Building a World [Archive] - Wizards Community

Building a World [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Firaeki
01-01-08, 02:30 PM Well, I'm planning on developing a D&D world for use as a campaign setting for myself and others (obviously, otherwise it wouldn't be publicly discussed). The thing is, I've never really DONE this before. I have a few ideas and concepts I know I want in the world, but for the most part, I have no idea what I'm doing and thus have come to you guys for help. I have quite a few books around to use, but for the most part I don't want to need a lot of things other than what's written for the world and the core rulebooks.

Now that that's gotten clear, here are the ideas I currently have that I want to have in my world.

The World
The world the game takes place in isn't going to be a part of the Great Wheel. I want it to basically be sort of like its own seperate existance that can't be accessed from other game worlds or gain access to them.
In that regard, I want the Material Plane to consist of just the main world as a globe and surrounded by the sky, with six moons acting as power sources of the realm, connected to other planes. Two, one white ("Sun-like") and one black ("Void-like") float on opposite sized of the world, and while the world spins between them the light and dark they eminate create day and night. The other four moons (red, blue, green, and yellow) orbit on a ring around the world, the ring shifting around the planet between the world and the white/black moons, acting as power conduits to the Fire, Water, Air, and Earth planes, respective to their colors.
The Six Planes connected to the Material by these moons are the four elemental and two energy planes. They keep the Material Plane balanced by constantly existing, the Four keeping the physical world and all things intact, the Two keeping the balance of spirit (born into life, age into death, soul drifts in the Sky as a whisper, invisible, intangeable, and dwelling among the moons).
Other than that, I want there to be various constellations of stars in the sky, which are actually symbols of power left by the Gods (who created the world, then sacrificed themselves to create the first Humans) which form the alphabet of the Old Language, which is what is what mages speak in their spells, write on their scrolls, and whatnot. The symbols are literally set into the edge of the sky, which is basically a physical barrier made of magic energy.
This world would have very little place for things like Outsiders, since the only other planes are the Elemental and Energy ones (all uninhabited except by elementals and ), and a pair of Demiplanes hidden away in these places.
The two Demiplanes would be the proverbial "Heaven" and "Hell" worlds. Basically, the Gods had created these two realms prior to the others, and had found them to be so opposite that they couldn't get along. The beings here would effectively be the same as winged, magically-infused humans, and the only inhabitants of their world, without need for sleep, food, drink, or air.

Races
The race system in this would be fairly simple. As the only playable race is human, there would simply be different "breeds" of human, depending on what part of the world they came from. Its likely I'll have a few represent the equivalent to standard races, such as people from a temperate wooded zone being quiet, agile people with good senses, poor constitution, and willowy forms, or people from the mountains being a stout and stocky race of climbers with good strangth and fortitude, but gruff and slower than most. But I would want to make them otherwise fall into the realm of humans as far as the extent of their looks and basic mechanics. These would eliminate elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, orcs, and their variants from the game. Additionally, Half-Fiend and Half-Celestial would be removed, as traditional fiends and celestials are not part of the game.
While Humans are the only playable race, I want to have there be certain other intelligent beings. Dragons, for instance, would be powerful beings which took form shortly after the Gods died, when the world itself felt it needed something to keep itself in check and rule the forces of the universe as a collection of a few rare, powerful beings, and most of the humanoid or semihumanoid monsters of the world would be due to dark magic, a long-lost society that somehow collapsed in such a way that its people were so horribly mutilated and infused with certain energies that caused new species to emerge, or whatever else.
The beings of the other two populated realms (the Demiplanes) would basically be mechanically celestial humans and fiendish humans, which if they copulated with normal humans would produce a line of aasimar or tiefling for 9 generations. Being the rarity of this event, it is unlikely to find a lot of them.

Magic
Since the Gods are dead, now the ancestors of Man, Divine Magic is instead controlled by the forces of the Constellations, which power the worlds and hold the moons in their places and forms. Each of these constellations would act as a conduit for the various domains for clerics, who have orders devoted to each individual domain but may select any two which does not oppose their alignment. Aside from this, magic would work normally as in D&D, but aside from like-aligned clerics and the magic of the Dragons, magical powers are rare and largely shunned by those who do not use them. Depending on where one goes, a wizard or sorcerer would be able to expect anything from merely being treated as a mysterious and distrustful figure to open attack if discovered to be a mage.

Aside from this, I'm not sure what to do with my ideas. If anyone can help, offer suggestions, or whatever else, it would be appreciated.
bravo052492
01-02-08, 04:52 AM Hm.

I really like your idea, and it sounds promising. Have you begun to think up the world itself? Kingdoms, cities, a story, just ideas?
Firaeki
01-17-08, 12:07 PM Sorry for the disappearance, and now I must use thread necromancy upon my thread.

In response to Bravo, I'm still mainly in the idea phase.

To add, I have had the idea of the language system. Like with the removal of most races, most tongues are replaced. The languages of the realm would be regional or societal, meaning that an empire in one place might have one language it uses, and a world-wide organization might have a language known only to its members. The extraplanar beings, those of the Light and Shadow, would each have their own language, and then there would be the Old Tongue, a language known by dragons and the language from where spoken magic takes certain words, sprinkled in with words of whichever languages the caster might know.
taradusis
01-20-08, 02:29 PM Well,I see you've gone with a standard spherical world,rather than disk,toroidal,square or cubical. This presupposes a normal Geographical and Atmospheric model? Consider where to place wonders like Grand Canyon,Yellowstone's Old Faithful,Niagra falls,Carlsbad caverns. What is the name of the longest river? Where are the highest mountains? Are there lakes like the Great Lakes? Consider whether to place an unexplored archipellago as the basis for a pirate/Age of Exploration campaign. Consider what sort of religions you will have,Deity,Force or Philosphy? Consider coinage types. Give some thought to famous Npcs who owned fabulous magic items. Get a five subject notebook and carry it everywhere so you can jot down notes so they won't get lost......Good luck and you may borrow any idea you want from my Random Aquatic notes thread.
AngeloftheNight
01-27-08, 06:23 PM Sorry to say this but..........
Ick, waaaayyyyyyy to limited. I like to play cross planer with alienists and hobgoblins and ............. well, you get the idea
Crebain
01-30-08, 07:28 PM If you dont mind I have an idea for your world. Since your entire world is centered around astrology, it's only right that the power of magic would be determined by astrology. For example if the red moon (fire) is close to a wizard he deals bonus damage for all his fire element spells. Also a cleric is in an area of the world directly under his diety's contellation he gains a bonus to all his spells.
Firaeki
02-04-08, 09:02 PM If you dont mind I have an idea for your world. Since your entire world is centered around astrology, it's only right that the power of magic would be determined by astrology. For example if the red moon (fire) is close to a wizard he deals bonus damage for all his fire element spells. Also a cleric is in an area of the world directly under his diety's contellation he gains a bonus to all his spells.

That sounds like a good idea. I'll have to create a calendar.
elondir
02-05-08, 04:25 PM If you're going to base your world as a standard world, here's the basics for a lot of the non-magical scientific stuff:

Plate tectonics determines elevation and continent shape. Specifically, folded mountains form when two continents collide, and volcanic mountains form where subduction of an oceanic plate is ocurring.

The location of the continents, latitude, and the elevation determine climate. Worlds with supercontinents are dryer and cooler. The coriolis force dictates wind patterns around the oceanic low pressure zones, and deserts appear where the wind blows away from the continent (like the SW corner of the continents in the northern hemisphere of earth). Mountains increase rainfall along the side that faces the incoming wind from the ocean.

I hope that helps a lot.

Also, there are some other terrestrial world types you might consider. check out these websites for info.

Planetary Classification Index (http://www.onewest.net/~dollan/ARCpclindex.html)

World climates (http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/climate.htm)

Plate Tectonics (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tectonics.html)

Keplerian Astrophysics for your Moons (http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/kepler.html)

The Roche Limit: something to keep in mind for your lunar orbits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit)

I've considered the idea for a cosmology where other planes fall into the two categories of demiplanes and alternate Earths.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Firaeki 01-01-08, 02:30 PM	Well, I'm planning on developing a D&D world for use as a campaign setting for myself and others (obviously, otherwise it wouldn't be publicly discussed). The thing is, I've never really DONE this before. I have a few ideas and concepts I know I want in the world, but for the most part, I have no idea what I'm doing and thus have come to you guys for help. I have quite a few books around to use, but for the most part I don't want to need a lot of things other than what's written for the world and the core rulebooks. Now that that's gotten clear, here are the ideas I currently have that I want to have in my world. The World The world the game takes place in isn't going to be a part of the Great Wheel. I want it to basically be sort of like its own seperate existance that can't be accessed from other game worlds or gain access to them. In that regard, I want the Material Plane to consist of just the main world as a globe and surrounded by the sky, with six moons acting as power sources of the realm, connected to other planes. Two, one white ("Sun-like") and one black ("Void-like") float on opposite sized of the world, and while the world spins between them the light and dark they eminate create day and night. The other four moons (red, blue, green, and yellow) orbit on a ring around the world, the ring shifting around the planet between the world and the white/black moons, acting as power conduits to the Fire, Water, Air, and Earth planes, respective to their colors. The Six Planes connected to the Material by these moons are the four elemental and two energy planes. They keep the Material Plane balanced by constantly existing, the Four keeping the physical world and all things intact, the Two keeping the balance of spirit (born into life, age into death, soul drifts in the Sky as a whisper, invisible, intangeable, and dwelling among the moons). Other than that, I want there to be various constellations of stars in the sky, which are actually symbols of power left by the Gods (who created the world, then sacrificed themselves to create the first Humans) which form the alphabet of the Old Language, which is what is what mages speak in their spells, write on their scrolls, and whatnot. The symbols are literally set into the edge of the sky, which is basically a physical barrier made of magic energy. This world would have very little place for things like Outsiders, since the only other planes are the Elemental and Energy ones (all uninhabited except by elementals and ), and a pair of Demiplanes hidden away in these places. The two Demiplanes would be the proverbial "Heaven" and "Hell" worlds. Basically, the Gods had created these two realms prior to the others, and had found them to be so opposite that they couldn't get along. The beings here would effectively be the same as winged, magically-infused humans, and the only inhabitants of their world, without need for sleep, food, drink, or air. Races The race system in this would be fairly simple. As the only playable race is human, there would simply be different "breeds" of human, depending on what part of the world they came from. Its likely I'll have a few represent the equivalent to standard races, such as people from a temperate wooded zone being quiet, agile people with good senses, poor constitution, and willowy forms, or people from the mountains being a stout and stocky race of climbers with good strangth and fortitude, but gruff and slower than most. But I would want to make them otherwise fall into the realm of humans as far as the extent of their looks and basic mechanics. These would eliminate elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, orcs, and their variants from the game. Additionally, Half-Fiend and Half-Celestial would be removed, as traditional fiends and celestials are not part of the game. While Humans are the only playable race, I want to have there be certain other intelligent beings. Dragons, for instance, would be powerful beings which took form shortly after the Gods died, when the world itself felt it needed something to keep itself in check and rule the forces of the universe as a collection of a few rare, powerful beings, and most of the humanoid or semihumanoid monsters of the world would be due to dark magic, a long-lost society that somehow collapsed in such a way that its people were so horribly mutilated and infused with certain energies that caused new species to emerge, or whatever else. The beings of the other two populated realms (the Demiplanes) would basically be mechanically celestial humans and fiendish humans, which if they copulated with normal humans would produce a line of aasimar or tiefling for 9 generations. Being the rarity of this event, it is unlikely to find a lot of them. Magic Since the Gods are dead, now the ancestors of Man, Divine Magic is instead controlled by the forces of the Constellations, which power the worlds and hold the moons in their places and forms. Each of these constellations would act as a conduit for the various domains for clerics, who have orders devoted to each individual domain but may select any two which does not oppose their alignment. Aside from this, magic would work normally as in D&D, but aside from like-aligned clerics and the magic of the Dragons, magical powers are rare and largely shunned by those who do not use them. Depending on where one goes, a wizard or sorcerer would be able to expect anything from merely being treated as a mysterious and distrustful figure to open attack if discovered to be a mage. Aside from this, I'm not sure what to do with my ideas. If anyone can help, offer suggestions, or whatever else, it would be appreciated.
bravo052492 01-02-08, 04:52 AM	Hm. I really like your idea, and it sounds promising. Have you begun to think up the world itself? Kingdoms, cities, a story, just ideas?
Firaeki 01-17-08, 12:07 PM	Sorry for the disappearance, and now I must use thread necromancy upon my thread. In response to Bravo, I'm still mainly in the idea phase. To add, I have had the idea of the language system. Like with the removal of most races, most tongues are replaced. The languages of the realm would be regional or societal, meaning that an empire in one place might have one language it uses, and a world-wide organization might have a language known only to its members. The extraplanar beings, those of the Light and Shadow, would each have their own language, and then there would be the Old Tongue, a language known by dragons and the language from where spoken magic takes certain words, sprinkled in with words of whichever languages the caster might know.
taradusis 01-20-08, 02:29 PM	Well,I see you've gone with a standard spherical world,rather than disk,toroidal,square or cubical. This presupposes a normal Geographical and Atmospheric model? Consider where to place wonders like Grand Canyon,Yellowstone's Old Faithful,Niagra falls,Carlsbad caverns. What is the name of the longest river? Where are the highest mountains? Are there lakes like the Great Lakes? Consider whether to place an unexplored archipellago as the basis for a pirate/Age of Exploration campaign. Consider what sort of religions you will have,Deity,Force or Philosphy? Consider coinage types. Give some thought to famous Npcs who owned fabulous magic items. Get a five subject notebook and carry it everywhere so you can jot down notes so they won't get lost......Good luck and you may borrow any idea you want from my Random Aquatic notes thread.
AngeloftheNight 01-27-08, 06:23 PM	Sorry to say this but.......... Ick, waaaayyyyyyy to limited. I like to play cross planer with alienists and hobgoblins and ............. well, you get the idea
Crebain 01-30-08, 07:28 PM	If you dont mind I have an idea for your world. Since your entire world is centered around astrology, it's only right that the power of magic would be determined by astrology. For example if the red moon (fire) is close to a wizard he deals bonus damage for all his fire element spells. Also a cleric is in an area of the world directly under his diety's contellation he gains a bonus to all his spells.
Firaeki 02-04-08, 09:02 PM	If you dont mind I have an idea for your world. Since your entire world is centered around astrology, it's only right that the power of magic would be determined by astrology. For example if the red moon (fire) is close to a wizard he deals bonus damage for all his fire element spells. Also a cleric is in an area of the world directly under his diety's contellation he gains a bonus to all his spells. That sounds like a good idea. I'll have to create a calendar.
elondir 02-05-08, 04:25 PM	If you're going to base your world as a standard world, here's the basics for a lot of the non-magical scientific stuff: Plate tectonics determines elevation and continent shape. Specifically, folded mountains form when two continents collide, and volcanic mountains form where subduction of an oceanic plate is ocurring. The location of the continents, latitude, and the elevation determine climate. Worlds with supercontinents are dryer and cooler. The coriolis force dictates wind patterns around the oceanic low pressure zones, and deserts appear where the wind blows away from the continent (like the SW corner of the continents in the northern hemisphere of earth). Mountains increase rainfall along the side that faces the incoming wind from the ocean. I hope that helps a lot. Also, there are some other terrestrial world types you might consider. check out these websites for info. Planetary Classification Index (http://www.onewest.net/~dollan/ARCpclindex.html) World climates (http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/climate.htm) Plate Tectonics (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tectonics.html) Keplerian Astrophysics for your Moons (http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/kepler.html) The Roche Limit: something to keep in mind for your lunar orbits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit) I've considered the idea for a cosmology where other planes fall into the two categories of demiplanes and alternate Earths.