The World Map [World Creation]

Step 1: Shape of the World
The first thing we have to establish is the shape of the world. The rulebook suggests going for something beyond the normal globe so maybe the world is flat, or doughnut shaped? Or we could go for an inverted globe? Suggestions appreciated and we'll put it to a vote!

We'll also need to calculate how far we'd travel in a day. An easy way of doing it is assuming we go one square per day, but we could always change that depending on what people prefer?

Step 2: Magic and Technology
The next step is to establish the role of magic and technology. That'll help to build the overall tone. Usually JRPGs have a good deal of magitech and magepunk type aesthetics. Our campaign doesn't have to, but we do have a list of options to chose from. I've included all of them in a spoiler, and a poll for us to vote on what we prefer. If you can't think of which you prefer, you can always roll randomly!Step 3: Kingdoms and Nations
Next its time to populate the world. The game suggests a kingdom or nation for each player. For the purposes of the premade adventure, I'll be dropping two nations in to start with, but we'll still need one from everyone else. There are eight potential options, and you can pick or roll depending on preference like before!

In terms of description, go into as little or as much detail as you'd like. One or two sentences is fine, or if you'd like to go for a paragraph that'd be fine too. It's worth paying attention to the later stages of history and mystery when creating your nation too.Step 4: History, Mystery and Threats
Just like a kingdom or nation, each player should create a history, mystery or threat. These don't have to be about the nation you made. They could dip into someone else's, or they could be about the world generally. Go as large or as small as you want to, because after all this world belongs to everyone. I've added in a spoiler the D20 table for prompts, but you don't need to stick with it. In this case, how much you use it is entirely up to you!Step 5: Group Type
The final thing we have to decide on is what type of group do we want to play? There are five options to pick from, which affect what our end goal is and how our characters are related. I'll do a description of each one and the questions worth answering, and a poll for us to pick which one once we've had some to discuss it!

🤔 We may need to decide on these (maybe in order) before character creation.

1) I'm not too concerned with the shape of the world. Can be a standard planet, a HALO-like ring, a large disc . .
2) I'd like to play in a world with magic and tech. On the tech side steampunk is always fun.

To be fair, world shape isn't as important. Obviously I'm open to anything if we have a preferred opinion but I think I'd be happy to play around with it as GM if we stick on figuring it out together.

Thanks for having me! Here are some of my thoughts.

1. I would prefer a globe as the setting will already be different enough that we don't need another strange thing to keep in mind.
2. I think having tech could be a balance to magic. So people born without magic can use machines to fill the same roll and prevent a class-based society where the inherently superior magic people would just conquer the world. One idea I had is the source of magic is literally from the blood and bodies of gods who died long ago and their godhood suffused the land and created magic. Maybe this could be a secret and no one knows the gods are dead and that is the source of magic, or they do know and they see all magic as divine. Lots of ways to go with it.

1-a. I'd prefer a normal globe and agree with Nezz.

1-b. I would suggest slow travel time with travel on foot from one place to the next closest one taking no less than a day. Faster with exotic transport, that should be available at all towns (walking cars to walk trough the dense untamed forests, expensive but fast hovercraft, magical airships, etc).

1-c. Oh, and I completely forgot about railway! Yes, trains absolutely must be a thing. Thanks for reminding, Furmyr.

2. My ideal balance would be that of Final Fantasy 8. Powerful evil sorceresses being imprisoned by technological means in space? Giant robots? Technological flying vault-towns? Ancient gods? All at once?! Yes, please!

3. I'd like to have a character, who's country of origin represents a controversial grey spot in the history of Dunova. Perhaps, a nation they destroyed long ago on their way to prosperity and rainbows. And now the place is just ruins, but people still live there.

4. I'll have to think about it.

5. Brought Together by Fate. Definitely. I like to focus on bonds, and I don't like generalized backgrounds of resistance/revolutionaries. Guardians would inevitably place one character over the others, which I don't like to have in games at all. Seekers are just weird and too much Wizard of Oz.

I don't mind the shape of the world one way or the other.

I agree that travel time should take some time, as it makes the tech or magi-tech transportation more useful. I can totally see a railway being the pereferred transportation (at least in dangerous areas).

As for the tech. My preference is some kind of magi-tech similar to the Eberron setting. Though wouldn't mind more high tech.

I am seeing a nation/area of banner lords that's looked at like a more savage area from the outside. People calling the "monster nation" or something like that. Maybe led by some misunderstood humanoid like orcs or goblins. I am thinking this is where my character would be from, but was taken by "treasure hunters" and sold to a circus.

Threat could be one of the stronger banner lords trying to gather all the "monster nation" to increase their territory and might.

I agree to Brought together by Fate. It is a one size fits all and can explain all manner of disparate backgrounds.

1. It looks like the general consensus for the world is a globe, which works for me fine. It also seems that we're leaning toward 1 squad is 1 day's travel regards to travel time for when I get the map set up. Also, that no two "locations" are a shorter distance than a day's travel by foot. There also seems to be some general liking for trains, so in the very least we'll be looking at magepunk, steampunk or clockpunk.

2. Further to the above, we're looking at a mixed magic tech level, so magic powered robots and aesthetically stylised modern equivalent tech? Nothing obviously modern though, like automatic guns. Keep things to rifles and the like in that regard. Powered by dead gods is an idea that appeals to me, and I'd love to work it into the game via the module, but if people have more input in that regard I'm happy to put a pin in that.

Based on the poll it looks like we're into the old gods and steampunk, is that safe to say?

3. What I'm seeing regards to nations is nothing hugely unified. A sort of core of developed nations surrounded by badlands type areas considered by the "enlightened" to be realms of savagery / barbarism. That could lead to some interesting character dynamics, and give a reason for there to be things like travelling circus performers where those from the outer regions can't find more "educated jobs" - but we might be moving a bit too much into magical racism there which brings me to lines and veils.

If everyone could fill out this sheet here, that'd be great!
The module does like to frame Dunova as the "good guys", but that's subject to change and if you want to throw something like this into their background I say go for it!

5. Brought Together By Fate does seem like the most direct route for a group, especially one that may not have played together before ooc. It also gives us more flexibility for our goal.

I'd like to propose an alternative.

Because travel between places is so difficult in this world, why don't we add huge technological gaps between different kingdoms? One kingdom may have automatic weapons, but another would rely on sorcery and elementalism and never develop anything beyond a musket. After all, a gun is only useful when it has bullets, and without a supply chain these automatic weapons will be just junk in far away lands. Even blasters need batteries. And then we can have a historical conflict when a technologically advanced republic attacked a magically inclined kingdom, lost their powerful sci-fi machines to natural hazards during the conflict, and now the lands of magical kingdom are covered with giant empty robotic husks, devoid of energy and nuclear fuel. Only trains remain universal, because everybody likes them.
To be honest, I don't really like the corpse-engine concept. I think it might be more interesting if the gods are not dead completely and it is only their current form that is evaporating into ether. Their energy in the large part remains tied to their former domains, and it would take millennia for it to evaporate completely on its own. But gods need that energy to move to the next form of existence beyond their old form. Thus magic helps them to move that energy from the land to the ether. Every time a mage uses it, it changes its power level and returns to the god's omniconsciousness. So effectively gods are using mages to speed up their evolution. They may even create wars and disasters to get magic used more often.
Romance section is confusing. Can you please explain what I need to write/click there? Also, how do I send back the result? Is it automatic?
Yay! Beware of your dark past, Dunova!

Ah, yeah, so the sheet is built so everyone has access to the same one, and will be able to see each other's responses. The Lines & Veils section will automatically default to the most restricted option ticked; so for example if someone ticks interested and someone ticks no scenes it'll default to no scenes.

In the romance section, you have two drop down menus after you fill in your name. The first drop down is for romance between your character and another PC, and the second is for your character and NPCs. The options range from OK to not at all. At the end is just a notice to say you've looked at the sheet and to give notes regarding romance in case you had specific things you wanted to mention.

So it looks like we are all okay with a combination of magic and tech ( possibly steam powered tech)

Are we going to use all the poll choices for magic or whittle them down some?

My contribution to the world-building

La'ong Union and the Godsfall Protectorate
La'ong is a major metropolitan trading center. The nation is run by a number of trade unions who elect representative councils. La'ong is centrally located at the convergence of several rivers and roads, shaping its destiny to be the trading hub of the world. La'ong is a service economy where anything can be bought, sold, or traded, as well as fixed, taught, or worked for.

Godsfall is a sacred wilderness where it is rumored the gods fell to earth and in their death brought magic to the world. It is a protectorate under governance by La'ong Union. Godsfall is the site of many holy pilgrimages and where many magic users visit at least once to pay respects to the rumored source of their magic. No technology is allowed into Godsfall, visitors may only wear or carry things taken directly from the earth. The number of visitors allowed each day is also tightly controlled. Godsfall is technically under the governance of La'ong, but the day-to-day affairs are run by an order of monks and are largely left independent in most matters.

I agree, this beats 'meeting in a bar'. Any thoughts on how or why our character banded together?

The continent of Firland
Firland is a lush continent, teeming with life and covered by huge swathes of farmland and forest. It’s an old land, claiming it’s origins far before the current creation of cities and nations. In these old times, legend has it, people used to live in harmony with godliike entities who shared their energy with the people and gave them magic.

Those who were entrusted with magic by the gods were given brands on their bodies, to mark them as the trusted. They learned to perform many great feats, and secrets about the world in which they lived. Unfortunately, a great calamity approached the world and the gods had to retire into hibernation and contemplation of things to come.

In their absence and without guidance, the people of the world divided. Nations formed, and from them came rivalries and conflicts. Soon the gods were forgotten, lost to history and replaced with flags. These also brought the advent of technology.

Steam engines, mana constructs and advanced forms of transport became commonplace. Where originally people had to rely on airships to cross vast distances, other vehicles and more importantly trains connected the world.

In these modern times, people with knowledge of technology are considered just as important as those with magic.

---

- I figured I'd compromise on the issues of dead gods with forgotten gods, if that helps.
- I've taken into consideration all of the choices from the poll and worked it into the continents backstory.
- We're still waiting on nations from Rena, Crazybirdman, and Furmyr.
- If we're going for Brought Together by Fate, we've got the questions to answer; What emotional connections exist between characters? Have you met in the past? Are there tensions or rivalries? What do you have in common?

I hope this world-building fits in okay


Dieudorsale Mountains
The Dieidorsale Mountains are a range of several forested peaks. Legends say that the woods grew along the back of a sleeping god.

People outside think of the area as a kingdom, but it's more like several towns. Each town has its own culture and customs, and its own section of the forest to protect and use for logging. Every town also sends some of their sons and daughters to join the militia. The Montgarde was formed more out of a need to protect shipments than defense though.

Exporting lumber was the main source of income for several of the mountain towns, and still is for some. Although, as technology started appearing, most found that mining the mountains they lived upon could also provide valuable resources.

Rumor has it that one town has found something much more valuable in their region, but if that's true, they are stubbornly insisting g on keeping it a secret, or biding their time to reveal it.

The Erival Plains

The vast Erival Plains isn't so much a country, but a collection of nomads and city states ruled by all manner of monsters. Creatures that would have been killed on sight in more civilized areas can find peace here. Many also travel here to avoid the law or the abundant trade. Many of the city states have a free for all when it comes to trading from drugs and poison to weird magical artifacts.

The city states have not been seen as a major threat since they've been more interested in warring against each others rather than any external force. Lately though this has started to change. A minotaur warleader has been gathering forces and started to unite the city states and is looking to expand their territory far beyond the plains.

Kirin Kingdom
   Three hundred or so years ago, on the slopes of Eidolon Peaks, pressed against the monster-infested Aethercrest Forest, there was the Kirin kingdom. Fairly isolated from its southern neighbor, Dunova, by the snow-capped mountains, the nation was famous for its monster hunters and skalds, who wrote epic heroic ballads and used unique Kirinian musical instruments to accompany their songs. About two hundred and fifty years ago, however, the Dunova kingdom reached what was called total military superiority and pushed its borders as far north as it could, erasing the Kirin kingdom from existence. Huge, magically powered eight-legged walker-carriers crossed the mountains, causing avalanches that covered entire towns. Elemental bombs destroyed walls of ancient castles, and then completely defenseless survivors of Kirin kingdom were left to face the monsters of Aethercrest Forest that sure enough poured onto the slopes as Dunova forces retreated.

   It is now a mystery what the pretext for that attack was, as Dunova denies the Kirin Kingdom ever existed. Its military archives on the matter are sealed from anyone except royalty, the science academy, and magical counsel. And the only evidence left are the ruins on the slopes of Eidolon Peaks, where sturdy survivors still live, and the Dunova outpost deep in the Aethercrest Forest, next to a crater where a star was said to have fallen a long, long time ago.

Okay, with some background created by everyone I think we're ready to start while I get out world map set up. We do have some questions still to answer, and I'd appreciate getting some background for each character, but I can gather all of that while we work through the module!

Is everyone's character from the the location they created?

I'll get my characters backstory added to the character sheet later today.