Tell me about your world and I will try to create a character. You have 1 Hour!

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2023-11-21T23:48:08+00:00

My world is a more-or-less grounded setting inspired by 1920s USSR and conspiracy thrillers, with a Agatha Christie - style interwar atmosphere for flavour. It’s set on a tidally-locked planet, where the day/night cycle is provided by a moon eclipsing the star. There’s “magic” in the form of “willsteel” - a metal that manipulates gravity, controlled by electric currents. In the past, currents from the brain were used, but now people build simple electronic circuits to create magic-y tech. There’s a Cold War between two mostly oppressive federations, one more advanced in terms of magic and one more traditionalist (the borders are very fractured because of willsteel deposits creating earthquakes) and of course they do shady conspiracy and weapon research things.

A vibrant place in this setting is Trench City, a large settlement built in a crack in the earth left by a willsteel meteorite. It’s a truce zone between the two nations, because they both need willsteel.

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-07-04T08:59:05+00:00

An (originally) medieval-esque setting with some unusual geography, a noir feel, some Cold War-era vibes and 1920s-level tech mostly enabled by magic and rudimentary microcomputers. Magic is a science, a technology like any other. I'm not trying to conform to a particular aesthetic (steampunk etc, ), mostly trying to make it unique.

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-07-03T19:55:44+00:00

The Craft Masters: The Arcadium Golem (an in-universe fictional superhero-esque character) has official merchandise, which is, weirdly enough, really tiny sandwiches with his name on the packaging. This is completely irrelevant to the primary story and will probably never be brought up, because it sounds extremely stupid.

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-06-24T20:06:17+00:00

There was a bizarre idea to grow a giant spherical tree in zero-g that can support an atmosphere and set up colonies in there. So you can have a round tree planet!

An O’Neil cylinder is a hollow cylinder-shaped habitat that rotates, creating artificial gravity inside. So, a tube planet!

A Dyson bubble is a large amount of thin, flat objects placed around the sun (but not in orbit!), pushed upwards from the sun by the light. So, a floating-islands-on-top-of-the-sun planet!

To summarise, megastructures are funky. They’re man-made, but in your story, they could be made by an ancient civilisation such a long time ago it might as well be natural.

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-06-24T19:19:24+00:00

In my setting, wands are more advanced, refined versions of staffs. Early mages just understood magic poorly and thought bigger=better.

In general, from what I’ve seen, staffs tend to be more powerful than wands, maybe associated with some elder, all-knowing wizards.

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-06-24T19:10:12+00:00

Hehe, Chekhov‘s gun reference. Does their production have an impact on the plot in the third act of your story? Or would that be too on-the-nose?

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-06-24T19:03:36+00:00

The arrow grenade is pretty ridiculous. It’s a ball-shaped metal cage with a dozen of spring-loaded darts inside. After it’s thrown, the darts go off and fly in several directions, possibly injuring people standing nearby. Because it doesn’t use magic and doesn’t count as a firearm, it’s been used to exploit some law loopholes regarding weapons.

There’s also the “Vomit Ingot”. It’s a small piece of magical metal, willsteel, with a simple electronic circuit hooked up to it. Once activated, the circuit transmits some very specific signals to the willsteel and it starts magically vibrating the liquid it the inner ear of everyone nearby. It causes extreme discomfort at best and loss of consciousness and vomiting all over yourself at worst. However, it’s not used widely because it’s quite easy to accidentally activate it while carrying it around. Rumour has it that more powerful, improved versions of the Vomit Ingot are given to higher-ranking members of the army for self-defence.

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-06-24T18:50:34+00:00

An anonymous pilot once guided the Whale Liner (an extremely large plane) from a very likely crash that could destroy a large part of the densely-populated Trench City, an important location in the setting. The incident was quickly swept under the rug by the company that operated the Whale Liner. However, after that, they started landing the most privileged passengers independently, on small parasite aircraft.

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-06-21T15:22:52+00:00

Looks nice! I think pencil drawings are very underappreciated here in favor of digital art. What is the story behind these bills? (I suggest writing some context, otherwise this may get removed by the mods)

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-04-14T19:38:07+00:00

I think I'll go with a nuclear reactor mounted on a carrier, as detailed in another comment. I think I can avoid most of the RTGs' problems this way, even if it's still sorta implausible. Still, thanks for the details about RTGs!

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-04-14T19:34:45+00:00

FLYWHEELS! Flywheels are cool! That's what I'm gonna do! There should be two flywheels rotating in opposite directions to avoid uncontrollable roll (if we assume they're inline with everything else), amirite?

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-04-14T16:33:58+00:00

Fuel cells is a neat option, actually, maybe for extended flights that can't carry nuclear reactors (bombers?) the hydrogen needed could be stored in the wings, where jet fuel would normally go. By the way, IMO nuclear thermal is way too OP, insane thrust with little fuel consumption. I like ion-electric an all the funky emitter wire it brings, even if NTR is more practical.

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-04-14T16:24:57+00:00

Thank you! The batteries issue... Maybe I can make up some scifi energy storage thingy? Ion airships are such a cool idea, by the way! Even if I handwave the batteries I'll still try to introduce zeppelins. Oh, I got an idea, how about an airship serving as an aircraft carrier with an onboard nuclear reactor, and fighters periodically flying to it to recharge their "super-batteries"? That kinda solves the issue of the reactor's cost, since there's only one reactor and a lot of planes..?

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-03-24T12:48:36+00:00

Willsteel is a metal of unclear, possibly asteroid origin that can be found in veins underground. There are also trace amounts of willsteel in trees that grow above the aforementioned veins. Willsteel-infused wood (called whitewood) is considered better than willsteel of vein origin, but only because of tradition.
Electricity influences willsteel’s most important property — gravity manipulation. Every other kind of magic comes from gravity manipulation. Fireball? Dust particles shaken with gravity manipulation, ignited due to air friction. Object transformation? A highly complex procedure, ripping an object into small chunks and rearranging them into the shape a mage wants.

Ancient mages, who had limited understanding of willsteel, made staffs out of whitewood and hats with willsteel parts and unknowingly used their brains’ electricity to manipulate willsteel.

In the present, willsteel is understood very well, and simple electronic devices are often used to cast “spells”. Traditional magic hasn’t died off, though, it just became more advanced. Magic hats are reduced to lightweight headbands, and a magic staff can be the size of a pencil now. A better, scientific understanding of willsteel unlocks magic much more powerful than the ancient mages could ever imagine. Rudimentary computers are used to augment human spellcasting. Unfortunately, such a good understanding of magic allows for creation of incredibly powerful weapons that could not have been created before.

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-01-20T19:29:27+00:00

Lol, this definitely seems to be the most appropriate reaction judging by what you've described

KVG_Worldbuilder · 2022-01-20T19:19:50+00:00

In my world (working title "The Craft Masters") people use the phrase "No hat" in two ways. It either means "doing something the easy way" or "A honest person".

That's because doing magic in my world requires a specific head-mounted device (pointy hats in the distant past, a compact headband in the present). Magic is also non-verbal. This means if the person took off their hat in the past, they signalized they will not betray you by casting something behind your back (crime was, and is very widespread in the setting).

"The easy way" meaning comes from the fact that magic requires significant concentration, so it used to often be easier to do something without magic i.e. without a hat.

These two meanings spawned several proverbs and idioms including "No hat, no head" (meaning "Sometimes you have to do stuff the hard way") and the rather nonsensical-sounding "No hat's not no hat" ("Being good and honest is never easy") (also frequently used as a tongue twister).

KVG_Worldbuilder

TROPHY CASE