/tg/ - Traditional Games

>>172678

You can take a look at the Spirits from Werewolf: the Apocalypse.

Especially the Weaver Spirits, which are Spirits of patterns and forms. Ever wonder why every leaf from the same plant species looks the same? It's because of these guys. Ever wonder why all deer look the same? These guys. Without them keeping things in check, everything would fall apart and return to the primordial chaos.

And of course they're fucking insane and wanting to turn the world into a grey waste where no individuality or free will exists, and everything everywhere looks the fucking same.

>>172682

I already have a group of villains with a similar goal (Demons of Order), but the idea that there's some kind of natural spirit that goes into a fit of rage whenever some random animal has an oddity in the pattern or coloration of its fur sounds quite amusing. I think I'll pick that up

>>172683

The same guys are also closely associated with everything scientific, technological and dogmatic. If it's somehow categorizing the natural world and making things fall into place, they're all up for it. It makes their job that much easier.

Which means that they're the only nature spirits completely at home in cities, giant megacorps and factories. And why those possessed by them end up looking like freakish spider-human-cyborg hybrids capable of communicating via radiowaves. All those things are "natural", after all. Metal comes from nature, they just gave it a new form and function.

On a side note, the same guys appear in Exalted and are responsible for making the universe work like clockwork. And when an Exalt does something sufficiently insane and awesome (something that by no means should be possible), they'll let it happen - it's a break from their boring everyday routine maintaining reality, and they want to watch a guy punch undead Godzilla so hard that everyone in a seven mile radius gets radioactive burns.

>>172687

Unfortunately, the idea of bringing Order to the Chaotic universe already is the primary goal of the Demons of Order I've already mentioned.

Plus, I would prefer to keep the natural spirits with a slightly comical tone to them. They're not supposed to be the BBEGs; not for now, anyway.

>>172691

If you want to go for a bit comical, then keep the OCD guys who maintain things as they are (the DoOs want to bring their own version of Order to the universe, these guys just want to keep things from falling apart - they're the Status Quo guys) as overworked and utterly boring office drones.

So when they run into a deer with goat-like horns, they freak out and chaos ensues. Boring, monotone chaos where nothing gets done because of bureaucracy and them demanding everyone to fill out a form. Of course, they've no idea what a fucking antelope is.

>>172678

>Sylphs: Narcissism

Why would you attach this to creatures traditionally known to be invisible elementals of air? lel

Of course its your setting so you can do what you want but it just seems weird to me.

>>172692

I actually really like that idea. I can already see some cartoony pencil-pushers exploding into clouds of forms and papers. Thanks for the suggestion, Anon.

>>172695

I was aware that Sylphs were air spirits, but not that they were invisible. Guess some kind of avoidant personality disorder - cripplingly shy so that players risk getting a heart attack from all that moe.

>>172696

You can also have fun with their various titles. Imagine an ancient and powerful spirit whose title is "Senior Mouse Feet Countant". His job? Making sure every mouse in the world has four feet.

And he's desperate to try something else. But he can't, because he has to be an example for the Junior Mouse Feet Countants.

>>172727

It's the second most accurate prediction of robot future. The most accurate is just doing it as a sport, because governments don't have enough money to keep building/fixing robots, but megacorps do.

>>172727

Could imagine this in a system similar to Necromunda. Small, gang-based combat, robots gain "experience" (AI learning and analyzing new combat patterns), and more successful teams may or may not be allowed to utilize "special hardware".

That being said, I don't think the military background is strictly necessary for robo combat. Hell, we already have TV shows about this precise stuff.

>>172732

Not to mention the upcoming America vs. Japan robot fight, with the American guys not getting funded on Kickstarter to make their squad of fighting robots to fight in a stadium on national TV. The future of robots will be more like G Gundam than anything. Or, like, robot soccer Blood Bowl or something.

>>172727

Oh, hey! It's that one design from the We Shall Wake threads. That was being talked about earlier today. The dev said he was kind of interested in implementing that character.

Hrm… general fluff… okay. This might go a little wall texty, but here goes…

Most of my setting follows the idea that the world(s) our heroes live on goes through cycles, moving from mundane, to adding magic, and adding more magic, and finally worlds starting to clash together and fusing, then the fusing starts to break apart, entire cities vanish as they return to their original world, taking their population with them.

Two major games I actually managed to play out was a superhero game, where the high 'magic'(super powers and super technology) and the doors to other worlds are just starting to open up, and a medieval fantasy setting. Super heroes fighting a fairy army one day, and with reptilian nazi's in flying saucers waiting in the wings for two fisted action solutions.

The medieval setting is built around the idea that four worlds have solidly fused together, with a few others on the edges. Four major races, and the sub-races of those, were the player characters. Human, Jotun, Nilbog, and Fey.

Humans… not actually the jack of all trades here. Bonuses to endurance(I won't give the system here, we're talking fluff not crunch) which, unfortunately makes them the best slave race.

Jotun have various versions, ranging from the beautiful (and mostly human) Huldra to the stone skinned, big nosed, highly muscled, tusked and tailed Troll or the longer limbed Caliban. Obviously they get a bonus to their strength, and a penalty on their dexterity.

Nilbog are smaller, more vicious. The Hobgoblin(House or Royal Goblin) is mostly the same as the Huldra or some of your human nobility. Tengu, Kappa, and various other kinds of goblins round out the race. Bonus to dexterity, penalty to strength.

The Fey race has a baseline of what humans call the 'halfling'. Halflings are basically Humans/Huldra/Hobgoblins, but with a bonus to wisdom/magic. Due to eugenic efforts by the fey, they have figured out numerous ways to twist and warp their species, creating the(just recently freed) slave race known as the Dwarves(bonus to strength, penalty to dex, in addition to the wisdom bonus, made to fight Trolls), the magecratic ruling class of Elves. In addition the Elves have also spearheaded the project of "cursed" races, taking an their own species and warping and combining it with animals, though they were simply tapping a more natural event when people are born in certain highly charged leylines(turning them "Dire", Goblin populations becoming towns of orcs in a generation, humans growing to giants, etc).

Combining the features of an elf with a dragonfly or wasp, and you get a fairy(one of the players really wanted to play as one). This got picked up by all the other wizards, with trolls stone skin combined with bat wings to make gargoyles(again, playable character "class"… cursed races act as multiclassing as the character learns how to use their new body and the natural abilities that body gives them, like fairy learning how to fly, or merfolk learning water breathing).

Pockets of magic festered in the landscape, becoming sapient and starting to alter themselves, building themselves into dungeons and keeping functional traps and such. Sometimes these Keepers can be reasoned with, and only want people to live in the palaces they create, while others are just insane and heroes who delve into these dungeons(which may be attracting/creating monsters) have to find the crystalized magic heart and destroy it.

Mageocracy rules the land with Archons, trying to keep the peace between the four peoples(whom can not interbreed, there are no Half-Elves in this, though the cursed can breed, passing on their curse) who still have some cities that simply fused together when the worlds joined generations back, with such things as a formerly human mine now opening up into a dwarven or drow(dire elves) fortress, in addition to what appears to be a fifth world, trying to force it's way in. A world of demons and dragons…

Okay, that's not a lot of fluff, since I'm not even getting into the religions, but trying to avoid making the walltext worse…

Continuing and elaborating on an idea I posted originally in the Gnoll thread, this time focusing on the human Empire which dominates the continent and the races they come into contact with:

The Empire originated several hundred years prior to current day, with the arrival the founding families (working name is the Amatians), fleeing the destruction of their homeland by the sorcerous cultists of dark, ethereal gods. Since their arrival, the Amatians claimed to come from a land where their gods walked among them, blessing them, some even claiming descent from their deities. This is in stark contrast to the gods of other races, who are strange, cthonic, and nigh unknowable entities whom the worshipers of pry dark, secrets and blasphemous sorceries from. This is once more in direct contrast with the Amatians, who frequently produce divine effects by calling upon their gods. Upon arriving on the great northern continent, the Amatians (consisting of 10 families and slaves) immediately claimed the fertile coastal region, enslaving the local humans and beastmen alike, toppling the altars to their deities, and setting in motion a precedent that continues to the modern era.

The beginning of the empire was a simple town, with a look-out tower at it's heart. Eventually, this expanded to include a wall. Over a series of small wars with neighboring clans and tribes, the walls were damaged, destroyed, rebuilt, and moved as the city went to war, was attacked, and expanded, the city from a bird's eye view looking like a series of concentric rings. As the influence of the Amatians expanded, they began to claim and fight their neighbors, expanding outward to subjugate several neighboring regions which house intelligent non-humans.

At this point, there are roughly five levels of social class in the Almatian empire- slave, freedmen, freemen, knight, noble. Slaves are self-explanatory, and are often less people and more property. The Gnollish city-state trades in them more than any other client-state of the Empire. Freedmen are freed slaves, who are second class citizens at best, and are considered unclean by individuals of better standing. Freemen are men born free- the son of a Freedmen is a freeman. They have the capacity to rise higher as a knight, though it is rare. Knights are the lowest of the nobility, and are often driven to prove that they are worthy of their station, both to their lessers and their betters, and do so by participating in military campaigns and quests, returning with military spoils of war, in order to create renown for their knightly order, their family name, and themselves. As a result, theirs is an ethos of personal heroism and glory. The nobles are the ruling class, descendants of the ten founding families, with pure Amatian blood in their veins.

Their technology is reminiscent of late antiquity and the Middle Ages, with heated saltwater bathhouses in the coastal cities, where one can go to cleanse wounds, bathe socially, or finalize contracts, as the bathhouses are considered holy places, and thus legal neutral sites. Military wise, the scorpio and other weapons are popular for large battles, or defending forts, with small unit tactics being the norm. Chainmail jackets and leggings over quilted tunics are the standard armor, with plate armor having not been properly invented yet. Swords tend to be of early medieval level-

http://www.albion-swords.com/images/swords/albion/nextGen/sherriff/sherriff-1.jpg

http://www.albion-swords.com/images/swords/albion/nextGen/prince/prince-1.jpg

http://kultofathena.com/images/SH2404_4_l.jpg

With longswords (long bladed, generally two-handed swords) not being developed yet, same for large-two handed swords (zweihanders, scottish claymores, etc).

The races most common in the empire are those subjugated and absorbed by it, including kobolds (who often work as travelling scavenging traders, without a homeland to properly call their home, though they've been granted a small province by the Empire), Gnolls (who control a small slaving city-state), beastmen (savage tribals who, due to their generations of degenerate worship and arcane experimentation) have become equal parts man and beast, lizardmen who maintain control of a coastal delta and an archipelago just off shore.

>>175419

>>175976

TL/ Barely read

Also, what exactly are you looking for? Critique, suggestions ,or…?

>>175419

>>176631

Constructive Critique, suggestions for expansions(anyone know a good pantheon for Jotun/trolls to worship?), or just a pat on the head. Standard attention seeking behavior. Mostly just wanted to share a bit of fluff from the setting, but I didn't manage to get down into the details enough to really share anything interesting.

I've posted this before but here it is tl;dr :

>Humans colonize and terraform Mars and little tidbit colonies around the solar system

>due to some fuckup earth is still mostly uninhabitable (still working on that part)

>before the fuckup Mars had been a loose republic which gave way to a confederation which gave way to Balkanization with over three hundred different political entities, eventually warring with one another and civil wars becoming everywhere

>The start is two hundred years after the fuckup and the Planet had grown 7 different superpowers and a bunch of smaller nations

>space travel is pretty much non-existent mostly due to no one giving a fuck and the fact it would most likely get shot down

>technology has malnourished and while the principles gained are still there it has not advanced and most is very simplistic

>Pirates, Bandits and the like are everywhere so trading is very dangerous

>during the early wars the main cities got bombed to many times and are still a little radioactive, but still house a large number of bandits and is still abandoned

Thinking about making a homebrew using this as a template but never done a Homebrew before.

>>176877

>before the fuckup Mars had been a loose republic which gave way to a confederation which gave way to Balkanization with over three hundred different political entities, eventually warring with one another and civil wars becoming everywhere

I dearly hope at least one of the bandit factions intends to remove Marsian Kebab?

>>176631

Myself, I'm looking for feedback of any kind.

>>176923

Well there are Islamic factions, they overthrew European colonies and are a constant Pain in the dick for everyone to the point everyone just starts killing every Arab they find, the Geneva convention is dead so shit like that happens often

Heres the thing:

>Japs, Canadians, Australians, and Koreans assimilate into US colonies

>former Chinese Colony territory is small but lots of Manpower so they just throw men at you making them a somewhat formidable enemy

>Indian Colony is the second largest, constantly fighting defensive wars against The Arabs and the Chinese

>The Former US colonies split into three nations, Olympian league, Tharsis Republic, and the Aeolian commonwealth

>in the southern Plains that resemble Mongolia of earth there are some nomadic peoples that work independently of the governments albeit they are technically on a governments soil, there are also some Hunters on the great Northern cap who hunt Penguins and other sea creatures and sometimes come south to be Mercenaries for some of the factions.

Maybe I'll make a map, but I don't see the point given how I'm probably not going to be able to execute it.

I'm currently writing a huge campaign that takes place in one giant city in a world of my own devising, the environment on this continent is, broadly: "Book of the New Sun + The Gunslinger + Demons Souls". I'll be using a simplified and pared down Unknown Armies d100 system, as far as rules go, because that's what my group has played and it needs to be easy to play.

I don't really know what to ask here, the enormity of this task is just getting to me. I want it to be a campaign to remember. All the classes/professions/factions are my own, though of course the generic shit is in there (Soldier/Enchanter/Rogue/Gunslinger/Witch Hunter etc). Maybe I will post some of my written stuff or NPC data in a bit. I lurk often but almost never post.

>>177480

>>177479

Well, I can honestly say I read the entire thing and it sounds pretty solid. I don't know what else to really add, though. That's more creative than I could have been.

Do you have a more specific question?

>>172732

I'm thinking that the games are used for settling international disputes, maybe, instead of background proxy wars with thousands of robots as originally imagined.

Each country is unique, though it may not be even on Earth, so I can have Wacky Gimmick Squads like junkbros and suchlike.

>>177531

Sounds bitchin. I'd play it.

>>177566

Reminds me of Runed Age. But with less transmutation circles and more chanting.

>>177531

I now imagine large battleships that use orchestras instead of cannon batteries for naval combat. It's pretty bitching.

>>177566

Mages must be hoarse all the fucking time. Though this naturally explains the verbal component needed in most spells.

In my setting, magic more or less can be described as the mage wanting something to come true so hard that it simply happens. So, if you think of a fireball that springs from your hands and explodes in your enemy's face, you'll create one.

Apart from the ability to actually imagine a spell and the enormous amount of concentration you need to force your imagination into reality, you also need an energy source, which comes in the form of a substance called anima (essentially the discarded and shredded memories of the dead).

Anima is readily available in most parts of the world, but you can only channel so much of it at a time, and overdoing it gives you something similar to radiation sickness - a neat way to discourage apprentice wizards from casting very powerful spells, even though its technically possible.

>>177755

So what's /tg/'s tips for avoiding generic Tolkien rip-offs with standard issue "fantasy counterpart cultures?"

>>177798

The first step is to not have elves.

My setting is set in the 23rd century that is for the most part realistic but with some fantastical things like a group of scientists experimenting with dimensional travel where the side effects are dimensional holes being opened in time and space where creatures from various genres of fiction come out and either wreak havoc, or just be a nuisance.

>>177805

Sounds like RIFTS

>>177813

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? There is also social themes as well where cryogenics, and sometimes time displacement has allowed different generations of people's to live with one another causing cultural, and moral conflicts .

>>177813

Annon you forgot the Trademark clause, ooooh shit nigga you is gonna get sued!!!!!

>>177835

thanks very much anon

>>177835

>They must have had a fit when the platypus came waddling out of the water.

At least this would explain why evolution takes so fucking long. Crawling out of the sea is difficult when there's a flock of small but loudly coursing natural spirits swarming around you.

>>177803

No you just have to make them Christmas elves

>>176655

Make it an old schism of sorts. Both belonged to a same school in the distant past, but split over whether the material is more important (Commutation) or the spiritual (the untouchable, Sination).

Right now, both are using the same principles and in theory are about the same thing, but their practitioners would kill you on the spot for suggesting that. Commutation is more alchemical and scientific, while Sination is all about summoning the untouchable (by ripping it forcibly from the material - that energy has to come from somewhere).

So the Commutation guys are making charms that make their stuff durable, so that those filthy Sination guys don't steal their stuff. Meanwhile, the Sination guys consider the Commutation guys are fucking Jews and hording all that matter.

>>178647

I find it quite fascinating how the most malevolent and powerful creatures in your world are witches with control over the woods while the most benevolent and powerful human ones in one of my worlds are Forest Witches who, as the name implies, live in the forest and have control over it.

Pretty interesting stuff.

>>178704

What in the name of Christ is that webm?

Polite sage for being off topic.

I've got a game based around a bunch of adventurers exploring the interior of a completely unknown continent that's pretty much all the weirdest and deadliest parts of Australia, South America, Africa and Jurassic Park. Steaming jungle where you never know if you're going to be ambushed by velociraptors, fey, tribal catfolk with boomerangs and greatbows, kobolds riding dinosaurs, malfunctioning ancient constructs, Mi-Go, dragons or a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Could use some ideas for strange ancient ruins, keeping in mind that said ruins actually served a purpose once to their original builders.

>>178705

No clue. Probably part of some cheap Russian horror movie.

>>178707

Well, seeing how ruins have to consist of solid materials such as stone to stand the test of time, you'd probably find temples, castles and other fortifications, and cultural monuments.

On the other hand, maybe the ancient ones had large, apartment-style housing units, with many small chambers for ugly beasts to lurk in?

Also, if this is some kind of "Wild World" setting ,you better fucking incorporate a tribute to Steve Irwin.

>Now this jungle hulk right 'ere is really DAYN-gerous….

I've got something, but I havn't gotten the notes written up formally.

One is a race for a video game I'd make (since RPing it would be fucking hard), and the other is the bare bones of a story I plan to sell in a /tg/ game I'm making.

Anyone interested in either?

I'm getting started with a campaign I'm DMing that takes place in the Niagara Falls/Buffalo area, and it's filled to the brim with all sorts of native american myths and ghost stories and urban legends.

The main villain is a Storm God that has sort of become an embodiment of destructive winter. There's also undead gangbangers and a Mob of Leprechauns. And mutants at the Love Canal. And bogeymen.

Password is Anon

https://justpaste.it/_tg_Ranakh

>>179454

Shit son, tell us what you've got planed for them! (assuming they won't browse here or seek out spoilers)

>>179440

Shoot, nigga.

>>179458

Ah shit, people. I completely forgot I made that. There was a sudden flood of new things other anons came up with that didn't fit or didn't quite fit with the so far established lore. I told myself I would continue working on it and then I forgot ;_;

I am sorry, anons, I have failed you.

If anyone still has something from that thread then I will try adding it. ;_;

>>179461

Well, I'm going to have them probably work for the Leprechauns until that inevitably goes south, and they have Dullahan/Nuckleavee mercenaries. And an Oilliphiest (Irish Dragon.)

Before that they'll be hired for increasingly morally Grey jobs until they either get sick of doing their dirty work or the Leps just get sick of em.

The power gap means that the Demon of Fraud Pimp OG is gonna swoop in, only to be staring into a swarm of Rust Goblins dwelling in the old steel mills, led by an unusually charismatic and intelligent Ogre. They might get involved then.

The local Clergy (one of the few things holding the place together due to Bruce Almighty) will probably be thankful if they do.

However the Winter King's forces may be attempting to broker deals between the various local spirits, including the subterranean Odhows that keep shit in the underworld and overall are brolike, the surly and violent Gahongas who are like tiny Orcs, and the nature-loving Gandayah.

>>179542

I started the thread, ese. I formally relinquish control to you over the setting.

Make it great.

>>179454

The factions boil down to:

The Leprechaun Mafia

The East Side Undead (led by a Demon of Fraud)

The Steelborne (Goblins and other trash)

The Clergy

And there's also planned:

-A serial killer bogeyman urban legend guy called The Pigman

-Ghosts of those who died on/in the Erie Canal feverishly defending a forgotten treasure

-A necromancer who worked in back-alley abortions

-Some Cult working at the local High School

-An OLD, POWERFUL monster of vengeance from Pre-Colombian America

It's sort of my answer to Britbongsteros. Other planned cities include Erie (fucking weird even for this setting), Cleveland (Bards love this place), and Toledo (tons of ambient magic so it's a cesspool).

I can go into more detail if anyone cares.

>>178626

Sort of. Arcane magic is very much real but it's been lost by most of the peoples in the setting because they're more interested in technology and divine magic. The only races that practice arcane magic commonly are the elves and ogres. The ogres are fiercely territorial and care primarily about protecting their homelands and never lost an inch. They practice voodoo-like magic and create slaves from any hapless wanderers who disturb them, putting their zombies to work tending the farms that sustain them.

The elves are a more interesting case and better fit. Since they never age, elves are the only species with enough time to really dig in to magic and learn all there is to learn. They have masters over all types of magic, but favor nature magic particularly. Elves are fey, of course, and thus extensions and protectors of nature. Unfortunately for them, elves are forever stuck in the stone age. This is due to several factors: they spend their time on magic instead of tech, they find anything beyond simple crafting to be blasphemous, and no new elves have been born in millennia (so nobody has the creativity of youth any more). The lack of new elves is due to the lack of male elves with whom the females can reproduce.

Long ago, elves had very strict gender roles and he-elves were warriors. This meant far shorter lives (given the efficiency of the orcs who invaded with bronze-age weapons) and a rapidly dwindling male population. The skyrocketing gender ratio and dire stakes meant extreme evolutionary pressure in favor of powerful male warriors (which were already extremely attractive to she-elves) and strong breeding females. Ultimately, the female elves who ruled elven lands were too distracted by the hyper-macho males they were breeding (and breeding with) to notice the shrinking population until all the male elves were dead. Only then (and then, reluctantly) did they realize the she-elves would have to fight, and they did so using powerful magic.

So currently in the setting we have a large population of frustrated cave-dwelling she-elves living in a fraction of the land they used to own, who send out agents to shake up the "occupying" populations and plant trees to replace the ones the orcs burned down for farmland. They almost exclusively use magic. Among other things, they are performing a very long-term ritual to summon Tarasque so it will kill everyone on "their" land. Also Tarasque is the most macho being of them all, and most of the she-elves are desperately horny by now.

>http://pastebin.com/43GdWvrG

I was hoping to get some opinions on this setting I've been working on. I abandoned this awhile ago but I recently hit a brick wall in my creative mojo, so I decided to go back and look over my old project. Maybe you guys could make some comments so I can get the ball rolling.

>>179558

But I don't know what to do with it with it right now. Hmm. I'll think of something.

>>179646

Seems pretty generic to me, really. Good vs Evil, ancient progenitor race who made all the artifacts, etc.

>>179559

>Leprechaun Mafia

As in, an Irish Leprachaun Mafia, or a bunch of Leprachauns aping the Italian Mafia? I'd find both hilarious.

>>179687

In the setting, various races emerge from different places, but never replacing the indigenous people. So when people immigrated, various other races immigrated too.

Leprechauns - Ireland

Giants - Spain

Fae - Britain

Elves - France

Trolls (All Dead…?) - Scandinavia

Kobolds - Germany

Dwarves - Scandanavia

Orcs - Slavics

So on and so forth.

The Leprechaun Mob is essentially the irish mafia run by the diminutive elementals. Leprechauns have a distinctive communion with the Elemental Plane of Gold, and can summon quantities of it from nothing at all, temporarily. Their tricky nature combined with skill at manipulation of others allowed them to rise in black market trading until they controlled all of the city worth controlling, leaving Larcynil (Demon of Fraud) the scraps.

They have mercenaries in the form of Biker Dullahans, Nuckleavees, Fear Gortas (Spirits of Famine, adherents to the Horseman) and even basic mortal muscle.

They're also pretty damn silly.

>>179514

The plot for one of the campaigns in the game I'm developing would go something like this:

In an arabian/egypt expy, you had two factions fighting in a civil war (if I go for Egypt, I might make one of them Dwarves. "Great Builders" and all that). A little kid finds a lamp and out pops a genie. He asks the Genie for advice before making a wish on which leader of the two factions would be better as the king. The genie gives zero shits, and just keeps pointing out their bad sides. Eventually the kid says "I wish the one you think would be the best ruler would rule".

If he'd had said "the best one", through magic and divination the best person in all the world would have been teleported there, and through the threat of the genie's wrath, he'd rule. But he didn't. That little shit said "the one you think is best." And in a genies own mind, they are better than a god, why wouldn't he be able to rule over a kingdom?

So the Genie begins to gloat; since it's part of the wish the genie can use its nigh-godly magic to rule the kingdom, no wishes needed. Burning hail on the kingdom's enemies, or those who are preventing expansion. A plague on all those who even THINK about apposing the new king. Etc. The kid knows he fucked up, so he quickly makes his second wish.

"I wish you won't use magic in matters of the country". Now this pisses the genie right off. His hands are tied, so (while he can use magic to defend his master) he can only use his (still pretty impressive) strength and guile. This isn't too bad, but as a being of "phenomenal cosmic power", this nearly drives him fucking nuts.

Anyway, the genie rules over the kingdom pretty well, ends the war, and keeps the kid in a gilded cage. Now, the Genie's own plan starts to come to fruition (and the major goal that later campaigns culminate in). All genies were once free. Along with Dragons, Titans, Phoenixes, Thunderbirds, a few other things, and Gods, they were all fighting to be top dog. When the gods came to power, they punished the genies by locking them in various objects (which the humans later also made. Or maybe they based the design off the genie containers?) and gave them the wish-granting curse as ironic punishment for their arrogance. Thing is, there is a way to break it. Many genies have been working over thousands of years to find specific artifacts that will open the container of the most powerful genie; one who could not be controlled to grant wishes. That genie could also break the curse on all other genies. One of the artifacts are in the tombs of the ancient kings. So the genie tasks people with looting the tombs; he claims so they can rebury the bodies in a more glorious tomb. The people are pissed that the Genie Sultan is disturbing the bones of their old kings, but the town guard keeps them in line. This is the last straw for some, and a rebel sect is formed.

Meanwhile, your party gets drafted by the king of the main continent to look into it. The Genie is holding a "Feast for Heroes", basically asking the worlds greatest heroes to celebrate the new ruler, enjoy good food, spar, and share stories (with the ulterior motive of hiring/forcing them as guards or hunters to deal with the rebellion). Since even rumors of a genie is scary shit, you've been selected (fresh off a recent victory) to investigate. You get a warm welcome before the rebellion busts in, you find out the truth, and work on overthrowing the Genie, working out his plans, etc, etc.

Later campaigns would involve finding other genies (since the mythology on them is fascinating, with different kinds/elements that do different shit), and stopping them. I'm looking for if this unintentionally rips off something else, and if what I've done makes sense. For example, the kid can't be hurt by the Genie (added a bit that says if a Genie hurts their master, they feel the same pain ten-fold), but uses something else to stop the kid making the last wish (maybe locking the lamp far away from him).

Thoughts?

>>179687

I kinda based it off Greyhawk with a dash of Eberron and Dragonlance. I suppose generic is good when you run RPGs, not so much when you actually want to write a story.

>>179699

Wait, what happened to the Trolls?

>>179788

It isn't always good, dude.

Also, man all these dubs

>>179791

They were horribly cursed and most of them fucked off to The Infomatrix, essentially a magical internet.

>>179791

Do you have any suggestions to make my setting somewhat more interesting? Maybe adding more tech? Something? Anything?

>>179797

Sounds pretty good. You said your group is playing already, so I assume they're enjoying it.

Maybe do some digging into stories about the Irish mafia (power struggles, etc), and think of major events that could change the status quo (what would Fraud Demon have to do to overthrow the mafia).

Also, write out everything that COULDN'T happen. Sometimes, the answer will stare you in the face.

>>179797

Well, I like the way you did the Gods, along the lines of Morality Alignments and Classes.

I suggest you come up with individual regions and some weird-ass creatures to inhabit them, it always gets my brain going.

Also the Empryeans should have a heavy Eldritch Old Testament Angels vibe, off the name alone.

>>179803

That wasn't me asking dude, but yeah. The things that "can't happen" are generally wizardry bullshit like you'll see in some campaigns, and the players are only really at the Pigman anyways.

>>179804

That's basically what I was going for with the Empryeans with a little bit of the Vadhagh from the Corum books since I've just finished the trilogy. They were also kinda based off descriptions of the Atlanteans from Ancient Greece.

>>179803

>>179805

I'm thinking of having the Fraud Demon get the PCs to go after the Leps, by getting the Leps to attempt to liquidate the PCs, as a sort of Long Con.

Demons come in 12 Choirs.

Pride

Lust

Greed

Gluttony

Envy

Wrath

Sloth

Limbo

Heresy

Violence

Fraud

Treachery

Each worse than the others. For various horrid reasons.

>>179807

They sound pretty sick already.

I think your campaign setting sounds fine/fun? Have you thought of any BBEGs?

>>179811

My first idea for a villain was a Death Tyrant amassing an army in the Underdark, uniting the drow and the dueregar through false promises so he can conquer the surface world. Pretty basic stuff.

>>179813

That is pretty basic and easy stuff, I just suggest exploring how the Drow and Duregar Governments respond to the charismatic ingrate, give the guy a sort of Stalin-esque cult of personality, and see if you can present other Underdark factions that don't like them as potential "allies" for the PCs.

>>179819

I can make the deep gnomes and ilithids potential allies, maybe even other Beholders, seeing the Death Tyrant as a threat to their own power and influence. Maybe even throw in a lich for the daring and stupid.

>>179823

They all need…a twist to them. Give each faction some sort of quirky tweak from the norm perhaps, and let it roll from there. As they build, it should slowly make the story more "you".

Do you remember that shitty animay called GATE? I was thinking about making a campaign based on similar premise, but with several Earth countries invading fantasy world instead. Then I ran into a problem - I have no idea how to run interesting campaign in such setting. Earthling characters would just steamroll over everything, native characters would suck cock. Basically, such setting would be interesting for something global - political intrigue, proxy wars, stuff like that, but it is not interesting for adventurers.

Then I had another idea - what if I make a setting that is an aftermath of such invasion? Earthlings came, took over the mineral deposits and stuff, and gave blue jeans and other technological advancements to the natives. Setting will remain a regular fantasy world at core, with murderhobos, dungeons and dragons, but it will be heavily influenced by modern Earth:

- Weapons. Earthlings won't give firearms and bulletproof armor to locals, for obvious reasons, and they will be also suppressing local developments of firearms. Not that I don't like fantasy with guns, but I would rather prefer a setting where the guns were developed naturally. Nonetheless, stuff like compound bows and titanium blades will be sold to natives.

- Electricity. Batteries, various generators, large cities will also have relatively small power stations.

- Communication. Mostly radios, ranging from walkie-talkies for adventurers to large radio stations for communications between cities.

- Railroads. Russia mothballed plenty of steam locomotives, and China and India are still using theirs, so railways may be built on major trade routes.

- Medicine and agriculture. Not really interesting for adventurers, since they mostly use magical healing and sustain on iron rations and monster meat anyway.

- Magic. There will be less of magic in the setting. Not because of some gay explanation like "magic is leaving the world because of technology", but because Earthlings will poach wizards (so the magic will be, umm, literally leaving the world). Still, more ambitious mages will refuse job offers from Earthlings, so combat magic will be still widespread. But utility magic and most magic items will be replaced by Earth technology - flashlights instead of magic torches, fleshlights instead of succubi

- Fashion. Earth fashion will be copied by locals - they will either outright buy Earth clothing, or they will make copies of it from the local materials (silk tracksuits, heh). Armies will certainly copy Earth military uniforms.

- Culture. Exposure to Earth culture will be most likely limited to music - Earthlings are not going to share movies, literature and (god forbid) internet with locals, to prevent them from getting any ideas.

What else I am forgetting here? How to make setting more distinct without turning it into "Fantasy Middle East"?

>>179910

Well, it's already pretty much a third world country as far as the 'advanced' world is concerned. Read some colonial history and literature for ideas on how this kind of thing often turns out.

A bit late for 'developed naturally' when there's outsiders with guns running around- the natives who get any brains are going to want to get their hands on technology at every single opportunity. (It's likely that many major countries/rulers have signed one-sided treaties to not adopt gunpowder weaponry and other technologies the modern humans don't want to give away, in return for getting the benefits of other technology and trade exclusively)

In general, the black market is likely to be thriving, especially if Earth authorities are trying to suppress any potentially dangerous culture. Revolutionaries, missionaries and other sneaky buggers from Earth are likely to be sneaking in and disseminating literature of their particular religions and ideologies. (Whether divine magic is a thing is up to you and could have hilariously implications) While on the other hand, magical items and creatures, lore and genuine 'fantasy' culture are probably in massive demand back on Earth from many demographics, whether rich bastards wanting elf sex slaves or hippies who want to learn real nature magic.

Essentially, it'd be like the aftermath of an alien invasion, with the aliens only stopped from rolling over everything by MAD and politics back home making them at least put up a pretence of playing nice. Plenty of people would be plotting to take over one way or another, some sympathisers may want to weaken the Earth position so the other world has a chance, resistance fighters may want to drive the invaders back and/or sever the links between the worlds.

>>179910

Don't forget you don't have to use modern day earth.

Pathfinder did some shit where you were sent to Russia to kick Rasputins ass. I'm sure they have stats on how their guns work.

>>179784

That actually sounds pretty fun.

Another thing you could use is that the genies in general aren't capable of doing anything until a human wishes them to do so. They're perfectly okay with letting horrible shit happens if they know it'll goad their master into making a wish which they'll then turn around.

For example, your genie is aware that he's the best candidate for being the king, but he isn't able to immediately go out and kill everyone. Maybe there's some clause that says how a wish that targets other people must be done with those people's compliance. You can wish for gold, but you can't wish for someone else's gold. Or there's so many of his former enemies still around (talking about gods and stuff) that he can't move in the open. Or both.

So it's much better to let the kid rule for a while, and when he's delirious and almost insane from all the horror he's witnessed (and which the genie arranged) he'll beg the genie to make it all go away. Then he gets usurped, sent to the desert, and the genie becomes the new king.

You could even base an entire prequel campaign around the kid's rise to power, and the genie usurping it from him.

I'm looking for ideas for a fey forest that aren't tooth achingly generic.

Classic fantasy fey forest, with a bit of a shadows theme, so far I've got thta the trees are absurdly large in some areas, to the point of putting giant Redwoods to shame.

A thistle castle for the Fey master to stay in.

And an area kind of like the lake country of the UK, swampy lakes, babbling brooks and shit like that in amongst huge trees.

Any ideas for other set pieces I could put into the area, the PCs are probably going to have a long slog across it

>>180015

Carved stone structures laden with runes, treetop bridges over impenetrable black bogs, Caverns in massive trees carved by beetles

>>180015

Giant frogs that surprise the PCs by talking to them, and giving them wrong directions through the forest.

>>180015

skeletons embeded in the trees.

glowing fruits on the trees

Make them cannibalistic and let players see as they play one moment and th enext kill and eat each other.

>>180004

Thank you very much for the feedback!!

RE: Using wishes against people, the Genie certainly did that to the kid, goading him by saying both of the rebels are shit.

Really tempted to have it be the kid be the king as you say. Not sure how in 1 wish the kid can fuck everything up so bad he puts the Genie in charge (plus another wish is needed after that to nerf the Genie so he can't bypass the rules by convincing himself its an affair of state).

>>180015

An abandoned mansion over-run by nature now (giving some lore about the region and maybe upcoming quests if the players investigate), When in doubt, try something odd.

Like a statue of a crying woman, with no other sign there was a nearby settlement.

Or an empty clearing, and the bark on all the trees facing it have deep cuts in them.

>>180098

Well, you could have the kid be the king's bastard son. So while his cousins (or whatever) are tearing the country apart, he's given up hope that he'll ever be anything more than a courtier. And that's if he's lucky, and his cousins don't kill him.

So when he runs into the genie, his first wish is to make is for him to somehow end the war. Let someone who's qualified be the king. Keyword here: qualified. The genie recognizes the kid's royal blood, and decides "fuck it, I might as well fulfill his wish as well as torture my new master".

The kid then ends up having the genie as his adviser. He'll become the king, while the genie rules from the shadows (since it's much safer to do horrible shit from there, without risking the wrath of gods and other powerful critters that are out for genie blood). Since the kid is also accustomed to the intrigues of the court, he tells the genie that he's not allowed to use any of his tricks while he's in his service - mostly so he doesn't end up under his thrall. Keywords here: while he's in his service. You can guess what happens when the kid snaps.

And because the bastard king needs an army, the genie advises him to gather all sorts of refugees, dishonored nobles and others tired of the war under his banner. Maybe the genie teaches them how to do magic, or to summon monsters to fight for him. He tells them to rob the tombs of the old kings so they can have more magical weapons on their side. After all, he's not the one using magic, the others are doing it for him.

So when the kid finally ends up victorious, he's stuck there with an army of bloodthirsty monsters, angry demons and death knights. The former nobles became twisted reflections of their former selves, warped by the magic and the genie's words.

If the king doesn't want the war to resume, he'll have to start a new one. So he invades the neighboring kingdoms where he unleashes his demonic hordes to do horrible shit in his name.

>>180154

Shit, that sounds pretty good man!!

As I am planning to sell the story in a campaign, I might use some of your stuff, but not all (I don't want to be accused of "stealing" from 8chan), not to mention once I start testing the campaigns, certain ideas for the story might have to be dropped since I can't make a decent battle out of them.

Very good stuff though. Certainly more inclined to make the Kid the king now. I did have the idea of using a variation on a Djinn (a "light" based on from mythology. Seems to be a form of doppleganger who lives in another world.) where they are in a world where they have their own minds- but are forced to mimic everything their real world counterpart does. One of them breaks through and is the counterpart of the dead wife/daughter of another king. So then they manipulate the king who was driven half-mad in grief.

Kinda worried having the kid as king would make it too close to this. And "Genie Sultan forced to _not_ be a colossal asshole" builds a mystery for the players.

Lots of ideas I'm juggling now. Thanks again!!

Want to hear any of my other campaign ideas?

>>180154

>>180243

Also, you helped point out a plot-hole.

- Gods punished genies, yet would be happy for one to make machinations to unleash the Genie "king", even under a master.

The whole country would get Deus Ex Machina'd the fuck out off to avoid that.

Maybe having "Not-Agrabah now under new management: Big fucking Genie" is a bad idea.

>>180154

Somehow I'm picturing a lighter and softer sitcom version of this where a kid trying to be a responsible kid and a tsundere genie who starts out trying to fuck him around and is disdainful of humans but eventually warms up and tries to fix things, which of course only has even more hilarious consequences

>>180260

In a nicer world, maybe so.

I was considering making the genie a woman to take advantage of a pun name.

Djinn Ann-Tee (Gin and T), so then the kid (while he thinks the genie is doing good) calls her "Auntie".

The original aladin myth had two genies. One of the lamp (cruel, or maybe just asshole neutral) and one of a ring (kind, but much weaker). I could include a lesser genie to explain to the players what genies are and so on. A minority of genies being happy to serve humans with their powers instead of dominating. Is such a thing possible?

>>180243

If you want to tie in the genie with his master somehow, how's this. The genie can grant any wish to its master, but it has to do it in a way that its master is familiar with. So a fighter-master ends up with a genie unable to do his magic, but entirely capable of leveling entire cities with his pure strength. A mage-master ends up with a physically weaker genie, but the guy's capable of casting world-ending spells.

Which is why a bastard who only knows of backstabbing and courtly intrigue ends up with a genie that's an expert politician and tactician. The bastard-king will be able to get everyone to join him in his quest to retake the throne, but all of them will be looking for a way to backstabbing. The same reason is why his army is so keen on tomb raiding and other horrible stuff that's considered taboo - the genie is a backstabber with no ethics or regards for tradition (like his master) and he attracts the same kind of people to him.

Another thing you can mess around with is that the genie is under the gods' radar as long as he's tied to a master. The moment he's freed, everything supernatural in a giant radius becomes aware of him and wants him to themselves. Why? Because of the crap up above - if a mortal with limited knowledge can make the genie into a world-wrecking monster, imagine what a god could do with him.

So basically, the genies aren't that much beings of their own, but extensions of some universal law. They are magic elementals. However, like most magic, they need proper rituals to work - which in their case is having a master.

>Want to hear any of my other campaign ideas?

Of course.

>>180287

You can always make it so that the genie appears as what the person looking at him perceives as power. So the bastard sees his stepmother (so that "auntie" part can still work) while someone else sees a powerful general or whatever.

And if you go with the whole "genies are magic elementals" thing, then every magical item has its own genie locked inside of it. The stronger the item, the powerful the genie trapped inside of it - but since they're tied to it, they can't access their full power.

Maybe the players need to release some genie from their magic sword? They'll end up losing a powerful relic, but they'll end up having an even stronger ally on their side..You could tie that with the whole grave robbing thing - the players are sent to some ancient tomb to retrieve a powerful magical artifact before the bastard king's army does it, so they can release the genie from inside of it to help them.

Last night I came up with an idea for a setting which was based off loosely one of my character's back stories from a dead campaign.

The main thing with the setting is that war between kingdoms is outlawed and all disputes are settled by a one time battle fielding no more than 5000 soldiers of a kingdom or mercenary groups which ends when one general surrenders.

The cause of this is still pretty not defined. I had that there used to be an empire that united all the lands but when the Emperor died with no successor the land split apart with each noble making their own kingdom and fighting each other over land. The end of the war I originally thought of was that the war got so bloody that economy began to collapse all over as there was no people left to cultivate the fields and birth rate was at all time low because of all the men dying. I also thought it could otherwise be an outside force that made them realize they were bleeding each other dry and they wouldn't be able to stop an outside invasion if all their armies were dead.

As I just started crafting this setting last night I didn't do too much on thinking about races at the moment although I probably will allow pretty much all of them in the setting. Also I started thinking of religion and planar shit but really I want to focus on the defining history of the setting first before working on all the rest as that stuff right now is really side stuff I feel that will be best after I figure out what would make better sense why war was outlawed as that would effect the shaping of the world more.

>>180396

>outlawed

I don't believe that someone can outlaw a state from doing anything.

Anyway

You can use some greater force like a Church bans massive battles and will have excomunicate you nad have th epopulance rebell if you disobbey.

It could be similar to real world. We have 4-5 (or just 2 Cold war scenario) powerful nations. For some reason they will not wage an open war between themselves. They have tremnedous weapon that assures mutual distruction (Jinchuriku from Naruto could be a good example) , they have just came out of a last distructive war and don't want to repeat it.

SO instead they fight proxy wars in small countries. They sand small highly trained forces and can always say "we have nothing to do with it"

>>180396

Reminds me of some old mecha / space opera setting I was fucking around with.

Long ago, the 5 star systems fought incredibly devastating wars using mass-produced superweapons, space stations and so on. The casualties were immense - billions of people dead, entire worlds rendered uninhabitable deserts…

So when another war was looming on the horizon, one of the 5 warring star systems developed a fuckhuge giant mech. And decked it out in gold. And gave it a black-hole gun. And the damn thing stood its ground pretty well.

When the other star systems wondered what the fuck are they doing with a giant mech, the answer was something among the lines of:

>"We're so fucking rich and technologically advanced compared to you, we don't even need to fight you seriously. So we're sending ONE giant impractical weapons to kick your ass. Do not fuck with us, or you'll see what happens if we get serious."

It worked. Soon every star system started making their own giant mechs that they can use to show off how advanced and rich they are. All future wars would be decided in a duel between giant robots.

Several thousand years later (and the time when the game takes place), you have entire knightly orders, jousting tournaments and other feudal stuff happening on a cosmic scale, with giant mech-knights fighting it out.

>>180406

Well outlaw might have been the wrong word but there is a mutual agreement to not have large scale and prolonged confrontations due to the damage they do to everyone involved or fear that outside forces would use the war to take them out when the weakest.

For disobeying I was thinking generally you politically ruined by all other kingdoms, they gang up on kingdoms who disobey the agreement, and/or there is a secret organization that takes out any offending parties.

The battles themselves are very ceremonial and scene as part of the culture where many kingdoms will at least have one battle a year to showcase their army as a sign of strength to gain political points and deter people from trying to take advantage of it.

It is pretty much along the lines of how duels in Legend of the Five Rings are seen. The person who wins the battle is in the right over any dispute no matter if they are actually in the right or not. A lord with a powerful army or lots of money to buy well trained mercenaries can purposely make disputes to win land from other weaker kingdoms although being too battle crazed makes other kingdoms less willing to cooperate with such lords.

>>180499

Yeah sounds pretty much like a sci-fi version of my setting at the core. Although I believe the history I'm aiming for is a little different.

>>180499

Isn't that more or less Battletech? (with Warhammer's aesthetics)

Some 2000AD comics also have warfare something like that; with rules and referees, and ultimately limits on what you can do that try to minimise collateral damage.

>>172678

Making a not!Egypt setting.

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Ameth

Basicaly a peaciful society with undead living among the living.

Current problems:

I don't like a lot of things but I'm too afraid to throw all the work I have done away.

What do I do with a settign after I finish it?

How do I write intresting NPCs to populate my setting with?

>>180595

Have you read Blindsight? Also known as the first book of Firefall.

It has a great example of scary vampires.

All of them are sociopathic geniuses. They're far and away smarter than humans. Adding that to it could be quite interesting.

>>180595

All of the above. And look at ALL the vampire lore, old and new.

There's vampires, and then there's Vampires. Most are barely above zombies, bloodthirsty revenants running on little more than an instant to feed and memories of a past life they don't truly understand, and some more powerful ones have the skills and brains they had in life to be dangerous.

But the most powerful ones? They're practically immortal, and have survived centuries by being strong, smart, cunning and ruthless. They've had time to master martial and magical powers, as well as dark vampiric abilities, and to become true kings of nations, with thralls, soldiers and monsters backing them up. And some may be smart and aware enough to know that a healthy and a strong herd tastes better than just fearful peasants. Everything about taking on an evil king or lord, and then with lots of tricks to back it up.

That, and they're strange. There are habits and tics that vampires have a hard time avoiding, but also give them strength; they feed off death and their homes are as part of them as their dead flesh. They can escape at a moment's notice, become intangible, animal or invisible, and have powers even they may not know about til they need them.

Oh, and perhaps as a personal touch; they ARE vampires; they feed on others, and the effect changes both. Perhaps a vampire gains some of the strength and attributes of those it feeds on- including the PCs.

>>180632

>vampires that can feed on other vampires and gain power each time they feed

The vamps in my current setting work like this, taking a fragment of a being's soul whenever they kill by feeding. on their own, these fragments are negligible. the soul isnt even affected by it in a measurable way, and the vampire wont notice any changes until after hundreds of feedings. But these fragments eventually add up to the point where they make the vampire in question ridiculously powerful. Hell, the ruler of the Plane of shadow (or at least the surface of it) is a millenia old vampire, with literally millions of soul fragments making him powerful enough to take a few swipes at Pelor and survive the attempt.

>>177480

I really like this. I'm usually a hard lurker, but I wanted to let you know. Carry on.

>>181566

You could invent a new name on the side, but keep calling them Numidians.

Say how they have a god of war called Numid, and since they're following him, they're called Numidians by the people they're invading. They have an entirely different name for themselves.

>>181566

For me If I hear a name I don't subconscously assocaite with another race it is ok.

If you introduce a race called Russian I would object but if You introduce Barbers I wouldn't care.

So it is basicaly reduced to how much you want the histry fag to enjoy your game. And how deeply histircalfag he is.

Just change it to Namidians and be done.

>>181566

Take some Numidian stuff for the culture too, that would be neat.

Upper NiggerRealm in Fantasy is frequently ignored, aside from Egypt.

>>181566

Change it if you think it's going to be a problem or an annoyance. How much trouble could it really be to give them a different name?

>>181772

I've created a small pseudo-wiki of sorts to keep the lore of the setting consistent, so exchanging every word that reads "Numidian" or refers to the guys would be a bit of paperwork.

>>181723

Neat idea, but I barely know anything about the actual Numidians other than that they supposedly were good horsemen.

>>181853

Softly, over the trees…a voice. A whisper? Like an angel's kiss, this soft utterance slowly crosses time and space, settling softly in your ear canal to relay a message from beyond…

gooooooooooogllle itttttttt

>>181915

Seems okay to me.

>>181723

You're shitting me, Africa is filtered to Nigger Realm?

>>180243

OK, I got great feedback last time, and I'm thinking of posting my other campaign ideas. (Again, will be used in game I'm planning to sell).

Would you rather hear about having to stop the ferryman in the afterlife on strike, or the rampaging giant familiars with no masters?

>>182198

>whynotboth.png

Start with the first one, then.

>>182198

>>182416

Alrighty then.

Ferryman Plot "The serpent of the styx":

http://pastebin.com/676kSXSZ

Familiar Plot "Familiar Territory":

http://pastebin.com/WxMUVTgs

Any feedback is appreciated. Dunno how much I should make the setting's "rules" different from D&Ds or not. (I.e. should only Sorcerors get familiars, etc)

I've been working on a setting for an upcoming campaign I'll be co-DMing soon.

>magic was given to mortals by the gods

>magic is treated as a science and has evolved and changed over the millennia

>mages rule as kings and emperors

>industrial revolution fueled by magic as a sustainable and unlimited power source

>Dualistic faith, Eternal Light and Coming Dark (no Bahamut, Tiamat, or other faggy gods)

>Vampires and undead dwell in the Underdark in pseudo-Victorian cities

>Other planes (Shadowfell, Feywild, Elemental Planes) pretty much the same cuz why fix what ain't broken

I can go in to more detail but I'm tired and need to shower. I'll probably post more in the morning.

I might just as well ask this here since it's a similar issue:

I've been getting into polar exploration, and the expeditions of Shackleton and Franklin sparked my interest, respectively. So now I want to write a story about a polar expedition that gets stuck in pack ice near a weird, uninhabited island. Over the course of the next year, they are all driven mad by a malevolent force that may or may not be real.

Think of it as The Terror meets The Thing meets At the Mountains of Madness meets The Hunger Games.

Now, because I want to keep things as authentic as possible, I've started doing some research. So far, I've read up a bit on Inuit mythology, watched a couple of documentaries about Shackleton and Franklin and put the Kenneth Branagh movie, The Terror and a few other things on my list of stuff I have to read/watch.

My problem is; while this stuff is pretty good to give me a general overview, I need something more detailed, like, how people lived in the 1910s, how sailing worked back then, what kind of technology and equipment a polar expedition would use and so on. I have no fucking clue where I could obtain information like that, and I would appreciate some ideas.

>>182029

No

ErieFag here, I was looking at some of the shit the Iroquois came up with and man, they had some cool monsters.

Stonecoats were icy giants with skin made of flint. Foot soldiers for the storm god in my setting.

Dry Fingers was a ghost story boogeyman, a floating mummified arm that strangled you in your sleep or could curse at a touch.

The Naked Bear was an elephant sized bear that was invincible except for the bottom of its paws, where it's eyes were.

The Flying Head was a monster of vengeance, something like a beholder but undead and with two eyes. It flew around eating people in vengeance for a wrongdoing.

>>182695

The Snake in the Styx plot is a very nice idea of how to explain the sudden rise of Undead without having to rely on actual Necromancers.

Still, I actually like the Familar plot more because of how wacky it is. How about adding a mass revolt of familars if the PCs fuck up to badly?

>>182898

> How about adding a mass revolt of familars if the PCs fuck up to badly?

Hell, I might add that in anyway. Makes sense with the backstory of how it's gone from the majority of familiars being treated poorly to 50/50.

> We're gonna fight back being used and treat like shit!

> Lets do what this Giant Sentient Lich Badger says, prop him up as a leader, and hope he doesn't treat us like shit.

And you can guess how that'll go.

Hell, I was even thinking of giving the badger a Human Familiar. Cuz irony.

Does your setting have its own schools of magic, /tg/ ?

I'm currently trying to make up a system that makes some degree of sense, but now I've ended up with two particular disciplines that allow you to manipulate matter and energy, respectively.

Question is, does this divide actually make sense? For instance, if you take water, the first school could manipulate it so it turns into ice or steam, but the second school would also be able to achieve the same since the aggregate state of water depends on its temperature - the energy stored within.

>>183646

Makes sense to me, can you give more examples?

And by your current example, the matter school would be able to make super dense balls of water, shape water before freezing it into ornate statues, etc.

Energy would be purely changing it's state.

Matter School seems to be "you can do the hot Energy School stuff if you shake it really, really, hard." Am I mistaken?

>>183646

Check out how Ascension does magic.

All the magic schools (paradigms) have their own explanation how magic works - it's the will of the Divine One, the manipulation of the primal energies stored within everything, or just super-advanced quantum physics. And they can all do the same thing with their own paradigms.

So the trick isn't to say how magic can be strictly divided into certain schools, but to have different schools that manage to get the same results through different means. That way magic becomes a bit more philosophical, since every school is technically right, but so is every other one. Magic can't be broken down so easily into fine components.

>>183669

The idea is that transmuters (disciples of the matter school) manipulate matter in a solid, fluid, or gaseous state directly - their version of "Water Walking" would increase the density of the water under their feet as they walk across the ocean, or they could increase the weight of an opponents armor to crush him under it.

Meanwhile, sinates (disciples of the energy school) can only manipulate energy (i.e. light, heat, magnetic and kinetic forces, and gravity), but can not simply "rewrite" actual matter like the transmuters. To illustrate: A sinate could snuff out a campfire simply by thinking of the flames dizzling out. A transmuter would have to transform the wood or stone feeding it into something that doesn't burn.

The problem really boils down to areas where both overlap, and the question whether you actually can distinguish between matter and energy.

>>183671

I like that approach in that different approaches can produce identical results. That being said, the "working" of magic itself in my setting is rather simply - you need to believe in something so hard that you actually overwrite reality. It's harder than it sounds.

>>184064

>you need to believe in something so hard that you actually overwrite reality

Same thing in Ascension, actually.

If you don't believe hard enough, you can't do it. And if you're surrounded by disbelief (that is, countless other people who don't believe in magic) it's going to fail.

>>184074

So, in other words, the mages have to believe in that "Old God" "Primal Magic" or "Quantum Physics" stuff very hard so they can imagine the desired effect into reality? That'd more or less make it identical to the magic in my setting, save for one or two details.

>>184076

Basically, yes. But you also have to go that extra mile.

If you're playing a mad scientist mage, you're going to need to build your own laboratory and all the strange equipment in it (and it will only work if you or someone equally insane uses it). If you want to do Hermetic magic, you've got to study those runes and the names of fallen angels and shit, and then believe in what you're doing in them hard enough to make it overwrite the consensual belief of everyone around you.

In Ascension, reality is consensual - if enough people believe in something, magic will make it real. So your magic depends on you believing in the fact that your runes can protect you more than the other people believing that the car rushing towards you is going to flatten you. And when you challenge the consensus, reality bites back. Be it a giant electrical storm near you or getting rewritten out of existence. So all mages have to hide their sorcery from the masses by making them look like accidents, or using strange paraphernalia, or just stage tricks.

>>184089

Assuming that reality is consensual - is there a form of anti-mage whose belief in the ration laws of physics is so strong that he negates or weakens the magical power of actual mages?

>>184093

No, reality just ignores their existence until it eventually ups and shuts them into their own pocket world.

Nephandi used to be like that, but then WW just up and forgot about that lore from the Dark Ages.

>>184093

Kinda. There's the Technocracy.

Back in the Renaissance, a group of like-minded mages decided that they had enough of the other mages pulling off the Evil Sorcerer Overlord shtick and fucking around with common people. So they branded together, and used their own practices and magic to give the people something to fight back against the other mages.

They figured out how the Consensus does work, and decided to make a form of magic that's easily reusable, depends on logic and established law, and is perfectly natural. They used science as magic, and managed to beat back the other horrible mages. Everyone could learn their practices, everyone could figure out how to do it, and it didn't require you to be a wizard to do it.

Fast forward to the end of the 20th century, the Technocracy is in charge of banks, media, schools, industry, medicine and so on. And they've effectively won over the entire consensus - everyone believes in science and technology, nobody believes in the magical mumbo-jumbo that the other mages believe in.

Too bad they've also become an dystopian nightmare of a bureaucracy, that also managed to kill off the regular person's desire to explore, do research, have an adventure and so on

>>172678

My setting is something like RWBY meets Persona.

Basically, there's a group of people whose job is to go out there, find people who are about to open a literal door to their own personal hell, and fight their way through that hell in order to seal it off (and hopefully improve the life of the poor shmuck in the process).

These "Hunters" are taught at an academy, and have both modern tech and powerful magic. However, since the helldoors are essentially places of the mind, weapons are only as effective as you expect them to be–so more often than not, a Hunter will be using a sword or an axe or a baseball bat or whatever they're comfortable with, instead of a gun. Or, if they're more inclined to firearms, they'll use one of those. All weapons are only as powerful as their user's willpower is.

Further, magic is cast from one's "soulfire"–the essence of their willpower. Having lots of soulfire is sometimes described as having a fire burning where your heart is; you feel like there's magic in the world, and everything will turn out for the better. When you've used up your soulfire, however, the world feels cold, the magic gone, and hope is a cheap whore that took your money and left.

To better fight the shadows inside a helldoor, Hunters use "Spirit Armor", which–like their weapon–takes the form of something they are familiar with. Spirit Armor is basically just a physical manifestation of soulfire, and each Hunter's armor is unique to them. When Spirit Armor is struck, it drains power from your soulfire to protect you; when your Spirit Armor is broken, your soulfire is used up, and you're left with a crushing despair that usually ends up getting you killed. This is why Hunters hunt in groups.

>>184600

This sounds BLINDINGLY anime

>>184604

That's what I was going for.

>>184615

You hit the mark.

I'd watch it, provided it was one of the rare anime that didn't devolve into fandomy weaboo trash

>>184631

Not that guy, but I want storytime.

>>184631

Christ.

>>184631

Get players that aren't play-by-post tier.

>>184633

>>184636

>>184637

After I get home from work.

For now, just know that I never really expected this to happen when the twin sister's player said "Hey, we should do a magical girl thing". Maybe I should have. I mean, he did open with the twincest character, and I was like "why the fuck not", but things just keep getting crazier, particularly since we basically took these guys and dropped them in Planescape on top of everything else.

>>184637

Beat me to it. PbP forumshit and most online RP is a cancer.

I still want storytime though.

>>184659

I've had some good Skype RP games. Beyond that…eugh.

>>184659

>>184664

Okay, to start things off–the characters.

>Percival de Gracie

The male half of the terriffic twins, Percival is a scholar at heart. He's skilled with a blade, don't get me wrong–but he's skilled because he understands swordplay, not because of his muscles. Since his father died, he's been his sister's protector, as his mother was quick to retreat into stories, and their nanny wasn't exactly of the highest caliber. When their mother sold the family estate, he used his cut of the money to buy a house and continue the education of himself and his sister–as Hunters, just like their dad.

I play this character.

>Riley de Gracie

Riley's…weird. She didn't take dad's death well. On top of that, since the loss of her father, she's never really done anything but train for Hunts…and pester her brother. For whatever reason, she's been after her brother in a way that she really shouldn't, for quite a while now.

This character's played by the guy who helped me make most of this setting. Riley, Percival, and basically everything around them was his idea; I just tried to refine them.

>Hal von Eyros and Cayenne

Two NPCs I dreamed up to provide some more standard anime archetypes. Hal is something between Kamina and Bang Shishigami–a bombastic combatant with a penchant for over-the-top bravado…and a heart of gold. Cayenne, meanwhile, is a calm and intelligent woman whose preferred weapon is a rapier (with ice magic to match).

Cayenne once dated Percy, up until an unfortunate incident involving a large number of sex toys and some poorly-forged love letters. Now, she's dating Hal. They make an odd couple, but Hal has sworn that he'll repay her for the first smile she gave him.

That's everyone from me and RileyPlayer's setting. Like I said, we tossed them into Not-Planescape, and the other players used characters from their own settings.

>Vasnesh and Shudleng

Vasnesh is a spider who has learned some basic magic–including shapeshifting, which he uses to trick adventurers and flirt with women. Shudleng is a true shapeshifter, who has met Vasnesh and had her heart broken on numerous occasions. It doesn't help that, as a true shapeshifter, Shudleng is culturally obligated to kill Vasnesh for being a pale imitation of what she is. They don't come into the story at the same time, but they spend much of it being generally tense about various things.

>William

The leader of a resistance movement in a magitech world. He was fighting the final battle for freedom when he stumbled into the lovely little bar in the center of the multiverse that we all found ourselves in. While he prefers to stay out of all this nonsense, he does play a small role.

>>184799

Our tale begins with Riley sneaking into a hole-in-the-wall bar to have a drink.

Soon, she's joined by a mysterious fellow wearing robes that look almost like spiderwebs, and a hulking man with a cyborg arm. Vasnesh and William introduce themselves, and everyone has a few minutes to talk to each other. Riley alludes to a love that shouldn't be; Vasnesh reassures her…

…and then Percival walks in. He's rather concerned, given that his sister wandered off to a bar in the worst part of town without him. He quickly realizes that most people in his world do not have arm cannons, and do not turn into spiders for no apparent reason. From this, he concludes that this bar is not exactly normal.

Riley, having figured this out from graffiti in the bar's bathroom, simply ignores this in favor of drunkenly flirting with him.

>>184802

Percy is obviously nonplussed by this. With everyone else in this nearly-empty bar laughing at him, and his sister clinging to him, he tries to tell his sister off. He explains that whatever she feels for him, it won't work out.

She takes this to mean he does not love her. This is probably a contrived-as-fuck situation, but then again Riley is clearly not emotionally stable. She leaves, and quietly fumes for a little bit.

Percy apologizes to everyone, Will decides to take his leave for a while, and Percy then tries to reassure his sister.

This ends in his sister being so upset that she casts a teleport spell, ending up in another part of the bar. Have I mentioned yet that this bar extends so far in either direction that it disappears into the horizon? It's like a hall of mirrors, except filled with free booze.

But I digress. In her state of mind, Riley is vulnerable, scared, and just irrational enough to end up opening her very own door to Hell.

Percival, after a lot of calculation and a bit of dowsing, finds the place she teleported to, some time after she opens the Door. He's understandably panicked, and returns to where Vasnesh is, freaking out. Vas, being the upstanding trickster-spider he is, offers to come along with Percy on a quest to save Riley from her own damned self.

>>184804

It should be noted that most of this is only barely remembered and most of the original posts are lost to the treacherous claws of cyclical threads. If I get details wrong, slap me. Yes, Vasnesh, you've got permission. So do you, William. Slap the shit out of me if I screw this up.

So, Percy and Vas enter Riley's door.

In a skype message between me and Riley's player, he describes Riley's hell as "a crossover between a flesh palace and a German torture porno".

They travel up a long hill made of skin, enter a castle made of bone, and find a statue of Percival, with the head lopped off. Floaty skull demon things keep trying to hoist the head back onto the statue, only to be shot out of the sky by lances of fire coming from above. Since Riley's preferred element is fire, Percy makes the obvious connection that she (and the obligatory doppelganger–this is based partly on Persona, remember?) are upstairs.

They begin climbing.

>>184805

About a minute into the climb up the massive spiral staircase surrounding the statue, bolts of burning flame begin bashing apart the bone stairs.

Percy activates his Spirit Armor, which (by nature of being a weeaboo special form) grants him super-speed by default, while Vasnesh does the things that spiders normally do, namely climbing up the walls.

At the top, they find…Percy's doppelganger. Vasnesh skips the monologue in favor of webbing the shit outta that guy. Smart spider.

When Percy catches up, he mentions offhand that this must be his Hell too. Vas tells him to shut up and start heading back down, then rappels off a balcony, leaving a long rope of spider silk behind him.

Meanwhile, Riley's doppelganger starts firing those flamey bolt things upward, because she teleported down there just to screw Percy into meeting his evil double (that turned out real successful, didn't it?).

>>184807

With the air full of fireballs, Percy does a badass dive off the balcony that nobody cares about.

Vas confronts Riley's double, who has Riley chained to a pillar and stuck full of needles. German torture porn, remember? Once again, the evil twin thing gets the web-and-forget treatment before she can even properly evil monologue.

When Percy gets back down, he makes the mistake of trying to sweep his sister off her feet, and ends up dislodging a bunch of pins, which leaves her in unbelievable pain.

You had one job, Percy.

>>184808

Panicking, Percy uses magical telekinesis to remove the pins, then frantically tries to use healing spells to undo the damage.

This is one of those settings where healing magic inflicts all the pain that would've occured over the course of natural healing. Riley passes out.

On top of that, another unfortunate part of the lore comes back to bite them: if you spend too much time inside a door, something called the Cerberus starts chasing you. In this case, it was a straight-up wall of bodies, a la the early scenes of World War Z.

Vas spins up a sled, and starts dragging them out of there, because Percy refuses to focus on anything but fixing his fuckup with lots of healing magic.

>>184810

What follows is one hell of a chase scene, or at least I tried to make it one hell of a chase scene. Not sure how it turned out.

At the end, Riley was in a coma, Percy was in histerics, and Vas was rather unhappy with the situation and told Percy to never do something like that again.

It took a few days for Riley to wake up. As Percival rightly pointed out while waiting for her to wake up, sometimes the brain does not react well to being shut off in a forceful manner.

When Riley woke up, the linguistic centers of her brain decided to hit "snooze" and skip work.

>>184813

Percival, as you might've guessed, panics. Weird-ass relationships aside, his sister's rather important to him.

Vasnesh, on the other hand, points out that he knows a place.

One of the things about this bar is that the door technically leads to every single door that exists, and some that don't. The key bit is to think of the place you want to go to while you walk through. Percy, being well-versed in magical teachings, guesses this, and they make their way to a place in Vasnesh's homeland, known as Rothra–the City of Psions.

Thus begins the second chapter of the twincest heroes.

>>184815

William shows up, and decides to come along for this one.

Riley procures a notebook, and uses it to communicate with everyone else.

Percival tries to not panic so much.

Vas is probably sick of this shit at this point, but forges ahead–oh, and he's not really welcome around these parts, so they need to be real quiet as they enter this neck of the woods.

(Oh, by the way–since this was his world, I gave him the reins for this part. Experimental GMing is fun.)

The first obstacle is a forest.

A forest which just so happens to contain bears that have magic crystals embedded in their bodies.

Bears that have telepathy.

Fuck.

>>184817

The fight is short and brutal, and the only ones who get good rolls are Riley and William. Will zaps a few bears, and Riley starts punching holes in them. Shortly after the fight ends, she sits down, skins one of the bears, and makes a nice bear poncho for her bro. She even punched the head off of it, so she didn't have to make a hole for the head!

She's weird like that, yeah.

After the rest of the party recovers from the fight, they make camp. Vasnesh whispers to Percy that maybe if he lets her have just one night then she'll get over it.

And that's how Riley and Percy did it in a web-hammock.

Which collapsed right after they finished.

Dammit, Vasnesh.

>>184820

The next morning, everyone wakes up happy.

Except Percy.

See, Percy just realized something.

He didn't have a chance to put on a condom last night.

Vasnesh is quite helpful, and manages to find a fruit which acts as a Plan B–but Riley insists she took care of it with magic.

Meanwhile, Shudleng enters the bar, looking for a spider named Vasnesh. She explains her whole deal, mostly to a young lady named Cayenne. The bartender notes that a spider matching Vas's description recently left with a couple of humans that sound like the ones Cayenne is trying to find, and they both decide to head out and follow the band of weirdos.

Shortly after that, Hal bursts in, asks if anyone's seen Cayenne, is pointed in the right direction by the bartender, and storms out at full speed.

The party's really starting to come together now.

>>184824

Some two, maybe three hours travel later, Shudleng and Cayenne meet up with the rest of the gang, and there's a brief confrontation. After Shudleng and Vasnesh are separated, they all agree to keep their various appendages off of each other's throats…and then the police arrive.

Teleporting into formation around the party, dozens of psions appear, and demand that the party surrender or be dealt with via extraletha force. The party is quickly captured. At the least, they've got a safe passage to Rothra via psychic teleport, even if they're unconscious when it occurs.

Meanwhile, Hal just starts running in the general direction of the city, since that's clearly where any adventurer would be going at this point. It's the only major landmark in sight.

>>184825

An interrogation follows, which took far longer than it should've due to everyone's schedules getting hairy.

Long story short, the party is cleared for entry once they convince the police that what they did to the bears was purely self-defense and that they won't do the same to the locals.

Some time after the main party gets out onto the streets of Rothra, Hal knocks on the front gate and asks to be let in.

The psion who led the police group that captured the main party appears in front of him, sighs, rubs his temples, and asks that he not cause trouble.

>>184826

Will decides to hang out on top of the city and do overwatch.

Vas explains that the healers are in a specific part of this city, and starts leading the rest of the group toward the healer's quarter.

At the center of the city is a massive dome–and, as Vasnesh's player explains, it reflects the desires of whoever looks at it. Basically, it's a giant Mirror of Erised.

Cayenne looks at it, and sees Percy.

Riley looks at it, and sees Percy.

Percy looks at it, and sees his dead dad.

Hal looks at it, and sees himself as the star of various stories.

Shudleng comments that she sees Vasnesh, to try and calm Cayenne down, because Cayenne is rather upset that she's still attached to Percy after all this time. It doesn't work.

>>184829

There's a brief moment of confusion as Cayenne runs for the walls of the city.

Percy and Hal have a brief discussion in which they point out that Hunters are more likely to open their hellish doors, because they're under a hell of a lot of stress to start with and usually try to keep it hidden.

Vas and Hal go off to help Cayenne, while Shudleng uses her shapeshifting powers to look like an angry old lady, because that makes her lecturing that much more effective.

She explains to Percy that he's got a hell of a lot to fix right now, given the two women who both want his D, and that he needs to figure out how to fix this.

At this point, Hal enters, and fails a spot check.

"What's this? A robbery! Such deeds will not go unpunished, even if committed by little old ladies!"

Dammit, Hal.

>>184832

William takes this opportunity to zipline in and confront Hal.

Shudleng tries to defuse the situation, and Percy backs her up.

Introductions are made, situation is explained, and Shudleng (in an effort to try and make the inevitable breakup a little easier) tries to seduce Hal.

"I see what you're doing."

"If you wanted a threesome, you just had to ask. I'll have to see if Cayenne's okay with it first, though."

For fuck's sake, Hal.

>>184833

Shudleng then tells Percy to tell him about why they're here.

Percy thinks this means to tell him about Cayenne's confusing love life.

Shudleng meant for Percy to explain the whole thing with his sister being semi-mute.

For fuck's sake, Percy.

Following that, everyone gets back together, and they all make their way to the doc's office.

>>184834

The doc offers to help Riley in exchange for a look at Percy, Cayenne, and Hal's minds.

Everyone reluctantly agrees.

Riley is fixed up, and–by her request–has her memories of her hell erased.

Cayenne is reassured that her desires are legitimate, and that she won't hurt anyone by pursuing them.

Hal is mostly left alone, because somehow the guy who constantly acts like a Big Damn Hero is the one who's the least insane.

Percy is reminded that he doesn't have to pretend to be some knight in shining armor to help people, and that trying to shove all his heroic acts onto a mask that he wears is a recipe for disaster.

Everyone agrees that this is the best thing that's happened so far.

Then Percy spends some time by Riley's bedside. Thanks to a couple of unfortunate rolls, we're treated to the classic weeaboo cliche of falling over and ending up in a very embarrassing position. Poor Percy got a forehead applied directly to his nuts. The doc was rather unhappy with the scene she walked in on.

>>184837

Following that, the doc explained that they needed to stay for the night to make sure Riley's okay.

Shudleng suggests to Percy and Cayenne that they ask Riley how she'd feel about an open relationship, because she's sick of all this love-triangle bullshit.

Riley's reaction?

"Now we can share him! And Hal can join in too!"

They had a foursome in the doctor's office.

The doctor was pissed.

And that's how, over the course of one dungeon and a short quest, what was intended to be some kind of weird-ass love triangle turned into a weird-ass threesome.

This is what happens when I try to run an adventure in a freeform RP board.

>>184840

Correction: Weird-ass foursome. Hal got in on that action. His Everpresent Grin (tm) grew a couple inches that day.

>>184841

> For longer stories, please make liberal use of pastebin or similar sites to prevent walls of text

>>184799

Wait, I thought you were the DM?

>>185001

I'm the DM for the first half, and a player for the second.

It was a strange situation, 'cuz we wound up going to a setting that Vasnesh's player had created and/or knew more about than I did.

>>186790

For my setting I'd originally intended for a heavily logical/sciency type magic and was going to go with a "messing with the brain directly" kinda deal inspired somewhat by Peter Watts, but then later decided, "fuck it, there'll be magic schools that do certain themed things even if their underlying mechanics would suggest they should be grouped differently" and it's just an illusion, you ain't gotta explain shit.

>>186809

The worlds could be uneven in height. Say Salem is yards below not!Pompeii, but has a hill that reaches up to the next area. Liberally apply ropes to make things easier going one way.

>>186849

Depending on the mass and shape of the continents they would all be held together by their mutual gravity.

It would have to be very symmetric though , so you don't get a barry-center inside one of the continents

>>186993

Fairly. They mostly look Germanish.

>>186993

Was Levenstradt a typo? Should it be Levenstadt?

Dhurem fits Ldrun, Velarn, Ruge, and to a lesser extent Solen and Jeven well, but there's a grater difference than I would expect with Salehond, Mitterhond or Mulberg, considering lucrative trade on the Weissenmore. If this is a culture clash, then it seems odd that there isn't more cultural difference between the north and south of the country, with the bloody plain and culturally mixed white sea as natural barriers.

Considering the Germanic theme, I would be inclined to pronounce -more in Weissenmore as "mo-reh". You have a vowel doubling in Laar, so to have -more pronounced as the English, I would intuitively expect -moor. (Like -meer in German). Or you could change Laar to Lare.

Geographically the red plain seems a bit odd. Does it remain flat all the way to Mitterhond? If so, why don't the Lähre and Drahn flow through the plain instead? The Drahn manages to go 400km without meandering after being 100km of "plain" away from the sea.

>>187027

Thank you, the geographical feedback is most welcome since this is only a rough draft. I hadn't even considered some of the linguistic elements like the vowel doubling, so I'll definitely change that.

As for the plain, I'll probably have to remove that geographical feature since the position of the Lähre matters too much for the story I've been writing in this world. Perhaps just make the plain smaller and continue a range of small mountains from Velarn to Holdstadt.

The 'r' in levenstradt wasn't a typo, Brabais has a similar culture and language to Wergar but is still distinct.

>>192206

I've actually reworked the setting drastically since that post, and I do mean drastically. I've just been a way for a while in the course of doing so. It's funny that you bring this up now, because I already changed it to be based mostly around space travel. Well, to a certain limit. Here's what the revamped setting looks like in its current form:

>thousaaaands of yeeeeears into the futuuure

>humanity has advanced to the point that they have terraformed most planets and moons in the solar system, like practically everything except for Jupiter and Saturn although some planets still aren't very nice places to live

>for some reason, nobody has been able to figure out FTL travel yet and people are kinda worried

>overpopulation occurs on most habitable worlds and social decay starts creeping in

>war and exploitation is rampant between neighboring planets

>posthuman species are constantly at odds with one another, as well as the unchanged bioconservative humans

>just as everyone readies themselves for the boiling point of civil unrest, some asshole FINALLY figures out FTL

>it's some method of having huge gates in orbit between worlds and waiting for the alignment of all eight major planets to make use of spacial gravity science bullshit and catapult a fuckload of worldships to various other systems

>people think this is a horrible idea that could potentially kill everybody, but they're kinda out of options at this point

>they construct the big giant space rollercoaster, turn it on and LOL DEMONS

>every planetary body in the solar system gets transported to SPACE HELL, where there are no stars but lots of demons

>the sun is gone, but the planets are now orbiting the massive vivisected corpse of a god, surrounded by a spherical burning cage

>the corpse has its own demonic ecosystem as well as territories and hierarchies

>basically this is where everyone goes when they die and it sucks because LOL DEMONS

>the various demon lords send out their fleets to conquer the human worlds, killing most people and netting them a nice place in the hell they now know about

>with very few exceptions, every planet is conquered by a demon lord and they use humans as resources under the threat of eternal damnation

>gruff, masculine badasses say "fuck demons" and decide they're gonna kill all of them, because demons don't come back after they die

>roving human warbands of grizzled motherfuckers go around breaking shit

>they proclaim manifest destiny on hell and enact skirmishes to liberate damned souls

>demons think these guys are fucking terrifying and are intimidated by their massive human balls

There's some other stuff, but I'm still working on the finer details.

>Replace shotgun with axe, BFG-9000 with +9 artifact sword, super armor with full plate, Cyberdemon with dragon, and you will end up with D&D. That's pretty much how you run your games - players are mercenaries, and they explore all kinds of places - infested spaceships, underground laboratories, and so on.

But… that's not a roleplaying game. If it's being driven by a story with context and character input, it would be a roleplaying game. Obviously, Dungeon Crawls go together with RPGs like bread on butter, but the two are not mutually exclusive. You're talking about something more along the lines of Hero Quest. Actually, what you described kinda sounds like Necromunda or Space Crusade, but whatever.

>>172678

so… lesson #1: once an aut hor strays into freudshit, it will never get to the actual worldbuilding?

World building is for losers. Nobody uses imagination anymore. Someone else is there to take care of coming up with stuff for you.

Also,

>Implying /tg/ is capable of coming up with something remotely decent and workable

You know what's a better use of time than trying to imagine thing? Drinking until you pass out and calling your friends a bunch of loser normalfags.

>>194469

Just ignore him. He's been going around every thread on the front page and shitposting.

>>194469

Nothing is good anymore. Everything is shit. Tabletop lost its fun. Scratch that, ALL hobbies lost their fun. Life is getting either more hopeless or crazier. Just waiting for everything to burn down.

>>194471

Nihilist anon is that you? I thought you'd abandoned us.

>>180595

In my opinion Dark Ruler as you put it is the best way to go. The best way to go about it is not have him be revealed as a vampire, so they go in expecting some moping undead asshole with a shitty dentist, you hype them up beforehand, try to hide overt references to vampirsm at first, he's known for his great charisma and leadership, his followers LOVE him with slavish devotion, and other things.

The reveal that the individual in question is a vampire should definitely be an Oh Shit moment for the party, ESPECIALLY if you can corner the forward scout with him and they get Dominated or Level-Drained.

>>194609

I want the robots to interface with people's minds Pacific rim style but with only a single pilot. They still need manual joystick control, but the pilot gets direct feed back through the sensors. This leads to myths of people becoming the robot or losing parts of their personality to them. Some times unmanned robots will move on their own creeping people out or a pilot will step away from the machine and it will try to move with them.

There are no aliens involved, humanity never met any aliens, they just spread out. Things collapsed as resources were used up. People starved to death, light speed is impossible, so everyone is moving slowly through space and completely self contained. It's a lonely universe and when ships run into each other they are more likely to kill than work together.

What human groups do exist are struggling to feed the people they have and their food supply is slowly decaying as failed harvests can't be recovered. It's bleak and very few people are breeding, humanity has accepted it's fate and few are willing to bring a child into a dying universe.

I took influences from a couple of places including Starship troopers, Gundam, Mad Max and even Pokemon. I look at the world in forms of a different media and parts I like of them. So Pokemon for example is the shield types, if it was a game, finding parts and adapting your robot would be cool, so I wanted to build that into the universe. The rest is pretty obvious though.

>>194716

Boats and aircraft share a lot of terms and vocabulary; "pilot" just as much means a person who flies a plane as a person who drives a boat, for example, so don't be afraid to swap words as convenient. I think "boats in the sky" would be thought of as a simply natural evolution of "boats in the water."

You probably could just take "air" or "sky" as a prefix to any class of airship and it'd work fine. That's probably what people inventing such things could do, after all, depending on the technological evolution of the setting.

>>177480

>>177479

For the "mark" option, you could do it like HunterxHunter ID cards. Regulated by a governmental body, distributed only to capable persons in small numbers every year. Make it up to the player to protect the "mark" or risk losing their access to previously restricted areas and information. A lot can go along with that kind of system.

>>194716

Are you that one guy who posted on /lit/?

I'm in the early stages of working on a fantasy setting with a Napoleonic tech level, I'm mainly looking for feedback, suggestions, advice, or anything to look at for inspiration.

http://pastebin.com/Qah4utN6

>>180607

What don't you like about it specifically?

Play it.

Give examples of current NPC, if any.

>>194717

alright, makes sense. i was just hoping for something good to name them.

>>194722

yes

>>194739

Looks pretty good. I kind of like the ideas, there's nothing like shockingly amazing about them, but eh, it kept me reading.

I suggest appeasing to certain Archangels for certain things, with a symbolically appropriate sacrifice. Does it have to be a blood sacrifice? Can it just be sacrificing objects, or, rather, tribute?

Perhaps many worlds and steam-punk-esque space ships to travel between them? Dunno about escape velocity but maybe there's some way around that. Perhaps a tower to the upper atmosphere? Or a mountain? One of my old worlds had a 15-mile-high mountain that got close to the edge of the atmosphere.

Looks cool, I'd like to see more about the tech / lifestyle of people livnig there. Also what races there are. I like gunpowder fantasy settings over steampunk (as in, still steampunk, but the victorian-ness and edginess is toned down).

Anyway, good work. Some of your writing is kinda retarded (like using one and 1 in the same sentence) but that's really just nitpicking from a grammar nazi. Should say something that that was the biggest criticism I had.

>>194766

I'll add a note about that, it came up while brainstorming a while ago but I don't think anything went further than the idea. You can sacrifice objects or do a blood sacrifice, but sacrificing an object is generally weaker unless it's of great value to the person sacrificing it. Also what specifically did you mean by tribute?

I'd prefer it stay on one planet, space travel doesn't fit with what I had in mind. I do like the idea about mountains maybe touching the edge of the atmosphere though, maybe something to do with the Lovecraftian idea?

I'll work on expanding what I've written on tech and basic living conditions next. As for races I was thinking of only going with Humans although maybe some sort of mutant or sentient clockwork construct could work.

Sorry for the shitty writing, I know I'm pretty bad but I'm trying to get better.

I don't want to repost, so here's what I'm thinking of working on:

>>193967

>>193968

>>193969

>>193970

Do you think it makes sense to use the term "humanoid" when describing humanoid races in a setting where humans do not exist (or at least not under this name?).

So far I could make do with simply referring to such specimen as "Ain-like" (with the Ain being a dominant family of races that more or less look like humans save for the Neanderthal-Orcs and the Giant Jungle-Elves), but now I've got a couple of races that do look similar to Ain but don't actually belong to the group.

>>194903

I think using Ain-like would fit as long as they're a common and prominent race

>>194923

Diogenes was a troll before trolls were a thing

>>194766

>>194739

>>194770

This is kinda interdasting.

Any follow-up?

Disclaimer: I know nothing about Shadowrun beyond the name and the premise. My friend told me that this sounds like Shadowrun. Take that as you will.

Outline:

The 2012 phenomena was real.

On December 21st, 2012, magic re-surged. I've crunched the numbers for population statistics. 1 in 10 people are psychics, and 1 in 4 of those psychics could not handle the sudden appearance of their powers. So 8 million people essentially exploded, vaporizing everything within a 25 foot radius. This did massive damage across the US. Extremists, realizing what powers they now held, immediately attacked centers of government. Some folks chose to get revenge for old slights, while others chose to defend the public.

Continuity of Government quickly became a nightmare as confusion spread. Nobody really had a means of combating the powers of magic; bullets could kill psychics plenty fine, but they were still very dangerous. The US Intelligence Community had prepared for something but they didn't know what, and certainly not on this scale. The US military was able to hold its ground, and the fact that it was spread all over the world helped somewhat. In short, the FBI, CIA, and the US Military are basically the only Federal organizations left intact, and the civilian government is largely dead.

After a few months of anarchy, 1/4th of the US population is dead (most of whom died on December 21st). Most local communities secured peace and order, forming different organizations or local governments to maintain security. Negotiations between these small governments kept a substantial portion of infrastructure operating, though plenty was destroyed. Soon enough, these governments were quickly enveloped back into the umbrella of the United States by the military. However, thinly spread, the military and intelligence community could not keep their eyes everywhere. Between major cities, drones fly above the most used paths of travel; a deterrent against crime.

By 2014, most of the US is again secured and somewhat stable, though the police forces are exhausted of men, borders loosely guarded as attention is directed inward, and crime rates still high. Furthermore, old magic users who had put themselves into stasis hundreds of years ago are now awakening, and pledging themselves to various factions (or conspiring against them). With their knowledge, technology is beginning to develop at an extremely rapid pace.

So my question is this, Anons.

How do you think this would effect fashion?

Furthermore, how could I reasonably justify the disappearance of the line of succession? I've studied COGCON, and I can tell you that the US government has a lot of plans to make that very hard to do.

>>196413

>How do you think this would effect fashion?

As in, clothes fashion? Depends. I suppose all the pro-magic people would try to incorporate or at least mimic various flashy effects created by illusion and/or glamour spells, while the anti-magic people stay with the classical black & white of the pre-war business fashion.

Having clothes that are to flashy could see you accused of being a magi sympathizer - you could go full McCarthy with that one.

Of course, the breakdown of society proper would mean that luxury goods such as silk and the like would no longer be available, or only to astronomically high prizes.

>>196985

Yeah I started a thread asking about this but didn't realize it had garnered responses. Oops.

But the way I had it is that, during the commune stages much more clothes were home made, or black so stains and other shit wouldn't show, though there was a lot of variation within regions. Then as time went on and society became more reconnected, people kept some of the black as an almost gothic thing, while there was another fashion movement that was all about bright colors and showing off a bit of skin. The basic idea is that it was a reaction to and a form of escape from the drab and dreary vibes that came with the fall and reconstruction. In another sort of way it was celebrating the anarchy with a more individualistic take on fashion.

I'll definitely consider what you put forward though.

>>197047

For giant defense I would imagine large well fortified walls for cities topped with ballistae. Smaller towns might be partially underground or near a forest so people can hide when the raids happen. As for troops corps of archers to rain arrows to slow them and pikemen to fight them close up. Specialized troops could exist especially in nations wealthier and more magically inclined. I'm thinking transmutation wizards who could enlarge champions and shrink high priority targets, a dedicated ranger association who know how to use their size as an advantage or maybe monster tamers who breed critters designed to harry giants like manticores and wyverns. Dwarves could have tunnels in mountains near the peak to cause avalanches and elves might ally with dryads and treants to have the forest turn against invaders. It all depends on the terrain and resources of people near giants.

>>197047

Just admit you want to play Attack on Titan: The RPG

But seriously, I think anti-giant defenses could involve large bear-trap style traps and ambushes that are chiefly meant to immobilize the giant and/or to cripple it's legs. Fighting something that is notably taller and very likely notably faster than you when it starts running would be very difficult per se, not to speak of the range advantage a giant would have ever over troops that use pole weapons.

Forgive me if this should be a thread on it's own.

I am thinking about making a Barbarians of the aftermath session, mixing some western spoopyness from deadlands(also some lovecraft in there) retrofuturism(late 19th cebtury) and mad max. It would be set 200 after apocalypse with newborn states organizing and fighting each other. My doubts are:

>How much tech

>what killed the world

Any suggestion to make it less cringeworthy is accepted.

>>197514

Is there magic?

>>197531

Minimal, on supernatural grounds. Not far from Barbarians of Lemuria tbh

>>197538

Alright, when did the world end? Late 19th century, but the game is set two centuries afterwards?

Or is just the tech 19th century, while the apocalypse happened some other time?

>>197573

It would have ended in late 19th century but they would retain a certain level of tech, like Railroads (but firearms would be scarce.) Could change this according to suggestions, since the idea of being more developed and being set back to XIX is interesting too.

>>197636

If you want to go for the latter, maybe do something like Turn A Gundam. The world got hit with a grey goo apocalypse, and nanomachines basically ate everything that's even remotely advanced or electronic. Because of that, humanity went back to late 19th century tech, there's little to no electricity, and stuff like that. But when they do uncover some old tech that somehow survived the nano-apocalypse, it's usually lovecraftian or utterly insane (such as a machine that's capable of prolonging your life by placing you in statis, or said nanomachine swarm, or a computer that recorded all off history, including parallel timelines). You could use that instead of magic.

If you want for something more classical, maybe do something like the mix of Imaginos (the BOC album) and Lovecraft. Alien gods exist, but they're secretive motherfuckers who love to play cosmic chess with humanity for shit and giggles. Instead of openly announcing their presence, they create elaborate artifacts which are then hidden across the world in weird mazes, abandoned temples and so on (basically places that should not be, but because the aliens love to fuck with people, they are). Humans that stumble upon those artifacts see visions of things to come, and they usually end up insane. Or they gain immortality as they slowly become alien gods themselves. You could go for something like that - some rich industrialist stumbles upon an alien artifact that was worshiped by the Aztecs, and after spending some time with it, decides to change the future he foresaw. Cue him triggering Yellowstone off to prevent WWI. An ice age hits, humanity is fucked, and civilization crumbles.

Does anyone have some resources on realistic geography?

>>197682

Thanks anon, I will use these ideas,specially the grey goo one.

It all started out as a pretty standard fantasy world, borrowing from classic Warhammer Fantasy and Elder Scrolls. But then I had an alien ship crash in to the planet. Now there's power armor, lightning swords, airships, and other goodies. There's a technological arms race based around this "Star Tech" between two empires, there are orcs in Mad Max-style war rigs, hindis on raptors, and high adventure abound.

>>197761

What do you mean? Maps? Designing realistic geography?

For maps, you can basically use google earth, or if you want more detail, look up topographical maps of the desired area.

If you want to create accurate geography, just read some elementary or middle school sites geared towards geology. The fundamental processes are pretty simple, and once you understand how they occur, it's easy to envision those processes creating imaginary landscapes. If you're looking for oddly specific information, then I might be able to point you in the right direction, but I can't promise anything.

Current setting I'm running in.

Most other intelligent humanoids had to flee to the human world from their own after each of them had an apocalypse (usually involving the race somehow betraying their god).

The human world's gods where supplanted with a "new pantheon" 6 bard gods that are actually pseudo-litch elves with their musical instruments as phylacteries.

These "gods" have lost their bodies and require somone descended form elves to resurrect them, problem is, elves are long extinct, save for one family line of humans that in olden times vowed to never resurrect them (now a days they are unaware of their elven ancestry and the god's need of them).

Been thinking on picking up and fleshing out an old scifi setting I used to work on back on 4/tg/.

The basic idea is that it's the distant future, and humanity has long settled among the stars. So long that Earth is a myth, and human descendants split into 12 different races. There're no aliens, only 12 different kinds of humanity.

The thing was that each race was vaguely inspired by a zodiac sign. So, for example, you had the first star-men - the oldest race - who still travel the skies in their ancient colony ships, made ages before FTL travel was invented. Because of that, they became masters at robotics, star navigation and other ways to maintain their colony ships safe. They're expert miners and insanely devoted to their work, split into working castes. And they consider themselves superior to any other human race out there - after all, they're the first, they know better, and you should just let them do their thing. Even their poorest are royalty compared to you. These guys were Capricorns.

And so on. You had a race of humans who plugged themselves into computers, and could download various personalities for each task at hand (Gemini). Others were insanely devoted fighters but were obsessed with their own image (Leo). And so on.

My setting has a ton of gods (although the proper appellation for most would be demi-god) who don't particularly care about the surface world (having willing been exiled to the bottom of the oceans and deepest caverns of the underground). I've decided that most people probably worship the sun, moons, the planet, the three dead elder gods, or even the thing that put stars in the sky (all of which are not self-exiled). Or even all of them at once.

However, this leaves me in a bit of a bind from a mechanical and fluff perspective. Namely, as gods are very visible, their power known (and if you're a good enough spellcaster, you can telepathically contact most gods), I find it hard to figure out how to do alternative mainstream religions. That's not to say there aren't other religions, but it's the difference between worshiping 5 gods and 6; where people on the coast might also worship (in addition to the usual fare) an undersea god who helps them out with fishing once in a while. The best I've come up is differences in exactly how these gods are worshiped, but as anyone with enough arcane or divine power can, essentially, telephone a god and ask them their thoughts and opinions, I'm in a bit of a bind. Help?

There are also invading gods. But they're the closest anything in the setting gets to Lovecraftian Evil. And so they're a bit of an exception.

I've never actually played a pnp game before, but i find myself constantly creating massively complex settings with characters, factions, histories, etc. in my free time for fun, but never do anything with them.

I have two questions:

Is this normal and could it come handy?

I may just be mildly autistic

>>198844

I do the same. I've never played a pnp game despite browsing /tg/ for years. I was a 40k nerd, but I only played briefly due to the prices. 1d4chan's entertaining approach to the material got me even more hooked on the lore, and from there I went to /tg/.

Reading from the story threads, the GM threads, and seeing the different discussions on character/world building helped my writing immensely.

Having discovered nothing I supremely desire to do with my life, and being supremely autistic about storytelling, I decided to be a storyteller. I will write comics.

So to answer your questions.

1. I don't know if it's normal, but it can sure as hell come in handy if you know where to apply it.

2. I sure as hell know I am, so you probably are too.

>>198844

I do the same. I've never played a pnp game despite browsing /tg/ for years. I was a 40k nerd, but I only played briefly due to the prices. 1d4chan's entertaining approach to the material got me even more hooked on the lore, and from there I went to /tg/.

Reading from the story threads, the GM threads, and seeing the different discussions on character/world building helped my writing immensely.

Having discovered nothing I supremely desire to do with my life, and being supremely autistic about storytelling, I decided to be a storyteller. I will write comics.

So to answer your questions.

1. I don't know if it's normal, but it can sure as hell come in handy if you know where to apply it.

2. I sure as hell know I am, so you probably are too.

>>198844

1. Possibly.

2. Possibly.

>>198844

I dare to say half the Worldbuilding thread suffers from this issue. A cynic may say its all just attentionwhores begging for a bit of public recognition for their writing, while an idealist would say there's a crowd of writers in the making.

>>199764

Current setting? Kinda.

There's only one god that's outright active, the others are doing the "moving in mysterious ways" shtick where they do wonders through their clerics, but only low-level stuff (such as curing a disease, healing wounds and such). Most of their spells are subtle things, so nobody really sees the clerics casting fireballs or doing miracles.

So when the old Sun God came back, and his clerics started doing outright magical shit such as coming back from the dead as undead on fire, people started losing their shit and converting en masse to the old ways in hopes of appeasing the guy that's obviously out there. The other gods had to go full Inquisition, ordering their churches to hunt down heretics so the Sun God's ascent to his true power is slowed down.

This talk of gods got me thinking of some old game I wanted to try out.

The basic idea is that every player gets two characters: one which is a god/eldritch horror/demon lord/whatever, and the other which is that entity's avatar. The avatar is the default player character, and starts out as normal human but with some weird knowledge. The other character (the cosmic entity) can do magic through its avatar, but only if the conditions are right. If every condition is met, the avatar character retires and the cosmic entity enters the game (and essentially that player wins).

As said, for the cosmic entity to be able to enter the game you have to meet certain requirements. Some are really simple, such as drawing occult runes on the walls (which let you scry through them). Then they start ranking up, such as weekly killings, starting your own cult, owning your own corporation, shifting an entire religion, or taking over the world. Each condition is somehow related to the cosmic entity you're also playing as - so the God of Space can get the power of prescience if his avatar (or someone elses) invents the internet (everything becomes so close). Or he can control people who have emotionally distanced themselves from others (so /a/utists). And so on.

The players start out helping each other as parts of the same cabal of avatars, but as the game grows stronger, it slowly shifts into an all out war between them for territory, power and control. In the end, only one gets to control everything.

>>201788

Well, the Nazis were (supposedly) looking for Atlantis.

Maybe your crew found it? And it's actually R'lyeth or some other Lovecraftian city?

Alternatively, it appears to be a utopia on the surface, but it's governed by Dagon.

>>201822

But what ends up killing the crew and how?

>>201833

What's the name of that old movie, where a submarine crew finds an alien artifact that gives them psychic powers? And they end up a paranoid mess because everyone can at random read your mind, or summon the images of your loved ones? The Sphere or something?

You could go with something like that. The artifact that even the Atlanteans worshiped and feared ends up destroying the crew. And the artifact is actually an old one, but dormant.

You could combine it with the Virus, another movie set on the sea. An alien virus (that's somehow energy-based in nature) ends up overtaking their machines, forcing them to turn against them and killing them in messy ways. Then it starts reanimating them as cyborgs, and then shit gets even worse as the cyborgs start combining.

>>201837

> the Virus

>the sphere

Thanks m8, that will be enough inspiration for the story.

Patching together a space opera/fantasy setting for HERO system.

Long story short, magic came back, but brought demons with it. Long series of losses and a few betrayals, and humans lost Earth, and now live among the other races as gypsies.

>>201873

>inb4 Warhammer 40k

>>202005

More like Outlaw Star with higher magic.

So far, I've got a rough magic system, and three races: cat people, space elves, and a fungal race. Planning on amphibian and insect races, just need to write up their fluff. Stat packages for the races are done.

Cat people are at war with the elves because the cats are aggressive expansionists and elves have a lot of planets. Cats are granting lots of refugee sanctums to the humans because they want to get humans under their thumb. Everyone else treats humans like contagious plague victims, half afraid humans will summon up demons on ANOTHER planet.

Demons have cludged together a space navy and taken much of the Sol System. Human colonies on Alpha Centauri have been in pitched battles with demonic pirate vessals launched from Earth.

I had this idea a while ago to add a race to a setting I'm working on that has more than two biological sexes, both because I though it was interesting and because I hadn't heard of something like it before.

But a natural result of having to design a species sexes is that you have to detail their sex organs, sexual functions, primary and secondary sex characteristics, and sex related behavioral patterns. As a result, I'm worried that if I ever actually brought this race to a campaign, my players would think that my magical realm is in their somewhere. Obviously the first way to avoid this is to only provide the necessary information at any given time, but even giving an overview of the race, or describing how a players character of that race might look requires specifically describing some secondary sex characteristics that could be misconstrued.

Do you think this is real enough of a concern to scrap the idea?

>>202529

>more than two sexes

How would that even work?

>>202529

As an option? It's ok. Push it to the foreground, make it a vital part of the game and you're risking a bunch of critical stares.

For the record, there were settings featuring aliens with more than two sexes and a few CP games (Eclipse Phase IIRC) allow sexless/sex enhanced PCs.

>>202547

From the hat: one fucks, one gets impregnated and lays an egg, one carries egg with him in a kangaroo-like sack until it hatches.

>>202549

I had thought of something similar to that, but with some Asari from Mass Effect thrown into the mix.

The "males" are responsible for impregnating other species, so their offspring can assimilate the best genes from both sides. The impregnated victim then gives birth to a larva, which the "female" of the race nurtures inside of her "womb" until it grows into a fully matured member of the species. Then there's the "neuter" sex, which are basically drones and warriors of the species and are technically without any sexual characteristics.

>>202547

Specifically, in this 'females' have ovipositors, "cumales" are impregnated by males and females (at the same time) and randomly add sooner if their own dna throughout each fertilized zygote for added genetic diversity. Finally, "amales" (there are 4 genders total) have no reproductive organs in and of themselves, and instead are biological nannies and wet nurses (by which I mean they are the only gender with mammary glands).

>>202564

That sounds really magical realm, anon, honestly.

>>202623

It's the ovipositor, isn't it?

>>202701

That and the wet nurses, honestly.

>>202716

What if I change how I frame it to "males, basically males except with eggs instead of sperm, gets pregnant, and raises children"? Maybe use classical definitions of male and female (create life inside others / create life inside yourself) and say that there are male-a, male-b, female, and amale? Also not specifically refer to amales as wet nurses.

>>202768

Just do Seahorse People and be done with it.

>>202922

Sea horses only have two sexes , that defeats the entire purpose.

Cult of Ascension

A cult of transhumanists who live upon and within a mountain, siphoning geothermal energy from the dormant magma. Following a hybridization of traditional Asiatic arts such as bushido, shaolin, and zen buddhism, the followers of the cult train their entire lives to perfect their minds and bodies. When they finally reach their supposed perfection and enlightenment, they are recalled deep into the mountain's secret chambers. There they undergo surgery to remove their brain and place it into an external life support system. While their body is cremated and used as fertilizer for the monastery garden, their brain is set to undergo extreme trials of the senses and perception. Without complete and utter dominance over their willpower, the subjects would immediately die. After three days of constant sensory barrage, known as the 72 Hours of Hell, the trials are ended and the brain is installed into a highly advanced cybernetic body. This body is heavily armed and armored, and the ascended are used as specialist operatives in defending the mountain and its residents. Upon final death, the cybernetic body is posed in a meditative stance and set upon the top of the wall surrounding the mountain territory. The cult is extremely defensive of the cybernetic bodies of fallen soldiers, conducting brutal scorched earth campaigns against those who dare to defile their soldiers' bodies through theft or destruction.

Now all I need to do is come up with everything else in the setting

I'm building a Pathfinder setting, and wanted to do my own take on the cosmology of the setting and the place of Outsiders in it.

A Prime Material Plane must always exist, it's basically the hurricane formed at the point where the Positive Energy, Negative Energy, and Elemental planes convene. Prime Material Planes have a lifespan though, and after untold eons it will die. When it dies, it dies a bit like a star going supernova. It shatters, throwing shards off among the deep Astral plane, and those shards eventually grow into outer planes of their own.

As for Outsiders, the denizens of those far planes? They are the survivors / descendants of survivors from long-dead Prime Material planes.

Demons and Devils and the like seek to conquer the current Prime Material plane, and they have succeeded in some previous cycles. Angels and angelic Outsiders try to defend the (to them) childlike races of the Prime Material from Outsiders who would seek to do it harm or to profiteer from it.

Thoughts?

>>195066

That picture gives me a fucking heart attack. Jesus.

>>203085

Seems pretty solid to me, although I think the goody-two-shoes should have a better reason for protecting the prime worlder than "so kawaii!"

Alternatively, make "so kawaii!" the prime reason

>>203214

Oh, it has nothing to do with the Prime Material being kawaii, they're protecting it in the same way that an adult would protect a child from someone who wanted to do them harm. They see the inhabitants of the Prime Material as being in a still very infantile stage of development, and Demons and Devils and the like as trying to take advantage of that.

As survivors of some forgotten Prime Material plane themselves, the Angelic types are of the view that Outsiders had their time on their own Prime Material plane, and this Prime Material belongs to those native to it.

Sending my BoL players to a city where the king sells it to the underworld. I am not sure how to make them leave there, or if I give them the option to overthrow the king and rule it(from down below). I may clarify more of the plot if needed. Suggestions?

>>203369

It's difficult to tell what you mean by your post. So I need to make some guesses.

If by leave you mean "escape the city and underworld," have them figure out they can leave the same way the dead enter; in a coffin.

Not by dying (that would make them permanent residents), but they need to go to the graveyard just outside the city and enact a ritual, which will cause them to swap places with corpses located in the graveyard in the physical world located just outside where the city was.

They then need to pull a Kill Bill and escape from their coffin or shallow grave or whatever. If they fail to escape once they return to the physical world, they wake up back in the city; because they fucking died.

If they need motivation to escape the city, now located in the underworld, have them slowly turn into undead (with the implication they'll be stuck in the bleak and grey underworld forever).

If I have it wrong and the city ISN'T in the underworld; the threat of them being stuck there should be enough.

>>203371

>>>203371

>They would basically be in another dimension (when they return to the normal world, they would find the city they were in ruins. I am certanly taking the idea that they are turning undead, it will fit, aswell as the ritual part. Thank you anon.

>>203382

Accidental gt since 8chan server is not Hue friendly

>>203382

What you're doing sounds like the Conquest of Elysium 4 necromancer spell 'Planar Swap'; except on a grand scale.

In CoE4, the underworld and real world are mirror images geographically and in terms of places of power (citadels, libraries, cities, etc.) as well as having settlements of its own.

The spell swaps all the creatures in an area between the underworld and real world. So if you cast it in a city, you swap all your soldiers, the necromancer who cast the spell, etc. with the ghosts/ghouls/incorporeal undead occupying the underworld's idea of the city. So they're where you were, and you're where they were. Pretty neat.

I hope this also gives some inspiration.

>>203410

>Conquest of Elysium

that is mostly what I thought, and I hadn't heard about CoE. Bretty noice, the only thing I would change is that the ghouls stay in the underworld, just now have a way out, and the original city will look like ruins.

>>203350

Sure thing, nigga.

>>203458

Well, I'm interested to hear how it turns out. Please report back later.

>>204126

also a key thing, no paranormal stuff in the world, peoples beliefs are just beliefs.

Also, the dominant religion on the continent is reincarnation based on your standing in life. the more you materially succeeded in life the better you will start off in the next one, meaning the rich get the best out of the religion while the poor get the worst. Reincarnation is not affected by you being good or evil just how well off you are, meaning the world has very little morals.

>>202127

That's Warcraft.

>>204157

>the Coalition rebelled against the Earth empire on Christmas day of 0089 IC (Imperial Calender),

Make it 0087 just for fun.

Anyway, you could make the planet a relatively obscure and unimportant backwater, where various Imperial nobles and other wanted people fled to after the Imperium fell apart. Kinda like South America for the Nazis. You could also spin it so that the mechs were developed by former Imperium scientists who fled to Aestras (or were bribed to join the Coalition there) in exchange for a pardon and a chance not to be prosecuted as war criminals. Nowadays, the same scientists (who're undoubtedly in a position of power there) are the same guys that are offering a safe haven to their former Imperium friends in exchange for resources and favors.

Of course, the same guys later on staged a coup and handed the planet over to the Imperium when the tide turned. They were resourceful, had people in key positions, so it wasn't a problem to take over the world. But the Imperium didn't forget that these guys betrayed them before, so they cut off the planet from the rest of the galaxy - which resulted in its civilization collapsing in a matter of years. No space trade, no communication, and people rioting after they figured out that the guys in charge are little more than treacherous snakes just speed up the collapse.

As for the races, you could make the other races all descended from humanity. The elves traveled among the stars in the oldest and most primitive of colony ships, which resulted in them growing taller and limber because there was less gravity. Combine it with them undergoing gene therapy and other modifications, and you get the modern "elf". Dwarves came from a colony of asteroid miners - but because their artificial gravity generator (gravity through centrifugal force) malfunctioned, they got shorter and bulkier because the gravity on their colony ship was much stronger. Humans arrived last, after FTL travel became a thing, which is why they're considered the "youngest" race.

If you go with something like that, the other races should have a distinct "ancient aliens" feel to them. Their murals depict their colony ships, their ancestors in strange environment suits (who they consider gods) and so on. The dwarves are obsessed with cylindrical and round objects because of their cylindrical colony ship. The elves value nature because their colony ships were also the places where they grew food and had their farms, so they're master botanists and cultivators because otherwise they'd starve to death. You get the idea.

I've always thought about this but I've never gotten a definitive answer: are there any books related to "teaching" world building? Books with hints and good practices to create an interesting and solid world?

>>204241

There are books about world-building, but from what I recall, most range from mediocre to magical realm instructions tier.

>>204241

>interesting

This is mostly down to how well you can present it, to be honest.

>>204241

Here's some interesting stuff:

https://curiosityquills.com/limyaael/

I don't know of any books, though. What kind of world do you have in mind? Personally, I'm much more familiar with sci-fi.

>>204411

I can imagine that. It's easy to conflate good worldbuilding with just putting every idea you've ever had into your setting, while neglecting things like the overall theme. What this means is that everyone and his mom can be led to believe they are experts in worldbuilding, just because they have created eight-hundred named characters and fifty-seven states, all described in painstaking detail. Reading about one Oceania is infinitely more interesting than reading about twenty generic magical kingdoms, though.

I have described the heads of government of three nations I have created for my setting, including the ministers of transportation. Only short biographies, no more than five lines, but still. This gives me tools, to make my story interesting and keep it coherent. I won't describe two different ministers as the only women in the government, for example. The details themselves, if not embedded in the story, are uninteresting as fuck, though. One rule of worldbuilding: No one cares about the history of your great nation with a made-up name unless you give them a reason to care.

>>206142

A simple but predictable one's necromancy. Nobility wants it for an endless army and unceasing workforce, sell it to the populous with promises of never working or going to war.

>>202039

What kind of society such as it can be called do the demons have?

>>204073

Well, there's one variety of beverage in my setting, which is alchemically treated high-proof alcohol, used as a minor panacea.

>>206220

That start (the one with no direct translation, which looks like a treble clef) is sort of the opposite of glottal stop, which is to say, even you go to pronounce it, you first close your throat and then begin to push air against. You then release the stop and flow immediately onto the next vowel, applying a slide if they're is one. This might actually have an ipa equivalent that I'm just not familiar with. I don't really know the ipa that doesn't appear commonly in English.

The difference between a start and a stop is quite simply that a start starts the airflow and a stop is where it stops, either by an actual stop like the glottal stop, or by simply by droping the airflow. The glottal and tongue stops are the abrupt kind, the other two besides the frictive are the dropping kind. The frictive stop is usually a dropping kind, but depending on dialect, speech patterns, and even personal preference, can sometimes become the abrupt kind, that is to say that you start by making the voiceless frictive sound, but then quickly press the front of your tongue against your teeth and the back of your gums to stop the airflow. In these cases, it sounds sort of like /θʔ/, although the stop isn't glottal.

There is always one to one correspondence between starts and stops, after a start there will always be a stop before another stop, and the space from a start to a stop forms one unit of speech approximately corresponding to approximately a syllable.

/w/ and /j/ are starts for a couple of reasons.

First, simplest, but a bit handwavy, is simply that they only appear at the beginning of airflows in this language.

Second, and a bit causative of the other, is that slides are supposed to be very out of the way and unobtrusive to the vowel; in fact almost aspects of the vowels themselves, like how in ancient greek, /h/is represented by an accent. But /w/ and /y/ are too obtuse and very much become their own 'thing' instead of adding to a vowel, with very big and distinct mouth movements.

>>206388

>/y/

Meant /j/

I was thinking about a world where magic was lost - there were no spellcasters living any more - but there were ancient races of magic users (kind of like the ones in Shadows of Undrentide), and players would explore those races' ruins for the magic loot. People would know and could figure out how to use magic items, but not how to enchant things or how to cast the "naturals".

I dunno, seems like a weak setting at first, but I had this idea in my head.

Is my post hidden or something?

test

>>206452

It's a decent premise.

>>206505

8chan's acting up the past few days.

>>206452

You watched Chaika by any chance?

In case you haven't, mages in its setting need something as fuel for their spells to work. Humans aren't capable of casting magic by themselves, so they need these giant machines to cast magic. Instead of a wand, they use something like a sniper rifle. You want larger and stronger spells? Prepare something like an artillery piece.

Remember how these magic machines needed fuel to fire their spells? Yeah, turns out that there were magic animals long ago, but they were hunted to extinction for their bones and fat. In this setting, fossil fuels and other monster parts are literally magic. You need a magic fireball? Find some bones from a unicorn, grind them to dust, then burn them to fuel your magical cannon. You need a flying magical fortress? Find dragon bones, grind them to dust, and then burn them for the fortress to lift off. There are giant mines everywhere, looking for bones of long-lost beasts and ancient civilizations. The older the bones, the stronger the magic contained within. The world entered the industrial age simply so the wizards don't lose their power. There are even breeding farms for mystic animals, which they slaughter for magic fuel.

You could go for something like that. An industrial world, covered in mines extracting bones, hidden farms breeding monsters and so on. Magic is almost extinct, while the wizards are the oil barons desperate to get an ounce of magic fuel needed for their spells.

>>206508

Didn't watch it, just saw the memes on /a/.

Seems like it could work, but it's kind of depressing…

I was thinking of having big exploration campaigns, and going wild with the magic items' effects that I can think of.

Creating a different style of combat where anyone can pick their "build" if they know how to use the items that they're choosing.

I'm just not sure what they would fight. Guardian constructs from the ruins? Highwaymen after their loot? Rival parties and wild beasts? The worldbuilding part still needs working.

>>206518

You could go with that Disney's Atlantis movie, then.

Basically world powers funding expeditions to find something - anything - that could give them an edge in the Cold War going on. So it's an archaeological arms race with magic weapons, ancient guards standing up to defend their long dead masters, spies, black ops deep underground, Cold War shenanigans and shit like that.

>>206753

>weeabo fighting magic

Had me until there.

>>206859

>I don't like 1/10 things

>therefore all 10 things are terrible

k

>>206859

I thought a single Book for a mage enchanting an army would make sense.

I'd like a bit of opinion on one of the gods in my lore. Its name is Balal. It is wreathed in darkness but stands for justice, order, and strength. it is technically an evil god but finds deceit, anarchy, and corruption distasteful. Punishments given to the guilty are brutal and harsh. Balal is a terror to all evil that does not align to its ideals and gives them no place to hide in the darkness by sending its clerics and demons to hunt them. It created a race of half dragon demigods by descending down to the planet and "seducing" a dragon.

>>206930

>balal

Subtle

>>206930

That's an odd way to spell Konrad Curze/ Nighthaunter.

But seriously, I think simply finding deceit and corruption distasteful is not a strong enough motive to become a god of justice, however dark this may be. It's just a personal opinion of course, but I believe a god of justice needs to see some higher purpose in said justice, either because it serves society, because it serves himself, or both at the same time.

In other news

I would be very grateful if someone could read through this and give me a bit of critique - not so much about the writing itself, but about whether or not the two main characters (Gondova and especially Selshin) are believable. I know it's a major case of TL/DR, but I want to use this conflict as the motive for a complete ban of magic which Queen Gondova later imposes on her kingdom, despite of being a very powerful mage herself.

http://pastebin.com/FFZWusFy

(For reference: The Great Catastrophe basically happened because the Brynn fucked around with magic to much and turned virtually all of them into the physical equivalent of Orcs. Gondova and Selshin are two of the few exceptions).

>>207235

I see. So he's kinda like oldschool Khorne - he wants his followers to be strong, but beats the shit out of them (and others) if they don't play by the rules. It's sort of understandable as a Lawful Evil god, though I suggest adding the aspect of "Dominance" to his portfolio, as in "he rules the land, and boy are you screwed if you do not submit to his idea of how things should work".

Also, thanks for the critique on Gondova and Selshin. I had feared especially Selshin would be unbelievable, seeing how he turns from a friendly old fellow into a batshit insane mage within the frame of only three paragraphs.

>>207336

I assumed that a fair amount of time had passed sine the "Catastrophe" and his old student visiting him was what piled the guilt in his conscience up too much for him to bear. Desperation and guilt are pretty heavy on the psyche.

I'm glad my idea wasn't stupid to the ears of others, I'll add the dominance part and maybe post more of my lore sometime.

>>207786

You want an answer besides "it's magic"?

The vampire has to lick the victim's neck after biting it. Their saliva contains a powerful coagulant, which not only immediately closes the wound, but also accelerates the healing process.

This is why vampires are hunted down and their saliva is used for making of healing potions.

>>207793

You know how people keep snakes around for their venom, and they have that entire "milking" process?

You can have that, except with vampires.

>>207786

>>207786

Depends on where they bite.

I mean, Some go for the neck, others the breasts or shoulders, right?

I've been working on ideas for the human religion in my setting, how does this sound?:

Two religions. The first is your bog standard Catholic ripoff. Basically Catholicism without Jesus. Complete with satan analogue who is also not as powerful as the God and not a good himself. Two 'churches' within the religion, which are basically regular Catholicism and Satanism

Second religion is an offshoot of the other and is opposed to the other. It it's inspired by deism and catharism. They believe that the god who created the mortal plane, whom the other church worships, is an evil god, and did so for his own sadistic pleasure, and that an almost entirely apathetic deity saw the world's suffering, created a heavenly plane for their afterlife, and told them how to get there, but couldn't be bothered to fight off the evil god before he fucked off. They also believe that the second god appeared to and converted one of the first god's angels, by forcing him to drink from a chalice filled with a nectar that grants frer will, and then had him sneak it to the early humans so that they could reach the after life plane. This Angel is who the other church considers Satan. They believe him to be very righteous and benevolent, and that he fights an active war on the first god, and that as a result he has been cast to a prison plane, to where he takes those who wish to join hisfight death, growing stronger and training his army until he can escape, kill the evil god, and unify the material and heavenly planes and unite mortals with their savour god and his master (the second one). They believe that any praying you do that isn't to the Angel is to the evil god, so most Devine intervention is by him. They also believe that when you die and you don't either ascend or join the Angel, that the first god will either eat you (his stomach is the plane of hell) for power (gods are not truly omni-potent/scentient/present, only very powerful), or reincarnate you to watch you suffer again.

They have three churches: one who seek to enter heaven at death by living immaterial lives, serving their connection to the material plane, the church of the second god. The church of the Angel, which fights the other religion in all aspects of life, and prepares to join the fight in the afterlife (in order to join the Angel after death, all that is required is to hate the first god and want to go at the moment of death). And finally the church for the first god, which is basically some combination of satanism and chaos god worship.

Does this sound like an interesting idea to base it off of and flesh them both out some more?

>>207827

So, let me get this straight:

First Church is Catholicism with the Not-Christian god.

Second Church preaches that not-Satan actually is a good guy and that the Not-Christian god was to lazy to fight the Old God before he went away.

Third Church is Cthulhu Phtan based around the First/Elder god.

To be entirely honest, the entire "Satan is the good guy, God is the evil one" aspect looks rather bland to me, especially since the real world already has hordes of edge- and/or Fedoralords who preach the same stuff. The inclusion of the chaotic Elder god may makes things a bit more interesting, but if you want to flesh out the setting, I recommend emphasizing that neither the First nor the Second Church is perfect. Maybe you could make the conflict between the First and the Second Church a precarious balance act, as to much losses on either side allow the Third Church to gain power?

>>208086

>Milky Iron quaffers

Thye'd probably do it so much they're breasts get marks which make them look like they've got more titty pimples than need be, or dotted tattoos.

Of course, depends entirely on Vampire teeth type.

Needle mouths gun git none.

Meanwhile all Count orlock Nosfeateu motherfucks pay extra for a white room, fine kine in a white translucent dress, and and entire night of sucking out of that titty.

Seriously, Nosferatu got pretty ecchi near the end.

>>208086

Sorry I'm being a newfriend, but what's up with this magial realm stuff?

>>208146

And so the bloodsucker menace was put to an end by the oldest industry known to history.

Happy End

>>208268

the line between satan and evil god should actually be neutral.

Been thinking about some gods for my setting. A mix from the Horrors of Earthdawn and the Daedra.

The basic idea is that "divine" entities are split into two groups: the guys who decided to make the world, and the guys who didn't partake in making it. The first group laid down rules, made the world from their own bodies, gave life to humanity, and basically became the Law upon which the world works. These dudes are worshiped as gods, and by the point the game takes place, are all but computer programs running the World.exe.

Then you have the other group, which are far more Lovecraftian in nature. These guys decided to not get involved in the whole Genesis business, and remained a shifting mass of madness and insanity. They can't die, they can't be hurt, they don't understand what time is and so on. Basically, whatever law the "real" world has to obey, they don't. That shit doesn't apply to them.

However, because they're utterly incompatible with the world, they can't enter it. Instead, they wait for "glitches" in the world, and then slowly reach through those glitches and cause all sorts of shit. Magic is basically them trying to enter the world and fuck it up. Monsters are them messing with biology. Insane wizard kings and cults are their way of slowly breaking the world apart. Why? Because they feel that's the only way to wake up their long lost brothers, who became so obsessed with maintaining the world that they didn't even notice dying.

However, the world is still low-fantasy. The monsters are only spoken of in legends. Wizards and magic don't exist. However, whenever something horrible happens (like a grand-scale civil war, that just happened) they slowly reach out, and start messing up the place.

>>210887

If you stick to the sort of "glitchy" dark gods, you could pull off all sorts of hilarious "bugs" in reality caused by them. Except being launched into the air with several hundred miles per hour because of a physics bug is not quite as hilarious at it seems when you're on the receiving end.

I've been planning a Barbarians of the Aftermath campaign, set in a post apoc and retro futurist setting inspired by Insomnia (a russian game TBD) How can I put up AI revolution with dieselpunk? Or which apocalypse would best fit such setting?

The players are supposed to wake up from cryosleep in the orbit of earth or in a vault, and from there, meet a few factions and so on. I know it is a pretty weak setting, but InSomnia art gave me some inspiration.

>>212642

You can do an AI revolution in dieselpunk. All you need to do is figure out what sort computing technology exists in the time period you're working from and turn it up to eleven.

>>212642

You could do AI with some punch-in cards, extremely huge computers (the size of buildings, so the usual evil tower where the BBEG lies in waiting is actually the computer itself) and thousands of machine-cultists devoted to keeping the difference engine of evil running.

The reason why the AI revolt happened is a bug in the machine. No, seriously. Some cockroach or whatever got in, and messed with some extremely sensitive parts. So when the giant machine that was supposed to tell the entire human civilization what to do in order to survive came back with an answer "KILL YOURSELF", the scientists decided to go through with it.

So now, the "resistance" are people who decided not to listen to the AI calculations, while the people in charge and the AI's helpers are the descendants of the same mad scientists who follow the machines calculations to this day. The AI is also getting more broken by the minute, so all its calculations are now extremely wrong and mystic-sounding.

>>208268

> Unintentional pentagram

Noice. Balance it up, keep the line through it, and use that symbol at some point. "Book of This Is How History Actually Happened: Everyone Is Wrong."

>>207793

>>207794

How do you capture a vampire without being bitten, turned into a thrall/hypnotised, subject to one of it's Necromantic spells (or even just Fear to send your ass screaming back to town), or the shape-shifting shady fucker just escaping?

Multiple turn-undeads around him until the fucker is staggering and then you just grab and milk him?

>>213833

1)Yes.

2) If you have tech and factories but then why just knights? As long as you have resources, make tanks.

>>213837

That's kinda the problem I see with the knight-tank setting - if you can create tanks, your society should be so industrialized that the feudal system essentially becomes impossible, and the entire "only knights have tanks because they are expensive" goes down the gutter because of mass production capacities.

>>214190

Tanks could always be relics of the past. They may not have the factories to mass produce them, but the few that do exist are valuable because they are relics that have to be passed down from generation to generation.

>>213833

Go further I like it.

>>213837

Make the materials a bitch to get a refine maybe?

Or for some other reason make them rare and expensive.

>>213833

Don't worry about the specific economics that make [cool idea] possible. They're never the interesting part of the world. "Tanks are rare and expensive" is more than enough, and that description sounds fun.

>>215229

Overdosing on healing potions gives you cancer.

If you already had cancer, a healing potion will make it worse.

>>215229

Orc Rot: caused by rust (actually corrosion/corruption) on magical weapons coming in contact with a character's blood - causes the character's skin to turn green and leathery, makes whites of eyes turn yellow, and causes voice to drop octaves and become gravelly.

Alavar's Fever: caused through contact with a diseased dragon shapeshifted into humanoid form - causes skin to become slightly scaly, breath smells like sulfur, small nubs form where wings and tail would be, character develops unquenchable thirst for gold; severity of symptoms are proportional to age of dragon.

Slyvan Pox: initially caused through sexual contact with diseased forest nymph, but can then spread through physical contact - infected character's genitals begin to shrink and eventually disappear entirely, character loses appetite but becomes perpetually thirsty, develops an irresistible desire to bask in the sun.

Mage's Bane: caused by overuse of magical items - player develops sexual compulsion toward magical objects which eventually develops into an obsessive psychosis.

Scroll Lung: caused by overuse of scrolls and/or improper use of spell components - fragments of scrolls and/or spell components which are usually consumed entirely in spell casting process are inhaled by character, causing increased magic resistance and increased chance of spell failure.

Astral Phlegm: caused by overuse of summon spells and/or spell failure when casting summon spells - causes character to develop physical allergy to all summoned creatures, resulting in runny nose, impacted sinuses, ear infections, partial blindness, loss of voice, and increased spell failure when casting summon spells.

>>215271

Forgot the cures (if you're feeling sadistic and don't think a cure disease would be sufficient).

Orc Rot: Cured by destroying the magical weapon that initially caused the disease.

Alavar's Fever: Cured by gathering a tear from the dragon from which the disease originated (not necessarily the dragon which gave the character the disease!).

Slyvan Pox: Cured by finding the diseased forest nymph and healing her (up to the GM's discretion as to how that would be accomplished).

Mage's Bane: Cured by removing character from access to ANY magical items, or, after disease has progressed to final stages (obsessive psychosis), castration.

Scroll Lung: Cured through cloning and/or replacing lungs and esophagus via physical or magical means.

Astral Phlegm: Cured through abstaining from casting summons spells or coming in contact with summon creatures for as long as possible, character will always be at risk for occasional flare ups in the future (can never be fully cured).

>>215274

>Cured by finding the diseased forest nymph and healing her (up to the GM's discretion as to how that would be accomplished).

With that wording, I have a feeling that Sylvan Pox will spread epidemically once it gets out.

>>212700

>>212659

It worked, than you for the suggestions. But now I am stuck with them being in a dungeon and OP as fuck.

>>216895

the layers are OP as fuck*

>>216896

Well, if you've got 4+ players, you could always separate them, or throw in some sort of enemy at them that can only be killed with a little macguffin hidden near the heart of the the dungeon.

>>215229

>Morphic Fray

Caused by engaging in large amounts of shape-shifting in a short period of time. Results in continual discomfort leading up to incapacitation, described by sufferers as having their very skin being like ill-fitting clothing. Cured by having the sufferer maintain a single shape-shifted form for a period of several days while the morphic field of their natural form heals.

So, I want to make a setting in Pathfinder\D&D that's 17th century inspired, mainly France. I want to make it seem pulpy and episodic since this is my first time GMing and it might be a while in between sessions, anyone want to give me ideas for quests? I got a few good ones so far

>The king offers a private audience to the Gentry and Rabble once a year to whomever can impress him during a grand festival through discoveries, delivery of rare goods, acts of science, skill, or so on.

I might lead with this one to be honest, would be good fun and some decent worldbuilding

>The College of Good Faith, a council of the higher ranking members of the most powerful churches, requests our heroes to investigate a castle and its holdings 15 years after being excommunicated once word of the lord passing, to see if they are willing to re-enter the fold, unfortunately the lords deeds that landed him in controversy in the first place still leave a mark on the land

This'll be an excuse for some gothic horror fun times, land ravaged by plague, suspicious locals, undead abominations and vile rituals hidden in basements, all that fun stuff

>A dangerous group are trying to spread sedition amongst the masses, whether they are right or not is not necessary but people are getting hurt by their actions innocent and guilty alike,and the forces of church and state are too busy squabbling amongst themselves to properly deal with the situation, leaving it to the players to get to the bottom of this

Now comes the part where I more or less ape Scarlet Pimpernel and toss them against a mix between V and Citizen Chauvelin.

Anyone else got any ideas for some bite sized fun that can be taken out in two-three sessions at most? As said I want it to be episodic so they usually don't have to be tight linked,

>>213499

Intredasting idea. Can't really add anything to it, but still replying to you so someone else sees it.

>>172678

How good of an idea would it be to apply Arthurian fantasy themes to a Tolkinian fantasy setting? As in, pure high-fantasy fiction, but with the themes of chivalry, political intrigue, morality, spirituality, etc etc from Arthurian fantasy?

Maybe this is the right place to ask, or maybe it isn't, but I was hoping to get a bit more perspective on the kind of protagonist someone might want in a VN setting mostly devoid of humans.

The setting itself consists entirely of beast races (mostly bird people, insect people and kobolds) all with their own motivation and conflict that aligns with the setting, and I was trying to figure out if my protag should be another beast or if he should be the honest, god-fearing paladin going into this forbidden land on a quest.

It would be fun to play with such an out-of-place character surrounded by HERESY, but at the same time, it feels almost TOO out-of-place and distracting from the other character's arcs. That being said, just going with a beast race protag seems like too good a way to alienate the reader.

Perhaps I'm overthinking it. Regardless, I'd really appreciate some outside perspective.

Posted this in the "Forbidden Love" thread as well, because it's somewhat relevant, although it wasn't going to become THAT kind of story.

>>217973

If you're not doing that already, then what the fuck is wrong with you?

>>218055

No approach is objectively better, but I think I'd prefer the one with the protagonist being another beast. Him being a paladin could create a lot of very predictable conflict.

Need suggestions for rituals in a Baltic paganism inspired religion. The religion is heavily intertwined with magic (kravinas, 'holy people,' are priests and mages, and the lines between the two are almost nonexistent in this society), and the six major gods are based on the elements. The religion involves reverence of nature and advancement of knowledge, but unlike most 'le nature man' religions it is highly ordered and codified, with holy books of its own.

This is for a novel, but I figure I can post here anyway. The only ritual I can think of is a naming ritual, where the child is named under one of the six gods by a kravina skilled in that god's type of magic.

>>218837

I like the idea that it remains dubious whether or not the gods actually exist, but if you go that way, you should consider that organized religions basically could turn into magic guns on steroids. Not that this would necessarily a bad thing, but it would have its consequences.

Also, expect violent conflicts over different people claiming the same waifu.

Not much of a traditional gamer but I like to view this board regularly and I figured /tg/ would know better than any other board about fantasy novels and themes.

Has there been any instances of a story about a powerful hero turning himself into a vampire or using other taboo magic in order to make himself as immortal as his enemy?

>>219644

Wrong thread, bro.

Check the 'Questions That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread' thread >>194052

>>219660

Will head out there, thanks!

Critique? Well this is a Chan so I know the anons are going to be really harsh, but what the hell. I'll throw my hat into the ring. This probably autistic and shitty as all hell, so just be ready.

In one homebrew I'm currently working on; the world was created by several Titans which were sent by the Creator/Primordials in order to terraform a planet into one capable of supporting life. The Titan's main purpose is governing over their own specialized element and ensuring that not only is the Planet capable of supporting life, but also making sure that the Spirit Realm, the Afterlife, and Hell work properly.

So you'll have Titans governing over the primal elements of fire, water, earth, and the air. While simultaniously having one or two making sure the spirit world doesen't overly leek into the physical realm. Then there's the one who watches over the failed creations and experiments in Hell, making sure they don't escape. So in a sense, they operate like specialized programs that just do their intended task with little to no thought of the mortal civilizations that have arisen. They're self aware enough to put the direction of many of their projects to a vote (the afterlife for one), but they don't have free will as we understand it.

Then there's the spirit realms which practically started as the internet for the Titans. Spirits essentially started out as primitive AIs that the Titans experimented with, wondering if they could create a spectral form of life to both reflect and influence the physical world. Hell is essentially just a big recycling bin full of failed experiments or things that just have no place in the world above, like say pre-Titan bacteria or the great Leviathans. The creation of a Afterlife and souls in general was just written into their "programming" so to speak, ultimately they settled with a reincarnation system after putting the whole debate to a vote.

Eventually the Titans, after spending millenia seeding the world with life, essentially withdrew into "slleep mode" where they only intervened when life on the planet was in grave danger but otherwise stay incognito.