Thread 96743359

Academy edition

Resources for Newfags: https://sites.google.com/view/wbgeneral/
Worldbuilding links: https://pastebin.com/JNnj79S5
https://cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/view/Eo+fK41FKVR7xDpbNO0a0N4k0YYxrmyrhX3VxnM14Ew/
Fantasy map generator: https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator

Last thread: >>96515130

Thread question:
>Do you only focus on kings and saints, or you create a variety of great people for your settings?

Thread prompt:
>Tell us about any great painters / composers / writers in your setting. Do you have descriptions of their great works? Or even, for madlads, examples?

There's The Songsparrow. Who is basically a modern day popstar who sings ballads for noble courts and peasant alike and dodges angry husbands.

One of the world-shaping events of my setting is an incredibly advanced pre-human civilization creating a machine that had to destroy all their enemies, on a metaphysical level.
This led to a last-ditch attack before it could be completed. In current version, the attack is performed by combined might of Angels and Demons, despite the whole setting revolving around the clash of Light and Dark.
I can't put a finger on it - would presenting a threat that made Angels and Demons work together, even if briefly, actually make for a cool moment in lore, or it would undermine the central conflict?

>>96743297
I have a setting with periodic cataclysms on a smaller time scale (basically the same as what you suggested initially, like a thousand years or less) so I can say what I've done at least.
I think it's a good way to make a setting dynamic and interesting.
>It feels stupid to fit multiple such cataclysms into a timeline measured in thousands of years. If a cataclysms destroys everything...
It doesn't have to destroy everything. Mine are usually strong enough to basically reset civilization back to a baseline, but it doesn't erase all the knowledge hoarded before the apocalypse. If any pockets survive, they pretty rapidly are able to resettle and it can mean a civilization/society in a bad spot at the end of an era that manages to survive all of a sudden ends up in a dominant position. Seers and prophets can also potentially foresee the disaster and prepare for it, making the position even more secure.
>why care about the struggle of good and evil if the slate will be wiped clean
The obvious answer would be to make the 'evil' responsible for the cataclysms, but either way focus on the continuity between eras too
>Not to mention forests and animal populations which just wouldn't have time to spread again.
Unless you're talking about something on the order of the dinosaur-killing asteroid, you'd be surprised. Some study said that life had returned to the literal Chicxulub crater within three years after impact. And that was just on an entirely different scale in terms of how destructive the event was. Treat the first couple hundreds years after the Cataclysm as a "recovery" phase, like forests are growing back, new animals are recolonizing the lands. It can be an interesting period to play around with as well for a setting.
>Plus for long-lived races, such as Dwarves and Elves, this would be stupid.
I personally cut the lifespans of my dwarves and elves, but I think playing with the idea of the "proud race perseveres through the cataclysm" is cool too.

>>96745477
Also to extend my reply a bit, I feel like fantasy doesn't really treat a thousand years as the massive amount of time it really is.
1000 BC was just after the bronze age collapse - a thousand years later Augustus was ruling the Roman Empire. A thousand years after that and William the Conqueror was invading England at the dawn of the High Middle Ages.
A thousand years ago for a premodern society is basically into the realm of legend or myth already.
A cataclysm every thousand years? Well shit, that means there would have only been 4 cataclysms since the Pyramids of Giza were built - which are constructs so ancient even the Ancient Greeks considered them to be basically straight out of the age of myth.

Is this the thread to discuss VTTs and map-making tools? I'm looking at RPTools' MapTool, free and open-source, not sure if anyone got any feedback. I want to playtest an rpg with my cousin and we live in 2 different cities so need VTT until we meet up again. Needs to support hex grids cause muh GURPS.

>>96745477
>>96745534
Those are fair points. Thank you. I think I'll compress the timeline to a more manageable level. 100k years since creation of the world, with most humanoids emerging just 10k years ago

Hi guys, I very infrequently visit /tg/ (like once or twice a year, if that)

Anyways, I want to make a game that's basically a dungeon crawler, that scales into party management and has 4X elements, with simulated economies and factions and stuff. I've been using ChatGPT to roughly hash out and refine ideas, since I can basically throw shit at it and it'll group things together and narrow down how I *actually* want to approach things. Anyone else doing that sort of thing?

Since I wanted to have a focus on deep finance (contracts, derivatives and the like), I figured the easiest way to have it mirror modern conventions was to just use magic... but if magic was so widespread, it would create other issues. So then my thought was to have some kind of extraplanar being manage stuff, so I ended up going with Djinn - they don't care about mortal politics, are very contract/oath oriented, powerful magicians, and being nonpartisan allows them to just build wealth up (as opposed to say, vampire lords or dragons or demons, though they might participate to an extent).

The other hurdle I need to clear conceptually is how to justify dungeons popping up everywhere and why collecting millions of gp in loot won't distort the economy. My thought here was that depending on local conditions (stability, religion, wealth) would affect the kind of dungeons that would appear, such as bandit dens appearing near borders with low stability, that sort of thing. And lairs would probably just have a ton of mundane crap in them (a few coins, art objects, weapons) and the wealth would come from fulfilling contracts or developing the player's own faction economy.

For magic, I'm leaning towards D&D sort of logic for now, having a discipline (transmutation) and a catalyst (divine, arcane) as a placeholder, until I get more of the fundamentals figured out. It's something I've just been sketching out on and off for a few years, but this is the first time I've really posted about it anywhere

>>96748753
Maybe dungeons are so dangerous you pretty much need magic to have a hope of clearing them.
But afterwards the Djinn take nine-tenths of the treasure as their "share" as part of the compact for lending their magic out.
Who made the dungeons? Clearly a magical precursor race, maybe one that used to fight the Djinn over control of magic and got wiped out - which is another motivation for the Djinn to be using mortals to get "their" treasures back.

>>96748753
I despise AI for the usual reasons people will repeat but since I'm a hypocrite sometimes I'll use it to work with stuff I'm unfamiliar with.
But I really do caution you - most recently I was trying to use it to work out the astrophysics of my setting and it got some very basic shit wrong that even I caught on to.
As an example I asked it how long it would take for my moon to rise and set. It responded based on the orbital period of the moon and didn't take into account the planet's rotation. Under its logic it would take a month for our own moon to rise and set.
So if I can't trust it with basic level shit then why should I trust it with anything that needs tons of math and equations I don't even understand myself?

Okay, the timeline got compressed to 50 thousand years since the world took on a stable form. That's a big improvement from my original plan that made it 1 million years long.
The world was creates a while before that, but the concept of time wasn't really around, and it was just chaos with Archangels and First Demons clashing over churning elements for what mortals would have perceived as many millenia.
Crap like Deep Ones and Serpent-Men dominate world for a several tens of thousands of years, while animals evolve, ecosystems settle, etc before proper humanoids come around, which happens around 10 thousand years ago.
So the whole history, with 3 precursor races fills 10 thousand years and at least 4 world-changing cataclysms.
I can work with that.

Angels were the first mortal race made by the Allfather, forged out of silver and pearls, and granted life and flesh. They were winged, long-lived, and so beautiful, than when the Fey entered the world, they were enthralled and took on shapes like those of angels, which is why Elves are so beautiful.
Most of them died when the Enemy sent the Blood Curse and the angels wiped themselves out in a frenzy of blood, aside from a handful, saved by Allfather to become his heralds. Since that day, silver tarnishes, when before it was as untouchable as gold.
Some say the Men of Gold were created by the Enemy, and their many atrocities lend credibility to that idea. They were forged of gold and amber.
Giants were made by the world itself, some say, or maybe by Allfather, explaining their affinity for lightning, and they were forged of thunderbolt iron and diamond. The Giants in turn forged Dwarves to aid them. Dwarves were forged from iron and rock, making them hardy and tough, but forever seeking the splendour of Giants in precious metals and gemstones.
Humans were not forged per se, but olden myths ascribe them bronze and garnet, for their early weapon were of bronze, and garnets are the color of blood they shed.

>I have this goddess of moon and night, called Luna, and I want to give her a sister
>what should I call her?
>hmmm
>uhhh
>ahhh
>ah yes, "Noctis"
>yeah, I still got it

>>96752083
Yes, classics are classic for a reason.
That is indeed a perfect name for a moon goddess.

Hm, if gunpowder is a low-grade demonic substance in the setting, what's stopping demons from rocking tons of firearms?

>>96743359 (OP)
Kys d*scord cancer.

>>96749066
One idea I kinda like is that the plane is effectively a storage closet/ant farm owned by a djinn prince. All the people, objects, and wealth that exist (processed or not) belong to him and he can come collect (or make his lesser djinn servants collect it) at any time. But the scale is so grand that it basically is just a rumor that pops up every couple of centuries and nobody really notices or cares

>>96749468
I find it's very poor at doing calculations or math, but it's good as a way to consolidate ideas or find some concepts you wouldn't necessarily think of yourself. Or to summarize something and ask questions about it in a natural way, whereas something like wikipedia is just a word dump. You can also cheat the prompts sometimes, eg telling it to explain it to a child vs 160 iq, very different results

Wyrmsong is more about "culturebuilding" than "worldbuilding". WE, the individuals gathered here, are the speakers, not a fictional race (though we can and shall borrow symbolism from fiction and mythology).

>>96755243
This guy started a new thread before the last one ended just to try to satisfy you, subhuman. 5 next time.

>>96748753
>dungeon crawler, that scales into party management and has 4X elements, with simulated economies and factions
That's some good shit. There is an early access game called Dungeon Settlers doing a similar thing but without the 4X and simulated economy stuff afaik. There's a book called orconomics which goes into the economics and funding of dungeon delving which are treated like an invesment but it's only a backdrop for the mediocre story. Tvtropes has pages on the dungeon economy trope here https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DungeonBasedEconomy you can steal ideas from, it has a page for the book too.

>>96755367
You should go back to whatever shit hole you came from instead of shitting up the thread with your child grooming site spam.

>>96755386
>accuses others of spam
>has been spamming the thread for a decade
I've been here longer than you, faggot.

>>96755386
>accuses others of spam
>has been spamming the thread for four years
I've been here longer than you, faggot. Get out.

>>96755386
He's just a cheap troll, ignore him, don't give him attention.

Why is this thread so dead? Its used to be so active...
Is it because of LLMs?

Me deciding that wizards create a magical territory whenever they flex their powers, which is why the massive explosions they create don't have much collateral damage.

I think it's also going to be useful to explain why the known laws of physics don't just shatter when magic is used. Technically speaking, the Wizards are fighting in a whole different universe.

>>96757153
I've already got lore about Wizards having a passive field around themselves that shields them from temporal changes. If someone goes back in time and changes the timeline, or just changes the world as it is, wizards will stay unaffected and remember the old timeline.

You could say that their data isn't stored on the same server as the rest of us.

Incidentally, this also means that Prediction doesn't work on them.

>>96757109
This whole board is dead. Wannabe jannies and /pol/tards drove off anybody who wanted to hang out and have fun.

>>96757161
What do you mean stay unaffected?
A wizard walks into a bar.
I travel back in time, buy the bar, demolish the bar, and make a pit filled with spikes in there.
Does the wizard in the present suddenly find himself in a pit of spikes?

What is the most common government system in your world?

>>96758395
Monarchy, obviously. A few tetrachies, of sorts.
Some occasional comic relief or tragically naive places are legitimate democracies, but mostly if its ruled by a council or the people, its actually just a front for a dictatorship.

>>96758395
bronze age god-king monarchies, city states run by tyrant princes, theocratic councils of oracles, seers, and priests usually have a major role with some states being outright run by them entirely and also one apocalyptic death cult that simp for some alien genocidal maniacs
the other major form of government is basically tribal confederacies that are usually no better than petty clan warlordism

I finally did it.
I finally devised a reasoning why firearms are scarce and not proliferating in my setting, despite their power, and balanced them in the grand scheme of things while keeping their individual power intact.
I deserve a cookie.

What image generation do you guys use to get illustrations for your characters, gods etc? Whats the best to use?

>>96760782
There is a /slop/ thread here on this board, ask your degenerate question there

>>96760811
Okay, whats degenerate about it though?

>>96755113
Maybe it's hard to make gunpowder in hell, since it would detonate instantly from the heat.

Which board would be the best for gathering collaborators for an invented language?

>>96758395
Feudalism. It re-emerged in the far future mainly because space is big and hard to govern, and most people don't actually want to be politically active when their basic needs are fully covered by automation. The nobility class doesn't actively discriminate and there is technically social mobility but it's a rounding error and they have been refining themselves genetically and socially for decades so there's a pretty big gap. It's intended to be kinda depressing but kinda hopeful, like in the sense that the majority will amuse themselves in a haze of contentment all their lives but at least they are content.

Are your worlds villains more over-the-top dark lord Sauron types or more like Cardinal Richelieu realistic human evil types?

What are the political ideologies of the different factions in your setting?

>>96743359 (OP)
I have more than just nobles and warriors. I have artists, crafters, teachers, and healers that are well known.

>come up with distinct visual feature for the setting
>need lore to explain it, but can't write satisfying one
>write lore to explain why it is needed
>write lore about places where feature is not present to juxtapose
>develop the connections
>fill out gaps
>due to writing around visual feature, it now seems blatantly out of place
>throw it out
>get decent setting that is visually bland
>still want to use visual feature
God dammit

>>96764208
>Richelieu
>villain
Are you 12?

>the top god of the setting is a deity of light
>worshipped in three manifestations - the Sun, the lightning bolt, and candlelight.
>feel content until I realize that the trinity can be summed up as the Lightning, the Sun and the Holy Fire, and it sounds like a bad punny pastiche of christianity
>English has no synonyms for the Sun
Fuck. What do?

>>96765317
Shift it around a bit so that the manifestations align with more meaningful day-to-day symbols/phenomena, maybe even divide the God into three faces or aspects.
Replace the Sun with the Dawn
>Represents the victory of light over darkness and the eternal nature of the Father of Light, who returns every day to bask his Children in holy light
Replace the Lightning Bolt with the Storm
>Even though Storms bring darkness to the sky, they themselves are full of light - for the Father's divine judgement is indeed fearsome. By bearing witness to this power the Children understand the depths of our Father's might - and through ritual and libations we pray keep his fury at bay.
Replace the Candlelight with the Hearth
>Do not presume that the fires of men are our own creation; we owe everything to the Father of Light. Though his grace, we are given the gift of Light and warmth unto ourselves.
Or something like that, this is just what came to my mind.

>>96757752
Yes, exactly. That is, unless his own future sight didn't tip him off beforehand.

Any battles between time controllers becomes really confusing to talk about because both are changing reality by forestalling each other's moves. It only makes sense if you assume different timelines.

>>96766241
Let's say a wizard lives in a tower, upper floor. He sleeps there every night. Let's say for simplicity he teleports there.
One night I travel back in time before the wizard move in and demolish the tower.
Will he fall to his death in the present I traveled from, or he will do so when he first time teleported into the non-existent top floor?

I always run into problem of "what they do day in and day out" especially for warrior and long-lived races. Let alone long-lived warrior races.
Take Giants, for instance. They are these mighty sages, who created Dwarfs in ages past. They don't farm, don't hunt, don't really build anymore (Dwarfs serve their needs, basically). They ponder the orb, guide the dwarfs (but not rule) and fight great evils. But that leaves them with zero hobbies or activities. They don't even have to train, due to their nature.

And then there are Sky Giants, who don't even eat, and don't hang out around Dwarves most of the time.

Of course I could just leave their activities a mystery, but I want to know for myself!

>>96743359 (OP)
>Tell us about any great painters / composers / writers in your setting. Do you have descriptions of their great works? Or even, for madlads, examples?
While I have done some pictures of in-universe artwork for my SF setting, that's really been the case of me being lazy and excusing a more stylized picture as the result of the art style used. I've only actually named one famous artist, singer and songwriter John "Junior" Vainio Jr., who wrote some of the best-known spacer songs. But that's really just my tribute to Heinlein's Rhysling and a famous songwriter from my father's hometown. Aside from naming some of his songs ("The Smuggler's Lament", "My Friend, the Old Spacer", "Sons of the Eagle"), I don't actually have any examples of what he's supposed to have written.
I did, however write a military march/national anthem to one of my alien civilizations. Granted, that's another dumb in-joke where I took a famous military march from my native country, altered some words, and translated the result to English. Not exactly high-effort work, though I did at least ensure that the original (non-English) version fits the original meter and mostly rhymes as it should. I did a similar thing for a short clip of what was supposed to be a longer song, but that was just a part of a Kipling poem with words altered and removed from the original context.

>>96743359 (OP)
What ways are potential heirs to the throne tested in your settings? I’m looking for ideas for that myself and I’ve hit a block.

>>96766696
>warrior races
Competitive sports. Some of these likely have a martial flavor to them (wrestling, javelin throwing, fencing, horsemanship, archery, the kind of stuff that went on in medieval tournaments, etc), or otherwise cultivate skills and mentalities beneficial to a warrior.
Sports are valued as an opportunity to prove themselves in peacetime, for lack of any battles to be fighting, but also just because they love the competition for its own sake.
>long-lived races
If all their other needs are met, then my first suggestion would be dedicating their free time to philosophy (fitting the sage archetype of your giants), and/or the arts. Their race produces many renowned musicians, poets, storytellers, etc, having spent their long lives cultivating their craft; they are sought after as teachers by the shorter-lived races, able to impart lifetimes worth of experience upon them.
Leaning into the (presumed) size of the giants, maybe some carve logs into statues for a hobby, and there's at least a couple of mountains out there that have been sculpted into something by a particularly dedicated giant with a lot of time on their hands.

>>96765317
>the top god of the setting is a deity of light
What are the other gods like? If we know more we can better answer the question.

>>96760819
>whats degenerate about it
Because some "artists" make a living by doing a commission and ai jeopardize their livelihood.
I'd say they deserved to be replaced, if they are good, they wouldn't worry about ai changing them.

>>96769016
Historically through leading armies.

>>96766342
Yes to both. The timelines will merge so that the tower was already demolished before he teleported up there. The Wizard will then teleport to the top and fall....and then just get up and brush the dust off his robes, but still.

He will then know someone went back in time to change reality.

>>96769016
Ottoman style battle royale on ruler death.
Want the throne? Better be ready to murder all your brothers for it.

Its exciting to invent new biomes
>great mountain ranges are 12-15 km tall
>highest known peak is 21 km tall
>mountains are snow-free to about 4 km altitude outside frozen lands (the world is flat so there is no gradient like on Earth)
>snow caps stretch from there to about 10km altitude
>above that snow disappears
>air there is warm-ish (~5-10° C) and thin enough that humans become lightheaded and cannot exert themselves too much, but still breathable; it doesn't get thinner with altitude after that
>sky is deep and very dark blue, almot black
>aside from towering cumulonimbuses rising from lower atmosphere, the only clouds there are thin silvery plumes and wisps, barely visible from the world down below
>despite lack of clouds or precipitation, there are powerful lightning storms, as power flows up the mountains and is discharged into the atmosphere
>due to quirks of atmosphere there, there are rainbows, but they are gold, rimmed with purple and silver; they are invisible from the world below
>there are rare minerals and ores, such as orichalcum, found almost exlusively this high up, due to processes that created these mountains, and the lightning storms
>the only below-world beings that live this up high are geese, mountain goats, eagles, and variety of jumping mice, but there are also entirely local creatures, that I haven't made up yet
>the height of the tallest mountains is about the same as the lowest branches of the World Tree

Now I have to figure out the implications

>>96772352
Reminder that AI can only replace artists if the AI is trained on their work in the first place, usually without regard to copyright law or permission. Truth is, AI are just plagiarism machines. But non artist people don't care about that unless they're rich corporations who can sue people into the ground for it.

I dislike AI because it looks very obviously generated and bad. And when players bring AI art to my table ("This is what my character looks like!" "I generated the image for the magic item you gave us!") my reaction is "No, nothing in my world looks like THAT"

I think using AI for stuff like character portraits is fine since most people aren't very good at drawing, and you probably aren't going to pay an actual artist just to illustrate your DnD character unless you're really invested in that character.
But as the guy in >>96772776 screencap says, it's basically about getting pictures without having to learn how to draw yourself.

>>96772852
IF your character is SOOOOO unique that out of billions of fantasy artworks created by people there not a SINGLE one that fits your character, sure. Otherwise, please use some google or pinterest or whatever and find a man-made picture. You're a human fighter with a sword and shield, Kevin, I'm sure you can find a picture that fits you.

>>96759844

>here is your cookie

Please share how you solved the fantasy firearm paradox?

>>96773126
NTA but there was a pretty big period of overlap IRL where people still carried swords for personal defense despite guns being widespread on the battlefield (alongside swords, lances, and in earlier years pikes), because for various reasons the technology/industry/manufacturing of the powder and guns wasn't yet there to make them viable as the all-purpose fightan weapon
exactly how far you can push it is probably going to depend on the kind of scale you want your fights to be, with smaller skirmishes lettting you field more advanced firearms while keeping non-guns viable
17th century-ish, pre-flintlock era is probably the most reliable cutoff point, but depending on what you want in the setting and how you manage implementing them, you might be able to go further: pre-Minié ball might the next point I'd nominate, but the absolute hard limit would have to be pre-smokeless powder

>>96772893
Nobody cares you blue haired faggot. If anything I'm fucking glad your onions ass is being thrown into the trash by "AI".

>>96765317
>English has no synonyms for the Sun
Star?

>>96773126
Truth be told I am >>96755113 , so its a bit easier than in a setting with realistic gunpowder.
But basically, being demonic in nature, and flamepowder corrupts the user over time, especially if you burn it. Nations brash enough to use it utilize special arcane alloys and holy enchantments to make weapons safe(-ish), dwarves use runes. But most consider the drawbacks too great.
Demons avoid firearms because in close proximity to them it becomes incredibly volatile. If a demon grabs a loaded piatol, it will explode in its claw. Very rarely demons do use firearms, but they are even more warded against demon magics than mortals' ones, ironically.

I need inspiration to build the initial story of my group of PCs.
The unmutable premise is:
they are unarmed with street clothes
they have no money
they have skills in different weapons and spells so will try to aquire weapons, armor, magic items
they start in a peaceful town but will embark on a ship to some quest when they are done getting geared

Main question I need inspiration for:
Why are they all together, what were they doing right before that explains why they are broke and why they are already skilled in weapons and have good starting attributes like strength, dexterity, etc

I thought maybe they could have just graduated from the University of Peaceful Invasion Arts and shared a class and became friends, or something.

>>96775157
They all met in a tavern, sitting at a table with complete amnesia

>>96775167
On the table there was a piece of parchment, on which is each of their names, written in their hands, complete with words "I agree to this memory wipe of my own free will" and their signatures - amnesia lets them recognize that much
Next to it lies a flier advertising the ship they get on

I need ideas of names/titles for the Satan figure
Ideally two of them, because what mortals universally perceive as the Devil, what cultists worship, what angels warn prophets about, is merely a herald.
True Satan is an Azathoth-like entity that almost immediately corrupts anyone even aware of it, unless they are blessed by God, usually shattering their mind into vegetative state, and on occassion breaking reality. Even lesser demons aren't safe.

>>96775167
possible but then the whole campaign they will wonder what happened that caused the amnesia and GM will need to come up with story that doesn't suck, which is why this part of the initial story is important

>>96775167
>>96775185
actually genius, thank you, i will put the ship departure 3 days from the tavern meetup so they have time to get geared and learn combat (the combat system and tactics because first time using this rpg system)

>>96743359 (OP)
"On the Solidarity of Man and the nature of economics and Governance."

A book that created two vastly different counties post a imperial civil war that resulted in two major overseas holdings to break off. The book wasn't meant to be revolutionary or anti imperial but was made as an examination of different economic and government/social styles to help Imperial Scholars navigate different cultures as they planned to assimilate them.

>>96775272
Satan figure
>Shetaan

>>96765317
>>feel content until I realize that the trinity can be summed up as the Lightning, the Sun and the Holy Fire, and it sounds like a bad punny pastiche of christianity

It actually IS anon. You're unoriginal as fuck.

Anyway it's not really a problem to have more than one symbol. Jesus: lamb, shepered, wine. Zeus: eagle, lighting, oak.

The conflict between the two Great Powers of my setting can best be described as Nation vs State in geopolitical terms.

The Union of Tripura is the State. Their idea of world domination involves making a UN with teeth, except with just one hegemon: themselves. It would mean an entire world run by the same laws, the same institutions, and the same groups of officials.

In other words, they are trying to make a World State.

The Ellysan Empire is the Nation. It wants to make a world dominated by Elyssan people. They want everyone to speak their language, worship their god, and carry on their culture.

Their idea of world domination is basically that all states are dominated by Ellyssans, even if they have different rulers and borders.

>>96780043
It's like the 90s neoliberal UN fighting a unified Islamic Jihad.

>>96778814
Its not about three symbols, that part is fine, its about Sun sounding exactly like Son. And there being "Holy something" in the trinity

>>96758395
Sort of blend of caste system and feudalism, as due to genetic engineering and selective breeding, the various noble houses are essentially distinct races from both each other as well as the commoner masses.

>>96775157
Lost a regional fighting tournament in that peaceful town after pawning their shit to get there trying to make a name for themselves/some prize money.

Nothing stops peaceful towns from having fighting tournaments and those turn out all sorts of cocky shlub losers with decent fighting skills.

>>96772776
>literally who tweet
Kazuma kaneko went full into ai and the result was horrendous.
No, ai can't replace real artist.
Only, phony artists worried about ai, because gooners now can just generate their fetishes for free.

>>96780051
That falls squarely into the "you problem" category. Even if other people point out the linguistic similarity, it's not actually a problem.

>>96759844
>>96773126
>fantasy firearm paradox?
This the first time i heard about this.
What's the problem with firearm in fantasy anyway?

>>96780963
It drives autists mad.

>>96759844
>>96780963
>>96781082

The party goes on a quest to see with their own eyes what that lightning stick of death is all about.
They assemble the best equipment in the lands to best it in case it is turned their way. They want it for themselves ultimately.
The setting potential is strong as long as not every guard in every city has a musket.

I just found out that furries only attracted to disney-fied animal, so as long the head lf the beastmen are realistic, i can avoid the furry community.
Now, anyone knows how to avoid the animal fuckers community?
I think, as long as below the neck of beastmen is just normal human body, it would be enough to avoid the animal fuckers.

>>96743359 (OP)
>Tell us about any great painters / composers / writers in your setting

I had one plot hook about a famous painter being assasinated. She was famed for making portraits of many noblemen and was killed by an impostor king after being forced to paint his face over the old king's portrait, in order to silence her. Her name was just Emerald,. her assistant, Jade, was able to flee but was captured and imprisoned in a brothel in the setting's Las Vegas, from where the PCs found her and found this story.

>>96781299
You'd be surprised, but yes, fully feral head and fully human body will weed out most of them.
You might attract some horny ancient egyptians though.

>>96775157
Neighboring country/region/city just woke up the local ancient evil and got destroyed in the aftermath, causing an influx of refugees and survivors (PCs among them) to the nearest safe town?

What are you guys using to organize your notes? I hate all the options in pinned links and I am slowly losing myself in all the folders.

I just got redpilled on introducing guns into my fantasy game. Not just for the PCs, but having arquebuses into armies as a common thing, let's say its a XV-XVI century parallel.

The implications on warfare are easy to infer from real world history; though I intend to make heavy cavalry still viable through new armor materials (alchemy is a very important part of the setting. So much, actually, that I had to introduce gunpowder as it was ridiculous that nobody had ever found it yet; but I want to introduce fantasy alchemy too)

Gunpowder can also be nerfed in magical ways, such as summoning fog to impede aiming (but match light still giving away the gunmen position), rain, etc; mostly so the world doesnt evolve into trench warfare anytime soon,

I think I can use ideas on the monster aspect, as in; What monsters are less and most impacted by humans having access to guns and cannons? cont.

>>96785470
dragons for example are very vulnerable to guns, if they are smaug-type dragons that are mostly defended by their "plate" armor.

Orcish hordes are also at great disadvantage unless they can copy firearms (which i dont like) so i dont think they make for good monsters in this setting unless they resort to stealth and attcack small groups instead of cities.

So, with hordes out of the question, what are some monsters that can justify having castles and city walls and that can't just be shot away by a handful of city guards?

I know: other men. But any other? I'd like to have peasant evacuations inside the walls as a relativelly common thing happening in order to justify classic feudalism

>>96785624
dragons:
only bullets to the eyes can reach brain and drop it, very very hard shot to make
cannons can drop it if aiming for the vitals only, or the head, a cannon cannot be aimed quickly so it must be some sort of trap

bullets in general:
in 2025 it takes a big gun to kill an elephant, rhino, hippo but crocodile not that big i think
>muskets are much weaker than 2025 guns
>muskets were stopped by plate armor when they were invented and used in warfare, the armors were tested before sold, and sold with a bullet impact as proof
There is a lot you can do with this, enjoy.

When worldbuilding a species, is mention of neoteny as a reason for a feature evolving inherently uncomfy?

>>96786323
Unless you're going out of your way to highlight it and use it as an excuse to magical realm the PCs.

>>96785624
>>96785969
I would argue that dragons need to be light to fly with hollow bones and light scales. They're strong, but if you can pierce it, the dragon takes a ton of damage. I argue that bullets would be a good choice against dragons.

>>96786521
>need to be light to fly
an Airbus A380 does not get stopped by rifle bullets, yet it is hollow, easily pierce-able by small-caliber gunfire, and light for it's size. Only well placed shots to the turbines, fuell tanks or pilots' cabin may threaten it.
I propose that small dragons are vulnerable to bullets, and as they grow, no longer are. Fair?

>>96769016
I have it different depending on the kingdom and all. Some have the first born groomed since birth for the role. Others have it based on proving it through deeds and honors. Where others have that battle royale, or have to gain the favor of the other nobles.

>>96743359 (OP)
Where do I read people's worldbuilding works?

>>96743359 (OP)
https://www.tomassanchez.com/gallery

>>96786770
I'm just saying that once you get beneath a dragon's scales, they should be relatively squishy. But those scales are monsters to get through. A bullet is perfect for the task, even with an older dragon. I wouldn't give a stat buff, but I bet that the creatures hate firearms.

>>96786521
Wouldn't a dragon's mass be a significant issue? Shoot an elephant with 5.56×45mm NATO once in the limbs, yeah it will hurt it but it's not gonna cause damage it can't recover from. Apply the same thing to something the size of a blue whale, most penetrating blows to tissue aren't gonna be very impressive either unless you're talking about blasting it with grapeshot or something from a 12lber cannon. I don't see any kind of hand-held gun being a significant issue to a dragon, even one the size of a grizzly since those can take several shots center mass and not go down as well (and then kill you).

>>96789093
My point was that they are likely very light compared to a sea or land animal with hollow bones. I know that might not be RAW, but it makes sense to me. Then a piercing blow would do more damage than a slash or bludge.

Is it normal to keep things a mystery even from myself?
On one hand, as a creator I should lay the groundwork even for parts not appearing in the story, and ideally determine whether nothing connected to them indeed does not factor into the story, but on the other hand, when everything is written down and detailed, I have no fun looking at my own setting, as it holds no secrets to me.

>>96789168
That's called "Discovery Writing" and it's totally valid. Still, if you don't do it right, it gets tedious. If I were you, I'd focus on RPing your NPCs to the letter of what they would actually do and let the story unfold based on character actions.

a note for flying animals is that they are LIGHT for their size

for example, the largest pterosaurs were about the height of a giraffe

but they weighed less than some domestic pigs

a flying animal would be much, much weaker than it's height would suggest. The giraffe-sized hatzegopteryx would likely get bodied by an actual giraffe in a head on collision

>>96789284
>This
And I know dragons are seen as something different, but I play them like flying beasts. But they have strong scales. If you can pierce the scale? That's really damaging to them!

My own dragons are simply powerful enough that they can raise their massive weight anyway. The flap of their wings is equivalent to a minor explosion.

And very noisy.

>>96789168
>https://www.tomassanchez.com/gallery
if you build en encounter between heroes and NPCs, randomize the NPCs that will be used that way you don't even know yourself what the fight is going to look like
You may be able to do the same with world things but I don't know how you would do it.

>>96786323
Sounds like magical realm to me, but I'm here for it. Usually, though, people just do these things and don't call attention to them.

>>96743359 (OP)
Has there been any media that explored the concept of technology developing in your stock fantasy world?
Especially one that explored the issues the different races like elves dwarves and humans would have as technology starts emerging?
I am looking for inspiration.

>>96790282
Consider the boring stuff like measurement. I suggest reading about the development of the metric system, and the history of standard measurement outside that. If you want technology, being able to specify the details of the screw you want and the guy you are hiring to make them knows what you mean and can actually do QC to make the 3000 you ordered actually in spec. As far as I'm aware, the only story specifically about what you're asking about would be something like A Hero's War.

Measurement and logistics are fucking poison to general audiences, you're not gonna have much on the development of these important boring things. Catch That Witch and other stories will cover the "sexier" parts like guns or whatever, so just look up a list of works with the industrialization or nation building tag for that. Nectar of Dharani is softcore porn, but it's about the result of a stock fantasy world having just finished a big transformation into a more industrial world and explores different races in each volume more or less.

>>96790282
"A man is not dead while his name is still spoken"
I guess it was inevitable.

>>96790282
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
it's a CRPG that's basically just a regular fantasy setting but in the middle of an industrial revolution
it's been years so my memory might be not entirely correct, but from what I can recall of it:
>technology works by applying and exploiting the constant laws of physics; magic works by locally warping these same laws
>magic and technology consequently don't get on well, with potentially disastrous results (such as if fucking with thermodynamics around a steam engine with a bigass boiler full of lethally hot steam)
>industrialization has upended the status quo, with less magically inclined races leveraging it to suddenly dominate, and the more innately magical ones falling behind
>setting and story examine the consequences and changes of these developments
>don't ask why there's so many half-ogres

>>96790339
>Nectar of Dharani is softcore porn, but it's about the result of a stock fantasy world having just finished a big transformation into a more industrial world and explores different races in each volume more or less.
>isekai
>softcore porn
I guess the “research purposes” meme actually works for once.
Thanks!

>>96790396
>arcanum
Thanks! I’ll look at that too!

>any mention of one of the eldritch god's many names eventually warms medium carrying - book, tablet, brain... - to also include all other his names, including, eventually, his true name
>his true name is always legible in whatever language the medium is written (or whatever person's inner dialogue is)
>since practically no language contains the sounds the name consists of, or letters/symbols to convey them, such symbols appear, which the reader always understands, and remembers as being part of the language he is reading in, although he cannot remember or transcribe the symbols themselves
>anyone who has readvpr heard the true name is irrevocably mentally broken; they might resist for a while, but eventually will be compelled beyond resistance to say it out loud
>since the sounds the name consist of cannot be produced by mammalian vocal chords, the process warps and breaks them, because nothing can stop the name from being uttered
>cutting out one's tongue or sewing the mouth shut only causes the process to horrifically warp the mouth area as well
>after uttering the name once the victims usually spend the short remainder of their lives howling and spewing blood from broken throats

Eldritch enough?

>>96791400
Oh, and
>any euohemism or metaphor you use to refer to the god to avoid using one of its names eventually becomes one of its names, as universe catches up

Should I account for how powers act with and without equipment or go all in on one or the other?

>>96792753
Yes.

>>96792753
it's your setting, do what you want
flip a coin if you have to

>>96789168
I have a setting where dozen of generational space ships cololize far of star system.
I still have no satisfying reason on why humanity decided to send those space ship in the first place.
If i couldn't came up with fun/interesting explanation about something, i just put "mystery" as the explanation.

>>96789284
>>96789308
>>96789839
My dragon use magic to fly, i know it's controversial.
But, i love to live in the edge.