Fantasy world maps and real world geology

[helium3]

For most of the past 4000 years, people believed that the universe was composed of 4 or 5 elements. Yet they still expected water to run downhill, apples to fall from trees and swords to cut people. In many respects, our expectations of the natural world are actually closer to the 4/5 element physics described by Aristotle. For instance, we continue intuitively to expect heavy objects to fall faster than light objects.

The great thing is that most of an average person's expectations of the natural world, to this day, more closely resemble Taoist or Aristotelian physics than they do contemporary quantum mechanics. It continues to look like the sun is revolving around the earth.Then read some Aristotelian or Taoist physics; there's a reason they remained so popular for so long. No need to reinvent the wheel.

Eh. I guess. Most of my players know that objects in motion tend to stay in motion, that the earth orbits the sun, that the world is round and that air resistance is what causes some objects to fall slower than others.

Most of my RPG designs are heavily informed by natural phenomena that I'm quite well versed in. It's too much effort to put together something that works with real physics and then translate it into ancient physics. It's not what I enjoy.

I don't think I'm making my point very well here but I'm at a loss as to how I would.

I've seen way too many bad setting designs that mainly come about because of a DM's lack of knowledge about what the real world looks like. Silly stuff, like not really having a sense of how big 1,000 miles really is. *shrug*

 

[Maldin]

... (there's a lot of us - we should start a thread in OffTopic)...
Matt

Done! Geologists and geographers go --> Here!!

Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com

 

[No Name]

Please don't take this the wrong way, I mean no offense

I see this poll and it makes me wonder. Almost all of the gamers I know personally have inflated ideas about what they know and what they can do. They sometimes come off as experts in everything. However, gamers tend to be smarter than the average joe.

So back to the poll. I see twice as many "know some" as "don't know." To those that voted "know some," how did you qualify yourself for that category? Maybe my concept of "know some" is different than yours. Or maybe my local gamer sample will generalize to the larger population. Just curious.

I did vote in the "know some" category. I minored in geology in college. Geology rocks!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Spending enough time on ENWorld helps dispel the whole "gamers are smarter than the average joe" myth.

 

[rgard]

Spending enough time on ENWorld helps dispel the whole "gamers are smarter than the average joe" myth.

I guess I should go look at porn on line instead.

 

[Eosin the Red]

I see this poll and it makes me wonder. Almost all of the gamers I know personally have inflated ideas about what they know and what they can do. They sometimes come off as experts in everything. However, gamers tend to be smarter than the average joe.

This is a result of vague wording in the question. I know some and don't know much is a low threshold to cross. I know some... I have read about it at length but by no means do I consider myself an expert - more of an informed laymen, i.e. "I know some."

PS- I prefer hugging to real world geography in my fantasy maps. I am not a stickler looking for any nit to pick but I dislike obviously impossible geology/geography. I am less of a stickler in maps from novels ... ? The closer a map/region/game world comes to our own the less suspension of disbelief required by the players. The less thought needed to plan through the ramifications of the frozen jungle, etc... Balance that with art and function and you have the perfect rpg map.

 

[ZombieButch]

I think this poll clearly shows that their assumption has been wrong all along, and that they are assuming an insulting level of mass-ignorance.

No, it doesn't, or at least not as definitively as you claim. It's just as likely that people who are interested in geology saw "real world geology" in the thread title and took the poll, while folks who don't give a hoot about geology just passed on by and didn't take it.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

So back to the poll. I see twice as many "know some" as "don't know." To those that voted "know some," how did you qualify yourself for that category? Maybe my concept of "know some" is different than yours. Or maybe my local gamer sample will generalize to the larger population. Just curious.

I put myself in "Don't Know Much", as I didn't want to say I was really good with it, but I'm reasonably edumacated for a layperson who was two classes shy of a geography minor and likes geology stuff.

I'd've preferred a "Don't Know much", "Know Some", and "Know Lots" option set. In which case, I'd put myself in the middle.

Brad

 

[grodog]

Farmer's World of Tiers books

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Phil Farmer's work, grodog. Even not knowing the details, anything is certainly plausible if the DM wishes it to be so.

Denis: given your love for high-magic, gates, the Codex, and such, you should definitely pick up the first five books in Farmer's World of Tiers series: they're great inspiration! The Lavalite World is the 5th World of Tiers book, and features the main characters on a world with physical properties like a lava lamp: highly-mutable, quickly-changing, and insane for its inhabitants. Some details and bookcovers @ http://www.xs4all.nl/~rnuninga/NovCol/NClw.htm

 

[Quasqueton]

I, too, am surprised by the number of people with knowledge of geology. I figured there wouldn't be 1 in 10 with enough knowledge to matter. But the poll shows 7 in 10.

My thought with the wording of the poll is that people would realize that "know some" meant "know enough to recognize some geological aspect of the fantasy map was right or wrong".

Quasqueton