Searching for Sources for City/Worldbuilding Help

[Imbasel]

Hello all currently I am working on a homebrew world. I wanted to know what resources you all recommend to use for worldbuilding. Anything concerning cities, government structures, and geography would be especially helpful. I would love anything from books, academic articles, to other forums/postings from other people. I will be using Pathfinder as my system.

General info of the setting think an area about half again the size of Europe with Feudalism being the predominant type of government structure, although nobody agrees it seems on exactly what that means. I've seen countless different versions of it. Magic isn't uncommon, but it is not an everyday occurrence either for people living in most small villages. Thanks for the help!

[BootStrapTommy]

Good to see you here.

Someone on the playground posted this once somewhere (probably here) for world building (and general GM) tools: http://donjon.bin.sh/

A lot of that is just GM tools, but a few things, like the World map generators might be useful.

On the Playground home page just under Comics and Stories, is the Gaming tab. Under the subheading entitled "The World" is the Giant himself's musings on world building.

The Worldbuilding Talk Thread and Snippets of Creativity are also good (one for advice, the other for stealing ideas)

Final suggestion, historical atlases, and geographic ones to compare it to, are useful for getting the hang of the "map building" part of world building. Geography has a big effect on a world, so historical atlases help you understand how it is that it effects the nations in your world.

[Corneel]

I second BootStrapTommy's recommendations.

Furthermore:
- This section of the forum, especially since the search function is back.
- Wanderclicking through wikipedia has given me more than one idea. In this case I'd especially recommend the history sections of cities and countries - subsection Middle Ages, the articles on medieval realms and domains (when not already covered by the previous). And depending on the theme for your world
- For mapdrawing, preferably use vector graphical programmes, rather than raster graphics (paintbrush).
Campaign Cartographer and other ProFantasy software was especially developed for fantasy mapmaking, but it's not free. I used earlier versions of it and it can be quite good, but there is a bit of a learning curve to it.
Inkscape is more bare bones and not specifically for fantasy or for mapmaking, but it's free and the learning curve is not too steep.
- If you have an RTS game that randomly generates a map at the start of each game (e.g. Civilization), the map of one of your games might serve as a base for your world.
- The type of world you describe sounds very much like "Aventuria", the world of the German RPG "Das Schwarze Auge (DSA)" or "The Dark Eye" in English. You might compare notes here (http://www.wiki-aventurica.de/wiki/En:Main_Page). That goes to the English language main page. English language content is limited though. If you read German, there's even more to find in that language.
- A good book on how geography and the environment shaped civilization is "Gun, Germs and Steel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel)".

But if you could be more precise what you're looking for exactly, more specific resources could be given.

[Xenre]

TSR's World Builder's Guidebook. I got mine at a used book store for $10. It hits all the major points in under 100 pages, from mapping to cosmology and tech level to subsistence systems.

[Dredemer]

I found a map online at a cartographer website that I have been basing my world on and its worked quite nicely.

I am also using a set of books called City Builder for city specific design. There are 11 different books that cover everything from communities, craftsman place, religious places to underground places. Good for really detailing a city that the character's might end up calling home or visiting frequently.

The 5th edition DMG is actually really helpful, as it guides you through the world building process. I've been very impressed with the new edition.

And I am tying it all together with the Realm Works software available from Lone Wolf Development. It cost $50.00 but its awsome for organizing your world. I often have inspiration at random times and would generally forget or not write down the ideas, whether it was an idea for an NPC, magic item or a photo that inspired the geography. Now i can easily call up the software and add a new topic, picture or take a note so i remember for a later time.

Anyway, these are just a few of the resources i have been exploring. I hope you find your inspiration and post about it for us to read. :smallcool:

[the_david]

This might help. (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/demog.htm) Though I have to say that it doesn't really work for the D&D wilderness type of adventure.