Worldbuilding General - I Fucking Hate D&D Standard Races Edition

Halflings a cute.

I prefer gnomes because I kind of see them as leaner and more agile halflings. Halflings are just fat buggers who eat too much and steal everything. At least gnomes can have a functioning modern society.

The only cute Halfling ever.

3.5e Halfling was cute too.

>tfw my Halflings have cute monkey tails

>tfw my halflings can't interbreed and so are the preferred sex slave species.

...

Terrain is not done on the new/edited areas but does this avoid the unnatural T shape issue I was having earlier? See: imgur.com/a/q4QNj

The goal being that it looks 'realistic' like the continent(s) could have formed like that. Ignore the scale (was done so that 10 degrees of latitude = 400 miles, but will up it to 600ish like our world's 10 degrees = 690 miles) and the island to the far south-east.

My problem is I need both that western sub-continental peninsula thing to house Niravahnam, and I also need the jutting region to the south to house a few other cultures. And ideally have the two separated, hence the large bay.

The whole point of bullroarers is that they can be heard from a long way away by normal people (though I can't find a decent estimation of length). I'd give it the same range as a smoke signal, and it's way faster than walking over and shouting.

To transmit a real message, not great, but for early warning it's top notch.

Has anyone got any good information on colonisation and how long it takes to set up (moving into an unclaimed area and moving in to claim area with hostile civlization specifically)? Working on a setting with the theme of loads of factions trying to reclaiming an old territory that's had the populous wiped out (not just looting it) and am wondering roughly how long it takes to get villages, small forts and the like set up.

>it's possible to grow additional limbs with magic
>4-armed professional pianist

smoke signals are pretty baller.

Rate my small world map

3/10 rivers don't split (barring exceptions such as deltas)

This: If you mirrored the rivers and had them all originate from the mountains it'd be accurate.

Also, a river should end its flow in that swamp

Fuck that's the second time in a row I've done that....

Technically they can. Niagara Falls is famous for splitting just before the falls, which is why they're so huge. But usually it's only temporary and the river erodes the obstruction before too long.

I have no idea what races to use.

All of them.

Base them on animals that are very intelligent that you can hypothesize to have human-like intelligence ~1 million years into the future. Cat people, otter people, dolphin people, raven people and then add in the traits of these species: cats would be manipulative, independent but also cozy, while dolphins would be playful and energetic etc.

or you can avoid adding "people" to them and just say "dolphins with human-like intelligence".

Just use humans then.
They're pretty versatile.

Whats a good name to use overall for a setting that is, itself, a mishmash of different kingdoms pulled from different areas and times?

The idea is that everyone in the setting, at some point or another, was living in the 'real' world (generic fantasyland) before they and the entire area there were in was unceremoniously dumped into this new place. This has apparently been going on for a while, new areas are added to this new world (lets call it Echo for now) every few weeks or months.

The lands already a part of Echo have figured out that while all of them seem to be from the same world, they are rarely from the same time and indeed many of them are from time periods or lands so distant that they have never heard of each other.

When a region first enters the Echo, everything is still normal for them. But the longer the land remains in Echo, the more it degrades. The days get shorter/the sun gets dimmer until the land fully enters darkness, after which sickness becomes common, people start turning into monsters, and eventually the very ground, plants and stone start crumbling into dust and ash.

So you have still lighted "safe" regions that have arrive fairly recent, separated by kind-of-safe twilight regions and occasionally deserts of dust and ash that are full on monster town. Go too far in any direction, and you hit what seems to be endless dark wasteland until you hit the edge of the world, falling off into the abyss.

Every time a new bit of land is added to the Echo, the rest of Echo gets rearranged. Sometimes this just means that a road gets shorter or a new area is spliced in between two existing ones, sometimes it means that a place that used to be west of you is now east of you. Other times it means a place that used to be next door is now on the other side of the known world, or even further.

What would you call such a place, other than Echo? That's just a filler name.

Gnolls.

Kitchen Sink. I'd prefer to have fewer with more focus.

Seems like too many beastfolk.

I've done it before, it's not a bad idea but I want multiple for the high fantasy vibe.

I like Gnolls but muh matriarchal futa bullshit is annoying baggage to deal with. Also they seem somewhat generic animal people.

Purgatory
Limbo
THE NEXUS
etc.

I intentionally don't want to draw the purgatory parallel that directly, because I want there to be numerous competing theories in-setting for what the hell is going on.

This being some kind of horrible purgatory/afterlife shit is obviously going to be one of them, but I don't want the very name of the setting to be on the side of that explanation.

Other theories for what is causing the Echo is that this is what the end of the world looks like, or that some kind of parasite monster is 'digesting' the universe one bite at a time and the Echo is its stomach.

Humans, elves hiding in forests, dwarves in mountains, orcs in hills. Make nonhuman races a minority. Make casters a minority to make the PC's special.

Don't play it like star wars. Please.

The ones your players want to see.

Just keep Echo, it sounds fine and youre obviously attached to it.

>muh matriarchal futa bullshit
>mfw I have this, but no gnoll

> youre obviously attached to it

I'm really not. I just needed something to call it in the post instead of saying 'the weird pocket dimension thing they are in' every time.

Call it 'Plethora' then?

I want to make a setting where players play bigass monster demigods and have cults of humans worship them, Primal Rage style, but I'm not sure how to approach it.

i think for my setting i'm going to have in the main pdf about the setting and what options are available, a somewhat developed human, elf, dwarf, and maybe half-orc. after that i would let people play whatever they want, but with the caveat that they have to understand that race is rare as fuck.

I'm bummed by how these threads always go down faster than a fat girl on prom night.

What's so hard about it?

I actually had trouble with this for a new setting that I made. I ended up going with two "core" races and monstergirls.

>Worldbuilding General

Slow on world building this week, but I did take some time out of today to draw some silly Bullywog shenanigans.

I intend on using them as the settings "murloc" equivalent with a few features to have them keep coming back:

-They're "stupid", but not "too stupid". They're almost completely discernible from ordinary giant frogs sitting down, but their love for fashion always gives them away. Naked ones are always slipping past people.

-Their eggs are always getting washed away into irrigation canals and since they don't raise their tadpoles often times you'll have seemingly isolated ponds in country-sides plagued by seasonal hordes of armed bipedal frogs.

But human babies are helpless. Why would bullywog babies be any different?

Coming up with a justification and theme that I'm happy with.

Have you tried running Felarya?

felarya.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

I have just humans. Other races arepa rely dead, or they've been absorbed into the human population and mostly exhibit minor phenotype changes.

Exception is Goblins, who are still around being annoying fuckers.

>But human babies are helpless. Why would bullywog babies be any different?

I don't really have a satisfying answer for you beyond the simple fact that Bullywogs go through a very different cycle of development than humans.

The line they walk between "person" and "animal" is incredibly thin.

Working on my map for the rainforest of Klesh in my Nehwon campaign (like most areas outside of Lankhmar there's essentially nothing expanded upon it except for name/location.

So I have a terraced Lost City built in an enormous sinkhole 2 miles wide, Mangrove swamp coast around the perimeter that turns into acidic bog that supports giant sundews and carnivorous plants, large slow amazonian rivers with small crocs in them.....now I am trying to come up with more features for a dense rainforest (aside from old ruins and caves, natch).

The Kleshites themselves are a mash of elements I like in the Incans, Amazonian natives and the islanders of Borneo. As a rule they are xenophobic towards non Kleshites, worship the Sleeping Earth God (who was imprisoned by the Lords of Necessity before humankind), and visually dress a lot like the people in Road to El Dorado.

Racially they are smaller than average, and as humans can put both starting bonus stat points in Dexterity.

How much of the moon would need to be blown away to create the starting conditions for Earth to have its own Ring within a couple millennium?

Not a whole lot.

For maximum fuck your shit up levels of noise available to ancient peoples, you want a carnyx.
They were described by romans as akin to the volume of thunder. Plus they have a scary animal head on top for 1d4 psychic damage.

Looking for questions about a setting I'm working. The idea of it is Age of Sail with magical girls, I made a google doc so people can post questions and I try to answer them.

docs.google.com/document/d/1Pnc4Jo1kElli_rH4qr45dAHytusIjs2pKhoeX6ZuDww/edit?usp=sharing

Do any of you guys have something "legacy" like in your settings? Like a mantel that can be taken or passed down?

In my setting there is a figure known as the Lion King, an ancient individual whose been around for decades. His power revolves around the Golden Armaments, numerous magical artifacts whose origins are completely unknown. The title of Lion King works in a circle, having the title gives you command over the Golden Armaments, and having the Golden Armaments gives you the title of Lion King and the strength of said title. The Lion King, as an individual, is exceptionally powerful, even without fully pulling out and using the Armaments. There are about a dozen or more Golden Armaments, but the most prominent ones are the Lion Kind's cape (which is pretty much the crown, as wearing the cape actives that title of Lion King), the golden armor and lion sword, the Lion's Guard (two flying stone lion heads that can fire powerful blasts of magic) and the Golden City (an massive, highly advanced (despite it's age) and self sustaining city) Despite the longest holder of the Lion King title has lived for decades, the Golden Armaments do not bequeath immortality to the user. Defeating the previous Lion King grants you the right to take the title.

dubs confirms, fat girls can get down

Is this a setting based off of vore fetish art?

No. The setting is based off wanting to be eaten by giant ladies.

Thoughts on my current work in progress map?

Shit, this is the cropped version.

>Hating dwarves, elves, etc.
Is that racist?

There's no sense of scale, so either those bridges are stupidly huge or these lands ar epretty small. Why are there two pointless bridges anyway?

>Town on the side of the river closest to the Badlands
Sounds like a dumb idea.

The bridges predate the current civilization, they are stupidly huge. They were made by giants. And I agree about the town south of the river.

Earth is already on it's way towards having a trash ring with all the shit we put up there.

It's either that or Kessler syndrome

bempo

page 10 save rave

Tell us about your state religion

>Its symbols
>Its core tenets
>Its relationship with magic and occult
>Burnt any heretics recently?

I'm making something without religion. I'm just so damn tired of it. I get depressed just thinking about it. I'll just pretend this species evolved to have different kinds of rituals instead.

I tip my fedora to you good sir and wish you good tidings on your euphoric path

Some gonzo races I like the idea of but how no idea how to implement.
>Seal/Walrus folk
>Slug people, but bipedal
>Wolf people as companion race to humans ( this one is pretty generic, but surprisingly uncommon)

Also I need ideas for nonanimal people. It's tough enough.

Which setting does WBG think I should work on first or focus on?
>Generic high fantasy. Gods are Bearuocrats, humans were created by Gods, goblins spontaneously generate from trash. Trolls are playable. There are little fairy hobbits that actually look like any generic woodland critter you want to play (badger, ferret, bunny, fox, etc.) Blind people don't get sick because disease is spread by seeing it.
>Urban fantasy set in a city where it is always Night- lost humans and aliens end up here. Guns are called Chimneys due to the ash and soot they shoot, everything is made of scrap and everyone lived in one city named Night Garden with a mysterious power grid nobody understands.

The second because it seems fresher.

removed another major continent, rest of the map still has to adjust to work without it, quite a few empty spaces in locations that shouldn't be empty as well

hopefully about halfway finished now

Any ideas to improve the pitch?

Have a solid plot that involves the setting.

Alright sure I can talk a little about it

Jennevism

A religion widely practiced in Aleoth where members worship a deity known as Jennshessuivana, The White Sun.

Jennshessuivana is said to be the center of the universe and all things, and members devote their lives to following a list of tenets laid out by the supreme being (I have not come up with these yet.)

Magic is illegal in Aleoth, and many of the military's equipment is dedicated to the countering of magic (weapons and staves that produce silencing waves) as they prefer using the miracles of Jennshessuivana over the occult.

I guess to add on to this

This is an idea of what the elite force of the military looks like

They're called Helgenosts, and they're basically people who've given up their mortal bodies for these mecha knight shells in order to better serve their Empress

They use giant weapons resembling old knight weapons, but they're far more advanced and usually equipped with magic inhibiting devices.

Cam you give an example? Or how to make one for my weird setting above?

user if you don't know how to tell a story in your own god damn setting I don't think I can help you.

I actually misread your post but alright, I'm kind of just asking hoping someone gives me a million dollar idea.

Otherwise, would anyone be interested in setting bibles or documents posted in the thread?

>It's symbols
Pic-related. Unalash is a vengeful sun god driven mad with power.
>Core Tenets
Kill the orc. Burn the orc. Sacrifice to Unalash so that he'll have more power to kill the orc.
>Magic & Occult
None. Unalash's church will embrace anything that helps them kill the orc.
>Burnt any heretics recently?
No, because there can be no heresy against Unalash. All the other sun gods were slain by him so that he could take their power and kill the orc. Orcs burst into flame and become ash on the wind if they ever get caught in daylight because of Unalash's hate for them, though.

The most developed religion of the setting is the Portage faith, although it's one of the smaller religions. It originates as an alternate history Earth religion where it was bizarre, but after transplanting it into a late renaissance fantasy they became one of the more level-headed religions.

>Its symbols
No religious symbol
The Portage Hawk, a jet black bird of prey with a white head
The national colors: Black and Orange

>Its core tenets
It's mostly a book of laws that delegates all power and religious authority to the government. Portages do not believe in an afterlife or priesthood. Places of worship are instead large buildings where people pray freely and the only "holy men" are those that maintain the temples. Followers of the religion are promised luck and safety in the living world in return for their devotion.

Homes are sacred, to break into someone's house is among the worst of crimes.

Theft, blasphemy, prostitution, addiction, adultery, and witchcraft are typically punished with exile while rapists, murderers, and burglars are shot.

All individuals of both genders cover all of their skin except for their hands, neck, and head both in public and in private, although there are plenty of exceptions like rolling up one's sleeve or pantleg momentarily. Robes and skirts are disallowed in Portage but not necessarily by their holy book, Portages in Veisha and Landamar commonly wear robes.

The women are required to dye their hair white or silver, the book contradicts itself in why this is important.

>Its relationship with magic and occult
The Portage religion stems from an ancient witch religion but traditional magic and blood magic are now banned, and animals are sacrificed only on some holidays. Portage is far behind the rest of the world in the alchemy boom of the not-renaissance.

>Burnt any heretics recently?
Execution is only by firearms, throat-slitting before that. Heretics are just stripped of their religion, their name, and exiled.

Text limit, another core tenet
Fashion and makeup have religious significance, Portages are culturally obsessed with fashion, aesthetics, and fitness. They spend more on clothes than any other culture, both on Earth and in its fantasy version, although they are nowhere near as extravagant as some other cultures in the fantasy setting. Unfit young people are extraordinarily uncommon, aside from those who are unhealthily skinny.

Portage fashion has regional differences. In the greater Portoia region, the color black always dominates every outfit, generally a peacoat or uniform jacket with dress pants. Trim colors are limited to orange, gold, faded blue, and purple. Veishan Portages dress more colorfully, using very dark blues and purples as the dominant color instead of black. Veishans also dress in lighter and softer clothes than Portoians as it is warmer there. The "Portages" in Landamar are the furthest removed in all senses, they dress in patterned robes frequently and wear witch hats, embracing their reputation as a city of witchcraft and alchemy rather than their background as a Portage nation.

>Tell us about your state religion
There are only two religions that can be identified as "state religions" in my world: Atonism, and Many-and-One. One is a fairly strict monotheism enforced by fairly highly industrialized theocratic society, the other is essentially a transformation of a polytheistic tribal worship into an imperial cult. I'll leave the second out of it for now.

>Its symbols
The most typical symbol of Atonism is a equilateral golden triangle. Most commonly it's used without any further iconography, usually fitted to a wall above a temple portal, or displayed above the roof. Variations include it surrounded by golden sun rays, displayed on blue or red background, or equipped either a golden sun disk in the middle, or with three eyes, each in one corner.
Less common icons of the religion include a schematic depiction of heliocentric planetary system, or sun surrounded by several gears. Orreries, which are common and popular product of artists, are also considered sacred symbols of the religion. Some temples have great, complex orreries and models of the solar system beneath their roof.

>Its core tenets
Atonism went through a number transformations through it's history. At it's core, it's a simple monotheistic religion that believes in a relatively distant demiurge, called "Aton", who has created the world through machine-like principles and laws. It's sometimes referred to as the "clockwork religion", as it often relies on a clockwork and machine-like metaphors for the universe.
Atoms believes the whole universe is like a perfectly fine tuned machine, made by a watchmaker-like god, and believes that the highest goal and purpose of human society is to emulate the great divine order as closely as possible. Atonism promotes complacency, loyalty and high self discipline, comparing an individual to a cog in a greater machine, stressing out high level of rigid social order and hierarchies.

That said, Atonism is not all terrible, oppressive and totalitarian (though it has tendency to it) religion, as it also teaches indispensability of an individual and ironically highly values individual life, as "even a single cog missing can make the whole machine stop functioning".

Through it's history, Atonism transformed and merged with an older existing cult of Sun, and Aton himself was identified with Sun. This was greatly helped by a discovery of an astronomer who postulated heliocentric universe, which itself fitted nicely into the whole "giant clockwork like world revolving around single, stationary absolute power.

>Its relationship with magic and occult
The role and definition of magic in my world is a fairly complicated deal in and off itself, but Atonism generally distances itself from nearly any form of magical rituals or thinking. There is no place for chaos and strangeness in it's cold, mechanical world. Magical practices (outside of very few and highly abstract rituals performed by the priests) are deemed pagan and heretical, though in reality, most of the (very common) magical practices and superstitions of the common folk are entirely ignored and rarely actively persecuted.

>Burnt any heretics recently?
Not in any great numbers since the great schism between literalists and non-literalists, arguing whenever Aton should be identified with the literal Sun or not. There are numbers of heresies within the religion, be it remnants of the old paganisms and it's rituals, or the Cult of the Mad Jester, which is very much a gnosis-like heresy that believes that Aton should be condemned, rather than worshiped for his creation of material world. The Jesters are quite actively persecuted, but otherwise, Atonism values social order more than purity of doctrine and it's deviations from social norms that are deemed highly dangerous, rather than local variations of interpretation of religious doctrine.

>using le epic fedora meme, invented by reddit
upvoted

>What is the motherfucking difference between Halflings and Gnomes, functionally? I kind of get that Gnomes have some innate magical abilities which Halflings don't, but are Halflings just lucky thieves and good coocks?

>Shortie Archetypes:
Dwarf = Fighter race
Halfling = Thief race
Gnome = Mage race
>Shortie homes:
Dwarf = Mountains
Halfling = "Hills"
Gnome = Underground

Is a planet that is only 30% water (Rather than Earth's 70%) capable of sustaining human life?

It would be a stretch

It would be extremely arid since there wouldn't be a lot of rain, the wind currents would be all kinds of fucked, continental drift would probably make huge fucking mountains everywhere, biodiversity would be much lower then it is today because there would be fewer barriers for genetic drift. Assuming that it had earth like properties that is.

>Otherwise, would anyone be interested in setting bibles or documents posted in the thread?

Speaking of, what's the best way to organize a setting bible? More cut and dry facts and maps? More fluffy stories and quotes? Something written through a character's perspective or a cheeky thing like an in city pamphlet or written advertisement?

GIANTS

WE REQUIRE GIANT WAIFUS

RIGHT NOW

>Symbols
The elves governing body is essentially a "democratic" theocracy, so their nation's flag is pic related. The center represents their deities (One to represent the moon and stars and the other to represent the sun and heavens). The four stars represent their four "Citadels", which are essentially cities with fuckhuge walls, and the sky blue background represents the "Blue Dream", which is elf heaven.

>Its core tenets
>"Ponder each deed thou shalt preform, ensure thou art acting out with the will of the Sisters close at heart."
>"If thou discover thyself in doubt, seek counsel with thy church and let it guide thy hand, for they art more righteous than thou."
>"The will of the church is law. To break the will of the church is to kill thy goddess."
Basically, do what the church tells you or be inquisition'd.

>Its relationship with magic and occult
The elves gather and manipulate the arcane energy that radiates from the celestial bodies, and they believe that the energy is a gift from the goddesses to elves because muh chozen peeple, but really that's bullshit because all the other races can cast the same damn magic. So casting spells as a non-elf is considered to be the same as stealing from the goddesses.

>Burnt any heretics recently?
Many. The church has some many standards to how an elf and should act that deviation from social norms is disobeying the church, and by proxy insulting their goddess waifus.
>gay elf? HERSEY
>freeing your human slave and letting him escape the country? HERSEY
>think the elves should share their knowledge of magic with the world? SUPER HERSEY
>criticize the church for having too many rules ULTRA HERSEY
The typical punishment for being a heretic is either death, painful death, or banishment to the Deep Dark if they like you (essentially a place so seeped in darkness that spending enough time down there turns an elf into a drow)

pastebin.com/Zi60XNNF
Here's the magic system for my magitech setting. Looking for critique/unclear things I should improve. Any suggestions are welcome.

>Bridge to nowhere

Then why the fuck is it there?
It's a waste of construction materials.
Tear it down, build a wall.

> Want to make my own races
> Don't want people to feel alienated from the setting, so I can't make them weird
> Would have to put humans in as a baseline
> Other races would have to be human-like in order to be relateable
> Just having humans by themselves feels bland when it's fantasy and you could be anything
> Don't want generic dorfs, orks, elfs, and whatever else
Just fuck my shit up senpai

So use other shit? No place says you need to put in Elfs and shit unless you want to/your players want you to.

Can you read? The problem is he can't decide what to put in.