>>46872600
>How do you handle existing/classic races in your setting? What homebrew races are unique to the setting?
My race only has humans and insane disfigured humans who play role of orcish or undead hordes. Classic races are useful, but you don't have to be stuck with them. In general, I'm not fond of non-humans because it usually results in racial profiling in leu of actual characterization
>What are elves like? I'm not sure how I want to handle them. On the one hand I'm kind of annoyed how for whatever reason elves seem to need a new subrace if they so much as change a zip code.
If you don't need elves, don't have elves. I sort of assume any immortal culture would not be able to normalize through population replacement, lending hand to weirdest excesses.
>To that end, I want one race of elves, with "high" and "wood" elves being different castes of the same race.

>Now. What of drow? Drow are badass, and if I include them I don't want "elves = good, drow = bad" I like moral ambiguity in my races. I'm rather fond of the following tropes when it comes to elves-
Drows live underground, right? Underground is renown for not having energy input from sun so drow would have to get it from surface. Having to raid just to survive. Grab everything and drag down to eat. Crops, cattle, humans. That's my idea how can they be evil and still make sense. Although this doesn't seem like a good place for civilization to flourish.

File: Map(2).jpg (570 KB, 1914x768)

570 KB JPG

Do you think I should make coastline more jagged or would it be acceptable to assume in-universe cartographer didn't have enough data?

>>46872861
>I'm not fond of non-humans because it usually results in racial profiling in leu of actual characterization
This is what I'm trying to avoid by limiting elves to just being elves. You have the near mythical highborn, and then the more common elves are vary divided culturally, mostly by how they're dealing with their status as a dying race. You have those who try their best to assimilate into human society where they're idolized/fetishized/marginalized. (Lots of human nobles fancy breeding with elves to ensure long-lived heirs, and I'm fond of the idea of elves being the result of Neanderthals who stumbled upon, and were transformed by, something magical. Explains half-elves and instills a bit of irony to their notorious racial pride) Then you have elves who are ultra traditionalist/nationalists who do the wild hunt/"let's take it back!" thing, then you have those who just say "fuck it, lets retreat into the deepest, darkest woods and try to rebuild our race."

>Although this doesn't seem like a good place for civilization to flourish.
I like to imagine drow limited to the underdark, deep primordial forests, and similar places that are too inhospitable or isolated for other races to bother with.

I imagine them as being defined by their pragmaticism, their current appearance being a result of their willingness to go off the deep end of demonic binding and alchemy, they excel at thriving where others would struggle to survive.

Still, it's all relative, you can only get so much blood from a rock, no matter how good a geosanguinist you may be, and so yes, they're known for raiding... among other things.

>Human settlement is attacked by elves
"They'll kill us all!"

>Human settlement is attacked by drow
"Don't let them take you alive!"

>>46873241
What I meant is that agriculture is what allowed civilization as we know it to rise. Stable produce of food for population to flourish and specialize. Hunting alone won't do it.

Currently my races include;
>Humans
>Furry halflings
>Lizard men
>Monkey men

Does this racial spread feel diverse and limited enough, or is it bland and boring?

Pick a nation/city/culture from your world. Got it? Explain what the average citizen does on a Sunday, or your world's version of a Sunday. Walk us through it.

>>46873474
>>Furry halflings
>>Monkey men
What's the difference exactly?

>>46873493
Mostly beats up his slaves, dreams of world domination and resents being citizen of the shittiest country in the world

File: cuteblushywander.jpg (21 KB, 468x418)

21 KB JPG

>tfw you commission your artist for a sketch
>tfw they get it to you in less than 24 hours
>tfw you then tell them what corrections need to be made
>tfw they say they'll have said corrections in a day or two

My artist is one hell of a miracle worker.

File: 1458756452193.jpg (163 KB, 946x726)

163 KB JPG

>have names for countries/nations/kingdoms
>no names for the duchies, counties and baronies
>mfw I'll have to make up generic names based on the environment of the regions hundreds of times
>then translate them into french, italian, german and a host of other languages(because fantasy europe. and because im unoriginal)

ffffffuck me in da butt.

>>46874470
I just decide how words should sound and string sounds together. I'm no Tolkien, but I mange.

>>46872948
Is there a reason it's not jagged? I do think it needs more jags because it looks kind of weird if it's not like that for some reason. I don't think it's reasonable that they don't have enough data either. I feel like the coasts should be the easiest things for them to chart.

>>46874708
It's not jagged because I'm clumsy with it. I will probably change it later.

>>46873629
>What's the difference exactly?

Gameplay wise or setting wise?

The monkey men are meant to be cousins of humans. Half of them chose to become humans hundreds of years ago when humans became a thing, and the other half stayed in their jungles and steppe lands. Due to their place in the world as the philosopher creations of the titans, they get older as they wiser, not from time, and turn to statues or disappear when they reach enlightenment.

The furry halflings, on the other hand, are a motley collection of little woodland creatures like foxes, ferrets, badgers, rabbits, skunks, squirrels, rats and so on. They like to stay isolated in their groves and burrows as they are commonly enslaved due go their small size.

>>46874849
Oh, this kind of furry.

>>46872600
>How do you handle existing/classic races in your setting?

Like about 3 other anons, I made the humanoid races a sub species of Beastmen. This makes it easier to clear up evolution and crossbreeding. They all have a common point of origin and share basic needs. The main thing is that the drow/dark elves migrated to the north part of the continent first and thrived in the west while the orcs came second and humans came last. The rest are still in the south.


>What homebrew races are unique to the setting?

After all the books I've read and forgotten I can't even begin to pretend there is such a thing as an original race in my setting.

>What are elves like?

They are a subspecies of Alwara(beastmen) and the ancient tribal/original version is similar in appearance to generic drow/dark elves.

The Xuande: Drow/dark elves, they are the most pacific culture on the continent. They have made their empire on the north-west and concentrate in management and maintenance. They have a religion-like culture where the Xuande are priest-sages ruling over their people and subjects.

The Ruwa: Normal elves, a lot of them split form the Xuande and made their own civilization east of the Jagged Peaks, the middle region of the north. They had several feudal kingdoms until humans slaves revolted(with orc goading) and overthrew them. They are thoroughly subjugated and are second-class citizens at best in the Gedan empire. Most of their culture has been lost but a few towns and villages in Sha'hara offer a peek into the past.

The Luwasati: High elves, a religious culture believing they are their goddess's chosen children to rule other races has made them xenophobic and racist. Though they make slaves of other elves, races and half-breeds they kept control by brutal opression and not educating them, unlike the Ruwa. They made their homeland in the north of the middle region.

File: Map (10).jpg (763 KB, 1024x768)

763 KB JPG

Offering my inkarnate map making skills for free. I know it isn't that special but i need something to do desu. Just tell me what you want and I'll try to make something. Might take some artistic freedoms though, like adding little islands and shit.

Pic related is something I made in an hour or two.

File: Map (6).jpg (787 KB, 1024x768)

787 KB JPG

>>46876134
dumping some other stuff i made too

File: Map (2).jpg (662 KB, 1024x768)

662 KB JPG

>>46876150

File: Map (11).jpg (593 KB, 1024x768)

593 KB JPG

>>46876157
And the last thing im working on, still very wip

>>46876160
>>46876157
>>46876150
>>46876134
This is amazing, keep up the good work.

>>46876520
Thanks senpai

So when people build a world, do you figure out where the sentient species originally evolved and work out their migration paths and nations and cities from there?

>>46872600
>How do you handle existing/classic races in your setting?
The Witchlands were originally entirely human-populated. Both goblins and orcs sailed in and gradually integrated into society. The goblins are short, energetic, red-skinned creatures. The males are considered hideous by human standards, but the females are noted to be extremely beautiful despite their short stature. Orc society does not allow its women to travel across the sea, meaning that humans have only laid eyes on the powerfully built, walrus-tusked males. Their skin can vary between black and navy blue or swamp green.

File: a magical realm.png (221 KB, 1134x1307)

221 KB PNG

>>46876587
A bottom up approach and would be easier in making a sensible or realistic setting. It just looks difficult to do because most people don't like to think through the basics or they don't feel they need to.

You can also do mid or top first but it would be more difficult to backtrack especially if you're working with a fixed map. If you backtrack you will need to be prepared to do massive reworking of other aspects to make it all fit. You can handwaive away a lot of inconsistencies but don't be surprised if people see blatant errors and call bullshit or ridicule the setting.

I encountered the problem after starting to design Sha'hara. I had outlined a psuedo-culture using the Zaharam-Chapelle-Parunas questionaire and worked out it's basic setting. I quickly realized that populating the setting with all the DnD races I can remember is going to be impossible. I then backtracked to limit the races to Humans, Elves, Orcs and Dragons. This made little sense since how could 4 different sentient races all evolve in one continent, one of which has 6 limbs. So I thought I'll just make them all beastmen except for the dragons(which evolved on another island). This vastly simplified evolution since I can focus on one area that churns out several subspecies and they emigrate from there. I needed to increase the land mass I was working on to give things enough room so a lot of reworking was involved. This gives me the added bonus of having catgirls and bunnybabes in tribal setting so it's all good.

File: 1433129687065.jpg (225 KB, 683x1160)

225 KB JPG

Does anyone else find it difficult worldbuilding and writing in a sci-fi setting?

I really want to run a Numenara or Eclipse Phase game, or homebrew my own sci-fi setting, but for me it's more difficult to imagine a high technology world than a fantasy one.

I'm a science pleb and more inclined towards the historical rather than the futuristic, but I'm still fascinated by science fiction

>>46876587
If you're making a world to play in? Hell no. You make the world you want to play in, and then you work out the backstory in order to make the world even better to play in. Starting at the beginning is for mental exercise, not for actually producing a world to fulfil a given objective.
>>46877417
There's more to sci-fi than technological speculation. You could focus on...everything else, from new societies to purely made-up technologies that act as a catalyst to make your world interesting. Like a race that uses blood harvesting to make them immortal.

However, I admit I'm in exactly the same way as you. That example was from my fantasy world.

>>46877016
Nigga, you had a fantastical setting. You did not need to jump through hoops worrying about evolution. Gods and magic and millions of other *interesting* and above all plot-hook related reasons could have made these races.

>>46877417
High technology is easy. Advanced culture is harder, but nobody would notice if you just have modern culture with future trapping.

>>46876134
Tell me about chili pepper island, what kind of stuff goes on there?

File: 1452205783693.png (134 KB, 323x241)

134 KB PNG

>>46877579
holy shit can't unsee

File: 1445448088077.png (83 KB, 260x246)

83 KB PNG

>>46877579
fugg how did I not see that myself

Does this slice of history lorewank contain more then the acceptable amount of autism?

Long story short.

>Human empire rises to power roughly 1,500 years ago.
>Glorious age of humanity as the species is untied through various diplomatic means or else wars of subjugation.
>Prosperous trade relations with various other races including the traditionally isolationist dwarves. (Think American foreign policy prior to WW1)
>Mistakes are made, tables flipped, mothers insulted, war breaks out between the human empire and the elves. (The elves consist of two distinct sub-species, if that's the correct term. Basically regular "high" elves and dark elves*)
>Long gruelling war of attrition between the empire and the elves, but in the end humanity gains the upper hand due to simply having greater numbers and being able to pump out more babies.
>Elves forced from the mainland.
>Long standing political rivalries and social unrest weakens the human empire.
>Finally after a few fears of infighting, a virulent disease outbreak that swiftly spreads throughout the empire causes it to collapse into numberless warring factions and petty kingdoms.
>Elves collectively breathe a sigh of relief and unclench their sphincters.
>Civil war in the empire continues.
>New elvish leadership cite dark elf degeneracy as the reason they got their perky asses handed to them in the war. (Think of the Jews during Hitler's rise to power)
>Dark elves expelled from the elvish homeland and are forced to settle in the unclaimed territory that lies on the border of the former empire.
>Several hundred years pass.
>Modern day, dark elves are super pissed about being kicked out now share cool but stable trade relations with the new fledgeling kingdoms that rose from the empires ashes.
>The imperial Bloodline lives on.

*Not going to lie, I only really included dark elves because they're my fetish and this is my magical realm.

>>46878375
Pretty cool, but I'd honestly set it right in the middle of the perpetually warring petty kingdom era. Make the darkies get kicked out at roughly the same time (the decline of the Human Empire could cause massive economic damage down the trade line until it hits Elfland, causing Germany-style megainflation).

"Oh shit nigger grab the sword and run for the burg" is more interesting than "shit's cooling down and everyone's getting comfy", IMO.

>>46878375
Add roving mercenary bands profiting from the unrest and slavers.

>>46878375
>dark elf degeneracy
The Ein'shai know too much. Shut it down.

>>46878414
I like that idea.

File: leonard.jpg (47 KB, 612x344)

47 KB JPG

>>46877489

The thing is I specifically did not want to MAGIC everything. Under the hood the setting is actually rather mundane with the addition of a "magic" quantum sub-particle. In a game it's intended to let players and GMs inject actual magic if they want or have the world progress in a logical manner. As a story setting I wanted a good foundation to build on and blow up if needed.

>>46878484
If anybody are the Jews in all this then it's the Dwarves who profited by selling weapons to both sides while remaining "neutral" throughout.

Some even say that the plague that ravaged the human lands was of dwarvish doing, because it was beginning to become clear that humanity was going to win and enforce peace by force of arms. That would have been bad for business since nations at peace don't buy as many weapons. Better to have countless petty kings and dukes fighting amongst themselves and practically throwing money at you for newest and most destructive weapons you can come up with than to have neighbors that are at peace, working the land with a growing economy that could one day threaten your own.

>SmirkingDwarvishMerchant.jpg

>>46878588
I don't get why you want to intentionally limit the fantastical potential of your world. If an ancient group of sorcerers desperately made a race out of the entrails of their brethren in order to fight off the primordial demons that were stalking him, then you have the origin of a kind of magic (if you want that), you have oppositions with Indian style purity vs. corruption, you could have curses, you could have artefacts from their conception along with a dungeon in the form of the laboratory in which they worked, you have literally anything I can't think of right now.

Whereas with evolution, you just have "it happened because the world's just like our own".

>>46878624
>Some even say that the plague that ravaged the human lands was of dwarvish doing, because it was beginning to become clear that humanity was going to win and enforce peace by force of arms.
Don't do this. If the dwarves are that powerful, what the hell's the point?

Unless you literally mean "some say", in which case it's pretty cool.

Mine is a scifi setting, so i dont worry about the typical races too much.

"Elves" could be equivalent to the "designer humans" made through genetic alteration. They are litterally humans but better, each and every one a 11/10 athletic supermodel. Im working on a reasonable drawback to give them as a group, however, just to make things more interesting, but nothing has come to mind yet. Some subraces exist based on varying cultral perceptions of perfection and envirnmental demands.

I need a ritual that can confirm the legitimacy of one's blood

>>46879495
That's called a paternity test. Dark elves are allergic to them.

>>46879560
Alright, now make it magic

>>46878784
You don't need to give them a drawback. Depending on the setting and the kind of games you're running, their benefits might be the disadvantages you want.

If you run a seedy game of slumlords and cartels, then an "elf" who's fallen so low as to sell their services to the scum that live in the underhives is no going to get much support from their house. And they'll definitely get shat on for being a superrich prick fallen down to the prole's level.

>>46878652
I don't have just evolution.

I have a subatomic particle that is affected by a conscious coherent sentient mind. This is the building block of magic in my setting. This particle can be influenced by a disciplined mind to manipulate other particles and their states and can be affected in turn. Limiting factor is minds need to be sustained and energy expenditure can be quite expensive. This particle doesn't just exist on one planet, it exists in the entire universe.

The evolution on this particular planet thus far have produced creatures able to manipulate this particle. I can have anything magical I want. The only true difference is the source of magic in my setting can be considered mundane instead of being fantastic for fantastic's sake.

There's also something to be said for working within limitations, foremost example in my head are Star Trek's Transporters.

File: Rivers Do Not Work That Way.png (243 KB, 1053x521)

243 KB PNG

>>46872948
Rivers join together as they flow down to the sea, not split up. The only exception is when they near the ocean and are really slow, where they'll form deltas (the ruins of Reesa area on your map looks like a reasonable delta).

>>46880288
The one to East was also meant to be delta of a sort, but I took it too far.

Warped land is unnaturally elevated formation and river just kinda run around it.

As for the rest, they can reasonably split like this, no? They are far enough from sea, landscape can go down like this. Especially the one that run out of the lake.

>>46872600
As a first-time DM, where is the best place to start when I'm creating a setting?

>>46880843
Having every river do it is extremely unlikely. You might get one river that does that in an entire geographical area, and is generally temporary (exists during floods and such). Say you have two rivers that form out of a lake, one to the east and one to the west. At first, lets say they both let out an equal amount of water, so they erode their channels roughly as fast. However, the prevailing here winds on average push more water towards the east side of the lake, so the east side starts putting more water out. The east side river will grow faster than the west side river, and relatively quickly will be starting to drain the average lake level. This will start to lower the amount of water going into the west channel, while the same amount of water keeps going out the east channel (As it's making itself deeper at the same rate the lake is dropping). This will result in the west river drying up in a few hundred years, and now that there's an established outflow for the lake it's very unlikely that another outflow could form (and it wouldn't last long). A big flood might revive the old west river for a day or two, but after that the water level returns to normal and the east river again dominates. Having a side river from from an existing river instead of a lake is even more unlikely.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_bifurcation

Note how there's only four in the entire world that split to the degree your rivers split here. Four out of the thousands that exist on earth.

>>46881145
Makes sense. My entire river system was deltas gone wild anyway, redrawing them should be easy.

>>46881095
Elements your group is interested in.

Which type of claimant would have a better claim to the throne, heir to a deposed house that once ruled or illegitimate bastard trying to depose his legitimate ruling half brother?

>>46881354
Whoever is more useful to the influential powers. Both would probably rally rival factions to support their claims.

>>46876134
Can I literally just request something random so I can work with it?

>>46881373
Historically, have either types been successful in claiming the position they wanted?

>>46881476
Sure, any map you want and I'll see what I can do for you. Might take some time though.

File: IMG_1504.jpg (1.01 MB, 2592x1944)

1.01 MB JPG

>>46881476
do my map please sempai

>>46881610
Sure, I'll start working on it in about half an hour. Are those colored parts mountain ranges? and that circle in the middle, is that a desert?

>>46881651
>Are those colored parts mountain ranges?

Yes. and the little lines are the gaps for passways

>that circle in the middle, is that a desert?
Indeed

thanks amigo

File: Map(4).jpg (991 KB, 1024x768)

991 KB JPG

I think I fixed rivers that didn't have supernatural excuse. Although I do feel my one river that isn't coming down from the mountains has source awkwardly close to another river.

I really need to add some hills or something. The map feels incredibly flat to me now when I think about it.

>>46881503
Probably. There have been so many power grabs throughout history that odds are good that there's been one successfully made by anyone you can describe.

Has there been a successful power grab by a bald second-cousin of the king with eczema and a fondness for birds? Probably.

File: 002.png (1.16 MB, 7014x5100)

1.16 MB PNG

Drew some outlines of mountain ranges after figuring out tectonic plates. How're things looking so far, /tg/?

>>46872600
>How do you handle existing/classic races in your setting?
So, I really don't have any normal sentient races other then humans and marrow currently residing in my setting (possibly a human-wolf hybrid race in the southern continent (off map)).

>>46881731
Looks much better. Yeah, just having mountains and no hills marked can make a map look pretty flat. A bunch of hills (or maybe even a hotspot volcano or two) by that river source you're concerned about would make it look more natural, and putting them elsewhere will break up the flatness.

>>46881503
Look up Preudo-Dimitriis from Russia. Those guys claimed to be lost princes all grown up based on nothing and people rallied for them. Stepan Razin, I think pulled the same shit.

If peasants are discontent, and you are charismatic and populist enough, you can sell them idea that they are unhappy because their monarch is an impostor.

As for Bastards? I don't know if any actually managed to rally support based on dead king shagging their mum.

>>46881941
Too mad inkarnate doesn't have hill tool.

>>46880018
Your magic is mundane for mundanity's sake. You could have it be fantastical for the campaign's sake, the player's sake, the story's sake -- whatever you're making the world for's sake.

It really seems like you're sacrificing your setting for the sake of realism, when the whole point is that your setting (or rather, what your setting services) comes first.

There's nothing to be said about working within limitations, from a world perspective. Your world *is* the limitation.

>>46881095
On one hand your setting must be teleological. You do know what you want from your story and your setting must support this.
However, personally, I always disliked experiencing with setting that I would describe as "rootless". I want to be able to comprehend how did current state of affair came to be. Where did this and that come from? The world was born overnight from authorial mandate, but there's nothing better to take you out of it then noticing it.

>>46882211
Not just that, but the past of the setting can be used to further support what you want out of it. Leaving it as a vague otherland can be a waste.

File: Map (12).jpg (530 KB, 1024x768)

530 KB JPG

>>46881678
Current rough outlines. As you can prolly see, I'm not really good with proportions, but is this okay for you?

>>46882704
Mutant bird/10

File: Untitled.png (1.21 MB, 1024x768)

1.21 MB PNG

>>46882726
looks more like a vomiting rabbit to me desu

File: rfHwVTH.png (1.53 MB, 1022x762)

1.53 MB PNG

>>46881983
I've seen some that use smaller mountains (see pic) or faded lines (http://imgur.com/milH3oP) for hills

This might also help with the coastline thing you mentioned earlier:
http://imgur.com/gallery/fIm72/new

I'm afraid I've never messed with inkarnate myself, so I can't offer any direct advice on it.

>>46882869
>This might also help with the coastline thing you mentioned earlier:
Looks like the guy is biting off shores with substraction tool. I already did it.

>>46882858
I interpreted South-Western corner as beak.

>>46882999
>Looks like the guy is biting off shores with substraction tool. I already did it.
I'm unobservant and missed that you changed the coastlines between >>46872948 and >>46881731. Sorry.

>>46882704
What kind of tools are you using to create these maps? They're really good. Have you been doing maps for a while now?

>>46882037
>Your magic is mundane for mundanity's sake.

In a way, yes. I wanted a world I could put fantasy elements in but didn't want to use traditional fantastic reasoning.

However the post I was responding to before is in regards to

> intentionally limit the fantastical potential of your world

which I don't since the setting can still use practically any magical concept. I could also add another anon's "sentient shade of blue" if I wanted. It's really just a matter of application.

>Your world *is* the limitation.

The setting in general? Well, yes, it is a enclosed framework after all. The setting is being built to serve my needs, which is mainly to have an internally consistent world.

>>46876160
Japan?

File: Map (13).jpg (535 KB, 1024x768)

535 KB JPG

>>46883380
Just inkarnate. First I just smear some land wherever I want it, then i use some really rough subtractions and additions, then I trace everything I want with about a size 8 subtraction tool, to make the coasts somewhat rougher (finishing of this was pictured in >>46882704), and then the biggest one comes, which is actual coastlines, which is tracing with a size three substraction tool and roughing it up a bit (finished result of this can be seen in the northwestern part of this map). After that, mountains, rivers, biomes, locations and eventually roads and/or borders, but I'm really terrible at borders.

I've been making maps for quite a while now, though not really intensively. I'm proud to say I've never followed a tutorial, though I have incorporated some /tg/ tips.

>>46883490
Nope, just some random stuff I made up by using the tactic I described above.

>>46876150
Holy fuck those coast lines. Gj anon

>>46883520
requester here.

Damn son that's turning out as a fine map.

Thank you again!

>>46883520
Credit where credit is due, nice job mi negro

>>46882869
I found that cave tool looks like a hill. Sort of. Very brown kind of hill.

File: Map (14).jpg (545 KB, 1024x768)

545 KB JPG

>>46883761
Glad to see you like it, I'll definitely get the coastlines and mountains done tonight, and i'll get some rudimentary biomes in too, but if you want locations+rivers you're gonna have to wait till tomorrow im affraid

>>46884025
Gracias mi negro

File: Map(5).jpg (1.03 MB, 1024x768)

1.03 MB JPG

Added some more jaggedness, names some bodies of water (Did you know nomads have no sense of anatomy?)

Now the question I ask myself is
Shouldn't someone occupy the bank opposite Reesa-Basadae securing Kais-Fradoth path?

>>46872600
>How do you handle existing/classic races in your setting?
I typically prefer humans-only setting. However, when I do try to include the classics I try to make them different enough to be worth including, but not so different that there's no reason to call them classic races.
That being said, I do have a setting in which I play the races straight. Or, rather, I turned their classic traits up to 11.
>What homebrew races are unique to the setting?
I don't make completely unique races. I've tried, but they've always ended up too gimmicky.

File: Map (15).jpg (560 KB, 1024x768)

560 KB JPG

Coastlines done, moving on to mountains now.

File: dwarvenscript.png (430 KB, 827x401)

430 KB PNG

>>46872600
Which of these scripts does /tg/ prefer for a dwarven.

Example A:

File: IMG_20160202_100044.jpg (284 KB, 870x2361)

284 KB JPG

>>46884944
or B (I have few examples of longer texts in B)

>>46884944
>>46884977
B.

File: Wadja map.png (68 KB, 1600x1600)

68 KB PNG

My shitty map.

>>46884977
Vertical one is better, if they're standard dorfs. If you imagine them writing by chiseling into stone (even if they don't do it that way now, maybe they did in the past), it's slightly easier to make straight lines going down than going to the side.

>>46885043
>The Savage Land
>The Enlightened Land
This is some Buddhist Pilgrim's Progress

>>46885049
Well, A is designed to be scribed onto standardized clay tablets with an ash-based ink, while B is intended to be made with a single-size chisel on pretty much any material.

File: Map (16).jpg (695 KB, 1024x768)

695 KB JPG

>>46884791
Mountains and biomes added too. That's going to be all for tonight, hope you can use it! If anything is not to your liking, please say so and I can fix it tomorrow.

>>46884977
I really like this one, has a more original feeling to it. Good work with both of them though

>>46885043
That fucking strip of land near the singing coves is the kind of place that should have its own name.

Your mountains are all over the place.

Coastlines are very nice.

The southern sea probably deserves a name more than the northern one, considering there's nothing up there.

>>46885125
Consider natural barriers other than mountains

>>46885101
Well that's a bit of a wrinkle, then. Could I see the larger sample of B?

>B is intended to be made with a single-size chisel on pretty much any material
I know what you mean, but now I've got an image in my head of a frustrated dwarf trying to chisel paper.

>>46885043
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the Ferris Mines produce mostly iron.

>>46885309
Wrong, they produce ferris wheels

File: IMG_20160324_114828791.jpg (2.18 MB, 2340x4160)

2.18 MB JPG

>>46885204
Dwarves do not have trees, and so do not have paper or anything wooden.

The dwarves in my setting (saying "in my setting" always makes me feel like a teenage nerd-primadonna) just beat stones to bits using hand chisels and hand-hammers that are basically just plates strapped to the meat on the outer side of their hand under their pinky. They're like crab people because they have one hand thats use for grabbin and on thats used for smashin, not naturally but from overuse. Hows that for an image?

Anyway, here's a slightly longer example of an oath, specifically a marriage oath.

>>46872600
Yeah, I wish I could help but right now I'm just using Ravenloft modified to be a bit less NPC centric.

>>46885327
>(saying "in my setting" always makes me feel like a teenage nerd-primadonna)
IKTFB. What I usually do is just drop the "in my setting" once it's established that I'm talking about my setting. It at least feels less smug.

If you're married to that chisel-hand idea, then probably B, since it'd make sense for their writing system to include the thing that shapes their very body.

>>46885515
asking if Im married to it implies you dont like crabdorfs. Got a problem with crabdorfs?

>>46885537
Not really. But it that's what they're gonna be, then it seems like the question's already answered.

File: Vensi 1.jpg (327 KB, 720x528)

327 KB JPG

>>46872600
>How do you handle existing/classic races in your setting?
I've cut down the races to just Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes (as a sterile halfling-dwarf crossbreed), Orcs, and Kobolds. Most of them only have one subrace, though a few have two. I feel that having too many of them, and a thousand subraces of each, just makes the setting feel too crowded and arbitrary.

>What homebrew races are unique to the setting?
The Vensi are made of flexible volcanic rock that's solidified around magic-filled crystals. They're not very common in most places, since they're only naturally born as a side effect of volcanic eruptions. A small number are still molten when born, and while these "firehearts" lack the durable skin of their more solid brethren, they are more flexible and have an innate command over fire magic. While normal Vensi are accepted in most cities, firehearts are a walking fire hazard (generally being hot enough to boil water) and are feared in most places.

>>46885805
Are Vensi sentient at birth, or do they have to be raised?

>>46874470
Half the fiefs would probably have the name of the most important city around, that will save you a lot of trouble. Keep the snowflake names for the fiefs with a rich history and the geographic names for less populated areas.

>>46884977
>>46884944
Look up "boustrophedon" writing paths. Works well with option A type writing.

>>46885125
goddamn that's beautiful.

thank you!

>>46886267
Ah, Im familiar with Boustrophedon. Not a bad idea. The linebreaks that are there are just the end of phrases. That would certainly add an extra layer of intrigue.

>>46886031
They're fully grown, but don't have any memories or prior knowledge save an understanding of Ignan (but not the ability to speak it). The first few years of their life they soak up knowledge like a sponge, and about age 4 are generally about the knowledge level of a teenager. After that they stop learning so fast. Sometimes an eruption will result in some wild Vensi being made, who never make contact with people.

There's also a way for those skilled with flame magics to melt some rocks and imbue crystals with the needed magic, then form them into a vensi by themselves. This will produce a vensi with that understands the language of the one that created them (but again, can't speak it). This is also how vensi communities generally reproduce, since they have no other reliable way of making new vensi.

>>46886453
Interesting. Ive been looking for an origin for my own wandering brimstone people, and now I have one.

Are the crystals naturally occurring or are they the remains of some mythic event?

>>46886507
Nobody's sure on the natural vensi. The ones for created vensi are either taken from the remains of dead vensi or made using a very complex and involved alchemy process. Those made from the crystals of dead vensi will occasionally have strange results, such as remembering something that happened well before they were born, or knowing skills they have no way of knowing.

Vensi naturally die when their still-molten core (within which the crystals float about) eventually solidifies, which happens around 100 years after they're born. It's POSSIBLE to invigorate the core of a vensi and prolong their life, but doing so messes up their memories and can even reduce them to a vegetable state, so it's generally seen as taboo. Vensi living in hotter climates tend to live longer than vensi in colder climates, since they expend less heat. This also ties into how they sleep: when a Vensi sleeps, their core warms up the rest of their body, making it flexible enough to move. As they go through the day, they gradually cool off. The longer they go without sleep, the stiffer they get. Going a day without sleep isn't so bad, but after that they start getting stiffer and stiffer till they can't move at all.

File: Fearsome Gods Map.png (105 KB, 1600x1600)

105 KB PNG

>>46885076
>>46885140
>>46885309
>>46885323

Updated.

>>46886868
Forgot to add: the Vensi themselves believe the crystals of the natural ones are made from fragments of the mind of the earth god, who is stuck in an eternal slumber.

>>46887008
Who's Jenny, anon? Is she cuuuute?

Original idea was:

>There was a rich and powerful empire. It covers the entire world.
>It was ruled by a Godking and his children.
>Suddenly the Godking disappears. His children fighting for the throne.
>In the following war, much of the world is destroyed.
>Most mortals also die.
>The world will be destroyed if the war continues.
>The surviving gods conclude a peace treaty (a few thousand years).
>The gods repair the world

Now I'm dissatisfied. I think the peace treaty is too fragile. One idea would be that the gods could no longer enter the world (Similar to Nuclear disarmament). But why should the gods approve that?

>>46887244
It should be an armistice signed because the few of the godking's remaining children recognize that each can kill the other but not any allied, so rather than wrack their brains over alliances they just call it an even split.

Better yet have the strongest of the godking's sons only able to be overpowered by the 3 next strongest but still make it a 4-way split of ultimate paranoia.

File: 6a00e0099229e8883301bb08b(...).png (594 KB, 580x365)

594 KB PNG

>>46872600
>How do you handle existing/classic races in your setting?
Try to integrate them all, except gnomes because we never liked gnomes.

>What homebrew races are unique to the setting?
Umók, scytherel, rachta, lilim.

>What are elves like?
'wood' and 'high' are the very same, and based on french culture. THE race which developed magic out from folklore spells and hocus-pocus, and the major aplication is shaping and manipulating the flora.

>It's hard to discern between 'urban' and 'rural' in Sycamore. Everything was transformed by centuries of elven culture. The great cities are at the treetops of giant fig-trees; glass-sap is the refining of vegetable products into a unique sophistication; beatiful meadows hide a meticulous agroforestry; flower shops compete with hybrids unexistent in nature; farms consist of masonry walls covered with orchards, mixing defensive labyrinth and greenhouse; plantations where bushes are sculpted as chairs; the result is a nature omnipresent and almost artificial, without wildness or randomness.

>>46887325
>Umók, scytherel, rachta, lilim.
What, what, what, and what?

File: donkey silly.jpg (1.98 MB, 2592x1944)

1.98 MB JPG

>>46887047

It's named for all the donkeys, especially the pregnant females that swarm the coasts near the sea in spring.

>>46887277
That situation reminds me of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_game

In what kind of climate might one find a fungal forest? Logic dictates hot and humid, but that forms jungles, not fungus. What is the climatological difference between jungle and fungal forest?

File: 6897f13d01b47bd396b73b4cf(...).jpg (20 KB, 248x458)

20 KB JPG

>>46887365
Umók are a sort of reptilian race with tail instead of legs, with the physical traits one would expect from crocodiles. Great sailors and pirates, always chewing on something like wood to wear down the pointy bits of their beaks.

Scytherel are a plant-people race. wooden bones, seed-like internal organs, sap blood etc.

Rachta are tall six-limbed biped insetoids. Big upper arms for strentgh and fighting, smaller lower arms for fine handling and crafting.

Lilim are half-demons. Nefilim were the demons which invaded the world. One of them, Lilith, tried to create half-demons, but they sided with people, not demons.

>>46887669
Underground
Or, alternatively, underground jungle

>>46884977
I like this one, it is like runic Ogham.

>>46887669
at the bottom of a forest thats on a scale so large its not recognizable as one, i.e. in passes of a mountain range where the mountains are trees and what appears to be constant cloud cover is actually the canopy. The dead branches that fall feed the fungal forest, along with the roots from the huge mountain trees.

Done.

>>46889760
>in passes of a mountain range where the mountains are trees
What?

>>46890723
do I have to draw it for you? The mountains are actually the bases of giant trees that stretch so high the canopy appears to be an unmoving sheet of clouds. The fungal forest is fed by the massive fallen branches, and nothing will grow there for lack of sun.

File: Bronze age diplomatic meeting.jpg (365 KB, 1013x802)

365 KB JPG

How do I get people/players interested in shit that isn't just iron age/medieval style fantasy?

I ask because I'm working on a bronze age/mytholigcal style world that I quite enjoy, but I feel like people aren't going to care as much because its less generic in terms of its metallurgy and general tech level. What do?

>>46892261
Copper/Bronze are always seen as weak metals in fantasy, compared to steel/mythril/adamantite/etc.
Likewise, that low of a technology level is kinda boring.

>>46892261
Stop playing with a bunch of autist who demand your setting be 100% historically accurate and will only play Iron Age settings. If metallurgy and tech level is a problem you can easily just cast your setting as a bronze age aesthetic with medieval tech levels. Or if you want to ignore all that, just make a Bronze Age setting and be done with it. If they can't get into it because they can't use "muh iron swords" then find new people to play with

>>46881927
bumping for anything

>>46887012
I like it.

What is a tribal society actually like? How does it differ from feudalism?

>>46893035
Think hippie commune, except less "Dude Weed" and anti-establishment. Everyone participates, else they don't eat.

File: Sea Raiders Bronze Age.jpg (176 KB, 502x708)

176 KB JPG

>>46892389
>Likewise, that low of a technology level is kinda boring.

Why? It's almost no different from a medieval setting. The only difference would be lack of crossbows really.

>>46892524

This is true, but its also from my own personal bias as well. When I imagine warrirors in my head its hard to imagine them as anything but clad out in iron armor and weapons, when I should be thinking of cool and crazy bronze designs.

>>46886258
>would probably have the name of the most important city around
Yes, but then you also have to figure out what those cities gained their name from, which most of the time will be some geographical landmark, the name of the person who founded the town or some king who decided to rename it after himself, or the name of the people who inhabited or are still inhabiting the area, and if the latter you also have to figure out what their name means.

File: God Warrior.jpg (126 KB, 1000x563)

126 KB JPG

So I'm trying to nail down some aspects of my cosmology.
>Gods all exist in the pre-mortal times
>They get arguing about something, start fighting
>One Warrior God fucking slays almost all of them except for his waifus, which become his moons later
>He wants to go to bed after all that but is cold, so he takes all the demons and puts them in a ball and then the demons all get mad and lite on fire, so then God goes to sleep.

Originally, the wild warrior God kills all of the other Gods, but now I'm thinking about making it a little more abstract.
>The Warrior God didn't realize many of his enemy Gods are still alive.
>Some of them turned invisible or hid
>Some of them pretended to be dead while stuck on his spear, then they got up once he went to sleep
>Some of them used magic to come back to life or vanish until he went to sleep
>These Gods now live on the first God's planet surface in the wild places far away from humans.

The question is, is this a good way to set up extremely dangerous and crazy far-away lands for high level adventurers?

>>46893426
this, pretty much.

power didnt so much rest in who owned land, but rather in who held... power. Or held the "right" to rule(which most likely have been established by their ancestors via force)

>>46872600
Easiest way to do high and dark and wood and such without being stuck with the tropes often assosiciated withthem is to change the name of the race / culture.

Ie. Instead of woodelves and high elves you have the avertyr, who make their homes in the woodlands, and the yunyai a race of enlightened scholars and poets. The yunyai have tracked their history to before the dawn of man and are distant cousins of the acertyr. Or the avertyr still sing songs of when the yunyai and they were of the same people before X caused them to take up the forest as their homeland. Etc etc.

So by changing the name and just creating abit of backstory for yhe culture the reader can identify what is usually linked to cultures like that in fantasy hut you can just introduce whatever traits you want.

>>46894752
Maybe add something about keeping some other warrior Gods to fight later, sort of like letting the weaker ones mature like a fine wine.

>>46894974

Not exactly what I had in mind, but I like it.

Tell me, do you think it makes sense to have all the Gods hiding on the setting's main planet? Since the humans are the creations of the warrior/volcano god mentioned before, then it makes sense they'd avoid them most of the time because they would be like his children, and they wouldn't want to deal with them?

>>46895463
Understandable, maybe have a few be more belligerent Gods. Either a few of the Gods themselves try to attack humans or have them create their own races to fight them, sort of a "My dad could beat up your dad" mentality causing wars in the past. That could even give the other races more reason to have conflicts between them. Dwarves were made by one trying build better weapons to fight him, Orks were made to be physically stronger in hopes to overpower them, Etc.

You could even have some Gods trying gain favor with the War God by befriending the humans. Even if the war God would still kill them outright, have one or two delude themselves into being the only exception. You could even lead into more inter-god conflict with that if wanted.

I'd say that as long as you don't have every God being completely spineless it should be fine. It's ok if they all fear him, but have different gods use that fear differently

>>46895790

Once again, I wasn't expecting these ideas but I really like them. You're great for bouncing ideas off of.

The only problem with this so far is that I sort of wanted the humans in the setting to be created from monkey men, to make the monkey men seem like the older cousins of humans, the people that still live in the jungles and hilltops humans are afraid to return to. But if each race is created by a competitor God, then how could that be? Unless the monkeys were there first, which I also like the idea of?

>>46892261
Get better players. You cannot force people to care, you can only turn interest into investment.

>>46892389
>Bronze age
>low technology
Its not low, its just different, they built some crazy shit in the bronze age! Lurk/read more!

>>46872600
I've mostly been working around naming twists upon the existing races, before I move on to creating my own home brewed races.

In my setting, Humans are actually pretty shit tier. Barely reached bronze-age levels of technology, exist in either small barbaric tribes or fledging state-kingdoms, most settlements would be lucky to have stable walls. Inherently curious to learn and quick to adapt.

Dwarves have fallen as a result of an ancient civil war, most of the cutest survivors now live on the surface, possess greater technology then Humans, but haven't managed to properly grasp gunpowder yet. Highly paranoid and distrustful of outsiders, even from Dwarves of other settlements.

Dwarves who stayed underground have devolved into sickly, depraved monsters, fulfill the role of Goblins in my setting. Blind due to centuries of living in darkness, and rely on smell and hearing. Usually have nothing but rocks, sticks, and scraps of leather for clothing. Weak due to malnourishment and the unhealthy conditions within the caverns, usually do not live for long periods of time, but are kept afloat due to the fact they breed like rabbits.

Orcs are nomadic, generally band together into tribes or packs of hunter-gatherers. Not inherently evil, but can seen as such due to their necessity to raid Human or Surface-Dwarf settlements during times of famine. Heavily shamanistic.

Elves have only just been recently introduced into my world, have a pre-existing civilization across the seas from the continent my sessions would take place on. Technology is pre-industrial, has interest in the new continent for resources, and is not hesitating to remove the other native races. Although being used as a primarily antagonistic presence in the setting, I wouldn't be opposed to having my players play as one. They'd have better gear, but would suffer from large amounts of animosity and distrust from virtually everyone else, limiting their usefulness in diplomatic situations.

>I like dualistic religions.
>I don't like white and black morality

Help.

bump

File: 000h6kc4.jpg (137 KB, 600x456)

137 KB JPG

How should I expand on Magitech, /wbg/?
Complex devices involve a specialized arcane crystal, wrapped in gold wire, that is connected to the individual components of the device. Like pic related, except you'd find it in a magic-powered gun. The gemstone contains a bound Elemental, relative to what you want the device to do
I'm not going to go into specifics, but it allows for some minor "control" to how magic works within the device. I'm just not sure where to go next.

>>46900986
>http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality

How would a small society made up of sapients that don't need to eat, drink, or breathe fit into your typical medieval world? While their bodies do decay with age (eventually failing completely around 120) and they reproduce terribly slowly, diseases don't effect them at all. Assuming they're a small portion of the population (about 1%), how would they live both in a mixed-race city and on their own?

>>46900986
I think order and chaos is easier to quantify and their merits are more subjective. Get yourself orderly dadgod who punishes and rewards according to strict code and a trickster god who wants to shake it up.

In my cosmology order also works as anti-magic and likes to freeze things and chaos is magic and fire.

>>46901035
Your description makes me think of what Stargate franchise did with alien technology. All advanced races have crystals that do things. And you can stick different crystals on the same board to get different results. Like you can stick crystal from a shield into cloacking device and it stops cloacking and starts shielding.

So I would consider combining crystals (procurable by capturing or slaying pixies or whatever) for more complex effects. Like grab crystal of shielding and crystal on fire and get cloak of flame or whatever.

BUMP

>>46896426
I can think of two ways to incorporate that, and they mostly depend on how prominent you want the monkey men.

If you want them as a sort of a strong, yet secluded, hermit people, you could have another God or race do some magical curse on them. Have the monkey men slowly steamroll everything, resulting in two different gods trying to stop them separately with magic. One curses half of the monkey men, taking away what that God saw as their real strength and turning them human. The other God, with the same idea in mind, decided to limit their numbers. This resulted in a magical genophage like effect, where very few births are actually successful. Maybe have the now two separate groups not realize what's going on until they destroy the Gods that cursed them, causing no hope of reversing the two curses in sight.

The true Monkey Men would then consolidate in an attempt to keep their race from dyeing completely, where as the Humans expand and take all the lands that the other races and gods abandoned. This could result in Humans taking multiple viewpoints about the monkey men. Have one branch that views them as the true inheritors of the war God, and as such worship them, another could view the fact that they've been pushed back so far while the humans have expanded show that humans are the real heirs, Maybe have a radical branch that think the only way to prove they are the war God's real children is to wipe out the remainder of the monkey men, sort of a "might makes right" idea. The monkey men however would be much more homogeneous, with only a few space males going out into the world to work as mercenaries or adventurers to prove their worth.

>>46896426
>>46904755
Alternatively, If you want them to be more prominent along with being more evenly matched, you could have a contently drift be the cause. Their distant ancestors split into two different lands, and when the contents separated, two different environments caused them to develop in different ways. Eventually the continents reconnected eventually, and the two races, originally thinking that they were formed by other gods, realize they’re both decedents of the war Gods. They might be more cooperative with each other, and then you could either keep them that way or have them split apart later. This can let you be more flexible with their relationship, and the monkey men’s culture and internal structure.

File: 1345744551462.jpg (406 KB, 625x865)

406 KB JPG

Post cozy worldbuilding music.
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2xolKQjs8

>>46872600
>How do you handle existing/classic races in your setting? What homebrew races are unique to the setting?
My fantasy setting is divided into a sort of hierarchy based on what type of magic (Anima or Arcana, organic or natural) and what Demesne (Flame, Stone, Wind, Sea, Mind or Void) it falls under. The three major races are still, of course, elves/humans/dwarves, but they're all sub-races of the same super-race, with the physical differences being less pronounced. So yeah, an elf might be unusually tall to a human, but that just means that their average height is around 6'6", and a dwarf might be short, but they're only on average five feet tall. Longevity is mostly magically assisted, as well, rather than built in.
Elves tend towards Anima magic, and live primarily in and around miles-tall tree cities called Endtrees, as they're immense focal points of Anima magic. Dwarves live near mountains and in rather barren areas, since they're focal points for Arcane magic. Humans live in the lowlands, usually, as they tend to use both anima and arcane magic equally, depending on the exact location and society.
Also, there's no gods, just powerful elemental incarnations of the various demesnes of magic. Twelve 'Greater Spirits", one each for each demesne of each supertype of magic, six 'Lords", one for each demesne, and two "Nexuses", one for each supertype. Near-godlike, but not quite so.

>>46892261
do steampunk.

Not faggy steampunk, but cyberpunk with steam machines and cockney accents.

>>46910854
Pseudo-cyberpunk Steampunk with magic providing the technology boost is my fetish.

File: 1369280484603.png (112 KB, 316x400)

112 KB PNG

>>46892261
>How do I get people/players interested in shit that isn't just iron age/medieval style fantasy?

You make a cool setting, everyone else can and will immerse themselves in it. Just look at, say, Bioshock. Art-deco Atlantis with big dudes in diving suits? Who the fuck would want to play around in that, right?

The really important thing is to ensure these sorts of doubts don't stop you from working on the setting. A bit of self-criticism is good, but that can easily turn into paralyzing self-doubt. Keep doing what you're doing; you're probably doing just fine.

>>46900986
you know religions aren't necessarily "morally" true? I mean the Sassanians were Zoroastrians to the core but that didn't turn them into weird arbitrary assholes

File: [Sunlight Intensifies].gif (839 KB, 450x402)

839 KB GIF

How to determine how much to tell the reader of a book or story? Some amount of exposition is necessary, but I know about the whole show and don't tell meme.

File: fantasy fuckwitch.jpg (141 KB, 910x539)

141 KB JPG

Prostitutes!

Tell us about prostitutes in your setting.

>Which cultures allow them. Which don't. What are they called?
>How professional are they? Do they get training? Do they have standards for customers?
>How do they get paid?


Hard mode:
>What cultural/social exist regarding prostitution?
>Which races are allowed in/banned from prostitution?


Dante must die mode:
>What are the laws regarding prostitution?

File: Spirited Away bathhouse.png (358 KB, 500x370)

358 KB PNG

>>46915064

>Cultures Allowed
Most of them, though its mostly under the table. 'Prostitutes' aren't so much common as 'women you fuck and then later buy shit for because you're just fuckbuddies regardless of what your wife says about it', that kind of thing.
>How professional are they
Not very, a few exceptions exist though. There's a nation where every town along a specific long road has to have a high-class prostitute working there due to religious reasons.
>How do they get paid?
Pimps, favors. There is one type of prostitute, usually called a 'pool boy', being a young male who serves older men in the public baths of a certain city state. It is ILLEGAL for them to accept money from anyone, as the bathhouse takes it all instead. (The bathhouse argues that while the boy did the work, the customer only got turned on BECAUSE of the warmth and comfort of the pool house, so they deserve the money) Regardless most of these boys become politicians later in life due to the connections and intel they gain from this job.

-Hard Mode-
>Races
My setting features mostly humans, but for the most part it's just humans. The exception would be bunny girls- after they have their first litter they become infertile, so many of them still quite young and MILFy can have sex with men without any concern for pregnancy. Occasionally, they even work in human land but humans think its sort of weird.

-Dante must Die-
>Laws
As stated above, many cultures have laws about arousal being the key person(s) who should be paid in transaction. So a prostitute doesn't deserve any money if the person was drunk; the innkeeper deserves it instead. Additionally, many cultures have laws about virginity only allowed to be given away to husbands, so thigh sex, rubbing, and oral sex become common here too.

File: General Body Type.jpg (18 KB, 236x364)

18 KB JPG

>What homebrew races are unique to the setting?
All of them (from the top).
Galts = Basically Drow physically, tweaked to be more of a beginner race (so their racials are all about keeping up momentum and not getting stuck). They play nice with most of the other races and are generally seen as being strange but not hostile (I wanted to undercut edgelords from ruining games, by making the race effective solo and with a group).
Sivreem = Small agile cat people, geared for ranged non-magic dps. Though their downside is that they can be stunned on sight, forcing them into a ranged or at least non-direct combat role (rangers, mages, thieves).
QXZYV = Golem race, comes in three flavors (knight, animal, and abstract) which determines how they do their magic. Roleplaying wise they are logical to a fault making them good for players who are quiet or not good with the whole Roleplaying thing.
Eln'heim = Angelic race, gains powers by purging evil and righting wrongs. Rewarded with some of the best abilities at the expense of doing the most dangerous stuff. Does what's right and follows a religious dogma, however lorewise they've been painted as being cowardly almost villainous to these ends (admittedly this was done to keep them from being too much of a goody two shoes race).
Saurc = Giant lizards, functionally orcs. Big, vicious, and excellent for default bad guys. The males are extremely dangerous at close range BUT are blind, and the females take up a support / damage roll (they spit various types of acid that can deal damage or slow movement).
Lavaaci = Fishlike race, they are tall, elegant, and fast (making them the closest I have to elves). Built to be fast and agile in combat.
Rohas = Basically Giants with four arms. Strong as fuck, can quad wield. Very big very simple.

>What are elves like?
I'd recommend keeping some of the basics (aloof / elegant) and just change whatever you need to fit the setting.

>>46915025
That's really subjective m8. A lot of it depends on what the purpose of your exposition is. This is all personal musings and memory is hazy but in the Foundation series, Asimov uses exposition lightly and leaves much to the imagination to stitch the details. It feels more like a detective/thriller at times. He gives just enough exposition to paint swatches of the world and just enough details to make his endgame a logical conclusion.

In the Wheel of Time, Jordan(Rigney) gives an excessive amount of detail to really paint the setting and make the reader see what he intends. He lays down rules and expectations early for the specific purpose of breaking them later on to have the reader experience the monumental change and chaos the denizens of the world experience.

In Bio Of A Space Tyrant, Anthony gives a lot of detail through Hubris's narration. He effectively pauses the flow/stream of action to give an explanation of history, technology, setting or insight. This gives the feeling of being a party to events, something closer/more personal than reading in 3rd party omniscience. This similar to how he writes Xanth which is more whimsical and informal.

In Dune and its sequels, Frank Herbert relies a lot on character-to-character exposition and internal introspection in order to do exposition. He does so in such a way to avoid disrupting the flow of the story. Sometimes it seems like the exposition ball is passed around back and forth between characters in a scene. This is what makes Dune so difficult to translate into a movie. The Lynch movie had a lot of voice overs to try and capture this but it's really difficult to do well.

So I guess it all boils down to what is the purpose of your exposition and are you using it as a tool to advance the story, a way to paint the setting or a combination of both.

File: 1458004743517.png (82 KB, 336x347)

82 KB PNG

>>46915349
Interesting.

So I take it that women don't/are not allowed to avail of the services of prostitutes?

>MILFy, sterile bunny girls

Heaven and Hell

>>46915025
Exposition is not as necessary as you might imagine. A lot of really great examples of world-building (I'm mainly thinking of Earthsea here) gain a lot of power by under-explaining, leading the reader to want to learn more. Because all the naming conventions and traditions are so deeply baked into the relevant cultures, it actually helps the immersion of the world if you just let them find out about it when it so happens to come up.

Don't go out of your way to explain everything. If things are different, let people learn about it when things are different. If they're reading a fantasy/science fiction story, it means that they've already acknowledged it's not going to be the world as we know it.

File: male escort table.pdf (51 KB, PDF)

51 KB PDF

>>46916206

Of course they can. I even wrote this shitty table for it. (A parody of the female prostitute table). It's just not as common, just like in real life- females are expected to be good women and most of them would be the prostitute instead of buying the services of one. Adventurers maybe are different.

New to /tg/
Mainly just sticking to mtg, df and ss13 threads, what's happening here?
Is this some d&d related stuff?

>>46916433

Worldbuilding for a variety of reasons. No specific games, systems or genre.

It's mainly to make settings for tt/rpg games, writing projects or fun. People come here to sound off on ideas, look for critique, check resources or ask questions. Quality and mileage or responses vary.

We often get prompt questions regarding settings where you can post what you got or rite on the spot. We /should/ have a resource list as part of the OP but sometimes it's not included:

Some worldbuilding resources:

On designing cultures:
http://www.frathwiki.com/Dr._Zahir%27s_Ethnographical_Questionnaire

Random generators:
http://donjon.bin.sh/

Mapmaking tutorials:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48

Free mapmaking toolset:
www.inkarnate.com

Random Magic Resources/Possible Inspiration:
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/magic/antiscience.html
http://www.buddhas-online.com/mudras.html
http://sacred-texts.com/index.htm

Conlanging:
http://www.zompist.com/resources/

Random (but useful) Links:
http://futurewarstories.blogspot.ca/
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/
http://military-sf.com/
http://fantasynamegenerators.com/
http://donjon.bin.sh/
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html
http://kennethjorgensen.com/worldbuilding/resources
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books/europe#wiki_middle_ages
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding

Dwarves, Sturdy stoneworkers. Not always bearded, nor shorter than men
Carve entire mountains in to cities, with miles of underground roads and buildings
Better carvers than metalworkers, tend to be rich from selling rare ores to other races
Constitutional monarchy

Elves, Fairer than men, but not to any massive degree, Lifespan may be one half longer
Master smiths and technicians, skilled in weaving magic into machine, and live in sprawling mechamagical cities
Democratic

Men, Industrialists, builders of factories, blue collar, hard-working, Low in society
Traders, producers of petty goods
Men are widespread, and in major hubs are caste
Some spread out for mercenary work for the land squabbles that occur
Some work as slaves, or do petty work for other races


Sorry I'm a little drunk

>>46916583
Kay I'll just go to bed now.

What are some good justification ideas for mechs in a setting?

File: m5dr4hfqasduhgrs3wen.jpg (199 KB, 1177x868)

199 KB JPG

Haha, time for rivers.

>>46872600
I'm kind of with people who think that if including races besides humans aren't necessary to a setting, don't include them, however dwarfs, elves, goblins and others have found a way into my latest setting through habit.
I'm always working on differeniating my fantasy races from their traditional archetypes, eg my elves are not immortal, but really wish they were, so near death they dunk themselves into a chemical pool that turns them into a marble-like statue, neither dead nor fully alive, ala the Yellow King. Elfs (in my setting) have been "tweaked" from their traditional archtype the most so far. I'm going to stop before I talk all about how I've changed them, before I can't stop myself, for the sake of the thread.

>>46916846
Are we talking pop culture mechs here?

>>46915488
>saurc
>sorc
>orc
I see what you did there, good job

>>46916981
More walking tank, smashy ones than Japanese mecha. Right now I have most of them are urban construction vehicles re-purposed for war.

>>46917132
>Right now I have most of them are urban construction vehicles re-purposed for war
Seems like a pretty good justification honestly, maybe in addition the mechs are repurposed heavy maintenace vehicles, deep-sea oil platforms' pylon repair machines, nuclear plants' emergency maintence unit or other industrial repair/maintenance roles, no reason why they wouldn't have been present in other commercial industries I guess, go wild

>>46916564
Thanks man, might stick around and perhaps contribute, I've always had a thing for writing about stuff like this, and making new creatures on dwarf fortress

>>46917227
Yeah. The setting idea is in a megacity colony after contact is lost with the rest of humanity. The players form gangs with giant robots in the anarchy that's followed, associated themselves with the various factions that have taken up the claim on the city; the various Ganger Houses, street thugs turned nobility; the Scrappers, cyborg nutjobs that live in the junkyards around the megacity; the MCPF, remants of the police and military that have withdrawn to the rich and political sections to protect their employers; apocalypse cults that believe that the rest of humanity is dead and that all must repent for when death comes to finish off the city; and outcast tribes of survivors from destroyed outposts lost in the chaos that have gone native and ride giant alien beasts.

File: Haraks Jaw.jpg (443 KB, 2100x2100)

443 KB JPG

>>46872600

I considered trying to build a world scientifically, using my extremely limited geological knowledge, and then realised: Dragons Bitch! Who needs science? I then threw it out out and started with the mythology, and am going from there:

http://pastebin.com/KB15AxpF

Yeah, very much a WIP. And I picked my naming theme and ran with it, so sue me(no don't that) .

>>46917375
Sounds like a good setting to base a skirmish miniature game on, like, Necromunda but with a lot more than just gangs. Did you make/are you making the setting for anything particular or just shits n gigs?

File: Moth Courier.jpg (144 KB, 1024x614)

144 KB JPG

How gonzo do you like your settings?

>>46918310
Homebrewed skirmish game. Been bouncing around settings, changing rules here and there. Basis of this one is you hire a mech and a group of infantry to support it. The mech has access to heavy weapons and power moves.

Could bronze weaponry reasonably stand up against 17th century steel in occasional skirmishes and raiding conflicts? I'd like to have a group of harassing Raiders making the continent wide collapse of civilization worse, but I don't want them to just be vikings or pirates. I'm basing them off the Sea Peoples, as primitive island dwellers to the south who have traditionally been a source of slave labor, but who have risen up now that the slave ships aren't sailing any more. They'd be armed with domestically made bronze arms and armor they source from further south, and some stolen muskets and and modern armor as well. I think they'd be able to find reasonable success, as long as they don't encounter an army to resist them. I'm not sure, though. Thoughts?

>>46915064
>>Which cultures allow them. Which don't. What are they called?
Most of cultures. Except for love-child of Byzantine and North Korea of a country where respectable people don't pay prosistutes because they have sex slaves and would never demean themselves with any kind of consensual sex anyway. They aren't called anything special, I'm not a fan of exotic terms
>>How professional are they? Do they get training? Do they have standards for customers?
There's all sorts of them, obviously. Some are cheap and ugly, some are skilled courtisans
>>How do they get paid?
With currency if available. In more primitive places with goods and services
>Hard mode:
>>What cultural/social exist regarding prostitution?
It's medieval time so loose women are frowned up be they professionals or hobbists
>>Which races are allowed in/banned from prostitution?
In my setting there's only humans
>Dante must die mode:
>>What are the laws regarding prostitution?
Nobody cares. If you don't pay them, you are theoretically liable for fraud, but most like will get pimp-slapped. Spreading veneral deseases is theoretically illegal in most places. In some cultures they are not allowed to marry and might be confined to certain districts, but no society cares enough to regulate it properly.

>>46918381
Sounds pretty cool, I'd play the shit out of that if it was popular enough for me to find people to play against. I'd have a ball converting to make the minis, too. Fuck I might even make minis for the fun of it, haven't done miniature building/painting in a good year or so.
Link for the homebrew maybe?

>>46918650
I'd say no. When iron became common(and later on steel) it sounded the death knell for bronze weapons. You can indeed fight using a bronze sword against a steel one but if the edges actually clash the bronze one will be worse off for it. Steel is an overall superior metal, it's why everyone switched over to it once they figured out how to make it. I think /k/ has had discussions about this before, try searching their archive or ask about it in /diy/.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/iron-vs-bronze-history-of-metallurgy.html

http://study.com/academy/lesson/iron-vs-bronze-history-of-metallurgy.html#transcriptHeader

>>46915064
Bumping from my own prompt

>Tell us about prostitutes in your setting.
>Which cultures allow them. Which don't. What are they called?

Legal in Sha'hara. Everywhere else has varying degrees of acceptance and illicit tolerance. They are called anything from courtesans to whores, depending on the society.

>>How professional are they? Do they get training? Do they have standards for customers?

Since Sha'hara has legal prostitution it follows that it has legal standards for one. All prostitutes are must have a license to practice, Professional and Non-Professional.

In eastern Gedask there is a developing professional culture of courtesans that is modeled after those in Sha'hara. In the rest of the empire it is mostly the classic issue of looking the other way to outright disdain. In the Free Cities it's a mixed bag of Gedan and Sha'haran influences with some making it illegal(but still exists) and others going full bore and inviting well known Sha'haran institutes set up shop.

>>How do they get paid?
It is mostly a cash business everywhere. For some Professional/High-Class practitioners the financial aspect is handled by their affiliated institutions especially in eastern Gedask and the Free Cities.


>Hard mode:
>>What cultural/social ISSUES exist regarding prostitution?

Should have proofread better. Sha'haran Pros are treated as respectable craftsmen, Non-Pros as seen as lazy and after a quick buck.

Eastern Gedask is adopting laws applicable to legalizing it. No legal standing in other places so prostitutes will always be in danger of being taken advantage of even when not engaging in their profession.

>>Which races are allowed in/banned from prostitution?

Gedan nobility, mostly pure humans, are outright banned from engaging in acts that would lead to their family's ridicule. Half-breeds associated with human families are also banned. Most Gedan prostitues are of elven stock.

>>46918330
If it's just random weirdness after random weirdness, you can only throw so much bullshit at the audience before they their reaction is just "...Okay."

If you do it like the Bas-Lag series, where the weirdness is used less for weirdness' sake and more for actual worldbuilding, then it's actually pretty interesting.

>>46916433
It's tangentially related to /tg/. It's something that a lot of D&D (and other games') players and GMs do, but more than that it's something that interests a lot of the same type of people as those who'd play TTRPGs.

What's a good way to explain why all races in a Scifi are all humanlike in some way without their being some precursor race that the all originated from?

>>46923114
Convergent evolution. The human form is more or less the ideal form for a civilization building and spacefaring species, so all civilization building and spacefaring species will resemble humans to some degree.

DISCLAIMER: This goes not justify aliens and humans being able to interbreed. Only a common ancestor can justify that.

>>46923114
All the races are either variations or offshoots of humanity, modified through genetic engineering or cybernetics to adapt to various conditions.

File: concerned man.jpg (14 KB, 236x265)

14 KB JPG

>>46923192
>What's a good way to explain why all races in a Scifi are all humanlike in some way without their being some precursor race that the all originated from?
>without their being some precursor race that the all originated from?
>WITHOUT THERE BEING SOME PRECURSOR RACE THAT THEY ALL ORIGINATED FROM?

>>46923114
There was a precursor race that designed a type of self replicating probe which seeks and destroys all non precursor-oid intelligent life, thus all those who remain are humanoid.

>>46923143
a common ancestor doesnt even justify that though. Humans and apes cant interbreed.

The ancient powerful empire can be a bit played out, but I still want to use it in my setting. Hopefully I'm doing enough interesting stuff with it that it won't seem so cliche.
>The Empire spanned the world using now-lost technology
Much of its technology has been salvaged. For its most powerful and influential technology, runestones, the basics of how they're made are understood but research into them is banned in most nations on moral grounds. (Since it involves the slaughter of a lot of unwilling people.) However, use of existing runestones, when found, is permitted, since it's not like it's gonna un-sacrifice those folks.

>It ended mysteriously
But instead of just saying "no one knows", archaeologists have come up with a variety of competing theories. One of the more prevalent theories is of an uprising of mostly-illiterate peasants, which is why the written language of the Empire was lost.
While the modern understanding of their language is sufficient to get the gist of what they're saying with enough time and expertise, finer translation is still impossible. People tend to fill in the gaps so the same Imperial story with two different translations can have completely different messages.

>Ruins lying around everywhere
Humans are--both flatteringly and derisively--called the "hermit crab" race, for their tendency to settle in and around these ruins. The Empire's massive castles, aqueducts and irrigation networks, mines, and other structures have been co-opted. Architecture and infrastructure seem to have been some of their strong suits. Some scholars believe that construction was an almost religious experience for them, but, y'know, take that with a grain of salt.

>>46923321
Well, yes. A common ancestor does not always justify it, but it is the only thing that can justify it at all.

>>46918330
Usually just lightly seasoned with gonzo, because otherwise you have to frontload things with reading.

>>46923321
A particularly close common ancestor and some other factors can. Cro-magnons and neanderthals could interbreed.

>>46923367
They were separated by less than 15 million years, which is the blink of an eye in evolutionary time.

>>46923432
Only if you count the billions of years of prokaryote evolution. If you look at the time frame of vertebrate evolution, it's a considerable chunk of time. If there've been vertebrates for 500 million years, 15 million years is 3% of that.

>>46923332
Forgot to ask outright: do you think there's enough novel twists to make it engaging, or does it still make you roll your eyes?

>>46923682
>The Empire spanned the world using now-lost technology
And
>Ruins lying around everywhere
Most of what you put down isn't bad because it actually happens a lot in history. The Colosseum was used as a sheep pen at one point, and a lot of the aqueducts and such where scavenged for their valuable masonry because nobody knew how to operate them.
>It ended mysteriously
Make the debate less about scholarly evidence, and more ideological. Their should be religious and philosophical theories as well

>>46923114
Naturally occurring wormholes transported life from earth to distant worlds.

>>46924046
I've already kinda got that covered. The idea is that each archaeologist believes whatever best coincides with his or her personal beliefs, and can usually find enough evidence to support it.

File: baby's first map.png (351 KB, 1077x800)

351 KB PNG

I need help, /tg/. Could you please tell me why my map is all wrong and how to improve that?

It's my first attempt at mapmaking, and looking at it myself I can tell stuff is wrong with it, but I can't really figure out what exactly is at fault.
As it's still work in progress, it looks rather barebones, too.

My players sadly are a bit easily impressed, so their feedback has not been very helpful so far.

>>46924347
I mean there should be people who believe that a higher power destroyed them because they were sinful, so they go around trying to end sinfulness in the world. Others may use it as an example to implement a harsh and restrictive government. What really matters is how do the differing theories have an impact on the world, rather than just a bunch of professors arguing.

>>46924477
Don't make the main landmass so connected. Pretend like what you have now is your world's version of Pangea.

>>46924477
For one, rivers always take the fastest path to the ocean or a major lake/sea et cetera. Try mapping out tectonic plates for mountains, and don't keep it empty. Fill it with place names- mountain ranges almost always are named- and biomes and environments

File: baby's first world.png (307 KB, 1000x771)

307 KB PNG

>>46924595
It's actually just one of multiple continents (pic related).

Though due to conservation of detail I decided to focus on the upper left one first before mapping out the other continents in detail, as I might not need them for a whole while (at least not in a lot of detail).

>>46924560
I see. It's a world with few fixed "gods", but there's definitely room for some religious dread at its destruction.

Plus, while the professors are the ones finding their evidence for the causes, the Empire is important enough that most people at least have some opinions on it, even if those opinions are on the "we should nuke China" level. It's a topic for the armchair philosophers and racist-uncles-at-Thanksgiving of the world.

>>46924477
It's certainly not shit.

First of all, maybe include some islands in the gulf that divides the mountain range. If it's all the same faultline, then there'll probably be some peaks jutting above the water. Also, what's the source on the rivers that don't start in/near mountains? I'm admittedly not an expert but I can't think of any river big enough to be worth mentioning on a map that doesn't start in the mountains.

Where is the island on the globe, latitude-wise? What's the climate? Since the island is in the Northern hemisphere, I believe the prevailing winds would be mostly eastward, so there'd probably be a desert on the east side of the big mountain range. Not necessarily a big one or a particularly harsh one (depending on the size of the island and the mountains), but it'd be there.

What kind of plant and animal life lives there? What's the level of technology? Where do cities tend to cluster? E.g. if it's pre-modern technology, then most cities would probably be in the bays, since with a buncha big ol' mountain ranges sea travel would be the best way to get around; and on a river, as a source of fresh water. With modern technology (or magitek) then it frees them up somewhat.

File: Reveste Temarchus map.png (535 KB, 1764x1365)

535 KB PNG

>>46924560
What I mean is that, for example, the people of Reveste Gardens (the grasslands* on the southern part of the country) the people depend on massive windmills as the only reliable source of water during the dry season. Thus they view the windmills with superstitious awe; defacing them is taboo. But while they view the windmills as deserving of immense respect and personify them as much as you'd personify a stuffed animal or a slinky with googly eyes, they don't view them as "divine".

*There wasn't a Hexographer option for "pantanal".

>>46924677
>>46924899
These are already helping a lot. Thanks.

Will have to find a source for those rivers since they weren't placed there with a lot of thought, I have to admit.

Latitude-wise, This is planned to be Europe-ish though somewhat further north. But definitely northern hemisphere, yes.

Technology level is typical D&D level, though magic is a bit more rare, so I guess towns will follow coast and rivers.

Another thing is that I'm looking for non-traditional aesthetic inspirations for the various cultures. For example, one city's appearance is inspired in part by the Roman Empire, pre-European Tahiti, and Seaside Florida, which you may recall from The Truman Show. Another draws from Mughal-era India and Southeast Asia.

>>46924703
One thing I don't like is how each continent of roughly similar size takes up exactly one quadrant of the map. But admittedly that might be because I played a lot of Final Fantasy IX as a kid so it strikes me as derivative more than it rightly ought.

If you contrast it with Earth, for example, the Pacific Ocean is twice as wide as the distance from London to the easternmost city in Russia whose name I could spell, or 50% more than the distance from London to Tokyo. Obviously you're under no obligation to use Earth as your model or, really, even to pay lip service to the concept of "realism", but it makes for a more authentic-feeling map if the distribution is a bit more uneven.

>>46925018
And before anyone says it, they're artificial rivers.

>>46924477
Your inlets do not have rivers anywhere near their most inland point.

File: Map.jpg (814 KB, 1024x768)

814 KB JPG

This is my first map made in Inkarnate, for an upcoming game based on being the settlers of a new world colony in fantasy Europe with a different and fantastical New World.

What have I done wrong, and how should I improve upon it?

>>46902147
Bumping this

>>46926214
Shouldn't the forests be on the side of the mountains facing the ocean?

Wind would push the clouds from the sea into the mountains and thus they would rain on that side before they could rise up and clear the mountains, then on the other side it's going to be rather arid as it's not going to have a whole lot of rainfall thanks to those mountains.

>>46926214
Is the blue stuff water? If yes, looks like there#s some serious deluge-tier shit going on.
Three quarters of the map are empty ocean. That's boring. Just show the continent and islands instead.
The yellow text on the lower settlement is hard to read.
The textures in general have very sharp edges which isn't pleasing to look at.
The mountains overlap with the trees in the south.

>>46925251
>artificial rivers.
You mean channels.

>>46926214
There's an awful lot of ocean on that map. Since I'm assuming most of the game takes place on land, it'd be good to pan right a bit.

What's Lecsa's source of fresh water?

What's the allure of colonizing here? What does it have that the original country or countries needed? If more than one country has colonized it, why? If only one country has colonized it, why?

>>46926443
I'm gonna start by examining them as if they were the only sapients in an area.

Hunger, thirst, and lack of air have been near non-issues for many points of human civilization at many points in history (admittedly, often on the backs of other countries). The biggest consequence might be how their economy functions, since food production and the land, water, and labor it requires are basically the defining trait of settled society.

I say "basically" because there's evidence that people living in settled groups might actually predate agriculture, with the initial reason to be more defensible against raiders. However, since they don't need food or water, there's not much reason to raid except to abduct women, which would be an alluring way to bolster numbers if they reproduce slowly. It's possible they'd have very little sexual dimorphism to make the women a more difficult target (both because if men aren't stronger than women it's a little harder to abduct them and because it makes it harder to pick a target from afar.) Their early technology, rather than being based on agriculture, might be based on siege warfare.

It's so alien to life as we know it that I'm making a lot of leaps and bounds here.

>>46927165
Fine, whatever.

What would be a good moniker for a prince that's a large, violent man? Basically a berserker, I'm thinking something like "Mad Prince" but madness in fantasy settings usually means madness as in crazy, "Bloody Prince" is too edgy, "Raging Prince" doesn't have a catchy ring does it?

>>46927458
Maybe something storm-based? The Storm Prince, the Torrential Prince, the Tempest Prince, the Squall Prince.

>>46927537
The Mildly Cloudy Prince, the Overcast Prince, the Low Pressure System Prince

>>46927458
Animalistic works. Large and violent temperament -> The Bearheart(ed)?

>>46927292
>>46927141
>>46927136
Thank you, I'll get to work.

>>46918960
Still heavy work in progress. I actually have to go back and do a rewrite, because one of the current mechanics doesn't work well.

I'm usually over in the /gdg/ threads when they are up.

>>46927292
>It's so alien to life as we know it that I'm making a lot of leaps and bounds here.
Yeah, that's my main issue with them as well. There's no need for agriculture, settling near water, or really most of the "foundation of civilization" stuff.

I figure any settlements that exist are made for defense or trade purposes (with the trade ones probably having a small number of fields and such so that traveling merchants have something to eat). Lacking a need for water or food also makes desert environments and other hostile places rather attractive, since the main threat to them is going to come from other races or large predators.

>>46923213
I meant more like Escape Velocity or Eclipse Phase. If baseline humans are still alive and kicking, I don't think they count as a precursor race, especially when sci-fi usually has the precursors be advanced ancient aliens wiped out in a cataclysm thousands of years ago.

>>46927864
If you're going for a midpoint between in-game functionality and realism instead of just pure realism, they could establish colonies in mountain passes, straits, and oases and provide food and lodging for traveling merchants in exchange for manufactured goods.

>>46927141
How would you suggest doing rivers/lakes?

>>46927920
Oh, that actually makes it easier. Without FTL travel, any communication between settled planets would take long enough that they'd evolve in the time it would take to reach each other. That is to say, if one ship landed, then sent a message back to Earth to say as much, then by the time the second ship arrived the original settlers would probably be noticeably different, having changed to fit their new home.

So perhaps after several hundred thousand years of colonization, we finally crack FTL and all these quasi-humans can get back into contact.

>>46927943
Ooh, that's a good idea.

Within other societies, underwater work (such as on bridges) would be something they can do easily that's really dangerous for others. They might be ostracized for how different they are depending on the city and culture, or just naturally concentrate in certain areas because everyone else is weird to them (and they don't notice the horrible smell from the docks/forges/whatever next door).

File: blooperpooper.jpg (142 KB, 552x294)

142 KB JPG

One day, out of nowhere, all those who channel divine power or the gods flip out, screaming incoherent babble, bleed from the eyes and turn to salt. Those who worship and/or feel a strong connection to the gods no longer feel their presence, also flip out and go on a rampage, decimating the countryside while refugees flood to the southern shoreline to escape the insanity as the old world falls to chaos and blight. Now what /tg/?

>>46929722
Wizards and martials tip their respective hats.

>>46929722
Well, seeing as the world IS a god (As are the sun and the other planets), almost everyone dies really quickly in a vacuum before this is a problem. The poor Vensi are left to freeze to death in space.

>>46929747
Advanced Fedoras & Feminism 2e?

File: 1446429204623.png (113 KB, 442x423)

113 KB PNG

>>46930813
>Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a spellbook

>>46917474
Maybe don't put a lake right in the middle. Since that means if someone wants to go from the Plains of Omech to Ironfeld (I think that's what it says?) they'd have to pass through Lesser Parotid and the Plains of Arrod or else arrange transportation via sea, which can get repetitive fast.

I am making a setting where Alchemists are the main source of magic. What would be good reasons for Alchemists to be up more at night than on days?

I was thinking stuff like Alchemy having to do with constellations or moonlight affecting potions and enchanting.

Hard mode Alchemy is completely legal, and the alchemists also open up their shops (if they work at a shop) at night. Or at least so that they don't have a separate clerk.

>>46932760
My setting has "magic" as non-ionizing radiation from the numerous stars outside the Material Plane.

The Sun being up fucks with the amount of "magic" that reaches the Plane, so mana is regenerated really slowly when it's sunny.
Night is great for casters, since the stars are visible. The Moon reflects magical energy from the Sun, too, so when it's full mana regeneration is boosted.

>>46932760
Most alchemists produce liquor to finance their craft, since there's not as much market for potions that might or might not turn lead into gold. Most people pick up their booze at the end of their work day, which is when the alchemist's begins.

File: Map.jpg (642 KB, 1024x768)

642 KB JPG

I want to build a setting where only one known or well known landmass is inhabited by humans and the story will push participants towards exploration. The landmass is difficult to traverse, overpopulation, seafaring heritage whatever.

New races to be introduced once participants reach the new lands, unexplored interiors, lizard people Maya civilizations etc...

Anybody have any recommendations with a New World Exploration type deal? Pitfalls to avoid? I feel like the story may quickly get forced off a cliff by PC's decisions.

>>46933728
Hardest part will be keeping the long seafaring stuff interesting. You're either going to have a lot of random water encounters or have a lot of time skips (might be good for characters researching spells or making magic items?).

One issue I foresee would be people wanting to play non-humans, being blocked from doing so due to fluff, and then getting miffed that they run into the species they wanted to play halfway through the campaign.

It sounds like a very interesting idea. What tech level are you thinking?

Airships?

>>46933860
I hadn't thought about airships. It would certainly make the adventuring into the depths of an unexplored jungle morass more realistic.

Original idea was 2-4 Human (or perhaps just traditional fantasy races) civilizations on the left most continent- based on the Portuguese/English or Dutch. Vaguely based off of 1500's tech because guns are usually annoying and I want traditional fantasy shit to be believably viable.

File: Dev Aveza.jpg (190 KB, 1364x768)

190 KB JPG

>>46934013
Steal the design of the Dev Aveza. It's a great mod for Skyrim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7xPE8uiXyU

>>46876150
What program do you use?

>>46935407
He made them in Inkarnate. See
>>46876134

>>46924677
>rivers always take the fastest path
A truth with modification. Rivers always travel downhill, which usually means more or less straight towards the coast but not always. Sometimes the most direct path is blocked by highlands and if so the river can't go through them.

bamp

>>46934013
Have them be searching for some sort of rare and valuable resource. If you go with airships, have the resource be whatever pets the magitech engine powering the thing.

I've been sitting on an idea for a villain for my campaign for a while, and was wondering if anybody here has any suggestions.

My villain, or villainess rather, is a human constructsmith/artificer in the city of Crystalhill, the final one left there. The last one in fact, since the great goldrush when it was discovered that the hill the city was build upon was rich with gems, many with magical properties, has long since ended. During that time a lot of constructsmiths were working on mining automatons there, and in collaboration with the wizard school that was founded around the same time they even experimented with what would become several dozen warforged.

That era ended though, and the city now is mostly a city for rich people to buy all sorts of luxury articles, and the constructsmiths that didn't leave the city to set up shop somewhere else now mostly work on trinkets and toys for the wealthy. All except for our villainess-to-be, Jannys.

She has two young sons (10 and 8 years old) but unbeknownst to most she had a third son that was born in extremely poor health and eventually died. This child was conceived shortly before her husband left her, who was the first to learn of her third pregnancy. They got into a fight about supporting the family where the husband got very harsh about her job and its generally low income in the current day and age, which resulted in him outright leaving, never to return.

Following this Jannys kept her pregnancy secret from the world and even kept the birth of her child secret, assisted by one of her own constructs during birth. Even when the child was in poor health she resigned herself to his inevitable death and, in a fit of exasperated desperation, magically sealed him in a large crystal, effectively preserving him in stasis.

Following this, her goals became twofold: First, to construct a healthy body for her third child, so that he too may experience life. Secondly, see next post.

>>46942312
Secondly, these aforementioned experiences and her closer involvement with the mayor of the city and a wealthy landowner as the new manager of her business allowed her to see how those in positions often vehemently disagree and act out of personal gain or make mistakes due to naivete.

Thus, she decided that the world she lives in is unfit for her children or anybody's children to live in, with so much unnecessary strife caused by all of that dissent. She doesn't consider herself to be morally superior, but she does believe that a consistent leadership would be more beneficial than any spread out but theoretically 'better' ones.

For the past years she's mostly been doing research on advanced constructs, driven by her considerable intellect and her passion towards her goal. She is now at the point where she has at the very least constructed a mechanical suit with various magical infusions and weapons, not for her to wear but for her to control remotely. Using this doll she'll do whatever she plans on doing to accomplish her goal (this is a part I'm still unclear on) in order to obscure her relation to it and thus protect her children through that anonymity.

Helping her in this endeavor is that she made a plan with the mayor to retrieve the old automatons from the mines to repurpose them instead of leaving them to rust down there. Unbeknownst to the mayor of course, she'll be using them for her own purposes.

So, I think that's most everything I have so far. I already mentioned that I'm not sure how exactly she's going to go about gaining the power to become the sole ruler of most everything, but it'll mostly involve constructs to avoid having to leave responsibility to other people which'd undermine the entire point of her plan to begin with. I also feel that her motivation is still a bit weak or forced, so that might need some work still.

>>46942578
Oh, and for who was wondering; yes, she is inspired by Nox from Wakfu, but mostly as his... antithesis I guess? Woman instead of man, protecting her existing family instead of trying to bring back the one he already lost, clinging to an idealistic ideal instead of a egoistic dream, being subtle and vulnerable in her plans unlike Nox's immense power and 'I have literally nothing left to lose' attitude towards everything.

>>46942635
This is a really well-made and well-constructed plot thread. You should use it and expand on it

Hey /wbg/
I've been working on the actual size of the planet my setting. Is an Earth like planet the size, of, say, Jupiter out of the question? or is that stupid?

>>46943563
If we're working with physics of our known universe a rocky planet can usually be at maximum twice the size of earth, and that's just the physical side, not taking account the fact that it should also be habitable.

So no. Unless there's hardcore magic, you can't make a planet that big that's inhabitable.

>>46885805
>I feel that having too many of them, and a thousand subraces of each, just makes the setting feel too crowded and arbitrary.
I feel like you still have far too many. In my mind, humans, elves, dwarves and orcs are more than enough, and then have different cultures possibly with different stats for each. I guess you can also have a tiny race, like halflings or kobolds, but my experience is that people don't play the silly races.

>>46943563
>>46944035

There could be an atmospheric layer in a gas giant that is around 1atm and near 1g, don't remember if there actually is though. He'll just need to add "land" for stuff to live on, like the scub coral in Eureka 7. Say, this coral built up on this layer enough to for big islands buoyed by trapped lighter gasses/plot device and function similar to continental plates or just big islands floating on this layer.

Also, check out Larry Niven's The Integral Trees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Integral_Trees

File: abel-globe-2016-04-18.gif (7.77 MB, 400x400)

7.77 MB GIF

Can anyone criticise my shitty autism at https://sstewartgallus.com/cosmology

>>46945218
>my experience is that people don't play the silly races.

You and I have very different experiences then, if by silly you mean small.

>>46946864
By silly I mean the comic relief races. Small races are overrepresented among them.

File: 1393431578718.jpg (94 KB, 500x486)

94 KB JPG

I plan to bring my players to a new continent to discover that it's populated by skeletons (or at least in the first two-three countries they will find). The idea is that they were not reborn but cursed, but that's not really important now and here.

So what would be the main differences to keep in mind if you have your typical ancient/medieval kingdom, but it's populated totally (or mostly) by skeletons? I suppose that it would have a massive impact in economy, for starters the majority of the population loses it's jobs (working the fields) unless I somehow find a way to explain how skeletons eat. I decided that they still need to sleep, so they will live in houses with their family like normal people. But living with your unchanging skeleton family for hundreds of years is probably not the same than living with a constantly changing human family for some decades. So I would accept ideas, and specially I would like to know if I'm forgetting something important.

File: 522060206.jpg (255 KB, 1200x800)

255 KB JPG

>>46950735
My skeleton civilization specializes in doing things meatbags can't. They produce a lot of silk and crafted goods, and are some of the best in-setting sailors.
Most inns will have "living rooms", which are little "pod" rooms with the amenities that a living creature would need, like a bed or bathroom. There's hidden irony in that they make living people sleep like a corpse in a crypt.

File: 1458231406062.jpg (301 KB, 1287x743)

301 KB JPG

So, who exactly fought in war in medieval times?

Stupid question, sure, but wouldn't it be in the lord's/lady's best interest to protect the serfs(who wouldn't know a lick about fighting) and not just throw them into the meat grinder?

Or did literally everyone who was able-bodied and not a woman have to fight?

Does it differ on a kingdom-by-kingdom basis?

File: 1416975384103.gif (1.65 MB, 200x150)

1.65 MB GIF

>>46954554
>wouldn't it be in the lord's/lady's best interest to protect the serfs and not just throw them into the meat grinder?
>best interest
>protecting serfs

>>46954554
The answer to any question like that is going to be "differs by culture group and time," but for the most part you'd expect wars to be fought by knights, men-at-arms (basically bodyguard units for nobles/royalty, weren't large units), and mercenaries.
Obviously levy troops could be used, but sing your peasants as soldiers, especially in the long term, would be a terrible decision. They're your source of food and money; if they die you're fucked.
I may be wrong, and anyone who knows for sure should feel free to correct me, but I believe levies were typically from cities, members of the merchant class. In most feudal cultures, merchants are seen as expendable

Also, if we're talking medieval Italy, then the armies would be almost entirely made up of mercs.

It's too expensive to have a standing army of any size (knights were gentry or nobles, and had their own income, which is important since they'd be arming themselves anyway). War is incredibly expensive: weapons, armour, food/supplies, payment of troops, etc. added up considerably. And the loser would typically have to pay reparations to the victor (often in the form of paying ransoms). The Battle of Agincourt essentially bankrupted France for years.

For these reason, the Ancient Greeks, who used citizen soldiers drawn from the population wealthy enough to own arms, favored short, decisive wars. They'd actually choose a battlefield with their enemy and have one big fight so everyone could go home. A lengthy campaign could bankrupt a city.

File: 2053.jpg (682 KB, 2485x1807)

682 KB JPG

>>46954919
well, who else is going to grow the food?

You think I'm going out in the fields?

All I'm saying is that if all your serfs are dead, nobody is going to grow food for you. What then? import new serfs or something?

>>46954990
Ahhh, much more comprehensive.
I've always heard medieval armies, especially the early half of the age, were small.

Thanks famalamjam-from-japan.

>>46955026
Serfs are peasant slaves.

>>46954554
Nobles and peasants fought. Basically if a war broke out, the king would get his lords to go around and draft a certain number of their peasants to fight in the army. These would typically be archers and footmen armed with pointy sticks (spears, or ither polearms). You don't need a whole lot of skill to use a pointy stick, and peasants still practoced in their off-time.

Also, not everyone who was called up to fight actually fought. You had cooks, blacksmiths, engineers, and a lot of other non-combatant camp followers. Sometimes two armies would show up and go home without fighting at all because the nobles who called them up came to terms. It was actually in everyone's best interest to end wars as quickly and as bloodlessly as possible because you need those peasants to bring in the harvest.

>>46955180
There's a particular fantasy novel that has one nation declare "war" on another simply to drag the enemy's peasants away from the fields during the harvest. The initiating nation has an actual national military, so doing so doesn't hurt them.

Is there a way to have lightsabers in a setting without them just apeing Star Wars? What different directions can I go with the idea of a laser sword?

>>46955929
I've added the groundwork for magitech energy swords in my setting. They're not "lol cut through everything plasma", and derive their coloration from the type of energy that powers them.

File: 2071.png (1.24 MB, 1024x1024)

1.24 MB PNG

>>46954990
>>46955180
Again, thanks. I've been reading up on medieval warfare, but needed that part somewhat clarified.

Now I can start writing low-fantasy war stories accurately!

>>46956318
I now have a desire to read the Black Company books.
This is not a bad thing.

I'm building a backstory where the gods are pretty much irrelevant, the primary focus is on the first man (a trickster) and how he spent his life

Can one human guy really fill the mythical shoes of a stereotypical pseudo Greek/Norse pantheon?

So far he gets the big G God pissed off and causes him to stop intervening in the world

I mean what does a trickster normally get up to?

>>46956874
Look up stories about Hermes, Loki, Coyote (Native American myth), and the Marx Brothers.

>>46954554
AFAIK serfs didn't fight

City dwellers and free peasants would be called to fight if they could afford to arm themselves.

Lords also had retinues of professional warriors, which could sometimes be quite big. Cnut the Great had 3000 housecarls, at the Battle on the Ice Alexander Nevsky had 1000 Druzhina (TLnote: druzhina means retainer), 2000 militia from the city of Novgorod, and 2000 Finnish tribesmen. Harold Godwinson also had around 3000 housecarls.

Mercenaries would also be a big source of troops in the high middle ages.

File: 1449194344832.gif (3.72 MB, 347x244)

3.72 MB GIF

>>46956874
>dude pisses the main God off until said God says "Fuck this shit, I'm out."
This motherfucker. Look to Bart Simpson for inspiration.

>>46956998
Loki, Coyote, Anansi, Groucho, and the like NEEDED an assload of other gods for them to clash against, though. Loki ran into issues with his fellow jotnar almost as much as he ran into issues with the Aesir and Vanir. Coyote and Anansi were designed from the ground up to be clowns, who tried to trick the other hard-working animal gods and got shafted when he was close to succeeding. Groucho just isn't a very funny act if it's just him.

The big uniting theme here is that a trickster figure is NOTHING without other figures to trick.

You'd probably be able to do something roughly similar to how the Great Basin Americans did their mythology. A single great figure created a gigantic world filled with a kingdom of intelligent semi-godlike spirits, who then created the world we know. The trickster god could be someone who, either through his eagerness to get something made or in a fit of jealousy, created mankind. Emphasize the fact that the waking world is, to its creators, more of a series of pet projects and works of art from a civilization that have since abandoned their creations for more novel pursuits. This also gives you plenty of room for worldhopping.

>>46955318
There was also a childrens historical novel I read one time about a Welsh kid who got called up to fight against the French. His village only provided four longbowmen, himself included. For a kids book it was shockingly brutal, and the main character almost dies of dysentery.

File: Map (1).jpg (687 KB, 1024x768)

687 KB JPG

this is addicting

>>46957292
Brilliant

The gods do exist, but they're more overly serious pretentious cunts who are too rigid in running nature

Should the antagonists be particularly stupid to contrast le troll man or be equally smart?

This guy basically goes on to invent magic so humans could give evil beings the middle finger after he left to wander the world in search of fun and pleasure

>>46954554
>So, who exactly fought in war in medieval times?

http://www.writing-world.com/sf/hordes.shtml

>>46957491
hey

that's pretty good

File: 1402326674937.jpg (398 KB, 1250x812)

398 KB JPG

Anyone got some good maps for scifi games? Looking to make a "star chart", but I'd like to see something that can give me inspiration.

I'll bump with a pic in the meantime.