Making a noblebright fantasy post-apocalyptic setting.
How do I represent the fall of society, when the society that ended was either pre- or low-industry? Complicating things are that magic and the power of gods were both dead in the fallen society, but are now returning after its fall.
I had thoughts to represent the fallen society as having a sort of dungeon/steampunk technological level, perhaps explained by a mastery of "alchemy." But, again, I'd like to avoid it being seen as just magic by another name, as the return of magic to the world is supposed to be a big deal.
Thoughts on this?
>>44464558
You want a noblebright setting that goes to shit? Or do you mean it's already gone to shit, but is still noblebright?
I guess you'd have to say that all of tech was based on divine powers, but when the gods went away there was some sort of dark age.
>>44464801
Not necessarily. If he wants a noblebright post-apoc, then maybe the old order that collapsed was just plain evil, and everyone just said "enough." Now the world is disordered and chaotic, and there are problems that come about because of it, but at the end of the day, everyone's better off with the Bastard Kings gone, and there's a bright future ahead! Come on, chums, let's build a better world!
Nothing says "fallen civilization" like old roads.
>>44464801
Here's the idea in a little more depth; didn't want to infodump with the OP.
Basically for the last few thousand years magic had been dying off, and with it worship of the "old gods." In the place of wizardry and worship came advances in technology and alchemy. This is the area that I'm fuzzy on, but as I said, I could shoot for a steampunk or dungeonpunk aesthetic.
Then, a (currently nondescript) cataclysmic event takes place, tearing down the empires and whatnot of the day. Magic returns to the world, at first in the hands of the secret societies that preserved the old arts of sorcery, but then to shamans and druids, and then to fledgling orders of wizards and sorcerers. Magical beasts return to the world, dragons and spirits and such.
The player characters are actually reincarnations of the old gods, slowly rising from mortal heroes, to demigods of legend, to true deities. Sorta like Exalted with the serial numbers filed off. The Noblebright comes from the players forging a new golden age of adventure and heroics, which they will eventually come to rule over as gods.
>>44464920
That's pretty cool. Would the past of your event be like >>44464854 this? I think that could be fun.
Also, do you think the cataclysm was due to the previous incarnations of the gods?
>>44465013
I honestly don't have it nailed down all too much. I'd like to think of the old civilizations as being sort of dogmatic and imperial, wrought with corruption and pointless warfare, but not necessarily evil. You were definitely safer living in the borders of the old empires, but much less free than you are without them. In the new world, as our friend Sen. Armstrong once said, "a man can fight and die for what he believes in."
I'd like for there to be multiple fallen powers in the Fallen World, just for the sake of variety. The most powerful among them would probably be a more generic version of a post-conversion Roman empire.
How grimdark do people find acceptable before its comes off as too far up its own ass?
>>44464920
So, background wise, sort of an enlightenment era/steampunk version of Shadowrun?
![triggering-intensifies-6a1c8b[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/ngy51lj.jpg "triggering-intensifies-6a1c8b[1].jpg")
>>44464558
>France doesn't exist
>>44466915
Are you blind? Only brittany and spain are removed
>>44466571
Not terribly familiar with Shadowrun, but my basic familiarity leads me to say no.
Though my familiarity with it is similarly insufficient, I'd like to think that the background empires were sort of like the Empire of Warhammer Fantasy. Imperialistic and oppressive, but paying your taxes means that the lord in the nearest keep has soldiers to keep barbarians and bandits at bay.
>>44464558
That map is slightly fucked, someone get a better map and redo the image on that one
>>44466976
That is clearly Iberia, you mong. You can tell because of the rivers. Just a tip of Galicia is cropped, that's not the Bretagne.
I'm curious what non-magical advantages that fantasy alchemy could lend to a society. What rare elements would lead to what technologies being developed early, or at all.
What advancements were bottlenecked or delayed until particular elements were discovered or more easily acquired?
>>44468699
Phosphorus was discovered in 1669 IIRC, through evaporation of urine (you get ammonium sodium hydrogen phosphate). Fantasy alchemists could have potentially discovered it earlier, since you can make that by literally gathering, boiling and distilling piss.
Could use it as fertilizer, or perhaps as a source of "magical lighting".
Does anyone around here have some good ideas for fantasy ores, metals, alloys and crystals for the making of magical items and weapons?
I wanna flesh out my setting with different materials with different uses, unique properties and quirks. Terraria is a good source for this, but I don't wanna rip it off directly.
So what do you have except for
>Mithril
>Adamant
>Meteor iron
>Orichalcum
?
>>44469940
Skyron, metal from the sky.
Yes, its meteor iron, but sounds cooler.
>>44469940
Confused... are you looking for names, or properties?
>>44470026
Thanks.
>>44470265
Both.
>>44464558
I just realized this is europe
kek
>>44470337
Also that super Greek metal. Can't remember the name off the top of my head other than it starting with 'D'.
>>44470418
Wasn't that orichalcum? The walls of Atlantis are described as being made of that metal. Or do you know how I could find that metal you mean?
>>44469940
Nautilum
>>44469940
Try stealing from RPGs and such. Much easier to steal whats already been made and tweak it then to come up with your own.
List of 7 unique metals from other worlds, plus 2 alloys. All of them do cool stuff.
http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Skymetal
Crystallized demon blood
http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Nahyndrian_crystal
Radioactive crystals.
http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Blightburn
Light emitting crystals
http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Aureolyte
Glowing plant/fungi enhancing crystals that absorb light
http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Caphorite
Necromantic ore that may be the flesh of a dead god
http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Lazurite
And a list of other types of materials just because.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/special-materials
>>44470514
Just looked it up, Damascus steel, apparently scientists recreated it recently and the reason it had such a high rep was because the process created a primitive form of carbon nanotubing.
>>44470575
>>44470786
>>44470803
Thanks everyone, you're great help. I'll see what I can do with this.
>>44469940
Aluminum.
It's an incredibly useful and versatile metal, but despite how common it is humanity has only started using it on a regular basis in the last 150 years or so because the processes required to refine it into a metal is rather advanced.
But it's both strong and light, but you'd have to have a very advanced culture to use it as anything other than a dye.
>>44472307
This is the sort of thing I (the OP) was looking for: real materials used for real things that alchemy could create or contribute to society. Just helps things seem more mundane, despite having been acquired through specifically fantastic means.
Is this a general worldbuilding thread? Can other people post their stuff here?
>>44465880
Personally? I think the line gets crossed when it gets in sexulazied or anything with children. Then it starts being really fucking edgy.
>>44472512
I'd imagine so.
>>44464558
>who designed this, an alien?
kek
>>44472512
Well, I mean, it could be. I just needed some specific help with my setting.
For instance, a roadblock I just ran into, describing how alchemy works *without* magic. My vague idea is that the corpses of the gods, orbiting the earth, radiate sorts of very subtle energies that are soaked up by particular elements, or can be channeled with particular rituals (this latter part is what I'm unsure about) to perform chemical interactions that are normally impossible. Transmutation from one element to an unrelated one, for instance.
I'm also trying to work out what the major powers were in the world (I have ideas for a Germanic Empire, a Roman Empire and a Persian Empire), and specifically what the event was that ruined the world. I want to theme the symbolism of the setting after this event, so it's hard to decide on.
>>44472588
I don't think sexualized is inherently bad, but most gamers are really not mature enough for it, so it turns edgy.
>>44472497
This is one of the reasons I love making bronze age settings. The BBCE, big bad conquering empire, is the first culture to develop iron. Actually works damn well in a stone-to-bronze age setting too.
To us, iron is kinda cool and rather useful, though mostly as a component to steel and other fun metals, but back then? Bronze to a stone age person and iron to a either a stone or bronze age person is pure fucking nightmare magic.
>>44472755
Depends on what you mean by "alchemy". There's the Fullmetal Alchemist/anime school, and then there's the "real" alchemy, which is basically less-understood chemistry with a twist. Said twist being that symbolism actually means stuff.
For example, a root that looks like the human liver, via the doctrine of signatures (the belief that God made natural... stuff 'look like' other things as a hint to their uses), would obviously be good medicine for some sort of liver disease.
Just have it be that alchemy is the study of substances' "true uses" and the combinations thereof. Then add in a bunch of rules (as in, fluff rules, not stuff your players would necessarily need to really keep track of) for how the processing goes. Certain roots have to be cut a certain way with a knife last cleaned under a full moon and only during a certain time of year. Not only does the root/metal/whatever have symbolism with tangible properties, but the time of year, position of the stars, and other bullshit also affects how it all turns out.
Alchemy is both about following existing directions perfectly AND experimenting with new substances and combinations, all dictated by "logical" assessments of symbolic shapes and such.
As for the even that ruined the world, insert: black president/women's suffrage/muslim immigration/government actually lowered taxes joke here.
>>44464558
it took me some time before i realized the joke. i lol'd
Thank you!
>>44464558
Is that Europe turned sideways?
>>44473923
Yes.
>>44464558
Is that Europe turned sideways?
>>44473940
And stretched a wee bit.
>>44473940
>>44473923
Sorry, stupid lagging made me double post.
>>44472755
If you're trying to have your alchemy be Not! Magic, let me toss some ideas out:
You could take a bit of inspiration from Banished Quest on this sub, which goes rather heavily into magic metaphysics and such. Over there, magic works by using Vys(magical energy&whatnot) to influence reality in order to produce effects.
If you'd like to take the idea of magic being the process of manipulating reality(Not perfect manipulation, more like influencing in order to create stuff like fireballs, telekinesis, etc) by some person/entity using some kind of force/energy, you'd be able to have alchemy be separate from it. Alchemy could be the process of manipulating reality centered around chemistry & such. Maybe each element has the power to create slight effects on reality; this power could be brought out through rituals or whatever you want and then combined in different ways to create a desired effect. So basically magic and alchemy would both create anomalous effects by influencing reality to some degree, but take different routes to do so.
I'm not sure if I made my points clear or not, and idk if this is even what you're really going for.
>>44473940
and minus France, Thrace and the Crimea
>>44474703
That'll probably be what I end up having to go for, though the effect I was trying to achieve was to have alchemy as something wholly different and distinctly separate from magic, just to make its return more pronounced.
>>44464558
>a noblebright fantasy post-apocalyptic setting.
>magic and the power of gods were both dead in the fallen society, but are now returning after its fall.
What is Dragonlance?
I'll take "Obscure FRP settings from the 80s" for $200, Alex.
>>44464558
I always loved this image. Shows ya that nothing is too stupid when it comes to drawing maps for world building. Unless your continents are literally just squares with perfectly straight coasts, but hey, even that might be possible.
>>44464558
This map always makes me laugh.
>OP almost engages in the classic blunder.
It's late, I'm tired, and I'm ready to go full autistic.
Are there tangible influences as to why a language would sound the way it does? Why it would add emphasis to specific sounds?
Lets say you are able to observe 1,000 isolated planets covered in deserts where humans evolve and advance to where they start making there own languages. After 5,000 or so years, would you notice similarities in the 1,000 isolated languages like they tend towards harder sounds or softer sounds? Then if you were to do the same experiment with 1,000 tundra planets, would you find patterns different from the desert planets?
>mfw I never use, let alone finish, building a world cause of this shit
>>44478169
>Are there tangible influences as to why a language would sound the way it does? Why it would add emphasis to specific sounds?
If you want to answer that question, go ahead and drop 100,000 buckaroos on a degree in linguistics, and get your doctorate by studying ancestral common tongues.
Short answer: We don't know; humans are weird; most of our stuff is arbitrary until you take a closer look at it, at which point you realize there's a good reason for it, and then realize that the reason is also arbitrary.
Productive answer: A famous chief of a tribe's history liked to emphasize his O's and K's to sound more intimidating, a hundred generations later that tribe's dialect has highly emphasized and projected O's and K's.
>>44469940
You can do a lot with real metals and alloys as well:
Bronze - not as good as steel for arms and armor, and very expensive in comparison, but it doesn't block mana flow, so it's the go-to for mages that can afford it.
Steel - the iron in steel blocks mana flow, so mages avoid it. Good for a martial character though. About the same quality steel as europe had in medieval times.
Spellforged Steel - A higher quality steel produced and tempered with fire and frost magics. Incredibly rare and expensive. About the same quality as modern steel factories produce.
>>44473632
>iron to a ... bronze age person is pure fucking nightmare magic
You fucking what? Bronze and iron are very similar in physical properties, but iron is much more common than tin, though it requires higher temperatures to smelt.
>>44478169
>>44478254
>
Short answer: We don't know; humans are weird; most of our stuff is arbitrary until you take a closer look at it, at which point you realize there's a good reason for it, and then realize that the reason is also arbitrary.
I think this is the best (not necessarily most useful) answer you're gonna get. I'd be pretty surprised if we understood language evolution well enough to say how much is arbitrary and how much is shaped.
On the bright side, this means you're free to go with whatever you want and still be as scientific or whatever as you could be.
>>44473632
Iron is shit, the bronze age->iron age wasn't development it was the collapse of civilization as it then existed
>>44479255
In his defense, having your entire army equipped with high quality armaments is reasonably nightmare magic tier in situations where it makes a big difference and isn't common.
Writing my own setting variant for a pre-existing system. Not sure if this fits here or the hombrew thread better, so whatever. Fuck it.
I dont know what order to write this shit in. The official books have a very unorthodox layout in the way they present information to you. Both by putting chapters in a non-standard order (based on other books I've read), and by including lots of "inserts", scans of faxes or bits of paperwork etc..
So basically, whats a good way to organize the information? I've got
>forward explaining meta shit
>basic layout of how the world is today with a timeline of events in the sidebar.
>fundamental differences between this and the core setting
then a bunch of shit with no clue where to insert it
>bits of new gear and tech
>a gameplay example in shortstory format
>a fuckton of houserules for all kinds of things, which will require an update to both combat and chargen.
>a list of new factions that needs to be rewritten in a non-gm note format.
any of you have a "you must include your chapters in this order or else you are retarded" guide? Once I've gotten far enough with this I can toss up a pdf for criticism.
>>44479376
Use common sense.
>How to prepare game
>How to play game
>Info for GM only
>>44479376
Here for fluff, homebrew for mechanics and crunch.
>>44472588
How would "babies getting rapidly aged into adults so they can fight on the front lines" figure into that?
>>44484366
Not as bad as child soldiers.
Map for you guys to criticize. The big rectangle is magically influenced warm polar ice.
>>44485670
But bad enough?
>>44486079
>warm polar ice
Okay, I'll bite. Why? For what purpose? What happens if you freeze warm ice? What if you heat it to when water boils? Would it become non-boiling hot water? Does it even melt? If it doesn't, does anyone use it for building materials? Idk much on the subject, but I would think ice would be easier to cut than rock. Is the wildlife just kind of confused by the sudden different ground? Do plants still die off?
Anyway, I hope the creator of this map chokes on all of the apostrophes in those city names
>>44486374
Well what else are you going to use the cold fire for?
>>44486374
So that the environment is more tolerable to the wizards that live there who made the strange ice. It serves as a conduit for magic and makes the area horrible for travel to anyone that can't use magic to reduce the temperature to more ordinary levels. It is anathema to most life in general.
It doesn't melt without the use of magic. The general mechanics of the strange ice is that, when water freezes in a certain area of effect defined by the mage towers, it will stay ice no matter its temperature, and in fact, emanates heat by a magic broadcast from the various mage towers.
>>44486374
Also, on the comment about the apostrophes in my city names;be grateful there weren't more hyphens and ridiculous consonant clusters.
>>44486280
For that guy, maybe? I personally don't think so.
>>44478169
the most accepted theory behind is that people change how they speak so it becomes """""""""easier""""""" to do so.
>>44476417
I grew up on these and forgotten realms books. Still have a few. Also fuck kender.
>>44486680
What else does your setting have? How does magic work? What's its history?Please fill this awful silence wit discussion.
>>44464558
Just for reference, Splatoon is a noblebright post-apocalyptic setting.
>>44464558
In my own attempt at noblebright, I just started from the beginning.
The game is set in the time leading up to the golden age: the height of Atlantis/Netheril/Numenor empire.
Players are at the vanguard of the empire, where they explore the unexplored, assist remote settlements, make deals with new civilizations they encounter, and deal with meddling young regional deities who are trying to establish themselves.
When I really started thinking about it, I realized I had just made Star Trek in a fantasy world.
