Tell us something interesting about your setting. Anything

Tell us something interesting about your setting. Anything.

You know you want to, so just do it. And try to keep it within readable length.

>Magic in my setting is experienced as 'Mist'.
>There is our world, the world of the possible and the known, and the other world, of the impossible, all that is not.
>This is the world where gods and demons are said to reside, though it is hard to grasp how they can exist in the world of the unexisting.
>Wherever these worlds brush against each other, Mist is formed.
>Mist is not really a substance or a physical thing, more like a ripple.
>Channeling mist allows magic to happen.
>Heavenly condensed Mist means lot of magical bullshit, naturally occurring.
>Wizards are compressing Mist into magical fuck-all drugs

>magic isn't something you can learn, but you are born with it, approximately 2% of every race has those powers
>every race has its own sphere of innate power, to the point that the word "mage" is rarely used
>the dwarfs innate power is to create things that are better than ordinary things by sheer magical bullshit
>weapons created by blessed smiths I'm working on this name are always sharp, are hard to break, don't rust
>talented blessed smiths can create blades that burn or cause wounds that never heal or shields that blind the enemy with bright light
>for this reason, every ruler wants to have one of them, they even try to kidnapp and imprison, bribe or blackmail them
>this is why you can find blessed smiths in the realms of the steppe elves
>the steppe elves treat smiths as holy men, regardless of their power, because they settle down in their holy groves and the steppe elves can't mine in their lands, so every bit of metal is precious to them
>they don't really like, but at least respect each other and the blessed smiths can live alone and in peace

Ugh...
I... have managed to make my players so paranoid of foxsquirrels they'll kill them in droves on sight. They fucking HATE foxsquirrels now, so much so that they saw a little girl feeding one, simultaneously attacked her and then threw her body down the well.
> pic related, their arch-nemesis

Whitesmiths?

Are they actually dangerous?

My setting is till in the works. What I have currently is mostly generic fantasy stuff. The novel ideas I'm toying with is where the interest would lie.

Considering having half of the sentient races being survivors of a massive interstellar war that didn't involve this planet at all and so far in the past that any recollection of the event is treated as myth.

Also considering making the sentient races being horrific looking monsters that are as civil and amiable as any other race. Being a horrific monster is just the norm.

Alone? Not the small ones, which are the only ones the party has seen yet.
Problem is, I tried to make them a sort of tropical-tribal 'rat swarm', and making them act like they're on the hardest drugs possible.

I've been ruling that any amount of damage you do to them can kill them, but the party has run across a bunch of feral ones that manage to swarm someone and eat them alive simply because they're all insane.

>Whitesmiths?
What makes you think that? But thanks for the suggestion.

The opposite of blacksmiths. Blacksmiths work common materials, whitesmiths work magic.
I think I saw it in a fire emblem game or something.

I can see that, will keep it in mind.

>Magic is bound to remote and barely accessible places and radiates out into the surroundings.
>The radiation quickly dies down the further away from the core
>People who settle in proximity are altered depending on the location's circumstances, so that people living near 'sacred mountains' become rock-skinned, those living in the deep forest become barkskinned and vine-haired etc.
>This is why magical races like dwarves, elves and trolls exist
>They have to fill up on their native energy or a similar substitute or else they undergo a physically painful state of withdrawal, resulting in death 90% of the time
>In order to cast spells you need items who act as amplifiers to faint waves of magical radiation
>Magical weapons of mass destruction caused the eradication of several such magical locations and disturbed the natural ebb-and-flow of sorcery, thus leading to sorcery leaking out of the world and the magical races slowly dying out because their sources of sorcery are drying up.
>War ensues over the means to survive such as remaining magical sources and potential means to revive dried up magical sources.

What are the magical races magical powers?

>magic is inaccessible to players directly
>elements roam free as essentially elemental spirits
>elemental spirits possess hosts, which corrupt their physical form to suit their element
>elemental items are weak spirits trapped within
>closest thing players have to magic is combining gear and attuning it to an element
>earth elemental spirits can grow to the size of a small mountain
>metal elemental spirits can duplicate themselves on possession
>fire elemental spirits use hosts bodies as fuel to survive
>water elemental spirits roam the farthest, actively seeking out other elementals
>plant elemental spirits are pretty much nature druids that possess instead of wild shape

>there is a blessing called "undying resolve"
>it affects random liveforms which are born in the steppes of Nucca
>it makes you a little less "mortal" by increasing your maximum negative hp you can recover from
>players can choose to take it at the cost of getting the "spiritual" trait , therefore being harmed by exorzism and etheric magic

>often , animals also have this trait , sometimes when game is shot , it will mysteriously disappear when going after it

>when surpassing the normal negative hp you would have as a mortal , you take random damage to your stats during recovery (mostly just 1-3 points in total)

>people who manage to die despite the blessing will not be found in any kind of afterlive , since they cannot be bound to a god

>Dwarves
They have tremorsense and may hone-in on specific signals if they focus hard enough. Apart from that they have the typical "good with stone good with metal" skills because they can shape it almost like a brush stroke, but for that you have to be a very longlived specimen who has been thoroughly pervaded by your native magic.
Depending on how deep underground they live they also have the ability to interact with magma and lava.

>Elves
They can shift in and out of the material world and assume a misty form. They're extra good with spells that include water and wind and are extra spiritual, which is why they also practice a form of necromancy.

>Trolls
These guys fall out of the roster because their magical sources have shifted from places to people, which is why they have leader cults for their chieftains/ living gods and live as nomads. They have an absurdly fast metabolism and are always hungry, which is why Trolls have a tendency for raiding, pillaging and cannibalism. They're all predators that can see in the dark and are absurdly Veeky Forums. They can also fill up on all kinds of native magic, even if it isn't a similar kind of their own, so there's a remarkable amount of individuals that have assumed attributes of different native magics, such as stony protrusions on their skin and twig-like fingers and hands.

ment for

>Sci-Fi setting
>Big empire are the not!Romans
>Emperor is Donald Trump
>Not an expy of Trump, not a clone, actual Trump, kept alive by strange tech.
>People make pilgrimage to "The Wall" as a means of worshiping their God-Emperor
>"Mexicans" is now a generic slur thrown around to refer to xenos (actual Mexicans died out centuries ago)
>Trump Tower, seat of the Empire, is so high it stretches into orbit, like a space elevator.

Needless to say, this is a parody setting.

Although I'm not at all a Trump fan, whenever I see him described in an RPG, I want to play it... Being an interesting character is objectively one of his greatest traits.

>If you have magical powers, you need to register them with the city and pay for a token, that grants you different privileges to use those powers
>Basically having a gun/drivers license

I don't know why, but just hearing this made my players instantly want to revolt against the city, and form an underground gang. Its not even like the registration is that expensive; the city just doesn't want lunatics running around throwing fireballs at buildings.

I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS!

Funny coincidence, but I was actually thinking of making my next character an inquisitor who investigates wizards and makes sure they all have the required paperwork and operate legally.
They obviously almost never would.
They are wizards.

Now add a tax on loot. Soon they will start quoting Mises and Rothbard.

Blacksmiths are workers of iron and steel. Whitesmiths are workers of lead and tin. Don't use this.

The state in which the campaign is set was a test market for a drink containing cultures of a bioengineered virus, before distribution began to be phased out by the development of a superior specimen. Unfortunately, one of the warheads aimed at the region missed the mark and hit an offshore toxic waste dump containing large quantities of the viral culture. The resulting toxic marsh still covers three counties.
The PCs can choose to play as a member of one of the mutant tribes that now live there, gaining various possible benefits at the cost of the hidden viral sequence stat starting at 30 as opposed to 5. Bad stuff happens if that number hits 60, then it really gets freaky at 75.

Ah, my bad.

>its on a giant fucking sword flying through space
>side facing the sun is idyllic, happy, and largely peaceful
>side facing away is dark, cold, and largely militaristic(think russia during soviet time minus the corruption)
>whole game is from the view of the lightsiders who have been having issues with darksiders boring occasional holes into their side and mines which is taken as a hostile act cause they just assume they're fucking demons
>turns out darkside has runes on their side of the sword
>recounts its creation and adds runes as it goes about happenings on the sword
>sword was made by an infant god who accidentally cut himself on its edge
>the blood that poured onto the blade made the ecosystem and races of either side
>angry childgod throws the sword in anger at a local star to be destroyed
>entire time the darksiders have known and thus united to enact a nation wide mining project
>project is to core out key area's or divet bits here and there to give it enough wobble to avoid the star entirely
>entire time they've been actively screwed by lightsiders so greater good demands they stop the light siders mining projects in an attempt to salvage the situation
>currently its orbit is normalized as a sword flying tip first and rotating on the tip to pommel axis around the sun due to a party member pseudo ascending and swinging it around like a hammer toss
>party member tragically died in the process but pray and worship means he's now full ascended and the sword inhabitants have an actual afterlife to look forward to AND a benevolent god figure

It's currently sitting in mothballs while i try to figure out where to go from there, i'm thinking we're going to have to address the fact the ecosystems are fucked cause one side was used to all day light that on dimmed slightly on tip or pommel and the other side was used to constant twilight but both now recieve 12 hours day and night. Maybe the end goal will be them "normalizing" that spin even if some folk on both sides like seeing the daylight a lot or the stars and constellations for the first time.

One of my players once went full edge and rolled a ranger whose family heirloom was an iron dagger forged out of the extracted blood of a thousand virgins, lorewise it was supposed to be super effective against demons. In a very low fantasy setting.

I like Blessed smiths, usually vanilla society has simple names like that. You can deepen it a little by giving the steppe elves fancy names for example "Burkhan Gar" means God hand in Mongolian aka the original steppe people. My personal favorite was "Khar" which means Black in mongolian, you could use it as an honorary prefix, a title of sorts e.g Khar Thorin, Khar Bolvar, Khar Ronan

>modern supernatural setting
>spirits gain access to the material realm by taking root in people's desires, nurturing them into obsessions in order to grow themselves
>there are several ways to deal with a spirit
>you can stop the source of the desire, e.g. by making someone come to terms with their grief or anger, starving the spirit
>or you can destroy the spirit outright
>destroying the spirit also destroys the desire it took root in, eradicating a part of their host's nature and memories
>however, destroying the spirit also drops spirit shards (read: loot)
>you could also just kill the host outright
>the nature and existence of spirits is unknown to most, so those who can see and deal with them typically have to go by trial and error before they find someone experienced

>Currently my players are in the underground
>They're about to exit and see the surface.
>The obstacle?
>A mundane, wooden gate.
>They've failed their trapfinding check.
>The gate is mundane.
>They've cast Detect Magic.
>The gate is mundane.
>They're being very cautious.
>One last time.
>The gate is mundane.

I will take note, but those names fit probably more my not!=mongols/huns orcs. Those steppe elves are supposed to be like Scythians or other nomads that spoke an indo-european language. I like steppe nomads in general.

Guess what you get when a dragon fucks a cat-person?

GUESS?

Primeval man.

my main races include Humans, Satyrs, malformed Half-Satyrs, biologically immortal Goblins, Octopi and 80ies-style robots.

i'm pretty proud of that selection.

In my setting the Not!Roman empire rules the mainland, with monsters lurking in the shadows but mostly kept hidden away by the power of these humans who have taken over. Out in the ocean, farther than sny boat bas ever gone, there are islands, small, craggy, and mostly barren. These islands were the cradles of the world. The gods each put a species split between two islands and each half had different cultures. Then the two cultures are pit against each other and the one the gods declare the winner gets to move on, but the losers are either all dead or trapped on an island that was once a fertle paradise rotting away and becoming a barren hell.

The celtic themed nature loving losing side of the humans are still trapped, but then a pillar of obsidion falls from the sky and embeds into the tallest seaside cliff. When a special tribemember gets close to it, a great elder being, even older than thr gods contacts him/her, and they form a pact, that the elder being will free them from the island and help them get strong and they will worship him so he becomes strong again too. The celts travel to thr mainland, and then the game starts.

Shit, this is actually impressive worldbuilding.
At first it sounded a bit over the top but more i think about it, more i like it.

Nice.

>Magic items are demons bound to contracts
>People have unsuccessfully attempted to create magic items by using peoples' souls instead
>The best result they got was a sword with the soul of a scared, sickly child in it
>The child swiftly went insane and began to plot the extermination of all magic users from the world, blaming them for his condition
>The current incarnation is being held by one of the player characters

Also not from my setting but from a friend's:
>Catfolk are the youngest race, being only less than 30 years since they first appeared
>They just showed up one day overnight
>Nobody knows where they came from
>They're actually scattered pieces of the god of luck. He died and let his body shatter onto the world, resulting in a new race

I feel. On an unrelated note world building has really broadened my knowledge of historical cultures, at this point I can clearly see the divide between average joe ancient history which I can sum up as pop or dare I say meme periods such as the medieval ages, Feudal Japan and Greece and Rome at their respective heights, and even then they are hardly ever really touched on.

Personally I've taken great interest in Northern Africa and it's interactions with the surrounding cultures through out history all spawned due to we wuz kings shitposting. History has a wealth of inspiration. /blog

Personally, I kind of want to include Alberto Barbosa in a setting.

Let me roll one of the underdog wasteland races and take the fight to Not!Rome and then the gods themselves and you'll have my axe. I mean a major them is about Gods and their games.

Necessity is the mother of invention right? How about a third major force? Picture an almost communist technological movement at the far end of the island chain. Maybe a child is born with the right mindset with extreme distaste for the state of things. In a world where Gods exist and you have been discarded, who will help you but yourself? Who's blessings can you reap but those of Mother nature? The favored few rely on the boons of their gods and it limits their minds and their progress, they are but sated livestock and we are the starving wolves without the means to strike.

Tl;DR rapidly expanding technological empire with extreme anti religious sentiment and a central Not!Hitler figure that accepts all races as equals and is absorbing all the discarded races along as they push toward Not!Rome to bring an end to the gods by abolishing Religion. Empire is morally grey in most areas.
Maybe the obsidian god turns out to be the worst god of them all and the Celts accept their status as the discarded. And it all climaxes in an epic battle of the Fortunate few being pumped full of magical steroids as a last ditch effort by the gods and the unfortunate many with their technologically advanced arms and numbers.

Oath of the Unfortunate

Allow me Air and every breath I draw will have purpose
Allow me Earth and I will raise an Empire
Allow me Fire and I will craft tools for toil and arms for war
Allow me Water and I will make void the distance
Allow me Destitution and I allow you the same.