Climatology and world-building?

[Yora]

Yes, but fighting demons is something that seems to be common in D&D and almost nowhere else.

 

[Lanefan]

For my current campaign I went so far as to draw up a rough guide to summer and winter jet streams and other such things, just to see if what was lurking in my head could be made to reflect in a somewhat-realistic climate system. Fortunately it could, or close enough for rock and roll.

I also ran through a few thought exercises on how climate would work if the world had zero axial tilt and thus no seasons. I eventually concluded that no matter what came of it the results would be pretty boring in the long run, so my world-in-making got its tilt back.

That all said, with Druids and others* able to mess with weather on a more or less large scale now and then the whole thing gets pretty random in the end. Kinda like Earth.

* - or magic items: one showed up in my game for a while with the unpleasant side effect of always having a large (a few hundred miles across) stormy low pressure cell centered right over it - meaning in a broad sense the party's movements could be tracked by satellite!

Lanefan

 

[Desdichado]

The implications of an E6 world aren't actually that special. All it really takes is to make a fantasy world that does not include the powerful magic and the frequency of dragon and demon slaying warriors common to the D&D rules. Unless you specifcally put those things into the world, then using the E6 variant doesn't really change much.

For world-building, I actually mostly agree with you; in general, campaign settings poorly integrate higher level elements. I believe this is because the higher level elements feel distinctly out of place and uncharacteristic and uncomfortable to the fantasy that most of us know--hence my love of lower level play and my like of the E6 paradigm in general.

In terms of campaign-building, on the other hand, the implications are enormous. It dramatically changes the types of problems and activities that PCs are expected to engage with.

 

[Balesir]

Yes, but fighting demons is something that seems to be common in D&D and almost nowhere else.

Maybe it's just me, but that is precisely the value I find in D&D. The fact that D&D is the only (well known) game to do this makes it valuable for exactly that reason, as far as I'm concerned. If I want other, gritty or low-magic experiences there are plenty of alternatives available to me, but for demon slaying - not really so many.

 

[Desdichado]

Demon-slaying is actually pretty common in the source material. How many times did Conan or Elric have to deal with demons?

I don't see how that's at all unique to D&D.

 

[Balesir]

Demon-slaying is actually pretty common in the source material. How many times did Conan or Elric have to deal with demons?

I don't see how that's at all unique to D&D.

Elric (and Coram, Hawkmoon and so on) - lots. But Conan mostly had "beasts" and humanoid "things" that don't really compare to D&D's "demons". We could debate minutiae for ages, I'm sure, but I still think that you won't find many RPGs that do high "level" adventuring - venturing into the Hells and returning with the captive Angel, or whatever - at all well. Even D&D isn't that good for most of its editions - 1e and 4e are the only ones that really cope at all well, I think.

 

[Celebrim]

Yes, but fighting demons is something that seems to be common in D&D and almost nowhere else.

Protagonist vs. Demon Fights occur in:

The Lord of the Rings/The Silmarillion
Conan
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series
Elric of Melnibone
Jack Vance's Dying Earth

Depending on the setting, these fights may be more or less balanced or demons may be more or less invincible in direct combat and have to be controlled by more arcane means. Possible this divergence is due to the differences in presumed physical prowess of the protagonists.

In any event, given that list (and its far from complete), it's pretty easy to understand how D&D ended up with the trope. I'm not fond of it either, but there it is.

 

[Jhaelen]

Elric (and Coram, Hawkmoon and so on) - lots.

Please: It's Corum!

 

[Lwaxy]

I do pay attention to climate, especially things like mists and storms at the border of extreme climates (hot desert/ice desert) where magic changed an area. I found, though, that save 2 or 3 of the players, they wouldn't notice or care all that much so I keep it basic most of the time.

I have a geologist in one group though, and he won't hesitate to point it out if I mess up in that department

I have played with different tilted worlds, which was fun but too bothersome to get right most of the time.