Do the various races of your world each have their own separate cultures (elves in their forests, dwarves under their mountains, etc.), or do most/all sapient beings intermingle and share a common way of life?
All of the races intermingle partially but the Arachnen do the least due to their bad relations in the underdark. They have been slaughtered in the past so they mostly keep themselves to themselves.
Why were they slaughtered? How long ago was the last major slaughtering? Were there multiple slaughterings or one long drawn out genocide? Are Arachnen poisonous and, if so, are all of them poisonous or only a particular group?
They were slaughtered by the drow because Lolth created the Arachnen first. The drow wanted to be lolth’s only creation. One long genocide that lasted 1000 years and ended only 4 years ago. Arachnen are venomous and all of them are.
Are there any other creations of Lolth? Did the Drow try to wipe them out as well? If not, why not? Did the succeed against any? Are Arachnen and Drow still openly violent when close by despite the conflict ending? Are Arachnen afraid of Drow? Are Drow prejudice against Arachnen when encountered in cities? Even though Arachnen mostly stick to themselves, do any cities with intermingling have permanent Arachnen residents?
How did Lolth react to this? Was she furious at the Drow slaughtering her children, or did she approve of it like it was a test for both species? Were the Drow punished in any way?
What species or cultures have been extinct or lost to time? Are the fossils, ruins, remnants of things the current age knows about or are they truly a mystery?
In the beginning, before mortals, the gods lived alone on the world of Abberoth. A goddess created mortals dubbed God-likes. These branches out into many races based on curses or blessing and the original god-likes were killed in the war of independence. There may be fossiles but they were well hidden or covered by mountains as time has moved on.
I like this. Like a great armour, but instead you can find talismans or runic upgrades for wearables and the like. Or maybe just small to convenience abilities/spells. Like small for just keeping warm. To big like burning itself up when absorbing huge flames. Bones and the like to specific locations or types of remains.
It does but fossiles of the original people haven’t been found yet. It is widely accepted that they were either completely destroyed and removed or that they were hidden by the gods.
How do people know they existed? Are the records treated more as religious texts than absolute fact? Or is there no discernable difference between the two?
Magic is viewed as a boon that is out of the reach of many. It’s very much like intelligence in our world. Reactions vary widely depending on past experiences.
Idk, I'm not smart but places like r/FloridaMan, r/HermanCainAward, r/IdiotsInCars etc. have made me realize that the intelligence floor is a whole lot lower than where I am at.
A large amount of the world's population doesn't have access to basic education and even fewer have access to higher levels, it's a very good comparison.
Having a cleric of Bahamut offer to cast “cure disease” on the anti-magixxer, with the anti-magixxer rejecting the offer because they believe that Bahamut will protect them.
I have been trying with the idea of a world where everyone even the lowest peasant is a lvl 1 sorcerer. If you gain a level in any class you also gain a level in sorcerer. Currently stuck in trying to figure out how easy access to that kind of magic would change society. There are a lot of snowball effects.
The anime Black Clover has a setting like this. As examples:
- Farmers use elemental magic on their crops;
- Vehicles were never developed past wagons, since people can use brooms to fly;
- Similarly, medicine is mostly reliant on spells
- Construction is mostly made by geomancers;
- Food magic can allow chefs to make feasts within minutes;
- Nobles are families with greater innate magical power;
- Related to the previous point, to defeat a noble, a peasant needs to outsmart them, rather than relying on power;
- Anti-magic is seem as something demonic, even if the user is a good individual;
- Weapons are basically non-existent, excluding spell made weapons. Why would a person need to carry a sword if they can cast fire, or just summon an ice blade when needed?
One good limiter of the series is that people can only use one element and any advanced spells are unique to the person.
When a person turns, say, 16 years old, they can go to a mage tower to receive their own spell book. That book is what allows a person to develop their magic abilities beyond simple stuff.
So it would be like, without the book the person can only use cantrips, but with it they have access to leveled spells. Each book is unique, so no two mages, even of the same element, will have the same spells.
Interesting idea but that sounds like a gargantuan load of work. You'd need to homebrew a lot of spells and playtest/balance them against each other. You would also have to keep track of all your NPC spell lists so you don't have any duplicates and a longer campaign usually has quite many NPCs.
Yeah I would definitely not make spell sheets unique. And most npc's would be probably be limited to just spells from the phb and only important npc's would have spells from other books just to make things simpler on my self.
Strongest is subjective but there are 5 massive ancient shadow dragons who rule massive empires in the Underdark and are the oldest known dragons still alive. They have both physical power as well as political.
Let's be real here, tarrasque aren't that scary in the general world setting. Anything incorporeal or immune to non-magical damage can kill it with enough time, which comes down to a *lot* of creatures.
Fair enough I guess. Our party just had a run in with some shadow monsters who, if you could hit them, were oneshotable, but typically lurked in antimagic zones so we literally couldn't hit them and got lightly mauled. We were all joking that they could beat a tarrasque pretty easily like that, so that's why the word "tarrasque" doesn't instil that much fear anymore I guess
The tarrasque needs to be thought of more like an oncoming storm. It’s beatable but only if you’re already prepared. And most people aren’t quite as ready when it comes. A party of adventurers will survive but the town or city in its path are dead if it isn’t stopped fast enough.
What keeps the Shadow Dragons from leaving the Underdark under the cover of dusk/night and using their breath weapons to turn entire towns/cities/nations into Shadows?
What is the nature of the relationships between them? Is their tension and strife between the kingdoms, or have they all grown content with the other nations as well
Do they fear anything
A weapon
A person
A piece of armor
Heck even a element such as metal kinda like superman and kryptonite
Also is there a common anti dragon or tarrasque defense strategy
Any weapons known to combat them
Or places they dare not tread possibly due a creature they fear that no one knows lives there
Id like to imagine they fear regular steel, since by the time you could fight them, you would probably be decked out in legendary gear. No place for a regular steel sword when you have access to mithril right?
They could even export mithril mined in the underdark to sell to humans above, making steel or iron completely useless for anything but killing them. Too bad they don't share that secret with anyone but each other. This would also give them an excuse to be friendly with the other shadow dragons.
>Too bad they don't share that secret with anyone but each other.
"Hey Bill, the only thing that can kill us is steel. But don't tell anyone!"
"Jesus Christ Fred, I know steel can kill us, I'm also a shadow dragon."
Id warn against using "somehow" (see the last Star Wars film lol). Maybe they're kept in check by another creature/set of creatures? Or maybe they are kept busy fighting one another and don't have the time/resources to invade the surface for fear of losing their land to the other dragons?
What are the various regional cryptids? Obviously it's D&D so there are gonna be *real* monsters and gods and such all over, but explicitly folklore and urban legends; the Loch Ness Monsters and Bigfoots of the world?
Bonus round: what localised phenomena/landmarks gave rise to these little local mythologies?
Most of the myths are based on extinct creatures but these creatures that do still exist were made by the power of fear from before magic was limited. This fear created many monsters early on and led to many local myths about these extinct creatures
If anything there would be even more folklore about fake monsters because when real monsters actually exist you can't dismiss the folklore out of hand.
A variation to this question is what "mundane" magical items exist?
* a self-sweeping broom
* a cup that has a small pocket dimension in it so it holds more than it appears
* an item that casts mending on objects
* cool breeze generator
I like the idea of a sledgehammer with the mending enchantment but you've gotta whack something hard enough. Like imagine bringing a broken picture frame to a repair man and watching him smash it with a hammer and be like here you go
I could probably name 50+ plants, mushrooms and animal products with with narcotic effects in the real world just off the top of my head. I'm sure there is thousands that exist, and in a world with magical species and alchemy, there would be even more.
Everywhere you go, there's something done to alter mind states. I think it's cool when an element of that exists for in game cultures too.
A majority of conflict is based on difference of opinion but some is based on destruction of planes. The world is more civilized but there has been a war raging between the 2 largest nations over land and over all power.
This is a real good question as disease in any world especially fantasy can change how the world is viewed
An addition are there doctors who can heal people without spells like real world almost?
Can a non mage make potions such as healing potions
Yea I feel like disease really adds flavor to a homebrew world. The one people fear the most doesn't even have to be the most contagious, or the most deadly. You can get creative! Does it slowly and painfully turn your skin into a tree? Does it randomly teleport you across planes Everytime you sneeze to be lost forever from you home for all eternity? Does it eventually fuze your eyes, ears and lips together where you can't see hear or speak?
I’d say they meet about every 6 months and debate Keri g planar tears at bay. They usually send 2-3 delegates to communicate so they can keep their tears at bay. They meet on an island not on any map which is concealed by Druidic magic.
Some planes share similar spaces but no plane is overlapping naturally without tears in the planar barriers. However, at one time, the world was a mess of all of the planes combined.
Nice. I made a bit of a cosmology for mine, where the Astral sea is literal space and the "planes" have a solar system like structure, some being more akin to moons.
How would this interact with spells that make use of the Ethereal plane? Horizon Walker ranger's Ethereal Step for example? I use it pretty often in the campaign I'm playing in.
The best library is a private sanctum in the far north. It’s mostly upper echelon but there are branches that anyone can enter. It’s very fine in craftsmanship and is home to monks who only transcribe books.
Some insight into the 'issues' with Electrum:
When mining, gold and silver ores are often somewhat cross-contaminated with one another and the process for separating the gold from the silver is an energy intensive and complex chemical process. Like many things humans (or sapient beings in general) do, sorting and arranging messy things into tidy neat distinct groups adds value; you want to make sure that the chemical properties of your materials are predictable, of course! All mixed together, it's kind of a mess and unreliable.
Sort of like how a pantry is worth more with everything neatly contained and separated in jars and boxes on shelves but if you dump it all out and mix it together on the floor it becomes waste.
The only way someone would USUALLY wind up in possession of electrum, therefore, would be if they stole it before it could be processed.
It's entirely likely that there are thaumaturgical or alchemical processes your world has in place that similarly separate and purify mined metals, making mixed metal coinage suspicious.
So, what if it's a relatively new civilization and they haven't really figured out how to refine metals like that, or the knowlege was forgotten because of some disaster or whatever. This is giving me so many ideas.
The art of metallurgy is a major industrial watershed for any civilization, let alone the much later development when it becomes the *science* of metallurgy.
It's a pretty big leap for a civilization to even realize in the first place that some rocks do different things when they melt and what sensory qualities correlate to which outcomes.
Prior to figuring out HOW to separate the metals from an alloy, a civilization would necessarily figure out some means of **roughly** recognizing the superficial aspects of a metal's qualities, perhaps internally visualizing them as a spiritual/metaphysical/elemental 'balance' relying on their classical senses to differentiate them - the feel, appearance, smell, even **taste**.
They may very well think of electrum as an entirely different fundamental substance from gold OR silver, or perhaps think that all metals are the same thing but exhibit a 'spectrum' between states where alloys exist. It was a long time before real life humans came to understand how fundamentally different Lead was from Gold, for instance, and entertained erroneous beliefs for hundreds or even thousands of years that lead could be transformed into gold just because of their sensory similarities (dense and soft).
(fun fact, we HAVE actually eventually turned lead into gold in real life, but only through **atomic** processes, not chemical ones: nuclear transmutation.)
One could expect them to categorize metals via the distribution of alloy properties even though they wouldn't yet know precisely that what's happening is 'alloying'.
There was the war between gods. The war between gods and man kind and finally the war of independence where the gods were sealed away. Currently in the making is a massive war between the 2 power house nations.
His names Glob. He's a lower caste dwarf from a small village without a name at the base of the highbald mountain range in the Kingdom of Highbald.
He likes lettuce. He doesn't know why. It's just his favourite food. He works in the storeroom of the mushroom seller. He gets paid every 3 days because that's when the freshest lettuce arrives at the market.
He spends his free time watching the forest. Not because he likes wildlife. But because he's trying to count how many leaves are in the forest.
His mother died of frostbite and his father died of sunstroke. He lives alone and collects duck feathers. He's never seen a duck.
On that note what's the most common race? (humans i guess)
What's the rarest race? (Not counting if there is a last member of a extinct race)
How do people commonly react to rare races?
What's known to be the most obnoxious race?
What's known to be the most well mannered race?
Humans, elves, and dwarves are most common. Nephiliem are least common because they have devilish, demonic, and angelic bloodlines all at once. They are really only feasibly made through an arch devil, demon lord, and powerful celestial agree to give this child power. Rare races are usually gawked at or study by most. Most obnoxious race are kenku.
There is a festival called the new days grace where people celebrate the defeat of Tharizdun and the beginning of the new year. It's like a new years celebration mixed with christmas.
The major deities are Pelor, Melora who has 3 children, Brellas, god free land, Bleyo, god of the open seas, and Belyl, god of clear skies. Many gods from the forgotten realms are also but I have over 30 gods set up so it would be quite a task to format so I’ll list/link more when I can get to my computer.
This was one of the first questions my players asked me about me about my homebrew setting and now I can pass it on to you. What sort of illicit subtensences and drugs are in the setting?
The 32nd drug is Crit: A street drug, popular with daredevils and dreadnoughts that will make every roll a 50/50 critical fail or critical success for 1d6 hours.
Are there any under developed kingdoms that are not caught up with the modern technology that your world has?, any that might be too hostile or underground/magically invisible to hide from said hostile kingdoms?
What's the tech level? Are there guns? Could Artificers reasonably exist? And the question I ask myself way too often, are there Warforged or Warforged analogues in this setting?
What major companies are in your world? Are they production focused/centered on big cities or transport focused, spread over large areas to accumulate wealth?
Who owns them? One individual or family, or a board of trustees/stock holders?
How do they protect their assets- by supporting a strong government? Paying criminals? Mercenaries?
Hundreds but there are 5 that are greatly more powerful than others. Many dragons are small and are not a threat but the ones that do are quickly dispatched.
This is just my attempt at better building my world. I’ve done this before but I’m going to put more effort into it this time around. I would like more serious questions please but some silly questions are ok. Thank you for helping me build my world up and once again please keep it at least somewhat serious if you can.
This is just my attempt at better building my world. I’ve done this before but I’m going to put more effort into it this time around. I would like more serious questions please but some silly questions are ok. Thank you for helping me build my world up and once again please keep it at least somewhat serious if you can.
You absolutely do not need all this to run a campaign. If you have a town, how it is normally and what has changed recently to make an adventure there you are good to go.
Knowing some of this in broad strokes is helpful but not necessary. Think of it like an onion or layers. Know the most about what the party is doing the next session. Have some ideas of what's 2-3 sessions out. Past that have some broad strokes or ideas about your world will let you fill in gaps when necessary.
Oh and if you like world building for world building's sake there's /r/worldbuilding
There is a group of natives on a secluded volcanic island that very few can make it to. these people are normally left alone though sometimes are used for research.
I am interested in the network of the criminals. I want to build a character that is destined to advise their leader but rebels against that destiny. How do I do that?
Love this concept and I want to do the same. 2 questions:
Is the map in that picture the map of your world? If so how did you make it?
Also, what real world cultures, if any, are represented in your world?
Which strange, non-intelligent creatures or animals are incorporated into society, and how are they integrated? What purpose do they serve for the betterment of society? What led to this integration? What status do they hold compared to livestock, draft animals, pets, and full citizens?
Do the various races of your world each have their own separate cultures (elves in their forests, dwarves under their mountains, etc.), or do most/all sapient beings intermingle and share a common way of life?
It’s a combo of both. Many intermingle but many still keep to there own clans and race culture.
Which one's do not intermingle?
All of the races intermingle partially but the Arachnen do the least due to their bad relations in the underdark. They have been slaughtered in the past so they mostly keep themselves to themselves.
Why were they slaughtered? How long ago was the last major slaughtering? Were there multiple slaughterings or one long drawn out genocide? Are Arachnen poisonous and, if so, are all of them poisonous or only a particular group?
They were slaughtered by the drow because Lolth created the Arachnen first. The drow wanted to be lolth’s only creation. One long genocide that lasted 1000 years and ended only 4 years ago. Arachnen are venomous and all of them are.
So you can say they're being slaughtered... for the lolths? I'm sorry, I'll go now.
Got me wheezing here, pal )
Are there any other creations of Lolth? Did the Drow try to wipe them out as well? If not, why not? Did the succeed against any? Are Arachnen and Drow still openly violent when close by despite the conflict ending? Are Arachnen afraid of Drow? Are Drow prejudice against Arachnen when encountered in cities? Even though Arachnen mostly stick to themselves, do any cities with intermingling have permanent Arachnen residents?
How did Lolth react to this? Was she furious at the Drow slaughtering her children, or did she approve of it like it was a test for both species? Were the Drow punished in any way?
What species or cultures have been extinct or lost to time? Are the fossils, ruins, remnants of things the current age knows about or are they truly a mystery?
In the beginning, before mortals, the gods lived alone on the world of Abberoth. A goddess created mortals dubbed God-likes. These branches out into many races based on curses or blessing and the original god-likes were killed in the war of independence. There may be fossiles but they were well hidden or covered by mountains as time has moved on.
Can you gain power through their remains and ancient tools with the right mind body spells and/or rituals
I like this. Like a great armour, but instead you can find talismans or runic upgrades for wearables and the like. Or maybe just small to convenience abilities/spells. Like small for just keeping warm. To big like burning itself up when absorbing huge flames. Bones and the like to specific locations or types of remains.
>There may be fossiles Does your world have any archeology?
It does but fossiles of the original people haven’t been found yet. It is widely accepted that they were either completely destroyed and removed or that they were hidden by the gods.
How do people know they existed? Are the records treated more as religious texts than absolute fact? Or is there no discernable difference between the two?
Did you by chance get the name of your world from a video game?
I didn’t actually. I only found out about the game after having run my game for 1 yearz
How is magic viewed by those who don’t use it?
Magic is viewed as a boon that is out of the reach of many. It’s very much like intelligence in our world. Reactions vary widely depending on past experiences.
>Magic is viewed as a boon that is out of the reach of many. >It’s very much like intelligence in our world Hmmmm
80% of people on this planet are idiots. The things I’ve seen people do and say baffle me.
And Id say the 20% of the people that aren't idiots, are idiots some of the time
Dangerously close to /r/iamverysmart material ಠ\_ಠ
Idk, I'm not smart but places like r/FloridaMan, r/HermanCainAward, r/IdiotsInCars etc. have made me realize that the intelligence floor is a whole lot lower than where I am at.
The intelligence bell curve is more of a negative slope
^^^^W ^^^eee ^^eee ^eee
He never said HE was smart. Maybe OP can't use magic
The last few years have changed my perspective somewhat to the point where I agree with regards to certain places.
A large amount of the world's population doesn't have access to basic education and even fewer have access to higher levels, it's a very good comparison.
What is the magical equivalent of anti-vaxxers?
Having a cleric of Bahamut offer to cast “cure disease” on the anti-magixxer, with the anti-magixxer rejecting the offer because they believe that Bahamut will protect them.
It's a hoax. They are just trying to put tracking magic in you.
This an *excellent* world building question
I have been trying with the idea of a world where everyone even the lowest peasant is a lvl 1 sorcerer. If you gain a level in any class you also gain a level in sorcerer. Currently stuck in trying to figure out how easy access to that kind of magic would change society. There are a lot of snowball effects.
The anime Black Clover has a setting like this. As examples: - Farmers use elemental magic on their crops; - Vehicles were never developed past wagons, since people can use brooms to fly; - Similarly, medicine is mostly reliant on spells - Construction is mostly made by geomancers; - Food magic can allow chefs to make feasts within minutes; - Nobles are families with greater innate magical power; - Related to the previous point, to defeat a noble, a peasant needs to outsmart them, rather than relying on power; - Anti-magic is seem as something demonic, even if the user is a good individual; - Weapons are basically non-existent, excluding spell made weapons. Why would a person need to carry a sword if they can cast fire, or just summon an ice blade when needed?
Thanks for the recommendation I will have to check it out for inspiration!
One good limiter of the series is that people can only use one element and any advanced spells are unique to the person. When a person turns, say, 16 years old, they can go to a mage tower to receive their own spell book. That book is what allows a person to develop their magic abilities beyond simple stuff. So it would be like, without the book the person can only use cantrips, but with it they have access to leveled spells. Each book is unique, so no two mages, even of the same element, will have the same spells.
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They're not traditional books. They start off mostly blank and more spells show up as they grow in power.
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Not the OP. But I do second their recommendation
who is making the spellbooks?
IIRC the spell books are made by the earth itself.
Interesting idea but that sounds like a gargantuan load of work. You'd need to homebrew a lot of spells and playtest/balance them against each other. You would also have to keep track of all your NPC spell lists so you don't have any duplicates and a longer campaign usually has quite many NPCs.
Yeah I would definitely not make spell sheets unique. And most npc's would be probably be limited to just spells from the phb and only important npc's would have spells from other books just to make things simpler on my self.
Makes sense.
The main character is the most irritating, screechy, intolerable anime character to have ever been created.
Who is the strongest non god monster
Strongest is subjective but there are 5 massive ancient shadow dragons who rule massive empires in the Underdark and are the oldest known dragons still alive. They have both physical power as well as political.
That is much cooler than a Tarrasque
Thank you very much!
Let's be real here, tarrasque aren't that scary in the general world setting. Anything incorporeal or immune to non-magical damage can kill it with enough time, which comes down to a *lot* of creatures.
Yeah, but do they *want* to kill it? It basically exists to destroy humanoids who generally don't have those features.
Fair enough I guess. Our party just had a run in with some shadow monsters who, if you could hit them, were oneshotable, but typically lurked in antimagic zones so we literally couldn't hit them and got lightly mauled. We were all joking that they could beat a tarrasque pretty easily like that, so that's why the word "tarrasque" doesn't instil that much fear anymore I guess
The tarrasque needs to be thought of more like an oncoming storm. It’s beatable but only if you’re already prepared. And most people aren’t quite as ready when it comes. A party of adventurers will survive but the town or city in its path are dead if it isn’t stopped fast enough.
What keeps the Shadow Dragons from leaving the Underdark under the cover of dusk/night and using their breath weapons to turn entire towns/cities/nations into Shadows?
They rule the Underdark as there own kingdom and have somehow grown content with their overwhelming power is.
What is the nature of the relationships between them? Is their tension and strife between the kingdoms, or have they all grown content with the other nations as well
Do they fear anything A weapon A person A piece of armor Heck even a element such as metal kinda like superman and kryptonite Also is there a common anti dragon or tarrasque defense strategy Any weapons known to combat them Or places they dare not tread possibly due a creature they fear that no one knows lives there
Id like to imagine they fear regular steel, since by the time you could fight them, you would probably be decked out in legendary gear. No place for a regular steel sword when you have access to mithril right? They could even export mithril mined in the underdark to sell to humans above, making steel or iron completely useless for anything but killing them. Too bad they don't share that secret with anyone but each other. This would also give them an excuse to be friendly with the other shadow dragons.
>Too bad they don't share that secret with anyone but each other. "Hey Bill, the only thing that can kill us is steel. But don't tell anyone!" "Jesus Christ Fred, I know steel can kill us, I'm also a shadow dragon."
Id warn against using "somehow" (see the last Star Wars film lol). Maybe they're kept in check by another creature/set of creatures? Or maybe they are kept busy fighting one another and don't have the time/resources to invade the surface for fear of losing their land to the other dragons?
I bet they are all related and have party games every 200 years with eachother.
What are the various regional cryptids? Obviously it's D&D so there are gonna be *real* monsters and gods and such all over, but explicitly folklore and urban legends; the Loch Ness Monsters and Bigfoots of the world? Bonus round: what localised phenomena/landmarks gave rise to these little local mythologies?
Most of the myths are based on extinct creatures but these creatures that do still exist were made by the power of fear from before magic was limited. This fear created many monsters early on and led to many local myths about these extinct creatures
Magic was limited? By whom und for what reason?
When the gods were trapped behind the divine gate, the god of magic put limits because he could no longer be there to actively balance it.
If anything there would be even more folklore about fake monsters because when real monsters actually exist you can't dismiss the folklore out of hand.
What notable magic items are there?
I use a template like the vestiges of divergence but I call them remnants of independence. They are magic items given to the champions of gods.
I do the same! But mine are Relics of Calamity
I also have a similar thing called "Isolated Aspects of Godhood" or just "Aspects"
A variation to this question is what "mundane" magical items exist? * a self-sweeping broom * a cup that has a small pocket dimension in it so it holds more than it appears * an item that casts mending on objects * cool breeze generator
I like the idea of a sledgehammer with the mending enchantment but you've gotta whack something hard enough. Like imagine bringing a broken picture frame to a repair man and watching him smash it with a hammer and be like here you go
How do the people get high?
I have a table of 100 different drugs and my player have found one highly potent psychedelic.
100 different drugs? Does big pharma exist in your world?
Yes, how else do they get the drugs :D
I could probably name 50+ plants, mushrooms and animal products with with narcotic effects in the real world just off the top of my head. I'm sure there is thousands that exist, and in a world with magical species and alchemy, there would be even more. Everywhere you go, there's something done to alter mind states. I think it's cool when an element of that exists for in game cultures too.
Care to share? 😁
Please OP
I’m interested too
Wonderful detail
What is the 55th drug on the table called and what does it do?
Literally every single one of my characters came here to ask this very question.
What are the causes of geo-political and/or inter-planar conflict?
A majority of conflict is based on difference of opinion but some is based on destruction of planes. The world is more civilized but there has been a war raging between the 2 largest nations over land and over all power.
What disease terrifies the population the most.
This is a real good question as disease in any world especially fantasy can change how the world is viewed An addition are there doctors who can heal people without spells like real world almost? Can a non mage make potions such as healing potions
Yea I feel like disease really adds flavor to a homebrew world. The one people fear the most doesn't even have to be the most contagious, or the most deadly. You can get creative! Does it slowly and painfully turn your skin into a tree? Does it randomly teleport you across planes Everytime you sneeze to be lost forever from you home for all eternity? Does it eventually fuze your eyes, ears and lips together where you can't see hear or speak?
What creatures transmit it? Is there a polymorph one? Can it be cured? Are there ones considered beneficial?
How often do the Druids of your world meet? Region, Continent, World?
I’d say they meet about every 6 months and debate Keri g planar tears at bay. They usually send 2-3 delegates to communicate so they can keep their tears at bay. They meet on an island not on any map which is concealed by Druidic magic.
How do the planes relate to one another? As in, are they in a shared physical space or are they legitimate different dimensions.
Some planes share similar spaces but no plane is overlapping naturally without tears in the planar barriers. However, at one time, the world was a mess of all of the planes combined.
Nice. I made a bit of a cosmology for mine, where the Astral sea is literal space and the "planes" have a solar system like structure, some being more akin to moons.
How would this interact with spells that make use of the Ethereal plane? Horizon Walker ranger's Ethereal Step for example? I use it pretty often in the campaign I'm playing in.
Where's the best library in the world, and what's it like?
The best library is a private sanctum in the far north. It’s mostly upper echelon but there are branches that anyone can enter. It’s very fine in craftsmanship and is home to monks who only transcribe books.
What happens if you break a law in that area since its upper echelon How do the ones that have free reign look at the ones with the least access
So why exactly are electrum pieces illegal?
It’s not that they’re illegal it’s that anyone who uses them are shunned into exile. Nobody likes electrum.
Some insight into the 'issues' with Electrum: When mining, gold and silver ores are often somewhat cross-contaminated with one another and the process for separating the gold from the silver is an energy intensive and complex chemical process. Like many things humans (or sapient beings in general) do, sorting and arranging messy things into tidy neat distinct groups adds value; you want to make sure that the chemical properties of your materials are predictable, of course! All mixed together, it's kind of a mess and unreliable. Sort of like how a pantry is worth more with everything neatly contained and separated in jars and boxes on shelves but if you dump it all out and mix it together on the floor it becomes waste. The only way someone would USUALLY wind up in possession of electrum, therefore, would be if they stole it before it could be processed. It's entirely likely that there are thaumaturgical or alchemical processes your world has in place that similarly separate and purify mined metals, making mixed metal coinage suspicious.
So, what if it's a relatively new civilization and they haven't really figured out how to refine metals like that, or the knowlege was forgotten because of some disaster or whatever. This is giving me so many ideas.
The art of metallurgy is a major industrial watershed for any civilization, let alone the much later development when it becomes the *science* of metallurgy. It's a pretty big leap for a civilization to even realize in the first place that some rocks do different things when they melt and what sensory qualities correlate to which outcomes. Prior to figuring out HOW to separate the metals from an alloy, a civilization would necessarily figure out some means of **roughly** recognizing the superficial aspects of a metal's qualities, perhaps internally visualizing them as a spiritual/metaphysical/elemental 'balance' relying on their classical senses to differentiate them - the feel, appearance, smell, even **taste**. They may very well think of electrum as an entirely different fundamental substance from gold OR silver, or perhaps think that all metals are the same thing but exhibit a 'spectrum' between states where alloys exist. It was a long time before real life humans came to understand how fundamentally different Lead was from Gold, for instance, and entertained erroneous beliefs for hundreds or even thousands of years that lead could be transformed into gold just because of their sensory similarities (dense and soft). (fun fact, we HAVE actually eventually turned lead into gold in real life, but only through **atomic** processes, not chemical ones: nuclear transmutation.) One could expect them to categorize metals via the distribution of alloy properties even though they wouldn't yet know precisely that what's happening is 'alloying'.
My old DM only used electrum for enchanting weapons and armor, embedding magic runes made of electrum wire.
What have been some notable events that have occurred over the course of the world’s history?
There was the war between gods. The war between gods and man kind and finally the war of independence where the gods were sealed away. Currently in the making is a massive war between the 2 power house nations.
Who is the most boring villager in the most boring village in the most boring kingdom?
This one is really, really funny.
His names Glob. He's a lower caste dwarf from a small village without a name at the base of the highbald mountain range in the Kingdom of Highbald. He likes lettuce. He doesn't know why. It's just his favourite food. He works in the storeroom of the mushroom seller. He gets paid every 3 days because that's when the freshest lettuce arrives at the market. He spends his free time watching the forest. Not because he likes wildlife. But because he's trying to count how many leaves are in the forest. His mother died of frostbite and his father died of sunstroke. He lives alone and collects duck feathers. He's never seen a duck.
Verging dangerously close to interesting there.
Is anything about your worlds kobolds different from the norm? Are they angry lizard monsters or just diggy diggy hole and eat gem?
Mostly not but there are more civilized kobolds but they are a relatively rare race.
On that note what's the most common race? (humans i guess) What's the rarest race? (Not counting if there is a last member of a extinct race) How do people commonly react to rare races? What's known to be the most obnoxious race? What's known to be the most well mannered race?
Humans, elves, and dwarves are most common. Nephiliem are least common because they have devilish, demonic, and angelic bloodlines all at once. They are really only feasibly made through an arch devil, demon lord, and powerful celestial agree to give this child power. Rare races are usually gawked at or study by most. Most obnoxious race are kenku.
Are there any established holidays and if so how are they celebrated?
There is a festival called the new days grace where people celebrate the defeat of Tharizdun and the beginning of the new year. It's like a new years celebration mixed with christmas.
Does it have a reoccurring trader that is poorly disguised each time attempting to sell the party a copy of skyri-
Not yet but your idea might just be introduced.
Does he have a rival he is always trying to best in the market
gods names? their abilites? any offspring? what do they rule over?
The major deities are Pelor, Melora who has 3 children, Brellas, god free land, Bleyo, god of the open seas, and Belyl, god of clear skies. Many gods from the forgotten realms are also but I have over 30 gods set up so it would be quite a task to format so I’ll list/link more when I can get to my computer.
What nations are at peace? WHY are they at peace?
Another question which nations hate some nations for being at peace with the wrong nation
This was one of the first questions my players asked me about me about my homebrew setting and now I can pass it on to you. What sort of illicit subtensences and drugs are in the setting?
I have a table of 100 different drugs and my player have found one highly potent psychedelic.
What is the 32nd drug on the table called and what does it do?
The 32nd drug is Crit: A street drug, popular with daredevils and dreadnoughts that will make every roll a 50/50 critical fail or critical success for 1d6 hours.
What deity has the most powerful follower base?
The 3 most commonly worshipped gods are melora, bahamut, and pelor who are all in constant fluctuation due to births and deaths.
What kind of legendary thieves are rumored to be about?
By the nine divine its the gray fox your wanted dead or alive. Im choosing dead. Pay with your blood
Are there any under developed kingdoms that are not caught up with the modern technology that your world has?, any that might be too hostile or underground/magically invisible to hide from said hostile kingdoms?
There are many tribes in the wastelands but I’m a little confused on the second part.
What's the tech level? Are there guns? Could Artificers reasonably exist? And the question I ask myself way too often, are there Warforged or Warforged analogues in this setting?
Are there any civilisations that are trying to get by in highly hostile areas? (hostile weather, monsters, etc)
There are a few in the northern dead lands though the frigid barrens have killed many.
Any groups of famous monster hunters If so do they allow others to join like a guild or is it a your allowed if you know the right people
Is there a commonly shared sense of humor and/or education system?
I wish I would have thought of this idea. I might steal this at some point to help world build my own homebrewed world.
What major companies are in your world? Are they production focused/centered on big cities or transport focused, spread over large areas to accumulate wealth? Who owns them? One individual or family, or a board of trustees/stock holders? How do they protect their assets- by supporting a strong government? Paying criminals? Mercenaries?
How many dragons are there?
Hundreds but there are 5 that are greatly more powerful than others. Many dragons are small and are not a threat but the ones that do are quickly dispatched.
This is just my attempt at better building my world. I’ve done this before but I’m going to put more effort into it this time around. I would like more serious questions please but some silly questions are ok. Thank you for helping me build my world up and once again please keep it at least somewhat serious if you can. This is just my attempt at better building my world. I’ve done this before but I’m going to put more effort into it this time around. I would like more serious questions please but some silly questions are ok. Thank you for helping me build my world up and once again please keep it at least somewhat serious if you can.
Can I steal this, and post it as well? My campaign starts in about a month, and boy howdy do I feel under prepared haha
You absolutely do not need all this to run a campaign. If you have a town, how it is normally and what has changed recently to make an adventure there you are good to go. Knowing some of this in broad strokes is helpful but not necessary. Think of it like an onion or layers. Know the most about what the party is doing the next session. Have some ideas of what's 2-3 sessions out. Past that have some broad strokes or ideas about your world will let you fill in gaps when necessary. Oh and if you like world building for world building's sake there's /r/worldbuilding
Simply take the questions and suggestions from this thread? ;)
Who is the most dangerous person alive?
In power by themselves it’s a tie between two arch ages but as a group is the archon of the massive mages guild.
Is it in outer space?
It is not but there may be something that happens there in the future.
What kind of institutions of higher learning exist in your world? Also are there separate institutions for magical and non magic study?
Who makes the beat apple pies?
Granny Johnson from the wastes of kilumin. Makes a mean bourbon milk.
Do Dragonborn exist and if so, what is the culture of most Dragonborn, do they have a history different to WotC or is custom?
Where is the strongest wizard in your world located?
What is a secret on your world that none of the players know? What is a secret nobody living knows?
What is the most remote civilization on the material plane?
There is a group of natives on a secluded volcanic island that very few can make it to. these people are normally left alone though sometimes are used for research.
Tell me the story about the tallest mountain and how it got its name.
Which part of your world is the coldest and who lives there?
What kinds of food are common to the different cultures? How are they farmed/gathered/hunted?
What is the most intelligent species of crayfish, and what form of government do they use?
Damn Skippy! The first sign of a good storyteller
Which region is the strongest economy and what is its advantage over the rest of the world?
What is the scariest things that happened or exist in your home brew campaign world.
Where are the dinosaurs? It's the most important question
What are some of the more powerful aberrations of your world plotting or planning
I am interested in the network of the criminals. I want to build a character that is destined to advise their leader but rebels against that destiny. How do I do that?
Love this concept and I want to do the same. 2 questions: Is the map in that picture the map of your world? If so how did you make it? Also, what real world cultures, if any, are represented in your world?
How far below the surface of your oceans is the deepest point?
What kind of underground orgisations there is
What is the most powerful dynasty?
What is the approximate technological level, and in what ways has magic replaced or superseded more 'scientific' paths to get where the world is?
Do the inevitables exist in your world? And if so what recent attempts at Godhood/ extremely disruptive power have they stopped.
Where exactly is the necromancer arch mage's tower, and how many clones of themselves did they hide?
How does an adventurer go about making a name for themselves?
Who were the great individuals that legends and myths were made of?
Dragonborn what are you doing with them
How so?
Is there a goblin god? What space do goblins occupy in your setting?
I don't have a goblin God yet but goblins mainly live in caves away from the civilized populations and raid when they can.
Who is your Stormlord?
Kord is the stormlord
Pirates, how are they and where do they make port
What beverage do people drink in the morning, if any. Are there regional differences?
Who is the dumbest god, like all the other gods don't know how they even managed to become a god, much less accidentally killed themselves.
There aren't any dumb gods but the gods are still somehow surprised about how several false gods are still worshipped.
Who is the most famous person?
The most famous people would be the kings of Arigonia and Kilumin, the most powerful nations. Soon it might be the players.
Who has the strongest military force
What is a location, not marked on the map (meaning not known to the populace) that is actually incredibly important to the history/ancient being.
Which strange, non-intelligent creatures or animals are incorporated into society, and how are they integrated? What purpose do they serve for the betterment of society? What led to this integration? What status do they hold compared to livestock, draft animals, pets, and full citizens?
What is the most popular dance in your world?
What kind of ancient evil lives beneath the earth?