I have no images JUST yet, I’m currently micromanaging the terrain and climate in FT Pro. I’m nearly at a point where I’ll need some feedback from people who know what they’re talking about (which I definitely do not), but not quite. If FT decides to behave, I’ll have some images to post by this weekend. Meantime, I wanted to start a thread for the world and give some background.

Lur originated when we realized that for the past many years, we’ve been adventuring in a 100% homebrewed environment. It wasn’t initially any different from the Forgotten Realms setting, just we’d been inventing the towns/locales we were using in adventures, and thus we had invented local political situations that weren’t part of FR either. Eventually our region got a little bigger and our ideas got firmer, we invented lots of cultural stuff, and we realized that we were creating a world that wasn’t Forgotten Realms at all.

During this whole time, my husband DM’d. I’ve never tried DMing but I’ve wanted to, and he has great old characters he’s been using as NPC’s but which really deserve to be PC’s in their own right. So I’ve decided to start running games and I want to make Lur a more complete world before I begin.

Unlike my husband, who likes to think bottom-up, I like to think top-down when I write stuff. I start with big ideas and sweeping patterns, then close in on a particular region/theme/situation. That’s how I’m approaching the world building, too.

So I acquired Fractal Terrains Pro, CC2 Pro, GIMP and Inkscape (and I already have PS and AI). I’ve got the scribbled notes and pencil/paper maps we’ve made. And I jumped into world building!

Here is the process I plan on using.

1) Generate a random world in FT that conforms to my very basic requirements: two temperate land masses in the Northern hemisphere that are a reasonably long distance apart (perhaps a little closer than Europe and North America),plus a Southern continent with some areas of a more tropical climate. All other land masses could be random. (DONE)

2) Edit this world to bring it in line with believable climate/terrain patterns. (HAVING HEADACHES BUT WORKING ON IT)

3) Micro-adjust a specific region of the temperate zone of approximately 250,000 square miles with a coastline on the eastern edge, to account for the adventuring we’ve already done. This requires a chain of mountains comparable to the Appalachians but running vaguely east-west, a North-ish flowing river descending from them, an area of grassland at least 600 miles South of the mountains, and a desert at least 800 miles West of the mountains. (MOSTLY DONE)

4) Having created an acceptable lifelike world, export a full map of it and in 2d format, combining raster and vector drawing, create a map of the globe in a style roughly similar to earlyish Renaissance European cartography, substituting imagery appropriate for the culture I’m focusing on in my writing. I expect to lay out the map in CC2, then actually create the final product in Illustrator or Inkscape, but I will make these decisions as I go. Here's an inspirational image that's given me some ideas: http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/e...ux/a127;seq=24

5) Build a series of local overland maps and oceanic charts in the same way, varying the markmaking, style, and imagery on each map so they look like the work of different cartographers at different times, and from different cultures.

6) (concurrently to #5) I’ll be creating small local maps, city maps, and dungeon/structure maps as needed for adventures. They won’t all be able to be as outrageously work-intensive as #4 and #5, but they should be artistically attractive. I favor an old-school blue map format I think, but we’ll see. They’ll no doubt vary.

Lur is an old planet. It has some near neighbors, but none that support life. The sun is the creator-goddess, and the closest neighbor stars composing a stunning constellation are also deities involved in creating life on the world. Magic is rare and I’m trying not to add anything to the terrain that must be explained by magical means. My campaign focuses on a region in the temperate zone of mainly human culture, experiencing an Early Modern/late Medieval period of technology and population growth. The two nations I’m interested in are dominated by one religion, the center of which is a massive temple and city located on the northern side of the mountains I mentioned above. There is a land of mysterious desert far to the West; some smaller nations to the East, bordering the coast; a grasslands region South, and at least one major port city on the Eastern shore as well as the (inland) holy city and a secondary inland one South of the mountains. My campaign will take place initially within this secondary city, called Cresden by its inhabitants.

This area of human nations has a long history in the region, dating back to a period when humans were the slave race of an elven nation here. The elven nation has vanished, leaving many traces, and thousands of years of human history have occurred in the meantime. I should have plenty of opportunities for ruins to explore, and the cities I design will have the remnants of older structures beneath and among them. The great temple in the City of Light has its origins so long ago that no human history recalls when it was first built, but it has undergone many, many construction periods since. The central sanctuary devoted to the sun goddess is the oldest part. This should be fun, but highly challenging, to design and I’ll no doubt need lots of advice here at the guild on that subject too!

Anyway, woh! Lots of talking. Enough for now. I’ll reply to this thread with my initial work in FT within the next couple of days. I’m excited to be getting good feedback on it!