/tg/, I need your help.
I'm trying to get ideas for some worldbuilding, and I'm drawing blanks, so far.
Specifically, I'm trying to avoid the Tolkienesque or a Eurasian base with a slightly different coating.
While I don't mind borrowing from real-life cultures, I want to go for something with a pervasive weird- or otherness, intrinsic to the setting as a whole, not just one region.
Do you know of any movies/books/(web)comics/music that might help stoke the creative fires?
Alternatively, what weird worlds have you played in?
Pic not really related. It's a part of Rani Ki Vav, an Indian step well.
What system are you using?
Is the quest serious or light hearted or other?
How many races?
Is magic available?
>>43518628
Read Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath."
>>43518665
It's more about the world building itself, rather than for a specific game/campaign, but I'd say that magic and supernatural creatures exist.
>>43518703
Will do.
>>43518741
Lovecraft actually did some pretty decent stuff when he wrote in a more pulp fantasy fashion. Keep in mind he was buddies with Howard.
I also recommend Celephais and The Doom that Came to Sarnath. Both of those stories show the old school approach to fantasy as founded on weirdness and a sort of fictionalized projection of historical imagery.
>>43518779
Fun fact, I named my very first D&D character after Sarnath.
>>43518791
Did he have an irrational hatred for amphibians?
>>43518628
Try the "Avernum" crpg series. It's set in a vast system of underground caverns with all the weirdness that brings.
>>43518810
Well, no. I didn't really play that character very long for that sorta stuff to come to the front. He was kind of a Broody McAngstypants, and I kinda quickly grew bored of playing him.
>>43518820
I remember playing the demo for that a fe years back. I'll see what it's about.
On the subject of underground stuff, a friend of mine recently finished a setting which, in essence is Fallen London/Sunless Sea, if there also portals that lead to subteranean seas on other planets. It's like a mixture of Sci-fi/fantasy/steam-punk, with the players being the crew of, basically a coal-fired Serenity.
>>43518820
>Avernum
Youngster...
OP here, with a short list of settings I've seen, either here or somewhere else that kind of have that weirndess.
>K6BD: Throne is at the hub of an gnostic multiverse, built from the corpses of the dead gods. Hinduist/Buddhist influences in aesthetics
>Blades in the Dark: ancient cataclysm blocked the afterlife, wilderness overrun with vengeful spirits. Victorian/edwardian era technology. Leviathan blood (demonic whale oil) important commodity.
>Entire planet is water, citys are build on the shoulders of giants wandering the oceans (seen here on /tg/)
>>43518628
palace economy. the capital city is essentially one vast palace from which all economic activity is controlled.