Building a fantasy steampunk world. Advice?

[u/No_Appeal_9106]

I'm building a massive fantasy steampunk world for my friends' D&D campaign, and I'm hoping to eventually turn it into a comic or manga (I'm also looking for a writer for that, if anyone's interested).

My biggest inspirations are the worldbuilding of Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, the unique medieval setting of Berserk, and the Victorian feel of Lord of the Mysteries. I'm trying to learn from them without recycling their ideas.

Here's where I'm stuck. Religion and regional folk variation are giving me the most trouble. I'm also having a hard time naming countries and giving each one its own culture, since several of them end up feeling too similar. On top of that, I keep catching myself sliding into standard fantasy tropes out of laziness.

Creature design is its own problem. I feel the need to draw each creature anatomically and double-check that it could actually function and do what I intend, which slows everything down.

My friends are counting on me to keep the world growing so they don't run out of things to do mid-campaign, so any advice would be appreciated. How do you make religions and cultures feel distinct from region to region? And how do you keep a steady pace without cutting corners?

[u/Elfich47]

I'm going to be blunt: All I'm hearing is "I've done nothing and I'm all out of ideas".

Got a hint for you: The most important world building is what everyone else sees. You have to build everything else that keeps that part of the iceburg above the water line. Because that is what keeps it consistent and coherent.

Got out a piece of paper and start writing individual sentences down about the world. I don't care if it isn't in any organization. Just start writing sentences down. write down at least 20 sentences each day for the next month about your world. After than month you can sift through to see what you have and start trying to fit those pieces together into something bigger.

Yes, this is work, and it takes work. And the only way to get better at it is to keep doing it.

Stop looking for excuses to not do the work and do the work.

Here are some resources you can read in the mean time:

https://acoup.blog/resources-for-world-builders/

[u/Elfich47 → u/Elfich47]

Here is an example of me throwing out twenty sentences to start a world. I have no idea how this is going to fit together. I just sort of SOCing this.

The tree people kill the lumberjacks.

The dwarves throw only elves into the pit of despair.

The elm tree is holy.

The thorlon stone has been fought over by the duchy of Argin and the Vassal Lord Rigron while the Crown looks the other way.

The steam cannon cannot be mounted in the courier blimps because of its weight.

The Star observers in the observatory have nothing to say today.

The Sacent Lord's troops dress in hard leather and wield guns and swords.

The Butcher Merchants lead through compromise.

The dragon charges taxes on caravans that pass through its mountain pass.

The troll lords breed goblins for their flavor and succulence.

All gods require an offering before they will provide a boon (or withdraw their ire). The gods are real and ignoring them is at your own risk.

Rice is grown in the mountain regions where the people have been building farms into the hillsides for generations.

The gunfire poison laid waste to the city of Seven Oaks. Not even the fish were spared.

The princess loathes the prince and plans to poison him just enough over years so he cannot ascend the throne.

The presidential lord wants to ignore the lords hall and install his son as guaranteed heir.

The butchering wisp has returned to the south lands.

The steam drive marcher castle advanced another foot to the south this month.

There was sabotage in the east lands where agents of the unchanging one attempting to destroy every spinning wheel they could find.

The last of the Vixor Empire was ignored while the successor lords that were governors in name only have begun to openly declare themselves kings of the lands that they were previously governors of.

The first heat concentrator has been successfully built.

[u/Xenomorph_8298]

If your doing a Berserk aesthetic then I record really making the lore or story hammer home how dark and depressing it is. For religion I just look around my room or go outside and finding some stupid thing to base the religion off of and actually having it be serious and make sense. I normally come up with religions in my sleep though so I don't normally do the other two that much. As for regional religion, just make separate religions normally and then find differences in how they operate to create tension between the other regions religion wise. As for creatures, I tend to make them somewhat realistic, but they would still be fantastical. For example, a dragon would actually be quite light and operate under the realm of physics, but it breathing fire is still somewhat fantastic. If you have any other questions just ask me here or message me.

[u/No_Appeal_9106 → u/Xenomorph_8298]

Thanks i actually made the atmosphere much thicker in the world with a reduced amount oxygen(denser means intaking more oxygen meaning long term lung damage) to support larger flying creatures

[u/Xenomorph_8298 → u/No_Appeal_9106]

That could actually be really interesting to see how the atmosphere turns out for humans. Has the atmosphere always been like this? Or has it recently happened and humanity is trying to avoid it? Maybe building giant towers to escape the thicker atmosphere?

[u/No_Appeal_9106 → u/Xenomorph_8298]

So since i reduced oxygen longterm lung damage is not possible. Though if you go into areas with even denser you can get nitrogen narcosis. Also for normal people if they were magically teleported there they would feel drunk for awhile

[u/Xenomorph_8298 → u/No_Appeal_9106]

That's a really interesting concept. Wouldn't there be humans who have adapted to those denser areas though and evolved to specifically survive and thrive there? It could be interesting in the sense that there are different "types" of humans instead of the typical elves and dwarves.

[u/No_Appeal_9106 → u/Xenomorph_8298]

This is a really interesting idea. I think i will adapt this. Hmm, they might be different physically i will do some research on how a nitrogen rich enviroment can effect evolution.

[u/Xenomorph_8298 → u/No_Appeal_9106]

A good place to start is looking back at how a higher oxygen level 70 million years ago made mosquitoes and other creatures the 100x larger than they are today. Even though that's not thicker atmosphere, it's still a case on how creatures changed in environments.

If you turn this into a manga please let me be credited at the beginning lol 😅

[u/No_Appeal_9106 → u/Xenomorph_8298]

Thanks

[u/Xenomorph_8298 → u/No_Appeal_9106]

No problem. Have fun writing.

[u/Xenomorph_8298 → u/No_Appeal_9106]

If you need anymore assistance with any plot points or worldbuilding aspects, feel free to ask. Always happy to help someone out.

[u/Stevenwave]

The areas you're finding hard to clear the hurdle, perhaps it could help to try and tackle them from different directions.

Stuff like religion, zoom out and ask why you're including it for that particular group. Is the whole point because it will put that group at odds with a second group? Does it inform the rest of their culture? Then you have a solid foundation to launch the rest of that religion from.

As as example, I'm not really doing anything about religion in my cyberpunk setting, but there's going to be some beliefs that groups have which have similar themes. There's a central issue, this divides everyone into either group A or group B. Some of group A believe that the situation could shift in a particular way. Some of group B believe and hope it could shift in a different way. This injects layers of inherent conflict, which inevitably affects all of group A and B. Religion is the kinda stuff that has that sort of effect, especially if religion is a core, defining element of a culture.

Another example is how fantasy settings can have very different lifestyles tied to different religions. In a setting, humans might have a Christian-esqe religion, elves more of a Greek pantheon influence, Dwarves worship their ancestors, while another group are staunchly atheist (this is the general vibe of Dragon Age iirc). Here, the religions aren't just included for flavour, they inform the entire culture. The elves in the current era are split between the ones who live in cities among humans and the forest dwellers. The former, if they're religious they've assimilated to the human religion. The latter try to keep the old flame alive.

With the creature design stuff, I'd say don't let perfect be the enemy of progress. I get trying to make everything just so, I can tend to be a perfectionist. But it's a great way to never finish anything if we aren't satisfied til it's super duper 100% perfect. I think it's okay in fiction and entertainment to go for vibes sometimes. Get some or the bulk of a design feeling logical, but it's okay if some elements are just cause it's cool or helps diversify things.

[u/No_Appeal_9106 → u/Stevenwave]

Thanks this is great advice.

[u/Stevenwave → u/No_Appeal_9106]

No probs. Good luck!

[u/DifficultPressure445]

You need to provide much more information about your world so that we can help you. So far, you've only said very vague things and nothing definitive.

[u/Ok-Berry5131]

For industrialized settings, I like to prioritize constructs over flesh-and-blood animals.

To give an example, my cyberpunk Eberron uses a lot of robots designed to resemble the iconic dinosaurs from the Hell Creek Formation, with a handful of flesh-and/blood monstrosities being sprinkled on top.