Forums » RP Discussion » Race and world creation tips?

I have created a handfull of decent characters of the modern fantasy genre recently, and would like to create a well written world for them that would appeal to other people without forcing myself to write for hours on something like the differences in the rotation of the planet compared to earth.

I enjoy details as much as the next person but I can't force myself to write an entire language for a race I wish to create, but sometimes it feels like I need to go to such lengths to make my world or races seem unique or " special "

Tips? It's starting to feel like creating an interesting world is a chore, especially if I want to attract people to my work.

Well, culture is, I feel, important. What is one race's culture and how is it different from the rest? What religion do they worship, if any?

There are also things like how one race views another and vice versa, along with relations between races and their civilisations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isdaYjET9cg

I first found these guys on you tube a few months ago, and watching their videos made me super hyped for working on stories and settings and such. Hope this helps.

Personally, when I'm making a new world, I typically start out with the races. I pick out where they'd live, decide on their appearance, figure out their culture to what I consider a satisfying level beforem oving onto the land around them, and lather rinse repeat until I'm done with the setting or races or whatever.

Also what Sin said. The culture of the races is like, half of what makes them stand out from the other races in the setting and that people irl have made. And IMO coming up with the culture of a race is one of the more fun parts of making them

I read somewhere once that when creating a world, it’s best not to stray too far from what people know. Makes it harder to relate to things. To get into the story.

So like, you wouldn’t want your planet to rotate differently, unless it was a necessary plot element.

Depth is important. But in creating a language, is it necessary for the reader to have knowledge of it? Tolkien did it for the elves, but his depth and attention to detail makes his books dry and long winded at times because of it.

As far as actually creating a race, I’ve only done it once. And I did it by finding a starting point why I wanted/needed the race. What role does the race need to fill? Then just work backwards from there by asking yourself how and why. Form follows function.

You need a race that can naturally see in the dark? Well, physically, that gives you a few options: nightvision or echolocation. Well, why would they have that? Maybe they’re subterranean. Well, what else would be different about them then? Pale skin? Dark Skin? light sensitivity? What do they eat? What type of mouth and body would they have?

Once you get the physical side down, and the environment, you can better start to map out the culture and languages.

I guess my point is to simply tackle it in small bits at a time. The whole will come together in the end. And it will seem less daunting a task that way.

I'd say try to stick to what you believe and what they (the race) believe in.
I believe in multi-god religions and cultures and even created two god-groups of my own, which are the ones I mostly believe in.
And there's nothing wrong with taking a little inspiration from an AEU (an Already Existing Universe) like I took inspiration from Asgard and Midgard from Norse mythology to create "Jangard" and "Frangard"

The way I world/race build when I just want to do it fast and dirty is I pick one thing that's really cool it strange that exists already on our world. Then I either twist it with the question "what if" or take it to an extreme of what it already does. So a good example of the first is how people took the idea of the centaur and swapped out horse for other animals. And an example for the second is in the game Morrowind there are mushrooms so big they can be carved and shaped to form dwellings.

And it doesn't just apply to physical traits either. It can work for cultures as well.

Considering languages, a "cheaty" method you could do to simplify languages is just explain that their language is written in a style different than ours, but is voiced and said like english. An example might be their word for "cat" is some spidery amalgamation of symbols, but is said like how english speakers say "cat". It would be one hell of a coincidence, but it is a good way to prevent language barriers and issues between nations or races.

And don't forget, try to make it unique if you're going for original races. If your world is called Middle-Aged Earth, and consists solely of tall archers, hammer people, and midgets with hairy feet, you might as well just save yourself the trouble and just go ahead and make a character or world off of LOTR. Or, alternately, throw caution to the wind and take what I just stated literally. Hammers with limbs! Midgets with majestic foot hair, and people cursed forever to be solely archers by some angry fairy long ago, all striving for one thing, the two strings to rule them three!

That being said, let your mind wander, and consider all! (if you so wish!) Make strange machinations which breath fire and eat dust, and squid beings which insult the ocean to make it rain! Let your imagination go wild, and create something truly unique and of one's own creation, it will only make them more interesting, seeing how they cut away from the block. Though, do be careful, because most Gm's will not allow for brain sucking space elves out of the void to join the adventure. (which is unfortunate, but understandable. weird fantasy isn't a big thing nowadays.)

On the making of the worlds, ooh, that's fun! Remember, not everything has to be like earth. Have you considered the fact that fantasy worlds don't even need a sun or even an orbit since magic and other godly and primal forces are at play? Screw it, go all out and make your world a donut shape, with every passing evening the sun goes THROUGH IT. Make it's outer space just a giant blue ocean that surrounds it and constantly rain on it so it doesn't over heat every evening. Heck, why make it a donut? Why not make it a stone, sleeping chinese dragon. That'd work too. Let your imagination go wild, and make something of your own volition.

Now, it's just a weird balancing act between sticking with familiarity and doing something off-the-cast. Sure, people will find it easier to settle into an earth-like world, and well as find it easier to interact with earth-like and traditional fantasy races. But, if you're willing to take a risk, go ahead and do whatever you want. Because in the end, the more different stuff may attract more interest than the others.

I feel like I've gone on too far. I shall stop typing now.

I LOVE world building heh.

I tend to let logic trains build a world. Think about things like how a culture with say, telepathy, might communicate, how they might regard privacy, or how a race who don't wear clothes might regard taboos like nudity.

For example, when I created the Sister Races I sat down and considered how living in close confines in underground caverns would impact daily life and figured that things like privacy were a luxury they just didn't have, so culturally they just wouldn't have much concept of it. Also being underground and in a society that was on the brink of death I had to consider how they regard death, disability and infirmity. When every day is a struggle to survive, dead weight would drag you down. When you have limited resources, caring for the sick and dying becomes a real burden. So their culture ended up pretty brutal in that those who are no longer able to be useful are killed.
And when death is SO common, it stops being something you really fear.

Because I knew I wanted their tech level to be pretty low (like iron age level) I had to consider how THAT would impact their understanding of things as well. Science, technology, magic and gods are all worth thinking about even if you don't get the nitty gritty.

My spider race I decided had to come from a planet with a high oxygen atmosphere because giant insects and arachnids would require that to develop. Now they aren't technically scientifically possible but it makes it scientifically plausible, which is good enough for me haha. Because their planet has a high oxygen atmosphere they can't use fire or anything that sparks, because it would set fire to the air itself. So they need a different way to produce light and heat.

It also means that off world they have to wear a breathing mask and carry tanks of air, which means their faces can't be seen. This means a lot of exaggerated body language and gestures in their communication.

So my advice generally would be to first think about the world your race inhabit. I assume you already have them designed at least somewhat, most people start with the visual before anything else lol, I know I do.
Is the climate hot? cold? Is their world like earth or very different? Is there magic? Science? What's their tech level?
Do they believe in magic or gods? Do they have any superstitions?

once you start thinking about something as simple as "how do you live in a really cold climate?" or "how would you live in a society that was really influenced by superstition?" you'll find other questions cropping up in your head that you will want to answer.

I seldom bother with languages beyond "it sounds kinda like this" for an idea of accent or whatever haha. My only rules are "they wouldn't have a word for something that doesn't exist in their culture". For instance my Imperium race who are basically space vikings (lol) don't have ANY canines on their world or any cows or large herd animals. All their milk comes from goats. As a result they have no word for "dog" "wolf" "fox" or "cow" or any frame of reference for what those are.
It means that while I use norse names as my general reference for their naming conventions, I cannot use any name that includes any norse gods (because they don't worship and never have worshipped norse gods) or wolves (which are surprisingly common in norse and germanic names. No wolfgangs lol)

I like having a naming convention though, deciding on the SORT of names a race will generally use, so it feels more... I dunno, together.

Sometimes it's "this language is close enough to theirs so i'll use that as my starting point for their names or what they sound like" and sometimes it's "their names are virtues, descriptors, poetic" or something.

For instance my cat people have names that are descriptors and often sound more like a nickname than a real name, some are really straightforward like "Lazy" or "Brawler" and others are a little more poetic like "Hollow" and "Mourn"
They aren't really named as children, they sort of earn names over time, and as a result they will quite often go by multiple names and not really care. They'll introduce themselves as "me" quite often.

The Aketi mostly have place names, names that literally mean things like "from the glade" "near the bubbling stream" (so they sound like surnames as that's what a large chunk of surnames mean) while their robots, as they're a high tech society, all have virtue names. "Pleasantness" "Amity" "Amicable" "Patience" and so on.

Naming conventions can help build a world pretty dang quick I find. They add flavor.

Start with something simple, like where your character is from. Ride that logic train to the end.

You don't need to do it all at once either, go back to it, dip in every time an idea strikes you or a question buzzes into your head and you want to answer it. Heck, i still do this with worlds I built decades back. I dip back in all "wait, but what about this?" when something occurs to me. It doesn't ALL have to be down right now, heck, often questions come up during rp and I go "oh crud, i didn't think about that.. uhhh... quick, figure it out!" lol.
But that's half the fun, always tweaking, always fleshing things out just a little more each time.

I go overboard, I know I do, but you don't have to. Bare bones i'd say would be environment and culture. Which go hand in hand, never underestimate how much an environment can impact a culture.