Should I share my game world with you folks?

Should I share more of my world? Maps? Lore?

  • Yes, I'm interested!

    Votes: 7 17.5%
  • Sure, couldn't hurt.

    Votes: 18 45.0%
  • No, not interested, unfortunately.

    Votes: 12 30.0%
  • Heck no! Your world is garbage and wont add anything!

    Votes: 3 7.5%

Slit518

Adventurer
I have a game world that I have slowly brought to light and fruition over the past several years. I've always loved home-brew, ever since I started DMing back in 2003 starting with 2nd edition.

I've always had my own world, but very little of it was actually fleshed out. So, over the years, as I played, as I DMed, I started to flesh my world out more and more.

My main influence for bits of my world comes from myths & legends of our very own real world. There are also fantasy influences as well.

As to the size of my world, I am not sure how big I want to scale it yet. I am thinking about 2.5x larger than Earth, accounting for all the different races that inhabit it. But perhaps 2.5x is too large, or maybe too small? I mean after all, we have goblins, orcs, kobolds, humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, dragons, ogres, trolls, etc... inhabiting it. My original thought was 10x larger than Earth, but a friend and I discussed it, and 10x seemed way too large, and the gravity due to the planet's size would be too immense. If I am not mistaken, a 2.5x larger than Earth size would put it on par with the supposed size of Planet X (Nibiru).

The world has 13 continents that stretch across the planet. The continents each have a certain play style, with some sharing play styles. These are usually run down into magic level (no magic, low magic, moderate magic, high magic, extremely high magic), and technology levels (stone age, bronze age, iron age, etc...)

My world contains most of the generic fantasy races so that it has a familiar feel for any newbies.
But, my world also has some additions as well:

Daegolith - a race or large men, similar to Native American myths of giant men who lived in the mountains. Unlike Native American myth they don't come down from the mountains to feast on people. The Daegolith has 3 distinct sub-races -
Fair-Child - inspired by the D&D Goliath
Hairy-Ones - as the name implies, a feral version, hair encompass the males around their head, face, shoulders, back, and chest in a thick mane. The hair on females stops on their shoulders and doesn't form a full beard on their face, instead only growing into large sideburns. They have sharp claws and teeth.
Stonewalls - these ones, from birth rub gravel and rocks into their skin, causing it to callus and harden. From the scabby wounds rocks eventually get embedded and become one with their flesh. These ones are largely inspired by Native American myth.

Dwethelek - imagine if you were to combined the racial features (looks, not mechanics) of elves & dwarves in perfect harmony. That is pretty much what they Dwethelek are. An ancient warrior race set to protect a sacred site. They live on the northern most continent, and rarely if ever venture outside of their natural habitat. Due to this, they have no sub-races.

Faegreth - this race was inspired by the Brownies from the movie Willow. And by that, I just mean in size. The Feagreth is a small, fairy like race of beings that all live within a large tree. Just like the Dwethelek, they too don't venture far from their home, if at all, and don't have any sub-races. Each Faegreth is bound with a Sugar Glider from birth. That Sugar Glider acts as a life long companion that they grow in friendship and mount. The gender of the Sugar Glider is always the opposite of the Faegreth.

Æragul - this is an ancient, magical race that has been long extinct. They live deep underground and leave mysterious runes and ruins throughout an unknown world of darkness. All that remains are artifacts from a time long past, protected by golems made long ago. Any sub-races dealing with them would deal with the four elements, Air, Earth, Fire, Water.

Munchkin - probably replacing the Halfling race, maybe not.

Taskforged; Soul Golem, whatever
- I'm not sure what I want to call them yet, but these are creations with a soul. Ebberon calls theirs Warforged, but mine are forged for more than war. The soul might find it's way in a construct in multiple ways, perhaps by force from an evil caster, or perhaps as an alternate body from a caster whose time was fleeting, or perhaps a soul created out of no where by a caster with power that rivals that of a god.

More to come!
 

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ccs

41st lv DM
As to the size of your world? Don't bother defining it in hard #s. You apparently haven't needed this detail in all these years, so what makes 2018 any different?

The world is as big as it needs to be. And at least as big as whatever details you've revealed.
Gravity? Gravity doesn't have to align to our version of the material plane math wise:) All that needs known is that there's enough to stick your feet to the ground.
 

Josiah Stoll

First Post
I have a game world that I have slowly brought to light and fruition over the past several years. I've always loved home-brew, ever since I started DMing back in 2003 starting with 2nd edition.

I've always had my own world, but very little of it was actually fleshed out. So, over the years, as I played, as I DMed, I started to flesh my world out more and more.

My main influence for bits of my world comes from myths & legends of our very own real world. There are also fantasy influences as well.

As to the size of my world, I am not sure how big I want to scale it yet. I am thinking about 2.5x larger than Earth, accounting for all the different races that inhabit it. But perhaps 2.5x is too large, or maybe too small? I mean after all, we have goblins, orcs, kobolds, humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, dragons, ogres, trolls, etc... inhabiting it. My original thought was 10x larger than Earth, but a friend and I discussed it, and 10x seemed way too large, and the gravity due to the planet's size would be too immense. If I am not mistaken, a 2.5x larger than Earth size would put it on par with the supposed size of Planet X (Nibiru).

The world has 13 continents that stretch across the planet. The continents each have a certain play style, with some sharing play styles. These are usually run down into magic level (no magic, low magic, moderate magic, high magic, extremely high magic), and technology levels (stone age, bronze age, iron age, etc...)

My world contains most of the generic fantasy races so that it has a familiar feel for any newbies.
But, my world also has some additions as well:

Daegolith - a race or large men, similar to Native American myths of giant men who lived in the mountains. Unlike Native American myth they don't come down from the mountains to feast on people. The Daegolith has 3 distinct sub-races -
Fair-Child - inspired by the D&D Goliath
Hairy-Ones - as the name implies, a feral version, hair encompass the males around their head, face, shoulders, back, and chest in a thick mane. The hair on females stops on their shoulders and doesn't form a full beard on their face, instead only growing into large sideburns. They have sharp claws and teeth.
Stonewalls - these ones, from birth rub gravel and rocks into their skin, causing it to callus and harden. From the scabby wounds rocks eventually get embedded and become one with their flesh. These ones are largely inspired by Native American myth.

Dwethelek - imagine if you were to combined the racial features (looks, not mechanics) of elves & dwarves in perfect harmony. That is pretty much what they Dwethelek are. An ancient warrior race set to protect a sacred site. They live on the northern most continent, and rarely if ever venture outside of their natural habitat. Due to this, they have no sub-races.

Faegreth - this race was inspired by the Brownies from the movie Willow. And by that, I just mean in size. The Feagreth is a small, fairy like race of beings that all live within a large tree. Just like the Dwethelek, they too don't venture far from their home, if at all, and don't have any sub-races. Each Faegreth is bound with a Sugar Glider from birth. That Sugar Glider acts as a life long companion that they grow in friendship and mount. The gender of the Sugar Glider is always the opposite of the Faegreth.

Æragul - this is an ancient, magical race that has been long extinct. They live deep underground and leave mysterious runes and ruins throughout an unknown world of darkness. All that remains are artifacts from a time long past, protected by golems made long ago. Any sub-races dealing with them would deal with the four elements, Air, Earth, Fire, Water.

Munchkin - probably replacing the Halfling race, maybe not.

Taskforged; Soul Golem, whatever
- I'm not sure what I want to call them yet, but these are creations with a soul. Ebberon calls theirs Warforged, but mine are forged for more than war. The soul might find it's way in a construct in multiple ways, perhaps by force from an evil caster, or perhaps as an alternate body from a caster whose time was fleeting, or perhaps a soul created out of no where by a caster with power that rivals that of a god.

More to come!

This is cool! I love new fantasy worlds that don’t just look like medieval Europe.
Are there any themes or overarching motifs that the reader should be aware of? (Sets the “tone” of the world, and defines what kind of games are run there)
 


Slit518

Adventurer
This is cool! I love new fantasy worlds that don’t just look like medieval Europe.
Are there any themes or overarching motifs that the reader should be aware of? (Sets the “tone” of the world, and defines what kind of games are run there)

With varying cultures, peoples, technological advances, faiths, etc... I would find it hard, and very dumbed-down if it were only a version of medieval Europe. There is so much more than that, so much more. I can understand in D&D's fledgling stages that may have been the case, and easiest to translate. But there is a whole wide world with rich history out there.

I like to explore different ancient cultures. American cultures, middle-eastern cultures, Asian cultures, extinct cultures, etc...
In my world you wont just have Druid, because that is very Western European. Shaman is a more universal term, many cultures have Shaman.
Cleric also screams European to me, though it's Greek in origin, this can easily be changed by the term Priest, Holy Man, Prophet, etc...
Bard widely Western European. For a support roll, I decide to go Warlord.

Of course these options will be available, but I am also tinkering with the idea of presenting a few alternatives (as opposed to just giving a class an alternate name).

The tone of the world is in many colors and shades. Personally, I would play it like Dark Fantasy. But it also depends on what type of setting you're in. A certain continent might be in peace and see little turmoil, while other areas may be more prone to conflict.

If there is enough interest garnered I will share some of my hand drawn crude maps. These maps are several years old, and may not be the final edit.

How are flumphs regarded in your world?

If they are a WotC intellectual property, they unfortunately wont be making any official appearances. But, from a DM dabbling in my game world, feel free to change anything you think needs adding or subtracting.
 
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Josiah Stoll

First Post
I’m working on building my own world at the moment, so this is really interesting. I’d love to see some of the process that goes into building this kind of thing.
 

Shiroiken

Legend
Beware of putting your creative work out there. The world is full of jerks, who enjoy ripping others ideas to shreds. If your world works for you and your group, that's all that should matter!
 


ART!

Deluxe Unhuman
So I should delete my thread, just in case?

Absolutely not. If you wanna share your stuff, share it. If people some or all of it is dumb or uninteresting but don't have any constructive criticism, well, you can't really do anything with that so you just have to ignore them and move on. And some constructive criticism will not be useful to you, because the suggestions won't be appropriate for what your going for. Believe me - I've been abused with "help" before.

So, I like what you've shared so far. In particular I like your race names - they have a nice Old English feel to them, which is something I go for in some of my fantasy naming. I think it would be good to come up with a similar-feel "aka" name for the Taskforged, just for consistency.

And yeah, don't worry about the size of your world - unless you're into that (nerding out is what we're here to do, after all!), but don't expect others - including your players! - to be into that.
 
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Shiroiken

Legend
So I should delete my thread, just in case?
Not unless you want to! As [MENTION=79926]ART![/MENTION] said, you should just ignore non-constructive criticism, but not everyone can do that easily. I just wanted to warn you of it, because I've experienced myself on another forum.

If you do put it out, I'd suggest simply not responding to non-constructive criticism, and focusing on those who offer legitimate advice.
 


ART!

Deluxe Unhuman
"Munchkins" is a little...silly?, but maybe that's kind of what you're going for. There are lots of options (there was a thread here or on rpg.net about other terms for a halfling race, but I can't find it right now). They probably wouldn't call themselves "halflings", unless they have quite the self-deprecating sense of humor or just got tired of correcting all the taller folk.
 

jgsugden

Legend
There are dozens of high quality campaign worlds available for sales, and hundreds more 'amateur' worlds available at little to no costs.

If you put in the effort to add artwork, have professional editing, etc... and want to sell it - and you manage to accumulate good reviews for it - you might see some people using it, and even more buy it and cannibalize parts of it. It sounds like your materials are far shy of that level of professional content.

If you don't make it a professional work, then you may get a few lookie-loos that download it, but it will not be widely used. It doesn't hurt to post it, but I would not expect to see it 'do much'. However, there are a number of folks out there that do want to 'help' by criticizing things like this, so I would not choose to do this unless I had a thick skin. I believe you'd be far more likely to hear more criticism than praise, regardless of the quality of the work.

This is the trend with most of the campaigns 'made available', whether posted to ENWORLD, dropped onto GM's Guild, or sold via Kickstarter.
 

ART!

Deluxe Unhuman
If you want to sandbox your setting, or if you want lots of ideas and reactions and input, then yeah - post it here.

If you want to "just" write up your setting in a presentable format and make it available to the world, then make sure it reads well and has decent layout and go sell it as "pay what you want" on RPGNow and/or DM's Guild or whatever. I've bought plenty of good, usable material that had not-great art, so focus on the writing, editing, content, and presentation. Also, you can always offer an updated version later for previous buyers, or expansions, or a 2nd edition with whistles and bells, or...

Basically: if you want your stuff out there, get it out there. Just make sure it's presentable and easy to use.
 
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Slit518

Adventurer
Not unless you want to! As @ART! said, you should just ignore non-constructive criticism, but not everyone can do that easily. I just wanted to warn you of it, because I've experienced myself on another forum.

If you do put it out, I'd suggest simply not responding to non-constructive criticism, and focusing on those who offer legitimate advice.

Whoops! I mistakenly read your post last night as "ripping off" instead of "ripping to shreds."

The ripping to shreds part doesn't bother me. I've been around many forums for almost 2 decades. Constructive criticism and feedback is nice, destructive criticism gets ignored.

I appreciate you giving me a heads up though.

No harm in sharing your ideas. Go for it!
But I think the poll is kinda sketchy.

Just curious, why is that?
 



Inchoroi

Adventurer
You could share pared-down versions of stuff, and then publish with all the whistles and bells...?

You could, yes! But you have to do so in a careful way; don't give away the homeworld (I've always wanted to say that). Its important to make it clear what makes your setting different and unique, and its up to you to make it that way while still being playable (that is, if you plan to publish it; if you don't, then it doesn't really matter as long as you and your players are having fun).

I, for one, love settings that are close to real world ideals in a pseudo-medieval sort of way; dukes, barons, counts, serfs, slaves, etc. I also like a very-detailed history but also with lots of room to add in new stuff; and I like having detailed hexcrawl maps, because I'm very hard to please.

EDIT: Also, please make your rivers/swamps/deserts/grasslands/mountains at least make a modicum of sense!
 

Just curious, why is that?
It’s always hard to judge tone on the Internet, so you could have meant the poll as a joke. But it gave me the impression of being a little too self-depreciating. You could share some of your world with us and decide if the responses are worth posting more without a “my world is hot garbage” poll option. Or any poll at all. =P
 

Bitbrain

ORC (Open RPG) horde ally
Stonewalls - these ones, from birth rub gravel and rocks into their skin, causing it to callus and harden. From the scabby wounds rocks eventually get embedded and become one with their flesh. These ones are largely inspired by Native American myth.

This is a really cool visual concept you have for the Stonewalls.
Do they get something like the Goliath's Stone's Endurance trait? It would make perfect sense to me.

Æragul - this is an ancient, magical race that has been long extinct. They live deep underground and leave mysterious runes and ruins throughout an unknown world of darkness. All that remains are artifacts from a time long past, protected by golems made long ago. Any sub-races dealing with them would deal with the four elements, Air, Earth, Fire, Water.

Interesting . . . Aside from the sub-race idea, they remind me of the Vahnatai from the Avernum computer game series, if the Vahnatai had died out.

If you're unfamiliar with the Vahnatai, they were basically seven-foot tall Roswell Grays that lived in the Underdark, were a precursor race to most every other humanoid life-form, wielded flambergs in battle, and channeled their memories and magical powers into crystals.
 

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