/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

Free Market Edition

What kind of economics do countries in your settings use?

Previous thread: On designing cultures:
frathwiki.com/Dr._Zahir's_Ethnographical_Questionnaire

Random name/terrain/stat generators:
donjon.bin.sh/

Mapmaking tutorials:
cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48

Free HTML5-based mapmaking toolset:
www.inkarnate.com

Random Magic Resources/Possible Inspiration:
darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/magic/antiscience.html
buddhas-online.com/mudras.html
sacred-texts.com/index.htm

Conlanging:
zompist.com/resources/

Random (but useful) Links:
futurewarstories.blogspot.ca/
projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/
military-sf.com/
fantasynamegenerators.com/
donjon.bin.sh/
eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html
kennethjorgensen.com/worldbuilding/resources

Other urls found in this thread:

worlddreambank.org/P/PLANETS.HTM
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheMagicGoesAway
hariragat.blogspot.com.br/search/label/worldbuilding
bldgblog.com/
uh.edu/engines/epiindex.htm
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

Posting a map, because it's something I like to do.

And here's Antarctica if it wasn't covered in ice.

From worlddreambank.org/P/PLANETS.HTM

Antarctica would be an awesome setting for world-building.

Let's talk afterlife. What afterlife do you use in your setting?

What about the dreaded "Dire Australia"

Something tells me Pangaea Ultima would be a good adventureland if it wasn't so darn big too. The continent has a very interesting shape. Shrink it, maybe?

SRPGs are great at utilizing a world's features.

I really like these Squarehex pads.

>What kind of economics do countries in your settings use?

I haven't got the finer points of the economy down, but the Deicolorii used to use bars of electrum as their unit of currency, but have moved over to silver coins in the shape of the cross section of the bars, making them slightly rectangular.

i have only gmed a few times and im currently creating a homebrew setting
im wondering how much lore should i write and tips for making it unique
but more importantly how do i explain the setting to my players?
should i write a small primer for them?
should i tell them the basics of where the campaign starts and inform them of the peculiarities of the settings locales as they become relevant in the campaign?

really nervous and unsure

>What kind of economics do countries in your settings use?
From the North-West, counter-clockwise
>Self-sustaining agrarian
>Varies from borderline hunter-gatherer to agrarian to raiding
>Feudal
>Nomadic shepherd clans
>Maritime merchants
>Highly structured and planned (Palace economy sounds like something they'd do but on larger fanatical scale)
>Bankrupt slavery
>Feudal again

plox rate ty

western kingdom
war torn feudal society still recovering from massive arms build up and loss of life that the last war put on them
many buisnesses have shut down and the resulting joblessnes creates a strong undercurrent of radicalisation among the working class leading to vigilante groups targetting mages and nonhumans esp. elves who are seen as the source of last war and many economic problems

middle kingdom
toal anarchy essentially somalia was primary battleground of last war and carved from portions of both western and estern nations as a buffer state
people do whatever they can to get buy and while there is technically a king he commands little loyalty from his subjects
basically outisde the capital everything is up for grabs and the person or creature with the biggest proverbial guns takes what they want

eastern kingdom
a semi-communist military regime in which the dead produce most of the basic resources in society while the nation tries to recover from war
while the western kingdom suffered a great deal during the war the east was even worse off
the surplus of dead and lack of resources lead to necromancy becoming commonplace among the military and in general production
now a military coup has taken over and the nation struggles to adapt with some rebels still supporting the monarchy
however the desire for another war is low so most of the populace live lives of quiet despair hoping things dont get even worse

northern elves
organized into large family run trade conglomerates under an absolutist monarchy which exploit the other powers current level of weakness
the elves stayed out of the last war and so their streamlined feudal/corporatist economy was able to grow while the other nations shrank
this has soured their relationship with other nations as they view the elves as carpetbaggers
while the haughty and aloof elves egos have inflated even more due to their current power

>TLDR: feudal, anarchist, communist, corporatist

Is there somewhere I can search for or ask to find books with certain concepts to the setting?

What I'm thinking has probably "already been done", which would be a fantastic resource.

The trick is finding it.

Fuck it might as well ask here.

I wanted to build a setting around the core concept that magic is a limited resource, set far enough into the setting's future that it's become scarce and soon would be gone forever. Kind of like in Outlaw Star with the caster guns, which were a solution of packaging magic into capsules to stretch out what's left.

Given the sheer volume of fantasy novels out there, I'm pretty sure there's a few novels that have done this. I just have no idea how to search for it.

>What kind of economics do countries in your settings use?
The northernmost of the three principal countries is somewhat more agrarian. In particular, several rare spices grow only in its unique conditions, and exporting them is fairly profitable.

The middle nation is a technological powerhouse, exporting finished goods like glassware and ceramics as well as fancy new inventions. It's very gradually transitioning from a manufacturing economy to a service economy.

The southernmost is home to one of the most profitable mines--if not the most--producing gems and ores. In fact, it's one of the few places on the planet where ore can still be found. The nation is wealthy enough that it has outright purchased two economically smaller nations as satellite states. It also manufactures and exports metals and alloys.

The... library?

That sounds kinda similar to the webcomic 6 Gun Mage.

>What kind of economics do countries in your settings use?
Most of the civil countries managed to adopt a standard set of values for currency, to make trade easier. Obviously, this doesn't apply to tribal or clan-focused societies like those damned hippy Elves. Dwarves exclusively use Silver/Electrum/Gold, and overpay for imported food and booze.
Most nations have some specialty products they produce in their region, and there's figurative and literal boatloads of trade going on everywhere. The South Shore City-States are notable for having specific monopolies on specialty products: IE: Korova produces a lot of wine, cooking oil, and dried fruit products.

What are some non-sphere world shapes to go with?

I like toroids and orbital rings

>toroids
I see you too have impeccable taste in shapes.

>The... library?
More like TVtropes but if what I was looking for had a trope. Library you can search broad subject content at best.

Looks interesting, but between Outlaw Star and 6 Gun Mage I can't find a trope for this. Which means I'm halfway original or don't know what I'm looking for.

I'm sketching out a concept for a fantasy world that has, I guess i would compare it to an expanded version of the seeing stones from LotR (their in-world name escapes me atm), the ones that Saruman has which work like a network, allowing you to see through others but also letting others see through yours.

These seeing stones are small and portable and let people enter into a shared "psychic world", kind of like a spirit world but existing in the network of these stones and seoarate from your physical body.

It's supposed to loosely parallel the internet and borrows a lot of cyberpunk tropes but in a setting that is aesthetically fantasy.

Do you think this would be interesting?

Hey my world is kind of early Middle Ages
Would Spartan hoplites that raid to take twinks prisoners or given them as payment when they act as mercenaries too outlandish if I build up their culture to be hyper masculinity and so bordering on pride levels, be too outlandish and make my rpg sound more like erpg

Sounds cool to me. Can you change how you look in this psychic world? Could lead to some good subterfuge.

Sounds interesting, will they be used by surgeons to help with operations

Larry Niven did it. You're 50 years too late.

Here is the trope:
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheMagicGoesAway

Had a good focus on the practical considerations of limited mana. Also, the fucking warlock wheel is up there with D&D's portable hole / bag of holding nuclear arrow.

>A simple copper disk with two spells on it: one that makes it spin ever faster without limit, and a second that makes the disc indestructible so long as there is mana available. This rapidly uses up all of the mana in the area.

Oh, and the other influence i forgot to mention are the Azath houses from Malazan book of the fallen, which work as a shared spatial pocket dimension.


Yeah, I was thinking a bit about that. Either it's an idealized version of yourself like in Matrix, or a co trollable 'glamour' that can change and be reallybig and impressive the more powerful you are.

Not sure what you mean but it sounds like an interesting line of thought. But yeah I could see it being used to help in healing magic and medicine, particlarly when it comes to healing mental/spiritual wounds.

>Do you think this would be interesting?
Few things are interesting from a purely conceptual summary of something. I have no idea if I would personally find it interesting...at the moment it sounds confusing and hard to grasp for me, because it is only a concept, I have no way of knowing how a setting developed from that would feel, or how it could make me feel. I see a lot of anons coming up with a concept, though truly original and something I've never heard of before, but wanting to be praised for it right off the bat, as if a good concept is enough to be genius, a work of art or worthy of recognition.
I'm sorry if you feel like I tore into your ass or anything but I'm allowing myself a rare moment of tough-love honesty here, also getting something off my chest.
To me, just one person, your concept is not immediantly grabbing or intriging to me, but this says nothing of what I would think of a developed final product based off the premise. I might like it, hate it, either because of the concept itself or its execution, or a combination. I don't know. But heck, go do it user.

Fuck me, there it is!

Skimming sounds like he put a ton of thought into the resulting setting.

I'm stealing the shit out of the Warlock Wheel.

>Creates a magical dead-zone by burning up all magic in the area
>makes it directional and gives it an aiming scope
>Anything magical will either stop working and die or become mundane
>Mass extinction of magical races

witchhunter's dream

>I'm sorry if you feel like I tore into your ass
not at all. i know what you mean, i see a lot of vague concepts in these threads and there's not a lot to say about many of them. i just like to end posts with a question because it tends to invite more responses. i'm not looking for praise, just seeing if the concept has enough of a hook to get any discussion or anyone riffing off it with their own ideas, which is fun.

shoutout

Man, I feel like a tool now that I realise the question was to encourage discussion more than anything else. Accept my apogolies, graceful user.

>Not sure what you mean but it sounds like an interesting line of thought
You could dangle it down someone's throat to check for tapeworms?
If they're constipated maybe insert it into the rectum to see if there's anything blocking it without sticking your fingers in
Or use it like actual key hold surgery and look into diseased organs

What about lemon shape, the caps would go under constant season change whilst the middle part is sluggish like GoT

And this would actually be quite good in 40k and easily excusable as made out of pariah or necrontyr

Quite agree. Launched psi-disturber would be pretty neet. Thought it would require xenos technology.

Or just DAoT

Holy shit.

I can't decide on military history for my world. Would it be wise to create a thread where we play a sort of naval wargame where I control one side and you guys control the other to help decide on the world's history? Or is that a horrible and terrible idea?

What are some good blogs to follow for worldbuilding? I already check up on Goblin Punch pretty often.

At what stage of technology it is appropriate for them to build multi-storey complexes like cathedrals and palaces? That would not fall apart under their own weight or something.

It is semi horrible, at least for me. I can take advices, but other practically choosing the story is not my cup of tea. It takes the story out of the storytellers hands.

Theoretically, pretty much as soon as they've got a written language and hand tools. Remember, the pyramids were built almost 6,000 years ago, and they're four times larger than a standard Gothic cathedral.

Well the problem is if I have control of both sides I feel as if I can't create interesting scenarios and whatnot. Generally the idea I have is that you guys control the admirals and movement of the navy, but I control the government and funding and things as well as the enemy, meaning that all could be going well until, lets say, a heavy winter hits the farmlands and so funding has been cut for the navy or subsidies for shipbuilding in favor of rebuilding and redeveloping farmland for a year or so, forcing people to be more careful with plans. Plus there's the whole issue of needing to protect trade routes and establish supply lines, as well as seasonal tradewinds and whatnot.

Essentially I have to account for so many things I'm not sure what to do, so I want to outsource it to Veeky Forums in the form of a hopefully fun wargame thread. Ideally I'd have Veeky Forums control both sides and I'd just control the governments and whatnot, but nothing prevents people from just metagaming at that point.

You may be asking why I'm going into so much detail. Two reasons. One, I'm this guy, and two, my game with my players are going to be set right after these conflicts.

I love that guy's Turnovia world. It just screams "Magic/science fucked up and the Earth flipped and it's been a few millenia but now it's time to explore!"

>tfw you can't get over a setting idea that you really like, but no one else seems to care about

>a setting idea that you really like, but no one else seems to care about
You just described every setting idea.

Welcome to the Club

That's 'cause ideas only appeal in execution. You can imagine your own ideal execution, so you love it. Other people can't; they only know what you say, which isn't necessarily enough to know how you want it executed.

Honesty, it usually boils down to everyone preferring my other setting over it.

That sucks.

D'you know why?

Close, I think. In my opinion, it's because the human brain just isn't hardwired to give a damn about setting milieu-- When it's our own, it sort of reflects ourselves, and we get a bit of an attachment to that, but it's not the setting at work there. When it's somebody else's setting, there needs to be a human element you use to attach yourself to the setting. Story characters, player characters, etc. And what separates serviceable settings from good ones is just how well they enable those human connections.

The other one is a bit more unusual. Its a near-future apoc setting inspired by DOOM and Hellgate: London.

I'm not so sure. You're right that it's ultimately a reflection of yourself, but that's what makes it interesting. But you have to execute it well in order for it to convey any of this, and it must be executed within the context of all the other elements of the world. So, for example, I might find sadomasochistic minotaurs interesting as fuck, but that's because of how I imagine them playing out -- how they'd be executed. If I say "sadomasochistic minotaurs", you might get interested -- but only because of how YOU picture it playing out, for you. More likely you won't care because I've ultimately told you nothing of note; a world is only its parts in motion, not its still and isolated cogs and gears.

There's a reason I usually skip other people's posts when I open a new worldbuilding thread -- but still read books, AND play games.

I don't think it's about human elements, at least so far as "characters" &c., because I've found plenty of non-"human" ideas interesting as fuck.
That's what I figured. I had the same thing happen to me.

Anyone got the geographically realistic worldbuilding guide pic?

Which one?

The one with Afganistan, which would be that one. Thanks.

How memey would it be if I just used this map? I'm not really into the intricacies of mapmaking, figured it'd be easier if I just grabbed an existing one.

Probably fine if you renamed everything.

/wbg/ am I odd for wanting to right the story of a young tax collector as he travels the through the massive world spanning kingdom trying to collect all the tithes from the various races under the grand kings dominion?

>gives an excuse for an impartial narrator to travel through a wondrous fantasy setting
>narrator sees all the weird shit as "normal"

No, sounds cool. Big journey with a fat target painted on your back. Seems like very good adventure material.

I was going to do something much more boring then this; have one of the anthro weasel-folk in my world travel from his isolated home so he can explore the world and write down about his travels. An 'in-world' encyclopedia about everything, written by the scholar.

Well maybe you guys can help me come up with a cool name for a travelling tax collector other than just a "tax man."

Also mind if I bounce off a couple of the inner kingdom ideas of you guys?

Roving Shekel Smuggler. Has a Bag of Holding stuck where the sun doesn't shine to safely transport the taxes

Nah, going for a not /pol/ name.

What are taxes paid in, in the first place?
Old-style taxes, being a percentage of lumber/crops/products produced?

Gavin.
Zacchaeus. (name of tax collecter from the bible)
Luca
Hasophat
Gheed (name of gambler merchant from Diablo 2, love this one)
Galime

Without any information on what common names are in your setting, I can't really do anything but just spitball some generic fantasy stuff.

>a cool name for a travelling tax collector
tricky
"taxman" has been used explicitly since 1800, and variants have been used for hundreds of years prior, but the term is inaccurate and for a long time was a job, not a position. so a coroner might work once a year collecting taxes just as a job, but his employment was as a coroner.

bailiffs, coroners, and sheriffs were sometimes assigned that duty. I don't really remember much else about it.

Exactly that. Tithes in the form of stone, metal, gold, timber, assorted gubbins you know?

Was thinking about the name "assessor" how does that sound?

How does he transport it? Assuming he'd take the stuff back to "base" before going to the next location.
You could just have the capital be at the center of the Empire/Kingdom/whatever, and each "story" is him traveling in a direction.

I want to include degenerate beastmen in my game- creatures that can and do rape humans, animals and each other to reproduce and create more beastmen. Many are horrific amalgamations of many species; a bat pig with sheep wool, a long necked horse man with goat horns and wolf teeth are some examples.

Should I try to include a few groups of them that aren't really so bad and just keep to themselves, or just make them all monsterous for the sake of it?

Yeah was thinking about each story of him getting the tithe is him going to a new area you know or going to a chain of close places.

>Should I try to include a few groups of them that aren't really so bad

Fuck no makethem pure evil bastards.
The "Oh but some of us are good" trope is so played out.
Do you really want some Drizzts running around your campaign?
In fact you should make some human like in appearnce and have them play the innocent victim so they can betray the party.

also I like your mutant animal amalgations very creative

>Fuck no makethem pure evil bastards.

Maybe, but that's kind of shit worldbuilding. Unless they are the creations of an evil god, which makes some sense, any being that is intelligent could behave ethically. The other reason is because I wanted some of them to be playable and be the 'big strong dude' of the party without being what is essentially a Broo orc hybrid.

The extent of ethical behavior tends to be limited by the in-group/out-group distinction.

A beastman living among the beastman tribe may not be raised to see other races as being morally significant. Under such circumstances, he'd feel little hesitation to rob/rape/murder other races. On the other hand, a beastman who lives closer to civilization may be influenced by the culture of moral universality that more cosmopolitan societies tend to hold to, so that he doesn't just rape and pillage at will.

>put a bunch of far-off locations on the map so that the setting doesn't stop at the tiny region which any games/stories would take place
>don't want them to be places which are just "a faraway land with mystery"
>flesh them out, make them cool
>cooler than the main region
>start to care about the faraway lands and want to use them
>now there aren't any vague faraway lands and I have to create new ones
>they're boring
>if I flesh them out the cycle will continue

i like the idea of having a bunch of beastman all with different mixes and appearance a lot. that's pretty cool actually.

i usually prefer races in worldbuilding to not be a homogenous monoculture who all act the same. but at the same, time, i like stuff like LotR orcs who are mostly irredeemably evil, but they have this kind of tragic angle where even though they are utterly evil, you kind of feel sorry for them at the same time (maybe not for any individual ones, but for their existence as a whole). they have the whole story of being corrupted elves, and even if they wanted to be good, they are too ugly and hideous for anyone to ever feel compassion for them. they are mostly just tools of the actually evil dark lord, living miserable lives and know nothing except the evil that was done to them, which they do to others in turn. that's how i see them at least.

whatever you go for, just give them depth, whether that means making them behaviourally heterogenous or just giving them an interesting backstory that let's you feel something towards them or relate to them in some way.

stuff like darkspawn from dragon age are just the absolute worst in terms of worldbuilding, because they are all irredeemably evil, but really have no backstory to speak of besides being evil demon monsters that comes from underground.

Morality is just a normative human concept that attempts to make sense of biological prosocial behaviors we have.
Behaviors i should add that not even all members of the human species posess i.e. psycopaths

So why is it shit worldbuilding to assume that some strange beasts which evolved under very different circumstances would not behave in a way that would be considered to most humans immoral i.e. illithids.

Also as you have pointed if they were created then their moral compass is completely dependant on their creators whims.

>any being that is intelligent could behave ethically
Yes an illithid could behave in a manner considered moral just as a psychopath could.. However simply contorting you behavior to be socially acceptable would not make you lawful good.

>Maybe, but that's kind of shit worldbuilding.
Well if you have already decided that completely evil mosters are "shit" then why would you ask the question.

>I wanted some of them to be playable
Which making them evil would not prevent, once again though if you already know what you want why post in WBG

>Which making them evil would not prevent, once again though if you already know what you want why post in WBG

Yeah, but how could a creature that different interact meaningfully, besides with armed conflict, with human/lawful races? Most RPGs imply the players are playing as 'the good guys', or at least dudes who go do adventures or dungeons. Not just going around and stealing farmer's pigs to rape.

ah, i see what you mean now. i was thinking of the stones as being more like something that allows you to project into some kind of alternate world... visually i was imagining something like in stranger things/under the skin, where everything is dark except you, or something kind of like in LotR when Frodo puts on the ring and everything is all blurry and weird. more of alternate world than just a network of cameras.

i haven't fully thought it through, but i want it to serve more like a secondary arena where events can take place that influence the real world indirectly, the way cyberspace is an alternate arena that hackers and corporate agents use in the early cyberpunk books.

it could still be motivated by some of the things that motivate humans

Perhaps it was kicked out of its clan and adopted the adventuring party as its "clan" until a better opportunity arises.

it could want to amass power enough to lead its people to glorious savage victory over the civilized races and is willing to work with anyone along the way.

Or maybe it just thinks that stealing, slaying, and fucking its way across the world is one hell of a life.

You could even have it related to its biology perhaps at a certain age beastmen are filled with wanderlust and must travel the lands to sow their oats.

The beastmens culture is another good jumping off point perhaps it failed or was too afraid to attempt a coming of age ritual and ran away instead.

Just because they are crazy alien bestial creatures doesn't mean they can't have meaningful mutually beneficial interactions with other more humanoid beings.

What I've seen like this was interesting.

The "deeper" lore of Elder Scrolls has something like this, ask at the thread for specifics.

If the government has access to this, its territory can be better controlled. The reliability and speed of lines of communication was always a big limiter for empires and big nations.

I like this one:
hariragat.blogspot.com.br/search/label/worldbuilding
His rpg-asian perspective alone is great

This for weird and poetic architecture:
bldgblog.com/
It inspired me for a magitech, multi-level Veneza-like city which processes information through its water channels

uh.edu/engines/epiindex.htm
This one has a lot of interesting examples of what humanity has done.

You can do that with mudbricks already. Check Shibam and the Khiva Wall.

Royal Tither?

Love it. This allows you to fit in all those monsters I have trouble fitting in at my setting, like those philippine men with horse features and Curupiras. Are they related to Shub-Nigurath? Or tupilaqs?

>Are they related to Shub-Nigurath? Or tupilaqs?

No. They are inspired by Broos and Warhammer beastmen.

what are broos?

nevermind i managed to google it.

>should i write a small primer for them?
>should i tell them the basics of where the campaign starts and inform them of the peculiarities of the settings locales as they become relevant in the campaign?
yeah do this

After a lot of editing fairly happy with the climate and layout of the land. The SE here-be-memes island will be moved later to possibly be sri-lanka style albeit off the west coast of the SW peninsula with a Western "Asia" continent within sailing distance.

Welcome second pair of eyes for anything that looks wrong or out of place. Lacy edging of parts of the world are intentional and/or will be fixed at the tail end.

The more verdant belt SW of the large center mountains I wasn't sure of but looking at climatic maps and satellite footage of India (which that region depicts) the orthographic rainshadow of the Himalayas catches the Monsoon wind and so keeps that deeper inland area more verdant than it would otherwise be. The SW most river doesn't pslit off into other ends before the Delta, that's just tributaries.

Will have some adjustments I'll make to particular areas when I get there. Not entirely certain about the diminished amount of desert climes so might try to add in more somehow. Maybe get rid of the orthographic verdant belt south of the not-Himalayas so that is a large interior desert too.

Jesus christ worldbuilding a lot of work.

how large should the primer be?
what should i write about?
how much do i inform them of the world?

>how large should the primer be?
short and sweet
>what should i write about?
what every country bumpkin would know about the setting
>how much do i inform them of the world?
you want to do this through their exploration of the world, not just by telling them stuff, but as short and sweet as you can make it, just tell them the basics of what every man woman and child should know
i know thats vague, but it depends on how unique your setting is versus standard tropes in whatever game you're playing.

So maybe like 2-3 full pages typed giving a general overview of the nations, religions, classes, and races that the average citizen would consider important and commonplace

Would that be a good amount of information for the players?

Also im wondering how much of the campaign I should right out in advance.
The last game I dmed i created a huge story spanning a whole entire campaign but it seemed to become somewhat convoluted towards the end and I worried at times if I was railroading the players too much.
Any advice on campaign creation and maintenance?

That sounds like a good amount of information for them, they can find out more specific things through exploration or questioning.

I think that writing up some NPC's, their personality, their goals, and their plans for achieving said goals, as well as some points of interest would be enough so that you could interpret a story based on what your players do.

I personally would never craft a story for Role players that is constructed from end to end: No plan ever survives contact with Player Characters.

Pic related is an NPC example I thought of recently.
>Sadistic, Articulate, Ruthless, Cunning, views his twisted Fleshwarped creations more as children than experiments.
>Purify the world by making his own alterations upon the denizens.
>Finding the best and brightest magical minds from other regions who will undergo the process themselves, then focus their efforts on more Fleshwarping.
>Has something closer to a laboratory than a dark citadel, with many vats of strange liquid that he has learned to alter to make strange mutations of any living creature.
>One of the things I like about a villain like him is that he is also able to pass as normal in most societies.

Quaestor

its cool because its Latin

It's not that odd. One of the short stories I've written is about a tax collector getting bamboozled on the job.

How do you execute someone with symbolic connection to air, on the same level as drowning, burning and stoning/burying alive?

I was going originally with hanging/garroting, but it's actually contrary to the purpose. Gas chamber doesn't seem like something medieval technology can do.
It also needs to be limitable, to allow "hanged drawn and quartered" kind of antics, where condemned is subjected to all four until finished off by the last one.

Impaled and left for the birds? Crucifixion? It also makes sure the victim's body can't be retrieved easily and it's very much visible.

No good ones, but degenerate inbred mutants who prefer to sit in their cave instead of go out and rape?

More variation is always interesting.

Scaphism. They are fed to the creatures of the sky.

What's wrong with a literally hanging? As in the kind where their neck doesn't snap if you want to draw it out.

While medieval fantasy doesn't usually have gas chambers you could seal them into a tight room or box until they run out of air and suffocate that way instead. Or maybe just tie them down on a mountain top and let the elements get to them. Throw them from a great height?

They don't have to be bad per se, they just have a bad reproductive model. They can be as moral otherwise, although they probably would be hated and hate back.

You may consider adding a reason why they can't just pay women to carry their children and why can't they just rape animals leaving sentient creatures alone. Or alternatively don't add those, and have moral divide among them.

Glorious mercantilism/capitalism is reigning supreme in the Cumulus/Stratus/Cloud name Empire. Complete with it's own significantly more militarized (might be difficult to believe) version of the Honorable East India Company.

I'm still heavily debating toroid world.

Write or at least think of significantly more than you actually tell them about. The more you know about your world the easier it is to wing things and react to players. And the less you share (with CARE) the more they ask questions which gets them thinking.

Also much like resume's if the lore packet is more than a single page, it's ending up in a bin half the time, sadly.

I prefer what is occasionally called "island design" at least in a pdf I agreed with this one time. Basically write out some stuff, but make it all relative. It could technically happen at multiple locations, at multiple times, with potentially different or multiple people. The looser and more adaptable the better.

Bullet point that shit out, and the closer the pcs get to a particular point the more you can flesh it out because you'll know their situation a lot better at the time.

So maybe
>Overwhelming numbers to establish power
>Searching for someone
>Corruption

Could end up being the players starting off in a town moments before a raid from the bbeg. Depending if they run or fight they meet up with someone of interest. And maybe they're forced to make a hard choice about sacrificing others or accepting bribes as a test of character.

Or if that wasn't an example starting point, it might end up differently. Maybe they encounter the forces on the road to that town. Maybe they simply hear rumors and they're the ones searching.