These threads have been being posted few and far between. Let's turn things around.
Post your maps, setting ideas, or setting descriptions that you have already set in stone. Brainstorming is highly encouraged. Post some inspirational art as well!
(Optional Question to start things off): How do I make Orcs far more interesting? Right now my orcs are extremely bland. Honestly I find most Tolkien inspired races to be bland. I really want to include orcs i my setting, but I feel like they serve no purpose other than being raiding antagonists. Help me shake things up with Orcs. I mean really shake things up. I get sick to my stomach at just the thought of having a race like Orcs in my setting serving no purpose other than letting players have more variety.
What is your setting currently like? You can have noble warrior orcs, mongol orcs, shamanistic orcs, or just about anything any other race has with a slightly different flavor.
>>44216497
Personally I make Orcs pig-like which gives some easy traits to give them. They are smart, like to chill in mud or water to cool off, eat anything, love sex, etc.
Also give them some weird religious and cultural beliefs, they wear the skin of their best friends as armor after they die, that sort of thing.
>map I made last year as part of a setting
>characters aren't going to go there for at least another two months
Anyway, orcs. I prefer to have them be "orcs" only to their enemies, who exaggerate a whole lot about how uncivilized and primitive they are because they keep losing to them. Basically what Germans were to ancient Romans or Arabs were to Sassanid Persians. Both of them were known for raids and conquering shit, but they had actual reasons for doing so. For the Germans it was "oh fuck oh fuck there are a billion Huns/Slavs/other Germans behind us ready to shit fury all over us, we gotta move", for the Arabs it was "if we don't raid [neighboring clan] and take their stuff we're gonna have some of our mates starve to death this season" (and later "we can't raid [neighboring clan] anymore because we're all muslim bros now but we still need food in this dry ass desert, let's raid some Persians"). What you need is to find a reason *why* your orcs are raiding antagonists. Once you have that, you can work yourself down into the details of your orc culture.
I want my setting to have werewolves, but I'm unsure whether I should have 1. werewolves as a race of wolfmen who are wolfmen from birth or 2. werewolves people who have been bitten by another werewolf. Which does /tg/ prefer and why?
Mongol orcs seems to be the recent mainstream alternative.
If you want to make something unique, probably not a good idea.
Unless you get super-involved in the deep cultural history of the Mongols beyond pop culture Genghis Khan age Imperial Mongolia and read up on stuff that isn't being done everywhere.
Or just borrow from several cultures and freestyle to make up a more independent culture.
What tools would one use to make a map like this?
>>44217218
>three dimensional space
>2D map
ayy
>>44217253
Yeah, yeah, I know, but what methods are there to make a 3D galaxy map that isn't a massive fucking chore (at least not for your average person)?
I wanna add more pervert myths to my setting. Any ideas? So far I've got goblins being born of an Eladrin rubbing mud in her puss. I wanna get depraved as fuck, like my favourite real world myths.
>>44217300
when you insult the children of God XY you get cursed with ghost tongue that constantly teases your butt hole but never in a satisfying way
>>44217300
>>44217340
d-degenerate...
>>44217537
And it feels so good.
>>44217300
Incestuous stuff is pretty good, but I also like QT fuckboys.
Maybe a myth where a fertile and insatiable god sterilized all his females in his harem so he wouldn't have any children. He also had male members in his harem too, but he didn't bother sterilizing them. One of them got pregnant and eventually birthed a bastards mistake. Maybe this is where Orcs came from, or a race of really manly barbarians, or maybe it was just a single being that was a demigod or whatever.
>>44216977
Depends on if it's a curse or a natural thing.
Still prefer the former either way, even if they change in and out. A wizard, an intelligent wizard, would make a curse that didn't spread like the black plague unless it was specifically meant to do that. Curses are usually meant for specifc people or groups of people, not just 'eh, anybody he bites is fine'. Unless you just hate the world, which I guess that works, kinda.
>>44218374
>>44216977
Yeah going off of this guy's response, don't feel afraid to do neither. I have Warwolves in my setting, warriors transformed by a drug engineered by the finest alchemists in the land. Some Warwolf platoons have gone rogue and now wander the misty highlands as small hunter gatherer tribes just trying to make a living. Some of the Warwolf deserters now work as mercenaries. The Warwolf drug was commonly administered through long exposure to incents and other smokeable products, but it is much rarer and harder to find today. Those who do manage to get their greedy hands on a warwolf pill or joint can ingest it for temporary transformation. Warwolves who mate will breed more Warwolves.
>>44216497
Honestly, I just left orcs out of one of my settings entirely precisely because they didn't really seem to have a proper place in it. I like the classic Tolkien-inspired races fine (said setting of mine still has dwarves, elves, halflings, and various small goblinoids), but I don't think it's really obligatory to have every single one of them in every single setting.
My orcs are basically green mongols. They conquered over 80% of the continent and erased the countless kingdoms that existed, but their leader has just died, he left 8 male heirs, and 12 female heirs, the "empire" is crumbling apart as generals and "nobles" back the claim of one of the heirs, or their own. Meanwhile, insurgencies backed by local subjulgated nobles and foreign powers erode the distant borders of the empire.
>>44217300
You gotta have at least one instance of divine bestiality. A god fucking an animal, a god turning into an animal to fuck a mortal, a god turning into an animal to fuck an animal...
Bonus points if you can somehow top Loki's "male god turns into female animal in order to be fucked by an animal".
>>44216497
I turned my pig-like orcs into a domesticated food source.
>>44216497
When working on races I ask myself these questions:
Q: What role does this race play in this world?
A: My orcs are sociopathic tribal raiders. They play the role of the bad guys, ALWAYS. Specifically, I want intelligent humanoids that are purely evil, and the PCs should not have any moral quandary killing them.
Q: How does this race sustain itself while fulfilling its role?
A: To make orcs beyond redemption, I attributed their existence to one of the worst crimes possible: rape. Orcs are all male, and they reproduce by raiding and enslaving "wives" from other races. These slave-wives do all of the non-military work in orc society, which frees up every orc to dedicating their lives to violent raids and collecting more wives. They're basically a humanoid virus. Orcs literally rely on perpetrating one of the worst crimes to survive as a species. They are evil to the core in that way, which makes them perfect enemies to throw at the PCs.
Another way of phrasing those questions is: What do you want, and how do you justify it in an internally consistent world?
Hope this helped.
Who are the most important people in your world who've died in the last ten years?
>>44216977
Have you considered a voluntary transformation?
DnD 3.5 dragonborn are a race of humanoid dragons. A dragonborn was originally a member of any other race who had made a deal with the dragon god to be "reborn in his image" in exchange for loyal servitude. They lost their original racial traits and gained new ones.
Your wolfmen could be people who worship the wolf god and are blessed in a similar manner.
Food for thought.
>>44218262
Fuck, that's fantastic. I don't even care that my players are definitely gonna think I'm gay.
Orcs in my setting are increasingly rare, they were a bunch of scattered hordes led by Mystics who believed in a sort of eastern philosophy natural order of all things that every Orc had to find their purpose in or be labelled an outcast. They considered themselves apex predators until they went to war with human armies led by leftover elf nobles after a few decades of ceaseless warfare and uneasy truces the human soldiers started to desert and join up with fractured Orc raider groups, eventually the new horde of human outlaws, Orc Mystics, and Orc warriors outnumbered the elves and human armies. Now there's a giant population of half orcs and actual full blooded orcs are rare Druids and spiritual leaders.
>>44220068
>>44218751
The god of beauty turns into a man with plans to fuck and impregnate a beautiful woman who turns out to be a snake made to look like a woman by some weird esoteric god. It would be great to have a bunch of myths about weird gods fucking with each other, culminating in all the lesser gods getting obliterated for their fuckery.
>>44220275
Forgot to write my response to this
>>44220068
The most important people in the setting that have died recently are the two heirs of an incredibly influential dwarf lord who killed each other in a dueling accident now everyone is gunning for the old dwarf so they can create a power vacuum.
>>44220068
Empress Sayphay Caliak, originally Duchess Sayphay of the Duchy of Avalon*, was the husband of the Emperor at the fall of the Aquilonese Empire. When her brother-in-law had her husband killed as the first step towards turning the Empire into a democracy, she, at the age of twenty two, cut her way through the assassins her brother in law had sent to remove her. She escaped to her homeland of Astaria, which had long been a distinct region within the Empire, and forged it into an independent Principality. In the following thirty five years, she ruled it as expertly as anyone could expect, turning Astaria from a mere unit of the Empire to a world power in its own right, rivaling the other remnants of the Former Aquilonese Empire and establishing the social tenets of Matronism that define Astaria's attitude towards the proper role of the state and its people. She is suceeded by her daughter, Princess Arminia Caliak.
(As a note: After the Empire's collapse, Sayphay began referring to herself as a Queen rather than Empress. Following her death and to honor her legacy, her daughter is refusing to take the title of Queen, calling herself a reigning Princess instead)
>>44220354
*Avalon is soon to be renamed, to remove the final connection between this world and IRL mythology.
>>44220283
>Has to be tricked into it by another god making it look like a human woman in order to fuck a snake
Loki is laughing at your pantheon's prudishness. If you want to hold a candle to the depravity of real-world mythology, you gotta have your gods fucking snakes not because they were tricked into it, but because they look at it and say, "Mmm, yeah, that is a damn fine snake, I'm totally gonna hit that."
Alright, thank you for all your great responses, I definitely got some ideas on how to incorporate Orcs into my setting.
Now, just to keep the ball rolling, What sort of question would you like to open the next thread with? Not that this thread is dying, I just want to get some new questions if I plan to regularly try and revive worldbuilding threads.
I'll probably keep posting these threads and get some better images, maybe make it a world-building thread general, maybe throw in a regular pastbin or a link to a suptg archive, I have no idea, but I really miss worldbuilding threads and I'd like to regularly keep them going.
Maybe suggest some world building writer's prompts? Also some questions that can sustain an entire thread or serve as an opener for the next.
We should have worldbuilding competitions with like vague prompts or a few details the setting has to have and whoever can incorporate it the best wins.
>>44220786
That sounds really cool. I'm not that great at writing though, we'd need a writefag.
>Your setting has to include:
>Magic as radiation
>5 sub species of human
>Gnomes that serve a critical purpose to the world
>and a reason as to why the Orcs are wandering into the Eastern forests and killing themselves.
>Response must be as original as possible.
I think it might work. Could be pretty cool.
while i may not want to go to the lengths of an entire LANGUAGE for my world just yet, the science and history behind languages is something i'd like to at least pry into a bit.
like, how do i best avoid things like using words that haven't been invented yet throughout history or probably wouldn't have if it wasn't in our world? i believe LotR confronted this once with potatoes being "taters" but i find it very hard to think of other examples in literature or anything else for that matter.
>>44220873
Just responded to you in the other thread re: Amber and Electricity
>>44220454
I agree with this. My setting has mortals act like this sometimes too, the most horny people like animals. Half human animal hybrids are relatively common for that reason.
>>44220668
Personally the best but most vague questions involve magic. Like what is the limit of a magic system, or who can do it. Those questions cam be answered by basically everyone, where as not everyone has orcs in a setting, for example.
>>44220786
I like this idea, but the criteria for which is 'best' which probably just come to common consensus.
How would you guys introduce to /tg/ a multiverse setting you've worldbuilt with minimal backlash?
>>44220966
I'd say post it, pick out the actual constructive criticism, ignore shills, then repost it later with changes and improvements.
>>44220895
thank you.
>>44220454
I was trying to reason it out, but I guess gods aren't really reasonable.
>>44216497
http://goblinpunch.blogspot.mx/2014/11/god-hates-orcs.html
>>44220994
Where to begin? A story post? Or a text dump with a technical/historical bent?
>>44216497
this is a favorite interpretation of mine; https://plus.google.com/+BenjaminBaugh/posts/gPKAuyJHTTj
>>44216977
perhaps have 2 be the origin for the species, but also have them be able to breed true, so there's areas that are full of "natural" werewolves
>>44220037
I have nothing against All Evil Orcs, but that is just awful
>>44216497
The Orcs in my setting are more east-Asian themed, but physically the same as they normally are; green skinned, tusks, large and LARGE.
They are still prone to rages and bloodlust (the God that created them is the War God), but most have learnt to control it, with gardening (contemplation groves, bonsai, that sort of shit), a form of meditation that they use to center themselves at needed times, and artistic pursuits (making of things, not really 'art' per se, smithing, woodworking, etc.)
Ruled over by a Shogun, who is the greatest warrior/tactician of the time.I really like the thought of big, green, ugly orcs wearing the traditional straw hats and farming in rice paddy fields
>>44216497
>How do I make Orcs far more interesting?
I'd make them misunderstood. Not in the sense that they're actually good and honorable, or that they're the real victims and did nothing wrong.
More in the sense that people actually don't know or understand much about them, because they're actually a rather distant threat to most people and they aren't likely to have ever even seen one up close. Also, encounters with a foreign military force are unlikely to give anyone a clear impression of an entire culture, and even humans have their barbarous tribes.
The common depiction of dumb marauding Orcs only sort of applies to their barbarians, and a lot of the Orcs are actually a far more dire and intelligent threat than most people properly realize. Many of their cultures are actually -more- technologically advanced and industrialized than many human kingdoms, though they still have heavy military leanings.
They're kind of like the Morlock equivalent in a way. To them, the surface races are a bunch of weak and stupid livestock, to be put to work and utilized as they see fit while they work towards claiming the surface world for their gods and empires. They're still willing to trade and make deals with surface dwellers if it works to their advantage, but they'll never see them as equals.
While their attitude towards surface dwellers is rather callous, outright sadism is a bit less common. They're fine with doing things like vivisecting humans as part of an experiment or just as a teaching demonstration, but they usually don't torture humans for fun. There are still plenty who would, as sadists are likely to be found almost anywhere, but it's just not their social norm.
I'd generally portray them as Lawful Evil, with Lawful being the main focus.
Long ago, all humans lived beneath the sea. However, some people preferred the surface and abandoned living underwater permanently. As a consequence, they were stripped of their god-given protection called "Ena" which allowed them to breathe underwater. Over time, the rift between the denizens of the sea and of the surface widened, although contact between the two peoples still existed.
>>44221329
>I have nothing against All Evil Orcs, but that is just awful
What's wrong with it?
>>44220037
I saw you in an earlier thread, and screencapped it as a good example of how to do an Always Chaotic Evil race.
Of course, a lot of people don't think 'mass institutionalized sex slavery' is appropriate at the gaming table, like >>44221329
>>44221712
Always chaotic evil is what I was going for, and if people are repulsed by the orc way of life, then I guess I've succeeded in bringing orcs back to their evil grimy roots. Thanks.
>>44220068
The One True God.
I really like the concept of a world where the gods were real at one point, but have all died/left to other realms, or a world where magic was real and fucking stopped working one day.
How do I make a cool magic system that makes sense and isn't broken as all hell mechanically?
>>44222013
everyone has it, it's tied to madness, excessive use deteriorates the body and/or mind, etc.
One thing I like to play with in my setting is monocultural races. They tend to get a bad rap, but really I think the problem with monocultural races is simply that people usually don't bother to actually think the implications of the concept through, rather just lazily slapping on "all X are Y" and calling it a day.
In my setting, all races are ultimately created (either by a god or by a powerful mortal), and thus have a distinctive inborn sense of racial identity, solidarity, and purpose. There's room for variation of individual personalities within this, but there are clear molds into which each race consistently fits, even when two settlements develop independently for a long time. They may form separate clans, cities, and kingdoms, which may compete from time to time, but generally different groups of the same race get along pretty well.
But there are a few exceptions to all that. Humans and goblinoids, alone among the intelligent races, are not deliberate creations of any god or mortal. They arose spontaneously out of an earth-shattering magical cataclysm at the end of the previous age, and they lack the sense of purpose and solidarity the created races have. They behave, well, "realistically", as we understand it: Developing all manner of ever-evolving cultures, dividing themselves up into an endless array of factions over any and every difference, fighting amongst themselves over their disagreements even to the point of outright war, etc.
The other races find this absolutely terrifying. To them, humans and goblinoids are unsettlingly chaotic and unpredictable, exceedingly difficult to get a handle on, and their rampant factionalization and ensuing feuds comes across as downright sociopathic. Have they no solidarity with their fellows, no sense of kinship?
On the flip side, humans and goblinoids are creeped out by the other races' uncanny consistency and ability to get along with their own kind. It comes across rather Stepford Wife-ish.
>>44222013
A magic system can be all kinds of things, so to answer this question, we must first ask another; what makes a magic system?
A magic system has a number of attributes which are observable simply as being one thing or another, such as a system being 'hard', in other words, inflexible and rigid, or 'soft', as in, variable. The prominent attributes of magic systems would be their reliability and consistency, as well as potency.
The only way to avoid an actually broken system, should your players be intent on power gaming, is to make it inconsistent, unreliable, and impotent by its very nature. It needs to be something universal, yet wild, like the weather, a force of nature, unpredictable, and dangerous to tamper with.
But, that frankly sounds like a shitty system, to be wholly honest.
>>44222013
>How do I make a cool magic system that makes sense
Give it some kind of consistent internal logic, and make sure to think through the implications well to make sure it doesn't lead somewhere crazy. Run the idea by other people for feedback and revise as necessary to make it more sensible. What makes sense to you might not be as obvious to another person's perspective, and about the only way to check for that is to ask for another person's perspective.
>and isn't broken as all hell mechanically?
Learn how to properly assess value for cost within the particular dice and character-building mechanics and gameplay expectations of your system, and make sure the value:cost ratio for your magic is comparable to that for your nonmagic stuff. A lot of the details here are going to depend on the specifics of your system, but a few general red flags to watch for in any system:
Instant win buttons. Anything that effectively instantly solves what's meant to be a major challenge should be treated with caution. They can still exist, but should be tightly limited (particularly in ways that help prevent them being used to short-circuit a climactic boss fight or the like), and most importantly there should be comparably awesome things available to non-casters at a comparable cost.
Vast flexibility: If you have Ability A that does one thing, and Ability B that costs the same as Ability A and offers a whole range of possible things you can do with it, all of which are comparable to Ability A's power, that's a pretty sure sign that Ability B is overpowered (or Ability A is underpowered, or some combination of both). This same principle can apply on the broader scale of whole character builds; for instance, if your spellcaster can have spells that completely obviate the need for a particular other kind of character, and also spells that can do all sorts of other things, and has the resources to use them, that's a problem.
>>44222245
Rather than whether a system can be broken in the hands of a player bent on powergaming, the better standard to use for making sure your system isn't broken would be that it takes actual concerted effort to break (ie, you're very unlikely to just stumble into gamebreaking options/combos unintentionally). And ideally that the extent and ease with which it can be broken is comparable to that for other kinds of characters possible in the system.
>>44222245
Actually, I kind of like it, since it would give me the authority to do literally anything with magic that I wanted to within the context of the setting.
>creating creatures that are available to roleplay
>can't come up with a good name for said creatures
Every damn time. On a positive note, I did discover augury on my quest for names, which is definitely something I'll keep in mind as I continue to build this world.
>>44222818
One thing I do sometimes is look up words related to the creature in various languages and see if one of them would be decent as a base for a name. For instance, I named a slimefolk race I once brewed up "Blenno", from the Greek "blennos", simply meaning "slime".
>>44216977
Why not read through some actual werewolf legends and folklore? You might find some great inspiration in terms of how they work as living creatures.
I've been playing with the concept of a relatively low-fantasy setting that suddenly comes into contact with Immortal outsiders bringing with them godlike power. Seizing control of a dying human dynasty and introducing the magic and technology required to regain and eventually surpass its historical supremacy, this Empire soon comes to cover the known world.
The players would be citizens of this state, or inhabitants of one of its many countries or colonies.
I like the idea of starting a campaign off with one of the Immortals dying mysteriously, which begins the PCs adventure into finding out how this is possible and discovering a great many things about their would-be 'benefactors'.
I wanted to distance myself from traditional Tolkien influences, so I also decided to cut out elves, dwarves and most other humanoids.
>>44222818
Just make up a word that sounds neat and feels like it would belong to that kind of creature.
When you hear a name, you probably have a vague, tonal/textural feeling from the way you would not only interpret the sound but the appearance of the assembled letters, right?
Like for example, you don't assume names like 'Peloi-th'wag' and 'Hasel' to be referring to the same creature, right? Furthermore, just from their names, you'd have a vague feeling for what they're like, simply from the tone an texture of their names.
How would you make it so that someone from our current reality got sucked into another, in a way that isn't dreadfully overdone or overtly cliché?
Inversely, what clichéd method of it do you actually like?
>>44223234
I've always liked the swirling magical portal, cliche as it is.
>>44223260
I like to think of ways to justify why portals appear where you want them and conveniently, instead of in the middle of the vast open vacuum of space
Something like, "Your planet and the planet on the other realm aligned in terms of universal location, and it won't happen again for another 26 million years, and you won't be tossed into space based on how you've been moving relative to whatever anchor point the universe has because you're tethered to Earth's gravity and not the universe itself."
And sometimes I like to just tell my players it's fucking magic and it just fucking works
>>44223295
Or at the very least, that Earth would be as amazing as it has in every other respect (unlikely position, unlikely natural satellite, unlikely materials, etc etc.), probably have Magic shit in a magic setting.
>>44223295
>>44223746
Forgot the rest of my post.
I always figured portals would have to open in a place with "lotsa magic". Ley Line connections, ancient burial ground, mystical forests, inside the Gateway Arch, etc etc. I figure there's a whole lot more of those on Earth than, say, the empty space between here and Proxima Centauri.
>>44220390
You might want to chanhe varangia too then...
>>44220037
My orcs reproduce by raping sows
>>44221382
That's actually really cool. A combination of ritual and artistic pursuits to give them something to focus on apart from violence and destruction. You could even tie in concepts of honour and dishonour into it; maybe giving too far in to your destructive urges might lead to a warrior becomign a ronin or commiting sepukku?
Also, the idea of a load of huge orcs engaged in a tea ceremony is hilarious.
>>44223789
Are we talking like, regular pig sows?
Because that is pretty damn Orc-tier.
So I've decided to make a part/campaign section of a setting.
>Benedores - Land of Metal and Mud
>Landscape is filled with huge rolling hills and prairies, light grazing land everywhere
>However the grass is poisonous to any large herbivore that eats it
>Smaller herbivores like donkeys can live here, but horses and larger cannot. This means that while the landscape is hugely beneficial to mounted combat it simply doesn't work.
>Donkeys and alpacas are hugely important to the economy of this land without larger animals like bison or horses, and are both considered noble animals.
>During the Spring and Summer months the land is wonderfully fertile and beautiful but during the late winter it monsoons, creating huge swamps and fields of mud.
>Benedors is primarily made up of humans, orcs, and trolls. The orcs here are the most cosmopolitan of the orcs; much more willing and comfortable around other races.
>Benedors is a land roughly united in culture, religion, and statehood but only very shakily. It is a land of 5-8 city states of various size and power that are somehow all together while still fighting among themselves a bit.
>Maces are used exclusively for training and for gladiator combat, swords and bladed weapons are used almost exclusively for prairie combat.
>Great schools of gladiators come here to study and fight, as well as train. Some of the best fighting techniques can be learned here.
>Culturally; the nation favors an isolationist approach, as no other nation can march their horses in here to conquer it.
>Benedors has a few traveling warriors; very Ronin-like guys who follow a religious warrior code which forces them to wear many face wrappings, each has a name and a purpose.
>Magic springs are a common element of folklore, and springs for aging, love, prowess in battle, seeing the future, luck, etc.
>Foot races are common, messengers run marathons to deliver the news, most marriages are sealed by a cross country stroll
What do you think?
>>44223789
Do they enjoy it or do it just as a means of reproduction? Are they p'orcs? Do they farm pigs just so they can eat the males and breed with the sows?
>>44225483
It's neat sounding, but I think you need go into more detail as to why the vegetation is poisonous to horses but not donkeys. They're very closely related and can generally eat the same things. You said the size difference was the factor, but how is that exactly?
>>44228020
Cont:
Perhaps you should have the vegetation be poisonous to ALL herbivores. Maybe it's too rich in heavy metals and thus toxic. The natives have to rely on very large breeds of dogs to perform the functions of beasts of burden. The natives export their metals and import cured meats to sustain the dogs.
Instead of horse cavalry, chariots pulled by two great mastiffs are utilized.
During the muddy season, people rig up mud sleds pulled by 6-8 dogs.
Giant fluffy dogs are shaved so their fur can be used to make clothing.
EVERYONE LOVES DOG.
I have a setting where the world doesn't really follow the laws of physics. There aren't even planets, just spirals of land floating through a seemingly infinite space.
My BBEG is the embodiment of physics, and he's extremely angry that he's been disrespected.
Is that too corny?
>>44216977
wolfmen who are wolfmen from birth. Their origin as a species stems from a curse.As a species they have no females, they must reproduce by having sex with human females, which will yield either a human female, or a a wolfman cub. This is what causes them to be hunted by men, rather than a moonlight inspired curse of bloodlust. (#thinly-veiled-bestiality)
>>44217300
I like in world of warcraft, dryads and centuars are both offspring of the god Cenarius. I like the idea of a sexually overactive forest god boinking a bunch of animals that results in all the species that have a half human body.
>>44228121
why not just have a setting where everything is dog?
>>44228281
sounds neat, but maybe better represented by saying there is no strong gravitational force, or the laws that govern gravity are different, Saying that "physics" is different includes things like inertia or electron interaction, which makes life very complicated.
There is local gravity, but never enough to pull mass together and form planets or solar systems. The space equivalent of an archipelago. Instead of suns you have ribbons of glowing plasma that give life sustaining light, spiraling around and between all the space islands.
Your BBEG is an avatar of a fallen god, a sort of paladin for strong gravitational force. He wants to bring order back by forming everything back into ordered spheres and regular solar systems.
>>44221235
>http://goblinpunch.blogspot.mx/2014/11/god-hates-orcs.html
This is such a cool concept, I'm gonna pitch it to my DM because he is still Worldbuilding.
>>44228489
>why not just have a setting where everything is dog?
Humans are shepherds.
Orcs are mastiffs.
Halflings and gnomes are toy breeds.
Dwarves are pit bulls.
Elves arecats.
It's perfect.
>>44228489
Because dogs are fucking retarded.
But the big all-cat setting is also pretty shit...
I like your thinking.
>>44228489
>a setting where everything is dog
What if it's a plane or country where the only settlers were mages and their dogs and a high background level of magic? Dogs don't have the will or intelligence to control magic, and end up mutating much faster than humans do due to their shorter reproductive cycle, creating a new dog-based ecosystem.
>Your BBEG is an avatar of a fallen god
>paladin for strong gravitational force
>bring order back by forming everything back into ordered spheres and regular solar systems
My sides are in fucking orbit
>>44221235
>Orcs believe that every time a husband and wife kiss within view of heaven, somewhere a child is stricken with a killing disease. Every time a warchief publicly shows mercy, an innocent is torn apart by wolves.
the only part i have a problem with. isn't this kind of paradoxical if they thrive on death and violence? like, if this was true, wouldn't the orcs be having huge orgies outside?
>>44231532
I believe it is supposed to be more indicative of a fatalist viewpoint if anything. If Orcs don't fight and die, then the Gods will punish people anyway, because the Gods hate them.
>>44216497
>How do I make Orcs far more interesting?
I've always thought that species or races in a fantasy setting work best when they can emulate or personify some kind of general theme or narrative in one way or another.
To grossly simplify it: Tolkein used Orcs as a (somewhat shallow at times) narrative construct to represent everything that he personally saw was evil in british/english industry- they were a reference to the horrors he had seen of the mechanized conflict during the world wars and so forth.
Orcs weren't dumb, but they didn't build anything beautiful and only invented things of destruction & conflict and so forth.
I think it's easier to make a race work when you can start to combine simple themes and work them into more complex combinations of ideas, cultures and ecology to create something really great and interesting.
I'll give a condensed example from my own work: Orcs are adaptable, industrialistic, aggressive and are very self-directed towards what their individual cultures consider to be "progress". Orcs from a narrative perspective are written around the pros and cons of "evil" colonialism and industrialism in a way: Orcs mass produce cheap and inexpensive arms and weapons, Orcs burn coal to power machines of war and development, Orcs build dams, flood grounds & turn the lands the colonize into swamps for their own use. They're very much a people who's aggression and bloodlust is directed by their own population density; constantly looking to advance and progress their societies status, no matter the cost.
Orcs are not wholly evil as they are mere beings of flesh and blood, but they're pigs and they have a war machine to run and can take this too far very quickly.
Pic related here is actually the Orc Minion's panel from the CYOA I've been working on for /tg/.
If you think my art or ideas are worth anything; I've also started putting together a tumblr strictly for the world building for my setting: http://spaghettiart.tumblr.com/
More orcs!
>>44228020
The reason has to do with the size of the animal, or perhaps how large herbivores digest differently then smaller ones. I personally want there to be a few goats and donkeys, but no horses.
Actually, there are a few horses, but these are the special and magical meat eating horses. Ghoul Horses, they are called.
The few horses there are,
>>44240627
Fuck, Kingdom Under Fire's orcs and ogres designs are awesome. They were my own inspiration.
Let's say Wizards were only capable of coming from certain bloodlines or special races/a few rare individuals born with the talent.
How would this impact wizard schooling and magical research if this was the case? You can't go somewhere to be a Wizard unless you are already born with the power.
>>44241545
The Ghoul Horse thing kid makes me think they haunt battlefields and graveyards. Have you thought about a nameplay on the Mares of Diomedes?
>>44243432
I never heard of the Mare of Diomedes before, huh. Pretty cool though.
And yes, I have no doubt that a traveling party will see one peacefully grazing, not on grass but on flesh, in the aftermath of a battle. It's rider may be dead or missing, but the horse's mouth will be stained red.
>>44220037
>how do you justify it
This, I think, is one of the things that many fantasy writers, both professional and hobbyists, gets wrong. You don't have to justify everything. Fantasy is grounded in myth, and one of the things that gives a myth its qualities is that there aren't answers to everything, and plenty of things are left ambiguous.
It's a good thing to give yourself most of the answers, and then only give about parts of it to your readers or players, as that creates a sense of realness, a sense that everything fits together even though the pieces that we have aren't directly connected to one another. But even then, you don't have to answer exactly everything, and my experience is that as soon as a writer has made up some little bit trivia about his world he instantly wants to share it with everybody, ruining any sense of wonder and mystery it once might have had.
>>44225483
That's pretty good, i will steal some of it for my setting if you don't mind.
>>44244182
Of course not.
Also, in case you are interested, I also added in a note about their religious beliefs.
The Plains people of Benedores find walking a necessary part of life, and do it a lot since they don't have horses to help carry them around. As such, many of their mythic figures are travelers who have traveled unnaturally far and wide with what tools they've been given; just their feet.
Additionally; believers of their religion think that when a person dies, they must walk to their afterlife. This takes the same exact number of steps as the number of steps a person has taken in their own life, meaning that those who travel a lot are considered especially holy like messengers, who are actively making their trip to the afterlife longer in service to their community.
>>44216497
I had an idea for multiple races being descended from some older races and humans being one of the latter in my magitek setting.
> Elf Subraces
All of them are descendent of the ancient Elven Empire that existed in the past.
High Elves directly inherited part of the lands of their ancestor's ancient empire and are the most magically oriented of the subraces.
Wood Elves were once a number of colonies in the jungle lands after the Elven Empire fell. They have treants they pilot like Evas and are all druidic South Americans.
Dark Elves were artificially created to be elite warriors even by Elven standards. They rebelled after their creators used them as cheap, magically enslaved workforce after they secured military superiority for the Empire. Are also responsible for its fall due to their uprising (it was an anal annihilation). Morally-wise, they are mostly neutral (unless you are a High Elf), and just trying to conquer the northern wildlands and make their kingdom strong. They are also meritocratic and love to have strong ale for drinking, thus are bros with Dwarves.
Steel Elves are the oddest subrace. Once dudes and gals living in mining colonies, they retreated underground after they lost contact with their Empire and when the winters became Ice-Age tier of inhospitable. A freak alchemical accident changed them when the next generation of their kids was born with metallic skin and eyes. They are 3.5 meters tall and can shape steel like clay with a touch. Other Elves see them with a bit of disturbance. Are bros with Dwarves.
>>44244622
> Dwarf Subraces
Although the burly, bearded dudes come in a multitude of cultures ranging from magitek not!Vikings/Danish/Swedes, not!Irish/Scots, not!Mongols, not!Tibetans, not!Macedonians, they also have two subraces. Once an Empire that lived in one place, now scattered all over the world due to a cataclysm and a titan that is responsible for said scattering in order to save them from extinction.
The Halflings were once Dwarves, but due to living in areas that were saturated with nature magic, they lost their burliness (but not their beards...most of them). They are agile and fast, and usually tend to be great farmers, but also guerilla specialists and good at druidic magic.
The Gnomes were also once Dwarves, but due to living in mountains with magically saturated ores, their intellect grew at the price of losing their Dwarvish physique (and most of them also lost their beards). They are however no different in terms of customs or tradition to their burly and bearded cousins, yet they do take Dwarven magitek a step further.
>>44216497
My idea is for an early bronze age setting, loosely paralleling ancient Mesopotamia and central Asia, in terms of geography and political structure. Lots of local Kings ruling over their immediate city state, each city effectively having it's own local cult.
The major civilized races inhabiting this world would be elves, humans, orcs, and lizard-men.
Elves inhabit the central river valleys of this world (notTigres and notEuphrates basin). Their cities are the oldest and largest in the world. They live a long time, ~700 or 800 years at the far end, though averaging between 400 and 500, for the more common elf, because ye-ancient time life expectancy. They have a strong association with the material forces of the earth, and this is reflected by their skin color which covers the spectrum of earth tones. Slate-grays, clay browns and reds, chalk and alabaster whites. A few have more exotic pigmentation reflecting rarer gemstones or precious metals. In terms of personality, elves typically lead very focused lives. Valuing stability, order, and routine over excitement and adventure. Elven craftsmen have hundreds of years to refine and master their given trade, and a perfectionist mindset that usually ensures they spend everyday doing exactly that. Consequently Elven craftsmanship is unmatched across the known world. As a direct result of their long lives and centralized societies, elves typically have large families and their cities routinely suffer from overpopulation.
Humans live along the western coastline, in more recent, but prosperous and thriving merchant cities. They originally sailed in from the western sea to settle the notLevanant coast. They're humans, not much else to say. Not as populous as elves, but their cities are a lot more cosmopolitan, attracting lots of immigrants and adventurers from all cultures and races.
>>44245158
> Draconian descendants
The Draconians were literally the first race to appear and create an Empire that made the Elven and Dwarven ones look...average. Yet due to the same cataclysm that scattered the Dwarves, the Draconians were unlucky. Most of their numbers were wipe out from magical storms and the large part of those that survived were withered in brutal fights against demonic legions from another plane. Their flying Empire fell down into the heart of the jungle where, in a bit of trying to preserve their accomplishments and traditions, uplifted the Lizardmen and mixed with them.
The Lizardmen are the descendants of said Draconians. They are all Aztec guys with magitek Shrine Robots. Some of them in each generation is born with Draconic blood so strong, that at one point will look closer to his ancestors (wings, fire breath and many other magical stuff).
Kobolds in turn are descendants of the Lizardmen that replace enormous strength with speed and agility. Like their cousins, they too can have individuals with Draconic physique. Some of them are born with feathers and have natural shamanic capabilities. They fight cannibalistic, psychotic pygmy gnomes.
>>44245363
Orcs live to the north, in notAnatolia and the steppe and highlands beyond that. They're fairly typical of Orcs these days. Short lived, 30-40 year lifespan, 50 at most. Bigger, stronger than other races. They aren't particularly prone to raiding, but many of their tribes aren't above it either. They mostly live in small, scattered herding communities though. Some of their move visionary chieftains went on to found great cities closer to the lands of humans and elves. Because of their great strength and constitution Orcs are actually quite adept at construction and stone work. They like to build unnecessarily massive and imposing stone structures and statuary. So while their cities are the youngest in the world, they are also among the most impressive. Many Orcs have taken to selling their labor talents, forming bands or parties of traveling laborers, and hiring themselves out to other city states and kingdoms.
Lizard-men live in the sand washed deserts of notEgypt and/or notArabia, and in the jungles south of there. Lizard-men are distinctive from the other races in that they seem to have no natural lifespan. Their oldest kings and priests are some thousands of years old. However, due to their physiology they are able to enforce strict control of their population growth and breeding, so they don't suffer from the same overpopulation that elves do. Their society is also strictly regimented, and Lizard-men are taught to value and respect their place in the social order. They're born in large clutches or broods, a dozen or a few dozen at a time, depending on the demand for labor, or soldiers.
Besides their architecture, which is minimalist, but imposing (very heavily playing the ancient Egyptian flavor here) Lizard-men don't really engage in any crafts or artistry, these needs are filled by their large population of slaves, who they capture or buy from all other races.
>>44245666
Dwarves are present in this setting, but really fill out the role more traditionally given to Orcs. They're savage hill people, whose only major interaction with other races is raiding and looting. They do still love to dig, but mostly through dirt, not stone. They're very effective at setting up tunnels to ambush their victims. They're almost universally reviled by the other races, not just for their raiding, but also for their cannibalistic practices. They eat both their enemies, and their own dead, with widely varying degrees of ritual practice incorporated.
The only 'civilized' Dwarves are the small communities that have moved into some of the more receptive human cities. Living in mostly closed off enclaves or ghettos, and relying on the more industrious merchants who have managed to overcome the Dwarven 'stigma'
>>44223234
80's movie style. Magical move ticket, stealing the wrong thing from a mystical pawn show, falling down an open manhole cover with no other explanation of how this magically transported them given, effectively hand waving the whole thing so you can get on with the story. Just straight up kidnapped by the local wizard.
Are there any particular rules or laws that a group of mercenaries mech pilots might adhere to? I'm trying to create a kind of 'code of ethics'
>>44223234
Personally I love the gateway hubs dotting the land. Have a bunch of them in a variety of places from in a city, under guard or out in some plains or in a dungeon.
They don't even have to work, some could be in disrepair due to not receiving maintenance or just vandalism. I think the idea is cool, plus there's a few things you can do with them both gameplay and story-wise with it.
>>44246853
Depends on the setting.
>Are parts/fuel hard to come by?
If yes, the probably would focus on preserving enemy mechs during battle as good as possible in order to be able salvage them afterwards.
>Are they just piloting them via a stick/ something similar or is it some kind of mindlink, 40k-style?
If it is the later they might form a cult based on it or go to greater lengths to preserve their mech in order to protect themselves from pain/madness etc. they are exposed to when switching.
>How do they fuel the mechs?
Do they burn gasoline or run on nuclear fusion? Maybe they have a codex to refuel the mech that is running the lowest on fuel first. Maybe they duel unarmed, with strict rules in order not to kill each other, without their mechs to determine who gets to fuel up first.
>Do they need to stay somewhere specific to maintain their mechs?
Can the pilots repair and refuel the mechs themselves, do they need in any way others to keep functioning? If so they probably have rules who they protect or at least not attack.
I guess this would be the thread to ask in.
So along with all the familiar races I'm trying to put in a couple unique ones into my world, even if they just idle in the background and noone ever plays them.
I've based a couple of them off of some I read in pdf (it may have been more than one) like a year ago. But I cannot find it again.
The races I recalled reading about were
>a race made material light
>a race so closely tied with ghosts that they have to concentrate inorder to act with the physical world
>halfling(or gnome)/fairy cross breed that could change size.
>half-nymph
There were more but those are the ones I remember. I'm hoping some kind anon may know of them so I can shamelessly steal them properly.
>>44248505
The setting takes inspiration from the Front Mission series, Venus Wars in some designs and Ace Combat for the sort of Strange Real world
Parts for repair are relatively common as mechs are the go-to design for most military vehicles. I hadn't really thought about fuel but for the sake of simplification i'm gonna say an ore isotope fuels a small nuclear reactor. Feed rods of the refined stuff in = get power
Piloting is similar to the LandMate system from Appleseed where pilot movement is duplicated one to one with the mech. Nerve linking is in its infancy but some PMCs have started using it to improve reaction and better communicate between teams without fear of being tapped but still the tech is very crude and involves being literally plugged into a machine making ejection almost impossible in combat.
Most groups don't have a fixed building and are more inclined towards temporary base camps or in some cases a specially adapted transport vehicles that serve as mobile bases. I think like most heavy vehicles they'd have a cadre of mechanics and tech support specialists helping with repairs and the general day to day maintenance so I suppose a mandate would be declaring ground crew as universal non-combatants (non-combatant and civilian casualties are generally frowned upon as sloppy and unprofessional work)
Busy setting up a framework for a world, mostly just the cosmological rules.
The thing I've worked out the most for now is the nature of Gods.
Basically, Gods are the patron saints of civilisations, similar to the Master Builder of the Thief setting.
Instead of having Gods that rule oer certain aspects of the world, they are attributed aspects that makes life as a community possible.
There are Gods of the Hearth, Hospitality, Walls, Borders, Law, Trade, Craftmanship, Roads, the Harvest, the Hunt etc etc etc.
Many Gods are worshipped under different names from place to place, or even attributed different aspects, depending on what the specific culture values. A nomadic society would place more emphasis on Gods of Travel, possibly even worshipping a specific God of Herding, while a coastal trade hub would focus on Gods of Seafaring and Commerce.
As such, there are no Gods of nature, but I think of having animistic spirits inhabitting the deep wilderness.
>>44250481
Sounds much like a Greek/Shinto hybrid. I like it!
Where do people live in mountainous areas? Just valleys and plateaus?
>>44217253
>>44217286
Actually, galaxies are pretty flat across most of their area. You're not losing a whole lot of information by looking straight onto the face of one. If you wanted you could list or color-code the "elevations" of all the landmarks, but the difference will probably only be a small fraction of the distance you travel in the other two dimensions.
>>44217300
Never let your players know what most of them actually are; just include oblique references to them. Sort of like how you can only read amusingly incomplete snippets of The Lusty Argonian Maid.
>>44250585
Not a whole lot to do on a rocky slope unless you build a terrace farm or something.
>>44218262
That is genuinely the kind of stuff I would expect in a real-world mythology.
>>44218262
How manly are these Barbarians?
>>44250709
What about grazing?
I just had the most amazing two hour conversation with my worldbuilding partner, where we took turn mapping out a tiny conflict between two high dukes of a single nation on a continent on our world.
It will have close to no impact on anything, but damn was it fun.
Just a recommendation for world building- if you want more realistic countries, y'all should read Guns, Germs, and Steel. It's not a terribly long read at 400ish pages, but it explains a lot about why certain societies grew where they did. At the very least, it'll provide more info as to how things like mountains, rivers, and islands affect development. With a few adjustments, one could even make the basic ideas work for dwarves, elves, and other sentient things.
>>44250926
Nigga it sounds like they're more than just your worldbuilding partner.
>>44250940
Ignore this anon.
That book is considered shit-tier for a reason. It's overhyped oversensationalised oversimplified conjecture and pop-history.
>>44250984
Like, because of the 69ing?
>>44251111
No, mostly because of the way the stars shone in your eyes as those rainbow-coloured words gushed out of your computer in a multicoloured vomit of captivated enthusiasmIwishIhadaworldbuildingpartnerohGodwhydon'tIhaveaworldbuildingpartner
>>44250082
Maybe do a combination of business guidlines and some sort of chivalric code then? Buisness for the confinements of battles as well as when they are allowed and when not, chivalric code for the actual fighting.
Something along the lines of "only fight when you are hired to do so, no battles because of provocations, no unnecessary kills or brutal weaponry, etc"
This would maintain an overall businessheavy orientation whilst explaining stuff like sparing staff.
Have you fought about what would happen if a group goes against these rules?
>>44221705
Rape.
>>44250579
Aztec religion comes to mind
Been wondering this for a while, and OP's pic reminded me. What is the benefits of having one bow arm so much longer than the other?
>>44251352
I like the idea of a kind of code of honour, maybe something akin to pirates. My idea for those that go against these ethics would be blacklisting by some organisations and potentially targeted by other groups or police agencies. (maybe even some kind of elite enforcement agency)
I am also considering how PMCs and mercenary units would be considered law wise.
Would they retain some rights from certain laws or be treated the same as spies and be exempt from any protection international law might offer?
>>44250926
So when's the second date?
So I'm running with this 'Gods as planets' concept to include the whole universe as being hugely magical, alien, and divine. Instead, all of the stellar bodies are gods or powerful entities like Gods.
The planets are Gods. The Sun is not a God but it is where all the demons are kept, so you can think of it like a hell-god. The constellations are Gods, asteroids are traveling minor gods. Moons are defeated gods, shackled and castrated. Nebula is either space pollen, mysterious gods, or pure mana just floating around, haven't thought of that yet.
This is why, in this setting, people can replace 'By the Gods' with 'By the Bodies', referring to the cosmic bodies that are high above us all.
Making a religion for my sci-fi setting. Blighted = Zombies. Horsemen = The four demons that made the Blighted in late 2012
This is the first passage I worked on. Does this feel like a neo-religious text?
http://pastebin.com/fJVabj2V
blimp
>>44251264
I wish there were threads just like Game Finder, except for /tg/ friends
I call it;
Friend Finder
I'm dying for someone to give me a reasonable explanation of mirelurks from Fallout 4. Your everyday mirelurk looks like a mutant horseshoe crab, and that's fine. Mirelurk queens are similar, but huge, and that's fine (if we pretend the square cube law doesn't exist). Mirelurk hunters look like mutant crawdads or something. O...kay? And I can't even guess what mirelurk kings came from.
How are these all the same species? Is it some extreme case of dimorphism? Mutualism? Several species that are all called mirelurks by the ignorant wastelanders, which all coexist peacefully some-fucking-how?
>>44253312
If they are not protected by any laws there should be a reason for it to be so. Maybe some tried overthrowing a country, extorted a union/alliance, committed massacres or raids or some political play.
If the retain rights than they are likely to abide to the laws, maybe they are seen as successors to the traditional military.
>>44260964
Two species that live in some sort of symbiosis?
Like the Goby fish and the Pistol shrimp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdC0Akpa2ts
Currently in somewhat of a debate with myself when tackling the more delicate details of my (for the most part) classical Fantasy setting.
I am currently pondering what the main kingdom's public stance is on homo- and bisexuality. Given that their religion is not Judeo-Christian style and instead more Pagan, somewhat akin to Roman and Greek belief systems, it's unlikely that the priests as a whole condemn it.
However, it's still a feudal society, so I could see a lot of opposition from the noble elite, since gay kids means no offspring within the family to inhert the Lords' lands and possessions.
Someone suggested that maybe noble children have an obligation to have offspring before they are allowed to conduct homo- or bisexual relationships, but that sounds kinda silly, doesn't it? Wouldn't that still be considered infidelity in a monogamous culture? And would the people it concerns even be able to pull off this requirement?
>>44261281
Obviously you have a society where marriage and children is encouraged, but no one gives a damn about side homosexuality. I mean, it's not like people didn't pretty openly have lovers in the actual medieval period; there's no reason they couldn't have homosexual lovers in your setting (hell, they had them in real life).
>>44261281
Dude, just look how about every non-abrahamic/christian feudal society solved this:
Marriage (which is obviously an institution existing between men and women) is considered highly socially desirable and there is an obvious pressure for you to have children, but sexuality outside of marriage is generally tolerated (at least for men) and what and who you fuck for pleasure is just your private thing.
>>44216497
My Orcs are pig-faced demons who were created out of the former human worshipers of Ka'Ba.
An ancient space demon in the shape of a giant black cube.
It created a cult following in order to take over this world and absorb all the magic from it to regain all of its powers.
All its worshipers had to go on a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to it to recieve a sort of baptism which spread the demonic taint.
Once there were enough followers spread around the world the baptized ones were turned into their new forms started a worldwide slaughter from which even their own families were spared.
They turned into purely evil demons with the sole desire to serve their master Ka'Ba.
Their former fellow worshipers who weren't turned had to deal with the fact that they served a false god who wished to enslave all and face the other people of the world would misstrust them at best.
To fight the demon Ka'Ba humanity frantically researched varied magic and conducted experiments to enhance them selves.
From the fusing of humans and elemental spirits of wind, water and earth the elves were born.
From the enhancment of humans to resist magic Dwarves were born.
Through the binding of the sprits of magic beasts to the souls of humans beast men were created with their enhanced senses and special abilities tied to their nature.
>>44261399
>giant black cube.
>All its worshipers had to go on a once in a lifetime pilgrimage
>Once there were enough followers spread around the world the baptized ones were turned into their new forms started a worldwide slaughter
>former fellow worshipers who weren't turned had to deal with the fact that they served a false god who wished to enslave all
Man, everyone is making Orcs muslims today.
>>44261399
There better be a damn good reason for that apostrophe in the middle of Ka'Ba.
>>44261440
/pol/: unable to keep their bullshit to their own board since before they existed.
>>44261458
So i was using a thiefling-like origin for an evil race meant to be mob monsters, gave them pig-orc features and sudently i'm a /pol/ak because the demon is a black shaped box.
Projecting a bit much m8?
If anything you are being a /pol/tard here.
>>44261591
Are you retarded.
>>44261449
It had an L in its name but it was removed because it offended the people who later enhanced them selves to become dwarves and they were the only united threat to KalBa at that time.
>>44261650
Huh. My setting is the exact opposite. Many words have Ls in them where they used to have apostrophes, because the new invaders couldn't pronounce the glottal stop it represented so they stuck an L in there.
So Ca'aph became Calaph.
>>44261458
You know if /pol/ made a setting it would be kinda glorious.
>Australin shitposting in a rulebook
>The Trump cultists
>Tzar Putin
>Otherkin slug-races who argue over nothing with everyone
I think we may have something here.
Let's use memes for worldbuilding!
>>44261704
Only if we get to use /leftypol/ memes too.
I am doing some worldbuilding on a setting I have in mind, would like some critique.
Start with the government, it's a cross between the Roman Senate and the Chinese Monarchy, the King (Emperor) being sat there with the backing and will of the gods, represented by the granting of the Divine Impetus (Jade Dragon), a small, intricately carved statue. This statue is literally the representation of kingship, such that whoever possesses it is assumed to have been granted it with full holy writ.
The King is assisted by the 8 Mystics (Eunuchs), who are his personal advisers and keepers of the Household.
The Senate is comprised of the Barons, the high lords, of each territory, who represent their territories interests and concerns to the King.
These interests are taken in, mediated over for 6 days, and only 6 days, where the King renders judgment on the issue, to be enacted within 90 days at most. "Enacted" however, is nebulous enough to allow wiggle room for posturing.
The government is further represented by major and minor lords, and all stations of importance are at least held by a minor lord, such as prefects, sheriffs, etc, each reporting to their direct superior, who reports to their direct superior, with jumping the chain of command severely looked down upon, even punishable, even if the lord in question is correct in their reasons for doing so.
All nobility is bound to a code that stresses wise lordship, learning, martial prowess and military strategy, knowledge of the world and the processes that rule it, from the farmer tilling his crops to the celestial turnings of the sun, moon and stars, along with personal growth towards forging your own "Legend".
>more on The Legend later, a little more politics first
>>44261716
>>44261716
Sure both are welcome.
I love to incorporate all oppinions because both right and left wing oppinions are valuable and necessary irl.
Also freedom of speech is absolute.
The thing that made 4chan great.
>>44261839
>4chan
>free speech
Anon.
>>44261829
The counterpart to the Senatorial Monarchy are the Great Temples, an allied, subordinate empire made of a loose, stress loose, coalition of traditional houses of learning that became powerful during the years of internecine warfare that covered the land 160 years ago.
The Great Temples cover the larger great temples and their offshoot minor temples, and each is a self sufficient college, gymnasium and fortress. The Great Temples are the cultural heart of the land, as the Monarchy is the political one, with the onus on the Temples to record the history of the nation, promote academics and arts of all sorts, provide education for the nobility at no charge, and if need be, assist in defending the nation from outside threats, albeit not internal ones, while bending the knee to the Monarchy in political matters and demands.
While this does place them in a subservient position, the Masters of the Temples find the arrangement frees them from what had been the nonstop jockeying between the Masters of respective temples that at times exploded into outright war, and the influence they possess by control- er, assisting in the education of the nobility is incalculable. As such, their has been an unprecedented time of peace between the temples, and few of the Masters regret it.
>>44261852
It's not total since we can't have pedofiles running rampart here and some mods are just jerks.
>>44261897
Free speech is only free if it is total.
I do however concede that 4chan is comparatively unmoderated.
>>44261399
>when you hate muslims just as much as you hate fun & creativity
>>44225483
That's really good. I wish I had thought of that before I made a setting with a bunch of horse-dominated civilizations.
>>44262345
Free speech doesn't mean a damned thing on a privately-owned website, for the same reason it doesn't mean a thing in someone's own home.
Free speech only means the government can't restrict what you say in public, tax-funded places. The owners of private spaces can restrict whatever speech they want. Your ability to take advantage of 4Chan's laissez-faire attitude to speech is a privilege, not a right - one which the moderators can rescind at any time, as and when they see fit.
Somebody be the critic for me on my world
Sourcelands, the main continent of the setting.
One half is a series of mountain ranges with large valleys between them and is that part is cut in half by a massive river.
Other half, the southern one, has a giant lake, the Source part of the Sourcelands, and is covered in thick jungle.
Each valley in the north houses a kingdom, 4 human kingdoms, 3 non-human kingdoms and one with the theocracy of necromancers.
Necromancers themselves are not evil, just very corporate like and heavily entwined in politics. They are also the most powerful faction only because their leader is technically a god.
Each valley's ruler is a demi-god and has powers based on the god that favors them. The rulers themselves seldom actually concern themselves with politics and have councils, democratic parties and whatnot to rule in their steads, but sometimes they raise their lazy asses from the thrones and give out kingly orders.
The valleys don't fight each other because it would either lead to one king wiping out the invading army while the other one wouldn't even bother to bet their eye or for the two kings to clash and turn the valleys into barren wastelands.
The setting could be compared to contemporary settings, but electricity, internet and whatnot are replaced with magic and planeskipping and most fuels replaced with the "yellow oil" which is basically the omnipurpose substance in the setting.
Cars, helicopters and large modern ships exist, but planes don't so large scale air travel is done by airships (which lean more towards giant helicopters than blimps and such).
Anything and everything has a god residing over it, so people tend to not worship pantheons, but singular gods.
And the moon has a giant lovecraftian horror, which used to be pet of one of the gods until it became naughty, on one of the moons bombarding the planet on a daily basis with bits and pieces of itself.
>>44262801
Free speech is a concept, not a law anon. It can be applied to anything. And should be.
>>44258694
bumping this, its a page long, please don't be intimidated.
>>44263218
So a business owner ought to put up with you spouting whatever hateful drivel you like, even if allowing you to do so drives away the rest of their customers?
Get real.
I'm working on a setting that's preoccupied with its past and I need someone's opinion. I have 2 nations that are have similar cultures and I'm not sure if I should just combine them or keep them separate. One is obsessed with its past glories and heroes to the point where it is ruled by a caste of judges that interpret everything through their myths and history and the other one is a nation that has lost the ability to have new ideas, so everyone speaks in lines from stories, plays, and literature.
>>44263639
>business owner
Found your problem.
>>44264206
I'd say keep them seperate and in contact. Sounds like a good setup for some diplomatical crises/ interesting interactions in general.
>>44264206
>Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.
>>44266109
I was thinking Ascians from BOTNS, but that works too
>>44263605
You need to work on your transition between your introduction and the second paragraph. Something that links the Blighted with the planet fighting back line, like "The planet unleashed the Blighted on us." It just feels a little disjointed without something tying them together.
Brainstorming:
What sorts of things would you guys do with a fantasy city populated by the veterans and displaced refugees of an inter-planar psychic war?
What real world cities and historical events would you use for inspiration?
>>44268712
Personally, I'd use Roanapur
Anyone have that one pic with the guide on making a kingdom/country? I could use it
>>44222013
In my setting, there are two types of magic. True and Faith. Most mages cast from the latter. The Faith is magic drawn from their gods. Gods in the world give magic as a gift to loyal servants and have them vie against the servants of other gods and use their magic to further their agenda. Gods aren't omniscient, and cant always tell when someones misusing their powers, but if they notice they usually punish their followers. Strip them of power, blind them, smite them on the spot, whatever.
True magic is power without answerability, and therefor is feared and distrusted by the community. Most of the true mages are branded as outcasts on first contact.
The point is, in my setting its the world that balances magic, not the rules. Sure some fuckwit wizard is capable of summoning ten thousand skellies to destroy an innocent town. But god would probably kill you on the spot. Or, they'd send witch hunters, assassins etc to end you for it. The PCs know this, so they don't fuck with magic any more than necessary.
>>44263218
Not having to accept someone else using your property to express views you disagree with is also part of free speech.
>>44264206
I think you should keep them separate, and have each one of them dismiss the other as backwards and obtuse (instead of following in the footsteps of a glorious past and keeping the tradition alive, as they themselves are, obviously), for added irony.
>>44221705
It's very trying too hard.
You can make a race evil without "RAPE MURDER BLOODSHED ALL THE TIME"
>>44273535
No, because that would mean censoring that person's free speech for the sake of your own profit. Sounds a lot like something a fascist would do to be honest
>>44268712
Most cities in my setting have an "adventurer's district" which adventurers are generally confined to. The idea is "keep your troublemaking out of our city, and we won't bother you with our lawmen and taxes." The guardsmen who enforce this are usually tough as nails or very dead as a result of working this job.
They would probably also be restricted to that region.
>>44273799
But if you disallow the shopkeeper from telling the bigot to fuck off, then you also censor the shopkeeper's free speech.
Do you guys like shittily made maps?
Boy do I have a gift for you
I'm trying to think of a reason for these barbarian tribes to be migrating into warmer climates. So far I've got:
>Some time ago, a meteorite struck the southern tundra, causing firestorms in the far south and an impact winter. While it is not severe enough to wipe out all plant life, it has made it impossible to grow food in the far south, forcing the tundra tribes and trolls to migrate into Barbaricum. This has put massive pressure on the already existing population prompting an increase in warfare over the control of arable land, hunting grounds, and herds. The fighting led to some tribes being forced out of the region, while others chose to migrate into the warmer river basin, seeking more friendly climates.
It doesn't really seem satisfactorily fantastical.
>>44275993
That huge landmass should be 75%+ desert
And why is the biggest city directly in the middle of said desert
>>44277642
Make the meteorite(s) semi-magical/semi-irradiated, so that what life still remains around them is twisted, warped, mutated or dying of radiation/heavy metal poisoning (from aerated metal slivers) or cancer.
>>44216977
Well as a TES nut I've always liked the idea of infecting others with Lycanthropy and spreading it around in turn, it introduces a double life to the race where these people could be just about anything but when the moon's up high they all turn into the same hulking monsters howling and tearing through the land.
I do, however, like it when the werewolves carry a lot of wolf/canine traits in their wolf form. I can't really call it a werewolf if it's just some hairy mook who needs to cut his nails know what I mean?
>>44275993
also why does it look like the political divisions of 1984 but in a fantasy world, like holy moly macaroni only a couple states over the whole world?
>>44217300Liontaurs
How do you put futas in your game without it becoming a magical realm?
>>44220354
I almost misread that top one as Vagina. Maybe think about changing the name of that one to not resemble Vagina.
How do I into biome/climates? I don't know how to make a belivable biome without copying Earth's biome.
>>44280119
There are tons of useful sites and PDF's that explain climate distribution, but I've personally found the most useful practice to just study real-world climate maps very carefully, seek locations roughly equivalent to those on my maps and try to find a pattern to them.
As always, you can find basically all resources you might ever need in a fictional world building on cartographers guild.
http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=21285
Climate Cookbook is a pretty popular tool. But as I said, I found careful observation of real-world climate and geographical maps always beating any amount of theory you might learn.
>>44280119
I also like big circular craters and mysteriously straight trenches
>>44280119
Anon posted this a while ago
>>44280247
>http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=21285
Anyone else having trouble accessing that climate cookbook link?
>>44282136
Seems there is something indeed wrong with it.
Here's an older version: http://web.archive.org/web/20130619132254/http://jc.tech-galaxy.com/bricka/climate_cookbook.html
It's a bit outdated, but all the important stuff is still there.
I figured these mountains are obviously going to have a river sandwiched inbetween, since that's where all the water from those two slopes should end up, but I can't quite picture what would the land and life around that river be like. Thoughts? The thin pale lines are supposed to denote 30 and 60 digrees latitudes.
>>44236939
that's some good stuff man; do you have more?
>>44282327
>Thoughts?
Largely depends on what altitude we are talking here.
Here is what I recommend doing: Download google earth. Look up a region that roughly corresponds to what you have in mind. When you find it, scan it for specific formations that you are interested in. Look up the picture galleries, to see what it roughly looks like, note down the closest relevant geographical name or location, then google that shit up through and through.
This ALWAYS helps.
What are some general facets of a nation to figure out before going into the details? So far I have geography, resources, government, demographics, religion, military, economy, foreign relations, and history.
>>44282327
Look up some rocky mountain towns like Ouray or Marble. Narrowish valleys but pretty darn green.
>>44283445
>>44283962
Thanks for the pointers, but now I figure I'm gonna have to scratch that thing, since I was told by several people that mountan's don't happen with twin ridges.
>>44282327
make the valley fertile, small alpine logging villages would populate the valley (and probably have a vastly different culture than the plains around the mountains)
>>44216497
Orcs in my setting are
>Descendants of Half-Giants, they are big but usually just a few heads taller than a human
>Not Always-Evil, generally Neutral, like most things
>EXTREMELY in touch with nature, said to be able to talk to trees and flowers, not true but they say it
>Shit at magic, can channel it well, but they can not hold much at all, preventing them from doing much with it
>Recently (a generation or two ago) moved beyond the tribal/nomad stage, and have gotten into agriculture, and are kicking ass at it
>Slowly turn into nature as they age, usually starts with growing grass or crystals or coral on their body, and eventually end up as a tree or stone or something of that nature
>>44288253
They can though, With significant glacial action.
>>44288253
Bruh.
Pick literally anywhere in the Alps. I've been there. That shit happens. Like Anon said >>44288635 here. The valley with water running through it is gonna be fertile and forested and shit if that water is melted. Which it looks like it is.
>>44216497
Orcs are kind of the perfect disposable antagonist. That's their purpose. All in all, I prefer Banestorm's orcs. It's an interesting presentation of what fantasy Orc's culture would be like assuming they acted like Orcs usually do. As it is, in that setting the humans have driven the Orcs to edge of extinction several times (humans are just better at fighting and breed nearly as quickly) and the surviving Orcs live in land that is considered near worthless. They still pose a threat and get together for massive invasions of human lands every generation of so. Recently in the setting, however, a few orcs are being led by exiled dwarves and are actually doing a good job of wiping out outlying human settlements.
>>44216497
My orcs and other goblinoid races are actually a very direct elf variant. Elves in my setting are actually sapient plants and their varieties are based upon the plants they are born of. Ex., all "dark elves" are varieties of carnivorous plants, though not all are inherently evil, the evil ones tend to have a taste for sapient fleshes.
The orcs/etc. are made of all of the bog/swamp/marsh plants. They smell, they are more prone to being fungal or lichenous and are much less pretty, while also being hardier.
Additionally, merfolk are literally sea elves in this case.
>>44273799
>that would mean censoring
No. That has absolutely nothing to do with censorship, and is indeed in protection of your own free speech. If you own a printing press then you are the one who decides what that press will print.
If you send in an article to your local newspaper they are in no way obligated to print it, and they aren't censoring you by not doing so.
Any of you guys have a guide to herbs, any supposed medicinal or magical properties they may have?
>>44296058
Like homebrewed or real life?
>>44245796
>>44245666
>>44245387
>>44245363
>>44245158
>>44244622
These are great man. I think you've done pretty good establishing your races. I'd say the next step here is mapping out and getting a feel for how your races interact. Also, not just your races, but you should try and break down individual societies and civilizations. High Elves can't possibly all live in the same area, can they? (If they do, you might want to have an explanation to this.) Create some individual governments and groups in the world, and start etching in the fine details. Maybe even some institutions and religious movements. Remember to include how geography and advances in society have effected and shaped the pieces that make up the overarching puzzle of your setting. If it helps, I break down my settings by continents>nations>kingdoms/large groups>divisions of kingdom>settlements/cities/towns>individual misc. groups. Of course this usually never works but it helps me get a foundation of what the setting will turn out to be.
>>44296112
Real life.
>>44296138
Do you want like old wives' tales like "Honey gets rid of fevers" or actual science?
>>44296737
Old wives tales stuff.
>>44296898
Then yeah no I got nothing for you, although I would be interested in hearing from another anon
You could homebrew it, like the people of a region that grows lots of wine might think rubbing oneself with leaves from a vine prevents disease or something like that
So I'm doing a bit of world building in the Naruto setting (although with a lot of changes, no Naruto for one, no tailed beasts for another) and I'm trying to figure out general numbers.
What do you guys think would be the average number of total ninja in a minor village with a military bent?
>>44297065
If all you've got is actual science, then I'll take it. I could use a mix of beliefs and actually effective stuff.
Fiddling with a post apocalyptic naval setting. Still trying to decide where I want the tech level, both in terms of prorulsion and weapons. I want to emulate the battlecruiser action at Jutlad, but I also want room for boarding, ramming, and swashbuckling
Question. Would a continent that is bisected right down the middle with a 30 degree latitude have west to east winds in the north and east to west in the south?
>>44297670
Yeah, more or less - on the northern hemisphere. But in reality, it would pretty much mean that there is not much of a rain shadow on it, and that both the wind and the rain blows alternatingly north-to-east and south-to-west on the whole island, because the 30 degree latitude rule is not absolute, it's orientational.
>>44296898
Here is a half-decent article with a lot of references to other books: http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/herblore.htm
Finding the books refered might be a bit tricky, but with some google-fu you should be able to find them, or at least find more pointers.
>>44297670
You're actually not obligated to copy the Earth's prevailing winds, so you have a bit of leeway here, should you need it.
>>44298056
While you are not obliged to copy earths climate, it's a good way to give your world more belivability flair. This actually applies to all aspects of "realism" in fantasy and fiction world building: You don't have to draw logic from real world, but doing so USUALLY leads to more interesting and belivable settings.
In this case, really, all you have to know is that there are not going to be any steppes or deserts on the island, and that is pretty much all you need to keep in mind.
>>44216497
Ok, setting is the following:
Continent has an extremely rigid climate, and no unifying power has ever emerged, as a result, we mostly have city state, with few small kingdoms, usually a big city +2-3 satellite cities.
The feel I wanted to go is classical medieval age, with lot of fairytale stuff.
I've split the continent among 12 witches/wizards, which are more "spirits of the place" than actual rulers.
They are not very known, not even by those living in their realm, but act to protect their home turf (although what they classify as dangerous or not is often arbitrary, or reflects personal bias of the witch)
I would like some feedback and tips about fleshing out the witches and their territories
They are:
Witch of the Mist: she's a kind old lady, whose home turf is an extremely remote mountainous region. As a result, she isn't very active, and mainly helps travellers, keeps the occasional overambitious brigand in check and so on. She has a goose familiar, which is her preferred method of intervention
Winter Witch: vacant, as he died some time prior to campaign start. Finding his successor is a plot point
Summer Witch: her domain encompass one of major trade routes of the region, part of a kingdom and an independent city-state. She is very proactive, and continuosly pushes to gain more land for herself. Has been slowly pushing back the Weather Witch. Her lands are blessed by a temperate climate and never suffer from snowstorm or the likes.
Sea Witch: a bitter and malicious entity, very Ursula-like. She is one of the relatively well known ones, as she requires a tribute from nearby cities to not flood them or send krakens to ruin their ships.
The Twins: two witches that share power between them. They have to stay close to each other or their magic vanes. Their influence encourages diplomacy, and some sites there are visited as holy shrines. Tehy're believed to be able to mend any feud or rancor between two people
>>44298200
The Witch of Tilling: another one of the known ones, an entire city sprung up around her. She has mainly influence over cultivation and such.
The Marshes' Witch: one of the youngest, his original territory was taken over by the Sea Witch. He has not enough power to even threaten her, so he's for now biding his time.
The Weather Witch: a young witch gradually robbed of her land by the encroachment of the Summer Witch. She govern a remote peninsula, and a smattering of small island.
The Witch of the Moon: one of the more reclusive and nonresponsive ones. She frequently ignores what goes on in her territory, and the Sea Witch routinely uses her territory as a source of additional tributes. However, she is also the most powerful witch, and so far nobody made a claim to her land.
The Witch of the Mountains: extremely grumpy and solitary, this one has not been seen for over a century. Nearly no one lives in his territory, and nearly no one is interested in it, beign the equivalent of fantasy Himalaya.
The Green Warden (witch of the forest): a relatively young witch. He's currently looking for a way to reclaim the wast salt desert.
The Great Lake Witch: a rather mad and violent witch, she usually leaves residents of her land alone, but viciously attacks travelers
What do you think of this map, /tg/? Are there any details or other things that jump out as being very jarring? I'm not sure about the scale, in particular, and I've never really had a head for measures.
>>44298200
>>44298231
That is actually a pretty interesting concept, which is something I don't say often in world building threads. I would be really curious to see how it works in practice.
The problem I see is the ballance between the very much fairytale-ish logic "that is just how it is" with a more bottom up logic, which includes the powerlevels, the political and power struggle between the witches. I think the main challenge I can see with a setup like this is actually finding a way to ballance the psychological, and the mythological aspects of the Witche's personality.
Oh yeah, and a small thing: it feels like The Forest Witch would be wanting to STAY THE HELL AWAY from salt desert. You know what salt does to most plants, right?
Still, I actually really like the idea, it actually feels like how I think fantasy should feel like: rooted in folklore and fairytales, rather than being a poorly executed sci-fi.
While on the subject, how is the human part of the settings? This might be a long shot, but have you considered maybe not setting the society to medieval level?
Because the one thing that really came to my mind when reading your synopsys was Howl's Moving Castle, and I really think you might benefit greatly set the human society to a more modern, or anachronic stage. Late 19th century could be fantastic fit to the setup, I actually think.
>>44298283
It's a noticeable Not!Europe, but it should be fine if that's what you were going for.
I could post my entire campaign setting (It's still working after a few years, complete with a handful of worlds, all realms of my creation, etc but Im always adding new stuff) with all of it's various groups, pantheons, etc here but I feel like it'd just get laughed at heh
>>44298283
Quite a few things feel odd.
First of all, the "mountain blobs" in the northern half of the continent (around the Old Empire) feel weird. Mountains tend to form prolonged ranges, not large blot shaped things.
Second of all, the Inland see feels odd. I can't really comprehend how that would come into being. Inland seas are usually formed when two continents close each other, but here both of the sides surrounding the continent clear belong to the same landmass. This is one of the typical cases where observing real-world tectonics really helps to make the world feel better.
Also, what is the deal with Falnirhad's coast? It's oddly shaped? Was that formed by icebergs - like norway's north coast?
The long fissure on the Siwe island also feels strange and it's difficult to figure out how it came to being.
Finally, the trench just south of the Dwarven Homelands - that is artificial?
>>44298300
My setting is mid to high magic, but magic items for players are pretty rare, as mages are very discriminated against. Multiple pantheons exist as well, meaning there's a ton of active gods
(dubs)
>>44298285
The salt desert is, by now, unclaimed territory. The Forest Witch is trying to convert it into back into soil, or to develop something able to grow into it. Every in that area has been experimenting with reclaiming, mainly because it is a free power boost. For example, Marsh Witch has been growing an extensive mangrove farm, while Sea Witch is playing it in the long run by eroding and flooding parts of the wastes, bringing them underwater and under her control
The human part is heavily influenced by Il Milione: the biggest cities all lie on the Merchant Arch, which is the main traderoute that I've mentioned earlier. It takes almost 4 months to travel it from start to end.
Most of the cities are therefore trade hubs or production centers. Due to sea witch, travel by water is not that convenient, mainly due to the fees.
If you are a human, the only two decent places to live and prosper, not just survive, are the lands under control of the Tilling and the Summer witch.
Elves are mostly a post-scarcity society, with no real need for trade and commerce, and are extremely insulated communities.
Dwarf are nearly nonextistant in the continent, and have just a couple of independent cities.
Unfortunately the campaign has already started, so I can't change the time setting on the fly, but yes, studio ghibli setting were a big inspiration for this (the Mist witch is basically Zeniba from Spirited Away)
>>44298310
Yeah, I didn't want to screw with a good formula too much, and the Europeans did pretty well in the long run.
>>44298310
In the case of the blobby mountains, that's actually quite intentional, as they were raised long ago by an incredibly powerful wizard-king for the purposes of defense and carving his face into.
What exactly would I have to change to make the inland sea make more sense? I just put it in because I think inland seas are cool.
As for Falnirhad, that's supposed to be the part of the world that is cold and desolate, so I just sort of nicked Norway's coast without really thinking about its underlying structure and jammed it in there. Would it still work in that sense? If it's cold and viking-y, I mean.
The fissure is there because I thought that just a solid lump would've looked boring, and anyway it's the sort of thing I'd handwave as a matter involving wizards and titans that happened in the distant past.
Both those channels are artificial, yeah - the top one is supposed to be a long tunnel built under the mountain, whereas the bottom is just a straight-up Suez canal type deal.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to reply.
>>44298355
>mainly because it is a free power boost.
This the kind of strange aesthetical contradiction to the concept of world ruled by witches that are more of a natural spirits than psychological beings... As for the Forest Witch and the salt desert, it's just that most people will automatically feel that the two are fundamental OPPOSITIONS (forests don't grow in deserts, and the DEFINITELY don't grow in salt deserts) that it just feels jarring: virtually any other Witch is better suited to be taking interest in that place.
>Unfortunately the campaign has already started
Campaigns will come and go, but I think the settings is actually interesting enough to warrant revisiting and playing around with in the long run.
>Elves, Dwarf
I know you probably won't do that, but have you considered ditching those entirely? At this point, having Elves and Dwarves feels like the token love subplot in an action movie: it feels like something people put into their worlds solely because they are kinda expected to be there in a fantasy. In other words, their presence JUST makes the setting immediately duller and less interesting.
Again, I really like the idea, perhaps because I myself based my settings pretty much entirely on Miyazaki's works (Shuna and Nausicaa specifically) so the aesthetics really resonate with me, that is why I'm poking into it.
The way I see it, fantasy desperately needs more Miyazaki and Moore (if you don't know who that is, go watch Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea), and less Forgotten Realms and Game of Thrones, and your setting feels like it could be precisely that: it's just a few things that seem to feel out of place in it, as if you did not have the courage to take it all the way.
>>44298468
The witches are more akin to the Greek Gods in temperament. They are extremely powerful, but with marked defects that are also their downfall. The Forest Witch main defect is ambition, and thus he is wasting time and efforts to reclaim the unreclaimable, while his own land goes into disrepair
The setting original idea was to go back from forgotten realms/GoT fuckery to simpler times, so I went back to LotR.
It is the age of man, where other races are waning and disappearing. Most of the unnamed cities in the map are ruins.
Elves and dwarfs are not the typical mary sues or comedic relief, they're more like those old people living in small depopulated villages.
They just sit and wait for the end.
I also wanted to add more fairytale stuffs, so I got ispiration from Lionesse (and the witch idea also took root from there), and Myazaki/Nausicaa.
>>44298398
>What exactly would I have to change to make the inland sea make more sense?
If you can excuse the HORRIBLE MS paint patchwork job I've done here, this is roughly what I would propose to do: break the southern half of the continent way from the rest, make some changes to the Siwa island (because that fissure really feels odd - either make it a wider, more shallow gulf, or just erase it all together.
>(Falnirhad) Would it still work in that sense?
Yeah, it should, provided that the distance from the south pole is roughly equivalent to the distance Norway's north cost is from the north. The valleys were formed by the mass of an iceberg pressuring the coast during an ice-age: since this region is supposed to be very cold, the logic that it was shaped by icebergs in the past makes sense.
>>44298283
>Bitter Sea
What the-- what?
How the shit has another person come up with that name? It's not exactly what I'd call an obvious name to come up with.
>>44298582
Sorry to dissappoint you, but I think the first time I've seen that used was in Nausicaa in 78 or so.
Don't beat yourself up about it though - I have a larger geography in my world named after a body parts. I thought it to be really clever, but all I got was dismissal because apparently, having a mountain range named "The Spine" seems to be something every second B'grade fantasy writer did already.
>>44298606
>but I think the first time I've seen that used was in Nausicaa in 78 or so.
I'm literally listening to the soundtrack of Nausicaa's film right now. And it's totally unrelated to this conversation, because I started a few minutes before I saw your map. What the shit is this.
I had no idea it had a sea called that (because I've only seen the film and don't know much about the lore), but now everyone's going to think I took it from that because a large part of my setting is inspired by it... In reality, it's called the Bitter Sea because all of my oceans have tastes; there's the Spice Sea, the Sweet Ocean, the Salted Ocean (not very surprising) and so on.
>the spine
Oh, you're that anon! If it helps, I thought the name's backstory was more than good enough to justify its clichéd nature. But yeah, it is something every B grade writer does -- even Eragon had it.
>>44298524
>The Forest Witch main defect is ambition, and thus he is wasting time and efforts to reclaim the unreclaimable, while his own land goes into disrepair
I'm sorry, I can't help it, it just does not sit with me well. But then again, you don't have to listen to me.
>Elves and dwarfs are not the typical mary sues or comedic relief, they're more like those old people living in small depopulated villages.
I'd still at least considering not calling them Elves and Dwarves. The problem, I think lies in the names and the associations they inevitably carry with them, more than anything.
I completely forgot to address the map: it's good. I really like it - feels natural, well shaped, everything seems to work as it should. Can't comment on the naming, but it seems you got things well in your hands.
As I've mentioned, you might want to look into Thomas Moore for inspiration of (Celtic) folklore stuff: his movies are some of the best fairytales I've ever seen, and visually absolutely stunning. He owes more than a little to Miyazaki, by the way. It's like a bastard child of Miyazaki and John Bauer.
>>44298643
>I'm literally listening to the soundtrack of Nausicaa's film right now.
Yeah, soundtrack to Nausicaa is pretty much THE prime "I need inspiration" music I use. Seriously, 90% of my worldbuilding has been done listening to that music.
>>44298643
>I had no idea it had a sea called that
The sea naming in Nausicaa is simple: The Sea of Acid, The Salt Sea, The Bitter Sea are all, I think, present.
Still, I don't think there is anything wrong with it and as I've said in the previous thread: I think internal logic (like you've described - naming after tastes) to the naming is far more important than the names taken out of context.
Basically, I subscribe to the idea that naming conventions themselves should tell stories (or microstories) within the world, and that is really the only difference between good and bad naming conventions.
>>44246853
Humbly proposing the following:
Pilots should not attack infantry unless the infantry have armor-piercing weapons. The only honorable enemy is another mech.
The most honorable mech kill is a melee kill, and an opponent who signals his intent to fight in melee with you before closing should be afforded the same honor.
Combat between mechs should be presaged with a blare of sirens to allow civilians to evacuate buildings nearby or infantry to move away so as not to be carelessly trampled.
Ideally, warring factions should send word to the battle area ahead of time, so that the area is already evacuated when battle is joined.
All mechs should have the coat-of-arms or colours proudly displayed; use of visual camo or disguising is dishonorable.
>>44298675
Uh, well I'll have to look into it. I have no idea on how it will turn off, they probably would not even go there.
How about changing it so that he's there to prevent the spreading of the desert?
Thanks for the tips, I'll surely look into it
>>44298732
>How about changing it so that he's there to prevent the spreading of the desert?
That, on the other hand, sounds excellent. That seems like precisely what a forest would be afraid off.
>>44298559
I see what you mean now about the tectonics and all that. Thanks for the advice, I'm gonna see about rejiggering things a bit to make everything a bit more sensical.
>>44298683
The only society that could produce something like that is one that ultimately doesn't care about war, as we know it at least. There are two reasons that this could happen; the first is a horrible (or rather early) economy. Think the ancient Greeks, or the Aztecs. War is ceremonial, and a way of showing off the wealth of the states involved. The aim is not actually to damage the other state, just to show that you could. The other reason you could get that kind of war is by having a very good economy. One so advanced that warfare is now far less profitable than peace. Now war is mostly fought for the same reasons as above; proof that you *could* crush your enemy, not that you actually will. I am not sure why this would happen, however; it seems more likely that those in this situation would fight small scale proxy wars over trade in order to prove the "we can crush you" point. However, perhaps non-state entities such as firms and criminal syndicates could wage ceremonial war like this.
>>44298750
I've gone and changed things around as per anon's suggestions. Is this any better? I'm certainly more pleased with how the new southeast looks. Is there more I could do?
>>44299891
Definitely looks better. You might want to revisit the south shores the "fjords" communicate the point, but they are way too wide and not sprawling enough. Look at map of Norway's coast (pic related).
Other than that, there is I think a lot of general refining to do (more detailed mountain ranges, more distinct differenciation between flat lands and high lands and that kind of stuff, but other than that (which is something one can do for eternity), it seems fine. Maybe somebody else will notice something I've missed.
So it looks like currently I only have 3(4?) races.
>Humans
>Kobolds
>Trolls
>Goblins (not playable?)
Do you think this is enough or should I try to add more? I'm kind of enjoying the current dynamic.
>>44300159
After many years of worldbuilding threads I've seen around here, I can tell you one thing: the less races you have, the better.
Seriously. There are exceptions, but in 90% of the cases bloating the race list detracts from the quality of world building. The more gimmicky race, the worse.
Make less races, but make them more varied, complex, interesting. It's always better to have one or two races with multitude of different cultures, than having multitude races each with mono-culture.
>>44300258
I'd assume the main problem regarding races is that lots of people on /tg/ have to take into account all the D&D races. I'm lucky in that Idon't have a groupplay a setting-agnostic system.
>>44300272
I can't tell you what is worse: adopting the D'nD stereotypes, or trying to avoid them by making up as gimmicky races as possible. Either way it's a bad habit.
Generic D'nD races just kill any kind of mood and the actual feeling of being in a fantastic, imaginative landscape, but then you have the gimmick races (usually a variant of "weird animal + magical power or some kind of elemental... thing) which sound awesome when summed up in one paragraph (a race of high-altitude symbiotic snails with telekinesis that communicate by vibrations or something like that) but start to immediately fall apart when you start actually trying to form a culture out of them, because as it turns out, they are always defined in a fashion that forces them into waaaay to specific forms.
Either way, people would benefit from sticking to humans, and only add more races carefully and after really, really long consideration. Aside from preventing over-presence of boring, token races like Elves, Dwarves and Orks, or pointless gimmick races, it would also forced people to think more along the lines of cultures, and how they are shaped by the actual world itself.
>>44300258
>>44300344
I don't believe in absolutes about worldbuilding and I think 'humans only' is a bad meme, but I actually do a lot of stuff like this myself. So I guess I'm a hypocrite.
>>44300344
I personally prefer thinking about how the world is shaped by races, but how they were affected by the world is important too I suppose. The way I came up with my races was that I had each race "made from" a type of magic (there's only three). This gave their unique skills and, more importantly, their psychology and the types of religions they were likely to adopt (and from there the more interesting "how they fucked with the world" bit).
>>44300361
Humans only is a bad meme, but it's a meme for a reason. And that reason is that D&D races are a special combination of done to death and back AND one-dimensional to begin with. Meanwhile, it's quite easy to avoid making humans gimmicky purely because we are humans.
>>44300361
I'm not talking about absolutes. If you are good, you can get away with anything. Most people aren't though.
More importantly though: this is mostly about avoiding bad habits and stereotypes. Setting some restrictions benefits most people in creative process: limiting yourself in terms of races and options actually benefits most people as it forces them to focus on the things that are both actually most important, and most interesting about the whole exercise.
"People should stick to humans only, maybe add a race or two after careful deliberation" is not an absolute, but it's a really good advice that will help most people. Not all, but most.
>>44300405
>The way I came up with my races was that I had each race "made from" a type of magic (there's only three).
The reason why I fear this approach is that it very easily leads to aformentioned reductionalism and universalism. That generally tends to lead to just flat out rather boring races because the universal principle will inevitably end up overriding the the local and immediate. But in the end, it's the actual richness of the local and immediate that makes the race feel plausible and ultimately, interesting.
And I know what I've said just know sounds probably pretentious as hell. I'm really kinda struggling to explain the problem in english, as it's not my native language.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that people tend to lose track of the amazing variety of individual people (or members of other race) because they instead focus on some kind of greater universal principle that "governs" the race.
But that principle is not what people will ultimately judge the race. They will judge it by individual encounters with individual members, or small societies.
>>44300586
Except there have to be some governing principles, or you genuinely may as well have humans. There's no point having races if they're just re-skinned normal people. Having a race of lizards that are good at magic and otherwise exactly the same as humans is not very interesting, or at least not as far as the race goes. A race of lizards that are good at magic and are incapable of forming bonds with those who think differently to them, that at least keeps them from being interchangeable with magically gifted humans.
>>44300665
See, you go too far to the humans only side of things again.
You say a race of lizards who are good at magic are not very interesting, but these lizards don't look or wouldn't act anything like humans. Cold blooded, hatched from eggs, room for entire different societies.
Elves and Dwarves are shit on a lot for this same reason but nobody seems to realize how different they really are. Longer lived then humans if not immortal, live always in nature or in the mountains, entirely different room for Gods, religions, societies, etc.
>>44300807
This is what I mean by re-skinning humans; you're giving them different decoration, but not actually changing much. I mean, ultimately you've got lizards who have a kind of siesta-lie-in every morning and who look after their eggs in communal banks, and that's about it. They still act and talk like humans underneath that layer of lizard-coloured paint you gave them.
>>44300665
>or you genuinely may as well have humans
That is kinda my point. It's not impossible to make races that are almost as well rounded as humans, but it's really hard. Making a race of lizards that aren't one giant heap of stereotypes that can be ultimately summed up in one paragraph (which means that the absolute extent to which individual member of the race is interesting - as you actually meet him and interact with him in the final campaign - is not going to extend that one paragraph that sums up the entire race) is a tough-as-hell call.
Then again: it's basically the only way to make them actually really interesting. And if you can't do that, you might, as you said, opt to focus on humans instead.
Strangeness is a two-edged sword, and most people tend to do more harm with it than good. Ironically enough, more often than not strangeness leads to reduction, to making the race and the world have LESS depth, rather than enriching it.
I genuinely believe most settings don't benefit from having a lizard race, or a duck race, or the fucking orks, which are about as the most universally annoying and boring race in the entirety of the "fantasy cannon".
>>44300939
>Humans have extremely high endurance, and are adept at performing physically stressful tasks for long periods of time. They easily communicate with each other, and are quick to form prejudices. They often form into communal unites based on a feeling of family.
I disagree. I think you can absolutely reduce the extent to which a race *can* vary, but still have a huge extent of depth to individual characters.
>>44301328
Half of that is complete bullshit, while the other half is pretty much what defines a being as sentient.
Plus, and this is the really fun part: you are abstracting something that you already know in all of it's variety and plurality.
The argument that I'm making is that it's incredibly difficult to create the plurality and variety from an abstraction. Imagine the situation where the mostly bullshit description of humanity you provided is THE ONLY thing you know about humanity, and try to imagine an old Mongolian woman, a small child playing with wooden horse in north France, a Tuareg nomad, and an Indian slum.
