Quasqueton
First Post
When looking at a fantasy world map, do you know or care anything about real world geology?
Quasqueton
Quasqueton
Fantasy world maps and real world geology
- Thread starter Quasqueton
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Mark Plemmons
Explorer
Well, I care, but I suspect I'm part of a very small minority.
Though my ego is huge, so they cancel each other out.
Though my ego is huge, so they cancel each other out.
jgbrowning
Hero
I know some, and I do care.
joe b.
joe b.
Quasqueton
First Post
8 people have voted, but the main page shows only 3 views. Huh?
Quasqueton
Quasqueton
Quasqueton said:
Nope. In fantasy, real world geology has about as much meaning as you want. I mean, you can have flying castles and mountains. You can literally journey to the center of the earth without worrying about plate techtonics or being zapped by the electricity when you hit the core or crushed or vaporized or.... Well you get the picture.
Fantasy geology can be as real and as fanciful as you want in your game setting. It all depends on what you are going for.
Arkhandus
First Post
I know a few things about geology from college but I really don't care about the 'realism' of geology in a fantasy game setting.
When there are magical, titanic, reality-warping forces around, you can't really expect everything to necessarily be nice and tidy realistic in its geography and suchlike. I don't need to know how the heck a mountain range is shaped just so, or why there's a lone mountain over here, or why there's an arid desert adjacent to a humid marsh (as there is in my Rhunaria homebrew, where magic and spirits shaped the landscape).
It's friggin' magic. And gods. And spirits. And the rampages of psychotic wizards, deranged cultists, angry dragons, demonic hordes, Far Realmsian invaders mucking up reality, and that slaadi over there who just thought it would be cute to have a shiny, crystalline mountain range in the middle of the bayou that happens to be shaped like a grinning slaadi's face. Or whatever.
Geological forces do not a D&D world make. Gods and mystical, unknowable, fey forces of Nature shape the world in a D&D setting, generally. They might build some geological forces into the world when they do so, but those're still at the mercy of gods and strange Nature.
When there are magical, titanic, reality-warping forces around, you can't really expect everything to necessarily be nice and tidy realistic in its geography and suchlike. I don't need to know how the heck a mountain range is shaped just so, or why there's a lone mountain over here, or why there's an arid desert adjacent to a humid marsh (as there is in my Rhunaria homebrew, where magic and spirits shaped the landscape).
It's friggin' magic. And gods. And spirits. And the rampages of psychotic wizards, deranged cultists, angry dragons, demonic hordes, Far Realmsian invaders mucking up reality, and that slaadi over there who just thought it would be cute to have a shiny, crystalline mountain range in the middle of the bayou that happens to be shaped like a grinning slaadi's face. Or whatever.
Geological forces do not a D&D world make. Gods and mystical, unknowable, fey forces of Nature shape the world in a D&D setting, generally. They might build some geological forces into the world when they do so, but those're still at the mercy of gods and strange Nature.
Nyeshet
First Post
I studied a couple books on geology just to make certain my map was halfway realistic, so I suppose I fit into the last option. 
Seriously, I have trouble accepting maps that look completely unrealistic. So long as they might potentially be plausibly halfway realistic I do not mind over much, so most fantasy world maps I can accept (especially since most only show part of the world, making it easier to accept that any unusual formations near the edges have understandable reasons just beyond the edges of the visible map).
I tend to view fantasy as being mostly about the addition of magic rather than a whole-scale rewriting of all physical forces and laws. Gravity exists in (nearly all) magical worlds, I notice. So too does heat, light, pressure (to a lesser degree), and so forth. True, air might all be breathable, and water not notably increasing in pressure the farther you go down, but some forces do exist, and so the world maps should reflect the existence of those forces. Plate Techtonics adds realism and thus enjoyability to the setting.
This may be part of the reason I never got much into Hollow World, actually.
Seriously, I have trouble accepting maps that look completely unrealistic. So long as they might potentially be plausibly halfway realistic I do not mind over much, so most fantasy world maps I can accept (especially since most only show part of the world, making it easier to accept that any unusual formations near the edges have understandable reasons just beyond the edges of the visible map).
I tend to view fantasy as being mostly about the addition of magic rather than a whole-scale rewriting of all physical forces and laws. Gravity exists in (nearly all) magical worlds, I notice. So too does heat, light, pressure (to a lesser degree), and so forth. True, air might all be breathable, and water not notably increasing in pressure the farther you go down, but some forces do exist, and so the world maps should reflect the existence of those forces. Plate Techtonics adds realism and thus enjoyability to the setting.
This may be part of the reason I never got much into Hollow World, actually.
Odhanan
Adventurer
I have a base formation in Biology/Geology, was in Geography and History university, and don't care about real world geology in fantasy. I do care about coherence, but said coherence does not have to be analogous to real world sciences, as long as it's stated somewhere (example: Glorantha, which has a magical/mythological coherence, not a scientific one).
WhatGravitas
Explorer
Know a bit about geography, but I don't care for realism in fantasy maps, unless it's really stupid. The map can look like whatever it want to look like, as long as there is some reasoning/logic (not necessarily real-world logic). If it's just random, then I care!
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