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Post by rajubalmar on Jan 20, 2020 22:24:08 GMT
Hi. I have been having problems creating a fantasy world that I like. You could call it a case of writer's block, but much worse. Anyway, I decided to take a different approach with it. I looked around the Internet for a forum like this, this site looked really good, and I quickly registered. Then I found this great World-Building thread. Now I will create my fantasy world. Here it is:
It is a gray, lifeless, moonless world in a vast, empty, and dark Void. It orbits a dim shining star that looks almost as lifeless as this world. It looks like a spherical, empty, almost colorless planet that is covered by an ashen atmosphere that perhaps hides something below it. A low humming can be heard and felt emanating from the world. If someone could hear anything in the Void they would hear the saddest sound they have ever heard, and they would feel the most dispiriting feeling that they have ever felt. This is the World Without A Name...
Okay that is it. Really. This is a world at the end of it's existence, but it could live again. It could be reborn. My plan, if I have one, is to use to thread like a notebook and see where I can take this lifeless world. I would appreciate any guidance you may want to give me. I really would. Hopefully this will work. I will see. Bye for now.
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Post by randosaurus on Jan 21, 2020 2:50:55 GMT
It's quite a blank slate. How does it restart? Who restarts it? How does its new form come to be? How did its end sow seeds of its rebirth?
My own homebrew(s) all take place in the same world.
The world becomes unstable each time and flies apart at the seams, either by player action or NPC plot. It starts anew but hasn't reached stability yet. This may be somewhat similar to your vision.
Good luck!
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Post by joatmoniac on Jan 21, 2020 8:52:57 GMT
The world you have put here definitely has a ton to work from. Restarting a dying world is definitely the sort of epic campaign that you could get players to buy into. It has a very bleak feel to it, but having the players be the light in the world could be fun. randosaurus has it right with their questions. In that they are questions focused on the present and future. Given the state of the world and the desperation of situation I would also focus on what needs to be, and only look to the past if it directly affects the future. |
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Post by rajubalmar on Jan 21, 2020 15:30:03 GMT
Thank you Randosaurus for the feedback. I copy/pasted your questions, and let me try to answer them:
How does it restart? A goddess decides to give up her life to restart the world.
Who restarts it? I will say the last goddess. Perhaps she was the goddess of nature.
How does its new form come to be? She calls on power from beyond the world to perform the miracle.
How did its end sow seeds of its rebirth? She literally plants a seed into the gray, lifeless world to make life grow again.
Those answers are just from the top of my head. Let's see where these answers take me.
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Post by rajubalmar on Jan 21, 2020 15:36:57 GMT
Thanks Joatmoniac for your feedback. You wrote, "The world you have put here definitely has a ton to work from. Restarting a dying world is definitely the sort of epic campaign that you could get players to buy into. It has a very bleak feel to it, but having the players be the light in the world could be fun. Randosaurus has it right with their questions. In that they are questions focused on the present and future. Given the state of the world and the desperation of situation I would also focus on what needs to be, and only look to the past if it directly affects the future."
From your input it could be a dying world where the players are trying to save the planet from extinction. That could take me into some new directions. Maybe it has a The Walking Dead feel to it. I don't know yet. Perhaps the Players would look to the past to see what caused the destruction of the world, so they can find a way to save it.
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Post by randosaurus on Jan 22, 2020 4:13:01 GMT
How does it restart? A goddess decides to give up her life to restart the world. Who restarts it? I will say the last goddess. Perhaps she was the goddess of nature. How does its new form come to be? She calls on power from beyond the world to perform the miracle. How did its end sow seeds of its rebirth? She literally plants a seed into the gray, lifeless world to make life grow again. I think a goddess' sacrifice would be a good motif or theme to work from. Try to echo this in small and subtle ways, and I think you'll have a nice throughline. Sacrifice, death, nourishment and new life- that is certainly nature's portfolio and the recipe for growing a new world. This could take a darker turn too; life and growth requires that death and decay to fuel it. What loam remains but the last vestiges of the old world?
For my own opinion, I think this would work well for a subterranean campaign. When you described what you have, it seemed as though the entire surface was barren and gray. The only remaining life would be underground, closer to the warmth and moisture of the deeper earth; but even that is fading. Survivors could be isolated in pockets of underground caverns or pockets of deep space; these could be separated by great distances.
Your whole introductory adventure or story arc could be a 'bottle' module. The caves and warrens the PCs know as home may be all they know. Do they connect to a deeper passage? Are monsters coming from somewhere? Is something hidden deeper? Traversing the surface world would be an entire different mode of play with incredible challenges. And Sandworms (just a suggestion).
If the home cave is the location of a sprouted or maturing seed, maybe the long arc of the campaign is to spread the seeds far and wide. Adventures could take the players to all sorts of ruins and abandoned sites or strongholds full of survivors. I have other thoughts for huge plot twists, but I'll hold off for now to see if this is what you have in mind.
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