/wbg/ World-building General

Abyssal terrors from the deep. Building-sized leviathans that smash their way into coastal cities. Lobster/gator/shark hybrids that come in waves up rivers and drag people off in the dark.
Basically, the ocean itself is the antagonist.

Really depends on whether gunpowder is a thing or not. It's kind of a tricky invention, and possible to miss. Especially if you have something else that can do the job, generating heat or electricity in a reliable way.

The way those villages and towns are all the same looks really jarring given the map's attempt to look hand-drawn.

Without a scale it's hard to really determine. But I would think that due to agricultural inefficiencies old cities and towns would still require tons of farming land. Look at this map of a medieval manor. Compare the amount of land used for planting, for pasture, and for woodlands, compared to the area of the actual village.

The real weird thing is al the roads. There are so many roads for a village of just 700 people.

Consistency of scale is also something to keep in mind as you add buildings and fortifications to your town. In my map, for example, each pixel is about 2 square feet. 2 pixels is a small shanty, 4 pixels is an average peasant house, etc. Keeping to this scale makes figuring out the functions of buildings and their relative proximity to other buildings easier.

I also used a few simple cartographic symbols to keep things easy to understand. For example, the thin squares to the left represent tanneries where hide is turned into leather, but they aren't actual representations of the vats themselves. The bullseyes repeated throughout various points of the city represent shrines to gods, but while they have a shared motif they remain distinct allowing me to easily remember what each one represents. The arrow markings all represent areas that are used as warehouses.

Tell us about one of the minor ones.

What's a good name for an eldritch abomination?

I don't know where to fucking begin.

I want to run a campaign in that world where the evil force is just the kingdom's postal service gone rogue.

What are you having trouble with?

collective spirits of the native sea life/soil fungi that really aren't happy about human colonization and terraforming

they have a lot less influence in areas where terrestrial life has grown over, but if you go out in the native wilds without taking any precautions you're probably coming back with schizophrenia or some really good ideas like filling trucks with explosives and parking them next to office buildings

seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=lcnamer

up

How do you feel about adding in very abstract game concepts, like leveling up, as real world-building mechanics or parts of the in game world?

For example- If you are a character in a world and you have interesting or difficult life experiences, go through and succeed at many challenges, you become physically stronger, faster, more magically potent. Unlike real life though these skills may be tied to the physical body in more ways then normally possible. Warriors becoming super humanly strong and durable, Rogues becoming inhumanly agile and fast, Magicians with great magical power. How do you feel about having this as a real, actual reality inside a world?

I personally like it, but it becomes a lot more complicated to explain why everyone doesn't become godly, or how to explain it if your games uses alternate sources of experience then just story driven/kill based experience; like grabbing gold from a dungeon.

Fuck that noise

I think it needs to be done right. The matrix is actually a good example of this. People have exceeded the limits with knowledge but the animatrix has an example of someone finding out the truth of reality through physical exertion inside the matrix.

What you're talking about is adding a new law of the universe, a kind of mind-over-matter one. Mind over matter doesn't have to be just knowledge=power, although that's part of it. Willpower = power is a thing that works too. You've just got to figure out how it works. A reason that not everyone can pull it off is that it's hard, it requires risks. Not everyone wants to test their willpower because failure is dangerous.

A N I M E

eww

>having objectively shit taste

The corrupted forms of the old elven pantheon that all (high) elves dedicate their civilisation to defeating

The King in Red. He's the closest thing this setting has to a monotheistic god, and he's also a massive cunt.

Every culture on the planet worships him by force in a yearly sacrifice. "The day of Sacrifice". It's a once yearly meteorological event happens, and everyone has to sacrifice to him gifts. Small farming communities grant him crops, livestock, maybe some ore or a newborn child if they're desperate. Cities and Emperors need to grant him entire castles, works of art, an entire retinue of soldiers, petrified with magic and sent to be his terracotta army. If they don't? Apocalypses happen to their people, monsters swarm them from the dark places of the earth, disease is spread, people go insane.

Even as cultures are beginning to explore and cross oceans and meet each other for the first time, they realize that each and every one has at least some myths and spiritual practices towards this one dude. Other Gods are real and local, helping with the weather or helping lost souls find the afterlife, but this dude? He got every culture on the planet into his protection racket.

He also fucks everything. Virgin sacrifices, both boys and girls, are always accepted by this massive dickhead.

Basically, this guy made all the monsters in the world by fucking things. He fucked a snake to make gorgons. He had sex with a swamp and it made trolls and ogres. He plucked wings off a bat, took a lizards body, the claws of a tiger and fire from a volcano's heart just to make the most loathsome thing he could fuck, and he impregnated the first dragon. He likes them the most, and often gives them gifts. This explains where dragons get their hoards, literally presents from their asshole dad, stolen from the miners and jewel making mortals.

Basically I want the players to hate this guy, and maybe even want to become strong enough to take him on and kill him once and for all.

He is my self insert.

How do you feel about a post-apocalyptic setting in Maine? Comfy lighthouse safe-zones, monsters in the forests, fishing boats braving the supernatural mutants in the waters, et cetera. Just spent a week out there, it's very comfy. That said, trying to base a setting off of someplace you were in real life is a bad start because the elements that make a real place interesting versus what make a setting interesting, don't have a huge amount of overlap (i.e. visual elements for the most part). That said I'm curious as to opinions.

So I have the following:
>The Firstborn, aka The Metal Man (Probably not actually made of metal) - the last of the first version of humanity, that was too powerful and rebelled against God. Is the reason the world as it currently known exists, because it exists to be his prison
>The Forsaken - people whose god (without capital G) was killed and his rotten carcass poisoned their souls, turning them into rampaging zombie orcs
>People who killed their god and ate his flesh to become powerful. Haven't decided what they called yet, I usually come up with names in the end
>Local king's brother-in-law who challenges king's legitimacy and hopes to install his wife (King's sister) on the throne. Is an evil prick. King is also a prick, but less evil.

>hey look at my shit
>no
>HAHA THIS GUY DOESNT WANT AN EYE FULL OF POO

Sudoku now

I think you're being way to autistic on the detail and "realism". Take that map, add a dot for a blacksmith, a healer, the inn and one for the castle to get quests from the lord and let your players at it.

How to make standard fantasy medieval kingdoms unique and interesting while retaining the medieval european feel?

Branch into Venice and Rus. Maybe be more Spanish than Central European too.

actually study feudalism, religion and medieval history in general rather than just using the stereotyped fantasy version.

Write down all the features of medieval europe you can think of. Then go through that list and identify what elements are absolutely essential to the feel you are trying to convey. Keep those bits, but start tweaking or replacing the other parts. Just make sure that the stuff you add doesn't feel out of place in the setting and does not overshadow any of the core elements.

These guys also speak truth. Reality can be way more exotic and interesting than the same old dumbed down medieval stereotypes.

How do you guys motivate yourself to contiue working with your worlds?

I'm running out of steam...

About to start a map in photoshop, what dimensions do you guys recommend?
Seems like this is the roadblock I always hit before making an actual map, rather than just a conceptual one.

1000x1000
2000x2000
3000x3000

Take a break, don't force yourself to continue and taint the work with negative emotions. It will just make it harder to complete in the long run.

Honestly, worldbuilding should be fun and if you ar not enjoying it then stop. You can always come back to it later when the time is right.

Just consume media that will inspire you. You should avoid forcing yourself to continue.

Call them the Deliverance

Any good books/resources specifically about byzantine culture?

I'm listening to an audio book that's mostly about its history, and while it's fascinating, I was looking for something more comprehensive.

Expand the dimensions as you expand the map? I started with 1000x1000 but now it's 5250x3500 and it's continuously growing.

I didn't know that was an option, thanks.

Well the campaign is in the Dresden Files RPG but set in a city that we don't know much about (Boston) so I'm partially limited by the books but otherwise rather open. If anybody wants more detail just ask.

So far I have a bunch of different plots including:
* a psychomantic student at BU who has an obsessive crush on another student who she'll mind control and brainwash if the players don't stop her
* a lycanthrope (think viking berserker) biker gang who's making and selling a drug which forcibly opens a person's third eye (the leader also just so happens to be the champion of Slaanesh)
* a Fomor mad scientist (and champion of a sleeping eldritch god who's dreams spawned the chaos gods) who is capturing people and transforming them
* a sick necromancer who wants to take over the world (he has diseases which cause bone growth, weak bones, and turn his skin to bone which would kill him if not for the blessing of Nurgle)
* a nest of ghouls sitting on a nexus of ghostly demesne which is driving them mad
* a leprechaun running a casino although he isn't so much a villain as a danger
* a wizard hiding from the council in the Nevernever and who wants to take revenge by making a deal with one of the Fallen
* a trio of White Court (succubi) sisters who want to take control of the city
* a cult leader who wants to bring back a wiped out type of vampire with him in charge
* a body hopping necromancer hiding in the cult who's body is too weak to jump easily and is trying to contact Outsiders to gain power (also the champion of Tzeentch)
* a mobster who wants to run somebody out of business since their building is on a network of tunnels
* a pair of twins who stole statues from a church to present to somebody and gain favor, the statues are inhabited by minor angels which keep an Outsider in stasis
* a warlock member of the triad who wants to gain power and has kidnapped a woman (actually a yuki-onna changeling)
* a group that grafts inhuman parts

My world
>Ordus Magica are the biggest "law enforcement" organization in the world
>all races (except orcs, dragons, etc) have a citadel in their lands from which they control and can send out local troops.

>they are also fucking assholes who only see the law as black and white.
>proper heavy knights with serious magic.
>many higher ups are only in it for money or power or both
>
>they would have been disbanded long ago but they have done so much for the world as a whole that to get rid of them would be disastrous beyond measure.

They maintain the teleportation circles in cities, guard the roads and are responsible for handing out justice and punishments
They improved the safety for the lowly farmer and having a squad in a small town means crime drops to fucking zero as thevies and bandits flee but Getting rid of these guys would be like getting rid of our modern world law and order organizations.

That's the idea I'm toying with ATM, would you guys add/remove any ideas?

Rename the chaos gods IMO, unless whoever is going to be playing doesn't know about warhammer

fwiw I'm doing something [i]similar[/i]. It's just much more abstract and doesn't produce superhumans as, I suppose, regular humans would grant about "0.1 experience points"

Regardless, I don't think it's shit :)

The author of the books already have a reference to Warhammer (there's a necromancer who rose from the dead a few times who's name is Heinrich Kemmler) and I'm planning on the chaos gods latching on to negative things and then names connected to those with enough power (players of Warhammer and those with knowledge of the games, especially groups like Veeky Forums, are the cause). The players can have plenty of knowledge but I'm getting enough info before hand to know if they'd know plus the odds of them figuring it out (only the Slaaneshi champion is aware but Nurgle's is getting close) are low. If they kill off the champions before they get enough power then the names will never even come to light and the godlings will be wiped out.

That's so elegant, what game you playing?

I wanna make my first campaign, with people who haven't really played before, I wanted to keep it sorta simple-ish. I was thinking something like Dragon Age: Origins, big bad army guys coming from X, gotta go around and get the various races of the world to fight them or everyone will die, perform quest lines for each race, add some interesting side story stuff to do inbetween each race, towns to do stuff in, etc.

Any ideas to go along with this? Thanks! 5e specifically. I'm not a writer, so tips on making it interesting, or basic worldbuilding / story writing tips would be sick.

Globalism.

its an idea for my setting

Does this look like a swamp?

The inevitable conflict between the march of progress and tradition. Also, demons.

Zoom out more and it will be more clear. If it's part of a larger map, yes.

The colors are also in strong enough contrast to eachother that one might not see that water as water at first. In particular that dark red might cause the blue to look like a biome/faction color at first glance.

It's important to give agency and desire to the different races/factions as a whole and the individual leaders. Even if uniting and driving out the big bad is what is most logical, many people (including moral and intelligent people) won't see it that way. They all have different perspectives that have been built up for their whole lives or histories and changing that perspective isn't going to be as simple as "hey join us or you'll die". They might be in denial of the danger, they might see opportunity in the chaos (let our enemies and the bad guys duke it out and weaken eachother, then swoop in and take down both), they might be outright opposed to participating and see it as a violation of everything they stand for. If two cultures hate eachother immensely due to their history, or the leaders of cultures hold outright disdain for others, they aren't going to just see the truth and put aside their differences and work together. You should also avoid making the cultures or factions totally united an homogeneous, there is more conflict than just between two groups, there will be political groups and individual motivations within a kingdom and some individuals who wish to exert their own desire on the policy of their kingdom. Some leaders might be impossible for the players to convince, they may need a schism or a coup. And perhaps the big bad aren't 100% big bad destroyers of everything. Even in the most famous good guys vs big bad fantasy story, LOTR, Easterling kingdoms and wildmen fought for Sauron because they were offered something in return (well, and corrupted by a tangible concept of evil).

No. It looks like a bunch of islands or a region that got flooded. Do the opposite of what you did: have a lot of isolated bodies of water close to one another with many small rivers and floodways between them. That would look most like a swamp

Thanks for the reply! I'll take these things into consideration, definitely seems right. :D Thyanks! Schisms and coups sound fun.

How are they armed? What is their skill level? Age? All male? Does this order hold actual land and titles or are they housed and funded by certain people, governments, donations, etc? Let's see some details

Orders need to have extreme history to attract adventurous members, fraternity to ensure group loyalty unto itself, unwavering rules to keep it all together, and heroes to idolize and strive towards

Imperfection in the work of Worldmachine encompassing and supporting the setting. In-world it is called as Chaos, as inhabitants do not know how it all works.

How would it help the story you want to tell?

Not enough fairy-tail creatures

Great!

Start with a blank canvas. Going for a world map? Start with water. Regional map? Start with land. Separate land from water on the map. World map? Tectonic activity is a real thing that can make fantasy world building pretty easy. Mountain ranges spring up from it, island chains form, air currents flow, and so on. Regional map? Mountains can create rain shadows and deserts form in its wake. Rivers flow from high to low areas. They snake if the river flows slowly and branch out often. Swift flows are more direct and rarely lose their path. River deltas do exist but not always.

scrublands and a giant rock facade

does it play?

So the King struck a deal with some nature spirits a while back, and in return for their service he pledged the following:

"For each of my cities, for every [X] citizens, that city will have ten square feet of garden, park, farm, or other verdant and plant-filled land within its walls." The spirits, of course, made sure he couldn't do several obvious ways of skirting this.

That said, the king has padded these numbers out a bit by making sure that gardening was popular among nobility, giving additional city walls generous amounts of space, putting grass on empty lots, and the like. but there's still enough public parks and gardens that people notice and question why there's so gods-damned many gardens in the cities.

My actual question is: What's a reasonable number to put in for the [x]?

I'm putting together a mostly generic fantasy setting for a group's first D&D campaign, and for some reason I can come up with names for everything but the capital city of the human kingdom.
Does anyone have names/conventions that they like to reuse in their different worldbuilding projects? I was debating using a running theme of bird-related names (Cormoran, Tercel, Aguila, etc.).

Otherworldly invaders and themselves. Lemme explain
>Invaders
It's 1870, the South American Continent is gone, in its place is this ever shifting, nightmarish lanscape where Lovecraftian monsters lurk that can be anywhere from the size of a dog to towering over mountains. What little is know about them is that as these beasts move further into Earth, the borders of the 'Devil's Land' extends with them. To prevent this, various nations are chipping into the helping the United States fend off these invasions. However, even though there is drive to fight off these monsters, counter-invasions try and push the 'Devil's Land' back are few and far between. One reason is because the borders of the 'other' hasn't receded, and also because there is a lot of interest in a resource provided by this new land. Which brings me to-

>Themselves
Located inside killed beasts from the 'Devil's Land' is are a cache of flammable minerals that yield ten times the energy of coal, and when subjected to specific conditions, is as hard as steel but light as wood. Industries are rebuilt around this mineral, and new strange technologies are built using this mineral. President-For-Life Lincoln knows how substantial this mineral is the the American economy, and as the only nation with this raw material, keeps a tight grip on existing supplies, rationing it out to American companies and trading it for very favorable treaties with other nations. While everyone wants the Devil's Land gone, but that would mean losing their supply of this valuable material.

Sup, hit me up with some transparent map icons. And while we're at it, some large city maps would be great too.

Does anyone know what geographic features would suggest where to find copper or tin? I'm working on a setting that includes an industrialized bronze-age civilization, and I'm trying to figure out how trade might go.

It's pointless. It only serves as a way for shitty hacky writers to explain powerlevels without applying effort. It doesn't add anything to the story, it just ruins imersion. it's double pointless in ttrpgs where we have actual rules and stats that are separate from the actual setting.

you'll have to magic wand this yourself to make it transparent, all I have

If they're bird themed then maybe to make the capital stand out, you could name it after a mythical bird or bird-like creature?

Think back in your setting's history, and why did people settle the city and make it the capital? Naming things after important landmarks in the city/town is how I prefer to do things.
For example the capital of the Big Empire in my setting was named Silverwall, because the original settlers were travelling by boat in the inland sea it sits next to, and the setting sun reflected off the silver mineral veins in the rock, making the cliff that the imperial keep sits upon, and from which the rest of the entire city spreads outward from, appear completely silver. A silver wall. A mining camp was set up, which became a fort, which became a town, which became the center of power for the region, and eventually became the seat of power for the entire Empire.
All of the walls are made of stone, so the only way to understand its namesake is with that history lesson. Which is how I think is best, because if the players ask or inquire about why the place is named like that, I can tell them some interesting story that expands upon the world they're playing in, making it feel more immersive.

Two times as wide as it is tall. (360 degrees from left to right, and 180 degrees from pole to pole)

>"Hack" writers actually explain why people become more powerful then physical able and make it a part of the setting's cosmology and physical laws
>"Good" writers never explain why the party fighter can fall from a cliff without injury and continue to argue their setting is realistic with elves and magic

you described two bad writers

i usually do a basic world map with just land outlines and then cut out a smaller area for the actual map so that i can easily expand it and generally know what's around the map

for a world map you want width twice the height so that you can just draw everything in equirectangular and it will map to a sphere properly

i usually go with around 5000x2500 resolution, but it's always better to do your drawings in too high resolution than too low

I do things slowly and not in excess.
When you do the same thing everyday you will get bored and frustrated about it, split it up and write down any cool ideas you have when they come.

Legion of doom but in space and very corperate, trying to race the players to the mcguffin so that they can get RnD to see how to sell it or use it the best.

Are there unexplored sections of your setting, Veeky Forums, or do the inhabitants of your world have a pretty firm idea of the world at large?

All this talk of fantasy settings has really got me up in the air on what to do about mine, Veeky Forums.

What should I go for my fantasy setting's races?
>Humans and anthro animals for the races; large numbers of simple races
or
>Limited selection of races including humans and a few weird ones that aren't anthro animals like pic.

second, definitely

>Humans
>A few other "first-class" races
>Beastfolk that exist as a rare occurrence when a nature spirit blesses an animal and causes it to ascend to a humanoid form

I like this as a nice middle-ground. You still get to have weird random animal people in the world, without having to deal with fleshing-out civilizations and cultures for every species. It also handily avoids awkward questions about interbreeding, etc.

There's a huge, unexplored section of the desert my setting takes place in that the ruling empire has given up on exploring because pretty much everyone who tries winds up missing. Even the nomad tribes and the gnolls avoid it if they can, and never get closer than they have to. It's especially dangerous during the full and new moon, though no one is sure why.

Is there any specific reason why you'd prefer that over animal people?

Ancient dragon god who used to watch over the mind, went nuts, and tried to steal the soul of the universe. He's "dead" now, but they couldn't really kill him, exactly, so they just ripped his soul out of his body, stuffed it into a giant crystal and buried his "corpse" under a mountain like Typhon himself.

Aside from him, a raging bitch who got pissed off that she's no longer immortal and took to tearing souls apart to study them. Wants to steal the soul of the universe for her own purposes. May or may not be influenced by the dead dreams of the dragon-god. She also has a legion of loyal followers who listen to her religiously.

Also giant monsters so super-charged by the world's mana/soul that even with magi who can shift mountains they've only just reached post-industrial birth-rates, murderous tyrants, extra-planar invaders who aggravate the aforementioned megafauna, and people dicking around with technology from long-dead civilizations which can make hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers.

Not running a game with it, but I use it for personal writings.

That's just two hacks.

I plan to let the world end in the east with a huge mountain range covered in thick mist. Whever sets his foot into it gets automatically lost and never returns. Some people believe it's the realm of the deceased.

Somewhat stole this from the medieval novel about Alexander the Great.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how stupid is it to have a race where the females look a bit like sheep/deer, and the males look a bit like goats/bulls?

It isn't about stupidity, but there is a chance of fetish bait.

I don't know why it always has to be a meme.

Well. Humans look different depending on sex/gender so idk what you're getting at unless you're proposing the two genders be completely different species then id say it's a bit silly.

How do you Sci Fi, /wbg/?

Tell me about your setting.

All I know is I like whacky weird shit and acronyms.

The players can play as just about any kind of biological alien they can think of, and it's totally fine. They are playing as BICOs (Biological, Intelligent, Communal, Organisms). This encompasses all normal races in the galaxy.

However there is another kind of life in the universe, called SICOs. (Stellar, Intelligent, Communal, Organisms). Literally pronunced as 'psychos'. They are a form of life that have evolved since the big bang and, for whatever reason, hate and wish to destroy all biological life. The eternal war between these two forms of life is the basis for why space feudalism is a thing, and why everyone carries and uses laser weapons, because physical weapons can't hurt the SICOs.

And that's about all I have for my sci-fi setting, which is many years old now. Just that one idea. But I'm sticking with it.

How do you create nor SICOs or were they always there?

How does your guys manufacture your laser technologies?

How does your guys move from place to place?

I kind of like the idea of light-based organisms/entities. Oh and also is the war wide spread or is it a hush-hush and only a few of your guys know about SICOs and it's like a constant need to cover up what is happening?

Quality>quantity. Anthro animal races are overdone and frankly quite boring, giving players access to dozens of them doesn't address that issue.
Meanwhile, a small pool of very interesting and unique races is much more appealing.

A mixture of animalistic traits would be more interesting and eventually you'll have a stand alone race. I was kind of disappointed whenever I asked a while back about what people used as a race to replace the generic fantasy races as they were usually some boring anthro race and furry bait.

By more interesting I meant more interesting than simple anthro races. (I'm trying to add to your side as I'm agreeing with you, sorry if that wasn't appearant.)

>were they always there
Yes, they evolved naturally. Imagine that wavelengths of light interacting with gravity and the higgs-field in such a way that it created a mostly permanent feedback loop, just needing energy from a star to keep itself going. This is basically the start of an evolutionary cycle, and over eons they have become advanced enough to be intelligent.

>Manufacture laser technology
How do they manufacture lasers now? Diodes? I always liked the somewhat science fiction idea of using different crystals for laser technology to make it a slightly more rare resource and it give it some interesting equipment options, so I kind of like that.

>Move from place to place
They use a Star Drive. It lets you pull yourself from star to star, absorbing its energy to make the next jump. SICOs hang out inside and around stars, and you can see why they view biological life as hostile.

>Is the war wide spread or is it a secret
Oh no, it's pretty well known. It keeps the space feudalism system working. If you're the ruler of a single colony you probably owe the guy who owns your planet or moon a bunch of soldiers, money or space ships as taxes. He owes the guy who owns the star system, and he owes the guy who owns the super cluster. Why I like it for sci-fi despite it's silliness, is it means it doesn't actually matter what system of government a planet has as long as this money and material goes up the chain. Planets can be controlled by dictators, peaceful democracies, corporations, hive minds, anything as long as they don't break the chain.