Hostile worlds

[DMH]

Sort of a tie in with the moons threads and human dominance (which I forgot to book mark :\ ) :

Have you created worlds with hostile environments to humans? Like an archipelago that has several hurricanes every year, a land that is rocked by meteor showers or earthquakes, or even a planet that has large sections totally uninhabitable?

A few that I have come up with include a planet where all life exists in craters as there is not atmosphere outside them, a marshy world with hurricanes and toxic plant life, and a planet where all plant life burned itself to reproduce.

 

[francisca]

Have you created worlds with hostile environments to humans? Like an archipelago that has several hurricanes every year, a land that is rocked by meteor showers or earthquakes, or even a planet that has large sections totally uninhabitable?

Nope. Goblinoids, dragons, trolls, etc.. have always been hazardous enough, especially other humans.

 

[Desdichado]

Yep. A world with a climate much like Mars, just with a thicker atmosphere. Cold weather, extremely dry (although not as dry as Mars -- I actually do have some plant life to act as a base for the food chain) and massive dust storms. Civilization is based around the aquisition of water, as you can imagine, and those who have the capabilities to drill deep under the surface to reach it are able to build empires, while those who cannot are doomed to remain in a more subsistence type of economy.

 

[VoiceOfReason?]

I had a FR campaign that took the surface dwelling PC's into the underdark to prevent a cataclysmic weakening of planar barriers. They traveled for weeks in game (4-6 sessions per element) though tunnels flooded with elemental water, vast caverns with tornado-force winds, and catacombs in a nearly molten state.

The other was a post-apocalyptic world, mad max style with medieval tech level but for the 20th century rubble. The civilized peoples relied mostly on magic or deep caves to produce drinkable water (crops could be grown in the rain/river water, but fauna would be poisoned). On the surface, desert-like heat prevailed, and in the sunlight UV took its toll (farming slaves, well-paid slavetenders, the military, and the brave/stoopid were all you'd be likely to find above ground)