Gainsdalf the Whey Posted July 16, 2013 Report Share Posted July 16, 2013 So a few years back I briefly got into learning more about map making and designing realistic land formations as part of world building due to a series of articles on it over at Giant in the Playground games. It's extremely interesting and has all kinds of places you can go really in depth with. On the geology side, you can go as far as making a few random tectonic plates and assigning them shift directions, then from there predicting where mountain ranges and seas form as they shift over hsitory in order to create your land masses. Once you have the land masses, you can predict weather to a certian extent and form your jungles, desserts, and other climate zones. You can then figure out where civilizations would form and spring up and go from there on the cultural and world building side of things. On the cultural side, you can figure out which civilizations would clash to take over territories or form trade routes and alliances based on the previous land building phases and all sorts of other things that I never got around to as life got busier and I lost time for the hobby or really getting in depth and building worlds. You can get really in dpeth with making very detailed maps. There are websites out there such as cartographersguild.com dedicated to it with all kinds of forums and communities to help one another out. Then of course there is the idea of taking the real world and manipulating it to be your fantasy world. What happens if all the polar caps actually melted, resulting in changing climates, shrinking land masses, and screwed up ecology that resulted in mass extinctions? You can reinvent current places with apocalypses and things of that nature. (This idea is was what brought on this entire post, which was in turn brought on by the last 2 xkcd what ifs). Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else nerded out about this at any point? I no longer have the time to dedicate to world building and DMing tabletop games, but I still love to discuss it. Quote Massrandir, Barkûn, Swolórin, The Whey Pilgrim 500 / 330 / 625 Challenges: 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 31 32 34 35 36 39 41 42 45 46 47 48 49 Current Challenge "No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. " ~ Socrates "Friends don't let friends squat high." ~ Chad Wesley Smith "It's a dangerous business, Brodo, squatting to the floor. You step into the rack, and if you don't keep your form, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." ~ Gainsdalf Link to comment
JessOfAllTrades Posted July 16, 2013 Report Share Posted July 16, 2013 Oh my goodness. I've nerded out so much with world-building from the cultural perspective. Since cultural history is my bread and butter I've always had way too much fun creating mythology, the rise and fall of civilizations, and the development of races. Sadly, that's made me a little lazy about geography in most cases. Maybe this time around (just got bit by the DMing bug) I'll look more into it and actually think about why the world looks the way it does. And I may or may not have spent Saturday morning figuring out how to use the Myers-Briggs to assign D&D classes (short explanation: current world has a city with a utopian vibe - so everyone is assigned their role), and then validated my results using players from the previous version of the campaign who were able to take the MBTI as their old characters. Best way to waste time waiting on car servicing ever. *ahem* I'm going to go back to work now and pretend I did not just display the true depth of my D&D nerd to the internet. Quote Storytelling Rebel | Blog | Twitter "“You've seen my descent, now watch my rising." ~ Rumi Link to comment
Gainsdalf the Whey Posted July 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2013 Oh my goodness. I've nerded out so much with world-building from the cultural perspective. Since cultural history is my bread and butter I've always had way too much fun creating mythology, the rise and fall of civilizations, and the development of races. Sadly, that's made me a little lazy about geography in most cases. Maybe this time around (just got bit by the DMing bug) I'll look more into it and actually think about why the world looks the way it does. And I may or may not have spent Saturday morning figuring out how to use the Myers-Briggs to assign D&D classes (short explanation: current world has a city with a utopian vibe - so everyone is assigned their role), and then validated my results using players from the previous version of the campaign who were able to take the MBTI as their old characters. Best way to waste time waiting on car servicing ever. *ahem* I'm going to go back to work now and pretend I did not just display the true depth of my D&D nerd to the internet. This is wonderful. How far away form you are me again? I wanna play in one of your games. Quote Massrandir, Barkûn, Swolórin, The Whey Pilgrim 500 / 330 / 625 Challenges: 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 31 32 34 35 36 39 41 42 45 46 47 48 49 Current Challenge "No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. " ~ Socrates "Friends don't let friends squat high." ~ Chad Wesley Smith "It's a dangerous business, Brodo, squatting to the floor. You step into the rack, and if you don't keep your form, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." ~ Gainsdalf Link to comment
JessOfAllTrades Posted July 16, 2013 Report Share Posted July 16, 2013 This is wonderful. How far away form you are me again? I wanna play in one of your games. Hour and a half. I'm looking for few more players who can handle *not* building their character around a class (since you get to take said test to decide the class!). Quote Storytelling Rebel | Blog | Twitter "“You've seen my descent, now watch my rising." ~ Rumi Link to comment
jediokie Posted July 16, 2013 Report Share Posted July 16, 2013 I've been thinking of creating a cluster with some old computers and try to do some modeling to create a world that I could then write fiction about....in my vast amounts of spare time afforded by a family, work, the gym, training for the games, and my on again off again love affair with MMO's. Quote My workout log Link to comment
Gainsdalf the Whey Posted July 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2013 Hour and a half. I'm looking for few more players who can handle *not* building their character around a class (since you get to take said test to decide the class!). 1.5 hours. Hmm, when do you play? Quote Massrandir, Barkûn, Swolórin, The Whey Pilgrim 500 / 330 / 625 Challenges: 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 31 32 34 35 36 39 41 42 45 46 47 48 49 Current Challenge "No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. " ~ Socrates "Friends don't let friends squat high." ~ Chad Wesley Smith "It's a dangerous business, Brodo, squatting to the floor. You step into the rack, and if you don't keep your form, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." ~ Gainsdalf Link to comment
Thrillho Posted July 16, 2013 Report Share Posted July 16, 2013 As a writer, I definitely nerd out on world-building, usually more than I spend on the actual story. Man, do I love graph paper... Quote The cancer was aggressive, but the chemotherapy was aggressive, as well. There was aggression on both sides. Link to comment
JessOfAllTrades Posted July 16, 2013 Report Share Posted July 16, 2013 1.5 hours. Hmm, when do you play? We haven't started. I'm still very much in the planning stages, but it will most likely be Friday night every two weeks (because I like to pretend I have a social life) As a writer, I definitely nerd out on world-building, usually more than I spend on the actual story. Man, do I love graph paper... Oh graph paper. <3 I own you for nothing else besides drawing maps. Quote Storytelling Rebel | Blog | Twitter "“You've seen my descent, now watch my rising." ~ Rumi Link to comment
BreadMage Posted July 18, 2013 Report Share Posted July 18, 2013 I have definitely been building a custom world for the last 6 years (since I joined the Navy and left my group at home.) I have 11 spiral notebooks filled with notes and I don't even know how many maps (drawn on graph paper). I'm getting out soon and going back home so I hope to begin a campaign in it Quote *Flips Table*BreadMage Out! Link to comment
jediokie Posted July 18, 2013 Report Share Posted July 18, 2013 I have definitely been building a custom world for the last 6 years (since I joined the Navy and left my group at home.) I have 11 spiral notebooks filled with notes and I don't even know how many maps (drawn on graph paper). I'm getting out soon and going back home so I hope to begin a campaign in it Woot another sailor! It surprised me when I was in how many nerds actually join the Navy. And, thank you for your service shipmate. Quote My workout log Link to comment
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