/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

Trying to make a setting for my group for the first time, any general tips?

i'm mainly just doing it as a creative project for the enjoyment, but i'm also trying to make it robust enough for possible future games if i get back into roleplaying again. so a bit of both.

I'm so disillusioned with this world that I'm worldbuilding as the ultimate escapism. It's a good feeling.

I'd like to make a game setting, but anything I come up with never ends up fitting within a regular ruleset. Bothers me sometimes, but it's whatever.

I'd have to hone my writing for a book, but it's possible I guess.

I do it for fun.

It's for a game setting that I totally intend to play when I learn how to DM.

Do Gondolas exist in your setting?

Maybe in the east continent's Faewild. That's where most of the weird shit is.

I'm drawing a complete, 100% blank. One of the most important factions in my campaign is becoming slowly more and more relevant and I've had trouble with fluffing them since day 1.

>Empire which started because of a religious conversation of the king of a powerful kingdom, resulting in a campaign to occupy the neighboring territories in the name of the true gods
>Tied for 1st for the most powerful nation on the planet
>An enormous naval power, with a much smaller ground army
>They get around this limitation by allowing the church to have a massive influence with their military politics, and in return get a fuckton of religious orders supplying troops

The only time I even try to expand on one of these orders, they end up turning into something sounding like space marine origins

The country where I usually set games doesn't have this problem, just this particular empire. I can't seem to get any ideas flowing.

Help.

What kind of religion are these militant orders coming from? Is it monotheist or polytheist? Are its teachings and moral traditions roughly Abrahamic, or is it something more spooky?

Polytheist, but heavily inspired by abrahamic faith. Distinctly not D&D style, since if you're faithful you revere all the gods, but occasionally favour one or another more.

What are some other meme creatures that are worth adding?

Pepe = Bullywugs or other frog people

Everything both fictional and real from Australia

I need interpretations of how aesthetics and ethics interact beyond the traditional western dynamics. Are there any real-world societies that operate primarily under an aesthetics-as-ethics system, for example?

My kitchen sink setting already has a not!Australia full of chimera, aberrations, and feral rape monsters.

Kek could easily be integrated into most fantasy settings as a primordial god of water or darkness.

As opposed to the domesticated rape monster.

From whence we get rape milk and rape yogurt.

>As opposed to the domesticated rape monster.

There were going to be domesticated rape monsters in Breeding Season until the game imploded.

Technically speaking, slimes in-setting can be considered rape monsters, and might eventually be domesticated.
They're not monstergirl-like, though.

I'd keep telling pol that moloch's symbol is not the owl, even conspiracy theorists recognize that mistake - the owl is Minerva/Athena, not Moloch/Baal. But it turns out the symbol of moloch is even worse. And more ominously, has been among us for some time and is related to that other ubiqutous term since 2015. What is it? Well, here's a hint - cuckolds prep _________

Question for you guys;
>Do have elves? Are they like typical elves, or so divergent that they could be considered a homebrew race? If they are different, how? Are they important to the setting or just a humble, minor part?
Not even sure if my elves can be considered elves, but I guess they vaguely fill the archetype. They're slightly faun-like humanoids with crazy cat/bat elf ears who live as nobles with ensalved people as their vassals, who would rather join the fleet in a reaving party half across the world to rape rape rape to their heart's content, than spend time on actually ruling their slave caste and nation.
There's a small population that was stranded on a foreign coast, and were sheltered by formless tree-inhabiting collective of ethereal aliens jn exchange for joining them forever in the Otherworld and mixing their bloodlines with the similarly enslaved dryads.
How bout you guys?

My setting are all humans.

However, one of the civilizations are derivative of my "more realistic" take on elves. They are isolated, more primitive, live in the forest protected by spirits and have almost no iron, hindering their military technology.

Also there are magical people who live forever, but they are mutant humans.

Nice. Any reason why they are protected by spirits? And are they asethically similar to anything like celts or aztecs or completely different?

They're typical elves, but they're more reclusive than elves in most settings. Some live in ancient forests that are protected by illusion magic but most live in the Feywild. While every human believes in elves, very few will ever see one.

They're an important race, but they don't play a meaningful role in the affairs of non-fey and humans don't play a meaningful role in the affairs of the elves.

They are protected by spirits because they live in a forest full of spirits and over years made friends with them.

Aesthetically they are Slavic.

One more thing: iron is extremely harmful to them the same way silver is harmful to vampires and lycanthropes.

Aw, isn't that's nice. And cool.
I have that iron thing with my faerie races, who are more like the actual irish myths of a race invisible humans/spirits than D&D feywild stuff.

I combined elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings into one race. They are merely the wee-folk, magical craftsmen and illusion tricksters.

Sounds like my imagining of traditional gnome races, the garden ornament type, the magic and fairness of elves, the honest and hard working nature of dwarves and the friendliess of halfings, fucking awesome and comfy.

I'm looking for a second opinion, does this sounds fun to anyone beside me?

Its an utopian future were war existes only as a sport. Battles are events with spectators. "Armies" are like sports clubs, they have colors, sponsors, are organized in leagues and pro armies will put lots of money to have the hottest warrior.
I'm undecided if death no longer existes or if war is advanced paintball

Sounds fun. I'd say death no longer exists is better than paintball.

Mortal wounding can and will down oppenents and knock them unconcious, but will not kill them thanks to nanobot/biotechnology. That way you can still have blood and real bullets, if you wish.

I know that feeling habibi

>ultimate escapism
Is this code word for magical realm?

Current setting, my Elves are fairly typical (Zendikar PHB Elves). They were once one people in the Fey Wild, but ran away to be free from the Courts. Now they've split into the Houses of Alfar, their founder. The High Elves rule a stable empire of magic and faith, the Wood Elves live apart in the wilderness of another continent (think early American settlers), the Dark Elves practice black magic in the Not!Caribbean+Not!Scottish highlands, and the Eladrin work as traders and pirates for the other three.

Need some feedback, if you all please.

Twist on the kitchen-sink urban fantasy setting: at some point in the past humans were cursed such that their natural magic is always working to wipe memory and record of magic and magical creatures, works as weak anti-magic, occasionally even putting people in a trance-like state to eliminate magic. The only traces left are folklore, and these are both inaccurate and have mutated the nature of the beings in question to match whatever pop-culture at the time.

So for magical beings, it's like a "Twilight Zone" episode.

For magic-users, it's like "They Live" meets "The Puppet-masters".

How many polities is too much polities? Whether it's separate states, nations (think Gascon/Flemish/Burgundian/Aquitanian/Norman/Breton/Parisian for Medieval france), or sub-states like with feudalism.

There isn't a single one fits all rubric but give your general oponion.

This is the reason I do it, along with it also being a way to learn more about things I wouldn't do in my free time from work.

Yo that's the best way to do it, invest in nobility and the players will invest in the polities.

That said, keep the number of initial nations at something simple if you're adding the Duke of Limousine and the Duke of Gevaudan to your France.

Honestly, I just cheat with CK2 by starting HIP, go to "Jerusalem at its height" start, let it run 50 years on Observe, and then see who owns what duchies in the nation I'm fleshing out.

This is how you get lecherous 50 year old double dukes with syphilis or a brave 15 year old duchess everyone wants to betroth.

I'm aiming for writing rather than PnP but appreciate the tips! Especially the CK2 business - I never thought about doing that, and that would be a great way to get a feel for how a feudal landscape might end up developing.

Been awhile since I read ASOIAF but I guess in retrospect my concern of "so many peoples/polities you end up not remembering them all" is moot - if they are important you'll remember it, if not it'll be window dressing.

I'd like to do the worldbuilding for some stories in a low-fantasy, stone-age setting that's taking place during an ice age. Complete with ape-men, manly-apes, giant man-eating creatures, and all other sorts of standard stuff for the period.

Maybe a little

Book. I ain't even ever done a PnP game. I'd like to though.

Also a little of . Had a flurry of work done a few weeks back when we were having terrorist attacks every fucking five minutes and I was getting depressing learning about it.

Both. Currently running a Traveller campaign in a sci fi setting I created and usually run D&D campaigns in the high fantasy world I made. Have a low fantasy setting for a book I'm writing, as well as a WWI-esque one for another story I plan to write. Have a magitech/mahou shoujo inspired setting for a story I hope to write one day as well. Also recently made a cyberpunk setting that I might write some short stories in.

Most of my settings are humans only, except for my high fantasy one I use for Pathfinder. That one has dwarves and humans.

>hate how evil the world has become
>include the potential for superheroes and vigilante crime fighters in-setting

What sorta magic systems do you guys have in your settings? Do you lean more towards mysticism or scientific explanations for magic?

Magic is a science; results are repeatable, output scales with input, and aspects are quantifiable.
I fully intend for my setting to become a pseudo-steampunk magitech world.

The official setting explanation of how magic works includes the phrase "which is just some abstract mumbo-jumbo. Don't think about it too hard."

>magitech
mah nig

>dude itz magick i don't have to explain it!!!1
I hate this meme

God don't start a shitty argument about "magic should be mysticism/science" again

It's not like it doesn't have rules, there are just a few loose ends.

But more importantly, what this guy said.

magic should have clear, defined rules is all I'm saying.

Magic, by its definition, is a violation of rules. Having rules of its own is 100% optional.

>magic has no rules lmao!
If magic makes no sense or does things "just cause" then it breaks immersion and therefore leads to a faulty system within the world.

>self-heating steam engines
>perpetual motion machines
>grav-sphere airships
>humongous mecha-golems
Fancy sci-fi technology is far cozier when it's magitech.

In a game with clear rules to define player actions magic should either:
A) have rules
Or
B) not be avaliable to players

How does it break immersion? Star Wars didn't explain how the Force worked until the Phantom Menace. How'd that go over?

Yeah and Star Wars is shit. Your point?

Look, I like consistent rules and magitech as much as the next guy, and I don't get why some people insist that magic should make no sense. But god damn it let's not have several dozen replies of nothing but shitflinging about whether magic should have rules or not.

Should magic have rules for a game? Yes, because your players need to be on the same level.

Should magic have rules for a book/story? Maybe. Star Wars got by with very little rules, and we all know about Treknobabble. On the other hand, Brandon Sanderson pretty much runs his book on an autistic level of rules and systems, and they sell good.

Should ALL magic have clearly defined rules? No. That's entirely up to the discretion of the creator and the execution of the work.

True. My setting has math/physic formulas translated into magic, spaceships powered by mages, and all sortd of high tech weaponry and armors used by mages as well.

Organization and classification makes settings feel real user.

This is very true. You can't have a setting with curious thinkers without them trying to classify and organize magical phenomenon.
Have to realize that alchemy was a thing long before we knew what an atom was.

Sure, they are EXCELLENT for worldbuilding.

But worldbuilding and telling a story which I doubt any of us have done are two different things entirely.

I'm just saying, there are different uses for either having a complicated magic system, a magic system with only ground rules, and a magic system that's more plot-device than coherent (see: every wuxia movie ever)

I'm just saying, live and let live. If we want to criticize each other, let it be on the basis of having settings that are inconsistent than just because of innate principles.

How far has materials science gotten in the modern era? Is there any material today that could conceivably be used to create a suit of armor that would be much more effective in medieval combat than, say, crucible steel, or what have you?

>What is dark matter?
>What is dark energy?
>What is subatomic spin?
>What is the Mpemba effect?
>What is the origin of life?
>What is the Voyager problem?

And humans lived for thousands of years without an explanation for retrograde orbits, gravity, the procession of Mercury, or where birds go in the winter.

Throw a bunch of bizarre new principles on top of all that and it's not that far-fetched for there to be unanswered questions.

>live and let live
Running away from confrontation now are we? And excuse you, but I've told and written stories before. You can have a system that has rules and laws and hint at (or never tell) the readers/players. All that matters is that the logic is there to start with.

Just because we don't know things doesn't mean an internal logic to them doesn't exist.

Not really. The best they could do would be ceramic armor supported by a sparse metal framework.

Isn't nanocarbon armor a thing?

It just means that we often can't come up with something more to explain their origin than "spiritual mumbo-jumbo".

Oh, snap, I misunderstood his question entirely.

Yes, there are tons of things better than crucible steel. Aluminum would be my first pick, but then, I've got kind of a soft spot for aluminum.

I think what I'm trying to say is that we understand the basic underlying skeleton of things like physics, even if we don't understand some more advanced/experimental aspects.

So why does
>It's not like it doesn't have rules, there are just a few loose ends.
so thoroughly rumble your jumblies?

> Magic in settings that players will be in: defined rules

> Magic in settings for other use: do whatever you want

There is no need to argue.

Because that isn't what the user outrightly said at first.

It was the second thing I said, Mr. Grumpypants. This conversation could have been over 48 minutes ago if you didn't keep moving your goalposts.

>moving my goalposts
How?

>dude itz magick i don't have to explain it!!!1
>I hate this meme
Magic must be explained.
>magic should have clear, defined rules is all I'm saying.
Magic must be explained.
>If magic...does things "just cause" then it breaks immersion and therefore leads to a faulty system within the world.
Magic must be explained fully.
>Just because we don't know things doesn't mean an internal logic to them doesn't exist [disagreeing with an assertion that impartial explanations are acceptable]
Magic must be explained fully.
>I think what I'm trying to say is that we understand the basic underlying skeleton of things like physics, even if we don't understand some more advanced/experimental aspects.
Magic does not need to be explained FULLY, where'd you get that impression?

Aluminum is a shitty metal for body armor, that shit deforms when you strike it at the thicknesses required for plate and won't do a whole lot of good against piercing attacks. Aluminum shines as an excellent aviation material due to the stuff's impressive hardness-by-weight ratio, it's not body armor and never will be.

If you want *the best* medieval body armor out there, your best bet would be like said and make a composite with ceramics supported by a steel skeleton.

If you want something more medieval, the absolute best armor will still be made out of steel, however for maximum quality I'd suggest producing the steel with Electric Arc Furnaces powered by lightning magic or even lightning elementals.

I would like to join this debate to say this:
Things can be mysterious for audience, but they should not be arbitrary. Even if you aren't going to reveal all rules, you better have grasp on them so your depiction does not contradict itself.

Oh, and here's a word of warning; the stuff you're going to make with an EAF (Electric Arc Furnace) is going to be consistently superior to meme materials like Damascus Steel or Wootz Steel. Damascus and Wootz were high-quality back when steel was shit, the stuff you get out of an EAF is going to be high-grade, modern steel. Hell, I'd go so far as to say Damascus and Wootz are inferior to modern steel because the folds and bands were created to try and stamp out the impurities that were rampant during that time period's metallurgical processes.

If you want to add a bit of mysticism to the steel produced by an EAF, you could argue the elementals or magic bound to the heating rods imparts a tiny bit of magic into the material, making it slightly enchanted and thus able to hold/keep an edge longer.

Magic shouldn't be all-purpose plot grease

I will concede that because we do not know everything about the universe there can be some unexplainable things. However, those are very advanced and complex topics and the baseline and basic laws of a magic system must be internally consistent.
Also, what said.

>Aluminum is a shitty metal for body armor, that shit deforms when you strike it at the thicknesses required for plate and won't do a whole lot of good against piercing attacks. Aluminum shines as an excellent aviation material due to the stuff's impressive hardness-by-weight ratio, it's not body armor and never will be.

By the way, I also want to add that titanium is a pretty shitty metal for armor too; titanium is useful for the same reasons as aluminum (high hardness, low weight) but it gets the added luxury of being a very good alloying material.

Nickel, copper, titanium, carbon and chromium are all S-tier alloying materials for iron. I'd give you a full list from my metallurgy book of what they do but I left that at home.

There weren't internal rules for magic in the Odyssey, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Beowulf, the legends of King Arthur, or the tales of Anansi. Or Kiki's Delivery Service, Star Trek, The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen, Stardust, or Yeelen. Even Earthsea had unexplained parts to its magic.

My setting has basic rules for magic, but they're not required to tell a story or create an immersive world. They are secondary to the story, the world's feel, and the mechanics of the game. Not everything needs to be Mass Effect.

Magic-powered arc furnace is how my in-setting Forge God produces such high quality shit. Plus, it's the only way to smelt pure Orichalcum and Adamantite.

Made this with the guide posted in the thread about stealing maps from games.

What do you think senpai?

My elves were created when two gods tried to create their own sentient race, because one of them was ass pained that one god could do it on their own.

I would say they are fairly typical. They have pointy ears, live about 250-300 years, live near water, worship through music, can't use magic, can interbreed with humans.