World Geography

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by Rurik

I'm not as big on all islands, each with its' own author for a couple of reasons, first that it kind of defeats the purpose of shared world generation...

Yes, first and foremost. If "every man's an island" then SingleWorld would suffer from lack of integration (pehaps even more so than the GateWorlds).

[drohem]

I don't see this extreme: presumably some Gates would link islands and land masses, and there is the old standard of sea going vessels.

[Atgxtg]

Rurik and Triff,

Questworld was actually Option 3 not Option 2. Questworld is a bunch of islands, and rather than just drawing up a map, the designers worked out the weather patterns and ocean currents. One benefit was that you could follow the currents and sail around the world.

It really is an ideal shared world concept becuase you can have one group over on island A and another group on B, a third on C and so forth without problems.

[tzunder]

I disagree. Islands are easy and they can slot next to each other but they aren't shared and release very little synergy..

[frogspawner]

Yes, islands are not ideal at all. If contributors are allocated particular islands (or whatever areas) then their ideas will be cut off from each others. They may well get into the mind-set of "this is mine - you can't touch it!" (and others may not like to, for fear of 'trespassing'). Integration/interaction won't be as good as it needs to be. What we should do is put everyone's ideas together and mix 'em up good an' proper!

I reckon, everyone should give a list of a few geographical features they want on the world (including wacky ones, hopefully), then get a rough map (perhaps randomly generated, if someone has some software) - and bung the listed features on it, semi-randomly. Then we can discuss modifying/rationalizing it as necessary.

Rinse and repeat for cultures, religions, races, technologies...

[tzunder]

I like the old map as the model..

[tedopon]

Originally Posted by tzunder

I like the old map as the model..

I say the old map as well. Like 90% of every game world I've made over the years used either a real world map, or some ancient cartographer's best guess.

[lawrence.whitaker]

Originally Posted by tzunder

I like the old map as the model..

Me too.

Note: just tried to submit 'Me Too' as the full reply, only to get an error message saying the reply is too short and needs to be at least 10 characters in length. So...

Me too. As well.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by tzunder

I disagree. Islands are easy and they can slot next to each other but they aren't shared and release very little synergy..

Anyone from the UK want to comment on this? Or do you lack the synergy?


Being someone on a larger landmass...
Half the world ancient civilizations sprung up around islands, so I don't think they are a bad idea. Plus some of those Questworld islands were pretty big. If we are dealing with a low tech culture, we could all share one or two islands easily.

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

Anyone from the UK want to comment on this? Or do you lack the synergy?

Hi, y'all! Over here in cute lil' En-ger-land (well Yorkshire actually), I don't object to having (geographical, physical) islands. I'm just worried that if people are "given" an island to develop (or in fact, any other specifed area) they may slip into insular thinking. Shared islands would be fine. There are plenty of factions over here: the UK isn't as United as outsiders may think (it's only been a 'Union' for a few hundred years - a historical lunch-break - and may only be a temporary 'blip'...). (That's a thought - how long should history be, American cousins?)

For SharedWorld it'd be better, initially, to get a number of ideas (like Rurik's Asherayne/Portal), whack them on some sort of map, and then together we can work out how they'd interact (and their histories).