Worldbuilding Talk Thread

[Tzi]

The easiest way to go about this, or at least how I would do it were I running the setting (looks good by the way!) would be to build the area the players are in as isolated as you seem to want to make it feel. Don't worry about the players not getting it right away. Have an old storyteller in the street speaking of the ancient world, peppered with outright lies, myths, and misinterpretations ("In those days Man flew on the backs of great wood and canvas dragons!...I once saw a woman from the Wa'forjun Desert. She had four eyes and her flesh was fine steel....My father once fought a sorcerer, whose staff was crooked, and it cast thunder and fire from one end..."). Maybe when they decide to camp, have them spy some old ruins and just...explore. You don't even need enemies, just enough content to hint at how things used to be. As long as they come away feeling like something in the world has been lost, it's all to the good.

Or just have a celtic-themed adventure interrupted by a gnome with eight mechanical arms and a mage-arquebus in each hand challenge these "savages" to a duel. Should be merry fun times!

So far I think that is the direction I will go. I mean the main Island is a bit smaller than Tasmania IRL, so it should give them enough to play on. Outside areas I'm hoping to limit my crafting to the bare essentials necessary. Part of Brigantia the main Island has even Hyperian ruins which a very old Lydian settlement built around before being abandoned. The Hyperians being basically my Atlantian Super world spanning civilization of Magi-tech wonder and might.

I'm hoping this strategy allows me to focus exclusively on the main Kingdom and its culture and history. AND thank the stars I have players whom generally won't pick up on my occasional blatant ripping off of history. XD

Lastly, does anyone make use of ConLanguages as an instrument for giving a culture or area a unique flair? I typically hate the standard D&D languages and branch our into many languages. Currently I am using a Celtic ConLang to build my little Kingdom but I am unsure if its a common thing. Not that I would necessarily change it. I feel like the unique language and culture makes the area seem unique.... ever so slightly more real.

[Sam113097]

tl:dr Empty fantasy world suddenly gets filled by people stolen from our RL Earth before it explodes (time period to be determined). They have to rebuild from there. What's the best way to do this while allowing for maximum options and viewpoints for players/characters to take? I am indecisive and need help narrowing down just about everything. Any advice would be appreciated.

How long have the Earth humans been on this new world? Because that could determine how much their culture has changed/diversified since they arrived. If everybody was from just one city, say New York, would they split up in some way? (The Kindgom of Harlem is at war with the Manhattan Empire)

Or, if they are all from different places/cultures, how will they communicate or work together?

It's not about "where are they from?", it's about how "where are they from?" will affect their actions in the new world.

[BootStrapTommy]

(The Kindgom of Harlem is at war with the Manhattan Empire).

A more wonderful combination of words in the English language is not oft spoken...

[gtwucla]

Lastly, does anyone make use of ConLanguages as an instrument for giving a culture or area a unique flair? I typically hate the standard D&D languages and branch our into many languages. Currently I am using a Celtic ConLang to build my little Kingdom but I am unsure if its a common thing. Not that I would necessarily change it. I feel like the unique language and culture makes the area seem unique.... ever so slightly more real.

I haven't used ConLanguages, but I do something similar to give readers/players a sense of familiarity with sounds and some words, while keeping it distinct from the language as they know it, and that is using older versions of the language (i.e. Old or Middle English, Ancient Greek, Old Turkic). You can find a language codex (for example: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...ear&lang=greek) for just about every ancient language you can think of, and for something like Ancient Greek you can use the codex for a word and then google translate to romanize it. I guess one benefit of a constructed language is that it would be more purely its own language, rather than use borrowed words, but one of the benefits of using real world languages is that you can use a region's worth of languages for the cultures you create and they come pre-interrelated.

[Tzi]

I haven't used ConLanguages, but I do something similar to give readers/players a sense of familiarity with sounds and some words, while keeping it distinct from the language as they know it, and that is using older versions of the language (i.e. Old or Middle English, Ancient Greek, Old Turkic). You can find a language codex (for example: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...ear&lang=greek) for just about every ancient language you can think of, and for something like Ancient Greek you can use the codex for a word and then google translate to romanize it. I guess one benefit of a constructed language is that it would be more purely its own language, rather than use borrowed words, but one of the benefits of using real world languages is that you can use a region's worth of languages for the cultures you create and they come pre-interrelated.

I used to do it that way, and on some level still do. But am trying the ConLang route this go. MAINLY to avoid having a culture be TOO similar to the language I'm using. Sure the Lydians are very Greeco/Roman/Minoan -esque but I went with Esperanto.... why? Well the language and names and things are just different enough that when players see or hear it they might be inclined to conjure the uniqueness of that culture.

Part of it is to use either minor languages that are obscure (Like Cornish/Manx) and then constructed Celtic Conlangs like say "Modern Gaulish" form the languages of the Tarmanoi. A fairly obviously Celtic analog people.

It might just be to help me get out of the habit of having my invented cultures be TOO similar to the cultures I'm inspired by.

[Sam113097]

I'm looking for advice on how to approach a monotheistic religion in an RPG world.
I'm working on a regional setting based heavily on the conflict in Spain and North Africa between the Franks/Visigoths and Berbers during the early Middle Ages.
Both cultures were heavily influenced by their religions (Christianity and Islam, respectively) and I want to represent that in a way that is interesting but not offensive to members of those religions.
(I thought it was important to note that the 2 cultures in my setting are not just fantasy versions of the aforementioned real life cultures. It's just the setting and conflict that I want to reflect.)

[Tzi]

I'm looking for advice on how to approach a monotheistic religion in an RPG world.
I'm working on a regional setting based heavily on the conflict in Spain and North Africa between the Franks/Visigoths and Berbers during the early Middle Ages.
Both cultures were heavily influenced by their religions (Christianity and Islam, respectively) and I want to represent that in a way that is interesting but not offensive to members of those religions.
(I thought it was important to note that the 2 cultures in my setting are not just fantasy versions of the aforementioned real life cultures. It's just the setting and conflict that I want to reflect.)

The conflict in Spain was actually very complicated, often involving factions switching sides and many other odd quarks. Frequently you had Christian armies and nobles fighting for Islamic Fiefdoms, AND at one point the Kings of Grenada were in a feudal relationship and paid Homage to the Christian King of Leon. What is so unique about the Spanish conflict is how much the conflict was incredibly messy.

Key though to the religious dimension of the conflict is something best illustrated in animal ecology, no two species can occupy the same ecological niche. Islam and Christianity are remarkably similar, or were, at that time. Both were monotheistic, absolutist, insurgent and universal religions. Both had the same core ideology about them and both had the same general nature. The two were inevitably going to fall into conflict. But often the conflict came as outsiders moved in. Such as the Almohad Dynasty and later newly converted armies came into Spain to launch Jihad. The new converts were incredibly zealous and doctrinaire were as the old guard often became more moderate in the messy politics of Spain. The Same thing happened on the Christian side, especially with the Almohad and other previous dynasties. Charlemagne as well did not help the conflict and outside forces from France as well as Berbers and Arabs very frequently served to throw fuel on the fire.

As for approaching them in an RPG world. Its a tough one because what your trying to capture is an absolute and universal religion. Not once, but twice. This won't work for typical D&D were Gods and Goddesses are more certain and assured to exist. A world that can support two religions like that has to be a world in which...

1. Gods are distant and excruciatingly difficult/impossible for a mortal to prove exists.
2. The source of "Divine Magic," is consequently unknown OR it is presumed that Divine and Arcane magic are the same thing.
3. The two absolute universal faiths need to have "pagan," faiths to be in opposition to.
4. The both would have to be Absolute, I.E. "This is the way!," "There is no God but God," "Muhammad is the final prophet and this religion is the Last and Final religion!" "There is no way to the father save for that which is through Christ and he died on the cross for your sins!" ect. These have to be religions with absolute pronouncements.
5. These religions are Universalist. Unlike Judaism or various Mithra Cults or the legions of other cults before Christianity and Islam, these religions are religions for which all the world and all its people must convert to or be converted to. BOTH see the world as "The people who see!" and the "Unbelievers!" or "The House of Peace," and "The House of War". Likewise your RPG monotheistic religions will need the same.

So you will need to create many religions, even ones that are plausibly defunct by the present era in your campaign that the Current Monotheists have "proven wrong," or are in opposition to. The create the two faiths, both with Absolute proclamations and dispensation, AND Universal ideals in which ALL must adopt this religion.

As a final note: To avoid creating Buddhism which is KIND of Absolute and KIND of Universal, both probably should have pronouncements that you can only be of ONE religion. I.E. "Nothing BUT X"

[BootStrapTommy]

Another alternative, much less messy, is to turn the interfaith conflict into an intrafaith conflict.

An easier alternative to making two absolutist, universalist, monotheistic faiths is to create one such faith, with two competing factions.

That way you need only make one faith, with some element of debatable theology for the Schism to have occurred over (religious authority is a good source, as is the definition and interpretation of scriptures). Two supposed authorities competing over control of the same flock can serve the same function as two competing religions fighting over the same land. Less infidels, more heretics. More Catholic/Protestant or Sunni/Shi'ite than Christian/Muslim.

Good supplementary history would be the Catholic/Protestant Thirty Years' War (like post-Roman, pre-Reconquista Spain, very murky and messy with sides often not clearly defined) or the ever-present Sunni/Shi'ite conflict (the Ismaili conflict with everything non-Ismaili is fascinating).

[Sam113097]

Another alternative, much less messy, is to turn the interfaith conflict into an intrafaith conflict.

An easier alternative to making two absolutist, universalist, monotheistic faiths is to create one such faith, with two competing factions.

That way you need only make one faith, with some element of debatable theology for the Schism to have occurred over (religious authority is a good source, as is the definition and interpretation of scriptures). Two supposed authorities competing over control of the same flock can serve the same function as two competing religions fighting over the same land. Less infidels, more heretics.

That seems like a better idea to me. I've just been reading the Giant's series of worldbuilding articles (The New World), and he decides on a dual-theistic, Sun/Moon approach to religion, where the gods are not definite and do not interfere with the mortal world. I like this idea, and it is definitely necessary to have unreliable gods in order to have religious conflict in a fantasy setting. Perhaps the Old Nation, which largely adhered to the traditional dualistic religion, has recently been conquered/defeated by a New Empire that has radically changed the faith (perhaps they claim one of the gods is dead). That could set up a lot of conflict between the remnant of the Old Nation, the New Empire, and any potential third parties (or adventuring parties).

Thank you for the suggestions!

[Jendekit]

I am working on a campaign setting's Bronze Age Orient-analog and am just looking to bounce ideas out there (and I find that writing my ideas down like this is easier for me to do than to just write them into Word).

---

The earliest settlers of the region (don't have a name yet) came over the World-Spire Mountains (a mountain range measuring more than 1300 miles long) prior to the end of the last Ice Age. Until the glacial melt provided an easy route by way of a massive river that cut through the mountains, the people that later became the Shong dwarves were completely isolated. After the glacial melt, the Shong that lived on the banks of the Yung River engaged in trade with the halflings that traveled along the river in their trading fleets. In later millennia, these trade fleets would be the primary traders in the Silk Road-analog.

Both sides of the World-Spire Mountains are home to dwarves: the Ansur dwarves live on the high ridges on the Western side of the mountain range, while the Shong live on the Eastern slopes and the lands beyond.

The first government on a scale larger than individual villages, according to the tales, formed when the village leader Xia Yu gathered up the men of his village and conquered a nearby village. Things snowballed from there. By the time his thirst for conquest was sated twenty years later he ruled more than anyone previous had ever dreamed of. Dubbing himself Huan-Dai Xia Yu, he turned his first village into his capital and declared that his rule was granted by the ancestors, for how else could he conquer so much?

Doling out land to his most trusted followers, and creating the rank of Hua for them, he made them the owners of the land and all the farmers that worked the land were required to pay half their crop seasonally as tax. In exchange for their tax, the Hua protected the farmers from bandits, animals, and corrupted monsters.

As Huan-Dai, Xia Yu gathered the most brilliant men in his empire and tasked them with developing a system to make sure that taxes were paid correctly and that accurate records could be kept. All of this, prior to the first metal was smelted in the world.

---

This is currently all I have for the history of the Shong dwarves.

[Yora]

I am working on a world that is mostly bronze age, with the gnomes of the northern mountains being the only people who know how to turn iron ore into a workable material. It's not as good as bronze for blades, but much cheaper for things like pots, arrowheads, hammers and scale armor. There are fortunes to be made but even though the raw materials are everywhere, getting the iron to markets in the south is the real factor that determines who will be rich and powerful.
One big problem with the north is that it's currently way too peaceful and quiet with nothing really going on. Competition among the mining cities over access to the only nearby major port would be an obvious and perfect candidate for a source of regional tension and the involvement of mercenaries and secret plots. But I don't want the gnomes to just build big armies and build checkpoints on the major rivers to destroy any boats with iron from rival cities. That would be too simple as a solution and I also want the gnomes to use a lot of trickery and deception as their form of diplomacy and warfare. But as of now I don't really have any good ideas how that would spill over to the elven and human tribes of the surrounding forest.

The Hobbit would be one obvious place to look for inspirations, and the dwarves of Orzammar in Dragon Age might hold some potential ideas as well.
Does anyone have other ideas that come to mind when thinking about competing mining cities trying to destroy their competitor's business?

[avr]

So you're after dirty tricks? Something like:

"The gnomes of city X tore up fields to mine their iron and angered the goddess of the crops. Say, aren't those fields next to your warehouses storing their iron being eaten by a plague of locusts?"

Or maybe the agents of one city sneak in and spray an acid on the iron goods of another while they're in transit. Not D&D concentrated acid, just something which will rust and weaken them a bit, making them appear terrible quality.

Apparently poorly stored iron goods breaking thru the bottom of the boats/ships carrying them was an occasional problem. A little sabotage might help that along.

Then there's the usual bribery of officials to get first crack at selling/transporting the goods or to delay competitors, maybe daring attempts to be the first to sail down on the spring flood, or even to try to sledge it overland in winter (both climate dependent of course), and of course salesmanship and workmanship.

[Yora]

I am primarily searching for things that make people travel with a lot of guards, weary of strangers, keeping weapons close at hand, careful of which allies they can still trust.
As it is, everyone can go to work in the morning without any worry that any trouble might show up in the forseeable future. Which is not a conductive environment for adventures. I am more in need of tensions than of clashes.

But thinking some more about it, I like the direction of your ideas. Gnomes wouldn't build large armies and march into battle. They would make small commando teams and strike at enemy infrastructure to be out again without anyone really knowing what actually happened. It's low intensity but can still get very messy and leave lots of people dead. And might even be more effective at creating tension and mistrust than big open battles.
Would be very difficult to detect enemy agents when you're nor even sure who all your enemies are. And of course it can very easily spill over to other groups of the region who are cooperating with the gnomes and that way become useful targets themselves. And you don't have to rely only on gnomes to do your dirty work when there are people who take work from anyone with coins to pay.

[zabbarot]

I am primarily searching for things that make people travel with a lot of guards, weary of strangers, keeping weapons close at hand, careful of which allies they can still trust.
As it is, everyone can go to work in the morning without any worry that any trouble might show up in the forseeable future. Which is not a conductive environment for adventures. I am more in need of tensions than of clashes.

But thinking some more about it, I like the direction of your ideas. Gnomes wouldn't build large armies and march into battle. They would make small commando teams and strike at enemy infrastructure to be out again without anyone really knowing what actually happened. It's low intensity but can still get very messy and leave lots of people dead. And might even be more effective at creating tension and mistrust than big open battles.
Would be very difficult to detect enemy agents when you're nor even sure who all your enemies are. And of course it can very easily spill over to other groups of the region who are cooperating with the gnomes and that way become useful targets themselves. And you don't have to rely only on gnomes to do your dirty work when there are people who take work from anyone with coins to pay.

Spoiler: I suddenly wanted to write Gnomish military fiction.

Show

"Sir, Lieutenant Cricket Littinder reporting," the young gnome said, standing at attention. She was stout, but full of enthusiasm for her first assignment.

"Littender, Littender... Ah, here it is. At ease," the captain waved one hand lazily at the young officer, "says here you received top marks in combat illusions and scout tactics. How are you at dancing lights?"

"Good, sir."

"And ghost sounds?"

"My specialty, sir."

"Good to hear. We'll be putting you in Weasel Squad. Report to Lt. Frogleg. He'll get you set up."

"Thank you, sir. Right away, sir." Cricket rendered a salute and then nearly tripped over herself in her excitement to meet her squad.

[Yora]

I chose gnomes over dwarves for the setting specifically because they are not as cliche saturated as dwarves, but when you remove the silly clown stuff they often come with you have something that might not be either easy or fun to fight.

[avr]

For people to be that wary of strangers, the tricks have to kill a number of people IMO. Perhaps there's some sort of law which would punish offenders but leaving no witnesses blunts it.

[Tzi]

I am primarily searching for things that make people travel with a lot of guards, weary of strangers, keeping weapons close at hand, careful of which allies they can still trust.
As it is, everyone can go to work in the morning without any worry that any trouble might show up in the forseeable future. Which is not a conductive environment for adventures. I am more in need of tensions than of clashes.

But thinking some more about it, I like the direction of your ideas. Gnomes wouldn't build large armies and march into battle. They would make small commando teams and strike at enemy infrastructure to be out again without anyone really knowing what actually happened. It's low intensity but can still get very messy and leave lots of people dead. And might even be more effective at creating tension and mistrust than big open battles.
Would be very difficult to detect enemy agents when you're nor even sure who all your enemies are. And of course it can very easily spill over to other groups of the region who are cooperating with the gnomes and that way become useful targets themselves. And you don't have to rely only on gnomes to do your dirty work when there are people who take work from anyone with coins to pay.

Depending on the level of isolation between communities you could have epidemic disease be a threat. Villages may be unlikely to trust strangers because of the fear of contamination and disease brought by outsiders to a region with no immunizing agents to the disease.

[Yora]

I think plague is severely underused in fantasy all the time. It can be a very powerful plot device at various scales. The 14th century plague in Europe spread extremely fast with an estimated mortality rate of 50% within just a year or two. And smallpox in America in the 16th century reached the entire continent within a few decades with mortality rates in the 90s. Those are true End of the World scenarios, and that's long before you have ghouls and zombies entering the picture.

Alternatively you could have a plague of that scope some decades or maybe a century in the past, with the memory still being present enough that people get a huge freakout about anything that could remotely indicate a new outbreak somewhere.

[zabbarot]

I think plague is severely underused in fantasy all the time. It can be a very powerful plot device at various scales. The 14th century plague in Europe spread extremely fast with an estimated mortality rate of 50% within just a year or two. And smallpox in America in the 16th century reached the entire continent within a few decades with mortality rates in the 90s. Those are true End of the World scenarios, and that's long before you have ghouls and zombies entering the picture.

That says a lot about how widespread Native American trade routes were.

Anyways, I'm thinking maybe plague is under used because it means there are a lot of people dying that your heroes can't save. Automatically makes for a darker setting, which can definitely be good, but not always what you want. It is definitely a good starting point for a campaign though, and pretty much guaranteed to be a major plot point. What hero doesn't want to cure people of the plague?

[Tzi]

That says a lot about how widespread Native American trade routes were.

Anyways, I'm thinking maybe plague is under used because it means there are a lot of people dying that your heroes can't save. Automatically makes for a darker setting, which can definitely be good, but not always what you want. It is definitely a good starting point for a campaign though, and pretty much guaranteed to be a major plot point. What hero doesn't want to cure people of the plague?

It also, or definitely says that Native Americans were horrifically susceptible to Old World diseases.

One factor might be some societies have a lack of domesticated animals which are the main cause of many pandemic diseases. Close proximity to animals allows a disease to jump species and a disease thats relatively minor for one creature is deadly serious for another.

N. Americans with their lack of cows, pigs, ect had less exposure and less build up of immunities. Its also why there was practically no crossover in diseases. I.E. no horrific plague from the Americas decimating the Old World.

[Yora]

There have been some seriously bleak fantasy books in the past 10 years. Though I think depopulating mortalities is something that none of them really touched.
You don't even need to have an extremely lethal plague. When you look at the really bad regions in the 30 years war, World War 2 looks almost mundane in comparison. The adventure Better Than Any Man is set during one of the worst episodes of that war and even if you keep the ancient evil contained it's still quite possible that the whole campaign ends in all out genocide. I think it's pretty good, but it's buy a guy who thinks any good adventure should go to where it gets uncomfortable.

[Tzi]

It could be even more mundane, Look at the global projected demographic trends towards an aging population and logically shrinking number of people in the future.

Perhaps there was once a wondrous utopia and it was as simply as after a few generations of people forgetting to breed, there were infinitely fewer peoples. Cities were simply abandoned for lack of people to maintain them OR live in them.

[Roxxy]

It’s time for a random campaign setting update. A synopsis will take forever at this rate. For the uninitiated, my setting is Eberronish magitek, though it borrows from the Sixties rather than the Twenties. I have written about the Dwarves, and the Orcs, and some about the government and the war (but not about the Reconstruction Bureau, which I totally need to talk about), and now I discuss Elves (Note: Elves, like Orcs and Dwarves, are Humans, and have a Human lifespan. There are no independent Elven nations. One race nations in general aren't really a thing in this setting. Drow are Elves from “Asia”, having no mechanical differences, and aside from very dark skin and very light hair look largely similar [Slightly androgenous, shorter than Orcs and Sapiens but taller than Dwarves, pointed ears, and hair and eyes have same color ranges [Hair and eyes can be different colors from each other. Drow have grey, blue, or purple, though hair color tends to be very pale and close to white, with eyes much more vibrant. Western Elves have brown, red, yellow, or green, with hair tending to be light or medium in tone compared to vibrant eyes, and green Elven hair having a brownish tint like dried leaves or a seafoamish tint. Red hair is usually ginger, leafish, or a medium reddish-brown. Elves do not typically have bold, bright, or vibrant hair colors.]. Roughly 50% of Elves have faint to moderate stripes or spots on their skin [Same color range as hair, but the individual Elf can have spots or stripes of multiple colors.].]. Elves bear a rather interesting collection of stereotypes. Elves are typically stereotyped as a militant, warlike bunch of savages, yet before the current century, Elves had little in the way of military tradition, having historically lacked armies, having had neither a population large enough for conquest nor the means with which to equip a field army.

Until the Industrial Awakening, Elves lived mostly on the fringes of society. As a race that hasn’t typically liked living in close confines, they’ve never been able to put together a large enough group to carve out a good spot for themselves. A lot of this stems from the Elven susceptibility to disease (-2 Con, -2 all saves against disease, magical or mundane [a preindustrial Elf would be -4, but all those people died of old age or other stuff]). In times past, it discouraged them from urban lifestyles and raising livestock or keeping pets, which combined with the high disease mortality rate to keep their population numbers low. It also made fighting in wars abroad very difficult, both because of a lack of means to raise an army and because the number one killer of troops in war has historically been disease. Elves certainly did fight plenty of skirmishes and engage in raiding, but they rarely ever formed armies to send abroad, since such armies were so difficult to keep in fighting order.

Also contributing to the fringeness of Elves is their penchant for sorcery. The Celestial Bureaucracy that once ruled the world never approved of sorcery, and this attitude rubbed off on their subjects. They never really saw crushing the Elves as worth the expense and effort, but they certainly didn’t like them and did not welcome them in non-Elven lands. They were decried as savages, since they did comparatively little agriculture (though more than they got credit for), still relied on hunting, are fine with night activity (Elves have Darkvision to 60ft), were disease-ridden, used “savage magic”, and were usually seminomadic. Even after the Celestial Bureaucracy collapsed, a lot of these attitudes remained.

Things changed with the Industrial Awakening. Medical technology improved by leaps and bounds, with vaccinations, antibiotics, and improved understanding of sanitation massively reducing both the frequency and lethality of major illnesses. Every race’s population exploded, but Elves had the proportionally highest growth, since they had the highest mortality rate. Suddenly, the Elven susceptibility to disease wasn’t that big a problem. Like everyone else, traditionally rural Elves got forced into far overcrowded cities to work hard jobs for a pittance, but Elves found societal advancement harder than any others except Dwarves and Tieflings, do to being seen as too savage to meaningfully educate.

The easiest place for an Elf to advance is, to this day, military service. Though the old stereotypes of savagery have cooled down enough that Elves can enroll in university and attempt to get academic jobs, institutional racism is still very much a problem, and it is certainly harder for an Elf to do these things as a result. The military is not by any means a perfect meritocracy, but it is better than most places. The guarantee of somewhere to sleep, something to eat, and a modest payday is also rather attractive to people who are very poor. With vaccinations, medications, and proper sanitation keeping disease under control, many Elves found themselves volunteering for military service. The Great Demonic War of twenty years past also had a lot to do with this. Everybody was being inducted into the military in huge numbers, but people proficient in skilled trades were unlikely to see combat duty, because they were too valuable to the military as support workers keeping the war machine running. Agricultural workers tended to be kept out of the military altogether because food production was vital. Elves tended to lack access to skilled trades and were rarely agricultural workers, so they were comparatively very likely to end up in combat positions. There are so many Elven veterans that the members of the current Elven Civil Rights movements are largely people who have fought for the nation in time of war, something they are very quick to point out every time they get accused of unpatriotic activity and as a justification of why institutional racism is ridiculous (as if such a justification were necessary). This is largely where the stereotype of Elves as militant comes from.

I want to talk about Elven subcultures, but it’s quite late. Coffee shop beat/Bohemian culture, urban revolutionaries, and wilderness communes (Imagine Hippies, except not pacifists, heavily armed, and contemptuous of the government and society. And probably more drug addled.) are all intended to be reflected in some Elves, and there's also the massive amount of poverty and the commonality of military service to factor in.

[Talion]

So I've reached an issue that's held me up for a few weeks and I'd really appreciate some outside thoughts:

I've mostly finished designing a calendar system for my homebrew setting. I'm missing a few month names, but on the whole that isn't an issue. The issue I've come across is choosing when the year starts/ends. Initially, I thought that working with the 'winter solstice' would be a good option. But then I realized I had a few other options, which lead to the actual problem: the monsoon season. This world's year is shorter than ours (by about a month), meaning it is closer to its local star and thus warmer, and is a fairly wet world. As such it seemed natural to include a monsoon season.

So, briefly put, in a warmer, wetter world:

1. Would it be more proper to include a monsoon/wet season or have more continuous rain such as in a tropical rainforest?

2. If a monsoon/wet season was included, should it be the determining factor for start/end of the year? Or should I work with another option, such as the solstice, the start of spring, or another factor entirely?

[VoxRationis]

So I've reached an issue that's held me up for a few weeks and I'd really appreciate some outside thoughts:

I've mostly finished designing a calendar system for my homebrew setting. I'm missing a few month names, but on the whole that isn't an issue. The issue I've come across is choosing when the year starts/ends. Initially, I thought that working with the 'winter solstice' would be a good option. But then I realized I had a few other options, which lead to the actual problem: the monsoon season. This world's year is shorter than ours (by about a month), meaning it is closer to its local star and thus warmer, and is a fairly wet world. As such it seemed natural to include a monsoon season.

So, briefly put, in a warmer, wetter world:

1. Would it be more proper to include a monsoon/wet season or have more continuous rain such as in a tropical rainforest?

2. If a monsoon/wet season was included, should it be the determining factor for start/end of the year? Or should I work with another option, such as the solstice, the start of spring, or another factor entirely?

The answer to question 1 is mostly dependent upon latitude and geography (mountains and oceans have a noticeable effect).

[Talion]

The answer to question 1 is mostly dependent upon latitude and geography (mountains and oceans have a noticeable effect).

For the continent in question, we're looking at being reasonably above the equator (to allow for snowfall in the northern territories). There's two fairly large mountain ranges running parallel to each other on the far north-west side, with the bigger one running north/south along the center of the main landmass. There is a smaller mountain range running east-west on the southern end of a large landmass to the south-east of the main continent, along with a series of islands, some of which are volcanic, to the north and east of that (and strictly east of the main continent). There are three major lakes, as well as a centrally located sea; I would consider said lakes being large enough to affect their local weather phenomenon.

My reasoning has lead me to believe that the centrally located sea is fairly rough, given its size, shape, wind, currents, and inlets/outlets (hence the name, which translates roughly as the 'whirling' sea). Generally speaking, this probably means more general precipitation rather than the existence of proper monsoon seasons. Further, being closer to its local star means that the temperature variation may not be quite as varied as places in our world, but still noteworthy.

Which then leaves me with the question of should I start the year on a solstice or on an effective 'first day of spring' or on some other factor. I'm leaning towards something more akin to the latter, but would still appreciate some thoughts on the matter.

[Sam113097]

It’s time for a random campaign setting update. A synopsis will take forever at this rate. For the uninitiated, my setting is Eberronish magitek, though it borrows from the Sixties rather than the Twenties. I have written about the Dwarves, and the Orcs, and some about the government and the war (but not about the Reconstruction Bureau, which I totally need to talk about), and now I discuss Elves (Note: Elves, like Orcs and Dwarves, are Humans, and have a Human lifespan. There are no independent Elven nations. One race nations in general aren't really a thing in this setting. Drow are Elves from “Asia”, having no mechanical differences, and aside from very dark skin and very light hair look largely similar [Slightly androgenous, shorter than Orcs and Sapiens but taller than Dwarves, pointed ears, and hair and eyes have same color ranges [Hair and eyes can be different colors from each other. Drow have grey, blue, or purple, though hair color tends to be very pale and close to white, with eyes much more vibrant. Western Elves have brown, red, yellow, or green, with hair tending to be light or medium in tone compared to vibrant eyes, and green Elven hair having a brownish tint like dried leaves or a seafoamish tint. Red hair is usually ginger, leafish, or a medium reddish-brown. Elves do not typically have bold, bright, or vibrant hair colors.]. Roughly 50% of Elves have faint to moderate stripes or spots on their skin [Same color range as hair, but the individual Elf can have spots or stripes of multiple colors.].]. Elves bear a rather interesting collection of stereotypes. Elves are typically stereotyped as a militant, warlike bunch of savages, yet before the current century, Elves had little in the way of military tradition, having historically lacked armies, having had neither a population large enough for conquest nor the means with which to equip a field army.

Until the Industrial Awakening, Elves lived mostly on the fringes of society. As a race that hasn’t typically liked living in close confines, they’ve never been able to put together a large enough group to carve out a good spot for themselves. A lot of this stems from the Elven susceptibility to disease (-2 Con, -2 all saves against disease, magical or mundane [a preindustrial Elf would be -4, but all those people died of old age or other stuff]). In times past, it discouraged them from urban lifestyles and raising livestock or keeping pets, which combined with the high disease mortality rate to keep their population numbers low. It also made fighting in wars abroad very difficult, both because of a lack of means to raise an army and because the number one killer of troops in war has historically been disease. Elves certainly did fight plenty of skirmishes and engage in raiding, but they rarely ever formed armies to send abroad, since such armies were so difficult to keep in fighting order.

Also contributing to the fringeness of Elves is their penchant for sorcery. The Celestial Bureaucracy that once ruled the world never approved of sorcery, and this attitude rubbed off on their subjects. They never really saw crushing the Elves as worth the expense and effort, but they certainly didn’t like them and did not welcome them in non-Elven lands. They were decried as savages, since they did comparatively little agriculture (though more than they got credit for), still relied on hunting, are fine with night activity (Elves have Darkvision to 60ft), were disease-ridden, used “savage magic”, and were usually seminomadic. Even after the Celestial Bureaucracy collapsed, a lot of these attitudes remained.

Things changed with the Industrial Awakening. Medical technology improved by leaps and bounds, with vaccinations, antibiotics, and improved understanding of sanitation massively reducing both the frequency and lethality of major illnesses. Every race’s population exploded, but Elves had the proportionally highest growth, since they had the highest mortality rate. Suddenly, the Elven susceptibility to disease wasn’t that big a problem. Like everyone else, traditionally rural Elves got forced into far overcrowded cities to work hard jobs for a pittance, but Elves found societal advancement harder than any others except Dwarves and Tieflings, do to being seen as too savage to meaningfully educate.

The easiest place for an Elf to advance is, to this day, military service. Though the old stereotypes of savagery have cooled down enough that Elves can enroll in university and attempt to get academic jobs, institutional racism is still very much a problem, and it is certainly harder for an Elf to do these things as a result. The military is not by any means a perfect meritocracy, but it is better than most places. The guarantee of somewhere to sleep, something to eat, and a modest payday is also rather attractive to people who are very poor. With vaccinations, medications, and proper sanitation keeping disease under control, many Elves found themselves volunteering for military service. The Great Demonic War of twenty years past also had a lot to do with this. Everybody was being inducted into the military in huge numbers, but people proficient in skilled trades were unlikely to see combat duty, because they were too valuable to the military as support workers keeping the war machine running. Agricultural workers tended to be kept out of the military altogether because food production was vital. Elves tended to lack access to skilled trades and were rarely agricultural workers, so they were comparatively very likely to end up in combat positions. There are so many Elven veterans that the members of the current Elven Civil Rights movements are largely people who have fought for the nation in time of war, something they are very quick to point out every time they get accused of unpatriotic activity and as a justification of why institutional racism is ridiculous (as if such a justification were necessary). This is largely where the stereotype of Elves as militant comes from.

I want to talk about Elven subcultures, but it’s quite late. Coffee shop beat/Bohemian culture, urban revolutionaries, and wilderness communes (Imagine Hippies, except not pacifists, heavily armed, and contemptuous of the government and society. And probably more drug addled.) are all intended to be reflected in some Elves, and there's also the massive amount of poverty and the commonality of military service to factor in.

Is there a thread where all of your setting information is posted? This seems like a very interesting premise, and I have never seen a fantasy setting based on that era of history before! A dedicated thread would be a better place than this thread to get specific advise on your setting, which changes many of the base assumptions of a traditional RPG world.

[Milo v3]

How much do you guys focus on Planar stuff in your settings, in most published RPG settings I've seen have barely touched on the planes (except for Planescape of course)?

[Mechalich]

How much do you guys focus on Planar stuff in your settings, in most published RPG settings I've seen have barely touched on the planes (except for Planescape of course)?

It depends on the nature of your setting. My setting is P6 and the planes are impossible to get to. Your soul goes there when you die and that's it. Even so, beings from the planes can be summon/bound into the world all the time and they have a dramatic impact when they are, so outsiders matter to the setting.

More high-powered settings should deal with planar stuff a lot. At some point a setting has enough people able to cast plane shift and construct stable planar portals that the world itself is effectively an extension of the planes and becomes nothing more than a regionalized part of Planescape (and an unlucky one if your planet gets invaded by Slaadi or something).

Freeform situations where anyone who can access the planes can do so are inherently unstable - someone will accidentally trigger a demonic invasion eventually - so higher magic settings need some justification that allows significant planar travel and possibly trade while preventing that from happening. Maybe the gods are highly interventionist (this seems to be what keeps FR from imploding, at least prior to it getting its own special cosmology), maybe a cabal of high level wizards has erected barriers, who knows, but limits are important. Said limits should also apply to PCs and other mortals so that you can't take your army to the Plane of Shadow and attack some unsuspecting kingdom on the other side of the world for no good reason.

[VoxRationis]

For the continent in question, we're looking at being reasonably above the equator (to allow for snowfall in the northern territories). There's two fairly large mountain ranges running parallel to each other on the far north-west side, with the bigger one running north/south along the center of the main landmass. There is a smaller mountain range running east-west on the southern end of a large landmass to the south-east of the main continent, along with a series of islands, some of which are volcanic, to the north and east of that (and strictly east of the main continent). There are three major lakes, as well as a centrally located sea; I would consider said lakes being large enough to affect their local weather phenomenon.

My reasoning has lead me to believe that the centrally located sea is fairly rough, given its size, shape, wind, currents, and inlets/outlets (hence the name, which translates roughly as the 'whirling' sea). Generally speaking, this probably means more general precipitation rather than the existence of proper monsoon seasons. Further, being closer to its local star means that the temperature variation may not be quite as varied as places in our world, but still noteworthy.

If the area is far from the equator and there are large mountain ranges limiting the directions of rain-bearing winds, precipitation patterns are probably seasonal.

Which then leaves me with the question of should I start the year on a solstice or on an effective 'first day of spring' or on some other factor. I'm leaning towards something more akin to the latter, but would still appreciate some thoughts on the matter.

That bit's largely cultural. Both the Chinese and Gregorian calendars start in winter, before spring starts but after things start to get a little lighter. I'm not sure where other calendars start, but that might be a common place.