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Do you take inspiration from pre-modern fantasy (before the 19th century or so)?

Tolkien is often regarded as the father of modern fantasy, but there are a lot of works that pre-date him. The Arthurian legend cycle is probably the most famous work of European fantasy from before the modern era, and in the Muslim world you have the Arabian Nights, and from China you have Journey To The West. Do you ever take inspiration from them for your writing?

>>94325939
What are some other lesser known pre-modern fantasies aside from the ones you mentioned?

Off the top of my head Carmilla and Dracula have been big inspirations for me.

>>94326194
Lord Dunsany's stuff is an obvious example, and a clear point where stories go from legends and myths and to clearly fictional stories set in other worlds.
Also The Worm Ouroboros

I'm getting Beresteined again because I remember this painting having buildings under it

>>94325939
He looks like Walter White

>>94326194
Now that I think about it, Shakespeare has to be one of the earliest writers who specifically wrote fantasy fiction rather than collected folktales that had been embellished with magical elements. A Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth in particular.

Although that begs the question whether there were earlier authors writing about fairies and witches who just aren't as well-known now. I'm not enough of a scholar of 16th century English literature to know.

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>>94325890
What advice do you have for beginner writers, especially if they’re trying National Novel Writing Month this year?

>>94337828
You aren't going to finish it, realistically. However, you should still strive for consistency over a long period, to hone your self-discipline.

>>94337828
WRITE

No matter what, just do it
This is the number one priority, everything else builds off of it

>>94338770
How do you motivate yourself to write consistently?

>>94340192
You make it a habit. Motivation should come from wanting your stories to be realized, and how awesome they sound in your head. But to actually finish stuff, you need to make it a habit.
Get yourself a schedule, sit down and just write on a regular basis, even if it's not much.

I want to make a one shot involving some escort mission.

Background
>the world isn't ~too~ shit, but for lore reasons there are only two countries, and the space between them is wild, with demons popping up and consuming stuff (living beings, buildings, information and so on).
>Country A is currently quite prosperous, without major problems other than demons in the frontiers.
>Country B had always been a shitshow internally, but due to magical and later cultural reasons, it was completely isolationist
>Country B's previous king was a madman, most of the inhabitants of the land are struggling, illiterate and superstitious farmers. As famine causes lots of people to either escape the country or die, the new king decides to ask the queen of country A for aid.
>new king is a mage and a prophet, in a world where that's exceedingly rare, country A decides it's in their best interest to foster good relations.
>queen of A asks the party to escort the caravans with humanitarian supplies for country B, protecting them from the dangerous lands between the countries.

How could I make it actually fun instead of just lore dump with some random fight in the middle?

>>94340192
It's not about motivation, it's about self-discipline.

>>94342008
Put some other interesting characters in the caravan with them. A band of travelling actors, a street magician, a group of prostitutes seeking greener pastures. All sorts of people travel on caravans for all sorts of reasons, it doesn't just have to be the queen's supply run.

>>94342008
You just use the media res tactic. Just drop the players into the world and then as they work through you backfill their knowledge of the world with things their character would know. Make the trip itself feel more Oregon Trail-esque by focusing on the ins and outs of travelling in a hostile, volatile area, the bit where the players need to figure out how to ford a river that wasn't there before, or when one of the guard wagons is pulled off the road by a trapdoor spider the size of a bison, is going to invest players in the trip more than the political history of A or B. I would setup a few random tables for small ambient things like ruins or events like a wheel axle breaking;

Remember the actual mission and personal stakes are what the players care about, the rest is actually just set dressing, so don't be super concerned about making sure they know the whole world going in, just what you would get if you were commissioned for guard work or if you signed up for the expedition, and then you can provide upped stakes through tension of the mission, or tie in the overall stakes through the characters' backstory or motivations.

Then when you hit a relevant area you'd say to X character "You recognise Y from your time travelling the badlands as a smuggler" or "The caravan leader screams out "Tulocks!", and everyone instinctively ducks, trying to be as still as possible as the flight of deformed mutants passes overhead; unfortunately one of the beasts spooks and the rising wheeze can be heard as the swarm turns its attention to the unfortunate animal, roll for initiative"

You can structure the big final conflict to help give the one-shot a climax, but don't forget that this is quite literally about the journey rather than the destination so make the journey across a longer period of time as well, you can throw bigger encounters without worrying as much about player resources as forcing your characters to avoid the attrition of the caravan itself.

>>94343961
>Make the trip itself feel more Oregon Trail-esque by focusing on the ins and outs of travelling in a hostile, volatile area, the bit where the players need to figure out how to ford a river that wasn't there before, or when one of the guard wagons is pulled off the road by a trapdoor spider the size of a bison, is going to invest players in the trip more than the political history of A or B. I would setup a few random tables for small ambient things like ruins or events like a wheel axle breaking;
This is some cool advice
I've never played oregon trail but it really feels like I should check it out for the general vibe.
I hate info dumps/prioritizing worldbuilding over a fun game, but I felt I had to at least write enough worldbuilding for the main mission to make sense, for the possible negative or positive consequences to be more interesting than just "you don't get the money".
thank you

>>94343886
thanks to you too, my only concern is having potential npcs take the spotlight further away from the PCs

>>94325939
Greek mythology had several fantasy adventures that felt close enough to ttrpg adventures or at least events in the background.
I despise greek gods tho

>>94347475
There is only one God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSif77IVQdY

>>94350941
why are we getting a retard invasion, is it due to the USA election?

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This should probably go into worldbuilding general but I don't see any up right now so I will post here.

Anyone else concerned with the purpose of your work? What's the point of creating something when others won't interact with it? For /tg/ writing specifically, is there any reason not to run your stuff as a >>>/qst/ instead?

Related question, do you have a world, place, which is your main world, something to which you return regularly? What is it, how does it look? How often have you rebooted it? How do you interface with it? Is it a lore dump, or a single story or something else? Do you self insert or is the world explored through various characters? Is it published anywhere online?

>>94352104
>What's the point of creating something when others won't interact with it?
Because you enjoy creating/writing/worldbuilding/photographing/singing/painting/whatever? You can actually do things for their own sake, instead of it all just being different flavors of attention whoring.

>>94352192
Based anon.
I'll never understand fags like >>94352104
even in solo RPGs discussions I've seen fags go on about needing to publish/stream their shit in order to enjoy it.
Wtf

>>94337828
Write, then write some more. Do your national novel writing month thing, but don't lament if you don't finish it. Just keep writing.

Read what you want to write. Do you want to write fantasy? Read more fantasy, more authors, more genres.

Read what you write, write what you want to read.

>“(Static crackle) …
This is a repeating public service announcement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Region VIII. To all residents of Colorado affected by the ongoing crisis: Stay calm and remain resilient. We are Colorado strong! Your democratically elected federal government, is ready to serve and here to support you. We are mobilizing all available resources to ensure your safety and well-being during this challenging time.

Treated and electrolyte-enriched water is being shipped in vast quantities and will be distributed at designated relief points shortly. Information on these locations will be broadcast regularly. Your health and hydration are paramount.

We are coordinating a massive influx of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to address all potential needs. In the spirit of American ingenuity and our commitment to the common good, every effort is being made to secure and deliver any and all necessary medicines to the affected areas.

A state and regionwide call has gone out for medical professionals. The strength of our nation rests upon the volunteerism and civic duty of its citizens. If you have any medical training, from first aid to a nursing degree or beyond, please report to your nearest designated relief point. Your skills are urgently needed and deeply appreciated in this time of crisis. United, we shall stand!

>>94355213
-
A special note regarding wound care: For serious lacerations and all gunshot wounds, antibiotic treatment is crucial. Please ensure these injuries are seen by medical personnel as quickly as possible for proper antibiotic administration. For minor cuts and wounds, please conserve vital medical supplies. Thorough cleaning with simple soap and clean water, followed by the application of petroleum jelly and a clean bandage, is sufficient. Please refrain from using antibiotic ointments such as Neosporin for minor injuries, we don't want to see a large uptick in antibiotic resistance. Please and thank you.

Stay strong, Colorado. We have endured great hardship and we shall endure again, for we are Americans. Inside of you, somewhere, is frontier spirit. Help is on the way. Long Live The Republic.
>(Static crackle)”

>>94352104
>This should probably go into worldbuilding general but I don't see any up right now so I will post here.
There's one here >>94286719 (you might have missed it because they put a space in worldbuilding)
Personally I just do it because I want to: I've got an idea, and I want to get it out of my head. Once it's in a presentable state I'll put it online for public viewing, but even if nobody cares I'll be satisfied with having done it.

>>94325890
What's the origin of the flying carpets, I wonder.

>>94357818
Their lineage in modern fiction comes from the Arabian Nights. In a less materially well-off time, carpets were one of the few household items that just about everyone had, so it's another 'this seemingly innocuous thing has hidden magical powers' story. Kind of like Aladdin's lamp. But they could also be luxury items that would make a suitable object for a king to own.

From what I can tell, it's a very old Middle Eastern myth. In Jewish folklore going back to at least the middle ages, Solomon was said to have had a magic carpet. The Persian Emperor Shapur is said to have had one too, which would probably push it back to before the Islamic conquest in the 7th century.

>>94362349
I guess then it's really old and the origin might be lost to prehistory.
I mostly associate flying carpets with Black Company books.

Im trying come up with a purposefully edgy backstory for my dnd light cleric. I'm trying to flesh out / justify the idea of how can a cleric of x-god can be outside of the good alignment when his peer and god are lawful/neutral good.

the broad strokes I had in mind was something like him digging through the monastery library reading tomes that none touched in forever, finding ancient secrets, rediscovering ancient forgotten heresies and the origin of certain ceremonies and rites dating back to the very foundation of that religion. One of these rites would be one of self-immolation to enter communion with god/and or receive a vision form him which he would perform, brutally burning himself into a crisp, but it did work(or he thinks it did) receiving a vision telling to go do whatever(campaign setting)

Essentially the idea is that he convinced himself that the newer form of his own religion is wrong and is seeking to be part of an heretical sect of fundamentalist following the original ancient scripture which was much more brutal.

any thoughts?

hooga hooga

>>94364238
This is a bit harder when lorewise characters can commune with their divine spirit directly, that said the Abrahamic God is much more fire and brimstone than the latter God of the new testament, it's not out there that even the divine changes with the times and a one could find and tap into the more primal and unforgiving aspects of the past.

Just play them like a reformist preacher or an Inquisitor, purging the weakness from the faithful and unfaithful both, you don't even really need to justify this mechanically. But be sure that you are doing it for a meaningful reason rather than just shock value; don't try and make Joshua Graham unless you're actually willing to play the Burned Man.

nighty night

>>94364238
the god chooses the cleric, not the other way around.
The god believes your character is useful for whatever reason, your character might have mixed or negative feelings about it, the god doesn't care since said reason matters more.

>>94355213
>>94355219
I could definitely imagine hearing this coming over the radio in an abandoned house in a survival horror game.

>>94352104
Ars gratia artis.

I mean, sure, it's nice to have other people appreciate your work. But I think the drive to create goes beyond the need for recognition. In a way it's almost like meditation, expanding your own consciousness.

>>94325890
How poorly disguised fetish is this
>Boy born with ability to absorb and eat magic
>People always wonder where his absorbed magic goes since he doesn't cast spells
>Visits magic city
>Older mage woman grooms him
>Sucks his dick and eats cum
>Discovers the absorbed mana is concentrated in his seed
>Eating it temporarily empowers a mage
I'm just wondering if I should try to disguise it or if there is no point

>>94378829
>poorly disguised
anon, for it to be poorly disguised there needs to be at least ~some~ attempt at disguising it

>>94379439
So should I just fully lean into the fetish and smut aspects of it?

>>94380860
yeah

>>94378829
As >>94379439 said, it's not even subtle. You are writing smut, accept it.

However, I would also say that there is a long tradition of semen-drinking as a means of gaining magical potency. There were many pre-Christian religions that had stories of gods using their semen for various magical purposes, and there are reports of Gnostic Christian cults that engaged in semen-drinking as part of their rites.

So just because it's smut, doesn't mean it's without artistic and historic merit.

>>94378829
>>People always wonder where his absorbed magic goes since he doesn't cast spells
>>Visits magic city
>>Older mage woman grooms him
>>Sucks his dick and eats cum
Isn't this pretty convoluted?
Having him just happen to get groomed by someone who knew about magic and also happens to have a fetish for swallowing to discover the deal randomly is too silly and very obviously porn logic.

It'd be less convoluted if just some random girlfriend happened to be into it and had weird magic effects, so with the bit of information about his cum giving magic being something that might eventually lead him to seek an expert / someone to experiment properly.

Or maybe it is not the first case, maybe some ancient god or whatever had legends like that.

Or maybe the "accumulated magic" does draw the attention of someone seeking to make a revolutionary discovery.

Obvious smut, but as the other anons said, you can still do it well/embrace it properly.

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Working on a world whose only civilized inhabitants are various races of birdfolk analogous to humans. It focuses on the ruins of a once prosperous city, formally governed by a council, but its true ruler was a phoenix, a wise, benevolent and very powerful creature, the city was filled with its pyres which were conduits of its power, they protected the city and fueled many of its magical wonders. It was the heart of civilization and a pretty nice place to be, until a tragedy struck.

See, every while and often the phoenix had to undergo a death and rebirth cycle. I haven't yet figured out how or why - it was assumed that it had to regenerate all the power it spent on fueling the city. During one of those cycles something... happened, and the cycle was interrupted. The phoenix arose as a creature made of black fire. Instead of being properly reborn it ended up stuck in the cycle between life and death, a form of undeath. It became mad, possibly because it became the very thing it used to abhor, as a former symbol of life. It went on a rampage and turned the city into ruins, while its corrupted pyres started raising corpses and restless spirits. It is now a haunted place, flying avian zombies swarm it like pigeons.

Later crowfolk started pilgrimaging there, one declared the phoenix as "One True God" and threw herself at the unholy pyre. She emerged as a charred lich, the fanatical high priestess of a new cult. They revered the phoenix as a deity and seeked to increase its power, in a belief that it will bring about a "new cycle" to the whole world, basically destroy and remake it, and its faithful will lord over it as a reward.

It's mostly about how the cycle works and what happened, it couldn't be an accident. Only something powerful could mess with the phoenix - who or what? Some believe it could be cured of its condition if it somehow completed the cycle and was properly reincarnated. It would've done so on its own if it could. I haven't figured it out yet.

>>94388044
Sounds fun.
Maybe you could come up with some idea of how the Phoenix' rebirth actually worked, as deciding the actual process can also help coming up with ideas for how was the process corrupted (and and even give clues to who might have done it?)

simplest random idea could be that after death, there was some holy ritual involving leaving his ashes, maybe "charging" them through a connection to the sun, or to something like a volcano (connecting to the planet itself?). So in that case the corruption could be just messing up with the ashes.

Another could maybe focus on the phoenix' soul, that maybe after death, its soul had to do some sort of journey/pass some sort of trial, and this is what went wrong. So even if it could maybe even make a new body relatively easy, the soul itself was too tainted by the events that happened during this transition.

>>94389716
>Maybe you could come up with some idea of how the Phoenix' rebirth actually worked, as deciding the actual process can also help coming up with ideas for how was the process corrupted (and and even give clues to who might have done it?)

I've no idea, and I asked ITT precisely because I was drawing blanks here.

Pre-fall the Phoenix resided in the Sun Temple and was considered its custodian. Half of avians thought it was dedicated to a solar deity, the other half that it revered Sun and Light as concepts of Nature, it was vague and nobody insisted on settling it, so everyone did their own thing (most avians were just very chill by nature) It also contained the Everburning Pyre, the main one, which was linked to all the others. It was believed to represent the Phoenix's fiery spirit, so maybe there's the clue. This was the same pyre that Seryl, the mad corvid immolated herself on and came out as the first lich. She took up residence there, and her Scarwing cultists are said to be now channeling their powers from it. They wield black fires which only hurt the living.

I intend to leave a window of possibility for the Phoenix to be redeemed through completing the cycle with some kind of outside help, but it will be very difficult.

>>94388044
>birdfolk
Can they even fly? If they can they would probably have relatively delicate bones.

>>94394467
>realism in fantasy
gay

>>94394500
>complaining about it
bisexual

liv

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>>94394467
Depends on the race. There are many kinds of them, right now all based on real life bird species, but I'd really like to introduce some mythological or fantasy ones too, eventually.

Some fly well, some can do it but struggle with it, and some are just flightless. The race based on hummingbirds is known as very agile and great flyers, but are also very short and physically weak. Crow-based corvids only do it if they must because it tires them out easily. Zombie avians found in the city ruins can fly if they were capable of it in life, but as mindless undead creatures, their coordination is hampered, think shambling zombie movement but aerial, as such it's easy to flee from them. There are also restless spirits, which levitate, but their forms resembling those they had in life retain their wings. Due to some uncanny valley kind of thing it's terrifying for most avians to see a spirit fly while its "wings" just stay still.

>>94399784
Interesting.
But they all must have problems with using tools, I bet.

>>94325890
I need some advice, I’ve been brainstorming a fantasy setting based on The U.S. its primary focus will be the mid to late 19th century in aesthetics. The idea is that it follows the sort of mythologized view of the old west and America as a whole, so stuff like folk lore, tall tales, and urban legends will be king. I also want to have certain events be shared such as there being a civil war and westward expansion but I’m not sure how to put it in without it being too on the nose. There will also be a conflicting mix of technology and magic. For those familiar the best way to describe it would be like Arcanum but in an American style land rather than European.

>>94404379
Westerns aren't really my thing, but I would say that I think a good basis for the civil war would be technology-focuses states vs. more traditional magic-focused states. That was really the root of the actual American Civil War: tradition vs. progress. You could have more steampunk northern industrial oligarchies vs. the wizards and warriors of the Southern kingdoms, where the upper classes are educated in magic and duelling with sword and pistol, while the lower classes practice a more voodoo-like magic.

>>94405881
Noted, thank you.

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>>94404066
I've started this recently and am still figuring out the details. Aarakocra and Kenku in DnD could pull it off somehow. The way I see it is that various races tend to have different roles in the society, e.g. good flyers are often scouts or messengers. Flightless ones are some of the strongest physically, so they might be the ones doing heavy lifting. Possibly they might just have some helper creatures too.

>>94389716
I felt that spirit journey concept was great, but had to take a while to work it out, thanks for that. Answers beget more questions, but at least it's progress. So yeah, the cycle involved a journey through the ill-described Spirit World. Due to interference by forces I'm yet to establish (and whether they helped to create the cult or not), the Phoenix's soul became trapped there. As a result at the end of the cycle its shadow reflection came out to the material world instead, to balance things out. Its antithesis, the other side of the coin, etc. The central plot point is to find a way for a group of avians to project into Spirit World, free the soul from its trap (to be established too) and guide it through the rest of the journey. There's an owl scholar (who apparently knew the mad priestess before she became a crispy lich but doesn't like talking about it) in a hidden shrine turned fallout shelter within the ruins, trying to figure out the technicalities. It's starting to sound like campaign material, but ok.

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Don't know where else to ask so I'll just do it here, I'm working on a BS character and a corresponding small but elite faction around him.
The idea is simply, mage-knight, somewhat-evi, master of the magical mage tower, Gryphon rider, has eldritch daemon god of arcane power and knowledge as patron (think Tzeentch, Hemaeus Mora, Yog-Sothoth, etc.), accompanying him would be another 12 gryphon-riding mage-knights. Started as a what if Chaos Warriors weren't fucking braindead and devolved into more of an cuntish Loremaster of Hoeth wannabes with a highly functioning Order of mage-knights instead of retarded Chaos Warband. The setting is not Warhammer btw, it's meant to be a blank style of character that can be thrown into any setting as long as the basic components need to make him work exist (magic, gods, cunts, etc.)
My biggest issue is with the signature weapon of the Order.
My Big Fucking Sword autism screams to give them a wielder-height Montante/Spadone/Zweihander two-handed swords and go full on the Blademaster side of them, giving them Swordsiging and some Asian-inspired philosophy about honing the soul like a sword shit, very Samurai stuff.
On the other hand, the Halberd seems like an overall better choice, especially when considering they use their Gryphon mounts fairly often, may not be a lance but it's at least a polearm that could double down as "mage staff" and would be fitting for another aspect of this character that I'm brainstorming about him being part of a trifecta of the Warrior/Rogue(-knight)/Mage(-knight) where each one would use a Shield + weapon/Two Handed/Dual-wield and Mace/Sword/Axe combo, with the most recent draft being Warrior with Mace and Shield, Rogue dual wielding sword and dagger and Mage with (Polearm+Axe=)Halberd (Poleaxe doesn't really fit the bill)
>inb4 you don't have to marry a weapon.
To autistic for that sorry.
Any opinions?

>>94408250
I just wonder how good would be a sapient birbman at tools and civilization if his bones are relatively brittle and no hands for tools.
Or maybe they do have hands?

>>94386602
I like older women x younger male relationships

>>94384018
Yeah I didn't think it was very feasible to hide the smutness of it.

>>94340192
By treating it like a job (recisely why most people never get anywhere).

>>94352104
>Anyone else concerned with the purpose of your work? What's the point of creating something when others won't interact with it?
I have the polar opposite problem, I want as few people to engage with it as possible until it's bound, trademarked, and I can take legal action on people if they flat out copy my stuff.

Yes, my work is heavily inspired by other pieces of narrative entertainment, why do you ask?

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So I wanted to write a scene like this with the Ares equivalent as being more heroic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tudoJkF3bD8

I was thinking
>he still tries to court her (less forcefully)
>offers the gift
>she still refuses, says she isn't interested firmly
>gets angry for a moment, then calms down
>wishes her the best and says she can keep the gift as a present to celebrate her new betrothal

Is there anything else to sort of make him less creepy and forceful?

>>94428723
Show me how the anime thot version of Aphrodite looks like. Ares should be busy with her.