Depends on how fast each object is moving. A bowling ball moving at 5mph vs a marble moving at the speed of a bullet? I’d probably take the bowling ball in that scenario.
I seriously urge EVERYONE to buy this. Let DC know how much everyone loved Tim in that run, as well as how much we all appreciate them FINALLY printing it again after it was sold out and OOP almost immediately after the original release and we asked for it for ages 😭
✧ Broken ribs suck. You don’t just “walk it off.” Breathing hurts. Laughing hurts. Existing hurts. Characters with rib injuries won’t be doing heroic sprints.
✧ Concussions aren’t instant naps. Dazed vision, nausea, dizziness, maybe even personality changes, but they’re not going to collapse neatly like in the movies.
✧ Blood loss is sneaky. It’s not just about dramatic pools of blood. It’s dizziness, confusion, and the body getting cold as circulation tanks.
✧ Adrenaline lies. Someone can take a serious injury and not feel it until the fight’s over. That “I didn’t realize I was bleeding until later” trope? Very real.
✧ Twisted ankles are brutal. One bad step and suddenly running is off the table. Even walking hurts like hell. Perfect way to ground a chase scene.
✧ Burns linger. Even small burns hurt more than most people expect. Blisters, infection risk, constant pain, it’s not just a cool scar later.
✧ Dislocated shoulders = useless arm. Characters can’t keep swinging a sword or firing a gun. They’re basically fighting one-armed until it’s fixed.
✧ Shock is a thing. Pale skin, trembling, rapid heartbeat, and eventually disorientation. A character might not even realize how bad their wound is.
✧ Stitches aren’t magic. Getting sewn up is painful and recovery takes time. They’re not instantly battle-ready after a needle and thread.
✧ Scars tell stories. Some fade, some don’t. Some stay sensitive forever. Don’t forget the aftermath when the wound becomes part of the character.
Just because one of your chicken eggs hatched a fire breathing dragon people think you’re evil. But you’re still just a regular farmer trying to make a living while dealing with an overprotective dragon, heroes that want to kill you and fanatics who want to worship you as the new Demon Lord.
The thing you need to know about all of this, the thing that got me into all this trouble in the first place, is that chickens will sit on anything when they get broody enough. Anything. Duck eggs, goose eggs, turkey eggs, lizard eggs, egg shaped rocks, anything. Chickens aren’t smart. If it looks vaguely like an egg, they’ll plant their feathery arses on it and wait.
I noticed that there was a bigger egg under one of the broody chickens, when I checked. Of course I noticed, it was twice the size of the others. But I have geese. I figured it was a goose egg she’d found and stolen. It was about the right size, and I didn’t take it out to check the colour because that particular chicken gets very protective of her eggs. I’ve already got a scar on one hand from trying to get eggs away from her. I didn’t want a matched set.
That was a decision I regretted the moment I went out to feed the chickens and found a little blue-and-silver dragonet’s head poking out from under a very confused-looking chicken. The poor thing kept shifting around and looking under herself in a bewildered way, like she didn’t know what to do next. This particular chicken is a good mother, and she’s raised clutches of ducks and geese without any trouble – she’s even resigned to some of her children swimming – but this was too much. She didn’t object when I carefully reached in and fished out the little dragon.
It was so tiny, then. It fitted in my hand, with its little head peeking out one side and its tail looping around my wrist. Cute, too, with its big eyes and little snout turned up towards me.
That was when I made my second mistake. I decided to feed it before releasing it. Dragons are innately wild creatures, everyone knows that. They can’t be tamed. People have tried. The eggs are abandoned as soon as they are laid, and the dragonets hatch able to hunt, so they don’t even bond with their mothers. So just feeding it a little shouldn’t have been a big deal. It should have gobbled the meat and fled as soon as I loosened my grip on it and it saw the open sky.
It didn’t. As soon as I’d fed it, it fluttered up to a sunny window ledge and went to sleep. I went about my work, figuring that it’d leave in its own time.
By noon, it was sitting on my boot, squeaking pathetically. I wondered if maybe it was confused by the farmyard – they usually hatch in mountains, if the stories are right – so I took it back to the farmhouse with me and fed it again when I ate, then took some time away from the fences I should have been mending to walk it up to the hills. I found it some nice rocks, with plenty of lizards and beetles and suitable prey for something that size. It pounced on a beetle almost as soon as I put it down, and when I left it was crunching happily.
I hadn’t walked a quarter of the way back before something hit the back of my boot. The little dragon was holding on with all four claws, and when I looked down it squeaked pathetically. If possible, its eyes got even rounder.
Listen, you don’t make it as a farmer if you just let orphaned baby animals die. We hand-raise calves and lambs and ponies, set chickens to sit on abandoned eggs, or put them under the kitchen stove or by a fireplace. You don’t make a success of farming if you don’t value every animal. A good shepherd will spend all night looking for one lost sheep. So despite what was said later, it wasn’t just sentiment that made me sigh and pick up the little thing and carry it back to the farm. I am a good farmer. I don’t let orphaned babies die just because they’re a little work.
reminder to worldbuilders: don't get caught up in things that aren't important to the story you're writing, like plot and characters! instead, try to focus on what readers actually care about: detailed plate tectonics
Why is the mountain range square. How did the mountain range form. Why is there one singular volcano in the center. Why does it act like a composite volcano but have magma that acts like it’s from a shield. If it’s hotspot based volcanic activity why is there only one volcano.
And then the misty mountains!!!! Why isn’t there a rain shadow!! And why is there a FOREST where the rain shadow should be!!!!!!!!
Wind blows clouds in from the sea, but mountains are so tall the clouds can't get past 'em, so you get deserts on the windward side of mountain ranges because clouds can't get there to water the land, or do so only very rarely.
May I recommend my new favorite tool: Mapgen4. You start with a random seed and then add mountains, valleys, shallow water, or oceans as you like. You can adjust the wind direction to make wind shadows off the mountains fall where you want. You can adjust overall raininess to make the rivers larger or smaller, or have more or fewer tributaries. It works best for small, isolated landmasses (think islands more than continents) but as there’s no scale bar and it’s all slightly abstracted anyway you can do whatever you want with it. I’ve only just started playing with it but it’s SO FUN.
I do think this could be useful for writers! ...Caveat, if you're going to use this for making a map for anything published (digital or paper, even if it's only in a fanfic archive or whatever), please, please credit the creator and their program as how you made that map! The more ways information like this gets out there, the more useful it'll be to other writers, roleplaying game DMs/GMs, creators, etc.
One of my favourites for mapping plates, biomes, etc is Tectonics.js. If you're familiar with how tectonics shape a planet, you can guess where the features go by toggling plates, crust thickness, etc. Between Mapgen4 and Tectonics.js, we've got some pretty sweet tools at our disposal.
European Geosciences Union Blog — Beyond Tectonics: Building fictional worlds to better understand our own
Reshaping Reality's Worldbuilding Tips
Worldbuilding pasta's series, An Apple Pie from Scratch also check their resources page!
R/worldbuilding's Reading List. Also check out their collected resources link. This basic geology guide from 11 years ago is still nice.
Creating an Earth-Like Planet, and The Climate Cookbook (aka Geoff's Climate Cookbook) technically the climate cookbook is a part of Creating an Earth like Planet I think.
Related: Worldbuilding Workshop's "Working Out Climates Using Geoff’s Climate Cookbook." Which goes through using the resource in order to map make. Also just the Worldbuilding Workshop in General.
Madeline James Writes's Worldbuilding Guide
Worldbuilding 101 (this links to the Biomes section but there's like...everything.)
Also I would recommend looking into Landscape Archaeology as well! That's because Landscape archeology is basically adding the social/cultural layer on top of all that geology and geography. Environments change when communities live in them, and communities likewise adapt to various environments.
This is a short free introduction to the concept: "Notes on Landscape Archaeology." To summarize, Landscape archaeology sort of like...studies the relation of people to places/spaces (that is, landscapes) in time.
Also this paper [An Archeology of Landscapes] breaks down/introduces the key concepts that I learned which is first that you can form the "construct paradigm" of a landscape from settlement ecology,
ritual landscapes, and ethnic landscapes.
And then the highlights of their summary of what constitutes defining a landscape:
Landscapes are not synonymous with natural environments. Landscapes
are synthetic (Jackson, 1984, p. 156), with cultural systems structuring and
organizing peoples’ interactions with their natural environments ...
Landscapes are worlds of cultural product ... Through their daily activities, beliefs, and values, communities transform
physical spaces into meaningful places. ...
Landscapes are the arena for all of a community’s activities. Thus landscapes not only are constructs of human populations but they also are the
milieu in which those populations survive and sustain themselves. A landscape’s domain involves patterning in both within-place and between-place
contexts ...
Landscapes are dynamic constructions, with each community and each
generation imposing its own cognitive map on an anthropogenic world of interconnected morphology, arrangement, and coherent meaning ...
Basically a "landscape" is made by a community living in an environment. Once you have a geological environment that makes sense, landscape archaeology is like... Basically how I feel confident knowing where trade routes would be on a map, where there are areas of continual high conflict, what kinds of agriculture exists where, etc. once the geological stuff is hammered out, it's like...I know how that would influence the local cultures and vice versa. At that point, it's easy to start marking the natural borders, settlements, trade/port cities, and even strategic fortresses. If you have properly put rivers on a map, then marking your port cities is effortless, basically.
Also:
This course syllabus for a Landscape Archaeology class is freely accessible. It includes an online resources page.
Place, Landscape, and Environment: Anthropological Archaeology in 2009
(Landscape Biographies is open access, as is Landscape Archaeology between Art and Science: From a Multi- to an Interdisciplinary Approach. But I wouldn't try to read every essay.)
If you are like me and find it helpful to have video reference for a process/activity in addition to a written guide, Artifexian is a YouTube channel that does a LOT of world building stuff and specifically he's in the process of creating a world following a lot of Worldbuilding Pasta's methodology!
I was one of the first people to ever get the vaccine. All the kids in my class got chickenpox, but I didn’t, so when they came back to school, I was the only one without spots. It was kind of isolating, being the only one who didn’t get it, but it means I don’t have to worry about shingles, so that’s an upside. Seriously though, vaccines are a good thing and the movement against them is extremely stupid.
the nearest depiction of an animal or other sentient fantasy creature to you at this moment comes to life right where it is (i.e. cat photograph, shark plushie, dragon painting, etc)
what happens to you
i am so dead
i need to go to the hospital
maybe a few things to be looked at but i’m fine in the end
i’m totally fine
i’m totally fine and i’m happy
my situation is really really really specific lemme tell you about it
n/a
Voting ended onJan 11
assume it doesn’t know you (unless it’s actually a specific animal you’ve met) and that it’s normal for its species and would do whatever was natural for it. including being too giant for and destroying the room it’s in. as well as dying immediately if its environment can’t support its life
My cobra squishmallow is now a real cobra. This is a problem. I am most likely going to get bitten and have to go to the hospital. Hopefully the appropriate anti venom is available…
How do people mark “periods” or “eras” of time? (ie: the king’s reign, a dynasty’s length in power, a number of years since X occurred)
What holidays are observed? How are they observed?
Population
How large are villages? What will be found there?
How large are towns? What will be found there?
How large are cities? What will be found there?
Who lives at trading posts? What amenities do they have? How is housing handled?
Social Services
What level of basic education do people have? Is it gendered?
Where do children go to acquire this education? How long does schooling last?
Is there any cost associated with basic schooling?
Who is permitted to practice medicine? Is a license required?
How are they educated? Is it paid for by the state?
Infrastructure
Who builds and maintains the trade roads? Are there tolls?
Who enforces safety along the way?
Are there places to stop and rest?
What tools are commonly available for cooking and eating?
What tools are commonly on hand for personal protection?
What weapons of war are available?
How do people get around? Do different classes have different modes of transportation?
Finance
What does money look like? What denominations are there?
Is counterfeiting easy? How do people check that they are receiving valid money?
How are coins made? What happens if they are worn down? When are new designs introduced and how are they introduced?
Do banks exist? Where are they located? How difficult is it to open an account?
Do they offer loans? Who do they offer loans to?
What happens if someone defaults on a loan?
Do people always pay in money, or is barter permitted?
What are people’s attitudes towards money?
What are people’s attitudes towards poverty?
Do merchants ignore tensions between governments as long as they can make profit?
Religion
What gods are there, and what are their roles? How are they regarded?
What is the generally-accepted creation myth?
Is there a myth regarding the end of the world?
Where do people pray, perform rituals and rites, or seek religious council?
Do people think of these institutions as parasites, or as useful parts of society?
Are offerings required? What offerings are considered good?
Where does religion fit into this society?
What are the various religious rites like and why are they performed? Are there any rites of passage (ie: important celebrations, traditions, weddings, funerals, births)?
Do the people practice any rituals? Are there any particular worship practices?
What are their ethics and how are they tied with religion?
How do the various temples and philosophies explain the classic problem of evil?
Are there religious aspects around slaughter and butchery? What are they?
Who can become a priest at a shrine? Is it a lifelong commitment?
How do they attain this position? Are there different levels or roles? What are their duties? Are there any restrictions placed on religious personnel? Are they expected to dress a certain way? Do they carry any special tools?
How do they fund upkeep?
Kingdom
Allies
Rivals
Tribe(s)
How populated is the kingdom? What areas are more or less populated?
Language (written, spoken, unspoken)
Name of the language
Do they have a writing system for their own language? Are stories written or are they passed down orally?
How are messages passed along?
Are laws documented? Is history documented? What language is used for these things?
Do people commonly know a secondary language?
Do people gesture a lot when speaking? Is certain body language integral to communication?
What words or gestures are considered rude?
What words or gestures are considered positive/neutral?
How do they count on their fingers?
How is personal space treated?
How is respect displayed (bowing, kneeling, kissing)? Are honorifics used? Are there levels of respectfulness?
Who is expected to receive such measures of respect? What happens if they do not receive it?
How is disrespect responded to?
What is considered good manners (formal) vs good manners (informal) vs everyday manners?
How are casual acquaintances addressed? How are loved ones addressed? How are people ranked above or below oneself addressed?
Is it proper to refer to someone by their surname, given name, or occupation/title?
Attire
Do married individuals have different styles from the unmarried?
Are children clothed? Is it gendered? At what age do they begin wearing clothing?
Is clothing gendered? Are certain colors or details considered gendered?
What are the beauty standards? How do people try to attain them?
What colors and details are in fashion? How difficult is it to attain these things?
What materials are imported? Are they considered expensive or high class?
Are certain classes or castes permitted only certain things?
Are there certain materials or styles permitted only to the upper classes?
Are some garments reserved for special occasions or one-time-use?
Are clothes made at home (handmade), or bought pre-made in shops?
How expensive are clothes (or the materials to make them)? What does the average person spend and how often on new clothes?
How many outfits does the average person have?
Is clothing tailored (lots of sewing) or tied (minimal sewing)?
How often are clothes laundered?
What are footwear made of?
Accessories
Jewelry, piercings
Tattoos, makeup, body paint
Food
What do they eat? How do they eat it?
How is it prepared? Who prepares it?
What do they drink? Is alcohol permitted? Do they make their own alcohol? What is it made from?
How is their food viewed by foreigners?
How often are meals eaten in a day? When are meals served? Do they snack?
What food is never eaten and why?
How is food prepared for long-term storage?
What is considered good and proper table manners?
How is hierarchy or status displayed at the table? Do guests have a place of honor?
Architecture
What are homes made from? How does this work with their climate?
What are grander buildings made from?
How many rooms/levels? How large?
What is their furniture made of?
What sort of bedding do they use?
Where do they prepare food? How do they store foodstuffs?
What are town/city buildings made of?
How do they manage trash and sewage?
Do people run businesses from their homes?
Religion & values
Are the sexes segregated? In formal events? In public? At home?
Are women treated equally to men?
What are the rights of children?
Are children born outside of a married couple considered illegitimate? How would legitimate children be treated vs illegitimate children? Are children adopted? How do they view orphans?
What are family units like? How many children on average? Are homes multigenerational?
What do they do when they come of age? When do they come of age?
How is aging treated?
What customs surround birth and death?
What is considered proper, modest behavior? What happens if this is violated?
How often do they bathe? How do they clean their bodies and hair? Are beards for men in fashion?
What are their views on sex? Is prostitution permitted? How are prostitutes treated?
What are their courtship practices like?
Is marriage a custom? Is monogamy a custom? Is marriage strictly between men and women?
Is divorce permitted? What grounds would make divorce permissible?
Are citizens required to attain the ruler’s favor when marrying?
Are classes/castes rigid? Is social mobility possible? Are people allowed to marry outside their class/caste?
What is considered honorable or dishonorable?
What is considered a faux-pas? What is taboo?
Do they have paid servants or slaves?
Is citizenship a given, or something everyone must earn regardless of birth? Can it be revoked? Can it be passed down?
What are the rights and privileges of citizens?
Are they welcoming to outsiders? Do they have tourism?
How are guests received? What measures of hospitality are expected?
Geography
What is the climate & weather?
Do they have enough drinking water?
Are they by the ocean or landlocked?
How fertile is the land? What natural resources do they have?
What plants and wildlife can be found here?
Is hunting permitted? Are there animals that are forbidden?
Do people own their land or is it on loan from the ruler?
How are livestock raised? Are they branded or marked? Do they have free roam to graze?
How easy is it to get around within the kingdom? Are any areas considered impassable or dangerous?
What is the capitol city like?
What are the highlights of this kingdom?
Why do certain cities or towns exist where they do?
How are cities laid out?
Is the kingdom doing well? Are the people thriving, happy?
Do they value entertainment? What kind? Sports?
Are there dedicated areas for these things?
What things are considered luxury?
What are typical active hours?
How do city folks relate to rural folks? Is there any tension there?
How cosmopolitan is the average person?
What basic skills are expected of every adult?
Production of goods, imports/exports
What do they farm?
What is their primary trade(s)?
Who makes these things and how are they made?
Are there segregated areas for production?
Is licensing required to sell certain things? How is that obtained? Does it need renewal? What is the penalty for operating without a license?
Who are their trade partners? What do they sell to whom?
What do they import?
What animals are considered wild, and what are kept for food/trade?
Crime and the Legal System
What crimes are considered fairly common (regardless of severity)?
What crimes are considered minor and how are they handled?
What crimes are considered serious and how are they handled?
Are highwaymen, muggers, bandits, or pirates common or rare?
Are there laws forbidding certain types of people from carrying arms?
Are there laws requiring certain people to be skilled with certain weapons?
Is licensing required for anything? How is that obtained? Does it need renewal?
What is the penalty for operating without a license?
How are laws enforced? Who enforces them?
Are arbitrary judgements by a lord or landowner allowed, or is there a standard that they are supposed to follow? Are there separate courts for civil and criminal matters?
How high can a case go in the system before it is finally settled?
Who is responsible for catching criminals? How are they paid? Do the police, military, or city guard make a practise of roughing up suspects?
Is anyone entitled to legal representation? Who pays for that?
Is there an appeal system?
Who trains the legal experts and are they certified?
Are there prisons? Who pays for the prisoners’ food and medicine? Are they segregated by sex?
Are there degrees of punishment such as fines, branding, dismemberment, or death? Are there prisons, or are people punished and released?
Government
What other positions are there? What do they oversee? Are they elected or hereditary? (eg: councilors, ministers, secretaries, advisors)
Are government positions open to all classes? Can it be a career choice?
How is the military organized? Is advancement possible?
Is the military a standing one, or on call as needed? How large is it?
Are soldiers expected to live off the land and peasantry, or do they pay for what they take?
What do taxes pay for? (eg: schools, roads, military, shrines, prisons)
How do people pay taxes—labor, crops, cash, military service?
How do people communicate with their government?
Who can make or repeal laws?
Who can be ambassadors and envoys? Are there standing embassies and consulates, or are envoys sent only when something specific comes up?
Ruling family
Who rules the kingdom?
Are the ruling family elected or hereditary? Are they absolute or democratic?
Does the head of state have a spouse? Does the spouse share power?
Did they marry for love? How important are political marriages?
Do they have an heir? How is succession determined? What if the heir is still a child?
Who will take over running the government if the head of state is incapacitated?
How is the ruler’s success measured—by the size of their army, their GDP, their cultural soft power?
Who protects the head of state and family?
Who is able to make command of the military?
Who is able to make command of the members of government beneath the head of state?
Where do the rulers prefer to live? Do they stay in the capitol, or do they prefer other homes? Do the family live with the ruler or elsewhere?
stormborns
turnnoffyourmind
amandla
gamechangershow
romaincrisis
2087
izzy806
