One way to worldbuild is to riff on a central aesthetic.
I don’t actually know what the central aesthetic is for the Conan the Barbarian universe, but here it for me:
Does this make me think of an oilshined bodybuilder in skulls and BDSM gear playing a heavy metal guitar riff on a mountain peak while lighting strikes in 1980s technicolor?
If yes, then it’s in for Conan.
The aesthetic I riff on for Landfall is something I haven’t quite put to words yet, even though I know it well:
Everything is the worst, and your efforts will amount to nothing except heartbreak and bitterness. You will fail, count on it. But we—people, all of us—will get by, somehow. There’s nothing to do but scrape forward by inches until it’s the next poor asshole’s turn.
The Landfall motto might read: 6 times down, 7 times up.
I could phrase the question: Does this twist my guts in despair while it pulls me to give more than I thought I had?
If yes, then it’s in for Landfall.
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