D&D General How Have Eclipses Been Used in your D&D?

[Crimson Longinus]

But? You do not lose the suns light? I am confused.

It gets a bit dimmer, as one sun blocks the another, so less light overall hits the planet. But yeah, it doesn't look at all like the moon eclipsing the sun.

 

[LordEntrails]

The world also has three moons, so what I was thinking when there were all this talk about the eclipse, that in theory it would be possible for two of the moons to eclipse both of the suns at the same time, but that would have to be an incredibly rare occurrence.

Rare, but epic!

Just imagine how big a sandworm might be (think Dune!) that would wake for such an eclipse...
(yes I know that worm was not eclipse related, but...)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Of course, I'm pretty biased because it was a game I ran rather than a game I played, but the "masquerade ball murder mystery" adventure I had happened because the masquerade ball was specifically timed to happen during a solar eclipse. The eclipse wasn't as relevant to the players as the murder, but it still set the stage for the events (and everyone pausing for a long while during the day to look at the eclipse gave the murderer ample time to hide the body and almost successfully conceal the crime.

I'd say that was one of my most successful purely homebrewed adventures.

Is that intentionally the plot of Doctor Who: The Masque of Mandragora, or just coincidence?

Although it's a lunar eclipse in Masque of Mandragora.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The thing about eclipses, especially solar eclipses, is they are very dependant on the specific arrangement of the Earth, Sun and Moon. in particular, the Earth's moon just happening to subtend a similar angular size as the Sun, despite being far closer. It's not something you would be likely to see on a world other than our Earth.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Is that intentionally the plot of Doctor Who: The Masque of Mandragora, or just coincidence?

Although it's a lunar eclipse in Masque of Mandragora.

Just coincidence, I haven't seen that one! I think I'd read about it once on the Doctor Who wiki though, so it's possible that that planted the idea.

Mostly, I thought that a masquerade ball murder mystery sounded like a great way to engage the players' interest. They even managed to bring the victim back to life, though he would be required to step down from his position as a consequence of having died. (Turned out he wanted to retire anyway, so this was no huge loss for him.)

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The thing about eclipses, especially solar eclipses, is they are very dependant on the specific arrangement of the Earth, Sun and Moon. in particular, the Earth's moon just happening to subtend a similar angular size as the Sun, despite being far closer. It's not something you would be likely to see on a world other than our Earth.

At least in my case, it helps that Al-Duniyya (the mortal world) and Al-Akirah (the elemental otherworld, where Jinnistan is located) are parallel plane versions of the same planet, so they have similar orbital mechanics and overall biosphere (just Al-Akirah's is much more magical, with all the attendant benefits and issues thereof). Not identical, however, which is why there wasn't an equivalent eclipse in the mortal world--orbital mechanics are very sensitive to small differences in initial conditions.

I've taken at least some inspiration from Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series, where the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre are pretty clearly different planets conjoined along a particular line of space, where the Wallmakers' Wall is, but both appear to have an Earth-like Moon and Sun. (Presumably this is intentional on the part of the Seven that created the Charter, since they seem to generally like making loosely similar places to live before Orannis comes along and sterilizes it all because he gets his jollies from omnicide.)

 

[LordEntrails]

The thing about eclipses, especially solar eclipses, is they are very dependant on the specific arrangement of the Earth, Sun and Moon. in particular, the Earth's moon just happening to subtend a similar angular size as the Sun, despite being far closer.

But why? Why does a fantasy realm with magic actually need orbital mechanics? (I'm not a flat earther!) But why couldn't the realm be flat? Gravity is an attribute of the god of dirt, and the sun is tossed back and forth by two other gods playing catch? Winds are caused by the passage of the celestial doves and rain is caused by the sweat of the sun tossers.

I mean sure, it's easy to create fantasy realms based upon what we know, but why limit ourselves? An eclipse could be the result of two gods fighting. Or a great wyrm blocking the sun. Or ...

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I mean sure, it's easy to create fantasy realms based upon what we know, but why limit ourselves? An eclipse could be the result of two gods fighting. Or a great wyrm blocking the sun. Or ...

Having actually researched orbital dynamics for my two sun world so that it would be "correct" I definitely wouldn't say it is easy, it is pretty damn complicated! But yeah, I agree with you that you don't need to limit yourself to such in a fantasy world, and in my setting the suns are literally gods so having them behave like a real world binary stars was completely unnecessarily. But I just found it fun if they would, because I'm weird that way.

 

[cbwjm]

I don't think I've ever thought to use an eclipse in a game which seems like a missed opportunity on my part. I'll have to think about it in the future.

 

[Incenjucar]

In your setting, did darkness give the undead any special powers? Were vampire-like (i.e. sunlight sensitivity) creatures common? Or did the demi-god just want it dark so that food and eventually all living things would die?

He was hoping to make the prime material work more like the Shadowfell, with eternal twilight rather than true darkness. That which died out could be made undead, but there would still be some light so not everything would die out. All would be plunged into a "sea of shadow".