Fantasy World Building (Part 1 of 3)
By Brian J. Lancaster (May 2023)
Website: www.laughingcoyote.net
About five years ago, I set out to design a fantasy world that could displace Tolkien and Dungeons and Dragons, the ultimate goal being to assimilate and/or eliminate all competition and establish a total monopoly on fantasy fiction for both literature and gaming down into eternity.
This fantasy setting would extinguish the funeral pyre of the dying universes that proceeded it and replace them with the perfect world to satisfy the needs for all the RPGs of tomorrow. The is then to sell the story to HBO before finishing it and let them do the rest of the work for me while I eat, drink, and whore my way to an early grave like George R.R. Martin.
J.R.R. Tolkien had offspring to continue his world building after dedicating the better part of his life to it, and Martin had HBO. I needed to build a world fast before continuing to work on the story of Warlordocracy, as all stories are improved by having a surrounding lore to work with. I didn't have a lifetime, offspring, or an HBO deal. Therefore, my plan is to allow modders to sell content they create in the world editor and provide a rich campaign setting.
My previous project, Brigand: Oaxaca, was based in post-apocalyptic earth, so I already had all of earth's history and civilization to build on. I just had to fabricate the fictional future history after the collapse, such as Texas invading Mexico again. My current project, Warlordocracy, is set in a fantasy universe where everything comes from scratch, and I want modders to expand the story after me. This means world-building efforts are exponentially more difficult, and records must be kept meticulously. User content can then be culled into canon and non-canon.
What follows are some shortcuts to making a semi-believable world and lay claim to some sweet intellectual property for yourself, on a limited budget and brief lifespan while sustaining yourself on processed meat and malt liquor.
Biome-Diversity
Tolkien's Middle Earth is supposed to be prehistoric real earth. It doesn't really make sense in evolutionary biology. Nor does it make sense that the Forgotten Realms' Faerun has horses and pigs and pine trees unless you want to go with the pan-spermia theory. It's best to leave these issues at the doorstep. Earthly pine trees in a rainstorm and pigs and rolling around in shit are relaxing to look at, and people are used to them, so I say just use the flora and fauna people are familiar with.
However, if any game dev or writer out there can make a setting with completely original flora and fauna, you are my hero. You and the Color Out of Space that improved Nick Cage's alpacas.
Certain biomes should be tougher to survive in than others, possibly introducing environmental hazards. Deserts and jungles should be deadly, and only traversed by those with camels who know what they are doing. Deserts should cause heat damage in the middles of the day. Jungles should be filled with poisonous snakes and spiders.
Geographical barriers are a great way to cut off exploration temporarily, and I prefer Zelda-like maps where acquiring tools opens up more areas to explore. Forcing the player through a tunnel or dangerous pass is cliche, but without it, there's no game. I would suggest having two alternative narrow paths, as I did in Chapter 2 of Brigand: Oaxaca.
In Brigand, you could choose the original Toxic Caves and Broken Tooth Pass, or the Scumlands, which I added in later. The game had to have more replayability, and cutting everything down to one narrow tunnel and pass was no way to do that. The Scumlands was also prettier linear, but it was an alternative linear path that provided a reason for people to do a second or third play-through.
Other geographical barriers include intense heat or cold, supernatural monsters such as a kraken that devours your ship, or even a dick god sitting on his dick throne who throws a lightning bolt at you if you sail too far from the intended setting. You could also have a giant magical dome preventing the player from wandering off, like Gothic 1, a game which still somehow felt like an epic landscape.
Biomes should also determine the surrounding cultural aspects of your world. Building's in an arid desert generally have flat tops because rain isn't much of a concern. Their materials should be based on the surrounding resources of the biome as well, whether it be bamboo, adobe, or gold-paved El Dorado.
Resources (Scarcity and Abundance)
Local resources are a massive (perhaps the most massive) factor to consider when designing cultures, towns, languages, architecture, and even religions. Biblical manna was described as "arriving with the dew over night" could have been psilocybin mushrooms that made Moses think a burning bush was talking to him.
More realistic examples of how resources, both abundant and scarce. The ancient Aztecs forbade anyone from consuming chocolate besides the priests, Mojave native American cultures took mescaline as a right of passage, and popular Chinese officials wore only the finest silk in court.
The origin of the word "avocado" comes from the Aztec word "ahuacatl", meaning testicle (source below). Besides the obvious resemblance and the fact that they grow in pairs, they were also considered an aphrodisiac. The quantity of substances considered "aphrodisiacs" by Chinese medicine rivals the number of cat pictures on Google, and they are highly profitable. Whether or not this they are aphrodisiacs, old millionaires pay dumptrucks of money for sea slugs in hopes of getting a boner.
Medicine and drugs play a major role in the economy, and your world should reflect this. There are hundreds of books written about how psychedelic plants have affected the development of cultures around the world. Mushrooms helped with night vision and were used by hunters. In Brigand, "deep mushrooms" give you infravision, and can be found in deep caverns alongside the more common mushrooms used not to starve to death.
In Brigand: Oaxaca, the starting plantation and chapter title, "Where Bananas Grow" serves to highlight the scarcity of uncontaminated soil and the high value of the starting location. When the player is lost in a colossal cavern, the only source of sustenance being mushrooms that heal you a tiny amount, adding to a sense of desperation. When the player finally reaches the coast, he can feast on the more healthful yucca fruit to heal more points, scaling with the player and baddie skill levels.
Bamboo is one of my favorite resources: six times the tensile strength of steel, and it grows fast. In the Brigand: Panama DLC, bamboo is one of the main new items used with the woodcraft ability to make spears, fishing rods, and smoking pipes. The new houses, likewise, are mostly constructed of bamboo. Of course, there are also the ruins of prewar buildings to remind the player of the world's history.
If a resource like bamboo is particularly abundant, make it abundantly clear with bamboo buildings, weapons, fences, bridges, scaffolding, etc. The legendary golden city of El Dorado could be a real place where gold is as common as opioids in Ohio, where the streets are paved with it. Legends such as El Dorado can also be used as propaganda for exploration and conquest, luring would-be adventurers who are down on their luck.
In the Dark Sun ADnD campaign setting, metal is highly rare, and so most tools and weapons are crafted from bone. Iron and bronze weapons were used by only the wealthiest families. Other examples of scarcity include fertile soil like in Brigand: Oaxaca, as well as the amazing film Water World where it was used with currency along with cigarettes. One piece of advice: don't drink your urine straight like Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul. Make sure you have Kevin Costner's little device or it will further dehydrate you.
Upcoming Topics:
Naming Things, Cosmology and Religion, Historical Timelines, Large Cities, Flavor Text, and more.
Sources:
https://www.avoseedo.com/the-aztecs-a-history-ripe-with-avocados/
Example PDF:
Scroll down to the manuals and select Warlordocracy Player's Manual:
https://laughingcoyote.net/games
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