/wbg/ World Building General Hex Crawl

Well, personally I start with one city; its an enclosed place, has boundaries clearaly defined, and you can spend a lot of time refining what you want the place to feel like without having to go into what the nations around it are like, but are open enough to add in hints at exotic far away lands.

I usually use a port city just to make it easy to travel, and I can usually add in other countries fairly easily by describing naval trade routes without having to make a whole other nation right on the spot.

Then I add in what I want the "baseline" of the area to be; what kind of food is more common here, which begs the question of what the agriculture for the city is like. You ask similar questions when it comes to where the town gets its lumber, the quarries for its stone, and the mines for its metals.

While you answer these questions you can add in quirks that will make this town have more character to it, and set up plot hooks for your players (If you're going to be using this for an rpg). For example, when answering the question of where the city gets its metals, and what its mines are like, you can talk about a nearby set of hills that have an extensive mine running through them, but lately there have been miners dissapearing due to strange circumstance that the city watch wants investigated. Little things that will help your city feel like it has its own challenges and its own story happening around the players.

Thanks for the response user.

What is your favourite way of labelling countries and borders? I'd originally coloured the area in a faded colour of the nation but it came out looking like shit. Any suggestions or even your favourite examples would be much appreciated

No problem, I had a lot of difficulty keeping to a project for a lot of the same reasons you've posted, I hope my post helps.

What would you say is the best way to build a new culture? Personally I feel like getting the architecture down first is the best way, since it says quite a bit about the culture that you're building.

There are certain angles, I would start with the geography they inhabit. The surrroundings have a lot of impact on a culture. Another easy start is gender roles.

How do I draw things, Veeky Forums?

I've made antique-looking maps before, but always use brushes and pre-made symbols to do everything from cities to mountains. I'd like to be able to draw them myself, and therefore make my map more original, as well as be able to show off unique features of different locations.

I've read a number of mountain tutorials on Cartographers' Guild, but they only work well for (cartographically) small scale maps, rather than single features in a local area. Lots of maps seem to draw cities as a cluster of cubes with triangles on the top, but that doesn't feel right either.

Any help?

>Personally I feel like getting the architecture down first is the best way,
I guess during session 0.5 you invite your friends over to make gingerbread houses

>he doesn't procedurally generate his setting through a campaign

>being a basic bitch

I like to have the 'big picture' in place before I start a campaign, though. The first thing I did when I started my homebrew was make a map of the 'known world', and then ask the players to pick a place to start. After a campaign in that region, I asked them to pick another place. The net result is that they get a new experience within the context of something familiar, so I can reuse old concepts to flesh out the details and they already know some of the basics.

honestly, look at a wide range of brushes and templates for inspiration, and start copying the ones that you intuitively want to
start with whatever feature: mountains, forest, town, doesn't matter
as you draw outward from there and need other features, you'll start copying other templates that closely fit what you already have, with slight alterations to keep the style you've got on paper
don't stick exclusively to one set or style as the whole goal is to morph one of your own from your antecedents

Am I the only one seeing Trogdor?

Seasons and yearly cycle determined by the wars between the seasonal courts of the Fey? Thoughts?

Nordics are just as bad if not worst than americans.

Pizzas are like an experimental science in the nordic countries.

In the early 20th century they pioneered the highly unethical field of racial biology; and now, shortly after the dawn of the 21st century, they've invented something equally unethical.

So I have some ideas for my world.

First that it's a cube, but the atmosphere is still spherical due to gravity. This would mean the major body of water would be in the center of each cube face, surrounded by a strip of livable land, and then a large barren rocky expanse exposed to the void. This means that each face is isolated from the others.

Second is that it's largely artifical, a Hollow World megadungeon underworld where it's center is Hell. The Land of the Dead is also inside the cube, and you can walk to both it and Hell if you really wanted to, or to any other face of the cube. It's in the dungeons of the world where the various things of the different faces trade.

Third, the world floats in a Sea of Night, turning in the current to make the days and nights. I'm not sure where that puts the Sun and Moon though. Any thoughts on this?

Don’t compare yourself to Ghostwalk. Pick something shittier/with flaws so you don’t go mad comparing yourself with perfection.

...

Is that hand-drawn? Looks great!

Since you've gone for the clouds approach in the sea shading, perhaps add a wide white glow to the land and overlay it onto the clouds before colourising it? That way it gives the appearance that the sea gets deeper further away from the coast. Just a little detail that could improve it.

>cube
Stop there. This is both stupid and done to fucking death. Basing your world on a specific geometric shape is the most intellectually bankrupt things you can ever do in worldbuilding.

Add some Substance to your setting first, BEFORE you jizz all over your monitor thinking how kewl and original you are.

Thanks user, once I’m home again I’ll experiment with the cloud effects. That just might be a great look.

Not handdrawn though. Just the usual compilation of cloud layers with color added.

>This means that each face is isolated from the others.
At this point you just make the world flat and handwave the way gravity works à la Flat Earth Society. I've done that in my (D&D-esque) settings just because it's easier to make maps and stuff.

>Stop there. This is both stupid and done to fucking death. Basing your world on a specific geometric shape is the most intellectually bankrupt things you can ever do in worldbuilding.

>Add some Substance to your setting first, BEFORE you jizz all over your monitor thinking how kewl and original you are.

Nah. This world is to facilitate my games. I don't claim to be original or innovative.

That's boring, the whole point is that the interesting shit from all the different faces trades and mixes in the underworld megadungeon.

Here are my general rules from the inside-out approach.

1. Come up with a "world seed", this is not articulated at this point, but is instead the themes, the moods & the aesthetic of your gameworld. Sounds like you want to do Ghostwalk/Dark Souls. Cool. Don't try to be original, and fuck your players if they try to call you out on your inspiration, they're usually meatheads who's best PC work includes classics like "I'm an orphan with trust issues" and "I'm an amnesiac". They're mouth breathers.

2. Come up with a random encounter table (just monsters and npc classes, no event encounters. Yes this will look boring, but wait a minute why don't you?) for a small territory and start with one of these for the same province.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

3. Usually, I like to do a mind map for each region that has its own separate encounter table, but that's not always necessary. You're going to want nodes for most of your random encounter monsters where you will perform a few re-skins, spins, etc. I don't recommend random tables to determine the spin, but tools like story cubes or even pinterest pictures to associate two abstract ideas/aesthetics and combine them together.

4. On your mind map, you'll hopefully start having strange associations for monsters, my kobolds became Robert E Howard esque jackal beings that worshipped stirges that have a tendency to cling themselves to a derelict abbey, giving it a flesh-like appearance to outsiders. You'll want to start coming up with adventure sites on your mind map now and also how the "ecology" of your setting is interlocked (simple explanation: my "kobolds" worship these stirges) The advantage here is that the lore is GAMEABLE and not just exposition that's separate from the game. Clever players can exploit this information they gain through play, don't be too stingy with your information, it's probably what's going to keep you alive.

5. Always remember to keep it brief.

If you get stuck on any of the later steps, refer back to your "world seed". The same thing works really well when you're designing anything in my opinion. Go back to the start of why you took this project on and how excited you are about it for x reason.

Also, take a break and do other shit from time to time.

So do the rest with magic.

In the middle of the Great Desert lies the Fancyname Tower of Stuff, an ancient megalith created by an unknown race. At the base of it is a large archway. It is said that those who walk through it emerge in a world full of dangers, known as the Realm of Dangers. It is a huge labyrinth filled with ungodly abominations, but there are those who have claimed to have made it to the end, and found another copy of our world entirely...

Come on, you don't need to be all physics-y if you want a megadungeon. There are so many better ways to do this.

For smaller advice, I strongly recommend not naming your shit unpronounceable shit with little to no linguistic basis. You're players aren't going to remember it and it's not very immersive. A little bit is fine, but it's more important to give your stuff a somewhat consistent naming convention.

I also want planar travel without the need of portals. You can literally travel to another plane of existence by going down, and taking a sharp turn and onwards to another face, or plane, of the cube.

I have to second this, yeah. I'm currently playing in the campaign of another friend (via roll20) and have to go look up the name of my own god every single fucking time I want to say it IC because it's like nearly 10 goddamn syllables long. Fanciful names are still alright imo as long as you don't overdo it, because past a certain point it starts looking like you added extra shit to the word just to make it seem 'cooler'.

At the same time don't start chopping your names up just for the sake of it, it can add interesting local flavour in the form of nicknames and local terms and shit. Sure an elven ruin might have a name that reads like a welsh roadsign but the humans that live in the nearby town are probably not going to call it that, and it can even serve as a hook when a PC inevitably asks a local about what sort of things are in the area.

>get urge to work on maps for current and possible campaign
>inkarnate stripped the best features and still haven't even put in adjustable map sizing
>hexographer a little too plain by comparison for my tastes

I feel like these threads aren't very useful. Most people, or at least myself, do worldbuilding for tabletop/video games or for novel/erp story idea stuff, but we aren't going to be satisfied designing by committee with others. However dumping a text wall in the thread and discussing worlds isn't usually very fruitful, because even if you get a reply it will usually just be some "I like it" or "I don't like it" reply.

Since it's such a personal and specific hobby, I find it hard to believe that a group of people can make a community where it is useful unless you're working with something extremely concrete like a conlag or river/mountain formations based on real life geography, much less to say fantasy cultures, religions, and magic.

So what's the point of these threads? Why do you keep coming back here?

Here you go, user. Open up Paint and draw something for me!

Here's your new worldmap user!

>tfw pick 2-4 continents/countries on a map
>smash them together or overlap to make fantasy continents/countries

I feel cheap.

Dumping my boring generic gray creepy apocalypse setting for you all to enjoy?
What do you guys think of an apocalyptic Maine world? Creepy mutant moose, freaky supernatural horrors and spirits in the forests, contrasted with New England comfiness and a pretty seacoast. Little towns trading and farming, fishermen going out to sea. Could be nice.

Thanks user! Check back here in a while.

>What do you guys think of an apocalyptic Maine world?
You just described a lot of Stephen King.

I find it useful to compare what I'm doing to what others are doing. Helps me realize if I've overlooked something. It's nice to see what other people's process is as well.

make a brush
change the settings
repeat until you like it

not defined borders, maps are subjective already and where a kingdom or duchy ends, well that's up for debate and possibly fighting or diplomacy.

basically big outer glow letters for the continent, medium for nation, small for duchies/states within and smaller for towns. towns the only things marked but again, maps being largely subjective in my world.

Sounds neat, I like it. I'd be happy to play a game in your setting user.

Hmm.... what specific books should I read to get me in the mood? is that where the stand takes place?

Thanks user. Maine is so comfy. I liked imagining an apocalypse while I was hiking there.

novice sorta mapmaking dude, any tips for shit on here? Stuff that looks weird or doesn't work well.

So, anyone want to help me name these places?

What program is that? Now I'm impressed.

GIMP, plus a bit of experience and a tonne of badly named layers.

Unfortunately the mountain, hill, and tree sprites are all taken from a brush set someone made, but otherwise these are just tips and methods I've picked up. The Cartographer's Guild is a good place to learn things; I could dump some tutorials if you're interested?

Please bruh

Used this to make the background (excluding wood and borders). Wouldn't recommend you follow it exactly, but after going through it once you'll get the hang of the general process.

The basis for map borders, though it's rather obvious all-in-all.

This was the tutorial that I started with to actually produce the basic map. That was a long time ago, and since then I've found ways to make it original and do other things, but it's still a helpful starting point.

This one produces realistic-looking maps fairly easily. Takes a loooot longer, and it's a fair bit harder, but most of it is condensed into one step ('Adding Mountains'). If you don't have any mountains, it's actually not that bad. Still, I don't recommend you start with this one.

Another old-style map, but for Photoshop. If you're already familiar with GIMP it isn't too hard to transfer over though.

This is the 'go-to' tutorial for newbies on the Cartographer's Guild. I never personally liked it that much, but I guess it's functional enough? Also a Photoshop one, though it may or may not have been ported to GIMP by someone... check the forums, I guess.

You can find lots others from the Cartographer's Guild if you're so inclined. A nice place to talk about mapping, plus you can look at professionals' final products and nab their techniques.
cartographersguild.com/

Before doing any of this, though, I'd focus on getting the basics of GIMP down if you haven't already done so. This means going through the standard 'impossible' test compiled from trolls at /g/:
- draw a circle
- draw a solid circle with a square hole
- draw an equilateral triangle
- take any of the above shapes and change the colour to a rainbow gradient

These are little things you can't 'easily' do in GIMP (compared with Photoshop), but they're still easily possible if you think for at least a moment. Despite its banality, knowing how to do things like this (and being able to think in a similar manner) is how to get things done quickly: the compass roses on Tegaeia were made by me from scratch in a few minutes with that sort of mindset.

pic related is my setting's map

anyone has some good tips for drawing landlocked areas?

Do you mean landlocked as in no oceans/seas?

Someone will get inspired
youtube.com/watch?v=GiBF6v5UAAE

Thanks man.
I love geography and I study chinese so this is really interesting to me.
And love map autist games.

yes in this case is an area where most of the map borders end in land

Impassable mountains, impenetrable forest, desert wasteland, glacial wall, and/or Kansas.

>let player rough out their origin city
>writes absolute authoritarian police state
>now this I can work with

Does a sci-fi earth setting where you have to investigate a conspiracy involving other worlds, supernatural secret societies and a DARKLORD , sound like a good idea?

The supernaturals, vamps, werewolves, skin walkers etc are originally from another world.
The dark lord figure is someone from that other world thats hunting something on our earth.

Bump

Thanks my dude

Filename should be "Tastiest Build".
Thank you for cap, user.

Agreed.
Borders are shite concepts anyway.

What kind of setting are we working on here? Any more info you can use to flesh it out for us?

I'm in need of quite some christmas themed names for my christmas based dnd game. Y'all got any suggestions?

20000-names.com
Try Icelandic, Danish, Finnish and Norweigan. You should fine something appropriate.

So I was thinking about the city guards of a certain nation in my setting and I have some questions:
>Should the City Guard have equal or shittier equipment than the soldiers of the Army?
>If their equipment has equal quality to that of the Army, should they have literally the same equipment or have a different appearance?
>Should they have their own ranks or just follow the ranks of the Army?
>Does it make sense for the members of the City Guard to be also members of the Army? Or should the Army and the City Guard be separate entities (like the modern Army and the Police)?
Take into account that there are no private armies owned by nobles in this nation, its entire military power is controlled by the state.

I visited Sweden three years ago and tried their "kebab + french fries" pizza monstrosity with a fuckton of whatever-sauce
it was fucking delicious and I can't fucking find it anywhere

If justified with lore and themes, is it possible to weave non-fetishistic body horror into your comfy dark setting?

I'm currently going for an OSR vibe so hardcore ultralethal combat and emphasis on survival (it being designed for my homebrew system). However to contrast this I have made the setting fairly dark but with eery whimsy to it. Do you think adding in more horror would take it too far and put off the players? I'm not a great judge of such things due to being completely desensitised.

Where does weird end and uncomfortable begin?

Doesn't matter now, I tried implementing it and quickly destroyed all my work up until now. Time to salvage the functioning and retry.

Well, East and West are backwards (unless intentional?)
The landmass needs more variety (biomes), and maybe could use some roads between towns. Same with the ocean/sea, there should be shallows near the landmass (at least in some places).

Thank you!

I like hexkit for my world. It's like hexographer but fancier looking

I steal good ideas and sometimes deliberately ask for ideas to steal. I do this because I am highly intelligent and can use the ideas better than their original "owner" could.

Bounce ideas around and steal the ones I like.

I need to flesh out one of my races. I have Egyptian crocodilemen in the setting, I have their main deity that they are named after, their relationship with local nomadic Gnoll tribes, a rival kingdom of Aztec death and feeding worshipping kingdom of crocodilemen in the jungles to their south, and some othe small bits like where their mummies come from or the ruling family set up fleshed out. But other than that, its mostly just at Egyptian and crocodilemen.

Add more furrfags until things start to make sense.

Whatever Blue Rose's shitty setting is called.

So when you run different games with slightly different genres or realism levels, do you build multiple worlds or do you prefer to adapt your single world to multiple needs?

So, if you run a low fantasy game and then you finish up that game and run another game that's high fantasy, or maybe horror, or maybe set at a different time (say, iron age as opposed to traditional medieval fantasy), what do you prefer, new world for each or keep running the same basic world?

Absolutely different settings, 100% no question. Half of what I try to do with worldbuilding revolves around my 'feelings' regarding a setting or theme.

For example I have two separate settings that are incredibly similar on the surface; huge, nearly anarchistic cities filled with many different alien races, a light sci-fi theme, psychic powers and monsters are present, and yakuza style gang wars are common.

But they differ almost entirely in their feel and game mechanics. One is an almost light hearted game based around unrealistic DBZ and anime action fights- you can learn to use literally anything as a weapon, shift up into more powerful transformations, you literally have a power level that other people can scan and look up on the internet, people fight for honor and glory, etc.

This cannot and will not coexist in the same setting I have in my head relating to dingy urban OSR style hex-crawling where instead of getting stabbed by shit-encrusted goblins you get shot up by dumb gangsters in a hovercar driveby because you can get ganked at any point and you're just trying to get rich. Totally different themes.

Anyone have that how mountains work picture?

>keep running the same basic world?
...is something like that even possible, ever?

You have no idea how right you are

It's called a kebabpizza med pommes you heathen!
Oh and only the sanctified hands of a yugoslavian migrant can make them properly.

Now I'm going to run a fantasy campaign with food based mages and wizards and this is their map of magical elements.

This is your fault. You made me do this.

saucerers and pastamancers