/WBG/ - Worldbuilding General

Okay, it sounded like you said that only Fantasy has plot hooks.

I plan to since there will be plot progression outside of the PC group
>There are multiple death cult who want want the final Age to come and kill everything
>Certainly non human factions use the split as a Casus Belli on everyone else
>Humans doing human things aka butching each other and other people
>one villain might cause an Eclipse event
>God's angels do interact with mortals every now and again
>Elemental denizens want to invade
etc

What's the most important thing for you to pin down in a new world?

your mom

For me?
Internal consistance of the fundamentals

A flag so the natives know it's your land now.

youtube.com/watch?v=RImVPqpIqvo

...

No, but seriously? The shape of the world.

My current process
>Universe creation
>Creation myth
>Map (currently from a puddle i saw)
>factions
>politics
>plot hooks
in that order

Define Universe creation.

How the universe works ie in my world for DnD
>Godrealm
>5 elemental realms that "rotate" around the mortal realm, and whos influence can wane or flow
>Death realm where all things end up - aka matter bin
>Void/Chaos/Abyss/Dark Matter which is the glue that sticks everything together

The Valdir are a strange folk. They claim descent from two other races, the Elves and the Dwarves (whatever those are). They claim that when the previous world was dying, their predecessors combined their sorceries and sciences to create a machine that would carry their legacy into the future world. Books, culture, weapons, songs, everything that made them who they were. But the form that magic took in that long-dead world did not work as it does today, and so when the device reached our present-day world, it instead created an entire race wholecloth.

It sounds like mad-talk.

Despite this eccentricity, the Valdir are an otherwise noble and sober people. Their crafting of armor, weapons, and high halls is unparalleled, as is their splendid wines and ales. They stand tall, very tall, and are strongly built besides. If it were not for the fey-appearance of their faces, and the eerie grace with which they seem to move at all times, one might confuse them for one of the greater races of Men, or Giants. The fact that so much of their craft is infused with magical power makes it no wonder their simplest devices and arts shame all who would compare to them. If indeed the Valdir are of two races, then it appears they received the better traits of both.

Live, damnit!

A techno-disease is spreading across the galaxy. People in the millions are being converted into souless machines. The plague's only upside is that you become incredibly strong while infected, as well as having increased mental processing speed. The disease takes exactly 1,001 hours before your soul is completely consumed and you cease sapient thought, becoming little more than a human-shaped calculator.

The only cure is to drink the blood of a Star-God. Are you bad enough to go kill one and take its blood?

>>Do you like to mix your Science Fiction and Fantasy worlds?

Indeed. Ever since the Technomancer was release in the UA for 5th edition I've been trying to imagine a setting with magitek computers.

Basic ideas include the settings quivalent of the internet being a plane of existence that can be entered the same way one can go to Baator or Celestia (and both having similiar influences on this space as well). AI being tech elemental sprites born from the technomancer's magic all while interweaving the old timy village on the frontier except your woodsman is armed with a rifle or a high tech Bow that fires arrows filled with alchemical concoctions.

If I want a wall of text to read, I will open Wikipedia.

Lordran is from Dark Souls.

As the deus ex/ macguffin weapon, hows this sound?
>An ancient sword, found buried within a rock at the peak of Olympus mons
>The hilt is all earth materials, leather, iron, steel, But each piece is dated to different eras ,cultures and nations
>For example the iron pommel is dated back to the vikings, and small norse runes can be found at the base
>But the blade is crafted from an element which does not exist in the solar system.

Rad.

>Do you like to mix your Science Fiction and Fantasy worlds?
Aesthetically, yes. I like anachronistic worlds, where mythological mindsets, superstition and traditional feudal/ancient/tribal societies exist along side certain high-tech (usually soft-sci-fi) technologies. That said, the fantasy elements in this case come from perception of the inhabitants, rather than being actual magical objects in the world.
What I don't really like is "magi-tech" or setting where actual MAGIC and mythological objects share space with sci-fi rules and speculative elements. In general, mythological logic and speculative logic of sci-fi don't go very well hand in hand in my opinion.

>What elements of Sci-Fi are you most okay with appearing in an otherwise Fantasy setting?
See above. Fiction should always make up it's mind whenever it's fundamentally speculative or not. While their aesthetics can mix, their internal logic should not.

>Do you allow Lightsabers/Laser-Swords of any variety in your worlds?
No. As much as I like Star Wars, light-sabers are a stupid fucking idea and don't improve any kind of settings except Star Wars obviously.

>What's the most important thing for you to pin down in a new world?
Tone, atmosphere, aesthetics and sources of inspiration, fundamental overarching theme.

I generally think that for good world-building, you should always wrap your head around the theory a bit. Figure out what you are doing, what kind of rules do you wish to establish, what type of story do you want to ultimately tell through your world-building.
It should not be just a plain exercise in re-arranging established genre tropes. World-building should still have some kind of meaning or greater intention to it.

>Do you like to mix your Science Fiction and Fantasy worlds?
Scifantasy is where it is fucking at yo.
>What elements of Sci-Fi are you most okay with appearing in an otherwise Fantasy setting?
The speculative nature of scifi as applied to magic and the mystical. I love me some magitech and exploring societal implications of a given thing's existence. Also fuck it throw some space travel in there while we're at it.
>What elements of Fantasy are you most okay with appearing in a Science Fiction setting?
If we're taking a strait scifi setting and adding fantasy, I'd say some subtle magic. Just that hint that the unknown boundaries of physics and reality actually have ancient mystic roots. And a little strait up magic, even if we have to call it radiation for it to fly past the censors.
>Have you ever gone full Science Fantasy or seen a tabletop game take place in a Sci-Fantasy world?
I am in the process of it yes. Do all of the starwars games count for part 2 of that question? I know those.
Hard Mode:
>Do you allow Lightsabers/Laser-Swords of any variety in your worlds?
They're a thing, haven't gotten to the rules for them yet though. They chug the gasoline/electrical fluid magical analog like fucking no tomorrow.

Dante Must Die:
>Your designated "Bad Guys" in-setting now have laser-swords. What happens?
I'm that guy who always lists ghibli as my main source of inspiration for this setting. Who else but the bad guys would have a fuel guzzling hyper powerful weapon? Matches well with their giant suits of full plate with industrial sized canisters of magic strapped on the back (for the enhanced strength and force fields).

Wow way to have a completely different view on magitech than me. Wanna fight about it?

>Wanna fight about it?
If you are interested in being beaten around the head with smug literary and narrative theory from the perspective of a person who does not understand the idea of "just having fun", sure. Bring it on.

Nah bitch, I'll meet you in the parking lot after the thread.

I've been cribbing a lot of ideas from Xenogears and have grown fond of the idea of a massive colony ship breaking apart and becoming the various dungeons of the setting people people they were built into the places they were at weird angles and what not rather than realizing that's just how they fell to the planet.

Another theme I'm working with is that each part of the ship had something going on with it that contributes to it's theme such as the engine section that allowed for the colony ship to travel across space and is generally maintained by an AI. Cue several thousand years and the damaged AI and still working magitek warp engine has created a space time anomoly that becomes a special dungeon filled with lovecraftian mechanical horrors.

This also explains how a lot of the monsters and races besides humans exist because a part of the ship that regulated the evironment within basically went unchecked and started created mega fauna/flora and became a God of Nature in the form of a giant tree with glowy electrical bits.

>wanna listen to my autism speak?

no

bump

I'm at an impasse. I designed my races so all of them would be very different both mechanically and mentally - but now I keep thinking, what's the point? No one knows shit about my setting, and since I've given everyone ample cause to take different races for mechanical reasons, I've set myself up for "human with pointy ears" characters all over the place.

I could make only humans playable... but the other races are supposed to be everywhere.

Races let you get off with gimmicks which are admittedly racist but a lot of fun that you can't pull off with just the human races.
See Star Wars and the Hutt race and various other races. Aside from humans, most races are pretty gimmicky and one tone but it helps a lot in making the setting fantastical, interesting and most importantly fun.

Let me put it this way,
Do you want to play an eagleman from not!America who works as bounty hunter?
Or you will settle for playing a human from not!America who works as bounty hunter?

I'm sorry, but I really don't see how any of this addresses what I said.

can you guys get to the point already

I go with assumption that players will probably play humans only, at least at first go. I mean, they are basically adventurer-bait to begin with. Other species are quite bit different, so I would encourage it, to sorta explore the setting rather than being dumped information about how they behave and so forth. ( been thinking of doing comics with the setting )
Use them as NPCs.
Nothing wrong with that, personally.

It's 2001. It's been two years since the all out nuclear engagement that occurred due to the soviets responding to the Able Archer 83 exercise in 1983. The old titans that ruled the world are gone. China, The United States, The Soviet Union and its satellites, and finally the NATO member states lay in irradiated ruination. New nations rise out of the fallout to find their purchase in this new world. Tyrants and despots rule most of these new nations making the monsters that led the "Old World" look like children.

This is the back drop for your adventures. Survive and make your mark on this glowing new world.

You guys think that be a good "hook" for my players tomorrow? Trying to get them into something other than DnD.

Sounds like Twilight 2000

Did you draw that user? its bloody alright

Yes, I draw things.

blog?

floatrand.tumblr.com
Don't really do much other than post whatever I happen to make.

>I go with assumption that players will probably play humans only, at least at first go.
>players will probably play humans only
>humans only

Not gonna lie, I wanna kill you, wear your skin, and play with your party. Because mine all gravitate towards pointy-ears and "optimized" races like goddamn magnets.

wtf m8

Not him, but I've seen you a lot in these threads. You got some good shit user. Keep that sweet, sweet content flowing.

$5.

I weep for the plight of the starving artist, who is subject to the whims of deviants and plebeians so he may make a living.

yeah, poor Michelangelo who stooped so low as to take commissions for a living...

>yeah, poor Michelangelo who stooped so low as to take commissions for a living...
From the CHURCH

>Adjusts fedora

>It should be the size of india.
>It looks like a small island.

What am I doing wrong?

using inkarnate

It's the scale of your features.

You mountains and trees are too big. Not the ranges and forests, but the clipart itself.

The rivers aren't nearly numerous enough for the scale you're talking about (and they're too straight at that scale) see the pic.

Your coastline is also far too smooth for the scale.

Yeah, Inkarnate is only okay if you don't care.

For comparison, here's what India looks like from orbit. You can *see* the mountains and forests, but not any details. Also not that you can't even see the largest rivers (though you can see the deltas).

R8 the map I'm working on.

Is that the whole world? If so, how do you get what look like hot deserts in the south and ice in the north? Is the planet tipped away from the sun year round? That might be a cool setting, actually, but it would yield very high north-bound winds (as the air circulated from warm to cold) and you wouldn't have traditional, earth-like seasons anymore.

I can't really figure out how the plate tectonics work either. I don't see any mountain ranges that would be formed by plate bumping against each other and the unbroken chain of land in the middle-south looks odd, I'd be tempted to delete it.

Overall, a really good start, but I would do some-post editing after using fractal noise generation.

No, it's just a single continent in the northern hemisphere. So, let's say that the map is about 4000 by 4000 kilometers. 4000 km is sort of the distance between Scandinavia and North Africa. Would it be unreasonable if there was tundra in the north of this continent and a more desert area in the south?

So I have a problem.

Last night I was talking to one of my players, and he mentioned that he really likes maps. They give him a concrete sense of immersion and place in the world, and he specifically complemented other games we've played in for maps, as well as saying that the first thing he did for our upcoming campaign was to add a map so we can be "more immersed."

This player is one of two in my group who I feel aren't as engaged in the others, and I now think that part of the reason is likely the fact I don't have a concrete, visible map. I have an extensive one in my head and described, but I think this particular guy is having trouble getting a sense of place in the world without a visual.

Now, the normal solution to this is to google "D&D Map Builder" and build a map, but I have a problem: My homebrew setting takes place on fractals of land which twist and turn their way into infinity. Most of the major landmasses are tubes, rectangular prisms, large extruded Us, and other such ridiculous shapes. I've posted the guidebook here before, actually—you guys might remember it.

So no pre-built mapmaking software is really going to work, since the map needs to be in 3D. I already figured out how you'd draw a 2D map of a Tendril, but I don't have nearly the artistic ability to do so.

Am I just fucked here? Do you think having shitty hand-drawn maps would be enough?

Thank you. I'm trying to improve it.

Is it bad when too many rivers flow into a river? Would happen with this river.

The thank you was addressed to both.

Make a huge, real map. Then cut it into fractals.

>Is it bad when too many rivers flow into a river?
No. Actually, most of water from a single region or basin tends to eventually end up in one of very few rivers. Ever seen this map?
Take a look at Danube for an example. It collects like 12% of all running water in eastern Europe, absorbs five or six other major rivers - it's massive.
The way your map is set, it makes sense that the river in the central map region would absorb majority of other rivers in that region.

What I really love is fantasy tropes and vibes achieved through through sci-fi technology. Fallout: New Vegas had some pretty good examples of this, though they weren't given as much gravitas as I would have liked.

>An ancient genius from a long gone era that's artificially extended his life through strange and esoteric knowledge and controls an army of mindless servants from atop a giant forbidden tower

>An ancient ruin forever haunted by ghosts in the form of an automated hologram security system and a siren's voice that lures adventurers to their deaths on the radio

>Pretty much everything about the Legion

I was once in a group where we created the rough ideas behind our game's setting in a sort of minigame
The DM gave a blank setting like "this world has the technological level of our middleages, magic exists and in the past there were civilization that died out and only left ruins/dungeons"
Then every player got a set amount of points, players took turns to come up with details in the setting
The DM would make an offer of how many points something like this would cost, points could also be spend to negate another player's purchase in case one guy tries to shit things up
All details not mentioned in this process were up for the DM to make up

That is roughly how I remember this world creation as a group worked but I cannot recall the name or more exact rules anymore
Does anyone here know what system we might have used? I'd like to use it for a new group I got coming up

>Is it bad when too many rivers flow into a river?

No.

bump, because these threads die too quickly I'd like to be able to contribute when I get off work

#notdead
#MaraniansAreCucks

Which is better for a high magic fantasy setting akin to Eberron mixed with historical cultures and the Cold War era?

Was Ist Das?

12 main gods, each one with 3 lesser gods serving under them, so you get 12 months with 3 ten-day weeks.
Looks good?

The holy scripture of the largest religion in my world.

I always preferred sepia tones

>Humanity discovers 7 planets in a "nearby" star system
>Earth is fucked by 2200, so ships are sent to colonize via generation ships
>Only 3 planets habitable
>1 has a Native Sapient species nearing something like an early Industrial Revolution
>300 years after landfall humans are finally going back to space

Sounds good for the basic idea of a setting?

I just cant wrap my head around polytheism

seconding sepia. Really gives the cold war vibe to me

Sounds fine to me.

why not?

OK

one off idea that I don't have the time to work on right now, but thoughts son humans being unable to do magic and instead having to tame animals to do it for them?

Pokemon?

Usually when I make maps for my players, I try to make them as they would be made by an in-game map maker, so usually that ends up being brown-ish texture with black lines, distressed look and wonky continents.

However now I'm planning a setting that's roughly Bronze Age on the technological level, so any maps they have would be really, really basic to the point of uselessness.

What would be the better option in this case? Full-on satellite imagery-looking accurate maps or near-useless ancient looking maps like the Babylonian Map of the World (Pic related: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_Map_of_the_World)?

oh right damn.

I need to sleep but I want to flesh this out more with you.

How many ships are sent to each planet? Are they in communication with each other? How alien is this native species?

>Do you like to mix your Science Fiction and Fantasy worlds?

Yes, in that something that follows from the logic of a setting should not be excluded just because "fantasy (or scifi) settings don't have those".

>What elements of Sci-Fi are you most okay with appearing in an otherwise Fantasy setting?

Use of magic to improve the basic things - food, sanitation, transportation. Also body modification/improvement.

>What elements of Fantasy are you most okay with appearing in a Science Fiction setting?

Dangerous ancient ruins and artifacts.

>Have you ever gone full Science Fantasy or seen a tabletop game take place in a Sci-Fantasy world?

No. But thinking how a bunch of mages would go about exploring real orbital/interplanetary space is fun.

>Do you allow Lightsabers/Laser-Swords of any variety in your worlds?

Had not thought about it, but now there will be exactly one lightsaber.
>Elf prince offers huge reward for making a Perfect Sword that could cut anything at any angle.
>Many crafters and enchanters try, a lot of time and resources wasted.
>Eventually some archmage creates a hilt that can focus continuous lightning in the general shape of a blade.
>Collects reward and quickly leaves.
>Prince goes to defeat a number of duels with a sword that cannot be parried.
>Decides to go hunt the eastern barbarians.
>Barbarians don't give a shit about duel rules, rush in a pack.
>Several die but one grabs the Princes hand and uses his greater strength to cut the elf to pieces.
>Barbarians tied it to the end of a long staff and used it to fuck up elven Eagle Knights.
>Since then anyone with the resources to hire an archmage has heard of that Prince and asks for more practical things.

>Your designated "Bad Guys" in-setting now have laser-swords. What happens?

Nothing. Closest thing to universal Bad Guys are wilderness monsters which are animalistic or elemental, and places with very magical environment.

If you enjoy making maps, do the satellite for yourself. Hand out rough doodly approximations on a significantly smaller scale for the players.

is this a good start for a micro-setting map? Supposed to be a town thats sort of nestled into a mountain which overlooks a canyon, if that at all makes any sense.

As long as they are industrialized, there should be comms.
The problems that happen IRL are because the probes/rovers have very limited onboard power.
If someone was living at the other end, interplanetary communication would be trivial.

r8 my blobs

yes, wonderful potential.
300 year old Colony ships permanently circling the planets populated by descendants of the skeleton crew left behind. They act as communication satellites and control interplanetary communication. They also are the loremasters. They have some awesome DJs that blanket the planet with music. Many people on the orbital ships form bands and broadcast to the world below.
The landing craft were designed to be used once and then become a 'town hall' - the hub for a new community. 300 years later new ships are built that can reach the orbital colony ship.

pic unrelated

District map for a hive in Dark Heresy. Thoughts anyone? I did it in excel, makes it pretty ugly but quite effective/quick to adjust.

Love the water, very nice
The land is nicely colored also.
Love the islands. SE island with mountains is very nice. Coastlines are generally good,
Boxed in areas bother me. Western bay is weird and looks like a face. Yes Italy looks like a boot, but probably better not to.
Large boxed section has a really straight coast
and the big round bit feels tacked on awkwardly.
I'm guessing this is about the size of California.
Plate tectonics will help you place mountains.
I drew a line that works OKish for me, but I would shift stuff around to be more deliberate.

I'd never have thought of it, but it worked well for a grid-planned city map.

Noice work m8

I never noticed the face shape to the west. The eastern section was made very straight on purpose, but I agree I could erode it a bit near the coastlines

The big round thing only started looking awkward after I zoomed in from the world map, so I'm uncertain regarding what to do with it. I want to keep its current position, but now that I started laying out nations on that peninsula, I can probably shave it off a bit to make it look less blobby

In terms of drafting, that large continent piece is a zoomed out version from what I first drew about 2 years ago. Everything else I made it much more recently. I'd also like to clarify that the region to the Southeast is the beginning of another, larger continent.

The only real problem is the coast-to-coast river near the middle.