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2012-01-02, 07:09 AM (ISO 8601)
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Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Very often we have people come to this forum who have an idea for a setting, which they would like to turn into something they can use for a game, a comic, stories, or other purposes. However, everyone has questions about how to start the whole thing, and most of the time people have questions about the same subjects and ask about very similar things.
Giving very similar answers again and again, each time getting shorter and more general with what we type in response, some of us thought that it would be great thing to take some of the most frequently discussed issues and collecting our words of advice into one big guise, for which we take the time to type our thoughts down in a detailed way once. So when these questions arise in the future, you can have our collected wisdom in one place, instead of getting shown a handful of links and short summaries of advice we had given to others before.
If you think we missed an issue that would be important for many newcommers to the world-building forum, let us know in this thread. If you want to contribute your own words of advice to any one, some, or all of the topics discussed here, add them to this thread or send them to me by PM, and I'll add them to the appropriate sections.We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2012-01-02, 07:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding - Getting Started
Getting Started
How do you start?
Originally Posted by akmaOriginally Posted by DeployOriginally Posted by flabortOriginally Posted by SheepInDisguiseOriginally Posted by SpaceBadgerOriginally Posted by VknightOriginally Posted by Yora
Originally Posted by akmaOriginally Posted by DeployOriginally Posted by flabortOriginally Posted by SheepInDisguiseOriginally Posted by SpaceBadger
Originally Posted by akmaOriginally Posted by DeployOriginally Posted by flabortOriginally Posted by SheepInDisguiseOriginally Posted by YoraLast edited by Yora; 2013-11-22 at 01:58 AM.
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2012-01-02, 07:13 AM (ISO 8601)
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Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding - Races, Classes, Countries, and People
Races, Classes, Countries, and People
Help chosing races, classes, and monsters.
Originally Posted by akmaOriginally Posted by DeployOriginally Posted by flabortOriginally Posted by SheepInDisguise
Originally Posted by akmaOriginally Posted by DeployOriginally Posted by flabort
Originally Posted by akmaOriginally Posted by DeployOriginally Posted by SheepInDisguiseLast edited by Yora; 2013-11-22 at 01:59 AM.
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2012-01-02, 07:14 AM (ISO 8601)
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Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding - Planes, Dimensions, Deities, and Religion
Planes, Dimensions, Deities, and Religion
Creating other Planes and Dimensions.
Originally Posted by akmaOriginally Posted by DeployOriginally Posted by flabortOriginally Posted by SheepInDisguise
Originally Posted by akmaOriginally Posted by DeployOriginally Posted by SheepInDisguise
Originally Posted by akmaOriginally Posted by DeployLast edited by Yora; 2013-11-22 at 01:59 AM.
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2012-01-02, 07:15 AM (ISO 8601)
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Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding - [Reserved]
Creating Interesting Locations
Originally Posted by flabortOriginally Posted by Wiwaxia
Originally Posted by The GiantLast edited by Yora; 2012-02-02 at 06:01 AM.
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2012-01-02, 06:30 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
May I suggest including this (probably under getting started or making the world unique)? It's one of my favorite pieces of advice for world building.
Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts.
Study hard.
Be evil.
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2012-01-03, 04:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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2012-01-03, 04:52 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Either her, or send it to me as PM. As I said in the guide.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2012-01-04, 08:18 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Define the base world were you expect the players to travel give it details and other things. You don't have to go beyond that the world outside of that map can be whatever you need. A new continent for explorers, a archipelago the remains of which are a civilization.
Give plenty of detail to the back-story but leave room for interpretation between player and Dm's. Maybe the Cerulean Empire was controlled by Dragonborn or maybe Halflings or even Humans, we do know it wasn't elves or Tieflings though. There are details left for the individual Dm to decide so a player cannot rules lawyer a situation.
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2012-01-04, 09:42 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
I'll add that to How do you start.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2012-01-04, 04:32 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
How Do You Start?
Making a new setting is a lot of work, so before starting that work there has to be a reason for doing it. The reasons will vary: "I want to GM, I need a world to run games in, and I'm not happy with published stuff"; "I have this cool idea that won't work in my current setting, so I need to make a new setting where it will work"; "I want to run a different flavor of game, and need a new setting to capture that flavor"; etc. As others have said, the foundation is to think about the kinds of stories you want to play or GM, but I would add that you need to think about whether you actually need a new setting for these stories or whether you can run them in your existing setting or some published setting.
My first setting was unplanned and just grew because I wanted to GM and needed a world to do it in. We started out with the D&D Basic Set, which didn't talk about anything outside the dungeon, so we thought we were being incredibly inventive with the idea of mapping a world outside the dungeon and populating it with characters who would be controlled by the DM, sort of like monsters but with options for interaction other than just fighting and killing them. Then the AD&D books started coming out and we learned that that was actually how the game was supposed to be played, and that our "DM characters" were properly referred to as NPCs. My first setting thus started with a dungeon, then grew to include a ruined castle on the surface above, then a nearby town, then a whole continent with places mapped that could give a context to the campaign, even thought most of them were never visited or detailed beyond labels on that continental map.
I'll skip over the many settings that I have thought up in the years since then, most of them never having gone beyond ideas in my head and maybe some notes or a map. I have two settings that I am working on now. The first of these was made for the basic reason that I again needed a setting to GM in, and wasn't happy with my previous setting. I wanted a more sword & sorcery feel than the standard D&D world, with magic uncommon and kinda scary, a world where Conan would feel right at home. I'll save the various ideas that went into this setting for the "Where Do You Get Ideas?" section below, but from those ideas came a rough map of the area of the fallen empire and some extent beyond, some notes on history, more detailed map of the area the first adventures would begin, and we started playing. We aren't currently playing in that setting as I started it with GURPS rules, then shifted to Pathfinder, but still haven't found a good fit for the sword & sorcery feel that I was trying for. The setting is there, I just need to decide on a ruleset for playing in that setting.
My other current setting, in which both I and my oldest son are currently GMing a couple of different campaigns, grew from a completely different set of ideas. I wanted to go with Pathfinder and minimal houserules, lots of magic, lots of playable races, plenty of room for different kinds of stories. None of this fit with the Dark Age sword & sorcery setting that I described above, so I needed a new setting. Again I'll save the various ideas that inspired the setting for the "Ideas" section below, but the start of it was a need for a new setting for stuff that wouldn't fit in my previous setting, then deciding on the overall defining characteristics, then history, then rough mapping, then detail of the area of the first adventure.
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2012-01-04, 04:35 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Where Do You Get Ideas?
I get ideas from all over the place: books, movies, history, geography. It is a lot like writing fiction, in that ideas are plentiful, the hard part is deciding which ideas work well together to make something greater than the sum of the parts.
I mentioned my two current settings in the "How Do You Start?" section above. Here are some of the ideas that came together in creation of these two settings:
For one setting I wanted a more sword & sorcery feel than the standard D&D world, with magic uncommon and kinda scary, a world where Conan would feel right at home. I'd been reading Bernard Cornwell's Warlord novels (retelling of King Arthur as a Briton fighting Saxon invaders after the Romans withdrew from Britannia) and decided that a Dark Age after the fall of a mighty empire would be interesting; decided also that the fall of the empire was connected to some kind of cataclysm that not only depopulated a lot of places but also made the primary source of magic go away, so the magi-tech that had supported the empire was no longer there and what little magic was left was based on older traditions of shamanism and demonology. To go with the sword & sorcery flavor of this setting, I decided that Humans would be the only playable race and that other races would be rarely encountered. Elves had left the known world at the time of the great cataclysm that ended the empire; dwarves stayed in their mountain caverns away from humans; other races were either nonexistent or only lived in exotic locations, such as lizardfolk in their remote jungles and swamps.
For my other setting I wanted lots of magic, lots of playable races, lots of options. I had been thinking of a world in which elves were not a playable race, but instead were the unseen powers manipulating much of the known world. I read S.M. Stirling's "In the Court of the Crimson Kings" and decided that the Martians had a lot of the feel that I wanted for the elves, with their biotech and genetic castes within their own race. Another inspiration came from the GURPS Yrth setting, in which a magical backfire created the Banestorm which brought multiple races from their homeworlds to Yrth. I decided that the immortal elves were the true natives of my setting, and that their defining characteristic was that immortality was BORING. The elves therefore used a controlled Banestorm-like effect to bring other races to their world to liven things up a bit, let these other races build their cities and kingdoms, which the elves might manipulate from behind the scenes for their own amusement, then smash to rubble when the others got too strong - and the elves have been doing this over and over again for many many thousands of years, so there are deep layers of unknown history and ancient ruins. I wrote a lot of history for this setting before I ever started mapping or doing any specific preparation for actual gaming, but those basic ideas were what gave the background for how this place could have so many different races and such a variety of societies.
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2012-01-04, 04:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
This is indeed getting really long really quickly. I didn't expect that.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2012-01-04, 07:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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2012-01-04, 07:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
I think that really doesn't make a difference. Since I won't mark every new addition to the guide, having them as posts probably makes them more visible to returning users.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2012-01-12, 06:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Let's see, this guide covers almost everything I want to know about building a world, but what about how to work change in a world. For example, after the most recent campaign, the elves lost the war with the orcs. How do I make a transition, how do I determine what changes occur without re-doing an entire country?
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2012-01-12, 06:34 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Why would you have to remake a country? When land is conquered, very rarely are major settlements destroyed; more often they are repurposed. Names of local locations generally stay the same throughout time, with only minor adjustments based on letters that may or may not exist in the new peoples' languages. Boundaries also rarely change significantly, with the old divisions in provinces being convenient ways to divide up the spoils of war by the new conquerors. You will certainly have to alter the leaders and aristocracy, perhaps the religion, too, but you won't have to make everything all over again.
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2012-01-13, 12:01 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
I have an advice of my own to give, it would fit in the "countries" section.
I like to know exactly the relations between kingdoms, empires, countries, etc... in my settings, mostly because I love and abuse the BIG HUMAN EMPIRE cliché and I need to know why it isn't invading everyone, why the world is calm enough for the players to have adventures around the world without war stepping in the middle. Each country/regions has it's own beliefs and political system, so I look for inspiration in history. I look for situations similar enough to what I'm doing and look for answers in there, I have a setting heavily influenced by the civil war era USA politics, even if it is a medieval setting. Another trick is to arm well enough your main kingdoms, if you have A, B and C, then maybe A is more technologically advanced, B might have powerful magics and C is a land almost inhospitable except for those already living there.I WAS THERELife is like a dungeon master, if it smiles at you, you just know that something terrible is about to happen
Now I haz deviant!
The DnD Logic
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2012-01-13, 03:35 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Also an addition to the countries section, adding onto what Coplantor said, there are many ways to deal with countries and war.
One aspect about war is the concept of cold war. In my campaign setting the world stands on a heir trigger for what will likely be its first global war of the "modern," era. In that sense you don't need a big bad human empire, but merely several small and fairly equally matched empires or powers that both know a war would be a brutal and bloody affair.
In mine, two great powers have forged various alliances, ensuring that no side can easily win a possible war. So you have basically two powerful rival Nation States with multiple client states that they influence and ally with. The technology, magic and manpower of a war between the two is costly and could be devastating, maybe other factions are hoping to broker peace. (In mine it would be the largely neutral Elven Nations.)
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2012-01-14, 05:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
A topic that I noticed is unaddrassed here is how to publish a world (in the forum, for exemple). Also, I noticed I have no input here on how to make unique cultures.
On unique cultures:
SpoilerI tend to go with a major theme for the culture, and build around it. By the theme I can probably deduce if it`s unique or not - for exemple, a culture based on a real world culture will probably be cliched. Sure, you can create a culture based on a real world culture without it being cliched, but you will have to work on making it not cliched and unique. If you start with a unique major theme, you don`t have to do that work, and making it unique comes more naturally.
After having the major theme/s, the work comes in one or two ways:
A. Making logical conclusions. Harsh rule probably encourages reballions, but becuse of the strong police and army it wouldn`t work; Groups and religions that would be unashamed to be public in other kingdoms will hide themselves among the population, for fear of the police, etc.
B. Putting ideas I like and finding excuses to have them.
On publishing a world (not finished):
Actully, this would never be finished, becuse I realy don`t understand in this. But I will let it remain here in it`s original form.
SpoilerFirst of all, don`t look at the number of views. There will most surely be dozens of views before the first post. Having dozens of views before the first comment is something that always heppens in forums, no matter what the topic is about.
I`m not a big expert on the subject, but here are some things that would make me stop reading a post about a world:
A. Extremly long history. Starting with detailing about how the world was created.
B. Cliches and genericness.
C. Starting the description of the world in saying: "high magic..." "log magic..." and meta-gaming descriptions in general (they should come, but not in the first sentence. And I mean it in a literal way)
D. A world that is a map and barely anything else.
E. Walls of text.
But I generally don`t read and comment on other people creations.Last edited by akma; 2012-05-04 at 02:26 AM.
Madly In Science, an RPG in which you play mad scientists, you can get it for free.
Spoiler: Some other things.
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2012-01-14, 10:59 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
I WAS THERELife is like a dungeon master, if it smiles at you, you just know that something terrible is about to happen
Now I haz deviant!
The DnD Logic
Now I haz Blog!
avatar by Me!
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2012-01-15, 06:37 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
When you have something to go in the guide, please mark it clearly as such. There seems to be some work in progress going on here, which is fine.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2012-01-29, 12:32 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Here's something for the guide.
On creating unique settings:
A good way to get a unique and unusual, but believable, settings is to take something very small or large, and scale it to human size. You could make an ancient temple inspired by a bismuth crystal or have your PCs walk through a field of miniature "mountains", complete with forests and glaciers, that are only as tall as they are. Likewise, if you're out walking and see an interesting rock formation, or a hollow under a root, or a little niche in a cliffside, or some intriguing bit of rusted machinery, or a tiny mica-filled creek, imagine putting a city or a dungeon in it.
Also, obscure science-y stuff can be a great source for ideas. Imagine a dungeon or monster based off a siphonophore or a Venus's flower basket or a radiolarian or a ferrofluid.
Another idea I've toyed around with, but haven't really tried, is making a list of 100 adjectives (good ones, too, not just "blue" or "ruined"), and rolling for 2-4 of them every time I need to make a dungeon or a city.Last edited by Wiwaxia; 2012-01-29 at 12:43 AM.
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2012-02-01, 07:34 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
I would put a link to the Giant's wordbuilding articles, they have some fantastic advice in them.
Originally Posted by Kuulvheysoon
Online gaming stuff
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2012-02-02, 12:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Talking of links, I find this from Wizards to be a very quick and highly effective way of building a city. The first time I read it, it changed everything about how I designed them in my head.
It is what it is unless it is what it isn't. Or isn't what it is. But if it isn't what it isn't then it is what it is.
Dungeon! game currently being run. If this tickles your fancy, and you'd like to be notified when the next round of signups opens, come and say hi in the OOC Thread!
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2012-02-02, 05:59 AM (ISO 8601)
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We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2012-07-29, 04:25 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Some new advice by WhatThePhysics.
How do you start?
SpoilerMaking a list of what I want to showcase. As generalizations, Faerun has high magic, Dragonlance has epic wars, Dark Sun has brutal environments, Eberron has magitech, etc. It's less "What makes my setting unique?", and more "What do I want my setting to revolve around?". The list itself is never final, but, it serves as a thematic "anchor" to get me going.
Where do you get ideas?
SpoilerDuring the brainstorming phase, I keep my mind open to anything. Movies, television, literature, and even real life can give me the most random of inspiration. However, to prevent outright plagiarism and imitation, I devote a little time to filtering through all the little notes I take. Taking an idea, flipping it inside out, then merging it with the others helps enrich the world I work on.
How to make a world unique?
SpoilerTwo simple words: don't try. It's that simple. As long as I focus on making it my setting, it gradually becomes unique in its own right. It's an organic process that takes time, and it can't be forced without feeling completely contrived. As an analogy, would you prefer microwavables to a well-cooked dinner?
Help chosing races, classes, and monsters.
SpoilerI focus both on tropes and mechanics, at this stage, preferring to tweak before axing. "What can be optimized?" and "What wouldn't make sense?" are key questions. What do dwarves eat? Which druid feature should I strip? If neither can be fixed, or both conflict with the initial list I've made, then I boot them. I don't try to get rid of their niche, though; I can always try to find or make a replacement.
How do you create unique cultures?
SpoilerLook at history. Cultures act as if they are alive, and living things follow certain universal rules. Anything that alters these basic patterns will ultimately create something unique by itself. This part requires a bit of brainstorming, since I simulate timelines until I find one I like. The more I try to make things real and living, the quicker things become unique.
Dealing with Magic in the World
SpoilerAs with races, classes, and monsters, I tweak before axing, and stick to realistic consequences. Generally speaking, I've found that trivialized magic can make a setting hard to get into, so I keep things both low-level and specific. I pick out which magic I like, then remain silent on the others. That way, the world follows the rules of normality I've chosen; but, it doesn't mean psions don't exist.
Creating other Planes and Dimensions.
SpoilerThough the Great Wheel is awesome, it's pretty big. At this point, I tweak less, and merge/axe more. At its core, each plane needs a purpose. Do I want a home for an unearthly foe? An afterlife? Can I combine them? A one-trick plane can just be a demiplane, in my eyes. A full-fledged plane is another world in its own right, with as many forms and facets as the home plane of the PCs.
Creating Deities and Religions.
SpoilerI keep my deities aloof, and my outsiders active. That way, (N)PCs can think they know everything, but they really don't. As with cultures, I look at the development of religions in the real world, then tweak them to match the unearthly elements of my setting. Do shamans consider demons evil? Do priests make sacrifices to long-dead dragons? What race is the supreme deity of a multiracial civilization?
Alignment and Cosmic Forces.
SpoilerI'm not fond of black-and-white morality, especially in a world with creatures whose sense of morality may differ strongly from out own. That way, positive energy and negative energy aren't associated with good or evil; we living creatures just see it that way. When designing cosmology, I try to straddle the fine line between objective and subjective views. It keeps things vague enough for everyone to think they know what's really going on.
Added it to the main content section.Last edited by Yora; 2012-08-06 at 04:44 AM.
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2012-08-05, 01:29 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
I believe this has relevance, it is not by me, I am quoting it.
Culture Building (By Dean Shomshak)
SpoilerOriginally Posted by Dean Shomshak
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2012-08-06, 11:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
Great. I think I just put a link to this post in the lists. Do you have a specific source for this?
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2012-08-07, 12:53 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Playgrounders Guide to Worldbuilding
You ask, and I give: Behold.