How do you treat Outer Space in your fantasy setting?

[Dreaddisease]

I haven't read through this thread (ADD) so I will just comment on my world.

I use a flat world with no boundaries to the sky or the earth. Basically at the edges (where there is an edge) you intersect with another plane or you drop off into nothingness. So space is irrelevant. Stars are actually gateways to various planes (though most unfriendly) plus they could be considerably far away. The Moon is (according to myth) moved across the sky by sky giants (bigger than any other giant). The Sun is pure nature magic and rises at the beckon of the nature goddess.

So to really answer the question outspace does not exist. All aspects that keep the eartht he way is provided by magical means including gravity (which to travel to the plane where gravity originates is an interesting test to ones psychology and physiology at the same time). I like the flat world idea because I can avoid such questions as "If this planet is so freaking huge why don't we weigh 3 times as much then as on a typical earth?" or "Wouldn't teleportation effectively launch you off the planet on a mishap?" Or other various questions dealing with practicallity. Plus I can do what I always want to do and that is to have my characters have a major battle in total free fall without answering questions about air pressure build up and the explanation of 'hitting the bottom'.

 

[RFisher]

Not that it has ever come up, but...

I tend towards Aristota...(quick trip to dictionary.com)...Aristotelian.

I feel free to be a bit inconsistent about it, though. Sometimes it may seem in some ways closer to reality. Sometimes it may seem in some ways closer to cosmologies more primative than Aristotle's. PCs won't know too much what to expect if their feet get too far from the ground.

 

[Psion]

Depends:

In Trinalia, I take the same approach as Dragonstar: the world is a magical world in a fairly mundane universe. You could get there with a starship. Etc. (Spelljammer's Crystal Sphere idea was repellent to me, and flew in the face of my already existing convention, so I kicked spelljammer to the curb. I far prefer the 1e concept of "alternate material planes" to the 2e "crystal spheres are material planes" idea. Bleah!)

In Second World, it depends where you are. In the first world, it is literally real space. In Second World, it's a more fantastical "aether" filled space.

 

[d4]

my last campaign world was a flat world of indeterminate size. if you flew upwards high enough, you would notice that the sky gradually fades into the Astral Plane. so there is no outer space per se.

 

[Woas]

Although its not really come up, space is the manifestation of the astral plane on the material plane.. and the planets are manifestations of the other planes. Almost like windows. But like I said, the PCs haven't learned (nor do I see them in the future learning) about this.

 

[Laman Stahros]

Modified Spelljammer

I use a modified form of the Spelljammer setting: the phlogiston is a plane underlying the material planes, the crystal spheres are just the planar boundary between the material and the (?!?!?) plane (no, I can't think of an appropriate name for it!). Phlogiston is just a use name for now.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

To quote Full Frontal Nerdity:

"Eww! You got your icky sci-fi all over my FRPG!"

Let a FRPG be a FRPG. Don't delve into the realm of space and sci-fi. Unless of course you want to .

 

[Doc_Klueless]

To quote Full Frontal Nerdity:

"Eww! You got your icky sci-fi all over my FRPG!"

Let a FRPG be a FRPG. Don't delve into the realm of space and sci-fi. Unless of course you want to .

I was thinking about making my next campaign world with no stars with the Sun and Moon being obvious artificial constructs (lanterns or some such).

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

To quote Full Frontal Nerdity:

"Eww! You got your icky sci-fi all over my FRPG!"

Let a FRPG be a FRPG. Don't delve into the realm of space and sci-fi. Unless of course you want to .

How about a world like that of the Cthulhu Mythos, where science and magic are both wrong (or at least not getting the whole picture)?

 

[Alhazred]

I've never considered how outer space functions in my homebrew world. If the PCs were ever to ask an astrologer (no astronomers in this world), they'd pretty much receive the standard medieval explanation of glass spheres, earth at the centre, the sun, moon and stars attached to subsequent spheres, all the way out to the Heavens, all of which was set in motion and is maintained by God (which works quite well, since my homebrew is monotheistic). Whether or not this is the truth, I haven't the foggiest. Were the PCs ever to venture beyond the world, it'd probably look a lot like actual outer space, albeit with monsters!