Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mikeg" data-source="post: 6009771" data-attributes="member: 39640">This level of climatology or planetology shouldn't be a requisite for creating fantasy worlds, and in some cases might inhibit the author's creativity. What if kingdoms are floating masses of rock? or there is some kind of hollow earth, etc? Even Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea setting with so little dry land, or Frank Herbert's Dune with next to no water might render the What If methodology a fruitless exercise.That being said, I loved that article like crazy. And it reminded me of the same exercises I went through developing my Äram campaign world years ago, with geology textbook in hand and a wall covered with drawing paper.For my own setting, I prefer setting up these rules first, and then seeing what can grow organically from there. Deserts are on the west sides of continental masses near the Horse Latitudes. The axial tilt of the planet is the same. There are defined patterns of prevailing winds, volcanic activity, etc. I even discovered where monsoon seasons would occur, and I loved it. It made the regions and cultures seem alive alive in a way that was original, but still seemed subconsciously familiar to me. And that is what attracts me to works of fantasy fiction and RPGs in general.I went a step farther and gave the planet two moons that appear the same size as the sun. One is roughly the size of our moon, and the other is farther away and 'earth'-sized. I figured out that the year would need to be 405 days long, but that influences the sense of numerology within the setting, and offers a rationale for a festival that occurs every four years to correct the calendar (which itself has figured into gameplay). Even tides have two cycles which can work with or against each other now that there is a slow double planet. The party's own ship therefore became stuck in a periodically lowering high tide, which wouldn't let them out for several weeks.So for me, this approach is way more compelling. Phenomena can be mysterious, but they don't feel arbitrary. And that keeps your head within the logic of the game, and within the mind of your character… and isn't that what the big appeal of RPGs is in the first place?</blockquote>

Verification