World Geography

[Rurik]

Originally Posted by frogspawner

it's only been a 'Union' for a few hundred years - a historical lunch-break - and may only be a temporary 'blip'...

A few hundred years? That is the entire length of history over here...

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by frogspawner

... a few hundred years - a historical lunch-break - and may only be a temporary 'blip'...

Originally Posted by Rurik

A few hundred years? That is the entire length of history over here...

We really should use more emoticons. Could get into trouble, otherwise. Allow me to deploy a belated

Seriously though, the 'size' of History may need debating too, but another time, another thread.
Meanwhile, are we any closer to a Geography? The ideas are coming, and need a home...

[Rurik]

Yeah, I forget those things too sometimes.

I was jesting too - sort of. Many of us yanks really do have a much shorter sense of history, as our national identity only goes back a few hundred years. COuple with the fact that the whole universe revolves around us and really none of that other stuff matters.

And we are predisposed to think large landmasses are inhrerently better than islands.

Now

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by Rurik

And we are predisposed to think large landmasses are inhrerently better than islands.

A balanced approach with some of each, is probably best I guess.

But should there be any off-the-wall features? Like, er... hollow, cuboidal, floating sky-nations, flat (though not necessarily held up by elephants), a bridge to the moon(s), stars are nearby holes into heaven, oceans of heavy gas, rivers of mercury, upside-down mountains, ice-'cap' around the equator (or even north-south), magic dead zones, crystalline/d12-shaped, banana-shaped...?

I like the style of the old map of Iceland, but it's probably not suitable.

[Rurik]

I am all in favor of a flat world - or some other shape, though I think the old flat with falling off the edges works fine for a fantasy world. Rivers of mercury, upside down mountains and the like are all good.

Perhaps the sun does not rise or set, but fades in and out for the day night cycle, remaining stationary. The lands directly under the sun are hottest (possibly uninhabitable - by normal beings) and the world gets colder and darker in all directions outward. Stars as holes in the sky is cool (must be bright beyond it though - perhaps it is night on the other side of the sky when it is day on this world so the stars are not visible until it is night here and day there). Bridge (or tower?) to the moon is cool too.

I'm no great mapper but I have campaign cartographer and there is a style from last year's annual (which I also have) specifically for maps in the style of the old one Triff posted - I like it too for ancient worlds (though it is a style that arose around the 15th-16th century if I recall right).

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by frogspawner

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).

Yeah, to some extent I think that should hold true for most things. People can work up a concept and it it makes something important, then that is a reason to include that feature.

For instance if someone wants to have a culture of desert dwelling nomads then that is a good reason to have some deserts.

Ditto for history. If some people do up some ancient cultures and other do a young vibrant culture then the ones doing up the ancient culture get to work out the history that the newbies don't know about. The other players can chime is as we brainstorm, but history can be treated as "you break it you own it".

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by Rurik

I am all in favor of a flat world... Perhaps the sun does not rise or set, but fades in and out for the day night cycle, remaining stationary. The lands directly under the sun are hottest (possibly uninhabitable - by normal beings) and the world gets colder and darker in all directions outward.

Now that is good. I can see it now, with gigantic icicles hanging off the edges...

I'm no great mapper but I have campaign cartographer...

Then go for it!

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

People can work up a concept and it it makes something important, then that is a reason to include that feature. ... The other players can chime is as we brainstorm, but history can be treated as "you break it you own it".

Quite. Let's make room for everyone's creations. I've found 'post-justification' can be very creative!

I like the odd bit of wacky geography, but I'm worried it might put some potential authors off. Do people think it would be too silly, or can they live with these sort of ideas?

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by frogspawner

I like the odd bit of wacky geography, but I'm worried it might put some potential authors off. Do people think it would be too silly, or can they live with these sort of ideas?

I suppose it depends on how silly and what the game world justification is. I wouldn't like it to be silly in game.

For example, in one campaign the GM gave us a map and it had a river on it and we were told which direction the river flowed. All fine except the river flowed from the ocean to the mountains. The GM didn't see the problem, but a couple of us players were looking for magic to see what could make water flow uphill.

So anything that is different from the way things appear to work to us in the real world could cause some difficulties.

I wouldn't mind floating cities in the cloud populated by winged folk, assuming there is a good in game justification as to why those cities can fly--be it powerful incantations or liftwood. If it were supported by a million sparrows flapping away it would put me off.

Hmm, winged folk....

[soltakss]

What, you've never been to Million Sparrow City?

Realism is relative. However realistic you want to be, there will always be a certain number of people who will say "That mountain would cause a rain shadow so you couldn't have a forest there" or whatever.

I wouldn't be too hung up on realism.

Draw a map, put interesting things there, have very simple climates for different areas and that's about all you really need.

Also, I wouldn't make the land masses too big. Genertela is smaller than the continental USA and has too many cultures to roleplay meaningfully in any one game. Look at the ancient cultures of Eurasia - there are too many to write up and use in a campaign. I'd keep things simple and focussed.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by soltakss

What, you've never been to Million Sparrow City?

Realism is relative. However realistic you want to be, there will always be a certain number of people who will say "That mountain would cause a rain shadow so you couldn't have a forest there" or whatever.

I wouldn't be too hung up on realism.

It is a matter of degree. We don't need to do a full scale geogical study an map out the tectonic plates, but on the other hand itf it get too silly it can make it difficult for anyone to take it seriously and that hurts play.

Xanth many have it's fans, but not a lot of RPG groups and playing there.

Originally Posted by soltakss

Draw a map, put interesting things there, have very simple climates for different areas and that's about all you really need.

Yup. It is just that with mutiple designers finding a map that we will all be happy with will be a bit tougher than if any one of us were doing it.

Originally Posted by soltakss

Also, I wouldn't make the land masses too big. Genertela is smaller than the continental USA and has too many cultures to roleplay meaningfully in any one game. Look at the ancient cultures of Eurasia - there are too many to write up and use in a campaign. I'd keep things simple and focussed.

I agree. I'd also suggest we take another hint from both Euproe and early RQ and only deatail part of the world. Not only does it give us that air on mystery and the unknown that we will want for adventuring, but it leaves new areas open for new authors or new ideas.

A land mass the size or Europe or an archipelago could serve us well.