Recent content by Chaosmancer

I want to zoom in on this for a second. Now, I'm not an expert by any means, but actually... most of the people I know who do world-building actually wouldn't have a town of mostly humans and tolkienesque creatures. In fact, generally, the issue I've seen people run into is more "but there are...

Personally, I've always found human-centric worlds to either be deeply unrealistic or very very grim. If you don't have trade agreements or functioning societies with the various sentient species, then you likely are in a state of total genocidal war, and in that state with multiple species...

Yep, that always kind of blows my mind. The Monster Manual makes "curated worldbuilding" so so difficult. And very few fantasy settings that don't have a bit of kitchen sink in them have half the monstrous folk that DnD has in a single book. Honestly, it is part of why I tend to either have...

Fair, I think that also depends on HOW you present the information. I remember the Gazetteer I had was basically just tightly packed columns of blurbs about different countries. I think if the goal is to explain things, they can't just have that plus a map, and so I'm expecting it will take more...

Well, to an extent... adventure building and world building are the same thing. For example, the how much is too much detail and how much depth is too much depth are key for both. And the answer for this chapter is going to be less detail and less depth, by sheer necessity. Again, we are likely...

Yes yes Analogies are not perfect. Is it? I don't think it is too complex. Because I think you are trying to look at this as though it is an encyclopedia. Even if you were making a brand-new setting, attempting to include 200 cities, a dozen factions, three different BBEGs and thirty areas of...

Exactly.

Eh, that just sounds like someone who was looking for a different type of group. I wouldn't even register that as quirky, just trying to include erotic elements into a game and group that didn't want them. Which is generally just a person with poor understandings of boundaries. But, see, if...

Nah, I get you. I know a lot of the ones I read early on were based in MMORPGs so I was lost... quite a few times, since I'm just not up on the lingo. In many ways, I think it is a genre still finding its legs.

I honestly don't see how doing the same process with an established, well-built setting is any different. If you want to teach an art class about chiaroscuro, you don't start out by painting a new painting. You show them a finished painting, and talk about why the decisions that went into making...

The published books are going to call them Warforged, because that is the mechanical designation. If they even decide to officially add them into a new setting (which I don't think they will) then it will be under a heading like "Warforged across the Multiverse". And there, they MIGHT decide to...

Fair, but I am an unabashed massive fan of the genre. It combines things I love like DnD the Game with storytelling, and it tends to be both funny and epic at the same time. There are a lot of poorly written schlock stories out there, but at its best? At its best these stories hit a need in me.

You know, it is always amazing to me that when people complain about players who want to play quirky characters, they never say something like "a pixie artificer who likes explosions" which is a character I could imagine a player actually coming up with. It is a Half-Grung half-sentient cheese...

I am not sure if you are trying to make an argument, or just stating the most bland fact ever. I made a character who was mechanically an autognome. I called them a Living Doll, because they were made by a crazy, immortal and creepy Toymaker instead of by any gnomes. Yeah, if you really want...

Ah, we were in the Mere of Dead men, I just thought the DM was altering the adventure, since he did that a lot (I assume the parasitic hellbees in the attic were not original)