/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

>Put simply: historical or original?
A lot of people will probabyl agree with me that we all want to see more completely original, in-depth fictional cultures. Though to really pull that off it needs a lot of work and you get the problem that your readers/players need to put a lot of effort into getting into this culture as well. I can't blame anyone if he rather spends his time mirroring real world analogues, which can also be great and are sometimes just more comfortable to create and get into.

OP: I'm totally using that map for a Retro Phaze game.

>>55306673
I prefer original. In these threads, have people looked into not only creating cultures, myths etc, but also changing the fundamental aspects of human life (that is to say, if your nation/race are humans)?

For example, what would a society look like if people turned to stone when they died? Would a graveyard/crypt be nothing more than the actual remains of the deceased instead of an image of their likeness? Is the stone of the dead sacred or cursed? Do the nobles live in perfect 'dead' stone houses of marble and other natural rocks while the poor live in cobbled-together homes made of generations of their dead ancestors? Or is it reversed, and do only the aristocracy have the right to do such a thing, or the priesthood who upon death become a piece of the temple of their gods? How are wars fought when the dead become a literal obstacle on the battlefield? Moreover, what would such people think if they were to find other peoples who did not turn to stone when dead - whose life would just seemingly vanish, leaving behind a fleshy body that would rot?

etc

Why would a super powerful magical empire allow a dracolich to live in their lands? It lives deep inside a volcano on the edge of their territory but still.

>>55307504
Tourism.

>>55307524
That's actually a really interesting thought. What if they keep it there for its greatest heroes to challenge as a rite of passage of sorts, and they keep it contained to its lair.

>>55306673
Alright my dudes, I need some customs for a Dwarven Kingdom that is quite patriarchal, across a buffer zone from generic starting kingdom that the PCs need to save from Eldritch horror.

Also some honour culture for some Orcs that inhabit the badland, I want to avoid the hamstringing of proud warrior race guy/noble savages a bit, what I have so far:
>In battle, every opportunity must be taken, it is disrespectful to forgo 'cheap shots' they are valid strikes and your opponent SHOULD be prepared for anything.
>A Fallen enemy is still respected, especially if they were strong.

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>>55307504
>>55307524

That's a book

>A fantasy world is dominated by its destructive tourist industry. "Mr. Chesney's Pilgrim Parties" arrange for annual group tours, evidently from our world, to experience all the cliches: wise Wizard Guides, attacks from Leathery-Winged Avians, the Glamorous Enchantress, the evil Dark Lord. It is a devastating show: farmlands are laid waste, people slain, and so on.

>The head of Wizards University, Querida, determines a way to end the tours. The apparently incompetent wizard Derk will be the next Dark Lord, and son Blade the Wizard Guide for the final tour. Querida overcomes objections all around and the plan is underway.

>The Wizard Derk has seven children with his wife the Enchantress Mara: Shona and Blade, the former being the older; Kit (black with gold eyes), the oldest griffin and a magic-user; Callette (brown with green-grey wings), who makes all 126 of the Dark Lord's "gizmos" with Mr. Chesney's world's technology; Don (gold), who is a rather forgotten griffin who doesn't really do much special; Lydda (gold), who is a great cook (her food is called "godlike snacks" by the rest of the family") and long-distance flier who plants the Dark Lord's "clues" that lead to his lair; and Elda (also gold), the youngest, with the most cat cells, and who is discovered to be a magic-user as well.

>>55307568

For the orcs, how about stuff like respecting the allies in their shieldwall etc. Or is that too cookie cutter?

>>55307700
Shield wall would probably be uncommon for them as most of their combat activity comes from raiding generic kingdom for supplies [hence the perception of them being evil, but some are good, some are evil, but barbarism does permeate their culture] They do have access to large amounts of metal where they live and tend to wear heavier armour not only due to their abundance of metals, but also to match dwarven armour in function, not necessarily aesthetically.

In raiding, the heavy armour and endurance from travelling/training in harsh conditions of the badlands means they can defeat militia/town guard by using heavily armoured raiding parties with few members that fight in loose groups.

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>>55307946

Perhaps there's a sort of "On-Off" switch with these orcs and the way they fight. Like, their martial code dictates that they fight only when there is honor to be gained, i.e., by matching strength and prowess against a roughly equal or superior foe. If you run away when orc warriors show up, that's fine. You're less than them and not worth their time anyway; an orc's blade recoils at the taste of lesser blood. But if you raise arms against an orc warrior, well, guess what? You just said, "I think I'm better than you."

So, if you go toe-to-toe with an orc, you better be able to kill him, because he won't let that insult stand.

>>55307946
How about some kind of raider code of honour like "never take more than the people can bear. Burned and salted fields grow no further crops". It would make sense for raiders to not completely wipe out settlements and let them recover and be raided again later.

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My setting has a number of city states in a region that are isolated by nature of the planet they exist on's environment. Their nobility is awfully inbred and resoundingly mad and because of this on a whim the current queen has banned the use of wheeled vehicles under the auspices of a dream where she was run over with one. Walkers are the mandatory transportation there and has been for the past 50 years and as such, pilots trained there are considered some of the best worldwide. Want to know more?

>>55307568
Non specific ideas
>Certain weapons are forbidden from use (e.g projectiles, unbladed ones etc)
>Requests for mercy may only be granted if the victor had their blood drawn by the requester
>'taking of a life' can be interpreted and fulfilled by the 'murderer' replacing the opponents job, status and role in society. This extends and is adhered by family and friends too. interesting from a role play point of view where someone might after killing some guy now inherit their family, job and position in a town
>Poison is the most noble of weapons
>Armour denotes rank and ability. The more important acts the warrior has achieved, the less armour they wear
>If an opponent loses their weapon or is disarmed you are obliged to either retrieve it back for them or drop your own.
>If blackpowder is a thing/if not coal might work; a group worship it and its creation. Inhaling fumes from its combustion is considered communion with god with devoted 'Blackjaw Clergy' eating it raw
>Orcs try to fight in family groups of three. Usually Father Mother Child or Grandparent Parent Child
>Dead enemies equipment is meticulously cleaned and presented where they fell, the bodies are discarded. Touching the equipment later is considered taboo.
>Throwing food at someone is the highest insult as it mirrors a mythological event where a weak and pathetic individual was thrown scraps from the gods table in mockery

>>55308927
>>'taking of a life' can be interpreted and fulfilled by the 'murderer' replacing the opponents job, status and role in society. This extends and is adhered by family and friends too. interesting from a role play point of view where someone might after killing some guy now inherit their family, job and position in a town


Explain this further, please?

Like, if you kill someone you can acquire their job and status and shit?

that's ridiculous

>>55309458
Instead of killing someone the loser of a battle/challenge/game of chance can choose to forfeit their life and become an 'Unnamed' (that is unless they decide to defeat someone else and take their life).

The victor takes the losers previous name, status, job and property but also their debts, enemies and responsibilities. People might go through multiple lives by choice and are usually obliged to take a life at least once unless they want to prevent the Oedipal nightmare of replacing a parent. This could easily spiral into a very fucked up society full of schizophrenics

>>55309935
seems like a decent thing to do would be run a gambling ring, where people play eachother for lives instead of money

employ people who buy other peoples lives and live as like, some kind of deluxe mannequin.

Say you got big dick casino
>BDC runs tournament style games of all kinds for all walks of life, from chess anachronisms to gladiatorial shit (that doesn't even have a red line under it, I thought I made it up lmao)
>you play in tournaments where 25/50/100/1000 people
>tournaments can be unnamed or otherwise, with the general value of the life that everyone is playing for dictating how many people have to enter the tourney
>there are consolation prizes, you can choose to either play with your life (if you're down and out) or you just pay a fee equal to the value the casino would place on your life
>there could even be another service where the casino will buy your life for you and replace it one of equal or lesser value?
>say a CEO whos life is all sorted out feels accomplished, sets up a deal to step down to a humble farmer somewhere he can live an easy retirement, decides to strike a deal and BDC pays him a lump sum for his current life based on his net worth and what they can get for him, and boom, transaction finished everyone is happy

Here comes a plot hook for a player vs BDC campaign
>BDC also has a team of nobles who can abolish various wrongdoings and pay off debts and unsavory mercenaries who can kill enemies that wont be sated with a payoff, which is all deeply buried and used only in secret to acquire wealth for a necromancer that in the process of buying lives off of people who are stepping down, or just need money and dont mind being unnamed (maybe its like bankruptcy?) also steals their life force
>he of course is going to try some bullshit with all that juicy life force, the rest is up to you

>>55310085
WE KAIJI NOW

>>55310149
oh shit, is that already a thing?

>>55310939
not really but the stakes of your entire self is very much like something that would be gambled with in that show

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>>55311377
huh, great minds or whatever.

also, an open letter to the guy who didn't like the dookie swirl that has been around forever, I'm changing it

desu I always kidna regretted that it fucked up the coastlines crispyness but I never wanted to commit to changing it, thanks for pushing me over the edge

once I get done redoing the coastline to look more like it was defined with thick gouges of land laid low by the blast, but only in lanes skimming above what would end up being the new sea level, and then I'm gonna make the stinky water a bit more low contrast by making the seawater more green in general, as a background thing, but with the water only getting really brown once its far inland, and near the coast

What should I do if I come up with a really cool concept for "doing dwarves right", but have no real aim of ever doing a classic fantasy setting? I think I could assimilate the idea for some other race in another setting, but I dunno, the idea just fits so well (in my mind, at least) to the classic dwarf race.

So, how about a society where the males are the picky maters? That was basically my first idea for why Dwarven women would also have beards. I just like the idea a lot.

So I came up with this...

>Dwarves have this innate ability they call Desolation Rage
>When they consciously activate Desolation Rage, they outmatch pretty much anyone on the battlefield, it's like they become inhumanly strong proportionate to their own size
>Desolation Rage is only active when a Dwarf is infertile, and every male has long bouts of infertility between relatively short (1-2 year) periods of fertility
>During these periods of fertility, the males stay at home, "working the anvil" as they say, and attempt to naturally get their mates pregnant, sometimes even twice during one period
>They never send fertile people to the battlefield
>Most Females are always fertile, and only have Desolation Rage while pregnant, and fighting while pregnant is not usually a good idea
>However, there are always edge cases, Dwarves who are born completely infertile. These rare individuals, called the Desolated, are absolute beasts in the battlefield and really valuable individuals
>Most of the Desolated are female, because there is no certain way to know whether a male is desolated

>Anyway, this leads to their society being built on the pillars that infertile men and the desolated run the battlefields, while the fertile men and women do the heavy lifting back at the cities

Wait, did I accidentally make this shit into a matriarchy? Well, that was not supposed to happen.

>>55311807
What you have is fine but if you take some time to make them initially unrecognisable from dwarves/elves or orcs way more creative ideas can be generated from that base. At the moment you've got 'dwarves that value fertility and reverse gender roles in battle' which is fine if you just want dwarves with a twist. If you wanted something completely different and very rarely used:

They could be Blemmyes, Monopods, people with exceedingly long arms but tiny legs, scale covered heads that propel themselves with their tongue, 8ft people with eyes forming a ring around their head, a race of twins, hell, a race of animate beards that can shoot iron hard hair and have a complex culture based on braids could fill the dwarf vacuum while still being vaguely relatable.

>>55306673
Original would be nice but when you are making 8+ cultures it gets kinda annoying.

I prefer historical if it pays homage to under used cultures/nations. Rome, Indea, China especially, get little to no exposure in games for example.

I asked yesterday and didn't get much help. Anybody have any ideas on powers and abilities which fragarach may have beyond being able to cut through any defence (including healing faster than normal), striking true, holding people in place while forcing them to answer truthfully, and controlling winds?

Also I was originally going to be running a game for nine people (insane, I know) but it seems like three won't be able to play and one missed session 0 (I'll try to get him caught up if he shows this week but who knows) which is having me consider something stupid, opening up the game to some new players to replace them since we're playing at a gaming group we're part of.

>>55313452
you can cut open a hole in space and walk through it, to teleport anywhere

>>55313587
Allowing it to cut holes into and out of Faerie would make sense, well not necessarily into Faerie but most places you used it would lead there.

>>55306673
>Which do you prefer? Nations that mirror real-world historical ones with some added fantasy OR nations that merely borrow some influences from the real-world but otherwise draw no comparison?

I really like worlds where the cultures are recognizable, but something's there that throws it in a weird direction. Dark Souls might be a silly and overused example, but it was a really good idea to mix gothic/renaissance European designs with things unexpected things like the Primordial Serpents and huge sprawling cities where almost nobody lives and the like.

I have this bad habit /wbg/ where I tend to segregate my cultures a little too much. I'll have a not!greece where pretty much only sirens and satyrs and cyclops live and then not!scandinavia where giants and trolls and dwarves live. How do I make my world seem more seamless and fluid where they don't just feel like separate worlds?

>>55315306
Know how transitions work. Unless there's an impassable wall in between them, cultures will mix. In your specific example, giants from Not!Scandia will find themselves wandering into Not!Greece for the sunshine and decent booze, while harpies will migrate north for the summer.

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>>55306673
>Which do you prefer? Nations that mirror real-world historical ones with some added fantasy OR nations that merely borrow some influences from the real-world but otherwise draw no comparison?
I like something in the middle of these extremes. Nations that have a clear parallel with a historical culture but which are also distinct from that historical culture.

Rate my fantasy culture/political map, pic related!

For reference, the colors correspond to cultural groups:

Blue is Altisian (inspired by Graeco-Roman and later Italian culture),

Red is Sidonian (inspired by ancient Assyrian culture, also an elven supremacist culture),

Purple is Pythian (mainly inspired by Byzantine culture, it's also partly a cosmopolitan conglomerate of Altisian and Sidonian cultures, hence it being red+blue),

Orange is Tarakan (inspired by Scythian and Turkish culture),

Yellow/gold is Fysian (inspired by Carthaginian culture, also has a good deal of overlap with the Tarakan culture, hence the similar color),

and lastly, green is Valberickten (inspired by a combination of Batavian, and Burgundian cultures mixed with fairly standard Dwarven society).

Generally, the lighter the color the less exclusively part of that culture the nation is. In most cases the origin of the culture is, as expected, where it's strongest, except for Sidonian and Altisian cultures, because their ethnogenic centers declined and then changed over time.

>>55307482
In my setting people actually crumble into ash when they die. Not animals or plants, just people.

There's a reason for it. I haven't given much thought how funerals are treated because of this yet, though. It was born of the consequences of the magic system rather than decided on alone.

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Rate my map so far. What's the worst thing about it?

>>55316282
No, "square thingy" that shows what are the important cities and such. Also, more ofa personal thing, the mountains are dots instead of a single defined "line" of sorts, I know its suposed to be a mountain range, but the space in between then throws me off, but its not bad.

>>55316302
Hm. What else could represent cities? And would it look better with closer mountains?

>>55316321
From what i tell, the green squares are cities and organe squares are castles, but I am talking about one those infograps on bottom of the pic, telling which is which, thats what I am talking about. You don't really need to make the mountains close, but I would apreciate it.

Also, some detail to show farmland and forests.

>>55316353
Orange is major cities. Green are minor. Blue is farming centers and local communities.

>>55316362
Funny, I thought those were castles. but you see what I mean? A small chart on the bottom telling what square means what would be good.

>>55316391
Good point. I'll add that next. Is the border alright? I'm conflicted.

>>55316410
if you mean the red square, i'd say its fine.

>>55316421
Cool. Was worried.

>>55315519
all those names sound cool except for shattered crowns

>>55306673
Mirrors are fucking boring because everything is going to be one standard deviation from normal from real life. It's fucking lazy too because you're just copying an existing framework and adding in your oc donutsteel bullshit.
>Woow it's egypt but everyone is a bird
>Nothing is different despite everyone being a bird.

>>55306673
I tend to take at least geopolitics from real life.

>>55316541
Hello? you made the edits? Also, how big is that lake is supposed to be? like the great lakes tier ofbig or something?

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>>55317575
what?

do edits, I produce original content (this map) and brainstorm ideas with people mostly

I guess I do edit the coastlines and stuff a lot, nothings ever set in stone. This swamp for instance hadn't been touched in about eight months, give or take, up until now

>>55317628
my bad, replied to the wrong person, meant for him. >>55316427

Sorry ringanon.

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So I have a group of people that live outside of the environmentally protected Habitat city zones and hold no particular allegiance with them but still trade and deal with them as and when required.

I'd like them to be a bit different to 'they're like Fremen' but other than mongols what other nomadic sources can I draw from?

The planet itself has an atmosphere that is unbreathable without filtration or oxygen mixing equipment. The region on the map has a lot of above-ground crystal formations, stretches of alkali salt lakes dotted with patches of incredible dense coral-like forest

>>55317666
no problem satan, I misquote people all the tim

generally its because I just click on a post number to bring up the quick reply box and then delete the little >>post number boy and start writing.

>>55317864

Sounds like a way to start a mess. So, the QR box is really popular eh?

>>55316541
Yeah, that'll be because Shattered Crowns is actually a region, rather than a country. It's made up of 17 smaller fiefdoms, but I didn't really have either much a way or a strong reason to split it up on this map.

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alright so if the guy from last thread is still here, I made the color change a little easier on the eyes, and made it a little smaller

>>55317895
I guess, I dunno if its a vanilla 4chan thing because I've had either 4chanx or appchan for the last like, 6 years but its way easier than scrolling all the way to the top of the page

I think there is a hotkey to just bring up a new post box, but I'm more focused on learning useful chrome hotkeys for shit like auto googling with ctrl k

>>55318031
bummer then, maybe do like 50% opacity lines along where the borders are? If you've got names for them all that will fit in the little spaces, go for it.

if you really wanna get detailed, think of banners for all of them and have them also overlayed at a low opacity, goes for the other countries too if you're up for it.

>>55318097
Lore-wise what exactly is the swirl again?

>>55306673
>Put simply: historical or original?
I mean, if someone's copying from history 1:1, they're an idiot. But designing a culture from the ground-up tends to result in a culture that's bland and very, very 21st century in its values and understandings of the world. I prefer to take elements from each individual culture and use the geographic location/race/time period of the culture in question to inform what I take. To take the example of >>55317206, that would be incredibly boring if the Egypt being used is pop culture's idea of pyramids and sphinxes and mummies and nothing else. But if, say, in order to stabilize a society where everyone can fly away from their responsibilities, a religion developed where the bird-people work in the same mass-scale slave-farms ruled by a religious aristocracy which keeps the bird-people from flying away by convincing them that the leader is a literal god? That's a whole lot more interesting, and any bird player is going to have a lot of character conflict built in.

>>55317575
Sorry, had to sleep. Roughly Caspian sea sized. Maybe sliiiightly bigger.

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>>55315306
Market cities and trading posts where those races can intersect maybe?

That might give it a sense of steady transition when you go from one place to another.

>>55320753
I don't think the river implied by that image would be large enough for ships of that size.

Wolf beastmen with their own culture or werewolves with a subculture; which one would you use in a setting?

>>55320971
Read Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series.
Starting in book 2 he introduces a wolf-people race.

Werewolves subculture is terrible. Between Twilight and those terrible Underworld movies, the whole concept of a werewolf culture is dead and buried.

>>55320971
neither
wolf beastmen with multiple cultures and nations

>>55321000

>'oh boy YA trash with yet another boyhood hero's journey by the protagonist to has the super special unique ability nobody else has'
>read a brief synopsis
>shit that sounds pretty cool

It went better than I expected. Thanks anon!

I am a fan of the WoD werewolf games but you are right, I think your examples and WoW, the idea of werewolf civilization is probably dead. Or will it least put off enough people to turn them away from that part of the setting.

>>55321001

This I can do. I am trying to avoid the trope of one race = one nation/culture. So carefully avoiding having to many races because of that (why wouldn't they genocide each other during prehistorical times??)

>>55320937
yea, the mouth looks really short and shallow. But it was just to illustrate a trade port.

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Need some ideas for sci-fantasy items similar to what you'd find in stuff like destiny, star wars. Doodling some and i've hit the 'wall' so to speak.Pic related is a good example of what the world looks like.

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>>55322016
like this?

>>55321000
>Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series.
I wanted to like it a lot more than I did.

The biggest issue, I think, was the completely uninteresting ultimate antagonist. I liked the book more when they were fighting off invading wolfmen who used blood magic rather than LITERALLY 100% the Zerg

I mean, alone they still wouldn't have been very good, the queen in particular fell flat, but they were the Zerg.

Hivemind
Insectile
Produced creep
Took genes from things they consumed and recombined them into new forms
Led by sociopathic bitch queen who looks mostly human

>>55323078
Oh, and the audiobooks being red by Kate Reading didn't help one bit

She's really bad at it and I'm pissed that the Stormlight Archive books are half read by her. I'm not sure why they needed two people since Michael Kramer read for women in Mistborn just fine.

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I'm have a race of sentient, talking wolves. They're not anthros or anything, they're still quadroped hunters that live in the woods with no semblance of civilization, they just speak. They're also very expressive. They are often seen doing what is best described as a sassy strut toward wimpering prey. Because of how they are all by nature smug fuckers, they live lives of solitude and small families. Sometimes they share their opinions on civilization with travelers, often providing thoughts that are almost sagelike, just uninformed. One guy managed to band together a bunch of them and base an army off his own personal wolf-pack, which he banters with in his down-time.

Now, the question: What do I call them? Do I come up with some prefix-wolf name, come up with a new name, keep stealing the name from something shit (sergals), or is this a bad idea to begin with?

>>55306673
>Put simply: historical or original?
The simplest answer, historical but far from just "Japan with dragons."

In my Western setting, major powers certainly have some inspiration from chunks of real nations and groups but it's mostly a twisted jumble of different aspects along with new introductions and the like which spin them even further from their origins. For instance, I've got a setting that's sort of based around Deseret, but also with twingles of Reconstruction-era South, the Taliban, and Massachusetts Puritans. Toss in magic and the effects of that world's history, you end up with something that could be described by taking chunks of these real-world ideas but then smashing them around until they become only a loosely recognized hybrid.

Same with the actual dominant power, which is a magocracy that is one part Civil War Union, one part Victorian England, one part Nazi scientists, one part East India Trading Company, with the philanthropy of mid-1800's business tycoons and the New Poor Law of 1834. With a dusting of eugenics and social Darwinism.

>>55323377

Sounds like they should be called the Cynics.

>>55322417
pretty much but more classical architecture of that culture thrown in.

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>>55306673
Well, I like making parallels sometimes, but I kinda wanna get away from it and make it much more fantastic than it is currently. It feels bit dry at the moment.

>>55323377
You can probably start by looking at other languages like 'lupus' or try finding some mythological related name like 'Remus', 'Fenrir' or whatever and start twisting or combining it from there (ex. Remunri). Or things they are associated with, like moon.
Naming is hard, and I have just random names for some of my things and gotta come up with replacements for some placeholders.

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>>55317666
Yo satan, if you're still here, how's this look now? I've toned down the city colors, and altered the mountains to look more closed in. Is this better?

>>55320594
just swampwater playing in the currents of the ring, not necessarily involved in all the magic hijinks that created it, just nature doing nature in the wake of a calamity

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>>55315519
Any other feedback? Here's another map of the other big continent. The colors mean the same thing, but the new color, gray, indicates Litzer culture (inspired primarily by Germanic culture).

>>55326150
I like the color scheme. It's not too glaring or muddled.

>>55326150

Remember your boundaries are probably going to be based more on rivers and other natural land barriers preventing groups from migrating about easily. There will be some cross proliferation regardless but usually they stay segregated within rough National boundaries.

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idea:

>city by the coast with a fairly shitty port, mostly dull brown crops, and a bleak stone city with a couple of drab red accents
>to the north of a strip of land known from coast to cliff as a permanent warzone, two kingdoms just straight up fucking hate eachother and cut off the north of the continent because of how difficult travel was through their countryside
>everything is destabilized, many towns are raided by bandits nightly, or worse are used as inns by a rival kings men because there is never a friendly knight when you need one
>passing through is dangerous because not only will bandits want fresh shit, but even the locals will try to steal your shit just because they're so desperate
>southern kingdoms turn away anyone from the region because they're dirty gypsies
>golden forest and the cut and pasted wall/plateau city with its extended wall to the cliffs keeps the rifraff out (thinking about extending the wall through the woulds, but should i bisect it? wall it all in? wall it all out?
>even after they get through they have to go through heavily watched rivers because the black swamp gate castle is always sending patrols to them, and receiving patrols from them while they work in tandem to scour the rivers for anything that got out of their respective "bad shit on the other side of this wall y'hear" enemies
>now all the land from up north moved to the coasts or is in decline/a ruin because nobody can send caravans reliably, and most prefer to sail
>but the strong winds and currents shove everything into the pirate infested sea to the west, which pirates patrol longways, leaving west-south-west towards the island chain to the southwest from the inlet in between the graveyard and the start of that sandy penninsula on the north end of the landmass

>>55327309
Yeah, that's reflected in the physical map. There's mountains, wetlands, rivers and lakes that define the borders.

>>55327437
>golden forest and the cut and pasted wall/plateau city with its extended wall to the cliffs keeps the rifraff out (thinking about extending the wall through the woulds, but should i bisect it? wall it all in? wall it all out?

Beautiful map, as always. I feel like it makes sense for the walls to extend along whatever line is easiest to build while providing the most protection. In this case, though maybe I missed something on the map, it looks like a wall extending out to the river by shortest means would be the most logical.

This place sounds like a real shitter as well.

>>55311807
My question would be is why does that rage ability exist? Where does that come from and why is it tied to fertility?

>>55318097
is that a heart?

Is it too cliche to have the ancient unremembered empire being the source of the world's greatest magic/technology/etc? And it was 'lost to the ages'?

>>55329109
The best way to use a cliche is to simply use it and not present it as a great idea that deserves focus. It's just a truth of the world.

>>55329319
This. Cliches aren't bad if you use them sparingly/right.

>>55323078
>>55323121
To be honest, I only really like Books 1, 3, and 4. Largely for the reason you say. Then again, what really annoyed me was how much Tavi would bend over for other races. Apparently he's the only fucking person in the world capable of realizing the end of the world is more important that bullshit social stuff.

Also, to be fair, it was kind of neat seeing Zerg in a fantasy setting. Can't recall having seen that before.

I couldn't get into Way of Kings (that's the first Stormlight book, right?). A third of the way in I stopped reading the apprentice girl's stuff, and half way through I dropped the nobles as well. Instead, I just read the chapter summaries so I'd still know what's happening.
Then three quarters of the way in I just lost all interest in the book entirely.

Fucking Mistborn was great, though. Easily one of my favorite fantasy books.
Never got around to reading the sequels. I've been burned by sequels and prequels and such so often that I rarely ever read more than the first book of a series these days.

Warbreaker was fun, too. I doubt I would read it again, but it was a fun go the first time.

>>55329344
>Never got around to reading the sequels
Honestly, the Mistborn sequels are pretty great. I'd recommend giving them a chance if you have the time.

>>55329344
>A third of the way in I stopped reading the apprentice girl's stuff
Shalan is bad. She does get better in the second book but I still find her really irritating
>I dropped the nobles as well
See, that's my favorite part. I enjoy Dalinar basically having to deal with a bunch of stupid children. In the second book he eventually gives up being nice and starts slapping people. He even beats up the king to prove a point. Also Saddius getting stabbed in the brain by Adolin was hype as fuck.

I will say that I feel as though Sanderson is stretching things out too much. Way of Kings and the Words of Radiance are basically one book split in half anyway. It should have been one huge book instead of two huge books. I have it on audiobook though so it being super long is alright with me because I spend less money that way.

I'll also say that one of the blurbs for Oathbringer (the third book) worries me. It's insinuating that one of the main characters is going to sympathize with the Parshmen.

Lemmie explain why that's stupid in spoiler text:
Parshmen turn out to be voidbringers. They're inhabited by spren from an evil god and have tried to wipe out humanity 999 times in the past. In the current age they are reduced to mindless servants so will-less that if they weren't enslaved by humanity they would starve to death. At the end of the second book the Parshmen are inhabited by evil spren again and are poised to go on a worldwide genocidal rampage.

But the book blurb implies that their plight as a slave race is going to move Kaladin somehow even as he rushes home to save his family from getting butchered by these people.


>>55329344
>Never got around to reading the sequels.
They're fun. I won't say they're as good as the initial trilogy but fucking nobody does late 19th, early 20th century fantasy settings ever so there's novelty in that alone.

>>55329411
Maybe I'll give 'em a go, then.

>>55329490
Yeah, not really selling me on the series. And that Oathbringer stuff just sounds bad.

>>55329577
Stormlight might just have novelty for me because I've never read an epic fantasy series. Oathbringer might not have the issue framed like how I expect, but the blurb makes it sound that way so I'm wary.

Between Mistborne and Stormlight it kinda kindled my own desire for worldbuilding so I enjoy them both.

>>55329604
I'm a fan of Sanderson's worldbuilding as well. His magic systems alone are almost like characters in and of themselves.

However, his style only really works for a few kinds of stories. I'm sure you've read his theory on magic systems, specifically the bit about making sure the rules are very, very well defined.
Doing that works for his kind of stories since learning about the magic is half the fun, but he completely disregards the "magical" part of magic.
His magic systems are basically science. I wouldn't bat an eye if someone told me he was the one to come up with the alchemy in Full Metal Alchemist.
In a Sanderson book, magic has to play center-stage. The plot is largely guided by the magic system, relying on it.

That works for his kind of stories, but there's little wonder in it. The likes of Tolkien and Martin do a great job of hinting at magic, and by keeping it out of most characters' hands they can focus on telling other stories. Magic is around, but it's not the end-all, be-all. Even Sauron going after the magic ring and he White Walkers coming back aren't too terribly important compared to the characters' journeys.

I think Le Guin (Earthsea) may be the best halfway point. She defines it, and makes it a huge part of the story, but it's still not that well defined. It feels magical, and it's not the defined aspect of her novels.

>>55306673
I think it's fine to borrow handily from history. The important thing for a fantasy culture is that it is affected and informed by the fantasy elements of your world. That's what is the most interesting to me. That's why I like the term scifi/fantasy. They both ask the question "What if..."

>>55329729
>I'm sure you've read his theory on magic systems, specifically the bit about making sure the rules are very, very well defined.
What I read was how there are different systems of magic and if you want characters to use magic to solve a problem, you need that magic to have understandable rules so it was in the scope of possibility that the reader could guess what they characters would do before they did it or at the very least have what they did make sense when the reader thinks about it.

Basically soft vs hard magic.

In soft magic systems you want magic to create problems. Magic is unknowable and doesn't conform to rules that humans can understand. That is fine when you have it creating a problem, but if you solve a problem with magic that the reader couldn't possibly see coming it feels like the dreaded "asspull".

Sanderson likes to bring up this comparison in LotR. It's not a magic system but it gets the point across. It's the resolution of the Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith fights. In the Helm's Deep fight, Gandalf tells Aragorn that if they survive three days, he will return with the lost army of Rohan to save them. That means the goal isn't to beat the orcs but survive until Gandalf comes back. In the Minas Tirith fight this resolution doesn't exist, the goal of that fight was to defeat the orcs. That fight is resolved by Aragorn's invincible magic ghost army that comes out of nowhere and disappears after it solves the problem. Nobody was waiting for the ghosts to kill the orcs so the resolution feels anticlimactic.

>>55325859
Anyone else wanna rate?

>>55307557
Rites of passage aren't usually mortal combat. Especially not against a single specific combatant. If the youth succeeds, the special combatant has died. If he fails, he has died.

>>55329729
>>55329851
And here's a quote for him to explain why he does what he does:
>"I consider my own magic systems to be perhaps 80% hard, maybe a bit more. My own paradigm is to develop a complicated magic system which can be explained as simply as possible, but which has a lot of background and ‘behind the scenes’ rules. Many of these workings don’t get explained in the books, particularly at the first. The characters have some good understanding of the magic, but they rarely understand its complete form. This is partially because I treat my magics like sciences, and I don’t believe that we will ever completely understand all of the laws of science. Partially, also, I do this so that I can have discoveries and revelations in the novels. I like mystery more than I like mysticism.
So, following this, we have my own Mistborn series. In them, I outline many rules of the magic, then offer up a few unexplained exceptions or inconsistencies which I proceed to explain in further books."
Mistborn doesn't do anything to explain how hemulurgy REALLY works, even though I believe he has planned and understands it. It has to do with how everyone has a physical, cognitive, and spiritual component and you're basically stealing someone's spirit and nailing it to your own spirit to use their ability to create investiture.

>>55307568
Those are very human values, desu. Already real. I would make the Orcs extremely physically powerful, and CRIPPLE them with an honor code. Make it the main reason they ever lose.

>>55329937

Humans drop values about five seconds into battle and take any advantage they can get if there is no way they'll be reprimanded or harmed back from doing it.

You escalate if you can get away with it unscathed. You don't if they'll be doing nasty stuff back to you. And whenever possible, you take captives to ransom or enslave, otherwise they're just a problem wasting your resources and forcing you to watch them all hours of the day.

>>55329937
>Orcs extremely physically powerful, and CRIPPLE them with an honor code. Make it the main reason they ever lose.
Slapping restrictions on shit always makes it more interesting

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>>55306673
>Idea that's bouncing around my head

World is technically post civilization/cyber punk but the visuals are all off.
Most people on earth are dead from unspecified disaster. All political bases have fallen, and cooperations are all in power. But the world only looks more "modernized" and hasn't turned to shit.

Large stretches of asphalt from high-way to high-way and no one on them. All road are still maintained as well as can be by crews/drones. Titanic-lly large parking lots stress to the nearest department store. Which is still run and open during normal business hours.
High rise buildings has mostly been torn down for their resources, there are still a few but the world is now mostly the flat grey top of pavement, and yellow lines.

Raiders, bandits and normal folk buy food, and the new brand of armor and bullets, which all end up looking like tougher nerf gear, but can actually kill you, from your local Walmart!
The Walmart themselves have auto gun turret placements for customer protection from raiders. Small pockets of nice urbans area still exists and are patrolled by mercenary units that the community pay for to keep away raiders.

The world outside the "safe zones" even looks nice. Cooperations put on Eco-awareness events. Volunteers strapping in rad-suits to go planet row after row of nice trees in the red zone. So if you are accidentally wondering out there at least when you die of radiation poison it'll be in an ideally looking orchard.

>>55330096
I dunno. It sounds like you took a little of WallE, a little of Fallout, and a little of Cyberpunk, and then made it bland.

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>>55306673
I will present this scenario to you. The setting is meant to, well, it's normal history until 1995 when things get "weird" basically history diverts into my setting the big event that coincides with this change is the "PK-017 Event" this was when a asteroid, designated PK-107, measuring 10 miles (or 16 Km) across, was knocked out of the asteroid belt and into a collision course with Earth. However the PK-107 missed the planet but came close enough to get caught within Earth's gravity and is now in a stable orbit around the Earth and was since renamed "Artemis"

Even tough this is more of a "failed Apocalypse" than anything, I'm trying to imagine what the public reaction to this event might be? from the announcement that a mass-extinction-size asteroid was going to hit the Earth, and the subsequent miss and new 2nd moon in the night sky even if with the naked eye it just looks like another grey star in the night sky.

Any ideas?

>>55330935
This sounds like the backstory for some kind of sci-fi plot. As in, experiencing the possibility of extinction spurred an interest in asteroid watching and methods of disaster avoidance, diverting funds that historically went elsewhere into space technologies, resulting in space travel and interstellar colonization at an earlier time frame that what we have/will have in real life (given we probably won't even get to Mars until the 2030s, or establish any colonies until the latter half of this century).

>>55325859
Just came back, definitively an upgrade over the prievous version

>>55331386
Cool, cool. Guess I'll start naming shit then.

>>55331495
ok, good luckthen

>>55331526
Thanks. This is always the hardest part.

>>55306673
There is nothing wrong with Clichéa as long as it's populated by compelling characters.

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did the lad who was working on this way back in 2016 ever finish it
i haven't been to these threads in an age, but i remember thinking this stuff was super neat at the time

>>55331605
He posted a continuation just last thread or so. He's still around.

>>55328670
ye

>>55327859
that's what I was thinking, the river is like a moat but nobody has to waste time digging it

>>55306673
I started with mirroring real-world to accommodate my WHFB armies after WHFB died, but am slowly moving away from that. Much of aesthetic will remain in place, but only some. Even the resident Empire will have several nations and as such several different aesthetics in it.

>>55306673
Is it bad that I don't see anything wrong with that map? It looks cool enough.

>>55306673
You know, I've been thinking, if you make your semi-human monster races too human then it becomes weaboo, but if you make them too monsterlike they it becomes furry, so how do you strike the right balance? Or should you even bother with it? Should harpies, lamias, giants, fairies, etc. even be put in games if they're probably only gonna end up as fetish fuel for some of the players?

>>55332502
>if they're probably only gonna end up as fetish fuel for some of the players
don't let the few ruin the fun of the many. Unless all your players struggle to keep it in their pants in which case you should get a new group. Don't worry about making them too "weaboo" or too "furry" and just focus on making them fun/interesting to play.

>>55332502
they only end up weaboo or furry if you half-ass it
look at WHFB Beastmen or Guild Wars Charr. These are human-beast races done right.

>>55332502
People are going to pretend like this isn't a problem but commercial campaign settings have ran into similar issues and I know for a fact several of them have regretted adding in sentient animal or semi-human races because altered the players entire perception of the aesthetic.

Anyway for semi-human I'd personally recommend avoiding certain features like long or fluffy hair, animal ears, prehensile tails, etc.

Are there any good tools or guidelines to create languages? I have basic idea, but I'm not a linguist so I don't think I can manage a decent job on my own.

>>55332679
>People are going to pretend like this isn't a problem
because it isn't? People who want to see sex in something will see it regardless of what you do. Handicapping your worldbuilding because of a minority of players isn't a good idea. If you have a great idea for a race of humanoid dogs then just execute the idea the best you can. If your players start beating off at the table then get a new group 'cause I can almost guarantee you they were inserting their fetishes into past games and will continue to do so despite of your best efforts. All you can do is build the best setting for your games that you can and hope your players can appreciate the work you put in. Hell, everyone sexualizes humans, but that doesn't mean your number one concern when developing the cultures of your world is avoiding triggering someone's foot fetish by accident.

I'm trying to come up with a private school for a steampunk-esque fantasy world, with an emphasis on students picking a subject from one "school" as a major and being expected to supplement this with study in other fields.

Do these faculties seem reasonable for a "magic school" that also offers a general education?

Alchemy - also includes mundane chemistry

Astronomy - includes astrology and physics

Arts - Art, music, literature

Alteration - charms, enhancement magic, transfiguration, weather magic

Classical Civilizations - Archaeology, anthropology, dead languages and legends

Enchantment - Study of magic item related disciplines, creation, destruction, analysis

Evocation - Basic create light/fire/elements stuff, "battle magic"

History - History of magical practice as well as political, military, social

Magical Theory - Studying how and why magic works as well as control and regulation

Medicine - Both healing magic and mundane surgery and medicine.

Theology - Study of all things divine and infernal, as well as philosophy

Zoology - Study of mundane and magical flora and fauna

>>55332752
>Handicapping your worldbuilding because of a minority of players isn't a good idea
Apparently it isn't if it leads to a change in demographics and thus unwanted side effects to your product, and no amount of non-opinions will change anything about it. Not even that guy, but he makes more sense that whatever you are blabbering about.

>>55332752
You're really underestimating how downing it can be to have your players be disappointed in you for including demi-humans, you'd be surprised in the hostility theses races can receive from people.

>>55332799
There is fucking porn of 40k Space Marines anon. There is Skaven porn. Fucking Skaven. There was a thread on here about anons jacking it to other player's characters. There is literally nothing you can do to stop it. As for change in demographics, there is little to influence that either for the most part. Fandoms are weird and can latch onto shit you would never think they would. I'm still pretty sure no one has figured out why a show for little girls about ponies blew up in the 20-30 male demographic, but it did. How was Hasbro suppose to avoid that? Limiting the creative potential of your game is a big deal. Unless you want to risk being outdone by the guys who didn't do the same.

>>55332837
That's a group/game compatibility issue. That's why you talk with each other and figure out what kind of game you want to play before picking a setting/system.

>>55332852
Of course there will be porn of a thing, but this has little to do with a changing demographic and the players perception of the setting. Get some reading comprehension.

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>>55332679
Case in point: Burning Wheel, they never recovered from the addition of "great wolves", It's a great guide on how not to do monstrous or furry races in your game.

>>55332890
I address the issue of demographics in that post. You have little control over them as well. To elaborate: you set a target audience and hope you can reach them. That's about all you can do. How could Hasbro avoided the brony shit? A fandom that is still going strong and has permanently associated itself with the show they were never meant to watch? That doesn't mean you ignore it when it happens, but trying to predict that kind of development is a waste of time and resources. Trying to avoid some other fandom latching onto your work is just going to distract you from properly developing your game. Why throw away a good idea just because you might inadvertently attract a fandom you didn't intend to play your game?

>>55332899
I can't comment on Burning Wheel specifically as I've never heard of it, but I bet most games do just fine without worrying about some minority playing their game for reasons that were not originally intended. I suppose it could be an issue for games with a smaller audience, but deviants are going to deviant. You do your best and try to deal with shit as it comes up. Freaking out about what could happen during development isn't going to help since it's impossible to account for every possibility.

>>55332971
I don't know, people like to pretend 5e killed Pathfinder but they were already experiencing a massive decline before 2014 because the community consisted entirely of fetishises and weebs.

>>55323377
Don't call them sergals. That will open a door best left shut. Call them something related to the forest or to wolves. Canids, lupirs, treedogs etc

>>55322016
>Arabic on the side of the bus
Kek

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>>55331605
yeah, I updated it recently

I want to make a strange sci fi setting, and I'm thinking mega structure.

What do you think would be the scientific things I could play with if I made an alternate dimension (which humanity has evacuated to) which is an infinite super structure? Should gravity be gone or should I have localized black hole power generators to create pseudo planetoids of gravity within the expanse? Rotating sections?

>>55334061
just make it have homogenous one-direction gravity, with no obvious source

doesn't matter how far up or down you travel, the gravity is exactly the same
no matter how far left or right you go, its still pulling 90 degrees down
since you want a strange setting

>>55334163
I feel like I'd be losing out on narrative potential if I did something like that.

What should the role of plant life be? Chlorophyll is a pretty efficient means of producing oxygen not to mention it spreads of its own accord, even if it would damage the structure as it spread.

I figure it needs builder robots

>>55307946
Why would 'barbarians' not be able to fight in an organized manner? Perhaps the most iconic of European raiders, the vikings, fought in a shield wall much like the christian germanic kingdoms they often fought.

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Anyone got some good examples of pseudo-historical or heavily historically inspired worlds and settings? I'm in love with the late roman/early medieval/dark age time period, specifically the various germanic tribes and kingdoms of the period, and the idea of playing as a young ambitious warrior setting out to make his name and perhaps build a hillfort and become a king in his own right. As well as the paganism and mystical aspects, and the clash and meld between the barbarous north and civilized mediterranean, Germanic mercenaries serving in Byzantium and Rome, that sort of stuff in general.

>>55334061
>infinite super structure
Wouldn't this actually be impossible?

>>55306673
>Which do you prefer? Nations that mirror real-world historical ones with some added fantasy OR nations that merely borrow some influences from the real-world but otherwise draw no comparison?
Conceptually, I have no preference. But in practice the former are usually done better. It's simply easier.

It's not what I do, though.
>>55334339
Tattered Realms, Glorantha, Warhammer, Dominions 4 in the Early Age. Tolkien's Middle Earth and Mercury in the Worm Ouroboros have a clear dark ages atmosphere, but are themselves wildly fantastic.

Of those, Glorantha is probably the best for you, even though it's late Bronze age/early Iron. Dom4's good too -- it's practically built on that whole "Germanic mercenaries serving in Byzantium and Rome" thing -- but it's also more barebones.

>>55334607
I don't understand what point you're trying to make.

>>55334607
The universe is infinite, isn't it?

>>55334618
>>55334641
I think anon is trying to be smartass and refer to the fact that "superstructure" normally means a "smaller structure build atop a large structure", and that one cannot be infinite by default

>>55334704
I don't understand what about infinity would preclude a superstructure. Infinite or not, societies will arise from an underlying economy.

>>55334780
Who said the structure was inhabited?

>>55334849
>I made an alternate dimension (which humanity has evacuated to)

>>55334780
To be fair your entering the realm of Science Fantasy, what formed the superstructure and what resources did it use? If the superstructure is infinite that would require it be constantly expanding like our own universe.

>>55334965
If its an alternate dimension i dont see why it has to be explained. Maybe thats just the way that dimension works, to us as outsiders it only looks like a man-made structure.

>>55335070
sci fi fags are stupid

>>55335103
This is true.

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>>55334611
Thanks! Cheers.

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>>55335163

I'd suck some mean dick for Bethesda to have the creativity to make those Colovians, and these dudes Nibenese.

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>>55335405
Yeah, it's a shame what they did to Cyrodiil in Oblivion.

>>55335434
I don't understand their thought process.

>>55335899
Same as everyone else. Keep it familiar, keep it safe, stick to what the focus group says they want. And thus we won't get another Morrowind any time soon, but it probably made them a lot more money, because sad as it is the strange and alien usually doesn't sell well, so I find it hard to blame them all too much.

>>55335938
What kind of person goes into game design to make money, though?

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>>55335945
It's not the designers, it's the people that pay them.

>>55335965
i'm not going to post it so imagine i have that picture of varg vikernes looking disapproving

this is what I say:

l-look at that bloodthirsty christian! see, he's brandishing that cross (alluding to the proud viking's imminent CRUCIFIXION) and aggressively striking him with it, good thing out proud norseman is not a cuck and fights back

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tfw you realise the idea you have for your setting means that seasons wouldn't be a thing and would make biomes all but non-existant

Welp, time to bullshit together some "magic did it" explanation.

>>55336194
Doesn't seasons just mean the planet is close or far from the sun? You could shoehorn a magic bird that gets close and far every now and then and its responsible for summer when she gets too close, its what I did.

>>55336229
The world is an orb and people live on the inside of it, the Sun being a beating heart floating in the middle, the beating of the heart causing the day/night cycle.

>>55336253
ah, the world according to nazis, perhapsthe heart goes into overdrivesometimes wouldn't that be a good reason may be?

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>>55336003
I mean, considering what they (the church) would end up doing to the pagans and their traditions, it was kinda justified.

The Vikings were just doin it for the sweet loot tho.

>>55336253
Just say it has something to do with arcane balance. The romans believed the north was Dark, Cold and Wet for some reason like that- the far South was too Bright, Hot, and Dry. Their land, the mediterranean, was the perfect balance. The blessed holy land.
I'm totally tearing apart whatever the actual belief of the romans was, but it works well enough.

>>55333203

Happens when you embrace the LGBT and SJW crowd, and pander with waifu characters and races.

So, tell me about complicated, arcane and byzantine structures of governance in your world, /wbg/
I just remembered a Magocracy i envisioned quite some time ago, but i unfortunately can't find where i wrote it down, so i am looking for some cool ideas and inspirations.

(What set me on that train of thought was this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppGCbh8ggUs )

>>55336003
>proud norseman
>end up marrying a french woman and having norman children
lmao

>>55336992

>not wanti g some frankish poon

>settling for an angle, jute or saxon skag
>laying low wuth a welsh or briton

Oh let me guess, you want some lombardi twat or ''''greek''' whale. Next you'll be telling me we should be marrying Saracens and converting to their droll religion!

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>>55337454
this t b q h

>>55332502
Stay away from furfaggotry, embrace weebery. Seriously, this is fucking 4chan, don't shit on the main attraction.

>>55336194
>>55336253
You could just have it go through periods of relative darkness/brightness. They could even be irregular, like the season in ASoIaF

>>55337454
As unlikely as this is, what would've happened if the vikings ended up bringing islam to scandinavia?

>>55338292
they would be way more likely to bring orthodox christianity, and if they brought Islam, they would probably extremely modify it to the point of heresy. Which would be interesting and probably better than Christianity.

>>55338292
Some of them did. It didn't take.

Now, if you mean "What if the vikings converted Scandinavia to Islam?" then the likely outcome is a warlike syncretic heresy not unlike the one the Franks originally practiced (where Jesus was a badass warrior) before the Pope got onto them. In this case, though, mainstream Islamic culture is waaay too far to actually have influence on what the Nordics do with their wacky new faith. Perhaps the most interesting consequence of such a thing is how the rest of Europe has to respond to a perpetually anti-Christian Scandinavia. A lot more northern crusades, I have to imagine, but also possibly a strengthening of the Germanic core of Europe.

>>55338546
There's also the possibility that they'd work even harder to seek Christian allies. When Christian missionaries got to India, they were delighted that there was a local form of Christianity that got started by apostle Thomas, and that combined with Ethiopia there was an international noose forming around the Muslim world.

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Working on a battle map, taking a break so here's the WIP.

>>55339581
What do the symbols represent?

>>55339718
infantry, atleast that's what they normally stand for

>>55339772
I mean like the crowns, the H, the numbers?

>>55339793
probably a king and his army, not the guy who posted it so I can't say for sure

>>55307332
I wish the magic system was just a tiny little bit more in depth. It's such a fun game otherwise. I get that it's a feature and not a bug, but still.

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>>55338546

>implying Jesus wasn't a badass warrior

>>55339959
I knew I recognized that thumbnail! Time to binge the FW archives again.

>>55327437
i really like your maps, do you do commissions?

>>55339718
Characters. Crown is the king, 1 and 2 are two of his sons, the H is Hael the Red, favoured general and future king.

>>55340002
yeah think it's time for you to head back to facebook too

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Would all this work? Is there any reason anyone would live in the wetlands on the side of the gulf, or would people avoid settling there?

>>55341667
They follow a foreign mysticism or a displaced native religion that was deemed unacceptable a generation ago and moved into the swamps to avoid persecution

>>55341667
>>55341725
Sorry I should have asked: would anyone willingly settle in the swamps when given the opportunity to live elsewhere? Like is there any advantage to live in a tidal wetland?

That said, there are no doubt cults and other interesting locales in the wetlands

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How do you guys feel About Italian Futurist Architecture?

(1/4)

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>>55342472

(2/4)

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>>55342483

(3/4)

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>>55342497

(4/4)

>>55340474
not for this kind of art, but I guess if you can make a tasty enough pitch?

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>>55340781

Back to /k/ you mean.

Any recommended reading to get some imagery for settings based on the Industrial Age? Not looking for steampunk though.

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>>55344133

>>55340781
I hate Facebook, never touch it. Do you want to try again? Tell me gb2leddit or something? Eventually you'd find somewhere I'd been.

re

>>55307568
One historical reference I use (but for elves) is how south american natives used to capture defeated enemies, treat them as honorable guests for a while, then kill them and eat them. Though the Europeans saw this and thought it was barbaric and savage, the natives considered an honor to be eaten by the enemy tribe, because they considered that eating someone would imbue you with his abilities and skills - therefore if someone wants to eat you, is because they think you are awesome.

So that is something. Eating the enemy but not for the sake of being savage, but because its a respectful act that honors the defeated's strength and prowess in combat.

>>55327437
Christ, dude, your style is amazing.

>>55329109
How unremembered at you talking about?

>>55344793
Settings often don't justly use the term 'unremembered' or 'forgotten'. They say these things, then anyone can go into their ruins and read their inscriptions to conveniently get their entire history, or you go to the royal librarian and they have stores of information on this 'forgotten' empire. Forgotten should mean FORGOTTEN: the name is lost, the cities are lost, the peoples are lost, those who live in the ruins of their cities don't even know who built it. At least that is what I think.

>>55345421
Oh, I don't disagree. Though I might add in the slight allowance for something akin to say... Babylon, Sumeria or the Olmec. Something that the average person would have absolutely no real knowledge of, likely not even recognize the name, yet there might be a handful of scholars pouring over a scant amount of information and forming their own wild conclusions based on a scrap of misinterpreted data. Where in your example, there's only a handful of ruins which are occupied by hostile groups while 99% have simply been lost to the environments and the royal librarian might recommend you speak to a senile of old codger who is the last of a group of academics who had studied a relic brought back from across the sea but whose studies went nowhere with no other artifacts to research.

I was mostly just asking for the sake of the question being asked.

>>55336229
No, they happen because the angle at which your part of the Earth is to the sun changes. That's why it can be summer on one side of the Earth and winter on another. And why we don't go through the seasons twice a cycle.

>>55336253
The sun is ovoid and slowly spins in position (or the world spins around it), thereby apparently growing and shrinking in size with the change of the seasons.

>>55307628
Fug I completely forgot about that book until you posted this

I remember that being surprisingly funny, guess I've got to track a copy down and give it another read

>>55344304
You sound upset, I don't mean that in a 'lel u mad xD' type of way but the way you wrote that out makes you sound angry

>>55306673
>Which do you prefer? Nations that mirror real-world historical ones with some added fantasy OR nations that merely borrow some influences from the real-world but otherwise draw no comparison?
mirror, but very loosely in a lot of cases, and can be very superficial like what uniform their military wears being based on a historical one, but that can be very unrelated to their culture.

Would you feel ill at ease if you played in a fantasy setting where one staple race was around (Orcs, Elves) but another wasn't (Goblins, Dwarfs)?

Can you help me understand how Elven adventurers work? I've never been able to grasp why elves are so incompetent with their time, especially when every source material seems to push the idea that they are careful and knowledgeable creatures that value the preservation and passing on of knowledge and tradition. If you use any of the random age generators for level one adventurers that are available in D&D, or Pathfinder etc, I'm given reason to believe that a 120 year old Elf is roughly equivalent to a 16 year old human in skill and prowess (actually considering humans generally get a free feat and skill point, they're usually LESS skilled than a 16 year old human). I've read the standard reasoning for this, in that they're slow, ponderous, careful, and lack the ambition of their human counterparts but that just isn't good enough for me. I feel like if I spent 120 years just watching random channels on TV i'd probably just passively gain more experience and knowledge (perhaps largely incorrect knowledge) than a 16 year old raised by a skilled tutor, the time gap is just too much.

It also raises the assumption that Elves should get massacred in virtually every setting where Humans exist in the traditional context because they'd be able to raise competent soldiers in a mere 16 years compared to Elves which take roughly 120 years to reach adulthood.

>>55341667
For some reason I thought you drew some pimply smurf genitals.

>>55336804
>The Empire has a bunch of noble houses, among which there are 12 most venerable ones, The Elector Houses. They enjoy great prestige and privileges.
>normally, once the Emperor dies, the Elector Counts gather to elect a new Emperor
>the Emperor cannot be from Elector Houses himself
>in practice though, only member of Imperial House are ever elected, so the Emperors are a dynasty, since they command great power and not even Electors dare anger them.
>As such, Electors take care for the Imperial House to always have majority of votes during election. Problem is, Electors vote one-by-one in ritually assigned order (based on various divinations and pecking order) and votes are undisclosed until Election is done.
>Now, that wouldn't be much of a problem, but Election is a massive power play between lesser houses, as being voted for still grants them a ton of prestige and influence, not to mention the patronage of an Elector House that implies.
>As such every Election Electors turns into a game of chicken when Electors try to get a vote for their proteges, while still giving the Emperor majority, and every Emperor's reign is a game of bribery and intrigue to tip the voting order in this or that Elector House's favor, or earn patronage of Elector House that will most likely vote first.
>Why is electing the Imperial House such a big deal? Last time another noble house was elected, that house's castle was burnt to the ground, its lands razed, noble house killed off and the Elector that cast the decisive vote beheaded. That was two centuries ago. Emperors became a lot more sensible and tame since then, but no one wants to risk. In addition, most Elector Counts and lesser houses prefer stability to the disbalance of power that would erupt should another house take the throne - that could probably spark a civil war. Besides that, lesser houses are quite jealous and would certainly gang up on whoever takes the throne just out of indignation.

>>55342512
>>55342497
>>55342483
>>55342472
how is it different from any other futurist architecture? looks rather generic to me.

>>55347865
simple, needs of gameplay balance trump sense and logic as always

>>55347850
not at all. have seen plenty of such worlds.

/vg/ and /v/ are shitholes, so I'll just post here, even though this is for Warcraft III mod.

This is basically a dump asking for criticism and ideas.

The idea is how I would've made World of Warcraft if I was a Blizzard CEO in 2002. My point is to draw as much as possible from Warcraft I, II and III, instead of making a vaguely related world, like WoW turned out.
Plus drawing as much as possible onto those games' alpha/beta version as possible.

Factions and races.
>Alliance: Humans (Stormwind), Dwarfs (Ironforge), High/Blood Elves (Quel'thalas)
>Horde: Orcs (Durotar), Forest/Jungle Trolls (Echo Isles / Zul'aman), Tauren

Classes.
I think generic genericness of WoW classes was a bad call. I'd make more impact on original Hero classes of Warcraft III, while at the same time keeping abilities tamer.
Also, classes would be more race-specific.

Examples:
>Warlord
>Basic warrior class of the Horde, available to all 3 races.
>Specializations:
>Berserker - melee damage dealer, either as full-on crazed, well, berserker, or as more tranquil blademaster
>Chieftain - tank, whose main survival mechanic is regenerating tons of health constantly.
>Warmaster - support spec, greatly boosting allies' damage, and providing some other buffs and emergency heals.

>Knight
>Main warrior spec of the Alliance, available to all 3 races.
>Specializations:
>Wrath - melee damage dealer, most physical and grounded spec of all 3.
>Valor - tank, full-on paladin, who can either go all-out holy defender, but play more like souped up footman with a few holy tricks
>Mercy - frontline healer/support, protecting allies. Most holy magic oriented spec.

>Warlock
>So far the only class available to both factions, namely to Orcs and Humans.
>Pet class, summons a Daemon and most abilities interact with it.
>Specializations:
>Havoc - damage dealing through daemon
>Ruin - direct damage dealing, daemon might get sacrificed in the process
>Dread - daemon acts like tank
To be continued...

>>55349647
Continued.


>Blood Mage
>Elves only
>Specializations:
>Vengeance - ranged fire damage
>Supremacy? - probably a spec built around Banish, Gravity Lapse and spellbreaker abilities. Or maybe not. Not sure.
>no name - melee damage and (off-)tanking spec, focusing on blood magic and phoenix rebirth.

>Shadow Hunter
>Trolls only
>not fleshes out yet, but will have healing (Witch Doctor), melee damage (???) and ranged damage (Headhunter) specializations. Dropping wards and all that. Yes, they gonna be called wards like in WC3, and not totems. Melee spec maaaybe stealth-based.

Next two are not even started
>Conjurer/Archmage - no Arcane spec, Lightning instead. Which somehow gotta differ from...
>Far Seer (most likely, maybe Spiritwalker) - no totems, full caster / support. Specs are either Storm, Earth and Fire or maybe Storm, Wolves and something else.

Classes like Ranger, Mountain King and (Mage-)Priest/Cleric don't have enough to make 3 specs for each and also create imbalance as I have no suitable classes for the Horde.

Notes on tanking/healing: healing in general would be more like in MOBAs, meaning heaving long CDs and/or various conditions. Damage reduction and regeneration/leech effects would play a big role.
Other roles having a skill or two to save someone when no heal is available would be important (e.g. Knight class would can throw a heal even if specced damage)
Support providing damage and defense boosts would be important.


To be continued...

>>55349647
>>55349661
Continued.

No idea what to do with Night Elves and Undead. I don't condone bullshitting them into Alliance/Horde, but they lack races to be their own factions.
Who could Night Elves be allied with? Furbolgs? Satyr? Naga? Treants? None of those are good enough.
Now, Nigh Elves themselves have quite a bunch of unique classes and could probably be divided by gender, not races.
Male would be Archdruid, and... something.
Female would be Watcher, Priestess of the Moon and Sentinel
Ranger and Demon Hunter would be shared.

And while Undead have two races - undead human and undead elf - those are too similar to the Alliance and to each other to be real separate races.
Plus, I have little idea what classes to give them, besides Warlock and Dark Ranger. Some kind of Necromancer/Necrolyte, but that's all not enough.
Now, they could be a NPC faction, but that would mean losing out on Necrolyte class from Warcraft I, and that one has potential.


So, any thoughts?

>>55347865
Elves are supposed to be massively skilled and magical and smart and wise and charming and strong and tough at all times. Your average elf "should" be a decently leveled wizard or ranger or druid, or a master craftsman or incredible musician.
However, because players want to play elves, they have to reign the elves in by making them basically the same as humans.

I'd remedy this by making elf PC's barely teenagers; the bear minimum of adulthood, and make your average adult elf extremely skilled and probably high level. Just homebrew it that a 200 year old elf really would have 200 years of experience. Humans would send 100 young men at them and elves would shrug them off because theyre all super wizards

>>55341667
>>55341861
It totally depends on the setting, there could be a myriad of reasons. The reasons in a low-tech no-magic setting might be totally different then in a science-fantasy one, but here are just a few of the top of my head:

Tidal wetlands teem with wild live and can make for good fishing.
The city is extremely defensible.
The city is the ancestral home of some powerful Lord.
The city lies on a Ley-Line.
The swamp is connected with the Fey.
There is some specific resource (magic or mundane) found in the swamp.
The city is a safe port along a trade route.
The city has some legal thing going on (extraterritoriality like Hong-Kong for example).

>>55349647
>>55349661
>>55349667
WoW vanilla was OK. But with each passing expansion, they decided to make the factions less and less unique. I really liked the idea of Paladin and Shaman being faction-exclusive classes, but then came Burning Cruzade and fucked it up.

>Alliance: Humans (Stormwind), Dwarfs (Ironforge), High/Blood Elves (Quel'thalas)
Belves were clearly added to the Horde because female players wouldn't pick Horde due the fact everyone there was ugly as fuck (though in my opinion, that makes the Horde BADASS AS FUCK, and in the end, most Belves are male anyway). What I always thought that would make sense was to add Draenei to the Alliance (since they hate orcs), but not the gayass one they added to WoW, but the original corrupted one. Because that would add an ugly race for the Alliance, which at the time lacked of.

> I think generic genericness of WoW classes was a bad call.
I don't think it was. Mechanic-wise, its VERY hard to give a player plenty of choice while using more race-strict classes. Generic classes give players more freedom. What I would have done was to add a few generic classes, then add 1 race-specific class for each race. With 3~4 races on each faction, it should be a little easier to do so.

> No idea what to do with Night Elves and Undead.
Night Elves could be neutral or something, since they were never into the Alliance until WoW came out. For the Forsaken, even though I think they're a badass option for a playable race, perhaps I would consider leave them aside (remember, the Forsaken didn't had much history/relevance before WoW). So perhaps we could have the three races you mentioned for each faction, then have Night Elves as a neutral class (which would be interesting with the whole Druid shit).

Something that I think would help A LOT customizing each class to each race, is if the generic classes had only 2 specs, and a 3rd one was added based on the race.

cont...

>>55350075
> Something that I think would help A LOT customizing each class to each race, is if the generic classes had only 2 specs, and a 3rd one was added based on the race.
For instance, Warrior could have 2 specs (Offensive and Defensive, for example), then if you are a Dwarf, you have a third Dwarven Mountain-King-like spec. This could go on for every single race, and would make it a lot easier to have more customized classes. (instead of making the whole class customable).

Something that you didn't mention but ALWAYS bothered me a lot is how Orgrimmar is full of fucking elves. Because of this, I convinced myself that Orcs and Humans should be the predominant race on both factions (because obvious reasons). My idea was to limit what races the player can pick, similarly to what they did with Death Knight - you can only create a char from certain races if you already own a char with a minimum level:

> Orc / Humans
Can create in the beginning
> Dwarf / Troll
Can create after you have a level 10 character
> Night Elf / Undead
Can create after you have a level 20 character
> Something-that-is-not-gnome-because-fucking-hate-gnomes / Tauren
Can create after you have a level 30 character

This way, players would naturally use a bit more orcs and humans, and I think that would help the ambiance and immersion of the game. (again, Orgrimmar being full of naked blood elves doesn't help much with the immersion).

(ps: I actually like your race choices better, I'm just giving the example using the original races because that is what I had in mind when I first thought about this)

Oh, btw:
> Who could Night Elves be allied with?
Furbolgs, Treants, Dryads, etc. (no Satyr, no Naga). But I think those should be NPCs only, and Night Elves should be a 1-race neutral faction.

>>55350075
hmm, so you mean like having an Knight class, that would have, say, two basic specs and then Mountain King, Spellbreaker and Paladin spec, based on your race?

That is actually a good call. Would solve a bunch of problems, namely "how to integrate iconic racial units, like Spellbreaker or Mountain King that don't have enough stuff to be their own class"

Hmm, I might have to redesign all classes.

About generic classes - I really really dislike it. But you raise a good point about mechanical difficulties, namely balance. What I could do would be make, say, Knight and Warlord reskins of each other, for the most part, not counting race-specific specs and one or two unique flavour skills.

>>55350075
>>55350154
cont...

Also, I think there should be some looong questline to change factions. This would allow Night Elves to get into a faction if they want (while still being OK with the night elf faction).

As for Horde and Alliance, they should also have a quest line to become neutral (maybe joining some minor neutral class-specific faction, that gives them neutrality in the war). Also, I always thought that even if WoW was like it originally was, there should be a VERY HARD quest-line that would let you betray your faction and join the other faction with your own character (yes, keeping your old race). This would of course make all your rep with your original faction's races go to Hated++, while getting only to unfriendly with the new faction's races (where you would have to grind your rep from the beginning).

I always thought this would be cool.

>>55350169
>hmm, so you mean like having an Knight class, that would have, say, two basic specs and then Mountain King, Spellbreaker and Paladin spec, based on your race
Actually, I would have "Warrior" as the class, and "Knight" as the human's race-specific spec. If the idea would be to have 1+ generic classes, then 1 race-specific class, I would go for Paladin as human's racial class.

I would also have Mage as a generic class. Humans could have a spec called Archmage, while elves could have a spec called Blood Mage.

Also, its important to emphasize that I think the character's class should change its name based on its spec - if I have an human mage with the Archamge spec, my character should show as "Bob, Human Archmage". I think this sort of details helps the immersion.

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>Having to name all the stuff in your setting

Its a shame I can't actually call the French analogue race the French analogue race

>>55350431
>Also, its important to emphasize that I think the character's class should change its name based on its spec - if I have an human mage with the Archamge spec, my character should show as "Bob, Human Archmage". I think this sort of details helps the immersion.
Kinda unrelated, but a class system where you start generic but get more specific would be pretty coll, i think: You start as either a fighter, caster or scoundrel and as you level up you have two stages where they branch off into more specializations.

For example you could have:
Fighter -> Warrior/Knight/Ranger
Warrior -> Barbarian/Warmaster/Spirit Warrior
Knight -> Paladin/Commander/Exalted Knight
Ranger -> Sentinel/Wild Ranger/Demon Hunter

Caster -> Mage/Sorcerer/Wise One
Mage -> Elementalist/Arcanist/Archmage
Sorcerer -> Witch/Witcher/Fell Sorcerer
Wise One -> Shaman/Druid/Priest

Scoundrel -> Tinkerer/Rogue/Bard
Tinkerer -> Gadgeteer/Alchemist/Inspired Inventor
Rogue -> Assassin/Shadow/Trickster
Bard -> Lore Master/Diplomat/Skalde

>>55350923
Call them the Grenouilles.

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>>55351204
I actually think I will, cheers anon.

>>55351204
aaand I've come up with slang name for orcs for my setting, used by people living away from orc invasion
>"Green Willies"

>>55351246
Anon you better handle your Green Willies fucking carefully because that can either be genius or crude magical reaming.

>>55306673
Does anyone have the discord?

>>55351246
RREEEEEE GREEN WILLIES ARE INVADING MY VILLAGE WAT DO?

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>>55351246
>tfw getting slapped about by green willies again

>>55351246
>tfw that feel when your waifu is taken to be the concubine of the dark one by several green willies.

>>55306673
I am thinking about making a cyberpunk setting, except there is a twist: it will be in the country of India. Memes aside, what should I do for this?

>>55351474
>Memes aside
NO

In my country there's a meme about "indian programmers". its a name for people who, for instance, write same line of code 20 times instead of using a loop.
you are obliged to make that have an impact on your cyberpunk

>>55351520
Hmm... redundancy could be a big factor in this setting.

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>>55351474
Indias not a bad place for a cyberpunk setting, given the massive levels of inequality and the generally low value placed on human life.

India is home to some of the worlds biggest slums, but they aren't the cool kind like Kowloon instead they're largely an endless sea of slapped together buildings made from corrugated metals with zero regard for safety or any provisions made for sanitation.

India has a serious problem with sanitation that extends beyond memes, only place in the world I've seen dogs fighting over a rotting corpse in the street.

>>55351590
As a pajeet, I do agree. The only decent places in india are south india and the far northern parts.

>>55351590
>kowloon is cool
It wasn't tho, at least for the inhabitants.

>>55351624
It was badass you fuck.

>>55351624
Its cool in that it was unique and interesting.

Probably shite to live in.

>>55351624
we never appreaciate what we have
they just didn't understand they were living in absolutely metal and at the same time cozy place
it makes me feel cooler just looking at its pictures

>>55351590
>>55351658
>mfw I am imagining blade runner except 100x more grittier than it is right now.
Cyberpunk india would be rad, I imagine how the caste system would play in as well. Maybe replicants or something of that sort take the place of the dalits?

>>55351703
I'm just picturing a giant neon Ganesha sign and thinking how rad that would look.

>>55351703
no-no-no
>malfunctioning replicant trying to "delete" the dalits

>>55351744
Pretty rad desu
>>55351751
kek.

oh god...
>buddhist replicants tryint to trascend reality
>robots preaching that world is maya - an illusion
god damn it!
MAKE IT FUCKING HAPPEN!

>>55351798
that... would be awesome.

>>55351474
POO IN LOO

>>55351798
This is some MML2 tier creepy.

>>55351923
what is MML2?

>>55352026
MegaMan Legends 2

>>55350930
Honestly, seems like you are making up most of those classes/specs/whatever-you-call-it, at a point that it doesn't even feel Warcraft anymore. I thought the original idea was to use traditional classes...

>>55352071
yup
also it feels too much like, well, any korean MMO ever

>>55351798
Stealing this.

>>55306673
I´ve been trying to build a setting similar to original Innistrad just with a lot of byzantine imaginery mixed in. Problem is, all that I can imagine is quite a lot of idolatry, marble, glass paintings and the color purple, aside from the general shitty court politics and constant loss of land.

Could anyone here point me towards something that explains a lot about 12th to 15th century eastern roman empire?

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What do you thing about this map?

>>55351474
Read George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails
(I think the title is just a science fiction way of saying "when the shit hits the fan")

It's a cyberpunk mystery novel set in the Middle East. The specific location, however, is based on the New Orleans French Quarter (the author is from the area). As such, there are a lot of women who used to be men, lots 'o drugs, and crime galore. But he makes it interesting by mixing in Arabic culture and the Muslim religion; in many ways it feels bit like the Godfather in that people espouse to be devout, but still do terrible shit.
Also, there's a fun scene in which a religious guy is awkward around a transexual woman. It says that he, and others, wholeheartedly believe in the doctrine of men being superior to women, but he has no idea how to act around a man (who should be his equal) who wants to be a woman (his inferior). The novel is pretty fun.
I've never seen someone do a setting quite like it, and it makes me believe India would work for that type of story as well.

>>55352911
ugly as sin

>>55352960
why?

>>55352911
What program?

>>55353141
>https://experilous.com/1/project/planet-generator/2015-04-07/version-2

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>>55351474
>I am thinking about making a cyberpunk setting, except there is a twist: it will be in the country of India. Memes aside, what should I do for this?

Read "River of Gods" and "Cyberabad Days".

>>55325421
What is that picture?
It seems half like fetish fuel.
Half like a cozy/cute setting.
Half like a really intriguing campaign.

>>55345602
>>55336253
>>55336229
Why doesn't everything on the world surface fall into the sun? Magic gravity?

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Fig. 1: the first phase of the Battle of Greyspur Bay.

On the beach, the Haelichi forces advance. The centre is led by their king, Qhothgar (crown), already victorious in many battles and a resolute foe. On the right, his two elder sons Qhothyn (1) and Leogild (2) command the flank. They have seen battle before, but not on this scale. The right flank is led by the young general Hael (red H), fresh from victory over the Maurian king and leading a core of veterans, including the scarred Maurian warrior Selms.

The Helxian landing has already begun, and their soldiers wade from their boats in increasing numbers. The Haelichi have advanced to seal their flanks and fall upon their unprepared enemies, but as more ships approach the Helxian forces grow greater by the minute. Though still scattered and disorganised, the Helxians begin to form into ranks and march to meet the approaching Haelichi. Prince Porgil (golden P) rallies them to him, commanding them to form a battle-line before their enemies arrive. He awaits the arrival of his brother, the Emperor Gerrick, so that battle can truly commence.

I've decided to have no fundamental laws of magic. That doesn't mean there aren't any fundamental laws, just that I will not invent them, and that they will never be (unambiguously) discovered.

Instead, I will write out a fucktonne of mini-laws. For example,
>gods move into any carvings shaped like themselves (i.e. a lion-god into a sword's lion-pommel)
>walls create order inside them
>wolves pursue their killers even after death
>you can become lost in the moon by staring at it too long
This should create a more realistic magic. More realistic, in that it will replicate the feel of real-life magic. To that end, I will probably create myths explaining each mini-law as I come up with them.

There are IRL "fundamental law" magic systems, e.g. ki, but I don't like 'em.

Thank you for reading.

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Hey WBG

I'm making an island setting. It's about 2/3 the landmass of Greenland, but it's going to have a Fantastically Diverse Climate.

I'm not planning to get too heavy with geology autism, but how does this map look as a landmass-water ratio? The big rivers are marked, smaller rivers will be below the resolution of the map.

>>55356180
some of ur rivers flow from sea 2 sea

>>55356447
They're not rivers they're oceans.

>>55356501
pretty tiny oceans

>>55350923
You don't have to name that much really. If you consider that the people playing your game would like a level of creation in their own right, general areas are entirely fine enough for a setting.

>>55356514
Roughly the same as the irish sea and the english channel, by my reckoning.

>>55356542
then those are some huge rivers

>>55356536
>the people playing your game would like a level of creation in their own right
We get you like a certain kind of game, but that style of game isn't EVERYONE'S style of game.

>>55350923
>>55356536
>>55356577
Don't trouble yourself too much trying to come up with something that makes sense. Just think about a random name and apply it. That is what I do. (doesn't need to have any reference to the name of whatever your are basing them on)

For instance, on my settings I have a civilization that is inspired by ancient Egypt, but they're called "Garoadar", which has nothing to do with the word "Egypt" or any other particular reason, its just the name I chose for it.

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This is mine. Any opinions? :)

>>55356786
Totally disagree. I think that, assuming this is something you care about at all, your names should be leveraged to shape your world as much as possible. This can happen in three ways:

1. How it sounds. Standard "guttural sounds barbaric, lots of vowels sounds softer". Gaskariot sounds harsh, Eolumena doesn't.

2. Associations with cultures. For example, having the Pharaoh Ra-Sut of the Red River Dynasty is going to bring to mind ancient Egypt. Pyriex Max is going to bring to mind Rome.

3. The actual meaning (especially puns). This is my favourite, because I like puns. For example, a city named Brass Band brings to mind jazz, industry, and (if you're a turbofag like me) Uruk from Gilgamesh, as well as the city's literal shape (it's a brassy ring-world).

And, and this is the kicker, *you cannot escape this*. No matter what you call your things, their name will have a certain impact. By choosing some random assortment of letters you are relinquishing control of your setting in some small (or not-so-small) way. For example, to me, Garoadar makes me think of some blunt militaristic empire, like Sparta but that might be because it sounds like a Monster Hunter name.

>>55357317
1) Agree
2) Disagree
3) Sort of agree

Yes, I know people will think about random things depending what name I choose, but can't fully control that anyway. Sometimes random names in english sounds pathetic for me because they remind me of a random pathetic word in my language. Same thing could happen with any name, with any language.

> Gaskariot sounds harsh, Eolumena doesn't.
But of course I take that shit in consideration. But again, "how it sounds" for me might be different from how it sounds to you :) at this point, the only thing Garoadar reminds me of is Garoadakan, which is the name of continent where the Garoadar live

>>55357517
What do you mean by your agreements and disagreements? Do you mean you disagree with using them, or that they have these effects? It seems strange to say that Pharoah Ra-Sut won't sound Egyptian, or that Pyriex Max won't sound Roman.

Because what I meant was that you CAN use names in these three ways, not that you have to. But I strongly urge you to use at least one of them. In descending order; to use #3, I think you need to use #2 and #1.

>can't fully control that
You can take take the far majority of control.

Right is it a little out there that several petty kingdoms in an Empire would not question why they are never sent to the capital? I mean they're more or less autonomous unless they go really bad, and it'd kind of ruin their fairytale like mood if they found out that the capital was filled with friendly undead and they were ruled over by a 50 foot tall skeleton Sorcerer King.

>>55357747
>they are never sent to the capital
what does this even mean

>>55357747
Also, yes. It's absolutely unrealistic. News travels.

Bear in mind that a literal fairy-tale mood can fix this, but even then you must take precautions.

>>55357804
Envoys, political meetings, that sort of thing.
>>55357812
Okay so I'll go with my idea of the undead secretly live deep in the catacombs.

>>55307482
I a race I was playing in a multi-civ game had this trait. I reasoned that because they turned to their base element on death that there would be rooms in a family home set aside for these people. In the homeso f the wealthy they would line the entrances, a potent reminder of all of their family accomplishments and the expectations for those that left the home or came in. For the poor it would be a basement or very small room of the house, or even an outdoor area for the statues. The belief was that if the effigy was destroyed the soul would be lost in the afterlife and you could never commune with them again. Their effigy represented this only link to the mortal world so they were vigorously defended from theft or destruction.

>>55357866
Your first idea sounds much more interesting. It just doesn't mesh realistically with the idea of client kingdoms not knowing who their ruler is and the state of the capital city (i.e. likely to be the most busy city in the whole empire). At least, not without a LOT of finagling.

I obviously don't know shit about your setting, but if I were you I'd either do that finagling or bite the bullet and let my petty kingdoms know about it.

>>55357866
>undead secretly live deep in the catacombs.
that is not much original, to be honest

>>55357891
esl af

>>55357866
>Envoys, political meetings, that sort of thing.
Well, the whole purpose of a capital is administration -- taxes, mainly, but other orders as well -- so no, that'd be weird. And, secondly, many capitals were also trade hubs, meaning a fucktonne of trade would be going into and out of your city. Even if it's not the major trade hub (like how Constantinople overtook Rome) it's still *a* trade hub, or it wouldn't be a city.

>>55357882
I'm not getting rid of the Skelly king, he'll just be king in secret. There'll be figureheads who'll relay his orders and stuff but with a nicer face.
>>55357920
You make an excellent point.

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>>55357567
> What do you mean by your agreements and disagreements?
I mean that I disagree with using that method, not that I'm disagreeing that "Pharaoh Ra-Sut of the Red River Dynasty" would remind people of ancient Egypt (it would be really weird if it didn't). I don't like this idea you mention on (2) of always using things like this because all names and titles become waaay too common, and your setting becomes to sound like a rip-off from several places. Even if you try to NOT do this, you will end up doing it a bit, but if you just give in, everything will just sound like a variation of something else.

I don't focus on number (3) but sometimes it happens. For instance, there's a city in my setting called Spring Keep, both because it has great gardens that look beautiful during spring season, and because it rests on a hill that have a bunch of hot springs.

But I'm not sure I have many places named like this. When I said about choosing a bit more freely the names, I meant for civilizations and shit like that. When it comes to cities and places, I often try to get some reason for the name.

> pic related, Spring Keep is in there somewhere

>>55357567
Not him, but I think he mostly just wouldn't use something like Pharaoh [Egyptian Name]. Loanwords need to have purpose, and the only real purpose of using Pharaoh is to beat your players over the head with the Egyptian analogue.

If you called that same person God-King Rashut of the Red River Dynasty, you aren't left with as forced of a parallel. God-Kings are dope and not limited only to Egypt. And even a river-based dynasty paired with a divine ruler could easily be Chinese-inspired. Or simply a more neutral fantasy kingdom led by a divine figurehead.

>>55358035
>I'm not getting rid of the Skelly king, he'll just be king in secret.
Skelly king in the open is a lot more interesting to me. Big scary skelly who's hidden away is a solved problem -- his figureheads sort everything out, isn't that nice. But it doesn't push the setting anywhere.
Meanwhile, big scary skelly who rules in the open presents problems, which push the setting a certain way as people try to solve them.
>>55358044
Slapping random sounds together is a waste of a very good tool. Or worse, arguably; like I said, your random sounds will have an impact, and it will be one you've relinquished most control over (you do control its harshness/softness etc.).

Take Hiiria. That name has no emotional connection to me. It doesn't make me feel anything, except that it's a place with weird orthography. And Maeoria? Well, that sounds Greek to me, or possibly Romance (Macedonia and the Marian reforms are, I think, the influence on me), but you don't want that sound.

Conversely, using #2 you can create emotional reactions by reminding players of the associated cultures and events. This can be more subtle than Pharaoh Ra-Sut. For example, I have the Corona Reals (as opposed to the Corona Fakes), a spy-ring in a theocratic empire with lots of sun imagery, and also lots of Spanish inspiration. I think this creates the emotional reaction I intend (although I could be wildly off the mark).

>always using things like this because all names and titles become waaay too common
I don't understand you. The names and titles become...common?
>your setting becomes to sound like a rip-off from several places
Many very good settings are rip-offs of several places. Glorantha, for example, or Warhammer, or Tattered Realms, or Dominions. Taking inspiration from them is a fine thing, although obviously other styles of worldbuilding are just as valid.
>>55358136
That would be the same thing. Ra-Sut was just an example.

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>>55350923
>not naming things before you decide what they are
>not compiling lists of names to slowly come up with purposes for

>>55358304
Yes, but the word Pharaoh is retarded to use. And for hard evidence to prove this point, Golarion does it.

>>55358344
>not coming up with a concept, then coming up with a name, then modifying the concept based on the name
git gud
>>55358350
So do plenty of great settings. In honesty, I was thinking of settings with unabashed historical inspiration when I used him as an example, because I think I was subconsciously going for the most extreme example to try and show my point. But even Glorantha uses it, and that's not QUITE one of those "literally the real world but fantasy" settings.

>>55358304
Sorry, dude, but you just like like a pedantic faggot talking out of your ass. And no, Corona Reals doesn't have any sort of "emotional reaction," it just sounds like sun-related nonsense. And if I was your player, I'd probably just be laughing about the combination of the piss-beer Corona and Brazilian gibbe mone reals.

>>55358390
>if you disagree with me you're talking out your ass!
He's right, your names are fucking stupid. If I was your player, I'd laugh at your utter failure to pronounce your own dumb names. It's already pretty fucking hilarious.

this is anon from >>55358044

>>55358304
> Take Hiiria. That name has no emotional connection to me. It doesn't make me feel anything, except that it's a place with weird orthography.
I'm not trying to make a setting where everything is obvious and you can tell what is what only by its name. You need to delve into the lore in order to have any emotional connection to the setting, in my opinion, otherwise its just a really swallow setting. You're using the easy path, but in my opinion, it just make your setting sounds obvious. =/

> For example, I have the Corona Reals
I find that a weird name. >>55358390 would agree lol But back to the point, "Corona Reals" doesn't bring anything up to me, doesn't bring "spy-ring", doesn't bring "theocratic empire", doesn't bring "sun imagery", or even spanish inspiration. Perhaps it brings YOU that because you already know what it is.

> I don't understand you. The names and titles become...common?
Because if you everyone uses the "Pharaoh" title on every ancient Egypt-inspired civilization, all of them will sound basically the same.

> Many very good settings are rip-offs of several places
Yeah, I do take inspiration from a lot of different settings. I'm not against that. I just don't feel the need to name my stuff so it will remind people about other stuff.

>>55358481
This >>55358481 was not me. I'm not here to get offended by honest opinions, I'm here to hear them.

> If I was your player, I'd laugh at your utter failure to pronounce your own dumb names.
Last year I joined a D&D group, and on the first session the DM asked how my name was pronounced, and it took us about 5~10 minutes to decide how it was supposed to be pronounced. The my character's name was Th'wh-ch'lo I think (i don't remember how to spell it either).

>>55352911
any other opinions on this map?
Is a complete world map not just some island

>>55358597
>Th'wh-ch'lo
Yeah you dont have the gift for Lovercratanian tier names
I´ll read it as twachlo

>>55358597
Well, good then. At least there's hope you'll stop making these throat-destroying names at some point.
>my character's name was Th'wh-ch'lo I think
Apostrophes make everything better right?
>>55358640
Lovecraft was a mistake.

>>55358615
It doesn't give me much, to be honest. Its just some random terrain for me. There're no cities, no landmarks, no nations.... (so basically, I find it hard to have an opinion solely based on that image)

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>>55358654
>Lovecraft was a mistake.
why?

>>55358640
>>55358654
We decided to read it as "tchuchulo" (which at least in my original language, sounds kind of silly).

Its not just some random letters thrown together. The name is supposed to be an elvish name that means "That which chews loudly", so since I don't speak elvish, I just took the first two letters of each of those four words and put them together (and separated with ' and - because, yes, I think it looks exotic).

But I don't usually go for this, unless I want the name to sound exotic and foreign (to the rest of the setting). On >>55358044 , there's only 1 name with apostrophe, and its because its supposed to be a combination of Voth+Ar.

>>55358659
I´m just looking for some opinions of the land itself, I want something more that just a giant turd-looking continent

>>55358715
Lol what a weird ass name, with that pronunciation sounds like a meseoamerican name, was that how you pictured your character?

>>55358719
I honestly don't think there's much to say about it, man. If there was, I would say it. But I wouldn't spend much time on worrying about that, just draw some random shit and roll with it. That is what I do. I draw some random continents, than started adding stuff to them. (that is why there's blank spaces on my maps)

Middle Earth is one of the most famous setting, and the map is quite fucked up (the mountains around Mordor are fucking square, wtf)

>>55358744
>meseoamerican
Well, close enough I guess haha. It was inspired in south american natives, though the only cloth she originally wore was a small poncho (that would barely cover her crotch)

Anybody have any ideas how to make use of these character aspects? They're all for the same character.
ADHD on Steroids
Rude Awakening
Everybody was Kung-fu Fighting
"It Could Always be Worse"
"You Never Know What You'll Find"

you mean the personality of the character?

>>55359895
Finn from adventure time

>>55359931
Did you mean to reply to >>55359895?

>>55359982
yes

>>55360049
No, aspects play a roll in that but that's largely up to the player. I'm looking for ways I can compel it as a DM. For example if a character had "The building was on fire and it wasn't my fault" I could compel them to miss with a fire based attack and set shit on fire or to just generally have mishaps occur with fire or Poor Impulse Control could result in hasty action that's harmful as often as it can be helpful.

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I finished (more or less) a region of this map I've been working on. Can someone give me some honest thoughts?

>>55360426
The peninsula looks sad. Its even starting to cry.

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I'm having my very first go at GMing inside my own built world for the first time. It's not actually my own world but the cataclysmically far future of a friend's world. In his homebrew the pages of every single religion, myth, legend, fable, story, and conspiracy was blown open flooding the modern day with fantasy. I took this setting and assumed humans fucking ruined /everything/. Killed the planet, killed their gods, destroyed all that was to be theirs with wars and pettiness. The closest analogue might be Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind with a healthy dose of the Command & Conquer Tiberium or Armored Core.

Where do I start beyond the stickied resources? How do I organize my thoughts?

>>55360426
While it might sound like a load of bullshit, I really love your scale.

>>55360626
I feel for it ;-;

>>55360678
Thanks!

Critique?

Proper nouns: Canterloth is a province of Belovis; Hekossus is a dark not!greek place, Lofgond is vaguely vandal/goth/frank/lombard what-have-you.

>Canterloth
>Banner: A red seraph centered over a dark blue background
>Densely wooded hills dominate most of Centerloth’s topography, and only a few valleys and clearings in-between sustain effective fields for farming. The towers of little grey castles peek over pine trees, sometimes surrounded by small villages and sometimes completely alone amongst the dark forests. At night, strange howls and gibbers can be heard outside of warmly lit keeps and cottages whose stained glass windows obscure the people of Canterloth from whatever lurks outside, and they from them. They know the brave knights of Canterloth protect the lands from whatever wanders in, whether they be the vicious nightmare monsters from neighboring Hekossus and Lofgond, or from Canterloth’s own deep caves.
>The isolation offered by Canterloth’s landscape makes it an attractive location for many monasteries as well. Guarded by templars in blue and red, the monks share the usual quiet with the rest of the province in their careful study. Faith in the one true god, Orthiff—as in all of Belovis—means everything to the people of Canterloth. Their zeal protects them from the treacherous nights, and unites the fiefs together despite their relative seclusion from one another.

What's a good alternate term for a magocracy? I don't feel that it rolls off the tongue in the same way that say plutocracy or democracy does.
For reference, I'm imagining a civil war between loyalist monarchists who believe in the royal family's "Mandate of Heaven" against something like a cabal of magical university deans or a royal mage corps gone rogue, basically a group of magical supremacists.

>>55360917
How are you pronouncing it? Because flibbing it a bit and using may-jah-cracy rolls off the tongue quite well. More like May + Jacques with the last bit cut off.

>>55360973
I was saying "Ma-goh-cracy", but the soft g definitely does wonders for the feel of it. If I can't think of anything else I'll go for that. Thanks.

>>55361117
Thaumacracy
Just look for the root words for magic and made and -cracy

>>55351520
I can't stop laughing at the idea of writing the same line of code 20 times instead of using a loop.

>>55360426
I love the style. How did you make this? I'm trying to find a good way to make / generate custom maps that look like good old maps (sepia or whatever with that hand drawn goodness).