Can someone teach me how to worldbuild?

That and "True Creativity" just isn't a thing. Everything we know is merely mashups and weird extensions of past things.

Elder scrolls is considered to have amazing lore, but it's really a bunch of far east mythologies all mashed together in an interesting way, with lots of elements stolen from other myths. Dwemer are subterranean sumerian steampunkers.

Hell, even Tolkien is guilty of mashing up things together. Dwarves are Norse and german underground short people myths mashed together with jews. Orcs are Mongols mashed up with english industrial factories and modernization.

The trick is making it your own and smoothing out the bad bits. Take for instance Greek horse people, it isnt a good description. But when their creation myth is that they arose from the foam created by the mating of the sea with the spirit of horses ( a play on Poseidon's escapades), who take to the waters as a sea people from a vaguely mediterranean area, its not that bad. Their tech and fashion reflects the geographic region, which just happens to look very greek.

and I forgot the image.

How can you be so imaginatively stunted? Did you never play pretend as a child? Did you gobble down lead paint chips and run into walls for fun? For fuck's sake, it shouldn't be hard to meet that minimum threshold of creativity that allows a person to ask, "what if".
But to answer your question, no. No, somebody cannot teach you how to think creatively. You've probably already passed any developmental milestone beforewhich intellectual potential may have been instilled in you. Why don't you go back to passively absorbing whatever media you prefer, and stop bothering real people with your half-assed graspings at sapience.

Will trade 25% of my Worldbuilding skill for an equal amount of "Not being shit at naming things" skill.

I've long given up on not being shit at naming things. It didn't take long to realize that no matter what names I used, what I find cool would never be cool to a large number of people.

People will always harp on names. It's entry-tier bitching skill, fully mastered by the end of elementary school.
Just don't make obvious blunders like making a polite title in your language sound like an obscenity in another. Looking at you, Germany.

think about what kind of gameplay you want

build the world in a way that best allows that

>Think of a theme which interests you (and is approriate for the game you're playing)
>Find a way to centre a conflict around that theme
>Create a bunch of factions to take part in said conflict
>From there just build out, explaining whatever you feel requires explanation

pick something anything and explain it, draw a map and put the arctic in the middle of the island surrounded by dessert, why is it there? pick a reason.

That's how you start, come up with some bullshit and then justify it.

Take things you like and put them together then take that amalgam and make it internally cobsistent. Make some notable historical figures and figure out what they did that is so cool. And keep at least a general time line.

>I just realized...
>I wish I could draw/paint.

TECTONICS

If you want to do it in-depth (and I'm talking about serious in-depth stuff), fill this:
web.archive.org/web/20151205111638/http://bethisad.com:80/conculture/questionnaire.htm

If you don't feel like going that complex and in-depth, just combine those two:

Also, anyone who tells you you MUST have a conflict is stupid-ass American who can't into worldbuilding or creativity of any sort. Americans are absolutely incapable of creating anything without a central, easy-to-identify conflict, so they assume it's impossible to make things without then and that it's "boring" if world isn't conflict-centric. That literally goes down to history of American literature and nation-funding myths, which they've started spreading with cultural exports post-WW2

put the arctic in the middle of the island surrounded by dessert, why is it there?
Probably to keep the ice cream from melting

stores are driven by their central conflict though, if you're creating a setting in which to have a story then the elements which directly surround that conflict are the most relevant and therefore a priority

Holy shit, the Zaharam-Chapelle questionnaire!

Not OP, but thanks mate, I was looking for this stuff for past two years!

It's dangerous to go alone, take this

... see?

> Posting the picture and not the pdf

>Here, fill in this random pile of brackets
>This somehow means you have a setting
Every D&D setting is made like this. Pro-tip: that's why they are so pathetic.

It's not like anything is stopping you. The more you do it the better your become

user, scaffolds are like legos; you can follow the directions and call it a day when you finish, or you can look at it and then deconstruct and rebuild it into something bigger and better.

To be honest my setting is probably

20% Inspired from fiction
45% Stolen shit from fiction
30% Stuff from actual history
5% original shit

Ok, Eurotrash, how would you make an interesting setting without a central conflict?

As a burger, I agree, but I'll interject that conflict doesn't require the defeat of an antagonist.

>As a burger, I agree, but I'll interject that conflict doesn't require the defeat of an antagonist.
oh absolutely, conflict just means there's an active main character who encounters obstacles while trying to achieve a goal

Nope, we don't allow people who create worlds on Veeky Forums anymore.

Always keep in mind the implications of what you decide. Every decision sets off dominoes. Think about what that decision means. 'The entire world is islands' 'The poor are forced to serve time for the crimes of the rich' etc. Well, what effect does that have on society?

Begin by deciding what it is you want to create. It's pointless to, for example, start by calculating the mass of the star in the solar system and doing doesn't make anything down the road easier for you.

So, say you want to create a world reminiscent of WWI Europe but with traditional fantasy races. Then you should probably start by making a world similar to WWI Europe but with fantasy races. It's really not that much more difficult.

If worldbuilding itself is your hobby, however, and you don't just want to create a world for tabletop games but make something naturalistic, then it can be useful to start a little earlier than right where you want to end up. The idea being that you start with a proto-culture (say 2000 years earlier in the world's history than when you intend your stories to take place) and evolve it as the people migrate across the world, meet new people and cultures, face new climates, and go through hardships, famine, and war. Doing this, especially if you use the process to create several related cultures that have branched of from the proto-culture at different times, will make it really easy for you to create believable cultures with many unique and interesting traditions and practices.

It's still helpful to know what your goal is, however, so even if you decide to to this you should probably still make sure you know what it is you're trying to accomplish with this process.

I think the point the guy was trying to make is that you don't have to have an overarching conflict which defines the setting, not no conflict at all.

Also not all conflict has to be violent or result in war. Conflict could be resolved through break dance competitions or prayer. Hell the whole lesbian racing rpg was all about cars and girls. You could be playing a game about as a convenience store owner in cyberpunk megacity and the majority of the conflict is through trade wars and advertising. Get more creative with your conflicts.

The Z-C is a solid start, but it needs to be edited sown for an initial run by. Fill in the missing slots ONLY if relevant, and feel free to include and exclude things you see as important, expansion of the Magick entry, for example, has several extra lines in my version.

A few of the shortcomings are the lack of a 'trade' and 'corruption' entries. Another is the sparsity of 'Why?' at the end of many entries. Little interest is shown in the sub-cultures and minority groups. Personally, I found the need for 'class' and 'status' weak. No doubt, you will find some things need adding for your personal views.

>I think the point the guy was trying to make is that you don't have to have an overarching conflict which defines the setting
I don't think anyone said that a setting did have to have large-scale violent conflict. They just said that you need a story conflict (of any sort) and then create the setting elements around that to explain whatever needs to be.

First, when designing your mythology, get into the mindset of your God, or equivalent figure.

A mystery writing technique is to start at the ending and work back, making sure all the important parts are foreshadowed and introduced. Any part you want in the finished work can be written in as past. The lame, but common, Dwarf/Elf conflict? Do the Why/Where/etc bit and tease out your own version or lack there of. Dwarves are greedy miners who must trade ore and gems to Elves who can't stand having to turn over their bounty of food for mere rocks. Economic rivalry is a legit conflict.

have a million small conflicts, no?

Do you like making maps? 'Coz I can't stand making maps.

no the original post said the setting doesn't need conflict, not a major conflict, just conflict

How about NOT reducing everything in the story/setting to one, overarching narrative and instead organically build all the elements (setting) or having dozens of plotlines, not all of them being conflict-based (story).
I mean it's like you don't know what "slice of life" way of storytelling is. But if it comes without explosions, literal fight and overcoming struggle, that must be boring/bad/other, right?

>I think the point the guy was trying to make is that you don't have to have an overarching conflict which defines the setting, not no conflict at all.
As the original user - yes, that's my point

1) aesthetic, genre, stuff like this. Fantasy, science fantasy, sci-fi, dark/bright, etc
2) what do you want to put in it and where ya gonna use it? If it's for RPG, first question is "what players will do here"
3) put detail on whatever you have, be it dungeons and untamed forests, power factions and wealth-mongers, tribes of savages and ecology of dragons...
4) stick mapping somewhere, it's not so important

I cast Hold Goalposts

the original post >Also, anyone who tells you you MUST have a conflict
just conflict

>But if it comes without explosions, literal fight and overcoming struggle, that must be boring/bad/other, right?
no one said at any point that conflict=violence or action

By simply making an interesting setting and leaving the conflicts up to the individual stories. No reason to reduce an entire world into something as simplistic as one singular conflict.

Conflict doesn't inherently mean violence. You know this. HE knows this. You presented an excellent example with slice of life. But don't forget that even slice of life has some level of conflict. Some obstacle can be in place and the character(s) spend their little episode solving it. Or not.
However, just because we all understand the concept doesn't mean he couldn't forget it. Not everyone has an eidetic memory. It's perfectly understandable to forget simple shit and an easy fix, too.
>But if it comes without explosions, literal fight and overcoming struggle, that must be boring/bad/other, right?
Putting words in someone's mouth to condescend is bullshit and you know it. I can't make you stop being a jerk, but I can remind you that you're better than that. You're a smart guy. This is beneath you.

I'm looking at the rest of the thread too. Their idiocy doesn't justify yours.

That technique doesn't really work for a naturalistic approach to world building however. You can decide that you want to reach a world of, say, 19th century era technology and have that it besides humans there should also be lizardmen and hobbits. But creating their current cultures and then working backwards to connect them and make them related to each other is not only nearly impossible unless you intended them to be all along but also completely misses the point of the technique outlined.

That point being that if you evolve your cultures in a natural way from point A to point B much of the heavy lifting is done for you in the process. For example, you don't need to first come up with weird religious practices and then rationalize why they're there, because instead you just came up with the origin story and the religious practice followed in a logical manner from it.

Not him, but that's wha is called "goad Americans into confirming they are action-hungry morons", aka specific type of baiting. How new to discussion about worldbuilding, story-telling and American ways of constructing both are you to not realise he's intentionally exaggerating, since there is 4 to 1 chance some ass-blasted burger will show up and fulfill his role as useful idiot by making himself looking like brash, out-of-his depth aggressive idiot, confirming fully (and unintentionally) the exaggerated statement?

In short - the guy is baiting. That doesn't mean what he says is wrong or untrue, but the blatant exaggeration serves no other purpose than bait.

...

As the original user - yes, you don't need conflict. Central, major, minor or whatever else. It's not pre-requested for anything nor needed for anything.

Damn, I've been compromised.

Unrelated, but is here any user with half-decent graphics-fu?
I've got a map, I've got a hex-grid for it, but thing is - when I combine them together, the finished file weights almost 50 mb.
And I need it at 5 mb tops, without changing resolution or decreasing quality. Anyone? Anything?

Placeholders.

Get a vague idea, give it a name, force it into your map/chart/list/paper etc, and leave it there as just a name. You'll eventually come up with more information because you have that name in your head.

You will come up with a lot more information by doing the name/aesthetic before you do the actual information and relevance.

A name pops into my head - Saborya. I write it down or label a "Saborya" on my map. After I look at it enough times, I start coming up with details for that placeholder for it to actually be considered content. Eventually, those details inspire more and what was once a placeholder is now seamlessly integrated to the setting and might become very important.

>tfw I've stolen from Jarmusch films

My GM once run one-shot about aging Mafia types, black weaboos and ice cream conspiracy. Shit was glorious, especially since I was the only person fully aware the fuck is going on.

Take something you like, ask yourself what was needed in this world to create that, then apply that to your world.

For instance I liked: Cossacks, the Wild West, and Native American tribalism. The Cossacks are the most divergent from the theme so what do I need to happen? Serfs/ the disenfranchised join and are taught how to be bad-ass by free-willed horseman.
End Result: The same super volcano that decimated the !Native Americans also stranded the first generations of settlers. They banded together and exchanged ideas and information. now I have all three things I wanted, and this creation can be used to color other groups and events.

How big are they separately, how are you combining them, and what file format?

I didn't have it. Thanks, I'll take a look.

Legos... I suddelny miss legos. My parents didn't want me to have toy guns, so I read on real ones and made them out of legos. Legos and reading did wonders for my imagination.

>you can look at it and then deconstruct
Pretending you're Godzilla during it.

The map itself is below 3 MB JPG, 10k by 10k px. The grid is absurd weight of 12 MB PNG, but that's the only way to do it without GIMP choking.
Combined together as PNG (it must be png, since it will be extensively edited during the game, so arrifacts would kill it), it weights 48 MB. I have no fucking clue why and how. The 3 MB JPG map, if turned into PNG, weight 9 MB

Actually, this is a common technique in mystery and action/thriller fiction. Several Scifi and fantasy authors use it in creating their writing 'bible' (guide), revising as needed. Thy can often tell if something works by how the 'world' currently stands.

Maybe Godzilla does exist in your setting and he wrecked the planet before going away and your reconstruction of the setting is people rebuilding. What steps will they take to prevent Godzilla from returning and do they even believe in Godzilla anymore?

>Actually, this is a common technique in mystery and action/thriller fiction.
I know. I said it's not a good approach for naturalistic world building.

Well, shit.
>brash
Check.
>out-of-his-depth
Double check.
>aggressive
Triple check.
>idiot
Qua-fucking-druple check.
That's ten checks out of a possible four and I only made one post. Did I break any records?

Question for the thread. Why would somebody who is a space colonist also be a blacksmith beside it being a hobby?

Pretend your world has an /int/ board and simulate banter.

Magical realm is the only way to world build in a unique and exciting way. Deep within your heart you know this to be true.

Paranoid, thinks fancy space weapons/armors are dangerous or unreliable, and would rather wield a trusty sword he made himself?

How do you guys do maps? Has anyone used an exported Dwarf Fortress map before?

>>>/wbg/

no one has made one for days

I would but I don't have a set of questions

make one, user. don't need any questions.

...

Colony is in the early stages and advanced manufacturing isn't yet established locally, making it necessary to produce more rudimentary tools as a stopgap measure

I'm GMing my first campaign and all I really did was worldbuild the place the PCs are using as their Homestead, and they seem to like it and I really like it too, but I'd like some input from people who probably know more than me.
>Hollowed out Crater, a full Hex from end to end, deep enough to be forested and have wildlife and stuff and not be just a huge dusty crater.
>D&D 5e
>Isolated geographic location, need to go through huge tunnels to get there.
>Daytime hours is a state of constant Twilight, Nightime hours is black as pitch
>There's some funky Fey stuff going on here, ends up being the only place in the world where the Feywild and Shadowfel actually "mix"
>Middle of the crater is a city, nicknamed Sticky Fingers
>Everyone pickpockets each other, but immediately returns any stolen items on an honor system. If they don't like you they might swipe a couple silver pieces and taunt you though.
>Elite Military Force protects the valley since there are numerous tunnels leading to the Underdark.
>City actually used to be a Duergar City that some how (through Divine Intervention) got spirited to the surface, Duregar have integrated enough with the local Mountain Dwarves to have Duregar features (bald heads, chalky skin) but aren't enslaved by Mindflayers
>There's a Prophecy that the God of Thieves will name a champion to restore the day and Steal the Darkness from the valley.
That's about it. I like it, there's a lot going on and a lot I can use as hooks, but a lot of it I made up just rolling with the idea "Why do all Fantasy stories have 'Endless Night' as the Bad End? What if it actually happened?".

Materials from the homeworld are scarce/hard to come by and the ship couldn't fit any. Really depends on your setting though (how space travel works, the homeworld in question, ect...)

I didn´t know that you can upload pdf to Veeky Forums

It's a feature exclusive to Veeky Forums I think, though it might be available on other boards. But Veeky Forums is where it's used the most.

1. Assuming the world is an earthlike planet, carve out tectonic plates and where and how they move into one another

2. Work out continents and oceans, as well as mountains, usually along fault lines but not always

3. Map out wind belts to have a general idea of climates, rain shadows, and trade paths

4. Figure out where rivers form.

5. Now that you have water and area climate, drop people in places where there's lots of fertile land or access to the sea. These are the first cities that form because they're where cities tend to form.

6. Have said city civilizations expand to find mire resources til they run up against each other or overextend and breakaway states form. Form borders based off of geographic barriers.

7. Advance time until you have the world you want.

8. Begin the story at your chosen time period in the word's history