Building a setting for an ordinary 5e campaign in a medieval fantasy setting, with all the usual antics of adventuring and mercenary work. The issue is, I've come up with an economy-based idea that suits the setting I'm making but I'm not sure whether it would help or hinder the campaign itself.
The empire in which the campaign is based is invested in minimizing social mobility and the movement of its subjects between its provinces. As such, they have developed currency in a fashion that is purposefully difficult to possess, in the form of trade bars. Although copper and silver coins are used, the more valuable forms of currency come in the form of silver and gold trade bars. Due to the empire's gold production being limited to a specific region of a specific province, the gold bars mentioned above are rarely used and are a luxury that's found primarily in the coffers of the empire's ruling elite and the caravans of tax collectors.
The exchange rates and weights are as follows: >A copper piece = 0.01gp, a purse of 50 pieces is equivalent to 1lb. >A silver piece = 0.1gp, a purse of 50 pieces is equivalent to 1lb. >A silver trade bar = 10gp, a single bar is 2lb. >A gold trade bar = 250gp, a single bar is 5lb.
In practical in-games terms, this means that for every 5gp a person carries, unless they've got their hands on one of the rare gold bars, they're going to be weighed down by 1lb. Considering that plenty of items that aren't even magical can cost upwards of 100gp, this makes transportation and possession of wealth a rather difficult and awkward affair. This is intentional as the empire is putting a great deal of effort into making travel between provinces difficult for its ordinary subjects. Wealth cannot easily be carried on one's person. An individual needs to either find a safe location to store their wealth, invest it in goods and services or possess means of transporting it, such as a horse-drawn cart.
Continuing this in another post.
Asher Reed
The issue comes from the fact that this is still a game. Despite the fact that this economic system helps convey what sort of world the player characters are living in, I have a feeling that making 5gp = 1lb in most scenarios might make gameplay and inventory management tiresome.
For a setting that will see use in a game rather than a book, does this sort of economy hinder gameplay more than it assists verisimilitude?
Cooper Peterson
That just seems tedious and cumbersome. Why not come up with another idea?
For instance, to purchase property or other large investments requires a certain type of currency (your gold bar). To aquire the bar requires an immediate exchange of coins, more coins than the average peasant would handle in a lifetime, and money lenders are vicious. That way the peasants are limited but not by weight which is a little silly in the first place.
Luis Harris
>>To start, name an interesting monument or holy place in your setting The "bridge to heaven" was once a mountain so tall, it really did penetrate the heavens and led directly to the realm of the heavenly gods. Now it's just an ordinary, albeit high, mountain.
Zachary Allen
bump
Josiah Reyes
>Try to sketch world map >Always ends up being a rip-off of the Mediterranean How the fuck to I make a Mediterranean knock-off without it being obvious?
Logan Nguyen
Have it open at the Red/Arabian Sea instead of the Atlantic.
Brandon Sullivan
The 'world' is a small continent of land, rivers, and lakes. All the cultures of the world live there.
To the west is arid desert, which gets worse the further it goes.
To the east is jungle, which has more dangerous beasts and bigger trees the further it goes.
To the north is ice and snow and mountains, which only get more extreme as it goes.
To the south is ocean dotted with islands, bigger aquatic horrors and endless storms rage the further it goes.
The night sky is the Netherrealm, the place where people go after they die. You can get there when you're alive too, if you trek far enough in the mountains, deserts, jungles, or ocean.
Sound interesting?
Anthony Murphy
What exactly makes it a Med rip-off?
The key attribute of the Med is being a large sea in between several large landmasses. Secondary characteristics are a large number of islands, calm waters and a warm dry climate. You could also include having only two natural connections to other bodies of water, and the Black Sea itself has no other connections.
To differentiate your Middle Sea you could relocate it to other climes. Move it farther north so it is more akin to the Baltic or Hudson Bay than the Aegean. Or perhaps south to the tropics like an more enclosed version of the Carribean or Indonesia.
Or you decide it is a close system and does not drain into an ocean. It might be like the Caspian, formerly a freshwater lake fed by rivers and rain that has become more brackish with time. The larger it is the more water is needed for supply to outpace evaporation so bear that in mind; if you do go big then consider either mammoth river systems on par with the Amazon or an Ice Age setting (or just post) where increased rain in the tropics fed super-lakes.
Or you could take the opposite route and have a Med that was once connected and is now sealed, as will happen in a few million years. It will slowly shrink and become increasingly salty as water evaporates without replacement. Long term it is doomed but few games work on that timescale. Either of these options allows you to put the sea further inland (esp.1) which helps break up the Med silhouette re-other bodies of water.
Carter Perez
Setting dump (1/?) Looking for feedback on a setting currently without a proper name. I will mark tentative ideas and concepts.
Starting with the Pantheon. The first god on the pantheon is 'The Primordial' It existed when there was nothing, and does not manifest in any physical way. It speaks only to other gods and to no mortals. The Primordial is responsible for creating the two greater gods. For a long time now, the Primordial has not been heard from, in it's absence one of the greater gods have gone searching for it, leaving behind 2 lesser gods to fulfill it's duties. When the Primordial created the greater gods, it did not teach them anything, instead it let them learn by themselves.
The Greater Gods consist of four beings which share two bodies. The Creator and Consumer (life and death), and The Everlasting and The Expanse (time and space). The greater gods are recognized through the masks they wear. The rest of their bodies consist of a long and dark flowing robe (Think like those things from spirited away). The greater gods typically don't intervene with mortal affairs, but there is one exception to this. The Priesthood of the Mask. The Priesthood of the Mask is the religion that strictly worships the greater gods, more about them later. The greater gods each have a unique mask, as mentioned earlier, this is how they are defined. [image:(top) Life, Death, (Bottom) Time, Space)
The Creator has a sect of lesser gods it created, and that follow it. They're called the Genesi of Life. Within the Genesi of Life there are four elemental gods. VirValmari: The oceans fury (god of water: dunno what form he takes). VirSundez: The first flame (god of fire: takes the form of a phoenix). VirTerraadre (god of earth: dunno what form yet.) and FemHavotra: The world's breath (god of air: takes the form of a chineese serpent). Femasili: Mother nature (female appearance, dunno what race yet). and FemVardier: Title dunno. (form dunno) The god of spirit.
Justin Phillips
Setting dump (2/?)
The four elemental gods within the Genesi of life clashed when the planet itself was primal. This was known as "The rage of the elements" during this time, droughts were in tense, earthquakes were massive, the tides were vicious and the winds were ferocious. This upset Femasili, she had a pet project she was working on. The planet that was created didn't harbor any sentient life for a while, so she planted the seeds to make organic beings. But with the planet in turmoil (also, the planet does not have a name yet) she took on the four elemental gods and stripped away a fragment of their power, severely dampening their power. With the elements calmed, over centuries organic beings evolved. To give them even more spark, FemVardier gave them spirit [Probably gonna drop FemVardier from the pantheon, seems kinda useless). Virterraadre later struck a deal with Femasili, Virterraadre offered to create golem protectors to help protect the mortal races as they evolved. She agreed and restored his power, making Virterraadre the defacto leader of the Elemental Coalition. Femasili later created a demigod to watch over the beasts of the world, VirOxhun: title dunno (Form any beast).
More about those golem protectors later.
Onto the lesser gods of The Consumer. The Consumer is death, so it's lesser gods "The Mortal Plights" The mortal plights just seek to lead mortals to an early demise. The only Lesser god within the Mortal Plights that do not do so are "Reapers" They're like collectors from mass efefct, except they're humanoid, and seek the souls of the dead to bring them to the next plane of existence. I do not know the forms or titles of any of the mortal plights as of yet. FemNoctu, the god of night. Virirazoc, the god of wrath (being wrathful will blind judgement, and you could fuck up in blind rage leading to an early death). VirObnilaf god of gluttony (may just change it to sloth). and FemHakrul, god of lust and indulgence (may change her name).
Ryder Ortiz
Setting dump (2/?)
I still want to add even more mortal plights, but that's for another time.
Since the Everlasting and the Expanse have gone searching for the Primordial on the plane of gods, (there are a few planes in my setting, Mortal plane, soul plane [heaven and hell], god plane and a void plane). In place of the Everlasting, there are two lesser gods who took over it's duty, VirChronauxium (god of past, present and future), and VirChrofryst (frozen time). The only lesser god of the Expanse is Viralx (god of void space).
I still need to work out all the personalities and stuff for my gods, but i at least want them as a concept done.
Two more demigods are the keepers of heaven and hell. VirSwaurthozin is the keeper of heaven, and VirNizoht is the keeper of hell. Hell is a trial for souls to reform. If the soul is irredeemable then with the help of Viralx, the soul gets banished out of existence. Heaven is just a typical heaven.
The last three demigods are a trio. The trio are the ones who judge the souls to determine weather they enter heaven or hell. VirRechter (Judge) VirMirux (Jury) and Virprenzog (Executioner).
Lastly I have a plan for minor gods that are more readily worshiped by mortals, like a god of harvest or something ,but y'know more of them. But this concludes my Pantheon.
as mentioned earlier, I do plan to include many more Mortal Plights and minor gods. Now in my next post i'm going to transition to my current religions
Jaxon Bennett
setting dump (4/?) above post is actually (3/?)
The largest religion in my setting is the Priesthood of the Mask. The religion focuses on worshiping the greater gods.
To join the priesthood you start as a recruit, and after 6 months of training you may choose the path of the squire or acolyte. Squires join the military sect and acolytes the religious sect. After becoming a squire the recruit may choose to be a paladin or cleric. The soldiers usually act in groups of three, a paladin, cleric and squire. The current leader of the military sect is is Paladin Maugrin, he's the top paladin of the order. Above the rank of paladin are templars. A paladin becoming a templar is optional, and only those who are highly devoted may become one after being scouted by another templar. They live within the religions citadel within Stormcoast city. They hide among the many, and essentially are the pope's SS. A deniable asset if you will. If the pope says go do X they do so without hesitation. A high templar leads the rest of them (I don't have the high templar named yet)
If the acolyte path is chosen, the next rank is a lesser priest. A lesser priest may also become a cleric or advance to a greater priest. A greater priest may choose to become a bishop or join the masked council. To join the masked council one must go through an exhausting spirit journey. The masked council operate anonymously as they all where masks when they meet. They dictate laws within the citadel, but the pope has final say.
After bishop comes archbishop who is directly under the papal position. The Archbishop is chosen through seniority or if greatness is shown, then the masked council may advance a bishop to archbishop. and at the top is the pope.
The religion has had three popes. Pope Benzhu who died fighting off an ogre incursion, lead by Ripthogg.
Parker Cook
Do you have an actual question or are you just patting yourself on the back for having a setting?
Christian Powell
Setting dump (5/?)
Since the Ogre incursion, ogres have been banned from joining the priesthood of the mask. The main practitioners of the religion are those of The United faction. Essentially my Tolkien races which I need to expand upon. More about races later.
The second pope within the priesthood was the traitor pope who's name I forgot. The Traitor Pope set up the Cult of the Claw. A Cult which evokes the the wrath of islamic crabs who seek to do nothing but conqeour the inland areas of the setting. They crabs currently reside within The Midnight Sea, and are actively at combat with the Holy Divers who set up their organization to combat them. More on this later. The traitor pope was dethroned by Paladin Maugrin and the Archbishop at the time took the pope's place. This is how Maugrin became top Paladin. To uncover the activities of the traitor pope, Maugrin hired the work of "The Broker" who runs an orginization that is essentially a one stop shop for sneaky stuff. Assassins, espionage, and mercs at extreme prices.
The next religions I have planned are the following: A religion that has elementalists worshiping the elemental gods. A religion of druids that worship the Beast King (Oxhun) and Mother Nature (Femasili). A religion that possibly only worships the ocean god (VirValmari) comprised of Naga, an extinct ocean dwelling race, and a race i have planned of mutated fishmen called the underlights.
>Looking for feedback on a setting currently without a proper name.
I'm looking for critique on what I can improve on. Literally said in the first post.
Elijah Smith
Feedback as well
Michael Baker
I need a solid government type for a faction within my world. They officially List themselves as a Representative Republic, and is inspired by the Roman Empire, However, it has a few aspects, which makes me unsure on how to actually describe their government type.
Here's some information about the Government and Society
>Collectivist >Many aspects of Civilian life are considered Communal (Computers, Showers, Transports etc) Very few people own their own essentials, though they can own Luxuries. >Has Unspoken strict moral codes between citizens, and society tends to look down on those who break convention >Religion is uncommon but not strictly forbidden >Large State, Big Government. >Support Tax-Funded Support Programs >Government is based on representation, similar to the Roman Senate. Major property holders and distinguished citizens get access to the Senate. >Has a Civilian / Citizenship split. In order to become a full citizen, an "Oath" has to be taken. (For example an Oath of military Service,) >Land can only be acquired by esteemed citizens >All rulings are decided on by the Senate. Although their is a Chancellor, who is the highest ranking member of the senate. However, he only oversees the senate, and has no more voting/movement power than the rest of those in the senate.
So, what would be the best term to describe this government? There's definitely elements of Socialism in there, But with the Republic elements as well, it's a bit of Curiosity. I was thinking of Being a bit Lazy and just Calling it Republican-Socialism, but I thought I would ask you guys first.
>Also Pic Related is my plan for Typical Architecture, Heavily Italian Futurist
Brayden Moore
Does anyone has the rest of this set?
Aiden James
And if possible the whole biome world map completed?
I'm trying to learn at which latitudes jungles and evergreens belong
Julian King
>To start, name an interesting monument or holy place in your setting
The Wind Well is the mythical birth place of the first jinn. Most people who aren't jinn aren't terribly impressed by it, despite being inside of an ornate temple it's little more than a very, very deep hole that sometimes makes weird noises.
To keep the fantasy familiar with my players (inexperienced players), i've added a faction of tolkein races. They are "The United" and are basically the EU and want a bunch of nations to join them, but not every nation wants to join them. This group and the elves, dwarves, humans and orcs need heavy development.
Aside from feedback, what name would people suggest for my elite merc/espionage/assassin group? I have it planned for the leader aka "The Broker" to have been a former druid with a raven affinity. So at his side he has a giant raven. The names i've came up for the group are: "The Flock" "The Raven's Talon" "The Flock of Blades" "Conspire Company" "The Conspirium" (A group of ravens are a conspiracy of ravens)
So, feedback and critique is appreciated, aswell as an answer for my above question.
Jack Green
MY GOD
THANK YOU!!
Samuel Bell
>>To start, name an interesting monument or holy place in your setting
"The Old Gate" a cave entrance in to the eastern mountains that opens out in to the central deserts. Closed up about half a mile inward it acts as both the first fortified outpost when the dwarves entered the deserts fleeing the goblin hoards that ransacked their old homes and a grave-marker for all those who were lost in the exodus. The walls tell the old stories of the dwarves, of their weapon-work and mastery over steel, adamantine and mythril, along with the flight they made from their home when the unrelenting goblin hoards came and claimed the old mountains for their own. With fortifications turned towards the back of the cave, all aimed towards a blocked off, granite wall it now lies fairly abandoned, dwarven society having moved in to the deserts, growing fat and rich off the vast deposits of gold, silver and gemstones beneath the sands. Now this mournful, once heavily trafficked place is now only visited by historians working to preserve the old dwarven stories and those grey-bearded nostalgic smiths who can still remember the days of their youth, when the mountain holds were still their own.
Julian Sanders
Make it run North to South.
Mason Price
I'm writing up some calibers for weapons in my game, and I'm wondering: Would caseless calibers have a smaller "case" length? Say 5.56x45mm turns to 5.56x40mm?
James Martinez
I'm imagining a bowl like planet. You can literally walk off the lip of the world into the afterlife. I'm sure that's nothing like you intend, but I think it sounds neat.
Dominic Rodriguez
Preliminary world map to a Thieves World style setting (ie, sometimes PCs will die of infection after a fight). I've been very careful to watch for rain shadows, wind, and oceanic currents to keep things roughly believable. Enough to quell the autism for another day, anyway.
I am, however, bad at deciding where major trade hubs will go on such maps. Where are the best locations for major trade cities on this map? How do you go about deciding what makes a good trade hub?
>To start, name an interesting monument or holy place in your setting The White Pillar is a solid marble cylinder which stands in the center of the Lokqui forest. It stands as a final resting place of the 1,000 elves slain by invading Changelings during the Great War.
Elijah Murphy
How's medieval era russia for use in a fantasy setting? I kinda wanna model my dwarves after them, but I don't really know enough about it to make an educated guess as to how well it'd work. Links to information and stuff would be neat.
Also, slav dwarves are cool.
Adrian Ward
Opalline Wastes
Shimmering pearlescent sands that support no life. All rock present is old masonry, too ancient and worn to be recognized as such.
In reality the inactive remains of an ancient weapon shattered and scattered to keep it from being used. It surrounds equally ancient ruins that are utilized as a capitol city in spite of the logistical concerns with having a large population in the desert. Capitol city is just the control center that could recreate the weapon if ever things became dire enough. The only issue is nobody remembers any of that
Joseph Bell
Here's my map. Any thoughts on it?
Does the placement of the two deserts and rainforests make sense at all? Wind is blowing from the west there
Alexander Allen
The mini-desert should probably be wetter. The mountains don't seem to *directly* block the wind.
Jackson Hall
bump
John Price
GURPS Russia is a great RPG-focused introduction to medieval Russia. It covers the Kievan Rus through to death of Peter the Great, with a focus on the middle periods. Fantasy treatments from minor magic at the edge of civilisation all the way to slaying giants in fairy tales are also included.
Mythic Russia is another good one. G:R is in the GURPS Mega, and both should be in the PDF thread.
Sebastian Jackson
Trade basically depends on two factos, goods and the means to transport those goods.
Step one is to decide what goods are produced where on your map. Step two is deciding which zones have the means and inclination to trade with eachother, which requires goods in demand/the means to pay for them and a route that still allows profitable exchange. Step three is actually tracing the route between the two zones, taking into account how inhabited the route is, safety, and terrain. Sea trade also has to worry about ocean/wind currents, sea conditions and what shipping tech allows. Trade in the Ancient Med via coastal hugging light ships that need to beach every night is quite different to galleons with charts and compass being at sea for weeks or months to cross the Atlantic.
Ryder Nelson
Step four is placing the actual trade hubs.
Trade hubs have two main functions. The first is providing services to merchants; food, shelter, R&R and the supplies needed to carry on the journey be that winter clothing, new sails, replacement camels or local guides. This is especally important to maritime trade and caravans in inhospitable terrain, as supplies are harder to come by. If your route passes through a desert then a large oasis will likely become a major stepping stone across the sands as will the first settlement with potential to develop on the other side.
The second is hosting markets. Selling to the merchants produce the merchants can transport and trade along the routes and buying what the merchants bring in, not just for their own consumption but also to resell along smaller routes. The Silk Road ran from China and variously terminated at Constaninople and the Egyptian/Levantine coast, from there it fractured as ships took the silk to ports across the Med and up the rivers of Russia to the Baltic. A trade hub might primarily export local produce, sited near rich mines or fertile plantations, or be sited along multiple trade routes (these are the largest and wealthiest hubs) so merchants always have something to buy and imports can be sold on to many hubs. Most individual merchants only make short-medium length journeys rather than transversing the entire length of the Silk Road, so goods are passed through a series of middle men. This constant reselling means that markets with a range of goods to trade spaced out along the route is quite important.
A sheltered natural harbour is a massive boost to maritime trade but is a detail you can add wherever since they are way too small to show on a world map. Rivers are also good since moving cargo by barge is much easier than using carts or pack animals. Coastal trade is likewise prevalent. Confluences of major rivers are natural hubs since they unite two riverine trade zones.
Brayden Morris
That's what I did to mine, but upon farther analysis, a Mediterranean that runs North to South is not equivalent to one that runs East to West, because a sea like the Mediterranean is at roughly the same climate all around, it facilitates an easy exchange of crops and animals through trading and you can be fairly confident that if a crop grows on one end of the Mediterranean, it will grow just fine if you move it to the other side.
A Mediterranean that runs North to South, on the other hand, will run through multiple climate zones, making the exchange of crops harder. Also it probably would be less calm because of the temperature differences.
Adam Morales
Lads i need ideas for a space religion. Something zen and meditative. Their temple overlooks a geyser field on Enceladus.
Jaxson Price
Give me inspirational example pictures of your worlds architecture Why are they built in such a manner? How does the weather effect it?
If its a fantasy setting with different races how is the architecture made to fit?
If its a sci-fi setting, how has architecture been changed from the current time? If the gravity is different or atmosphere variable how does that effect your worlds buildings?
How might your worlds architecture change in the next 100 years?
Andrew Campbell
A world on the inside of a sphere. There are 4 wells: 2 solar wells on the "East" and "west", and two lunar ones on "north" and "south".
The sun is a ball of flame, the moon is a ball of ice. In the morning the sun ascends from the eastern well, it crosses through the middle of the globe and descends into the western well. The moon does the same on a north-south course. The solar wells are encircled by vast deserts, with the closest parts covered with glass. The lunar wells are encircled by ice.
The world will end when the two meet each other in the middle of the sky, crushing each other and covering half the world in fire and half in ice.
Two existing schools of magic are focused on these two, both drawing power from their symbol in the sky - with each working only when the symbol is in the sky.
This is just the basic ideas to build the world around, but thoughts?
Jonathan Bennett
Sounds lame to be honest
Noah Watson
> name an interesting monument or holy place in your setting
Holy Nürn and its Oracle is one of the most visited pilgrim-sites within the Empire and without a doubt the most revered and respected. Every year a steady stream of pilgrims reaches the shores of the remote isle that houses the temple complex. Everyone of them, be they pauper or king brings an offering to the temple wether they are there to see the Oracle or just to walk on the isle's blessed soil. The Emperor Vorenus III Amillius Torentius, the Great Restorer of the Temple, strode the path to the inner sanctum often and met his end when he succumbed to old age during the travel of his eight pilgrimage. The halls and waiting rooms of the Temple Complex is dressed in leaf gold and everywhere you look there's a statue or an urn in some precious material depicting wildly varying scenes from cultures far and wide. Before the sack of the place by the Arsanid Empire the main gate leading into the "courtyard" of the Temples was said to be carved from two gargantuan tusks off a Landwhale, an animal which the locals from the Vulture Peninsula worship as living gods. These mighty pillars, interwoven by spiralling gold bars, where further decorated by master craftsmen who had carved out the story of the Rise of the Tyranian people on one and the Fall of the Tyranian people on the other.
Kayden Cruz
Rain shadow isn't as cut-and-dry as just drawing an straight-edged shadow from the mountains in the opposite direction of the wind. The clouds will wrap around the mountains a bit at their edges. Thus, the northern edge of your smaller desert should be greener, unless you're willing to increase the amount of mountains blocking the rain.
Thomas Anderson
Republican Stratocracy
Jack Lopez
Literally every single attempt at unique cosmology is really lame desu. I liked this guys though because it reminds me of really old corny ones.
Luke Green
This is some good shit. If you're still here user, thanks for this. It's helped organize my thoughts.
A major trade city (Singar) shall be placed on the second-to-last bend in the river running from the inland sea to the ocean. It is largely a host city for markets due to its central location between a cluster of raw goods and luxury item markets. They make money also on river and cross-country trade, since the ocean to the south is kinda fucked up and hard to navigate due to wind and ocean currents making it a hellstorm half the year.
Kayden Hernandez
Bump
John Long
Shouldn't step zero or one to assign where resources are in the world? And after you are done with that you determine where are the goods being produced?
Also thanks for your posts, really helpful.
John Cox
I wanted to homebrew a game heavily inspired by ancient African culture that revolves around surviving as a tribe in a hostile world filled with lovecraftian nightmares.
Are there any books on African folklore and culture I could take inspiration from? What are some African equivalents to otherworldly and alien creatures?
Evan Foster
>What are some African equivalents to otherworldly and alien creatures? Modern technology.
Jonathan Brown
I would first try to pin down what particular set of beliefs you want to influence your setting, there isn't one African people or culture. A good place to start is the Yoruba religion, which also influenced many of the traditional African American religious beliefs, but I couldn't tell you about any books about it, sorry.
Cute.
Nicholas Sullivan
By production of goods, I was referring more broadly to the entire process by which resources were harvested and made ready for trade rather than just manufacturing.
But yes, the trade in raw materials which are processed into finished products elsewhere is another important consideration and could result in those products being sold back to the area that harvested the raw materials for a tidy profit.
And glad to help with the climate and trade queries, it's what /wbg/ is for anyway.
Owen Diaz
Thank you! I knew "African culture" was a bit vague and I needed a starting point.
Juan Bennett
>implying Carska gives a shit about other races Largely-styled as 1880's British urban architecture, save for an increased importance on building up for the magocracy and its elites while the common masses sprawl out around them. The colonial capital of Sonaugh, Silver City, is something of a melting pot of these styles, however, as the slums built along the base of the cliff on which the upper city was built have begun to grow together in a twisting mass of tenements rising up around the skeletal chassis of railways.
Dwarven holds back in the Old World are a decent example of architecture inspired by multitudes of races. As the dwarfs were originally the carved slaves of the primordial giants who overthrew their masters and shackled them beneath the earth, dwarven cities seem to outsiders to be vastly out of scale of their inhabitants with subterranean avenues that were originally constructed for their gigantic masters. Many of these facades now lead off into more appropriately-sized chambers and passages, but dwarfs are keen on keeping many giant-scaled sections as a reminder of what they have overcome.
Ian Fisher
anyone got a pdf of World-Building by Stephen Gillett? Trying to get all the maths bullshit for building planets in a single place.
Be prepared for WE WUZ KANGZ N SHEIT if you have the misfortune of running this in America.
Jeremiah Nelson
New Thread Questions!
Over time, some cities will change hands between powers great and small through either war, migration, or some other calamity. Sometimes, especially in fantasy, cities can pass from one race (say, Elves) to another (Dwarves).
>Is there such a city in your setting? >How do you show this? Varied place names? Eclectic architecture? >What led your city to be the way it is today?
>Hard Mode: What's the local tax policy like? ;3
Adam Cooper
I'm still trying to nail down the story I want to tell and the world/magic system that will support it. That's middle to late stage stuff
>Tfw you'll never be so setting-autistic you invent a new set of fundamental forces that govern the universe instead of the classic model
James Morgan
What's your magic system? And what story do you want to tell? I can tell you now I've literally been there before.
Jaxon Mitchell
I don't rightly know
I was working on magic and setting before I hit a brick wall and I realized the reason I don't know what magic should do was because I didn't know what story I wanted to tell.
So now I'm listing all the stories and characters I like so I can distill something I can get behind out of the soup. It's hard since most people can't write to save their lives.
Parker Wilson
>Is there such a city in your setting? The old dwarven mountain homes are all basically goblin territory now, save for one that was abandoned by both sides during the invasions because of unspeakable wizard bullshit going on in its heart. >How do you show this? Varied place names? Eclectic architecture? A mix of both, Once proud architecture has basically been used as a framework for piled up and shaky slum cities of wood hacked down from the surrounding forests. Statues have either been torn down, covered in tattered fabrics or painted and defaced by vibrant colored underdark pigments. The vast and open moria-esque halls have been turned fairly cramped as the innumerable population fill and pack in like sardines, once grand hallways turning in to slum districts. Most civil races use the old dwarven names, but the goblins and other vile things that traffic it call it by the new goblin names, guttural sounding stuff that translates one way or another to victory, triumph or conquest. >What led your city to be the way it is today? Invasions mang. The goblin hoards were just that, so populous that they beat out dwarven masterworks through sheer numbers and attrition alone, forcing the race through escape tunnels and out in to the desert.
Julian Campbell
>unspeakable wizard bullshit Fucking wizards.
Jason Hill
Sometimes I think I'm just using building my world so I can read up on slavic culture
Henry Adams
Something I find really interesting throughout history is the concept of conscription, or rather in generall: Who the fuck actually goes to war, why, how and what does he gain from, if anything. Warrior castes, noblemen, slaves, serfs, militias, professional and semi-professional soldiers, free-men, "warriors".
I hope you thought about this.
Owen Fisher
I know Orc/Goblin occupied Dwarven hold is an ancient trope, but I will never get tired of it
Joseph Smith
Well, technically the setting for the campaign that I've stalled out temporarily is set in one such city, Port Marston. Originally a native dwelling, it was officially conquered roughly a century ago and the primitive buildings destroyed. A large earthen mound that the Boar had constructed was eventually repurposed as the grounds for the Governor's Mansion, though the warrens and tunnels beneath it had never been fully mapped and link to the twisting subterranean structures that still host goblinoids and other creatures down in the dark.
The city is named for the explorer who first settled there, but the territory's name of Sonaugh comes from the Sikasa word for "with a small river." A lot of the names of settlements in the region have similiar origins, mixed in with those named for the colonist/explorer that first passed through or settled there, or simply common words like Sweetwater and Hope's Spring. The Territorial Authority's current stance is seen by some hard-liners to be too soft on the natives due to the fact that they haven't outright conquered and razed the region, and a group known as the Society for Progress is currently attempting to spur native insurrections while also currying favor with local leaders to lead to widespread bloodshed which would likely force the issue to open war.
Ethan James
All the time. Those concerns are the cornerstone of the social structure in a few of my settings. I can't give any examples without doing an intrusively massive text dump, but I can say that I probably put too much effort into that aspect of my settings while neglecting others of at least equal importance.
Carter White
Intrusive rext dumps are what /wbg is made for. Go ahead dawg.
Bentley King
How is one supposed to assign biomes when your world is an infinite plane? Proximity to water and mountains seem like a good start, but there's no real reason for biomes to be stratified by longitude when the world doesn't rotate on an axis.
Easton Ross
But where does the energy come from?
Nathan Fisher
There's a restless god that wanders the bottom of the heavens, patching up any cracks in its underpinnings. The sparks thrown by his hammer serve in lieu of sunlight.
Brayden Perez
The answer is "it's magic, bro" anyways, so go ahead and be creative with it. Anyone trying to be autistic about the realistic gravity will be stopped by the whole fact of it taking place on an infinite plane LONG before they reach the oddities of the biome placement.
Colton Brown
>realistic gravity I meant to say realistic geography, don't know how that got mixed up.
Benjamin Watson
> tfw map is just a distorted, tilted map of earth with bits and pieces patched on unlimited power
Jackson Long
Alright /wbg/, I need some help. I need to figure out what centaurs are, what their origin is and who they are, etc. I have some serious writers block and could use some inspiration.
Nolan Cooper
Holy shit, I've been looking for something like this for the longest time. Thanks user.
Gabriel Scott
they wanna eat you they come from uteruses they are scum, not people
Joshua Reyes
Centaurs are race of warrior philosophers created during an alliance of the sky and ocean gods in order to combat some sort of daemonic or eldritch threat.
Jackson Moore
Elf and human alliance against whatever >once after a battle, an elven commander lost his legs and was about to die >to save the elf, a human doctor mixed them with a nearby dying horse, quickly stitching them together with magic and his surgery skills. >then send the result back to the forest They can breed with mares and elves. They are good with bows and spears, much like elves. They live a long time too but not as long as a regular elf. They have 2 hearts, and 2 stomachs.
Sebastian Turner
They are rapists and when it comes to their origin you can't make up dumber stuff than their greek creation myth.
Samuel Rodriguez
Alternatively travel is restricted by law to certain groups of people, the pcs for example might have had to get license to travel or are actively breaking the law
Brayden Martin
In my setting there are three major powers. In economic terms >One is your average medieval kingdom that produces shitloads of grain and other food >One's a trade league that produces a lot of craftsmanship and fishery How should I economically proliferate the third power, to make them unique yet let them fit in with the other two? What hole in the market can they occupy?
Benjamin Sullivan
Their society is founded entirely on rape. Every single temple, artwork, set of armor and weapon is dedicated to rape. They are unbelievably buff and strangely majestic. The horse dick magical realm awaits you.
Anthony Thomas
Have the third power be a major source of raw materials. Stone, gold, silver, iron, copper, tin, etc.
Grayson Sanchez
slaves and military
Ian Anderson
slavery or mercenaries (and yes they work for both sides) or they are just barbarians, bandits, pillagers, and the like
Tyler Wright
There's a map of resources that were traded in the Roman empire higher up in this thread. It's weird that the three nations each have only one thing, but if you want to "balance" it in the same way, pick something like >raw resources (metals, lumber, stone) >luxury resources (silk, dyes, spices) >salt Please do not do this.
Aiden Phillips
I want to build a word for a standard game of 5e based on Made in Abyss. The basic gist of it is that there is a huge chasm in the Earth filled with ancient technological treasures and fantastic monsters. Nobody has ever reached the bottom, thus it draws in aspiring adventurers. Another huge element of the world is that there are layers to the abyss, and when you try to ascend between "layers", you are affected by the Abyss' "curse". >Ascending from the first layer to ground level causes minor decompression sickness >Ascending from the second layer induces vomiting and nausea >Ascending from the third layer you begin to see audio and visual hallucinations >Ascending from the fourth layer you experience excruciating pain and bleed through every orifice >Ascending from the fifth layer you lose all sensations and cause self harm >Ascending from the sixth layer you lose your humanity or die >Ascending from anything deeper means certain death. I need to make this world more table top RPG friendly. Because my players will be generally casual and are expecting a game-y experience I was thinking to have "dungeons" littered throughout the chasm where there would be a short gauntlet of trials and a guaranteed treasure within them. The deeper the dungeon lies the better the treasure. I was also thinking to put a few settlements on each layer (where applicable), where there will be social situations to work around. Also there will be a city at the top of the chasm for them to expand if they wish to.
What could I do to make this world work more as a setting for a game? What could I do to entice the players to travel there without feeling railroaded? Or just any suggestions in general.
Jonathan Mitchell
Forgot my image.
Sebastian Morris
Ascending is up, descending is down. It sounds pretty cool for a "gamey" setting if that's what you're going for. There wouldn't really be any interconnected world economics or politics between settlements on a large scale, so make them self-sufficient and unique. I don't see why players would feel railroaded - you're an adventurer and you want treasure, go ahead and get it.
Kayden Allen
I meant what I said. Going down has no negative effects on the body, but trying to go back up to ground level does. Varied settlements and "floors" of the chasm is definitely necessary to keep player's interest. I have no idea what should lie at the bottom though. I was thinking of playing it straight and having "riches and power beyond your wildest dreams" being at the bottom amongst the ruins of the powerful ancient civilization and just give each player a wish.
Jose Williams
just glossed over what you posted, it certainly is a dump in that you just threw a few trucks of shit into a pile. content without scaffold is just words... whats the context of your setting? as in what campaign do you want to have played off this or even just what story is there to tell?
Eli Gomez
In a campaign I'm building (it's in the Dresden Files universe if any of you know it) there are eldritch abominations from outside of reality which want to break through and destroy everything but some people have power over them. Unfortunately I don't know how rare to make being one of those people, best as I can tell it occurs when a number of other conditions happen but it's common enough that two characters in the books are one and at least one might be.
Julian Perez
Exactly as rare as it needs to be for plot purposes, and with a tendency to cluster where the characters will bump into them so attempts to extrapolate those numbers into a global population figure are doomed to fail.
Usually I'm a massive autist for setting consistency, but the demographics of supernatural critters get screwy fast. The goldilocks zone is very small and any concrete number will come back to bite you.
Jayden Lee
Anyone know of good Bronze Age fantasy settings (besides Glorantha, which I'm already into)?
I want to roll my own but it's so hard to get a good "feel" for Bronze Age.
Camden Butler
Alright gents, I need some brain-pickers for this one. I am still trying to determine where the best placement for a major trade city would be, and while I've narrowed it down a ways, I still need to pick a definite spot before I can build the City itself, where I intend to run the majority of my campaigns in this setting.
The resources listed are very broad and generalized for their regions. The faded red X's are where I thought about placing a major trade hub. My reasons for each are:
>Far-Western X It is near a lot of steppe-folk and their wares, as well as the nearest port for the far western isles trade, which have many exotic goods to trade.
>Central Lake Shore For similar reasons Byzantium became a trade location: it lies between two major economic areas. The inner sea here is rich in raw goods and industry, and the river out of there leads to the wider world markets.
>Central River It lies exactly between the Sea and the Ocean, and can lie directly in the center of any major land route. It is also at the confluence of the main river and another one.
>Southern Shore Right on the sea, has direct access to trade with other lands (to the south, and also to the west). Can also handle land trade due to river making travel easier in some cases.
>South-Western Shore This just looks a little more secure, being inside of a gulf, but is otherwise similar to the South shore location.
tl;dr which X looks like the best place to put a trade hub?
