/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

>Any laws? So strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational?
Yes, but as I said it's not terribly efficient. Unless you have special equipment that helps you with that, I suppose.
Main idea for the setting is to (more or less) emulate ancient myths but with space gods. Mostly hero-level stuff, so they're not "create the world from nothing" powerful. More like, "slay a primordial dragon and turn its body into stone"

>Can I split a fucker into quarks at a whim?
If you're strong enough, sure. There's at least one guy that could crush a moon with his "Hand of the Firmament" enhancement

>In what way? Pure solar radiation or just sunlight? What makes the stars special that couldn't be replicated through UV lights or some other artificial means?
In theory, you could power this ability from a power grid. Can't promise you great returns though.
It's just that stars emit a lot of energy in a massive spectrum. So, presumably, some of the stuff emitted by them is what is caught by the "space gods", though it's likely something at least as weird as neutrino.

>How are they enhanced?
They're humans taken from Earth in about 12000-10000 BC, and turned into space gods by similar creatures of that era. Since then they usurped their creators' place.
It's additional organs that catch whatever part of star emission is supposed to power their abilities.

>If they can ignore physics who are normies to say they aren't gods?
That is the point, while they're essentially humans, there's no higher authority to tell them they're not gods

>We talking like PHD or can some asshole learn a list of facts and get by?
Yeah, we're talking intimate knowledge of how elementary particles work or at least a fucktonne of trial and error in messing with them

From a book I'm writing (because of course I am)

>What's your magic system?
The universe is made of "threads". People who learn to see them can weave patterns into reality.

>Where does it come from?
Reality is made of the stuff. Heat, Magnetism, Awareness, Love, Dreams, Space, Matter, etc.

>What are its limitations?
Resurrection is impossible, as is any form of time travel beyond slowing down aging (typically items). Also, since literally EVERYTHING is made from and connected to these threads, ANY use of magic has a chance to "snag" other threads unintentionally. This means that spell to make yourself invisible, if hastily done, could catch yourself on fire as well. Or a spell to turn your skin into stone could accidentally snag the wrong material thread, causing you to take on the strength not of stone, but charcoal. Or you try to teleport across a ravine and wind up splattered across the entire hillside.

Reality loves to assert itself, by the way, so any spell you weave will surely fade away almost immediately unless you "bind" it in some sort of physical object or symbol. Now, if too many things begin to snag, the threads will become "frayed", whereby they will start snagging ON THEIR OWN, without a spellcaster being needed. Too many snags and frays will eventually accumulate until reality shits itself and becomes a "Snarl".

A snarl is like combining a black hole, time paradox, and nuclear explosion. Whole regions just stop existing for a while. People die in the most horrifying /d/-style transformational ways. The laws of reality stop functioning, reverse, and then implode. Without mages nearby to manage a snarl, it will eventually repair itself, though the area effected will be straight up fucking cursed forever afterward. It's generally an accepted thing that when a snarl happens, EVERYONE stops what they're doing to try and fix it.

Good? Bad?

In PDF thread (), open the OP file, it's on page 3, second link

Alright, then just give him a tower fort on top of a hill overlooking some crossroads. Give him authority over a couple farms and a forest or hills. If he wants to invest in mining, lumber, or something else, then he can do so. If he's got the coin.

Im trying to figure out what there is he CAN do, though. Is there an iron vein? How common are those? Ogld? Silver? I want a method of randlmizing he terrain and resources

Roll 1d100
1-49 is good mining
50-99 is bad mining
100 is DRAGON

Then roll 1d6
1: Iron
2: Copper
3: Tin
4: Fools Gold
5: Silver
6: Gold

Seriously, come up with a random list, roll some dice.

>Yes, but as I said it's not terribly efficient
What does this mean, exactly?
>There's at least one guy that could crush a moon with his "Hand of the Firmament" enhancement
And why was he capable of that? Destroying a moon seems pretty powerful for hero-level stuff
>It's just that stars emit a lot of energy in a massive spectrum.
I feel like you could benefit from hammering this down
>Yeah, we're talking intimate knowledge of how elementary particles work or at least a fucktonne of trial and error in messing with them
I thought I was the only person who said fucktonne
Oh well
How does that knowledge affect their ability to screw with physics? Like what about knowing what to do lets them do it?

Please me aware I'm massively biased towards structured magic systems rather than "Magic is unknowable" systems.

>The universe is made of "threads". People who learn to see them can weave patterns into reality.
Isn't this sort of how the Wheel of Time magic worked?
I never read the books myself, though so take that with a grain of salt
>A snarl is like combining a black hole, time paradox, and nuclear explosion
Now this sounds really bad but the earlier explanation made it seem like snarls would be more common than a world could allow considering how CATASTROPHICALLY dangerous they sound and how permanent its effects can be

You state it can be fixed. How? And is it possible that enough people or knowledge could be mobilized to keep it from spiraling out of control? Could the ability to use magic at all and hence the danger of creating snarls cause people to turn against the use of magic and start hunting down everyone who tried?

Looking, cant see it, whats the full name? And am i looking in freddy bolgers rpg trove?

>1d6

If i was gonna do it his simplistic id atleast go 2d6 so gold/platinum can be a 1/36 each, and iron can cover 6-8 and be he most likely result. Also there'd be a spot for "roll twice".

No, Lotsastuff, folder one.
Just search the PDF for ASOIAF

>What does this mean, exactly?
It means that in general it's much easier and uses way less energy to just shoot a fucker. Or if you have a combat upgrade, kill him with it, instead of dissassembling him into particles

>And why was he capable of that? Destroying a moon seems pretty powerful for hero-level stuff
He's stupidly old and is meant to be a man on the mountain type, not a PC. And his enhancement is unique.
In general, "hero-level" is applicable for PCs, and all those Enlils, Zeuses and Ras are supposed to be distant NPCs

>I feel like you could benefit from hammering this down
Stars emit stuff that is used for magic. A magic particle. A wizardino.

>How does that knowledge affect their ability to screw with physics? Like what about knowing what to do lets them do it?
Because most of the stuff you possibly could do, gives you either no effect on macro-level at all, or one you wouldn't want. Just like you wouldn't to disassemble an object heavier than a grain of wheat into energy when it's in your vicinity

>Please me aware I'm massively biased towards structured magic systems rather than "Magic is unknowable" systems.
Yeah, I have one of those in my group. Can be a right pain in the butt. Can't imagine all the headache I'll get when I actually will use the setting for an actual game

ah, I counted from when it stopped being people jerking off over how they helped, I see. Okay, got it, thanks.

You'll want Core book (Game of Thrones edition, prolly) and Out of Strife Prosperity

>Isn't this sort of how the Wheel of Time magic worked?
From what I understand, the WoT thread magic has a lot of symbolic stuff in its lore. Like, threads of fire, earth, water, and air are combined to make spells. My basically assumes real world chemistry is a thing, but wizards see the "threads" of forces within the universe acting upon one another and have learned to alter them to suit their purposes.

>You state it can be fixed. How?
Wizards can "weave" snarls shut much like a surgeon sews up a wound. It is a skill that can be done rudimentary, but any amount of skill or experience is hugely more efficient that without.

>And is it possible that enough people or knowledge could be mobilized to keep it from spiraling out of control?
Magic is dangerous business. ANYONE can become a wizard by learning how, so the knowledge to become one is basically a tightly kept secret (until the internet is invented and someone decides to post the whole thing on some sort of somali finger puppet board). Magic is the most regulated thing in the universe because it has TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES for fucking up.

That being said, yes. Trained wizards in any number will cut down on natural snarls forming exponentially. There are also natural processes for limiting and fixing snarls, but most of these are poorly understood and human actions tend to intensify the problem. Even without spellcasting, snarls form from high "energy", such as high concentrations of chemical energy, kinetic shocks, or thoughts/dreams in a localized area. It's gonna happen anyway, might as well have someone around to save everyone when shit goes down.

>Could the ability to use magic at all and hence the danger of creating snarls cause people to turn against the use of magic and start hunting down everyone who tried?
Yes. The main conundrum is thus: More mages means more snarls could happen. Of course, snarls will happen regardless, but mages can fix those.

>From a book I'm writing (because of course I am)
Hey me too

>What's your magic system?
Magic is created and utilized through song. Certain women during puberty develop a set of horns that mark them as a Speaker. Speakers are the only ones who can use magic.

Magic "resonates" with the soul. Mostly this is used to grant warriors increased strength, speed, and vitality. Though intense effort and concentration a Speaker can create an artificial soul called a Simulacrum which is physically a gem roughly the size of a pingpong ball. Putting these objects in weapons can relay the effect of the Speaker's magic to the weapon, charging them with elements than a human body would be unable to stand such as extreme heat, cold, or electricity.

Use of artificial souls allows for the creation of massive machines to augment or channel the power into effects that far exceed the intended scope of magic in the setting.

The reason only Speakers can use magic is while modern day humans assume it's the Speakers themselves doing magic, the reason they can do it is because their connection to their deity lets them "queue" and effect from it through their mind's intent. The deity then feeds them the knowledge of the divine language and the melody necessary to create that effect and the Speaker's body automatically responds to those instructions

>Where does it come from?
Magic is actually derived from the creation system put into place by a higher order intelligence created by the birth of the universe. Sub-deities created planets and preside over the life there. Magic can be used by lower creatures such as humans due to a connection between Speakers and the sub-deity that created them. There is a "language" to creation and the tone of the song as well as the intent of the Speaker changes what the magic is supposed to do.

>What are its limitations?
Speakers can only be women because I'm biased and hate male singers. I'm still coming up with an explanation. I'm learning towards the particular deity giving magic to humanity by creating scores of Speakers wholecloth or through altering existing people. It chose women because women are the genetic bottleneck rather than men and the "women only" factor of the creation/alterations persisted.

Magic use requires incredible concentration and training. The beating of a Speaker's heart must match the tone of their music and any extreme emotional distress or fear will "desync" them with the deity rendering them powerless

Creating a Simulacrum is difficult and the objects shatter if used too often or allowed to carry too much stress (either though overuse or through emotional instability of the Speaker empowering it. Simulacrum are graded based on how many facets they have (lowest being a tetrahedron and highest being a perfect sphere) and a higher grade can widthstand more stress

>Hey me too
Of course. You're on Veeky Forums in a worldbuilding general. It's natural. ;_;

Hey, Veeky Forums.

Have you finished that outline?

How you uh, how you comin' on that novel you're working on? Huh? Gotta a big, uh, big stack of papers there? Gotta, gotta nice little story you're working on there? Your big novel you've been working on for 3 years? Huh? Gotta, gotta compelling protagonist? Yeah? Gotta obstacle for him to overcome? Huh? Gotta story brewing there? Working on, working on that for quite some time? Huh? Yea, talking about that 3 years ago. Been working on that the whole time? Nice little narrative? Beginning, middle, and end? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? At the end your main character is richer from the experience? Yeah? Yeah?

Some rough drawfaggotry for my setting of bird-headed giants that fight tentacle monsters.

I'm trying to give them (the giants) plate armour designs that either have the faulds separate from the breastplate (so that they don't move or mess up the positioning when the wearer moves his/her upper body) or have two faulds, one of which is separate from the breastplate.

Were plate armours/harnesses that have this separate/double fauld approach I'm going for ever made in real life? If so, I'd like to see pictures of what they looked like.

I've been thinking about a magic system for a while. I think a neat limitation is having to know science/home smarts to get stuff done.

Some stuff is easy, like using telekinesis to move a rock, but to open a lock for instance requires using telekinesis to lift all the tumblers, and thus having keener control over magic and a knowledge of locksmithing. Applying force or raising/lowering temperature of an object would be basic.

Take something like invisibility: You would have to know about light rays, reflection, refraction, etc and then use magic to urge incoming light rays through yourself or something.

Obvious problems arise though, like should there be some natural talent requirement or exertion factor? (probably). How would some spells like mind reading even work? What does a world look like when starting fires or lifting heavy loads is elementary?

Thinken of races. I probably will make the slugs less significant - they are bit too peculiar to be a major thing, but work as a local wonder, certainly.
I have to figure how countries/cities are populated, too, since humans are not very numerous.

No, I have not finished those outlines and never will be.

But still, I wanna still do something wonderfully weird/peculiar. Telepathic hermaphrodite slug-folk are just wee bit difficult to handle.

Magic comes at its core from pure willpower, determination, imagination, and desire. To simply wish for something is a force that can make if happen. But humans are weak and lack the context to make changes like this.

Wizards are inducted into mysteries and given hours upon hours of secret knowledge and training to let them understand and cast spells. Imagine a spell book written in Glyphs, and each glyph represented a few days of imagination, group dreaming, specific thoughts focused into will. This is how Wizards cast spells.

Also this same system works for Fighters being supernaturally tough and strong, and Rogues too. They just get the power from their experience instead of scholastic study in that way.

I've always had a soft-spot for flying races, but never been able to figure out how to fit them in as a significant thing without them redefining the entire setting to an uncomfortable degree. If I ever do it, I'll either make them an ancient empire that's collapsed so that they're scattered among all the nations or else the CURRENT super-massive empire, because how do you stop a race that can fly from overcoming your medieval era defences? Sure, you can shoot at them- straight up. Meanwhile, they're shooting straight down(a LOT easier), and can charge you any time they like, no siegecraft required.

Biggest thing is I don't want them to be generic birdmen. Birdmen=boring, flying weirdshit=neat. I lean towards them being an ancient empire, because it lets me build dungeons UP, and do all sorts of weird shit in the world-crafting. Why is one of the most prosperous trade cities in the world atop a giant plateau? They used it because they liked how much extra work it forced the lesser races to go through, and now all the money is there. etc.

I actually have birds already. They are bit runty, can glide with some training, but flight requires very rigorous training program (ex. armies), and only some few can achieve it. They are also great vocalist/mimics.
Recently they hit big in entertainment industry, before that they did ton of trading.

When you writing up your setting document bible?

I see your shit all the time for the past few years and I keep asking. Where is it?

>What's your magic system?
There are three ways someone can use magick; the vast majority uses ancient magitek relics/artifacts, some can command nanomachines to do thir bidding using ancient incantations, and a very small group of wizards can use actual magick/psychic energy.
>Where does it come from?
Ancient technology and alien/transdimensional DNA
>What are its limitations?
It requires a vaste amount of time and effort to learn to use it and there are individuals and events that nullify it.

uuuuuuh
Working on it

>Biggest thing is I don't want them to be generic birdmen.
Squidmen with floaty gas bladders and muscular air jets to change directions.

Hey guys so I'm designing factions for a war game I have in the early stages of development just mainly wanted to ask a question though about one of them. Are revolting communist robots seizing the means of production to cliché? Kinda trying to go for a very British civil war but well... in space. So want to be somewhat wacky.

I'm currently building a science-fiction setting and I'm trying to work out what the primary currency should be.

As of right now, I'm leaning towards Cycle Checks- each one representing a certain amount of computer processing time which is extremely important for virtual reality and AI shit. Any other, more interesting ideas that aren't energy/electricity stuff or credits?

Volumes of oxygen and/or water.

seconding this. water and oxygen always have value in space. This automatically makes it cheaper to live on planets with proper atmospheres and water cycles, and enables the already predestined water and oxygen traders.

Thread-user here. Yes I have. I even have some of the chapters written and am currently working on a rough draft of the final chapters (to stop me from getting discouraged by writing the opening for the 20th time).

Working on a map. Its still pretty early in its creation, but I'm worried about there being too many islands too far out and too rough a coastline for a continent. Thoughts?

don't worry about it too much, the real world is way weirder

> tfw wanna do anatomically interesting beastfolk
> anthro beastfolk are so much easier to handle
Anybody else have this problem?
Anthro beastfolk are kinda boring, but if you mess with their anatomy and try to give them something a little more interesting or what might be more accurate if they evolved that way, they end up looking fucking dumb or they end up being naturally impossible because you fuck up the anatomy too much.

Seems oddly regular spacing on those islands. I'd suggest taking some and spreading them out. Put some more off the coast, following natural lines created by the peninsulas. Also throw one or two randomly into the world ocean. Looks a bit artificial at the moment.

But yeah, don't worry too much about it. Game of Thrones' map is literally two rectangles, and it seems pretty popular with fantasy folks.

Not really. As long as you can come up with some kind of bare-bones justification for how the new anatomy functions, no one will care too much outside of actual medical students, and even then only the austistic ones.

Looks kinda like someone spilled a drink

>Not just doing anatomically correct beastfolk which are literally just animals that walk on two legs and can talk and can hold/grip things even though they have stupid hooves or paws

>/wbg/ - Worldbuilding General

Sure, I've got a quick question:

How difficult is lasting, land development when people have to worry about monsters?
By that I mean they're not dealing with monsters 'every day' or that the monsters are even targeting humans per se, but an old or inexperienced griffon might not resist flying off with a goat or the community tries cutting down the wrong tree and now a dryad is actively defending itself.

Provincial bonus question: Keep in mind that 'already' established land is well protected, very safe, but VERY expensive and often over-worked.. How exactly eager would people be to just say, "fuck these property taxes" and go off outside to start clearing land and building their own homesteads? Even in the face of carnivorous plants or dinosaurs?

The islands off the north coast are all pretty much the same distance off-shore so a little variation there would make it look more natural.
If the coasts really both you then smoothingout the NW coast would contrast with the rougher west coasts.

Not bad though user, keep at it.

How common were facial scars and destroyed eyes really? Like, if you're going to get hit in your bare face, wouldn't you be far more likely to get killed then get away with a scar?

It probbably wouldn't make a vast difference. Wildlife doesn't even have to actually be a threat to humans, if they are even felt to potentially threaten humans or livestock then those critters get killed or forced into areas unwanted by humans.

There will be a period of competition, where griffons are hated but a threat to be managed then once population or hunting technology or someother advantage tips the balance they will be pushed out.

These critters could cause local trouble, the ranchers are a little poorer and in bad years one or two people disappear. But that is barely a blip on the big picture development of the area.

As long as a posse of hardy frontiers folk loaded for the local equivalent to bear can down the monsters then humans will eventually overrun the place.

I was considering using sapient octopi asmy merpeople niche but they wouldn't quite fit. Fun idea,though.

Bump

I'm making a somewhat cheesy science fiction setting, but I really want to stress a philosophical point or idea.

Basically, the setting revolves around humans and aliens, all biological creatures, fighting beings made of solar radiation and energy. You can't hurt them with physical attacks, only energy beams, which is why everyone in the setting uses laser guns instead of the obviously superior projectile weapons. Along the way, there are other beings too like self aware robots, self aware AIs in the internet, intelligent mineral and so on.

The entire point of all this is, in the background, a form of self correcting government that's kind of like space feudalism. This government was put in place by the brightest minds in the galaxy so living creatures can fight a war against the solar beings, who wish to eradicate all of us if they get the chance. So what's the point?

I want to make it so the players realize that the society they live in is self aware too. It operates on a different time scale, but it IS an organism. It's cells are the members of it, it self corrects and evolves. What's the best way to do this?

lol if I had a dime for every time I've finished an outline, I'd be wealthy enough to worry about nothing.

Why is it easier for people to accept weird races in scifi worlds as opposed ti fantasy ones?

What do you mean by that?

Because science fiction has, traditionally, had strange alien races. Regardless about any arguments you may have about them being TOO alien, or not alien enough, there's a lot more variance here then in other settings.

Fantasy doesn't really have the same kind of ideas. With the exception of only a few niche works, the majority of fantasy settings are either human only (Conan, GoT) or have the Tolkienesque stock races. Lots of fantasy video games add a few extra, like Elder Scrolls and Warcraft.

It's not just about what's been done in the past though, mind you. It's also about scale. Fantasy settings typically have the scale of a single world to work with. So you may have the human empire and the aztec lizardmen and the fat walrus people of the north and its all good, but science fiction tends to have huge galaxies worth of ideas in them, with each planet and solar system hosting their own alien life forms.

most fantasy is rooted in the culture, legend and myth of a particular time and place (or prior fantasy based on the same things). in theory it's pure imagination, but in practice you're drawing on themes and expectations your audience will recognise. break those expectations and it can feel clashing. for instance, if you mixed egyptian sphinxes into a setting that otherwise resembles medieval japan people would find it dissonant, even though there is no inherent reason why fantasy japan couldn't have sphinxes considering it's all fantasy anwyay.

i'm not saying this is right or wrong, just explaning why some people find elves easier to accept than zoglons. you can break people's expectations by making it clear from the outset that your world is based on pure imagination, not myth and legend. but you might run into trouble if you mix the two. for instance, if your setting is a medieval english human kingdom neighboured by woodland elves and the purple fungus brain empire of the zoglons, it may clash. but remove the elves and distance your humans from real world culture, and the zoglons no longer feel out of place.

tl;dr alien races suit an alien setting

Have you tried actually writing? There's plenty of advice on the dos and do not dos of writing by actual published authors.

So long as you understand rookie mistakes and keep at it you might actually get some money from your writing

Give me a short write up of your setting and I will rate it a rating.

Copper is lowest, Silver is next, and Gold would be a high quality setting. Go.

Does anyone have tips for making art for your setting, like cityscapes and such?

Coming up with factions for ww1-ww2 dieselpunk/steampunk wargame and wanted to ask how these sound.

Ruso-Nordic Empire (As you can guess russians and nordic nations together)
Grand Union of European Socialists (Communist Brits, Spanish, and French)
Middle Concordat (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Greece and Turkish Alliance)
Pacific Prosperity Pact (Democratic Alliance of India, China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and many other pacific nations.)
Federation of States (What is the modern USA plus canada and stretching down to the panama canal)

Really wanted the world to be dominated by hyperpowers in a sense and where everyone was a big kid on the block squaring up against one another.

I have tried writing before. It just goes nowhere, given enough time. I have trouble focusing on a single story.

>It just goes nowhere, given enough time.
But you have a roadmap (outline)
You can take that and plan out every chapter or scene shift to the point you shouldn't be capable of getting lost. You'd list what importance the scene has to the plot, and characters, what tone it has, how it keeps up a sense of progression that's important to every story.

>I have trouble focusing on a single story.
Because even professional writers have to slog through their stuff sometimes. It's been likened to "chopping wood" Like any act of creation for mass consumption it's going to feel like work at SOME point. "Do what you love and you won't work a day in your life" is horseshit. You'll just work less than a guy with a menial 9-5.

It would help if you identified why you wanted to start writing in the first place (there's gotta be that spark somewhere) and then build a story around that. My own muse is a love of a half dozen concepts from a certain setting that was butchered in execution and a disgust for the glut of not-medieval-Europe fantasy settings.

The concepts I want to write about change frequently and dramatically. One day I'll be working on a psuedo-Greek fantasy setting, the next literary fiction, the third a Thomas the Tank Engine style children's book. It tends to gravitate around whatever my most recent reading focused on.

Mostly it starts with what I want to say; some message about human nature or life or something grand like that. Everything else goes into serving that message.

The original thing that I wanted to write came to me, quite literally, decades ago. I've long forgotten it by this point.

Then spend a whole week writing down things you think are cool. Pull from popular entertainment of all forms until you have a big pile of things that get you going. Then distill that pile into an idea

The number of ideas, or the quality of ideas, is not the problem. It's the fact that I can't stick to a single thing.

I was saying how you should distill the perfect idea down. Something that gets you more excited than anything else ever

But I see that your problem is you blame your own ADD tendencies. If you don't care enough to fight them and improve yourself and instead make excuses of I can't, I can't, I can't then there's no point give any more advice since you're already broken.

Sorry broseidon

I'll be honest with a couple things.

Firstly, this is my first time making a wholly original world. Obviously, nothing is 100% original, but I mean I'm not just aping the lore from the manual or whatever.

And secondly, this is hard as FUCK, y'all. Making everything actually make sense in a realistic context and giving every character an understandable and relatable, if not always agreeable, motive, not to mention making the technology and timing of everything make sense- this shit is a lot of effort. Especially because it can basically go on infinitely. Not to mention I don't even know if my players will bite any of the bait I dangle for them. Even if I think the ideas of divinely created mechas who merge with their host pilot over time is rad, and I do a whole thing about how another society tried to recreate that but basically ended up making a robotic version of The Thing- maybe my players won't give a fuck and will just want to get cool space loot.

Plus, there really is no feedback: maybe every name, planet, and plot idea I have is totally retarded, and I won't know until we play it.

If you're starting out with a setting in space you're almost doing it hardmode, tbqh. A setting in space is very difficult to do for people who're experienced. Hell, I've been working on my fantasy setting for two or three years now and it's just now kind of coherent.

Anyway, if you think it's cool, and you put a lot of work into it, they'll at least appreciate it. It's also good to mix it up, try out new weird ideas and see where they go. That said, it's also good to have a healthy amount of hate with your work. If you like it too much, you'll be too afraid of scrapping it and starting over, which is something you should always keep in mind.

Share the best, most exciting stuff with your players upfront so they have something to look forward to and become invested in.

Sounds like an excuse. Write a dozen short stories instead.

The universe is dying.

In the beginning, the Gods were formed from the elemental Chaos. They created Law, and the worlds that fill the cosmos. Their first creations were the races of Giants: the Titans, the Jotun, the Nephilim. But the Jotun rebelled, and slew the Gods. The Titans and the Nephilim rose up to slay the Jotun in return, and then split the cosmos between themselves. They allowed us, humanity, the Jotun's own creations, to live so long as we forswore our misguided creators and served the new lords of creation.

We should have known better. We should have asked questions.

The Titans and the Nephilim broke Creation itself with their inevitable war. And now all the myriad worlds are slowly falling apart. All the Giants are dead, and harvesting their broken corpses is the only way to stave off the inevitable death of the universe.

But there isn't enough. Not enough to go around. Some worlds will fall to utter ruin. But with rationing, some others might live. At least long enough until we can discover a means to save the universe. There must be a way.

There must.

While I don't enjoy Destiny as a game, I do appreciate what Joseph Staten was originally intending in terms of atmosphere, mood, and discovery. Ultimately, it was a failure to properly translate those fundamental pen and paper tropes: Brave adventurers searching long forgotten dungeons (or derelict ships) by torchlight (or in this case, flashlight). The quest for gold and glory. Unthinkable terrors lying in wait across the vast, unexplored landscape (or in this case, universe). Returning to one of few beacons of light for a cold brew and a warm bed.
I think a part of its failure was a lack of mystery. Don't get me wrong- they left plenty unexplained, but at no point was the player left gasping: "what the fuck is that / where the fuck are we / holy shit that is amazing".

Do you think it's possible to properly translate the original vision of Destiny, in terms of intent and atmosphere, not of exact lore word-for-word, into a PNP game? How would it function? How do you capture the imagination in the same way meeting our first Lich or Beholder did? How is anything paced when you have a damn spaceship to fly wherever? It'd be like starting with an airship at level 1! How would it even work mechanically?

I'd want to use 5E, but it sort of falls apart when everyone uses guns. Is there anything that can even facilitate the kind of holy trinity tactics even while everyone is shooting? Or properly mechanize cover and suppressive fire? GURPS, I guess, but it's excessive modularity really scares me away from touching it, due to fear of excessive imbalance for me to handle and confusion amongst my players.

The world is actually a prison for the jelous demigod who rebelled against the God and mortally wounded him, designed to trap him in an endless cycle of death and rebirth by a machine hidden on the Moon. The Moon is actually afterlife. Also you can eat your gods (Not to be confused with The God) to steal their powers, but if you fail to actually do so, their rotting corpses will poison their worshippers' souls turning them into monsters.

Dare you enter my magical realm?

>And secondly, this is hard as FUCK, y'all.
Yes, it is. It's - down at it's core, just as hard as it is to write a good novel. In fact it's very much the same thing - except you are using synchronic and not diachronic storytelling tools and hide your "plot" in the environment rather that into the hands of your characters: but ultimately it's the same type of challenge.
Hell, you even ran already into the greatest problem any writer will ever face: give your characters good motivations.

>Especially because it can basically go on infinitely.
I know this is actually pissing off quite a lot of people, but I encourage you to consider the above: think of world-building as of storytelling. Any author can give potentially infinite amount of detail to any story. A GOOD author realizes that the detail is only valuable WHEN IT'S RELEVANT to the story that you are trying to tell.
People forget this, but every world is a story to be told. And stories are only as interesting as they are meaningful. Consider what the hell are you trying to tell people through your world. What are the symbols you want to convey. What are the emotions and sentiments you want to invoke?

Ask yourself that, examine that, and that will give you a cue about which detail is necessary, and what isn't. World building must never be mechanical filling out of excel sheets: it must still be down at it's core be an exercise in communication of ideas, thoughts, emotions, images that are in your head. That is the only way to make sure that your world-building is going to be good.

>Not to mention I don't even know if my players will bite any of the bait I dangle for them.
Asume that they won't. World-build to make a good world, not to impress your players. Maybe they bite, maybe they won't, but if you do a good world-building, you'll have something much more valuable. Maybe you'll end up writing a book, design a game, make a comics with it. If it's good, anything can happen.

So I'm trying to figure out as many common derivatives of a dungeon there could possibly be in order to get their purpose for existing and why they contain both monsters and treasure. I can atleast ascertain why treasure would come up in certain areas, but I draw a blank with why monsters would intend to stay there. So far, many of those include dilapidated areas that aren't in use anymore, so the list might be a bit redundant.
>Tomb Of Notable Figure(s)
>Ruins Of Previous Civilization
>Decrepit Place Of Worship
>Safeguard Location For Hidddn Riches
>Actual Dungeon/Prison
>Castle Of Notable Figure
>Haunted Place Of Interest
>Wizard Tower/Laboratory
>Natural Cavern Repurposed For Other Intentions

Would you believe that the guys who sit on land between silver mines and primary buyer of silver would decide to attack the miners instead of collecting the toll?

It depends on the weapon used, what manner of head protection (if any) was worn. They were certainly less common than in most fantasy settings, but certainly not unheard of.

For example, most medieval armies contained relatively few professional soldiers, most were farmers and villagers with whatever tools they had that best functioned as a weapon. An unskilled farm hand with a straightened out scythe is a great deal more likely to leave a superficial wound than a trained soldier with a proper sword.

The only way to justify that is if the people in question are of a race that is particularly unintelligent, extremely violent, or both.

Alternatively you could create a motive unrelated to the silver for the attack, such as a kidnapping, murder, or some other crime committed by a prominent member of the mining community.

If you're into politics you could have the buyers either pay the middle men to remove the miners so they can seize it themselves, or have the buyers stage the previous option to create conflict in order to weaken both communities enough that they can take control of the entire region.

Depends on a great many factors, mainly the relative strength of each side including allies.

OTOH invading and winning gives ownership of the mines to the state and it's supporters. OTOH during the war itself the silver supply is naturally disrupted which is very bad news for a city dependant on that trade. If the miners don't roll over at once then the invaders are going to suffer some hefty economic damage which in turn causes social unrest back home. If the get rich quick scheme leaves citizens destitute then things will get ugly. If they lose then the silver trade could either find alternative routes to those assholes or the miners dictate more favorable terms such as toll exemptions.

Basically what you need is someone with the ability to convince people that attacking the miners will be easy and a good way to make a quick buck. How hard a sell that is depends on the situation but the mercantile interests will prefer the profitable status quo to gambling on the campaign unless reassured that it will all be fine.

On second thought I figure I'll make the silver mining kingdom the agressor instead, ties it nicely to the them of "Just can't stop shooting himself in the foot" that is going on for their king. Make it a trade dispute or something.

Can you have fair or pale skinned people native to a very verdant area?

NOTE: verdant only implies am abundance of greenery, and is not inherently related to the skin tone of people living there.

Short answer is that the DM/GM can have whatever they want wherever they want.

Long answer is yes, but if they are human/humanoid then there needs to be a reason they have evolved to be pale/fair skinned. Potential factors include:

Large trees cover the entire region, providing protection from the sun.

The region has some sort of magic(or tech if in Sci Fi setting) which provides a defense against the sun/UV.

The race/species is incapable of producing darker/larger quantities of skin pigments.

The region is not near the equator.

Or anything else you want to imagine as long as it makes some semblance of sense.

What's your favorite part of worldbuilding?

Breaking apart what would be structurally a cliché. I enjoy taking a genre trope or a cliché and then realizing that it can be broken down into more sensible parts. Like when you start with the idea of a Mordor-like world-wide threat, and then you start to realize you could break it into actually sensible individual elements where the moral clarity disappears.

I like going around making things more complicated than they seem at first glance. Figuring out hiccups in governmental systems, taking religions and exploiting possible internal inconsistencies to create apostasies internal philosophical disputes, I enjoy taking heterogenic systems and inventing ways that heterogeny could be subversed. Basically, I like taking simple stories and turning them full of paradoxes, contradictions and internal problems. I like to make three different interpretations of the same bloody myth, two of which are clearly directly contradicting each other.

Basically, I'm a guy who intentionally decided two completely unrelated places share the same name to create confusion about which one is being talked, and then invented a whole bunch of stories that stem from this misunderstanding.

Please call help.

So, first of all: verdant actually means "a lot of greenery". You'll find that Japan or even Sweden is more verdant than say, Spain or Morocco.

But then again, I think we all know what you mean. So here is the thing about skin tone:
A) fairness of skin is a result of a trade-off between the risk of damage to your skin from sunlight (burnt or cancer) versus the amount of vitamin D your body can produce. The darker your skin is, the less efficiently will your body produce vitamin D. On the other hand - the fairer your skin is, the higher is the likelyhood that the sun will cause serious damage to your skin.
Curiously enough, the alteration of your skin tone seems to be able to manifest genetically very quickly. Despite some geneticist refusing to admit it, it seems that serious alteration of your skin tone can happen over two or three generation, suggesting that the gene innertia theory has some holes.

BUT, it CAN alter, but it does not always do so. Outside of the obvious change - tan - which is not genetically determined, we do know of populations of very fair-skinned people surviving and retaining their skin tone for several centuries.

So from a real-world perspective, it IS possible, provided that your population did not live in the high-sunlight area for too long. They will still be "darker" than your northerner due to tan, but their natural skin color could remain the same for upwards of a thousand years at minimum.

All that in mind: you are the narrator. And despite what you might think - symbolism trumps internal logic. If you really need your equitorial culture to be white for whatever aesthetical or symbolic reason, just do so. As long as your narrative reason is good enough, you don't have to worry.

I'm a bit of an idiot, but I'm working on a map. The red zones are where major mountain ranges would be.
The lower portion of the map is closer to the equator, but still above it. Wouldn't that make it warm, possibly near-tropical closer to the tips?
The upper portion would obviously be cooler because it's higher up.
What about the middle? Would that just be temperate? What conditions do you need to have a desert? Sorry for all of the questions.

>Wouldn't that make it warm, possibly near-tropical closer to the tips?
Yes, if the continent is located on northern hemisphere, which it should.

>What about the middle? Would that just be temperate?
Well, yes. It depends on "how north of equator" are we talking (if it's close, the south would be tropical, the middle sub-tropical, and the north temperate) But "temperate" is actually a damn broad term. Temperate oceanic like say, south of France, is very different from temperate oceanic of say, Japanese Touhoku, which is very different from temperate Siberia.

Basically, there are two things you need to consider: distance from equator, which will determine the amount of sunlight (and - generally speaking, peak low and high temperatures), and distance from nearest major body of water, which will mainly determine humidity. A third factor tends to be (in case of oceanic regions) would be the temperature of sea currents. For an example: most of Japan is much more similar to our "european" temperate regions, despite being actually closer to equator than Morocco or Tunis, which we associate normally with tropical, desert climate. This is mainly because Japan is washed on the edges by cold ocean currents. At the same time, Sweden or Norway are MUCH warmer than say, comparable regions in east-asia because it's bathed in warm Golf Current.

>What conditions do you need to have a desert?
No rainfall. Which means that prevailent wind is not generally blowing from ocean.
So basically, you need either a highly continental location (far away from ocean, and probably surrounded by mountains, such as say, the Gobi desert) - or proximity to the ocean, but air blowing mainly from the mainland, and not from the ocean (like Arabian Peninsula or Sahel regions).

Alternaively, you need a rain-shield: mountain range between the nearest sea and the desert - in the direction of prevailent wind.
In case of your map: The central regions are going to be very arid.

Don't deserts sometimes simply exist because water doesn't hold in the ground enough to feed the vegetation?

To the point that there are forest that won't grow back if cut down, because tresses were the ones holding the water?

I can put most of that to use. Thank you for the extremely in-depth overview!

Coming up with how two or more cultures would interact in terms of what foods, values, beliefs ect. they would absorb or reject.

Coming up with cool conflicts to fill the setting.