#crysandworldbuilding

[crys-makes-art]

Crys makes a... game?

One of my little project for this year, that I will hopefully be focused enough to see through the end is making a homebrew TTRPG system specifically to run Uluthana adventures.

Current goalpost is to make functioning prototype for one of the available lineages with the playtest adventure to throw with it. I think I will be sharing and documenting process here using the "uluthana chronicles the game" as a tag

As of now I have a few notes on the character creation, level advancement and overall idea for the first to be playable lineage to share. Next stop is to outline character traits for them, skills and take a look at combat, magic and equipment systems.

A lot of numerical values are obviously up for a review as I will be going with putting things together. Ultimately I want to keep the whole thing relatively simple and straightforward. No 300 page rulebooks with hundreds of spells and a ton of combat information.

[through-fire-and-flame]

^^

I don't write a lot, but if you want, I would be quite curious to hear your opinion on my worldbuilding stuff, it can most be found as links on Crys-Makes-Art tagged as crysandworldbuilding or directly in open access on my Boosty linked in pinned there

Of course, only if it is interesting to you!

Also hope you have good time put there, friend! Seeing you around as always bring joy and inspiration - and sometimes also desire to get back into RPs a bit

PROFESSIONAL WRITER TELLS YOU WHAT HE THINKS ABOUT YOUR WRITING

[ Please get back to RP at your convenience, friend - your creativity is immense, and it's what I want to talk about here.

After about a half-hour of reading through some of your written work, I find myself fairly well astounded by a few things. The main thing is the consistency in tone and detail. You take an explanatory tack in many of your posts that still maintains a breathlessly interested pace, which keeps me engaged even in the midst of dense (and extremely creative) worldbuilding. Your consideration for so much of the lore you've built is both contagious and obvious - these texts read like the best parts of a TTRPG sourcebook, digging into the kinds of details I'd need to share a story in that world myself.

(Which makes sense, because aren't you making a game?)

I'd like it also noted that you, like many of my writing friends on here, appear to be bilingual, which makes these posts all the more impressive for their eloquence and ability to be both informative and interesting reads at the same time. As someone who barely has a grasp on English, seeing someone else take hold of the language this way and do such wonderful things with it is amazing to me.

(Seriously please get back into RP. I'd write with you at the drop of a hat. Two hats, even. Fancy hats!) ]

[crys-makes-art]

Aight *cracks knuckles* what do people *eat*?

Trade offer - send me a topic and I will provide an insight into Uluthana based on it

Hohoho! This is actually something I have wrote about on Discord previously and need to eventually rework into a longform articles, but to give you a general rundown about some of the cultures from the standpoint of "reasonably average experience"

Drakkan (artificially created dragonkin)

Northern, main area is hills, mountains, tundra - most carnivorous among them, diet is heavily based on meat, innards, bones and blood heavily utilised in cooking

Western, main area is an archipelago - diet is heavily based on seafood, both meat and plant sides, do a lot of salting

Eastern, main area is mixed forests, hills, etc - most vegetarian among them, rich and wide selection of spices, cooking can be amazingly good - or amazingly bad, ymmw

Southern, main area is plains and prairie, warm - a lot of fruits and vegetables, generally refreshing and small-portioned dishes

Continental, main area is heartland in the middle - typically a mix of several regional approaches. Pickle fiends, will pickle the unpickleable

Wave-Tamers (near-human culture from the far North, techno-vikings with elementals)

Due to their circumstances of heavy resource preservation and efficiency a lot of their food is very practical and filling, not necessarily restaurant-presentable.

They do practice eating things very fresh and do have more celebratory exciting food this often being either something exotic from the South or impressively complicated seafood dishes. Ice-wraith sea serpent is considered a very expensive delicacy.

Starkin (mostly nomadic antho-canine with deep ties to celestial magic)

A lot of very varied approaches to food preservation for the journey and access to extremely varied arrange of ingredients due to trading.

Starkin are so-so omnivorous, but do better with meat available. As they do travel with their livestock they do have a lot of things related to dairy in their rations.

Their robust physique does allow them to enjoy sauces and spices that would be dangerous for many other species!

Hish-Shai (very religious anthro-serpents with a penchant for blood magic)

Due to the whole snake thing they do swallow their food whole which does affect the style of preparation quite a bit. They do love their eggs, their soups and making their food into neat chunks or bundles to don't have need to chew.

They also do eat less frequently and often have only one big meal a day (closer to midday) and a much smaller oner (around sunset)

Forest Folk (symbiotic life forms between anthro-felines and plants)

As symbiosis bit implies they do have a lot of plant stuff going on and their main way of regaining energy and eating is to photosynthesize, drink mineral rich water and maybe eat something meaty now and then.

But most of them do go to take a good sunbath here and now, doing a little catnap in a particularly nice spots.

[crys-makes-art]

Historical Accounts - Disappearance of the Icebreaker Fortunate

Following the initial conflict between Drakkan city-states and the newly arriving Wave-Tamers, the latter were driven far to the North, into the Frozen Wilds beyond the continent, where most of them reside to this day in the keeps, massive city-sized superstructures going deep into the earth of the northern archipelago.

This arrangement, understandably, is far from ideal for them, so many of the Wave-Tamers ended up moving to the Free Cities and all over the world, with other sizeable group nearly permanently living on massive icebreaker city-ships, that both travel between keeps and venture forth into warmer waters.

Want to know more? You can find the entire thing by THIS LINK on my Boosty

Hello, yes, I am not dead, just rather tired and not particularly creative, but here, take a look at some of the writing I did for my worldbuilding project with Uluthana that probably makes not a lot of sense outside of having a ton of setting context, but hey, maybe you will enjoy it and want to know more

[crys-makes-art]

Crys Makes a Game (II)

Some more updates from me working on various bits related to the Uluthana TTRPG, as a continuation of THIS POST

Not counting some minor additions or changes to the previously written text I have done some work with writing down some things regarding equipment. Selection so far is, of course, very bare bones, but acts more as a proof of concept on how it exactly works and looks

Another thing I was thinking about is consumable equipment, both as something that is simply used up and as something with charges that can be replenished. So fair I am fairly fond of regulating this with the Usage Die mechanic I have definitely seen used in some games

Another thing, however, I am working on is translating this brainstorming and work-in-progress document into a cleaned up Word document to act as a proper system reference document, here are some of stuff I have done so far :D

As you can see there are also mentions of Luck and Attitude Dice.

More or less Luck Die is used to see the chance of something being true when no answer is immediately obvious, it is not something covered by character skills and when either random stroke of luck won't make or break the situation or only blind luck can really save the day. Not to be overused, but something to have handy.

Example I: Character is wondering if bookkeeper they are visiting in Baylar would have any Drakkan culinary books. While not something terribly out of ordinary it would be a curious find, so d20 is rolled and comes up at 14. They do have one, it is from the Heartlands.

Example II: Character is escaping from a pursuit and aims to hide in one of the crates near the warehouses in the docks. Luck Die is rolled to see what they find in the first crate they check. It comes up at 7 to reveal a crate full of metal ingots

Attitude Die (modified by situational bonuses) is used when the initial disposition of an NPC towards the player characters is not immediately obvious to the gamemaster. Only worst and best results respectively would mean immediately hostile or helpful person, while the rest would mean either neutrality or certain degrees of sympathy or negativity.

Example: party have met a traveling bard on the backcountry road and look to ask him about the area. As his attitude is not immediately obvious gamemaster rolls a d8 with no modifiers - it comes up at 2, oh noes. He is not immediately hostile, but definitely very wary of the group of armed individuals approaching him!

[crys-makes-art]

Trade offer

You: send me any sort of ask or topic as specific or broad as you want

I: will give a short rundown of this topic in relation to Uluthana, my original setting.

(Currently I am chipping at longform articles about social stratification in different cultures there at the request of a player from my DnD group and about different economic systems - for the Uluthana ttrpg)

[crys-makes-art]

Informative Articles - Elemental Magic of Drakkan

Innate Elemental Mastery Due to the circumstances of their creation Drakkan are known for their innate mastery of the elemental magic, specifically of the four "natural" elements as they call them - fire, water, air and earth. Light and darkness, in Drakkan tradition named "ethereal" elements, and no Drakkan are known to posses the innate mastery of these schools. Prominent elemental lineages of today haven't always existed among the Drakkan and only emerged following their migration across the continent where particular magical affinities made settling of certain territories easier and more comfortable: affinity for water magic being the key for establishing flourishing settlements on the eastern archipelago, for example.

Want to know more? You can find the entire thing by THIS LINK on my Boosty

[crys-makes-art]

It have been a while, but I have finally got something new to post in my worldbuilding project - compiling some notes about drakkan of Uluthana!

You can find the full picture and some note - HERE on my Boosty

[crys-makes-art]

Another post on my Boosty with some Uluthana lore - this time introducing a creature I have mentioned several times to my DnD group, but had no good visual aid.

And now I have! You can find the full picture and some lore tidbits by THIS LINK!

[crys-makes-art]

Another Uluthana lore entry for your viewing pleasure! The full post is available by THIS LINK on my Boosty c:

The next week I will be presenting the rainforest kesal!

[crys-makes-art]

And the last (for now at least) entry about the Uluthana creatures brings kesal to your doors! Learn more about them by THIS link on my Boosty!

Next week I plan to do another map or perhaps a general lore entry!

[crys-makes-art]

Another post on my Boosty, with a new map for today! You can find the full image by THIS LINK!

Features Baylar, capital of the Free Cities - with some more lore trivial available by the link.

Next week I am considering making a post about drakkan or some variety of Uluthana wildlife.

[crys-makes-art]

Another bit of lore and maps related to Uluthana, my original setting! For the next week I am planning to either make a profile for one of prominent characters or a small page about Scalebreaker ballista bolts!

[crys-makes-art]

New original setting post on Boosty! This time I have made a little lore blurb instead of two maps I have posted previously, however you will find out that this particular lore bit is quite closely connected with the maps!

[crys-makes-art]

Btw, folks, I have a Boosty and that is where I plan to mainly post my Original Setting content, currently aiming to make posts weekly with some bits of trivia or lore.

All stuff there will be publically available, but you can leave tips if you want to support my love of spicy noodles.

For now - have posted one of the maps I did for a DnD oneshot we played with friends recently!

[crys-makes-art]

Another worldbuilding post on my Boosty! With more information about drakkan, namely their elemental magic and effects of it on them.