Fabulous Fauna EditionWelcome to /wbg/, the official thread for the discussion of in-progress settings for traditional games.Here is where you go to present and develop the details of your worlds such as lore, factions, magic and ecosystems. You can also post maps for your settings, as well as any relevant art (either created by you or used as inspiration for your work). Please remember that dialogue is what keeps the thread alive, so don't be afraid of giving someone feedback!Last Thread: >>93032076Resources for Newfags: https://sites.google.com/view/wbgeneral/Worldbuilding links: https://pastebin.com/JNnj79S5https://cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/view/Eo+fK41FKVR7xDpbNO0a0N4k0YYxrmyrhX3VxnM14Ew/Fantasy map generator: https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generatorThread Questions:>If your setting has any creatures or monsters that don't exist in real life, what are they? Where did you look for inspiration and what was your process?>What are the major things to remember when creating creatures and monsters? Are there any common mistakes you see people make there?>How do these creatures affect the lives of the people in your setting, do they tame them or fight them? And what's key to making a good domesticated creature vs a wild one that can’t really be tamed?>Do your creatures or monsters have any magical or otherwise fantastical traits and abilities, and if so what are they and how do they work?
So I've got this (evil) scifi state that sucks out the energy from stars. But I realized that that's not a great use of it, and I love nuclear power, so I made up an extra piece of lore:>Spaceships do suck out the energy from stars>But then they convert them into uranium or plutonium rods for more convenient storage.>Then they carry them to planets or space stations, where they're plugged to nuclear power plants.>Energy is now ready for use in a more convenient manner.So does that make sense? Would converting the mass of the stars to nuclear material be a more convenient way to use their energy?
>yes, orcs are a stand-in for black people in my setting>why do you ask?
>>93103178>>If your setting has any creatures or monsters that don't exist in real life, what are they? Where did you look for inspiration and what was your process?I have a Duniverse inspired space opera setting, where mankind has spread across the galaxy and has not encountered alien life more complex than unicellular archaea or multicellular protozoa/fungi/pseudo-algae. All the fauna and flora in the setting are either: A.) imported organisms from Earth, like most flowers.B.) genetically manipulated organisms from earth altered as to better survive on other planets or to serve some purpose. Most food crops.C.) Earth organisms that have evolved on alien planets into a new species of their own over the millenia. Tigerhounds - earth canines that have gone feral and developed stripe patterned fur similar to earth felines are a good example.D.) Chimeras, artificial hybrids of two or more completely different organisms grafted together into a completely new species. Crocotta - chimeras created by fusing together crocodile, hyeana and tasmanian devil DNA, as such things.>>What are the major things to remember when creating creatures and monsters? Are there any common mistakes you see people make there?Basic biology and elementary ecosystems. All organisms in the wild fill a niche in the ecosystem, which is always more than the simple sum of the organisms in it. A lot of people just like to make predatory organisms as monsters for their players to kill en masse without giving much thought how so many carnivorous animals could coexist in that one area in the first place.(1/2)
>>93103976>>How do these creatures affect the lives of the people in your setting, do they tame them or fight them? And what's key to making a good domesticated creature vs a wild one that can’t really be tamed?Since computers of any kind and sophisticated technology is absolutely haram in the setting on many bucolic worlds people still rely on beasts of burden and steeds for the agricultural work and pastoral lifestyle. In our world most domesticad fauna are social creatures that prefer the company of their own kin, making putting a large number of them in one place viable.>>Do your creatures or monsters have any magical or otherwise fantastical traits and abilities, and if so what are they and how do they work?Some bioweapon organisms have traits or abilities specifically tailor-made to make them more lethal to baseline humans, such as the Banshee - a chimera made using simian and bat DNA that is cabable of screaming in a frequency that directly stimulates the ''panic'' portion of the human brain, momentarily paralyzing any human being in hearing range, making them vulnerable to attack.(2/2)
>>93103544It's kinda underwhelming considering you have a whole star's energy to play with. Also "suck" the energy implies something like starlifting to me or some sorta "magnetic field lariat" which would snatch at flares. In either case you'd be grabbing mostly hydrogen which is more useful if you have a fusion based economy. Since it's past iron the only way you'd get missiles is by inducing supernova or using fusion from said plasma to power "alchemical" reactors (rather than generator ones) which begs the question of why you're not using fusion for ships.Best I can come up with is that fusion is a stellar/planetary scale enterprise which is finicky enough to require a whole civilisation's oversight. The power to produce missiles is a rounding error when you have a star at your disposal so keeping things simple, stupid and small for transit might be the way to go. Of course the infrastructure for fusion might also implement antimatter production but again it could be a bitch to scale up and/or an unacceptable means of sabotage given the fusion economy's reliance on massive fragile infrastructure.Any use?>>93103976How "operatic" are we talking? Nice touch re-evolving extinct mammals btw, gives it an otherworldly touch.
>>93103178The setting's much like >>93103976 though lacking macrofauna doesn't stop native life from being a threat. One world for instance is defined by the fact that the native life they thought sterilised by the planet's "snowball" stage in fact persisted as semi-fossil spores in permafrost.As the wildly successful terraforming process progressed it warmed the air, turned the ground to slush and reawakened what would become the Blight. Heavy GM regimens, evolution alongside Blight microdoses and the presence of cell walls make plants mostly-immune carriers of the xenobes. Fauna and fungi are not so lucky, it'll only gradually kill you but is disastrous for fertility, inspiration is the Rifters series and the Expanse. No biochemical compatibility, we're just a cozy environment to colonise.Another desert world features aeroplankton and dune-sifters derived from ayylium glass sponge / diatoms. Basically the daytime sun is deadly so they've evolved prisms to redirect it around their innards, they can also heat air to approximate air column control. Not too deadly except for asbestos-like effect from breathing during "crystal blooms" and rumours that the thunderous singing dunes vibrate at infrasound frequencies with nasty effects on human cognition.I'm also toying with an ex-Superearth which has its crust+mantle stripped by not!Theia leaving a hyper-ferrous planet behind (unstable space debris of the old crust deorbiting and the odd comet provides the CNP etc for life). The whole planet's stuck see-saeing around the oxygenation of the atmosphere and rusting of the world into banded iron formations. It's flipped from aerobic to anaerobic several times over and humans just so happened to have arrived during peak habitability, their industry and indiscriminate terraforming is likely to push things back to the "rust world" end of things pretty quick.Thoughts?
>>93103544I think it sounds okay enough. But stars are fucking HUGE, absorbing their plasma and turning it into uranium would give so much energy I'm not sure how many worlds per star you need.
>>93103178Kys d*scord cancer.
>>93103544It’d probably be less complicated to have orbital collectors that take the energy and turn it into a laser, sending it to one in orbit around the planet, which then sends it to the ground.
>>93103544Why not just use the gases from the star in fusion generators?
>>93105588Compared to them, our own world may as well live in the stone age. Their energy consumption is correspondingly much higher than ours.>>93109147NGL, that sounds very overcomplicated.But I like it anyway. I think I'll read up on it and see if I can integrate it. Thnx for the idea.>>93113055Because you still need to store the energy somewhere.
>>93109147If this is an FTL kinda setting with huge distances, it may take longer for the light to reach the destination than converting a star into fuel rods and FTL-shipping them out of there. Any changes you'd like to make to the system, like redirecting the laser beam for temporary maintenance of the receptor array, would also suffer from this lag.In some circumstances you may also run into atmospheric turbulence in the way, something like a nebula that would disperse the laser beam.
>>93113695It's within a single Solar System. Our solar system, to be precise.
Hello thread, I'm working on a male-only race of elf-like humanoids and I could use some suggestions for a reproduction method that doesn't involve malepreg or impregnating females of other species. I don't mind the use of magic, but I'd rather it was rooted in some sort of biology. If it's any help, I envision them as an advanced civilisation of inventors who mix magic and technology.
>>93115708> Need them to reproduce> They can't get pregnant> And they can't impregnate eitherIf they don't impregnate anything are they really male?That said my suggestions is Basically Mitosis™> They split off a younger copy of themselves.> Infant, child, as long as they're not fully matured it means they might develop differently.> If it's a natural process, how exactly it happens can be up to you.
>>93115844I see so many all-female humanoid species/civilisations, I felt like trying my hand at making an all-male one that's not monsters raping women and livestocks. The issue is male preg is gross no matter how I look at it.Splitting is a solution, but how do you control population from there? You could also include permanent fusions, but at this point you're just copying the Nameks.
>>93115708Have you never heard of cloning?
>>93117176Not a natural mean though, no? I'd rather they were naturally all-male, but if I can't find anything satisfying, I can always opt for some shit about females having gone extinct.
>>93103178I’m working on a wizard duel tournament for my setting and could use some help with it please. Basically, once every hundred years a specialist in every category of magic/type of spell is chosen for a grand tournament, one in which the winner of each bout gains the magical knowledge of the loser, the mages growing stronger as the tournament continues, until the final winner becomes the most powerful mage in the world, and the head of the mage's council for the next 100 years, a bit like a magical version of Highlander. I just need some more types/specialties of magic in order to pad out the brackets a bit, no matter how if they don't seem useful in direct combat or not like healing spells or the various kinds of divination, since I want to have every branch of magic possible to be included in this besides the go-to ones like illusions, summoning, artifice, elemental spells, or necromancy. They can be as specific or broad as you want.
>>93103178I homebrewed up a game, 3d printed it all out, got the rules to a state of good enough and I am in the room to explain it, and played a few games. My game is quite good (if im in the room to explain it) and I am ready to expand on the game. >Working title is Armageddon: The Galaxy Ablaze>Grid based wargame, only have a skirmish version done where 12 units can be deployed>Only 1 faction completed that being the space americans.I am at a bit of a standstill at the moment when coming up with new factions. Primarily due to how your army plays is loosely based off of how the IRL army is organized (primarily their riflesquad). My main idea was to make the superpower factions and iron out their gameplay, then create subfactions that are allied with the superpowers and they could use gameplay from other superpowers. Since all the factions is tied to their IRL counterparts however, the superpowers are extremely generic>Space Americans>Space nazis>The super space empire >Communists>Xeno crusaders>Dwarf Jihadists>Technology bad elves>Apocalypse tier undead/xeno abominationAll of those factions that i thought up of just don't sit right with me and I find them incredibly boring. My question for you all is generic and boring bad? Or is this a case of generic and boring good but you need to do a lot of work to make them interesting? If you need to do work to make them interesting what type of work? Creating spicy subfactions they are allies with thus creating some spicy scenarios?
Why did gargoyles become so associated with vampires over time?
>>93119101Since when are they aasociated with one another? Sure, they're both kinda gothic but that's pretty much it.
>>93115708my elfs are spirits that have been incernated when they gain enough presence/sentience. You could do something similar.Maybe the sapling of the elven world tree can grow into yound kid elves, or smth
>>93117658Cartomancy, cryptomancy, runic magic, crystalomancy, mysticism, spirit magic, knots based magic, shamanism, witchcraft, etc
>>93118098The main bit is changing the flavour of the faction even if you don't super change the mechanics of them. Look at Endless Space 2: https://wiki.endless-space.com/factions, You've got the Hissho who are space Japs, but because the flavour of them differs they don't just feel like Space Japs.If you change the space nazis into something like Horatio, viewing a perfected universe as simply an extension of 1 singular perfect being, then it's different than just space Nazis and actually leaves space for subfactions and permutations of the concept. Especially if you are using sci-fi and galaxy sizes as a basis then throw each of the factions to entirely new species as massive monoliths and then fill the space underneath with more subtle or differences. If you have the 40k empire as a faction, you can have all the different portions as subfaction with different tactics and flavour which both enrich the overall picture and provide mechanical variation.
>>93103178In my setting there are four elemental archmages, and once they reach a certain stage in their training when still apprentices they choose a familiar compatible with their element, which drastically grows in size and power once they reach their full potential (like the first archmage here, who divided the elements between his four students so that no one could ever rival his level of power), and I'm trying to come up with animals and magical creatures that mesh well with element. I mean, there's fish for Water of course, but maybe elephants also work because they shoot water out of their trunks, that kind of thing, got any ideas?
>>93119166What he said. Where are you getting this from?
>>93113723So no FTL? That makes physically transporting all that material a much more time and energy consuming endeavor.
>>93121802Just pick a different amnimal type for each familiar. AMphibians or fish for water, birds for air, mammals for earth and lizards for fire
>>93122156I want to mix it up a bit though, like how the current Fire archmage has a Phoenix for a familiar. Not to mention that by that logic, Whales and Dolphins would be Earth-aligned despite living in the oceans.
>>93117410There are a few species out there, like whiptail lizards, where they can produce genetically identical offspring to the mother, and in the case of said lizards there are species that have no males at all, that's what that anon meant.
>>93119101They both have a vague bat association, but that’s it.
>>93119881>knots based magicNever heard of that before. Got any more?
>>93122754yeah, saw about it once in some blogpost whose name i have long forgotten, but it was cool enough that it stuck with metruenaming, alchemy, consumption based magic, tattoo magic, hermetic magic, hexesi mean if you aren't going by dnd standards you can have countless types of magic/systems
>>93115708Why not have them born from something else entirely? There's also the 40k Ork route of them being fungus or something similar. Athena-style born out of nothing via thought with magical assistance I'm sure since they aren't divinities.Born pregnant and give birth only once in their lifecycle like Hutts from Star Wars.There's plenty of ways to go about it.
>>93122853Shame that you can't remember, I'd like to check out that blog myself. And yeah, reject dnd! By "consumption based magic" I'm guessing you mean eating things to absorb their attributes, like that one character from MHA?
>>93125647>https://www.harpercollins.com.au/blog/2021/06/16/threadneedle-origin-knot-magic/not the blog i was searching for but this is the best i could do with a google search. It really was a historical rural folk occult practice throughout historyand yes that's the consumption type magic i was thinking off or like mistborn. consumption based magic can be very varied in the way you apply it. it's awesome.my personal favourite magic system i' ve conceived has been wands/staves based. it's an eastern philosophy type of magic, with the interconnection of the world as a basic concept plus the ability to influence it through occult understanding and the application of your will. basically different materials will produce different results your wand/stave/staff represents your mastery, with grandmaster "wizards" owning and being able to use more than one staff while apprentice wizards will start with a simple wand.traditionalists use wood for it's longevity and connection to the earth and the more remote from humanity the better it is connected to the spirit world and therefore able to affect the natural world (aka use magic) so you have "wizards" roaming the wilderness trying to find a place of spiritual connection to them personally and a tree who's sampling they will fashion into a staff.i just find the imagery so cool and evocative
Would a completely matrilineal succession for nobility lead to more, or less cadet branches?
>>93103178>>93103178My setting has four pantheons, each based on one of the four seasons. I can cone up with a few spheres of influence for each season, like War for Summer, Harvest for Fall, Death for Winter and Life for Spring, just to give an example for each, but I want to have several more deities for each season, so I need more, what would you suggest for me?
>>93126263Okay, this is interesting from what a quick skim tells me, I'll take a more detailed look later, thanks.Oh, you're a Mistborn fan? Same here! Maybe I should reread the books for ideas. I would love to hear about your wands/staves system, and what materials do what precisely, by the way. Like, are different types of wood better at different kinds of magic?
>>93129192yes, the type of wood matters a lot as well as the piece of wood that you use and the way you obtained it. For example, fashioning a stave from the trunk of a cypress tree will have different potency and effectiveness at certain types of magic compared to an pine tree. This is both in the elemental magics and their closer association to certain elements and applications of magic.To give you another small example, there is a school of magicians that are drifters and gather only woods that have been broken from trees and usually carried by rivers and streams. These are not meant to be used for staffs usually but wands or staves. Their magical potency is mostly targeted towards enhancing characteristics related to endurance and adaptation, and subtle magics (going with the flow) so both their lifestyle and the experience" of the wood enhances the type of soft magic that they use.As you might understand this is purely a worldbuilding project and not tied to any rpg system. Also i ain't a native english speaker and my notes are all in my native language so i have a hard time translating even small passages like this but i hope you got an idea.
>humans have conquered and enslaved orcs and dwarves with relative ease>elves are against that not because of rights but because it makes humans fall (turn evil)How would you write them without sound too current year-y?
>>93129460What types of magic does cypress boost specifically, and what woods and other materials boost what elements? I'd imagine that mangrove wood gives a boost to Water magic for instance. Oh, do the aesthetics of the staves affect things as well? I'd imagine that a staff with flame symbols carved into it would be better at magic relating to flame for instance.
I need help coming up with excuses for civilians being allowed into "dungeons" that appeared around the modern world, instead of being restricted to the military.
>>93131131>military is understaffed / underbudgeted and has other priorities>civilian contractor work is cheaper>legal freedom of movement
>>93103178What's the best way to handle monsters that are part plant?
>>93132178Depends.Orchid-based monsters? Just look at them wrong and they will perish.Dandelion and bamboo-based monsters? Pray.
>>93132197>bamboo-based monstersI get dandelion monsters, they're weeds, nature has made them hard to get rid of, but why bamboo monsters?
>>93131105there is a lot of thought and preparation that goes into building a stave and there is variety in there. A cypress tree is a water tree so it always has a strong association with water, but one found deeply rooted in the banks of a river will have more capacity for water magic than the one from your garden let's say. they are also associated with grief and healing and excude a soothing effect. they are the best for manipulating emotions healing injuries both mental and physical, the manipulation and absorption of water, as well as strength and endurance enhancements. Both the part of the tree changes the potential properties of the staff, as well as the runes, decorations etc etched on it. You basically write your spells in an incantation style long form chant and adorn it with things that are spiritually related to such energies/abilities.Staffs have more of a carte blanche on what they can do as expected, but no two staffs from the same type of tree produce the exact same magic effects or have the same potency.
>>93132221Running bamboos are very hard control, as they grow fast and have high resistance to herbicides. Once it gets out of control, it can be near impossible to get rid of them and even more manageable cases might require a through digging of a large area to remove the whole root system.
>>93132261So, say a branch picked up after a storm will be less effective than a branch personally cut down? And what other woods and other materials work well for Water spells?
>>93132359it will be better at different things. the very association with the storm (and awareness of this association) will make it better for weather manipulation or lighting/wind magic and worse for healing and strengthening magicThere are a lot of trees associated with water and all have different secondary effects but some examples are Birches, magnolias, willows and pear trees
>>93132221Some cultivars of bamboo grow so fast that under optimal conditions you may get two inches of growth from each stalk an hour (Although that's lumber bamboo, bred for speedy growth. Half that is closer to normal). The largest species of bamboo grow so large that each stalk can weigh half a tonne, a size they reach remarkably quickly. If bamboo wasn't as well known and it started growing in the wild in the US you'd get dumb horror stories like you do with kudzu.Which, side note, it's still hilarious that Americans get so scared of Kudzu. Every part of that plant is edible including the roots, there are kudzu farms.
>>93134901Anon, re-read the last part. Usanians, veggies, terror...
>>93104567Had a brainwave so here I go a-dumpin' again! Basically trying to shove as many weird kingship adjacent quirks from RL dynasties and making them at least somewhat justified.Basically a key overarching theme is sociology-ish feats of sufficient advancement are possible when you have a barely contained superinsanity at your disposal. Making one of these things human compatible while retaining its alien brilliance is the holy grail. Ib's attempt relies on curating a cultured neuron network across generations in the hopes of humanity (and good rulership) rubbing off on it. Basically it's a Henrietta Lacks situation where the god-king rules by dint of being "less-likely-to-reject" host of the embryonic godhead. Egyptian/Inti "holy bloodline" incest is in effect to maintain the dyansty's relatedness to the founder though they combine it with a wider harem structure to ward off the worst of inbreeding. Ottoman-like mass fratricide is practiced by newly ascended kings as the Great Work is hard enough to oversee while curating just the one strain of divine cancer, if brother claimants (and their holy parasites) were to get loose things would be complicated considerably. A Chinese forbidden city is in effect both to prevent brothers from dispersing and to ensure that the King (and more importantly the god growing within them) is provided with a "morally uplifting" environment. The princes and king are head-bound and trepanned, the better for their pre-modern medical conclave to guide and catalogue the progress of infestation.
>>93135261There are eunuchs everywhere of course as well as old crones of the previous monarch's harem. Both are vital as they tend to the princes and perform haruspicy, resultant exposure to the cancer is a disaster to anyone with a working womb. It's learned to get... "creative" once given access to a pristine bio-foundry. Aside from tending to the king they rear sacred pigs used as transplant fodder (the king is a perpetual chemo patient) and as hosts for oracular tumours. More rarely an Aztec-like "festival king" is uplifted from among the people. With a whole brain to hijack the omens are especially crisp though often erratic, while alive the false king's actions are studied to inferior the (hopefully well-molded) attitudes of the cancer itself.Those are some strange historical habits I'm aware of anyway. If any others seem applicable do tell.>>93132197True but when you don't you have a beguiling parasite on your hands.>>93122754Sailors wind knots have folkloric pedigree. Also topology (which covers knots amongst other things) has some of the most visually understandable weirdness in maths. The stuff's ripe with possibility.
>>93135063You got me there, I didn't think about that aspect.>>93135266>>93122754Knot magic is still huge in the muslim world, it's up there with other talismans. But since it's also the one that's most easily connected to the religious ban on magic (The ban centers around magic using the hidden aspect of something. Which means as long as the magic is overt or the primary function of a thing it's generally allowed, and therein comes the debate) it's got an element of the taboo and is therefore infused with power in the culture.Muhammad is cursed in the hadiths by knots at least twice that I am aware of.The point is that you infuse the magic into the string through the process which then ends up holding the magic in the knot and releases it on those who hold it, like a talisman. But usually a bad talisman. So like you'd tie a string with a bad spell and put it in their bag or something and they'd get sick or have bad luck. Like a sort of remote detonated evil eye.
>>93132493So how the crafter 'perceives' of the materials has just as much impact on the result as the materials themselves and where they came from. What are some of these secondary effects? And what about woods/materials for darkness-aligned staves?
>>93136967So, the metaphysical concept behind it all is that the caster's "soul" connects with the soul of the staff which is an artificial "soul" and through the everything is connected concept he can reach out to things through the staff and influence the world around him, aka use magic. The way he perceives the materials of the staff and the associations he makes with it inform a part of it's capabilities, while another part is informed by it's innate properties.The more in tune with the experiences of the soul of the material a wizard is, the better he can craft a staff and bring out it's greatest strengths and abilities. You can also force a staff to take on different abilities in part due to your "perception" of it, willingly to get certain abilities out of it, even if you are going to end with a "suboptimal" staff.As i have based this a lot on folk practices and magics the secondary effects can be many and miniscule, like producing a certain aura or enhancing a feeling. Giving out warmth, or a specific smell etc. You can obviously cast small magic with these and it's pretty much the only type of magic wands (the smallest denomination) can do.Trees that need less sunlight and will often be found in perpetual shade, either due to other trees or some other natural phenomena will be best for darkness aligned staves. In this situation it is also very important to note that the northern you got the better this is because the general perpetual gloom and decrease in the intensity of sunlight. Trees from scandinavia will naturally be better than than trees from southern italy. Some specific tree species would be Elm and hemlock
>>93119101I don't think they should be. Gargoyles are actually good aligned. They adorn cathedrals because they are meant to be so ugly they scare away demons from the vicinity. Ergo- they are protecting people from evil. Also the term Gargoyle comes from the french for 'Gargle' as they were often also incorporated as water-spouts for the guttery water on the roof. Vampires have their root in the black plague era, and have more in common with zombies or typical undead.
>>93131131They are civilian experts in like archaeology, biology, or history and they are escorted to the dungeon to better study it.
Why do all fantasy writers insist on making maps of their settings, all they do is box the setting in and make it feel small and ordinaryConsider how grand and epic and fantastical the Odyssey feels until you look at it from above and go "oh" completely demystifying the islands, making them feel graspableAlternatively think of all the far away mythological battlefields where heroes fought and the future was forged and how uninteresting they feel if you can point to a meadow on a map and say "it happened here"
>>93131131You could make it so they're actually not allowed, but still sneak in, a la S.T.A.L.K.E.R. People aren't allowed into the Exclusion Zone, but they sneak in anyways, because there's a lot of money to be made. So maybe make a thriving black market for monster parts/dungeon artifacts.Also that picture goes hard for some reason. Modern fantasy Soulslike would be dope.
>>93139796I love maps. I think it's very important knowing what locations are where in relation to each-other. Let's take your map of greece for instance. I think it's very useful to know that Athensa nd Sparta are right next to each-other because it informs us how tight and intimate the Pelopenesian war really was when it was realy easy to march to one anothers capital. It's also useful to know that Delphi as the unofficial center of Greek religion was equally distant and further north to both Sparta and Athens. Likewise that the Macedonians, the highlander 'not-greeks' were so far to the north on the periphery of the Greek world, budging up with the barbarian Illyrians and Thracians. In a modern context it's also useful to see that former greek lands in Anatalia are now in Turkey, and how this generates conflict between the two countries to this day. You complain about making a setting smaller, but an easy fix to that is just to invent new lands whenever you want and just say that the old map was inaccurate. Medieval maps are insanely inaccurate compared to today.
>>93139796>Implying the players have to see the mapMaps are a way for DMs to more concretely understand where things are located relative to PCs. Old school rules also had hex-crawling, such as rules to time out how long a journey would take (which is important if you're tracking rations). If you don't do hex-crawl stuff, and you just handwave the traveling for the most part, you can ignore maps entirely.Pic unrelated, but it's an elf so it's on-topic.>Captcha: ARBYYFuck off, I'm not eating at Arby's.
>>93139976All of this can be conveyed through other means like dialogue instead of having to set distances in stone and define everything in between. I just think it's lame when you have a scene like pic related for example and then make the location some ordinary backwater reachable by anyone instead of some mythical "far away" that's somehow always simultaneously far away to everyone, no one lives there or has ever lived there and considered it a familiar home, and it's seemingly impossible to visit again once you leave. This applies to all kinds of location "feels", for example a mysterious enchanted elf forest that's somehow always in a different spot versus something traders regularly see while going back and forth between cities. I don't have anything against settings with a map per se, I'm just wondering why they're so prevalent compared to the non-map option.
>>93140033I disagree. I think making a location something that is concrete, a place that you can visit, gives it a sense of history. There's countless examples in real life- again to use Greece, how Mt. Olympus was a real-world location that attracted pilgrims, or how Salamis was the site of where the Persian Army was one, or Marathon, or how the Delian League was based in Delos which is where the Athenians kept their hoarde of gold. I think it's more interesting knowing that Odessius didn't come across a random sea-monster in the middle of the vast nothingness of the ocean, but that he specifically dealt with Scylla and Charybdis at the straight in Sicily. Or the fact that Scylla was a real-world permanent whirlpool in the region that made sailing a massive hazard for people to navigate (Sicily has since moved slightly away from Italy making it less treacherous to sail through today). I argue having a location nailed down to a map gives a setting weight. As for it's prevalence, well maps are a good authors tool to help keep information organized on who is where and what the difficulties in getting from point a. to point b. are, and if an author is going to come up with the trouble of coming up with a mental map, why not show it to the audience.
>>93140087That's fine and all as long as you're making a relatively modern world that's touching upon its history, but if you're making something that's supposed to feel like you're living the myths and legends then it's just making the places feel mundane. You want to convey the actual feeling people used to have before accurate or satellite maps were available, and that means just rough directions and mysterious "here be dragons", even the ancient Greeks were disappointed when they climbed Olympus and realized it was just a big rock, which is why they invented the idea of the pantheon living in the sky above Olympus, similarly the Odyssey eventually veers into a completely fictional netherworld that we know for a fact doesn't exist, but people back then could believably mistake for a real place just like the Sicilian straight. A map directly contradicts the sense of wonder and scale people used to feel in old times. >and if an author is going to come up with the trouble of coming up with a mental map, why not show it to the audienceFor the same reason he wouldn't reveal the overarching structure of the plot and all the other notes.
>>93140033>I don't have anything against settings with a map per se, I'm just wondering why they're so prevalent compared to the non-map option.I'll elaborate a bit on my other post >>93140000The culture/traditions within D&D evolved out of a playstyle that used hex maps for travel, so they're a holdover from older editions. Even if DMs/referees decided to not show players the map that's being used, it was still helpful because part of the game was originally designed to make overland travel a challenge. D&D was very influential on the TTRPG genre, so even once hex-crawls stopped being used there were still maps being published to help people running games. They also gave illustrators more to do, even if it's making a map that won't see much use in-game.I could try using an example:>The DM knows exactly how far you are from the location, and where exactly the location is.>If your party doesn't have access to a map, the info you have is entirely dictated by the DM's ability and/or transparency.>The DM tells you that your characters know that your objective lies to the south.>How far? The DM might tell you the exact distance, or he might tell you how many days it will take to get there. Maybe he won't tell you anything besides "it's far away, because it's not even on the horizon".>Let's assume the DM doesn't tell you anything specific. He still has the ability to math out exactly how many in-game days it will take to get there, and all that journey is going to involve the chance of fighting monsters or wild animals. >Or, potentially, it's a largely peaceful journey that's only challenge is the environment and survival due to low supplies. The specifics were left up to rolls and random tables, with the only constant usually being how long it would take to get from point A to point B. This is why hex maps were used to measure travel distance, your supplies mattered and you could potentially run into nothing that gave you more food.
>>93140153Tolkien was pretty frank about his writing process. He included a whole preamble about why Lord of the Rings ISN'T about WW2. Anyway you are clearly trying to create a sense in your storytelling of the intangible and ephemeral. And that's fine, that's clearly where your tastes seem to be. I'm a history major and very irreligious so I find it more interesting to try to work with the concrete. I don't think that necessarily translates into the mundane though, it's just about your perspective. I mean- as an example there's a whole lot of mythologizing about the American Revolution. It's still pretty solid history with firm locations and dates, and arguably that's all mundane. But I think there's still mythic weight behind those events when you consider the major themes and ideas of the era, what people thought and believed and fought for. There's deconstructionist schools on the revolution to be sure, but I think that just adds additional layers rather than takes away from them.
>>93139374Why did you put "soul" in quotations? Regardless, thanks for explaining that. And what if a wizard uses a staff that someone else, say their teacher, made, does it get a sub-optimal result?I presume that in contrast palm and other tropical woods that get a lot of sun will be well-aligned for Light magic staves, right? Also, we've talked a lot about woods, but what about the other materials used to decorate and focus staves, since you mentioned other materials besides a few times but didn't really elaborate, how much influence do they actually have? Like, if you add say a diamond to a Light staff, does it actually make it more efficient at Light magic in a way that would justify the cost?
>>93115708They puke out eggs like Namekians.
>>93140585because it is not a soul with the way the western religion conceives of a soul, but the eastern way of everything has a soul which is very different. I just didn't find a better way to show it in text.You would presume correctly, but there is a lot and i mean a lot of darkness magic in the tropical areas because overgrown jungles means that countless trees, ferns, slammer bushes etc might never see direct sunlight and exist in perpetual shade under the taller tropical canopy.This part about decorating materials, i haven't exactly elaborated upon because the ideas are not exactly concrete in my mind, but yes, your diamond example is completely valid, but the more foreign the two materials are the greater the dissonance in the artificial soul of the staff so stuff that aren't out of pure and related local material components for decoration, adornment or empowerment have complications.In my mind there is the naturalist way and the more artificial way, of more "industrial" countries of empire with specifically selected grooves and trying to empirically craft stuff and the naturalists that go the exact opposite way to their craft and are in the more remote/ regressive regions of the world.The first type of guys would definitely go for something like what you said for a light staff, while a shamans staff from a tribe will be much more occult and naturalistic.The work is obviously wip and most concepts haven't crystallized perfectly in my mind but i m glad you re finding it interesting enough anon
>>93139796>t. greekconsider that the audience of the odyssey would have a good grasp of the locations of the odyssey at the very least. it was a contemporary piece of verbal lore poetry. People would know where these lands were supposed to be and what they were supposed to be like.It's like someone made a magical tale of his US travels. You would know that there arent any fey spirits, or whatever folk stuff you american believed in 150 years ago, in the woods of Arkansas, but the story was as much a myth as a history.
I've written up a backstory for my settingMy goal was to write it sort of like those early Blizzard game manuals (particularly Diablo and Starcraft)How is the writing so far? The world?
>>93142344i don't think that i am good enough to criticise it technically but something feels a little lacking and disconnected
>>93115708They fire off spores which meet other spores to become baby elves, which then grow out of the ground like trees.
>>93141548There's a difference between having an in-person grasp of vast spaces and having perfect satellite imagery of it, try to remember what your impression of the world was when you were a kid
>>93122138No, no FTL. It has to be carried the old fashioned way.
>Conflict is the bedrock of the supernatural world>Stronger beings, human or monster or even gods, feed on lesser beings.>Lesser beings have to band together just to survive. >Stronger beings become predators (monster) or farmers (gods)>Not participating isn't a choice. How grimdark is this?
>>93142949extremely
>>93142949grimdarkness is entirely how you present it, that synopsis could describe fucking pokemon
how to go about making an enchanted forest a comfortable, whimsical place to live, but also an inhospitable hellworld to invaders?
>>93143145Fey, but they like you or you are in a pact with them. The whismy gnomes will make tea parties with mushrooms as teacups for yah, raised in the entrails of invaders wich have they heads (sill alive btw) harvested and used as sprinklers for they salt resistent garden.
>>93142621>i don't think that i am good enough to criticise it technically but something feels a little lacking and disconnectedNo, any feedback is appreciatedWhat feels lacking and disconnected?
What is peak use of orcs in high fantasy, that isn't just subvertin' heckin expectatiorinos?Big+brawny/runty+wretched barbarians... Anything else? I need something to differentiate em from goblins etc.
>>93144112>Big+brawny/runty+wretched barbariansUrgals from Eragon?
>>93142949depends on how deep>Conflict is the bedrock of the supernatural worldgoes and how bad it derails into mass slaughterif it's just stabilized to old mcdonald had a farm mode, then it's a bit bleak, but burried deep in the background and weakly contextualizing what is actually happening
>>93144112Give them an actual culture, like something based on the Mongolians or Bedouins. Other than that, they can be the classic orcs if you want. Just give them some depth besides "guys who raid and war all the time".Example questions to ask to flesh out their culture:>What's the reason behind their warmongering attitude? Why do they raid others so much?>Do they raid each other or have inter-tribal wars?>Is their culture homogenous? If no, what is stopping them from having tribe vs tribe conflict?>If they have a religion, is it part of the reason why they go to war so often? If yes, why?
>>93144126>>93144234It's a weird dynamic with the world I am creating. It has some classic fantasy races and themes, before wily coyotey running off a cliff and getting weird with some extras. The familiar elements are a kind of cover for a story arc.So I am wondering how to utilize the old school "orc" in an added value fashion, but not just via subversion, like making them into bipedal gorillas or queer afro-american hippies.Culture certainly plays into it, but that can be swapped out case by case, region by region. Phenotype and capabilities would have to be determined from the get go, however, so I don't want to have to overhaul it later.
>>93144334PS Goblin MO is they're actually somewhat advanced and politically sophisticated, but scatterbrained and chaotic. That combined with size holds them back.
>>93144334I made my orcs green-skinned, fire-worshipping, animistic neanderthals. The humans are currently crusading against the orcs due to wanting their lands back, but it's also pretty much a race war due to it being humans vs orcs.
>>93144112I classify orcs as the common ogre, aka, they are a common threat for lonely humans and farms, they go in groups, but not that powerful or numerous to be a threat to tribes or kingdoms be themselves. More like social bears mixed with predatory neanderthal theory with they own magic, they survive mainly because they can live in caves and the underworld less choicy parts. Thye aren't usually taller than men (tough the big "greys-hairs" can get heavy, a tall human will tower over them) they are the kind than is very strong and "explosive" but tire easy, they don't sweat and have trouble using throwing weapons (crossbows than they pillage or use goblins as auxiliars for they raids).
>>93144127>old mcdonald had a farm modeROFL, what's that even supposed to mean?
>>93142974Bruv, is your knowledge of Pokemon coming solely from darkfics?
>>93144334One way to maybe go about it is to have them go through a stage of development that heightens their aggression and tendency towards violence to a level where they are anathema to civilised life and so are ritually kicked out of their tribes and community until they have passed through that warlike stage. In order to survive out in the wild these orcs gather together into koryos-esque warbands. Their role when reintroduced to society following the passaging of this stage in their development could then be determined on the renown and loot they managed to amass. Orchish dowries could be notoriously expensive in order to make sure that only the best of the crop get to pass their genes on. That way you'd be able to have the stereotypical blood crazed orc marauders aswell as the more civilised ones.
>>93144127>depends on how deep>>Conflict is the bedrock of the supernatural world>goes and how bad it derails into mass slaughterTo put it this way, conflict is the ONLY way you can survive in the magical world. Monsters will always prey on humans, and gods will demand worship from the same humans in the form of human sacrifices.The only way to survive in this world as anything but a farm animal or prey is to become strong enough that nobody can subjugate or kill you. And once you have done that....congrats, because you have now painted a target on your back.Now every single one of the infinite supernatural beings in the world wants to kill or enslave you for the crime of being powerful enough to be useful.And that includes other powerful humans, who are constantly competing against each other for power and money in society.
The Great King imported thousands of young slave girls a hundred years ago, and put them through inhumane experiments and training that killed half of them off. The survivors managed to escape, and now hide in the frozen wastes. They make their living by hunting and hiring themselves out as mercenaries. However, their supernatural abilities make them the target of a new breed of monsters. Evil humans that want to put these girls back into slavery so that they can breed an army of super-soldiers that can conquer the world.They tend to be fierce and scrawny, but still beautiful in an Amazonian way. They usually walk barefoot because I have a fetish for how it makes girls look vulnerable and domestic, but they also carry weapons they're incredibly deadly with.One of them is worth a hundred soldiers.
>>93143145>Entire ecosystem has a single intelligence that goes apeshit on people that piss it off, is calm and pleasant otherwise>Ecosystem is only considered paradise to a very specific type of person (nurgle and his garden for example)>Ecosystem is a paradise except its entirely infested with a certain germ/vapor/parasite that causes unspeakable agony for those not immune>Ecosystem has some sort of magical trap door or shadow realm version of itself, can swap around or send intruders to the other side>Ecosystem is simply too polar of an opposite for a potential invader (think of water breathing fish people trying to conquer a desert planet)Hopefully one of these is of use to someone
Sci fi settingFor one of the factions I have a unified theme for their space ships, something akin to the star wars destroyers but legally distinct. But I am also a big fan of the LotGH ship designs, and I'm considering a sort of fusion design, a big space triangle with a particle cannon block on the front.But I'm not 100% on it. It kind of detracts from the unified theme, and I was thinking of maybe just giving every ship a single particle gun so they can keep the triangle shape. But again, all on the drawing board, I'm just looking for a little input.
Wanting to add an Underdark type locale to my setting and have been thinking of what kinda creatures and plant life will inhabit it. For a starting point I'm gonna assume a majority of the caverns are lit up with bioluminescence. After that I only really need to make up plants and animals that would have an effect on adventurers or passerby.Thus far I have basically Half Life Barnacles, who have a shell with camouflage made to look like stalactites. Due to the surrounding bioluminescence eyes would not have gone away in this enviroment so I can put a little light at the end of their dangling tongues, as well as a super sticky sap/saliva on the end to ensnare prey. I might also throw in alligator snapping turtles with a glowing tongue for the lakes.For more inspiration Ill continue watching speculative evolution videos and maybe look up some bestiaries. Any recommendations for these?
>>93115708if you're gonna make your degenerate yaoi elf fan fiction just go full /d/ and have mpreg you retard
>>93144112I like TES' take on orcs personally, it's not exactly "subversive" but it gives them more depth and personality than generic mooks to throw at the protagonists.
>>93116296Why not go the Smurfette route? Just have one female or very few females who exists for breeding purposes, and figure out how a society/culture would form around that.Alternatively, just have both males and females look like human males, and have their gender differences be largely hidden or unnoticeable to other races.
>>93146840this reminded me of something that could work for anon and his all-male elf society, an old friend of mine had some culture or group or whatever in one of his settings that were basically greek vikings, where the royalty almost exclusively married traps, but kept concubines for reproduction. women in general in this society were treated as separate but equal, allowed to serve in the military but not allowed in any role of authority outside of serving as wise women.
>>93145043They sound a lot like Claymores from Claymore
>>93145510I'll use a little of column 1 and column 5
>>93103178How do create creatures and monsters for fantasy settings versus Sci Fi settings?
>>93147493Science fiction settings need to come up with an excuse for how the monsters are threats to modern humans with guns and tanks and shit. They also can't generally just say, "Yeah, this is a ghost" or make similar appeals to magic.
>>93148235Okay, and what are some good excuses? And what about non-monstrous alien creatures?
>>93117658Why is the council's leadership decided via tournament, and why would non-combat disciplines ever be represented there?
>>93148244>Okay, and what are some good excuses?It's really big, it has really good armor, it's a lot of really small creatures so you can't just shoot it, it's toxic so it's dangerous even if you kill it, it's stealthy enough to get the jump on you even with your fancy equipment, it has [weird sciency power that's basically magic], it's actually a robot/nanomachine swarm/other high tech made to kill people.>And what about non-monstrous alien creatures?Harder to bring into a story, but generally you go for the stand-bys of Earth animals: tracking companions (dogs), war beasts (dogs), mounts (elephants, horses), work animals (ox), food animals (cattle, pigs), production of important biological goods (sheep). In general any alien critter that's not fitting the role of "a monster" is going to be "a tool": something humans (or other sapients, depending on setting) use to accomplish their ends. Otherwise they're mostly just flavor, since they don't generally have sophisticated motives.
>>93146926Only in the sense that they're enhanced female warriors.
>>93148575Scavenger's Reign got good mileage out of making the environment itself a riddle/character of sorts. Not suitable for every game but very fun. There's also "blight" as a spot between monster, tool and flavour. Locusts are an institutional thread on par with an incoming storefront, not so singular a threat but still great fodder for stories.>>93148290Too late to post now but that shit is my jam. Monsters a la >>93147493 are less common but some recently came to me in a dream.
>>93141531Reminds me a bit of the Japanese concept of Kami.Okay, so what might a member of those tribes go for to get materials for Light-aligned staffs vs what the more industrial societies would do? What about for Darkness magic?
>>93142344I did want another idea for this- I wanted the heaven and hell expies to wage war for opposing ideological differences.However I didn't want either side to be good or evil, and each one is capable of great cruelty and malice. I also didn't want something as overused as order vs chaos. What would be some good ideologies for a heavenly force and a hellish force to possess?
>>93149229they are inspired by kami partially and the buddist undertones of everything is connected amongst many things.Industrial societies would use glass or crystals in general, or as you mentioned games like diamonds, while a shaman will adorn it with things that have gained an association to light like small completely white rocks, or pieces from the bones of an animal that have been bleached white by the sun, the furthertop leaves of the tallest trees at the top of the jungle canopy, etc.For darkness magic basalt and most commonly obsidian is a common and favoured material, as well as moss from the deepest wells and ravines, etc, while an industrial society might try and breed the darkest most black bark and tree they can, adorn it with black metallic studs that have light absorption properties etc
>>93144388>>93144410Neanderthal is a good angle and I intend to use that, but for dwarves. Sparingly, so people don't immediately get it, hopefully.I dunno about cannibalism. It would really put them on a bad footing...>>93144791>koryos-esque warbandsI was so waiting to mention this, as I read that. lol You are spot on, this would resolve the orc raiding... that or Ayahuasca combat drug analog trips. Hmm.>>93144994>human sacrificesah, so that's the farming bit? Yeah, that's fucked.I feel it still could be somewhat softened if gods extend patronage over "champions" or w/e, but if that's not viable, then yeah, breddy hardcore, bruvvah.>>93146700It all comes down to where the energy is coming from. Some volcanic vents on the bottom of lakes? trickle down from up high? Some magical/radiation-based input? Shrooms can feed off radiation, there's some that do it in Chernobyl.
>>93150468>>human sacrifices>ah, so that's the farming bit? Yeah, that's fucked.>I feel it still could be somewhat softened if gods extend patronage over "champions" or w/e, but if that's not viable, then yeah, breddy hardcore, bruvvah.Pagans used to sacrifice humans to their gods. The gods of the heathens were evil things that demanded blood in return for "protection", and by protection I meant continued rule to the King and nobility.That was my inspiration. Small g gods are evil but powerful beings that offer to protect a community in return for regular sacrifices. Preferably children, of course. It's comparable to how farmers raise cattle for the slaughter. And to make things worse, is still preferable to monsters just eating whoever they can.
PS Also, the Masai had something like the koryos band. Mainly served to wipe out semi-nomadic clans from other cultures moving around the vicinity. A sort of death squad, rather than procuring loot or property. Prob worth looking into.Still have no idea what silhouette/face/physical traits to use... Small orcs are kinda pointless around goblins, right? People like big, thicc meatheads for orcs, right?>>93144543Well, you know. Like in the song, everything's in place and accounted for. People getting peacefully farmed for their worship and going about their lives.But it turns out it's live sacrifice, so they'd be under constant pressure to find captives and scapegoats. So Flower Wars on steroids, pretty much, across the globe.
>>93150532>Pagans used to sacrifice humans to their gods.That wasn't a rule and it was eventually cracked down on by the pagan cultures that never developed it or abandoned it, like Romans.The economic factor to this is not to be underestimated. There's a profit motive for quantity there that would end with massive bloodshed. Most cultures that did human sacrifices did it to get rid of mouths to feed or terrorize the communities they lorded over and therefore it wasn't very significant. Just the hope of somebody receiving an imaginary blessing was already a serious stimulus to up the number. Real feedback would yield radical response.
Bear in mind that humans being enslaved by gods or being prey for monsters is the backstory. Things have improved since....if you count being ruled by Sorcerer-Kings instead of gods as an improvement, and constant infighting between Mages to be better than the human sacrifices.Monsters are still around, but they've been getting rarer because Mages kill them a lot. On the other hand, they've also started getting stronger.
>>93147493>fantasyMagic and alchemy>sci-fiRadiation and science
>>93151267>FantasyRadiation>Sci-fi Radiation
>>93150164You mentioned bones there, that got me thinking, what woods and materials would each culture use for staffs made for necromancy spells? Assuming that it exists in your setting of course. And if not, what would they do for fire spells? After all, it's not like there's wood that won't burn, lol.
>>93154370>it's not like there's wood that won't burnfreshly felled or wet wood takes an eternity to burn
>>93150468Im not too worried about the nitty gritty, but I could venture to suggest magic via ley lines, or heat vents. What only really matters is what gets seen. I need creatures that can attack players, or be seen as food sources for players, that kinda thing
What is everyone favourite setting? I am looking for inspiration of stuff to rip off and make my own like a real artist. Sarcastic ego aside, actual question
>>93156707Morrowind.
>>93156048But they 'do' still burn eventually.
>>93156707Master of MagicElona
>>93156707Unironically Middle Earth.
>>93157923Good tastes.
scribbled this guy but I don't know what to do with himThinking some warrior priest class for a post-collapse society in a world covered in permanent night
I've figured out an explanation for why destroying monsters drops magic gems:>All magic comes from leaks between the Dreamlands and reality>Magic takes the form of discrete particles that coalesce over water bodies to form a spiritual core.>Then it absorbs the negative emotions and evil from the nearby regions (and not necessarily in the same time) to form monsters.>Monsters then go out and eat people.>Mages then come around to destroy the monsters and collect their spirit cores.Spirit cores can be used for a lot of useful things, from "just" creating infinite energy at low voltages to transmutation. That means they're incredibly valuable, and make the Mages very rich.So therefore, monsters are a net positive for the economy if regularly defeated but a net negative otherwise!
>>93154370Fire is one of the easiest with drenching and coating the staff in ashes being one of the most common practices, as well as using fire hardened bark and dehydrated pieces of wood.Necromancy doesn't exist in a dnd way but in an ancient greek way, with divinatios and speaking to the spirits of the dead, banishing or summoning ghosts temporarily, etc.Bones are obviously great as well as other objects typically associated with funeral rites. Woods from graveyards will have a much stronger association with necromancy as well
>>93160244So, no particular types of wood or gems for Fire then? Guess that makes sense. What kinds of funeral rite objects, does gold work since people are buried with it? Oh, and what about Earth magic, since most if not all woods and gems could probably work for it, are there any in particular that stand out?
>>93160966yes, gold would work as any cultural specific used burial object. but the more common the item is in use the more applicable it is. A piece of a common burial shroud tied in magical knots would be more applicable to divining the dead while gold adornments will be more conductive to different spells whitihin the necromancy spectrum.As you might have understood by now, materials have more than one aspect and that's why there are no necromancy staffs, like fire magic staffs etc. Just staffs that can do a lot of things and are better at fire and necromancy magic etcFor earth magic anything with deep taproots most commonly found in dry climates or extensive root system in wet lands will be best. Roots can also be used as a material though rare for staffs due to size but it is not unheard off. Earth is very is to associate and most anything with a physical or mental connection to the earth will work.
>It's a "returning to your childhood love of Morrowind and reading the lorebooks in the game again while listening to the music and being hit with the realization that your worldbuilding and tabletop hobby is just an attempt to recapture the sense of wonder and mystery you had a child" episode>You don't even have a "real" setting to vicariously live through
>>93156707I'm torn between comfymaxxed, Elmore-tier cheesy pulp fantasy and Lovecraft's dreamlands.
>>93103178>Thread QuestionThe apex predator of the Dessert Desert is the Graham Maw (name pending), a dragon of hardened cracker scales that encases its prey in a delicious coating of molten chocolate before taking them back to its nest to consume later.I'm debating having it put a layer of foamy marshmallow before the chocolate, partially for better preservation, partially because getting melted inside of molten chocolate is kind of horrifying and I feel like there's enough horrifying shit in my story as-is.
>>93161115You’ve mentioned decorations, but what about the shape at the end of the staff itself, like this? So each staff can do a bunch of things, but has two or three specialties, got it. Oh, what are some woods and other materials for staves good at Wind magic, among other things, besides feathers and woods that grow well at high elevations?
were international rebels and insurrectionists a thing pre modern times?
>>93164706of course not
It occurs to me that any ship capable of being classified as a torch ship is physically shielded to the point that projectiles need to be significantly more massive to damage it, or be significantly faster than even perhaps 5% the speed of light.HE shells blasting shrapnel clouds probably aren't enough unless you're slinging those mfers pretty damn hard, since they won't even have your own speed added to them given that you need to be relatively slow during combat in order to have better vectoring. Slugs or particle beams are more reliable for actually scoring a kill. Casaba howitzers might still work for area denial, but if you have that level of shielding they are going to still be of limited effect. Torpedos are still viable of course. Bros... is battleship era warfare (kinda) actually conceivable so long as you keep the magic limited to the propulsion?
I need a name starting with L to round out a couple sci fi ship classes I'm making. Right now I have the names Lightning and Lion, but I cannot seem to come up with a third to make it a nice even 3
>>93165899Leviathan.
>>93165899Second for Leviathan actually, especially if the classes denote size/speed, with Lightning being the smallest and fastest, Lion being middle of the road, and Leviathan being slow but enormous
>>93165150I've been toying with the idea of a sort of international rebel group, or a lose association of general populations upset with their kingdoms. Mainly as a counter to this order of knights that go hard
>>93167380well, before the modern era different people.nations didn't really have a lot of communication with anyone besides their direct neighbors and usually their relationships were hostile more than friendly with territorial wars and skirmishes.So they wouldn't even have such concepts.There could be localized dissidents but they wouldn't be united like the rebels or dissidents of the roman empire never united to take them down. (if they had and enacted more than a couple of rebellions in tandem then they would probably have succeeded)I m not telling you to not do it. Just find some way or reason that they are connected and cooperating believable enough for you table to not go "huh, this feels weird/wrong"
>>93163565shape is important but in a different way because it may hold different associations for the wizards and therefore also influence the potential magic.The "industrial" wizards might do something like this but even then it is not common, because too much ornamentation can be detrimental instead of helpful for casting magic.For wind magic, thin flexible pieces of wood are usually the best along those find at high elevations and incredibly windy areas. Ornaments could include small bells of wind chimes, or other items associated with wind.
>>93168012What exactly is a good rule of thumb for determining how much ornamentation is too much?I can't think of any other items associated with wind besides feathers ATM.Oh, what about materials for staffs made to be good at Lightning magic besides copper, given how it's used in lightning rods and power cables? Also, I don't that we've talked about what kinds of metals can be used to make/reinforce staves made for the different kinds of magic we've mentioned in general besides the mention of gold in regards to necromancy, what are your thoughts on that?
>>93168331it is more mental than physical. The more ostentatious the ornaments are and distract from the very function of the staff the more it might cause a problem.Usually because large ornaments are new and to fit would be crafted for the staff itself, they don't hold the same connections and associations helpful to magic.You can have countless small trinkets that provide something on the other hand.A good rule of thumb is somewhere between 3-5 small ornaments, like a piece of string, some copper some feather etc with 10 feeling like the absolute maximum (though no theoretical limit exists) Most metals in their raw form are associated with earth. It is through their acquired form and functions like gold for funerary rights that they acquire different associations so its a case by case basis.Anything conducive to electricity should be a good ornament for lighting magic. Wood from a tree struck by lighting should obviously be the best
>>93157889NTA, but what about those settings appeals to you precisely?
>>93168447Thanks for clearing that up. Do you have any examples of what metals are associated with what kinds of magic, by the way?I meant more like any specific ‘kinds’ of wood, but thanks. Do people ever name their staves?
>>93168652Silver is associated with healing and medicinal magic.Copper is associated with alteration and fabrication based magic.Iron is associated with cold and earth magic.I haven't developed metals that much but these are some examples i can give. I mostly base things on folklore applications of metals.Someone might name their staff, but in many practices it is seen as the extension of one's self or ones soul, so the staff would be named after it's creator usually
If reality is a closed system - that is, that total energy is neither lost nor gained... where is magic drawing from? If I use magic to freeze an ice-block, is that magical energy being drawn from somewhere? If I used enough of that magical energy to freeze an ocean, would there be a perceptible impact somewhere, or somehow?OTOH, if reality is an open system, what strange and fascinating place is the magical energy coming from, and where might it be going when it is lost from the current system? Could it be lost faster than gained? Or vice versa?
I want to make up an archipelago with some lite alternate history thrown in as backdrop for a dinosaur/skull island set-up, Would the north pacific work for placing a lost island?is there anything to keep in mind when building this kind of setting, mainly how to justify it being unknown, forgotten etc.
>>93168751Okay, thanks for that. What are some other materials/woods good for healing magic? Or for divinatory magic? Will we see you again next thread?
>>93168751Where do you look for the application of woods, metals, gems, etc. in folklore besides just using Wikipedia?
>>93170630Basswood ash wood, cherry wood and birchwood are good for healing magic. Cherry wood is also good for divinations. Beech wood, poplar and willow are some of the best woods for divinations magic.>>93171304I don't really use Wikipedia for these. I like reading folklore books or articles. When browsing it is mostly the occasional folklore/history blog or even the random neoagan/new age magic/wicca website.Greek and celtic mythology have a lot related to magic and the properties of woods and so do the slavs and those are the ones i am most familiar with.As you ve guessed my pov is very eurocentric in that regard, but honestly i take inspiration wherever i can find it. This is not an rpg project meant to be played at a table or published.Just a pile of notes and ideas about a world i have been building on and off because i find it cool.Yeah i ll probably keep posting on the next thread as well, as these days have been slow for me and i have the spare time to lurk on tg
What's the point of worldbuilding when somebody else has already made a better setting and realized it better then you ever could?
>>93171876man whats the point in gaming when someone gamed better than i ever could
>>93169788The use of magic is necessitated by the personal revelation that reality is but a dream of the slumbering Urgod within whose mind the ideal form of all things are. A magician is therefor simply a part of the dream come lucid, exploiting gleamed wisdom of the ideal state in order to shift the representation. Magic as such is the dream's own tinkering with its level of existance.
>>93115708The Elves are the protectors of and grow in trees. Each Elf has a tree that is essentially their "mother-body", but it's really a part of themselves. When the tree gets old or matures, the elf can take a acorn from that tree and enchant it in such a way that it will grow into another elf-tree, in which case it takes 50 years or more for a fully formed adult elf to emerge from the tree. Because of how slowly and sensitive the trees are, it explains why the elves are so protective of the ancient forests and oaks, as they are literally their methods of reproduction and chopping down an Elf's "tree" is basically the same as castrating them, making them unable to reproduce again. You can decide how mystic this connection is,with it being purely biological and the elves being some weird half-tree people with sap blood and having no connection to the tree other then being their weird fantasy bipedal seed-spreading reproduction system OR you can have it be mystical where the elves can sense their tree or will sicken and die if the forest or their tree dies, etc.
>>93171713Alright, so having a staff made for both divination and healing magic out of cherry wood is possible, neat combo, I can see doctors using that to target diseases and cancers immediately. What about woods or materials for plant/“nature” magic, if you have that, since it seems like wood in general “wood” work for that, lol.Do you have any specific books or articles that you’d recommend to a fellow worldbuilder please? See you in the next thread then!
>>93171876>Morrowind (the video game) covers literally just one quarter of the actual provincelollmao even
>>93168584Master of Magic is a very bog standard fantasy setting with some interesting setups that make it feel like you can do anything with it, like Arcanus and it's mirror plane Myrran having divergent evolution. Elona its a chance to see a more mundane fantasy world that isn't really in peril, or in some great war. Then along side the mundane you have some extraordinary like the janitor in the first town you visit actually wields a world cataclysm causing sword, this comfymax snow town has a fucking fire giant chained up like an attraction, and all the hilarious ways you can end up dead.
>>93115708pretty boy homonculae, d'uh
>>93171876I don't know. What's the point in walking when there are people who can walk way better than you?
>>93164706Eh. The main issue is really logistics. You need resources (read money) to fund an insurrection. Nowaday's most insurrectionary movements (by the way I read an article that considers like cocaine cartels to be of this same mold) need a cash-flow. These either come from international backers (like say Pakistan funding the Taliban, or the US funding the Taliban, or the Russians funding the Taliban), or they come from an illegal market (Cocaine, Heroine, Tomb Raiding in the case of ISIS). Now all that requires a sophisticated degree of smuggling. Something you could also do however is offer backing the case of eventual uprising- the Romans were paranoid should the Hebrews rebel that they'd be a natural ally of the Persians for example, and I don't think it's too far-fetched to imagine that Jesus could have been a Persian spy for all we know.
