Interesting or strange starting points for building a setting

[Juicy Kisses]

I have many ideas for a campaign that I am going to be running, but I am having a difficult time coming up with a starting point for building the world. I want to build something that is out of the ordinary. I don't want a world that feels like your standard European setting on a traditional medieval continent. I want something that has a slightly more unique feel to it. For example,

The world consists of continents which float through the air above the ocean

Or,

The world takes place underneath the planet's crust, with the core acting like a pseudo sun that floats in the center of the world with gravity pushing outward

Or perhaps,

The planet itself is actually a vast living creature which floats through space.

Something along those lines. Does anyone have any other thoughts such as these which might spark inspiration?

[brian 333]

Take a look at Great Zimbabwe.

With that in mind, read about a fellow named Shaka Zulu. The two are unrelated, but the culture which built Great Zimbabwe was erased from history, and Zulu was a bit different from your standard European historical figures.

Shamanism would be more important than druidism, but aside from a disdain for armor, the other character classes should work just fine.

[akma]

Well, some things that work for me for building worlds:
A) Trying to think on questions that might arise from a thing in the world, and what could be logical and interesting answers for them. For example, with the floating continents - how do they trade between continents? Do they try to catch fish? How does floating above an ocean affect those who live far from the beaches?
B) Finding something weird or negligtable, and making it important and grandiose, and thinking about how this will change things.
C) Thinking on what will work well with what you already decided that there will be.
D) Trying to define the themes of the setting and using them as guidelines.
E) Finding some sub issue you usually don't dwell much about while world-building, and invest in it.

Specifically in your case, I think you should write down a list of what makes a world ordinary, and see for each part of the list how you could "break it" in an interesting way.

[dragonjek]

Don't be on a planet at all. The story could take place on a vast worldship, generations passing within as the vessel slowly travels towards a new inhabitable planet.

Or the world could consist of a multitude of level planes above a vast sea--think of a 3D chess set.

The ground could largely consist of lava and toxic wastelands, and civilization has developed atop the titanic behemoths that slowly meander cross the world's surface.

You could look at ideas for some of the stranger planes of existence, remove the moral (or possibly elemental) component, and make that a normal world.

The world is actually a series of tiny worlds ranging from the size of a town to the size of a continent, and airships are required to move from one to the other.

[Juicy Kisses]

Well, some things that work for me for building worlds:
A) Trying to think on questions that might arise from a thing in the world, and what could be logical and interesting answers for them. For example, with the floating continents - how do they trade between continents? Do they try to catch fish? How does floating above an ocean affect those who live far from the beaches?
B) Finding something weird or negligtable, and making it important and grandiose, and thinking about how this will change things.
C) Thinking on what will work well with what you already decided that there will be.
D) Trying to define the themes of the setting and using them as guidelines.
E) Finding some sub issue you usually don't dwell much about while world-building, and invest in it.

Specifically in your case, I think you should write down a list of what makes a world ordinary, and see for each part of the list how you could "break it" in an interesting way.

Fantastic advice! All of it. I will contemplate on these suggestions.

[pupaeted]

There was a project here a while ago called Toxic Seas (wiki), where the entire world is made up of isolated mountain-peak settlement, while an endless of ocean of toxic fog covers the entire surface. It was at least an attempt at an original setting.

I've also been wondering about shaking up the faux-medieval settings by introducing modern cultures. Like take a traditional Tolkien environment, but for some reason punks and greasers exist.

Since you're not bound to physics, I've been thinking about a setting set on a shattered planet, where people live on the old surface of the shards. Or maybe a huge free-floating ocean in space, where if you go deep enough you reach the underside, which is just another surface.

[Juicy Kisses]

There was a project here a while ago called Toxic Seas (wiki), where the entire world is made up of isolated mountain-peak settlement, while an endless of ocean of toxic fog covers the entire surface. It was at least an attempt at an original setting.

I've also been wondering about shaking up the faux-medieval settings by introducing modern cultures. Like take a traditional Tolkien environment, but for some reason punks and greasers exist.

Since you're not bound to physics, I've been thinking about a setting set on a shattered planet, where people live on the old surface of the shards. Or maybe a huge free-floating ocean in space, where if you go deep enough you reach the underside, which is just another surface.

I really enjoyed the toxic seas thread. That's kind of what inspired me to think of something out of the ordinary haha

That's an interesting thought, I once had an idea for a futuristic setting that was kind of similar. Maybe could incorporate that into a medieval setting with some sort of magic binding the shards of the planet to stay relatively near one another?

[DuctTapeKatar]

If you pardon the analogy, you can look at a campaign as if it was a stew, and the setting the broth. A good setting will blend well with all elements you put into it.

With Caligoven, I saw it as a swashbuckling adventure with a tinge of unknowable horror, so putting in old kingdoms and lost dynasties would work well in a world where most of the surface is obscured by a thick teal fog, with much of what makes the world work unknown.

Of course, with how Caligoven was made, I feel as though we went in as many directions as possible, so there wasn't a lot of depth it could have had.

[jqavins]

Consider the Discworld. I'm not saying to steal it whole, though you certainly could. But there are some lessons to take from it.

First and most obvious, it's a different shape than real planets. This gives some basic physical consequences, like the oceans flowing over the edge. That in turn suggests things like the circumfence. And the fact that the rotation of the disc adds centrifugal force to gravity (though perpendicular to it) allowing for larger mountains near the hub, leading to Cori Celesti, the home of the gods.

My point is to make one change, one big change, and then think through the natural consequences of that. And the physics of those consequences only need to be reasonably plausible; you don't need to get hung up on making it perfect. (After all, with perfect physics you wouldn't have a disc world.)

Next, think of the books referred to as the industrial revolution sub-series. The people of the Disc don't have the level of science knowledge or baseline technology that preceded the industrial revolution in the real world, but since the author knows about inventions that could come later, it is possible to come up with somewhat plausible means of creating them earlier. Things like the clacks system, organized long range mail delivery, movies, Hex, and so on. That's also one of the central conceits of steam punk; in the Victorian, steam powered age there were no, let's say, audio amplifiers for speaking tube systems, but if you already know the concept of an audio amplifier thanks to living in the age of electronics then you can make up a somewhat plausible way to make one with steam age stuff. I'm not altogether sure what I thought I was getting at here; I'm not saying to use out of place technology, but you can probably adapt the idea to include many sorts of out of place ideas and make them fit in reasonably plausible ways. Then you end up with a sort of "normal" medieval setting, but with stuff that should be out of place but actually fits right in.

[Cluedrew]

Of course, with how Caligoven was made, I feel as though we went in as many directions as possible, so there wasn't a lot of depth it could have had.

I really wish we could of made the "Let's build at setting" series a success, but somehow none of them had the magic of the Toxic Seas. It would be nice to some day write out (and fix up) the setting, come up with "Cluedrew's Coligoven" and make either a setting document or even a rules light system for it. But if that happens it is a ways off.

Anyways, my favourite method, if I am not building a setting around a story, is to take a standard setting and then introduce a twist to it. Then follow through the twist as much as possible. A more recent example: Cyberpunk that operates by the rules of fairy-tales.

[brian 333]

Spelljammer was an interesting setting. Low tech ships magically converted into spaceships visiting other worlds and asteroid bases held a certain fascination for a time, but the attempts to jam it into every published setting fell sort of flat.

But Spelljammer type vessels might suit floating continents or toxic seas settings.


Odd shapes of worlds are interesting, but I recall fondly the world created by Michael Moorcock in his Elric stories. It was a flat earth surrounded on all sides by Chaos. Great heroes of Law could enter the chaos and through their will and determination form it into another kingdom to add to and extend the borders of their world.

Demiplanes on the Astral plane might appear as bubbles floating in the void, and a clever creator could create a sphere with a central sun with gravity pulling outward. Of course, the only exit is into the Asteal Plane where demons await to trap the unwary. Such a world might look like a buffet to such beings, and inhabitants would need to be protected, powerful, or both.

[Steel Mirror]

You could play around with some of the things that we think of as fundamental to everyday life on earth, and which we tend to unthinkingly carry over into fantasy worlds as well.

A world where gravity is much lower than normal, allowing massive creatures (though lots of games tend to do that already), humongous trees and flora, construction that can go much higher with much less in the way of materials, as well as characters who can jump higher, lift more massive objects, throw things farther, and possibly even fly under their own power.

A world without daylight, where plants extract energy from geothermal sources or magical fields pervading the world or from direct divine intervention. Or combine those, and have rift valleys where magical essence oozes up from the unknown depths of the planet, and which acts as super-fertilizer for any plants (using the term loosely, they'd probably look more like fungus) that grow in the region, and which can be packed up and shipped around to allow for societies to spread out from the rift valleys and colonize new areas, connected economically to the rift valleys.

Carried on from above, light in the sunless world is provided by moons which wax and wane on their own inscrutable schedules, or massive aurorae that flow across the sky. Denizens of the world have a whole host of adaptations in response to the lack of light, from echolocation to darkvision to low-light vision to magic-sensing vision and whatever else, and nearly-blind humans are all but confined to huddled walled settlements which never allow their fires to be extinguished and light every corner they can to keep the endless night at bay.

A world where ambient magic is denser the higher up you go, and more tenuous and harder to accomplish in lower areas. At the tops of the highest mountains, powerful societies wield arcane forces as veritable gods, while lower down the slopes magicians ply their trades confidently but can't achieve the heights of those living at the peaks. In the valleys of the world, people live mostly mundane lives where magic is rare but as a result society is fairly egalitarian, whereas above arcane ability is everything for your standing in society and nobility rules over lesser people with impunity. Those who live above almost never descend from their mountain tops and skyships, because their devices stop working as they descend and their personal abilities become less potent and more unreliable. Then again, somebody who has managed to nurture even a modest talent in the valley kingdoms might find their gifts turbocharged beyond belief if they ever manage to make it up to the highest reaches of the world.

What if plate tectonics wasn't a process requiring millions of years to see any significant change, but something as mutable and changeable as the weather? Mountains rise and fall over the course of decades, rivers change course or suddenly turn into lakes only to dry up completely from year to year, and a comfortable coastal peninsula today could suddenly break off into an island tomorrow and spend the next few decades shifting around at sea before plowing into another continent and becoming a mountain range. Cities are very rare and nomadic communities are the norm, with constant conflict over transiently stable zones of habitability which might disappear in the next couple months. Cultures and biomes that have been isolated for centuries might suddenly be thrown into contact with each other at any time, with only the most adaptable surviving.

[Juicy Kisses]

What if plate tectonics wasn't a process requiring millions of years to see any significant change, but something as mutable and changeable as the weather? Mountains rise and fall over the course of decades, rivers change course or suddenly turn into lakes only to dry up completely from year to year, and a comfortable coastal peninsula today could suddenly break off into an island tomorrow and spend the next few decades shifting around at sea before plowing into another continent and becoming a mountain range. Cities are very rare and nomadic communities are the norm, with constant conflict over transiently stable zones of habitability which might disappear in the next couple months. Cultures and biomes that have been isolated for centuries might suddenly be thrown into contact with each other at any time, with only the most adaptable surviving.

That is an absolutely fascinating concept! I hadn't considered something like that before. I really like the consensus everyone seems to have on tal ing something mundane from the real world and adding a twist to it. That seems to create some very fascinating concepts such as this one.

[Max_Killjoy]

A setting with no ground at all:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Integral_Trees

[PhoenixPhyre]

I thought of one where magic is is wild, omnipresent and changes anything it touches--each element pulls things to be more like it. This prevents high tech from working (since tight tolerances are hard to maintain when your metal mutates and changes under you with a surge of magic). Humanoid races would all be descendants of terraformers who tried to tame the magic--they created an enclave where it was stable and useable. Other (non-human) humanoid races are those changed by elemental magic. Wide variety of tech levels (inversely related to the ambient magical levels, so more tech in the enclave and progressively less outside). Never got anywhere with it.

Probably not original, but...

[Newtonsolo313]

I thought of one where magic is is wild, omnipresent and changes anything it touches--each element pulls things to be more like it. This prevents high tech from working (since tight tolerances are hard to maintain when your metal mutates and changes under you with a surge of magic). Humanoid races would all be descendants of terraformers who tried to tame the magic--they created an enclave where it was stable and useable. Other (non-human) humanoid races are those changed by elemental magic. Wide variety of tech levels (inversely related to the ambient magical levels, so more tech in the enclave and progressively less outside). Never got anywhere with it.

Probably not original, but...

that’s actually an awesome setting idea but u don’t think that your realizing the full scope of it, even if the singular property of magic was making elements attract eachother you have a setting with one inhabitable area and as you move away from the center phenomenon like atmospheres of pure oxygen or nitrogen. but elementally pure resources like diamonds iron gold or other metals will become progressively more concentrated, additionally past a certain point the human body will start trying to sort itself into its component elements.
not the best world to play in but very fun to flesh out

[PhoenixPhyre]

that’s actually an awesome setting idea but u don’t think that your realizing the full scope of it, even if the singular property of magic was making elements attract eachother you have a setting with one inhabitable area and as you move away from the center phenomenon like atmospheres of pure oxygen or nitrogen. but elementally pure resources like diamonds iron gold or other metals will become progressively more concentrated, additionally past a certain point the human body will start trying to sort itself into its component elements.
not the best world to play in but very fun to flesh out

Yeah, that bold text is why I stopped working on it. Also couldn't find a good system to use, as it wouldn't fit any that I'm familiar with.

I figured there'd be two types of native inhabitants--those composed of pure elemental energy ("demons") and those composed of allied elemental matter (air + fire, fire + earth, etc, called "dragons"). Neither one would be very relatable. The terraformers used (now lost) technology to "temper" the magic so that it would be usable and safe; due to treason and infighting the system didn't get finished and so only one small region remains safe. Children born outside that safe area often get changed by the elemental magic. Go too deep into the wilds and you can't survive.

[DuctTapeKatar]

I have this idea for a world whose continent(s) are actually the body of a massive hawk god, pinned onto the world by a magical tree/arrow, which is where the magic of this world comes from. Even though it is basically a typical fantasy setting, the flair is added with how the magic has veen woven into the world and the politics of the people who try to tap into these ancient magics.

[Bohandas]

All planets are connected through a shared underworld

[brian 333]

The adventurers enter a building, be it inn, castle, or peasant hut, but are diverted to a strange manor house with a dining hall, parlor, and any number of bedchambers. The door, upon each opening, enters a strange new realm which can be any location in any reality.

Occasional companions met in the strange realms join the party of adventurers in the mansion while others stop in places they find suitable. In this mansion cowboys meet double agents who rub elbows with wizards. Any type of character from any setting can end up in the Manor.

And the house itself can change, from Gothic to Modern and every style of decor imaginable. There are only four constants:

Mrs. Geruda, a widowed 'duchess' who lives in a memory studded with lovers named Reginald and Parker and Lane, gentlemen whose gallantry is unmtched in the current generation. Her punctuality at mealtimes is legdndary.

Chef aka Donald Cook. He lives in a room off the kitchen and makes three meals a day for everyone currently in the house.

Olivia, a housekeeper who, more than anyone, is in charge of the Manor. She keeps the public spaces spotless, badgers others into cleaning their private spaces, and complains when others track mud and snow into the Manor.

Dr. Harcourt, an elderly gentleman Olivia treats with grave respect. He appears to know what lies outside the doors before they open, and from time to time it is suggested that he controls where and when the Manor pauses in the multiverse. At the very least he sometimes knows when the Manor will depart because he clearly warns travelers to be inside at a specific time.