Welcome 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 or post whatever relevant input you might have!Last thread: >>97165346Resources for Newfags: https://sites.google.com/view/wbgeneral/Worldbuilding links: https://pastebin.com/JNnj79S5 (embed) (embed)https://cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/view/Eo+fK41FKVR7xDpbNO0a0N4k0YYxrmyrhX3VxnM14Ew/Fantasy map generator: https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator/wbi/: https://discord.gg/6ZjEc7dy4TWorldbuilding Hub: https://discord.com/invite/wGjxK3YThe Writer's Forge: https://discord.com/invite/CUxHxWqTira: https://discord.com/invite/f52W6KgDawn of Victory: https://discord.gg/hUAynC3wConlangerama: https://discord.com/invite/ceKjZBr2jCThread question:>Do you have any interesting alchemical ingredients or magical components for spells?
>6 discordsdo we really need that mayn?
>>97312196I just took an old OP I didn't actually check what was in it
>>97311994Anyone got any generators, or guides for making, complex forests? Or at least several generators that would help me cover the entirety of what you'd find (flora wise) in a forest?
>>97312196Would've been eight if I'd had my way.
>>97311994Rooollll
>>97312196You don't even need this general thread, with all you retards spamming "wat is cheezborger liek in ur settan ??" on the catalog.
>Make complex magic system>There's no way to accurately simulate it in a system without making 2000000+ custom spells or some sort of fiat system>Never do anything with the setting as a resultDon't make the same mistake bros.
>>97314389Worldbuilders never do anything with their settings anyway, so I don't see the problem.
>>97314398Why it hurts so much
>>97314389Just write a fucking novel you sandersonian retard.
>>97314389Honest question: why? Why would you want to take the magic out of magic like that?
Desiging soldiers for a faction within my autistic biotech worldbuilding project
>>97311994What Worldbuilding resources not in the OP would you recommend and why?
I think this will be of interest herehttps://youtu.be/1TGUotgCYvg
>Want to work on fantasy setting>Realize I'd have to go into the humans backstory and even if I handwave it that they're a Hanseatic League like trade empire that still requires other nations and factors>Don't want to do this>Stop working on settingHow do I get over this?
>>97311994Anybody knows a list of alchemical/pseudomagical items? I have alchemists everwhere in my game and I want to have a big list of appopiate concoctions, bombs, acids and oils to be found in cities. I want explicit mundane fantasy stuff like, a grey paint that turns bright purple when its gonna rain, a very quick and strong glue or an acid that only dissolves metal.also, related question:I have Mithril in the setting as an alchemical alloy made from giant spider cobwebs, and makes steel armor with the propierties of kevlar (good against bullets)On the opposite side, which could be the secret ingredient to make Adamantine; a metal that makes blades almost unbreakable?
I am cursed I tell you. Every time I make a new fantasy thing I can stock it with elves and goblins and vampires and all sorts of whimsical magic creatures, but the moment I try to add my favorites, dwarves, they feel out of place.
>>97319532orphan bloodbut only if they were crying as they died
>>97320182what makes them feel out of place?
>>97311994>thread questionDepends on who I'm aiming to interest.
I’m thinking of completely subverting the dwarven stereotype by following the Pillars of Eternity approach—making them 'Boreal Dwarves' based on the concept of Neo-Neanderthals, even if the setting's inhabitants don't know that. I want to avoid the subterranean lifestyle, the 'drunk Scottish' trope, and the 'displaced people' allegory.Similarly, I want to adapt Lizardfolk and other reptilian races through a biological lens rather than a purely fantasy one. By making them strictly cold-blooded, their populations would be concentrated primarily in tropical regions.
>>97319532I went looking for this myself; best I found in a gameplay context for a big fat list of alchemy was:- Darklands has a bunch of alchemy because its "wizards" are alchemists- Pathfinder has an Alchemist class, 1e Pathfinder was 3.x bloatware so there's a whole lot of potions there.Maybe there's some alchemical equivalent of the Picatrix, idk.>>97315399Wonderfags are brain-fried by Nasushit. People in the past thought magic had lots of rules, whenever they were making up reasons it failed (other than it not being real), it was always either you did it wrong or a malicious spirit fucked it up.
>>97320394It makes me wonder if in a mafic setting magic would be treated or recognized as magic at all but classified as another branch of science. Isaac Newton was very much into occult and alchemy besides science.
>>97320422We just call "magic" everything that didn't work, like we call "traditional medicine" everything that doesn't work. People in the past frequently divided up "technique for manipulating the supernatural" into many, many sub-categories: black magic, astrology, alchemy, haruspexy, acupuncture, necromancy, pyromancy (the practice of reading the future via flames), etc.When you specify something more like, "specifically chanting and waving your hands around," sure, in the same way we think of computer programming or swordplay as specific fields.
>>97320481the problem with that is that "traditional medicine" did generally work since most modern medicines are just refined forms of the plants and concoctions used by apothecaries
True, academic medicine (allopathic or "school" medicine) focused on identifying specific pathogens and mechanical causes, it often overlooked the broader human context of illness. In the mid-1800s, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that mothers were dying of "childbed fever" because doctors weren't washing their hands. When he presented this to the academic elite, they mocked him and forced him into an asylum. The academic blind spot wasn't just a lack of knowledge; it was hubris. Folk medicine, which relied on observation ("When I wash with wine, they live; when I don't, they die"), was often more scientific than the "science" of the time.Penicillin is the perfect example of this. When Alexander Fleming "discovered" it in 1928, he wasn't finding something unknown to humanity, he was finally quantifying a phenomenon that folk medicine had used for thousands of years. For centuries, "folk" practitioners used specific moldy substances to treat infections, while academic doctors often dismissed these as "superstitious" or "unsanitary."On the other hand. Academy-trained surgeons would move directly from performing an autopsy on a diseased corpse to delivering a baby without washing their hands. They took pride in their blood-stiffened surgical gowns as "badges of experience."Midwives and folk healers often had ritualistic cleaning practices. In many traditions, water was "blessed" or infused with herbs (like lavender or rosemary) before washing. While they didn't know about "germs," they respected the idea of ritual purity, which effectively meant they were cleaner than the university-trained doctors. Folk healers used wine, vinegar, and beer to wash woundsBy the 18th century, "modern" medicine had actually regressed. They stopped using these "primitive" washes in favor of dry lint or even "laudable pus", the horrific academic belief that thick yellow pus was a sign of a wound healing well.
Landcity or Palatine City? Which sounds better?
>>97319452Only develop the parts you like and the rest just rip off from actual history with just some name changes and/or leave them purposefully vague
>>97320422The natural magic, using herbs to heal, eventually became part of science.
>>97315399Unless your magic is extremly rare ala LotR or completly random, people that use it will try to understand it. And understanding it leads to magic eventually becoming another science or art.I personally built around that by having elemental magic as the common magic that's well understood, studied and practiced along with much rarer magic types that people are trying to understand, but its so rare and runs on completly different priniciples that nobody is making any meanigful progress. At most there is a small insight here or there.
>>97320801Palatine CityI don't know how you thought Landcity would be good.You could even go with The Palatial City.
Does your world have any famous (or infamous) serial killers?
Third time the charm, I guess.Started editing, pastebin prevented me from making it public after I removed a single link. Guess their standards changed over the years. Copied it to justpasteit, but can't post the new link for the 2019 list here, couldn't because it's flagged as spam. So I'll make a pdf for the updated list.
>>97320356Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with having both something "traditional" and "subversive". I take a species, give it a set of characteristics which can be used to form a sort of baseline culture/identity, and then create different permutations of that culture based on where I drop it in the world.Nothing wrong with taking traditional formulas and putting a little spin on them either. I'm taking some Scottish influences and mashing it up with some Chinese influences. Confucianism works surprisingly well with dwarves.
>>97320286idk, all I can really imagine them as is like warhammer or tolkien dwarves, and like I said they're my favorite fantasy dudes but it just feels kind of derivative.
