how after so many fucking years there's not a compilation of actually useful, compressive worldbuilding resources? there's next to 0 guides out there on how to do anything that is not the blandest dnd clone ever and not even in deep, just superficial trash. is worldbuilding a lost technology among nerds?
>>97836873the fuck is a worldbulding resource?
There are fuck loads of them you stupid faggot.
just get "X withouth number" books or some other random generator if you're lazy, there's plenty around
>>97836873I am including all the good advice in my RPG, be sure to buy it when it comes out.
>>97836873What the fuck is that? Worldbuilding resources? Just read books, wikis, or fucking tvtropes
>>97836873If you’re too lazy to read source material, you shouldn’t be worldbuilding. It’s that simple.
>>97836873I would criciticize the contradiction to want tools to help you make something unexpected but I dont really know how these world building books work.Personally I do it by thinking up a setting I would like then shaping it so that individual actions matter, usually by having something horrible happen. Basically, for ttrpg settings to work you need a setting where players cant just call the cops or the national guard or any sort of aid. No one is coming so they have to solve the problems themselves. Apocalypse or government failures are good ones.
>>97836873Wouldn't say that. You do have to skim through a lot of dndrone thinking tough.
>>97836873Is there a translation for this game yet?
>>97836873Because you shouldn't need a rulebook to exercise your own imagination.
Your setting must be extremely generic if you think a ready made worldbuilding resource book is gonna help you. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you answered your own question before I could. >>97838024This.
>>97836873>another autistic retard that can't be arsed to curate books AHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAH HAHAHAHA
>>97836873It's easy as fuck.Refer to >>97791782
There are dozens of youtube channels, websites, forums, threads including on this board, redzits, discords, and whatever your preferred platform for opinions. Hell, there are probably full books on the subject. How about you look shit up and put in the bare minimum to inform yourself instead of whining that no one is spoonfeeding you.
>>97836873I do worldbuilding but for a vidya I'm never finishing. I got this book from a /tg/ thread some years ago so in the interest of encouraging resource sharing I'll post it, it seems to cover how to make the setting less bland but I only skimmed it.Kobold's Guide to Worldbuilding Volume 1 https://files.catbox.moe/05vd5u.pdf
>>97836873We have a worldbuilding general newfriend. You should check us out.
>>97838024It didn't look like OP was asking for "a rulebook to exercise his imagination", it looked like he was asking for "useful, compressive worldbuilding resources".
>>97836893hello?
>>97841918Still, worldbuilding resources can improve complexity and believability of a world, but they will do nothing to make it less generic, which is what OP complained about.
>>97836873It's called the encyclopedia.
>>97836873because you can't teach good worldbuilding, cuz it's just being really autistic about something and making a setting about it
>>97842137Yet still, "a rulebook to exercise his imagination" has nothing to do with the topic regardless.
>>97840515Been actually skimming through this. Some parts are generic but others are a bit useful because it doesn't assume you're just making a dnd copy. Thanks for posting anon.
>>97837624Awesome, can’t wait!
>>97836873>is worldbuilding a lost technology among nerds?Worldbuilding is TOO nerdy. That's the problem. Instead of thinking of fantastical realms and strange creatures that capture the imagination nerds are focused on historically accurate medieval population sizes™ and in-depth magic systems that is classified like a field of science. You'll find plenty of resources for that if that's what you want.It's kinda like pic related, but for fantasy.
>>97836873For your typical fantasy setting, go ahead and buy the Adventurer Conqueror King books, specifically the Judge's Journal. It has entire chapters devoted to worldbuilding, with step-by-step instructions. Pic related is a small snippet.
>>97836873Because creative people don't need these things and non-creative people can't tell apart what is and isn't trash.
>>97848043>buyBegone, shill.
>>97848016>nerds are focused on historically accurate medieval population sizes™Part of the fun of fantasy for me IS that bit of autism over history, even though yeah it can be taken too far. I think the real problem is when you focus too much on shit like which direction rivers are supposed to go or plate tectonics just to get a nice map, that's where you lose the plot. Sometimes literally. And even then I can see the appeal, but you put it correctly by saying it's literally the fantasy version of that meme.
>>97848016>are focused on historically accurate medieval population sizes™Yeah, well, no. You ARE right that fantasy nerds are fossilized on trite shit, but I don't think "correct" population sizes are one of them. Or for that matter, actually reading scholars about the middle ages or whatever period.
>97848043This guy is a troll. It's best to just ignore him.
>>97851073>plate tectonicsThat's a good example, I wish I used that one instead. Another thing some people obsess over is the evolutionary biology of fantasy creatures, at that point you are just creating a sci-fi setting.
>>97852544I personally not into overly alien creatures in fantasy desu, unless they're just one weird thing in the background. I am in the school of ripping off myth and folklore
>>97851093Hardly a bad thing.Fantasy has it's feet in traditional storytelling.Inventing fabulous creatures of your own is technically also fantasy, but it's the traditional elements that people rely on for a frame of reference, and to plunder for semiotics.
>>97851115You see him a lot? Because I’ve never heard of that book(s) he mentioned before.
>>97858872I do agree, mind you. Even when you're aiming for a "realistic" environment the correct population numbers, or the way an army marches, are... pretty much deep under the hood of the car, so to speak.Still, the problem is there: a lot of fantasy nerds try (for dumb reasons) to cling to realism while not really giving a shit about documenting themselves about that. The result is the worse of both worlds, no wonderful flights of fancy nor down to eath feeling/interest.
>>97848016Artists should lower their voices when talking to engineers
>>97852544>Another thing some people obsess over is the evolutionary biology of fantasy creatures, at that point you are just creating a sci-fi setting.As a huge fan of both traditional fantasy and spec evo of course I'm going to incorporate evolution into my fantasy world. But conversely I care very little about e.g. philosophy and religion so I intentionally keep that side of things to a minimum. Point is write about what you like.
>>97850491
>>97837112I was going to mention Kevin Crawford's "Without Number" games, but you already mentioned them.
>>97836873unironically just learn about the real world, focusing on whatever fields are most relevant to the story you want to tell (for instance Tolkien drew heavily from mythology to make one of his own; alternatively, if religion is to be a core focus, then anthropology of religion is a good starting point)as you learn, try to cultivate an abstract understanding of how this stuff forms, and apply that understanding to grow something original on the same framework>>97848016frankly you could just as easily flip that meme around with Jules Verne on the left and steampunk cogfops on the right
>>97862937I saw that first one on a show, I thought that it was a failure?
>>97862937Lower voices? What? Is that a reference?
>>97851073>>97852544Disagree, putting down a a few landmasses, randomly drawing tectonic plates under them and making them diverge/collide is what gives you nice, realistic looking landscapes. Dont be like Tolkien kids.And once you know how rivers work every river not taking the shortest route to the nearest sea/lake and diverging into two directions just sticks out immensely.
>>97874880That's why I put the caveat of acknowledging their appeal. This hobby is very autistic so details like this do have their place if one wants to
>>97874880And yet essentially every popular fantasy world in the history of the genre does none of this, from Middle Earth to Azeroth to Westeros. Realistic geography is something you can do if it's particularly interesting to you or relevant to your story but it is by no means a must have.
>>97867980It was. It did manage to fly, but not very well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_VZ-9_Avrocar
>>97876183Azeroth looks fine, like plates were turning the landmasses around a central point.Middle earth and Westeros looking like shit geographically is a common criticism even among normalfags.
>>97876349Ew, a blizzard fanboy
>>97876352No I fucking hate blizzard and their gooky designs, they ruined the 2000s for fantasy.
>>97876349>Azeroth looks fine, like plates were turning the landmasses around a central point.It only looks "okay" from the world map, in the sense that you can kind of see how Kalimdor and EK used to fit together when they were a pangea-like super continent, but the actual terrain is absurd. On a continent level it's no better than Middle Earth, like half the zones are surrounded by fuckhuge mountain ranges for no reason and biomes don't even attempt to make sense.
>>97876402I kinda see it, although I mostly stop at landmass sperging. Biomes and terrain I dont care that much about. Except if its really ridiculous like the mordor mountains.
>>97876768>Except if its really ridiculous like the mordor mountains.Yeah, and most of the regions on Azeroth (at least for vanilla wow) are just their own Mordors is my point. Nearly all of them are bordered by inexplicable mountain ranges on almost all sides.
>>97836873>there's next to 0 guides out there on how to do anything that is not the blandest dnd clone ever and not even in deepThat's my problem. Most worldbuilding guides, resources and discussion is fantasy-centric and is based around the assumption that you're making a world for a D&D campaign. Where do I go if I've got ideas for science fiction or post-apocalyptic worlds?
>>97836893Everything.
PLATE TECTONICS ENJOYERS DON'T LOOK
Hate to say it but unless you're making the most generic medieval western fantasy setting AND specifically in a D&D style, you're gonna have to open up an actual book and use your brain
>>97878551Just ask Claude
>>97879232>Claude is Anthropic's AI, built forNah
>>97879254ngmi
>>97879272If AI can do what you want then you're creatively bankrupt and are making boring slop, unironically. AI doesn't know shit.
>>97879277That depends on what you want. Obviously you cant just type in "make me an awesome unique fantasy tt setting" but by "open a book" I assume you mean having to read up on history, cultures, religions, geography to fine tune your setting which you dont because AI can just do that shit for you. And the more content you have about your setting, the better AI gets at just making up lore on the spot for you.
>>97836873>ideaguys now need ideaguyssad
>>97837112>>97863533Agree "X without Number" is a great system to help people with worldbuilding.>>97848043Same with ACKS, (yes I know. fishfag will REEE about seeing ACKS and all however FUCK him. I will like what I want.)>>97861525(He just hates the creator of the book cause he isn't leftist.)
>>97865899The hatred that /tg/ has for steampunk never ceases to amuse me.
>>97879323>I assume you mean having to read up on history, cultures, religions, geography to fine tune your setting Yes>which you dont because AI can just do that shit for you.I repeat my statement. AI isn't an oracle that taps into the Akashic Records or whatever, it gets shit wrong so many times. You're freed to do what you want but it certainly has failed me plenty of times.
>>97850491Normie newfags always expose themselves by being too stupid for piracy.
>>97879616It's how you can tell someone is from the late 00's
>>97877711>Where do I go if I've got ideas for science fiction or post-apocalyptic worlds?science, history and any story that isn't fantasy
>>97848016The problem with this image is that the first one is a much better result.
>>97879625Its pretty accurate, you are worldbuilding not writing a scientific article on the topic.
>>97879640It also looks pass the author's intentions, but I get the point of it
>>97878551>the most generic medieval western fantasythe average D&D fantasy has basically nothing "medieval western" about it beyond some vague superficialities; if one were to make a setting from studying actual medieval society and history then it would be completely alien to the average fantasy audience
>>97861525it's a schizo with a splintered personality who's always ranting about his evil persona called fishfag completely unprompted
>>97836873Because you can't drag 80 IQ knuckledraggers along a 120 IQ journey? You can't flow chart inspiration? If you can't find what you are looking for here, you can't period.
>>97876349>MMO slop good>middle earth badThis is your brain on midwit shit. You're so far up in your own ass you think dogshit is good and fine diamonds are bad.
>>97879990I know and literally every knows this but it's still the patina people associate with it the most
>>97836873Half of the GURPS books are worldbuilding guides.
>>97881950And GURPS is borderline not even a RPG. Coincidence? I think not.
>>97877711Atomic Rockets is a good place to go for hard sci-fi, or at least for background social and political stuff if you’re doing softer sci-fi.
>>97836873I personally am pretty fond of Fabula ultima's rules/guide for collaborative world building with your group, as it requests everyone to actually make a multitude of different things that are actually useful for designing a campaign around/can be used in play, been in 1 campaign/setting made this way as a player and another as a GM both with completely different people and both times worked out surprisingly well also helps that in play people can spend their reroll points to add setting or story details on the fly(so long as everyone agrees on it) so it makes everything very fluid in case there was some blind spot or new idea that people would want to be covered
>>97879640>The problem with this image is that the first one is a much better result.How is that now?
>>97879365How can we fix this then?
>>97882287Is it really that bad? Never really checked GURPS out.
>>97892280It's a generic simulator of... I dunno, intuitive physics?The rest of the game is basically adding point buys. No direction towards anything. Only salveageable for the nerdiest parts of WB in the supplements.
>>97882287>DnDogshit eater when he founds any system that is not DnDogshit
>>97892704This is what gurpsfags really need to believe? That if people don't like their autitical game they're terminal dndfags?Look, you don't need to agree with me or whoever, but that is a pretty pathetic cope pal.
>>97892318>I dunno, intuitive physics?What does that mean?
I have a whole folder of books on worldbuilding, but they banned posting books here.
>>97897280you can upload a folder to mega or mediafire
>>97836873>how after so many fucking years there's not a compilation of actually useful, compressive worldbuilding resources?There's throves with enough resources about it but what you ask is for predigested baby formula, even though you don't want that.>there's next to 0 guides out there on how to do anything that is not the blandest dnd clone ever and not even in deep, just superficial trashGuides only guide. Guides don't make your world, just show you a path they know, do your own trail for what you want to explore.>is worldbuilding a lost technology among nerds?Only to the deaf and blind.
>>97837734Usually, and you can see in the Worldbuilding General, it works by telling you what not to do.
>>97839378Personally, after going deep down the worldbuilding rabbit hole in the last week, most of those videos are useless and the forums are full of>Um, ackshually...who love to say human life is shit, short, and boring.
>>97836893every thread that gets "traditional games?" shitposts in it
>>97836873I jacked off to these pictures over 20 years ago
>>97902007TMI man. But seriously, they're that old?
>>97906899they look older
>>97906899It looks like the most early 00's hentai VN style ever
>>97836873Artifexian on YT is one, who here is familiar with it?
>>97906899I think I downloaded the image set from 4chan back when you could just do that.
>>97909720I’ve never heard of him, thanks.
>>97836873What minimum criteria/level of usefulness does a resource need to be worth recommending in your book? As for recommendations for resources, try Hello Future Me and Overly Sarcastic Productions on YouTube. Especially the latter. Mark Rosenfelder also has some good guide books, look for the Construction Kit ones on Amazon. Anyone else have any more please?
>>97836873The main worldbuilding resource I use is alcohol. I get drunk and just write nonsensical ideas for new settings and eventually sometimes I come up with one good.
>>97909720>>97913732>>97918772let it die, bumpniggernobody is interacting with you for a reason
>>97836873there's plenty of resources for natural worldbuilding like https://worldbuildingpasta.blogspot.com/?m=1
>>97836873Enjoy the autismhttps://www.youtube.com/@WorldbuildingNotes
>>97918772>>97931124>>97931158Thank you for posting and keeping the demoralizing retarded bot mad.
>>97836873I'll take what has Kobold Press been releasing consistently for the last 20 years please, Bob.
>>97897280Yeah, that was annoying, but you can do what >>97898684 suggests, or another file-sharing site. Or just upload them to the Vola instead of making them a new folder for them. I can’t wait to see what you have please!
>>97836873You don't need anything more than your brain and a word document.
>>97897280>I have a whole folder of books on worldbuilding,Please share this!
