Is Your Setting Pretty Much Earth?

[Woas]

Pretty much no. My world is located on a Mobius Strip. Which is very much not spherical, spinning hunk of rock in space. And really the only reason for this was on whim. I just thought it would be interesting to live on one. It has been fun trying to figure out how 'days' work and how the sun would function.

But really past the fuctioning of the sun and what happends at the 'edge' of the strip I really don't think about it too much. Like LargeGeek-in-pseudo-latin mentioned, wether I put the world on a mobius strip or on Mickey Mouses head, what diffrence does it make when really the people involved just want to know if Klordon the dwarf will sell them that magical sword so they can kill Molgon the evil Lich of Dooooom, save the damsel in distress and get those sweet sweet ambiguous Points that one gets in RPGs!

 

[Hand of Evil]

I play in a multiverse, the world is basicly round but the planes are flat, if weird in shape, some flow around others if not pass over or under.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Planescape.

'nuff said

 

[The Shaman]

I think of my world as "mundane but with a twist."

The laws of physics are the manifestation of divine influence. The sun moves in the sky at the will of the sun-goddess, around the static 'earth' of the campaign-world. Volcanos erupt because the volcano-god vies with the earth-goddess. The two moons are guided through the night by twin-gods, and as such are able to violate the laws of motion and stay close together in the night sky rather than having different periodicities.

Climate, plants and animals have mostly earth-like distributions, but there are extraordinary and supernatural exceptions: sentient storms that travel the seas, a forested glen of perpetual spring in a frozen mountain waste, featues such as lakes or geyers or dust devils that are in fact elemental quasi-deities, spirit beings that occupy the bodies of mundane creatures - where an adventurer in a canon D&D world might encounter a peryton or a manticore, in my game-world it might be a dark spirit stag or spirit condor. (A peryton or a manticore in my game-world would either be an elder creature from a previous age or the result of some wizard's experimentation, so they tend to be unique or at least exceedingly rare.)

To the players the 'physics' of the game-world is mostly indistinguishable from the physics of the real world, and yet it's different.

 

[John Morrow]

In other words, is it an earth-sized sphere orbiting a sol-like star? Generally speaking, do the rules of physics of the real world apply to your fantasy world?

If so, why?

Yes, because it's just easier that way. In more detail:

1) Changing the fundamentals requires that players learn and remember those changes. Fundamentals include a moon and tides, a 24 hour day, a 7 day week, months that are roughly 28-31 days long, how falling things behave, etc. In my experience, unless all of the players enjoy learning exotic details of fantasy settings, many players are going to treat this as a chore rather than a pleasure.

2) I like games that focus on characters and events rather than scenery unless the scenery is special so I want the mundane parts of my setting to be background, not foreground. Put yet another way, when all of the scenery is special, none of it is.

3) The implications of changing how the real world works are not always obvious and having an unexpected implication became a major factor during play can be disasterous to versimilitude. And where they are obvious, the setting usually jumps through hoops to emulate useful elements of the real world (e.g., tides, days, varied weather) when all of those useful elements come as part of the package with a realistic planet.

How do you feel about flat worlds? Worlds where the sky is actually a demi-plane hung with crystaline lanterns. Worlds where sailing east will eventually result in falling off the world. Worlds where the sun is actually a burning ship drawn across the sky each day by magic flying condors.

What's the purpose of making the sun a burning ship being drawn across the sky each day by magic flying condors? If I want the sun to move across the sky to create day and night, I can get that with a realistic planet. If you are going to go through the trouble of creating an exotic cosmology, it should behave in exotic ways and rather than simply emulate the behavior of a planet. For example, on Larry Niven's Ringworld, one can see the arch of the ring, the horizon actually curves up into view, it's always noon because day and night are created by shades that block the sun, etc. The movement of the Sun explained as a burning chariot crossing the sky only happened because people couldn't think of a better explanation for the sun or it's behavior.

Are there worlds out there that actually reflect medieval "science" and superstition? Do you think it would be cool to game in such a setting, or would it strike you as "wrong?"

I don't consider it wrong and there is certainly a segment of role-players who enjoy such games. Personally? I think its often just tedious fluff that doesn't really add anything to the game. So what I'd say is that if you are going to go through the trouble to create an exotic world or cosmology, it should serve some interesting purpose in the game and not simply be annoying complexity just to be exotic and different.

Why do we have such a proliferation of "mundane" worlds in a magical/fantastic gaming genre?

One of S. John Ross's five elements of a commercially successful role-playing setting -- cliche. When a game includes familiar elements, they become background elements that the players are familiar with and comfortable with using. When a game includes unfamiliar and exotic elements, the players have to consider everything that they do and can take nothing for granted unless they spend a lot of time studying the setting. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of players consider that a chore. They want to do more with their character than learn the mundane details of life necessary for basic communication and survival. Yes, there are plenty of players who enjoy exotic settings and details but also plenty who don't.

 

[Aristotle]

Sure.

The sun is a portal (huh, guess I'm not the only one with that idea) to the inner planes, which are known collectively as the 'Realms of Creation'. Travel to the inner planes is impossible for living matter, though souls do go there to be rejuvinated before returning to the world in new form (all living things are reincarnated). There are no outer planes. There is a demi-plane (Hell), constructed by a divine power where chaotic/demonic souls are held so that they can not rejuvinate and cause further distress in the world. Travel there is generally one-way, and not pleasant.

The stars are the language and voice of the first god. He spoke, and they sprang into existence. Those who become knwoledgeable in the stars can learn to read them and catch glimpses of the past, present, and future.

There is no moon. There are no other heavenly bodies, save for the bits of elemental material that rains down onto the world from the sun (meteors, rain, and so on).

The world is the body of the first god, long since covered over by elemental material that has drifted out of the sun. It is roughly the size of mars, but has no oceans or seas so it has roughly the same land area as the Earth. A network of rivers and a few large lakes provide most of the water coverage of the world. The world's biomes are generally large and extreme, though not as extreme as science would dictate in world with such little water surface. The planet is hotter that the earth, but I specifically wanted to stay away from a desert planet. It is a planet dominated by grasslands/savanah, with hostile deserts, an immense rain forest/jungle dominating one region, and a great and forbidding swamp region covering another. Some sparse woodland, and several mountain ranges, round out the planet. There are few naturally occuring cold areas. Natural ice is as common as natural fire, and considered just as destructive.

Reincarnation plays a big part in the setting, as does a war with demonic powers. The demons were the children of the first god, and they eventually killed him. They ruled over mortals for a while, using them as playthings in a world wide war. A hero eventually emerged, ascended to godhood, and led a war against the demons. Most religions today worship this new god, but differences between these various faiths have caused a great deal of tension as well. And cults loyal to the demons still lurk in the shadows.

Most of the world is well into a bronze age. A few cultures are behind, and a few others are making advances in new directions.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I went and did a flat world because I wanted the challenge. Of course, I also made it infinite to get past the world-with-an-edge idea. But go up high enough and you can cross over to the next world world up, an air dominant world with no ground. Go deep enough, and you can cross over to the next world down that has no sky, an earth dominant world. Below that is the fire dominant world of myth and legend. Above the air dominant world is the void dominant world of myth and legend

 

[WayneLigon]

Why do we have such a proliferation of "mundane" worlds in a magical/fantastic gaming genre?

Two explanations leap to mind:

1. It's just easier to do it that way. The audience will accept one or two fantastical things but once you start changing the basic premise of things to that degree, you lose some people. It depends on the degree of fantastic they will accept. RuneQuest is the only gaming world with a flat world that I can think of off the top of my head.

2. Many gamers will be able to accept the fantastic as given and run with it. Unfortunately, a lot of others will immediately start drilling the GM on a thousand different questions about these differences from 'being on a planet' until they can mine some advantage out of it.

I generally do #1, though I might have some small differences like more moons or something. I'm too lazy to figure out how to depict a world orbiting a gas giant, which I think would be very cool. I don't even bother mapping more than a small chunk of continent anymore. I've always wanted to do a world like in The Ragged Astronauts, where this world orbits in tandem with another world so close they can see features on it. Eventually they figure out that the atmospheres touch, and so mount an expedition there via balloon. (There's a fantastic line in there where one of the characters says, basically, 'You know, if pi were anything other than exactly 3, we'd be screwed'.)

 

[barsoomcore]

Barsoom is pretty wacky, though I haven't defined it in very much detail, and the players have yet to figure it all out.

When they started, I guess they assumed they were on a planet, with all the usual hoohah. Amongst the flava elements I included "The Sentinels", a series of stationary stars spread equidistantly across the southern sky. Sorta looking like geosynchronous satallites in equatorial orbit, actually, which is what my players assumed they were.

As the years have gone by, however, they've realised that Barsoom is actually a CONSTRUCTED world, one that has been formed out of the "building blocks" of the campaign cosmology -- the Shadow Realm, where all is nothingness, and the Dream Worlds, where all possibilities exist simultaneously. Those "satallites" are actually some sort of control mechanism that maintains Barsoom in its state of perpetual flux between these two extremes, along with assorted (and ill-defined) other systems, all of which the party is struggling to figure out. Even as the systems begin evidently failing, and all life on Barsoom is threatened.

Since the entire campaign actually turns on the struggle for control of those systems, all this stuff isn't just flavour for the players to remember. It's critical to them achieving their goals and saving the world.

Two things:

1. You can have LOTS of deviations from the mundane standard, if you introduce those deviations through the course of the campaign, so that the players only have to digest one change at a time.

2. You can avoid obnoxious player behaviour ("But a flat world should have an extended horizon!") by refusing to define things completely. When they say dumb stuff like that, just shrug and smile and say, "Yes, it should. But it doesn't." It's magic, kids. It doesn't have to obey the rules. Kind of by definition, I think.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I had a campaign based on the thought I'd had that it's highly unlikely that an Earthlike planet would also have an Earthlike moon. Since binary systems are kind of rare.

So the moon in that campaign was actually the abandoned colony project's space station. Since it was big, round, and silvery, no one questioned it's moon-ness.

This is the same campaign where one cleric PC discovered his goddess (Brione, goddess of the dawn) was actually in control of the orbitting laser platforms. One divine intervention roll, and there was a large crater where a dungeon used to be.