Worldbuilding - tell me about your world

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'm not sure if this line sounds more like Douglas Adams or more like Sir Terry Pratchett.

On Erkonin
1 - There are no gods, as the result of what can best be called an accident.

I definitely might have read the original Empire of the Petal Throne book while the world was gestating. For a while, the world was going to have a tropical climate, until I decided that I wanted to have a proper winter in my world.

Kinda reminds me of Tékumel, where the main beasts of burden are slow, lumbering beasts that lack the advantages of horses for transport, trade, warfare, and communication.

 

[prabe]

I'm not sure if this line sounds more like Douglas Adams or more like Sir Terry Pratchett.

I've read a lot of both, so both are possible.

 

[Aldarc]

2 - In the absence of gods, the fey nobility (which are organized and work much differently from anywhere else that I've seen) have increased in power almost to the point of godhood, but without a key spark.

Several worlds that I have toyed with have something similar, with the archfey as the chthonic "pagan gods" whose strife propels the cycles of nature and the seasons.

On the whole when world-building, I typically shy away from the D&D-style pantheons and religions, since I find that D&D (and its like-minded TTRPGs) tends to handle religion, particularly its own, quite poorly. So I enjoy things more like @prabe's use of fey gods, @Celebrim's animistic-realism (and an accompanying spirit worlds), along with ethical pseudo-religious philosophies oriented around how one should live in a society in which spirits exist (e.g., a number of Eastern Asian traditions) or archfey have sway over the world.

One idea that I often find myself reusing is the existence of a spirit world in which the spirits often embody concepts, ideas, and the like. Some people view the spirits as simply spirits. Others view them as demons and angels. Others view them as gods worthy of devotion. In one culture, one spirit may be regarded as the God of Justice, but in another culture the same may be regarded a Demon of Vengeance or Wrath. Are the spirits localized or are there spirits that embody larger, more generalized concepts? Is there a god that exists beyond the spirit world, perhaps as the Creator of All? Is the Spirit World itself a Spirit that contains all Spirits? Does the Spirit World represent the Spirit of the World? Or does the spirit world represent the totality of The Divinity? Or is the Spirit World the dreaming of a slumbering god that humans must strive to awaken? Spirits and a spirit world exists, but is there reincarnation? Can one break the cycle of reincarnation? Are ghosts the actual spirits of the deceased or are they false echoes of lives that have imprinted on the spirit world? Is the spirit world the actual afterlife or is there more? Does the divinity of the spirit exist in the human person? If the spirit world exists, what is the responsibility of humankind towards the spirits, gods, angels, demons, etc. of the Other World?

I enjoy the idea of spirits and a spirit world having a concrete existence but humans still forming different religions, theologies, and philosophies around grappling with this spiritual reality. The existence of a Spirit World does not quell theological and metaphysical mystery; it propels further ones.

I was asked to run a fantastical pseudo-Renaissance Venice setting for a Fate game, which I discussed a bit elsewhere. IMHO, the most important organization and cultural influence for the Late Middle Ages or Renaissance was the Roman Catholic Church and the Papacy. So imagining a Late Middle Ages or Renaissance Venice without that is nigh impossible. So with this Spirit World cosmology, I created a Church that regarded the spirits of the Seven Cardinal Virtues (based on Aristotle's four cardinal virtues and Christianity's three theological virtues of faith) as the spirits that best revealed the true nature of the Divine Creator. So there is still a Church, but the ethics and teachings of the Seven Virtues Church will naturally differ from that of the RCC. This gives room to say that homosexuality or sodomy is not a "sin" for characters - a breath of fresh air for modern sensibilities and inclusive tables - but that the Church's issue for all sexuality is Temperance.

It was a short campaign, so I did not get to explore the intricacies of piety, though one character's sister was a priestess of the Church of Virtues who was attempting a magical ritual to seal a tear into the spirit world. However, one could easily take this Pseudo-Renaissance Church of Virtues and imagine other faiths and heresies. There might be a heretical sect of the Church that believes that there are only Three Virtues worth following. Or these heretical splinter sects may reject all spirits as relics of a "paganistic polytheism" that interferes with venerating the Creator. What about a competing religion that teaches that there is only one spirit worth following: e.g., the Spirit of Truth? Or a religion that believes that all spirits are a manifestation of an ever-changing Divine Will?

I have gotten far more mileage out of this basic conceit for a world than nearly any other because the various cultures for any and every new world that I create may have supplied their own prevailing set of answers or questions about this Spirit World. Gods, demons, devils, spirits, angels, and fey can be interchangeable without me sweating the details. I can say that religious tradition/cultus A believes X about the Spirit World and the spirits, but that religious tradition/cultus B believes Y about the Spirit World and these spirits, without needing to supply a definitive answer.

 

[generic]

Three details from my most recent campaign setting:

1. The entire world has a layer of sentient, sapient fungal growth beneath its soil. This superfungus spans continents and oceans, and is the cast-off remnant of an elder god. Vegepygmies, Myconids, and Kelpies grow out of cysts in the fungus, great, huge fungal tumors that incubate alien terrors.

2. The intricacies of religion, as have been demonstrated in the real world, have been implemented in the sense that religion is more realistic, despite the existence of divine magic. There are multiple monotheistic deities, some dualistic pantheons, large pantheons that are independent from others, philosophies with no defined gods, such as Allochrism (emulation of metallic spirits, which represent different base metals) and Noskril (a philosophy of actually becoming heroes of old, and living out their lives).

3. Fey and Elementals fall under the same metaphysical distinction.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

I can and have babbled about my post-apocalyptic world for hours, so I'll keep it to three short points:

Techno-capitalist demons control what was once California and Nevada.
Texas exists and Wiccan is their official religion.
Kansas has been swapped with a fairy tale kingdom that is undergoing industrialization.

#drevrpg #5e #dnd5e #apocalypse.

 

[generic]

Inspired by @Shades of Eternity's post about his/her post-apocalyptic world, I'll share three things about my post-apocalyptic setting, one of the many settings which I have created.

1. Demons and Devils, as well as other Fiends, have all been rolled into the 'Demons' category, and, the world has long collapsed into a Demon-ridden, wasteland nightmare. Ancient nuclear war threw society into a disarray after a new 'utopia' had arisen. Society reached a peak of efficiency, utilizing renewable power such as solar and geothermal energy, as well as hydroelectric energy, and advanced nuclear reactors. Nuclear power became so pervasive and advanced that it was commonplace, even homes may have nuclear reactors within them. But then, nuclear war, chemical weapons, and rampant corruption sundered society, and, of course, Demons tore away at the edges of Hell, seizing this moment of weakness, and crushing the broken societies underfoot.

2. Androids, Invoked, and Homurrizod are three non-standard races incorporated in the setting. Androids use the Warforged statistics, with modified lore, and Invoked use the Kalashtar rules, with, again, modified lore, where their Quori are bodiless, demonic spirits. Homurrizod were inspired by the Grineer from Warframe, a race of Human clones, devoid of reproductive capabilities, who serve an overbeing. Homurrizod are, however, much more Human and more intelligent that the Grineer who they were inspired by.

3. The world's weapons technology lingers somewhere between World War Two and Fallout.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Best campaign I ever ran was a Supers game (using HERO) set in the year 1900, basically as envisioned by H.G.Wells and Jules Verne (plus other era-appropriate fiction).

Interesting things about it:

1) A villain using a modified Babbage engine to control his Archimedes Death Ray
2) An undead wizard from the Far East hoping to topple the imperialist nations and rule the world as emperor
3) Martians who react to opium like it was PCP

The worst campaign was set in the same world, a decade+ later, using M&M as the system. (Different group of gamers.)

Interesting things included:

1) Professor Cavor’s gentleman companion running a school named in his honor for young super humans in Torquay
2) A scientist who had discovered a way to grant animals human levels of intelligence. Onr of those animals, an Orangutan named Zeus, becoming so intelligent that he escaped and started making weapons based on the theories of Nicola Tesla. “Doctor” Zeus, as he called himself, was trying to overthrow humanity as rulers of the world.
3) “The Self-Breaking Machine”- a broken time machine kept in a vault that somehow broke itself after it was repaired (the time traveler who made it was raiding it for spare parts for his OTHER time machine.)

 

[Celebrim]

1. The entire world has a layer of sentient, sapient fungal growth beneath its soil. This superfungus spans continents and oceans, and is the cast-off remnant of an elder god. Vegepygmies, Myconids, and Kelpies grow out of cysts in the fungus, great, huge fungal tumors that incubate alien terrors.

I've had a vast semi-sentient psionic Yellow Mold inhabiting my Underdark since the days of 1e AD&D, but I had never contemplated going as far as you have here. That's a pretty cool concept, and one you could incorporate into pretty much any setting without disrupting your game.

 

[Len]

I'd like you to tell me the three most interesting things about a world you build.

Campaign in gestation:


What is interesting:

• Save the world. If the entire planet is about to be destroyed by a great evil, what can a group of 1st-level PCs possibly do about it? Here, the world is much smaller and it is plausible that the PCs are in a position to avert catastrophe.
• Problem solving: I don't intend this to be a hack-n-slash murderhobo campaign. I expect the players will use a variety of approaches to the challenges that I present. Of course, this depends on the players and the characters they bring.
• '70s moustaches. This seems to be what that my friends grabbed onto when I proposed the campaign.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

OMD! How have I never heard of The Starlost?

And I agree with your players; clearly the moustaches are a very important, nay integral, part of the whole.