It's not for a sci-fi setting, but I could use some help.

I need help fleshing out and expanding the magic in my setting. To be more specific, I'd like to add more types of magic.
As of now, my magic is mostly rune based and comes in three flavors:
-Standard runes: runes added to objects to endow them with power (belt of strength, sword of speed, etc). Runic objects are time consuming to make and scale in power parallel to the cost of the item itself (belt with gold and diamonds would be stronger than a leather belt even with the same rune applied).
>Scrolls/Binding: sort of related to runes. This involves binding a spirit or spell into an object, typically a scroll or staff (staffs would have room for multiple powers). Releasing the binding casts the spell or gives control of the spirit for a limited time.
>Woad/Runic Tattoos: similar to regular runes, these are applied directly to the flesh of a person. The mixing of blood and ink gives the user great control over the use of the rune's power, but unlike regular runes these fade with use. Using a rune of strength as an example, this would be like giving a character a pool of 100 "strength." They can cash in some of that strength at any time, but the more they use at once the faster it goes away. Spells can also be applied via tattoo, but "miscasting" is much more dangerous.
I like this system because it encourages players to plan ahead. It's like D&D wizards cranked up to 11; instead of having spells refresh daily after an hour of studying a spellbook, you get a larger number of much more powerful magic, but will be limited to what you start with for most of the campaign, unless you're characters take a month off to revamp their gear.

In all these cases, the more experienced a character is with the specific rune the more powerful it becomes when THEY use it.

I'm also toying with an innate magic ability system that works a bit like demi-gods from Greek Myth.

1/2

>>47161544
2/2
Something like Hercules being super strong. Characters descended from certain bloodlines can get a single magical ability, like speed or speaking to animals or being immune to fire.

I'd also like to include some more traditional magics, but need to work them so that they compliment and compete with the above types without overshadowing them.

I'm planning on including necromancy in some capacity (I have an idea for the first campaign I'd run), and might use some divine casting split between getting power from gods or classic-style demons.

The setting itself is all-human, with ancestor-based polytheism for most religions.

I'm open for ideas and suggestions.

>>47160676
You should always include wbg in the title to make it easier to search the catalog and for an SF theme thread include the nasa globe map projector:

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/gprojector/

Making a Sci-Fi themed Ethnographical questionnaire would be helpful too.

In any case, I'm working out how to make a space dragon/leviathan. It is to be a Terran ship whose AI has gone somewhat insane and is blaming every alien race for the disappearance of the human race. It has rebuilt its body as a massive weapon capable of extreme speed and maneuverability that can be matched only by other pure AI ships with ancient tech at their disposal. It "preys" on ships in its territory and when it encounters an planet with an advanced alien race on it, it smashes it back into the stone age to make them suffer instead of immediate genocide.

It has also been hoarding scraps and artifacts of imperial Terran technology at an old colony world system, hoping to one day find Terrans again and they would need the tech to rebuild. For comparison its like a non-reproducing Berserker in terms of combat, its technology makes it unbeatable in combat, more a force of nature. I have to decide on the basic architecture and systems it uses.

>>47161544
>>47161564
>Something like Hercules being super strong. Characters descended from certain bloodlines can get a single magical ability, like speed or speaking to animals or being immune to fire.

Most the rest of your magic system seems based on runes and their meaning. I'm not sure if bloodline style magic makes much sense in context.

>I'd also like to include some more traditional magics, but need to work them so that they compliment and compete with the above types without overshadowing them.

By traditional, do you mean vancian? You could simulate that by having all prepared casters bind power to an object or objects they carry via runes, such as with your scroll and binding system.

>I'm planning on including necromancy in some capacity (I have an idea for the first campaign I'd run), and might use some divine casting split between getting power from gods or classic-style demons.

Would necromancy come from binding spirits into dead bodies, simply carving runes of motion and servitude into the bones, or marking them with tattoos made from one's blood and ink?

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>>47160676
I propose to include those links on the OP posts for worldbuilding:

http://myarmoury.com/features.html

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/

http://www.theoi.com/

http://l-clausewitz.livejournal.com/178455.html

In my sci fi setting space combat does exist, but it is 99% planning because once the shooting starts the fight is pretty much over -- there are no dog fights in space so either you disabled their ship before they returned fire our you didn't, in which case both ships are now in huge trouble.

One big conceit is of course the faster than light travel in my setting which works by doing short "jumps" in the direction the ship is facing. This is a big part of space combat, but there isn't any magic faster method of detection than light. If you spot a ship in the distance, not only would they have been able to spot you, but if you are very far away the ship is not in the position you are seeing it at.

Typically forces planning to engage eachother will be hiding on opposite sides of a planet, or sometimes at much greater distances than that, using laser communication with drones to try and scout the enemy's position while considering that their information will be several seconds, or longer, behind, communication between ships becomes very hard if they are spread out over great distances, and that they need to shoot at enemy drones the moment they are spotted (though by that point they have already been spotted by the drone). When they feel they have enough information on the enemy's position, they jump in and attack. If they didn't plan carefully enough or mis-estimated the position of the ships, the enemy will counterattack.

There is no stealth in space unless you are in blending in among traffic near a station, but I am not sure that counts.

>>47163146
>In my sci fi setting space combat does exist, but it is 99% planning because once the shooting starts the fight is pretty much over -- there are no dog fights in space so either you disabled their ship before they returned fire our you didn't, in which case both ships are now in huge trouble.


So GENOCIDE EVERYTHING is pretty much what happens.

Only tangentially related to sci-fi, would there be any significant effect to Earth having another moon? [the mass of the moons can be altered to avoid unstable orbits, provided one is possible.]

>>47164209
I think altering the moon's mass(spread out in two) would be problematic since it theoretically contributed to the evolution of life on the planet by tidal actions, atmospheric bleeding and I think rotation braking. It also helps shield the planet from strikes.

I don't see how there could be two also if your going by the strike formation route. Captured bodies may be handwaived but you run into the initial issues. An extremely small second moon like a large captured asteroid may the the best option around several issues.

>>47164209
Tides would become more complicated.

>great leader creates an empire spanning the continent
>sets the continents culture and customs in stone
>present day is full of small infighting kingdoms who dream of restoring that empire
Too cliche?

>>47164433
Would it be too laughably implausible to have a 2nd asteroid-moon captured some time around the early years of civilization? (with the interesting mythological situation that early-medieval texts and images clearly show two moons, while the earliest mythologies reference only one.)


>>47165322
Anywhere I can read what kind of practical implications there would be for tides without delving so deeply into science I become hopelessly lost?

Hey folks, I've never done something this before but it seems fun to make a world/setting and maybe run as a game or something once fleshed out to play on. I've looked at a few resources but they all seem to bombard you with a lot of information and direction and as someone who's never done this before it seems confusing on where to start and daunting as a whole.

Where do you guys suggest I start at as someone who doesn't know anything about world building? My setting idea is barely at infant stage of some dream mash up of Christian myth + Eastern mythologies, Exalted, Kill Six Billion Demons, and maybe Soul Calibur. At work but will try to respond as soon as possible, thanks.

>>47165411
I like the secondary new moon concept.

Traveller has a >lot< of info on crunchy world building, but I don't remember this covered in detail.
It all depends on the size and orbit of Moon #2.
Wikipedia has good info on Lagrange points and stable orbits.
If they are stable in relation to each other the tides would tend to be regular. if they are like the hands of a clock they will line up periodically and cause dramatic tides.

>>47165382
It''s cliché for a reason. Historically great and long lasting empires left huge legacies as they shaped the future by being the foundation of culture, law, civil society and how people view themselves and others.

It would be weird if your great empire didn't leave such a legacy.

>>47165618
Make a modest island kingdom, a few hundred miles across. If you want life even better, use a good premade map. I recommend Kingdoms of Kalamar' map and just put your mashup somewhere. I have made very successful campaigns using a real world map turned sideways. Ireland would not be a bad choice.
Find an old map, rename the big cities, look up Ireland in Enc. Britannica 1911, copy down the geological feature info. If your group is Irish, use somewhere else.
Go to town building your culture.

>>47165382
More like too normal. Not really a problem though.

>>47165411
>Would it be too laughably implausible to have a 2nd asteroid-moon captured some time around the early years of civilization?

Not really but a lot of the REEEE would come from how it was captured, simple happenstance would feel so contrived(but not impossible) that it could break suspension of disbelief.

Going purely by brute force physics the likeliest way an asteroid/comet can be captured is to have enough speed to escape earth's pull as it comes near enough to capture or be on a collision course. This of course requires a force to reduce its speed enough to get into stable orbit. You can handwave it with magic but another option is to have it glance-bump into something of suitably bigger mass, like the Moon. Loose use of cosmic billiards gives an excuse to reduce speed enough to nudge the body into a capture orbit that may/may not stabilize in time. If the body's mass is small enough momentum imparted to the moon can be said as negligible. The resulting collision should spread debris in orbit and likely cause a lot of rock/ice to fall on earth which may be useful for story purposes. The body will almost certainly be worse for wear and not be spherical.

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>>47164209
Two moons the size of Earth's natural satellite would not probably survive in stable orbits ("stable" as in surviving hundreds of millions of years). The moons around gas giants have a tiny mass compared to their primaries, and so do Phobos and Deimos compared to Mars. While Pluto and Charon could be considered a double dwarf planet due to their close sizes, the other 4 moons are again tiny. I think that if the Earth-Moon system had another moon, it would have to be so small and orbit around both bodies in such a way that it would only look like a fast moving star to the naked eye. Otherwise, its orbit would probably deteriorate within thousands of years.

>>47165411
Saying it's an asteroid captured recently would certainly be a good way to science it if you don't want to resort to magic.

Here's a photo of Deimos from Mars' surface. It orbits exceptionally close to the planet, so some of its features are visible despite its small size. A captured asteroid might look something like this.

The Earth moon system doesn't have truly stable L4/L5 points, but you could perhaps pull off a horseshoe orbit relative to the Earth-Moon system.

>>47162155
Sorry for taking so long to reply back. Sort of passed out last night.
If I go with the bloodline magic, it will be the original human magic, with runes developing as a way to at first replicate the powers, and later to expand upon them. Still, I see your point.

Necromancy is an odd duck, but I almost want it to be so. It'll include simply speaking with the dead to reanimating corpses, but I don't want it to be to closely related to runic magic. In fact, I'd almost like it to be older, even have it be a threat that led to the bloodline magics coming into being to counter Necromancy.

As fire"traditional" magic, I'm not entirely sure what I meant. I suppose I was trying to say the Isiah fireball throwing stuff, but with the user not requiring runes or scrolls or the like. I'll probably just drop it.

As you can probably tell, I'm still in the early stages of worldbuilding.

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Posting an updated version of my map. Any suggestions/ideas/thoughts?

>>47167487
Looks great, actually. I'm a bit worried that the jungle is to close to the main continent to have such a different climate, but that's not a huge issue.
Might be fun to have the jungle area be the source of some incredibly important resource. The Empire has to exert considerable effort to hold the territory, which might limit their ability to expand elsewhere, without weakening the overall threat they represent.

>>47167654
Yeah, I was going for a kind of "New World"/"Era of exploration" feel. I've also left parts of the map purposefully blank, terra incognita, such as the western and eastern parts of the main continent, and the east island. I think this would make it more fun to play in, adds more mystery, and allows me to take a small break to develop other stuff about my world than the map.

>>47167361
It's fine. A lot of worldbuilding is pitting something in, finding it doesn't fit, and then removing it.

I quite like the idea of Necromancers using spoken word to raise the dead. Maybe music/singing is the source of their power?

So this, basically: http://youtu.be/kdiFH6BcSUE

PICK a country

>WHAT is it's form of governance?
>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
>HOW are their relationship?
>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
>WHY does it have to be worried?

>>47167487
I like it. But why are there no forests south of the huge ones? It looks lie in your world wind shadow of mountains is a necessity for forests and that orests can't form without it.

>>47168064
>>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Elected Prince rules for life. Electors usually support whoever precedecor appointed unless he really fucked up.
>>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
City dwellers are former colonists from an empire that suddenly met an unexpected end mostly live inside city walls. Nomads from steppes as well as some of their agrarian offshots outside
>>HOW are their relationship?
Originally, colonists were suservent to nomads who acted as military/nobles. However over the course of history merchants grew in influence while nomads suffered decline
>>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
A few hundreds years ago. I haven't worked out timeline properly yet. It didn't change in borders since fall of the empire
>>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
The last exarch and first Successor Prince Nikolai, whose diplomatic skills saved the nation from destruction and slavery at the hands of barbarians.
>>WHY does it have to be worried?
Internal strife. Many modern nomads are resentful at their loss of wealth and influence and consider breaking the agreement, rebel and invite their cousins who still roam the steppes and take what is rightfully theirs.

>>47168208
I love it. I'm glad I posed these questions, because I never get invested in big walls of text, but these answers absolutely won me over for your setting - It's all humans I assume?

>>47167995
>>47167995
Spoken word? Something like True Name magic?
That actually sounds pretty good.

Hmm, in a way, wouldn't that be like a verbal representation of runes? Might work as the connection between the different types.

>>47168064
>>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Government is almost entirely town//castle based, with each large settlement being mostly independent and ruled by a collection of founding families, whose elders rule in a council. Larger political entities exist, but are ill defined and rather weak. Mostly it's about tradition: their ancestors were friends with our ancestors, so we're allied still. That, or due to personal friendships between leaders. A king would have to be charismatic and badass to have any power outside his home city/town.
>>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
Humans. There are 9 Tribes, each broken down into several Clans, which in turn are broken into Families. Your Family/Clan/Tribe is your "nationality."
>>HOW are their relationship?
Not sure what you mean by this. The current ruling families are descended from leaders from the past. Current "peasants" are descendants of their followers. Nepotism and tradition keep everything stable. Mostly.
>>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
It's a Viking-age tech-level society spread across a large area. As far as the people know, it's always been like this. Some elders grumble about there being more towns/villages nearby than there used to be. History is more of an art than a science.
>>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
Every town/village/city/castle has it's own great hero, but the leaders of the old Nine Tribes (often more than one per tribe) are revered by pretty much everyone. They united the Clans, (mostly) drove out the monsters, and set down the laws governing the people today. Each was considered a great warrior, or had some other trait making them just as valuable.
>>WHY does it have to be worried?
Not very organized, so powerful foreigners could do a hell of a lot of damage if they invaded. Also, the wilds are home to many man-eating monsters.

>>47168277
Yes, those are all humans. I'm not very fond of non-humans.

>>47168064
Guess I'll respond for my world:
>>47167487
For the Imperial Republic
>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Imperial Republic (duh)
>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
Humans, almost exclusively.
>HOW are their relationship?
Former warring kingdoms, now in a (unstable) union.
>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
Haven't figure this out yet.
>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
The first emperor (Whom I haven't decided upon yet)
>WHY does it have to be worried?
It's a huge multicultural empire, with a bunch of people with their own history and beliefs. Shit's unstable as fuck yo.

>>47168377
Words, or more accurately Sounds, seem to have shape to them. Ever seen that thing where a row of lighters react to music? Like that. Sounds are nature's runes.

>>47170197
Works for me.
Many thanks, anon.

Whats a good type of engine my spaceships could use for purely orbital maneuvers? My FTL is a reactionless warp drive, but doesn't work in planetary gravity wells above a certain size. I want enough delta-v and thrust for ships to move around freely in orbit, but not enough that can travel between planets without FTL.

>>47170811
Monopropellant?

>Who has the best army in your setting?

>How large is it?

>How is it organized?

>Who can serve? Who can't?

>How is the leader chosen?

>What kind of tactics do they use?

>How long has the army been top dog?

>Give me a brief overview of their most famous battle.

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>>47168064
Naga Empire
>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Triumverant Monarchy -> Rotating Empire -> Lamian Theocracy
>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
Lamia, Naga, Yuan Ti, Gorgon
>HOW are their relationship?
Formerlly good, but now openly hostile to the point of a de facto collapse of the empire
>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
Government was founded 200 years ago. It reached its height 1000 years ago. It became its current size 100 years ago. In universe, years are recorded according to the founding of the Naga Empire. The current year is 1473.
>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
Ilam, Sahazel, and Yuan Xo, the first three monarchs
Because of the nature of three in the empire, heroic legends always include three
>WHY does it have to be worried?
Naga invasion, the potential of a Gorgon exit of the Empire, and now the worry of human invaders from the sea.

>>47173212
>Who has the best army in your setting?
A force of mainly human mercenaries.
>How large is it?
Three sub-armies of about ten thousand men each.
>How is it organized?
>Who can serve?
Able-bodied soldiers, males above the age of 16, females above the age of 18.
>Who can't?
Women who have children, the sick, those that are judged incapable warriors by recruiters, former POWs who have been with the force less than two years, warlocks that are not of the god of war, deserters, anyone with a history of being a traitor.
>How is the leader chosen?
Generally the position of head commander is hereditary, but they can be (and often are) replaced in a 'King's Champion' fashion where the band's leader elevates one of his/her subordinates to the position of high general.
>What kind of tactics do they use?
Terror, fast strikes, high reliance on archery and cavalry. They have a special division of berzerkers that accompany riders and engage strong formations by putting themselves into a poison-induced frenzy while the rider charges at the enemy. The berzerker would then jump off his ally's horse and begin to butcher the enemy formation from the inside, heedless to his own safety. If the riders can't break into enemy formations, the berzerkers fix that by engaging the offending formation in hand-to-hand while receiving archer support from the rider,s who back up and fire over their troops' heads.
>How long has the army been top dog?
They've broken up and reformed several times over the history of the setting. The current unit has been the strongest military force in the world for six years, but they've been the strongest on-and-off for hundreds if not thousands of years.

>>47173928
>Give me a brief overview of their most famous battle.
The reason they have such a long-lasting impact on the setting is that they were participant in the last age's end and reformation.
They were much smaller at that time, allegedly numbering 37, but regardless, set up a perimeter against the forces of chaos while the 'PC party' of the time attacked the head warlock of the demon responsible. The mercenary leader himself fought a shadow dragon one-on-one. Since the world's population at the time was decimated to perhaps a thousand at the time, these were the only people that could be scrounged up in time to make the rush for the warlock. If the effort had failed, pretty much everyone would be screwed.

>>47173928
So your setting is cool with female soldiers? Or is it just this group?
Might I ask the gender ratio for the army?

Oh, and you say they're mercenaries. Who can afford to hire such a large army?
Also, what do they do when they don't currently have an employer?

In a setting I'm making, corporations started a "gold rush" in the asteroid belt, and many had plans for colonies on other planets. Things were going pretty well, Earth saw a huge revival of space travel, however, the population crisis has hit an all time high, cities have started pushing their borders further and further and leaving little room for farmland, while wars started due to limited room and farmland. This led many people to sign up for colony programs and PMCs for spacefaring corporations, since the ships are seen as self sustainable and the colonies as bountiful. These factors lead humanity to expanding in the solar system at a massive pace.

The fact that these corporations were able to feed and give meaning to the colonists where governments failed led to the death of nationalism, and gave birth to a whole new ideal; corporatism. Imagine brand loyalists on a whole new level. Around the time that this movement was gaining momentum, PMCs became so loyal to their corporations that they became a literal army for them, able to recruit from their colonies and receiving funding straight from the corporation.

Now with most of the solar system colonized in one way or another, the willingness of space travel, and the potential profits, and the new warp drive being developed, humanity has begun exploring nearby stars, and discovering all of the fucked up shit out there.

>>47174121
Larry Niven's 'Known Space' setting.

>>47174219
Aww man. I had a feeling the idea was taken already. Any ideas on how I can give it it's own twist? If it's any help, I'm making it a setting for stuff like Event Horizon or the Alien franchise.

>>47173212
>Who has the best army in your setting?
Probably the nation of Aquileon
>How large is it?
A bit under half a million men.
>How is it organized?
Fairly similarly to the German army of the 1880s
>Who can serve? Who can't?
Women can serve in non-combat roles but frontline roles are male exclusive. The Aquilonese Republic is fairly racially mixed due to a long period as the Aquilonese Empire's heartland, so racial prejudice isn't a big factor.
>How is the leader chosen?
The Commander in Chief of the Aquilonese Army is appointed by the Republic's Council, ensuring democratic influence on the army's control.
>What kind of tactics do they use?
The Aquilonese Army emphasizes that artillery is king; artillery officers are senior to infantry officers of equivalent rank, and the infantry's main purpose is to support the artillery,
>How long has the army been top dog?
A little less than thirty years. When the Aquilonese Empire collapsed, the majority of the army's officers went over to the seceding province of Astaria, but those who remained built the army over again in a professional model based on personal achievement rather than aristocratic connections. Without a major war to fight, the army has gone untested since then, but it's confident of being able to take its foreign counterparts on and defend the Republic
>Give me a brief overview of their most famous battle.
N/A. The army hasn't fought any major battles yet.

>>47174084
Setting is cool with female soldiers in the sense that fantasy females generally have the 'PC potential' as well. If you can't cut muster, you can't join.
The male-female ratio of the mercs is 50-1 at BEST, though, mostly because
A) Most women don't like to put themselves at risk of being part of the army/don't like bloodshed/don't like being around soldiers all the time
B) They face discrimination regardless of ability due to the fact that they generally take indirect combat roles (ie: they're cowardly) and that most who try don't make the cut
C) Women are seen as more necessary for up-keeping population and as such it's generally considered idiotic to put them on the field of battle
>Who can afford to hire such a large army?
They normally don't field all of their men at once because they're generally paid appeasement to keep to themselves by surrounding nations. When they are hired, it's usually in bands of no more than 100, or even 10. They get requests from far-off nations for temporary service or military and tactics training. In fact, one of the nations they're currently at war with had a tendency to hire them as guards for slaves, a fact that caused one of the biggest coordinated turnover of resources in history as all of these seperate guard groups suddenly turned on the plantation/shop/land/slave owners and took all of their stuff.
>Also, what do they do when they don't currently have an employer?
Anyone who isn't training or working is foraging or hunting- the plains they have access to are massive, which along with the appeasement sustains their population. They have a tendency to break up into tribes over long periods of time (they were only re-united recently after two-hundred years of infighting and seperation), so this is basically unusual for them.
If that's still not enough, they go north and bust a few settlement heads for 'support'.

>>47174349
So they're like a mini-nation of mercenaries, or a knightly order without the knights?
I can dig it.

>>47174308
Since you seem to be making your first forays into writing sci fi, I'd suggest reading a lot more. Check out the Known Space series to start with. Rough order for reading

World of Ptaavs
A Gift From Earth
Neutron Star
Protector
Ringworld

>>47174380
They would be considered a kingdom if they were to say, build castles, or stop fighting each other and surrounding areas long enough to settle down.
There's jokes about them that they enjoy fighting so much that they forget they're mercenaries until they get paid, or one more common one is as such:
Two hundred or so of their goons meet up with one ambitious mayor who pays them in advance to attack an enemy city.
A few days later, they come back and start laying waste to the city that hired them.
The mayor come out and begs them to stop, and they tell him they got paid by the other city to sack this one, also in advance.
When the mayor begs them and says "Whatever he paid you, I'll pay you more," the reply comes, "Yeah, that's what the other guy said. We sacked them, too."

>>47174517
But that would make them completely unreliable. Who would ever hire them? Why hasn't anyone wiped them out by now?

Don't get me wrong, I like what I'm hearing; mostly just playin' Devil's advocate.

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>>47168064
>PICK a country
The Federal Republic of Ehreist

>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Federal Presidential Constitutional Monarchy

>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
They are a mix of humans and dragons, and are one of the few nations in the world where the two species enjoy relatively equal rights and economic status.

>HOW are their relationship?
Internally, their constituent states work fairly well together, and federal authority is consistently respected; they are a stable nation. Externally, they have suddenly found themselves the premier great power due to their overall victory in the recent world war. Of course, they have also made many enemies, chief among them their old rivals, the United Kingdom of Orelle.

>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
Around five hundred years ago, King Allard I began the process of uniting the many disparate tribes and city-states of the Ehreist Crescent, succeeding after several decades of conquest both military and social. Allard kept counsel with the heads of state of each nation he conquered, and this laid the groundwork for the nation's evolution into a republic.

>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
King Allard is also known as Allard the Great for a reason--he is a figure who commands reverence from both humans and dragons, for one of the keys to his rise was his enfranchisement of dragonkind. During a battle as a young prince, he was saved from a pair of lethal bolts by a dragon auxiliary, and this sacrifice gave him an uncommon respect for dragons as people. He made the "Martyr's Bolts" his standard, and it quickly became a symbol of benefaction which dragons flocked to.

>WHY does it have to be worried?
The problem with being a world power is that the world's problems follow. Ehreist is having to deal with numerous threats both political, economic, and social, and are struggling to maintain their newly-won prestige.

>>47174629
>Who would ever hire them?
People who were willing to take the risk- anyone who would trust a PMC.
They're usually hired on for their reputation rather than their particular ability- if they didn't do their job well enough and consistently enough, they WOULDN'T get hired. As it is, the vast majority of them are willing to forsake robbing the guy that hired them blind so that they can get fair or even cushy pay.
They're usually more loyal, so long as they get their due, but in the following order:
Head Commander>Unit Leader>People who hire them>People who have hired them in the past>People who pay them tribute
If you betray someone lower in the line for someone higher, you're considered a traitor and anyone in the group who kills you can take your stuff. As the head commander is responsible for keeping up the merc's reputation, turning on a paying customer without leave from him generally counts as betraying him.
Also, the joke was taken at expense of their intelligence, as they're generally seen as extremely simple-minded.
>Why hasn't anyone wiped them out?
Because whenever they as a set of tribes are threatened, they find it much easier to put aside their differences and attack the guys that are attacking them. Also, they have a substantially higher ratio of warrior-to-population than most kingdoms.

>>47174848
That should be
>If you betray someone higher in the line for someone lower, you're considered a traitor and anyone in the group who kills you can take your stuff.
Sorry about that.

>>47174406
Thanks. I'll look into those.

>>47168064
Arx Sidera
>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Socialist Democracy
>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
Mostly humans descended from the colony ship 250 years prior, though some immigrated from either Earth or the other colonies after faster than light travel came into being
>HOW are their relationship?
Head of the Sidereal Coalition with the other colonies, very tense relations with Earth. Gives out privateer licenses to allow citizens to freely attack Earth ships.
>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
The colony ship landed around earth year 2182 with a population of about a hundred thousand. 120 years later the population has grown to about 2 billion, 90% of whom live in a single city with the rest of the planet dedicated to agricultural or ecological purposes.
>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
Dr. Henry Lambel, who developed the first worst working scale prototype of faster than light transportation, though it wasn't implemented on a full scale for another 50 years.
>WHY does it have to be worried?
Most of the powerful corporations on Earth want their share of the pie, and they have a lot of resources to throw at getting it. Furthermore, the Sidereal Coalition does not have a standing army.

>>47173212
>Who has the best army in your setting?
The Russian Federation
>How large is it?
650,000 total enlisted, with over 800 vessels with faster than light capabilities
>How is it organized?
traditional ranks
>Who can serve? Who can't?
Only Russian speakers can serve.
>How is the leader chosen?
Officers work their way up the chain of command
>What kind of tactics do they use?
Big blobs of ships assuring certain death for any opposing force
>How long has the army been top dog?
Since the United States disbanded its military forces in favor of a fully privatized military in 2218
>Give me a brief overview of their most famous battle.
comment too long

(after fixing astronomical error)
>>47176213
>Give me a brief overview of their most famous battle.
The battle in which they made their space presence known.

The rogue pirate fleet of 86 ships under the command of Dread Pirate Little Ed had been antagonizing pretty much everyone. One day they ambushed a couple of Russian cargo haulers near Io.

Though it took over 30 minutes for the light from the conflict to reach earth, within a just an hour there were hundreds of Russian battleships near Jupiter. And so ended the career of Dread Pirate Little Ed.

bump?
bump

While not strictly Sci-fi, I have a space fantasy tumbling around in my brain. It's based on the concept that there's magic in the universe, it has a physical form, and it's almost everywhere. ALMOST everywhere of course meaning that little ol humanity never got any to play with. So of course alien civilizations, with magic-powered FTL drives, give us a visit. Of course, they got to the FTL stage much faster than we ever could without, so we somehow end up the galactic leader of technology being uplifted by aliens somewhere around WW1 in tech level

I have a lot of things I'm wondering about that I can't really seem to give a good answer for. Mostly higher level stuff for the "sounds cool but is it too much" category.

>How many alien races would be a good line for there being TOO many?
>Should there be a strict rule of 1-race-per-planet, with maybe an extremely rare planet with two, or should I be lax on that.
>Psychic bullshittery is already in. With both wizards and mind powers running around, how deep should things like cybernetics, genetic engineering, and other sources of crazy stuff be looked into?
>How crazy should hacking be represented? Should it be real world "just have the botnet brute force the password" type of stuff, movie-level "I'm gonna backtrace his IP address and dump a virus on his modem" level of dumbassery, or should I go full cyberpunk "excuse me, I need to plug into this magic mineral wizard wire with my brain-jack so I can have a digital swordfight with this asshole" level.
>With the fact that life support is run off of enchantments, engagements have to be at close enough range to get accurate readings on the structure of the enemy ship. But does this justify having space fighters and/or giant space robots?
>Speaking of robots, should there be AI? Should it be limited to large systems, or should your roomba have an attitude? Should there be full humanoid robots, or even realistic androids?

I just wanna avoid the "kitchen sink" feel

>>47179797
>How many alien races would be a good line for there being TOO many?
Depends. If this is alien of the week/adventure type like Star Trek or Doctor Who, sky is the limit. If there's more detailed stuff, keep them few and each in their own niche, because the excessive races will go the way of hupplepuff house
>Should there be a strict rule of 1-race-per-planet, with maybe an extremely rare planet with two, or should I be lax on that.
One sentient race per planet is more plausible, but you can have multiracial planets - just make sure you do something with it. And there's expats
>Psychic bullshittery is already in. With both wizards and mind powers running around, how deep should things like cybernetics, genetic engineering, and other sources of crazy stuff be looked into?
Personally, I always thought both magic and superscience is usually redundant. Find a way to make them distinct and not redundant and use at your leisure
>How crazy should hacking be represented? Should it be real world "just have the botnet brute force the password" type of stuff, movie-level "I'm gonna backtrace his IP address and dump a virus on his modem" level of dumbassery, or should I go full cyberpunk "excuse me, I need to plug into this magic mineral wizard wire with my brain-jack so I can have a digital swordfight with this asshole" level.
You probably not going to represent hacking both fun and realistic, absurd artistic licence at least saves you from scrutiny.
>With the fact that life support is run off of enchantments, engagements have to be at close enough range to get accurate readings on the structure of the enemy ship. But does this justify having space fighters and/or giant space robots?
Nothing justify giant robots, IMO. As for fighters, dodge is probably best defence in space age

>>47179797
Wait, if it's ALMOST everywhere and none exists around earth, how do the alien FTL devices function around our planet if they're charged by magic?

You could make a decent setting out of an alien ship that gets stranded on our planet and the occupants have to integrate into Earth culture. Reverse-engineering what tech we could, we make a near-FTL ship that can make contact and return the alien descendants.

Of course by then the alien descendants are so alien to their own kind they don't fit in anywhere. And now humans have a combination of technology and magitech that's making the universe at large nervous.

>>47180027
>Wait, if it's ALMOST everywhere and none exists around earth, how do the alien FTL devices function around our planet if they're charged by magic?
I guess I kinda was bad at explaining it. Magic has a physical form, there's just a few big containers full of FTL-fuel. Now, you don't just wait until you have one less, unless you're a fucking madman. That shit can miscast, and many times it just sputters out and you have to use another (saves you cash on the restock at least), while sometimes it miscasts and "something bad" happens. While trader joe can always wait for some asshole ready to take all of his profits for a couple jump's worth of fuel to go home with, explorers need to be careful and make sure they have a backup, or even two, still in stock when they get back home. Then you get a nice wizard's union to have a batch of FTL juice whipped up, pay out your ass for a restock, and enjoy your little profit margin.

Miscasted magic is the biggest threat to the universe. You would rather work in a coal mine than work in the magifactory where you make it out of thin air. Even the desk job in the back.

>>47169198
>Former warring kingdoms, now in a (unstable) union

that sounds like there's a more interestig answer regarding ethnicities than "they're mostly of the human race" and leaving it

>It's a huge multicultural empire, with a bunch of people with their own history and beliefs.

Oh, you just ignored the ethnicity part.

Throwing around in my head a sword and planet sort of game. Take Spelljammer, throw out the crystal spheres and phlogiston and add something like the Warp in 40k and call that the Astral Plane. Add in some dashes of Cosmic Marvel and you're close to being set. Playable races besides humans all came from a particular homeworld but have since spread out quite far. Elves or the Eldari have this weird plant bio-technological magic. Dwarves or the Dverga inherited the legacy of the Celestials and their Creation Forges. The Orcs or the Scro have been all but wiped out in the last great war, but their mark has been felt throughout the galaxy. Tieflings are the result of Demonworlds. Bahamut is a massive worldeater akin to Galactus, who purges whole worlds of evil.

Does anyone have that tl;dr image on making scientifically accurate continents?

>>47176213
You mention two different times in Arx Sidera's colonization. Is it 120 or 250 years?

In 250 years, going from a population of 100k to 2 billion would require a growth rate of 4.0%, and the average mother would need to have about 4 children that survive to reproduce if a generation (average age of all children born to a mother) is about 30 years. This is about the same as some of the poorest nations in Africa, or peak baby boom level in the US, and somewhat reasonable.
Having children would probably need to be encouraged by legislation, as numbers like these don't last for two and a half centuries except in exceptional conditions. Each colonist that decided to stay celibate would require another colonist to have double the number of children, so marriage and having a certain number of children might be mandatory or at least heavily promoted by tax breaks, stipends etc, especially for women.

If the time is only 120 years, the growth rate is 8.6%, and mothers would need to have about 10 children if a generation is 30 years, and about 8 if it was 25 years. This would require massive social policies geared towards maximum fertility, pretty much a draconian "mandatory 10 children policy". An average 8-baby mother would be expected to pop a baby ever other year from age 18 to 32, to give their bodies time to recover from pregnancies. Almost half of the colony's population would probably be underage, and colonists would be expected to become parents no later than age 20.
Current day Niger is a good but not exact comparison: Slightly fewer than 7 children per mother, and the median age at birth of first child is 18. 50% of the population is children aged 15 and under, which is of course affected by the life expectancy of less than 60, lower than an futuristic society where the same number would probably be 80-100 years. High childhood mortality in Niger (10% death rate at birth, 27% death rate at age 1-4) pretty much cancels that out.

>>47181875
Man, that kind of governmental stuff is how Romanian orphanages happened.

Nicolae Ceaușescu was fucking obsessed with making people reproduce. Women had to get monthly check-ups from gynecologists, to make sure they weren't cheating somehow.

>>47160676
>Worldbuilding General - Making Realistic Sci-Fi Settings Edition
Okay okay

So, what if we invented FTL by harnessing the sheer power of an extra-universal force and this force came from SOULS! Like you know how physicists say dualism can't real because the energy would break the law well what if it was real and it did break the laws of physics?

>>47182113
Wait, Souls or Minds? Because if a.) Then what's the function of the soul, is it the Greek interpretation of it being the emotional part while mind is the rational one, and by harvesting it, we become less and less emotional, or is it the immortal soul(TM) that goes on to live forever, in which case that is the ultimate form of nonsustainable energy on the one hand, but opens up the logical next step of invading heaven on the other.

If b.) do people just become less and less aware of themselves, the more energy they use, ending up as literal robots?

Which of course opens up the next question, b1.) If soul is understood in the post-enlightenment meaning of just the mind, do AIs have them as well, and if so, could you just make a perpetual motion machine by starting up AIs, harvesting their soul and rebooting it?

and if a.),

a1.) would the same perpetual motion machine work by having breeder slave armies?

>>47182113
Clarify what you mean by soul, what it's from and the mechanism that translates this into FTL.

>>47182113
So, warp travel in 40k?

>>47167487
How large is the planet and what latitudes are those?

>>47160676
Hamilton cylinders are so inefficient. If you want to use windows for lighting, use a torus for fuck's sake.

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>>47160676

Not really Sci-fi. Copied my setting's map from a sketch into Inkarnate. Something about this feels awful, I dunno what it is though. Something just feels off.

>>47183639
Everything is angular and straight. The settlement symbols are very large by map scale. Artos, Cluci and Deinti look like they are one city.

>>47183639
Start biting off pieces of shore with substract tool. This is so much fun I literally can't stop doing it on my map, soon I will run out of land.

>>47181875
It was intended to be the ship departed 250 years ago but took 130 years to arrive at its destination... Good note about the populations though

>>47183685

Yeah, that's Inkarnate for you. I think I'm going to replace everything but Stonedale and Brickburg (the actual cities) with plain dots.

>>47183711
That's actually a really good idea lol thanks

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Any suggestion on what The Wastes should be like? It partially exists due to magical influence from Borderlands, but does this kind of patch really make sense? What would be more fitting? Salt planes, just plane infertile rock? Can there be a patch that is just plain infertile?

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>>47183639

Fixed it up a bit. I feel like it's a bit cleaner-looking now.

>>47184054
Did they build Stonedale on a spring or something? Water goes out, but none goes in.

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>>47184525

Yeah a friend said the same thing, so I decided to fix it up a bit more. Added more rivers flowing from the mountains into the sea, and also removed a long straight chunk of mountains because I felt that range was too wide?

>>47184541
Apparently, rivers do not split up when they reach the sea.

>>47184570

Pls explain lol.

I mean this is more fantasy and the world's been wracked by a cosmic/magical explosion so I mean, I dunno. I want to stick to geography and science but maybe a bit less natural than is normal?

Something about the rivers does look a bit off though.

What would you guys want to see in a gunpowder fantasy setting? Basically middle earth with guns, with a mordor like country, but I want to know what you're u want in a setting that is like DnD with guns and airships.

>>47184639
I'm not a geologist but I think rivers don't make another path when they already have one. There's one drain and it doesn't need another.

But maybe someone dug it out for some reason, who knows?

>>47184667

Adventurers still use bows, crossbows and maybe have pistols while all the blackpowder weapons go to the military and whatnot.

>>47184671

Yeah that's one of the things I was thinking. Like they've had this land colonized for about 100+ years so I guess they could've made unnatural rivers and such. Especially up north where most of the farmland is.

>>47184679

The idea will be that muskets and crossbows and bows will all be on fairly even footing. It's a Savage Worlds setting so that's pretty much how it is in the rules anyway.

>>47184667
Ever played Arcanum?

Anyway, simply adding a primitive pistols would probably change little. Particularly with individual adventures.

I think it would be interesting to experience fantasy in style of Fenimore Cooper, although I haven't read him since I was a kid.

>>47168064
>>Pick a country
Duchy of Mizar
>>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Noble Monarchy with primeogeniture succession.
>>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
Mostly Sauri, with a minority consisting of Humans, Golems, Chitin and Halflings.
>>HOW are their relationship?
Humans are almost always mercenaries from the Outer realm. Golems act as administrators and generally oversee the buerocracy. Chitin are nomadic herders, disliked by many locals and usually barred from entering cities.
>>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
The Duchy has existed since the fall of the first empire, initially only controlling the far side of Lake Gragnost. It expanded over the centuries until it controlled the entire River basin before it was annexed by the Restored Imperium.
>>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
Arguably the first Duke Ravish, who murdered his 2 brothers in order to claim their fiefs for himself. Cunning is valued highly among the Sauri
>>WHY does it have to be worried?
There's been talks of a plague from the Southern Jungles that has been devastating Imperial outposts and it's only a matter of time before it spreads north. The Duchy itself has seen better days, as a famine has left the land barren in recent years.

Could highly compressed air work as a crude "battery" in a setting where electronics don't exist yet in order to work small machines? Coal-driven steam power handles larger machines, but I'm trying to figure out how to scale it down.

>>47168064
>WHAT is it's form of governance?
The Lords of the islands meet as an assembly, headed by the Siege (Sjedʒ), an individual elected by the council of his fellow Iogeorii (Jɔdʒorii)- the aforementioned Lords.

>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
There are only Humans. As the islands cover a relatively large area from just above the equator northward, though the planet has a slightly wider orbit than Earth, the people of the Deicolorii tend to be tanned, with dark hair. Haven't gotten too far into physiology yet.

>HOW are their relationship?
Though there are often inter-island rivalries, the unity under the Siege and their religion has strengthened the bonds of the many islands. As they are central, the Deicolorii see many differing peoples, as they often act as a trading hub. Their own merchants are seen almost as commonly as those of the Sea Peoples.

>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
The Deicolorii have existed in their current form for over 400 years, when the first Siege, AS YET UNNAMED, called the first council of the Iogeorii, with help from the Church, who spread the doctrine that all the different Gods of Waters that islands worshipped were different faces of the same God, uniting them religiously as well as logistically.

>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
The first Siege has many statues made in his name, the greatest of which towers behind the throne of the current Siege, looking over their shoulders.

>WHY does it have to be worried?
The Albani, an island far to the North, have begun expanding, already taking the Serpent isle and setting up a new government. Eventually, their hungry eyes will turn South.

>>47185111
I remember a book series where they used compressed air batteries, the races in it were humanoids based off insects, with related abilities. Shadows of the Apt series.

>>47168064
I guess I post another of my nations
>>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Absolute monarchy on black market North Korean steroids
>>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
Two distinct nations - descendants of foreign invaders and local slaves
>>HOW are their relationship?
Brutal oppression like you wouldn't believe. Although not every aristocrat practices it, most see nothing wrong with entertaining their guest by murdering some slave. Although freemen are organized and well-equipped, they certainly won't survive slave uprising so they have to double down on reign of terror
>>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
Some time ago, empire wanted to counquer oversea lands and set up foothold. Empire since then collapse leaving expedition corpus cut off and with delusion of being true successor (Unlike >>47168208 who has dirty brabarian blood in them)
>>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
I haven't fleshed history of fallen empire yet someone out of them
>>WHY does it have to be worried?
They are
a) Broke as fuck
b) A complete outcast in international society
c) Slave uprising any moment now
d) Current Exarch successfully pissed off everybody including his own children

Sci-fi lore shit or good? Trying to get some feelers.

>Earth goes to shit with oil starting to end
>Overpopulation and small scale nuclear wars (Pakis,Indians and Iran)
>Energy Crisis solved with cold fusion or similar
>The few power blocs with access to that technology starts their own Coalition (think G8 nations doing all major politics and saying fuck you to everyone else)
>Year is about 2130 when major problems are solved.
>space elevators built and invented
>Moon and Mars get colonies
>2200 large generation ships with experimental pulse engines are send.
>2500 they arrive to their destination.

>meanwhile the Coalition forms Terran Commonwealth (is that a shit name?)
>pulse engine tech gets better and better, but size restraints force only small scale trips out of system
>small colonies in nearby systems built in either space or on planets that don't actively try to kill you by 2300
>2400 FTL pulse drive invented and by 2450 more colony ships are sent.
>These ships are still much smaller than those gigantic generation ships sent 250 years earlier
>2500 those ships arrive and each carries somewhere between 100000-500000 inhabitants.
>2550 smaller and faster ships arrive to same areas
>2570 first contact with sapient aliens. Humans did meet few sentient creatures before, but no sapient.
>2600 present day and buttloads of more sapient aliens arrive. Shit has nearly hit the fan

Cont

>>47185567
So basically factions are following

>Terran Commonwealth
The umbrella government of humans that is based in earth. Has most control in core worlds and partial in mid worlds ( worlds withing 6 months of communication)
Commonwealth is controlled by Earth, Mars and Moon colonies. Political battles to acquire control is constant.

>Midworlders (need better name)
Wealthy colonies of early conlonization, some supporters of Commonwealth more than others. Life is pretty good here as wealthy inviduals from Sol retreat here.

>Generationists
Those who travelled hundreds of years to far rim worlds. Doesn't really listen to orders from Earth. Highly independent and invidual colonies

>Newworlders
Those who arrived later on faster ships. They are more pro-Commonwealth due to they were more closely chosen than Generationists.

>Offworlders
Due to laws each citizen needs to be registered to colonies. If you aren't registered, you aren't citizen. This has lead to voidborn and people living in space stations not in planet orbits to not have Commonwealths protection through law and order.

>Aliens
Not much here


FTL Pulse Drive works as following. Heavier the space ship more powerful engines it needs. This has lead the old gigantic generation ships to not to be effective anymore as you can do the same trip multiple times, but with smaller cargo.
The interplanetary communication is done by small drones that can fly super fast and accelerate all the time until hard braking just before destination. Messenger drones are literally shot by railgun and caught with tractor beams at destination.

Opinions? This is very bare bones.

>>47185583
Continued

Space ships are usually one part engines and one part everything else. With this 1:1 built they can actually be fast enough to travel across deep space and carry enough stuff to be viable and cost efficient.

Warships are usually armed with either railguns beam weapons or missiles.

Railguns either fire slugs or plasma shells usually. Plasma shells are basically HEAT rounds of this setting. Railguns are universal weapons, they usually knock reflector shields down in one salvo and do nasty things to ships itself.
Beam weapons are super accurate, but they lack in power in long ranges as the beams concentration breaks.
Missiles follow targets and if fitted with nuclear warheads are very effective.

Addition to those is attack craft whose main mission is to either protect own ships and destroy missiles and other craft or carry their own missiles to destroy warships.

Warfare in space is done in super long ranges. It is kinda submarine warfare, but in space. Ships computer calculates 100% hit change firing solution to computer and fires the rail guns. At receiving end target ship puts all power to front reflectors, fires its own railguns and activates RCS as it tries to manouver away. This continues as long someone is dead.
To break this stalemate they throw attack craft, missiles and beams. The result is surprisingly quite big furball.

>>47185583
You should include another Chinese civil war. Also, if it's a big enough problem, which it would be, there would be laws like the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

>>47186701
The how things were shit before glorious space conquering is minor thing, but good points nevertheless.

In my mind is that those big nations just forced others to follow them or just annexed them. The old nations are still there in 2600, but they are more or less united in space because it is beneficial to them.

Posted in its own thread but might as well post it here since its relevant

How do you strike a balance between coming up with new shit as a GM and having an easily recognizable setting? Is it better to change up or model after existing genre tropes, or just make something out of whole cloth? Do people in general prefer "classic" fantasy over whatever I might come up With? Am I wasting my time trying to come up with novel or interesting setting elements, or fleshing out the setting at all beyond what players will be immediately dealing with. How much world building is too much? Any?

>>47168064
>PICK a country
Vega Protectorate
>WHAT is it's form of governance
Republic
>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
Human, largely a mix of American, Russian, and Chinese.
>HOW are their relationship?
With the United Earth Alliance, tepid, with the Gliese 876 Federation, the relationship is rocky to hostile, and with the Teknik alien species, it depends on which society you are speaking of, the Teknik 'Puritans', the relationship is good, and with the Teknik 'enlightened' there is open hostility.
>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
it was founded 75 years after the development of FTL travel. and, like the others it continues to expand as new worlds are discovered and colonized.
>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
... to be determined...
>WHY does it have to be worried?
about what? it already declared an open war of succession on the megacorps that originally established the mining colonies, and won their independence, what more do they have to fear?

Tell me about your favorite race/culture. What are you most proud of?

>>47186647
Continue again

Land warfare is pretty conventional as humans didn't manage to create anti-gravity engines. Pulse drives suitable for low orbit to atmosphere has been made and that made most space elevators obsolete.

Commonwealth troops enjoy their superior air power as long as there is assault carriers in lower orbit. On ground Commonwealth soldiers are clad in exoskeletons that protect them from local hazards and allows them to operate their guns in easy. They are supported either by Archer Quad Walkers or M20A8 OSK MBT up close. If Commonwealth requires to remove their enemies from a far Hercules Mobile Howitzer System with it's 155mm rail gun is brought there. All in all Commonwealth Army is the best ground force in human space.

As an example on ships.

Olympos Mon-class Assault Carrier
-Lenght 700m
-Complement 6000
-Displacement 220 000 tons

Armament
-80 A-660 Attack Craft
-40 F-400B Fighter Craft
-10 C-1000 Orbital Cargo
-6 C-3000 Heavy Orbital Cargo

-36 MCIWS
-56 CIWS

-2120 Ground Troops
-30 Heavy Vehicles
-60 Light Vehicles


This kind of military shit is what I like.

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>>47160676
>Worldbuilding General

Yeah, sure, I could use some help on something:

I'm working on fleshing out a God I only recently made for the pantheon whom goes by the name, "Panthalassa"

-God(dess) of the super continent's "super ocean".

-Ocean itself is absolutely fucking horrifying: equal measure of extreme weather and extreme monsters but absolutely bursting at the seams with life.

-Crawled out of the bottom of the sea eons ago when it had first formed from the corpse of something even more ancient, horrifying and alien.

-Is the 2nd oldest and 2nd most powerful -terrestrial- god next to of course the planet itself.

-Was originally "male", but popular culture associates the ocean with maternity and the source of all life: due to thousands of years of mis-gendered worship he's become extremely feminine/androgynous. He doesn't personally care, but this pops up in fables, tales, folklore to describe the oceans unpredictable temperament and extremes.

-Isn't actually an asshole, but he can't help how the ocean behaves. My best guest for alignment: Chaotic Good?

-Has died at least twice: His previous skeletons fossilizing and becoming massive reefs, atolls and islands. Experiments in expanding his domain.

-Very accepting and casual with his/her followers: Vast Majority of his followers live in the ocean (mer-people, etc), but is VERY interested in getting terrestrial followers. Most powerful god humble/willing enough to physically interact with followers.

- Miracles he/she provides include: Water walking, Aquatic Adaptation, Turning Salt water into Fresh water and vice versa, Amphibious Adaptation, Create Coral Weapons, Change Gender, Change Gender: Hermaphroditism, Increase Fertility, Commune with Aquatic fauna/flora, Hydromancy, etc.. etc..


Please let me know what I could add, what I might or may have missed or if any of this sounds dumb/terrible.
Suggestions & Criticisms appreciated.

What are some of your favorite sword and sorcery settings, /tg/?

Personally, I really like Lankhmar.

What are elves like in your setting?

To preface, you can think of my setting as being very similar faerun/forgotten realms. That's what I've worked off of, instead of making an entire setting from scratch. At least as far as races go.

In my setting, elves evolved "naturally" from Eladrin. The Eladrin found a portal from the feywild into Earth's Plane. A group of Eladrin witches thought this new land was quite interesting, and gathered some people to colonise it. The colonists started having children in the new world, but they were different. Sometimes they were shorter, some of them had shorter ears, some didn't have fey eyes. One witch claimed it was because the magic which flowed through this plane was different from the magic of the feywild. After a few hundred years in Earth's Plane, every child born there grew no more than five and a half feet, had short ears, and had eyes like the dwarves and orcs of Earth's Plane. The Eladrin called these children "elf" which meant "half". The Eladrin colonists loved their children just the same, but now (around 9000 years later), the Eladrin of the feywild hate the elves and anything from Earth's Plane (that's just a generalisation, of course).

The elves have now built their own civilazations. Just two main ones. One centered around the ancient Eladrin witchcraft, even more traditional than modern Eladrin; and one which mirrors the civilizations built by dwarves and humans, centered around comerce.

What do you think?

There are also wood elves, which are elves who strayed from the witch-centric civilization of the orignal colonists and instead live in small, isolated communities and practice shamanism with the local spirits. There are drow elves who made a pact with an Earth Plane god (essentially the same as typical drow, as I haven't done anything with them yet).

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>>47189951

All the gender stuff is sound a bit magical-realmy. I mean, the god's gender being malleable is all right, because sometimes that's how gods roll, but then we get to the miracles and a pattern starts forming. If your players are the type to react to and utilize these details, don't let me stop you, but otherwise they just seem the weird, creepy octopus in an otherwise pretty cool aquarium.

>>47191074
>What are elves like in your setting?

former fey that sided with humans against the nightmare fey from the Realm of Dreams, developed the ability to never have to sleep because if they return there they're going to get raped

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>>47191179
>All the gender stuff is sound a bit magical-realmy.

Fair enough; I mean, within the context I tend to tailor flawed-pagan-style gods more so than abrahamic ones.
Ones that won't necessarily turn themselves into swans to come down and fuck mortals they find attractive, but you know what I mean.

The main problems I have at the moment with my sea god: >>47189951

-As a "good" Deity who ultimately does not wish to harm others: how does he come to terms with his domain being extremely hostile to those not otherwise from it? Like, he's interested in getting terrestrial worshipers, but the ocean is super fucking dangerous and he can't change that obviously.

-What other sort of a Miracles/Spell list should he provide his followers? Both Aquatic and non-Aquatic? The Gender Changing ones aren't set in stone/they're more a byproduct of misconceptions.

-He himself though has one other personal problem. Although he is not an asshole: some internal, nagging, sentiment inside him that he has carried with him since his conception tells him to "flood the world". He does not wish to do so as it would drown billions of lives, but if given some humane method- he would let the tide in for the last time and envelope everything into his domain.

I'm just sort of wondering what sort of religion, culture, practices he'd inspire or appreciate.
Need to work on his relationship with: Islanders, Coastal people and interior folks.

>>47192834
People on islands get their food from the sea, so he could be known as very giving. As far as it being hostile to everything that isn't native to it, the same goes for the land. Put a sea bass on the sand and see how long it lasts.

>>47188626
What military sci-fi have you read before?

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>>47191074
It's functional, but sparse from the description. The idea of super conservative elves is interesting and believable.

For my setting, the elves are have already died out. They had their empire and time of glory, but it's long since over now and buried. The only remnants are a sect of elves who took up necromancy in search for a way to avoid their fate.

The only elves left are now liches. They number less than 500, and reside in solitary laboratories in the frozen wasteland of the South. Some in classic wizards towers, some in palaces. They use grotesque, undead servants to raid the North for fresh subjects for their experiments in longevity.

As a result of these raids, they've gained a boogeyman like status among the peoples of the setting.

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Could someone tell me the general ins and outs of a court system, and police investigations? The closer to the Middle Ages, the better, although I would love to learn about any system, or just a general overview of how things are meant to work. I'm unfortunately not very well versed on the subject despite having great interest in it and basing my next project on it.

>>47187243
1/?

>PICK a country
The Pale Tribes, actually a loose confederation of countries shared by people with a common ancestry.

>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Republics ruled by a council of elders. with several strange holdover laws from when it was an absolute theocracy. Different countries have their own quirks, of course. All earthly property belongs to the Shaman of the Four Corners and is distributed by her will.

Inheritance passes to the next female descendant, down to the extinction of the entire female line before it passes to a male; the Pale Tribes are somewhat close relatives to the Great Family, where inheritance does not pass to men under any circumstances.

>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
The people of the tribes, noted for their milky white and at times bluish skin tone. Down south, towards the Four Serenes, there are more people from the Serenelands, and more mixtures of the two.

It should be noted that since their migration from the North, the Pale Tribes have become noticeably darker over time. Still pallid compared to their counterparts in the Four Serenes and further south, but less pale than they were before.

Minor ethnicities include: envoys from the Great Family, merchants from the Serenelands and the Southern Lands, and small pockets of Aoipeon-descendants in the far southeast.

>HOW are their relationship?
>Great Family
Tolerated, as long as they do not overreach themselves or attempt to spread their religion. Revered in some circles, particularly those with a heavy affiliation with the Dead Mother and her children.

>>47194173
2/3

>Serenelands
Tolerated, on the same grounds of the people of the Great Family. Should be noted that most people in the Serenelands view the Pale Tribes as a group of barbarians who stole lands and ransacked one of their most holy cities; nevertheless, most in the Serenelands found it easier to use more diplomatic solutions, considering their precarious political and geographic position.

>Southern Lands
Heavily looked down upon. Merchants from the Southern Lands are forced to pay a 'Apahema' -- a yearly tax to the Shaman of the Four Corners (of the World); the merchants who have valuable enough supplies to overcome the tax (silk, exotic pets, valuable ores and metals, and etc) find the area very profitable.

>Aoipeons
Lucky to still be alive. The Aoipeons are looked down upon in nearly the entire Civilised Sphere; they were once known as the 'Bronze Plague' and conquered and enslaved with impunity. The Serenelands have succeeded in exterminating the Aoipeon population within their lands, but the Pale Tribes have let them be, for now.

>Athunsi
The Athunsi are a people relatively unknown to the rest, aside from the steppe peoples and their descendants living within the Great Family. The Great Migration of the Pale Tribes was mostly to avoid the Great Horde of the Athunsi, which had conquered so many in their path, like the Aoipeons. Athunsi merchants are tolerated on the extreme edges of the Pale Lands; any Athunsi traveling further inlands are asking for death,

>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
With the taking of the city now called Thedict by the Pale Tribes, and the 'Unseen Capital' (in the Sun Word, the city is now called 'the city outside of the Lady's Sight. 'Outside of the Lady's Sight' is reserved for foul and unholy places in the world) by the Serenelands.

>>47194221
3/3

>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
Thexiad 'the Eye-Gouger', who is particularly revered for his brilliant campaigns against the Serenelands, as well as his high kill count against their soldiers. The conquest of the Lower Alysian was far from a sure thing, and if the campaigns had gone poorly, the Pale Tribes could have been left broken and without a place to call home.

The Serenelands hate him in particular for his brutal mockery of their custom of blinding people who have disgraced themselves or made themselves dangerous to their liege or state. Thexiad ripped their eyes out and ate them in front of their comrades who still had their eyesight intact.

>WHY does it have to be worried?
While the Four Serenes often argue and fight among themselves, most of them want their land that was stolen back. An organized campaign would be devastating, particularly with their recent technological developments (gunpowder, for one, which the Pale Tribes also knew about but either thought it useless or haven't studied it).

The Athunsi are also a constant threat. However, it is thought that the Athunsi see the Pale Tribes as too entrenched within the 'Western Band' (the Western strip of highly civilised and stable countries) to be a worthwhile target.

>>47194173
meant to link to >>47168064, whoops

>>47173212
>>Who has the best army in your setting?
Hard to say, but most likely either one of the larger Human Khanates, but as far as anyone knows for sure, the 1st legion of the Restored Imperium is easily the most elite.
>>How large is it?
Each legion is 20,000 Golems strong, with Golems who fall in battle able to have their corpses reclaimed and potentially revived.
>>How is it organized?
4 different companies of 5000 each, they are under direct command of the Imperial regency so as to ensure their absolute loyalty.
>>Who can serve? Who can't?
Golems are "born" from within the Great Forge of the Earthworks to be lifelong soldiers. While other legions are typically mixed race, the 1st has always been purely Golem, no exceptions.
>>How is the leader chosen?
Golem sergeants are picked from the "recruits" that show particular commanding talent. The Supreme commander at any time is either a member of the regency or acting on behalf of them.
>>What kind of tactics do they use?
Rudimentary early black powder weapons, combined with Pike & Shot tactics as well as well executed forward marches make the army nearly unstoppable under perfect conditions.
>>How long has the army been top dog?
For at least the last 3 centuries since black powder was adopted and perfected, and a century since sweeping military reforms rejuvenated the empire.
>>Give me a brief overview of their most famous battle.
The battle of Terra Aquarius was actually one in which the legion not only lost, but was utterly decimated along with 3 other armies upon an attempted invasion of the Water-moon of Primeris. They failed to account for their supply lines and could not adjust to the limited mobility of their landing craft as well as the unorthodox tactics of the moons natives. The war was a disaster and resulted in the aforementioned military reforms.

>>47168064
>>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Feudal monarchy. The king/queen is overall ruler, with various lower nobles under them.

>>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
The majority of the population (81%) is Human, but there are notable Halfling (7%), Elf (4%), Dwarf (4%) and Vensi (2%) populations. The remaining 2% is a mix of the other races (Orcs, Gnomes, Kobolds in decreasing population).

>>HOW are their relationship?
Halflings and Dwarves are more likely to live with humans and each other, while Vensi and Elves tend to either be in large cities or their own villages. Elves tend to live apart for cultural reasons, as most are from the neighboring country across the mountains. Vensi, not needing to eat, drink, or breathe, do not have the same needs as most people and live in easily defensible or very profitable locations (such as along mountain trade routes) where a large population of the normal races would be impossible. The small population of orcs is mostly transient, either as traders or raiders.

>>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
The current form of the country came into being nearly four centuries and a dynasty ago. Over time, the various kings and queens conquered, convinced, and married various smaller fiefs into joining the kingdom.

>>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
The first king of the second dynasty, who personally slew the former king in single combat and crushed his armies. He then consolidated power, expanded the kingdom's holdings with several clever marriages and backroom deals, and generally ushered in a period of great prosperity.

>>WHY does it have to be worried?
Because there's a succession crisis, and the two sons of the dead king have thrust the entire kingdom into a bloody civil war. Oh, and the Empire of the Sands has invaded their neighbors across the mountains, and will probably look here next if the war isn't resolved quickly.

>>47168064
The White Coast!

>anarcho-capitalism
>it is considered, by outside nations, as an human nation, but (there's a term for this but I can't remember it) humans are actually the minority if you were to lump the minority goups together. The country is full of orcs, elves, dwarves and especially the nationless peoples like trolls and kenku.
>the peoples get along fine, the main divisions being class
>a scant 30 years ago
>Ulzana Hest, who conquered The White Coast and drove out/slew/enslaved the orcs who had drove out/slew/enslaved humans hundreds of years ago who lived there before them (having been gifted the land by elves).
>because it is new, because it's governance is nigh nonexistent, because it's hero and founder is disgusted with the way things have gone, because the dwarves of Nahz Rum have their grubby fingers in every mine, because elves of Effilifane control the coast, because the workers are unionising

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Imagine this:

The year is 2442. Mankind has been at war for three hundred years.

For centuries, millions have been fed into the meatgrinder of war, as the weak and old toil away in factories in the fortified cities that stand lonely amongst the ash covered and blasted hellscape that once was earth.

The rivers have dried and the seas have turned black, the air is a smog that never clears and the sun shines faintly through the clouds of nuclear overcast, with great flying fortresses dropping millions of tonnes of bombs and fatal gas on military bases and innocent civilians alike.

On the ground men fight and die to gain an inch of ruined ground, taking cities one at a time. Great warmachines roam the earth, some merely wheeled warships and others small, agile armor suits(VOTOMS sort of things; name pending).

Once, mankind numbered nearly ten billion. Now, just under sixty million.

But mankind will look up from their bloodshed to the stars once again, and realize…

We are not alone.

Sound interesting? I've been working on my fantasy world, and not my scifi.

I'm working on a setting for a game, and need some thoughts. Its a post-apocalyptic sci-fantasy setting where a few decades into the future, humanity discovers what is basically "magic", which leads to a golden age of progress. Eventually, the over-use of magic causes reality to rip itself apart, and the earth is invaded by Hell through these rips.

I've got 5 factions laid out, and need advice on the last one. So far I have:
>The Knights Templar - The main military left to defend humanity. The best trained with the best equipment.
>The Cabalist - The radical foil to the Templars, where Templars are reluctant to continue to use magic, Cabalists seek to fight fire with fire.
>Cults of the Damaned - The dregs of humanity, Hell-worshipping cults and warlords looking to take advantage of the chaos.
>Infernal Legion - The demons. A wide selection of creatures and beasts.
>The Morlocs - When reality ripped, not everyone in the disaster zones were killed. Some were mutated and driven insane by the magical energy. The few that have kept an semblance of a rational mind has learned to herd these creatures into mobs that obey their orders.

The last faction I can't decide between either the remnants of Japan and China using giant mechs; or an angelic host that oppose the Infernal Legion, whose presence inspire the religious tones in the other factions but see humanity as nothing more than a resource for their own war.

>>47195095
>it is considered, by outside nations, as an human nation, but (there's a term for this but I can't remember it) humans are actually the minority if you were to lump the minority goups together. The country is full of orcs, elves, dwarves and especially the nationless peoples like trolls and kenku.

multi ethnic state

>>47195404
sounds fucking depressing desu sempai just stop.

>>47195404
>We are not alone.
Is this meant to be optimistic or an "oh shit we're gonna die" moment?

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>>47195556
Basically, aliens come and they want to fuck us up because space version of Manifest Destiny. So, all of the super countries(aka empires) join together in a league to stop the alien invaders.

Grudges are confronted; UNDERSTANDING happens.

Cue five years of desperate fighting. Then, more aliens come. But they are here to kick the shit in of the other aliens. It turns out the first batch of aliens were extremists from their civilization, and, after a failed coup, they fucked off into space. And just so happened to have found our planet.

I may or may not be ripping off Battletech and or Macross here.

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>>47195605
Considering there's 300 years of war with a death toll of billions, I foresee nothing but misery and cynicism for all the characters, and humanity immediately BLAM-ing the peaceful aliens for their tech.

Is the grimdarkness intentional?

>>47193069
None really, or if you count Starcraft 1 manual. Just bits here and there.

>>47195657
Yes. It was supossed to be a sort of optimistic thing where "humanity is in the shitter but cooperation and UNDERSTANDING will help us reach great things, but only if we apply ourselves!"

sort of thing.

300 years may be a bit much. perhaps two hundred.

I got the idea for the story from watching military videos on Liveleak and listening to Warpigs one too many times.

>>47193847
I wrote up half an essay about the history of law in Europe vs. England and then I realized you were asking for specifically the structure of courts.

Goddamnit.

>>47195859
Just post that shit, I wil read it

>>47195859
Post it nigga that shit sounds great.

>>47188626
Continuation

Compared to Commonwealths military might the outlying colonies are woefully less capable.

While Commonwealth trooper has his exoskeleton suit built to withstand small caliber bullets and environmental hazards, the Colonists are not so lucky. Commonwealth Troopers are armed with battle rifles chambered in 6,5mm caseless telescopic ammunition usually carried in helical magazines. These rifles also have smartgun link system to aid in ammunition. Troopers exoskeleton suit can administrate combat drugs and other substances to allow longer periods of combat, but if fought in hostile environment it is common for prefabricated barracks buildings to be erected for soldiers to catch proper rest.

During space travel if the crew or passengers don't have anything to do they are placed in cryogenic sleep. In this sleep passengers life systems become super slow and aging progress is more or less stopped. This technology allows ships like Olympos Mon-class to carry so much soldiers, they are in cryo for the journey.

>>47184541
this is a super comfy map. i dont know what it is but i can imagine a group adventure taking place.

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I prefer massively soft science fiction myself, but recently I'm trying to work on exactly what powers or functions the 'supernatural class' has in the game.

Basically at the moment they are meant to be part Jedi, part fantasy Monk, part Reality Warper. Their powers aren't really psychic or 'magic' but they are similarly misunderstood and strange. Essentially these people gain and grow unusual abilities such as being able to absorb incoming laser energy by just holding up a hand, or being able to withstand being out in space without any equipment for several minutes at a time, or being able to see living creatures through walls, and so on.

Their primary benefits are a wide range and depth of powers that requires no real training or equipment, their powers couldn't be stolen or disabled (such as by EMP field), and they are a part of a elite group of advanced beings for having them. However the disadvantages is either a negative (or complete inability, haven't decided) to cybernetic implants. Other classes can use them easily but these guys cannot.

For the name, I'm thinking of using 'Potents' as the name, and 'Potency' as the general name for 'The Force' in this setting.

How does this sound? Is it stupid? How about the name?

>>47195859
PLEASE post it, man, it would help a lot

>>47168064
Redlands

>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Theocratic Feudalism

>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
Minotaurs, bovine humanoids, and toadlike
jungledwelling hostile natives.

>HOW are their relationship?
The hostile natives are killed on sight and are steadily decreasing as a result of minotaur manifest destiny combatting nature in general and the jungle in specific, removing all hidden grooves with pockets of tribes as they go establishing new footholds southwards.

>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
It was a bunch of ancient, warring city states, full of culture and life and tradition and what not, untill they were all united by Raz'az, a warlord that popped up from seemingly nowhere and conquered the entire continent, which still remains united due to geographical factors, the general density of people, and divine right to rule.

>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
Raz'az the philosopher king, who not only conquered the peninsula and formed the nation, but also founded the faith the entire continent adheres to, a sanguinophilic warrior tradition. If not him, then Sinner, an anonymous person who wrote an extremely thick tome of his venture of sailing the oceans and arriving on the shores of where people go to die, meeting Raz'az a thousand years later and confirming everything the said faith had allready established. This holy tome (Regarded by most scholars as work of fiction) is ample proof that the Red Faith.. Is the true Faith.

>WHY does it have to be worried?
It doesn't right now, but threats of piracy and profiteering empires is looming in the west.

r8

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>>47197899
>shores of where people go to die
I meant where people go after they die. The Minotaur believe that after you die, your soul ascends upwards, entering the sun which they believe is a cylinder, and travelling through it to the prosperous lands on the other side. Sinner sailed over the ocean while he was still alive, circumnavigating heaven.

>>47173212
>Who has the best army in your setting?
The Eshe Empire, but just barely.

>How large is it?
Large enough to take down several wealthy city states at the same time, but steadily declining.

>How is it organized?
Generally nepotistic and opportunistic leaders that turn more and more incompetent have supreme authority over their men, but answer to the Land Commander and the Naval Commander, respectively.

>Who can serve? Who can't?
Native males can serve, but no one else. Only aristocrats tend to rise through the ranks, and there's a clear difference between a peasant private and a well-off private, even though they hold the same rank.

>How is the leader chosen?
By authority, based on how much he has to gain from a socioeconomic standpoint.

>What kind of tactics do they use?
Independent squads that vary something fierce inbetween commanders.

>How long has the army been top dog?
Several hundred years.

>Give me a brief overview of their most famous battle.
Not too long ago an admiral attempted conquering a haven (A densely populated, largely ungoverned port) by naval force only. He sailed his ships into the natural harbour, ran said ships aground on the shore, and ordered his crewmates to jump ship and besiege the city from the ground.

>>47160676
I have an idea but's more apocalyptic than sci-fi. The is setting is a post apocalyptic South America that suffered the indirect effects of a nuclear war such as a global nuclear winter and the famine that would be the product of that.
I'm having troubles thinking of how would their countries respond such tragedies.

>>47173212
>>Who has the best army in your setting?
Possibly Sha'hara.

>>How large is it?
5 to 8 professional mobile armies at 1000 to 3000 men each with commensurate camp followers and variable number of non-professional/irregular support.

>>How is it organized?
An army is headed by a General Commander and administered by his command retinue. Next are the Commanders(and his lieutenants) which have 200 to 400 men in brigades under them and then every hundred men have a Captain(of the Company) then every 20 men have a Chief and every 10 have a Senior.

>>Who can serve? Who can't?
Anybody who can pass the physical and mental aptitude standard is allowed to join. It is one of the surest and fastest ways to earn Citizenship, a 5-year enlistment and honorable discharge. Under special circumstances an individual that is deficient in a certain aptitude may be recruited for a necessary skill.

>>How is the leader chosen?

All command officer assignments are by appointment of central command and promotion is based on perceived aptitude and known performance. Non-command ranks(Captain and below) are appointed by their immediate superior to lead a specified group.

>>What kind of tactics do they use?

Sha'haran infantry rely heavily on mobility for strategic maneuvering. On a tactical level they always try to employ local superiority whenever possible or act as the anvil depending on circumstance. They are often the central force while ancillary forces(usually Irregulars and air support) find and attack enemy weak spots.

>>How long has the army been top dog?

For about 300 years they have successfully maintained the neutral zone with Gedask.

>>47197808
>>47195911
>>47195985
sorry, I just wrote a 3000 word essay for you and then accidentally deleted it.
Maybe another time.

>>47199280
I know that feel
>hit quick reply to respond helpfully to a post
>"You comment is over 2000 characters long"
>Wait, how the fuck did this get so long...
>accidentally press f5
>all gone

>>47168064
>PICK a country

The "Alwara Homelands"

>>WHAT is it's form of governance?
A form of tribal federalism governed by a council of Tribal Chiefs from the different tribes under the watchful eye of the giant tribe.

>>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
All the beastman sub-races on the continent which are basically divided into Feathered, Canines, Giant, Scaled, Horned, Dwarven, Feathered, Ape, etc.

>>HOW are their relationship?

Pretty good considering that previously it was an almost constant war for territory between different tribes. Nowadays the tribes have made permanent settlements and adopted farming and cultivation instead of depending on foraging for most of their sustenance. They are also adopting education as a means of expanding their abilities.

>>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?

About 400 years ago as merchants and adventurers returning from the north tell tales of great cities and prosperous gigantic tribes(kingdoms) of different beastmen living together. A few of the tribes thought "eh, why not?", approached the Giants(historically neutral and peaceful) if they would mediate between the different tribes and from there a tribal council evolved.

>>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?

Uh, don't know yet.

>>WHY does it have to be worried?

Because I'm writing this shit and the setting is basically an overly complicated magical realm.

Aw Yiss.

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How many of you make use of planetrise as a way to differentiate the cosmic element of you setting? I'm considering putting it into my setting, as a way to make the respective, essentially, hell and heaven made material and close enough to earth. Also because I looked at some Frazetta paintings and remembered just how badass they look.

>>47199280
Well fuck. You are not alone in that problem as I have done it also.

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http://www.strawpoll.me/10186071

>>47201162
>TFW You're writing for an ERP, but most of the realm is never gonna get used, and you do it for fun, but sometimes you wrire novels in the settings

>>47168064
Sarolinger Reich
>WHAT is it's form of governance?
Feudal Monarchy with an elected monarch. (Not!HolyRomanEmpire)
>WHICH ethnicities/races live in it?
Mainly: Humans
Bisedes these: Wood Elves, Dwarfs, Half-Orcs, Norsemen, Half-elves and Zarski (Not!SlavishPeople)
>HOW are their relationship?
The Reich is a mess. There are constant wars between shires, dukesdoms, etc. But the people actually don't care if people aren't humans. Just the 'mixed races' are having problems to socializes.
>WHEN was the country in its current form of governance founded? When did it become the size it is now?
Eight thousand years ago after the war against the 'sand elves'. It's size it became two hundread years ago, after they began to colonialise the western isles.
>WHO is the greatest hero in the country's history?
Kaiser Siegfried the Great of Sarolingen
>WHY does it have to be worried?
Norsemen Vikings are sacking the northern counties, pirates are messing with the colonies, the Tsar threatens from the east and than there are the inner wars.

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>>47173212
cont. >>47201599
>Who has the best army in your setting?
The Sol'air
>How large is it?
They have about 180.000 steady men. If they should mobilise their people, they should gather about 1.200.000 men.
>How is it organized?
They still have seperate brigades for each sector of the army.
Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and the magicians
>Who can serve? Who can't?
Everyone who has the willpower to serve the Sun King. If you want to be in the core army you have to go through the military school and levy can be every elf who could hold a pike, sword or a musket
>How is the leader chosen?
The sun king chooses the leader
>What kind of tactics do they use?
Pic related just with magic and griffins/other flying creatures.
>How long has the army been top dog?
Around 500 years
>Give me a brief overview of their most famous battle.
The battle of Lezantium

The Lun'air invaded the Sol'air and approached until Lezantium to siege the City. After a two months the Sol'air army finaly came and attacked the Lun'air.

About 600k Sunelves fought against 750k Moonelves. The Sol'air won the battle which lasted three days, because the Sol'air raided the Lun'airs battlecamp. Their where about 500k casualties on the Sol'air side and 420k on the Lun'air side.

The Lun'air lost the military superiority to the Lun'air after this battle.

>>47173212
>>Who has the best army in your setting?
A feudal kingdom vaguely occupying role of Western Continental Europe. But as of the moment main action takes place, there's not much competetion
>>How large is it?
On a good day, maybe 10 thousands. I need to adjust it to geography properly before finalizing so wild fluctuations in scale are expected
>>How is it organized?
Dukes command knights who bring in their own entourage. Dukes answer to the king if they feel like it
>>Who can serve? Who can't?
A knight in my setting is someone who's renting land from a duke in exchange for military service. He himself rallies population from his land
>>How is the leader chosen?
Herideary for the most part
>>What kind of tactics do they use?
Charge at the enemy with your best armour, weapon and skill and hope it would be enough
>>How long has the army been top dog?
>>Give me a brief overview of their most famous battle.
Most famous battles are worl in progress now.

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>>47173212
>Who has the best army in your setting?
The human survivors, but that's only because of technology, they're being the only unified force, and a willingness to recruit others as mercenaries.
>How large is it?
As the humans are theoretically all soldiers, about 20,000. Although, 2000 of those are citizen soldiers while a mere 500 make up the actual professionals.
>How is it organized?
Citizen soldiers make up the ranks of the junior enlisted split into 2 regiments with 5 troops each. 2 infantry, 1 cavalry, 1 artillery, and 1 support. The core 500 are officers and NCOs. Mercenaries operate under their own organization with a human adviser.
>Who can serve? Who can't?
Men serve on 2 year shifts starting at 16. Women are trained in reserve.
>How is the leader chosen?
Tactical level leaders are picked on merit, the upper ranks are nobility.
>What kind of tactics do they use?
Line tactics with rifled muskets and bayonets. Artillery pound the enemy, infantry shoot followed by a bayonet charge. Cavalry chases down the survivors.
>How long has the army been top dog?
10 years
>Give me a brief overview of their most famous battle.
2500 men and 1500 mercenaries fought a battle at sea against 15000 snakes, boarded the Jormungandr, and took the Empress of the Naga Empire hostage after fighting hand-to-hand with her retinue, forcing a truce which recognized the human right to islands South of the Naga Empire which had historically been tributary states.

Assuming you include any at all, how do you handle immortal characters in your settings/works? Mostly I mean characters who live thousands and thousands of years, not necessarily true "immortals" who cannot die.

>>47204681
1) There's only so much knowledge you can pack into the brain, so they keep forgetting things and mistaking things in the present for something they remember.

2) They wind up something like Sibyl of Cumae or Robert House.

>>47204681
This: >>47205120
Stuff from the distant past fades over time, and they'll usually write a book or keep a series of diaries to help chronicle the centuries.

In particular, there's a couple Aspects who have been alive since near the start of creation. The only one who interacts with mortals puts on the guise of a senile old man.

I'm trying to find a good balance between doing no world-building and spending all my time on it. I want to write sword & sorcery, so I don't need to go J. R. R. Tolkien crazy with it, but I also don't want the world to feel boring or poorly thought out.

>>47205890
A good world generates stories dynamically. If you put work into the worldbuilding, stories are going to pop out on their own.

What's a good bird to base a holy order of knights on? So far I have crows, bluejays, and partridges. Maybe rooster/cocks, but nothing so far. The ones I need a bird for are similar to modern swat, but I can't think of anything non cliched like Hawks or Eagles

Please help

>>47205890
Come up with a solid base to work with -- just a bunch of generalizations for different cultures and races and magic and the world -- and a basic idea for a plot. Then just wing it. Hash out a first draft using these generalizations as a guideline.
Once you have a workable framework, or rough draft, then you can start doing the more in-depth stuff. It'll require a lot of rewriting, but most writing requires that anyway.

The framework will help you figure out how much more worldbuilding you need to do.

>>47205951
Owl (maybe Athena Noctua?)
Dove
Pelican (there is a LOOOONG tradition of pelicans representing sacrifice by a maternal/paternal figure; many portraits of Elizabeth I of England use pelican imagery)
Swan (pretty bird, but fucking terrifying)
Cassowary (pretty bird, but fucking terrifying x 10)

>>47205951
Owls would probably work. They've got the 'always watching' angle going on.

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>>47205951
I'm a fan of turkeys.
Good birds.

Peacock, anon. Go with peacocks.

>>47205951
Religious Knights, yes? Cardinal. Has that nice deep red, and religious name

And it's from my home state

>>47205951
Swans or Cassowaries

Both are vicious /vicious/ creatures, but swans are more pretty.

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I'd like some feedback on my afterlife stuff:
Magic and most of the world is powered by mana, which comes in the usual 5 elemental flavors. Souls are made up of aether. Yadda yadda, the usual.
Here's the important bit: when a person dies, three things can happen to their body, each with a different effect on their soul.
1) body is left to rot
>when the soul eventually leaves the body, it wanders the world as a spirit. This often leads to angry/evil ghosts and the like being created.
2) body is burned
>the soul is transferred via fire mana through air mana into the afterlife (heaven, nirvana, etc). If the person belonged to a religion with a god so inclined, the god may take their soul to join their piece of the afterlife. If no god does this, they go to a realm of fire where their memories and such are burned away and they get reincarnated. Once this was a nice process, but corruption from assholes turned this into a literal Hell.
3) body is buried
the soul is filtered through Earth mana back into the world. Very druid-like, becoming "one with nature" and all that.

Not sure what happens to bodies buried at sea. I'm inclined to have this be a terrible fate. Maybe the soul possesses strange sea creatures, turning them into monsters? Maybe a Cthulhu-like entity takes the soul into its kindgom, also leading to monsterdom? This would be a good excuse to have little sea-travel; people fear this end, and most sailors end up as part of a semi-suicidal Deep Cult to try and gain leniency from Not-thulhu when they inevitably drown.

Thoughts?

pic slightly-related on a thematic level

How do you guys get your creative juices flowing? I'm trying to desperately to come up with unique and interesting creatures that it's killing me. What do you guys do when you hit a creative wall?

>>47209084
I've got three fallback plans in that regard:
1) listen to music I like (early Queen songs, Billy Joel, Helloween, Meatloaf, etc)
2) read something I like (too many to list)
3) watch Red Letter Media's reviews of the Star Wars prequels; they're excellent guides for how NOT to write

>>47209084
Two things: I play/watch/read games/movies/tv shows/books I like and steal tidbits from them(from the name of a plant to a racial concept).

And, I think about what kind of thing I want to make. If I were to read a book or play a video game of it, what would it be like?

>>47209177
>3) watch Red Letter Media's reviews of the Star Wars prequels; they're excellent guides for how NOT to write
Fucking this. Some may accuse you of parroting other people's opinion, but they succinctly put what exactly makes a good story(if not a bit simplistic. But if you know how to write a simple story, you can move on to writing a complicated one).

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So here's a setting I'm working on

>World is the inside surface of a hollow sphere
>Only known civilization is a small city at the bottom of the "bowl"
>Only source of light and life is a glowing mini sun a few thousand feet over the city called "The Lantern"
>patricians live under the lantern, plebs live in the shadows and permanent twilight
>Many necessities of life can only be found in bizarre geometric dungeons that seem to go on forever
>tools, artifacts, clothing, weapons, and so forth seem to "spawn" spontaneously in the dungeons
>of course, a special class of low brow adventurers is charged with delving for this sort of thing

I feel like I'm ripping something off. Which is fine, but I'd like to know what.

>>47208646
How would a viking funeral work in your setting? I'm referring to the burning boat motif.

>>47208646
Maybe the sea is just oblivion.

Or the soul is sealed in the vault of some primordial deity until the end of time, and maybe reincarnated in the next cycle of the universe.

Seems to fit with the notion of something tossed in the sea being lost forever.

>>47209509
>>47209208
>>47209177
Thanks guys, I'll give at least one of these (probably the stealing shit and watching RLM) a shot

>>47209812
>Primordial deity
That just might work, turning it into a literal Sea of Souls.
I could also have it both ways while also stealing from 40k a bit. Sea religion could require a person to wear some sort of talisman or have a certain tattoo which allows the primordial deity to find their body/soul; but people WITHOUT such ID gets lost as I originally described.
Heck, that would work for burning too. I can recycle the good 'ole coins on the eyes bit. It may not need to be a coin, but having a clear cultural object on the body as it burns would help their deity to find them in the afterlife.

That helped a lot, thanks.

>>47209776
That... is a very good question. The boat would probably burn and sink before the body burns entirely, so technically that would be a burial at sea, but maybe the burning doesn't need to be 100%?
Part of the idea is that bodies and souls are closely connected, and the soul leaves the body slowly, but burning the body speeds up the process. I guess as long as the skin is charred the soul leaves.
Or something.

I'll have to think about that one.

>>47209743
If it's a sphere, then the light from the mini-sun would go in all directions and light everything more or less equally.
Also, in such a scenario, you probably won't have night. At all. That alone would change physiology in ways I can't even imagine.

Sounds like a workable concept.

>I feel like I'm ripping something off
Dyson's Sphere? Kinda?

>>47210004
>mini-sun would go in all directions
It does not hang in the middle of the sphere. It's rather low to the ground and dim, so as you walk away from the center of the city, shadows get deeper and the overall illumination falls off. If you looked up, you'd just see an empty black vault.

It's something like a weird dyson sphere, but I'm wondering if it's like a 1:1 ripoff of something I've forgotten about. I know Kingdom Death has the whole lanternbearer thing but I don't think it's too alike.

>>47210065
Nothing I'm aware of besides the fact that there are conspiracy theorists who ACTUALLY believe we live on the inside of the Earth.

I'm making a generic fantasy setting to play a game with some friends and I wanted some feedback on one aspect.
There's going to be an ancient civilisation that's long since died out, and one of their cities will be one of the primary unexplored locations and plot point for a major story arc.
It's in the middle of an inner sea and I was wondering which was more interesting.
A city like Atlantis, that had sunk beneath the waves of its own accord, or if it was once a flying pinnacle of magical technology that one day malfunctioned due to being unmaintained after the deaths of its creators and fell to the sea below.

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>>47212568
>flying magic city
>crashes to the sea due to years of neglect
>impact caused huge tidal waves, artifacts occasionally washed ashore
>gives an excuse for it to be in ruins

>>47212568
Bout the same.

Having the inhabitants bring about their own doom feels a little more mythic than just "it sank one day" but desu your players will probably snooze through it no matter what you say.

>>47212602
Yeah, I thought it sounded cooler too, but I didn't want to have to justify why an ancient civilisation would need flying cities beyond "it's cool".
But I'll probably go with that, cheers for the encouragement.

>>47212636
Flying cities are practical when the land is either dangerous or limited.
It's the same way I'm justifying airships; they're required to travel above the deep sea, due to dangerous shit in the water.

>>47212636
>>47212812
Also, the group with enough tech for a flying city would probably be a magocracy. Being able to relocate your city also makes scrying and teleportation slightly more difficult.

>>47160676
This exactly isn't for a game, but I got inspired to make my own science-fiction setting after being frustrated with how both Star Wars and Mass Effect have been handled.

I want to capture the adventure and excitement of space opera, but also trying to not break the laws of physics too much.

There is no FTL travel; The homeworlds of the three main races are connected by warp gates (essentially wormholes)
There's barely any space combat due to weapons being slow to hit.
There are however plenty of medical advances. Plastic surgery and genetic engineering have become so cheap that changing your race/gender is like putting on new clothes.

I'm not sure what to do about personal weapons though.
I want to have lightsabers of some kind, but can a blade actually be made out of plasma? Or could a gun shoot plasma?

>>47213384
One of the things Star Wars likes to gloss over is how efficient actual projectiles are; particularly against soft targets.
Should shake it up with small-scale electromagnetic weapons, like a mini rail gun. Has the added benefit of working in a vacuum. You can likewise have physical swords that use their own electromagnetism to disrupt a robot or computer system and be able to rend metal, without treading too close to copyright.

>>47213384
Sounds good if you pull it off

>genetically engineered soldier race is mostly female
>losses in testosterone are offset by the ability to breed more of the same without unreliable aetificial wombs or human surrogates
>theyre allowed to retire if they have two kids
>they also reach maturity at like, 15 and die of old age at 45
>if they have a kid the natural way though, 50 50 odds of it being male

Interesting enough or just magical realm flavored?

>>47216273
A couple of things

>Need a reason for them being mostly female
>If you can genetically engineer a soldier race then genetically engineering an artificial womb should be that difficult.
>You're making slaves, why bother giving them a retirement plan?
>Why would you want military hardware to get knocked up?

>>47216273
>>47217972

It's never practical to send females risk their lives because they the breeding bottleneck. You can't have more pregnant females then you have females period. But you can just say the genetic engineering didn't take hold on males, have fatal side-effect with Y chromosome or something.

They don't have to breed in disorganized manner. There's always soldiers in the rear and some of your supersoldiers would be on breeding duties while others fight or do other things rotating as necessary.

>>47218052
It would matter less for a species where way more women are born and/or where a dozen or more offspring pop out at once.

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>Tfw when want to create a world for an web novel but can't even get a fucking map started

Goddamn it. Worst time to brain fart.

Would it better to throw away my ideas for cultures and just try and set up a world then base the cultures on what I get or should I keep them so I can have a general idea of what climates and geography I should try and aim for?

Going for high fantasy if it helps.

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So I felt my setting is getting too real and my kung fu elves are not crazy enough. So I decided to design a weapon for them. Unfortunately, I can't properly draw certainly not on my PC, so here's a crude diagram I made in paint.

Weird ass weapon from a more weird-ass era. My elves won't let practicality or common sense stand in a way of their weaponsmithing. As you can see, it's a staff with each end adorned with three knifes, good for stabbing and cutting. Sure, on a good day that means 3 out six blades are dead weight and on bad day it's 5, but if you see a guy weilding it you might as well go home because if someone didn't decapitate or impale himself on this thing, he's certainly the greatest fighter of all.

What do you think? Does it meed more blades?

>>47218335
I don't really see a point in starting not with what you want. You want cultures so start with them. Place cultures in positions relative to each other fitting the way you want them to interact. Draw biomes around them and see how can you justify. Edit what you can't justify away.

>>47218052
>It's never practical to send females risk their lives because they the breeding bottleneck.

Yes, but the thread being what it is I let it pass and was asking him to answer >>47217972

>>47218614
Oh, I thought it was the same guy continuing his own post. Anyway, I gave my suggestions on how I think he could increase amount of sense it makes.

Any tips for making biomes blend well together in Inkarnate?

>>47219019
Hell if I know. Soft brush looks good enough, but somehow it doesn't always paint things with the same colour.

>>47217972
Theyre mostly female because thats all they make with the artificial wombs and the artificial insemination, and at this point in technology, an artificial womb still cant compete with nature is my current explanation. Here is a much lower failure rate to being it to term when its in a live soldier. Further more, theres no FTL yet, just sliwer than light star crawlers that take a few generations. So growing the population in route is a good strategy.

And this is now a war primarily about piloting weapons. So take that as you will.

And they arent brainwashed, you have to keep them cooperative. Theyre just born into the military without a choice. Cooperate and get a good post, resist and get sent to the trenches. The birthing plan serves two purposes, makes mire soldiers and keeps them in line with the expectation of retiring

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This is what I've got so far. The Desert/Forest border is pretty jarring imo.

Does anyone know if you can place roads?

>>47219161
Wow, thats some bad spelling. Sorry. I got interrupted like ten times while trying to write that in my phone

>>47219178
You can paint them with paint tool, with no softness they are not going to blend.

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I do have some worldbuilding questions for you sci-fi anons.

I've had an idea kicking around in my head to make a Firefly-esque setting for Mekton Zeta + Interlock Unlimited. What I mean by this is a Mecha campaign set in a solar system that was settled by human generation ships fleeing the total ecological collapse of the Earth.

I do have some question to help me narrow things down and some ideas submitted for your approval.

Ideas:
-There are at least 3 habitable worlds in this solar system so spaceships have somewhere to go.
-Mecha are reminiscent of Heavy Gear or Titanfall. Pic related for scale, but with a primitive psuedo-AI that can operate independently of the pilot and accept simple instructions "go here" "defend this location from hostiles" "provide cover fire" ETC.
-Most of the human countries fighting each other are constitutional monarchies. Their royal families are descendants of the original colony ship's command crew who didn't want to give up their power.
-I've been toying with the idea of the Humans arriving to find this alien solar system already inhabited. After negotiations broke down, humanity invaded, crushed the Indigens and now treat them as second-class citizens.

>>47219161
Nope, doesn't make sense to me. If your fighting a war with slowboats direct manufacture and programming is still better. If you're able to gengineer super soldiers it should be easier to redact the upper brain and limbs and make "axlotl tanks" for their manufacture.

Interstellar generation slowboat is also a fuckawful way to reach another star. It's bad enough to control a population on a planet, it'll be a nightmare on a ship. Unless you want to portray the brutal tyranny needed in this type of endeavor. Supplies needed for the journey would also be ridiculously high. Remote controlled weapons can be guided by brains. If a mouse's brain cell can pilot a flight sim a human brain should do an even better job.

At the very least I don't see any real need for them to have any sex at all, it'll just hamper efficiency. With said genetic engineering they could be sexless for the interim of their service and undergo a sex assignment procedure later.

So yeah, at this point I'd say the mostly female super soldier slave race whose best option is to get knocked up twice is in magical realm territory.

>>47219893
Anon I think you might be autistic. You should talk to a therapist.

I was always fascinated by technologically primitive people living by the side with advanced. I've got an idea for a lost space colony for some time, first FTL colony ship ever, went looking for good landing site and eventually crashed, manufacturing capacity ruined, but it still makes a good shelter.

What level of technological degradation would be reasonable in your opinion?

>>47219893
>Interstellar generation slowboat is also a fuckawful way to reach another star. It's bad enough to control a population on a planet, it'll be a nightmare on a ship. Unless you want to portray the brutal tyranny needed in this type of endeavor. Supplies needed for the journey would also be ridiculously high. Remote controlled weapons can be guided by brains.
I don't see how the viability of generation ships IRL has to do with genetically engineered supersoldiers.

>With said genetic engineering they could be sexless for the interim of their service and undergo a sex assignment procedure later.
For all we know, dude's setting could have that growing the supersoldier with all the additions is a lot easier than having to augment the human body to grow all the necessary parts.

>If your fighting a war with slowboats direct manufacture and programming is still better.
>Remote controlled weapons can be guided by brains. If a mouse's brain cell can pilot a flight sim a human brain should do an even better job.
Dude didn't even explain the WHY of piloting weapons. Don't go jumping on how it's stupid when he hasn't even argued for it yet.

>>47220116
I very likely am.

>>47220191
His initial question was in regards to
>Interesting enough or just magical realm flavored?

From what's been given so far I haven't seen a good enough, central conceit to remove it from magical real in my opinion.

>Dude didn't even explain the WHY of piloting weapons. Don't go jumping on how it's stupid when he hasn't even argued for it yet.

I didn't say it was stupid.

>And this is now a war primarily about piloting weapons. So take that as you will.

Is what was replied to.

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>>47206058
>>47206091
>>47206137
>>47206767
>>47206774
Thanks guys! Gave me some good ideas

>>47220517
>I didn't say it was stupid.
Yes, you did. You went on about how programming and remote control is better. While IRL it'll of course be better, dude hasn't even explained why they're piloted, but he did imply that a focus on piloting means more pilots, and more pilots equals higher number of required soldiers.

>>47182239
>>47182363
>>47183247
No no no what I mean is that there's the whole theory that we have immaterial minds and material bodies and these aren't the same? And that the mind must be somewhere else well physicists say this is wrong because you'd have to break the laws of the universe by having more energy. What if there were minds/souls in another place and they had loads of energy and you could fuel engines with the minds of captured slaves?

For those of you who are adding lots of detail and minutia to your settings, would you say its worth it? The general consensus seems to be that players tend to not pay attention to the broad strokes of the setting, let alone any details not directly related to looting and killing. Would you say there's any point to fleshing out a setting beyond your own enjoyment?

>>47223164
You should always play to your audience. Most people who like the lord of the rings have never heard of Fëanor son of Finwë, but there is an audience who does appreciate that exacting detail.

Your own enjoyment should be sufficient.

>>47220839

It's difficult to realistically imagine a scenario where that came to be. But it works if you ignore aspects of reality like energy and thermodynamics, since the matrix is basically the same thing.

>>47223164
It's incase there's something someone takes an interest in. That way it's fully fleshed out, and hopefully a gateway into your larger setting

/tg/, I've got a bit of a question regarding the geography of worldbuilding.

Swamps, bogs, mires, and other such gunky, disease-ridden wetland shitholes - where and how do they form? Do they have any relation to rivers and lakes? Are there any sort of locations where they should always or never occur? I'm still somewhat new to worldbuilding, so I'd greatly appreciate any input.

>>47224513
Low lying areas with poor drainage. Water runs off into them and never really leaves. As for the positioning of the lake, depends on how well that drains and its elevation. If it's on the same level or higher, swampy areas can still form

>>47224513
They form when there's a flat spot and a river changes to either stop flowing through it, or to start

Anyone know anything about life in the Caribbeans circa 1790/1800?

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So I haven't colored the map in yet but I started working on a section of map tonight.
Any thoughts or comments on how the map looks?

>>47220839
there are so many brands of dualism.

specify using >>47182239

>>47226891
the hex layer needs to by like - fifty goddamn times more transparant.

Which, to be fair, would still not be transparent because it's completely solid. I have real problems making out shit behind it

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>>47227761
>>47227767
>>47227775
From a seperate thread. Looking for feedback of any sort.

>>47227773
It's drawn on hex paper so that'll be more difficult to do.
Once I ink some things in and color it, it should be easier to make out.

>>47167487
What did you use to make the map?

>>47184671
>>47184570
River deltas. I.e the Nile.
>>47184697
Where would that technology even come from? Doesn't make sense. Just make it a river delta.

>>47197899
Sounds good, but Redlands is a sort of generic name for a country

>>47226616
Slavery, endless sugar and/or tobacco plantations owned by the British, French, Danish, Dutch or Spanish

>>47231451
What were the people like? Know roughly how many slaves to Europeans to natives there were? Stuff so far is good

>>47231800
I got just the thing for you

google that shit you lazy bastard

>>47231883
Only half is sort of googlable

What was life like usually turns up nothing useful

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Rate so far? Obviously still a work in progress but open to suggestions, questions, and criticisms to move it in the right direction.

>Blue - Rivers and Wetlands
>Red - Cities, Towns, and Villages
>Purple - Areas of contention, historical + current
>Black - Borders and Mountains

I'm thinking of removing a good deal of land mass on the left. I don't know if it's really necessary.

I really hope I'm not threadcrapping with this, but I was hoping I might get some opinions/advice for a setting I want to build?

Basically, it's a combination of fantasy setting and post-apocalyptic setting - not of the "modern world is devastated by an apocalypse of fantastical nature" (ala, say, Thundarr or Visionaries), but of the "fantasy world suffers an apocalypse" variety (ala Dragonmech). Only problem is... I don't really know where to start?

As far as I know, there's a couple of different options I got for a setting like this. There's your "dungeonpunk world went full dystopia and blew itself up" approach - essentially Eberron turning into Fallout. Or there's the "fantasy world devastated by something from beyond" approach - invasion of aberrations/fiends that was beaten back at horrendous cost, a cataclysmic cosmic event, even a sci-fi style invasion (Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was a thing, and 5e does include some sci-fi weapons in their gear).

Anyone got any suggestions on what'd be the best bet for starting with? Maybe I'm just buying into all the Fallout 4 and Doom 2016 hype, but the "dungeonpunk after World-Ending War" angle is what I'm leaning towards the most at this point.

Has anyone else found Crash Course World History (especially its second season) to be incredibly helpful in worldbuilding? Especially the ones about the way resources shape societies.

>>47233051
I'd probably go with the self-destructing dystopia. If you have an invading force, that means they'd have to be invading FROM somewhere, which would require you to design (to some extent) an alternate dimension or a different planet. The dystopia approach lets you just design the one world.

>>47209743
The City of Ember kinda comes to mind a little bit.

Elves are hunted to near extinction by humans after human alchemists discover a way to distill a potion of youth from living elves, a la Dark Crystal.

y/n?

>>47234707
Thanks for the opinion. I always did like that angle a little more.

Still not 100% on how to work from there, but one thing I was thinking about was "what sorts of races can I get away with" in a setting like this? I was figuring a mixture of classic races - humans, dwarves, elves, etc - to represent the "old order", formerly marginal races that've since adapted and thrived in the new harsh world like orcs, goblins or gnolls, and perhaps some "spawn of the bomb" types like warforged expies (artificial soldiers) or ratfolk (rodents mutated into sentience by all the mana-fallout equivalent). Does this make sense?

>>47236601
>Elves become a resource
>Hunted to near extinction
This does not compute. Any "useful" living thing is going to have its population explode, in Human-controlled breeding and processing plants. Just look at cows, pigs, horses, or chicken.
You don't have to be magical realm about it, either.

>>47237821
Maybe it's due to warfare, rival nations infiltrating and butchering all the elves they can get, forcing their own elves into ghettos for "protection", and then combined with elves having a low reproduction rate

>>47237821
If we're going with the usual elf traits, such as being freakishly long-lived, then a breeding program is unfeasible. Pigs and horses and cows and chickens can be bred fairly fast. Breeding elves would be a multi-generational process. As in multiple generations of humans per generation of elf.
And these are intelligent, magical beings. They will be trying to escape.
Yes, some of this would happen, but only the super rich/royalty would be able to afford the upkeep of running such a process.

And humans have wiped out -- or nearly wiped out -- "valuable" species many times. Whales, for one. Hell, the Punic Wars are almost entirely responsible for the extinction of the North African elephant.

A lot of it comes down to how common elves are at the time of the youth potion discovery.

>>47197945
Why would you think that anything in nature is a cylinder?

>>47241689
I think he means a tunnel

Also, cylindrical coordinates are pretty nice mathematically speaking.

>>47228043
Do you got a pdf of your setting? Planetary romance and space opera, along with science fantasy, sounds pretty cool.

>>47237821
You can also look at Rhinos, elephants and all the other creatures hunted to near extinction or extinction for goods growing out of them.

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>>47237821
>This does not compute. Any "useful" living thing is going to have its population explode, in Human-controlled breeding and processing plants.

How do domestic geese compare to chickens?

Could they be a replacement for chickens?

What powers your settings spaceships through the empty void? Is it fusion reactors? solar sails? an esoteric hamster wheel?
or is it like star wars, where the fuel of the setting is called: "fuel".

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I've got a quick World Building thing I'd like an answer to:

-I'm doing up a "hollow earth" scenario where the hot molten nickel and iron core of the planet is effectively the SUN of this massive inner-world and so forth, but because of this that means the sun is in the "center" sort to speak with the world all around it.

So my question is three-fold:

-They wouldn't have night, right? Like, there'd be nothing in the way or nothing to obscure the direction of the sort of 'gentle light' produce by the core of the earth? (lets assume for the sake of the setting that it provides a constant tempature and doesn't just cook them alive for whatever reason)
What would that be like? Just having perpetual daylight with absolutely no sundown or sun up?

-What would the weather be like for that matter? We're going on the basis that the 'core' is hanging in the middle of the earth and in between there, there's still a fair bit of distance, but can clouds, rain and wind still form in what would otherwise be a uniform environment with equal tempature disbursement? Would they have rain? Wind? What would the weather be like?

-The third thing: They'd be able to see the other side of their "world" from the sky, right? Like, the sun-earth-core is in the center with the inside-out world surrounding it, but they'd be able to "see" the other portions of their world.. right??? Like, in the distance? Or would the sky/atmosphere obscure it?

>>47244366
>>47244106
There's a difference between alchemists harvesting something from a nearly-domesticated, intelligent creature, and rogue apes cutting off bits with a hacksaw.

>>47244820
Yeah, that's the point, because >>47237821 suggested that "rogue apes cutting off bits with a hacksaw" doesn't happen and that humans have never hunted an animal to extinction.

>>47244887
Are you sure you can just "domesticate" elves for killing? Even slaves usually aren't kept for the sole purpose of dying.

>>47245071
Nobody tried to say they couldn't be domesticated, all of this was a response to the tacit assertion that living things are never hunted to extinction.

>>47244409
Iirc, geese and ducks need more water, line a pond for a flock. That's why its harder to factory breed them. If your not doing industrial production it should be the same as chickens or turkeys except give them a small tub/trough to bathe in. Flying breeds should also have their pin feathers clipped.

>>47244576
It's your world, if you want to make it so they can't see the other side because fog or whatever, then they can't. If you want them to see it, they can.

As for the light thing, I imagine the inhabitants would have completely different sleep/wake cycles from us.