>Three Starter Questions: 1. Are your seasons similar to the seasons on Earth? Does your world even have seasons? 2. Do you know details about the horticulture? As in, what kinds of plants grow where. Can you name plants that are distinctive to your world? 3. Agriculture. Who does it? What do they farm? What are common staples? Are there places that have yet to use agriculture?
Aaron Watson
>1. Are your seasons similar to the seasons on Earth? Does your world even have seasons? The world has no seasons because the sun has been mysteriously absent for the last 400 years.
>3. Agriculture. Who does it? What do they farm? What are common staples? Are there places that have yet to use agriculture?
There are a collection of farming communes east of the capital city, who respectively favor certain vegetables and crops. It's mostly quite oceanic food, and many of the farmers also have an interest in fishing.
Jace Ward
How is my map?
Isaac Watson
Hardmode questions: >How reliable is magic? Does it have consistent input:output? Are your magic systems fully fleshed out, or still vulnerable to deus ex machina (will of the writer)? >Does your story have a main character? How "main character" are their lives, with happenstance working out perfectly for them? Would Gary F. McCritic call your character a mary-sue? >If a mary-sue "did" exist in your setting, how much would their presence fuck things up? How durable is your setting's reality?
Bentley Phillips
I wonder if intelligent ants would make their own Formicariums
Isaiah Peterson
Seasons are similar except there is 1 extra season which is decided by the gods and they choose where to place it(generally between different seasons).
So sometimes you get lucky with an extra long growing season(by having spring or summer extended). At other times you get fucked by having a winter season pop up between spring or summer.
Gods can be dicks like that.
in science terms basically the gods shift the axis causing a change in seasons. Supposedly they can also extend days or nights but considering how much of a pain in the ass that is for how little reward they rarely bother.
as a matter of fact to a degree I can. As for unique plants...well what I do is organize it into natural and magical. A lot of magical plants were tinkered into existence by magi. So you have plenty of bizarre stuff with it too. Magical tinkering tends to leave a strong trace so its rare to find mundane plants that were tinkered with.
For locations of plants where I divided it into weed plants(which usually got dragged along) and by plants that were purposefully transferred(usually stuff that people will want to take with them and so on). I had to makes sure to separate them on their own from the native version and classify them to help with organization.
I will admit to ripping a lot of earth flora and fauna but the truth is making it all unique and made up on my own would be FAR too much of a pain in the ass.
This doesn't mean there aren't mundane flora and fauna.
Dragon Tongue Flower both named due to its rarity, appearance, and value. Its a mundane flower but only grows near dragon lairs for unknown reasons. Its highly valuable due to is medicinal properties. Dragons are known to be oddly fond of the flowers for some reason so you can often entire patches near their lairs.
Julian Murphy
>1. Are your seasons similar to the seasons on Earth? Does your world even have seasons? YES >2. Do you know details about the horticulture? As in, what kinds of plants grow where. Can you name plants that are distinctive to your world? Yes, I know quite a lot about horticulture considering my brother is a horticulturalist and won't ever shut the fuck up about plants whenever I'm around him. The only unique plants I can think of is Gildengrain (a high-protein form of wheat), dragongrass (a type of wheat that is only useful for producing *damn good beer*) and Sunberries, a type of grape that glows with an inner luminescence and produces Sunshine, the finest wine in the world. >3. Agriculture. Who does it? What do they farm? What are common staples? Are there places that have yet to use agriculture? The peasants, silly. They farm wheat, barley, rye, oats, even sorghum! Who knows fucking anything about sorghum? I do.
Magic is extremely reliable because it's based on math. The Universe is a computer, and by inputting the correct equation you get an output. This is why any Joe Schmo can use certain types of Magic Machines, because flipping a switch creates the mathematical equation. This is also how structures can maintain constant magical effects, because the equation is continually in a loop. Other than that it's a total Deus Ex Machina because, while the means of making magic are understood, the total breadth of what magic can do is not.
I don't have a main character because this is a setting for my turbo-nerd baby players.
Their presence wouldn't fuck things up because I've written numerous contingencies into each and every nation that makes simply one-manning it impossible.
Leo Hill
Hey, /wbg/, I'm trying to establish a history for my setting. The thing about history is, its all dependent on the bit of history before it. War on Terror is a result of the Cold War, which is an extension of WWII, which is WWI redux, which is the result of German Unification post HRE, and so on and so forth. Does anyone have any methods, programs, shortcuts, etc for developing world history? I want to be able to start a game at any point in the setting's history and have an idea of what's going on and why, or give players not-made-up-on-the-spot history should one of them dig into it.
Isaiah Harris
Make it up. That is literally the only way you can really do this while staying sane.
Start up a game of Crusader Kings 2 and let it run for a couple years on Observe, and after a while pause it and start writing down characters you think would make for good NPCs. Use these NPCs as a pool of historical figures for various events in your setting's history.
Jaxson Morales
All civilized groups and even many tribals do farm. Usual crops with the addition of crops valued for magical, medicinal, and alchemical properties. Technically I put those ones under cash crops for the most part.
A very common staple is highly dangerous/unstable locals is strange grain known as Ascon. Its actually a shrub like plant which fruits underground among its extensive root system. They are highly valued because of both its extreme sturdiness, how many edible parts it produces, and most of all its nutritional value. The only drawback is the fact it hibernates during winter meaning it produces very little during that time. The leaves of the plant are known to be edible commonly used in salads especially the young shoots as they are especially tender/tasty and it produces flowers throughout spring which are also edible. When steeped makes a delightful tea not to mention the flower petals keep awhile when dried out and they are shed naturally by the plant. During summer it will begin to grow berries that are both sweet and sour. They also keep a long while if you pluck them green. Problem is the less ripe they are the more sour.
Sailors fell in love with its summer berries and leaves because of how effective they are at keeping scurvy at bay.
When the berries ripen they are known for being very sweet but going bad much more quickly then its summer versions. On the other hand it ferments very easily and brews taking advantage of this quirk is quite common. Best of all the alcohol it produces is strong and keeps awhile. However enduring that strong sweetness and kick takes some serious getting used to.
The roots of the plant will create two kinds of growths. One is a pouch full of watery slurry the plant uses to keep itself hydrated during droughts. The other is a hard dry knob that is rich in nutrients. The plant uses this knob as a nutrient store. Away from biting insects above.
Jackson Turner
The hard knob is often ground into a flour because of how blasted tough it is even if you stew it for a long while. When ground you often end up with two kinds of flour. First portion made of its easier grind down components while the second is much tougher.
Millers are known to loathe the plant so much because of just how much of a pain in the ass it is for this reason and big reason why its rare outside of dangerous and unstable regions they hate it that much. In those regions however they grow to live it with because of how sturdy the plant it is. Its worth putting up in exchange for not starving even when armies march through your fields and raid your stores.
A big reason why farmers keep a significant portion of the plant underground still is due to both letting the plant stay healthy and grow better but also because...its a nightmare to get out. The roots are thick and easily grow back not to mention deep. A ravaging army rarely has time to stick around long enough to harvest the plants full stores(unless its a siege in which your screwed and probably have bigger concerns)
Often the second half is used as a feedstock for animals over winter and fattening which as it turns out its quite good at.
The flour itself keeps a long while so long as it doesn't get. You CANNOT let it get wet. Once wet fungi rapidly overtakes it if not dried quickly or turned into some kind of drink. Interestingly this is especially true for the first type of flour compared to the second.
The plant renowned for its difficulties make it rare in much more stable regions of the world due to the hard work it requires, but in those shitty parts of the world it is highly cherished for many of those same reasons.
Is an example of a common staple. As for places that don't use agriculture...yup. Like the nomads and those who live on ships long term. Also not all tribal groups have reached the agriculture stage. Yeah i spent a lot of though into it.
Matthew Turner
Nice map, but what´s the purpose of this hex overlay?
Nolan Turner
Your best bet is these two options. I am speaking from experience as I also learned this the hard way.
1 Start with pre writing and work your way there. Records are what matter in this case so you don't have to go beyond the point where records were not written. Takes a long fucking time but its amazing when you finish.
2 Rip from the real world and twist it to suit your setting. THIS is why real world rip offs are so fucking common. There is no shame at doing it so long as you don't suck too badly at it. Some nasty problems can crop up if you have stuff like magic because that shit fucks with everything so goddamn hard.
Given what you want you may try the which only works for typical euro settings.
OR number 1. I had wanted the do the same thing you did user and it took me for fucking ever, but now i got a setting that stretches from pre historic fantasy to soft sci fi it so it wasn't all bad.
I honestly haven't really found that many shortcuts besides using history and research if you want to go into that kind of detail. Good research can actually create a lot of shortcuts because of how much it covers and can simplify things.
Liam Ortiz
It varies obviously more common magics is more reliable because people like reliable.
Again depends on the magic in question. Some are nice and consistent...others not so much. For obvious reason consistent and reliable magic became more common then the other kind.
Most of the magic system is fleshed out but its pretty fucking complicated if you get away from the traditions of magic(which for obvious reasons are nice, reliable, safe, consistent, and so on.)
Deux ex machina magic is indeed a thing but also is the perfectly reasonable and understandable version. Deus Ex machina magics tend to either not be well understood or are legitimately that fucked up. In one case its because it hasn't been studied enough in the other case its because 'fuck that type magic'.
Setting itself doesn't the stories and mythos inside do. Happenstance tends to screw over main characters pretty hard its why they are main characters and had stories passed down about them.
For some of the mythology yeah some are pretty mary sue but you gotta be aware that those mythos stories often include gods and demi gods among other bullshit. Not to mention having things exaggerated as time goes no.
Even a mary sue must abide by a very simple rule. There is ALWAYS a bigger fish aka always someone better then you.
if you don't keep that in mind and act accordingly even the biggest mary sue is short lived. Setting literally possesses built in countermeasures as a big fat FUCK YOU if you ignore certain rules and try to fuck things up too hard.
Basically reality in setting is extremely durable and has countermeasures representing such.
Leo Jenkins
What exactly do you mean by pre-writing?
Jeremiah Evans
Your colors for biomes is shit also not enough rivers.
Samuel Brooks
The colors are a little vague but you can still tell the difference.
Also the river count is fine.
Camden Howard
>Are your seasons similar to the seasons on Earth? Does your world even have seasons? How does one define earth's seasons? There is a wet and dry season, and each of those is devided into a cold and hot season. Cold/Wet=Winter, Wet/Hot=Summer, etc >Do you know details about the horticulture? As in, what kinds of plants grow where. Can you name plants that are distinctive to your world? Asides from specifying crop regions, I haven't really started on that. I do know where the various crops grow, plains have grains, desert bordering fertile areas have potent spices, etc. >Agriculture. Who does it? What do they farm? What are common staples? Are there places that have yet to use agriculture? To some extent everyone, the elves are more hunter gatherers, but they do actually farm various berries and fruits for example. The imps insist on their raiding culture, but they do have ration level crop reserves. >How reliable is magic? Does it have consistent input:output? Are your magic systems fully fleshed out, or still vulnerable to deus ex machina (will of the writer)? My magic system is fairly complicated. It is a single element system, and all non religious magic is done through manipulating that single element in different ways. That approach is master level though. For initiate up untill that master level though, things are much more simplified, and works more like a traditional D&D magic system. At that master level the simplified spells become less effective and to get the same effect that those simplified spells had one has to use the advanced system. Continued
Caleb Kelly
>Does your story have a main character? How "main character" are their lives, with happenstance working out perfectly for them? Would Gary F. McCritic call your character a mary-sue? There isn't specifically a main character. Characters are inserted into worlds, worlds aren't made for characters. That being said, I do have a self insert character. While his life may be fairly maintained at the current in setting, things do happen to him, and things are never perfect. >If a mary-sue "did" exist in your setting, how much would their presence fuck things up? How durable is your setting's reality? Death is very much a thing, and as such, the existing of a character that nothing wrong ever happened to would most definitely break certain things.
Hunter Hill
>but what´s the purpose of this hex overlay? For a sense of scale.
Last time I posted a map without the scale I had autists getting made about there not being enough rivers even though at the scale presented there wouldn't be that many visible rivers.
Evan Rogers
EDIT: I guess spring is more warm/wet, thus summer is warm dry and fall is cool dry
Dominic Robinson
Where'd all the ice go?
Elijah Ortiz
Needs ice and alot more rivers and lakes. pretty good otherwise.
Jordan Rivera
Where do the Elder Things live?
Andrew Gutierrez
Old folkia
Chase Hughes
1. I've never thought about that. I just kinda went with the normal ones. I think I should really come up with something though.
2. Fellglow Wood is probably the most well developed place in my world. It's really a fucked up place where nature runs wild. Glowberries are common and can be used as medicine, but there's plenty of deadly plants, alraunes, and all that stuff. The interesting part is the trees. There's thousands of species but really two types. Those that convert acid to water, and those that convert water to acid. The waters in Fellglow are almost exclusively a powerful acid, but trees near the southern area feed off of that substance and turn it to water. Thus, the area's become unpenetrable except for the denizens within.
3. Agriculture is primarily a human thing with Orcs having their choice of hunting or raiding and elves being hunter gatherers. While the plants are all relatively normal, farms also have a lot of extra livestock. The city of Noveria is famous for their giant wasp honey and stuff. Further, there's a race of beelike people that venerate beekeeping as one of their most important professions.
Magic is something that's often trained, but it's something that does come from within. Most people lack enough magic in their body to actually cast anything, but there are those who lack any at all. These folks are known as Divine Conduits, and they're immune to direct arcane magic effects (So a magical wave of death won't hurt them, but a magically propelled rock or a fireball certainly will.) but divine effects such as demonic influence are far more effective on them.
The main characters kinda change up. It's a generational story. I don't think they're mary sues.
I think the world would be able to persist. In a way the villain is a mary sue, having thought on it, since the events of, well, the entire thing have been part of his grand master plan.
John Myers
>General premise for world. Gradually monsters started getting more aggressive, larger, new diseases appeared, crops stopped doing as well, etc, over the course of 2-3 generations.
A meteor fell from the sky, and in a 150 mile radius around that, things returned to normal.
Of course a lot of people moved into that area. Another 3 generations later, and things outside the bubble are so bad most consider it unlivable, but of course, some people still live there.
>Notes on map 1) Island where group A of humans live. Most live outside the bubble. They were originally elsewhere but had a naval base on the island, so here they are.
2) bay with shallow waters and limestone caverns. Mostly Group A humans.
3) City where group B humans live.
4) Where deer fey live.
5) where ram fey live
6 & 7) where the ghost people and fancy demons from the far north live
>notes on groups: Group A Humans: A feudal monarchy that is shifting towards a capitalist anarchy. Their ruling line is supposedly alive... somewhere, but is not present on their island. A lot of people live and work in the space outside the bubble and fight off all kinds of nasty sea critters, but they don't ever go fishing or sailing there as it is way dangerous.
>Group B humans A theocratic democracy. They have past conflicts with the Group A humans, but have an uneasy truce. They are allies with the Deer Fey.
>Deer Fey Short people with deer antlers with an oligarchical council government. Allies with Group B. They are known for their prowess in battle and are long time enemies with the Ram Fey. They are native to the region.
>Ram Fey Pretty similar physically and in culture, but have ram horns. They prefer archers and shield walls in their armies though, unlike the Deer Fey who are known for their armored shock troopers, flanking tactics, and raging berserkers.
>Ghost people technologically advanced ghost people from deep in the earth, driven to the surface by whatever weirdness is occurring.
Liam Powell
>ghost people continued They try not to get too involved in surface politics. They also have a latent telepathic abilities that varies per the individual, the strongest are generally put into their small but very elite army. The use an indirect government, and for the most part just live among their families unless they have a need to band together (such as things that involve their army)
>Fancy demons Grey skinned horned and tailed people from the far north. They are generally thin and agile. They have a bureaucratic republic for a government. They also really like art, architecture, fancy clothes, and fine food. They are considered foreigners by everyone. They previously didn't have an army because they didn't need one until now.
---
Terrible right? unoriginal too? I know my drawing skills on a trackpad are bad, but this concept has been bouncing around my head for a while
Tyler Rogers
oh yea on the map, green is for forests and beige areas are either farmland or empty space
I should have colored the water blue
Parker Collins
Crappy Inkarnate map for setting concept for judging.
Bentley Jenkins
When you say fey, are you going for Summer-Autumn courts style, or the more chaotic wild ones?
Jeremiah Gutierrez
Inkarnate has neat brushes and effects, but it's trash when it comes to coastlines and river systems due to not using fractal generation.
Isaiah Robinson
>How reliable is magic? Does it have consistent input:output? Are your magic systems... Not completely. It is more of a craft/art than science. While there is theory, it can't be fully used to predict the effect and it mostly depends on the user.
>Does your story have a main character?... Nope.
>If a mary-sue "did" exist in your setting, how much would their presence fuck things up... Depends on what sort of Sue it is. I don't think the sue would cause anything in particular.
The mountains seem bit weird to me - usually they form between tectonic plates and whatnot ( though that's not issue with strictly creationistic settings... )
Cameron White
WIP map. You get 1 point if you can guess the obvious inspiration It's obviously not!Middle-east/Persian Empire
Agreed, in the end I just decided to go with hex coastlines.
Oliver Price
>WIP map. You get 1 point if you can guess the obvious inspiration
>That spoiler
Nigga I was just about to say "Hey look, it's Persia."
Matthew Sanchez
The river system around Imperius Urbum. How does it work?
Landon Harris
How does your calendar work? Do different cultures/races have different calendars? Who invented your calendar? When was it invented? How is it divided (days, months etc.)?
Do you have a timeline for historical events? When does your timeline begin? Why?
Joshua Wilson
This relates to both adventure building and world building. I have the basic outline of whats going to go down and how it will go but what I want to know is how much is to much? When should I force the plot forward.
In context the adventure is about the PC's being decedents of the great houses of a dwarf hold.They are going to go reclaim it.
When the hold was at its peak it was the defacto power. It pushed the elves so far northwest through their unending hunger for lumber the whole linage almost died out. Humans were mostly trade based city states who paid off the dwarfs and whose power was closely monitored and kept in check. Basically no one else liked them but were powerless to stop them.
Then SOMETHING (I still haven't figured out what even though Ive spent a fucking week thinking on it) Ended the hold and the dwarfs fled. They mostly became wandering tribes the dwindled and dwindled to the point of being viewed mostly as gypsies. With the rise of humans and the return of elves they were actually banned from mining and smithing to now keep them in check and reliant on others.
In the some odd 1000 years that have past the elves and the forest have just regrown to their predwarf peek. Humans have coalesced into 3 major kingdoms. Mostly everyone still holds grudges against the dwarfs and NOONE wants them to retake their lost hold.
I want to flush out everything I can. Once the players get the hold back up and running I >*WANT*< them to try and contact the other races. I want them to go about finding food sources for their city. I want them to sign trade deals and deal with interracial politics. All the way from the lowly farmers to the highest kings.
But at what point do I have to knock it down and push them on? Whats a good amount of lore exploration and none fighting RP? Would it be better to leave most things to a dice role or have them actually RP it all out?
I dont want to put all the effort into everything if it wont likely be used.
Carson Butler
So I'm currently trying out this PS tutorial for old style maps. I've just noticed a couple issues, and though I've got a decent knowledge in the matter I'm not able to find a better solution.
1) Mountains look like shit. I mean, really. The paramecium thing just doesn't work, and it's an insane amount of lines just to draw a couple mountains. 2) Texturizer. There is no texturizer in CS6, and the other similar features (fill with pattern, pattern overlay style) just don't produce the same result as seen in the tutorial.
Maybe I'm missing something?
Jace Carter
>>Three Starter Questions: >1. Are your seasons similar to the seasons on Earth? Does your world even have seasons? Yes and no. I have the stereotypical Spring summer fall winter but they are controlled by the gods more than the sun. There are 4 gods. Each is "in power" for 201 days. 100 days where the season grows in power. A mid season solstice where its at its peek and then 100 days of decline. The seasons are pretty much planet wide. Year to year there are differences though and it all traces pack to the gods. If a god is distracted or ignoring the mortal world their season wont be as harsh. If they are in full swing carrying out their plans for their world their season can become totally destructive changing the world. If the god who controls winter gods to much it could lead to a deep freeze where mile thick glaciers form during the winter solstice. Then when the season pass "Normal" "physics" takes hold and the glaciers stay until they melt off over the course of years. >2. Do you know details about the horticulture? As in, what kinds of plants grow where. Can you name plants that are distinctive to your world? I WANT to. I dont know if I want to get that deep for the world and adventure I'm building. I dont want to create a whole 500 page botany handbook only for the players to go "Oh that's neat" and never look at it. >3. Agriculture. Who does it? What do they farm? What are common staples? Are there places that have yet to use agriculture? Humans grow the standard fare of crops. Elves on the other hand since they have been dedicated to regrowing the forest after the dwarfs logged it all do not. They are purely carnivores now. At this point now that the forest is whole they may slow down and taste the fruits of their labor.
Brody Martinez
Hardmode questions: >How reliable is magic? Does it have consistent input:output? Are your magic systems fully fleshed out, or still vulnerable to deus ex machina (will of the writer)? Yes theoretically. The problem is mortals have an extremely difficult time of figuring out exactly how powerful each spell or ritual will be. All magic is linked to the gods and its power is dictated by the seasons. A fireball on the summer solstice could destroy a whole castle. Preform the same spell on the winter solstice? You may be lucky to light your campfire. Most mages and ritualists just use the timing of the seasons and experience to gauge how will their magic will do. In reality all magic is controlled by the gods and they could make any spell do whatever they wanted. They just are to busy / lazy to care. The dont even notice the mage taping into their power to cast fireball. But what this means is the gods moods and what the gods are doing have a direct impact. This is why mortals just cant fully know. To mortals sometimes spells just sorta fail. Other times they expect to create a cup of water and they make a thunderstorm.
So in effect they are fully flesh out. I even have charts and rules for the seasons and if the DM feels like it to roll for gods being gods. But at the same time the DM could totally say "All your spells fail! You get stabbed like the bitch ass mage you are!" >Does your story have a main character? How "main character" are their lives, with happenstance working out perfectly for them? Would Gary F. McCritic call your character a mary-sue? The main characters are the PC's. I dont allow mary sues and my players know what I expect for them. If I spend 3 months building them a huge adventure the least they can do is give me a well thought out and planed character. >If a mary-sue "did" exist in your setting, how much would their presence fuck things up? How durable is your setting's reality? Gods would smite them. Because fuck them.
Anthony Lewis
That is obviously the middle east.
Jonathan Campbell
>1. Are your seasons similar to the seasons on Earth? Does your world even have seasons? They're just like on earth, but an ice age is approaching rapidly in present time. >2. Do you know details about the horticulture? Varies vastly by culture/geopgraphy. >3. Agriculture. Who does it? What do they farm? What are common staples? Are there places that have yet to use agriculture? Same as reality a thousand years or so ago.
>How reliable is magic? Does it have consistent input:output? Are your magic systems fully fleshed out, or still vulnerable to deus ex machina (will of the writer)? It's like how people used to think magic workes in real life - a combination of weird little rituals that beseech the assistance supernatural beings and people who've gained personal power by communing (and usually damning themselves) with such beings. The most "mundane" magic would have to be ritual sacrifice and offerings to ensure good harvests, while on the other end a powerful sorcerer might have learned how to (locally) grasp and bend the winds with his bare hands for some terrible price. >Does your story have a main character? No, everyone is just trying to survive while the world inevitably goes to shit, and possibly try to profiteer from the chaos or attempt to make the best of a bad situation for as many people as possible if they're good.
Anthony Edwards
Are there any advantages in the modern age, or even a future setting, for chemical lasers? Or were those just a necessary stepping stone to better technology during the 90s?
Logan Moore
Now with shity map since I literally just found this map tool. Probably wont use it again its a nice concept but its to bare bones and rivers are hard.
It took me 10 minutes to figure out how the sculpt tool and brush worked. I was legitimately getting mad. Then I just felt like an idiot.
Jacob Bennett
>How reliable is magic? Does it have consistent input:output? Are your magic systems fully fleshed out, or still vulnerable to deus ex machina (will of the writer)? It's very input:output, with many people in-setting relying on it like they would fire. Mucking up a spell is all the fault of the user, not the systems itself. Will of the writer would shift more to "you're not strong enough to do that" than "that cannot be done".
>Does your story have a main character? How "main character" are their lives, with happenstance working out perfectly for them? Would Gary F. McCritic call your character a mary-sue? There are a couple main character-tier people. The setting operates heavily on power levels, so they're not "can do anything they set out to do" sues but 'normal' people with a wealth of accomplishments.
>If a mary-sue "did" exist in your setting, how much would their presence fuck things up? How durable is your setting's reality? As I said before, power levels are huge in-setting. If something doesn't fit with the rules, it can't exist. Existences on the level of a Demi-God are among the most powerful, but they'd be no more than a Greek/Roman/Norse God dicking around in-setting doing little permanent harm.
Christopher Cox
I may be in the wrong here, but I think chemical lasers are better if you just want a lot of power and don't give a shit about weight and space.
Lucas Brooks
saucy on picture?
Anthony Thompson
So what you're saying is chemical lasers are too large to integrate the chemical canisters into power armor and use the laser as a futuristic armor-effective flamethrower?
Aaron Nelson
My drawing.
Henry Gray
>Are your seasons similar to the seasons on Earth? Does your world even have seasons? yes, though much of the climate resembles that of the western coast of the united states. >Can you name plants that are distinctive to your world? working on it. >Agriculture. Who does it? What do they farm? What are common staples? Are there places that have yet to use agriculture? Humans, halflings, Gnomes, and elves certainly do a goodly amount of farming. for humans and elves common agricultural staples are potatoes, Prickly Pear, and oranges. Grapes are grown along with a number of other fruit trees (like apples and such) Dandelions are grown and occasionally consumed but are largely grown for dyes and rubber. Halflings and Gnomes Grow wheat as their staple crop.
>How reliable is magic? Does it have consistent input:output? Are your magic systems fully fleshed out? I'm still trying to figure out how to integrate magic into the setting, at one point I had thought to just proclaim that "only the Gods can perform magic and those they gift with such power" meaning that the only magic users in the world would be clerics and paladins. but I'm trying to see if I can come up with something to incorporate arcane magic into the world.
>How durable is your setting's reality? strong as steel, one set law of the setting is that "reality is not a democracy" things are the way they are and no amount of insistence to the contrary will change a single thing "at least as far as the natural laws and such" no where is this more evident than with the Gods themselves, it does not matter whether they are worshiped by all or if not even a single person knows their name, their power remains the same. "so why do they want to be worshiped?" I hear you ask? well, they don't but can't seem to convince mortals to stop so they figured they could at least use that religion as a tool to instill good values in people, well except the bad ones.
Jack Perez
>How does your calendar work? It works like a calendar. >Do different cultures/races have different calendars? For a large part, not really. Names for things might change, but the overall calendar stays the same. >How is it divided (days, months etc.)? 360 days a year excepting skip years. Every 7th year, an additional 3 week month is added. 4 seasons, each containing 3 months. Each day is 28 hours long, and there are 6 days in a week. Four weeks in a month. >Do you have a timeline for historical events? Somewhat. History isn't kept well by most races. Even though he may be telling truths, the old man with stories of war is still a /crazy old man/. >When does your timeline begin? Why? Written history for most races starts only a few hundred years before in setting current day. There is a rich oral tradition that spans an additional couple hundred years beyond that.
Brandon Nelson
Liber Secundus: Chronologia Jahenis
“Ik gihorta ðat seggen...”
Years are counted from the foundation of the Empire (a.I. = ante Imperium conditum, p.I. = post Imperium conditum). The Hyperborean Age (Unknown-2,500 a.I. Circa): A time shrouded in myth and legend, little is known about the first of the ages of men. Far in the North, lived the twelve tribes Hyperboreans, in the perennial light of the Sun, blessed by the Gods. Hyperborea was much different from what it is today: a lush, verdant land, in which the immortal and semidivine Hyperboreans lived and prospered, under the benevolent eyes of the Gods, who still lived in Midgard in those times, close to the Hyperboreans, often manifesting themselves to the humans. This people was ruled by the divine Sun Emperor, Adam Keterim, aided by the ancient Lords, the sacred kings and fathers of the tribes of the realm, which formed the Sun Council.
Liam Price
The Betrayal (2,500 a.I.-2,400 a.I. Circa): The Hyperborean age would come to an abrupt end in the terrible times of the Betrayal. One day, terrible omens began to be sighted by the Hyperboreans. Blood comets crossed the skyes, leaving an eerie red trail behind them. Earthquakes shook the ground, making mountains collapse and swallowing entire cities in a few minutes. Rivers overflew, leading to devastating floods, followed by a torrid dryness. And most worrying of all, the gods had suddendly stopped showing themselves to humans. Something truly horrible had begun to happen in Midgard. Unbeknownst to the humans, the War of the Gods had begun. Just as the Hyperboreans were looking in awe and fear at the sky, bloodied by yet another red comet, Satan and his host of demons was laying siege to the homes of the gods, leading a vast army of rebellious angels and deities in the attempt to overthrow the Gods, and to blacken the Sun. In these dark times, Cain, now known as the Kinslayer, the Betrayer, the First Man, or the Darklord, was the brother of a prominent member of the Sun Council, Abel, and a respected warrior among his peers.
Luke Gutierrez
Suddendly, the Sun Emperor was overtaken by madness. He would have horrendous visions of death and destruction, rambling and screaming in horror, until he finally committed suicide by thrusting his own sword in his heart, with his death being the first of all; after this day, death became a reality for all Hyperboreans. Cain, witness to this horrendous event, began to hear a voice as well. But it was not a screming, incoherent voice like the one the now dead emperor heard; no, it was an affable, calm voice, speaking to him in a strangely fascinating tone. The voice told of the madness of the dead Emperor: he said that he had gone mad because of the realization that it was all a lie. Hyperborea, the Gods, even the Sun itself: nothing but mere lies and fabrications, created by a superior entity to rule over the humans as their pawns. The voice continued, announcing that a new age was about to dawn: an age where the humans, finally free of the shackles of lies, could rebel against creation itself, and turn it into their own kingdom. The Sun Emperor was too weak to bear this truth, and thus went mad; but Cain was not weak, no, he was strong, and this newfound revelation made him stronger, the strongest of all. Cain soon realized that he was not the only one who had received this knowledge: his nine closest friends (those who would later become the Council of the Nine, the rulers of the Demon Warriors) had already heard the voice of truth, and this revelation was spreading day by day, still in the shadow, and soon, a cospiration began to form.
Adam Brown
The Sun Council had decided to elect Abel, Lord of the tribe of Judah, as the new Sun Emperor. During the incoronation ceremony, Cain asked if he could crown his brother himself, and his proposal was accepted. On the balcony of the Imperial palace, the new Emperor stood proud, cheered by the crowd, and Cain began to walk towards him. But he had no crown in his hand: only his axe. As his brother turned towards him, Cain slammed his weapon into his chest, before decapitating him. As the people stood in horror, witnessing the act that would have started the first and bloodiest war in the history of Midgard, the followers of the Kinslayer, hidden among the crowd, revealed themselves, and began to slaughter everything that moved, man, woman, and child alike. It was a massacre. The following war raged on for a hundred years. The Hyperborean tribes were forced to flee from their home, now reduced to a scorched battlefield, settling other parts of Midjungards other tribes were utterly destroyed. At last, when all of Hyperborea was nothing but dust and ash, the last tribe, the Urhemes, one among the most powerful, left, as their Lord, Ur, stood and fell alone to protect their escape. They sailed southwards, towards the land now known as Jahen, and settled the island now known as Stillhet, in the northernmost region of the continent, thus marking the definitive end of the age of Hyperborea.
Zachary Cox
The Truce (2,400 a.I. - 2,300 a.I. Circa): The followers of Cain, victorius but severely reduced in numbers, stayed in Hyperborea. There, they proclaimed Cain emperor, as a mockery of the old Sun Emperor: he accepted this honor, and took the title of Darklord. The would-be Demon Warriors thus occupied the easternmost portion of Hyperborea: there, they rearmed and replenished their depleted ranks, in preparation of their campaign of world conquest. In these times, the tribes that escaped the onslaught took refuge in other parts of Midgard. The Atlanteans were the first to leave Hyperborea, and led by their holy queen, Máni, crossed the oceans and colonized the eastern coast of Erebhe, and founded what would become Atlantis. The Uranians, another tribe that had fled early in the conflict, arrived in the lands that would later become the Skydöm, and there they prospered, before the Time of Fires. The Arya, after a tremendous defeat by the hands of Cain and his men, escaped southwards and took home in Aryin, which they would leave only after the Time of Fires. Of the tribe of Ural, all that is known is that some managed to escape, but none knows where. Lastly, the Xiy, with their numbers terribly reduced, fled to western Erebhe, and slowly began to settle the continent. The fate of the tribe of Judah is unknown to this day, and the other tribes are known to have been utterly erased from existance, and their names are long lost to history.
Joshua Jenkins
Meanwhile, the Urhemes began to build a new kingdom in Stillhet: a great city of gold and stone, standing on earth and sea: and they called it Ásgarðr, a reflection of the glory of Hyperborea. The Gods began to manifest themselves again, for the War of the Gods had ended and Satan was cast down to Hell with his legions. It seemed that a new age of gold had dawned upon the Urhemes. In this century of peace, the Urhemes began to explore the rest of Jahen, and in the highlands of Serke, they found the colonies of the Atlanteans. In the decades after the Betrayal, Atlantis, the great city in the southeastern isles of Erebhe, had grown and prospered. The Atlanteans, unrivaled seamen in all of Hyperborea, had explored and settled all the isles and archipelagos of Erebhe, before sailing across the sea of tempests and founding colonies in the far land of Jahen. Gold and untold riches, brought from all parts of their kingdom, arrived in Atlantis aboard their majestic ships, which were said to be fast enough to cross the Sea of Tempests in less than a month. Under the leadership of Máni, their holy queen, who had taken control of the tribe after the death of her husband, Atlans, they shunned the old ways of the Hyperborean religion of the Sun, and begun instead worshipping the Moon as the mother of all the Gods, and most important deity.
Angel Hill
Of course, suspicions and tensions arose immediately after the two tribes: the Urhemes, a fierce warrior people, regarded the Atlanteans as traitors and cowards, who preferred to flee to the sea instead of holding their ground, and cared more about their coffers than their honor; meanwhile, the Atlanteans addressed the Urhemes as uncultured barbarians, only capable of killing and slaughtering, and who still followed a backwards, archaic religion. Nevertheless, a frail treaty of non-agression was signed by Abaris, the new chieftain of the Urhemes, and the Atlantean envoys, and the two powers co-existed in a state of relative peace. The treaty essentially divided Jahen in two: all lands North of the Hiren valley belonged to the Urhemes, while all the lands in the South were free to be colonized by the Atlanteans. But this peace was not to last.
Elijah Rivera
The Fall of Ásgarðr (2,300 a.I. Circa): The nobility of the Urhemes, like that of all the Hyperborean tribes of the ancient times, was composed by powerful warrior-mages. These men still knew the ancient rituals and formulas, passed down from generation to generation, to call upon the power of the Sun, and smite their enemies with the tremendous force of heavenly lightning. Traditionally, only men were taught the secrets of the magic art. But one day, in a small village in the outskirts of Ásgarðr, a young maiden, named Hymne, discovered herself having strange powers as well. She manifested magical abilities, but her sorcery was something other than the austere, rigorous magic of her forefathers. She could converse with the spirits of nature and the ghosts of the dead, and they taught her strange, dark witchcraft, different from all the holy rituals of the Hyperboreans. Hymne kept all this carefully hidden, but she had started to grow a strange reputation among her peers.
Blake Perry
It is a creationist setting, but I'm trying to keep it as natural as I can.
It flows north.
Adrian Peterson
In what used to be Hyperborea, the army of Cain, now known commonly as the Demon Warriors, had been slowly rearming and replenishing their ranks. Their numbers were almost those of the times of the Betrayal, and they had built a mighty fleet, in order to spread terror to all the lands of Midjungards. One night, in a dream, Cain saw a most beautiful woman, her eyes and hair as black as the night, her sorcerous power second only to her beauty. Thus, Cain, with the help of his most trusted dark sorcerers, set up a ritual to estabilish a psychic contact with her: and thus, in a vision, Hymne saw him, the Darklord, a great warrior clad in black and blood red armor. Hymne was entranced by this vision, and after conversing with him, they agreed that she was to travel to Hyperborea, her ancient home, and thus meet Cain. With the power of dark sorcery, she crossed the sea, travelling above the waters on a cloud of fine mist. And Cain saw her appear, even more beautiful than in his vision. Love bloomed between the two immediately, and Cain proclaimed her to be her queen, and married her in a sumptuous ceremony. In her time in Hyperborea, the sorcerers and magicians of the Demon Warriors instructed her in the dark arts, and found that she was indeed gifted in their practice. In less than a year, she was more powerful than most of Cain's magician, and was able to call forth the darkest and most potent of powers, such as vampirism, undeath, and summoning of dark entities.
Jack Hughes
But it would be a mistake to think that black magic corrupted her heart. Although she was surrounded by evil and darkness, she was still a kind and good-hearted soul, and only wished to use her powers to do good. Over time, and after much effort and discussion, she managed to convince Cain that perhaps, peace was a possibility. Although he was profoundly doubting, he agreed with her wife's plan: she was to comunicate a message of peace to the Urhemes, so that a truce could be negotiated between the two nations, and Cain had accepted to call off his rampage across the world. One merely needed to look at them to understand how profound Hymne and Cain's bond was: it was said that the could see with each other's eyes and feel what the other felt. Thus, riding on the ocean's tide, Hymne returned to, and proclaimed her message of peace. Her heart was kind, but naive. Upon finding definitive proof of her witchcraft and learning that she had consorted with their hated and unforgiven enemy, and that she had even become the wife of their dreaded leader, the elders of the Urhemes were outraged. After a mock trial, they sentenced her to death for high treason. Abaris, High Chief of the Urhemes and now Lord of Ásgarðr, personally set fire to her stake. The legend says that the fire had to be ignited three times before the witch finally died; and Cain saw it all, through the very eyes of her wife. Her tortured screams echoed in the depths of his mind, and he could feel Hymne's soul, prievously so pure and so kind, be overtaken by hatred and contempt, screaming, begging to be avenged in blood.
Benjamin Cook
As Hymne, the Wytchmother, met her end, Abaris, now a very old man, gave a speech. With his strenght still flowing mightily in his veins, he addressed his tribe, and made them remember. He made them remember of all those innocents who had been slaughtered, more than a century ago, by the hands of the Kinslayer. Addressing directly Cain, he solemnly proclaimed that against all, the Urhemes would stand proud, in rememberance of those they loved, and they would never bend their knee to his hordes. One night, a thousand hundreds of black ships were sighted in the waters north of Ásgarðr. The hosts of the Kinslayer had regained their former strenght, but the Urhemes had also managed to create a truly formidable army. And indeed, a terryfing battle it was. Thunder cracked the skies, and horrible chants of dark sorcery were uttered in the wind; they say that the very Gods visited Midjungards for the last time on that fatal day, as they gave battle to the monstruous demons that accompanied Cain's army. The Atlanteans, when asked, refused to help the Urhemes, and did not interfere in the conflict. The warriors fought on land, sea, and air, riding migthy eagles on one side and devilish gargoyles on the other, without a moment of pause, for ninetynine days.
Justin Brown
And on the dawn of the hundredth day, Ásgarðr was no more. The surviving Urhemes, some thousands of men, fled across all of Jahen, with the army of the Demon Warriors too crippled to pursue them. Of a host of millions, barely a hundred survived, and among the ranks of the slain there was Cain. He was pierced by Abaris's blade, as he delivered his own final blow to the old chieftain. With his final words, Cain officially created the Council of the Nine, and he congratulated them and all his warriors for their deeds. Then, just as he finally emitted his last breath, the Earth opened in a blaze of hellish fire, swallowing Cain's body, and dragging him down to depths of Hell itself. The Demon Warriors settled the island of Stillhet, calling it Sh'ol, the Grave, and on the ruins of Ásgarðr they built the dreaded Enoch, the Black City.
>Should I continue?
David Young
please dont
Isaiah Bailey
What did you use to make this?!
Daniel Cox
Does anyone remember the cyberpunk setting Veeky Forums made a while back where the premise was that the Japanese bubble never burst? Anyone have a primer of sorts for what went down in that setting or something like that?
Tyler Rivera
whoa, what program?
Camden Hughes
Been working on trying to visualise what Hardsuits environments might look like with the current WIP.
In this case a city built into huge mineral deposits, encircled with a relatively shallow, corrosive and mineral rich water (might it be incredibly alkaline, enough to require specially reinforced hulls) I'm sure geologists will roll their eyes at the things required for that to be but I just based it off an image of a large mineral deposite
I'm also thinking that a specialised vehicle in these environments might be hovercraft? or vehicles designed to cover very large, flat areas. Are there any real life examples for such things I could put a twist on?
Isaac Robinson
Fuck, I'm jealous of your art.
Andrew Davis
...
Jason Baker
furry scum
Josiah Butler
Um, MS Paint, and MS Publisher. the coastline was done using Donjon's map generator. but the colors and terrain features were done in MS Paint, pretty much by hand, then a hex overlay (which was not easy to find online as a bitmap) was Copy-pasted in, the labels were then done in MS Publisher, so that the original map can be re-labeled as needed.
Jaxon Green
>Should I continue?
No.
Sebastian Harris
You went all Moebius with those buildings, huh? It's cool, though.
Adam Perez
Given the non-real line in the sand nature of country borders, what sort of natural obstacles can serve as a border? All I can think of is mountain ranges and bodies of water like rivers.
Michael James
Forests are another good one, particularly if they're a dangerous nomansland.
Aiden Sullivan
There's also deserts (very resourceless/hard to exploit), forests, swamps perhaps, oceans, lakes.
Carter Kelly
So are these hard borders that can be occupied and defended if necessary, or a void where nobody resides because of the harsh environment?
Brayden Gutierrez
There are no such thing as "hard borders". For that, you'd need a sea coast or to build a wall.
Wyatt Barnes
Or not? I could just really like his art and wish I had the same talent, without being a dick about it?
Ethan Clark
Working on the world while chomping down on pizza. Feels good to be a fa/tg/uy right now.
Landon Williams
Can someone give me a quick 'for dummies' rundown of how Europe operated before the Treaty of Westphalia, as far as nobility/government goes? I think I mostly understand it, but I'm still kind of trying to wrap my head around it.
Angel Scott
In a manner to determine how populated my world is/should be, have some questions regarding population. >How big are the more populous cities in your world? >What's the average distance between cities >How urbanized is the population? (citydwellers to villagers ratio) >What's the average number of kids people have >How much land is unclaimed/barely populated
Aiden Young
>Does anyone have any methods, programs, shortcuts, etc for developing world history? The trick is that recorded history doesn't go back very far. Even today, we only have a complete and accurate record going back about a thousand years. Beyond that, the distinction between legend and fact breaks down more and more the further back you go. Like you've got Roland, who lived in the 700s and was a companion of Charlamagne, but he's supposed to have had a magic sword that cleaved a mountain in half. I mean, that's some crazy shit, and he was one of the more prominent people of his day in a western European country. And by the time you get to maybe 3000BC, it's basically all conjecture. Even primary source evidence from that era didn't distinguish between reality and religious myth.
And that's with modern archaeology. For most of time, people didn't know shit about the past. For 99.9% of people, all you knew of the time before you lived came from stories your grandpa told you.
So for worldbuilding purposes, particularly in a pre-modern setting, you don't need a detailed history to go back very far at all.
Nathaniel Morales
Mirabel, at 200k souls.
20:80 ratio.
Average number of kids is 3.
Average distance is 100 miles.
I'd say about 10% of the land is barely populated or unclaimed. Why wouldn't people expand where they can?
Logan Gonzalez
Bump Most of the homebrews I see here usually are fantasy, any of you have sci-fi settings? Want to give a short summary of them? Try not to make them 6 individual posts like some people above
Jaxson Long
>How big are the more populous cities in your world? The two largest cities are analogous to Greater LA and Greater NYC >What's the average distance between cities? This is not necessarily between cities, that distance is several times this, but between city and town or town and town is the following: *By foot, a full day (predawn to close of business [12.5 hours+ stops for picnic/trail lunch][averaging a 20min/mi pace,]) so 100mi max (on average between places large enough to have an inn/tavern for resting the night) *By horse starting at the same time, a 10 hour trip at a trot. If an urgent message requires, a horse can gallop the distance in 3 hours, but then that horse pretty much can never be used again. >How urbanized is the population? (citydwellers to villagers ratio) 40:60 >What's the average number of kids people have? 2.7 in city, in farming communities 6.8 >How much land is unclaimed/barely populated A good chunk. Bands of outcasts and thieves roam those areas.
Adrian Bailey
New-ish worldbuilder here, I've made one or two settings but they're pretty lackluster; what sort of details do you put into / expect from nations?
Name, system of government, capitol city, other important cities, primary imports/exports, secondary imports/exports, important political figures, important landmarks, history?
Eli Price
Ok! But what about them mountains? I've seen those before I think.
Jose Long
>How reliable is magic? There isn't "magic" per se in my setting, but I do pull some crazy things with biology that might not hold up to actual physical scrutiny. Having photo-synthetic animals is one such thing.
>Does your story have a main character? Since I admit my setting is actually being built for the purpose of a novel, yes, there is a principal cast. Most of them actually lead pretty harsh lives, all concerned, and those that aren't are mundane. There's a couple who have things pretty squared away for themselves, but one gets a lot of that status quo ruined for her, and the other was explicitly designed to straddle the Sue line purely because of how fun he is.
>If a mary-sue "did" exist in your setting, how much would their presence fuck things up? They would have to be magical and/or in order to manage that. The baseline for people in this world is your average human, and that's also about the upper limit. And like in our reality, people can die, and often do, in shitty, random ways. Even a preternaturally lucky Sue would eventually run out of luck.
Carson Brown
You know what, make my ratio there 30:70
Gabriel Nguyen
I have my near-future DOOM-Hellgate: London rip-off, if that counts.
Jeremiah Wright
>>How big are the more populous cities in your world? The main focus city before it fell was 10 million strong. Now capitals are a million or so. Cities 10,000 to 100,000. small towns in the 10's or 100's. >>What's the average distance between cities A week by road from city to city. A day form town to town. Walking of course. This means rugged land has them closer together. >>How urbanized is the population? (citydwellers to villagers ratio) Evenish with leaning on villagers. There are only 3 capitals. Besides the capitals and a few of the bigger cities its all farming and supporting the cities. >>What's the average number of kids people have Rich - How ever many to get a son than no more. City folk - One rarely two Farmers - As many as the wife pops out to work the farm. Half will die and half of the survivors will move to the cities. >>How much land is unclaimed/barely populated If you dont count farms a metric shit ton. If you count farms not that much. The northern wastes mostly. Over the course of the history there were always people spreading further and further out. It will go on until there is just no unsettled land.
Austin Johnson
>How big are the most populous cities in your world Roughly between Paris circa 1784 (600,000) and Rome circa 1 AD (~1,000,000) >What's the average distance between cities 150-300km >How urbanized is the population Roughly 35% of the population of a given region will be urbanized >What's the average number of kids people have In the harsher climates of the world, large families of 7+ children are common due to necessity. In the more tame climates and regions, the average is about 3-4. >How much land is unclaimed/barely populated Roughly 45% of the surface remains barely populated. Mostly due to sacred treaties between the mortals and gods to keep special areas free of mortal intervention.
Carter Perez
Right, then, /wbg/. Pic related.
Flags, emblems, coats of arms, royal seals, religious icons--all of that stuff. If you got 'em, show 'em off. And maybe give a little blurb on what thought you've put into the design.
>What colors are present? What do they represent? >What is the intrinsic meaning in the symbols? Why do people recognize them and/or respect them? >How did these symbols become significant to the people who showcase them? What is the history behind them?
Ethan Cook
I haven't actually drawn any flags yet, but I do have a layout for the flag of /The Crystal City/ (its a nickname for the city, it's actual name is yet to be determined) Light blue double half reverse pennant (See ICS A or B flags for shape) background with a gold scale (as in weight) with a soft green crystal in one pan and a feather balancing it in the other pan. The feather is on the side twords the pole.
Andrew Roberts
And I forgot to answer the questions in >What colors are present? What do they represent? See previous. >What is the intrinsic meaning in the symbols? Why do people recognize them and/or respect them? The scale represents trade, as the crystal city is effectively the center of transportation. The crystal represents the iconic city it's self. The feather represents several things. One it is a floating city. Two, flight/transportation. Pretty much all of the airship yards are in the crystal city due to the intricate magics that make them work. Three, it represents that Magic can make the weak strong. >How did these symbols become significant to the people who showcase them? What is the history behind them? Pretty self explanatory there.
Ryder Ward
I have come to the knowledge that the shape is a reverse guidon
