I find it really hard to come up with ideas for fantasy biomes, any suggestions. I’ll go first:
The Spires; A large fleshy hive mind with massive spire sticking out of it. These spires house monasteries, as well as cults of all kind
The rotting sea a large are of rotting flesh (perhaps a giant dead monster) has massive mushrooms growing on it. The mushrooms require air to survive so they rise And lower above the water giving the impression that the sea is breathing.
I've found one way to build these things is to make one, then consider it's ramifications on the local area. That way, the world feels more organic than if they are all dropped in in isolation.
So, to use your examples - The Spires are a hive mind, and as such will probably harvest from the local area. Perhaps they are sustainable, and therefore treat any and all interlopers with hostility as they will upset their perfect plans, and the fields and forests around them are arranged in a manner which implies severe OCD (something I would expect from a hive mind, what with them being intent on controlling everything!)
Alternatively, perhaps they are consuming everything around them and the land is barren, anyone who ventures in is considered food or fuel, and the Hive Mind is forever spreading underground to make feeding it easier for its minons?
A huge sea of rotting flesh (may I say, Ew!) would attract carrion-eating creatures. Otyughs and carrion crawlers, that sort of thing, would thrive there. Giant mushrooms are cool, do they spread their spores? Do the trade routes avoid the sea? Does the sea perhaps extend north or south towards the poles, where it becomes less rotten and more frozen? do people actually sail on the sea? Is there an exiled lans where the winds blow rotten? Do fouled waters flow to a bog, which grows the sweetest flowers?
For an example from my world, I wrote on events which happened in the past, then considered the direct results of them on the landscape. So an ancient battlefield may have only stunted trees and a foul mist to the air, whilst the town or city they were fighting to defend struggles with the aftermath. People avoid passing through the battlefield, so the city has extensive docks and canals to allow people to get past them. Because of this, the local infrastructure is built around water not roads, and so on.
Also, one thing I try to do is think in the quadrants of hot/cold vs wet/dry. I also think of real-world biomes then imagine how magic could put weird spins on them. One of my favorites from my own worldbuilding is a glass desert. Not entirely original, but I don't see it too often. The mirrorock covers the entirety of the plains and forms jagged spires and bluffs. It is plagued by windstorms which send tiny shards of the glass flying around, making navigating it during a razorwind storm particularly difficult and especially painful.
You could also think of the classic elements and consider how they would play a part on real-world terrain. Fire tornadoes in a desert? Electric mushrooms? Toxic oceans? And then consider their ramifications. A toxic ocean would have a very strange shoreline and the creatures around it would have evolved to withstand it, but the party could not. What would that look like? What would those creatures' immediate environments look like? How would the trees adapt, the grass, the flowers? All very fun stuff!
One thing that I love about creating DnD scenery is that magic helps me explain why a desert is next to a jungle.
That being said one of my favorite things to include in a world is a desert that used to be an inland sea, with ancient ships half buried in the sand, large fossilized bones of unknown sea creatures, and sheer cliffs of cyclopean scale. Sprinkle broken and rusted artifact creatures ala Urza and Mishra for effect.
As far as how this relates to the game is that I make three encounters for whatever areas my group goes through. One encounter is always bandits/goblins/popcorn bad guys, another is the Traveling Merchants, and the last one is The Dying Man, just a traveler on the side of the road who’s either sick or dying or injured. I go with whichever one the group cues me for, if they’re talking about how their week sucked and how they want to kill bad guys, then #1 it is! If they’re talking about wanting to purchase some better boots fit their character, #2, and if neither of the above, bring in #3.
Hello everyone, just dropping in here to let you all know that we've started releasing fantasy biomes for use in DnD5e on troveoflore.com if you're interested. For example, the first release "Ice Forest" has the following initial paragraph description:
The ice forest – an area of frigid temperatures, ominous silence, and dangers everywhere. Its geographic location means there’s no sunlight during winter and no night during summer - but below the canopies, it might as well always be night. Barely any light reaches the ground through the high and dense treetops. Instead, the snowy ground itself seems to give off a yellowish glow, creepily lighting the gnarled trunks of giant trees. And right there, in the deep shadows, every movement, every sound, becomes a deadly threat.
It contains a natural hazard, eight new monsters, and five plants, including their applications.
I find it really hard to come up with ideas for fantasy biomes, any suggestions. I’ll go first:
The Spires; A large fleshy hive mind with massive spire sticking out of it. These spires house monasteries, as well as cults of all kind
The rotting sea a large are of rotting flesh (perhaps a giant dead monster) has massive mushrooms growing on it. The mushrooms require air to survive so they rise And lower above the water giving the impression that the sea is breathing.
I've found one way to build these things is to make one, then consider it's ramifications on the local area. That way, the world feels more organic than if they are all dropped in in isolation.
So, to use your examples - The Spires are a hive mind, and as such will probably harvest from the local area. Perhaps they are sustainable, and therefore treat any and all interlopers with hostility as they will upset their perfect plans, and the fields and forests around them are arranged in a manner which implies severe OCD (something I would expect from a hive mind, what with them being intent on controlling everything!)
Alternatively, perhaps they are consuming everything around them and the land is barren, anyone who ventures in is considered food or fuel, and the Hive Mind is forever spreading underground to make feeding it easier for its minons?
A huge sea of rotting flesh (may I say, Ew!) would attract carrion-eating creatures. Otyughs and carrion crawlers, that sort of thing, would thrive there. Giant mushrooms are cool, do they spread their spores? Do the trade routes avoid the sea? Does the sea perhaps extend north or south towards the poles, where it becomes less rotten and more frozen? do people actually sail on the sea? Is there an exiled lans where the winds blow rotten? Do fouled waters flow to a bog, which grows the sweetest flowers?
For an example from my world, I wrote on events which happened in the past, then considered the direct results of them on the landscape. So an ancient battlefield may have only stunted trees and a foul mist to the air, whilst the town or city they were fighting to defend struggles with the aftermath. People avoid passing through the battlefield, so the city has extensive docks and canals to allow people to get past them. Because of this, the local infrastructure is built around water not roads, and so on.
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Definitely what the above poster said.
Also, one thing I try to do is think in the quadrants of hot/cold vs wet/dry. I also think of real-world biomes then imagine how magic could put weird spins on them. One of my favorites from my own worldbuilding is a glass desert. Not entirely original, but I don't see it too often. The mirrorock covers the entirety of the plains and forms jagged spires and bluffs. It is plagued by windstorms which send tiny shards of the glass flying around, making navigating it during a razorwind storm particularly difficult and especially painful.
You could also think of the classic elements and consider how they would play a part on real-world terrain. Fire tornadoes in a desert? Electric mushrooms? Toxic oceans? And then consider their ramifications. A toxic ocean would have a very strange shoreline and the creatures around it would have evolved to withstand it, but the party could not. What would that look like? What would those creatures' immediate environments look like? How would the trees adapt, the grass, the flowers? All very fun stuff!
One thing that I love about creating DnD scenery is that magic helps me explain why a desert is next to a jungle.
That being said one of my favorite things to include in a world is a desert that used to be an inland sea, with ancient ships half buried in the sand, large fossilized bones of unknown sea creatures, and sheer cliffs of cyclopean scale. Sprinkle broken and rusted artifact creatures ala Urza and Mishra for effect.
As far as how this relates to the game is that I make three encounters for whatever areas my group goes through. One encounter is always bandits/goblins/popcorn bad guys, another is the Traveling Merchants, and the last one is The Dying Man, just a traveler on the side of the road who’s either sick or dying or injured. I go with whichever one the group cues me for, if they’re talking about how their week sucked and how they want to kill bad guys, then #1 it is! If they’re talking about wanting to purchase some better boots fit their character, #2, and if neither of the above, bring in #3.
Hello everyone, just dropping in here to let you all know that we've started releasing fantasy biomes for use in DnD5e on troveoflore.com if you're interested. For example, the first release "Ice Forest" has the following initial paragraph description:
The ice forest – an area of frigid temperatures, ominous silence, and dangers everywhere. Its geographic location means there’s no sunlight during winter and no night during summer - but below the canopies, it might as well always be night. Barely any light reaches the ground through the high and dense treetops. Instead, the snowy ground itself seems to give off a yellowish glow, creepily lighting the gnarled trunks of giant trees. And right there, in the deep shadows, every movement, every sound, becomes a deadly threat.
It contains a natural hazard, eight new monsters, and five plants, including their applications.