Forums / Fun! / Creative

11,721 total conversations in 468 threads

+ New Thread


World/Lore Building thread

Last posted Mar 06, 2021 at 05:25PM EST. Added Feb 19, 2021 at 02:34AM EST
18 posts from 10 users

A thread for those who aren't good at or don't really care much for storytelling but who do enjoy building worlds and creating Lore.

I've got about 2 I've been working on so far. They're both incomplete (and will probably remain that way forever lol)

The one I've put the most work into (by virtue of having worked on it the longest) is called Riders in the Skies. I wrote a decent summary (in order to help focus what it is I'm going for whenever I make new additions)

The setting is a science fantasy story with ‘superheroes’ as the primary protagonists. It also has elements of shonen (like the analyzation of powers and how they work) among other things. The powers and abilities are split according to how these powers are often presented in comic book stories. The technology of the setting is based on the idea that comic book super geniuses would share their inventions with the world. This element is the primary contributor to the sci-fi aspect. Think of any incredible piece of tech made by Tony Stark, Reed Richards, and Lex Luthor being sold and copied all over the world.

This technology lends itself to the first type of ‘super-power’. Power granted to one by external (power armor, power suits, magic items) or otherwise unnatural alterations (cybernetics, biochemical enhancement).

The other type of power set, the Materialist, is based on the idea of traditional ‘super powers’. Think mutants, meta-humans, etc etc. Materialists though are a more analyzed version and as such there are more rules as to how it works. There are constraints, which means that certain things cannot logically be done within the story with these powers, necessitating the need for magic.

Magic makes up the 3rd type of power set due to its prevalence within superhero stories alongside superpowers. It’s always presented as different, yet no explanation is given as to why. In my setting this difference has a logical answer which also lends itself to a set of rules and constraints that it also must abide by. It can do many of the same things materialism can do, but it also has things only it can do (and vice versa). The best way to sum up the arcane in this setting is that it’s: The Force + The Warp + Tolkien Magic.

And the 4th type of power set is those who are powerful because of their physiology. Which is to say, amongst their own species, they are normal, but among humans they are powerful. Examples include vampires, werewolves, Asgardians, kryptonians, aliens from ben 10 etc. What separates inhumans in this setting is that they are incapable of producing fertile offspring with humans. And producing an infertile offspring can only occur between certain species.

These elements contribute to the ‘comic book’ aspect of the story. As for the fantasy aspect of the story. This is supported by the world of Therrat itself, the solar system it inhabits, as well as some of the interesting fauna and flora which inhabit the planet. The world has two moons, one habitable, the other not, within its oceans lurks krakens, leviathans, nessids and megalodons. Through its skies flies dragons and enormous arkbirds. And on its lands, walks enormous behemoths and turtles the size of elephants, not to mention the dire wolves and sabertooth cats and other apex predators of Therrat.
The story itself is more a basic outline than an actual cohesive narrative (and I can't help but constantly change and alter it)

This version of Riders in the Skies takes place in a fictional world with its own fictional past. The world of Therrat has seen many ages come and go and it has seen much strife. Therrat’s full recorded history is twice as long as that of Earth’s. The age at which man began to experience ‘powers’ began some 1300 years ago. Since then the humans of Therrat advanced at a startling pace, this led to a massive upheaval and rearrangement of society, with materialists occupying the upper class. When magic came about, it posed a direct threat to the power wielded by the materialist’s and so was harshly persecuted. So much so that many of the oldest arcane universities have only been around for little over a century. And even when they were built they still dealt with threats and prejudice from the outside world. Over the course of the story we learn different things such as the various mythologies and histories of Therrat. We learn that mankind’s presence on Therrat is not natural. In this version, the titular organization’s origins dates back at least a thousand years.

Over the centuries the Riders fought around the world, fighting for lives and rights of innocent people, whether this was through helping overthrow a tyrannical governments, helping fend off a genocide, or intervening in devastating conflicts. The Story is meant to parallel real world events (revolutions, funding from self-interested third parties). Its takes the idea of superheroes by making them super-powered beings who are heroes, not necessarily for fighting small level crime, but fighting crimes against humanity and fighting for popular movements. Aside from that, they don’t fit the bill of traditional edgy anti-heroes, (they’re not sociopaths, and they are genuinely good people).

The basic synopsis is that, in the modern era, the organization is crumbling from a number of factors, both internal and external. This has not stopped the daily problems which plague the world from raging on; from crime and corruption, to disasters and super-powered mayhem. They must deal with these while also being force to deal with the fact that, perhaps their time is simply coming to an end.

I want the story to resemble that of Star Wars. We jump in at random points in time (sometimes months or years apart) and focus only on the conflicts which shape the characters. As such individual stories are self-contained, yet still part of a larger overarching narrative.

The conflicts themselves are based on various sci-fi, anime, and cinematic tropes I enjoy: disaster movies, space movies, adventure, military, battle shonen, video games.
In my mind, I envision the technology of the setting as a cross between Gundam and Halo.

As for the world/society itself, the best way I can describe is like a mix between Overwatch and Middle-Earth. So kind of Star Wars-ish I guess. The fantasy races occupy the same position as Omnics. Though at this point the discrimination isn't as egregious. It resembles the kind of discrimination in modern America. Problems still exist sure. But egregious crimes such as murder and blatant discrimination are considered taboo and heavily looked down upon by the general populace. This applies to sapient machines as well.
Last edited Feb 19, 2021 at 02:54AM EST

I really like the idea of this thread and really love world building, but I don't want to dump any specific details that would pertain to the stories of any of them.

Eh, I could talk about one of them a little I guess. I'm still working out the name for the universe as a whole, I've just been going with the working title of "Universe 2"

A totally different world that contains both fantasy stuff and different types of retro-futurism. Most of what I've been working on is with the main continent that's based off of Europe and North America, but I'm also trying to flesh out something based off of Asia, Africa and Oceania. Medieval societies exist in conflict with more Modern and Industrialized societies. There's also a couple different planets that are completely isolated from everything else for a while, but I have even less worked out for them. Almost all mythological creatures with the exception of a nymph variant I made are essentially hostile to humanity. Said nymph variant is basically an inversion of the whole nature-spirit thing with them being gray-skinned personifications of stuff like technological advancement and industrialism, they're also incredibly hostile to their more nature-oriented cousins and vice-versa. They also have abilities such as an attraction towards and an extreme capability with creating and operating machines. There's also stuff like demonic masks that can possess people, animals and objects and turn them into hideous monsters and some other weird stuff.
I don't just want to do one story with this, but basically explore it through several stories that are sometimes interconnected and sometimes completely separate aside from taking place in the same universe. I was mainly thinking of starting off with one story where the protagonists explore a few notable areas of the world on their way to their objective and then doing another with some characters that were introduced as side characters that explores some areas with more detail and then moving on to different isolated stories that don't interact with the first two and then maybe making some prequel stories and larger world-war stories. I'm definitely going to do multiple world-wars if I get to it.
I was thinking of giving different countries/regions their own aesthetics, so stuff like the U.S. stand-in having Dieselpunk with some Vietnam-Era and 80's-Era styled technology thrown in, having a country that uses an aesthetic similar to Y2K, a Japan stand-in that uses Dieselpunk but with ancient Japanese stuff thrown in, the European stand-ins generally being Dieselpunk but fused with the styles of whatever country they're based off of and so-on. If I had to make a live-action movie about any of the major wars, I'd make it similar to war films from the 50's-70's.

A world with no known land besides a large number of islands in a massive sea. (Let's number them to make things simple.) Each one (or group of islands, in some cases) has a different aesthetic. Island 1 is dieselpunk/steelpunk and has colossal smoke-belching mechas filled with what looks like one of those massive computers from the 50s. Island 2 is steampunk and has black powder firearms, having gotten the technology from Island 1 a few decades back. It controls the sky with heavily armed airships. Island 3 is rich with copper. Its inhabitants are primitive and use copper weapons and some crude bows. However, it is at the nexus of multiple ley lines. Add the amazing mana conduction provided by copper, and you have a place seeping with magic. They would have been taken over long ago if they didn't have extremely powerful shamans and nature spirits fighting off the invaders. I don't have any more ideas for islands as of yet, but if you guys have names for the existing islands I'll take 'em.

Basically it's a world war on a smaller scale. I'm not sure what the catalyst was yet, but there's multiple factions and collectives of islands trying to gain power. Island 3 is neutral, and Islands 1 and 2 are opposed to each other.

Last edited Feb 19, 2021 at 02:54PM EST

I'll do this for my Smash parody.

The Setting: Everyone comes from different worlds with different storylines, different social systems, different tech levels, different magic, possibly different laws of physics. What is the setting when the story takes place in every setting? It's the glue between them all. Interdimensional travel, time travel, the complexities it brings up, the people who have the technology to do all that, and the tournament that everyone is hoping to participate in.

And the fun comes from mixing the different worlds together. Let's throw the Samus and Iji knockoffs into the Fallout world and have them kick its ass. Let's throw the gentle woobie into the Game of Thrones world. Let's have Superman and Lina fight Godzilla. Let's have a Rita Repulsa type create an army of Putties and have one 2hu show up and smash them all. Let's have power-armored soldiers raid Hogwarts. Let's have a giant space battle with all of the sci-fi space fleets from TV and movies just because we can. The mixing, matching, and fighting is what Smash is about.

The Story: Mick is in debt and hopes to make money by hiring some fighters to put into the tournament, hoping they get popular, and then putting them into advertising. His first choice is disqualified, his second choice tries to shoot him, the person he hired to train them tries to shoot him… it goes about that well. The fighters he does hire come from post-apocalyptic worlds and are trying not to get sent back there.

The Aesthetics: I'm going for the feel of an early '80s kid-friendly action show like A-Team or Battlestar Galactica. The Writer's Guide discusses the aestheics for a couple of pages and gives details about the setting.

And for Princess of the Skies:

It's the future, about 100 years out. Israel is now a monarchy that calls itself Judea and doesn't take itself too seriously. The king passed away and left the monarchy to his only daughter who rather be involved in research and science projects. She still calls herself a princess rather than queen. She is in Colorado working with the Americans on several top-secret projects: weapons, cloning, space travel, and time travel.

It's 1942. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and America prepares for war in the Pacific. One girl knew of the attack ahead of time. She calls herself a princess of Judea.

After her timeship crashed, the princess is stranded in the past with a super-powered reconnaissance aircraft that she designed to resemble a P-38 Lightning. She joins the war, trains a squad of women pilots at Midway, and uses her plane's advanced technology to cheat at air battles.

I haven't written this, but I imagine it to be like an episodic comic book.

I have written a sequel that uses the princess as a plot device. That story is a mix of James Bond and Indiana Jones.

Last edited Feb 19, 2021 at 07:33PM EST

I happen to have quite a lot of actual setting information I wanted to get out of the way, so I put some scattered worldbuilding/lore details in a .PDF available below.

[DAYBREAK.PDF]

To get personal for a moment: This is my first time actually bringing this world outside of my close friends. I've always had a hard time articulating myself and deciding which details would be most important, and I'm always hung up by the fear that what I create isn't good enough or too weird/preachy/derivative.
Last edited Feb 20, 2021 at 11:50PM EST

Kommando_Kaijin wrote:

I really like the idea of this thread and really love world building, but I don't want to dump any specific details that would pertain to the stories of any of them.

Eh, I could talk about one of them a little I guess. I'm still working out the name for the universe as a whole, I've just been going with the working title of "Universe 2"

A totally different world that contains both fantasy stuff and different types of retro-futurism. Most of what I've been working on is with the main continent that's based off of Europe and North America, but I'm also trying to flesh out something based off of Asia, Africa and Oceania. Medieval societies exist in conflict with more Modern and Industrialized societies. There's also a couple different planets that are completely isolated from everything else for a while, but I have even less worked out for them. Almost all mythological creatures with the exception of a nymph variant I made are essentially hostile to humanity. Said nymph variant is basically an inversion of the whole nature-spirit thing with them being gray-skinned personifications of stuff like technological advancement and industrialism, they're also incredibly hostile to their more nature-oriented cousins and vice-versa. They also have abilities such as an attraction towards and an extreme capability with creating and operating machines. There's also stuff like demonic masks that can possess people, animals and objects and turn them into hideous monsters and some other weird stuff.
I don't just want to do one story with this, but basically explore it through several stories that are sometimes interconnected and sometimes completely separate aside from taking place in the same universe. I was mainly thinking of starting off with one story where the protagonists explore a few notable areas of the world on their way to their objective and then doing another with some characters that were introduced as side characters that explores some areas with more detail and then moving on to different isolated stories that don't interact with the first two and then maybe making some prequel stories and larger world-war stories. I'm definitely going to do multiple world-wars if I get to it.
I was thinking of giving different countries/regions their own aesthetics, so stuff like the U.S. stand-in having Dieselpunk with some Vietnam-Era and 80's-Era styled technology thrown in, having a country that uses an aesthetic similar to Y2K, a Japan stand-in that uses Dieselpunk but with ancient Japanese stuff thrown in, the European stand-ins generally being Dieselpunk but fused with the styles of whatever country they're based off of and so-on. If I had to make a live-action movie about any of the major wars, I'd make it similar to war films from the 50's-70's.

Is it science fantasy or is it more of an urban fantasy set on an alternate world?

TripleA9000 wrote:

Is it science fantasy or is it more of an urban fantasy set on an alternate world?

Kind of both, I was thinking of having the majority of mythological creatures outright avoid human societies and I was going to have stuff like a city full or robots, mecha, combat walkers, giant tanks, flying fortresses and whatnot but at the same time I was going to have stuff like the aforementioned nymph variant, gremlins (the original folklore kind, not the Spielberg kind) and other more machine and technology-oriented stuff being reasonably common in cities.

The Sentinels of Simi Valley

Heaven and Hell used to be at war long ago, but there has been a steady ceasefire for a thousand years. This does not stop mischief-seeking demons from breaking through the veil and visiting Earth to have some fun from time to time. For some reason, many of them are attracted to a suburb of Los Angeles…

Cheryl is an anime fan who wishes that she could be a magical girl like Starlight Savior which she watches every Thursday after high school. When she hears that there are weird monsters in town, she wishes that she had powers to deal with them. Soon an angel shows up and grants her wish, giving her a magical shortsword and a small amount of powers and training to deal with the demons. The angel also gripes about how God is just sitting around doing nothing while humanity destroys itself and He doesn't let the angels intervene unless the demons are causing major problems. Cheryl doesn't catch on that he's a fallen angel, one of Lucifer's followers.

With her new magic sword, Cheryl goes out and saves the town from a minor demon every week. Some of the demons are so minor that they surrender and run away rather than tangle with anyone who has a holy sword. Her friends Darlene and Emma don't have magic powers, but Darlene will just beat up the demons with a baseball bat while Emma will help with strategy and make use of whatever is on hand. And then there's that weird girl Marin who always sits in the back of the class and seems to know all the material already, like it's all review for her, and who often shows up wherever the demons are. Sometimes she'll help the team. Sometimes she'll talk the demons out of a fight and tell them to go leave, and they do. A few of the demons know her by name. Weird girl.

Marin is, as you might have guessed, a demon who has been living on Earth for a few hundred years while disguised as a teenage girl. Both heaven and hell know her as a neutral who will leave them alone if they leave her alone. While she regularly drops hints about her backstory and powers, it takes forever for the heroes to figure it out. They only think she's into occult stuff because most weird girls who look like her are into that stuff. On Halloween she goes trick-or-treating as her true form and everyone compliments her on her costume and no one figures out that it's not a costume.

As for that angel, he wants to stop the demons from getting out of hand. Like angels are supposed to. He believes that Heaven should take a more active in guiding humanity, but he feels that has to limit his own activity because both Heaven and Hell might consider him a problem if he is seen breaking the ceasefire agreement and changing too many things on Earth.

This might be an episodic live-action TV show, 30 minutes long, set in the modern world or possibly in the mid-1980s. It would be a lot like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

WarriorTang wrote:

The Sentinels of Simi Valley

Heaven and Hell used to be at war long ago, but there has been a steady ceasefire for a thousand years. This does not stop mischief-seeking demons from breaking through the veil and visiting Earth to have some fun from time to time. For some reason, many of them are attracted to a suburb of Los Angeles…

Cheryl is an anime fan who wishes that she could be a magical girl like Starlight Savior which she watches every Thursday after high school. When she hears that there are weird monsters in town, she wishes that she had powers to deal with them. Soon an angel shows up and grants her wish, giving her a magical shortsword and a small amount of powers and training to deal with the demons. The angel also gripes about how God is just sitting around doing nothing while humanity destroys itself and He doesn't let the angels intervene unless the demons are causing major problems. Cheryl doesn't catch on that he's a fallen angel, one of Lucifer's followers.

With her new magic sword, Cheryl goes out and saves the town from a minor demon every week. Some of the demons are so minor that they surrender and run away rather than tangle with anyone who has a holy sword. Her friends Darlene and Emma don't have magic powers, but Darlene will just beat up the demons with a baseball bat while Emma will help with strategy and make use of whatever is on hand. And then there's that weird girl Marin who always sits in the back of the class and seems to know all the material already, like it's all review for her, and who often shows up wherever the demons are. Sometimes she'll help the team. Sometimes she'll talk the demons out of a fight and tell them to go leave, and they do. A few of the demons know her by name. Weird girl.

Marin is, as you might have guessed, a demon who has been living on Earth for a few hundred years while disguised as a teenage girl. Both heaven and hell know her as a neutral who will leave them alone if they leave her alone. While she regularly drops hints about her backstory and powers, it takes forever for the heroes to figure it out. They only think she's into occult stuff because most weird girls who look like her are into that stuff. On Halloween she goes trick-or-treating as her true form and everyone compliments her on her costume and no one figures out that it's not a costume.

As for that angel, he wants to stop the demons from getting out of hand. Like angels are supposed to. He believes that Heaven should take a more active in guiding humanity, but he feels that has to limit his own activity because both Heaven and Hell might consider him a problem if he is seen breaking the ceasefire agreement and changing too many things on Earth.

This might be an episodic live-action TV show, 30 minutes long, set in the modern world or possibly in the mid-1980s. It would be a lot like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

How about both? It could be kinda cool to have the players control two characters, one in the 80s and one in the present.

A story idea I've been cooking up for a while now. Don't know whether I want it to be a webcomic or animation or book, but the latter of the three seems most likely. All I know is that I eventually want to make something of this.

The story is called Four Aces. Essentially, a series of "conjunction events" in the late 2000s opens rifts to other versions of earth and the intelligent species found therein. In the years since the first conjunction events, the phenomenon has stabilized. Several major rifts are now hubs of trade and commerce. Diplomatic relations have been established between the major species, under which boils a sea of political intrigue. Technology has advanced exponentially. Economies have been bolstered, and entire cities have been raised up from nothing in the wake of the Great Conjunction. However, it is far form utopia. Gaps in society have widened; culturally, financially, and socially. Black and white have settled most of their differences, but only to gang up on gray and green and violet. Crime is skyrocketing, and with the surge of wealth flowing to and from the upper echelons of society ensure the people are placated, and blind eyes are turned to the desperate and unfortunate, now more than ever before. Dangers lurk not only in the cities and streets, but in the wildlands: in the uncharted, hidden rifts leading to barren or remote worlds where the arm of the law, already stretched thin in the cities, cannot possibly hope to reach. Places where criminal organizations, from small gangs of bandits to entire cartel armies can fester and grow, amassing power to lord over those too helpless to resist. There are few out there with the proper skillset to deal with them. Few who can take them all down and come out unscathed. Like all things, their services come at a price, but rest assured that when the chips are down, no hand can outplay

The Four Aces
The story revolves around four characters, each with their own callsign based on the ace of each suit of cards.
Jacob (Ace of Spades)

Backstory here
Keeala (Ace of Hearts)

Backstory here
Alexandr (Ace of Clubs)

Backstory here
Nezai'i (Ace of Diamonds)

Backstory here

I want it to be kind of a "adventures of" series. No big morals to teach or sermons to give, though there will be a lot of hard Aesops for the younger characters to learn, and even harder ones for Jacob. If their backstories don't spell it out enough, these guys are very broken people, all for their very own reasons, and I want to see what happens to them as I hand them victories, dish out crushing defeats, and put them all through the wringer. I want to see what can convince Jacob to live a real fulfilling life, what can get Keeala to be honest with herself and others, what it would take to let Alexandr trust again, and how Nezai'i could open up and let go of whatever past she's holding onto.
The Aesthetics of the story are still a work in progress. I wanted to go full-on cyberpunk at first, but with how much that is in vogue, I don't want to risk looking derivative. Maybe something a bit more contemporary, especially considering how it's supposed to take place in alternate present day, especially considering how a lot of people in this setting don't really have much opportunity to enjoy the full extent of technological progress on display among the upper crust. Since the leader is ex-Delta and all his new comrades were trained primarily by him, they'll all be wearing some sort of tactical-but-practical gear, prescribed by Jacob, then self-tailored and personalized. A kind of "tacti-punk," if you will

This is an idea I kinda had been kicking around for a minute. Basically it’s gonna be a sci-fi setting that’s a mix of the NobleBright setting of Star Trek to the GrimDark setting of 40k. It’s basically an anthology series similar to Love Death and Robots.

It’s in the far off future, Earth had its golden age and colonized multiple worlds in the Milky Way due to an ancient alien technology that allows for FTL travel found on Mars. This tech is known as (placeholder name is Gates until I can think of a better one) and with it terraforming technology was found. Humanity is at the zenith of its expansion and history. Human life is quintupled and advancements in bionics, genetics and AI development allows for humans to become borderline immortal. It is a golden age of prosperity and joy but an event that no one would suspect happens. The (Gates) system shutdown. No one knows why it shut down, all that’s known is that all the fringe worlds to core worlds in the Human empire are cut off. Follow different characters dealing with the events leading up to the sudden (Gate) systems crash and how they’re dealing with it. From a smuggler trying to make ends meat, a soldier stuck in the (Gate) system, a planetary official having to keep the citizens in order to a Fringe World having to fight off attacks from pirates.
Welcome to Astra Edge.

Also sorry if this sounds like it’s been done before of sounds familiar. Got some ideas from Star Sector.

Last edited Mar 02, 2021 at 06:32PM EST

Derptastic Derp Man wrote:

This is an idea I kinda had been kicking around for a minute. Basically it’s gonna be a sci-fi setting that’s a mix of the NobleBright setting of Star Trek to the GrimDark setting of 40k. It’s basically an anthology series similar to Love Death and Robots.

It’s in the far off future, Earth had its golden age and colonized multiple worlds in the Milky Way due to an ancient alien technology that allows for FTL travel found on Mars. This tech is known as (placeholder name is Gates until I can think of a better one) and with it terraforming technology was found. Humanity is at the zenith of its expansion and history. Human life is quintupled and advancements in bionics, genetics and AI development allows for humans to become borderline immortal. It is a golden age of prosperity and joy but an event that no one would suspect happens. The (Gates) system shutdown. No one knows why it shut down, all that’s known is that all the fringe worlds to core worlds in the Human empire are cut off. Follow different characters dealing with the events leading up to the sudden (Gate) systems crash and how they’re dealing with it. From a smuggler trying to make ends meat, a soldier stuck in the (Gate) system, a planetary official having to keep the citizens in order to a Fringe World having to fight off attacks from pirates.
Welcome to Astra Edge.

Also sorry if this sounds like it’s been done before of sounds familiar. Got some ideas from Star Sector.

Fuck the haters, this is your game

Working on a Fallout: North Carolina setting for a tabletop RPG campaign with friends. Found out that some dedicated person took a throwaway line from Point Lookout about "The Broken Banks" (NC's outer banks region) and made a whole setting around that area on fallout fanon wiki. Decided to take that as canon and focus the rest of my efforts on developing my old hometown and the Piedmont/Appalachia regions.

It's mostly ideas atm but here's what I got.

The central theme of the game will be "Reconstruction" to draw on the history of the region. The players will come into responsibility of a small settlement of their own that gains some big friends and becomes a power player in the region fast. They deal with isolationist settlements that want to stay alone, aggressive ones that want their aid in an upcoming war, and foreign interests that want a proxy to serve their interests in Dixie without getting involed.

The early game antagonists will be more localized threats. Stuff like raider bosses, weird colonial larpers from Williamsburg/Yorktown/Jamestown region, a super mutant Blackbeard, and various beasties. The late-game main conflict will revolve around a faction trying to conquer Dixie and rebuild it in their image. The faction will be a group that I'm trying to flesh out but have tentatively called "The Confederaiders". The idea with the Confederaiders is that they'll be a group aimed at "restoring southern antebellum" (antebellum meaning pre-2077 America in this case) at the expense of using slaves to fit their means.

SO THERE'S THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM TO DEAL WITH. As a southerner myself (well raised anyway) I feel a compulsive need to give it a bit more nuance than "hee hoo slavery bad", especially since Caesar's Legion and other groups already use slaves extensively. The question of WHO they want to enslave is probably what will make or break things.

Making the slaves a single race (ghouls, mutants, etc.) doesn't feel right since it just copies the tyranny of the Enclave under a different crime,
making the slaves robots seems a bit too pragmatic and unlikely to cause a moral conflict with the players to drive things home,
making the slaves a specific ethnicity (chinese, black) doesn't feel like it fits the post-war conditions,

So with that all said I think I want to make the slaves raiders themselves. It's easy to dehumanize raiders as just sociopaths out in the wasteland and I feel there's a bigger gray area in making a villain that wants to use them as slaves. Make the villain's schtick be something like "guy wants to rebuild the wasteland, raiders fuck with plans, seeks means to eliminate raiders, uses confederate symbology to add mythos to his actions". I THINK I've found the sweet spot of "rational yet bastard" for the villain's motive being that but I'm not quite sure.

On the flip side I've tried to start developing a "good" faction to oppose the Confederaiders. I've been listening to a lot of civil war music and quite a few Union songs utilize evangelical themes. I came up with this today but what I think I'll do is a post-war radical Christian group not too dissimilar from the Burned Man, but with an extreme abolition focus. Something that wants to "save souls" but also "purge the sinners". Basically I want to make the ""good guys"" have a bit of a flaw that makes them questionable to join. My players aren't too religious so I think a faction that dips heavy on this will make them wary on committing to the group fully, even if I'm not out to go full 'the church were the REAL bad guys' route. Was thinking of making them tribals that found Jesus…and also a cache of pre-war USAF Airbone infantry jetpacks and fashioned them to look like wings. Or something like that. Still WIP.

Other cool things I want in:
- Vault of Deathclaws that gained intelligence through being subjected to the works of Shakespeare. Friendly to all but feared by all due to rumors of them turning people into beasts.
- MAD SCIENCE: Jules Verne has a couple of novels about a mad scientist that makes weapons in NC like one called "The Fulgurator" and one simply called "Terror" so I'm gonna use that.
- Occult Shit: A pulp author named MANLY Wade Wilson wrote some short stories about occult investigations in the south so I want to draw from those elements. May throw in some campy pulpy occult shit here and there, though it won't be the main focus.
- Devil's Isle: The "Expansion" Quest I wanna do would be dealing with the descendants of the US Marines that were stationed on Bermuda at the time. Having them just be some wandering exiles with no home, they'll want the PCs to help them retake their homeland of Bermuda. Should be a nice "one week in hell" side story.

I have more but right now I'm just trying to work through figuring out the design of things. There's a lot of people who have had this same question before and have developed their own ideas on Fallout NC but I'm trying to make some my own.

Last edited Mar 03, 2021 at 03:17PM EST

Since I already posted about R.i.t.S I'll link to a tumblr that I made which provides more in depth explanations for the Universe I made.

I've been working on Riders in the Skies for a little over 6 years at this point. Its basically a side passion project that I doubt will ever be really finished nor do I have any intention to publish any of it or make money off of it. It's kind of just something I do now when I'm bored.

Link

The second universe is more recent and something I only started working on last year. Its called Shadow and Light

The premise is about a 15 year old black girl in highschool who suddenly finds that she has an angel and a demon sitting on her shoulders. No one but her can see them and like the cliché they’re based on, they give her advice and attempt to sway her decisions in certain directions.

But there’s more, whenever she so pleases she can access the powers of either of them, but whose power she can use depends on what she uses those powers for. Angelic powers can only be used for righteous acts and demonic powers can only be used for sinful acts.

When dealing with drastic situations she can enter a super form wherein she is granted full access to the powers and abilities of the angel or demon in their entirety. The catch being that it only lasts for a few minutes, can only be done once per day, and when doing so she no longer has control. Control is instead given to either the angel or demon and while active she takes on a more combat ready form of the two.
This universe has 3 realms. The Midworld, inhabited by Humans, the Underworld inhabited by Eotadi (beings of Shadow and Flame), and the Overworld inhabited by the Lunetis (the beings of Light and Sound). The official name for Midworlders are Nikosto (beings of Flesh and Bone)

The Overworld’s sun is a blue star. Its moon also glows bright blue
The Underworld’s sun is a black hole. Its moon is blood red.

The Lunetis are separated into 4 ranks

Fochos: are among the mightiest of the immortals and are traditionally whom mortals have identified as ‘gods’ or Archangels.
Swahya: These are typically seen as lesser deities or high ranking spirits.
Saunga:
Dawt: Rank and file immortals, but still far stronger than normal humans

The rankings for Eotadi are
Tsehava: (Hebrew combination of Shadow and Flame)
Zilhab: (Arabic combination of Shadow and Flame)
Skoga: (Greek combination of Shadow and Flame)
Umma: (Latin combination of shadow and flame)
Each of the 3 Worlds has 4 major races. Humans wiped out the other 3 races long before recorded history
Overworld Races
Angels: More light than sound
Faeries: More sound than light.
Elves:
Makers: I basically just ripped these off from Darksiders

Underworld Races

Infernals: More flame than Shadow (also called demons). Originating from the region know as, the Inferno (where the lake of fire is located.)
Boatmen: A skeletal race who inhabit the underworld. Most commonly known for traversing the underworld’s Rivers with their scythes and boats. Because the Rivers of the underworld lead to the afterlife the boatmen are well known for their death and soul associated powers.
Those who meet a boatman without a coin are ferried off to the land of the dead. Those who arrive with a special coin can be granted certain privileges. Depending on the coin one can be reincarnated, have their souls shaved of corruption by the boatmen’s scythe, or even be resurrected. It all depends on the coin. These coins were sent to the world by the death god in a large but finite quantity. They cannot be counterfeited.
What the coins are used for and what happens when they are all spent is known only to the death god and the boatmen. If one tries to use a fake coin (and be assured the boatmen WILL spot a fake) then they claim your soul for all eternity. What they do with said soul is known only to them.
They are to have had originated from the Great Dead Valley, through which all of the underworlds rivers intercross, forming an enourmous lake at the point of intersection
Night creature: These creatures are leather skinned, pointy eared, and sharp toothed. Sometimes they have wings, sometimes they exclusively drink blood, and sometimes they’re more beast like than humanoid, but they all have an aversion to sunlight, more so than the other underworlders.
Abyssian: More shadow than flame, these beings hail from an underworld region call the Abyss, a realm where no light shines. As for their physical appearance, they’re shadow creatures. Like the other 4 they can come in different shapes and sizes, but generally an abyssian would look like venom or one of the demon head creatures from the darkness.

A lot of this stuff is incomplete due to how recently I began working on it.

Last edited Mar 03, 2021 at 03:29PM EST

I've always wanted to write a story where the locale is a toroidal planet , that is, a planet that looks like a donut. But there really isn't enough literature on things like plate tectonics, gravity, air currents, all the "planet" part. I even tried starting a subreddit, r/TheTorus, but there wasn't much interest. I know this is somewhat off-topic, it's just what came to mind when I saw this thread.

I had some ideas of a few fantasy settings that varied from "Beings of Earth and Fantasy World have a little exchange" to "Isekai but this ain't some harem wish fulfilment BS, you're screwed." I'll share the oldest one I got since I do want to make something out of it if I can make some decent writing and have motivation when I'm not at work.

Fantasy world parallel to Earth where we got your standard races such as humans, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, beastmen, etc. Some magical BS manages to have some individuals from both Earth and this fantasy world cross over with results one could expect, such as a present day human having difficulty adjusting to an Elven warrior realizing how screwed he is because he never faced something like cars and firearms.
This is a bit of a doozy since not everything was set in stone as to what's what but summarize:
-Elves are great but they ain't the mightiest, that goes to the group they were an offshoot of, the Fae (think of elves but with greater magical and physical power). Dwarves also exist and are a distant relative of the elves by also being an offshoot of the Fae. Unlike most fantasy dwarves, these ones are tall and swole. Any short dwarf is more likely from a curse brought by the goddess of the Fae for a great sin in past times or from said dwarf having gnomish ancestry (out of all of Faekind, dwarves were the kindest to gnomes)

-Gnomes are ahead of others in this fantasy world by a Renaissance sort of understanding with technology and science. Unlike other gnomes from say Warcraft or DnD, the gnomes of this world would be more like Da Vinci in inventions and their armor being more of something from a baroque painting than medieval tapestry. They have goblins as a relative thanks to an incident with the Fae.

-Humans and orcs are directly related and are pretty cool with one another. Unlike other fantasy worlds, humans are "jack of all trades" since that goes to the gnomes. Humans have the best endurance while orcs have the best strength

-Beastmen/Furries exist as more or less of a great spirit wanting to cash in on making their own group but didn't have much creativity and so just made a bunch of animal people under a singular banner. These groups then from natural growth managed to make their own types stand out i.e. dog people being more pious.

-Witches exist in this world as makers of booze and drugs. They can exist from good to bad. Good witches make booze and drugs that aren't a havoc on people. Bad ones make booze and drugs that would justify a war on drugs and alcohol. They also work well with certain religious organizations. 99% of witches are female and most appear human but gnome witches come in as close second.

Many of these groups are not gonna be homogenous or at least just consist of "five kingdoms." Like in real life, there'd be different ethnic groups and the like for them though the Fae and their offshoots have the least because they got more ties in "Great Houses."

For story, can't say much for this setting because it'd be more a collection of stories. These collections though, as far as I thought would involve:

-Accomplished Elven Commander goes native on earth, becomes a redneck with a liking to earth human pornography and booze
-Master Wizard learns of guns, seeks to become a hybrid of Gandalf and Rambo
-An African-American man seeks to become a master wizard (literally based this off an image I saw long ago of a black guy asking a woman for a game about magic and wizards)
-Japanese neet and his dad's friend ends up showing a kingdom of Cat people stuff about Japan from the Sengoku era and ended up making a kingdom that copies some stuff from Sengoku era (and also becoming the first human father to a cat-girl because he ended up being in the fancy of a cat noblewoman)

I first mentioned this stuff back in 2017 or 2018 on Discord and in real life to a friend. Some of this stuff, I just made some ideas off after seeing a funny image or remembering back to something I learned from a university class or even as a response to something like with the gnomes. I wanted to use a renaissance/baroque aesthetic because I thought those were cool, gnomes were a renaissance spirit or something like that, and I legit don't like gnomes being given a steampunk sort of look thanks to Warcraft.

Last edited Mar 05, 2021 at 07:34PM EST

SicklyVivian wrote:

I had some ideas of a few fantasy settings that varied from "Beings of Earth and Fantasy World have a little exchange" to "Isekai but this ain't some harem wish fulfilment BS, you're screwed." I'll share the oldest one I got since I do want to make something out of it if I can make some decent writing and have motivation when I'm not at work.

Fantasy world parallel to Earth where we got your standard races such as humans, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, beastmen, etc. Some magical BS manages to have some individuals from both Earth and this fantasy world cross over with results one could expect, such as a present day human having difficulty adjusting to an Elven warrior realizing how screwed he is because he never faced something like cars and firearms.
This is a bit of a doozy since not everything was set in stone as to what's what but summarize:
-Elves are great but they ain't the mightiest, that goes to the group they were an offshoot of, the Fae (think of elves but with greater magical and physical power). Dwarves also exist and are a distant relative of the elves by also being an offshoot of the Fae. Unlike most fantasy dwarves, these ones are tall and swole. Any short dwarf is more likely from a curse brought by the goddess of the Fae for a great sin in past times or from said dwarf having gnomish ancestry (out of all of Faekind, dwarves were the kindest to gnomes)

-Gnomes are ahead of others in this fantasy world by a Renaissance sort of understanding with technology and science. Unlike other gnomes from say Warcraft or DnD, the gnomes of this world would be more like Da Vinci in inventions and their armor being more of something from a baroque painting than medieval tapestry. They have goblins as a relative thanks to an incident with the Fae.

-Humans and orcs are directly related and are pretty cool with one another. Unlike other fantasy worlds, humans are "jack of all trades" since that goes to the gnomes. Humans have the best endurance while orcs have the best strength

-Beastmen/Furries exist as more or less of a great spirit wanting to cash in on making their own group but didn't have much creativity and so just made a bunch of animal people under a singular banner. These groups then from natural growth managed to make their own types stand out i.e. dog people being more pious.

-Witches exist in this world as makers of booze and drugs. They can exist from good to bad. Good witches make booze and drugs that aren't a havoc on people. Bad ones make booze and drugs that would justify a war on drugs and alcohol. They also work well with certain religious organizations. 99% of witches are female and most appear human but gnome witches come in as close second.

Many of these groups are not gonna be homogenous or at least just consist of "five kingdoms." Like in real life, there'd be different ethnic groups and the like for them though the Fae and their offshoots have the least because they got more ties in "Great Houses."

For story, can't say much for this setting because it'd be more a collection of stories. These collections though, as far as I thought would involve:

-Accomplished Elven Commander goes native on earth, becomes a redneck with a liking to earth human pornography and booze
-Master Wizard learns of guns, seeks to become a hybrid of Gandalf and Rambo
-An African-American man seeks to become a master wizard (literally based this off an image I saw long ago of a black guy asking a woman for a game about magic and wizards)
-Japanese neet and his dad's friend ends up showing a kingdom of Cat people stuff about Japan from the Sengoku era and ended up making a kingdom that copies some stuff from Sengoku era (and also becoming the first human father to a cat-girl because he ended up being in the fancy of a cat noblewoman)

I first mentioned this stuff back in 2017 or 2018 on Discord and in real life to a friend. Some of this stuff, I just made some ideas off after seeing a funny image or remembering back to something I learned from a university class or even as a response to something like with the gnomes. I wanted to use a renaissance/baroque aesthetic because I thought those were cool, gnomes were a renaissance spirit or something like that, and I legit don't like gnomes being given a steampunk sort of look thanks to Warcraft.

Since I forget to expand on summarizing how this crossover world would be in stories and because I don't know if I hit the character limit:
-Some gnomes end up being like Walter White from Breaking Bad in being rivals to some evil groups of witches in making illegal substances. Remember, these guys are like the Renaissance so they'll dabble not only in crafting machinery akin to Da Vinci, they'll also dabble in chemistry and the more fantastic version of it known as alchemy which means fantastic drugs that would justify a war on drugs.

-A no name midwestern town faces off against dwarves and some beast they were figthing, town wins because their rednecks with guns prove to be more effective than a Dwarven battle axe.

-Some warehouse in a port city of a Southeast Asian country falls siege and hostage to orcs and goblins in the sense of this being a sort of Amazonian group wanting to find husbands, and they find the men there more attractive than the ones of their world.

Also to clear up typos and expand on some races since it was the first time I tried to spoiler:

Humans AREN'T jack of all trades

The anthro races would also, thanks to a humorous thought I have, have a weirded out response to the furry fandom and what they could see.

Some Earth humans smuggle themselves or legally travel into the fantasy world because they think they could be like some DnD adventurer or learn magic or smoke fantasy weed in a hole, only to find out this isn't the world of Faerun/Azeroth/Nirn/Middle Earth.

Fae are more or less "inspired"/ripping off Celtic/Irish mythology in some ways.

NGL but one of the biggest things that inspired me with this idea was RedLetterMedia in their Aquaman review where Mike went on about if some guy named King Blah Blah Blah saw what the surface offered and wanted it such as rollercoasters, steaks, and vicodin.

For my other setting, the "Isekai" one it started more off as like some game idea but to say for the premise of the world (if one wondered for Isekai transportation, I just say magical portal because screw truck-kun and reincarnation):

Some fantasy world where the western continent is beastmen. 90% of them would be anthro with some animal representing a sort of European kingdom such as dogs for holy Roman Empire, Horses for Poland, Lizards for Byzantium. Each one had their own national system like one ruled by a council, one ruled by merchant houses, one ruled by a holy king with the backing of their god, etc.

Being tired of "humans are the bastards/monsters" trope, I'd imagine some of these kingdoms have varied levels of racism towards humans, the worst of it being from rabbit (ripping off Medieval manuscripts where there murderous rabbits, I'm not kidding) and the least worst being lizards. On the other side of the world are human nations and kingdoms. Each one representing a nation I know doesn't get much representation so imagine human kingdoms of Not-Poles, Not-Filipinos, Not-Ethiopians, etc.


On Groups
Since these are more of kingdoms with a sort of ethnic majority, it's simplified as this:
Holy kingdom of dog men
Merchant republic of cat People
Commonwealth of horse people
City States/Remnants of an empire of lizard people
Two Monarchies, one of fox people and the other of rabbit people

As for the summary of it, even though it ties more to just a plot of an Isekai in just being in another world

The protagonist gets sucked into a portal where they fall in a battlefield, noticing it's like Europe in the Medieval ages but with animal people. Get captured by slavers who note the protag ain't some normal human (Earth humans are special, real special). Protag learns how to fight and the like while in this prison for a month until they make a daring escape. Cue a Samurai Jack style quest in getting back home by travelling the land, get into various situations around the different kingdoms. The most epic thing there is to it is just fighting some old evil that existed in the last days of the Empire of the Lizard People but it ain't something that threatens the world. Protag then could either return home, find out they're trapped forever with an appropriate feeling such as despair or resolving themselves, or finding out the portal not only took them but displaced others from this world and prepare for an even worse adventure that deals with both Earth and this fantasy world.
Last edited Mar 06, 2021 at 05:26PM EST
Skeletor-sm

This thread is closed to new posts.

Old threads normally auto-close after 30 days of inactivity.

Why don't you start a new thread instead?

'lo! You must login or signup first!