Edge Ov the Twilight Queen's Domain: Worldbuilding Log 1
Friday evening, before I have to work on a Saturday (wHat thE fOrkItY)
In an effort to stabilize myself before I give in to this Child-like Tantrum I want to throw, I have expanded the Overland Hexmap for the Edge Ov The Twilight Queen's Domain!
Many Islands here! This new World Map includes more castles than i've ever used, situated near cities. I'm brainstorming ideas for what culture(s) I want to draw inspiration from for the cities. Despite this being my attempt at a True Human-Centric Medieval Stasis World, I cannot remove the Brain Worms that tell me there has to be some Sci-Fantasy in this somehow...
So! I've decided to use Google Maps of where I live for this! The Bay Area of California! (CLAP NOW (｡•̀ ⤙ •́ ｡ꐦ) )
This is all in an effort to force myself to be Lazy this go around, by placing constraints on myself. Why? Because I am a certified Over-Doer, and this funky little dice game triggers my Over-Do It Brain Worms. So I must resist the urge to Over-Do, by also using only pre-published adventures/crap i've stored in my E-Nest for far too long! (And only for now, until those Brain Worms win...)
So! The Cities shall be City-States, currently on my mind for that would be maybe one of the Indian Cultures. It does fit with the fact that i've already established the Local Towns/Villages near Mvrkmaal's tunnels being similar to the various Nomadic Peoples of Tibet.
One of the first decisions I made as far as worldbuilding was that The Twilight Queen is the Last Elf Alive, hiding out deep within her Castle on an Island Nation (Yes, the Japan Analogue. For my World, they will be the Invading/Colonizing Empire). That's one Major Player here. The next, an Empire inspired by Medieval Russia 60-odd miles East past The Death Mountain Range. (Savin, Dylan's PC who took the glory as the First Player Ever to explore Mvrkmaal's Tunnels, is from there. :33)
This to me implies that Law and Civilization is pretty sparse outside of the cities and their immediate surrounding areas, which I know will be heavily amplified in Gortsy. (The Russia Analogue :33) I plan for that to be a big deal within the realm of, "Selling all that Fucking Heavy, Visually Loud As Fuck Treasure" PC's will be bringing out of Dungeons. It'll probably also be the only place PC's will be able to research/learn spells, plus buy all that Gud Shiny High Quality Merch (+1 Stuff, Potions, etc).
Hopefully this incentivizes Players to conquer castles, or build their own through whatever means they figure out for themselves. One of my hopes for this Setting is that I can get multiple groups going around here, seeing each others alterations to the world. Dylan has already left his! He left those 2 Fweaking Portcullises Iron Spiked in their Raised Position in Mvrkmaal's Tunnels.
OK, LAST IDEA BEFORE I GO EAT BEFORE I SLEEP BEFORE I HAVE TO WAKE UP AND WORK ON A FREAKING SATURDAY <( ｡ •̀ ᴖ •́ ｡)>
So! The original idea that sprung this whole thing off!
Sdiixxi, The Sunken City. San Francisco, many Millenia into the future. Long after Global Warming has permanently altered the Ocean's Tidal Patterns. It Resurfaces every Long Winter, when the Tide lowers to reveal the remains of an Ancient Elven Mega City. This will be my take on the Greg Gillespie style of Megadungeon, where it's more akin to many mini/regular sized dungeons connected via a smaller scale hexmap. (Ok, this concept has probably existed for fucking eons before GG did it but he's the first person I can think of for this "( – ⌓ – ) )
There will be Islands moving around the surrounding Ocean of Sdiixxi, with towns and other cool stuff to occupy the PC's in between exploring the Larger Landmass. I'm pretty excited to get all of this in a gameable state, because as it stands I plan for this world to reflect my gaming capacity year round.
Sdiixxi is sunken during Spring/Summer, when my work picks up (The Trades be Brutal when the Sun is Shining) so PC's are mostly stranded inland with the sparse civilization and more self contained adventure hooks/dungeons. Stuff like Cult of The Reptile God, Temple of Elemental Evil, Stonehell, my own content when it suits the occasions ;33.
Other than that, there's hexcrawling and Downtime. I guess once the Death Mountain Range is ready (Mvrkmaal's Tunnel connects into the Ancient Dwarven Mega-Bullet Train Tunnels traversing the mountains) that'll be a secondary Big As Funk region for Dungeoncrawling and Shenanigans.
Many things in the works, much excitement is being built. x33