Thread 96313701

Here's this map I made for a continent setting. No idea how to fill it or what to do on it. Dunno, posting it so anons can add stuff to it

>>96313701 (OP)
What kind of a tech level do you want OP? We could do anything from Monkey Ooo Ooo Ahhh Ahh cavemen to Strangereal to Science Fiction and everything in between.

>>96313701 (OP)
>Here's this map I made for a continent setting
Never never never ever make a setting unless you have a specific campaign in mind with it. Settings are meant to start in a room and project themselves outward, not start with The Gods and descend into details.

>>96313741
The idea I had in mind was for it to be on the surface "generic fantasy", but that takes place after a world-ending calamity that left everything wrecked.
Think of it like Dark Sun/Post Bronze Age Collapse I guess. Petty kingdoms rising and falling on the top of ruins from much more advanced empires. Shrouded by a land that is scarred and still on its way to recovery.
>>96313748
Yyyyeah, I know. I did had a campaign in mind, but then got stuck with other things and couldn't proceed. So I thought to just try to develop the setting or something and then propose the campaign.
But it was something along the lines of a group of traveling assholes, acting as Warlords and Generals. Like, recruiting soldiers, mobilizing them on armies, warfare, etc.

>>96313834
>But it was something along the lines of a group of traveling assholes, acting as Warlords and Generals. Like, recruiting soldiers, mobilizing them on armies, warfare, etc.
Warring on who? Funded by who? Due to what grievances? What do these soldiers look like? Why are they fighting? Brother, these answers are going to be hard if you're starting with a continent and working down to the cities. It's significantly easier if you know where your PCs are going to start, building that region out, and then extrapolating based on what you've established in that region on a national scale.

To put it more simply, it's a lot easier to figure out, "who rules this town?" Than "the Kingdom of Chalon needs towns, uhh... Here, and here, and here."

>>96313908
Well the plan was for the players to go all across the Continent, with the eventual goal of unifying it (or fucking it even more up).
What I envisioned was pretty much:
>Group of PCs are random nobodies, from different backgrounds
>Decide to come together and form a militia
>Start first as mercenaries, hired by the many warring towns, cities, and eventual aspiring kingdoms
>On the way recruit more people, expanding their militia
>Go from fighting for others to conquering for themselves
>Keep increasing the level until the entire map is painted in their colors.
Which is why I felt I needed some idea of the bigger picture, as while they were moving around, they would be first employed by those other warring states, and later become enemies (or allies) of them. All the while those other states would also be fucking each other in the background.
I'm a fan of historic military drama, if it wasn't obvious

>>96313701 (OP)
This world's rough equivalent of World War I has entered its last year. Both factions are launching their last campaigns as the fires of revolution begin to spread. Time's running out, a horrible disease is spreading all through the world. The world needs heroes more than ever, young warrior pick up your sword and FIGHT!

>>96319398
He heard the rattle of machine gun, the royal guard clashing with the encroaching red hordes slamming into the defensive line with hammers and stone. "My lord, we shall hold them off for as long as we can." The captain gave him a salute and marched down the stairs, the palm of his hand steadily holding his saber. An explosion gave out deeper in the city as a zeppelin crashed into a skyscraper, escort fighters clashing through the business sector with tracers that lit the night sky.

The end of the Empire had come. He shook his head, his salt-pepper beard and greying dark hair complimenting his sharp aquiline nose and fierce grey eyes. Turning from the window and the burning kingdom, he pressed a button on the bookcase. He heard a click, and it slowly slid open revealing a hidden chamber. Though he doubted the communists would find it, more interested in the serving women and the silverware in the kitchen, he needed to take the family's most precious relic.

He approached the pedestal and saw it: a dark sword whose base was encrusted with a single blazing eye. Behind it, stood a drawing of the true forefather of his house. "My Lord," the emperor bowed, "fear not, we shall return. That I promise." He grabbed the hilt of the ancient blade and inspected it: no rust, no blemishes, nothing. The old tales were true: a sword of polished black, that never aged and thirsted for blood.

And he felt the power course through him. By the time he left the mansion with the guard and climbed onto his personal train, he still felt it. He watched the royal palace disappear as the reds swarmed into his childhood home, quickly erasing his past in smoke. While feeling sad the emperor also felt something else, he felt the eye looking upon him and knew what it meant: the dark would hold him to his promise.

>>96313748
Unless you're Tolkien who just told couple of stories in a world he was actually interested in building.

>>96313701 (OP)
Here's a thought: instead of having anons fill it, keep it blank until needed and then run with what your players talk about and/or whatever is on your mind at the point.

>OP ain't adding shit but fuck it
"Zeke gave me this," Teddy explained to the little girl. He was in the fifth grade, two more years in the schoolhouse before he took up the plough or the hammer or went to the big school like Zeke. A slight breeze was in the air, making him wear a blue cap not unlike the boys he saw on the newsreel, hollering from streetcorners as they sold newspapers.

"It's a ship," her curly dark brown hair was tied with a red ribbon. "My dad used to work on those, steamships. They sail up the river to pick up smokes." She watched as Teddy gently placed the little toy in the river.

"It floats," Teddy looked in awe as the wheel moved on its own like the mill at the far side of town. They walked alongside the riverbank, Teddy's blue eyes watching as a little fish jumped away from the mysterious craft now bothering its home. "This is cool," he said as it got caught in a little rock, red leaves passing it as autumn gave way to winter.

As he reset it, he thought about Zeke. Mom was sad, Dad looked worried as his big brother got on his knees and handed him a gift, wrapped in a homemade cloth spun to show lions and tigers. Zeke had smiled and rubbed Teddy's scruffy blonde hair, "I'll be back soon," he had said.

"When will he be back?" The little girl, three years his junior, balanced herself on a rock as she leaned over and gently lifted the little boat.

Teddy shrugged, "I don't know. They say it will be over by the holidays, the dumb war." He smiled, "said he'll bring me a toy from one of those fancy big cities... And a girl." He remembered his brother's cheeky grin as Mom spazzed out and Dad giving an amused chuckle as he got onto the train. As they continued to play, he still thought about Zeke. When he went home, he thought about him, when Zeke didn't come home and his Mom turned white at the scarred man holding his hat on his chest, he still thought of him.

Even as an old man Theodore thought about him.

"Goddamn younguns and their moving pictures," Lloyd snarled.

"What can I say?" Douglas shrugged, "they're fun to watch." Lloyd found those things obnoxious, the black and white cat chasing some dirty varmint. He hated those things enough when he found them in the fields, now he had to see them whenever he watched the damn news. "You need to loosen up," Douglas took his seat and adjusted his red tie.

"Friggin kids..." Lloyd took a seat next to him. As much as he hated rats as the next man, at least he got to suffer with Doug. An old cowpoke who had seen the whole east, doing cattle drives in the badlands of Buffalo to getting into barfights with rustlers down in the proving grounds of Costa Verde, he had seen it all and had the scars to prove it. Yet he was always friends with Doug, the pharmacist who stayed home with his folks while he grabbed his hat and went out.

Doug wrinkled his nose and tried to swat out the smell, "goddamn- he's here too?"

Lloyd narrowed his eyes as Red John, the local drunken thief, stumbled in. "The friggen savage don't got any stock with this." The dominions had long played second fiddle to the trouble enveloping the west but civilized men still felt a connection to the fatherland, especially when many had their boys ushered off from their homes to fight. He grit his teeth as John emptied an entire bottle of whiskey right in front of them. "I oughta just-"

Doug shushed him as the newsreel came on. 'The Empire continues strong!' The black and white letters came on, showing the colonial auxiliaries. Stetson wearing marines- white men but wild eyed and fierce, landing at some godforsaken land. Then it showed black men marching in a countryside, going one by one into a trench. 'Here come the coolies,' Lloyd mentally chuckled, 'look at those ridiculous things.' He had more respect for them than he did the savages, but he still got a chuckle at those things. 'They look like toilet paper.'

Then he saw on the screen: 'THE KING IS DEAD.'

>>96320982
The word count ran out, but I was going to have John see his son the big screen. Making him fall face first as the crowd falls into an uproar. Lloyd is still kind of a prick, but he does feel pity for John when it comes to his son, Hawk. The war got so bad, the Empire started to scalp reservations for manpower and even started to haul off fantasy mormons to war.

Something to get the ball rolling

>>96313957
>>96313834
>>96313701 (OP)
In my most succesfull epic heroic fantasy campaign I literally started the characters on a round island, then had them sail to the nearest continent and then drew the outline of the vicinity of where they landed, eventually entire continent with arrows to where other continents are, and then eventually I drew outlines of other continents and only filled them in when the party arrived to them. Maybe you should just try that.
Just spout shit when needed, take notes then make it work between the sessions, if you accidentally made some information contradictory, just blame it on misinformed or malicious NPCs. You can have extremely vague outline of the setting but anything beyond that is unnecessary, since you might want to change it anyway to make for a more interesting campaign.
>>96320388
aye but it's /tg/ not /lit

>>96321094
Here's something to play with:
>Necromancy, while much reviled, has long been theorized to be the first school of magic due it's ties to ancient Priesthoods and it's role in generating more manpower for the city states of the time. Zombies and skeletons can be seen in ancient tablets, laboring with a priest directing their movement. The ability for zombies to work tirelessly must have been noticed by the ruling kings who sought to create magnificent temples and fortresses to cement their legitimacy. Thus, the combination of environmental circumscription and Bronze Age belief systems, ensured that necromancy would persist as an acceptable form of wizardry until the rise of the Sun cults during the Iron Age.
>Today, Necromancy has made an ugly return to the civilized world after long having been pushed to tribal fringes. With an entire generation of young men lost and the rulers considering conscripting young women to fill the gaps, Necromancers are once more being courted by kings and queens. Despite the historic rivalry between the republicans and the communists, both despise necromancy.

>>96319398
Renegade naval units, pirates, deserters and desperate refugee camps infest the islands in the center, disrupting trade, yet also providing useful sources for mercenaries, black market hardware/magic and slaves.

>>96321094
>>96321364
Wizards are still stuck riding at the back of the bus. Magic after all, disrupts technology. It's actually Wizard's screwing up the electrical wiring by spells accidentally overcharging the currents but that only comes out in the late 1980s.

>Sun Cults
One prominent cult worshiped one god and one god only. They were early pioneers of Conjuration and Atronachy: a magical school that has declined more than the others. Practitioners hold great disdain for necromancy and infernalism.

>>96321416
Mass mutinies are increasingly common, especially with necromancy being used more and more.

Simples

>>96321026
>fantasy mormons
Ok. Mormons in this setting are some of the very few true monotheists which leads to them being disliked by a lot of people. By and large, they live in a small island chain far to the east where the fantasy Americans live. The Territory of Levi has a population of around a hundred thousand, with the adherents of the Prophet holding very intricate and well detailed genealogical records that painstakingly record every family. It's not hard to see these stranded sons of Deseret one day becoming a strong religion in their own right but for now, they're in a world of Idolators and non-men.

Their units are ridiculous. The Mormons have adopted some interesting tastes for their uniform: using badly obsolete gendarmerie hats and colorful uniforms which, when coupled with some truly bad leadership choices by the elders, has made them a joke to the greater military. This is a reflection not just on their isolation from greater society which is further strengthened by their hard stance on necromancy, but the fact they served as unofficial gendarmerie during the wars with the savages.

>>96321364
>>96321459
"The Dead must be put to rest."

Young women are finding new pathways in life as more and more men lose their lives in the meat grinder. The colonial auxiliaries even, themselves coming from patriarchal cultures, are feeling the loss. But there is a downside to this: one country has just called it's women to war. This is an act that been met with outrage not just from the continent, but the colonies themselves.

>>96320629
>>96320982
>>96321544
Dogs in the Vineyard is a very applicable game here. Neat.
>Though the Messiah's name has been lost to time, the men of Levi carry the fire. Tracing their origins to a very small minority of monotheists during the middle ages, they survived much. The Dark Lord, the Red Death, the Dragon Wars, and the failed war of independence. And they carry the word: take him into your heart and be saved.

>>96321530
>Didn't leave any room for the Spanish
Based.

>>96321719
Oh yeah, there's a peninsula south of the frogs, have them there.

>>96321759
Nah, don't bother. You don't need 'em.

The communists were everywhere, crawling over the burned capital as they killed, maimed, and burned everyone they could find. "The tyranny of the bourgeoise is over!" They had cried, "the revolution has come! Lay down your arms and no harm will come to you!" Smithy did that, and the People's Commissar roared with laughter and slugged a bullet straight into his head. Machine gun fire roared around the museum as the reds began their final assault on parliament, the streetlamps were lined with hanging bodies.

Jim looked at the window and saw a group of black men being strung up by the revolutionaries even as they begged for mercy, their uniforms drenched in mud and dirt. In an effort to ignore the kicking feet, Jim saw the sign hung over the largest of them: 'class traitors' it read in blood red paint. The soldiers twisting feet then went still and the laughing communists went off to a pub to brink themselves to death.

The world had gone mad. "They're coming!" He heard one of his squadmates cry. The double doors leading to the museum was getting slammed into, the Reds probably having built a battering ram. They were coming to loot everything bare, the Communists aiming to burn all the vestiges of the old world to make a new one in it's place. Outside they were taking hammers to the famed Lion, a great statue was being destroyed to make way for the new regime.

They were young men, but young or old- that made no difference to the communists. They were godless men of the future, Jim's people were class traitors who still held to a primitive god totem. The doors were hit again, the hinges weakening with a single nail flying to the ground. Jim aimed his rifle, the sandbags barely offering any protection but still... Another slam, this time a crack. He heard laughter on the other side as the drunk reds expected them to go down without a fight.

Not him. CRASH! The double doors blasted open, Jim pulled the trigger and hit a red straight in the eye.

>>96313748
Discworld proves this wrong

OP fag here
>>96320462
That was the original plan, yeah. But thought it could be fun to have the anons play around with it. And then steal their ideas and present them as my own
>>96321094
I purposely left the southern and western regions out of the map, but I kinda had the idea that to the west there's blasted rocky wastelands, and to the south impenetrable jungles.

Here's some risk-esque map. Note that many of the regions colored aren't nations or kingdoms, but wild lands with some city states inside them. But again, who cares, you are all free to to make it into whatever.

Looks like Britain went communist instead of Russia.

>>96320274
>>96320982
>>96321780
From what the anons gave us, we can deduce a few things:
>Extremely high casualties.
>Very real class tensions.
>A Red vs Colonial aspect.
The last one is interesting because communists like to present themselves as the liberators of the downtrodden, yet here they are mass executing colonial auxiliaries. It's interesting because it implies that the colonial dominions are very hostile towards communism as an ideology despite wanting more autonomy which suggests that liberal capitalism is much more attractive to markets distant from the colonial heartland.

I also like how them Mormonbois went down kicking and screaming. I'm going to add this:

>The Battle of Kingsbridge was a strategic victory for the communists with most of the 'whites' being composed of hastily assembled colonial brigades desperately trying to buy the civilians time. The Mormons were killed to man holding the line so the upper echelons of the government could flee to the colonies. The NAZACs and the Sepoys managed to hold the ports to ensure a successful evacuation.
>The collapse of a major power sent shockwaves through the world, with the Tzar hastily ordering one last offensive campaign to bring a swift close to the war.

>>96322858
The Socialist pigs will not be allowed to win!

What about communism/WW2 tropes, but in a fantasy medieval style?

>>96323781
Arcanum's got some wacky shit like that.
>The Dragon Knights found themselves being forced to return home as the Communist Revolution overtook the island. With the Auxiliary armies, in a great twist of irony, staying loyal to the crown, the Knights managed to create a stable holding in Grim Port. Kingsbridge, now called Central City, spent a very long and very bloody year trying to reclaim it with the Politburo growing increasingly frustrated with the knight's refusal to kneel. They resorted to increasingly desperate and abhorrent strategies including mustard gas but still, the Knights held.

>>96313748
There is no rule to build imaginary worlds in your head

>The Communists were mostly soldiers disenchanted with the war, feeling increasingly disenfranchised with the ruling aristocracy who they felt spent more time and resources upholding the Empire than actually serving the men that lived in it. One of the strongest support bases was the Air Corp for the Royal Army. During the revolution, they took advantage of the Empire's new aerial designs to blast the air navy out of the sky, utilizing the plane's maneuverability and the flammability of helium to devastate the King Emperor's airships thus marking the beginning of the end for the zeppelin in war.
>Ironically enough, the Kitty Hawk brigade stayed loyal to his majesty and covered the retreat of the sepoys during the fall of Kingsbridge.

shameless bump