Whether a Tabletop Game or not.
I'll start off with this. Reading the better Expanded Universe like the Illidan Novel and even bits of the games like Mists of Pandaria makes me say that Metzen and Co. have been swell at mapping out worlds for games to happen in. Just not so much as mapping out what happens in them.
>warcraft
>interesting
>all humans come from the same pseudo-medieval european kingdoms that with little to no variation in culture
Warcraft setting, while for the most part a pretty generic fantasy setting, was at least a fairly well written generic fantasy setting (up untill WC3, maybe vanilla WoW as well due to them not really advancing the plot much in that one), with pretty interesting takes on some standard fantasy things.
Even in WoW they've been pretty good at worldbuilding, they just suck at writing actual plot and characters these days.
That's a bit of a side-effect of WoW focusing so much on Strormwind when it comes to Humanity after WC3 happened. Other Human kingdoms (or whatever) that might be more distinct like Theramore or Gilneas have something to happen that kills that (like getting blown up or being turned into furry Night Elves).
I'm not gonna called it a poorly written series, but I've been reminiscing about the FFXII section of Ivalice for some time and that realm does NOT get enough waves considering how well developed it is.
I liked the old Lich-King, old orc shaman/warlock trapped inside an ice meteorite is a take with lots of character for a lord of the undead. Shame he became more generic by the merge with Arthas.
Warcraft trolls are pretty cool too.
And the Nerubians being a proper not necessary evil civilization that just lost against the undead onslaught instead of just big spiders pumped full of undeath. And the fact that the architecture the scourge uses is adapted from them.
Oh, and the old deathknights being orc shaman ghosts inside killed enemy paladins.
> Shame he became more generic by the merge with Arthas.
That got retconned. Arthas stabbed him to death while they were in Dreamland. The Lich King in WotLK is just Arthas stripped of his WC3 character (cracking jokes, protecting his troops) with glowey eyes.
Ok that is one step more stupid.
One thing I did like about WoW was how the Night Elves are just mutant trolls, and the High Elves are mutant Night Elves, and the Blood Elves are mutant High Elves.
Fuck elves. Fuck all the elves.
Oh my god, if you were even a slightly bigger grognard they'd put you in a museum.
I'll expand on my point for a moment, while we're going on settings popular in 200X, Final Fantasy XII was treated more along the lines fo a MMORPG in terms of worldbuilding compared to its predecessors where the setting was more often just a vessel for the story. There was a lot hidden in the bestiary entries and the lore, for instance, the Summons were fallen Espers that the Gods condemned for rebelling against them; the Gods themselves proper a-holes regularly trying to muddle with mortal lives and the course of history.
Then there's that fact that in creating analogues for typical fantasy races, they gave each one enough character to be their own thing. The viera are fetishized elves, moogles are non-combat dwarves, bangaas are your half-orcs but there are plenty of minor races as well. There's a job/class system in FFTA to flesh the racial differences out too.
They didn't scrimp on the beasts either, there's plenty of differences between the same species of wolf or bunny living in different climates. Some soak in the aether better, some camoflouge to their desert surroundings and those living in the jungle either develop poison/venom or a resistance to it.
It's all very well developed and when I'm done with a big exam I have in a few months I want to take all this material and try make a tabletop setting out of it.
Warlock ghosts but it's still metal as fuck
The warlocks were originally shamans, as was Gul'dan.
because its reduced into a retarded video game.
warcraft has a lot of cool shit if u have ur own headcanon and expand on the lore
Back in the lore before the WC3 era Warlocks/Necromancers/Shamans had blurrier lines between them. The Lord of the Clans game even has Thrall call up a bridge of bone and send Blackband's sons to a hell.
Please do, and come back with your results.
I always loved Ivalice as a setting.
I wish you the best. I found one of the few final fantasy rpgs out there that wasn't complete garbage and ran a game set in a made up country across the sea from ivalice. The main problem I found with FF rpgs is that people try very hard to accomplish levels of detail that would quickly be readable in the video games but slow as hell in tabletop.
I really love Ivalice, and FFT (and all its related games) but the game systems that exist do a mediocre job at expressing the system complexity without being somewhat of a mess on their own. If I had a more interested group, I'd take the time to polish some of the existing systems I've found.
>Humans descended from corrupted atomatons that were changed into organic beings, then further mutated smaller from the viking giants that were the intermediary.
>Stromgarde broken and no one remembers.
>Dalaran for all its elves is a Human city-state.
>Gilneas and its victorian britishness (I'm counting the worgen still.)
Kul'Tiras and its high seas trade and naval traditions lost with the bombing of Theremore.
>Southern Cape Pirates at odds with the Goblin Trade Princes.
>Alterac's ruined kingdom left to banditry and thievery, mixed feelings of the King's trying to do right by his people while his actions bringing about their catastrophic failure as an enemy to the horde and a traitor to the alliance.
There was a lot that could've been worked in, but wasn't in favor of focusing on each race's variation.
Thats not even true dumbass.
The 7 human kingdoms have tons of variation between them.
But WoW's Human storyline largely focuses on Stormwind with its Wrynn Dynasty. Other countries or otherwise important Human led forces were fragged (Theramore), neutral (Argent Crusade), or are enemies (Alterac).