of justice.

Obviously, not a lot of thought went into this one and it seems overly bleak and edgy without reason. 'Fantasy Necromancer Apocalypse' is still a pretty novel concept, but the best I can do is a 4/10.

>>54482165

Vaguely interesting as premise, but says nothing about the actual setting. It's just cosmological set dressing that will rarely come into play. 3/10 due to lack of information.

>>54482610
Fantasy wild west is extremely underrated. Generic magocratic society is a little generic and anything described as 'nazi' is an instant red flag, but the mix up of Victorian ethics and magitech make it a little more interesting.

Combing elves, orcs, goblins and all those to be from the 'same stock' but not humans for some reason seems a little strange, but I won't judge it. The idea about shamans and tribal leaders losing themselves to fantasy fables which then play out in reality is gold though. Nice descriptive writing.

8.5/10

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>>54484727
>nobody wants to become a rich person who abuses other people.

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>>54483941
Thats a good idea.

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>>54483941
Further twist idea: Different factions begin forming in the Alien enclave some advocate for staying on earth to build up their new empire to expand and rule over humanity like kings, others want to do a space re-conquista on their homeworld using humans as foot-soldiers , the rest are furious at this idea and just want to leave.

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>>54476258
Haven't talked about this in a while, but why not stretch my legs:

The setting started as an attempt to transform pic related to a world-building like project.

At it's heart, it's a kinda-soft-sci-fi setting that however is trying to feel like a non-traditional fantasy or mythological world.
The premise is: in a world generally like our - on a planet much like Earth, but scared by tens of thousands of years of civilizations that had all came and then turned into dust, there is a small, isolated continent.
Once, it was a home to one of the great, advanced civilization, spanning across nearly all of it's surface. But, like every one before, even this one perished: after it's agriculture collapsed, and all of it's great crops died out over mere decades, it's inhabitants had to abandon their cities, head to the forests and pastures - become nomads, hunters, gatherers: wondering across great, Mongolia-like pains in small tribes, resting in the shade of barely recognisable stone obelisks, left there by their ancestors.

That was well over three thousand years ago. A little over thousand years after the great famine - long enough for people to forget their own history - one small society on an isolated part of the continent has encountered Gods, or "Celestials": strange, luminous giants that hold power over the very nature. They came from the ocean, offering a deal:
They will bring in ships full of food, enough to feed entire empires - but in exchange, they will take thousands of humans as slaves: to carry away, into the sea, never to return.

And from this deal, after thousand years of primitive nomadic life, first new kingdom was born, fueled by expansion and slave trade, ensuring the it's inhabitants would never have to worry about food.

That was two thousand years ago. The first kingdom, know as The Circle, has perished, and several others have taken it's place, but the slave trade is still the lifeblood of the world.

Should I bother you with more?

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>>54486169
>Should I bother you with more?

Nope, that's plenty.

As for the setting write up goes, I have no idea what 'pic related' is, so just drop that all together.

I somewhat dislike setting that lacks obvious magic, but that's ok, you seem to have a decent amount of interesting material.

I think the slavery for food thing is kind of interesting, but also kind of random. Has nobody seriously tried to create any new forms? Nobody has staged expeditions to see what's across the sea or how to bring it back? Nobody has taken any seeds or sprouts from the food brought by the Celestials to make their own farms?

The slavery thing is also kind of weird. Like these beings need human slaves to bring across the sea, a human sacrifice could solve much the same thing, directly giving the souls of the dead humans to the luminous ones.

Seems sort of pointlessly bleak, little mundane in the worst way. How have slaves not ran out in literally TWO THOUSAND fucking years of slavery for food trade? I've also seen you shilling the exact same setting for years, and with so many words you seemed to accomplish so little with how much time you've had to work on it. 2/10

>>54476258
A moderately standard fantasy setting centered around the ten schools of magic that have defined the world's history. The current era has the world in a state of relative peace and growth after a war between the newly-formed schools of death and life devastated the world and inadvertently gave rise three other new schools of magic during the periods of rebuilding.

Now the various nations of the world work together in unions of varying strength left over from war alliances, and the major points of conflict occur when individuals abuse advancements and interactions between the schools for their own intellectual or material gain.

TLDR Nation-State politics but everyone who's anyone is a mage of some kind.

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>>54487136

The beginning seemed a bit confusing. Is there 10 schools of magic or more now? Life and death seemed to 'give rise' to three other new schools. So is it 10 total now or before? Why are life and death 'newly-formed' schools when they seem like they'd be more or less the first schools?

Also, you never say exactly what the ten schools are.

There's also this big emphasis on on the schools with magic being super common, but what does each school of magic control a nation? The mages being focused seems to bring up interaction actions though, and I could certainly see a game world where everyone is a wizard do away with most balancing issues.

5/10 so far, not unwelcome but a bit confusing.

>>54486913
I can answer those questions:

As to concern of lack of no magic: people in my world believe in magic just like real people did. And that is actually quite a lot, not something trivial. There are also technologies that go over their head, which are deemed magical as well. My intention is to blue them all together, to make it unclear where superticion begins, actual magical ritual happens, and where some (for an external observer technological, but for them magical event takes place.

So to people living in this world, magic is I think much more real than to most people in most other fantasy worlds I hear about. It's a vital part of the word, just not in a very traditional TTRP fashion, I hope.

>>54486913
>, but also kind of random.
It is supposed to feel arbitrary. It's demand from gods. It's not that thing you want to analyze logically.
Although there are actually some more-or-less logical explanations.

>Has nobody seriously tried to create any new forms?
They do, all the time. Over the past three thousand years, various forms of letiles, wild grasses, frut treas etc... have been domesticated.
None of them are enough to actually sustain even a medium sized urbanized society. The lands are pretty barren as it is, couple orchards of sour pears is not going to be enough to feed a city.
>? Nobody has staged expeditions to see what's across the sea or how to bring it back?
Not really. People are SHIT SCARED. Those are actual, living gods. Those who trespass them are themselves to become slaves, and they are very diffiult to keep a hold off.

The combination of it being just really hard, and the sheer religious awe prevents it.

That said, somebody actually discovering where they are taking the slaves could potentially be like the ULTIMATE campaign hook.

>Nobody has taken any seeds or sprouts from the food brough
The Celestials actually supply them usually just with pure grain of some extremely nutritious wheat-like plant.
Cont

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>>54487285
>>54486913
The problem is that the grain the Celestials provide to humans - has been perfectly sterillized. And trust me, this has been driving people insane for centuries. There are still mad men who refuse to eat their shares, and instead carefully plant every single one of the back into the ground, hoping for a miracle.

They never do. Celestials aren't dumb, they sterilize throughly.

>, directly giving the souls of the dead humans to the luminous ones.
Yeah, but assumes that they need "soul", when in reality, they do need more tangible parts of the bodies, in good state too, for their own reasons. The celestials need living, preferably young and healthy people. For reasons that I will keep mysterious to avoid revealing their really boring true nature.

>Seems sort of pointlessly bleak,
I think the bleakness has a point, muliple of them. The main theme here is the ethical problem of worth of civilization. It's one of the most underlying themes of the whole story: whenever such arrangement is acceptable. And several different philsophies solving this problem in different ways.

>little mundane in the worst way
Mundanity is actually something I do value a lot. it's the absolutely best canvas to pain the most charming details.

>How have slaves not ran out in literally TWO THOUSAND fucking years of slavery for food trade?
Some are captured, some are born. And when there aren't enough slave to catch in the wilds, then you have to "tax" your own population. A lot of these dynamics have been based around human-sacrifice estimations among meso-american cultures, as well as volumes of slave trade happeing in mediterrania.

I'm pretty sure that how much I accomplished is rather poorly conveyed in these posts.

But thanks for the feedback, it is valuable and understandable.

For anyone else, if interested in more details, I'll be happy to talk.

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>>54473395
>If your setting has magic, is there distinctions between different types of magic?

No. Magic in this setting comes from one very specific source and basically does one thing: say "fuck you" to the Square-Cube Law. It works through the use of "Threads," which manifest as these glowing magical filaments that the "Weavers" are capable of manipulating. Think of a fiber-optic bundle and how one huge cable splits into many smaller fibers and you'll have a good idea of how this system works--the Weaver carries a bundle within themselves which they can split into finer and finer filaments for minute control.

As for what the Threads do, they are capable of stretching and contracting with essentially infinite force. So, they can compress to a microscopic pinprick or expand to reach out for incredible distances (how far depends on the skill of the caster) and they can do so without regard to any physical resistances. This allows the Weaver to manipulate stuff from afar or, with the proper amount of thought and planning, construct mechanisms and such. One fun thing is to build golems, using the Threads as muscle fibers over a skeleton built from whatever.

>>54487236
ech, I was trying to hold back on going too far into detail because it's easy to go on tangents and lose the point as opposed to a simple summary.
"school" in the sense of the setting means more a magic style than a literal school. Most nations tend to be so historically intermingled with one or several schools that neither the wizards nor the aristocracy rule the other, and the head of state is almost always magically significant in some way.

there are 10 schools of magic total at the current date. 5 schools are ancient and deal in 'pure' elemental forces: fire, ice, earth, storms, and raw magic (not as broken as it sounds, mostly underlying theory).
Death/Shadow developed secretly as a school by studying ancient artifacts and creating classical necromancy out of their findings. They tried to zombie apocalypse the world but failed because the Life/Light school just 'showed up' to counter them with healing and smiting. Popular belief is divine intervention but other than Life/Light's unusual appearance there had never been 'true' gods or divine magic before (and Life/Light are not Clerics) so nobody really knows.

After the war and during the period of growth that was rebuilding, two magical traditions that had previously been just 'hedge mages' were able to establish themselves as proper schools, these being the Nature/Plant school and the Water/Ocean school.

Thanks to the magical and technical advancement over the past century or so, a mechanomancy/chronomancy (think Wakfu Nox) school developed and styles themselves as "the school of clocks". Nobody really likes them.

And yes a premise of the setting was to eliminate 'caster supremacy' by making magic ubiquitous.

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If you live in a major city in a medieval-renaissance level society, what sort of quarters would you be likely to have? Let's say you're a lower-tier merchant, well provided but not wealthy, no live-in family. Do you rent an apartment? From whom do you rent it? How large would it be? Do you share it with someone?

>>54488097
If you have servants, you'd probably rent a flat with several rooms, probably even with a kitchen (unless there was one communcal), and divide the rooms you would not be immediately using to your servants. You would probably also want to chose it so that it can simultaneously serve as a shop, or is placed above a shop. Even a lower-tier merchant is probably going to have at least one servant girl, or if nothing else, an apprentience, who basically works like one anyway. If you have/need a shop, you'll probably need a room for yourself, smaller one or more for your servants, and a shop and that is all as bare necessities. Things like a bath, a kitchen, those should be available communal somewhere in the vicinity: if he can pay for it, he could get private one.

Of course, the place would very likely be also shared with other people, provided that there are any rooms left to rent out.

If he has nothing - no servant, no apprentice, he would probably just rent out a small room at the back of his shop and then hire some local old lady to come in every day to cook for him (or deliver food from some nearby pub or something) and to occasionally clean the place up.

As to from who you rent it: the odds are there are going to be landlords around, families that live in houses too big for them and can do with the income, old ladies whose children died... those were the types of landlords you'd probably get.
Or you could get one from a local guild, or through friendships with other local well-off people. It would be small: larger rooms, if there were any to begin with, would be divided into multiple smaller to fit more people in.

He would share much of the space, but unless he is very poor, he should have his own bedroom, large enough to fit in a bad, maybe a small table, and a chest for his possessions.

>>54484727
>nobody wants to become a rich person who abuses other people
this is a whole other discussion in of itself and it's really subjective if you find the "allure of status/power" aspect of it realistically compelling to justify people wanting to become rich assholes. also i'm designing this for a 5e campaign, it's not meant to have grey morality or have incredibly realistic and well defined motives.

>Fucking why?

relates to the cosmology. the gods only gain power within the mortal realm that the mortals "allow" through worship and prayer (and obviously the god can give power back.) since worship is outlawed, the gods have little direct way to affect the world.

>If classes like Cleric or Paladin exist, who are specifically all about countering undead creatures, they would be extremely active.
i never said that people who hunt undead wouldn't exist.
>Sacred holy swords and armor would no doubt appear on young promising adventure's doorstep
?? why would holy artifact appears suddenly at someones doorstep for no reason?

>It seems overly bleak and edgy without reason.
but it's SUPPOSED to be edgy. hell, there's a demon worshiping spanish inquisition style group of vampires stomping out. it's overly edgy for a reason, to give a somewhat campy, absurd but endearing experience, not unlike the dark brotherhood questlines from TESV and IV. the absurd cult edginess plays to it's strengths, not it's weaknesses.

besides, all i was posting was the basic premise. all you're criticizing me on is elements that weren't explain or fleshed out in the post.

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>>54484727
>Fantasy Wild West Guy
Well, like I said, describing them as Nazi Victorian wizards is mostly just for the sake of brevity. There's also a powerful current of Unionists in things like the Tuskegee Experiment and the constant in-fighting that rarely gets mentioned. Carskan magisters are scheming bastards, as the rivalries between the various Colleges that divide magisterial society play out on the grand scale -- the College of Medicine is still quite irritated that the College of Artifice was given the exclusive contract to provide non-living soldiers for the war effort, despite the successes they'd have with necromancy and biological weapons such as the therianthropes that had been created out of unknowing prisoners of war -- and at the smaller scale with blood even fighting and posturing against one another in an ever-present cloak and dagger dance to come out on top.

The mundane citizens of Carska are certainly a second-class of people, but they are still afforded a relatively high standard of living thanks to the creations of the magisters. Programs provide bread for the poor, locomotives and sonus procul relays allow for people and ideas to travel at vast speeds for a steep price, and disease and plagues are relatively uncommon thanks -- both for the scarcity and those rare occurances -- to the College of Medicine. So while magisters might as a whole might be throughly lacking in morals and instead simply focused on advancement, on profit, and on power, the successes of the magisters often bleed down to the rest of Carska. Though currently back in the Old World, the post-war use of Peacemaker constructs in the vast factories has led to a spike in unemployment that's led to a massive surge in petty and organized crime.

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>>54489494
>>54484727
As far as the natives all being from the same stock, they're basically just a single isolated people who were stranded during the dawn of the world. The various differences that settlers place on the natives -- elves and goblinoids, orcs and goblins -- are completely arbitrary in reality. They seem themselves all simply as the People, broken down by the various patrons spirits of their tribes. These differences -- the tusked and resilient People of the Boar, the secretive and mystic People of the Owl, the stalking predators of the People of the Lizard -- actually are suspected by some Carskan anthropologists to be the lingering results of ancient Fabled elders whose Fables gave the children of their children the characteristics of beasts.

And the various natives also hit a laundry list of badass Native American tribes that don't get nearly enough recognition as minor inspiration that gets developed out. Far to the northwest, the People of the Bear are an empire of towering slave-taking monstrous whose dugouts appear in the night to spirit away their captives to cursed islands. Based heavily off of the Haida and Tlingit people, especially including their armor and masks which make them seem not only to much taller than they are but also to be monsters. The Americas had a shitton of really neat tribes that weren't just the Aztecs and the Incas. The fact that the Aztecs get 99% of the limelight is just a pity.

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>>54475871
Been thinking on the factions for my setting some more, and this is what I'm now favoring:

>Midgard: Human home-plane, pseudo Pangea dominated by Roman-Hindu city states with some vaguely germanic wildmen, Humanity-Fuck-Yeah types on the rise
>Asgard: High Elf world, scandinavian landscape, highly advanced gunpowder/magitech with an emphasis on empire-building, on the decline and trying to prevent total collapse
>Hela: Undead world, endless sand-deserts and crumbling Babylonian architecture, undead caste system
>Jotunheim: Frozen wasteland covered in volcanoes, ruled by Giants, populated heavily by goblinoids and related monstrous races, heavy Balkans and Eastern European aesthetics (endless civil war desu)
>Vanheim: Wood Elves, highly advanced Druidic culture and emphasis on Nature's Way, savannah and grassy plains mixed with thick black woods, possibly Aksumite Elves
>Inferno: Norman and Crusader Knights vibe (brutal chivalry and honor codes), Devils, hot rocky desert covered in impenetrable fortresses, believe they are Fallen Angels that must "test" the mortal races
>Ityuk: Frozen oceanic world made up of ice and a few islands surrounded by black seas, monsters, and the entire population subsists on blubber carved from Leviathans' flesh
>Rokushin: Deeply magical forests and mountains, heavy spiritual activity, loads of oni and kitsune style samurai and ninja clans
>Tolmeca: Deep jungles and cloud-kissed mountain ranges, Dwarven built step-pyramids, blood sacrifices, Dragons and Jaguars and Thunderbirds oh my!

I feel like there's a good bit of variety here, but I'm biased. Anyone want to cast a quick critical eye on these factions? Meant for wargaming and wartime-RPGs.

>>54476258
Spear-chucking niggers get given guns by The Eternal Westerner for their own proxy-war purposes. The Big Nig goes full Westaboo and starts trying to modernise. Spear-chucking niggers now think shotguns are the god of death.

Spear-chucking niggers are correct.

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>>54473395
>>If your setting has magic, is there distinctions between different types of magic? (i.e. divine magic, arcane, primal, or perhaps split among schools)
Been working on a western setting and so right now Im concepting the magic as native american based, though itll be magic everyone uses in setting. Theres a concept Ive seen referred to as the medicine wheel, and Im modeling the magic around that for now.

Theres also a fifth in the middle foxcsed on the self and harmony with nature but this was the simplest chart of the concept.

In universe, magic is used by most people through a magical focus, an item designed to contain and control magic, as its difficult to do so "raw"., and can be different doe everyone, though one the most common is a called a caster (short for spellcaster, and ripped from outlaw star), effectively wands but aesthetically similiar to and wielded like firearms, used by spellslingers and come in various sizes.

A type of magic is usually tied to a particular landscape (more specifically, its from the spirits tied to the location and their general mood or purpose), and so that magic is mined, contained and transferred to other locations throughout the land for different purposes depending on the magic on an all encompasssing railroad line thats continuously developed westward to find more.

Thats all I got so far and subject to change.

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>>54490049

Sounds pretty accurate to real life desu, though it is a little edgy. Gun cults sound kind of fun though, and making literal gods out of modern day weapons or as symbols of magic gods is also pretty novel.

Easy 7/10.

>>54490337
Unacceptable. I give your rating a 1/10. Next time, try to rate me higher.

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>>54476258
This wizard cat's autism will not stand. I will out-autist you, challenger.

You rarely explain yourself, making your judgements largely useless. Often all you tell us is your own arbitrary tastes. We get that you think edginess is bad, or that magicless settings are bad, or that Nazis are bad, or that fantasy wild west is good, but we don't get why this might be the case. Similarly, you let your own moralism get in the way of other people's settings. It doesn't help that it's a simplistic (absurdly simplistic) moralism, either.
In the end you just tell us you "don't like thing". But writers don't write for you, they write for themselves. If they could write better for themselves, tell them -- but you don't do that.

You make weird assumptions about other people's settings. Like you assume swords would just appear in people's doorways...why? Why should starry gods want souls from human sacrifice instead of the slaves themselves?

You don't explain your scores beyond a throwaway line AT MOST. Often you'll give an 8.5 or 8 and not explain why you didn't give them a ten, and what it'd take for them to score higher.

Worst yet, you don't reply to any responses. You just shit and run. When others correct your assumptions about their settings, or when they simply ask you questions, giving them a response would help them immensely. This conversation is as key to judgement as anything else.

In sum: >>54490399 is correct, I give your ratings 1/10. Maybe 2/10. You do sometimes give some useful advice.

>>54491056
Nailed em to a cross

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>>54491056
Fuck off mate. Cat Wizard gave me awesome advice up here >>54476525.

>>54490337
Cat Wizard is Objectively Best Cat.

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>>54491056
At least someone's offering any sort of critique. It's more than we usually get

I prefer to just spam "WHY" at people's setting ideas, though. I think that's more helpful

>>54491185
That was his best post, and the one I was thinking of when I said he sometimes gave good advice.
>>54491282
No critique is better than bad critique desu. No critique just means you have no reference point -- bad critique can send you in the wrong direction. But you're right that we need more interaction in general.

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>>54491334
Nah, bad critique is still useful in its own way. You have to realize that just because someone else says it doesn't mean it's right so getting exposed to bad advice is also important.

No critique and you might as well not have said anything.

Anyone else ever take the time to write out a description of their setting to ask for help or critique and realize how stupid it is and then delete it?

>>54491334
I would give my own critique more, and I do make posts when something catches my eye, but I'm only just building a world for the first time so I don't know shit.

>>54491480
It is stupid but I went trough with it just because I think it helps to put things into words. It helps me to organize my thoughts. I guess I could do it elsewhere but eh. Im here.

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Currently working on a pre-industrial setting on a tidally locked planet. But I need a good reason why nobody ventures to the dark side. Also whole planet is a sand ocean.

>>54491561
Maybe the dark side is rife with a radioactive element that breaks down in sunlight

>>54491561
The Sun is Light, Order, Law.

The Other Side is Dark, Chaos, Anarchy.

The sun perpetuates things like the Laws of Physics, Time, and other Rules we need to survive.

The Dark isn't as kind. All that fall under the shadow are ruled by emotion and willpower. Dream of the Devil, and he might appear.

>>54491561
Nocturnal super predators, ala Pitch Black.

>>54491561
The dark side will make Antartica look like a balmy day. It won't be has bad as Mercury's dark side since there is an atmosphere but it will be so brutal as to kill anyone who tried to explore more than a stone's throw from the twilight zone.

The constant storms along the twilight zone as the super-hot air from the light side meets the deep chill of perpetual night will also be fun.

>>54491862
Was literally gonna post this, either real or imagined but I decided not to cause this was so good >>54491834

>>54491561
Nothing really lives or grows there so they'll eventually just run out of fuel or food and get lost/starve/dehydrate/fall in a hole. A dedicated expedition might be able to get a good distance in but there's literally no point.

>>54491885
Exactly, I did a little research on weather and tidal locked planets and it all concluded that the storms are outright hellish. I've already started writing a lot of fluff for it.

>>54491903
>this was so good
*blushes*

How unrealistic is it to have a points of light setting with most people living in small ranges of controlled territories and fortified villages? How would you design empires or bigger factions in such a setting?

>>54492578
Just look up PoLand from 4E, which I'm assuming you probably are already taking inspiration from. It's a great setting basis, and once you get a taste, it's really hard to go back. The main thing IMO is to make sure that your empires are crumbling or already fallen, your bigger factions are stretched thin due to conflict and troubles, and things are slipping away into ruin.

Major catastrophe happened a century ago, a lesser one a decade or two ago.

>>54492578
this, I kinda need some sort of reasoning to have unexplored ruins in an empire with fortified borders.

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Need a second eye on a map. I can't seem to figure out where I'm placing my mountains, though these two areas appear at first glance to be good candidates for Basins (ala the Mediterranean and Baltic).

Thoughts? I feel like an Andea style mountain range the length of the southern continent might run too long.

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>>54493051
I like the idea of an Andes like range, and there are a few areas that to me stand out for mountain ranges but I'm an amateur at worldbuilding and am phoneposting for the moment.

Pic related; a quick mockup of where I personally think it would make sense to have mountain ranges. Obviously some will be larger than others (The ranges on the smaller continents to the bottom right for example will be small), but I don't think the length of the mountain range should be a problem.

Hell if you look at Earth theres a range that is pretty much the entire length of Alaska to the southern tip of South America so it shouldn't be unreasonable

how the fuck i plan out a town

i'm not playing dnd or anything i just wanna build something in minecraft

>>54493211
Hm. Thanks anon! That helps, really.

>>54490311
is this fucking time cube

>>54473395


>If your setting has magic, is there distinctions between different types of magic? (i.e. divine magic, arcane, primal, or perhaps split among schools)

All magic uses one, or rarely more, Forces. The Forces can be split by the planes they come from.
- Elemental: Fire, Air, Water, Earth (and probably Light, still thinking). These impersonal forces for a magic user to tap - mostly using verbal or written formulas. Mostly good with inanimate matter or indirect effects, using them on living things is destructive or dangerous.
- Spiritual: Life and Death. The spiritual plane has lots of spirits, angels, devils and deities. So most practitioners bargain with someone or use rituals or holy words to do their work. Mostly used to affect living things, very limited with inanimate matter (golems are elemental + Mind). Death is not obviously evil, mostly used against parasites, vermin and monsters. Also when a peasant family decides "right, thats enough children" a minor Death spell can remove fertility.
- Mental: Mind (also Dreams). The actual plane is not inhabited but has fragments of information floating around. The magic is used with thought alone, though many add gestures to telegraph what they are doing. Only works on things that have a mind, can be used to communicate, control, frighten or support, etc. Also used to give a mind to things - mostly a basic AI for constructs, but some experiment with creating self aware beings, others with uplifting animals or monsters.

Note that there is no Force of Space (teleports) or Fate (luck) which limits what can be done with magic.

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How should I do golems?

I'm working on a setting that uses golems as its primary form of magic. The dominant culture uses intricately designed golems made of metal and precious stones (think artifact creatures from MtG or the Golden Army from the second Hellboy movie). Other cultures have to make due with rock or even dirt, and subsequently try to not piss off their more advanced neighbors.

I've worked on the races, cultures, and a general framework for a plot and then realized I've got jack and shit on the actual magic behind the golems. What exactly allows them to move, how they're made, how they are controlled, etc. I'm fairly lost.

I'd like to work in a way for people to hijack an enemy's golem (needed for a plot hook).

Typically I'm a bottom-up worldbuilder and let basic ideas dictate larger concerns, so I hate trying to work from the other direction. I've never really liked "magic works like X because it's necessary for the story," but I'm not sure how to avoid it in this case.

Any ideas?

>>54492578
The easy way is for the terrain to encourage small clusters of settlements spaced apart from each other with only isolated farmsteads or mobile pastoralists in between rather than broad areas of arable land waiting to be united. Mountains and/or deserts are great for this.

Larger factions are those blessed with starting off in a larger than usual/better connected area than usual with that advantage snowballing with time. A nice broad river valley that can support a large population and provide communication/trade links could be the basis of a mighty empire when every small valley civ squatting next to a stream is it's own kingdom.

>>54492800
>The main thing IMO is to make sure that your empires are crumbling or already fallen, your bigger factions are stretched thin due to conflict and troubles, and things are slipping away into ruin.
This also helps to reset things from accumulated growth of larger states. You might want to look up the Bronze Age Collapse for ideas.

>>54493538
You said crystals are needed for golem construction?

>Magic is a type of pseudo-matter
>Solid, Liquid, Gas, and Plasma states
>Different states change how the mana can be used
>Magic/Mana has unique property of responding to strong willpower and/or "shapes"
>define whether shapes means words, lines, or physical containers

How's that?

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>>54493051
>>54493211
>>54493221
Updated.

>>54493792
>You said crystals are needed for golem construction?
I don't believe I did, but that actually sounds pretty damn good.
I might change it a bit from your proposition by having "magic" be a general resource in the air, land, etc, but have the really powerful golem crafters use some means to collect vast quantities of it at once which allows them to power their incredibly strong golems. Or not. We'll see.

Thank you, this idea looks promising.

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Could use a bit of input on world shape.

>World cosmology is something of a ripoff and mashup of various settings, namely TES and Dragon's Dogma
>Super abridged- Godhead is dreaming, became aware of said dream, knows if he wakes up world goes away
>Is attempting to prop up the world so it can exist without him via the apothesis of exceptional mortals, at the moment the only actual deity is an avatar of his comatose self- the world's religions are essentially praying to nothing, though Churches and such can still manifest "miracles" powered more by mass belief than an actual deity granting power

In it's current state, the world is still in a bit of a primordial shape. The only planes are the material plane and the "chaos plane" or some other edgy name, which is essentially the Astral Plane from d&d before the other proper planes came to be.

Do I make the world dome shaped, with it's "apex" the location of the current sole deity and the further you go from it the more reality blends into the "chaos plane", and as more deities come into being the world becomes more solid and globe-like
or
Do I go with more of a traditional globe, where the physical location of the current god is some arbitrary location, but much of the world is uninhabited by humans/humanoids?

Or do I do something else entirely, like making the world octopus-shaped?

How would you say world building differs for a fantasy setting vs a science fiction one? I personally find the latter a lot harder

>>54494231
That's easy
World building for a science fiction setting is harder cus it requires you to research real science a lot of the time, whereas fantasy settings, you can just pull anything out of your ass.

>>54494222
Dome shape sounds dope. Kinda like a lot of ancient myths and faiths.

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Hey, /tg/.

Have you finished that outline?

>>54484727
>Not only does this make zero sense; nobody wants to become a rich person who abuses other people.
What the hell?

This statement is just ridiculous.

If you lived in a world with a cruel and decadent aristocracy getting stepped on all your life, then stepping on someone else for a change would be a huge confidence booster.

The idea of sacrificing your humanity for power is as old as myth itself.

>>54473395
>Thread Question
Magic can be split into a few different categories, namely due to mechanical differences with them (d&d 5e).

>Force of Reason- Casting with Intelligence. This is your analytical Wizards and Artificers, who use formula and science to manipulate the forces of magic, and the rare Mystics, who vary wildly between individuals from an even more analytical outlook than Wizards to a spiritual outlook akin to Druids to those who just have minds like sledgehammers and beat the world into listening like a minuscule Numidium. Your tie to magic is directly related to how much you know (And can remember) on the subject, in theory anyone (or anything) can become a wizard with sufficient INT.

>Force of Belief- Casting with Wisdom. This is used by Druids, Clerics, and Rangers. This is the casting used by those who adhere to strict rituals and dogma of those in their order, or those who have a more "natural" method of manipulating the inherent magic of the setting. (In this case the beliefs of sufficiently large religions have their own effects on the natural flow of magic, meaning there's functionally not a lot of difference in how a Druid manipulates magic versus a Cleric, though their beliefs, the key to allowing them to manipulate it at all, can be polar opposites.) Your tie to magic is directly related to how strongly your faith that your magic can work at all.

>Force of Will- Casting with Charisma. This is used by Sorcerers, Warlocks, Paladins, and Bards, who's power to manipulate magic comes from their own willpower, though the magic they manipulate themselves can come from different sources- Sorcerers and Paladins use their own energy, while Warlocks can use the power of an outside source or taught how to brute force magic into submission (Depends on Patron), and Bards differ depending on college or school, though most attempt to subtlety alter the forces of magic like a mix of a Wizard and Cleric.

>>54494456

Define outline.
Define 'finished'.

>>54488465

Thanks, anon. Thanon.

>>54494036
What are those biomes?

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>Make realistic geography and full cultures as fitting
or
>Make interesting cultures and shoehorn their enviroment to fit

decisions decisions.

Anyone good at geography mind helping me think up some ways to have the following form without handwaving it as magic?

>A giant fuckhuge desert, but almost 100% flat sand with only small dunes- like a salt flat but sand. Seems to me like giant dunes would form naturally, in addition to rocky outcrops. I want to make a region where two nations are divided by a huge desert and sand ships are their main way to transfer goods.
Semi-related, I need a reason for nations to send ships across the death desert instead of taking conventional ships across the coastline.

This one is easier-
>A giant swampland, maybe the size of Texas, going full-on Dagobah with the spooky fog and such- large enough that it's effectively an impenetrable barrier to all but those who evolved to live there. Should be easy enough to just make a flat-ish area fed by several rivers, as it's next to a mountain range anyways.

Making a setting where Elves and Dwarves and most of the standard races don't exist yet (Though, mechanically, players can pick nearly identical Humans).

What races should exist?

The only things that should exist are distinct races who are utterly inhuman, as the world is still in it's very early stages- eventually, Humans will become the various usual fantasy races Chimer-to-Dunmer style as Deities come into being, while some other races will also "evolve" into other non-human races in the same manner. The game will have VERY LARGE timeskips between short campaigns, going from "Ancient Age (on par with Mesopotamia)" to "Golden Age (Hyperborea)" to "Shit Hits The Fan Age (Demon Apocalypse)" to "Dark Post-Shit Explosion Age (Post-Demon Apocalypse)" to "Typical d&d Age (ambiguously Renaissance)".

At the moment the only races I have are Humans and Lizardmen, who live in a fuckhuge swamp, and I'm considering making descended from Humans anyways via them being escaped magic experiments from a Wizard or some shit.

>Humans becoming Elves, Dwarves, Yuan-Ti, Goliaths, pretty much anything blatantly "humanoid"
>Lizardmen, who may branch out and become Birdmen, Dragonborn, Kobolds, and potentially full-on Dragons depending on how things pan out

Should I have Hobgoblins and Orcs as distinct races too or have those descend from Humans, or be created by their god whenever they come into being?

This is the same setting as >>54494222.

I have a setting where is about space feudalism and superhumans knights and lords, but instead of focusing on origin stories, I'd rather focus on the society. A society where men is not equal and things such equal rights and the gun being the great equaliser isn't a thing, because they aren't powerful enough. So, how something like that work? Keep in mind the setting isn't exactly grimdark.

>>54476322

That's fairly similar to how the setting of Ar Tonelico works - you might find some inspiration there, the wiki has the setting docs, which go into great detail on the specifics of how things work.

How do you guys classify all the creatures/entities in your world? It's my first time doing this and it's really hard to get any consistency. Especially since there are so many creatures that can fit into different categories, and artificially designed beings from two completely different species.

>>54497535

I mostly tend to classify as

>bestial - sapient
>bipedal/pseudobipod/energy/animal-lite/other
>alleigance (some creatures don't have free will or can be mindhacked by higher powers as soon as they see fit, such as humans in my setting)
>robotic/cybernetic?
>artificial origin? (not made by the gods)
>are they capable of heterogenous (I may fucked up the spelling) societys or they stay isolated?
>supernatural? (depends if your setting has magic or not)
>tech level? (depends,they could barbarians, nomads or a spacefaring folk)

Its not the best, but it works with bestiaries and such.

>>54493411
Didnt know what that was so i googled it and it was visually similar, yes

>>54473395
>If your setting has magic, is there distinctions between different types of magic? (i.e. divine magic, arcane, primal, or perhaps split among schools)
It varies from setting to setting, but most have at least a split between arcane (innate power or learned technique, depending on setting) and divine (channeling power of a higher power you're devoted to). Arcane magic is flexible and can be used more often, but divine magic is more reliable and powerful.

In the one setting with the most types of magic, there's:
>Arcane magic: ritual magic, theoretically learnable by anyone but in practice very difficult for some due to the mental discipline required
>Divine magic: channeling the power of gods
>Witchcraft: similar to divine magic, but drawing power from demons, who are much less discriminating than the gods in whom they give power to but demand the witch aid in their infernal goals
>Shamanism: Striking ad hoc, short-term bargains with ancestral and/or nature spirits to gain favors or temporary power
>Elementalism: an innate ability some have to manipulate a certain element, including metaphysical aspects of it -- eg, a fire elementalist can not only create heat and flame, but also incite passions
>Spellsong: Literally just the natural power of good music to move people, cranked up to preternatural levels. A very skilled musician can create all kinds of specific mental states in an audience, and even move the spirits of inanimate objects to respond to his music.

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>>54475871
>world tree unironically

>>54498463
>world tree ironically

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>>54497245
Yeah that's-

That's not an accident.

Honestly the more I forget or don't relearn about wave theory the better.

>>54495957
Bright green tropical, yellow dry mediterranean, ugly green savanna, light green temperate, blue-green arctic.

>>54498631
>Ironically tree world

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>Have YOU made a Flat Earth today?

>>54473395
>If your setting has magic, is there distinctions between different types of magic? (i.e. divine magic, arcane, primal, or perhaps split among schools)
Yes, but I'm still thinking it out. It's not all done.
Magic is divided in four sections:
>White
General restorations, healings, buffs and some light-based offencive spells
>Grey
General destruction magic (fireballs, ice spikes, lightning bolts and etc), regularly based on the traditional elements
>Black
Debuffs, draining, curses and some offencive dark-based spells
>Blue
Exclusively summoning

Black and White magic users take their power from their own magical reserve (MR), but their spells can be fueled by other sources. For example, a curse will surely have its effect if there is some kind of generalized grudge against the target. Also, blood sacrifices will always boost the power of BW spells, such as killing a goat or spilling your own blood.

Grey magic users can only use their own magical reserve to alter the physical state of existing matter. Do you want to cast a fireball? You're going to need something to convert into one. A frog? A stone? Your own finger? You choose.

Blue magic users can summon both inanimate matter and living beings. Just like Grey mages, they must use their own magical reserve in order to complete the summonings.
If, say, a bear (living thing) is summoned, it will always be cast out from the nearest location to the target area. The summoned beings don't always follow their summoner's orders, but that's just a matter of practice.
If summoning anything inanimate, the object's prime matter will come from somewhere else out of the mortal plane, so the Blue mage essentialy converts unknown matter into the desired object.

Yep, I need to think more about it

>>54502497
So...all magic needs personal reserves of power, and sometimes you need to sacrifice a physical thing for matter requirements?

Seems like you could do a lot more with sources and costs.

>>54502588
>all magic needs personal reserves of power
#NotAllSpells
I may not have said it clearly, but BW spells' costs can be taken from HP/life force, be it from the user or from another living being.

If any friendly anon has suggestions, I'm all open. I haven't thought much about magic. I like the concrete aspects of the world more, yunno?

>>54502791
Fair enough. Consider though that magic could also exist in the environment, or in other planes of existence. Thus, Black magic could require environmental magic in order to make their curses "stick" to a target once out of range. Or Blue spells could require drawing power from the same dimension as your summons, risking some sort of corruption or manipulation by said alien energies.

>>54502905
Neat, really neat. Definitely adding the Black magic suggestions.

But about the Blue magic, how should the corruption work? Simple madness, obsession, visions or visible physical alterations? Or all four? I'm thinking about something like a drug addict without its drugs.

>>54502975
It would depend on what planes/dimensions you want to feature. Summoning a Demon from Actual-Literal-Hell could inflict a careless summoner with one of the Seven Deadly Sins, for example.

>>54476258
Earth-like setting of a couple closely-grouped island continents. Many fleshed-out cultures, religions, and kingdoms, with 4500 years of history. Persian, greek, egyptian, and indian influences are strongest. Tech level is at middle-medieval with hand-cannons being the most advanced level of firearm (which is how it will stay)

Magic is mostly confined to court-sorcerers who use involved arcane rituals to predict/alter weather, divine the future, create golems, and commune with demons. There are around 8 polytheistic pantheons (which pretty much worship the same gods) and one Zoroastrian-like dualistic religion.

Adventuring possibilities include travelling to far-away islands, defeating hostile desert giants, stopping rampaging golems from stomping a city to the ground, and banishing trickster jinns back to the underworld.

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>>54503017
Cat Wizard isn't here, but Satyr Knight will have a crack at it.

>Many fleshed-out cultures, religions, and kingdoms, with 4500 years of history
Telling, not showing.

>Persian, greek, egyptian, and indian influences are strongest
Might become a meme soon, but I love this shit.

>Tech level is at middle-medieval with hand-cannons being the most advanced level of firearm (which is how it will stay)
Stagnant technological development doesn't earn points.

>Magic
Real Old School. That's a plus.

>8 polytheistic pantheons (which pretty much worship the same gods) and one Zoroastrian-like dualistic religion
That's a lot of Gods.

>added adventure ideas
Bonus points!

7/10 so far. More depth in the worldbuilding would bring that score up to an 8 or 9. Specifically, take the time to flesh out your cultures. Give me a reason to give a shit about the Persian, Greek, Egyptian, and Indian (also need to clarify WHICH) cultures, and what they and their people are DOING in this world. Tech stagnation is fine, as most games don't intend to take place over a couple centuries of time. The magic and adventure stuff is very welcome to give a good idea of what your setting looks like, but the 8 different religions HOLY SHIT. You really don't need that many at all, and it's just a hell of a lot of work for you to do for no benefit.

So yeah, 7/10, very solid base for any project.

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>>54503017

So Elder Scrolls? Just kidding. You seem to promise a lot with it, like "4500 years of history" and "fleshed out cultures".

Persian, Greek, and Egyptian influences heavily imply bronze/copper age, but you yourself say it's middle medieval. Might be interesting to see a fictional version of these that survive long past it. But you also stated that 'which is how it will stay'. What's that supposed to mean? A medieval stasis setting without even a courtesy excuse?

Magic system is somewhat generic, but cool. Tends to keep things more grounded. Your adventure hooks are pretty good, and sufficiently 'exotic'.

Very solid 6/10.

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>>54473395
>If your setting has magic, is there distinctions between different types of magic? (i.e. divine magic, arcane, primal, or perhaps split among schools)

Magic comes from wherever you feel like it does, like religion.

Some cultures have a god for fucking everything, god of the dandelions, god of the ripply water, god of the still water, some just have the one big boi for everything.
Similarly, some folks think magic is from benevolent spirits and shit giving you power, some people think its just like cutting down trees, you're harvesting a resource from thin air to gain power or whatever your desires are. Chances are that whatever idea you might have for magic, it exists in the setting, at least in a minority.

Schools of magic exist, the world is ancient enough that orders have existed for centuries, and the orders all agreed on certain schools of magic. There are of course other practitioners that disagree with that and have their own ideas about shit (like herbal medicine vs actual medicine).

(almost linked a drawing of some porn I sent to a guy)

What sort of language do you imagine a Rabbit-folk species would speak?

What would their preferred class be?

What races should I add to the setting that would compliment rabbit-folk?

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>>54503984
chirps like dolphins, but through their teeth.

songbird bunnies would wear ornaments on their front teeth to change the sound of their whistle, adding choral effects, maybe even a constant warble or something?

anyway I drew some dry red scrubland, with 'fertile' plateaus.

sunsets would be pretty near the coastal pillars, seeing the red leaves, and the white sands, the shimmering lagoon, all that shit.
wew

>>54504149
to continue

they'd prefer assassins, or monks? (because of all the movement?)

Their large ears lend themselves to stealth though, because they can hear eachother so well they have to be EXTRA quiet, to the point that other races cant even hear them walking non-stealthily

Maybe add a mink species (rabbits natural predators)

Make them like, beserkers and archers.

Either they corner and surround rabbits and archer the shit out of them, or they're beserkers running into rabbit holes and fucking all kinds of shit up.

>>54503464
>>54503311
Well it's not really technical stagnation because gunpowder was only invented in the "past" couple hundred years and I'm keeping the world in the present. The world was in a bronze-age like setting but technology has been slowly evolving, especially with roads and ships in addition to arms and armor.

There are several family trees of people, who have developed their own cultures as they proliferated throughout the world. There has generally always been a few great centers of power which have produced several empires of the past, including a desert nomadic civilization, an Iranian-type people from a northern plateau, and a cosmopolitan river-based desert civilization. Each has waxed and waned in power and wealth over the centuries, sometimes because of war, corruption, climactic events, or just plain hubris.

The western powers are weaker, being newer, and generally more fractured. They came from a northern steppe people (really took from the indo european migrations for this one) and have made a name for themselves in wealth and power, both magical and physical.

I've tried to take from numerous cultures for things like names and aesthetics without making a bunch of direct parallels irl, everything from sumerians and scythians to parthians and Arab caliphates. History is my thing and I've really tried to make as comprehensive a world as possible.

As for magic I really don't think typical fantasy magic fits in, so no one will be shooting fireballs from their hands. I do however like the occult and more esoteric mystic stuff like Solomon's temple and all, which is what kind of vibe I am going for.

>>54504213
>>54504149
I love these ideas.

It might seem like furre-shit but I think I'm going to have the following races in this setting: Humans, Rabbit-folk, bird-people, and mink/ferret people. Maybe have some Pig-orcs too.

>>54504467
I'm just glad you like my ideas, because I like brainstorming.

pig orcs are my favorite.

make the bird people ridiculously diverse and extravagant

>>54476258
um... okay...

here's one:

In times ancient and largely forgotten the world was a generic fantasy world not dissimilar from forgotten realms or Golarion. But then the Great Old Ones and Elder Gods descended upon the realm and drove away the old gods and brought terror and madness to the world, as Deep Ones, and Star Spawn ran rampant across the lands. In this dark time the Lords of Heaven, six powerful angelic beings of such power to rival a true god who ruled over Heaven Above (all the good-aligned outer planes are lumped together into one in this setting), saw the horror the mortals endured and with their heavenly hosts, rallied the mortals to rise up against the Great Old Ones and drive them from the plane. In the centuries that followed mortals would rebuild their world and, when their old gods did not return begun to worship the Lords of Heaven who so championed them. The Lords took to their new role as the pantheon of this world stoically and used their position to instill virtues and moral values upon the mortals as well as dire warnings to prevent the Outer Gods or the Great Old Ones' return; all but one whose ego grew with this newfound adoration by mortal beings. He soon begun to question why he had to share ruler ship of Heaven Above with his five other brothers and sought to usurp them. This would mark the beginning of the war in Heaven Above, and it's effect would be felt in the material plane; natural disasters would ravage the land and the dead were suddenly unable to move on into the hereafter as conflict tore the outer planes apart. Eventually the would-be usurper was defeated and his allies were cast-out imprisoned in a plain specially crafted to hold them now known as Hell Below.

Now the World has faced not one, but two apocalypses and it's lands have the scares to prove it. People have grown weary and even fearful of the supernatural as a result.

>>54504515
>make the bird people ridiculously diverse and extravagant
at least the males should be.

>>54504578
yeah, with brown shitblob waifus

make the males the aggressive combat class, the females stealthy rogues and illusionists

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I'm really happy with the world I've created thus far but I need two things:

1. A name for the planet. I really don't have any ideas for this.
2. Nations/kingdoms. I don't know enough about politics or the intricacies for ancient societies to properly make a set of warring and neutral kingdoms as believable and interesting as I'd like.

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>>54506007

>Name for the planet
Foundation
Rue
Rime
Dust
Arcadia
Sunwife
Moongroom
Grove
Phombos
Kist
Morphon
Terra / Cryterra
Gaia / Fal
Utahus
Homestead
"Where we lay our head"
"Where we all go one day"

>>54506007
>A name for the planet
dirt.

>>54506007
1. Literally any online fantasy name generator, keep rolling until you hit something you like. Most cultures will just use the local version of Earth/the World or perhaps a descriptive phrase that sums it's place in the cosmos as they understand it.

2. Learn. Culture building can be a huge task, especially if you want believable and interesting. Ripping off historical cultures can work as a crutch but if you're asking here then you probably want something more developed than elven not-rome.

Luckily for you, there have never been so many worldbuilding resources at your fingertips. Books, articles, blogs and videos either covering our history or how to worldbuild cultures of your own. Get a quick grounding in World History to see the broad shape of things then zoom in on some cultures in detail and try to understand why they evolved the way they did.

Then take those guidelines, apply them to your world and see how things unfold. You'll constantly be revising and tweaking but it provides the foundations on which to build.

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Hey /tg/ - could any of you share some advice on stories to set in a maritime republic? (think Venice/Pisa/Genoa)
I'm really solid on the history of IRL states like this but I'm stumped on what kind of plots would be exciting to read and/or rp through. Thinking of doing something regarding Lovecraftian sea-horror and 'decadent aristocrat' type vibes like Cask of Amontillado & Masque of the Red Death. Sorry to bug everyone but I really want to use this setting and my writer's/dm's block is awful right now. Thanks in advance guys I really appreciate any help.

Tech level is late 13th to mid 14th century if that matters.

>>54476258
A mix of post-apocalypse and 'modern fantasy'.

A series of unknown phenomena completely screw the world over. Continents are rearranged into a Pangea-like Supercontinent, entire nations disappear, a wave of energy washes over the planet, shorting out all but the most hardened electronic systems, and random people are given insane amounts of magical power that few can control.

Then on top of that, fantasy creatures begin to appear, attacking everyone indiscriminately. The remaining nations of Earth areon the defensive, half their military stockpile disappearing in the first wave, and the rest scattered fighting on alien lands against these beings swinging swords and spells at them and their own people who can turn a nuclear warhead into nerf dart with a sneeze.

A hundred years later, the remaining human nations are holed up in arcologies around the world that keep in communication with each other, plotting for the day they retake their world. They are starting to get a better understanding of magic, and are producing their own mages at government funded schools.

The wizards who were unable to control their power have long since died out, the survivors becoming some of the most powerful beings on the planet, and for the most part have secluded themselves in towers they sculpted with their magic to further study and advance their power.

The strange fantasy races are all there. Elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. Their relations follow no sense of order, and what little intel available implies they don't trust even each other. Some have made pacts and alliances with humans and/or each other, while others make war with everyone even their own apparent kin, carving out their own empires amidst the ruins of the old world. For example, Dwarf holds are instead old human cities of industry, their factories re-purposed to produce dwarven artifacts.
>>Cont.

>>54506898
There are human factions independent of the arcologies, surviving their own way. Some by banding together to form a network of defense against a world that no longer makes sense, others forming dictatorships that employ/enslave these fantasy races and humans as cannon fodder.

>>54504557
>scares
scars, that was meant to read "scares", how did I not catch that!

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>>54476258
All the standard races were born out of humans who were deeply corrupted by the 7 deadly sins their respective gods committed (i.e. Orcs were followers of the war god who was consumed with wrath) by the leader of the pantheon. Because of their sins the gods have had their deity status revoked and walk the earth to repent. Even "humans" have been corrupted as they are weakened versions of their former selves but there was a tribe of men who remained virtuous and now these ubermensch have been tasked by the last remaining god to wipe out all these demon worshiping heathens.

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>>54506898

Oh god. I was afraid of one of 'these' types. I don't even know where to start.

>Extremely generic set up
>The "twist" is part of the campaign itself
>Magic powers that few can control
>Generic elves, dwarves, orcs; but don't even have a reason to be there, there just because the author thought it would be 'clever' to have fantasy races appear post an apocalypse
>Fantasy creatures vs modern day technology, as though it isn't asinine
>Pangea because biggest continent is so cool amirite guys xd

I seriously hope this is satirical, by far the worst setting ITT and one of the worst I've ever seen. 1/10

>>54507431
>hope this is satirical
Kinda? I originally built it to be just post apoc, but then shit happened, and long story short, I'm trying to shoehorn fantasy stuff into the setting and trying to pretend it works.

>>54507431
wait so is >>54504557 just such garbage that it doesn't even get a rating?

well, um, that... kinda sucks.

>>54507474
>>54507526
It's just some guy taking the piss. There is literally nothing wrong with what was listed except for maybe the elves dwarves and orcs part.

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>>54507526
>>54504557

I didn't see it. Chill.

You formatting is pretty bad, just a wall of text. But this isn't a meta rating, so I won't deduct points.

Very comsic level stuff. I question why the old gods so BTFO but somehow the angels who were less powerful were the ones who defeated them? Doesn't make a ton of sense.

One of the angels being so prideful to want to usurp the others is very classic, then generic apocalypse happens. Bad angel is defeated and cast out; becomes satan very similar to biblical stories. I don't see anything wrong with this, but there is practically nothing about the setting itself beyond 'generic fantasy world'. The entire world already had 'old gods' to begin with, then generic lovecraft outer gods, then new angel gods and satan? It seems like you're just trying to mash a bunch of real world religions together without any rhyme or reason.

I'll give it a 3/10.

>>54507368

7 deadly sins is pretty generic, but I like the idea of worshippers of various Gods being changed to exemplify their Gods. Seems very Wakfu in that way. Having Gods walk to Earth to repent their sins is great, but then you had to ruin it with 'muh HFY ubermensch DEUS VAULT!' shit at the end. Why would 'humans' get corrupted? Wouldn't the humans be left over from the other races coming from the sinners? Why would the 'virtuous' humans be anything other then the humans who simply refused to worship the Gods?

The score could have been higher if it wasn't such a blatant 'muh paladin' power fantasy. You even had to specify 'tribe' of men to be virtuous, as if to imply an entire empire or nation was too populated for your underdog fantasy. I don't have a problem with good vs evil campaigns and settings, but it's clear you aren't doing anything interesting beyond masturbating to your own inflated moral compass.

6/10, has some interesting concepts ruined by author wank.

>>54507798
"Generic" doesn't exist, except when writers have blindly copied the tropes of the genre. Uniqueness for uniqueness' sake is as bad as this genericness. The root failing is the same -- lack of making things your own.

>>54507798
Catwizard, deal me back in ya furry fucker. Responded to your critique in >>54489494
and >>54489756

>>54476258
A giant mash up of different TV shows I like and ideas I've had that happens to exist on the same planet. In the end that's basically all it is, I have a design motif that I like from a TV show or a cool picture on the internet and I build civilizations around just that

(>>54503515)

>>54508124
Christ alive, that map of gorgeous. What's the crater supposed to represent? Just a meteor, or something like a god's fall to the earth?

>>54476258
MY setting is short and straightforward.

take a boat and travel to the edge of the map, then keep going, go for another 5000 miles or so, assuming you've survived the voyage you will find yourself in a strange new land and "here there be monsters"

Only a few of the kingdoms of old have established colonies here, and those colonies's foothold is tenuous at best, so much so that little has been done to explore this land beyond the shore.

and what little has been encountered is unlike anything seen in the old world. Here krakens walk on land and the swamps are rife with anthropomorphic cannibal leeches that ride Otyughs like they were elephants.

What's more there are stories, outrageous claims by hysterical trappers of giant stone ruins, adorned in metals unlike anything anyone has ever seen. And of something, lurking in the jungles, like an Elf, but with an oxtail and a rotten hole on it's back that will kill and skin you if it sees you.

For the brave, or foolish, adventurer willing to travel to this land much fame, fortune, and glory can be found in mapping this land and discovering it's secrets.

>>54507882
I think an importsant thing is doing what feels natural. Often your own wanta and ideas will lead you down different paths even of a tired cliche concept because you have different thoughts than others who have made it. Like Im working on a western setting, and for me it was very important magic was integrated into it. Lots of western stuff with magic has been done, but my main desire was doing it in a way that wasnt a mishmash, but more something that seems like a matural fit, which is what landed me on th idea that maybe in this setting, the type of magic most people associate with american indians using is something everybody uses rather than just "their" thing in the setting., which feels like a distinct "style" of western fantasy. Just as an example of how your personal wants or needs can lead you down a couple steps removed from even cliche concepts without intentionally trying to be unique or special.

>>54508714
Sorry for wall, I got into this idea and forgot to format and my fat fingers are bad at phone posting.

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>>54508345

Interesting setup for adventure, even if the setting itself isn't super set up yet. Like no real focus on the homeland, but that's mostly alright as long as its about the exploration and wild new lands.

Not the most original thing in the world, but some evocative imagery and interesting ideas. 6.5/10.

>>54508760
>Like no real focus on the homeland
well yeah, unless they have a colony in the new lands they are a world away and not particularly relevant to the setting.

I have SOME idea as to who the colonial nations are:

you got the Rostov: explorers, merchants, patrons of the arts. They first discovered this land and have the older colonies.

The Discotti: while not well known in the homelands due to spending centuries cut-off from the rest of the world from their ongoing wars with the Drow. they have since won those wars and have taken to the new lands. They tend to be scholarly rationalists and are notorious for having anachronistic technology, such as lead-acid batteries, rubber, penicillin, sanitation, gunpowder, and ships of iron with no sales and move by "lighting a bonfire under their decks".

The Geets: the least original, they are vikings through-and-through.

The Zamara: A dark-skinned people origionally from Nyambe. A paranoid, insecure, and self-righteous people, they turn-out an inordinate number of paladins and witch-hunters. Their presence in the new lands seems less of a colonization effort and more of a complete relocation of their entire civilization. mostly because in their homeland they are hated for the acts of Zulo, a Zamaran who was the first lich and, effectively, invented lichdom

for this setting those are the only homeland nations that really need to be fleshed-out, the rest can be chalked-up to "generic high-fantasy realm to act as a foil to the strange sights this new land will provide".

>>54496742
I may be able to help with that, but need to know more about the setting as a whole.

>>54473395
Finished my pantheon. The goals of this are twofold: to present a league of gods worshiped by mankind (among many others who either do not favor or are not favored by mankind) in a way that feels authentic to real mythology, and to make sure that presentation is only as long as it needs to be and gives an impression of the gods, their aspects, and their place in society. Looking for as much criticism as I can get.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IAAyM1p5zkZMkD6EbCeqgfskwNWWchvOHYm1rFH71ic/edit?usp=sharing

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>>54506597
Spit balling for speed and not depth:

1. Pull an inverted odyssey situation where the king/guilds/aristocrats pissed off a sea god / eldritch abomination of water that now wreaks havoc whenever they try to leave their city. The obvious bit is to kill/appease the god/monster. But there's also the social and political ramifications of stalling trade. Land based trade, if it exists at all for your water dwellers, is insufficient to provide the wealth that your upper classes want, as well as incapable of feeding the masses for any extended period of time. So you get angry aristocrats playing the blame game and fighting each other, as well as angry starving mobs.

2. Assassinate a key political or religious figure and write from there. Religious figures in particular cause absurd levels of social unrest, which is a great starting point for stories.

Give me more info to work with and I'll try to be of more help.

>>54506597
Here's a good one I use as a hook to get inquisitive players interested:
>Independent island nation has been buying up metal.
>Everybody is sure that this is so they can launch an invasion of a nearby state.
>Turns out they're dumping it in the ocean. They dont need it, they just want to make it seem like they're raising a conventional army.
>Turns out they have a dungeon full of alchemical beasties, and when their enemies come to meet them on the beachhead their boats will be filled with monsters.

Another Good'n
>Ship known to have been sunk in a battle returns to port some years later.
>Is fully identical to the original, and even has the same captain.
>Party is commissioned to find the original wreck.
>They do.
>Investigation ensues.
From there it can go one of two ways. The first is that its basically an inheritance scam or something, the second is that there's some time-goof going on.

Any time you've got a costal or island nation nothing beats:
>Sea wizard invents tidal wave machine/spell/ritual to regionally lower the sea-level enough to reach a sunken treasure.

Some other one-off ideas
>Inhabitants of tiny scrap of rock are actually half-siren, and one of their younger daughters isnt doing a great job of hiding it.
>Lighthouse vanishes, though the light is still seen hanging over the hill on occasion. Turns out its a giant angler fish getting territorial.
>Fisherman claims to have caught a mermaid, shows it off to town, keeps it in a tub or something. Turns out its a sea hag and has been eating kids, and as a mermaid it has been claiming it was sent to help find those who were "lost".
>Taverns along a bay have been getting hit by a necromantic cult trying to bring back a beast who's body has been split into trophies hung in each establishment.

>>54509851
See >>54494222 >>54497087.

I'm going to go with mostly realistic (Albeit exaggerated) geography in the northern hemisphere and the further south you go the weirder things get.

I don't have any kind of proper writeup made for the setting yet though, so a lot of it is still in the air and can be whatever. I don't mind saying "well it's because magic" but I'd prefer "well it's because of plate tectonics causing X to happen in Y, but that was influenced by magic".

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>>54510202
Thanks for this anon! Exactly the kind of stuff I want. Seriously you're the best.
I'm more than happy to work out the details myself, just finding myself a bit stagnant as far as starting ideas go. As for more details...
Basically the city is a very old one, established as a tax haven/free port by this world's equivalent of Alexander the Great. When not-Alexander's empire emploded, the city was able to play his successors off one another and establish independence. Basically it's rugged terrain and trade networks make it both irritating and unprofitable to conquer.
But then there's legends of the sea rising up to defend the city time and again over the centuries. Unfortunately, the sea has grown restless lately and more superstitious folk sre worried the sea is abandoning them.
Long story short I'm looking at having a ritual based half on a roman practice and half on Venice's 'marriage to the sea' wherein the patricians of the city all used to sacrifice their firstborn to the sea back in ancient times in exchange for its blessings/favor, but then about 300 years before rhe present they tried tossing effigies into the sea instead and the gods seemed fine with it. Turns out the gods are just slow to act and are super fucking pissed at the lack of sacrifice.

So I want my players to start by running into more seemingly mundane problems that grow increasingly supernatural, until they uncover the shady truth and how the city's wealth is built on a literal mound of corpses at the bottom of the sea. Any help with these initial 'not even sure if eldritch horrors are afoot' plots would be greatly appreciated.

>>54510403
Thank you anon. You guys have been very very helpful. Fucking life savers.

>>54510571
>>54510114
Do me a favor in return and give this a look.

>>54510442
Forgot- for the massive fuck-desert I'm thinking a region squeezed between two mountain ranges like so might work, with the easternmost side being more like dry grasslands, as it gets a bit of moisture from northern winds redirected from the mountains.

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>>54510762

>>54510632
Just did, coincidentally. Didn't know it was you but was gonna post anyway.
I'm personally a big mythology dork myself, so I very much liked how your pantheon gives off some of the general feel of Norse/Greek myth (especially with the Typhon/Jormugandr outsider being and other outsider 'gods') without just baldly ripping it off. Hlodar & Yagonath are real standouts for me, but they're all solid. Death as cosmic accountant is also a nice touch. Really dug that.

Only negatives could be lack of linguistic cohesion in names (not an issue if they're a pan-human pantheon I suppose), the fact that your evil-beast-god's name really evokes Jormugandr which combined with Hlodar's resemblance to Odin made me assume it would all be nordic at first, and the sisters being a bit plain. Maybe throw in a couple distinct goddeses outside the trinity? They work well as really primal nature god types but they just kind of don't do much to round out the pantheon in my opinion.

Hope some of this feedback helps. Godspeed anon & thanks again for helping me with my writer's block.

>>54507431
>Modern Earth discovers "magic"
>Things are good
>Then they use too much "magic" and things start to explode
>Reality tears and demons start invading
>Earth is in ruins and humans are pushed back, until the arrival of "angels" inspires them to push back
>A military order calling themselves the Knights Templar forms to help the global effort of protecting humanity and pushing back the demons
>set a few years later, things are still fucked up with demons, indifferent angels, cultists and pirates, and mutants infesting the ruins of the old world

Its very heavily inspired by games like Hellgate: London and DOOM.

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Who wants to rate my setting? I don't care if it's the cat or whoever.
>The unbridled forces of creation are the fae spirits, who created a world they can play in.
>Collective of magic flows between them that allows certain 'cement' agreements to be constant, even among wildly different personalities, which is where the physical laws come from. This collective magic is called Heku.
>Locally the fairies can still create anything they wish pretty much, most live in a fantasy land of their own design, conflict and drama all being made for entertainments sake
>The more logical and conservative fairies start to bud off, wanting to create more constant, slower, grittier things.
>Fairies split into the Gods and the Fae. Gods create mortals while Fae go fuck off to live in wild places like the forests, mountains, bottom of the sea, etc.
>One of the Gods, sometimes called The Red God is a bit of a cunt. Ends up using power to basically wrestle hold of the Heku and becoming the most powerful spirit
>He is the only semi-omnipresent spirit, being able to sense and act on things almost anywhere, but obviously some things go under his notice.
>The Red God spawns monsters from his lustful liaisons with mortals and animals, cares for them and gives them strength and magic
>Starts to demand sacrifices from mortals on a Night of Sacrifice
>Poor people give up some food or clothes, rich people give up gold and jewels, royalty expected to sacrifice huge banquets of food and magic stuff
>Monsters come down and take the gifts, resisting this causes punishment
>Monsters in this setting are purely Monothestic towards the Red God himself.
>Humans and mortals are mostly polytheistic but some may be cultists towards the Red God.

Kind of a rough outline. Any feedback or ratings?

>>54510847
Thanks. Ill take that into account. The Sisters do come across as plain, but thats more a product of having to cram all three of them into one dump. I tried to do my best to emphasize that each had their own unique persona and place in society. Ill see what I can do about changing up some names to break the seemingly explicit connections to norse mythology.

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Flat earth or round?

>>54511127
It sounds ok, but Id advise changing the names up. Fae have too much established baggage.

The big thing that sticks out is who created mortals and why, and what drove The Red God to have 'liaisons' with either? At what point in civilization are we when this occurs?

>>54511196
Flat, with some looping bits. Ive got tundras at the poles that loop into eachother, and a pair of deserts that are technically separated by a mountain range and either a bog or a plain but you can get from one to the other without passing intervening terrain.

>>54511196
Round. Most educated people can tell you this is true, and the real math nerds argue over how to best and most accurately calculate the world's circumference. The uneducated masses, however, are either just starting to understand that the world is round or just think it's flat because no one's told them better.

>>54476258
I really should have written this down at the start. Thank you wizard cat.

The premise is basically inverting things that annoyed me with other fantasy settings.
>Races randomly sprinkled everywhere. They fight for ages but are still around.
Each race has its territories. History has changed or displaced entire populations.
>Gods did it.
Gods are focused on their realms beyond matter and cannot directly act in the material world.
>Magic does everything for some and nothing for most.
Magic is widespread but limited to specific forces (elements). It has changed world - some races not quite natural, most lands have type 2 demographics.
>LOL random monsters that do not even approach a believable ecosystem.
Monsters are explicitly magical which limits numbers and drives them towards/against people.

>>54492872
Have ruins be from another culture that the empire replaced. They have forbidden exploring the ruins because they do not want people to realize that the natives were more than savages and had some nice stuff.

Superstitious fear or religious taboo could also work.

Either way, the explorers will need to deal with people who do not approve and can do something about it.

>>54511053
Shit, meant this for >>54476258

>>54511907
Yeah the "this is just what fantasy is like" settings really piss me off too

>>54511196
Round. My setting is manipulating near-realistic physics in a controlled way that doesn't lend itself to fantastic states of being. That sort of world has no business with flat earths

>>54511196
This >>54502453.

>mfw cat wizard ignored my post

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>>54513264
>yfw Cat SORCERER still cares about your setting

>>54513349

Eh, its fine, don't bother with it. Its still in the building blocks phase, I am sure I can sort it out or just copy something else.

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>>54513380
Post it

>>54513403 Is actually this >>54497244

I wanted help on a society where the great equaliser is bullshit, obviousely, a society ruled by people with powers wouldn't be 21th century earth.

>>54513447
>not grimdark
Well..........

It DOES feel like Feudalism-Is-Right is something that's sort of spelled out in your premise. Aristotelian Philosophy basically says that Nature is inherent. Water moves to the lowest area because it WANTS to move there. Wood is flammable because it WANTS to burn, or release its inherent fire.

Slaves are Slaves because they WANT to be so. It is in their nature. Success only comes to those who are MORALLY SUPERIOR, otherwise it would be their Nature to fail. Fundamental forces do not act on energy and matter, matter and energy do as they will by their inherent nature.

It seems a little grimdark.

>>54513447

Well, at least I worked a little bit on the social hierarchy

>The gods, physical gods, they are rulers, each of an domain, the queen of the gods is leader of their union of states.
>the higher lords, the ones who swore alleigance in the past and their descendants, technology came and went, and they used it given themselfes even more power
>the lesser lords and church, the empire was cesaropapist at first, but due to a Great Crusade-like event, there were too much land to ruled, so the institution of clergy was made as a side kick to the knights, who would be inneficient if they had too much ground to cover, also the knights that are knights but don't have most "enhancements" such as the higher ones are the lesser nobles, but still way above a "mere mortal"
>Scientists and farmers, there are two types of science, high tech and low tech, high tech is used in conjunction with the knights hereditary powers (think of the clan system of Naruto as an example), its technology that furthers increase the gap in power and since the masses have no idea how it work, let alone combat it, they don't fuck with it, low tech is pretty much civilian tech, or what the plebs are allowed. due to the threat of enemy supers popping and razing crops, which could lead to famine, imagine the flash dropping agent orange or magneto fucking up a country eletric sytem, the scientists need protection, so if anything goes wrong or someone threatens them, some of them have contact with knights, it would be bad if state secrets leaked, and farmers due to being food makers, can call supers if "threats" arise to disrupt order, starving is a problem here too, farmers are slight better treated and aside fines in percentage of crop yields, they don't get harsh punishments as the rest. part1

Fuck, I wanna start properly working on my world, but I don't really know where to begin. I have the general idea of who the villain is, what the world's based on, and how the cosmology works, but I can't seem to get myself to commit to anything concrete beyond those. It doesn't help that the thing I'm basing the world on (slavic mythology) is kind of... difficult to find solid information about, and I feel weird about taking a hodgepodge of slavic mythological stuff and made up stuff, like I might just end up ripping off the surface level stuff and making a really generic western fantasy setting underneath.

>>54513594

part 2

>lesser statemen and burgeois, mercenary armies are good, but they don't hold a candle aginst a knight, so businessman stay on this level, while the knights are landowners, some cities have civil governament of sort, they are lesser statemen.
>civilians, your average joe, if born with a superpower, they can apply and try to be a knight, thru a lesser one, if said power is hereditary, his family can look foward into attempting to be a higher lord, but thats typically rare, its not uncommon for people to fake having powers to try get benefits.
>outcasts, the church and state are one, heretics and most criminal organizations are here, such as a pseudo yakuza, formed by former nobles that while disgraced and shunned, still have their powers and form their own rule in some parts of society, also atheists

So, yeah, thats a bit of the social pyramid, when I mean not grimdark, I mean this: there are good people, there are bad people, a bad person can do a lot more damage with superpowers up the ass, but not everyone is a psychopath.

Also, about statemenship, knights typically have family of servants, these sevants rule while the knights are busy killing shit, they only have a watered down version of their powers (for self defense) and serve as a baby makers for the knights, their enhanced genetics means they can practice incest, but most knights aren't fond of fucking their brothers and sisters. So these secondaries are happy to spread their legs, they have a cushy position after all.

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Is there anywhere I can get FT3 without having to pay 40USD for it?

>>54513712
The problem with it coming across as "not grimdark" is that the idea of strict hereditary hierarchies gels the wrong way with most western cultures. So your players might have a hard time swallowing that that's the way your world works without some (IC, preferrably) fighting back. It could still make for an interesting story, but it might come off as less hopeful than you'd imagine.

Basically what I'm saying is you might want to consider the very likely possibility that your PCs end up very chaotic relative to the world and try to play on how they'd react.

>>54513763

Well,I can undestand your point of view, but thats like saying "why didn't peasants rebel they outnumber the knights?"

It gets worse for the little guy superpowers are involved, but don't worry, I got players that aren't assholes, I just want help ironing out would a society like that work and most western cultures tend to make them into bad places because plot.

>>54513806
Not him, but Western Cultures tend to value Free Will and Self Determination very highly. It will take a lot for players from that sort of culture to accept the one you're designing as "benevolent".

It's not impossible, but be aware you're fighting a steep up-hill battle.

>>54513824

Well, I can always make the freedom fighter's leader into a terrorist, or pull a 1984 on them

>>54513806
Also, the kingdoms spent a LOT of time fighting and ransacking each other. Peasants were more okay with it because they knew if the knights didn't protect them some OTHER lord's knights would ransack their shit. The days of serfdom and feudalism dwindled as states became more centralized, and warfare was less constant. I don't know how unified your world is, but it sounds more centralized than medieval kingdoms.

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>>54513911

Well, I say knights, but I mean feudalism and dudes in plate armor, their history isn't the same as ours, but centralisation is here because superpowered guys serving even more powerful guys. Also, here is how enhancements work.
Look at pic related, those poorly drawn water cups, magic works like this: the cups togheter have the same amount of power as the big cup, but being separate cups, they are two weak cups, the big may hold the same amount as the two combined, but is stronger nonetheless, its the logic here and what allows for the system to exist.
Armor in their society evolved to be plate armor as soon as possible, because its the best option, also monopoly, the powerful ones used this a way to create gaps in power, by being a warrior caste, they have the better armor and powers and being wealthy, they can invest on further perfecting their power, magic is expensive and not everyone has it, so those with money are priority, kinda like Premium players in a MMO. In this setting, separate parts require separate blessings, which are smaller and weaker than if the object was a single piece, modern guns with their mobile parts aren't as a effective, bullets can be blessed but they don't have enough mass to handle the magic.
Really massive cannons can be blessed and their cannonballs have a lot of mass, making them deadly aginst knight superarmor, however, making a cannon that approach the Tsar Cannon isn't something your average folk can do, let alone mass produce them, even then the nobility would not like it, and magic would probably not find its way down to it, making it work aginst knights, but castles can be enhanced by magic to resist bombardment, and the more massive the walls, the more power it gets, it eventually becomes the opposite of Mutually Assured Destruction. Hopefully this explain how things work a bit.

>>54508233
wizards trying to do something, I don't think I ever pinned down what or why

Just a bunch of real high-powered wizards, who were harnessing some energy for whatever wizard shit they were going to try when it started to get out of hand and eventually it started to blow, all the wizards decided there was less landmass to the north and all stood on the south side to shield the main chunk of the landmass, then they blew the FUCK out of whatever was north of them because they couldn't safely de-power the crystal/gyroscope with a ball of light in it/whatever other tropey thing I haven't decided on

they all died, most of the people around them died, the wizard on the eastern side dropped the ball and laid all the land behind him low, to the point that it turned into a swamp instead of regular grasslands, and everyone up north is super dead, eventually whatever civilizations they might have had were replaced with japanese and maori style island dwellers, maori on the right with the green-tinted water, glorious nippon on the right with the crystal blue water

also there are harpy towers on the maori sides ridge, and all of the northern cliffs have mermaids.

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>>54476258

Inspired by equal parts Hyboria, Europa Barbarorum (in both antiquity and a medieval make), Shahnameh and other classical epics. Great focus on international relations and conflict, ethnic diversity of states and peoples in tongues/customs/appearance. Gradually having more and more magic and fantasy infiltrate the design process but still firmly set against high fantasy of Faerun or Azeroth. It's more liable to go Low-Middle Fantasy with Hyborian/LOTR magic in that classical indirect way of "Utility not DPS".
>Polymorphing, scrying, potions and enchantments not fireballs and THUNDERBOLTS ok. praise thothamon - t. wizard spurdo sparde.

Man delineates him and other humanoids from humanoids who eat human flesh or drink human blood. One of the dominant tongues the world over (not-semitic) refers to them as Shedim and this sticks though others know them by their own respective word for demon - rakshasa, Asura/daeva, Yaoguai, ect. Shedim run the gamut from illiterate primordial beast-savages who suck marrow from bones, vampiric rulers Albino skinned degenerate Djinn who wear either tuareg style lithams and/or ornate wooden or bone or metal masks. Alukarid, from Hebrew Aluka for Leech. I both like and hate the association of Alucard. I love how Alucarid sounds in that Middle-Eastern Buyid/Sassanid/Fatimid style, but I hate how it can sound like a cheesy alucard reference. May change to Alukaid or Alukanid), parallel civilizations of Eastern-style ogres/Rakshasa with their own kingdoms and politics among others.

Am still on world-design process, not storytelling process. That comes after I settle the map fully, define religious makeup too. Despite some political boundaries it's more ethnographic than political as Nakkar should have a vast empire, Ghozar's Mughal style Ghozarid empire may not yet exist.

>>54514618

Looks a bit similar to ChronoTrigger's map

>>54475871
>Svartalfheim
A world where the sun never truly rises, inhabited by Dark Elves. Make them a mix between Melnibonéans and Tolkien Orcs.

>>54514618

Names in the water if not clearly referring to something (Niravahnam being the collective demonym a'la "Indian/Hindu") are yet to be placed. Choppiness roughly center is because I have the West on one PSD, the East on another. Spooks be those Yaoguai, but people's association of it with Fallout 3 bears instead of Chinese Demons makes me want another term. Will have to return to Far West after I am done with the East. Currently two collective demonyms for West are the Jinguo (Your not-China) and Maharasham (your not indo-china). Always liked the idea of more Inca/Aztec inspired stuff.

I know the main thrust of the story I want centering on the "near east" of this world involving the Raoxshanids (Iranians), Nakkarrem's empire (Assyro-Babylonian but possible it will borrow later Islamic inspirations of slave-warriors, more religiousity in state policy), the Alukanids who rule some or all of the Raqqani (proper Arabs). Because I'm historically inclined and poorer on storytelling I am liable to find a small core nucleus of a historical personality or event and loosely draw inspiration from it. Think a'la War of the Roses for Westeros or pick your choice for Hyboria.

So examples include a Shah Ismail Safavid like figure emerging from the Raoxshanid Ashragani/Frasagardi north liberating the Raoxshanids from foreign rule. Or a late antiquity situation of two great empires pummeling themselves to exhaustion and virile young barbarians coming in. I like the idea of religious holy war but I also want to divorce it from a blatant and lazy retelling of the crusades with "not-Christians" vs "not-Muslims". I like the idea of a more complex situation to deny easy ready alignment. Raoxshanid "Iranians" and Germanic Drythans (reiksdar and the other white named guys up there) fighting a religious war against Romano-Byzantine-Trojan Arazala whose co-religionists are half-naked bedouin Harbanu and curly-haired Mazhrani moors.

>>54514628

Not my intent (never did Chrono Trigger), I can see a little of that but thankfully I don't think it's too similar. I'm fine with changing the Western continent but I am going to kill myself if I have to tweak the East again. Around March of 2016 I started and you can see how much has changed from the very first draft being the top image, and the bottom being the early draft I started placing states in. http://imgur.com/a/f81R5 About the only things kept geographically is the peninsulas/islands by Metapades, the Arazala island became Rakshasanam.

Thanks for mentioning that because my mind started to wander and I think I can go ahead and close the mountain gap between Kulawari's mountain range and the Arsiyan. Make it so Targumat and north of it isn't an extension of the steppe but more like the Transcaucasus/Armenia/Kurdistan kind of region.

>>54514797

Hey man, your maps are cool, no need to upset over it.

>>54475871
Where's slippy slidey ice world?

>>54508714
Well yeah, pretty much. "You do you", i.e. you make something truly original (it originates from you). You don't do something stupid like force yourself to make elves which are actually tall, slender moth-aliens because gotta get those subversions in, but you also don't just use elves orcs dwarfs &c. because it's what D&D did unless you're making a D&D setting I guess.

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>>54514827

Oh I wasn't upset at all, my apologies if I seemed like I was! The kill myself remark was just in humor because I've edited that damn map so much I'd go mad if I had to do it from scratch. Plus on that resolution it lags annoyingly.

No offense was taken, and I meant the thanks sincerely because I really didn't like the asspull of Targumat and that steppe tongue reaching down to not-Syria. Just making me look at the map again made me realize it.

>>54514904

I am not a english native, so its a bit hard to undestand things abit, but I am glad you could enjoy your own work.

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>>54514922

No worries, your english is good text can always be hard to read the intent of. I hope you're enjoying your own map/world building too anon.

>>54514919
>>54514929

Well, the worldbuilding thread is slower than the art threads, but the world building tools of the OP was a real help

>>54511196
Flat, of course. But I have zero idea how to simulate a day/night cycle while using a sun.

>>54513349
Then care to finish what the Wizard started, Sorcerer? Just on the clarification of the critques that were made, not that you necessarily would have made the same comments to begin with. Wild Western Fantasy dude from >>54508116

I talk about this shit plenty with my players and some friends online, but also happy to just discuss it with random strangers since you can often get vantage points or end up talking about topics which are simply fundamentally accepted notions when talking with people that have been playing in the setting almost as long as I've been cultivating it.

>>54511196
I've always loved the ole flat earth + firmament + heavens + bottomless deep from Hebrew myth. Shit just feels like some Exalted adventures waiting to be had.

>>54511127
How often does the red god demand fealty?

>>54511196
Flat, like it is in real life

>>54513349
pls
>>54508124

>>54497244
Not the cat but I like talking

I feel like to keep it from being grimdark, everything would have to have a really cavalier attitude to it.
Like, the gun isn't the great equalizer so everyone still relies on some kind of personal skill, the fact that this is a cornerstone of your setting, in my opinion, lends itself to a meritocracy.
Maybe you take what you want, but people aren't always inclined to keep it, most will supplicate to a stronger being, maybe with some chest pounding, but once they know whos the real bad bitch the less bad bitch calms down and offers up whatever the bad bitch wants.
The superheroes of course introduce the 'not all men are created equal'. Maybe have the superheroes basically just be the spawn of rich cunts that pay for eugenics (because SPACE feudalism means some kind of tech, I assume) to keep upgrading each generation of superhuman, thus ensuring they can always take what they want.

Instead of money being the main motivator behind business deals, you just rely on whether or not you can exude enough prowess and strength to get the other person to agree to your terms out of sheer obedience.

This kinda sounds like it would be rife with really intense dom/sub relationships, because practically every relationship is built on one party taking what they want, and the other surrendering themselves to their will.

Also, as for most small towns and villages, they operate with a constant decent mood as long as the town mayor/figurehead is in a good mood. They're happy to toil in the fields, giving the lions share of food to the mayor and splitting the rest (they divide the food up into equal portions, then give him 10 portions and they each take 1, shit like that) as long as he's happy to make all the decisions and carry the town on his shoulders

>>54515507
Fuck I didn't even read the posts you made expanding on the idea.

Oh well, maybe you can incorporate some of my ideas, maybe I just wasted every ones time.

>>54511196
I want to make my world a small ring a la the Halo installations, mainly because I want something reasonably sized when it comes to mapping and figuring out things like day night cycles and such.

I'm hoping to build a fantasy world on this, and use it both for roleplaying fantasy and Science Fantasy games now that Starfinder is coming out, but having a few stories take place there would be cool.

Its just figuring out what size the damn thing should be is a pain in the ass.

>>54515541
>>54515507

Its ok may, we can keep talking about it.

Like I said it before, there are good people and bad people. But the idea of dom/sub is something I really didn't take into account. Also, my setting is mostly about inverting that rule from most comics that depict people with super powers such as the xmen hiding and being hated, here, they are the pinnacle of civilization and their strongest defenders, when a alien invasion happen people are going to look up to the knights to protect them.

But yeah, the welthier ones will definitively use everything they can to widen the power gap

Also, don't take this as an asspull, but its part of the setting I've aready written but not posted here.

>Before the empire became spacefaring, some of its cities were besieged by monsters, controlled by the forces of evil, these monsters aimed at the crops to cause great pains, so the solution was for great walls of wood and later stone to built around cities, including their farming fields, hence why farmers have a bit of an elevated position, so they can warn if trouble arises, however the forces of evil still perform this tactic of "rounding" forcing the empire demographics to bundle up as part of their plan, defence becomes hectic when everything is clustered togheter and a missed shot that didn't hit the wall, hit something, to make matters worse, pandemic and plagues became a lot more serious in those scenarios.

This dom/sub thing is going to be weird in a all female game

>>54515755
I still agree with the 'when aliens invade folks will look to the knights to help' which is why I mentioned everyone would be happy to serve, because they just like all the decisions being made by someone else and all they gotta do is lend a hand.

Maybe the farmers are universally respected because of their niche, and get a bonus to their influence even though they're still in the peasant caste?
The same way that cops get special treatment in specific scenarios when its a more one on one situation (discounts etc) while still making people wary in a less personal scenario (like when you see a cop switch lanes and get behind you, or when everyone slows down on the highway when they see a cop with a speed gun)

Instead of being wary of course, people just treat the farmers like peasants, unless the farmer is buying tools to fix hims farming equipment, in which case you might lend him one for free, or if you're already a tool rental business, you might not ask for them back as soon as you would anyone else

>>54515853
>buying tools to fix hims farming equipment
fuck I'm dumb

And with the monsters, sounds like there would be a clear divide at all times with an 'us vs them' type deal, maybe similar to attack on titan?

Opens up opportunities for orders of knights like the nights watch in game of thrones. Rangers and shit on the wall, watching for big hordes of monsters, constantly exploring the wilds looking to expand the city walls to gain more farmland and gain back a larger footing against the monsters.

make your whole party a lesbian harem, the ultimate all female D/s roleplaying experience
honestly though, it would be really fitting for your party to be lead by the strongest martial in the group with the healer being her faithful healslut

>>54515853
>>54516008

Well, farmers produce food, but they also have the responsability of calling for aid when needed, without food, people die. Still, rivals kingdoms have rival supers, the pressure to fold and not push the alarm button is great when a rival super is dropping chemicals on the fields. If you were serving a lord and some minions started to drop some shit in the fields, would you stay quiet or risk sounding the alarm knowing you could get killed? Some braver soul could press the button, why take risk?

Some of the benefits include, being exempt from conscription, fines instead of being arrested or killed (but they won't save you from repeated offenses or something done aginst higher castes) and free medical aid (in some lands, not all lords are as nice). Of course being in the far future, machines can do some of the labor, but there are some parts that are still done by hand, science is mostly focused on warfare in this society, then agian some exotic alien produce are handled with extra care.

Well, I never really saw or read Attack on Titan or Game of Thrones, but specialised I do have some specialised orders in mind. Also, the us vs them is a big thing and in some older "core worlds" as called, monsters have been taken out completly. Some of these knightly orders are actually composed by the lesser knights under the church ranks, a major problem within the empire and its knight is understaffing, there are not enough supersoldiers and ironically the younger knights are at a bigger risk of dying because inexperience, so this leave some lands with a absense of proper supers, of course, the church is trying to fill the gaps left by the knights, but it doesn't win in all occasions. But of course, the empire isn't the only nation in the setting. sorry for the late answer.

>Women playing women, I only hope real feelings aren't developed on the tabletop.

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>>54516489
or that they are

setting sounds cool though, I think I've added all I can for now

Did some work on this, added a little inlet/fjord that cuts the penninsula in half, filled it with rocks and I'm going to call it stonesea. The seawater filters through like a mile of stones that rockslid and made a natural dam, filled with large boulders, all the way down to a fine silt that the water slowly filters through. This produces a slightly pink mineral water that tastes subtly of cherries, its used a lot in expensive wines (all the amber grass area is wine country) and some extremely wealthy people export the water to bathe in, or use in water features. Other royalty uses tacky dyed water, but you can always tell the difference. As the water passes through, it eventually gets filtered out through the stones on the other side, which are less tightly packed, but packed enough to slow the current in the channel to a near halt.

I'd bet money the stone filtering thing is bullshit and wouldn't work, but feel free to let me know if it would

>>54498463
I'm not even him, but world trees are my worldbuilding fetish. I put them into every setting I make, whether they're major or minor pieces of the world.

>>54511053
>Earth is in ruins and humans are pushed back, until the arrival of "angels" inspires them to push back
> indifferent angels
So the angels just show up on Earth and instead of fighting demons just loaf around and go golfing?

>>54516631

Well, it doesn't sound all that far fetched, marple syrup comes from trees, can you imagine, cut a tree, some sweet stuff comes out of it?

But frankly, I don't know much about stones and tasting to have a say, but I would say do it, sounds like a neat idea.

>>54476258
Marxpunk:

There are two races: the evil, stupid, unfit, greedy capitalist class that rules society; and the brave, industrious, strong and intelligent proletariat class.

The proletariat class is responsible for everything in society. Everything that runs, a proletariat is doing it. Is there a clock running? A very tiny proletariat sits inside the clock turning a crank 24/7.

However, everything they have, is immediately taken by the capitalists. People can only keep about 1% of what they own. It simply vanishes into a black hole in their pockets and appears in the treasure hordes of the capitalists, who don't do anything with it, but only swim in it scrooge mcduck style.

The biggest enemies aren't the capitalists though, it is the class traitors: proletariats who work for the capitalists in exchange for being tossed a few extra breadcrumbs (literally)

>>54516732

Sounds like wizards trolling everyone.

>>54516715
I'm thinking maybe it could be from some kind of coral growth on the stone structures, or maybe the coral is slowly taking over the stones themselves, and the various types of organic matter decaying and releasing any byproducts they release throughout the filtering structure might impart some taste?

Really its just like everything else where I go 'that sounds cool' and then make up shit so it makes sense.

>>54516836

Well, this doesn't sounds like flavortown when you discuss it in depth, drink water with decay sounds like that episode from futurama with the soda thing. Perhaps it can be part of a conspiracy of sorts.

>>54516851
yeah, but tree sap is probably made in some gross process too, but it comes out sweet as fuck so people like it.

Maybe the coral is formed entirely out of some kind of sugar-rich nutrient deposit that just sort of started spreading across all the rocks, so the coral is almost literally rock candy that nature is forming.
Now the 'decay' is literally just stone-filtered water being poured across cherry rock candy, and filling up a giant bowl of more smooth stones covered in candy deposits. Sounds like willy wonka shit to me, not gross at all

>>54517020

>rock candy

Reminds me of porn flash game maker, really fond of anal.

And yeah, it sounds like some willy wonka, but the question is? how often someone tries to eat the rocks? also, if you're putting sugar in the middle, wouldn't that raise the question of ants and other insects in candy water? nwo that would be real nasty.

>>54517103
The top of the rocks is mostly dry, and the sugar thrives off of all the salt in the water, so there is only a thin film of sugar that washes up around the top.

I dont really care about the bugs, this is a lake about the size of lake ontario, and its fairly deep, so whats a few bugs between friends. Many animals can be found laying on the rocks and licking them, but its a popular spot so predators hunting nearby keep it from being overly crowded.

As for people eating the rocks, they're nowhere near as soft as rock candy, and the caretakers of the lake discourage that kind of thing. Wine is big business and they pay big scary dudes to patrol the area, making sure people dont start trying to chip off rocks and eat them, or steal the water itself.

Also there aren't any fish, but there are crabs and crustaceans that chill out in the water, with shells all covered in palatable candy that you can scrape off the shells with your teeth, then break the shell open and have some nice crabmeat along with it.

>>54517293

Geez dude, is your setting in the middle ages? because it sounds a bit gross, especially the candy crab.

>>54517512
Boi, you realize this shit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8abU403gqY) happens every single day in the the year of our lord two thousand seventeen?

People eat grasshoppers encased in chocolate and shit all the time, people are gross, its not confined to the middle ages or my setting

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>>54517575

God, I feel like I am going to hurl, call me a pussy, but I don't care.

See yabuddy, I am actually a big squeamish after that.

>>54517756
Oh, did you not know how gross food gets?

Even soup is gross if some beardy cunt is eating it

>>54517838

Now thats just rude.

>>54514697
Huh. That's an idea. I don't often see Melninbone brought up.

>>54514876
Right here >>54483699
>Eskimo

>>54515322
Cat Sorcerer is phoneposting atm. Will rate soon.

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We- I mean I am Cat Sorcerer. Caw.

>>54489494
>>54489756
I am very excited about seeing non-Aztec Native Americans used. I agree that there are tons of great inspiration to be had there.

I sort of wonder why the common man gets anything out of the Magocracy? You paint a relatively bleak picture of an uncaring aristocracy ruling over masses of servants and slaves, but then why do the second class get magic and tech out of their overlords? At least, why do they get unregulated access to it?

I would suggest that the Wizards have some sort of twisted Social-Goodwill going on. Like the reformers of the RL 19th century England and America, Wizards flaunt their incredible power and wealth by being charitable towards the poor. They still treat them like shit and subhuman, and the charity is fueled mostly by rivalry, but it still means clean water and better transport/communication than normally possible.

I'm working on a map for a game. Where should I place forests and other vegetation?

>>54520082
all the fuck over, except in deserts

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Before deciding single continent maps are boring

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>>54520783
After

Improvement or no?

>>54520800
Pretty good, but a little too regular. Might I suggest shifting the bottom right two continents down and eastward until the mountains line up with the continental ones?

>>54519180
>Treatment of lowborn Carskans by magisters and social programs
Oh, those are already a part of the setting. I mentioned it somewhat in one of those posts. The relative standard of living for a Carskan is fairly high due to the advancements that the magisters have made. Food programs assisting the wretched albeit with relatively simple foodstuffs that certainly aren't processed lowborns. The College of Medicine ensures that public health is kept quite high to prevent plagues and disease from cutting swathes through the ranks of the working poor -- prevent most, that is, as occasionally they might do field-testing of a new virulent agent or weapon which they let run its course for a bit before stamping it out. These things aren't truly done out of any particular charity or kindness but rather to keep the servile masses capable of working without being hampered by the typical blights of urban sprawls in the form of malnutrition and disease.

And as far as unregulated access, Carska is not just a magocracy but rather a meritocracy. And if a lowborn can fight for his place in society, to pull one's self up by their bootstraps, then they have certainly earned the right to purchase the services that magisters often simply accept as normal. The cost of passage on a locomotive or sending a message by a sonus procul relay is far beyond anything that the average lowborn could even dream of paying, but if the price is paid, the service is rendered. Back in the Old World, such things are the privy pretty much solely of the leaders of organized crime while those in the western colony of Carska find access much more possible due to the abundance of capital and opportunity that lowborns can find.

>>54513699
Give us the details you've worked out so far, and maybe someone can help point you in the right direction

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this should honestly read 'the western world' but still

I think I'm done with that whole continent now

wew

>>54514977
Have the sun originate in a different place on the horizon every morning in a back and forth across the surface, add two gods/super giants playing not-tennis with it to the mythology, the sun making a full circle of origin points constitutes a year.

>>54522417
Whose dick do I have to suck to get them to make me a map like this? That is goddamn gorgeous.

>>54516689
They fight demons, but they aren't the benevolent saviors that humans thought they would be. They don't give a shit about humans, at best, they are regarded as convenient meat shields.

>>54522631
Would oscillating between two points really simulate days and nights?

Oh yeah, I forgot to say but the world's an infinite plane.

>>54515741
A ring around 500 miles across with a circumference of 30k miles would give you a space a little over double the size of Russia, which is still plenty of room to world build in either setting.

More info on what all you want to put on it would better assist with scaling.

>>54522841
Assuming your world is round and flat. Just imagine that there are 720 degree points outside the known boundaries of your infinite plane, the sun starts at point 1 and moves to 361, the next day the sun rise at point 362 and goes to point 2, day 3 3-363, and so forth, this gives you a 360 day year. Where the sun actually goes when this occurs, or why it does it is something you work into your mythology, like the god-tennis I suggested. Also note, the gods don't actually need to be doing it, the people of the world just need to use that as the explanation.

I apologize if I'm not being clear, I'm running on very little sleep.

>>54522655
I don't know, but you could start with mine just enter into my magical realm

not really, its all practice

>>54523319
practice plus a drawing tablet I would assume

>>54523290
Thanks for your help, but I've realised it actually makes more sense for my sun to make no sense. It's the product of wizards with no sense of right and wrong anyway.

>>54523514
No problem, as long as you have a reason for most abnormalities you can hand wave the small ones without your players caring overmuch

>>54523384
oh yeah, but its not high end by any means

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>>54476258
First time Dm'ing and everyone voted for Cyberpunk, I'm shit at it so I did this.
So basically went and made it that the setting originates from a medieval fantasy, Monsters/demons won the fight and humanity has become their slaves, the only reason why humans haven't been extermined is because they need them to properly reproduce as well as their meat, members and organs that are seen as that of extremely high value by the nobility, because of the previous wars though, humans are extremely minor in numbers and seem as valuable as gold, they are also obviously treated as objects.

I plan on making it so that the players cannot win any fight without properly using Technology as well as forsaking their own humanity as they become more and more mechanized in an attempt to either survive or overthrow the government. Eventually until they reach the point where they'd be fightning for humanity without being human themselves, will also make them all realize this and give them the choice to stop their plan or overthrowing it all and simply create a higher social rank for themselves, reversing the state of the government instead of overthrowing it, with Monster/demons becoming the Cattle.

>>54524038
i am cat i give you 1/10 be less edgy

>>54524069
t-thanks, it's one too much.

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monthly map post

made with paintNET, cursor drawn

Since my last post I remade a few regions, added 80 or so rivers, and did countless little touchups, although most of the recent work has gone into a heavily WIP faction border map.

>>54524209
Looks solid, you ever considered doing commissions or just something you do for your own personal game?

Is it wrong to use the term 'Demiurges' as in plural? Is there another word for multiple Demiurges?

>>54524316
archons?

I haven't read much into traditional gnosticism although I highly admire the core underlying philosophy.

>>54524240
Maybe, it would run quite expensive. I spent at least 2000 hours on this map although most of that was trial&error/staring/replacing and I wouldn't be doing anything near this scale.

>>54524316
Demiurges, Demiurgois, Demiurgi.

>>54524316
The collective noun is a Presumption of Demiurges

>>54525215
It's Cock-up of Demiurges, actually.

>>54525295
A Mistake would have been my second choice, but that works too. Though with multiple of the buggers in a setting "Clusterfuck" might be more apt, especially if they persist in the notion that they are infact the Supreme Being and all those other guys are just deluded wannabes.

The theological explanation that the world is messed up due to being built by an actual retard is quite elegant.

>>54524209
How many layers do you have going on?

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>>54527070
I've removed quite a few outdated/unused ones to lower the filesize, each version is like 17mb now

Anyone ever simulate plate tectonics to generate their worlds?

>>54527157
It's generally easier to sketch out the rough outline of the landmasses and where you want mountains/volcanoes/rifts etc. to go, then retroactively draw the plates to fit.

But an understanding of plate tectonics can certainly help with developing the world, for example having a whole ring of fire instead of entirely arbitary volcanoes.

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>>54473395
>/wbg/ Worldbuilding General

Sure, I got a very simple one today:

I'd just like a quick second or third opinion on how I'm doing my "Chromatic Dragons":

-Brown Dragons, Fire. Lives everywhere, smallest and most common Dragon, comes in shades of brown and dull green.
-Black Dragon, Fire, Poisonous Gas. Lives underground and in caves or mountains.
-*Blue Dragon, Boiling Water. Lives in large bodies of water or cold climates.
-Green Dragon, Poisonous Gas. Lives in jungles, woods, swamps, third most common Dragon.
-Red Dragon, Fire. Lives everywhere, second most common Dragon.
-White (Rare) Dragon, Fire, Poisonous Gas. Lives deep underground and is the rarest kind of Dragon being an albino sub-species of Black Dragons; wings have devolved and become small and useless.
-*Chromatic Dragon, Boiling Water, Fire, Poisonous Gas. Lives anywhere, can be born from any Dragon clutch, is second most rarest Dragon. Possesses five different coloured heads (Brown, Black, Blue, Green, Red) and a light to dark purple body.

*Should I give these Dragons Ice Breath? I didn't think Ice Breath was a good idea if only because I didn't see it being practical in nature, by that I mean: if they lived in a cold climate they'd just be making more ice or if they lived underwater they might freeze themselves if they're not careful.... But I'm welcome to being convinced otherwise.

*I'm saving lighting breath for Oriental themed Dragons who won't breath fire.

>>54527157
It depends a lot on what type of planet you're using, since the driving forces are related to things both in space and on the planet itself. Doing a proper simulation can prove to be somewhat tedious even if you have a flexible simulation model which allows you change a number of the major variables like Moons, rotational speed, plate number, magnetic strength, current patterns, and so forth.

>>54527375
What's your purpose in these color/elemental combinations? I think Ice Breath would be welcome on the list.

>>54527124
Oh wow. I'm also using paint.net, but I only have two: one for place names and one for terrain. Any more and I start getting them mixed up.

>>54524209
>cursor drawn
That's bloody amazing.

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What's a good replacement word for soul?

I've got a system whereby matter needs to be "actualized" by a soul to give it tangible characteristics. The planet has a massive one that maintains inorganic matter, plants, and animals and human beings have a miniature version which is also the source of their sapience, but I don't like to use the word soul for some reason so I need a replacement. Even just a working term I can go back to later.

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>>54529567
Oh, and if anyone has any suggestions for fundamental characteristics of matter, give them to me

I've got:
Thermodynamic energy
Electromagnetic charge
Mass
Friction
Gravitational direction (I'm iffy on this one since gravity's pull is an aspect of mass' effect on another body rather than the body itself)
Electromagnetic reflection (In that the EM spectrum emitted by the object. I figured this might explain illusory effects even though my magic isn't subtle, on the small scale, at all)

Feel free to look past base physics and into more conceptual ideas. Remember, it's magic. It don't have to make perfect sense it just has to be internally consistent. Physics in this setting doesn't even have to work entirely like it does in our reality anyway.

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I'm not at all creative and am very boring. How do I stop doing this? I'm trying to build a setting where tectonic plates from all planes are being sent to a dimension and mercenary bands are being sent to map it, but other than that I can't think of anything unique to do.

>>54529567
>What's a good replacement word for soul?
Animus
Vitea
Ka
Chakra

>>54529879
>where tectonic plates from all planes are being sent to a dimension
What the fuck?

>>54529879

What this guy said >>54530160

You mean continents are just like being zapped into a new dimension? First of all the ramifications for the world/plane in question alone if something like that actually happened are catastrophic. Also I don't think you'd really need to 'map it out' so much as take the maps of those places and figure out what way they were arranged and kind of puzzle piece them together.

But again, what the fuck?

>>54530189
>>54530160
:(

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>>54530254
Don't you fucking :( us! Just explain what you mean so we can help.

Also: random pic bump.

>>54530269
I should've said 'sections of tectonic plates' are being ripped into this realm, so there would be pieces from the Material Plane, Feywilds, etc bumping into one another and forming new landmasses. I get fairly scared when trying to make an entire world, so I'm trying to handwave it for my game. I'm sure the level 20 wizards / Dieties of the past planes can deal with replacing the plates, but I'm not sure.

>>54530254
Genuinely I'm not trying to discourage you, it's either just poorly explained or not well thought out enough for us to really help you give it any depth.

The first question is how and why is this happening, and how do they know where they are being sent?

How does this effect the Plane in questions? Do they operate similarly to Earth from a purely physical standpoint? Because if so there's going to be a hole in the world that essentially opens into an ocean of magma, upon which the rest of the continents rest. If water hits that either it will eventually cool and who knows what the fuck happens next, which coincidentally is also where we go if the magma does not cool and who knows what happens to the oceans. Of course, this can all be hand waived with magic but it's something to consider.

Many if not most planes do not have continents as we understand them, and are also infinite depending on your setting, so how does this affect them?

These are just the biggest questions, and there's a lot more to ask. Do you know anything about it beyond that basic concept?

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>>54530331
Okay, so why is this happening? There is no effect without cause.

Is it a being or entity willing it to happen? Is it an effect caused by some space/time disturbance?

Where are they being brought to? Is this an existing Plane, or a new one brought from the void?

Why aren't the Gods themselves fixing this? Because this is a God-level situation we're discussing, only something divine in nature could do something like this, even if it's only an unexpected side-effect. Is there a reason they will not answer for why this is happening or is something interfering?

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Hey guys, I'm not a skeleton.

>>54530349
I do not currently have an origin story for it. I can spitball one possibility being that Cultists from the less fortunate areas have become tired of the wealth in other areas of the realms, so they've completed rituals to build a new world where they can stake a claim. Perhaps the Underdark Dieties have something to do with this, but again very stupid so I don't really have an idea.

I want to handwave the open magma fields part, I think.

I was not aware those realms were infinite, perhaps they don't even care that those parts are missing then.

>>54530421
I think it's a new plane, and I was going to call it the New Underdark but am not set on a name.

If I go with the spitball idea, the Dieties are mostly too concerned trying to figure out which dieties / demonic patrons / etc. were responsible for this.
Also: I really am not set in stone on this, but this is the second setting I've worked on and the first one was only developed enough to have a town built in it and some hamlets. I am horrible at this macro level stuff because I get flustered easily.

>>54530495

While I will never say that 'fuck it it's cultists' is an invalid idea, we're talking about something a lot heavier then summoning even like a Pit Lord. These guys are transporting continents into another dimension, not even a wizard in the high 20's would be able to do something of that magnitude. This would be the doings of a God or Goddess with a capitol G for it to be plausible.

The only ones that kind of need to be infinite would the those that exist as an afterlife. Heaven, Elysium, Hell, etc. Just because by their nature they need to hold a presumably infinite number of souls. The rest do not need to be so, but their nature makes them... difficult to work with for a project like this. The Plane of Earth is literally just solid earth with networks of caverns all through it. There is no surface or tectonic plates, though the Plane of Fire could work. There are options available like The Plane of Shadow, The Negative Energy Plane, etc. that you could use in theory.

Also, the Underdark isn't a plane, it's just the name used to refer to the huge network of caverns and societies that exist beneath the surface, at least in the traditional D&D/Pathfinder settings. You could make it a Plane, or come up with a new name and new properties.

Unfortunately the Macro stuff is what the players are going to want to know most immediately and dictates a lot of the laws of how your setting works and why.

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>>54531097
Hmm, other than just practicing making more and more settings, how does one become better at the macro level? I have a feeling I should just abandon this setting like I did the other.

>>54531159
>"Gosh this block of wood is taking too long to carve, maybe if I get a new block it will go faster this time."
Just keep hacking at it and don't be afraid to drop things

If you find yourself needing to drop a problem area and you don't want to, maybe analyze why it's a problem and realize you need to drop it or try to make it fit better by changing the world around it

Making a setting is like whittling a puzzle

>>54531159

I start with the big questions, like 'What is the central conflict', 'How did things get to be this way', 'Who are the major players', and 'Why is this conflict going to be resolved by four to six asshole drifters'. The order you answer them is not important, so long as you can answer them.

From there I work my way down, what does the world map of the Prime Material Plane, or at least the continent where they will be spending all their time, look like? For this you can even go to one of those random map generators and go to town until you find something you like, or download hexographer and make one from scratch.

After that decide what everything is and name it. Again, name generators help, even if only to inspire you so you can tweak them or take a certain string of syllable that rolls of the tongue nice and mash it together with something else.

Once you know enough about each region to give a brief explanation you can get into the nitty gritty. The kingdoms, their systems and governments the towns, the history of those places, why they're interesting or important, etc. You really don't need to build the whole world, just the places that will matter for the story unless you really are trying to make a the world in it's entirety.

Just make sure whatever setting you make it's something your passionate about. This is a huge undertaking, I've been running a game in my setting for about a year and a half now and it started as this collection of big island countries that has slowly grown out and absorbed continent from another campaign I ran for a bit. It's slow and it's methodical and you will be consistently asked questions you don't have an answer for.

Try not to get frustrated, change it and mold it as needed, and if something doesn't work go back to point where things did and find out what went wrong.

You don't necessarily need to scrap it, just refine the idea. You're trying to make a sword with ore and you need ingots.

>>54531318

>I start with the big questions, like 'What is the central conflict', 'How did things get to be this way', 'Who are the major players', and 'Why is this conflict going to be resolved by four to six asshole drifters'. The order you answer them is not important, so long as you can answer them.

Not that guy, but this gave me insight in things I didn't see it before, thanks.

>Regular vampires are very Bram Stoker/Salem's Lot and recently turned (1-1000 years)
>Nosferatu are what happens when a vampire gets very old and powerful. They usually hide away in the dark corners of the world no longer creating spawn as they see it as a frivolous waste of immortality (1000-3000 years)
>Strigoi are nope-tier Noseferatu-Liches. They usually hide in their own demi planes unless they have the direct protection of an evil god because archons etc target the shit out of them (3000 years)

What do you think, /wbg/?

>>54531361
My pleasure anon, I'm here to help

>>54531383
An interesting take on them to be sure, I imagine Strigoi are incredibly rare, but I guess the question becomes what do you even do at that point aside from twiddle your thumbs in the castle inside your demiplane

Also this fucking listen to the message captcha horse fuck is giving me a fucking headache