/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

And another.

>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.

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).

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.

>I need to think more of this.
Just think who would benefit from each play when it was written.

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.

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.

>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.

>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.

Fucking Caelum

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

>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/.

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.

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.

I wound up answering most of those with mine. I didn't start out that way, but it grew.

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.

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, Veeky Forums? Whether they be living people, or people of the past.

Hmm, interesting take.

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

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.

Polish/10?

Actually it's kebab removian

Looks dobre balkbro

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 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.

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? 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?

Just run Tron as a setting already.

That wouldn't be a mix of modern-day but nothing found on Earth aesthetics.

If this setting isn't going to involve planetary travel then I just really don't see the point.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I am super digging these! Any more?

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.

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And old concept doodles of the Fair Folk

Pretty rad honestly. What are you using these for?

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

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.

>Pilpilu (faggot). Maybe edit to Pilpilum. Palpilam. Palpilaram.

Holy fuck that particular line has my sides in a little past Pluto; thanks user 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.

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

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?

>Grand-line island chains à la One Piece connecting continents
stealing this.

Not that guy, but
boars.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

Hey that's my house!

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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.

socks-studio.com/category/topics/walls-as-rooms/

Here's a thought: why not just rip of- erm, "repurpose" actual medieval city maps?

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.

Very saucy. Thank you user!

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.

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I wonder what's going on in areas surrounded by houses. I see churches there, but there's so much empty space.

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.

this map is so cute

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>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?

>>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.

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Wait, is this a playable Dominions4 map? I can't find it.

If you don't like chokepoints, you'll hate the map that I'm "working on".

Didn't I see images of that dating back years?

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.

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.