Wow it's soijak and gigachad, that totally wasn't stale like a decade ago!

>>97423582
Ah fugg, I just made a thread

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Ended up 3d modelling a sort of combat hovercraft/levitating skimmer thing for my project this week.

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>>97423975
Used it as reference for drawing the skimmer into my infographic bs.

>>97423975
>>97423982
And what sexual fetish does this service?

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>>97424044
That is more of my political powerfantasy side of feudal rule by genetically engineered and eugenically self selecting class of aristocrats.

These designs would propably be more on the fetishistic side.

>>97423884
this one was up for like a whole hour before blind-anon...

>>97423582
>Pastebin seems to be broken
Yeah, I tried posting the alternative several times here, but 4chan says it's spam. Just tried right now, nope.

The updated list will be a pdf.

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>Spend an entire (stretch of time) coming up with unique setting attribute
>Find out later it's literally just [Setting]'s [Attribute] with the names filed off or in a different color
How do you deal with the grief of discovering this?

>>97424294
What do you mean by setting attribute?

>>97424200
>>97423582
>Pastebin seems to be broken
I grabbed it off archive.org in order to re-upload ( link if anybody knows a better site: https://web.archive.org/web/20230421133024/https://pastebin.com/JNnj79S5 ), it said:
>Pastebin’s SMART filters have detected potentially offensive or questionable content in your Paste.
>The content you are trying to publish has been deemed potentially offensive or questionable by our filters, because of this you’re receiving this warning.
>This Paste can only be published with the visibility set to "Private".

Not very smart filters, looks like.

>>97423582
>Rolls Dice
>Consults Chart

Looks like we're playing Nazi Shemales: The quest for Kabbalah.

>>97424575
I didn't add a single letter, just removed link 151 because I would rewrite it to explain that the author is a hack, but still suitable for fantasy settings, which I didn't know in 2017.

That was all it took. They simply changed their filters to be more puritan, and it hadn't flagged my list because it was untouched since 2019.

>>97424634
pastee (dot) dev/p/sp2Mdb5I

>>97424649
>pastee.dev/p/sp2Mdb5I
Oh you don't even need to hide it.

>>97424653
just need whoever makes the next thread to remember to put that in instead of the old one

>>97423582
time for my original setting in which communist giantesses use gnosticism to build industrial power

>>97424294
By understanding that broad concepts are not what makes a piece of media good.
You can have the best "concept" ever, but if you never execute on it, nobody will ever care.

Conversely, you can play all the tropes straight, and succeed on pure execution.

See: The Golden Bough by James Frazer; a study of comparative mythology.

Worldbuilders are dorks who can't write compelling dialog, or set a scene, or plot out a multi-thread story that coheres in the end.

>>97423582
What are you supposed to do if your kinks oppose your political power fantasy? For example, I like liberal democracy but my kink is misogyny and race play.

>>97425092
Liberal democracy for everybody except Niggers is a perfectly consistent ideology.

If you think it isn't, then you have mistaken a grant of largesse for an axiom.

>>97425111
I don't like herrenvolk democracy. I probably find it more repulsive than a lot of forms of authoritarianism, since it gets all the id of democracy while disabling one of its most important guardrails.

>>97423582
>Thread question
I have an unhinged magic system, if there was a material that was immune to ALL magic it would be the single most valuable material in my world, by far.

You could theoretically take a rock and put so many curses/enchantments on it that nothing else could stick to it, but that's horribly inefficient.

>>97424294
Don't be stupid. There's nothing new under the sun and never will be. Just beware IP lawyers and otherwise do as you please.

>>97425092
Isn't that just great? The very fundamentals of the world cause conflict, and conflict means story.

>>97425765
>There's nothing new under the sun and never will be
Dumb take. There are more ways to rearrange a deck of cards than there are atoms in our galaxy.

What you meant to say is being new isn't a good thing in and of itself.

>>97424064
Yeah, that'll do it, godspeed.

>>97425962
But no matter how many ways to rearrange the cards, it's the same cards being rearranged.

>>97425138
Fair enough.
I'm an Ethno-Monarchist.

I'm waiting for The King of The White People.

>>97423582
Theocratic empire whose cities are artificial or hollowed out mountains. They're ruled by a fire demon bound to a mummy.

>>97423975
What did you use to make this?
I should really learn how to do 3D modeling. Then I could at least misuse AutoCAD to draw spaceships when I don't have actual work to do.

>>97423582
Have you got any strong faction that comes off as really weak, but only because it keeps fighting ridiculously strong enemies?

>>97426276
I used blender

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>>97423582
Do any of you actually do something with your worldbuilding projects (like incorporating them into games) or are they just for fun? I just day dream on my "setting" and occasionally write something down.
>pic semi related

>>97426435
For fun, of course. I don't expect any financial benefits. It's just a hobby.

>>97425111
The entire point of liberal democracy is that ALL men are equal. Once you start making exceptions, it's a short and slippery slope before you've reinvented the Hindu caste system.

>>97423582
OP image is what trannies do to make shit like Veilguard or modern pathfinder where everyone is a bisexual troon btw.

One of my factions does have this interesting biological quirk, and they're normal humans otherwise, where lowering birth rates will make young boys transform into girls.

Sometimes it stops halfway and the boys just look, like girls, but keep their male genitalia. These half men are highly sought after as concubines, though rarely with their consent. Richer and more powerful patriarchs love these half-men because you can rail them as hard as you like without worrying about damaging or impregnating them.

>>97426575
What's wrong with that? It's a free country.

>>97426575
Good. They should be encouraged to make their faggotry as obvious as possible so it's easy to avoid.

>>97426598
The game flopped.

>>97426471
Yeah but do you just do worldbuilding for the sake of it or do you utalise this worldbuilding for further projects (games, writing, art, etc.)?

>>97426724
Just for the sake of it. Maybe I'll try writing stories some day.

>>97423982
The art is really good, but the design just feels like a really uninspired eldar ripoff.

>>97423582
Kys d*scord cancer.

>>97426435
I've run games in settings I've made before, have a pipe dream of maybe writing novels someday.

>>97426575
You really like thinking about trannies, huh.

What will happen in your setting when the largest faction eventually collapses?

>>97426913
If I remember, there'll be eight next time, bitch. You can't stfu and fuck off, huh? I'm not even making the threads any more and your antics have gotten tons of discords added to the OP.

>>97426435
I am working on wargame rules that takes place in the setting, though the progress is very slow. I've also thought about making an RPG, which would probably be a lot easier since there's a lot of games I could use as inspiration (read: rip off) for handling the game mechanics. However, there's probably not much point in doing it when there's a ton of existing game systems that could be used instead.

>>97427235
>arachnophobic huh?

>>97427592
>brings up trannies out of nowhere
>pretends not to be obsessed with them
If I bring up black guys fucking my girlfriend out of nowhere, it doesn't imply anything good about me, no.

>>97427643
or it's just you're a faggot who has to use faggotbabble.

>>97427695
There is one trans character in Veilguard. You are an obsessed fucktard who has been mindfucked by /pol/ and is now vomiting it up on other boards.

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What magics or metaphysics are suitable for a 16th/17th century-inspired setting?

>>97427548
>d*scord cancer calling anyone a bitch
Kek.

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>>97426875
Can really escape the influence of the stuff that shaped one's aesthetic tastes. The aesthetic evolution of this faction has been a decade long process during which the visual ideas I have regarding them have increasingly been pulled towards a sort of "elven/eldar" like look and my attempts to resist that pull have been for naught as attempts to derivate from that general vibe for them has always ended up looking ugly.

>>97427721
You're so retarded you can't even write out the word "discord," loser.

>>97427483
Depends on what you mean by "largest".

>>97427724
Source? I'd like to see more.

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>>97427769
The source is me lel.
You can find more of my stuff on my deviant art gallery.
https://www.deviantart.com/screeble/gallery/62271545/mundus-carnis

>>97424064
Who would their enemies be?

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>>97427848
The sisterhoods enemies?
They are a matriarchal fertility cult, and the dominant religion of the Concordat and thus their primary enemies are heretical sects of their faith, as well as factions/groups who oppose their religion and power within society.

In practice, due to their stigmatization of reproduction that doesn't occur under their guidance, people living within and outside of the concordat, face a constant pressure from the Sisterhood to adopt their ways and fall under the reproductive oversight of the Sisterhood. There is both a religious as well as pragmatic aspect to this insistence on the part of the Sisterhood, as in their world view, only trough their guidance can the damage done to the human genetics over the millenia be repaired and there is just the pragmatic element of the sisterhood's power base being in their near monopoly over reproduction.

The background to this is that the genetic engineering done within the City before and especially during the civil war that raged within it that preceded the contemporary period, along with various bioweapons used during that civil war, basically wrecked the genetics of the commoner masses, leading to massive issues with mutation, genetic incompatibility, and infertility. Humanity was essentially being both splintered into increasingly divergent sub species artificially via genetic engineering, as well as just mutated and damaged via bioweaponry that targetted genetics, leading to a situation where the threat of extinction of any sort of common humanity was a real possibility. The Sisterhood emerged as a movement fighting against this trend towards the end of the civil war period, and grew into a religious organization with the express goal of restoring humanity to what it once was.
Thus, their ultimate foes are those who they deem to be either opponents, or obstacles on this path towards restoring humanity.

>>97426435
Mainly for fun, I did try using rpgmaker to recreate my map but it was very unfun. I've also considered making a srpg.

>>97427483
It already happened, three time even. The sea elves lost their continent Lemuris beneath the ocean and became archipelago pirates. The main human empire fractured into many minor feuding states each claiming they are the true heir to Valia. The collapse of the lake elven state led both to their culture fracturing into three groups, many republics, petty kingdoms, pricialities and several remnants of their empire acting as byzantine rump states, the War of the Lakes also directly led to the humans becoming more than simple tribals as they were used extensively as expendable mercenaries. Of the current extant states the one that would have the most impact would be the human Kingdom of Galeah one of the two main Valian successor states, their collapse would cause a power vacuum within the region bordering another human group they call the Oskun(border people) to the east, the lake elven merchant republic of Veneta and the Principality of Pirran to the south east, the more desert elven influenced humans to the north, and their rival successor states to the west. The power vacuum would cause further instability surrounding them and probably reshape the politcal landscape as they control ferile river valleys, the only non mountainous part of the southern valian coast, and parts of the inner plains. Most likely outcomes are that the Valian empire could be reformed by their main rival, the coast might revolt and form republics at the influence of the lake elves or be conquered by the varanian mercenaries again, the osogardeans might push into the river valleys from the east. Non-sanctioned cults would also rise in power without the state backing the church of korbia, the more dangerous ones would be free to research kaos magic and necromancy. It would be quite bad but no one has the mandate of heaven for long.

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>>97423582
>softcore femdom/powerful women
>conservative republicanism where suffrage is limited to net taxpayers and reservists
>Black Clover's magic system
Alright, what do I get?

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>>97423582
>what do we call our NOT! nords?
>um... nords
How did TES get away with it?

How do you make fictional names for characters and locations without them sounding retarded?

>>97428503
your favorite setting

>>97428779
pick a sound basis like a suffix for certain important/common words and apply it to all of the consistently. just like -berg for towns.
or always use two words for a certain language etc. Just little tricks you are basically supposed to pull when you want thing to be named relatively consistently without making up half a conlag

>>97428639
Doesn't that just come from 'northmen'? Still makes sense to me

>>97428639
it was the 90s and the unique names of the other races made you get over this one

>>97428779
Just use words that sound like they could naturally be pronounced in English. Though ultimately, making up random nonsense is gay and you should just use English to begin with.

>>97428779
I just gave up and made them all equally retarded so none of them stand out.

>>97428779
Either steal from real names and change them slightly, or create an entire language and naming system to give them names

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>>97426750
Same. I sometimes ask myself what the point is but I do have fun day dreaming up certain scenarios, societies, etc. and putting something to the digital paper.
>>97427229
My short stories exist mainly in the form of bullet points.
>>97428065
I have tried the free version of Inkarnate but found it very clunky. And my drawing skills suck ass so my worldmap mainly exists in my head.

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>>97425986
>But no matter how many ways to rearrange the cards, it's the same cards being rearranged.
Yes, and? I don't think anyone would claim in good faith that anything involving the same elements is experientially the same no matter how those elements are arranged.

>>97428779
https://www.drugs.com/drug_information.html

>>97429703
There's better tools for map making, inkarnate kind of sucks. Wonderdraft is pretty good, there's cracked versions if you don't want to pay. Campaign cartographer is good if you have the autism to learn how to use it. I mainly just use wonderdraft and Clip Studio Paint as they're easy to use. Even if you draw something shit it's helpful to have something you can check back and see where you put things

>>97424671
That would actually go hard asfuck

>>97423582
The only setting I know fitting this to a T is Sword of Truth

>>97428779
>>97429092
I've found the best way to make up words that sound foreign enough without having to go through the trouble of making a proper conlang is just to take a word or a pair of words in two different languages, mash them together, and change the spelling slightly.

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Working on a fairly simple, straightforward jungle setting supplement thing, preferably for use with B/X D&D but the monsters and whatnot in it will be compatible with pretty much any old-school D&D edition and their various clones.

the humans of the big jungle are in a sort of bronze age, and the dark elves that live on the coast are more late iron age / early antiquity, and aesthetically heavily inspired by the greeks, though the goddess they worship is inspired by the hindu deity mahakali. im kinda just mashing together stuff i think is cool for fun, i don't care too much about making it super realistic.

here's some art i commissioned from a friend of a dark elf soldier

>>97428779
Embrace the retardation, the dictator of mynot!Mycenaean Amazons is the Matriachon, their eunuch slave soldiers are called Oxen and not!Egypt has a city called Crocodilopolis with crocodiles and crocodile-headed warriors

>>97430279
sounds interesting

>>97430279
For what it's worth. I don't think tail spikes were used on Greek spears. Kinda feels like that would end badly in formation.

What kinds of firestarting technologies are available to somebody in an era of very primitive firelance and handgonne style firearms to quickly light their match? Assuming they're a poor adventurer who can be expected to need the weapon but cannot afford to be constantly burning the match cord

>>97430896
In europe people relied on fire strikers, flints and steels and whatnot. If you wanted it portable you had tinderboxes which had a fire steel and some sort of tinder.

>>97430896
Firelances and handgonnes weren't lit by self-starting match. They were lit by a slow burning coal, tinder or some equivalent, or a heated rod either carried in a pot sling by the soldier or prepared by a second person. Every firing was a 2-3 step process beginning well before battle with a fire striker or fire piston being used to prepare a flame and ending with the long fuse on the weapon itself.

Quickly has fuck all to do with it.

If you want a poor man's option for an adventurer, they can keep a rod in the fire during camp and eschew a fuse for a touch hole they can jam the rod through, but once they get away from camp or if they don't keep a campfire, they'll need to go with the fuse and carried flame method if they want a remotely fast firing.

>>97430795
you're probably right but like i said, not really sweating being super historically accurate

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>>97430279
>i don't care too much about making it super realistic.
Still, bronze & brass are good for hot and humid biomes, specially if your sources of tin/zinc & copper aren't as far apart as they were in real life.

>>97431453
>specially if your sources of tin/zinc & copper aren't as far apart as they were in real life.

interesting, i might write something about that into it, thanks for the advice

>>97424044
>pussy-with-eyes-ship
>asking this

>>97426570
>Reinventing the Hindu caste system
Only good thing they ever invented.
Worth inventing twice.

All Dasyu will submit to Aryadharma.

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>>97427714
My world is also set in the equivalent of the 17th century. Here magic is just the unnatural change of the natural state, with the caveat that the natural state always wants to return. So as far as magical abilities go; everything is possible with the only limiting factors being the abilities of the respective mage. And while one could just brute force magic to the desired results it is far easier, stable and sustainable to understand the underlying biological, chemical and physical processes of reality when one wants to alter them. Healing mages are legit medical professional even without magic because knowledge about how the human body (or the body of other creatures) work will make the application of magic easier and minimise the risk of the body rejecting the artificially (magically) grown new tissue. I have also made it so that most mages are fairly weak/have limited natural capabilities so as to not make them too overpowered. Magic and its users in my world are more like being a specialised gold smith in our reality - rare but not unheard of. This also works quite well with the general scientific progess of the 16th and 17th centuries.
>>97429878
>Wonderdraft
Thx, I'll look into it.

Working on a world setting ive had in my head n mentally developed here n there over the last 2-3~ years on and off....and finally working on the map so I can hopefully DM it this spring/summer with friends,

However...ive run into a snag; one of the core setting elements are ley lines of energy running here n there. But every time Ive tried to draw them, it just feels....*too intentional*. Too man made. So I recently thought maybe itd be easier/smarter/better to find a way to make ley lines that dont feel 'created' first, then resculpt the existing land masses n towns around them as needed to make it feel more apt and fitting.

The problem? I cannot seem to find ANY tools on the internet (which im shocked by) to generate or create random lines, cracks, spiderwebs, transparent glass break images, nothing. I have no tools seemingly that exist to create randomized lines or curves...and thus no easy way to create chaotically random leylines.

My back up plan is to divide the map into a grid, and just roll dice to determine number, length, complexity and etc. of the leylines....but thats a lot of numbers n math n dice rolling, so before that....Im hoping someone knows of a tool or piece of advice for something in this vein.

TL;DR trying to create lines on a map that dont inherently feel geometric, intentional, or man made. However, no tool seems to exist and im struggling to make them feel right by hand...

>>97429829
No matter how much you rearrange the cards, the game and the rules are the same. Originality is a lie made by counterculture nerds, forget about it.

>>97432456
>The problem? I cannot seem to find ANY tools on the internet (which im shocked by) to generate or create random lines, cracks, spiderwebs, transparent glass break images, nothing. I have no tools seemingly that exist to create randomized lines or curves...and thus no easy way to create chaotically random leylines.
Google "spiderweb," flick through images until you find one you like, and layer it over your map before tracing over it.

Before you begin worldbuilding you have to answer this question: Is this a power fantasy where heroes carve their legend into the world? Is this a gritty, desperate struggle against impossible odds? Is it a comedy, a mystery a cosmic horror? Genre and tone are the lenses through which everything else will be shaped.

>>97423721
It's not a decade old, it's only started in... 2017.
Jesus fuck, wojak really murdered this site's creativity.

>>97432702
Why should it be just one of them? Any decent story should balance the gritty, serious struggle with comedic slice of life moments to let us unwind.

>>97432456
Pretty sure Ley Lines sorta ARE geometric.
Being lines and all.
And in a sense they are "Man-Made" because they are the geometry that connects "sites of ancient power", as defined by the arbitrary perceptions of humans.

Think of them as like the remains of a Roman Road.

You can see it cutting through the landscape, but in places, it has become obscured or built over, or disappeared entirely, or been diverted.

I'd just map out all the particular sites of power in your region, and draw faint lines connecting all of them in a great "power circuit".

>>97432456
I second just doubling down on them being manmade, which can be as interesting/important to the story as you want it to be, like it could be some great mystery or just some fun side trivia.

>>97432702
Seems irrelevant if you aren't writing a story

How many ongoing conflicts do you have happening in your setting right now?

>>97433928

It is not, I assure you. You don't need to do much, just a bunch of bullet points. If you skip this step you run the risk of nothing feeling cohesive or distinctive later. It will fell like a movie with too many directors where every scene was written by different person.

>>97432830

Fair point. This exist in a spectrum.

I've just finished reading some Gazeteers for Mystara and I was surprised by how well they were written. Even supposedly generic Karameikos was more interesting than most RPG worlds and I think it might've even inspired Morrowind in some places. are there obscure RPG settings that were unfairly overlooked that could be used as inspiration for world building?

>>97432500
>No matter how much you rearrange the cards, the game and the rules are the same.
Right, but the game and rules do not restrict the possible arrangement of cards to a finite level reachable within the current or even future span of human existence.

You're treating a number less than infinity like it's 2.

>>97434102
Theres one really big one and I keep coming up with new sub-conflicts.

>>97432456
Why do the ley lines exist? Or the other way around, what influences do they have on the environment and geography around them? What value does following one of them or building something at an intersection, have for magic-using people?

Answering questions like this can give you a reason for the lines to line up or not with other things. Mountains could rise or fall around them. If travel is easier near them then roads will have been built over them. If they're hostile to large settlements (too much magic, monsters, random magic effects) then cities will have been intentionally built away from them. Look to the rules of your magic system and draw the intentionality out of those.

>>97432456
Leylines should absolutely go straight. The whole reason they are significant if that important sited are supposedly all build on a bunch of lines. There is nothing mysterious about them if they go in random directions.

>>97435485
>There is nothing mysterious about them if they go in random directions.
Actually some takes on ley lines have it instead be that they are more organic and instead of lying along the lines, important sites end up being constructed where they meet either deliberately or because people are attracted to those points.

>>97423582
Obligatory kys shitscord cancer.

>>97437120
List of Discord links just got one link longer.

>>97437182
As long as you kys, I don't care. 1 link is as bad as 1 million.

>>97437187
I'm not going to kill myself, obviously, retard. Why would you possibly think this kind of antisocial behavior will achieve anything?

>>97437255
It achieves enough to make you seethe this hard. Kys shitscord cancer.

Hey /wbg/, worldbuilding newfag here. I wanna make a world for D&D/Pathfinder games with my friends, where should I start?

>>97437271
I'm not seething, bro, you're the one who constantly spams every thread and seethes about it.

>>97437297
I've not posted here for at least a month. That's the beauty of this, there's probably a dozen of us randomly scrolling passed and deciding to tell you to kys every so often, but only one you to autistically seethe constantly about it. Kys shitscord cancer.

>>97437310
>bro I haven't posted here for over a month
Okay? So that means I'm seething? You're wasting time posting in this thread after your worthless driveby shitpost and justifying yourself for a whole paragraph while describing how "beautiful" it is. Just fuck off. Nobody cares. You don't even post in /wbg/, you're just a retarded tourist.

>>97437313
Thanks for more seething. Don't forget to instinctively reply to the next anon telling you to kys for being shitscord cancer, like a good little seething dog.

>>97437324
>takes shit in room
>is told to stop
>accuses other person of seething
>explains that actually there are dozens of different people taking a shit in the room
>claims to just be walking past the room and decided to step in to take a shit; he doesn't even live in this building, actually
Just stop pooping, faggot.

>>97437285
Ask your friends what stuff they're interested in seeing in the game/world, then use that to create major elements of the setting. Since you're creating the setting for them, you can make whatever they're into important.

>>97437332
>can't see the sheer irony that he took the shit by posting shitscord links
More autistic seething from you. Kys shitscord cancer.

>>97437344
I didn't even make the OP, lol.

Anyway, it's clear you get off on being responded to and use it to delude yourself into thinking the other person is seething. In fact, you are just an annoying retard and it takes two seconds to type a response. I will hide replies to this chain, and since you self-admittedly don't post here, just driveby shit on the thread, I won't have to read anything from you ever again.

>>97437369
>didn't make the OP
>still seethes when not replied to
Even better! Kys shitscord cancer.

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The map

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>>97437442
Added onto it

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>>97428779

but anon, retarded names are the best

>>97432844
Ley Lines in our world, yes. The ley lines in my world are more like....raw magical energy flowing to and fro. For lack of a better comparison, think the FF7 life stream or some shit like that.

In this instance, these are a natural phenomena of the world that help foster and influence magical energies within an area, and much like a river ebbs and flows, and every season comes and goes....over time, some leylines shift or shrink or expand or 'dry out'. Thus, it shouldn't necessarily look like a civilization created it.

>>97433007
The closest element to man made about them is the ancient humans who were like "lmao what if we decided to fuck with it to empower our empire" and proceeded to blow a hole in the planet that necessitated direct hands-on divine intervention to stabilize the planet (and ley lines) and as a result some ground rules were thrown down for waging war n the like. Ive been told it sounds a lot like i created D&D G Gundam with magic and magitek.

>>97435310
See above. As a leyline flows to and fro, it can both influence and be influenced by elemental tendencies of an area. This also extends to areas where perhaps the veils between planes are weaker, and thus an area has more influence in that area (And not necessarily just elemental)

The value depends on the civilization and the sorts of magic and deity worship those civilizations trend towards. Theres both good and bad that can occur from too much unfettered raw magical energy coalescing. There are some civs who harness it, either naturally or with divine influence after the calamity, and some who shy away.

>>97435485
>>97435565
Rivers dont go straight. Neither do the leylines. It flows, and therefore goes. There are pockets of magic and no magic and various things that push and pull this energy which influence how it snakes through the land, both above and below ground.

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I had an idea for a race of blue skinned aquatic themed people (not mermaids but more like blue water elves) who turn into monsters when they get wet. The males turn into horrible leoplurodon looking ass sea monster whale things and the females turn into giant jellyfish that can shoot lightning and cast spells and the like. The main idea is for a race that has a unique relationship with water- making them useful for aquatic adventures but not quite the same as water breathing. It's also a weakness, getting stuck out in the rain means becoming a beached sea monster with little else you can do unless dried off or whatever.

I'm not really sure if the idea is any good. It's kinda mean to be a race with an animal form like a playable werewolf but with slightly more overhead. Maybe they have a cultural/religious thing about their connection to the sea being their mother and returning to her brings you back to your "true" self. Does this sound too wild and hard to implement for a playable race?

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>>97428779

I had a serious problem where I didn't know or understand the languages of Bronze Age India, let alone the Oceanian region.

So I solved that by just letting the Ancient Greeks colonize the entire region and become the dominant language group. It's all because of some weirdass aliens that conquered the region and wanted humans to work their colonies.

There's still some local Indians, of course, but they speak Tamil (another ancient but well recorded language), and there's also lots of immigration from China.

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>>97438028
Reminds me of DnD 3e Selkies, they're aquatic humanoids who got a human form(though very attractise, really pale with grey hair and eyes) on land and turn into seals in the sea, with the transformation being automatic when they enter either, though on places like shallow waters and beaches they can freely switch.

Anyway making it activate just by getting wet seems like a big problem, like its not just rain you got to worry about, people carry water everywhere, like anyone on land with a water flask can easily take one of them out, even worse if body fluids like spit or blood would activate it.

>>97438028
Sounds like you're setting yourself up for a lot of shit about what exactly counts as "wet".

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>>97437920
The closest equivalent might be Qi/Chi. It had several interpretations, like the Zhuangzi text saying the wind is the Earth's Qi. Or being warmed by a campfire, is receiving qi from the fire.

The one I'm thinking about is when it comes to Feng Shui ("wind-water*"). Not the interior arrangement babble, but the geomancy/urban planning babble. Estimating the flow of "energy" at a region, and/or planning your city/cities so it flows just right. The whole thing is hard for me to understand, but couple things come to mind.

1) Magnetic compass was the traditional Feng Shui instrument. So the poles, magnetic anomalies and iron veins might be your points of reference for mapping your ley lines.

2) A 1998 book by one Belinda Henwood says negative qi flows straight, positive qi curves around, the flowing speed can't be too much or too little, and blocking qi might make it accumulate while losing its "living" quality (flowing), turning positive qi into negative qi. So luck/fortune might become a pool of bad luck/misfortune.

3) Sensing Qi, with instruments or not, is divination. I imagine wizards with compasses (instead of scrying pools or crystall balls) figuring out ley lines, then trying to optimize flows and building their towers, or even rearranging the landscape accordingly. Like a tower right at the mountain face where the flow would stop if the wizard didn't use its natural caves to make the geomantical equivalent of a dam, letting surplus qi flow away so it doesn't go bad. The resulting dungeon is the equivalent of a hydraulic power plant, which can be disrupted by adventurers hired by a rival.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi#Feng_shui

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_shui#Foundational_concepts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_shui#Environmental_management

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuangzi_(book)

*This helps visualizing it. Whatever disturbs the flow of wind and/or water, also disturbs qi. Mountains, lakes, typhoons, winter...

How could the United States legally deal with the fact that they need to depend on underage "soldiers"?

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>>97439481
Without context? Use the classic "we have freedom fighters, they have terrorists". Pretend they don't count, reword things. Camp Bucca prisoners are "detainees", mercenaries are "military contractors". DoJ is used to enact "justice", not perform illegal operations on foreign nations. The rest are rhetoric performances that extend beyond the attention span of their citizens. Doesn't matter if the secret comes out, just that the ones to denounce it don't have the money to spread it long enough, far enough, to break the routine of the news cycles.

>>97423582
> What would the implications of anti-magic rocks be in your setting?

Well between the two concepts in competition for attention in my head: one is a UFO-Space Opera-thing that doesn’t have magic at all. So the antimagic rocks would just be seen as ordinary rocks.

And the other is a… Urbex/high fantasy setting where real magic has started appearing in the world recently (like, less than 10 years ago recently) and it’s not really sticking to any of the preconceptions of how people thought magic should work… so adding rocks that disrupts magic is going to make that community of mystical investigators just throw their arms up in frustration as it would throw a wrench into everything they thought they’d figured out about the phenomena.

>>97439481

The same way you can justify anything: once you have an economic incentive and an operation going on, you only need an ideological, moral, religious, or scientific excuse to justify it. Employ underage soldiers first. Once it becomes too expensive to dismantle the program, made up an excuse to justify it.

>>97439481
>How could the United States legally deal with the fact that they need to depend on underage "soldiers"?
If the US is out of able bodied recruits above the age of 18, the world is so catastrophically fucked that I literally cannot fathom there still being a functional government, let alone legal system. And even if there were, our new robot/alien/zombie/mantis overlords won't let that stand for much longer anyway.

This is like asking how the band would decide what to play on the Titanic.

>>97438114
are these the etymologies of the english names? germany isn't germany in german, it's deutschland which is land of the people

In an undead run feudal society, what would be good ways to make use of the living if most low skill labor is done by cheaply produced perfectly loyal tireless undead?
Like you get skeletons working in mines, on fields, doing construction and as guards/troops and the like.
Obviously there is still a value in experts, clerks, bureaucrats and the like, but I am not sure what to do with all the unskilled labourers. Like even after providing them all with high level education I am not sure if there would be enough demand to provide jobs.
Getting rid of them/reducing their numbers too much is also not really an option since you need the living to produce more corpses which the society needs.
And as it's still feudalism just letting people live in leisure without working isn't really an option either, since their liege would want to extract any possible value from them.

What are the knock on effects of having a dyson sphere that you wouldn't immediately think about?
I have this sort of post-apocalyptic sti-fi world and among the ruins of space civilization is a dyson sphere which people are slowly colonizing and tapping into

>>97439660
Source on that bunny?

>>97441991
What are the undead like? Are they mindless automatons or people but skeletons? For the former people could be accountants and overseers, making sure the robots do what they're supposed to and the complex mental work they couldn't. Or skeleton mechanics, patching up broken bones and replacing lost bits and whatnot.
Manufacturing too, with premodern metalworking can a skeleton tell how long to leave the sword in the furnace, how hot to get it, how long to quench it for?

>>97439481
>legally
>Service guarantee Citizenship!
It won't make too much sense as other anons have already outlined, but there could be things with enfranchisement requiring military service of some sort for kids born outside the gated communities or whatever enclaves dot the dystopian hellscape you're shooting for.

>>97441991
Content producers for luxury consumables. They're making fancy clothing, baroque embellishments, entertainment features, music, paintings, fine dining, high end carriages, sculptures, anything that upsells the resources extracted by the mindless undead labour.
And if it doesn't sell well enough, its off to the bone farm for them.

>>97442044
>What are the undead like? Are they mindless automatons or people but skeletons?
There's different tiers but for basic skeletons it's kinda in between, they don't have any personal drive/consciousness but they still got essentially basic human intelligence and ability to adapt when following orders, though it can't innovate any new knowledge it wasn't taught/implanted with. Like attacking a skeleton soldier will still have it fight back with practiced movements and respond to the attacks appropriate to the situation, but you can't have one invent new maneuvers by itself nor would it decide on attacks it wasn't ordered to on it's own initiative.

And yeah experts guiding/supervising them is definitely a thing, it's just not one you could employ the bulk of human population for.
Like depending on the job a single human/sapient undead supervisor is enough to organize dozens to hundreds of. Skeletons.

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If I use short distance teleportation as a way of "throwing" the ship in a given direction, what would be a good way to slow it down?

>>97442170
I guess look at what people did in the american south or rome or other societies that relied on mass slave labor

>>97442182
Rebound energy fields that push back against teleportation technology.

>>97423582
Kys discord cancer :^)

>>97441991
>In an undead run feudal society, what would be good ways to make use of the living if most low skill labor is done by cheaply produced perfectly loyal tireless undead?
First of all you should consider whether it makes sense for the society to remain feudal at all if there isn't scarcity of labor.

Anyway, I have two suggestions.
Option A: Serfs live to die. They are raised to make improve their physical condition and have kids, then killed in their prime and made undead. This can either be by force, as part of a cult, or have them be intelligent undead.
Option B: Artisans, merchants, and maybe work in body preparation. Would hardly be the first feudal society to have those grouped together as a class or two and it's not like you can trust complex labor to mindless undead. Hell, you could even have em be hunters, too. Tracking, killing game without damaging the hide too much, and performing field dressing while accounting for any peculiarities with the animal and being on the lookout for diseases and parasites, and then returning to civilization while carrying fresh kills without attracting predators isn't something I would trust to someone without all their faculties.

>>97442182
If it's teleportation, why would you need to slow it down? Motion is relative. I would think you would be able to have it reappear at whatever speed you want. Just have it kill its engines either before or after the jump so it doesn't start accelerating.

>>97441572
The real problem is basically just that the kids are the only ones born with the abilities to deal with the problem.

>>97442781
They were genetically engineered with DNA taken off the corpse of a Biblical half angel giant, and were being raised to fight the remnants of said giants as they return from their exile in space.

>>97442792
>They were genetically engineered with DNA taken off the corpse of a Biblical half angel giant
Then they aren't human and have no legal personhood according to all sorts of legal precedent.

As long as the government isn't executing ones that refuse to fight or something, I don't particularly think there would be much outcry that literally the only people physically capable of fighting magic alien space monsters are expected to do so. There is a difference between forcing a kid to fight when you have other options and giving a kid a gun when their home is under attack. If your options are between the kid dying or the kid fighting and maybe dying, obviously the latter is preferable.

Although I can't help but ask why the government wouldn't just try to genetically modify adults or grow magic organs they could stick in adults, or maybe stall until the kids are adults. Seems kinda risky to throw a limited pool of super soldiers into the meat grinder before they're even fully developed.

Also, why wouldn't the program exist in every country on earth? If America had notice of magic alien space monsters, I would hope they'd fucking warn the rest of the fucking planet. If America was that worried about legal deniability they could just stick their child soldier program in a country where it wouldn't matter and say they provided logistical support only?

>>97442869
The aliens weren't supposed to come just yet. Predictions were off.

And I never doubted the fact that America WOULD use them. I just wanted to know the legal work necessary to make it happen, especially since it'll be necessary later on.

I am planning that eventually these soldiers will overthrow the US precisely because of their use as weapons of war.

>>97442869
>Then they aren't human and have no legal personhood according to all sorts of legal precedent.
What legal precedent is there involving sapient nonhumans?

>>97442231
Repurposed the farming equipment for gladiatorial entertainment?

>>97445437
blacks

>>97441991

I see that AI is making an impact on game settings

>>97442031
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/World-War-Kaiju

It feels as if there should be a part 2 but 1 didn't sell well. Still worth a read.

>>97445437
>What legal precedent is there involving sapient nonhumans?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15znkk12xjo

Does anybody use AI to generate ideas? I used to, but the fiftieth time that I forgot everything the machine spit out I realized making my own world from the very basic building blocks was the only way to go. Now? I can remember everything about my world and it feels fresher than it ever did before. Yet, AI is cheaper than hiring an artist for 100 commissions, so take that for what you may.

>>97447266
barely, I mostly ask it for question I should answer that I may have not considered.
Like asking it about the major struggles a certain group of people in history typically faced(like for example struggles of life at sea for sailors and pirates), so I can myself find ways of how and if they are adressed in setting.

>>97447266
For generating ideas? No, all it will give you is generic slop. Having it summarise my notes, audit documents so they are consistent, apply sound changes to daughter languages and translate into my conlangs are things it can actually do decently well, at least claude can, chatgpt hallucinates too much to be useful for anything too complex.

Generating images can also be good if you don't have any artistic skills and want to see what something might look like.

>>97447266
Whenever I ask the AI for ideas, it's basically just "give me twenty ideas" and then one of them loosens something in my brain and I write whatever thought it sparked. It's not very good at all at worldbuilding.

>>97447266
>Does anybody use AI to generate ideas?
I genuinely don't understand why anyone would do this. If you want story synopses, just read movie/show/game/book blurbs (or better yet, read/watch/play that shit). If you want ideas for making your own race/government/whatever, read books on that shit. If you just want random shit to build off of, just go to
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
over and over again.

>>97424294
Ignore it. Nothing umder the sun is new.

>>97447266
Hell no. Part of the fun of worldbuilding is coming up with ideas yourself. Using AI is like asking it to have an orgasm and then tell you how it was.

Kind of got a basic idea for a setting that came to me in a dream.

I like the idea of a fantasy setting with cosmic stakes or influences, Elden Ring is kind of an inspiration. I had an idea of a world where the sun was murdered, which is to say there's a bizarre cosmic phenomena where it looks as though the sun was cut apart. There are mile-long streaks across the sky that arc like solar blood-spatter. The daytime sky is tainted a sickly red, and desertification has set in across fertile tracks of land.

The main factions would be a dying empire with an Imperial Line that claimed lineage from the sun god. A cabal of magic-users that seek to usher in something called "The Long Night of Mysteries" which would be 888 years of darkness that would reveal scientific and arcane secrets. Finally, the BBEG who would lead a group of "Eclipse Seekers" that represent something like a controlled end to the old order, being headed by the younger prince of the Imperial Line that seeks to start an apocalypse early so he can ascend to godhood; ostensibly so he can direct the world to a better age under his guidance.

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>>97423982
>into
the vaguely organic look reminds me of Humanity Lost

>>97448401
So when you said you had an idea, what you meant was you remembered Dark Souls and Elden Ring already exist.

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Anyone can help me with my setting?
A youth group want to connect to other people using the ancient technology from the past in the post apocalyptic setting, but the cult group think it would doom their utopian society.
The ancient technology is discord.
I'm planning to add magic, is it out of place for post apocalyptic setting?

>>97447266

I do, but as a conversation between myself and the AI. In practise, I use the AI to refine the ideas that myself already have and the knowledge I already know. They are useful for brainstorming, names, refine ideas, and synthesis. Occasionally the AI comes up with something clever, and I integrate it. Also it is important to not be too vague or general. Also, very important: many AI models have sycophant tendencies, so it is a good idea to ask the AI to deliberately critisize your ideas.

Would creating separate languages, mythology, and living spaces for the elites and commoners be enough to make the two groups start seeing each other as different species?

My goal is to create an inverted version of the future society seen in HG Wells' "The Time Traveller", except with an evil, cannibalistic Eloi that evolved to be apex predators feeding on the working class Morlocks that live beneath the earth.

>>97449249
1. Groups don't need to see each other as different species to prey on each other
2. You should look up Spartan treatment of their Helot slaves. Literally hunted for sport annually to keep their population in check.

And they shared a language, mythology, and living space.

What you are describing isn't speciation. It's class consciousness.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_consciousness

>>97447266
no llm's suck at it. But i like using it to generate content from tables and stuff.
I have used it to middling success in making a pregenerated setting for some mythras campaign i ve been brewing by feeding it some runequest pdfs and asking it to run some stuff by it.
Basically as a tool to avoid countless dice rolling and page flipping for tables.
Still not the most inspired, by i just wanted something fast and dirty to get a game on and not a real world building project.
It is also fairly decent at making npcs using generator books like Central Castings Heroes series

>>97449249
Sounds expressly worse than the actual premise of The Time Machine.

And less likely.

Comfort, safety and being provided for makes you weak and dependant over generations.

The Morlocks outstripping the Eloi and coming to treat them as cattle is the logical conclusion of that sort of setup.

You'd want to modify the specifics of the scenario heavily to justify it; the Upper class would have to avoid devolving into a race of bimbos fit for nothing more than eating.

- t. proto-Morlock

>>97442869
>America had notice of magic alien space monsters, I would hope they'd fucking warn the rest of the fucking planet. If
K E K
E
K

>>97447226
>it doesnt matter how socially complex they are
HA cant wait for this to be used to make slaves (or worse) out of genetically modified organisms. It can talk? Beg for mercy? Doesnt matter not a person.

I'm reading daggerheart rn, they suggest world building to be a shared effort with the players, essentially taking turns making up locations in the world. How do you feel about it? Do you think it takes weight of the GM's shoulders or does it make it harder to play in the long run?

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>>97449939
>and then one day, for no reason at all, a genetically-engineered species of super-soldiers became hell-bent on exterminating their creators

Actually, this gives me an idea.
>playing as mutants/cyborgs/entirely synthetic species
>world is a recovering post-apoc
>toxic wastelands, forests of giant mutated fungi, decaying ruins, hidden sealed labs and etc.
>main conflicts are between city-states and certain particularly aggressive species
>no wars, just minor border clashes
>reason for that being a singular threat to all of them
>an unknown species that lives in underground vaults, supposedly built by a precursor civilization
>they are extremely hostile to most forms of life and possess the means to kill or control other races
>they're even known to sometimes do both, in that exact order
>forcing people to kill their own, raised as cybernetic thralls to fight for their murderers
>main campaign conflict is trying to stop them from enacting genocide on a global scale
Plot twist: they're descendants of humans that hid away when their biological weapons broke out of containment and spread all over the world.
The genocide plot is them employing means to terraform Earth back to the way it was, when the air wasn't full of lethal pathogens.
Humans aren't playable and are the collective designated big bad. Not entirely evil, but ruthless, and their goals run in direct conflict with everyone else's.

Not sure whether it should be a fully customizable anatomy, or distinct species one would choose from and/or lift wholesale from players to drop into the world.
Wondering what system would fit here. I've only ever actually played D&D 3.5, and more or less seriously read GURPS the game fell through, sadly, and had a quick glance at Stars Without Numbers.
I think the general tone of the latter fits well enough, but mechanics-wise? I haven't a clue. Also, magic or no magic? Well, psionics and technopathy in this case

>>97449950
I hate the language used in these shitty games.
I have no problem with players filling blanks as long as what they came up with kinda fits and is relevant to their characters or backstory, but not intruding into the reality of the game.
This is my domain. If i dont have that then what the fuck am i doing this for. This is why all those the dm is something between your cuck and your adversary type of games never actually go anywhere.
Also when i am playing i dont wanna fucking create the dm's setting with him. A cool faction or a location from my backstory is more than enough to leave your mark on the world in character creation and then enjoy playing.
Generally speaking narrativist systems suck because they dress narration with so many mechanics and lingo and try to arrest it into forming a certain experience. Well, that sucks. There is nothing that removes me more from the reality of the game than having to think in a meta way outside of the game like what would i change in a scene of Fate etc. They aren't narrative based games because they have mechanics tied to narrative instead of letting it emerge naturally.
They try to make people who cant actually get immersed and have a story first type of campaign actually get an imitation of it through a million of gamist rules.
These are systems for narrative brainlets. That's why they are always populated by dnd refugees and pretentious indietards

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>>97423582
How would you go about making a fantasy setting inspired by the 18th century? I just can't imagine how magic and early industrial technologies might interact. Magical armor? Magical bullets? Magical black powder? Magical creatures? Magical cannons?

>>97428779
If you're making European fantasy just translate the basic concept into Welsch and change the spelling.
>What should I call a village by the lake?
>Let's check google translate: lake village
>Pentref y Llyn
>Pentref Yllyn? Perfect.
That's how Sapkowski did. Fort -> Caer, Old ->Môr, Sea ->Hen. Kaer Morhen.


Every character in Frieren is just a translation of a German world basically matching characters and I didn't hear anyone complain
The anime must sound ridiculous to German speakers. An elf called Freezing used to travel with adventurers called Sky, Cheerful and Iron, but now she travels with Far Away and Strong.

>>97450329

Well, first you have to think what fantasy races to include. Just slapping elves and say they go around with Muskets won't work. Second, this is the Era of Enlightenment. Gulliver's Travels or The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen could be a blueprint.

>>97450329
Inspired by the 18th century where? europe and the colonies? Not every place was an industrial hellhole in the 1700s
Most interesting would be something set either i india southeast asia or china imo. Very multicultural, lots of trade, pirates galore, adventuring all around.
So something based on that + local occult traditions for magic.
No elves and all that. This is the cringiest shit ever.
Either way guns suck super hard as far as rpg games go so setting something after the 1600s when they were still trash just makes everything worse for you

>>97450329

It's the era when racism and slavery transitioned from religion justifications to scientific ones.

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>>97450380
>The anime must sound ridiculous to German speakers
>mfw humans trust a demon named Liar

>>97450124
That sounds GURPS or Gamma World. It seems D20 Modern + Apocalypse players suggest Savage Worlds because D20 is worse than vanilla D&D3.5???

Stuff that came to mind:

https://youtu.be/aws6p_Z_2uc?si=-AnzdgqkiJdl24YE

https://youtu.be/Iz6ZSdsttHA?si=nSVrfDYuTbF9JijL

https://youtu.be/u6ezjetIceQ?si=O4wBYwl4hPyzJvM6

https://youtu.be/-ePDPGXkvlw?si=RWRWZqAoO69OjMmU

>>97450329
copy paste arcanum

>>97450953
isn't that more 19th century?

>>97441991
Make the undead really clumsy. They are living corpses and made for whacking people, not working honest jobs. This means that farmers need to watch over them and if needed assist them, for example if they get stuck or one part of their body falls off. Secondly there is a whole market for labor requiring manual dexterity: tailors, locksmiths, plumbers, carpenters and such. Not to mention actually preparing food. Would you let a fucking zombie anywhere near your kitchen? Also necromancers need servants. If they aren't completely insane they would prefer human to trim their beards, pour their drinks etc.
You should also consider military. If control of the undead can be transferred to normal people it should be done. Why risk a wizard getting hurt when you can just send 5 men-at-arms each accompanied by 10 skeletons. Both them and their troops can be easily replaced.
Speaking of military obviously they would need some kind of living militia if only to deal with enemies that can turn, destroy or control the undead.

>>97450966
eh it's close enough with a bit of fantasy world fudging

>>97450393
My main issue is of a more general nature: if magic is common then how does it interact with common items (armor, weapons, household appliances, architecture, etc.)? If magic is uncommon then it must either by quite weak or very powerful, as to make magicians rare. If magic is weak then what is the point? If magic is powerful then mages would just take over the world and keep everybody low from their floating ivory towers.
And this overarching issue gets exacerbated by my goal to set my world in a time when industry and science was on the rise.
>>97450402
Ironic that you have used India and SE-Asia as examples for "not industrial" regions as the states therein fielded ridiculously expansive artillery trains.
>>97450953
Mhh, the trope is good but it isn't really what I'm looking for.

>>97423582
1: healthy, loving, and consensual impregnation between two married adults of the opposite sex. Afterward, they hold hands and watch the sun set.
2: a working, just system in which everyone gets a fair shake. Authorities are responsible and act according to universal standards of justice. The population is both stable and well adjusted.
3: magic is stored in the balls.

>>97451819

A good framework is to remember that during this time magic and science was completely separated yet. Isaac Newton was an avid occultist. I'm sure if magic was real, it would be included into items, weapons, and devices naturally.

>>97450185
>If i dont have that then what the fuck am i doing this for.
Ideally, you find the moment-to-moment experience of GMing enjoyable, rather than just as a way to show off your worldbuilding to players.

>>97451819
>My main issue is of a more general nature: if magic is common then how does it interact with common items (armor, weapons, household appliances, architecture, etc.)? If magic is uncommon then it must either by quite weak or very powerful, as to make magicians rare. If magic is weak then what is the point? If magic is powerful then mages would just take over the world and keep everybody low from their floating ivory towers.
>And this overarching issue gets exacerbated by my goal to set my world in a time when industry and science was on the rise.
Magical Industrial Revolution does a good job of fusing magic and the industrial revolution; basically, new developments in magical theory combine with new developments in the sciences to mean you have Spell Breeding Reactors and Magic Accumulators and generally a shift from bespoke hedge wizards to industrial magic where a machine can cast the same spell as a wizard, but a hundred times a day instead of three. Wizardly knowledge is useful, but it makes you better at building industrial machinery, and people are still figuring out how to use the new technology so they do the magical equivalent of Chernobyl, Halifax, Bhopal, etc.

>>97450329
personally I like the idea of just expanding on existing occult traditions and then just integrate them as if they actually work.
Like lets take Alchemy for example, you could have succesful accomplishments of the goals of it bleed over into the industrial revolution, like factories staffed by mass produced homunculi, transmuted metals and alloys be used in all kinds mechanical devices for improved performance, maybe even go so far as have succesffull philospher's stones exists, one of the most relevant powers its attributed to which is rarely mentioned is being able to change oil so that it burns forever without ever diminishing in mass. You can see how this could change everything during the industrial revolution, especially if the same principal can be applied to coal. personally I like the idea that alchemically refined crude oil and coal would turn from black to white.

Otherwise many forms of Divination were also very common, most notably Astrology, which could very well become reliable methods of gathering information about the past, present and future and would become widely integrated into governance and industry. Like you could see police rely on necromancy(as in contacting the dead for information) when investigating murders, have accurate weather forecasts through observation of cloud movements, have folk healers(or even professional physicans) divine the gender and healht of pregnancies or have governents prepare for war based on the prediction of their astrologers.

You could also see protective charms and talisman be widely used both carried on a person and inside buildings.

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>>97423582
Trying my hand at making a fantasy land (think the size of Europe) for fun for the first time and I think I could use some advice on really where to get started.
Using Inkarnate I have made a basic landmass, mountains (might add at least one more chain of them) and a started a few clear biomes, e.g the desert, tundra/ice fields, and so on.

I don't really know much about doing maps other than deserts being made due to no or little rain from mountains stopping the flow and that rivers start small and converge together.
I also plan on having this map be a very "zoomed out" overview, so not every geographical feature will be present, but key ones like grand/major rivers, large mountains, and later on great forests, jungles, marshlands, etc will be present.

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>>97451991
Yeah but my issue is where to draw the line. I'm thinking that some munitions armor will be enchanted with "munitions quality" magic and thus be kept around well into the gunpowder age. But applying this line of reasoning to a wider society is daunting - what can be influenced by magic and how will that look like?
>>97452092
>where a machine can cast the same spell as a wizard, but a hundred times a day instead of three.
That's a really cool idea but imo more applicable to a setting inspired by the 19th century.
>>97452220
Good ideas. I think that will be the overall route I'm going to take.

>>97450380
Cheerful and Iron are weird but Sky is actually a name, usually spelt Skye in english

>>97449572
>Comfort, safety and being provided for makes you weak and dependent over generations.
You're disregarding the impact social control has. Society has been controlled by people living in greater comfort and safety for thousands of years. As long as there is a section of the worker class willing to enforce the social order for a share of the wealth or simply out of conditioning, that's completely sustainable.

>>97449919
I said hope and not expect for a reason.

>>97452936
Yeah, perhaps adding an extra letter would make the name seem more natural, and extra L in the middle for example.

>>97452053
It is not about showing off your worldbuilding. My games are around factions, locations events etc. Building these and the way they interact with one another and the party is the background work that allows for me to enjoy a session when it plays out.
These are my toys just like the pc's are the player's toys.
At that point just let me use Mythic GM, roll a character myself and worldbuild the setting all together while playing. (not that i think that such a game would work very well for most groups)

>>97453539
>Chelerful
>Iroln
Kind of works I guess

Main reason I need them to is so that Magical adventures are more important. HP had the problem where Hogwarts was only relevant on the world stage because that's where Dumbledore (and Harry) was, and because Voldemort had some affection for it. Mostly the former.

I'm considering making something of a national ideology for Mages, something that makes them consider all Mages to be part of a single unified "Nation" that SHOULD dictate politics for the benefit of Magic on the whole and Magic Users in particular.

>>97437182
Kys d*scord cancer

>>97456550

Well, what usually happens is resistance. Old institution are threatened by new power. So they either punish the new power, or try to master it and become patrons of it.

It usually follows a very predictable three-step dance of institutional survival:

1. The Friction Phase (Punishment)
Initially, the old guard uses the tools they already control: law, regulation, and social stigma to suppress the newcomer.

2. The Assimilation Phase (Mastery)
When the "punishment" fails because the new power is too efficient or popular to kill, the institution pivots. They stop fighting the tool and start buying it.

3. The Patronage Phase (The Gilded Cage)
The institution becomes the "patron," providing the new power with resources and legitimacy in exchange for control. This often "tames" the radical nature of the new power.

Every "new power" that successfully navigates this eventually becomes the "old institution" of the next century, waiting to be threatened by the next wave.

>>97456690
So they basically just fight the current elites, win, and then become the new elites.

Sweet. Then Mages should do the same with the liberal democrats.

>>97456550
>How can the Mages get power over the country, and do they need to?
>I'm considering making something of a national ideology for Mages, something that makes them consider all Mages to be part of a single unified "Nation" that SHOULD dictate politics for the benefit of Magic on the whole and Magic Users in particular.
Okay, poli sci has a lot of term conflation, so for clarity I'm gonna lay down some definitions before I talk this out.

Country: A geographic region under the control of a *sovereign* state
State: A government acting to control a geographic region
Sovereign: Having control over both internal and external affairs
Nation: A group of people having a shared political identity and government (but not necessarily a state/country)

Now then, nations generally form among people in close geographic proximity, which is why stateless nations are rare on the world stage and tend to be limited to religious communities, nomads, and conquered peoples. If your magic community were attempting to represent "all Mages", that would point more towards something analogous to religious communities. Seizing a country doesn't make sense and would risk triggering pogroms in other countries unless "all Mages" are located within that country. If you want them to have a country of their own, rather than taking over a government, getting granted an autonomous territory would be a safer bet, or having them found one through protracted deliberate colonization of an area.

Having said all that, you should ask yourself why Mages would want to separate from their countries and nations and form a new one in the first place? What is driving the alienation? Being able to create a beneficial in group alone isn't enough to create a nation.

>>97456562
Two links longer, loser bitch.

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>create a whole world for a D&D campaign with friends
>make a map, races, religions, wars, history etc
>do two sessions
>'My wife says she isn't happy with me doing this each week so I'm going to have to drop out'
>campaign ends

>>97457085
>responds when not even quoted
>calling anyone else a loser bitch
Lol, lmao even

>>97457060
>Having said all that, you should ask yourself why Mages would want to separate from their countries and nations and form a new one in the first place? What is driving the alienation? Being able to create a beneficial in group alone isn't enough to create a nation.

Mages tend to develop, usually around a few years after gaining their powers, an utter poisonous contempt for all humanity. They believe that they, having been granted the power to shape reality with their whims, shouldn't be forced to coexist with people who can't even bend a spoon with their brain.

They especially resent how Mundanes keep coming to them for help with their problems, but still insist that they are all equals before the law.

>>97457135
You can't keep it going with one guy down?

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>>97457135
>Scheduling
Nothing made me more angry as an eternal DM than players backing out last minute.
>I know I we planned this session two weeks out but I made plans yesterday so I cant make it tomorrow
>What? The game is today? Well thats your fault for not reminding me
How do so many retards talk about how much they enjoy tabletop RPGs, only to flake an hour before a session? Jesus christ we get drunk and play for only two or three hours, do they just like being able to tell people that they play?

Making settings and characters for games was always fun though, at least I can direct that into world building I guess.
Where do you even go to find players and games now?
please don't say discord

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>>97452582
Looks great so far anon, especially those big inland seas

As far as "doing maps" and how a landmass is formed, I wouldn't worry about it unless its something you care about.
Sure there's things like:
>A river can only be straight for 10x the length of its width because of the physics of water (or something)
>Large storms begin to dissipate once they make landfall, which can affect the ecosystem beside the sea and farther inland
>Mountains effect air temperature and the development of storms, as well sometimes "block" storms/weather from passing beyond them
What I'm saying is that this stuff is really only important if (you) think it is and want to pursue the info and apply it.

I always focus more on the stories I want to tell and the world I want to build.
If some retard screeches about how "mountains couldnt form there, the tectonic plates don't make sense!", I'd ignore it because who cares?
Its fantasy/sci fi/not earth and I think it looks cool.
Pic related
I don't care if Vvardenfell does or doesn't make sense, it awesome

>>97458276
>Where do you even go to find players and games now?
>>97416381

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>why yes, much of my world building is done on the fly due to improv with my players, how did you know?

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>>97423582
>Thread question: What would the implications of anti-magic rocks be in your setting?
Maybe not "anti magic" but magic crystals (name pending) are used as a sort of battery that work as naturally occurring mana/magic banks used to power primitive machines and weapons (setting is a medieval fantasy making leaps to a pseudo renaissance era)

These crystals work with the same premise as batteries in that, if you complete the circuit you can charge or withdraw mana from the crystal.
The major problem being that simply touching the crystal in the wrong way, (you) complete the circuit and you mana will be sapped from your body or worse (and more likely) forced into your body.
>Do you have little mana in your body (less than the crystal)?
The crystal will try to "balance out" and mana is forced into your body and you are essentially overloaded in spectacular fashion. I'm thinking of making a table akin to perils of the warp for what could happen
>Do you have a lot of mana (more than the crystal)?
Like above, the crystal will try to balance out and suck the mana from you at a rapid rate.
If you survive you'll be bed ridden for some time at best and crippled/unable to use magic anymore at worst.
>Do you have no mana at all?
Touch the crystals all you want, its perfectly safe

Magically inclined species/countries commonly hire or enslave races with little to no magical ability to handle the dangerous but newly necessary crystals.
And the more dangerous/untamed parts of the world have large, naturally occurring crystals loaded with mana that can be collected and sold for a high price leading to the adventurous types risking their life to find an undiscovered horde of them.

>>97458515
JO crystals

>>97457160
What are you blabbering about? Are you retarded? I guess that explains why you've been posting kys d*scord cancer for a decade.

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thinking about a crafting system for potions, tonics, pills, etc. and what key ingredient(s) would be needed
so far i have
troll blood - healing potion
phoenix feather - resurrection potion
mandrake root - poison
mermaid scales - underwater breathing

can anyone help me workshop? like what could be made from a griffin or a dragon? or some plant or creature/monster?

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>>97423582
I want my deities to reside either in a plane of chaos and a plane of order/law, with the mortal world sandwiched between them, and thus having different sphere of influence as a result of which plane they're tied to. I don't want to take too much from Warhammer though (even if I used the image I did just because of how recognizable it is), especially the idea of one side being inherently good or evil (I know in Warhammer the Chaos gods are supposed to represent both positive 'and' negative traits, but they're typically pretty evil, so I want to actually show the good and and bad in both sides in what domains each group gets, does that make sense?), and I need some help coming up with spheres for each side. I could do Magic for Chaos and Technology for Law for instance, though I was considering that each force would have their own kind of magic, and obviously Chaos would have a Trickster archetype and Law a Justice god, what else works?

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>>97460540
Sounds like what you're describing is the the seven sins vs the seven virtues
>In Christian history, the seven heavenly virtues combine the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude with the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
>The seven deadly sins function as a grouping of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. In the standard list, the seven deadly sins according to the Catholic Church are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth.
BasedBinkie (pic related) is making a setting based on that for the deities. Its a fun series and mostly waifu bait.

I'd go the same route as them and add your own spin.
Maybe you don't care about temperance and want a more direct "honor" as a godly virtue some deity upholds and embodies.
Or maybe you don't want even a hint of gooning and replace lust with obsession.

If you don't want anything to do with the seven virtues/sins then I'd take a look at what other religions see as good and bad.
I have no idea if Buddhism or Zoroastrianism have outright texts explaining "X is good, Y is bad" but its not a bad place to look.
Barring religious analogues, maybe look at more philosophy-esque lines of thought. shit maybe even nihilism has something to deify

>>97459997
That list seems pretty generic, and I don't mean that in a negative way necessarily.
It sounds like the setting you are working on has all the monsters and creatures you'd expect from a run of the mill fantasy setting AND monster parts are a direct analogue to what potion you can make with them.

If thats the case I'd open up the D&D monster manual (or just look up the monsters on some wiki) and pick out monsters and whatever potion fits them best.

I opened the manual to a random page and got Ogre, so here's my take:
>Ogre
>Legendary Stupidity: Few ogres can count to ten,
even with their fingers in front of them.
>Ogres believe what they are told and
are easy to fool or confuse, but they break things they
don't understand.
So my idea using my recommendation:
>The Frontal Lobe of an Ogre is a key component in Potions of Arcane Influence, where the drinker becomes susceptible to the influence and directions of others.
>Sometimes called a "poor man's love potion", they are banned in most civilized societies, but readily available to those that know where to look.
If we are going outright D&D rules, then I'd see this as a temporary reduction in willpower or disadvantage on wisdom saving throws (or whatever works for your setting)
I didn't expect to make arcane roofies, but thats the page I opened

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Is there any consensus or feedback on the concept of a setting without any humans at all (not counting classic fantasy races like elves, orcs, dwarves, etc.)? Can they be a fun creative writing challenge, or do they tend to be not as fun? Any common pitfalls? Things you enjoy seeing in them, or things you would expect out of a good nonhuman setting?

recently saw a tierlist of fantasy settings in one of these threads. can anyone send it? thanks in advance

>>97461311
Thats actually pretty close to what I'm working on. I'm an elf fan so my personal take on them is being split between several different countries, cultures, and sub races (along with other races as well).

As far as pitfalls, the only thing I can think of (that I am conscious of at least) is that I might make my elves too human, instead of being a different race with a different way of thinking/culture/so on.
I'm not saying elves (or any other race) in every setting should be blatantly inhuman, but too many series make elves " arrogant, pointy eared humans"
I don't know about you, but I've met plenty of players who only ever play humans in tabletop or video games. Its not a problem, but some people cannot get into character let alone take on a different specie's mentality.
I see the same thing happening with a setting, and I'm doing my best to not just make the elves in my setting "pretty humans" like so many other do.

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>>97461425
>my personal take on them is being split between several different countries, cultures, and sub races
Different anon here.
I think you've already made them all too human. Barring more extreme racial differences, i.e. elves vs dark elves, making a dozen scarcely different subraces blurs the traits that make elves stand out as a distinct race.
They may as well be humans with pointy ears, and themselves function as stand-ins for humans.

Being an elf fan is all well and good, but imo you should either make the differences more pronounced, or scrap some of the subraces and make them into a proper new race.
I wouldn't call myself an elf fan, but I think that making 9001 flavor of elf detracts from the elf race as a whole.
Again, imo, it's better to have several very distinct races, than to have a handful of them with dozens of subraces, bloodlines, and what have you.
Even mechanically this makes things easier, since an orc is an orc and elf is an elf, you don't need to tack on some extra modifiers or twist them into pretzels to fit some narrative.

Besides, nobody's stopping you from coming up with an original race, not found in lotr or some other fantasy setting.
If anything, this would enrich your setting, if done well that is. Either way, you do you anon, godspeed.

>>97459470
>thinks we can't read what he's said in the same thread
>thinks we're all one person
Kek, kys even

>>97461311
I think as a rule, you shouldn't remove humans from your setting unless you have a good reason. Examples of reasons include, but are not limited to:
>You don't want your audience associating demographic groups you are using with real world demographic groups and either coming in with incorrect expectations or trying to make shit political
>You want to explore alternate physiologies and the social and storytelling implications that want to go along with them
>You have/are an artist and they want to draw shit other than humans
>Your setting could not support human life
>Your setting is before or after human life
>Your setting is explicitly alien
>The backstory for your setting would not result in humans as you have written it (e.g. all the intelligent races are elementals created by the gods)
>humans would be too OP
>humans would be too weak
>Other races are your fetish

Whereas the main reason to not do it is
>One or more of your races is just humans with the serial number filed off, but you have no artist and no fetish involved

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>>97461168
its envisioned as system agnostic and mostly just for fun and brainstorming, so any sort of thing from myth or folklore is game.
the frontal lobe of a stupid monster is a good idea though, thanks.
the concept in general is taking the magical properties of creatures or plants and use those properties for yourself.
the creatures i already posted are because they are so well known and their function is so tied to them, so to me their ingredients makes sense in a satisfying way.
but i have a hard time figuring out what creature or plant has strength or flying etc. as like a unique property.
pegasus maybe? and then use a feather or a whole ass wing

and i do have a setting im loosely working on, which is rather generic, but im okay with that.

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>>97460540
spheres of chaos:
weather, animals, conflict/combat, fertility, earthquakes/eruptions, the sea, life, magic

spheres of order:
slavery, agriculture, medicine, knowledge, war, craftmanship/smithing, astrology, death

something like this?

>>97442182
Thumbnail made me think a whale had gone supersonic

>>97442182
momentum=/=teleportation
dont need to slow down what doesnt move
just turn off the teleporter lol

>>97461653
I understand what you're saying, and you're absolutely right, but you're also making quite a assumptions the setting I'm working on.
I'm not quite sure what you've envisioned, but it is certainly not anything in your post.

But again, I agree with the principles of what you're saying.

>>97463544
Off the top of my head, you could go with amplification of the potion effect based on the rarity/strength of the monster, of which can have multiple properties.
Something like: Both a Harpy Feather and a Pegasus Feather can be used for a potion of flight, but a pegasus feather creates a much stronger potion of flight.
That said, a Harpy feather could have different additional/potential properties the pegasus doesn't (i.e. because of a harpy's song, harpy feathers can also create a potion of confusion or something)
This also lets you a creature that is not necessarily known for that potion effect to amplify another.
>Pegsus Feather = Potion of Flight (50 points)
>Harpy Feather + Roc Feather = Potion of Flight (45 points)
You could also have rare monsters sought to make weaker potions stronger
>Harpy Feather + Prismatic Slime Core = Potion of Flight (60 Points)
or
>Harpy Feather + Prismatic Slime Core = Potion of Confusion (60 Points)
depending on how the potion is brewed

With all that said, you can take any monster that is able to fly by whatever means as a medium for a flying potion, just some weaker than others.
Something like
>You used a harpy feather for a potion, you can fly to the top of a second story building once
vs
>You used a Pegasus feather, you can fly to the next closest city
or whatever
As far as plants though, you might need to make your own fantasy plants for that, or look at the ingredient list from morrowind or some other RPG

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>>97464166
i see your points but i dont wanna get caught up in raw mechanics just yet, more like the theming, symbolism and myth/lore.
i dont think of flying when i think of harpies, my immediate vision is of a vicious woman faced flying monstrosity that hungers for human flesh, working off that, maybe its claws could be used for a sort of not-eldenring weapon glaze that makes you bleed or just simply hurts more.

a quick google skimming says "personification of storm-winds" and they are sort of wind spirits.
so maybe they can be used for a speed potion.
it could certainly also be flight, but i dont really like the idea of giving every creature varying ingredient levels of: flight, strength, magic, etc. although that could be a valid avenue to explore, atm im more inclined to the idea of each creature/plant offering a unique magical property.

and a roc isnt very remarkable beyond its gigantic size, the thing hunted goddamn elephants, so to me it doesnt have anything that stands out as all that magical or unique.

how about ectoplasm? the quintessential ghost slime, maybe it makes you incorporeal so can just phase through walls, or lets you see and speak

and yea myth/folklore doesnt give much consideration to the humble herbs.
off the top of my head i can only think of: mandrake, iduns apples, jacks beans and goddamn senzu beans.

right now im just aimlessly trawling through wiki articles of mythical creatures looking for inspiration.

>>97459997
How about as alternative to only a single key trait per ingredient, letting the same ingredient be used to extract pretty much any trait of the being its from, with the specific one decided by the brewer(maybe altering the difficulty and other ingredients depending on what you want), like a Dragon Fang for example could used for all kinds of potions like for strength, flight, magic resistance, duability, speed, fire immunity, fire breathing stuff like that.
With the trait extracted obviously varying in potency depending on the base creature, like a pegasus, griffin and harpy can all give you flight, but with a pegasus you get a type of flight best suited for long travels, while a griffing is faster but can only maintain high speed for quick bursts or maybe a harpy flight is only moderately fast but with a lot better maneuverbility and ease of maintainance.
Maybe even allow for total transformation potions that can be made with great difficulty and better additional ingredients.

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Re-watching Farscape and I realize that is a perfect example of a show that can be used as a campaign idea. make the Pilot analogue a DMPC and there you go.

I briefly ran a a "Stargate But In Eberron" PbP for a while and I'm kinda proud of it but the game fizzled as many do.

What're some other good shows/movies/books/comics that are good candidates for the "X but in Y" campaign hooks? or examples of the same that you ran / played in.

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>>97464936
seems a little too granular, and i like there being a key trait.
keep it simple stupid and all that.
i dont really see anything special about there being several different degrees of the same function.
trolls and phoenixes are famous for regeneration and rebirth respectively, so that makes those traits stand out a lot more in the vast menagerie of creatures fantasy have, and helps with selling the fantasy of it because they are so well established.

but given how vast it is perhaps i should consider making groupings of monsters that share a certain extractable trait (like flying, poisonous, strong, aquatic), or for the purposes of crafting give each creature a key word(s) and handle the rest of the process from the one making it, by skill lvl, dice roll, equipment, time, etc.

or maybe try to limit it to a select number of monsters each with a specific trait, so the whole thing doesnt become too crowded.
i dont feel a need, or want, to account for every creature in myth, and i think its okay some creatures are just useless reagents wise.

in a cooking recipe you can swap an ingredient like berries with no problem, but i feel a little of the magic is lost when any monster with wings can be used to make you fly, but maybe thats just me.

can you think of anything with a famous trait or something that stands out?
for example i took a look at the cockatrice, basilisk and medusa for the whole petrification thing and im just not sure which one to pick or just have it so the eyes of those things are interchangable, at the expense of it being something unique.

>>97465265
well for my desert/arabic area of my world i used disneys aladdins animated series and movies
which yea seems kinda weird and not all the episodes are all that useful but i got what i though was some good setting material and overarching adventure ideas.

that old show firefly was also pretty good.
so was battlestar galactica but lends itself more to a political intrigue kinda game.
big trouble in little china, rush 1 and 2 and shanghai noon and knights, these are kind of a shot from the hip but they might have something.

>>97465460
wait fuck i just realized i was thinking of babylon 5, not galactica

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Could the average medieval fantasy peasant beat the shit out of the average /tg/ browsing fa/tg/uy in a fight?

>>97423582
1. All the worst ones. Including furries.
2. Any government that unapologetically brutalizes violent protestors and criminals.
3. ...
4. Profit!

>>97457135
>'My wife says she isn't happy with me doing this each week so I'm going to have to drop out'
This is why I will never get married.

>>97467525
>guy who spent most of his life doing manual labor VS guy who sits on his ass all day doing nothing but lying about having friends to play pretend with on the internet.
yes.

>>97467809
Is that the reason or is it something more basic like you're gay or ugly or an undateable sperglord?

>>97467880
You're failing to account for the fact that the average medieval peasant was a 5'1" woman with malnutrition and several diseases and parasites.

>>97467884
It's 2026. Gay people can get married now.

>>97468127
Good point but anon was talking about a wife. Maybe he/you just need to marry a fag who also games.

>>97467809
The dude could've just said no to his wife, but since he didn't she won't respect him and if he isn't getting cucked already it's just a matter of time.

>>97467525
are we armed or is it a fist fight?

>>97467525
Easily, the average peasant had not a single gram of protein in his entire life.

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Any tips on how to make a setting spiritual side work more animistically than polytheistic without making the spirits just gods with a different name ?

>>97472281
Spirits are much smaller beings than gods, and thus much more prone to be something that the PCs (or monsters) can intimidate/defeat.

>>97472281
I like making spirits as ignorant about the mysteries in the world as people are. Like a Tree or River spirit cant tell you anything about the meaning of life, it cant tell you what will happen to you after death and it doesen't have any insights to who or what created the world either.
They're just magical beings tied to certain concept with powers relating to it. They also cant really inherently do anything with human worship either, maybe they can indirectly benefit from it, like a guardian spirit of a village enjoying food offerings or a more cunning spirit having humans followers act on their behalf.

>>97472281
Spirits are closer to demigods than an actual pantheon.
>>97472411
>>97472324
Stick to these and you'll be fine. Maybe give them really odd appearances and quirks too.

Has anyone done any work on writing systems?

>>97472586
>Spirits are closer to demigods than an actual pantheon
Always thought it was the other way around — gods are just really, really powerful spirits.

>>97472411
The biggest question is whether or not they can influence something related to their origin.
I.e. forest spirit fucking with sense of direction of people inside his forest, or at least making stuff grow within it's domain.
Worship could offer indirect benefits, such as furthering the power of the spirit through spreading it's domain.
In return said spirit could use it's influence to grant bountiful harvests, and so on like that.

Could basically be a bunch of genii loci, or tsukumogami for the weebs.
Spirits tied to concept, however, strike me as something orders of magnitude more powerful than some river spirit.
That is, if they have any influence on said concept, or things related to it.
Which would make them the closest thing to a proper deity.

I just need some suggestions. I'm working on Final Fantasy knockoff setting with magic crystals. I want one for each of the classical elements, but I can't think of a use for earth crystals. Fire, Water, and Wind are easy to think of uses for but when it comes to Earth all I can picture is farming, fertilizing fields. I can't think of any single use applications for an earth crystal.

>>97475173
What do the other crystals do?

>>97475160
>The biggest question is whether or not they can influence something related to their origin.
I.e. forest spirit fucking with sense of direction of people inside his forest, or at least making stuff grow within it's domain.
That seems like a perfectly reasonable thing for them to be able to do
>Worship could offer indirect benefits, such as furthering the power of the spirit through spreading it's domain.
In return said spirit could use it's influence to grant bountiful harvests, and so on like that.
I feel like making literal worship affect things like that does cross well into godhood.
Maybe have it be specific acts of worship tied to the thing the spirit is bound too? Like a Forest spirit probably cant do much with human faith alone, but could very well benefit from humans help maintain the forest, take care of the balance of hte wildlife, maybe even plant trees or a River Spirit would benefit it it was ensured that the water stayed clean free from pollution, that the number of fish isn't over hunted. generic respect for nature stuff like that. Though I could also see rituals/ceremonies meant to appease spirits with things like animal sacrifices or something like that.
>Spirits tied to concept, however, strike me as something orders of magnitude more powerful than some river spirit.
Not necessarily, it's really just about scale of their powers. Like the spirit doesen't have to represent the concept as a whole, but could just be a local offshot.
Like some art spirit(Muses maybe?) doesen't have to represent art as a whole on the global scale, it could just be the local representation of such, tied to how people in the area practise them, being a capable artists of its own and being able to grant inspiration to others to also make great art.

>>97475387
>That seems like a perfectly reasonable thing for them to be able to do
And that's how they tie into the world. They exist on their own in nature, messing with intruders, but no more evil than the nature around them.
When introduced to civilization, they can choose to find their place in it by using their influence on their thing.
>Maybe have it be specific acts of worship tied to the thing the spirit is bound to?
>rituals/ceremonies meant to appease spirits
I think the more amusing take on this would be the aforementioned "generic respect for nature stuff".
The so-called "rituals" could be something like yearly pilgrimage up and down the river, clearing blockages, removing dead stuff, and planting things on the riverbanks to combat erosion.
In case of woodland spirits, it's planting trees, cutting down deadwood, putting down feasts for the wildlife, or fighting fires that have grown too wild.
It'll get more interesting once spirits begin to form in/from the settlements, or even households. A town's spirit is essentially it's guardian, and is a reflection of his domain.

If we forgo the faith strengthening spirits by itself, as you seem to be keen on, expanding and maintaining the domain of a spirit would serve to slowly grow it's influence, tying them even more to the material world.
This, in turn, creates an interesting dynamic that drives local religions. Large-scale (monotheistic) religions mean few powerful gods, not myriads of down-to-earth spirits.
Local faiths, in contrast, give a great deal of cultural differences that can be a source of both the constant conflict, unexpected aid from the locals, or just a curious backdrop for the events (read: rife with plot hooks).
(cont.)

>>97475661
>spirit doesn't have to represent the concept as a whole, just a local offshoot
Depends on the concept, I guess. Life and death seem like a big deal, no matter how you slice it.
One way I can see to limit their powers without making it feel done for "balance reasons" is by having them come into the world much the same way other spirits do — local phenomena.
So, a life spirit could be tied to the local physician, or a midwife, subtly guiding their hands to help preserve or bring new life into the world.
Or it could rise from some avid gardener's patch behind his house, or the local farm with plenty of cattle.

I do see a chicken-egg problem here, however. Which one came first, the spirit of a thing that laid down the framework for the thing to exist in the material world, or did the material thing birthed it's spirit?
It can be one of the world's greatest mysteries, and certain types of players would love nothing more than to unravel it.

>>97475173
gonna try and brainstorm this.
earthquakes, landslide, metal, gold, armor, minerals, salt, gems, diamonds, corundum, petrification, immovability
there is also sandstorm and volcano but there is some overlap with wind and fire there

>>97424294
… you do it by accident?

How would you go about handling scifi religion? I want there to be a spiritual aspect to my setting but everything I'm coming up with just feels surface level and nothing's really clicking

Hello. I'm writing a cyoa game (sort of), and I want to know if an extensive worldbuilding is absolutely necessary for my world. It has a semi-medieval fantasy setting, but lately I've been getting stuck on the descriptions of places. Will it detract from the credibility of my story if I prioritise dialogue or characters instead? I'd love to hear your opinions.

>>97478867

Spiritual is a buzzword.

Most scifi religion IS shallow bullshit. Even the successful ones, say Dune - well regarded by nerds but honestly really shallow new age bullshit. And most of the good takes on religion are, quite obviously, "deconstructions", like Snowcrash. Mind you, I think the problem is more that we post-modern people (or whatever you call people after the radio) have quite some problems with religions, not really the scifi nerds per se.

What are you exactly looking for? Some inner mumbo-jumbo for some characters? A religion that actually unites the galaxy's common people?
What are the other ideas on the setting?

>>97423582
I'm a footfag, but also a nationalist. I don't know how to create a setting from this

>>97432756
2017 was 9 years ago, close enough to count as a decade.

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>>97479587

>>97475173
Since a lot of premodern buildings were heavily dirt, clay, or other earthworks, you could have it be used for construction - building houses, walls, towers, etc.

>>97479580
what a truly disgusting combination

>>97479505
You dont need to describe everything, but your descriptions should at least allude to there being a lot to know abou the world.
Like obviously Characters and stories are most important, but the setting needs to be at least a bit believable.

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>>97423982
Additional design to the roster.

>>97480512
Further, improv is your best bet in a cyoa game. Honestly, you will be making stuff up more than any level of preparation could help you. Work on "yes, and..." dialogue and have a sheet of character blanks with species, name, and a few small details to give them life and just pluck a few from time to time when your players want to meet a new person.

So I've DM'd before, but I think this is the first time I have my shit together. I've been watching a lot of gameplay and building a WorldAnvil Wiki, but I have put more eggs in the Improv basket and building inviting maps. From my experience, a good map and characters during down time can fill four hours easily. Any other major things to look out for?

>>97428639
dude, the half elves who have a knightly culture are called "bretons", there is a culture called the medes,
brother in christ they stole names hand over foot.
but it's so weird, who cares.

>>97481260
>>97423982
I honestly don't understand why i enjoy your grotesque fetish world. But I kinda do. Have you actually done anything game-related with other people, with it?

>>97482506
>Have you actually done anything game-related with other people, with it?
Sadly no, as I don't know anyone irl who gives a fuck about this sort of nerd shit. My /tg/ interests have always been solitary hobbies beyond the 40k matches I played in my youth at the gw store. I engage in this worldbuilding because I got nothing better to do and it is an creative outlet for me.

>>97482551
I wonder what it could be hacked into most-easily. I was thinking maybe Stars Without Number. Enough crunch but not too much.

Other than fossil fuels and sand, what shouldn't exist in a world that's only a few thousand years old? The gods put life on there manually, so ignore evolution.

>>97482616
Think about if civilization was advanced when created. Theoretically, I'd say oral traditions might be out, same as racism to a degree off the top of my head.

>>97482616
Lots of types of rock like limestone and sandstone. The planet is striking for its elevation changes that haven't yet been smoothed out by milions of years of mountains eroding and glacial action. Metal ores haven't concentrated and flowed because of water running over them for millions of years--they're just sorta scattered about and gemstones are rare as fuck. Straight up bedrock makes up most of the landscape where soils have not-yet developed. Probably volcanism run-wild because the planet hasn't reached equilibrium, yet. Beach sand might not be common but dust sure as hell is from volcanos, so world-wide duststorms might be common. Rivers are straight and fast, rushing and terrifying. Flooding is seasonal and scary. Climate hasn't reached equilibrium and the seasons are insanely different. Ecologies haven't reached a balance so fuck up one thing the wrong way and entire ecosystems can collapse in a heartbeat.

>>97482674
>Lots of types of rock like limestone and sandstone.
Sorry: lots of rock types like those are missing, is what I meant.

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>>97482589
I have minimal experience with actual tabletop rpg gaming so I don't really know. I have on occasion seen some anon on this board say that he is running a game in this setting using black crusade/rogue trader homebrew or something, but he has never been in direct contact with me so I genuinely have no clue about what he is doing even. I presume that he has just built some sort of campaign based around the scraps of lore around this setting that exist in the form of the artwork, some google docs and the original Freak Quest threads.

>>97482695
Do you have a full lore-dump, somewhere? My Sunday session has been cancelled. It'd be fun to tinker with, see if I can come up with something I like. We've talked plenty in these threads before, btw--I'll certainly run into you again if I end up producing something worth sharing.

I’ve built 15 or so worlds where the main premise has been women losing fundamental parts or sometimes even all of their agency and only an external force can give it back in part to them. Sometimes men also lose agency, but women losing agency is the prerequisite for all of these worlds I build.

Most of these worlds clock out about 500,000 words, with some of the bigger average ones clocking in at 2,000,000. The largest is at 7,000,000 words.

My therapist told me not to publish any of it, because it was therapeutic and a coping mechanism. He’s right, most of these worlds are just Earth divergents and would make terrible settings. Some others are pretty nice though.

Just wanted to share.

/blogpost

>>97482427
In an actual game context, the main question is why are you worldbuilding at all?

You always want minimum viable product worldbuilding. Enough for character creation, local context, and go. In D&D, this is gods, local politics and geography, etc. Enough to let the players know what's going on right now and fill in the rest later. You don't need to know about all the kingdoms, only that Wiel is a city state built on an old salt mine, with its own patron goddess, and under the technical sovereignty of the Kingdom of Sudetia and the Church of the Light of Reason. You also want to make sure the players can't just go off and ask Mommy and Daddy (the Level 25 characters) help them out.

Basic list of reasons to worldbuild:

1. You don't want to worry about "canon". In this case, it's just minimum viable product worldbuilding.

2. Theme. You want do a game with the vibe of Dark Souls, or Hyperlight Drifter, or Taimanin in the middle ages, or whatever. Basically, figure out how to adjust things to fit that setting (prefer adjustments to removals).

3. Metaplot. You want to be able to do some big reveal, like who killed the Sun, or that the gods are actually all corpses controlled by Hades. In this case, you should know the answer and question in advance, and try to tie it as a "big mystery" or "big reveal" into the player experience as much as possible.

4. Campaign structure, e.g. you want to do pirate ship stuff. In this case, create a setting that enables and justifies that stuff.

5. Just want to throw all your favorite stuff in. In this case, you should basically make a list of the stuff you want to dump in, and then try to make it fit together. Useful tricks include aesthetic marriages (this take on the Kenshi Skeletons also look like the Hyrule Guardians because you want both), multiple apocalypses, and dissonant cultures that have only met recently (so the best ideas of both haven't diffused).