Hey everyone! I was wondering if anyone had any good resources they could recommend for finding interesting and unique components for character creation or world building. (Before anyone gets to say it, yes I'm aware of Google! Just read on.) I like being able to come up with interesting and quirky facets that deal with either the physical appearance of my character, personality, or are involved with their backstory. Anything relating to world building is kind of straight forward for flare and flavor. Such as any of the following:
Unique clothing - The type of stuff that you wouldn't even know what they are called to begin with
Hairstyles - Images to reference or names of hairstyles
Unique/Exotic weapons and armor - Weapons that never made it past concept phase, or are traditionally to unwieldy to use IRL
Period specific items or concepts - Type of cloak = Paludamentum, names of rooms in medieval castles = Buttery or Oratories
Regional influences - How a Norse village may have architecture that is based around boats, or how a desert village compensates for lack of fresh water
Culturally specific aspects - Strong dislike of swearing, eating or drinking with a specific hand is frowned upon, certain clothing is restricted by social status or class
I like to browse art sites for anything ranging from desktop wallpapers and digital media to traditional art like sculptures and landscape paintings. Instagram is also a pretty good source if you're looking for fantasy or comic style art. If you have any ideas that I may have missed, please add them. Any helpful input is welcome!
I’m not sure if it has everything you’re looking for, but World Anvil is a great site. It has a lot of in depth stuff for world building that was really useful to me.
I'm only somewhat familiar with World Anvil, but thanks for the suggestion! I was looking more towards the idea of stuff that the various users here have preference towards or little gems of usefulness that they've found in their travels. Thanks again!
If you haven't seen it, get yourself copies of the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Peter Jackson. Specifically, you want to look for the ones with behind the scenes footage. I'm talkin', 20 hours of behind the scenes footage with more discs about "the making of", than the movies themselves.
When it comes to worldbuilding and designing cultures, arms, armor, rhyme and reason for how everything is, lives, and breathes, the info within these behind the scenes DVDs is gold. It's the best I've ever found, and I've been at this for 40 years.
If you're looking for information about real world stuff to incorporate, such as weird weapons, or why certain medieval stuff was done, you can use youtube. I've gotten some great info from Shadiversity that explains how and why certain weapons were used. You can also find stuff about feasts and etiquette, as there was a video recorded during a recreation. Information is still being researched and rediscovered, so it may change, but that doesn't mean you can't use it for inspiration.
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Hey everyone! I was wondering if anyone had any good resources they could recommend for finding interesting and unique components for character creation or world building. (Before anyone gets to say it, yes I'm aware of Google! Just read on.) I like being able to come up with interesting and quirky facets that deal with either the physical appearance of my character, personality, or are involved with their backstory. Anything relating to world building is kind of straight forward for flare and flavor. Such as any of the following:
I like to browse art sites for anything ranging from desktop wallpapers and digital media to traditional art like sculptures and landscape paintings. Instagram is also a pretty good source if you're looking for fantasy or comic style art. If you have any ideas that I may have missed, please add them. Any helpful input is welcome!
I’m not sure if it has everything you’re looking for, but World Anvil is a great site. It has a lot of in depth stuff for world building that was really useful to me.
Dominick Finch
I'm only somewhat familiar with World Anvil, but thanks for the suggestion! I was looking more towards the idea of stuff that the various users here have preference towards or little gems of usefulness that they've found in their travels. Thanks again!
If you haven't seen it, get yourself copies of the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Peter Jackson. Specifically, you want to look for the ones with behind the scenes footage. I'm talkin', 20 hours of behind the scenes footage with more discs about "the making of", than the movies themselves.
When it comes to worldbuilding and designing cultures, arms, armor, rhyme and reason for how everything is, lives, and breathes, the info within these behind the scenes DVDs is gold. It's the best I've ever found, and I've been at this for 40 years.
All things Lich - DM tips, tricks, and other creative shenanigans
If you're looking for information about real world stuff to incorporate, such as weird weapons, or why certain medieval stuff was done, you can use youtube. I've gotten some great info from Shadiversity that explains how and why certain weapons were used. You can also find stuff about feasts and etiquette, as there was a video recorded during a recreation. Information is still being researched and rediscovered, so it may change, but that doesn't mean you can't use it for inspiration.