/wbg/ - World Building General

Yeah, but that's boring. This is the more exciting alternative I could think of.

You could always go with having a funky conlang like Esperanto used as a universal trading language.

Blade runner: it's all one language homogenized with slang from obsolete languages like english.

The best part is it's mostly Japanese and Chinese.

I only build enough to hit the ground running with a group. The rest of it get's fleshed out. Like when we started who knew the world would turn out to be shaped like a dime?

World map so you don't fuck anything big up (desert to the north), then local maps for player knowledge + their backstories and it's session 1 time. I went in with a vague idea there was a kingdom, and the real important feature was a giant ocean in the middle (no "it's just a coast" or "big central landmass").

Now there is a local baron trying to seize power in his city, treason to the kingdom which borders a collection of small independent provinces and city states that have banded together and are represented in a council.

Across the ocean there is a religious war and the players have already heard about it, but I haven't even picked the dieties involved yet.

If the players go upriver like they claim to want to the whole thing is going to turn into time travel. Not sure what I'll do if they go the other direction.

You know, that sort of thing.

Or you could sit around figuring out how the gravel that surfaced the roads in the capital was bought and paid to be transported from the gravel pits via property, income and adventure taxes, converted into the dwarven currency the miners expect and accounting for inflation, tax loopholes and business incentives in the capital.

You know, either or.

The problem is: what's the point?

I mean everyone is going to speak english at the table. PCs are going to have languages or not. People will understand, or not.

One of my big beefs with D&D is nearly every monster has "common".

I mean what is really the difference between
>English speaker doesn't understand when the barkeep only speaks Russian
and
>Anglic speaker doesn't understand when the barkeep only speaks Red Baltic

who gives a shit Red Baltic is an amalgamation of Slavshit and Russian, when it means literally nothing except you get to call it Red Baltic.

See

There's zero gravity Jiujutsu designed to be used inside spaceships when the gravity bubble gets shut down, its taught only in military academies.
There's a rare swordsman martial art that is similar to kung-fu where the fighters use a flexible sword and they also use psychedelic drugs to fight in a hyper-focused trance.
Everyone else just uses muskets/crossbows/dart guns and short swords.

#harsh

Anybody else notice /wbg/ is on fire lately? And it's not even shitposting. Did we all wind up with a nothing else to do weekend at the same time or what?

Blizzard is not due for at least 3 hours here yet I still didn't go out today

The only time I can see it being if any value is trying to pass oneself off as a local somewhere. If they don't start using the local dialect then they'll be found out.

>Did we all wind up with a nothing else to do weekend
You mean you have things to do during the week?

What's the point of having languages now? The future has different languages. Calling them different names at least partially reinforced the idea that it's in the future. If this is an effect I can get from spending thirty minutes on Wikipedia beating the "most common languages on Earth" article into shape, it's a good start. It makes it feel more like a place and less like some arbitrary bullshit I just made up.

Ouch.

Of course I do. It would be abnormal if I didn't have anything, lots of things to do during the week.

I mean it's *this* the exact same thing I'm doing now, but it's not like I have nothing. Sheesh.

I'm not suggesting you not do it, I'm suggesting it have a point.

It doesn't matter if you call "Red Baltic" "Sliced Ham" if it's just a line on a character sheet. It's just a know it or you don't. It's literally just Russian, the same way Anglic is just English.

But if you did something with it- like have your players (or characters if you're a writingfag) be from "THE DISTANT PAST"!!! aka now.

So your players pick Russian and then, Boom! it's 2406 and Russian is only a partial help to understanding Sliced Ham. Now it matters that Sliced Ham is a combination of Russian and Slavic languages.

Doesn't have to be timetravel, just don't do all this self-absorbed autism for no reason other than knowing you didn't pull Red Baltic out of your ass- because the two things are identical if it doesn't have some point.

I need inspiration for non-spirity undead. I've covered the basic gothic ones and hit a few non-traditional ones.

I need a world riven by incredibly deep chasms in a SF campaign. Reasons for such a world to exist?

Also, there's "The Law of Table Utility" - Players will refer to things by whatever is convenient and easy to remember. Red Baltic is basically Russian so the players will call it Russian. Similarly, if your villain is Ang'zagrikt, Lord of the Seven Infinite Hells, your players will call him "Angry" His head henchdemon will be referred to as "that one big cunt"

Keep it simple.

>What martial arts are there in your setting?
The Sihirita'si have a specially-trained anti-mage police force. As a magocracy, learning how to take down mages is important. Rather than channelling magic through spells, which can be counterspelled, they channel chaotic magic through their own bodies. This entropic energy disrupts magic used against them.

Kah Vandir has a few martial arts used by followers of specific gods/demi-gods, but unless they have experience in the military its mostly a discipline/"get closer to the gods" kinda thing rather than explicitly for combat purposes.

The Riochahd Tuagh kind of have their own martial arts. Wrestling is very important to them, as is combat training, but there are no really formal systems for teaching these arts. They are VERY interested in learning the anti-mage martial arts but haven't been able to find someone to teach them.

The Jalrokka have "tunnel-fighting", the art of fighting other people underground, but its not super organised either. Some dwarves never fight outside their tunnels, so its less a fighting style and more plain old fighting.

Anti-mage arts use no weapons, so they can't be enchanted/disrupted. Some Kah Vandir arts use weapons, some don't. Almost all Riochahd "martial arts" use weapons.

The Riochahd Tuagh have a deep martial pride, even though they lost the last three wars against the Sihirita'si. They often have martial competitions, but it's not popular in Kah Vandir or Sihirita'si, which prefer sermons and theatre respectively.

>Keep it simple.
So basically abandon creativity because they care more about the dice? okay

Bump

Have it be a place where karst topography developed in the distant past, and the cavern roofs have collapsed over time.

I'm talking about a planet that is entirely, or mostly, covered by a network of chasms that are kilometers deep. Basically I'm trying to make a world where the surface is inhospitable and people eke out a living in the sides of these chasms.

Forgot to type last bit lol

How compatible is kart topography with this? I have very little knowledge of geography.

why don't you post a list of what you already have so we can see what you're going for and what is missing

otherwise everything could always use more skellingtons

>implying anything with fully expiated languages will ever see a table

just pick amplified before making your world

Tidal forces from close orbit around a gas giant or brown dwarf, maybe? Probably not an actual star as that would boil away atmosphere.

How come you niggers never post any inspirational pictures n sheit? Post a cool photo, painting, infographic, whatever, be it sci-fi or fantasy or cyberpunk. Help your fellow fa/tg/guys with their work!

Second part.

What is LoTR

No, abandon navel-gazing and put that creativity, if you truly have some, to work making shit people will care about.

out of a dozen dozen Veeky Forums pics of barely clad women I chose this.

I hope you're inspired.

a series of novels you philistine shitter

but in game local dialect is "well then I speak Red Toaster or whatever, it's here on my sheet, see?"

Most sci-fi hand-waves the language issues with universal translators, which is what I tend to do. Not that it can't be a point of conflict, but languages is where I draw the line on worldbuilding just because it's so much work to even make up future slang and grammar.

I also have my own sci-fi worldbuilding ideas that I want to run by someone.

- A habitable earthlike planet that also has a habitable earthlike moon
- A planet that got partially destroyed by a superweapon thousands of years ago and has force fields keeping the rest of the crust and atmosphere from drifting away
- A mostly dry and rocky planet like mars but can still support human life

How much am I stretching plausibility with these?

> have terribly anal player
> make all kinds of subtle world details
> create 9 day customized calendar (donjon is awesome)
> identify summer solstice
> determine sunrise
> be very clear sunrise is not for a half hour
> describe a red glow in the east, over the city
> there was a fire earlier the party escaped from
> the red glow is obviously the fire, juxtaposing the actual anally detailed time of sunrise against the actual time for a dramatic reveal: THE CITY IS BURNING
> the rest of the table who could give a shit what time or day it is are all clued in and saying the city is burning
> the anal player just sits back and goes, no no you're all wrong its just the sunrise

I could have screamed. Missing the forest for the trees is one thing, but making me detail shit to the minute (player is always saying "well it couldn't be 1 pm, a round is only 6 seconds and we talked to that guy for like 30 seconds afterward and it was only 11 am when we started") and then missing the forest because you're too busy trying to record how many bolts the two guards shot and which hit who and which missed and went where.

not much. I mean #2 is basically adventure time.

if the moon wasn't habitable there is always past terraforming. ditto with your not!mars.

I feel like most scifi has a habitable moon circling and inhospitable planet, but now that I think about it a true earthlike atmosphere and ecology would be affected by the rotation or lack thereof of the moon (is tidally locked normal or the exception?) and the effects of being shadowed by the planet, how often and for how long. I realize I'm totally ill equipped to conjecture as I've just sort of gone, "habitable moon, okay" whenever it's come up.

Cool be cool though, monthly tidal moon-wide storms caused by the pending eclipse. BBEG finds a way to exploit them for whatever purpose. Party must preapare and venture onto the surface during said storms to foil, etc.

>What martial arts have developed in your setting?
I haven't given this much thought yet, but I know lionfolk have a fighting style using heavy spiked bracelets - it roughly follows the moves of claw fighting, but instead of hitting with claws hits with bracelets.
>Are these styles used with or without arnaments?
Heavy spiked bracelets. Often a bronze or steel tube filled with lead.
>Are they designed to combat specific things, or are they general fighting techniques?
The fighting style was designed to compensate for claws' weakness against armor, as alternative to a mace (lionfolk are happy to forgo using hand-held weapons, though they use them a lot too)
>Are there any nations / groups that pride themselves specifically for their combat prowess?
Plenty.
>Are there tournaments or competitions where practioners of varying arts can face off to hone their styles?
Those are called wars. Winners get to live and prosper.
never
even if you're worldbuilding for a game, you are still creating a world. you have obligations towards it.

eh, i'm a sociophobic virgin autist
I just recently discovered /wbg/ and i'm having time of my life

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_rifts_and_valleys_in_the_Solar_System

wut

>>can has too much world building
>never
>i'm a sociophobic virgin autist

everything checks out

don't mean I'm wrong though

It's a joke about Minecraft's world generation.
minecraft.gamepedia.com/Amplified

watch your mouth mister this is a christian board

The board is already littered with art threads, if that is all you want go to any of them.

Yea I have a pretty big folder of art books and how-to-art books that's shared in Da Archive. He should make a new thread if he wants that specific stuff shared though.. it's not strictly worldbuilding.

Bump

literally for what purpose

What are some interesting real-world civilizations you can rip off, that are underused enough to seem original?

Medieval Europe, Egypt, Japan...

Not joking though just pick a random spot on the map and research who lived there. I'm sure you'll learn something. Or go to askreddit and search for a thread about something like, 'anthropologists of reddit, what are some cool civilizations nobody knows about?' I'm pretty sure that's a question that's been asked over there before. There are always some good answers in threads like that.

...

19th century Ottoman Empire.

Hettite
Tocharian
Assirian
Inka
Phoenician
Etruscan
Scythian
Choson
Hawaii
Bantu

Pre-christian celtic cultures are almost never given their proper glory, they had some pretty cool things like fostering their children

jurchens
chukchi
koryaks
georgians/chechens/your choice of caucusniggers

Don't go to Reddit.

In my world humanity is basically living in a death world where the global population is 20% of what it was in 1200 AD, and the wilderness is untameable and incredibly dangerous

Would civilization basically survive and progress only by living in large, well defended, and safe cities, but there would only be a few dozen cities that basically function as city states, with potential alliances between cities and the few safe trade routes between them being the closest thing to countries?

I actually just searched and couldn't find a good one. Sometimes a topic like that gets 3,000 comments and there are some good answers but I guess there aren't enough anthropologists.

Humans are communal animals, so the larger the community the stronger we are. The bigger your city, the better.

just take the serbian empire and start the game somewhere in 1372 - 1379 after uros the autist dies and everything starts going to shit

it's the fucking perfect setting

That's really not how languages work. I mean, creoles exist, but they arise in specific contexts, not "in the future a lot of people live on the moon so English and German become the same language."

Any pre-Colombian American civilization other than Aztecs
And African civilization other than Egypt

We were on page 8; at that point the threads begin to stagnate and die.

Since this was kind of a throwaway answer I'll give some specific examples
>Inca
Mountainous terrain is often associated in fantasy and in a lot of real world cultures to be fair as a home for barbarians, but here it's the seat of the most advanced civilization in the western hemisphere. That fundamentally changes how agriculture works. The cultural notion of reciprocal relationships endemic to the Andes lends itself to games where the players have obligations to both superiors and subordinates.
>Swahili city states
Almost all fantasy city states are based on Greece or Italy, so this provides a definite break. The mix of Bantu, Arab, and Indian culture creates a unique aesthetic, and the commerce that fueled the states lets you have a game where fighting takes a backseat to negotiation and intrigue.

would you want to live in the setting you are currently working on?
is it a nice place to live in?

...go on

Seconding this. I need more information.

Well, it's pretty decent if you keep your head down and don't move too far into the frontier. I mean sure, there's a bit of a police state thing going on and you'll probably have a rapid disappearance if you start causing trouble for the state or certain people, but those groups are usually busy with each other and try to keep things out of public view. Other than that it's not bad - outside of a few regions things have calmed down to just the occasional bombing or two, there's child subsidies and jobs everywhere, all the entertainment and semi-legal drugs you want, and even actual forests with passably recreated ecosystems to walk in if you stay in the settled zone of the continent.

>stefan dusan becomes king of serbia
>very successfully expands kingdom into an empire
>eventually dies with only son
>his son is a fucking autist can't deal with any of the nobles, and deal with the nobles and maintain power, so things start to fragment as various local rulers do whatever they want
>he dies just as ottomans are starting to advance in the south
>empire splits into independent states and infighting for the next 8 years because nobody can agree who should replace him

>you have 10 years, are you a bad enough prince lazar to reunite the serbs before the ottoman armies arrive in kosovo?

>literally Warhammer Total War
meh, historians just couldn't resist ripping off popular games, could they?

>>What martial arts have developed in your setting?
Tons. My favorite is one where redhaired oni fighters use their long hair to distract the opponent and ram them with their head. Like a Chinese spear.
>>Are these styles used with or without arnaments?
Kamrenian blade dance is a set of katas where acrobatics and scimitars can make you virtually untouchable. Think of Zorro with Prince of Persia.
>>Are they designed to combat specific things, or are they general fighting techniques?
Orlosii spear techniques are not that effective against troops, but rather they were made to battle large beasts like dragons, giant boars and ogres.
>>Are there any nations / groups that pride themselves specifically for their combat prowess?
Knights of Defaroth are said to be invincible. Though they have retreated, they have never suffered a complete defeat.
The dark wizards from the forsaken mountains have learned to mix blood magic, hexes and swords, to fight against immediate threats.
The Vyndai tribes from the steppes mix elemental magic with their sword, being able to cut through their enemies like wind through the grasslands.
>>Are there tournaments or competitions where practioners of varying arts can face off to hone their styles?
The Koegian serpent rite. If you find or receive a Koegian serpent belt you may challenge the most powerful masters of every martial arts school of Shin, Koegia and Samria.
Every strong opponents you defeat, turns your brown belt into golden. A golden belt is a powerful magical item, but being defeated makes the belt lose power.

T. Mixed dark fantasy with dragonball and samurai champloo. Friends ended up fighting a reincarnated fighter who punched his way out of hell a la Stinkmeaner and disarmed the shit out of his enemies.

It comes from just drawing blue lines wherever you want without trying to divide the land into watersheds or remembering that water goes fucking downhill.

>>What martial arts have developed in your setting?
General question, do we know what sort of martial arts the Romans had? I know most European martial arts were weapon-based, but what types existed in the ancient Mediterranean?

The Romans adopted the older Greek Pankration, which was essentially equivalent to modern MMA.

Neat.

Guy who made the six tribes of hell thing a few weeks back here, you probably don't remember or didn't read but that's mostly irrelevant, I just want some opinions on this.

I think I figured out how heaven works in my setting, it's mainly a play on the ideas of "my body is a temple" and "becoming one with god."
Basically the Cathedral of God is God, a giant humanoid temple filled with the followers of god. "His" followers basically make up everything god is, the lowest level in the hierarchy being "the cult of Jesus" (since they worshiped an aspect of god rather than god himself in the setting) and act kind of like his blood, their prayers in the arms and legs of the temple giving power to the higher beings; and the highest level being the Ophanim, beings so devout to the idea of god they have given up all individualism and function as a single mind, gods mind, essentially they are collectively god but none of them have any sense of individuality and are thus seen as a single entity. God is essentially just millions of the righteous so devout to the idea of god they've become a singular body.

>God is Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagan
This excites me.

Do people use War Elephants in your setting?

Why the fuck not?

Because they use war rhinos.

Hannibal pls go and stay go

What are the coolest/ easiest to adapt elements of African mythology and folklore to """typical""" fantasy settings? What elements fit best in a world meant to be played in and experienced by PCs?

I know the Bush is basically the Warp, a semi-sapient Dark Evil that can corrupt your soul. I know that music and song are much more prominent in magic, history, and mythology. And I know that most non-human creatures are straight up Monsters, not fit to really adapt as playable races. What else is there?

Is pic related "bifurcation"?

Everything converges until the delta. What's the problem here?

I was genuinely asking a question, I'm not a riverologist. That pic is usually how rivers look on my maps, so I was wondering if that was what everyone was arguing about or something else

no. all those converge into the mississippi river. bifurcation is when a river splits into two rivers

sub saharan or you cool with egyptian stuff?

I know a lot more about Egypt than Subsahara, though if there's something real obscure you think is worthwhile to talk about, I'm all ears.

>implying the french will ever allow their language to die in favour of retard: the language-english
>implying italians would do the same
>implying spaniards will ever learn english
Humanity will never have a common tongue. Roots are too different. What you described will maybe happen in america where everyone basically speaks the same language but in europe and asia it's literally impossible

>What martial arts have developed in your setting?
Every culture devloped some kind of martial art. Elves in particular treat it as an agonistic sport and they have proper schools. Orcs use them to enact a philosophy of survival of the fittest using only your body as a weapon
>Are these styles used with or without arnaments?
Elves generally use weapons, in particular wide and light swords and staves. Orcs and humans don't use weapons but are trained if the need arises. Dwarves have a weird martial art-pub brawl style where they're trained to use anything at hand as a weapon
>Are they designed to combat specific things, or are they general fighting techniques?
Elven martial arts are just a sort of sport. They can use it to fight but generally don't save for a few selected schools. Orcs are more specialised since they train with the purpose of killing big wild animals like bears or elks
>Are there any nations / groups that pride themselves specifically for their combat prowess?
A lot
>Are there tournaments or competitions where practioners of varying arts can face off to hone their styles?
Mostly among elves and sometimes dwarves. Humans usually train a lot but don't take part in weird display of strenght. Orcs don't do it because every fight is to the death and they rather not waste good fighters in pointless tournaments

That's still only fucking 9 places in the entire world, two of which are canals and one that is artificial. Do you have ANY idea how many fucking rivers there are in the world? There are bound to be outliers. This is an astoundingly RARE phenomenon considering all the other freaky fucking rivers in the world. There are comparably many rivers that just disappear in the ground, of course fucking rivers split sometimes, but simply because of the behavior of rivers over time these phenomena just aren't very common and without a helping hand from an engineer there just won't fucking be major rivers bifurcating. The physics of moving water simply mean that the more water a river has, the less likely this is going to be a permanent phenomenon, and especially on fantasy maps this often happens to major rivers that are deep enough for fucking trade ships.