A Hitchhiker's Guide to SBURB: Land Creation Guide (Patreon)

SBURB is a highly malleable game. Its premise is often the same, with few Session-specific deviations- The players are regarded as Heroic Figures, Deified by the locals, and must put a stop to the war waging between Light and Darkness, in order to claim the Ultimate Reward, and become Gods of a Reality of their own design. As far as RPG Campaigns go, it's a rather simple base.

Of course, the catch is that none of the Players know this going into the Game, unless they have acquired information beforehand thanks to other Sessions interacting with their own, which is rare. Sprites are a great help in bringing people up to speed with what they're supposed to be doing, but the one thing that's truly designed to deliver the answer to their Ultimate Riddle, is the Lands themselves.

Much like everything else in SBURB, however, Lands are extremely varied and depend entirely on the characters they belong to. Entire planets, tailored to deliver information in a way the Game thinks will be compelling for each Character, and kickstart their growth as the Divinities they're meant to become.

And today, we're going to be coming up with our own Lands! Whether it be for OC purposes, or for full-on SBURB Campaigns you may have planned in the future, or merely for fun, there's a lot of different ways to build a compelling Land for your Players.

But before diving into the Standard Land Making, there's something I have to address.

The Exceptions

Generally speaking, Lands follow a solid structure, the LAND OF X AND Y, where X and Y are nouns describing, in broad terms, what the planet is all about, and are commonly abbreviated by their appropriate acronym, LOXAY in this 'X and Y' case. They also tend to be rather unique to every single character, with no correlation with one another. None of these are solid rules, however.

Let's take Nepeta Leijon's land for example, the Land of Little Cubes and Teapots. Let's be fair, literally the only purpose of this Land is for it to be shortened to LOLCAT, and nothing else. Indeed, joke Lands can be a thing, and bending the rules of what makes a Land for humorous purposes is a canonically encouraged tactic. Even if it wasn't a real Land, too, in the Homosuck section of the game, we're introduced to the Land of Someone's Handicrafts I Took, which, again, is only meant to be shortened to LOSHIT. And yet in doing these joke Lands, the aesthetic they embody is defined just as well as a real Land. So don't be afraid to go for funny acronyms if you think it'd add some spice to the Session.

Similarly, you may run into Themed Sessions. Generally speaking, you want to come up with unique ideas for each Land, but sometimes the nature of a Session or the general vibe of a SBURB Campaign may lead you to finding a common thread among Lands.

A clear example of this is the Alpha Kid Session, in which all of their Lands are themed after a burial site, and a noble gas. The Land of Mounds and Xenon. The Land of Crytps and Helium. Their Session is Void, their Lands, barren and dead, and as such, the themes of their planets embody this reality. Static, impossibly to do anything with, futile to attempt to interact with it.

This common theme, this thread, can be used as an effective way of building towards a purpose or objective for a custom Session. The goal is, by default, to win and create a new Universe, but as we all know, SBURB is hard as fuck, and most Sessions are actually Doomed to fail. This is stated to be akin to a reproductive system- Just like many creatures lay thousands of eggs hoping at least one will hatch and continue its legacy, so do Universes spawn many Sessions in hopes at least one will continue the chain of creation that is Paradox Space. So perhaps you are also Doomed to fail. That's not necessarily bad though, is it? There's purpose beyond futility, and beings with immense power always willing to make Deals. I recall a Session of my own which would end in failure, and require displacing the Session itself across the Void in order to merge it with a new one they were in contact with. And all of the Lands were themed after energy sources. Nuclear, Wind, Geothermal, etc., all pointing at the fact they'd eventually need to take advantage of these sources of Energy to power reactors and move their Lands across the Void of the Furthest Ring.

There's one last exception that's interesting to talk about, and that is Dead Sessions. Dead Sessions aren't normal Sessions, in the sense that they're supposed to be Punishments. Solo Sessions aren't supposed to exist, they are always to be communal efforts. To reach a goal together, and grow as people in the process, that is the spirit of SBURB itself. And if one manages to betray those they were supposed to be working alongside, and the circumstances allow them to survive for long enough to close their own Server-Client loop, the consequences will be dire. Their Kernelsprite collapses into a Black Hole, becoming the entry point of the Session, and their entire Planet is taken in with them. From there, they will need to seek a deal with their Denizen, and if they accept to their terms, they will be faced with an impossible challenge.

Skaia collapses into a Black Hole, a 'pocket' of sorts, and Pool Ball-themed Planets spawn. One has to travel into the core of these planets, and bring a Cueball Bomb to the surface in order to send the entire world spiralling into this pocket. All of this is on a Time Limit that put a strain on a Lord of Time, which means under normal circumstances, all beings faced with this challenge are destined to lose.

But it's still interesting to talk about these Sessions, because of the variety they may bring to the table when it comes to creating Lands. First of all, upon entry in the Session, the Land is supposed to be empty. There's no challenge, no destiny. Just their original planet, perhaps a little worse for the wear, and potentially, added structures on its surface as 'pointers' for the Player to know what they must do next. Again, the theme of theses Sessions are Punishments, so long, awful Fetch Quests and boring, extensive trips are par for the course.

The Pool Ball Planets, too, could be subject to some variety. Dead Sessions are Pool-themed, just as normal Sessions are Chess-themed, but who's to say this is necessary? Perhaps you can think of some other sport or means of delivering this same challenge. A Baseball Dead Session where you must 'Homerun' the planet away from the Black Hole's event Horizon? A Ping-Pong Dead Session where there's a protective field around the Black Hole, bouncing the Planet right back after you hurled it towards it, needing you to strategize a plan of action? The sky's the limit.

And in the extremely rare cases these challenges are completed, the original Planet will undergo a transformation. Revealing its true Quest to the Player, and potentially, leaving a boon of extreme power awaiting for them at the end. In Caliborn's case, this was the Land of Colours and Mayhem, themed after the flashing Pool Colors we see from Lord English, which also correlate to the God Tier energy that brings people back from the Dead, the same energy Adult Cherubs are consumed by when it's time to mate. There's no solid rules to creating a Dead Session Land, but if you were to make one, a similar theme could be interesting. Powerful Majyyks, Eternity, or something in relation to the Boon waiting for the Player.

Now that we know a little bit more about these exceptions, we're finally ready to move onto the main part of this Essay! How to come up with your own, standard Land ideas to begin with.

The Quest: Class, Aspect, Character, and Denizens

Land Ideation can be spontaneous, you can just come up with an aesthetic you really like for a world. But if you want to have a consistent and coherent theme you have to think about the Quest of the Land. All of the Lands offer a Quest to their Player, through which they are supposed to grow and learn. They may elect to follow through with it, or to ignore it entirely in favor of other things, but the Lore of the Land and the challenges within are often tied into this singular Mission.

The Quest is usually comprised of Three main parts. First, the Lore Dump, basically the backstory of the Land. The Consorts or Sprite will eagerly provide this Lore Dump upon arrival to the Land, and it provides a basic foundation on which to work the rest of the Quest on. Something went awry a long time ago, and now it's up to the Hero to do something about it. Then, the Journey, through which the Hero will face challenges meant to make them realize the truth about the Game, its purpose, and their own role in these events, while offering situations through which they may grow as people and face their own shortcomings and problems. Finally, the Climax, the moment the Quest comes to an end, performing some major act that will close the arc of this story, and bring some sort of positive change or fix to the Land.

None of these are solid or set in stone however. The game has its way of weaving itself into the arc of each character. Consider John, whose Quest had always been to learn to Play the Wind, unclog the pipes of his Land and wash away the clouds keeping the Fireflies trapped in the sky. But circumstances left him to abandon his Quest- Only to retake it when he got his Retcon Powers. Typheus' way of teaching him how to use his newfound abilities seamlessly tied with this original Quest of his, and in trying to fix the Doomed Reality he was in, he climatically ended the Quest SBURB had built for him. On the other hand, consider Rose, whose Quest was abandoned and haunted her for perhaps having stunted her own growth, but ended up finding her own ways of growing beyond the confines of her planet, or Dave, who found a Legendary Sword capable of harming Lord English, only to break it and repair it in the most roundabout and absurd way possible.

Indeed, in order to really pin-point how to make a compelling Quest, we can't just focus on the tropes they seem to follow- We need to know more about the Characters, and we need to know more about the Denizens. 

The Denizens are tricky. We only know a handful of them in Canon, and even then they're shrouded in mystery. But we know enough to get the gist of them. They are named after Myths and Legends, often Divinities of some sort. Echidna, Typheus and Hephaestus, from Greek Myth. Abraxas and Yaldabaoth from Gnostic Myth. Some of them seem tied to certain Aspects- Such as Cetus and Light, or Echidna and Space, but others are special, such as the Gnostic Duo. As such, if you are to choose a Denizen for your Player, consider, first, their Aspect. Typheus has its ties to Wind and Breath, but perhaps you'd like some variety. Why not go with Helios? Or maybe the Aspect you're going for doesn't have a canonical Denizen- In which case, coming up with your own Denizen ideas is almost necessary. Moros for Doom? Or perhaps you could head with Hades. Azazel for some, Lyssa for others. Quetzalcoatl, Osiris, SBURB is all about remixing cultural inspiration, and if you do a little bit of searching, you may find a Deity or Creature of Myth that fits exactly what you're looking for.

Denizens are often the cause of whatever went wrong in the Land, showcased through the Lore Dump, and as such they're presented as a central point to the Legend, ensuring the Players will eventually end up interacting with them. Of course, the Denizens are much more than just creatures slumbering at the core of the Planet. They have Knowledge that extends beyond the Session. They practically play along with the Quests, as Villains or otherwise, but once the Player arrives, the curtain is pulled, and what matters truly becomes the Player and their growth, rather than whatever silly Quest it is the Consorts have sent them on. They are a Roadblock in the way of the Ultimate Reward. And they present the Player with the Choice.

The Choice is not fixed either. The Choice is an unique Choice offered by these God-like creatures in times of need. A request that must be fulfilled for them to agree on the Player's term, lest they be enraged and faced in combat. Regardless of their apparent nature or Legends about them, Denizens have not been shown to attack Players who didn't attack first, or that didn't refuse the terms of the Choice. They can be as Helpful or as Dangerous as one wants them to be, and some Players may even end up being offered Multiple Choices depending on when and how many times they interact with them.

So, let's roll this back a little bit.

Multiple Denizens and Dubious Choices. Quests you don't have to necessarily follow. When do we get to the part where we make the Land itself? There's so much leeway, so many different ways things could go, that it becomes Overwhelming. How are we supposed to come up with something coherent and cool for our Original Characters? How do we put all of this together in a coherent manner?

Yep. It comes down to Classpects once again. The Mythological Roles assigned to the Players, depending on their Personality and their Arc. But most importantly, it's this Personality and Arc we have to look out for when we build our Quests and Choices, and eventually, the Lands themselves.

A Player's Quest is meant to challenge them and drive them to become better. To face their own shortcomings. A Denizen's Choice is meant to prove they have changed, or attained the power they need to become rulers of the Universe they create. And the entirety of their Land is made to reflect this challenge. It's so difficult to pin-point what Land works and what Land doesn't at times. Because they may reflect their Mythological Role, such as John and Tavros' lands relating to Wind- But they may also reflect their personal aesthetics, like Vriska's Pirate Map Land. They may seem to appeal to their personal tastes, like Gamzee's Clown Tents, or oppose them with their deepest fears, like Dave's metal-grinding, dangerous Land. But once you delve deep into a character, what they excel at and what they lack, what the Game wants from each of them, things start to become a little bit...

Clearer.

Building your Land

Took us long enough to get here huh? I always do this. Ramble on aimlessly for paragraphs just to set-up the actual premise of the Essay.

So we know how Class and Aspect ties into the Quest, how the Lands compliment the Quest presented within, and how the Denizens relate to both Characters and the Quests themselves. But there's still a lot left up in the air. And so, let's stop the wordy explanations, and go with an example, a canonical one. John Egbert, one of the few characters we've actually seen complete their Land Quests.

John is a Heir of Breath. The one who Changes Breath and is Changed by Breath. He's a cheery, oblivious dork. And he's also the protagonist of the story. A big part of his Arc revolves around his own role as the main driver of the story, attaining the Power to alter canon and holding it to help his friends reach a much more favorable end. Being at odds between him just wanting to be everyone's friend, and the obvious spot of Leadership the story's shoving him into.

And as the story revolves around the Kids being confined in this restrictive game, and later on, in their restrictive narrative itself, the Protagonist's arc becomes pivotal in how they escape this restriction, this fate. Changing through Breath. Altering Freedom. Altered by Freedom.

John's Land sends him to a dark, bleak land, filled with Oil and with Clouds obscuring Skaia's Light. Oil clogs the pipes that allow wind to flow, they suffocate Breath, and only the glimpse of light from the Fireflies overhead bathes the world. It contrasts, aesthetically, with John's demeanor, at the same time as it ties into his Arc. Much like John must master his powers to help free his friends from the Narrative, so must he master them to free the Pipes and let his song play through the Land.

And we see two Choices offered to him by his Denizen. In the Timeline Terezi sends him to Typheus early, where he could either stay alive in a Doomed Reality, or die to continue the plot and help his friends. A major Change to the plot at great personal cost. Then, to master his powers, he has to choose between mastering his powers to Change the plot once more, at the cost of making his friends feel the same loss he experienced, or merely fade away in a Doomed Reality. A very similar Choice, with two vastly different results. Both tying into his nature as a Heir of Breath, and his arc as the Protagonist with the Reality-Altering Powers.

To create the perfect Land for your Player, you must know your Player inside and out. And most importantly, you must know what you want for that Player in the future.

Let me exemplify this with some of my own Lands.

The Witch of Life is a Cerulean Blooded Control Freak. She obsesses over having everything under her control. She's also an enthusiast of Dangerous Alternian Flora, and keeps a Greenhouse.

For her, I considered her biggest shortcoming to be her need for Control and her Paranoia. Going along with her love for the Flora, I decided to mix her passion and her fear into one. The Land of Roots and Hollows, a land with enormous trees casting the world beneath in shadow. Winding root systems and knot holes where things could be hiding anywhere.  And everything else fell into place. The Backstory is simple enough- Hemera, Denizen of Life, was asked for a boon of fertility, only for it to get out of control, and cause the Flora to become overgrown and cast the world in the shade. It's now up to the Witch of Life to bring a change to this natural overgrowth and help the Consorts.

But it still doesn't tie into her Arc and her flaws- It makes her face her Paranoia, but not her need for Control. To improve, I wanted her to give up control. Legends speak of an artefact that would let her clear out the vegetation, but upon finding it, it becomes obvious it's actually the opposite, it promotes growth on Plants to an extreme degree. As such, the Witch needs to learn to Manipulate Vegetation- Not the one in the Land, but her own Dangerous Alternian Flora, brought with her into the Land, and let it overgrow. Stop carefully dealing with it and allow it to become invasive and snuff out the plants of the Land, angering the Denizen in the process and granting her an audience with Hemera.

The Page of Rage has a lot of pent-up anger against the Highbloods, he talks big about Revolution, but he never acts on any of it, too scared, afraid of the repercussion. All talk, no action, but with good ideals. He's also a bit antisocial.

He needs to learn to act on his word, get people to rally behind him to change the System. So I needed his Land to be based entirely around another unfair System he could revolt against. LOSAD, the Land of Storms and Despair. His Denizen, Lyssa (Spirit of Mad Rage, Frenzy and Rabies), keeps the planet on a perpetual Storm. Ravaging the Land and destroying the landscape, and sending hordes of Underlings to raid the Consort Villages when they have a bountiful harvest to pay tribute to her. The Consorts are desperate and hopeless. They need help.

And so the Page's Quest revolves around learning to rally these Consorts and direct their Negative Emotions towards the raiders. Become the Rebel Leader he wanted to be on Alternia, getting the Consorts to serve them through their Rage, and Serving the Underlings their Rage, before marching towards the Denizen's Palace, aided by his little Consort Army.

The Bard of Blood is a rave-loving, laid back girl. She makes awful music but her friends humor her endeavors. She's forgetful, and will often allow stuff she had planned with her pals fall flat because of this.

Being a rave DJ kind of character, with issues with her friends, I thought of a manner to incorporate both the rave aesthetic and music theme, as well as the Blood bonds and learning to become a better friend. And so LORAG was born, the Land of Raves and Glow. A urban landscape perpetually blaring loud music and flashy lights. The idea behind her Quest, then, would need to be Music-based, and lead her to breaking off toxic allegiances and learning to be a less shoddy friend. The idea of a Music Contest popped up, and everything slowly fell into place.

A division between Consorts, a Music Festival. Every so often there's a Contest that will allow a group of Consorts an audience with the Denizen, Azazel (A Demon), who controls the speaker system of the Land. However, the same group of Consorts has been winning constantly, and foul play and bribing is suspected. Many are tired of the same loud, obnoxious music playing, others want to experiment with new genres, but they're not allowed. And so, the Bard must Destroy the allegiance of the cheating group of Consorts to each other, or to the contest's judges, and improve her own skills so that she may join up with a group of Consorts, and win the festival, being granted an Audience with her Denizen in the process.

That's how I design Lands, and a template I feel could be very useful for many people. Starting with the character's Classpect, Aesthetic and Shortcomings, finding a way to deal with their flaws and how you'd like them to evolve, then finding an aesthetic that mixes these traits well enough. A Knight of Heart who loves animals and nurses them back to health, being faced with a bleak and half-dead Land, with Consorts regretting a wish for eternal life, and wanting to pass on, needing to be aided, and helped to pass on. A cheerful Maid of Hope faced with a Land where false faith is used to take advantage of the Consorts, needing to take out these false idols and temples, and help restore a healthy kind of hope and worship. A selfish, rich Prince of Void, force to start back up from nothing in a Cyberpunk Dystopia, destroy his own Lack and make a place for himself in the world again. All of them, culminating in some manner with an encounter with their Denizen, for the End-game of their Land Quest.

The important part to consider here is the Quest, what you want your character to go through, how you want them to improve. And from there, building the Land properly is a matter of taste, of what would fit the different stories you want to tell. Denizens can be any mythological being you think would fit the scenario, and Consorts can be any Herptile you'd like as well. So while this open-endedness of Land Building can make pin-pointing the right one a bit of a pain, so long as you've got a story to tell, you can twist the world to fit that story properly.

Before finishing up, however, I want to talk about two Aspects, and two very special Denizens.

Space, Time and the Gnostic Denizens

Space and Time are arguably the two most important Aspects in Homestuck. While they're not necessarily the most 'powerful' in any sense, they build to physical reality the characters inhabit, and this importance is reflected in the necessity of both a Time and Space Heroes in any Session in order for it to be viable. As such, their Lands often have some special traits.

Time Lands may be home to the Scratch Construct, a Panic Button reset device meant to change the Timeline on a fundamental level, creating a wholly new iteration of the Universe so that it may potentially succeed where the old Session failed. These Constructs are related to Music. In fact, many things in SBURB relate to Music, but specially Time seems to have strong ties to Music, Rhythm and Beat in some manner. We see the Scratch Construct take upon the form of a giant Record and a Music Box canonically, and once I thought about a Cassette similar to the Beat Mesa to follow with the 'music recording device' trend. This proved to be too restrictive though, and in the Session I have been using as an example for the Lands, the Scratch Construct was a whole Stage. Once the Quills of Echidna were inserted like keys, they pulled out a microphone, and Time-Gear Speakers popped out of the ground, amplifying the sound waves through the microphone and shredding the Scratch Construct open through voice alone.

The Quills of Echidna are one of the few things hard enough to initiate the Scratch, and they're obtained from the Space Denizen herself. Space Lands are probably the most important planets in a Session. A Successful Session will have a Volcano brought into the Session alongside the Space Player's Land, and the Land's last descriptor will invariably be 'Frogs'. This is because Frogs are a core mechanic of the game, the creatures that will eventually, through selective breeding, give way to the Genesis Frog, the Universe Players are trying to create. This makes Space Lands sound awfully restrictive, however. Always relating to Frogs, always with a Volcano. A Volcano, a Forge that must be lit by the Space Player talking with Echidna, causing a change in the Land that will allow the Frog Breeding to begin, as well as serving as the Forge in which Hephaestus, the Time Denizen, will forge stuff in.

But to add variety to a Space Player's quest, the reasoning behind these choices must be understood. The Volcano is necessary to melt the Queen's Ring, and shoot the Genesis Frog into Skaia once it's ready, and the Frogs are necessary to create the Universe in the first place. So if a Session is not meant to produce the Genesis Frog, perhaps you could omit the 'Frogs' part in the first place in favor for something else. Or maybe the Volcano is not necessary either, so long as you provide a suitable replacement through Alchemy or Terraforming in some way.

But even working with these restrictions, Space Lands can be twisted in ways to make them Unique. Take LODAF, the Land of Dispersion and Frogs, a Rogue of Space's planet. An Automated Megacorporation settled on the Land a long time ago, a mixture of Nature and Mechanization, and now through intricate systems of pipes, transportalizers, and artificial gates, Frogs are being sent to every Planet and to different places in the same Planet, making tracking them down near impossible. In this case, the change that will allow Frog Breeding isn't tied to the Terraforming, but rather, allowing Lava to flow through the Land and melting away the Machinery making things more difficult.

Similarly, one of my favorite inventions were the Lands of the Thief of Time and the Rogue of Space, the Land of Sulfur and Lullabies, and the Land of Mirrors and Frogs. Their entries into the Medium were simultaneous, and the Time Player was the one to actually join the Session with a Volcano, which led to a glitch where their Lands mixed, appearing as the Land of Sulfur and Frogs, and the Land of Mirrors and Lullabies. A big chunk of their Quests consisted to, as Stealing Classes, hone their powers to rip the Planet halves belonging to them from each other, to 'Steal' back what was rightfully theirs, and complete their Planet properly. It's all a matter of finding what would make a compelling story, and what could be a fun way to test the Space Player's skills even when their ultimate goal should still be the Creation of a Universe.

Next up, let's talk about the two Denizens we have seen to not be tied to an Aspect.

Yaldabaoth and Abraxas, the Gnostic Denizens.

Yaldabaoth is the self-proclaimed God of All Monsters, and a Denizen reserved only for the 'strongest of Players'. In this same way, Karkat mentions his Denizen was way too weak, and probably was a beginner Denizen for the 'weakest Player' in opposition to Yaldabaoth. He never states it to be Abraxas specifically, but it can be assumed this is the case, as it would only make sense.

In Gnostic Myth, Yaldabaoth is the God of our Reality, a cruel, false deity created by a mistake, and blind to the World of Ideas. Meanwhile, Abraxas stands as the True God of the World of Ideas. Karkat and Jake appear as the 'weakest' to Dirk and Caliborn's 'strongest', however by Echidna, Karkat is fated to lead the Troll Species towards a brighter future, and Jake is the one to defeat Caliborn during the Masterpiece, finishing the Hope Player's prophecy. Meanwhile, Dirk creates AR, an hypercontrolling being unable to grow up, and Caliborn himself is an hyper controlling being unable to grow up, both Yaldabaoth-like figures, blind to the 'World of Ideas'.

These two are Denizens meant for characters meant for something huge in the story, in one way or another. They replace the Denizen they would normally have. And where Yaldabaoth's Choices are said to be the most intense and drastic of all the Denizens, often extreme Life or Death matters, it's very probable that Abraxas' are tied more towards Interpersonal Challenges and more Metaphysical matters rather than outright Life or Death scenarios.

Whichever case, these two Denizens are a good choice to throw a curve ball at a Player that was expecting something different, and a good marker for important, huge events to come. Use them with care, and make them as dramatic and grand as you possibly can- And likewise, make their Lands to differ from others if you want to give them a bit of extra Oomph.

For example, a Heir of Mind, a Limeblood with Yaldabaoth as a Denizen, had the Land of Auroras and Misdirection, where the gimmick was that there was no solid Backstory. Every Consort Village had conflicting tales about what had happened, and the frozen landscape was full of false replicas of her Quest Bed and the Denizen's Palace, making finding the real one nigh impossible. Even more impossible is her Choice, offered to either die for him, or go on to kill every one of her friends in the Session. That's where her challenge comes in- Yaldabaoth is too powerful to take on directly, but a successful Heir of Mind would be able to Change his Mind, literally twist the Choice and give herself yet another option, proving Mind over Matter. Dramatic. Grand. Intense.

...

But it doesn't really need to be so intense, does it? Yeah, these two Denizens are special, but they could also just be added because you like them.

As I usually say, as much as I like giving guidelines and ideas on how to do some things, creativity stems from not holding yourself back and simply enjoying yourself.

Whether you go more in-depth about your character's Quest, or simply push for a joke name on your Land, whether it be campy and interesting or bleak and difficult to go through, it's entirely up to you.

So long as you make something cool and enjoyable, you're on the right track to find the perfect Land.