Didn't Protect Her Smile Edition
Some worldbuilding resources:
On designing cultures:
http://www.frathwiki.com/Dr._Zahir%27s_Ethnographical_Questionnaire
Random generators:
http://donjon.bin.sh/
Mapmaking tutorials:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48
Free mapmaking toolset:
www.inkarnate.com
Random Magic Resources/Possible Inspiration:
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/magic/antiscience.html
http://www.buddhas-online.com/mudras.html
http://sacred-texts.com/index.htm
Conlanging:
http://www.zompist.com/resources/
Random (but useful) Links:
http://futurewarstories.blogspot.ca/
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/
http://military-sf.com/
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/
http://donjon.bin.sh/
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html
http://kennethjorgensen.com/worldbuilding/resources
Questions:
>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
>Is it based off history? If so, how?
>Is it fictional? If so, how does it comment on the humanoid condition?
>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
Hard Mode:
>What do the critics think of this work?
Dante Must Die:
>How did the play/movie adaptation do in-setting? Flop or Blockbuster?
>>48065330
How 'bout you post a map that's not a clustered piece of imbalanced shit with godawful chokepointing? Last time I played that Caelum literally shat over everyone from the skys because they had MM3 and the rest of us had MM1.
>>48066131
I'm pretty sure he posted it because it looks like an actual fantasy maps.
The way the province system works, the maps that are good for gameplay don't look like actual fantasy setting maps. Especially since most of them are wrap around.
>>48066207
How hard is "No giant chunks of sametype, no egregious chokepoints, no fuck-you spawns"?
>>48066319
You have no clue what the fuck we're talking about, do you?
I can't decide on whether to work on my fantasy or sci-fi setting.
>>48066352
And looks like an interesting fantasy map?
Hard.
Because those sort of things are what make for interesting fantasy maps and stories in fantasy maps.
I'll accept that I'm wrong if you can post a few Dominion maps which are both balanced and look like interesting fantasy setting for an RPG setting.
>>48066503
It's actually really damn easy. You make the supertree or gigamountain or whateverthefuck one province and spread the visual effect but not terrain type into the surrounding provinces.
What are some potential racial traits of humans that isn't just 'the average'?
>>48066131
I'll post a couple of my own then. Don't claim to be good, but whatever.
>>48066624
Skill Virtuosity?
The ability to be really, really good at one skill (maybe to the detriment of another or one less selection)?
>>48066693
And another.
>>48065330
>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
This question kinda doesn't work as it's pre-printing press. So 'most well known' is probably a better example.
The short form of the Ballad of Ketter May, which is the religious text by means of example for one of the major minority cultures is very widely known for that reason.
The numberous varients of the Traveler's Walk and Swift Sails are found basically everywhere.
But that's tied to the magic in part.
In terms of pure art, the play "The Emperor's Son Calls Forth" and "The Breaking of the Crimson Tide" are both very popular since the 3rd reunification, outside far north.
>Is it based off history? If so, how?
A little, I used the globe (slightly altered) as a geographical setting, because I know only enough about geology to realize all the fake maps I was drawing made no sense.
But there is enough magic that history went a very different way.
Oh you went the art.
Well then
The Emperor's Son Calls Forth and The Breaking of the tide are both historical, telling of the end of the Crimson Queens bloody conquest through much of the empire.
The Emperor's Son is more political and high brow, focusing on the speeches made to unify the surviving armies, and reestablish the empire after the war.
The Breaking of the Tide is a more bloody affair, telling of the battles and destruction.
The Ballad of Ketter May is insisted to be True, but that doesn't mean it's events are historical facts. Religious scholars agree that this is fine.
>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
I need to think more of this.
>>48066546
not seeing any examples.
Probably because if someone did what you said, people who complain that the visuals on the map didn't match the terrain and they kept getting confused.
Started with this map someone made (and I am using the Lankhmar setting).
>>48066715
Last one unless someone requests more. This one was a Wizard-of-Oz meets Hayao Miazaki silly-shits-and-giggles world.
Goddamn I still wanna run it sometime.
>>48066727
>I need to think more of this.
Just think who would benefit from each play when it was written.
>>48066775
Campaign at lvl 1-4 has been set in the bottom right corner of the "Lankhmar" continent, in an area also known as The Wastes of Quarmal.
It's a region blasted a thousand years ago by an incredible Warlock-created catastrophe, and the principal reason that magic is either weak or has bad side effects when used via 5th level or higher spells.
>>48066624
Big part of my setting.
Words. They have the best understanding of the magic of language. Not the most magical, that's a debated thing, but using words as the medium for magic.
The use of words, and more specifically written words, has allowed for more precision in records, more bureaucracy, larger more coherent societies.
Other races have built cities, or truly impressive structures, but having an empire that stretches hundreds of miles with the same laws is uniquely human.
Humans don't realize this, because they don't quite get that the human subspecies that share slightly different versions of this trait, or human subspecies, and just more agreeable forms of outsiders.
Humans are also, technically, the shortest lived. This just doesn't come up practically, as life expectancy is actually higher for well to do humans.
>>48066797
>Just think who would benefit from each play when it was written.
I know the city state, and social group each is from, but I need to focus on the detail.
I also need to make names for all the Great Cities, but gah, making names.
>>48065330
>questions
1: Twelve Roses for Earl Honnencott, a painting of such fine beauty that the named Earl was driven mad by it. Sublimity is something of a tangible magic, which makes awkward things possible. The creator was once known. Thought to be a woman. A nearby King paid more for it than any other recorded price for an artwork in history.
hard mode: Critics can easily see its beauty, but those types when talking about it tend not to critique it so much as wonder why it was Honnencott, and nobody else, whose mind broke upon seeing it.
dmd: There have been plenty of plays about the historical events surrounding it, but it's not quite possible to 1:1 replicate them kingdom-wide so all of that depends on which script you're talking about and which troupe performed it. Some have been good, though.
>>48066131
Fucking Caelum
>>48066877
Fjord-tastic.
With Lankhmar, I have the frame of a campaign world, but outside of the main city it's ambiguously left vague which gives me just the right amount of freedom to make what I want.
Lankhmar is a world inside a bubble or sphere, it's limited number of stars and single moon and sun are all tiny and "artificial". (In the books they find the last unlaunched star atop the tallest mountain, Stardock, it's a 30' tall crystalline structure).
A lot of the cultures are heavily influenced by existing ancient cultures, the Barrens they are in now are a sort of wastelands ruins of ancient Greece, the city to the north (Tovilyis) has a sort of early medieval Rome feel to it.
Pic related to the party's pawns, the Mingol Champion, Tisinilit Arcane Trickster, Kleshite Ranger, NPC Southerner rogue, and the "not actually a Cleric but functions like one for complicated backstory reasons".
I have a shit-ton of backstory at this point.
>>48067084
At this point I am using CC+ to work on the Jungles of Klesh to the West, the big forest and lakes North of Tovilyis, and Tisinilit's region across the Sea of the East.
Party has been "confined" to the area of the map through 4th level, though there's been enough compelling story quest there that they haven't wanted to leave in any case.
I ran that first map as pretty much a sandbox with 3 large dungeons, 3 fairly complicated mechanics heavy challenges, 3 "big monster" encounters and a smattering of random encounters, set the party up with several quests through NPCs and let them sandbox it how they wished.
Now as they wrap things up in these final 2 weeks and hit 5th, they'll have considerable freedom to travel, though each of them have pressing story-related events drawing on them.
>>48067084
it's funny, I keep going back and forth between developing out the larger world, as a campaign setting.
And just working on the details of much smaller area covered in the story that started this, and is clearly more a novel than campaign.
I mean, I might use the start of "The Town of Leenden is small, and too far from the rivers and Great Cities to draw much trade. But twice a year the Elfhold opens it's doors and the merchants come from far away to bid for it's wares", as a start for a campaign.
But the story The Most Precious Child won't be that campaign.
>>48067181
I'm not directly using any of the stories from the various Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books, though they have already encountered (and fallen in debt to) Ningauble of the Seven Eyes.
I just try to keep the flavor of the source material. I have the individual party members and the group as a whole entangled in a half dozen major plots, which has encouraged them to resolve some of them in a fairly limited area.
There are large areas I haven't done any real work on whatsoever aside from touching on them in backstory, though I have a good outline of how the various cultures/city-states/empires relate to one another and the conflicts that are brewing in each.
>>48067235
Basically I have "railroaded" them in a fairly subtle and story-engaging way, by giving them various compelling reasons to achieve various quests in the Barrens Region.
>>48065330
>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
the Lay of Jali's Lute, a folk song written down in its "canon" version by Zoya of Igo
>Is it based off history? If so, how? / Is it fictional? If so, how does it comment on the humanoid condition?
it's based off a folk tale from the early colonial days of the Ahigbeni Empire, about a cursed lute that forces whoever plays it to relive the memories of its previous owners' deaths and how it came to be cursed. the moral of the story being that the first years of war killed the souls of the soldiers that fought in it. the historical aspect would be that it draws heavily from what is known about the bards (who were also scribes and spies during that time) that travelled with the advancing armies.
>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
originally it was supposedly sung by Jali of Igo himself (it still has to be sung in character as Jali), a young nobleman who enlisted in the imperial army and travelled overseas to claim land for the God-King. the canonical version is attributed to Zoya of Igo, a silk merchant and infamous con-man with the education of a classical Ahigbeni bard who spent the last 20 years of his life compiling Ahigbeni folk tales (although some of them are certainly fictional, such as the Lay of the Brave Seamstress Cora and her Cowardly Thrall)
Tell me about your gnolls, /wbg/.
>>48068049
Rape-happy cannon fodder.
The only reason they haven't been annihilated is because they're living in not!Australia.
I keep thinking I want to make good, detailed cultures, but then I start filling out the Ethnographic Questionnaire and suddenly want to kill myself.
Funny how that works.
>>48068183
I've always used that as a thing to just kind of ruminate on when I've got no better seeds for writing about a culture. I find that building all the details in too early on tends to make things feel... uneven, I guess. Like you tried to trim your beard before you gave it the clippers.
>>48068183
I wound up answering most of those with mine. I didn't start out that way, but it grew.
>>48067181
that line is how it started.
Well then I wanted them to have a mission. Oh, the I know, an elf woman has snuck out of the Elfhold during the confusion and asks them to save her daughter.
I'd already established that High Elves and Wild elves are the same species (renamed), the High Elves just undergo a special rite to change them. But mother didn't do it, and now it's too late and their going to kill the daughter
Then that raised questions, why wouldn't she do it?
Too poor to afford the best form of the Rite, and the cheap version makes you crazy.
Why is she poor? What about the father? What does her family think?
Before I knew it, I'd developed the entire sexual culture of the High Elves. And lot of the rest of the culture spilled out from there. And the sexual culture of the other races when I wanted to figure out their reaction. And then more from there.
>>48068049
Hopeless religious fanatics. Emphasis on Hopeless. They found an Angel trapped in a demonic prison cell left mortal-side and hidden from all scrying magicks. To while the time away, the Angel decided to try and convert the Gnolls to Good and Law.
It ah....it half worked. Gnolls now roam the land speaking of their "Bright Lord" and his "Most Virtuous Tidings and Artifices". They tend to act posh and try to make nice with other humanoids in a God-told-me-not-to-eat-you-but-I-have-a-sinful-nature-and-do-you-have-ketchup-by-any-chance sort of way. They are paradoxically utterly ruthless barbarians, but will not harm priests or anyone under religious protection.
The authorities are inclined to let them alone and not start shit, but will throw their asses out at the slightest provocation.
The Angel has gone mad in the meantime, what with only having Gnolls to talk to for 7,000 years.
>world is not a planet
>no plate tectonics, no continental drift
>as a result, no natural earthquakes or volcanoes
>occasional geysers and natural hot springs can be found bubbling up from underground magma chambers
>sulfur is surprisingly rare, vulcanized rubber and gunpowder aren't a thing
Does this work?
Who are some important figures of your worlds, /tg/? Whether they be living people, or people of the past.
>>48068593
Hmm, interesting take.
>>48070002
There's a whole pantheon of new or forgotten gods, as well as nobles and rulers trying to adapt to the new democratic system in which war is banned. The two kingdoms who once nearly destroyed the continent are still at odds, but their monarchs are losing power to a forced alliance ruled by a republic.
The instigator of the campaign is one such noble, a reclusive aspiring monarch who sends invitations to this strange new land to each of the members of the party, bringing them together on a ship.
>the northlands, near the old Dragon's kingdom
>dark and snowy, sun never rises
>brilliant lights flickering in the sky
Maximum cozy.
>mfw I realized I fell into the "asian culture, nordic culture, african culture" trap and have to retool everything
>>48071546
I have sworn to never have "an asian culture" in a game world again.
But it's fine to have a real world culture in a Fantasy game, they are useful because they give the players a reasonable grasp on the society and how it might look and function. Just be sure to have at least 3 interesting divergences from the real thing per culture.
rate.
>>48071583
Polish/10?
>>48071617
Actually it's kebab removian
>>48071583
Looks dobre balkbro
>>48066624
We're biologically very good at walking for a very long time, that or I'm remembering it wrong and we can just run for a very long time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis I assume the first humans in Africa (or anywhere if you believe multiple origin theory) were not literally the same cut as East africans today but them motherfuckers can run marathons like nobody's business - now imagine trying to outrun that hunting you.
>>48066877
Now this is cheap as shit but what I did since I've been looking into dead languages for other projects (And I mean real dead. Not Latin or ancient greek dead but Luwian, Hittite, Akkadian dead), find terms I liked and use them. Maybe edited, maybe adjusted.
Mesopotamians? http://www.assyrianlanguages.org/akkadian/search.php type in a word, any word. Mountain. River. Dog. Shovel. Axe. Fruit. Angry. Arousal. melancholy. Gay.
Pilpilu (faggot). Maybe edit to Pilpilum. Palpilam. Palpilaram.
Search city and I get "Abullu", "Au", "Al Kissuti", "amuhhu" "Ardabu", "arsatum", Etaqu (maybe Etaqum. Etaqaram. Etaqal. Etaqanah) Try searching any words, any objects, anything.
1) Nobody is going to know these languages and object (Sanskrit is taught in some US universities but I think only 14,000 speak it in India. I assume a lot more know it in prayers but nto enough to speak or write it thesmelves)
2) Don't mind what the word meant originally.
I'm thinking about a flat-world setting; the universe is an infinite, frictionless, monomolecular, monatomic, flat plane, and the 'solar system' is a billion kilometre desert in the middle of it, with 'planets' as oases in the desert, which could be Mediterranean sized.
Here is the catch: technology is modern day, as imagined by James Bond or Mission Impossible.
Any reaction?
>>48071862
Just run Tron as a setting already.
>>48071887
That wouldn't be a mix of modern-day but nothing found on Earth aesthetics.
>>48071903
If this setting isn't going to involve planetary travel then I just really don't see the point.
>>48071914
It would, just with aircraft optimized for long-distance travel instead of spacecraft.
It's supposed to be an excuse for modern-day tech to do some space-opera stuff, without having to go Stargate, and without setting it on Earth. The flat-Earth part is just an extra twist.
>>48071862
Be warned! Flat Worlds that try to follow physics wind up like pic related. Heed my words! Save yourself from my fate!
Seriously, this was far too much thought given to a gimmick.
I've been working on a little project, nothing serious, just kind of getting some work done on the world, but I think I will have these be the races of my world. I considered having more, like lizard people, insect people, elves, all that fun stuff, but it just felt like it would be overcrowding the place for no reason. The Midfolk aren't dwarfs, nor are they gnomes, they are just small people. The Undead aren't an actual race, per say, but in the setting there can be sentient undead as well as corpse puppets, so they "count" as a race.
>>48072212
It's supposed to have very slightly alternate physics, like Star Wars; but close enough to us that real world aircraft concepts would be the base for vehicles in the game. Some of the non-human races would be explicitly magical or supernatural. The sun, moon, stars, and planets would be proven optical illusions in the setting, for example, the Void above the atmosphere goes up boundlessly.
The setting just has a 'down'. Deserts are caused by 'impacts', quantum fluctuations (bullshit) in the Plane mix the absolute Solid and the absolute Void to create matter. It's dead, until further impacts create oases, which create life.
>>48072245
And the current major nations of the land, there may be more added, but this is what I have so far, included with a bit of flavor to demonstrate their main form of fighter.
>>48072245
>>48072253
I am super digging these! Any more?
>>48072264
I'm working on another "page" that consists of important groups within the country, but so far thats all I have. I do have these old images, but they only show dragons, giants and gods. Also some concept doodles for what the Fair Folk look like.
>>48072281
>>48072288
>>48072295
>>48072305
And old concept doodles of the Fair Folk
>>48072281
>>48072288
>>48072295
>>48072305
>>48072328
Pretty rad honestly. What are you using these for?
>>48072362
Just kind of doing them for fun. I do write info of the setting down, but I also like getting something visual down to give me a better feel of my own world
>>48072460
That's a great idea. I'll have to start trying something like that. I always find visualizing a setting helps more than more research when I want to make something.
>>48071819
>Pilpilu (faggot). Maybe edit to Pilpilum. Palpilam. Palpilaram.
Holy fuck that particular line has my sides in a little past Pluto; thanks Anon for this tip in all seriousness.
>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
The book's official title is, 'The Creation War and the Rise of Caden," though most shorten it to just the first half.
>Is it based off history? If so, how?
Most people believe it to be part history, part creation myth. The first few chapters chronicle how the world came to be, where the gods are believed to have come from, the war between gods, titans, dragons, and mortals over this new land, and the eventual separation of the planes from one another. The only part that is confirmed to be true is the last half of the book, which chronicles the last years of the Creation War.
>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
The first half is told from an overall neutral storyteller POV, the second half (detailing the end of the war) is written by Caden himself, in his journal that he kept to chronicle the events of the war, in the hopes it would be useful for future generations. He was a soldier for one of the gods, and assumed their mantle of that god when it was slain in the final battle.
>What do the critics think of this work?
Most nit-pick and focus on the second half of the work, trying to analyze and discern the truth from legend, because it was written by a mortal before becoming a god. The first half is largely ignored, or told as bed time stories to kids.
Dante Must Die:
>How did the play adaptation do in-setting? Flop or Blockbuster?
Most spring and summer festivals have a play adaptation of the book, as Caden's domains are in spring and agriculture. The play itself summarizes the first half of the book within the first few lines, then delves into Caden's eventual journey from man to godhood. Most kids grow up seeing it at least once, and while troupe performance varies, the core message of the play (one of struggle and hope for a better day to come) is conveyed very well, so it's often well-liked.
>>48071436
What do they eat?
>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
Not counting "He Above Us" a religious text, a famous series of story books known as "The Adventures of Bal-Shadi"
>Is it based off history? If so, how?
It is the life chronicles of Bal-Shadi, but there are few people in the world who actually know the truth. The stories revolve around Bal-Shadi as he gathers his band of allies and goes off on fantastic adventures, all of which are true.
>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
The author is a man named Haraldo, a mage who accompanied Bal-Shadi, he came from the western lands of Highfield to study Shadar-Ai mysticism, and came to become friends with Bal-Shadi, and when their travels ended, Haraldo published the chronicles of their travels, which garnered some popularity, and led to him re-writing them into stories.
Hard Mode:
>What do the critics think of this work?
When the chronicles first came out, it was considered too fantastical to a good number of folks who read it, after all, how could these people go on such incredible adventures and not be world famous? When they were re-written into stories, critics lessened, and it steadily became a popular series of books for children.
Dante Must Die:
>How did the play/movie adaptation do in-setting? Flop or Blockbuster?
The theater troupe 'The Men of Shadar" regularly tour across both Shadar-Ai and Highfield, performing the playwright "Bal-Shadi's Fantastic Trips" which cover a number of the stories, and several other Shadar-Ai stories. It is generally considered a popular play, more so in Highfield rather than back home in Shadar-Ai
>>48065330
Greetings /wbg/
I am a prospective new ST and I would like to make a nice map for my players. I wanted to start them off in a village: have you got any tips on where to find resources to make a nice looking map for a small medieval (10 century) type of village?
>>48066693
>Grand-line island chains à la One Piece connecting continents
stealing this.
>>48073105
Not that guy, butboars.
>>48069513
What's up with the geysers and hot springs?
The rest of it, is meant to justify something like medieval stasis?
The fact that there are no tectonics - doesn't that imply there are also no natural mountains and cliffs.
>>48072328
I really like the floating-head-that-sits-on-top-of-a-body concept.
I'll shortly be in need of TONS of medieval village/small city maps.
I'm pretty good with landmasses, continents and regions, but I just can't do it with streets and houses.
Does anyone know a PS tutorial or a generator for that?
Can I put a swamp marsh east of a mountian range?
Mountain range is spliting the continent in two. The eastern side has a swamp marsh, an rainforest, grasland, beaches, a steppe and another mountain range and of course a lake and rivers.
![Schwarzplan1819[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/gbUym9X.jpg "Schwarzplan1819[1].jpg")
>>48073881
Look for figure ground diagrams, which show the relationship between built and unbuilt space for references. Use google maps to look at old parts of cities and villages for an idea of street layout.
![Nolli-Map-of-Wren-Churches-Nicola-Chan-Sarah-Heidborn[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/3g7gzMv.jpg "Nolli-Map-of-Wren-Churches-Nicola-Chan-Sarah-Heidborn[1].jpg")
>>48074155
I don't think you'll find a satisfactory generator for medieval town layouts, because of they were not rigidly planned and the subsequent growth and change is fairly organic.
![nolli_rome_detail[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/cqG87mV.jpg "nolli_rome_detail[1].jpg")
![castle-carney[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/t1LOgVe.jpg "castle-carney[1].jpg")
>>48074155
>>48074181
Yup, that's what scares me. Rigid planning eases things a bit, but chaotic sprawls and castle-based architectures are far beyond my map making skills.
Guess I'll have to do a bit of good ol' pen&paper improvisation.
>>48074198
Hey that's my house!
![fortified-churches-02-Prejmer[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/RtVimML.jpg "fortified-churches-02-Prejmer[1].jpg")
>>48074215
Use google maps and find a small town / village which you like, then trace its layout and adapt to your needs. If copying directly doesn't sit well with you, then collect them references to use as you draw your own.
Some of the floorplans i've just posted came from the site posted below. The sections on english castles and fortified churches are the relevant ones.
http://socks-studio.com/category/topics/walls-as-rooms/
>>48074215
Here's a thought: why not just rip of- erm, "repurpose" actual medieval city maps?
>>48074334
That's what I was planning to do with not!London and not!Edimburgh, but I don't want it to be too obvious about it. I mean, if one of the players knows which map I'm using (which is nearly impossible, but whatever) i'm going to look very lazy.
Guess wouldn't be an issue for smaller cities tho.
>>48074318
Very saucy. Thank you anon!
![fig01[1].gif](https://i.imgur.com/jUgW8Jd.gif "fig01[1].gif")
>>48074511
Maybe don't choose a big city like London or Edinburgh then. Most European settlement have been around in some form for at least a thousand years, there are plenty of places you can choose from, large and small.
Also flipping and rotating maps is an easy way to make them less recognizable.
![Birmingham_-_Westley_Map_1731[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/FFCmzeR.jpg "Birmingham_-_Westley_Map_1731[1].png")
>>48074334
I wonder what's going on in areas surrounded by houses. I see churches there, but there's so much empty space.
>>48071819
Nice.
It even has the sounds kinda like how I wanted the imperial language to be. I can then just switch the pronunciation to fit the different cultures from this base.
>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
It's a book with a very long title that keeps changing every time I write it down. I haven't decided on final version still.
>Is it based off history? If so, how?
It's biography of the most prominent adventurer of the past named Rolan the Plunderer who visited entire world and an indispensable source of notes on ancient traditions and quirks of the population.
>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
The author was a guy who wanted to escape his boring life so he joined the crew of a small-time maritime merchant. Due to small navigation error they accidentally pulled a daring heist in the land of zombie orcs, becoming some of the richest people in the world and discovering taste for adventures. They then travelled the world for some time until Rolan went alone to find a way to the legendary place beyond the mountains where dragons and magic people live. He returned late, didn't tell anyone what he found and died from melancholy soon after. As for author, he spent his wealth on making copies of his book and distributing them across the world because he wanted his friend to be remembered.
>>48066813
this map is so cute
>>48066813
>>48075749
>>48075732
>Rolan the Plunderer
>Zombie orcs
>Dragons
>Sad and unsatisfying death
9/10 would read
Needs Rolan boasting about slaying a dragon.
Tell /wbg/; how has YOUR elves (or equivalents) fucked up the world?
>>48065330
>>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
Fancy carpets woven by some bitches who really know how to weave
>>Is it based off history? If so, how?
No
>>Is it fictional? If so, how does it comment on the humanoid condition?
It doesn't. They are really nice carpets that are good enough to be called art.
>>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
Some bitches that weave for the glory of the Maiden Goddess, She Who All Women Aspire To Be, Soft Handed Mother and many other tittles.
>>48075808
>>48066693
Wait, is this a playable Dominions4 map? I can't find it.
>>48066131
If you don't like chokepoints, you'll hate the map that I'm "working on".
>>48076128
Didn't I see images of that dating back years?
>>48068049
There are three major groups worth talking about. Firstly, there's a major empire in the north of Grey Gnolls. Their society is a recent one, and the god-empress who formed it is still alive within her natural lifespan, though her current apparent youth does imply that her lifespan will not proceed entirely naturally. She's organized her empire into a heavily regimented society by force of will and of her sorcerous abilities, most relevantly divination and becoming huge to eat political dissidents. These northern Imperial gnolls live in cities built around traditional tribal homes and villages spread throughout the hills. There's also a great city which she has had built from scratch and that's full of bustle and fascist aesthetic.
In the south, where gnolls are traditionally much more nomadic, she has not effectively imposed her will (though many tribes pay lip service) and the traditional lifestyle remains. They herd great big beasts, whose name I'm waffling on and whose hide they use for their armor. They don't have much development, aside from having a propensity for pottery and glazes.
They're also the communities through which the Silent Ones move most readily. The north is not generally very religious, because the traditional religion which was once common to all gnolls values spontaneity and shows of strength and sexual potency, as well as independence and freedom from social contract. While the empress is fine with her armies engaging in slaughter and rape, she supports veneration of her imperial self over the tribal bickering that previous religious perspectives encouraged. In the south, the old ways hold more true and there is no law or force limiting a righteous retribution to insult or a little good old fashioned raiding of neighbors. This raiding, incidentally, is part of the limit on the northern presence in the south as supply trains are juicy targets.
>>48076510
Anyway, the Silent Ones. They're gnolls who are so devoted to the moon's precepts of animalistic independence that they cut off tribal ties, paint their faces white, and live as wild beings. They are not shamans and rarely work magic, though the southern tribes do have some shamanism. The silent ones are more like monks, and that's how I'd model them in D&D, though they're far from the usual stereotypes. They wander between tribes and clans, mostly hunting and living off the land but also stealing and raping when they can, and although it is permissible (and generally advisable) to fight them off, they are much beloved by the Moon and it is seen as terrible fortune to kill them. The official line in the north is that the empress staves off divine retribution and that they should be killed, but it is rare that this suggestion is followed by anyone outside of her army.
There's also a gnoll tribe that moved to the new world continent fleeing stronger rivals (the continent where most of them live is the Africa analogue) but I haven't written much on them, they're pretty much just there to contribute to the melting pot aspect.
>>48076154
Probably. There's a reason I used quotation marks. It's on hiatus now, has had a twelve month hiatus before, and when not on hiatus I work on it when I feel like, which often works out to like one night per month or something.
>>48072245
>The Midfolk aren't dwarfs, they are just small people.
AKA dwarves.
>>48075983
Sorry, nope. Made it in photoshop.
>>48076965
Oh too bad. It looks great. Are you using it for anything?
>>48076604
They are a mix of dwarf and gnome, but not either one specifically. They live in the mountainous lands of The Sheg, a land abundant in gold, but they don't live inside the mountain, at least not completely, they instead live in villages up and around the mountains, mainly within large fields found between the mountains. They also have a thriving silk production, thus their garments consist of silks and gold. The Midfolk do not worship gods, as all other nations do, they worship the Giants, as they are the greatest forgers and crafters in the world, and the Midfolk work to imitate the Giant's might, as a byproduct, the Midfolk possess the most skilled Wordsmiths (a type of mage), specifically their Speakers, the elite of the Wordsmiths and the defenders of The Sheg lands.
>>48072328
For anyone interested, here are a number of important groups of each nation
How common is it to have fae/fairies/whatever be associated with dreams? Seems like a common enough conclusion, which is fine, because it makes sense. Just wondering, before I thought about implementing it into my setting.
>>48079113
Pretty common. It comes from the Aelfar of Norse myth I think, which means it probably appears in English stories too.
How do these landmasses look, /wbg/?
>>48082296
The rain shadows, particularly for that south-western mountain range, seem off. Do you have a diagram of the prevailing winds?
>>48082356
Fuck, you're right. I forgot the Polar Easterlies.
>>48082296
dece. minor warning though your mountain ranges are drawn to a different scale than your continents imo.
Also I think you'll have a thermohaline conveyor drawing cold water North through the central ocean there, which could do a million things I don't really understand well enough to predict on a map like yours. But you could also probably bend it to your intentions if you wanted to modify something, like get a region more/less habitable than it'd otherwise be (Mediterranean being like 15 degrees north of where its climate would naturally sit, and all)
>>48082356
>>48082531
Perhaps this will be a bit better.
As far as ocean currents are concerned, that's entirely beyond me. I'm considering dumping the photorealistic thing altogether and making an "aged paper" style monochrome political borders map instead.
>>48082951
I mean, I love those types, but that's me. For fiction I think old-style is the way to go, for RPG settings I like the realistic version because little nuances you don't realize you put in there can become details for you and players to make inferences off of.
As for the currents, I think it's unnecessary. You've already detailed more than anybody would consider is "required". I just like ocean currents as a mechanism for me to handwave/determine/manufacture other climate things, because I'm not really worldbuilding for "realism" so much as I'm using increasing layers of complexity as ways to justify the bullshit I've already decided I want.
Lately I've had a hell of a time thinking straight, and questions abound in my head. Relating to various settings as well, that thinking problem has blurred lines and memories of some worldbuilds.
I guess I'll just dump a few random questions I've considered and check back after I get some sleep.
Is it a bad idea to dodge space partly for wanting to avoid space-battle issues and take body-to-body warping option instead?
Are carnivorous mounts unlikely to be common as mounts go for logistical reasons?
Speaking of mounts, are mounts like a woolly-rhino just a horrible idea? I hear a lot of grazing animals are a bit too skittish around combat.
Why does balancing technology to avoid extrapolation-nightmares have to be so damned difficult and depressing? (I want to let the setting have its guns later, maybe even work up to something akin to bolt-action or semi-autos without leading to SMG spam and completely abandoning blades and other older weapons while also giving the latter some updates).
Was posting in this state of mind a bad idea? Yes, yes it was.
I'm a total scrub but heres my answers, don't value them highly.
>>48086279
>Is it a bad idea to dodge space partly for wanting to avoid space-battle issues and take body-to-body warping option instead?
I don't even understand this question.
>Are carnivorous mounts unlikely to be common as mounts go for logistical reasons?
Historically they haven't been employed. I mean, they haven't existed. But carnivores need a lot of food, so logistical reasons would be realistic.
>Speaking of mounts, are mounts like a woolly-rhino just a horrible idea? I hear a lot of grazing animals are a bit too skittish around combat.
To respond to this and the previous question, its your setting. You can just have tameable, not too skittish, feedable mounts. I forget what but there an anime where people ride these giant carnivorous lizards, and they're very powerful, and there is a huge economic system in place to breed, feed, and care for them. No reason that couldn't exist if there was a large animal that could be used in that way for warfare. We spend a lot of money on warfare.
Cont.
>>48086344
>Why does balancing technology to avoid extrapolation-nightmares have to be so damned difficult and depressing? (I want to let the setting have its guns later, maybe even work up to something akin to bolt-action or semi-autos without leading to SMG spam and completely abandoning blades and other older weapons while also giving the latter some updates).
Historically, guns were developed way before lots of fantasy staples (such as plate armor), and they didn't lead to the complete abandonment of other weapons until relatively recently. Semi-autos would probably fall into the tech range of completely making blades obsolete. BUT they could be rare, or experimental, or ineffective for some in setting reason, or whatever. They might be carefully guarded by one group, maybe humans have them and monsters don't, and adventurers don't dungeon delve with them because they are so loud. Maybe the god of swords has suppressed the god of gunpowder because he hates him, making guns really ineffective except in the hands of gunpowder clerics or something. Maybe the church has outlawed guns and effectively made them really rare and illegal, meaning you don't see them very often, if at all.
>>48086384
>God of Gunpowder
I could see there being a God of Swordplay derivative of a God of War, but a God of a specific Alchemical Compound?
Could just make it so that bullets are ineffective against supernatural threats. In my setting, most highly-magical creatures have some form of damage resistance that would negate small arms fire.
>>48086279
>Is it a bad idea to dodge space partly for wanting to avoid space-battle issues and take body-to-body warping option instead?
Body-to-Body warping? Anyway, I think what you described is partly Stargate.
>Speaking of mounts, are mounts like a woolly-rhino just a horrible idea? I hear a lot of grazing animals are a bit too skittish around combat.
I bet horses aren't natural fighters either. Say that they are bred and trained. Also, War Elefants were used and they are not very steadfast either.
>>48086529
>I could see there being a God of Swordplay derivative of a God of War, but a God of a specific Alchemical Compound?
well, I meant as an example. It could be whatever, god of fire, god of earth, god of... you know. It could be one god of war who prefers blades etc to these newfangled guns.
>>48072736
Glad to hear it. I'd be half curious about looking up curse words or slurs or whatever in these dead languages to see if there is any etymology with related ones.
>>48075491
It's pretty easy to find any number of dictionaries for these dead languages in roman/latin characters, I'll post a few that I know of.
To repost so someone could copy them into a pastebin, maybe:
Akkadian: http://www.assyrianlanguages.org/akkadian/search.php
Sanskrit: http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/apte/ [Type in english word, and then the hyphenated blue links will have a relevant term in sanskrit font and next to it a Latinized version]
Sanskrit: http://www.lexilogos.com/english/sanskrit_dictionary.htm [Various dictionaries/translations however spokensanskrit.de 's should give you a transliteration.]
Sanskrit: http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/mwquery/ [Change OUTPUT (next to the 20 dropdown) to Roman Unicode. Search English word.]
Various dictionaries: http://www.lexilogos.com/english/index.htm [Both living and dead]
Welsh: http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/fun/welsh/LexiconForms.html
Welsh: http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/fun/welsh/LexiconEW.html [Full lexicon here so you can just control + f to find "dog" or "spear". If no hits for your word, try cognates - lance instead of spear, hound instead of dog.]
Tocharian (Xinjiang Province Indo-Europeans): https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/natlang/ie/tochB.html
Old Norse Dictionary: http://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_E2N.shtm
Old Norse Dictionary: http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/language/English-Old_Norse.pdf
Hittite Dictionary: https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/CHDP.pdf
Saka-Khotanese (Scythians in the Tocharia region, also buddhists): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwYUexL0zGS_WWNiZENMelNnbFk
Old (Visi/Ostro) Gothic Dictionary: http://web.archive.org/web/20100416081032/http://etymological.fw.hu/Gothic.htm or http://www.lexilogos.com/english/gothic_dictionary.htm
>>48086664
Ancient Greek, Ancient Latin, or Old Norse: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/definitionlookup
Enter your english term in the search box (losercase, capital letter gives you no returns), and for Greek change the Greek Display to Latin Transliteration. Arabic on the buckwalter transliteration retards out so don't use it), Latin or Norse you don't need to do anything. Change the word and use cognates if you get no results - horsemen latin transliteration gets only 1 hit and it's an indirect word (Inequitabilis), while horseman gets you eques/equito/equester, and usually finding the plural version will take a little bit of work. We all know Eques is equites plural but maybe just google "plural of eques"
Old Turkic: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwYUexL0zGS_eFdJVjNnUTFWaUU
Almost any language that has any modicum of written text you'll be able to find a dictionary. It should be online but there are some you may have to rely on book form.
>>48076982
Really need to respond sooner to these.
I am currently using this world to run a human only dark high fantasy. Currentky a solo game with a friend. Basic premise is this is the sort of world long after the nonhumans have died out, and Man is now the sole surviving game piece on the board for the Light and the Dark to use in their eternal struggle for cosmological dominance.
Magic is powerful, but highly regulated in this setting. The church maintains only it's mages are legit not-evil (though since they field Vampire Paladins no one buys that), while competing alternate schools vie for public support.
The BBEG for the solo campaign is a nobleman, Malcolm Mac Dagg, Lord of Morey. He's basically Warlock Macbeth looking to steal the power of the Fey and conquer the kingdom!
>>48069513
>>occasional geysers and natural hot springs can be found bubbling up from underground magma chambers
no plate tectonics, no magma
>>48071436
the land of perpetual death, where no vegetation can grow, and no life can be sustained...
>>48078796
>painful stereotypes
>>48065330
Does anyone have this map (and the Dawn of Dominions map)without the province borders?
>>48088559
But that area has a highmagicdensity, surely there are plants that are sustained by that alone.
>>48089851
So kind of like Chaos Wastes?
Not quite what I'd call cosy, but to each their own.
I want to make a sci-fi setting. It features colonists on alien planet. Somehow eating local biosphere, breathing etc is not a problem, but all their infrastructure is destroyed. Only survey teams at a distance survived but their tech was all dependent on resupplying.
What level of technology them bouncing back to in a few generations would you find realistic?
>>48091065
Depends on the access to records they'd have. If the survey team could, say, set up a computer and keep it working, technology would be limited only by infrastructure. You'd have strong theory and weak execution.
If they couldn't, most higher knowledge would pretty quickly vanish into superstition because there'd be insufficient time for lots of education.
>>48091095
I figured they shouldn't be able to power their computers forever, although it's hard to imagine capacity of future power cells.
>>48075426
commons, gardens , and livestock. London has lots of theses areas.
>>48091274
If the data storage crumbles and the day to day survival occupies most of their time, stone will be all the rage very quickly. They won't have the means to teach the next generation the theory, and they won't have the infrastructure to produce technology.
That is assuming that there even are enough specialists in practical fields surviving.
>>48091394
I figure they should have hut-building skills. Useful skills to find resources. Maybe some indestructible future tents for shelter but nothing that require any kind of power, fuel or other expenses.
Thinking of it, I always really liked aesthetic of an advanced structure sticking in the middle of primitive village, so I will definitely give them future tents.
>>48091640
What skills to find what resources?
What equipment did they use for their surveys?
Can they find what they would now need, as opposed to what they were previously looking for, with no gear?
Can they process what they find into anything more than the most rudimentary technology?
Is it a fair bet that no one will judge my setting because it's written on anF-listprofile?https://www.f-list.net/c/major%20tom
/wbg/, I have a bit of a dilemma.
If I make werewolves beings that, a long time ago, when man was just beginning to roam in groups, be wolves that actually turned into people and then had the ability to change back and forth and have human babies, should they not also be able to make wolf babies with wolves?
It feels a little weird, but I guess that's the human stigma for you. I mean, you could ease it a little bit by not allowing the wereperson to be able to make wolf babies while in human form and the other way around, but I don't want it to seem like it's magical realmy.
Magic is supposed to do weird stuff, and I wanna give players the possibility to experience said weird magic stuff. I guess it's kind of my goal to make them weirded out, so maybe I'm on the right track.
Just wanted to ask your guys' opinion.
>>48092046
I would find it weirder if they could have human babies.
Sex between sentient and non-sentient beings will always be weird, you should probably make sure it's freaky and gross or people would get uncomfortable. I mean, they'd get uncomfortable either way, but it's only truly uncomfortable if author doesn't this it is.
>>48092366
Oh, yeah, forgot to note that they couldn't. And humans can't have puppies, either. I know we're talking about people changing into animals, but I think that's just too impossible. And a little too weird. Now, the puppies eventually turning into people, like they did back in the beginning, that's fine.
And yeah, I wasn't gonna act like it's like an everyday thing, the players probably wouldn't find out unless it was an important plot point or if they really looked. I doubt someone who had sex with their dog would advertise their activities, due to how people would react to it. Even magic people.
How do people do worldbuilding for scifi? Its fucking hell compared to fantasy. I need to flesh out several stars with a couple planets each, each with seperate geographies with alien conditions that require extensive research and extensive thought into how those alien conditions influence every level of society. And dont even get me started on the massively more complex cultures and societies produced in technologically advanced conditions.
Fantasy is just so simple, it plays on so many natural assumptions about the world and society, relatively speaking, but this is a nightmare.
>>48092736
There are a few shortcuts and ways out IF you're using it for a game. For example, making only one culture on a planet have access to space, making planetary or system-wide monocultures (more justifiable than /tg/ might make you think), making those cultures spread only to particular types of planet with litte divergence, using precursor races, and so on. You can effectively cut down the work to the amount a well put together fantasy world will require.
>>48092736
Now I really want to run another setting building from Diaspora.
That setting does shortcut several things by having some established 'truths', but it is a fun way to do a Sci-Fi setting.
Also, don't do every system in the galaxy, just like you don't do every town in a country. Skip or gloss over the unimportant areas.
>>48092736
There's a reason why well thought out sf doesn't usually involve aliens or interstellar travel.
>>48092736
Space opera that muthafucka up.
How do you guys get about with forming the morphology of different cultures languages? I have a basic gist of how different cultures are in a social, religious and political way but I'm at a loss when it comes to the linguistics of fictional languages.
Anyway you guys circumvent or find a work around for this?
>>48093088
>precursor races
God, its so overplayed, but it makes things sooooo easy.
>>48093766
Simply represent your languages with the language spoken by the reader/viewer. Since they don't want to learn a language to enjoy your work
>>48093766
For someone who ended up making language fairly important part of his magic system and setting, I'll tell you what I did.
I obscured, cheated, stole, and still struggled a lot.
The obscuring and cheating was not actually making it a language, just names, individual words or phrases. The general description made by reference to the sounds, which were the more important part of it for my purposes.
Stole, from other languages, some more obscure, like Akkadian which a kind anon pointed me to, other more well known but focusing on the sounds not the words.
Like one language is a bit of a mix of Japanese and Galic. Now that's almost assuredly an unworkable mess, but I'm just grabbing sounds, so it doesn't sound like anything.
>>48091870
you tell me
>>48071862
Are you familiar with Alderson disks?
There are one or two settings which use them.
>>48093847
Well this much at least I already have working for me. Humans are the precursor race, except they are still around. Most races are genetically modified varients of human made to better fit their envirnment or culture, a few are aliens uplifted by humans. So truely alien psychology, society, and biology isnt really a concern for justified reasons. I'm not a fan of major terraforming though, which I guess is one of the nice services more conventional precursor race tm provides.
Cant space opera it up too hard, obviously im not going for true hard scifi here but id like it to look that way to the layman. There a some important themes in the setting that require it to be thought of as realistic.
>>48093177
Ill look up Diaspora, sounds interesting.
>>48093088
Making it more a RPG actually, with its own rule system, so I want the setting to be clear, large, and robust enough to withstand being run by people who arent me in a variety of ways. Also writting various short stories and novellas in it and would like to have everything more or less preassembled for verisimilitude
>>48094088
>>48094178
Noted, thanks Anons.
I'm thinking I'll just steal from easily-comparable-to-english languages
Spanish and Germanic roots for culture specific words and names, it'll do
>>48091870
Do yourself a favor:
https://my.pbworks.com/
You can create your own wiki in this. One only you can edit.
It works great for putting down your setting, I use it for mine. Easy to use too.
Does a dictatorship require a command economy, or can it function with a free market attached?
>>48096553
Depends on how free a market has to be before you consider it a free market.
Most fascist regimes were primarily market economies with only some sectors being state controlled, while even modern liberal democracies tend to impose extensive regulation on businesses. If we have a free market now, then people in Pinochet's regime did too. In some ways, they may have been freer than we are.
>>48096553
Absolutely.
How's my map looking right off the top? Be brutal.
>>48088635
Painful how?
>>48082993
Yeah, definitely liking the antique map look better.
Time for nation borders.
>>48098578
The coasts could use a bit more convolution in places, and I'm not sure about that huge lake right by the ocean in the middle. I feel like the narrow spit of land separating it from the ocean would have just given way and opened it up into a single body of water.
Artistically, try to avoid the curve of your round photoshop brushes showing on the coastline. It's particularly obvious on the landmass at the northern edge of the pic.
If I'm going for an urban fantasy setting, should I go with 'magic messes up technology' or 'magic works fine with technology'?
Could always go with something else entirely, but those are the two most common tropes. I know it's really a matter of opinion, but I don't know how much of either has been overdone.
>>48101232
Which came first, magic or technology?
If magic came first, technology is going to be magitech or simple things, like steam engines.
If magic is a new development, it can either be researched to improve existing technology or it's a misunderstood, limited science.
>>48101368
Well, it's one of those 'magic is behind a curtain' settings, where we have our current world, except magic and shit. Sorry I didn't mention that.
It's not gonna be hugely widespread, and not everyone can learn it.
>>48101450
What's the scope/scale of magic, then? How decisive would the most powerful spell be when used in a war scenario?
>IE: Curse that can assassinate a single politican
>IE: A Fireball that could wipe out ~20 soldiers
>IE: A Magic Nuke that could wipe out a small city
>IE:A Wish that could alter the fabric of reality to wring a continent out of existence
>>48098578
>>48099140
This might be a map made by the cartographers of that world so alot of things won't be to scale. Maybe that little strip of land is quite large.
So people can walk about 30 miles a day assuming it's not difficult terrain, right?
I've heard a lot of different things
>>48101624
>So people can walk about 30 miles a day assuming it's not difficult terrain, right?
If you spend about 10 hours a day walking that gives you 6 waking hours to take breaks, set up camp, eat, etc.
Then an average 3 mph walking speed would put you at 30 miles. A well drilled army or small group of hardy adventurers might be able to march at 4-5 mph. Similarly an army with poor logistics or lots of wounded might only be able to make 2mph average.
>>48101563
Probably something along the lines of a nuke, at least at the moment. I'm still working on the specifics, I wanted to leave the intricacies of the magic system for a while yet since that shit's hard as hell sometimes to get working like you like it.
How bad is it?
>>48102195
That's actually pretty good. Decent tectonics, good rain shadows.
Only nitpics are the AQQAK river and whatever is going on with EVERDAY. Rivers fork into each other and go out to sea. AQQAK is like the opposite of what should be happening.
>>48102322
>Rivers fork into each other and go out to sea. AQQAK is like the opposite of what should be happening.
It's a delta, silly.
>>48102322
The river near Aqqak is supposed to be a delta similar to the Nile delta. The scale is probably way off, though. Everday is in the middle of a wasteland created by the impact of a giant crystal pillar of fire. Its the capital of the current empire and a religious site.
>>48102448
>Everday is in the middle of a wasteland
>Its the capital of the current empire
The logistics of that must be quite involved.
>>48102513
The Dwarven water merchants make a pretty penny.
>>48101997
The key is to maintain consistency, and not necessarily complexity. Get too complex, and you often pidgeonhole yourself, but if you have a set of baseline rules that you can stick to consistently, the rest of it can be tailored to the rules, and "rare exceptions" can be considered depending on the circumstances.
>>48102578
It's the food and everything else, really, since you can just build aqueducts to pipe water in.
>>48102670
There's plenty of orc farms in the surrounding areas to supply food.
>>48102195
I'm not big about how much of a neat and tidy right angle it is on the exterior coast (aqqak and the north). The interior lake/sea is perfect, but the exterior seems really boxy.
>>48102917
I know, it drives me nuts, too. I'm thinking of extending the area where Burj is north.
>>48102882
>orc bacon
>>48102917
Does this look better?
>>48103386
Not him, but I think it's a lot better now.
I would only suggest replacing some of the individual mountains that extend into the bodies of water. Look at the one in the northwest of the lake south of Drak'thul, for example.
Also, there are no rivers in the forest east of the mountains, so I would suggest including at least one there.
>>48103511
Yeah, I didn't put much thought into the eastern side, since its not important to the setting right now. The dragon keeps the northern part blocked and the south is held by a xenophobic isolationist race.
>>48068049
Murdered their gods a thousand or so years ago and have been regretting it ever since. Notorious for their lack of pickiness when it comes to eating and for slave-raids, though thankfully they're mostly a novelty where the main setting takes place.
Fun fact: They can twist their necks nearly 360° and can see in the dark.
>>48103386
>those names
Generic can be made to work, and has the advantage of immediately communicating what place X is about, but you went overboard.
>>48103386
>>48104392
>>48104420
You might notice that this is not what those places are actually called by the primary culture that occupies them. You can maybe infer that they have names in languages native to the area, names that don't saound quite as awkward as their English 'equivalents'. You might also notice that those translations are kind of shitty, but that's beside the point.
>>48066624
Humans have the biggest, brightest, richest souls, and an overwhelming sense of zeal combined with moral flexibility that lets them switch loyalties much faster and easier than any other race. Humans were created to be worship generators and spirit-incubators, so they have a natural sense of wonder and reverence for magical things/things stronger than them.
>>48065330
>questions
The Conquered King, or The Revelations of The Prophet Kalstrad, which is both a religious text and a painting inspired by it.
How historical/fictional it is depends on your faith in the Whitegold church. Allegedly it's the visions of higher reality sent by the immortal emperor Saryu to a young sorceress, encoded in opaque and mystifying verse and parable.
The text forms the backbone of one of the major sects of the Whitegold faith, and one of its most popular and often interpreted scenes, the meeting of the Prophets spirit with the seven faced, twelve armed symbolic form Saryu took after his ascension, was immortalized in painting by an ecstatic hermit.
>>48073210
bump
>>48104918
>seven faced, twelve armed
Jesus Christ, how horrifying. Do the number of faces and limbs have any particular meaning?
>>48065330
Alright, /wbg/, r8 my "dwarves."
>live on arctic islands, whale/seal hunters
>short because island dwarfism and limited resources
>stocky with large noses because it's cold
>not exactly used to working with metal, but very used to working with bone and hide, considered incredibly skilled at seafaring despite their "low" technology
>have their own name as a people, but gained the nickname "dwarf" from first contact with more southerly groups
>elaborate underground shelters, either carved from ice or made with whale bone and hides, driftwood, and snow for insulation
>well-groomed, long beard is a sign of wealth, because it means you've got time and food to be sitting around grooming a huge beard instead of, you know, being out hunting
>most "dwarves" keep short sideburns instead
No pic because I'm too lazy to find one.
>>48105062
>no mention of alcohol
10-10/10 not dwarf enough
>>48104928
Seven days, twelve hours
>>48105165
>arctic islands
What will you even make alcohol out of?
>>48105199
Fermented milk from whatever their beast of burden or pack animal is.
>>48104928
Eh, not so horrifying. Think hindu god style. The twelve arms represent the twelve successor states that would rise from the ashes of his kingdom, with each hand holding something signifying its fate/the role of would play in the grand scheme of things. They also represent his twelve avatars/heirs, who are the people destined to follow his lead and transcend morality. The twelve items may also be actual, physical relics somewhere
The seven heads represent the seven higher dimensions of reality, which people in the mortal world are only dimly aware of as a maybe metaphorical "someplace else". They also represent the seven pitches of the heptatonic scale (music is a huge theme of the setting. Saryu drew his strength from a sort of fundamental song of creation, and his quest for it's source is what spurred on his enlightenment and understanding of the nature of the universe(s)), the seven chakras, and the seven "normal" elements (fire, water, earth, air, plasm/spirit, pyros( life force type stuff, also represents extropic chaos), Bythos (entropic energy, also stillness and silence, and the order that comes out of zero possible energy/outcomes for change)
>>48065330
>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
We'll we're pre-movable type at least on a wide scale right now. I'm going to skip the religious texts of The Way of Light, because that's expected and the boring answer.
That said given the literacy rates within the alchemist's guild and its wide spread significance it would likely be the Curious tales of Wolfe O' Donovan: Action Alchemist.
>Is it based off history? If so, how?
Very embellished history, but ultimately yes. The book is a mixture between memoirs and fairy tales of his various "innovative" inventions and potions such as the Wolves O'Donovan. It was a potion that summoned wolves upon contact with air. Very angry and uncontrollable wolves.
>Is it fictional? If so, how does it comment on the humanoid condition?
A decent chunk of it is, especially the chapter on on the buxom thunder witches of the Stormland. It's critics firmly believe it's a propaganda piece designed to conjure greater interest in the guild from impressionable young nobles.
>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
Wolfe himself of course nobody else could really write "his" story..
Hard Mode:
>What do the critics think of this work?
That the only reason the tome has been copied so much is that many rulers especially of overly proud smaller nations would line up to suck his dick if it meant their capital could support an alchemist's guild hall (alchemy was until the introduction of the players the only "magic" in this setting, there is only 1 alchemist's guild. They've made damn sure of that, and are not above waging open war to keep it that way.)
Dante Must Die:
>How did the play/movie adaptation do in-setting? Flop or Blockbuster?
It's the most dangerous puppet show in existence, and as a rather popular among the youth.
>>48065330
>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
Prints aren't really a thing in my world, so neither literature nor art is distributed en mass, so this is a bit of a moot question. Absolute majority of knowledge, wisdom and mythology is still distributed orally in my world.
So I'm gonna talk about a book that "merely" played a big role in formation of one religion in my world: The Divine Clockwork.
>Is it based off history? If so, how?
Divine Clockworks was originally an astrological book, a fairly dry set of observations and proofs of heliocentric universe. Over time it was transformed and re-writen into ecstatic religious text, as it was appropriated and adopted by a key religion in my world: Atonism, which identifies it's only God with Sun.
>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
Azar the Tall, the author of Divine Clockworks. Pretty interesting story: member of the Tall people (sorta like giants of my world), he was born into royalty and served role as high priest/astrologer (as the religion of Tall ones worships stars and consider astronomy a divine activity, key aspect of priesthood).
When the kingdom of Tall Ones (Maniopa) fell under the invasion of semi-nomadic, Mongol-like empire of Goh-Sum, Azar was enslaved and spend the next few decades being treated essentially as human-shaped cattle. Goh-Sum slavers considered Tall Ones little above animals and never even considered that a man in their possession could be a well-educated scholar.
Azar was eventually discovered by a traveler from North, from Atonist kingdom of Chazaria and an amateur astronomer himself, who bought him and took him to Chazaria. Azar formally converted to Atonism (really just formally, he was a worshiper of the stars through and through) and was allowed to stay and work at a monastery as an astronomer, where he confirmed his earlier theory about Earth revolving around Sun, which was quickly adopted into Atonist religious cannon.
>>48106841
>What do the critics think of this work?
The thing about adoption of Divine Clockwork (originally titled "A summa on the proceedings of heavenly bodies and their divine order, and on motionlessness of Sun in particular") was that at the time, Atonism was going through a bit of a religious schism: between Literalist and Non-literalists. Literalists based their belief that Aton IS Sun on a literal interpretation of one passage from Teachings of the Prophet of Aton, a key religious book. Non-literalists believed that Aton is NOT Sun itself, but a more abstract idea that is merely compared to Sun in it's magnificence. This was particularly important because in other part of Teachings, the Prophet claimed that the world revolves around Aton like a giant clockwork around it's centerpiece, and that was at odds with the Literalist interpretation, as Sun was believed to revolve around Earth, not vice versa.
The literalists agenda was pretty simple though - they were pushing for Aton = Sun interpretation simply because they needed Atonism to be more easy to understand to common folk and wanted to merge Atonism with an earlier cult of Suu, the Sun Lord, still popular particularly among farmers and peasants.
Needless to say, Aton's book was a KEY discovery in solving that problem, allowing the Literalists once and for all gain dominance over the religion. Also needless to say, the book was HATED by the non-literalist priests and at times, even publicly burned.
It's also worth mentioning that the book was massively edited. Azar was at heart a "pagan" star-worshiper and his "Suma" was mostly a dry, technical book with few hymns celebrating the beauty of the star-lit sky. Shortly after his death, other authors started re-writing it, adding a more metaphorical tone to it, adding hims to Aton or moral and philosophical musings, eventually changing even the title, until very little was left of the original text outside of the core proof of heliocentrism of universe.
>>48103386
Few things bug me about this. First of all, the delta of the river is longer than many entire rivers of your world. It seems off scale-wise. It's also a lot longer and narrower than delta's are supposed to be. River delta is usually shaped like a ginko leaf.
The rivers in general slightly bug me, perhaps just because of the way Inkscape works, but they feel wider than they should be proportionally to their length.
Finally, the names. It may be a personal thing, but I generally prefer less use of made up words in toponymy. If you make up word for every single thing in your world, it becomes pretty difficult to remember anything, and in general it feels unintuitive. That's mostly the issues I have.
>>48099043
What do those lines in the background on the ocean mean?
>>48102372
Look at the delta you posted. Note how the coast line there isn't a straight line? Deltas have alluvial fans.
>>48104674
>You might also notice that those translations are kind of shitty
That's the main thing I noticed, to be quite honest.
>>48105182
But there's 24 hours in a day. Should be twelve pairs of arms, a dozen on one side and another on the other.
>>48107286
Search for "Rhumbline network"
>>48065330
>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
At the moment? Some little bodice-ripper. Of all time? Who knows. The most read is a dwarven parable that's traditionally engraved in dwarven trading halls. It contains precepts of dwarven trade etiquette and dwarven humor, and is often disseminated outside of its usual intended purpose.
>Is it based off history? If so, how?
The former is based on current events, the latter, on mythology.
>Is it fictional? If so, how does it comment on the humanoid condition?
The romance is fictional. The parable, who can say?
>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
The romance is written by a noblewoman under her husband's name. The author of the parable is long lost but is traditionally said to be the Earth himself. He is attributed to many anonymous works in Dwarven culture though.
Hard Mode:
>What do the critics think of this work?
The church of the Sun is officially against things that don't support monogamy, and the bodice-ripper features an affair. The Moon's all about that shit, but in human lands the Moon is seen as a god primarily for warriors, not the sort of women with whom the book enjoys its greatest success. The most snobbish of the intelligentsia see little merit in romance, I suppose, but they're weird anyway.
Dante Must Die:
>How did the play/movie adaptation do in-setting? Flop or Blockbuster?
Bodice ripper has been done as a musical in certain decadent and private institutions and is quite popular among the rich and idle.
Parable is occasionally performed at the birthdays of wealthy dwarven teenagers, but isn't really a go-to even in that context.
>>48107367
So that's how the winds actually are in your world?
Made this as a village map for the first area in a campaign I am running. How trash is it?
>>48107497
Why's the road so squiggly? What does that eastern road go to?
>>48107546
The road is squiggly because my hand is really damn shaky and that is the best I could do without just drawing a straight line (which I couldn't make look natural at all) and the eastern road is meant to taper off into a path. Again I couldn't add the path without it looking really bizarre but I am still working on it
>>48107589
Roads, even primitive ones, are very unnatural and almost always straight. Winding roads tend to defeat the purpose of roads.
>>48107477
They weren't a method for illustrating winds, but rather were a navigational aid in maps pre-dating Mercator projection. Basically a system of coordinates and bearings from a time before longitude and latitude had been properly worked out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portolan_chart#Portolan.27s_rhumblines
>>48107650
Good point, the Romans did tend to have really straight roads.
>>48107698
They were intended to correspond to the winds though. They're for sailing. In the Mediterranean, where the winds were well known, they actually did.
>>48107729
I'm really not seeing how that would be possible, since the lines radiate in every direction from their origin points. The term "windrose" was just an archaic term for compass rose, referring to the fact that it illustrates the directions of the "four winds" which were themselves just archaic terms for the four cardinal directions.
>>48071583
You just made Europe. Try again.
>>48071583
>polonija
Try again, kurwa
>>48105199
god its like you don't even dwarf. DO you even dwarf?
>>48110700
Can't see shit, cap'n/10.
Altenratively, Ayys of the North /10.
Been a long, long time since I actually worked on these maps, but I like to look at them once in a while and pretend I might go somewhere with the setting in general.
>>48110700
There's something familiar about that outline...
>>48110700
>Italians, Greeks, and removekebabs confirmed for actual aliens
>>48110700
upsidedowneurope/10
>>48110700
wall between northern and southern countries in the south-west/10
stupid boot shaped continent try again/10
>>48111172
i guess i mean country sorry
>>48110994
River gods have huge dongs by the looks of it.
>>48104392
I'm not following.
>>48107219
Yeah, the delta scale is off, looking at pics of real deltas now. Inkarnate is a pain with some things, the rivers are too thick, because that's the smallest it will go. I'm just going to use this as a stand in until I can make a better one. The names were mostly created in Donjon's random town name generator, except the two in the south with -A- in it, Everday, and the dragon's names.
What kind of properties does a region need to have to be a breadbasket?
I know it has to be flat, what about the climate? What kind of temperature and rainfall does it need? Does it need to have a big river? What about the soil?
>>48112464
Depends on a lot of other factors, mostly the specifics crops and their lifecycles, and available technologies.
>>48112464
If you don't know >>48112538, then you can't really determine. Different crops require different conditions, and if your "breadbasket" civilizations are starting off from scratch they likely aren't going to have greenhouses and stuff right away, depending on what kind of world you're going for. Choose a crop and work your way up. Or just mimic conditions from a similar place on Earth.
>>48101232
>'magic messes up technology'
This is usually so arbitrary. Everything is technology. You just arbitrarily designate some stuff to not work with magic, but why?
>>48112464
The land must be flat, with plenty of sun light and plenty of water, the soil must be highly fertile. Those are the only really universal conditions: you need fertile land, which means rich soil, plenty of water, temperate or subtropical climate (usually).
Everything else can differ. In Egypt, the "breadbasket" region was just few miles wide strip around a river, surrounded on all sides by desert. In Tenochtitlan, it was a lack the farmers placed stacks of dead plants and lake mud in a fenced-off area in the lake. In China and Japan, rice gardens are basically giant pools of water, often build in a fairly complicated and uneven terrain. Etc. etc. etc... the conditions may vary, the methods of farming will vary too, the only things remaining constant are richness of soil and access to water and sunlight.
>>48113616
Even those are highly specifics-dependent. You can have fungal crops growing perfectly fine in pitch dark, or plants that take their water from the air or even passing small animals.
>>48113664
If you are inventing species and conditions that don't exist, then of course everything is "specifics dependent". But it's not illogical to assume, if the person asking poses a question in this broad manner, that he speaks about REAL WORLD conditions for a breadbasket environment, and not assuming an existence of an world where bags of holding containing infinitely self-multiplying anchovies are a common place.
>>48112990
Well, I was going with magic/magic users emanate an electromagnetic field that fucks with electronics. I kinda realized I would just be picking and choosing yesterday, but I still haven't decided what I'll do with it.
With the electromagnetic field thing, I'd have it affect modern-day electronics and older stuff would still work because its electronic imprint wouldn't be as large, or whatever.
>>48113752
The assumption behind these threads is building FICTIONAL worlds, thus the possiblity of fictional species and implausible conditions is a given.
>>48114268
If he could just hand wave and make up the conditions, why was a question even asked?
>>48114268
Actually, no, it's not given at all. Not all fictional worlds contain implausible features, even less of them specifically related to agriculture.
It's not even likely true in this case. Basic relevance framing: if the guy has ideas about completely out of this world crazy fantastical concepts of agriculture in his head, he would not gain anything asking people about how he should treat the bread-basket regions of his world without stating those fictional and unique-to-his-world elements to it.
He is asking people what properties does a region need to become a breadbasket. The only way to understand that question and provide a meaingful answer is to assume he asks about REAL WORLD conditions of breadbasket region, which is needs as a frame of reference or basis for his fiction.
Understanding that question in any other way makes it literally meaningless and irrelevant to anyone. Which leads to you giving a completely meaningless and irrelevant answer as well.
I need a name for my birdpeople. I'm going more Skeksis/Arakkoa vibe for them than most birdpeople. I'm trying to limit the sounds in their language to hard squawking sounds.
>>48071583
rate my autism.
>>48115753
Just how long did it take to name all those settlements?
Also, looks like Europe.
>>48115753
Maps are supposed to convey information
>>48115753
Everyone makes a Europe-shaped map the first time.
>>48115861
like a week.
>>48115904
I got three versions of the same map, a border map as I posted, a location & road map and a geographic map.
Rate my wip
>>48115957
My point is that it contains to much information, I look at it and I just see visual noise, not any information.
>>48114045
>an electromagnetic field that fucks with electronics
That's not arbitrary. What it effects is specific and known. EMP weapons have been used to disrupt unshielded electronics in the field. If you want you can make it work exactly the same, or have some of it transmitted through aether, making mundane shielding impossible.
>>48114045
>>48116059
>copying Dresden Files
>it's just an excuse for Dresden never being able to use a computer to solve his troubles
>>48116294
That's a good thing to have an excuse for.
>>48116059
>>48116294
I admit I have looked into the Dresden files and the idea was partially from that. EMP shielding to counteract it sounds pretty cool though, actually. How difficult is it to make EMP shielding? Sounds tough to do in-setting. I'll have to look into that.
>>48065330
>What is the best-sellingest piece of literature or art within your setting?
aside from religious texts, tales of Penelope the Wanderer are the most widely known/disseminated pieces of literature. While the OG Penelope wasn't too exceptional as warlords go she's become an almost Alexander the Great character in fiction
>Is it based off history? If so, how?
The tales are based off the history of Penelope, a warlord that united several island states and fought off an invasion from the east. The tales claim she was the descendant of the Bearnian royalty but official historians dispute this claim.
>Is it fictional? If so, how does it comment on the humanoid condition?
The tales are for popular consumption, common themes are rife. They're a coming of age story in which the protagonist overcomes numerous overwhelming odds through stubborn tenacity and cunning.
>Who was the author/creator? What's their life story?
The author of the current, most popular, version of the tales is Hadvaarl Korson, he claims to be distantly related to Penelope (who lived 400 years past) and the tales are transcribed from her secret diaries. Hadvaarl was an illiterate fisherman before his fame, learning to read and write from the local pastor at the age of 30.
>What do the critics think of this work?
Sages and Mages ridicule the Tales, calling them populist trash. They use several historical inaccuracies and impossibilities as examples of the falsehood behind the Tales. The general population, from peasantry to nobility, enjoy the Tales to varying degrees. Most bards have the Tales memorized for recital as even the worst bards can make a living from reciting the tales in seedy taverns.
>How did the play/movie adaptation do in-setting? Flop or Blockbuster?
A mummers troupe in Kyngston adapted the tales for a stage performance, due to an ample amount of low brow humor the adaption has proven a wild success.
>>48116890
forgot pic, Penelope sketches by a friend
>>48116348
Probably would just have to make the magical equivalent of a Faraday cage
