r/osr • u/A_Strangers_Life • 1d ago

WORLD BUILDING Favorite "Procedural Toolkit settings"? books about building a specific kind of setting more than just being a setting book.

I'm talking about books like Veins of the Earth, Wyrd and Wyld, Vast in the Dark, Skycrawl, books about building a specific personal version of a kind of setting.

26 Upvotes

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u/PotatoeFreeRaisinSld 1d ago

I think games like Electric Bastionland and Into the Cess and Citadel are great for crafting urban adventures. Electric Bastionland doubles as having great, general purpose advice about running a game as well

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u/LivingPastGames 1d ago

Stars Without Number, and all the Sine Nomine stuff is my go to for this.

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u/Droselmeyer 22h ago

Anything that’s Without Number by Kevin Crawford is both free and tailor made for exactly this. Stand out resources, truly some of the best in the RPG space, and they’re free.

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u/chuckles73 23h ago

Maybe Vaults of Vaarn?

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u/ericvulgaris 21h ago

Also my suggestion

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u/Thuumhammer 1d ago

Yoon Suin is a great example of this

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u/Nystagohod 1d ago edited 1d ago

If I'm understanding the question correct.

Anything Kevin crawford makes will supports this, with the upcoming "Book of Unnumbered Worlds" being one of the best resources I've seen.

Probably my favorite of the bunch, even in its beta format. Worlds without number and the like being close behind.

Electric and Mythic Bastionaknd are quite good reosurcrs in this front too,

The planar compass zines also have excellent advice towards this, with a very good guide on hex flowers.

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u/ArtisticBrilliant456 16h ago

Yoon-Suin is by far my favourite for this sort of thing.

Another great one is Tome of Adventure Design, though more generic (i.e. non specific)

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u/-urolif- 1d ago

Shadow City, a shadowdark reimagining of Vampire the Masquarade by Chubby Funster has some interesting systems for city creation.

https://youtu.be/tUUW4EDhBJU

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u/BannockNBarkby 11h ago

Medical Industrial Revolution

By extension, The Monster Overhaul, and to a degree Knave 2nd Edition

Games Omnivorous various hex kit lines come full of these sorts of tables. Hexcrawl Toolkit is the most “generic” but it’s hardly generic, whereas Bottled sea and the rest are hyper specific setting tool kits.