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The random background generator is awesome. I got a NG dwarven magus who was involved in a "pleasure" scandal with some arcane experiment backfire as well. My imagination is running off with that.
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Thanks, Yora for asking better questions, and thanks for answering them. Final questions: is there the same general biomes in each country, and are the Urgals recognized as people? I should have a rough version together sometime next week, hopefully.
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
I wrote this, but my computer logged out of my account. So, I'll try again.
First, I'll cover the biomes by country, going north-south.
Vallheim: For this one, think pine forests, rocky soil and a forbidding coastline without much in the way of deepwater ports. If we go with something like the Hudson Bay existing, it should be scooted south a little ways, and should freeze solid enough on the northern parts to make it effectively a cold-water port. Fjords would be nice, but not nessecary. I imagine there's a good-sized polar current that comes by the coast and keeps the climate rather cool.
Soleh: I assume a gradual elevation drop around the border would make it reasonable for the pine forests to give way to open, slightly hilly plains. Maybe some deciduous patches here and there, along rivers and in gullies, but open enough to make Soleh's Cavalla the dominant military force. I imagine there being some wide, slow, lazy rivers passing through here, one making the northern border with the Vallheim, one with Soleh. Would also make river-based trade viable.
Sunshan: I feel like if we started a semidormant volcanic mountain range in the southwestern corner of this country and made it go east-southeast, that would add some interesting topography, and some stuff I'll mention in the next section. This one is really open to interpretation. Maybe enough water to make farming practical without too much irrigation, but having Samurai and Ninjas doesn't mean they need rice paddies. Have your own fun with this one.
Dotze Affariata: Well, if they're all marshy, we'll need water. So, we have the snowpack of the dormant volcanoes to the north to contribute, plus the delta of the Fogbound River to the west. If you decide that the Soleh rivers and the Fogbound Rivers should have the same source, maybe something like the Great Lakes but not, go for it. Also, having mountains along their northern border gives us about four benefits. One, it forces trade to be conducted along treacherous mountain passes or, more safely, take to the sea. These are the Dotze Affariata, remember. Secondly, it gives the Goliath raiders a secure-ish place to strike from. Thirdly, it makes a mass gnome-migration to escape slavery more difficult for the swamp-dwelling midgets. Fourthly, it provides a source of metals and stone for the cities, as well as providing water via the snowpack.
As for the Goliaths... Well, I have decided that their word for "Warrior" is "Urgal". Similar to the Scandanavians, who sent out guys who's job title was "Viking", they are generally known to humans as the name of the group they have contact with. As for their humanity, well, they're seen as a threat, someone that will rape yer cherches and bern yer wummin, and are more likely to be treated to pitchforks and torches than anything else. Human, though? Just enough to be dangerous. Not enough to make treaties with, or to respect their borders, lives or rules of war.
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Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Rough draft. I'd put an image up on the site, but... *ahem* I don't actually know how to.
The only part I really like are the islands to the north. Anything you want revised?
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Lessee.... That mountain range that make us the border between Sunshan and the Dotze Affariata? That could be a peninsula sinking into an archipelago.
Oh, and maybe something to identify what's water and what's not. It's not a big deal, and I can figure it out, but that would be nice.
If the Vallheim could stretch up farther, that would be great, I had vague visions of Giants in the last expanse of Canada. Maybe a land bridge between Vallheim and the landmass to the north?
Also, what is that little thing to the north? More land, I guess? Now that I think about it, there doesn't really need to be a land bridge, as long as the channel there is narrow enough to make it worth considering crossing.
Minor nitpick, but Urgals aren't limited to their own area. They're spread out across the western bits of all the nations, aside from Sunshan. But that's very minor.
It seems natural for the rivers leaving Soleh to form a small delta.
I like this a lot, it gets the shapes of everything about right. If I can find a true artist (not that you're not one, but you know what I mean), like someone from the Cartographer's Guild, would you mind letting me use this to make a nice artsy-fartsy tolkienesque version? This is great, but I have an affection for fancy, realistic looking maps.
Thanks again!
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Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Now I'm curious, what is the Cartographer's Guild thing?
I'll update and fix the map tomorrow. Anything I don't get done tomorrow, though, isn't getting done for a while because I'm going on winter break and I don't have AI at home.
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Sounds great. Right now I'm focusing on gameplay content, going through a bunch of PrC's that fit well, and I'm done with martial disciplines. If you have any experience with ToB I'd like a second set of eyes on those.
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Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Double post, but it's because of an epiphany.
For psionics?
To become psionic, a creature/person/whatever needs to be mentally touched or "turned on" by another psionic creature. This can be benevolent, like a wise old master opening his student's mind to its own powers, or it can be malevolent, like a person just barely surviving a Mind Thrust, and recovering to discover their own psionic powers.
This helps limit the amount of psionics floating around, but still allows the option for psionic PC's. They are each special snowflakes, after all.
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Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
This is my first time looking at this thread and I have to say it's quite interesting. And I saw you cleared the Kensei for your universe. I'm honored!
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Thanks, Eldest. And for the disciplines, it's not crucial, but I'd like to have someone else take a look at it before we go to final posting.
Also, TravelLog, I wouldn't clear a class just because we're in a game together. I have some pretty rigorous standards. But thank you, anyway. If you'd like to contribute in any way to this world, you're more than welcome.
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Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Incarnum will be present, with the totemist available as a base class. Soulborns and Incarnates really require an objective morality, which I'm not big on, so they're probably out. I'd be willing to allow their melds to be taken with those feats, forget what they're called, like martial study for incarnum.
As for content... Well, there's a map in the works, I'm laying down some PrC goodness, and I have a list of homebrew disciplines that got the green-light, much as your Kensei did, waiting to be double checked.
I'm also very willing to incorporate a section on creation myths, stories, legends and other whatevers from the various cultures. Which reminds me, I need to remember to put a section on culture and stories in with the political and military stuff for each country.
I'm also thinking about a race to fill the goblin-shaped hole in my world. Goliaths take over a role similar to orcs, but I don't have kobolds, goblins or anything else that works as the annoying, twerpy little mooks. I had a plan for this race of arboreal goblin things taken from the Shining South, but I don't really like them. I'm open to ideas on that one.
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Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
The disiples seem great. I want to try out the Thrashing Dragon one now (I'm the kind of guy who not only enjoys but would win a 'knife-fight in a phone-box' sort of thing. Or I would enjoy it, except for the blood, pain et. al.)
I suggest gnolls for the gobbo-hole. They are scary little dudes.
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
You might want to consider some of the fey races (which you mentioned in your Cosmology section), as malevolent mischief makers that gain power from mortal suffering and negative emotions. It could certainly give the world an interesting feel if nothing else.
Some other options are Duergar, Mongrelfolk, Skulks, Yuan-ti, Kua-toa, Troglodytes, or even Kenku.
Edit: I think it might also be beneficial to add some other playable races that act as minorities among the four nations, as otherwise the number of available races is fairly limited, and would result in some pigeonholing in terms of race-class dynamics.
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
I'm supporting the Kenku. Have them be corrupted spirits the First People used to worship, that wanted selfishly to stay behind when the First People withdrew behind the Mississippi-equivilant river. Their selfishness changed them, and now they just want to inflict pain.
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
That's actually great. Sorta mysterious, clearly evil, morally easy to exterminate. Perfect. They're in.
Also, the limited number of races is entirely deliberate. I'm tired of worlds with several dozen playable races, or worlds with huge nations built around each race. Four is plenty, I think.
Dwarves are woodsy, backwater hunters and small-plot farmers, but are culturally closely related to humans, to the point that there's little distinction beyond that of socioeconomic class.
Gnomes are enslaved in three of the four nations, and are considered to be full people with full rights in the Vallheim. They also are on good terms with the dwarves.
Humans are as diverse as every other race, and form the power structures of the four nations.
Goliaths have a society very different from the others, are are normally branded as savage. They send out bands of Urgal warriors to earn glory and cool stuff from the other tribes and from human and gnome settlements.
I really feel like adding more races would contribute more to pidgeon-holeing the existing races than it would help. With a limited number of races, two of which have serious RP drawbacks, everyone has room to expand, "like an ideal gas filling its container ". If we add more playable races, then each race will crowd down into smaller roles to make room for everyone else. If you think it would have a different effect, please let me know. Discussion is the foreplay of epiphanies. Or something .
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Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wyntonian
That's actually great. Sorta mysterious, clearly evil, morally easy to exterminate. Perfect. They're in.
Also, the limited number of races is entirely deliberate. I'm tired of worlds with several dozen playable races, or worlds with huge nations built around each race. Four is plenty, I think.
Dwarves are woodsy, backwater hunters and small-plot farmers, but are culturally closely related to humans, to the point that there's little distinction beyond that of socioeconomic class.
Gnomes are enslaved in three of the four nations, and are considered to be full people with full rights in the Vallheim. They also are on good terms with the dwarves.
Humans are as diverse as every other race, and form the power structures of the four nations.
Goliaths have a society very different from the others, are are normally branded as savage. They send out bands of Urgal warriors to earn glory and cool stuff from the other tribes and from human and gnome settlements.
I really feel like adding more races would contribute more to pidgeon-holeing the existing races than it would help. With a limited number of races, two of which have serious RP drawbacks, everyone has room to expand, "like an ideal gas filling its container ". If we add more playable races, then each race will crowd down into smaller roles to make room for everyone else. If you think it would have a different effect, please let me know. Discussion is the foreplay of epiphanies. Or something .
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Jolly good. I'll keep going on the PrC's once I get the virus off my home computer, which has the bookmarks for all of the good ones. Until then, I might get a start on the cultures, politics and other stuff for the individual nations.
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Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Ok... in light of my recent acquisition of computer-aids, I'll spend some time focusing on things that aren't in my bookmarks folder, namely some fluff and history. Byz, Eldest, everyone, what's your current opinion on the backstory for the world?
Short version is that the old empire comes in, short period of cultural assimilation, war breaks out, first people retreat across the river and throw up a wall of fog that no living person has since passed through and returned.
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Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Needs more cowbell!
I think you need a bit more clarification beforehand. Is the empire waxing, waning, or just staying the same? Did it break apart into the three or four different nations? Did it manage to take over everything short of the big river, or was it stopped by the goliaths (as an example)? And that was thirty seconds of questions on the one word 'empire'.
Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eldest
Needs more cowbell! I think you need a bit more clarification beforehand. Is the empire waxing, waning, or just staying the same? Did it break apart into the three or four different nations? Did it manage to take over everything short of the big river, or was it stopped by the goliaths (as an example)? And that was thirty seconds of questions on the one word 'empire'.
The force is strong with this one. To the heart of the issue he sees.
Honestly... I dunno. I'll be giving this some thought.
__________________
Guess who's good at avatars? Thormag. That's who.
A Campaign Setting more than a year in the making, Patria!
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Re: A complete N00bz first try at world-building...
". If we add more playable races, then each race will crowd down into smaller roles to make room for everyone else. If you think it would have a different effect, please let me know. Discussion is the foreplay of epiphanies. Or something 
