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Good stuff.

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The Lonely Worldbuilder Club Volume I: Vicaria

Welcome to the Hazard Desert, a dusty valley of steam-powered gunslingers, vicious capitalist overlords and all the humble folk in between. This, is my steampunk/western setting, set mainly in a great big dusty valley known as the Great Vicarian Dust Bowl, or colloquially as the Hazard Desert. Vicaria is the greater nation that the Hazard Desert sits in, but realistically there's not much else to the nation. Or, at least not much more important to the nation, for one reason only, the steam crystal. The steam crystal is formed from the highly compressed steam that bursts out of geysers deep under the red sands of the Hazard. These crystals, have very interesting uses, namely their tendency to ignite quite easily, creating a burst of steam. So, these crystals have used in the manufacturing of weapons, revolvers, repeaters, rifles, pistols, shotguns as well as vehicles such as the monowheel: a single-wheeled steam-powered bike, the steam balloon: an enhanced hot air balloon, and much later in their use, to raise a city into the sky. Valve, the capital of Vicaria, soars over the desert. A set of colossal steam vents below the city jet out huge vaporous clouds of steam into the sky. It looks like a steampunk version Attilan, the inhuman city from Marvel (just search the name up and look at image's you'll know what I mean). In order for Valve to continue its flight over the desert, it requires fuel. A constant stream of steam crystals, which come from the many mining towns of the desert. So, Valve circuits the mining towns, hovering over them each for a few days per year, collecting all of the crystals mined over the previous year, before departing to the next town. One of such mining towns, is where my current D&D campaign using this setting takes place. Juggertown, what was once the premier crystal mining town, now lies as a husk of forgotten dreams of false riches. A few decades ago, the town was known as Crystal Rock, and being situated next to the crystal-rich Cogwright Mines, the mining business was booming. Especially in the middle of the Great Steam War, a civil war on the precipice of steam-combustion weapon invention, and a time where the demand for crystals was heavy. However, at the end of the war, the leftover steam-powered tanks known as juggernauts, were repurposed into mining vehicles, bringing terrifying efficiency to the mining trade as the giant drills mounted on them harvested crystals at incredible paces. So, as the constant trundling hum of juggernaut treads became a mainstay in Crystal Rock, and the rock that it was named after was drilled into extinction, the settlement garnered a new name, Juggertown. As a final part on this setting, here are some of the characters my players made. Marrow - Fighter - Gunslinger A gunslinger with a pair of mechanical arms and a very rebellious attitude towards the Valvean Government. Marrow was a former goon for the Mayor of Juggertown but had a harsh change of heart and is an anarchist against the state. Dr. Nick Copperfield - Cleric - Life Domain The former town doctor of Juggertown now relegated to backstreet operations in the shantytown tents of the town outskirts. Dr. Copperfield was outcompeted by a new pharmacy backed by the seemingly-infinite funds of a Valvean businessman that seems to have ill intentions with his business in the town. Ahusaka - Sorcerer - Storm Sorcery An outcast whose body is covered in steam-crystal growths that give him innate control over the steam that powers many contraptions in the desert. As a result of Ahu's affliction, he was raised in his village until around the age of twelve, before being cast out into the desert. Ahu was rescued by a bandit, who took Ahu back to his town and, taking pity on the boy, welcomed Ahu into his gang, raising him an outlaw.

And that's about it. If you made it this far into the post, I don't believe you, and also please ask me questions about and give me feedback on the setting. That is all, thank you and goodbye.

#I HAD TO EDIT THIS POST DOWN UNDER THE CHARACTER LIMIT SO IT IS VERY LONG #ttrpg #dnd #worldbuilding #steampunk #western #fantasy #yapping

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HEY!

Back up your computer!

Go get the external drive you bought specifically for this purpose and then left in a drawer somewhere and RUN A FULL BACKUP.

There are lots of posts that make the rounds reminding us to sit up straight, stretch, drink water, refocus our eyes, take our meds, etc. But while this may not be about your health, it's still super-important.

Back up your whole-ass computer. If you can afford a second backup drive, buy one so that you have one SSD and one HDD, and back up to both of them (you can back up just the current important stuff to the SSD and let the HDD do the heavy-duty lifting).

Do not rely on 'the cloud' or the internet to keep jack shit.

AND BACK UP YOUR GMAIL AS WELL HOLY SHIT. The last thing you want is a catastrophic issue where literally every single thing you have in gmail is gone. It's happened. It happened to a friend of mine and basically her entire life was in there and now it's all gone. 20 years of it.

Reblog to save a life.

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usually i read these random writing tips and just let them pass but this one kind of slaps and i'm gonna use it for my story.

if you write a strong character, let them fail.

if you write a selfless hero, let them get mad at people.

if you write a cold-hearted villain, make them cry.

if you write a brokenhearted victim, let them smile again.

if you write a bold leader, make them seek guidance.

if you write a confident genius, make them be wrong, or get stumped once in a while.

if you write a fighter or a warrior, let them lose a battle, but let them win the war.

if you write a character who loses everything, let them find something.

if you write a reluctant hero, give them a reason to fight.

credit:@aj-eddy

#i dont know what to tag this as #writing #see i was actually just lying to you