Worldbuilding General /wbg/

>cranberry used in UTIs
whoa thanks, I need some random remedies like that for a story I'm writing.

Look up Utahraptors, that is probably what you are looking for.

what did people use for rat poison in the middle ages?

Arsenic? Probably some poisonous plants?

Cats.

>What's a creature you think is particularly interesting?
Sudsduck
A magically altered species of waterfowl which has bred in the wild. Inhabiting wetlands and swamps, they primarily feed upon invertebrates and water-plants. These birds are named for their strange response to threats from predators. When facing attack, Sudsducks spit an irritating solution similar in makeup to bubble soap. Like spitting cobras, they commonly aim for the eyes of an attacker. When building their nests in the spring, sudsducks coat their nests and eggs in this solution in order to make them distasteful to predators.
>What wildlife flourishes in cities or other settlements?
Common Slime
The common slime is a detrivore and scavenger which thrives in cities and settlements. These colonial organisms ooze their way through alleyways and tunnels, scrubbing organic material from the ground and dissolving refuse as they encounter it. Although the slimes show a certain ferocity in devouring anything smaller than a mouse, they are too small to cause lasting harm to a human and shy away from large moving objects. When two slimes meet, they merge together in order to swap genetic information. After 3 to 5 minutes of swapping, the pair will split apart into four smaller slimes which immediately busy themselves with finding food.
>What regions have the greatest biodiversity?
The greatest biodiversity would probably be found in the region around and within Gigadrasil, a mountain sized tree which contains such creatures as grublike rodents, giant dart frogs, and flying fish.

Anyone using Paleozoic fauna in their games?

>Gigadrasil

Nice try Ymir you peace of shit

I'm trying to find the term for something used in worldbuilding. I've been calling it "internal magic".

I define magic as anything unrealistic, but not necessarily anything unearthly. If a fantasy world has its own kind of potato with no particularly special properties, I wouldn't call it magic. But dragons, fantasy metals, vampires, monsters, most non-human races, are all considered magic in my book.

There's a certain kind of magic (unfortunately common) which generally seems to come from within people. Almost all settings with spellcasting use this "internal magic". Harnessing any sort of inner potential to exert it onto the world in an unrealistic manner, like shooting out fireballs or tricking another person's brain or summoning something. Most settings seem to use some form of it. What do you call this?

I really don't like it, it's inevitably flat and unoriginal and I cringe whenever someone describes their magic system

I think you're looking for "Innate Magic". Personally, I find Learned spellcasting much more boring in a tabletop context. It's inevitably never explained "why" you can throw fireballs just by studying thermal dynamics and being smart, and very few writers go into enough detail to sell that sort of casting to me.

Innate spellcasting is interesting because it involves a very logical sequence: Wizard wants A to happen. Wizard concentrates/meditates/spirit-walks/etc. A happens.

That being said, any magic system will be flat and unoriginal if no effort is put behind it.

I'm talking about spellcasting period. Whether it's innate or learned. The power comes from inside of someone rather than the magic being an external tool that the someone operates.

If I was to implement "casting", it would pretty much just be explosives and firearms made of fictional substances and apparatuses, or unexplained artifacts that the user does not understand the nature of, they only know how to operate it.

to further this post, this system implies that the caster is a lesser being than their casting devices, they're using the creations of either nature or greater beings to be superior to others of their own kind

Okay, I think I get what you mean. There are other ways to "cast".

>Alchemy - spellcasters imbibe potions crafted from mixing magical ingredients, allowing them to magically enhance themselves (ala Witcher).

>Rune Magic - spellcasters draw mystic symbols and magic circles which cause magical effects either in the world around them, or bound to objects or people of their choosing.

>Patronage Magic - the spellcaster gains traditional spellcasting by making a deal with a supernatural being, be it a God, a Devil, an Eldritch Nightmare, or a Fey Monarch. Their power is borrowed in return for service and favors towards the Patron.

Your system most reminds me of the Witcher; not the spellcasters of that world, but the Witchers themselves to a degree. Relying on outside magical forces than their own.

Yep, this is what I like and roughly the idea of how some of the magic works in my setting. I lean more towards science and alchemy.

Humans and other sapients are lowly creatures living in a world they inherited from far greater beings that they have little to no knowledge of, and they rely on overly pretentious and religious explanations when it comes to trying to understand the monsters, artifacts, and substances in their world. All exposed life is inherently flawed and mortal (even vampires, the highest of mortals), and the higher beings and their story would never be exposed or explained for obvious aesthetic/atmospheric reasons.

The setting is meant to scorn the concept of fate and destiny, external magic helps to emphasize that. It implies that humans and kin are weak without shoving in gods.

>*tips fedora*

But more seriously, I like the anti-destiny theme. I think it works well in a tabletop environment so long as the dice don't decide to follow tropes themselves.

Even if he's using the scientific names for convenience, a "Utah" raptor might still be stretch. I think the most effective thing to do would be to shorten the name to "Raptors" for the entire group of animals. And then to specify the type or size, you can just include the relevant setting info, like "Western Forest," "Great Plains," or "Dwarf Chimney" Raptor.

whipped this up in paint real quick

>What's a creature you think is particularly interesting?
The vulture bee. It makes honey from rotting flesh. I did not make any of that up.
>What wildlife flourishes in cities or other settlements?
Carcosan wolves congregate in particularly corrupt and/or hedonistic cities. Opportunistic omnivores, their fur is a pale yellow and their bodies are bloated with gases, letting them practically glide along on spindly legs. Besides howling, Carcosan wolves also produce a wheezing cackle when amused.
>Tell us about an apex predator in your setting.
Pigaphants strongly resemble elephants, but their teeth give away their porcine ancestry. As much of a predator as a grizzly bear, pigaphants utilize their trunks to bring down whatever walking meat they take a fancy to and let their trotters do the rest.
Hard Mode
>What's a common domesticated animal in your setting? How is it different from its wild relatives?
Bacon dogs are utilized by the Dog Braves, an inbred mass of humans from the exotic south. Three feet tall at the withers, they're strong enough to accept a rider, their milk can be fermented into a strong alcoholic beverage, and when need be they can be slaughtered for their meat and hide. Unfortunately the species is as dimwitted as it is tough and so tends to wander far from home. This means there's a ton of isolated villages that utilize the animal as often as they do pigs and poultry.
>What species are at risk due to the actions of humans or humanoids?
Slightly dumber humans and humanoids, I guess. Not many of any race to begin with.

DMD Mode
>What's a keystone species in your setting (i.e., a species with an outsize impact on maintaining its environment, such as beavers, otters, or mangroves)?
Crater trees are the world's only source of living steel. Growing up to 150 feet tall, their boughs droop to the ground, weighed down by orbicular leaves that can be used as dinner plates or hats when needed. Crater tree sap naturally ferments when exposed to yeast on the tree's bark, producing an alcoholic beverage that's quite sweet and resembles cider. The fruit is an ellipsoidal drupe and forms the staple of many diets. The roots are incredibly long and do much to keep the soil in place. Both root and bough shelters countless animal species, and crater tree forests form the backbone of the temperate rainforests that dominate the planet.

>What regions have the greatest biodiversity?
The temperate rainforests on land. In the water? The leviathan falls are tied with the volcanic vents.

If a civilisation is able to create vat-born supersoldiers (Physicaly sturdier and stronger, smarter, better reaction time, require less sleep, the works, just not superhero status), do you guys think they would be capable of upliftig animals to 'smart as a human' status?

I understand I could handwave it, but I was reading through some of the lore in Eclipse Phase (Reading lore from other sources but in my genre helps my thinking process) and that shit's real complicated. Just dunno if it matches up, I guess.

I mean, it's all bullshit asspulling, but still. I like consistency.

Supersoldiers would just be perfected gene editing mixed with cloning. For an animal to be "as smart as a human" it would need a larger brain with systems to support it; would be easier just to grow not-so-super clones with cat ears.

Nah mate. Supersoldiers is just remixing what's already there. To uplift an animal, you'd need to rewrite their entire genetic and biological structure. It's an order of magnitude more difficult.

>interesting creature
A bone marrow infecting parasite that takes control of its host from the stem cells. It then makes slight mutations to the creature and reproduces by biting into the bone of other creatures. It takes the intelligence of whatever it bites. Putting this creature into a person creates a sociopathic husk of a person who is as intelligent as whoever they were before the Bone Taker took them. Intelligent people would start donating bone marrow and sneaking into people's houses to bite them etc. The Bone Taker rewrites your DNA so that you have harder, sharper teeth to bite into bone as well. It can repair itself as well, making it a parasite that was wiped out by the galactic government, except for the setting, which is an exile prison planet.
>city wildlife
Most cities and towns are kept free from all wildlife and in some cases not domesticated and hunting animals. Most societies look at animals as only a source of food or pests to be dealt with. Dogs are alien or unheard of, but lizardlike and catlike domesticated hunting animals are often used as dogs. Pack animals are kept in stables.
>apex predator
The Tyrak is a 3 story tall invasive creature that reproduces in scales of 3-100 (depending on scavengers and other superpredators). Considered invasive and wiped out (except for the prison planet), the Tyrak has endless rows of teeth and a large fin. It's pink and tan colored, and is amphibious. They tend to live in lakes and on the oceanside, but other superpredators exiled tend to keep their populations constantly moving. Their main competitor is a smaller cousin species of superpredator, the poisonous and fire breathing Tyrork, also exterminated and exiled because of its incredibly high reproduction rate and size. The roar of this thing sends people into hiding, and some smaller settlements of 10-60 people will abandon their settlement entirely if they hear this 3 foot story tall monster of high density meat would come at them.

Trying to start a LotFP game and I need a little help. Start year is 1642, start of the English Civil War and a dark ritual has torn asunder the veil between worlds and ported in Halflings, Elves and Dwarves not only in the British Isles but all over the world as well, adding some half million of each race to Europe, N America, South America, 1 million to Africa and the Near East and 1.5 million to East Asia, SE Asia and South Asia.

Focusing on the British Isles and Europe, where would you have these demi-humans appear? I sorta want them appearing enough to withstand most (though not all) attempts by the local humans to either eliminate/subjugate them as well as possibly carve out petty kingdoms themselves. Thoughts?

>Worldbuilding General

I could in fact use some help on something:

I'm currently interested in fluffing/fleshing out a "high end" level monster; The Bronze Colossus.

The Bronze Colossus is a creature of Elemental origin; like their smaller cousins made of iron they pop out of the ground as fully formed adults, ready to establish territory and wreck havok on any civilized society they encounter. Bronze Colossi are chaotic neutral, anywhere from 35-40ft tall and can come in both masculine or feminine/androgynous forms (pic related, Bronze Colossi booty). Bronze Colossi are immortal, do not age, do not need to eat or breath, but they need sleep (the one need for all earth elementals), they are also midly intelligent: intelligent enough to leave animals alone and to not take offense to primitive animals, they are also intelligent enough to use tools, but their intelligence is very alien due to their elemental lineage.

My questions are is followed:

-How difficult would it be to kill one of these things? What would be able to penetrate/damage their bronze?

-Should they be hollow or should they have metallic insides (bones, organs, etc)? This is a general question for all my planned metallic elemental humanoids.

-I plan on having their metal be of extremely high quality and purity- jealously coveted and hunted after by blacksmiths looking to make the best equipment, treasures, etc. This isn't really a question, but just something I want to see if you guys think is an interesting or fun idea.

Throw them in one of those tiny valley areas like Switzerland or San Marino.

San Marino is actually a large hill/small mountain, and that is fine on mainland Europe, but what about the British Isles? I'm thinking Wales, Cornwall, some of those English swamps, Scottish moors and mountains, Irish isles, etc.

None on the British isles. If they can exterminate all the wolves they'll exterminate all of the demi-humans.

1) It should be monstrously difficult to kill something made of bronze. Only good steel weapons could hurt it, iron is worthless.
2) I'm inclined to say hollow. Personal preference.
3) Makes sense. Bronze was always a super-valuable metal.

Thing is is that it is also the start of the English Civil War/War of the Three Kingdoms. I'm thinking at least one faction would (the factions were the Free Irish, the Royal faction, the Parliamentarians, and the Covenanters in Scotland) would try to absorb them and use them against the others (after all, this is a sudden surge of 'people' who don't understand a lot of the intricacies of what is going on and could be fooled to back one faction or another in exchange for 'favors' to be paid later as well as food and shelter in the short term).

Then put the Dwarves in the Scottish highlands. Fits the trope "Dwarves have Scottish accents" and gives the Scots some fancy Dwarven claymores.

>Give Halflings to potato niggers
>Give Elves to incestuous royal fucks

>Do they call them Velociraptors in your setting too?

Nah, just cockatrices.

>dark ritual didn't port in any demi-humans
>just converted people into caricatures

I might just do this. Let's see, the Covenanters pull the Dwarves to make some armor and weapons in exchange for the lands north of Loch Shin.

Halflings are absorbed by the Irish and Parliamentarians (depends on where they appeared) and granted their own shire.

Elves appear in Wales and claim the Isle of Anglesey and the part of Wales known as Snowdonia by backing the King.

Idea doesn't seem bad. I can't speak about how tough the metal itself is, I'm not in know about that sort of thing. But it'd still be pretty fuckin hard to kill something that's that big and that smart.

Depends on the insides you want. My personal preferences would probably be making them solid, having internal machinery, or regular/weird organs with super-heated bronze blood.

Having a sword made from the flesh of a bronze colossus does sound pretty dank.

Guys what would make a basis for a cool hard sci-fi wargame? Tanks, helis, exoskeleton soldiers, robot tracked soldiers, drones.

Do you guys like the idea?

World war 3 caused by Donald Trump and Putin

China is the main fighting force behind Putin, and Russians begin crazy science to try and make the war effort works. Except this time, it works.

China would not back Russia in a war against the US since the US is their absolute biggest trade partner. It would crash their economy.

That said, they would probably work covertly for them, try out their new subs they've been working on or something.

Well I mean... I'm gonna have my own lore but... ok.

Just wanted a hard sci-fi wargame that takes place in the solar system.

Oh, an existing one? I thought you meant making a new one. I just thought that if it was in the solar system it could work pretty well to make it in the near-future as a form of hard scifi

I think China can revamp it's economy instantly by selling all of its goods to Chinese people instead.

How? They don't have enough purchasing power to do that.

Purchasing power is only backed by US currency. They have all the labor, land, and capital in the world to do commerce with themselves. The only reason why they aren't providing for their own people and providing the US with our crap is because US businessmen keep them at the cusp of a world war if they don't. Right now, we have the military tech to beat them the fuck out if they try anything.

sage for /pol/

Is there any other reason anyone would willingly consume cranberry products?

Is "living steel" different from ordinary steel?

>What would be able to penetrate/damage their bronze?
Any material that's harder than bronze, I guess. Iron, steel, corundum.

>Should they be hollow or should they have metallic insides?
I'd say metallic insides. It potentially makes fighting them a more interesting experience.
>I cut up the monster's leg!
>There's nothing in there.
It's like the world's saddest pinata.

>coveted and hunted after blah blah blah
I like it. I say go for it.

Makes me think of Talos from the old Jason and the Argonauts movie. Big bronze bastard with what looked like molten bronze for blood. Might be good for inspiration.

>sage for /pol/
Hah, you think I even frequent that cesspool.

No, China does trade with most of the rest of the world and want to break out from under the US but not at risk of collapsing the world (or rather their) economy, which is what a new world war would do. At most, China will wait until the vast majority of it's trading is with neutral powers at best before working it's way down from the American market.

Also, China's economy is starting to slow down right now.

>The rate of economic growth of the Chinese economy has started slowing with fears of an impending hard landing of the economy.The slowdown manifested in industrial regions as excess capacity in basic industries such as coal, steel, and cement, in the auto industry as reduced sales.

>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_China

Monstrously hard to kill is exactly the kind of difficulty I'm going for, so it's good to hear that. Though, I don't intend on making them "exceptionally" intelligent; the idea is they should be able to throw things, use debris as improvised weapons, and not take offense to animals or people too primitive to use metal items.

As for what it's inside I think I'll go with:
Hollow body.
Hot, molten, metal/oil for blood.
Precious elemental gems for organs (heart, brain, etc)

With that out of the way I have two more final questions:
-Would salt water "hurt" it? Like, I don't expect it to rust just by itself since it's "alive", but would salt water or even a salty breeze 'sting'?
-Would it be able to withstand lava/magma?

I'm asking because in true Argonauts fashion: I like the idea of them occasionally being woken up and "birthed" by volcanic eruptions before they wander off to claim a territory, befriend the primitive locals and viciously defend them from pirates/colonists.

That or Dwarves digging too deep and too greedily- opening up a chasm and having a long, massive, metallic arm reach out from the darkness to squeeze the life out of the miners before it's entourage of smaller metal men rush through the cracks to storm their fortress from the inside out.

>Would salt water "hurt" it? Like, I don't expect it to rust just by itself since it's "alive", but would salt water or even a salty breeze 'sting'?
This is a picture of a bronze bust from Ancient Greece. It was found in a shipwreck in 1903.
Time and seawater will discolour bronze, but it doesn't really hurt it.
>Would it be able to withstand lava/magma?
If it were simple bronze, I'd say no. But if you do go with the molten interior, I'd say it would make sense.
As an alternative, have it be a living furnace. It isn't molten inside, but it does have a fire burning at its heart. It survives by eating flammable materials, be it wood or something really tasty, like alcohol or coal. Most instances of it attaching people are the result of it searching for food.
When it's well fed it gets faster and can actually burn people who touch it. You may even have it breath fire.
However, this comes at a price. When it's furnace it running hot, it's actually a bit easier to damage since the metal gets softer.
When it's hungry it gets slower, but it's much, much tougher.

Just throwing out ideas.

>Time and seawater will discolour bronze, but it doesn't really hurt it.

So are you suggesting OLD Bronze Colossi would be some black, discoloured, and horrifying as the picture you've shown? Because I could see that being fun and or acting as a good visual indicator of an extremely experienced Colossi.

>Just throwing out ideas.
I like it. It's a really nice idea. I'll take it and translate it into the following:

-Bronze Colossi are happiest and most active when their insides are kept hot and molten: deep underneath the earth or in the volcanoes that awaken them, they keep their elemental insides at a constant comfortable temperature. Colossi when they're hot are softer, faster, more flexible, etc.. Hot Colossi are vulnerable to damage as their metallic bodies become more "flesh-like", but they gain speed and agility.

-Bronze Colossi on the outside world can become irritable and agitated when deprived of the heat they crave; their molten blood becomes thick and heavy making them sluggish and denser, which motivates them to either consume large quantities of combustible fuel -despite not needing to eat- or to seek appropriate warmth. Cold Colossi are nigh invulnerable and akin to fighting a literal solid lump of bronze- they are however very slow.

I'd apply these characteristics to all elemental metallic men, but I also like the idea of Bronze Colossi and other lesser metal men taking dips in hot lava or magma so they can soften themselves up and basically heal/reforge their dents & wounds.
Could also be used as a Berserk phase/button: The Bronze Colossi has had enough of you hacking at it's ankles, so it begins to fume and steam out of it's mouth before it glows, wafts with visible heat and gets "serious".

What are some interesting things that I could do with snakes? I know that some species are aquatic, there are venomous ones, and that others can glide through the air for a little bit but I want to know if there are any other strange ways these tube reptiles could develop.

I would be interested into going for a fairy tale-esque game, to the T. I'm planning on naming it Fairy Tale, because for some reason, there is not TRPG called Fairy Tale, which is almost insane.

Currently there are three races, I feel like I don't need more, due to, well, Forestfolk being several races in one package.

So there's Humans, of course. Fairies, wouldn't be a true Fairy Tale without them. And then there's forest folk, basically the animals from fables, except they're mostly bipedal and can use tools and weapons (Think Puss in Boots, basically).

So currently, Forestfolk has: Rabbits, Foxes, Mice, Bears and Owls.

I'm thinking what kind of races should I add. Any ideas? Wolves are obvious but I feel they would be kind of antagonistic more than player characters.

So, when I say fairy tale fantasy, I mean whimsical, noblebright game with no tricks in that regard. It's supposed to kind of challenge the current trend of making everything dark, gritty or miserable.

So if you can imagine the most greenest meadows, the whitest horses, shiniest armor and the bluest robes, you have some sort of idea what I'm going for.

Any interest, suggestions?

Whoops, obviously, there's also cats. Why would I mention Puss in Boots if there are no Puss for the boots?

Lizard lions were aligators in GOT

Cyberpunk setting. Curosant/forge world equivalent

>What are some common remedies to illnesses and injuries? Do they actually work?
Rust flakes and rubbing alcohol will counteract silicon wasp stings. Naturally this doesn't do anything but scav-clans maintain the practice helps.

Higher tiers of society believe that you can reduce or eliminate organ rejection by simultaneously implanting some sort of cybernetics- that the false nerves and synthetic parts will somehow take the body's attention away from new organs and allow them to graft. Again there's no real logic here but success or failure are just hard enough to consistently prove that people believe it

>What's an old wive's tale from your setting? A common superstition (related to health or otherwise)?
Rejection syndrome isn't real. It's just a little song and dance put on whenever they take somebody to the Machine Heart: True and false, full and immediate prosthetic technology's not 100% there yet, sometimes the human mind really can't handle the change, something goes just a little wrong in the process or the sight of their own body/the weight of a new one/not being able to go back will just break them. The fact that it leads to rapid mental decay and death is just too convenient however, and the powers-that-be have indeed stolen people and left a faulty clone in their place to publicly malfunction when the need is great enough.

>What's the life expectancy of an average person in your setting? Why?
45 on average for 95% of the population. The near total lack of available work and the absence of outside entertainment means that the bottom rung of society frequently turns on itself. Murder and suicide are fairly common, sickness and injury are not

For the minority able to afford augments there's no upper limit. However accidents, planned obsolescence and over specialisation catch up with people. Death statistics spike in the early 100's and then again in the late 2 to early 300's

check this out: abookofcreatures.com/?s=snakes

Does anyone have some general advice on how to approach worldbuilding from a creative POV (rather than a player POV, if that makes sense)? My priorities have shifted over the years and it would be very interesting to hear how you guys approach a newly-formed idea for a world.

Plan it like a scifi world, starting from temperature, terrain and climate. Then try to come up with interesting architecture that complements the climate, and then come up with culture that would spring from that architecture.

I guess.

Is this just for a sci-fi setting or do you apply this to fantasy as well?

...

>"experimenting" means something completely different in WIZARD COLLEGE

I've never built for games or campaigns or such. I just build for fun and the need to build. It's where my interests merge together. History, religion, philosophy, psychology, art and all the things between them. I read or see some dank shit, I get inspired and worldbuild.

For me, there are no models to follow. I don't have any policies. Everything is very disorganized. I get an idea, big or small, and I write it down. Although, sometimes the process might be as logical as puts it, yet sometimes not.

The most important thing I've found to be is, write every idea down. On paper, on word, on google drive -- wherever. Just write it. And never delete anything. You can move them aside or dump in some graveyard folder, but never delete them. I recently browsed through some disregarded notes I made over two years ago and found some cool shit and concepts that I now looked at a completely new angle and found interesting.

This turned out to be a very superficial post, but whatever.

Yes, fantasy, too. Emphasis on
>like a scifi world
Really, just think about the interesting background elements (for me it's architecture, for someone else it might be clothing, for someone else it could be traditions) and figure the world around those elements.

That way the setting has kind of an element of sincerity, because all the things have a root.

I've decided that my vampires need to eat a bit so that they have enough calories.

The jist of their system is that their blood is altered so that their heart can transmute it to whatever their body needs, fulfilling most nutrition and repair far more efficiently than the human body. However, they have to maintain it with a constant supply of clean human blood. Blood with alcohol or diseases flowing through it will ruin the vampire's blood and cause their repairs to go haywire and become ugly mutations. Human blood is also their source of energy, so an old hibernating vampire can go months without blood while an active vampire warrior will have to drink blood multiple times per day to maintain their physical activity and repair wounds. Their heightened stamina and regenerative abilities obviously make well-fed vampires superior fighters to humans, but a hungry vampire will be deprived of energy, mentally unstable, and unable to respond to injury.

Their digestive systems are very sensitive and they are disturbed by salt and spice, which can easily make them sick even in small amounts, leading to spices being used as vampire repellant. Flavor in general makes them sick, and even after eating bland food they can become sick if they move the wrong way.

What are some good foods for picky and allergy-ridden vampires to eat? I'm looking for stuff that is really flavorless and calorie dense. Currently thinking raw vegetables and nuts. Eating would be pretty rare for most vampires, about a meal a week.

What're some slurs for individuals grown in vats, like clones or whatever? I've had the idea for a while, but I'm stealing part of Eclipse Phase's idea by having them by suplemented with tech so after being 'born'. Varies from model to model.

Anyway, Eclipse Phase uses the term 'pods' which works I guess, but isn't quite what I was looking for. 'Tubies', as in test-tube babies, sounds like something a middle schooler would say. Anybody have any other ideas?

How can you tell the difference between a clone and a "real" human at a glance? Most insults are simple physical observations IE: Ginger, Darkie, Whitey

You can't tell on a glance if someone is a homosexual, but words like faggot still exist. If there's a prejudice against them or some kind of difference even, there would be slurs or just colloquial names.

Does your setting still has canned food?

What do you guys think of this?

>> jrients blogspot it/2011/04/twenty-quick-questions-for-your.html

> Twenty quick questions for your campaign setting

I'm not sure how I feel about that. Vampires being unnatural, magically animated creatures is a huge part of their schtick.
Vampires are typically depicted as being undead, so needing to eat comes across as odd.

But to answer your question: fats/oils/lard, nuts, whole grain pasta/breads, and, surprisingly, avocado.

Most of them have visible seams, like metal plates. They're, like, 50% robot, which is more than most people. They only live until they're about 30.

I don't see why they wouldn't. I'm not really into whole 'food fabricator' thing anyway.

>I don't see why they wouldn't. I'm not really into whole 'food fabricator' thing anyway.
Maybe call them after those, since they were pulled out of vats.

Sardines, or something.

Some of this are not actually requiring forethought for answer. Adventure-friendly villagers always have blacksmith services and so.

Don't forget burrowing (likely the reason they lost their limbs in the first place).

Oh shut the fuck up you libricuck

Small scale conflicts, proxy wars in third world, corporate warfare (Corporations always have best toys in sci-fi) would probably make more sense than legit World War III, because WWIII would just make people wonder why don't anyone nuke someone already?

In a world full of monsters and magical dungeons, would humans be the uncontested apex predator that live all over the world or would they all live in walled off towns and cities with guards patrolling the boundaries?

Oh man, the book of creatures is absolute gold for world building involving fauna and monsters

Depends on the kind of monsters we're talking about. Humans have put some pretty fearsome beasts to extinction in our own world. If the monsters fill a similar niche to humans, then the score will probably be settled in prehistoric times unless humans socially+technologically advance much faster for some reason.

I think humans are smart and cooperative enough to wipe out, displace, or suppress far more dangerous monsters than they ever came into contact with on Earth.

In my setting I eventually reasoned that vampires would be the only threats big enough to keep humanity isolated to towns, other than dragons in regions which are too primitive to kill them off. Mountains make dragons hard to track and kill so dragons mostly occur in mountainous regions.

They would either live in walled off settlements or every citizen would need to become at least as tough as a low level adventurer to prevent giant shrews and frogmen from devouring their livelihoods and lives during the night.

Living steel is from a Pathfinder supplement called Ultimate Equipment. It's a green metal that's slightly tougher than normal steel but harvested from trees that absorb just the right kind of minerals from the soil. Living steel objects actually heal themselves over time.

You totally stole this from the modern fantasy generals didn't you

>it would be very interesting to hear how you guys approach a newly-formed idea for a world.
Well, that sorta depends. Are you still trying to come up with the initial idea for a world, or do you already have that and you're wondering how to move forward from there? If it's the latter, then just skip the first part of this post.

I like to start by figuring out what I want to do different from every other setting. It might be something I've seen over and over in a bunch of different settings, for example, and I set out to make a world that doesn't play by those rules. My current setting, for example, is designed to avoid the "fantasy setting based principally on medieval Europe" and "setting with magic stagnates at Middle Ages technology" standards. Something else that could works is looking at a setting you like and trying to emulate it without purely imitating it, or a setting you don't like and figuring out what they could have done different.

Once I've got the skeleton, I like to start with the small stuff. I think about a few towns or a few individual relatively ordinary people who live in the world and how their day-to-day lives might go. It helps me flesh out a setting that feels real and complete, a place where lots of people live and work and play, instead of one that's just a setpiece for the PCs. This helps build the culture of an area.

From there I build the politics. I think about how the different towns and cities and countries interact with each other. Are they friendly? Are they hostile? And why? If they trade, who produces what? This can result in changes to the cultures of the individual regions, which in turn results to changes to their relationships.

From there it's a lot of tweaking and gradual addition. Every time you change something big, figure out the little things that would change as a result.

Sorry if this isn't super helpful.

>What's a creature you think is particularly interesting?
>What's a common domesticated animal in your setting? How is it different from its wild relatives?
The House Giant, a particularly dimwitted creature used in labor and as a beast of burden across the continent. It's omnivorous and can eat spoiled food, allowing it to be keep fed on a shoestring budget.While only able to communicate in simple grunts and gestures it can do a variety of tasks, freeing the labor pool for other jobs. However certain groups ban the ownership of house ogres, believing it to effectively be slavery.

>What species are at risk due to the actions of humans or humanoids?
Ancient automata (warforged) used to populated large portions of the continent but were destroyed by colonists and adventurers, a part of the plot is that an earthquake has opened up ancient tunnels and more have started causing trouble. the party recently wrecked an underground forge that was churning them out.

>What's a keystone species in your setting (i.e., a species with an outsize impact on maintaining its environment, such as beavers, otters, or mangroves)?
Wild Boar/feral hogs, their prolific breeding rates allow them to support large populations of monsters.

>Wolves are obvious but I feel they would be kind of antagonistic more than player characters.
Moreso than bears and foxes?

What about beavers? The little architects of the forest?

If you're not limiting yourself to animals that live in temperate woodlands, I've got some other suggestions.

what are some good sources of inspiration for some unique creatures in my setting? i'm mainly looking for really creepy/unusual insects. honestly a bunch of articles on really weird bugs and stuff would be perfect

Something I'm doing is using modified version of long-extinct animals, like trilobites and synapsids.

If you're looking for weird insects, check out the episode of Life about them, as well as the Life in the Undergrowth BBC series.

Though if you can come up with something weirder than real-life stalk-eyed flies, I'll be impressed.

Also this: youtube.com/watch?v=Z3BHrzDHoYo

I linked A Book of Creatures above. It has creatures of every kind from mythology. It's great!

abookofcreatures.com/

I feel like my setting could use a kingdom with a 10th century Spain influence

How so?

Why not? 10th century Spain had a lot of shit going on, most involving El Cid

But how, specifically?

I mean, most places during most time periods have had "a lot of shit going on". What is it about 10th century Spain that you think would enrich your fantasy setting?