Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 398269" data-attributes="member: 6533">Cost and ArmiesCost is very low if you aren't going to make it permanent.  Makes it very feasible as an aid to military strikes.  Makes all of this a useful field of ideas for your favorite magical villains.  After all, using the ocean as weapon scenario would give you 170 minutes of raw destructive power at very little cost, though you would have to take precautions to avoid being sucked through the portal yourself.The experience cost is pretty hefty for the permanent version, however, meaning that to make it work as a dictatorial scheme you would need a lot of time, power, or helpers.  All of which are available via gm feat.Crime is an interesting part of the equation.  Traditional hydraulic dictatorhip uses religion and tolerant laws to reduce it very effectively.  But those big open spaces that aren't on the grid would be a real temptation for adventurers.I don't know about stagnation.  I think that depends on a whole host of other factors, but the level of homogenization I can see going two ways.  If there is a high level of interdependency and some powerful controlling institutions there is a pretty high liklihood of homogenization, but I could see those institutions and that level of interdependence either breaking down or never developing very concretely and then you can have a civilization as diverse as the Greeks with very different laws, customs, and organizations in each of the grid cities.  Particularly since it doesn't make sense to move that many people through the grid.I mean there is a huge benefit to military movement, but people are probably the slowest reasource to move through such a space, hard to effectively pack that many people into a carriage or pod.  I would think that diplomats, highly skilled professionals, and the occasional military force would be free to move through, but that you wouldn't see the population mobility brought about by the US highway or train system.Except that you could, concievably, move a train through a teep circle painted on a wall.  errgghh.Still, my original point is that one possibility of this type of mobility is that instead of populations moving to meet a purpose you would see purposes moving to meet populations.  I mean mines would still have to be where metal was, but instead of all the weavers moving to where the newest weaving factory is, you could train a population to be entirely weavers and people who support weavers and the low cost and tremendous range of the grid would really cut down on the cost of moving materials to the town and products out.  Same with just about everything except for construction, education, and-generally-religion.  Guild systems could work again as the cost of materials was greatly decreased and the comparitive value of skills went up.The pollution we generate from moving things around would go down, but the relative immobility of this system would cause a lot of junk to build up in your local city.  Everyplace would be like Rome.</blockquote>

Verification