World Building Geography: What even is???

[welian]

Like, goddamn. World-building and shit. Most of my roleplays are in a relatively modern or near future setting so there's never that much extra worldbuilding I need to do. But, I'm sitting on a fantasy RP that I've been chipping away at, and you know what? Creating entire regions from scratch is hard. Like, really hard.

So hard that I come to you today, RPN, and I ask of thee - what are some of your favored resources for constructing fictional, fantastical regions? What real-life civilizations do you draw from the most? Do y'all have like, outlines and shit that you fill out like you're pre-writing for middle school all over again? Do you draw your own maps? How do you decide what goes where? What kind of names do you choose for your fantasy regions???

How even

what do

help

 

[CabalAnomicPotato]

Oh, geography is indeed hard, but iv seen some helpful tricks put to use. Get a premade map, hopefully with no detail of whatever (like for example, it's all black or something, no detail, only a map), and fill in the details from there (maybe you want mountains in the north, and a giant beach Sandy area near the wesr, that's up to you). This technique helps, because more than not most people try to plan out geography while sketching a map, so having one premade gives you a foundation. A really good idea (I recently saw, though it only really works for nation building rps) is having a blank map (premade or made yourself), and getting toe rpers to add geography to areas of your (or their, with a limited space) choice. This idea can lead to some diverse landscapes, so it's a personal favorite. Hope these provide at least a little insight.

 

[Saccharine Cyanide]

My thinking is, why come up with geography from scratch when 1) I'm terrible at it and 2) I'm living in it? XD

Yeah, I use my state's geography as a reference for terrain. I just shift things around a bit while keeping to a few constants, like: farmland and grazeland takes up the majority of space, cities tend to be near bodies of water, etc. Build from what you know.

For names, you can't fail with an adjective/noun and a geographical feature. Redcliff, Eastport, Poppydale, and so on.

 

[Fable]

Man, I do love me some world building. I even have custom races for a custom DnD campaign with a custom realm map. Outlines also do help out massively when world building, otherwise things can get overwhelming and disorganized. As far as geography, it doesn't need to be crazy realistic. I do cartography for fun - far from a professional - and some things are easy to place; such as mountains. Mountains are basically where you want your tectonic plates to be. Now, rivers on the other hand, suck ass. Rivers aren't random and all the things you have to consider when placing them makes them an utter nightmare, which is why I now simply place them wherever the hell I want.

Other things to consider are biomes; desert, marshes, tundra, tropical, temperate, etc. Having a desert right up against a tundra obviously doesn't work out, lol.

There is also the style such as atlas vs nation vs antique vs a ton of other styles. Looking at other fantasy maps can help give you a general idea of what style you like and how things are generally placed geographically.

Now, as far as naming things. Name generators are my best friend. I have a few favorite generators I tend to use when I get stuck. They help push me towards the sounds I like.

 

[thoughtless]

Whenever I'm creating fantasy worlds, I like to have a visual representation of the whole map. Since my drawing skills are average at worst, I use this program called Inkarnate. It has a whole bunch of tools that allow me to create my ideal map, and there isn't a gigantic learning curve. As you can see from just the main page of the website, it allows you to do a lot of beautiful things and the program is still being updated.

When it comes to naming towns, or races, I draw a lot of inspiration from mythology. Which is common, but I like putting my own spin on things and tend to stray away from demi-gods.

 

[OmegaxRai]

For my world I cut corners and made the majority of it uninhabitable barren rock beaten by meteors. With only a small section of water with enough land to build 5 territories on. Then build from there. As different worlds dont always mean alternate earths and when in fantasy settings why not get a little extreme.

 

[glowworms]

1. Where are your mountains (ranges)? They are barriers that keep large groups of people from interacting with each other. Country borders are often built on them.
2. Where are your rivers? They come off of mountains but they can start anywhere, really, and feed into the surrounding water. Country borders are also sometimes along these, too. You get your best farmland in the places where the river floods/retreats.
3. What direction are the main winds? They bring rain (forests or farming) up one side of your mountains and dry off the other.
4. Where are your cities? (as above) Near bodies of water. Trade in port towns or using river power as the main source of energy. Usually also where government buildings are, unless...
5. Where are your fortresses? Usually on top of a hill, inland, shaped into a pentagon if you have the archers and mathematics.
6. Where are your farms and forests? The places in between all this other stuff.
7. What's the culture like? Okay, so this gets into a bunch of other stuff, like general temperature, government structure, philosophy, dominant religion, etc.
   • What's the general temperature? How many seasons do you have and how long do they last? People in colder climates tend to be more time-conscious. People in warmer climates tend to be more relaxed. Seasonal weather affects a whole bunch of stuff like how houses are built (does it flood during the rainy season to the extent that your houses are on stilts?) and what kinds of celebrations happen (stockpiling and harvest feast right before many long cold months of winter)
   • How big is the city/town/village? Cities tend to be more independent, villages tend to be more collectivist. Was your city planned or did it just happen from a smaller village?
   • What's the tallest building? Sometimes a church, sometimes town hall, sometimes an office building, sometimes a condominium. But pretty much always the thing that's most important to the town.
   • What's the dominant religion? Is there one god and a bunch of saints? Are there many gods with different titles? Can anything be a god? Are there spirits everywhere? Do you have family shrines? Is there an afterlife? This stuff largely affects how people value things and what's important.
8. And so forth. I'm not going to spend my entire day typing up a list, but here are some things to start.

 

[welian]

Mmmm, bless you wonderful people. I'll have to get a Google Doc linked up, I'm specifically working on a campaign called Royal Witches, which takes place in a matriarchal society where women are the ruling class because they have the biological ability to use magic. There's four colors of mana, so I was thinking of making four regions tersely unified by a single throne that's often fought over.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I use this --> http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/polygon-map-generation/demo.html

If I have no idea about topography or what not. I just keep randomizing until I find a look I like then I break it down. What kind of people would live in what regions of the map. How are they inter-connected? Is there a central government or lots of little kingdoms.

If I have an idea of what I want the topography to be and just need a visual to help pin down specifics I use --> http://inkarnate.com/

It's a great map tool for helping to come up with a specific country look and helping to flesh out the ideas you already have.

 

[wonderandawe]

Watch BBCs Human Planet Documentary. It's on Netflix. Great source of inspiration for different cultures.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

There's some excellent advice here but keep in mind the intended scope of your RP while you do all this. A lot of people will tell you that there's no such thing as too much worldbuilding and that's sort of true. But there's a reason conservation of detail is a relevant principle to almost every creative medium on the planet.

If your plot calls for the players to be caught up in the local politics of a single port city then perhaps you don't need to detail the farming practices of nomadic tribes on another continent. You should be thinking in terms of what information is going to inform the action of your RP and make it more engaging, every word should be able to justify its existence.

Don't underestimate the effect you worldbuilding will have on the tone of the rp. Players will latch onto anything and everything you put out, the smart character will want to show off his knowledge of geography, someone else will want to be the unique character from an obscure tribe from the bleakest corner of your map.

Cultural practices, technology, religious beliefs, economic relationships. These things will all influence the vibe of ypur world and conseqently the undertones of the stories told within, choosing to touch on them at all is a decision not a default option.

Think about stories set in the modern world. Does every single one of them touch on the minutiae of every aspect of politics, culture and history? Or do they selectively draw on certain aspects that support the story?

Worldbuilding is a means, not an end.

 

[Imperator_tenebrae]

Geography came easy to me. I grew up reading a bunch of books on WWII and the Cold War which had all these strategic maps between pages. I used to scribble battle lines on old atlases when I was kid pretending there were battles there so I was naturally drawn to maps, no pun intended.

Topography didn't become a thing until much later and most of my fantasy map influences comes from my home country-'Murica, Oceania and Europe.

 

[welian]

Good feedback, thank you! The first part of the RP takes place in the capitol city of the region, and then progresses into an adventurous trek into more-or-less the bowels of Hell. For the region, I'm thinking of taking a page from the creators of Avatar/Legend of Korra, and taking four to six real world cultures, blending them up, and then applying a light touch of Industrial Revolution. Since most of the reference pictures I've pulled are ostensibly European styled medieval/renaissance armor, I was thinking of loosely basing each of the four main regions on France/England/Spain/Germany, or some other quartet of early modern nations.

 

[Bone2pick]

Worldbuilding is a means, not an end.

That's an interesting claim. I don't think I can argue that it's wrong yet I hesitate to agree with it. Maybe it has something to do with the bubbling excitement I experience whenever I create or discover rich fantasy worlds. In some cases (more frequently than you might imagine) that excitement is greater than actually roleplaying "inside" said world.

Great worlds lure me in like a siren's song. And once introduced, they plant a seed deep within my imagination that invariably leads me back to their wonderful realities. Correctly or incorrectly, I view them as more than mere means to an end.