[World Customization:]
[Please take this time to customize your world.]
[Step 1: Terrain Generation]
Corrin looked over his options, everything from directly painting land and water onto the map to directly simulating the entire process of continental shift and erosion and everything else in a few minutes. For the sake of brevity, Corrin decided to go with running random generation a couple times and working from there. After a few cycles, he found a random generation that he liked, and set about smoothing things out by applying erosion simulations and other such things to make it all look a bit more natural.
Once he was done, there were 8 continental landmasses on the planet, two large ones at the top and bottom of the map, three smallish ones crowded together near the top left, two large ones in the center of the map and a medium sized one on the far right. The three smallish landmasses were littered with mountain ranges and volcanoes, as if the underlying tectonic plates were getting bunched up in that area.
There were several other mountain ranges, though the most distinctive on the globe was an absolutely huge mountain range practically severing the lower-center continent in half, which Corrin already decided to call the World’s Spine. There were several island chains that dotted the world as well, including an almost Philippines-like mass of islands stretching in between the bottom pole continent and the medium sized one on the right. With the map itself constructed he hits continue to go to the next step.
[Step 2: Leyline Generation]
Corrin spends a good deal more time and effort in this section deciding where the Leylines will be placed on the planet, going for manual control rather than random generation. IT will dictate where the most mana-dense areas of the planet will be after all. With the Leyline+ and Mo’Magic packs he’ll be able to add more of them and of more differing types thankfully.
He takes the highest strength Leyline he can make and attunes it to mostly earth and metal, maybe 40:40, with the other 20 percent a mix of trace amounts of other magics, placing it inside of the World’s Spine. If he’s going to give it such a grandiose name he may as well make it meaningful after all. He makes it so that the same Leyline fades down into the tectonic plates at the ends of the mountain range, and pops up at the other ranges on the planet as well, though obviously weaker the farther away from the starting point they are.
Getting an idea for another cool point of interest, Corrin goes through the different filters and looks for the point in the oceans that is the most ‘dead’ with the current setup, where the water and wind move the least. Once he knows where it is, he takes three strong Leylines(though not as strong as the World Spine Leyline) and attunes each one with water, wind, and lightning respectively, mostly purely of one element each with traces of the other two. Then he braids them together like a rope, pulls them taught, and lays the three Leylines on the dead zone of the ocean, forming the shape of a closed spiral. Almost immediately after he’s done, a huge category 5 hurricane, filled with thunder and lightning forms on the spot, but stays stationary. Now there will be much more water and air flow, as well as better global mana circulation.
After that he spends a good 15 minutes just filling in the world with more Leylines, these ones weaker for the most part, keeping a relatively consistent spread of both Leylines and the magic inside of them across the various landmasses. He does make a few oddities on the spot as ideas come to him, like putting a tightly coiled Leyline of fire, rock and metal inside the magma chamber of the largest volcano, causing the rock it’s made of to transform into a glossy black obsidian, or a very strong Leyline that goes straight up instead of horizontal along the land attuned to unholy, holy and nature, making what Corrin can only describe as a Halloween version of a World Tree.
“Man, how do you come up with this stuff?” Breaking out of his groove at Rick’s comment, Corrin replies somewhat absentmindedly as he imbeds a Leyline into a smaller mountain range with the other end branching out into the sky, causing the range to become a lightning rod thanks to being attuned to metal, earth, and lightning. “I mean it’s not like I’ve never looked into the simulations and stuff that Pocket Dungeons use, I’m not completely blind to the game. That and a mix of experimentation and semi-reasonable guesses.”
Eventually he finishes up laying the Leylines, and Corrin looks over the world he’s made so far. He’s got to admit, it’s pretty fun even with just this. He can’t wait to see how this continues in the future. Satisfied with how it looks, Corrin taps the next button.
[Step 3: Biome Generation]
For this Corrin wasn’t quite sure how to go about this one, so he decided to check out the automatic generation preview to see what the biomes would be as it is now. It took a few minutes for the system to simulate everything and figure out what is what, after which the world projected before him suddenly exploded into colors and shapes across the lands as a new screen popped up before him.
[Automatic Biome Generation Complete]
[Default Biomes Detected:]
Tundra (4)
Desert (5)
Temperate (5)
Tropical (4)
Plains (3)
Swampland (3)
Magic Forest (6)
[Unique Biomes Detected:]
Everlasting Storm (2)
Spirit Hallowed Forest (1)
Ifrit Magma Mountain (1)
Shadowed Valley (2)
Magic Caverns (10)
The default biomes were as you would expect, dotted around the world based on where they are in relation to the equator and what humidities and temperatures the land in those areas got. The Unique Biomes were interesting, caused by the Leylines where the mana density is so high it literally changes the land it lays on.
Apparently both the lightning rod mountain range and the hurricane both count as everlasting storms, and the shadowed valleys were thanks to the valleys in question being in the same area as the spirit hallowed forest around the halloween world tree. He wasn’t sure where the Magic Caverns were though, they weren’t visible from this view. Maybe they were in the World Spine?
Shrugging off the thought, he goes through his other available biome options to see if he wanted to add anything else before going to the next section. He decides to put a Floating Island biome on top of the ocean hurricane, which opens up its own little sub-controls for making and placing the islands in the area provided. He decides to just random-gen it for the most part, making sure there are plenty of large islands to hold life, and making them all skim just above the hurricane’s clouds, with the exception of one giant floating island in the center of the eye of the storm.
Corrin also adds an Abyssal Reef along the cost and heading deeper into the ocean on the side where the Spirit Hallowed Forest peters off into the coastline, since it felt thematic, and dotted a few more magical ‘biomes’ through the more boring areas on the map to spice it up. Things like a big sphere of ocean life in the middle of a forest, where everything inside the sphere works as you would expect without collapsing and flooding the area around it, or a library made of trees. Less full on biomes and more like little magical structures. With everything done, he hits the next button once more.
[Step 4: Ore Depositing]
Oh, this would be fun. Corrin lets the regular ores and gems generate mostly randomly, veins of iron, copper, zinc, lead, and deposits of sapphires, quartz, diamonds, etc etc sprouting up all around the world. The default magical ores and gems, like mythril, adamantium, oricalcum, elemental crystals, everything like that were restricted to being within a certain distance from the Leylines, and sometimes by what the Leylines were attuned to.
Most of the magical metals went into the mountains, with a lot popping up in the World Spine, while the elemental crystals and other magical gems dotted their respective areas around the other Leylines. Funnily enough, this means that the sky islands, with such a strong set of Leylines beneath them and proportionately little land to form crystals in, became chock full of lightning, water, and air crystals. It even got to the point that some of the islands with a high enough concentration started sprouting massive columnar crystals from their bottoms, attracting lightning from the storm below and supercharging the crystals even further.
Although all of this was very interesting to Corrin, he still had the materials from the packs he got to add in as well. One of them was less of a unique ore and more of a different way of getting other ores. It was essentially Ironwood trees, but for every metal nearby. Basically it makes (insert metal here)wood variants of nearby trees, depending on what metals are in the area. They’re a bit rare, since they are essentially a Variant of a tree, but they appear in small groups or copses of trees when they do appear.
For metals and crystals to put in specific areas, Corrin can see a few things that could work. For the obsidian volcano, the one that counts as an Ifrit Magma Mountain according to the biome section, he laced it and the surrounding areas with Infirnium, Gaia Metal, Sun Crystals, all just generally fire related materials that fit thematically.
On the Sky Islands he did the same thing, putting Electrum(an individual metal, not just a gold/silver alloy), Thorium(again, different from real-life Thorium), and other such things into the smaller islands, the weight causing them to sink just a little lower into the clouds than the other islands.
In the Spirit Hallowed Forest he placed Soulstone, Blood Iron, Dark Silver, and other such thematically fitting materials. He liked the kind of halloween-y vibe that area had going for it, so he thought it made sense. Then there were the general additions that were world-wide, as a general quality booster to what materials his monsters would be able to find.
Primal and Radiant ores were introduced, rarer versions of other ores that either strengthened the effects of a metal or added new properties, respectively. A Pure class of elemental crystals were added, rarer versions of regular crystals that had a higher yield in crafting and other uses than regular quality crystals. All kinds of other goodies were added too, to the point that he wasted a good 45 minutes on this section alone getting everything just the way he liked it before clicking next.
[Step 5: Choosing Your Monsters]
Corrin elbowed Rick, who had gotten bored during the last step and started watching T.V. and simply told him to tell him when he was done. With his attention back on the projected world, Corrin got to work on the second to last step. By default he set it so that his monsters would be neutral to each other when interacting, he didn’t want to force them to like each other. That and conflict inspires growth. For the monsters themselves and where they would be placed, that got a bit more complicated.
In the Spirit Hallowed Forest, he placed the Shade Species he got from the store, as well as the Undead Group and Flora Type that came with the default package. As the RNG gods took over and started randomizing the specific species that would be generated first, he crossed his fingers and hoped for the best.
The Shade Species, being such a specific grouping, didn’t vary too much, with only two main individual species coming out. One seemed more like a wraith or ghost, a full-bodied(if transparent and ethereal) creature. The other species became actual shadows, moving through the forest by jumping in between the shadows of the tree’s branches before eventually settling into the shadows of the few animals that had been spawned naturally. They seemed to be symbiotic for the most part, from the looks of it.
From the Undead Group spawned a variety of, well, undead, as you would expect. Skeletons of both humanoids and animals of many forms, emaciated ghouls that immediately started hunting for the few living animals in the forest, Will’O Wisps sparking to life and lighting up the unnaturally gloomy forest, those kinds of things.
The Flora Type, being the widest specification for Monster Spawning, gave a large variety of life, either turning already existing plants into monsters or spawning new ones as if they had been there the entire time. Venus flytraps the size of small dogs, bone-white sugar reeds that rattled in the wind, Even a species of tree that looked to be possessed by a primitive spirit. Being spawned in this biome obviously drastically changed the types of Flora that could be spawned there.
In the Sky Islands, he placed the default Lizard and Bird Groups on the inhabitable ones, hopefully he’d see some darwinian effects in motion on them. That and thunderbirds and dragons would be cool, if the extreme environment helps them evolve in those directions. For now though, he saw mostly small, gecko-like lizards that could stick to the trees and rocks despite the occasional strong wind, and various mostly normal species of birds.
The few noticeably different ones include a larger lizard on the Island of The Eye with three little nubby horns on its head, almost like a triceratops without the frill, and a pelican-like bird that could glide over the distances between most of the islands. He’d just have to wait and see what came of them, and hopefully with a bit of Dungeon Master intervention he could guide them the way he wanted.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Working on a bit of a guess, Corrin tried to place the Crystalline Group on the bottom sides of the Sky Islands, where the columnar crystals were, and was pleasantly surprised to see it work.Various crystalline creatures with almost insectile or arachnoid bodies spawned, gripping into the stone and crystal with sharp-tipped points and probably some instinctive magic.
There were spider-like species that used sharp threads of crystal to slice bits of the columnar crystals and the other monsters nearby off to eat, pillbug-like creatures with jagged shells that dug into the rock as a form of both grip and traction, speeding around the undersides of the islands, and even something he could only describe as crystal trees, reaching down towards the storm below and gaining some kind of nourishment from the lightning that struck them.
It was quite fascinating to watch, as were all of his other monsters, but he had more work to do before he could truly appreciate the sight. Corrin moved over to the Ifrit Magma Mountain, and after a few moments thought he went for placing the Lizard Group mostly near the lip of the volcano, and just to see what would happen he placed the Shade Species again, down right above where the lava flowed up into the open air.
The Lizards spawned in a few different variants here, mostly gaining the same glossy black of the obsidian to blend in, with one or two of those species developing much thicker scales and larger jaws and snouts, almost like an alligator. Several lizard species took more to the heat and fire however, developing varying levels of yellow, orange, and red scales and ‘sun’bathing near the lava flows.
The Shade Species however, now that interaction was interesting. The sheer difference in elemental alignment between a living shadow and a place full of light and heat meant that most of the spawning-in species simply couldn’t take it and dissipated, but one species managed to survive. By what seemed like mostly a coincidence, one of the longest lasting shadows, reminiscent of the symbiotic shadow species in the Spirit Hallowed Woods, caught onto the shadow of an ember.
When it did so, the ember seemed to die out, before bursting back to life as a black flame, which somehow still managed to give off light. It floated in the air, its shadow stark and clear, even having a defined border within other shadows. Seeing its success, several other of the surviving shadows followed its lead, though only some managed it. Oddly enough, each of the new fires except for the first seemed to have wisps of a secondary color in them, like blue, purple, white, red, etc.
Although he felt a bit bad about how many of the spawned Shade Species died right out of the gate, this was a very interesting result. Only about a dozen and a half of these shadow fires had survived, and as of right now they were only bobbing in place, but he was excited to see what would happen with them.
Tapping his finger on his chin, Corrin thought about how to include the Warg Species that he had bought. Doesn’t make sense to buy it and not use it after all. After a bit, he remembers an old cliche of goblins sometimes riding wolves like humans would ride horses, and decides to see if he could make that happen a bit easier if both the rider and the mount were his monsters.
In each of the magical forests, as well as a few of the regular forests in the temperate and tropical areas, and even one in the Spirit Hallowed Forest, he placed the default Goblin Species and the Warg species he bought in the same spots, with the rule exception that the Goblins and Wargs that spawned with each other would be friendly.
In most of the forests that the two species spawned in, there wasn’t much to say really. There were goblins and there were large, wolf-like creatures, though there were a few instances of note. In one of the magical forests, there was a goblin and a warg that spawned practically on top of each other, and seemed to bond with each other almost instantly, unlike most of the other examples of their respective species that were wary of each other before realizing that they are allies.
There as also a group of goblins in the jungles that seemed to be thinner and lankier than a regular goblin, he almost wanted to liken them to elves, with their wargs exhibiting the same trait, likely due to the narrow gaps in the trees. In another, there was a group of goblins that spawned with four arms rather than two, which somewhat ostracized them from the rest of their starting group and caused them to splinter in two almost immediately. Then of course there was the Spirit Hallowed Forest group, where the goblins took on a pale skin tone that almost made them look like ghouls themselves, and their wargs that became black as night with red eyes, almost like a hellhound.
He had the Tundras, the Deserts, the Plains, and the Oceans to put monsters in still, since he wanted at least a few monsters in each biome just in case. It’s a bad idea to put all your eggs in one basket and all. He wanted to keep experimenting with his starter packs too, and he hasn’t even tried out the Conceptual Group yet. Maybe he’d save that for last, to sprinkle into the other areas.
In the Oceans he placed several instalments of the Mammal and Insect Groups, since it’s a pretty well known trick that putting groups like that into large bodies of water make crustaceans and marine mammals, rather than drowning lions or something. Of the notable varieties of species from that, Corrin managed to get a crustacean somewhere between a pistol shrimp and a lobster, a giant underwater centipede creature, and an odd coastal mammal that was kind of like an otter with pangolin-like keratin scales.
In the Abyssal Reef biome specifically, he got a many-eyed armored squid creature, which somehow counted as in the Insect Group, as well as an amphibious wolf/dolphin-like hunter with bioluminescent fur. They apparently communicate using it among other things, which was pretty cool.
In the Tundra areas he placed the Mammal, Crystalline and Insect Groups, which had some interesting results of their own. For the Mammal group Corrin got something between a polar bear and a dire wolf, bulky like a bear but with longer, loping legs, along with a long weasel-like creature that moved almost like a reptile would with its arms and legs splayed out to the sides.
The Crystalline Group made, somewhat predictably, ice-like bodies, but the designs they came up with were almost wholly unique. Each individual species seemed to specialize in one way or another on using their bodies to reflect and refract sunlight through their semi-transparent crystal to create an intense, magnified beam of sunlight on a darker colored piece of their bodies. They were all essentially using sunlight as fuel in a kind of photosynthesis.
For the Insect group the only real survivors were a species of giant beetle-like insects that were almost vantablack in coloration, and seemed to have an internal blubbery fat to hold in heat. The only reason they weren’t hunted down by the naturally spawning species is because they are huge and their shells were incredibly tough and hard to crack.
The only other survivors were a species somewhat similar to bees which seemed to have developed a symbiotic relationship with the various Crystalline species. All of the refracted light created a lot of heat, which the bees could leach away from the Crystalline species to help them not melt. That along with vibrating their wings is enough to keep them healthy. In return the bees would head out when they are warm enough to and collect nectar and water filled with water and ice magic. When they return to the Crystalline hive they make what is basically unfreezable ice honey and store it in the little dips and divots in the Crystalline’s form, so that both species can eat it for sustenance. Incredible, really.
In the Desert biomes Corrin decided to go for the Lizard, Flora and Undead Groups, as well as the Warg Species. The lizards species thrived well in the desert areas, likely because they do quite well in real life deserts as well, though the only species that really stood out to him were the large running lizards that sprinted to catch up to prey. Basically lizard cheetahs, but not as good at it yet thanks to their bone structure.
The Flora Group made about what you could expect, cacti and palm trees near the few oases in the deserts, though there was a strange root plant that could grow just about anywhere. They have nearly no presence above ground other than several leafy vines colored a whitish tan color, but underground they have deep growing roots to suck up water and a thick bulb just below the surface to store it. They were like a mix between a radish and a potato, but the size of a pumpkin at full maturity.
The Undead made what you would expect in a desert, a whole bunch of mummies. Although one neat species that came about were ambush predators that were made entirely from random bones in the desert, so they would just lay in wait and let the sand cover them partially. When something living got to close, they would attack and grab them with ribcages and jawbones, not letting go until they died of dehydration, heat stroke, or the chill of the cold nights.
The wargs became smaller and coyote-like for the most part, though some of them looked more elegant like an anubis. There was one species that ended up becoming bulkier and shorthaired however, and they seemed to be opportunistic omnivores. Whether it be cactus, lizard, or undead flesh, they’d eat just about anything. They almost reminded him of cows or camels, but decidedly more vicious.
The Plains biomes were harder to decide on since he didn’t want just a regular saharah environment. Eventually Corrin went for the Bird, Insect, and Crystalline Groups, ignoring the Mammal and Lizard options entirely. For the birds there were several species of gliding, circling birds, along with a small, distance runner bird, like an emu but only knee height.
The insects really took to being big and proud in the plains, there were scorpions the size of large dogs and centipedes the size of pythons. The most terrifying had to be the swarmers though, little insects that looked like the unholy offspring of a mosquito, a locust, and a termite. They flew around en mass, searching for any smell of blood or rot, and once they found a bleeding or dead animal they just devoured the entire thing in minutes, not even bones left.
The Crystalline Group once again ended up being interesting with how they formed themselves. There were two distinct species among the dozen or so that could survive in the plains that caught Corrin’s eye. Both of them would rest as a line of crystals in the dirt, but when they needed to move they would curl into a open-centered circle and lean forward, becoming a wheel. Now the difference between them is that one species had a lot of width to them, they would just crush or bump over whatever got in their way. However the other one is hyper-thin, and while fragile their edge is sharp enough to cut through flesh like it cuts through the air.
Sighing and rubbing the back of his neck, Corrin leans back to take a break from his work. “Well damn, you’ve got the beginnings of a great start there!” Rick, who had been looking on at the show as Corrin worked on his world, gave a long whistle at all of the monsters he’d created. Corrin chuckled at Rick’s over-exaggerated praise, leaning forward and working the projected screens once more. “Still got one more monster to introduce, though this’ll be easier since I’m just going to put it on random spawn with a global range.”
With one last press of a button, Corrin unleashed the Conceptual Group onto his new world. In the thunderclouds of the Sky Islands hurricane, spirits made of lightning and enthusiasm blasted through clouds playfully. In the Ifrit Magma Mountain, flames that run on passion come to life and stare curiously at their black-flamed neighbors. In the oceans, sea currents take on the shape of sea serpents, gliding through their inanimate cousins with a relaxed ease. These and many more like them begin to take shape all across the planet, with a few exceptional Concepts among them like every other monster spawning.
In one of the goblin inhabited forests, a spirit of connections and relationships forms, quickly imbuing itself into the trees and land itself in an area around where it spawned. A whole host of howling winds made of the smell of rot and bittersweet memories tears through the Spirit Hallowed Forest, merging into one and forming a living gale-force wind of regret and sorrow. In the center of the magma chamber feeding the Ifrit Mountain, an unreasonably large spirit fueled by rage and anger lays dormant at the bottom of a lake of lava, resting until the day that its home is in grave danger. Finally satisfied with everything, Corrin hits the next button.
[Step 6: Name Your World]
[Name:_____]
“Hmm...what do you think I should name it?” Corrin looks to Rick for help, but doesn’t get much of it from him. “I don’t know, I’m as bad as you at naming stuff. Just try not to be corny or cliche, I guess?” Corrin looks back at the prompt, thinking deeply on the question for several minutes. Eventually he just sighs in frustration and put in something that sounds relatively good to him.
[Name: Eralith] [Congratulations! You have made you first Dungeon World. If you would like a tutorial on how to get started managing your world-]
Corrin waves the scrolling prompt away, already having seen some of his friends start up their own Dungeon Worlds and begin moderating it. “Hey Eva, are there any fledgling leaders in the monster groups? And if there are, could you bring up their information and a prompt for watching their introductions to the world-well, to Eralith?”
Eva’s avatar immediately starts organizing multiple screens as she speaks, laying them out for them to see as she finishes. “Yes sir, The goblins obviously have shown intelligence and initiative, but surprisingly the various Shade offshoots are showing varying levels of intelligence as well. The same goes for some of the Crystalline and Undead species that have popped up, among others.”
Monsters of Note:
Name: N/A
Species: Goblin (Variant: High-Empathy)
Sex: Female
Traits: Warg Companion, Emotional Link
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Warg (Variant: High-Empathy)
Sex: Female
Traits: Goblin Companion, Emotional Link
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Goblin
Subspecies: Four-Armed Goblin
Sex: Male
Traits: Multitasking, Intimidation
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Shadow-Flame (Variant: Pure)
Sex: N/A
Traits: Two Bodies, One Mind, Ethereal Fire
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Goblin
Subspecies: Jungle
Sex: Male
Traits: Forest Navigator
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Living Shadow (Variant: Friendly)
Sex: N/A
Traits: Symbiant, Nightmare
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Haunted Tree
Subspecies: Proto-Dryad
Sex: Hermaphrodite (N/A)
Traits: Unholy-Holy Magisynthesis, Plant Possession
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Komodo Lizard
Subspecies: Tri-horned Komodo
Sex: Male
Traits: Lightning Rod, Steady Stance
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Lightning Crystal Spiderling (Variant: Superconductor)
Sex: N/A
Traits: Lightning Eater, Speedster
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Minor Salamander
Subspecies: Yellow Salamander
Sex: Female
Traits: Hot-Blooded, Exothermic Mucus
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Goblin (Variant: Blood-Thirsty)
Subspecies: Life-Starved Goblin
Sex: Female
Traits: Blood is Power, Enthralling
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Coastal Armored Otter (Variant: Charming)
Subspecies: Water-Breathing Armored Otter
Sex: Female
Traits: Trickster, Redundant Gills
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Cephalopodic Crustacean
Subspecies: Eldritch One
Sex: Male
Traits: Regeneration, Vast Wisdom
[View first appearance?]
Name: N/A
Species: Desert Warg
Subspecies: Anubic Warg
Sex: Male
Traits: Dark Vision, Regal Bearing
[View first appearance?]
“...Well damn, that’s a lot of special monsters.” After seeing the long list, Corrin wasn’t sure if he said it or Rick did. He was starting to really like deciding to play this game.