Worldbuilding for the Pathfinder RPG


Advice

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Most important thing i find about worldbuilding is making it feel more alive. Make stuff happen without the players interacting with it.

Sometimes if the party takes too long and they were supposed to save a place, well too late everything bad that they were to prevent happens before they get there.

War is declared while they inside a dungeon.

NPC they met awhile back has been taken to the dungeon for some crime.

ect...

I find it best to write a timeline with general events the party will find out. Then modify based on how they interact with it.

While this sounds like building the plot this would be in some cases separate from the plot and just something in the world happening to make it feel more that the world is turning without them.

And using the above suggestions from others for building the world out you should have a simple time figuring out how all the dominoes will fall over time once everything is setup up to start.


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I do that.

There is an impending change in the political climate of the Halfling Village.

There is a Goblin Army on the move.

There are twice annual massive migrations and bizarre ocean currents, 2 seasons where there is no sunrise or sunset, just 24 hours of twilight, and never cold winter nor hot summer seasons. These strange things don't seem to bother the characters at all, but give the players clues about the unusual nature of the world they live in.

The years have been getting gradually shorter, and the climate gradually warmer...


One of the ideas I had in mind for keeping the feel of the world 'real' is for actions of the players to have real political consequences.

For example, a small Dwarven kingdom had been conquered by the Sun Elven Empire within the past decade. Say my characters decide to take on and manage to defeat the general and their unit currently ruling that region.

Immediately of course the empire would respond by sending more powerful military detachments to deal with the threat and with any possible rebel armies. If the adventurers fail to deal with this adequately, the kingdom might find themselves in an even worse position than before and some of the kingdom might even resent the adventurers for it.

Also, if they defeat the general and his unit, they'd become extremely, very, very wanted in all corners of the empire and frontier regions. Even outside of the borders, the hefty bounty on their heads might seem very attractive to mercenary outsiders who otherwise have no imperial loyalties, making it harder to travel than before.

Those are possible ideas I'm tossing around, of course.

EDIT: I don't want to just murder my players, but I don't want the campaign to be 'videogamey' either. Violence isn't the solution to every problem, everything won't suddenly work out just because you kill the "boss", NPC's won't necessarily tolerate you antagonizing them, and for some problems it might be better off to keep your nose out of altogether.

EDIT: On a side note, I'm thinking of calling the small dwarven kingdom the Palestone Mountains. It might be a long-coveted source of limestone and marble.


Palestone Kingdom

So I was developing the dwarven kingdom that had recently been conquered by the elves. It is called the Palestone Kingdom because these mountains are rich in limestone and marble. Limestone and marble are sacred to these dwarves. Because they were not willing to trade their sacred stone with the elves, the elves declared war on them, and after decades of struggle, they were at last conquered.

The Kingdom was ruled by a pair of Kings, The King of Marble and his King consort. When the elves conquered, the King regnant and most of his council were either killed or captured, never to be seen again. The King consort and some of the surviving council survived and escaped into exile. Meanwhile the elves began to quarry the marble, not only from the natural deposits but also from their temples and palace, and forced the citizens to do the labor.


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First thoughts:

how powerful are the dwarven gods whose temples they're desecrating?

Is there a (literal) underground resistance? I would expect dwarves to have expert trap setters and saboteurs.

If these are clan homelands, are they desecrating tombs? - Lots of assorted ghosts and other undead. Would the highest level clerics call planar allies?

Are there still areas the elves haven't cleared yet, full of death-traps?

How is a new dwarven king normally decided upon? Is there a clear succession? Are there any items a new king must possess before he can take the throne, and where are they?


Glowmold

This strange, bioluminescent mold likes to grow on the underside of rocks and the walls of caverns. The deeper into the earth one goes, the more likely glowmold is to grow. When ingested, glowmold causes hallucinations and euphoric feelings of enlightenment, and the hallucinogen can be alchemically extracted and refined into an oil. The mold features in the rituals of some dwarven and drow cults.

In spite of being illegal and frowned on in high society, the refined extract is popular amongst the elven aristocracy, and a bustling underground trade exists. It's possible that glowmold may have been one of the unstated motivations behind the conquest of the Palestone Mountains, and indeed, throughout the war and especially since the conquest, the imperial border guard and frontier watch has intercepted exponential amounts of smuggled glowmold shipments originating from that region.

In addition to the captured travellers, the mercenaries at the start of the campaign also have various illegitimately acquired goods and batches of raw glowmold, which their alchemist had been working on trying to refine into an extract with only moderate success (they are not very good at it). The alchemist is also an addict and has a tendency to steal from the stocks, much to the chagrin of the other smugglers.


Chief Cook and Bottlewasher wrote:

First thoughts:

how powerful are the dwarven gods whose temples they're desecrating?

Is there a (literal) underground resistance? I would expect dwarves to have expert trap setters and saboteurs.

If these are clan homelands, are they desecrating tombs? - Lots of assorted ghosts and other undead. Would the highest level clerics call planar allies?

Are there still areas the elves haven't cleared yet, full of death-traps?

How is a new dwarven king normally decided upon? Is there a clear succession? Are there any items a new king must possess before he can take the throne, and where are they?

These are good questions and i will certainly keep them in mind.

- have yet to develop the gods. I have a tendency to give gods a subtle and intangible presence, however. I imagine the chief god worshiped by the Palestone kingdom is the Man in Marble. Although he was imprisoned in the stone long ago (yet to determine why), according to the religion, his thoughts still speak to us. I have yet to determine what his powers actually are.

- The government in exile (consisting of the King consort, the surviving family of the late king and his consort, and also the remaining council members and their families) is the head of a resistance group. The government itself is stationed outside of the kingdom far away from imperial borders, although a chapter of the resistance remains at home, managed by the King consort's sister.

- The elves have been carrying out valuable grave goods and marble from the tombs and temples, for the most part with success, but they had to block up a really old one deep in the mountains because they had disturbed and awoken the temple guardian, an enormous golem made of marble. Other details yet in the works.

- The title of king is usually hereditary (descending in age, regardless of gender and whether blood-born or adopted), and decided in this order: --> Consort --> Siblings (before children only if heir is not of age)--> Children --> Eldest Sibling's Children and so on. This means that the King consort is currently the ruling King, and if he dies (since all siblings of the King regnant are dead), his younger sister, who currently heads the resistance at home, becomes Queen. The Kings had an heir, but she was sadly killed.

The new King is decided immediately on death and it isn't necessary to physically possess regalia to become coronated, but the regalia includes a crown and a sword, and the King sits on a throne of marble in his palace. Both the crown and the sword were stolen and the throne has been quarried.


Also, now that I think of it, the title of Emperor/ess of the Sun Empire is decided in this way:

The ruler chooses their own heir at any time. Traditionally, this heir is a child and usually a child or younger sibling of the ruler, and then the ruler personally schools the child in politics and command. The House of Elders, Speakers to the Sun (clergy) and House of Lords can together override her choice with a two-thirds majority vote. The heir is coronated upon the death of the ruler. If the ruler dies before an heir is chosen, the Houses vote on an heir.

At the time the campaign starts, the current Empress still hasn't chosen an heir, which is unusual because she has ruled for 213 years. Usually, the heir is chosen within the first decade after coronation, after years of careful deliberation. She has no children, but her nieces and nephews squabble for her favor.

The imperial regalia includes a crown, a robe, a golden orb (like the Orbis, but represents the sun) and a staff.


Fun fact: The entire map of Sun's Garden is 34,935 square miles, which is about the size of Maine, or Tasmania, Portugal, Jordan, French Guiana, La Rioja or San Juan (Im tossing various territories out there hoping that you may find any of those useful as a comparison)

It's all because I decided to use a Dwarf Fortress map as a basis for my world map.

EDIT: Here is the map of Sun's Garden. (unfortunately imgur shrunk the image so it's not the full dimensions) It is still a work in progress. Underneath you can still see the original DF map which I'm using as a reference to draw this one.


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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Aniuś the Talewise wrote:
Fun fact: The entire map of Sun's Garden is 34,935 square miles, which is about the size of Maine, or Tasmania, Portugal, Jordan, French Guiana, La Rioja or San Juan (Im tossing various territories out there hoping that you may find any of those useful as a comparison)

Fun fact: There's a section of mountains in the world that my group normally plays in that we call "Connecticut", because it's almost exactly the same area as the state.

We've also named sections after their shape, like Russia, Scotty Dog, and Massachusetts.

Then there's the completely random bits, like Denmark. And the section that my first character was from... I asked the GM what the name of the country was, and he said "Hell if I know". So now it's known as Hellifino.


ZZTRaider wrote:
Aniuś the Talewise wrote:
Fun fact: The entire map of Sun's Garden is 34,935 square miles, which is about the size of Maine, or Tasmania, Portugal, Jordan, French Guiana, La Rioja or San Juan (Im tossing various territories out there hoping that you may find any of those useful as a comparison)

Fun fact: There's a section of mountains in the world that my group normally plays in that we call "Connecticut", because it's almost exactly the same area as the state.

We've also named sections after their shape, like Russia, Scotty Dog, and Massachusetts.

Then there's the completely random bits, like Denmark. And the section that my first character was from... I asked the GM what the name of the country was, and he said "Hell if I know". So now it's known as Hellifino.

that's pretty funny. :Þ

I've been calling the smaller continent to the southeast in this world 'Dwarf Australia' because its geographic location resembles Australia, and it is supposed to be the original homeland of the dwarves.


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Aniuś the Talewise wrote:

Glowmold

This strange, bioluminescent mold likes to grow on the underside of rocks and the walls of caverns. The deeper into the earth one goes, the more likely glowmold is to grow. When ingested, glowmold causes hallucinations and euphoric feelings of enlightenment, and the hallucinogen can be alchemically extracted and refined into an oil. The mold features in the rituals of some dwarven and drow cults.

In spite of being illegal and frowned on in high society, the refined extract is popular amongst the elven aristocracy, and a bustling underground trade exists. It's possible that glowmold may have been one of the unstated motivations behind the conquest of the Palestone Mountains, and indeed, throughout the war and especially since the conquest, the imperial border guard and frontier watch has intercepted exponential amounts of smuggled glowmold shipments originating from that region.

In addition to the captured travellers, the mercenaries at the start of the campaign also have various illegitimately acquired goods and batches of raw glowmold, which their alchemist had been working on trying to refine into an extract with only moderate success (they are not very good at it). The alchemist is also an addict and has a tendency to steal from the stocks, much to the chagrin of the other smugglers.

Ah, your Glowmold is sort of like tobacco, tea, and opium: elven addiction is driving their imperial conquests.

On the other hand, that also forms the basis for a strong Dwarven black market economy in Glowmold spirits. Dwarves might form the backbone of criminal organizations, maybe funding terrorist organizations like the IRA or Al Queda and the Taliban in the rw.

I hope you have some lawful good characters in your campaign. I'd love to hear about the awful decisions you will force them to make. One time, I had a lawful good character who burned down a village while the villagers were asleep....


More about the Man in Marble:

Long ago, the region of the palestone mountains was all undersea and home to sea serpents, and over the millennia the sea slowly gave way to dry land. The dragons adapted and made their new homes in the emerging limestone caverns.

When dwarves first migrated to the region, they had no idea what they were getting into. They settled in the caverns at the surface, far away from the dragons, who had gone deep into the subterrane, to where there was still sea.

Over millennia, the dwarves learned to farm, and then to forge bronze and iron, and began to mine, eventually uncovering the deep caverns and angering the dragons. The beasts ravaged the settlements and demanded tribute in treasures and live dwarves in return for not eradicating them entirely.

This sad arrangement continued for some time, until one man ventured deep into the caverns, disguised as a sacrifice. He challenged the beasts, and the long battle that ensued shook the country. The dragons crushed caves together, and threw stone up from the deep.

The dwarf tricked the proud beasts into encasing themselves entirely in limestone, cutting them off from the dwarven world, but also imprisoning himself. With nowhere else to go, the dragons and the dwarf continued to fight in an indefinite stalemate, crushing limestone into marble, causing earthquakes and creating the Palestone mountains.

It is said that the dwarven hero's noble sacrifice made him into a god, and that he still fights the dragons to this day.

Man in Marble -- LG -- Law, Good, Protection, Glory, Earth -- greatsword


Started building the Eltheroula (Sun Elven) lexicon

here is how it looks like so far. I actually used Welsh phonology to develop this. Hopefully it doesn't sound much like Welsh.

Sun Elven lexicon:

Stress always on penultimate syllable

ɛlθɛi - elthey - sun
awɛi - awey - song, melodic voice, sound of instrument
awɛiɛn - aweyen - songs, music
gwɑː - gwa - physical strength
ʃɔlθɛi - sholthey - (arcane) magic
ɛlʃɔlθɛi - elsholthey - divine magic (in the name of the sun)
ɛnθɛi - enthey - elf
ɛnθɛiɛn - entheyen - elves
hɔnθɛi - honthey - half elf
hɔnθɛiɛn - hontheyen half elves
gʊlθɪ - golthe - dwarf
gʊlθɪn - golthen - dwarves
hɔsɑː - hosa - human
hɔsɑːn - hosan - humans
hanhɔsɑː - hanhosa - halfling
hanhɔsɑːn - hanhosan - halflings
fɑlθɛi - falthey - gnome
falθɛiɛn - faltheyen - gnomes
gʊlθɛi - gulthey - drow
gʊlθɛiɛn - gultheyen - drow (plural)
hɔn, han - hon, han - half
rɔul - roul nation, country
ɛlθɛrɔul - eltheroul - Sun Empire
ɛlθɛrɔulɛi - eltherouley - Citizen of Eltheroul
ɛlθɛrɔulɑː - eltheroula - adj. of the Empire
kalsoː - kalso - ruler
kalsɔin - kalsoin - rulers
ɛlθɛkalsoː - Emperor/ess
alθɑː - altha - mother
kɔθɑ: - koltha - father
θɛi - they - fey, relative, cousin
falɑː - fala - stranger, foreigner
gʊl - depth, subterrane, darkness


Scott Wilhelm wrote:

Ah, your Glowmold is sort of like tobacco, tea, and opium: elven addiction is driving their imperial conquests.

On the other hand, that also forms the basis for a strong Dwarven black market economy in Glowmold spirits. Dwarves might form the backbone of criminal organizations, maybe funding terrorist organizations like the IRA or Al Queda and the Taliban in the rw.

I hope you have some lawful good characters in your campaign. I'd love to hear about the awful decisions you will force them to make. One time, I had a lawful good character who burned down a village while the villagers were asleep....

The Union of Kings, an enormous dwarven kingdom complex to the northwest of the empire, is their biggest source of glowmold, but since the dwarves jack up the trading prices they decided it would be easier to conquer the Palestone dwarves and just take glowmold directly from them.

I don't think the Palestone dwarves are big enough to have sprawling criminal organizations? Though the Union of Kings might. But I can totally see dwarves getting involved in smuggling.


Shindashei, CE female half-elf rogue 5 (mercenary leader)
Falatrui, CN male half-elf sorcerer 4 (mercenary, Shindashei’s brother)
Wanchai, CN genderless elf alchemist 3 (mercenary, glowmold addict)
Phaughaunge, N male human barbarian 3 (mercenary, muscle)
Pruchoitshyna, N female human fighter 3 (mercenary, muscle)

Here are the mercenaries my party will be facing up against in the first session. I'll be fleshing them out soon enough. My party will be a group of 5 (hopefully remaining so, one talked about leaving) starting off at level 3 so I hope this won't be too much for them.

Then again the encounter begins with the dwarf fighter catching the mercenaries off guard at their camp.


Shindashei: Tired of living in half-elven slums and having no desire to be bossed around by elven superiors in the imperial army, Shindashei left the city in search of a more free and profitable life. She started a small mercenary group and has been killing and smuggling for money ever since.

Falatrui: His elven father tried to raise his children for the ranks of half-elven foot soldiers in the imperial army. Shindashei learned the bow naturally but her brother was clumsy with it, earning him the name ‘falatrui’ from his father, ‘stranger to the bow’. Instead, Falatrui developed a sorcerer’s talents and followed that path.There being no place for half-elves amongst the battlemages of the imperial army, he joined Shindashei in her adventures.

Wanchai: Once an elven Lord’s child, Wanchai was estranged from his family for dishonoring them with his glow mold addiction. His mind is hopelessly scrambled from years of ingesting the narcotic, though for the past year he has been able to lend his alchemical knowledge to Shindashei’s group anyway. His claims of being able to extract oil from glowmold himself may have been somewhat exaggerated.

Phaughaunge: This impassioned warrior is a fugitive separated from his enslaved family, hailing from the Choipoia Tribe. Unable to return to his family or to his people lest be recaptured as a slave, he joined up with Shindashei’s group a few years ago for a share in mercenary profits. Though he detests the bossy pointy-eared elves, and especially hates the exotic slaving business, he has to make a living somehow. He enjoys storytelling and is a begrudging friend of Pruchoitshyna, and has attempted to teach her the popular game of dice-telling, with little success. The elves call him Phaunge for short.

Pruchoitshyna: Also hailing from the river tribe, Pruchoitshyna was born to a family of freemen, and was schooled in the ways of swinging axes, but not much else. She has a poor mind for the abstract and doesn’t understand how the roll of a die leads to the telling of a story, as Phaughaunge has tried to explain, but appreciates his company anyway. She understands two things: hurting people, and collecting shiny metal circles. Pruchoitshyna is inappropriately friendly with everyone she isn’t ordered to kill including the elves, and quite gullible. Phaughaunge finds this quite annoying. The elves call her Pruna for short.

---

Bits of background drawn up for the mercenaries in case any of them become recurring NPC's.


Also my players and i came up with this as a joke:

Quote:

Dwarven magnetic dice game:

- one player bets on a die roll and attempts to roll the die.
The other player uses a magnet to repel the die and prevent it from landing on the desired roll

this game is terrible and it sucks. people play it when they’re bored. that's why theyre called bored games.


My players and I developed the truth of Sun's Garden:

As is known to the inhabitants of Sun's Garden, space bends back on itself at the boundaries of the world. Anyone who attempts to travel north of the mainland will find themself going south back towards the mainland, no matter how straight they try to go, and the same is true for every other direction. Likewise, space at a high altitude above Sun's garden is bent back toward the ground.

Due to having not seen other worlds of the material plane, the people of Sun's Garden simply believe this to be the form the material plane takes.

The truth:

The entire "world" of Sun's Garden is the base of an upside down pyramid made of earth. This artificial pyramid floats high in the sky above a true, natural, spherical world much like our own planet. The existence of this planet is wholly unknown to the inhabitants of Sun's Garden, who believe the base of their little pyramid (which they do not even know to be a pyramid) to be all that the material plane is.

This of course, begs the question: who built the floating pyramid, and why? Is it a sanctuary, or a prison?

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