Issues with ocean world and sun/moon

[Janx]

A. the sailors knew the world was round because the top of the mast was the first thing you saw on a distant ship.

B. Rainbows. Ever notice how you can never get to the end of a rainbow? Do the same thing with the sun. From your relative position, the sun always goes in an arc across the sky, rising and setting. BTW, since your world is not round, the sun would likely go east to overhead, to west, and would not appear in the south.

Janx

 

[Rel]

How about a Ringworld? It's not infinite, but it might as well be as far as human lifetimes are concerned. Your sun sits at the middle and never sets, and there is no moon, but you can still have night and day using Shadow Squares (if you don't know what I'm talking about because you've never read Larry Niven's Ringworld, do yourself a favor and read it). Or just make the Sun magical and give it a "dark side" and "light side" and have it spin once a day giving you a day/night cycle.

It also makes navigation somewhat easier because of the "Great Arch" effect (each side of the ring appears to rise infinitely into the sky where it disappears behind the Sun). It is easy to tell Spinward from Antispinward because you can still see the stars.

I've always thought such a campaign would be a fun idea though the "Waterworld" idea puts a different spin on things. Pardon the pun.

 

[Castellan]

You're wanting to use an infinite plane, so I'd maybe think about going a different route. Nix the moon entirely. You can use this as an opportunity to occasionally remind your players that they're in a very different world. No moon. Ever.

Now, on to more fun stuff: Day and night. How about incorporating a legend that the Sun is some sort of "god" who travels across the sky during the day. He/she/it could be carrying a torch, or a brightly-reflecting shield. But at night, the "god" (who could actually be a god, or a hero, or a golem, or whatever you like -- you'll need to think of something if your players ever decide to try to actually travel up there to talk to it) passes beneath the world, walking all the way back to the point where he rises again the next day. However, while he's walking beneath the world, a little bit of light escapes around the "edges" and shines up onto the night sky. Ever wonder what the stars really are? Well, they don't have/make light of their own -- they're gems -- diamonds, sapphires, rubies, jade -- and that little bit of light from the Sun is what causes them to glitter in the night sky.

Imagine the fun that could ensue if your players decided to fly up to the "top" of the sky and harvest gems. While they're thinking how it would be easy money, you could include lots of very strange/interesting encounters, and make the journey a tough one, indeed. And the players would get the experience of a really different world -- one where mythology is reality!

 

[eris404]

The thing that has come up is the sun and moon. Since the world I'm envisioning is nothing but an endless ocean with waters that stretch from one horizon to the other (with land dotted here and there, of course), I have problems of what happens when the moon and sun rise and set. Also, I have concern over the control the sun has on winds and the control the moon has on the tides. What happens to the sun and moon? I'm not sure what to do. I could just make the sun and moon magical, but to me, that seems like a cheap way out.

What I'm thinking of is this, and please tell me if it sounds cheesy: Have the ocean world be infinite, but only certain islands and parts of the sea can be reached if a traveler is sailing on certain winds that empower some sort of teleportation magic in their breeze.

How about the sun and the moon being the same object? It is in a fixed position and rotates on its axis so that one side has very bright and hot light("the sun") and the other has silvery, cool light ("the moon"). The rotation of the object causes day and night.

I like your idea about the tradewinds/teleporation magic, actually. It sounds like it would be a wonderful world and has lots of great flavor.

 

[Aeolius]

How about the sun and the moon being the same object? It is in a fixed position and rotates on its axis so that one side has very bright and hot light("the sun") and the other has silvery, cool light ("the moon"). The rotation of the object causes day and night.

I did something similar in my campaign. I made Celene, the smaller moon of Oerth, a Dyson Sphere - a hollow world whose inner rim is lined with an ocean. In the center of the hollow sphere I placed an orb just as you described. The PCs currently travel within a living Shellship, a gargantuan spelljamming oyster from the inner sea of Celene.

In my campaign, some of the tides are demigods of sorts. One, the Biocurrent, encircles the Dramidj Ocean and is only detectible by a select psionic PrC.

As for the effects of tides, HERE'S A SITE where someone applied mathematics to the two moons of Oerth.

 

[Zappo]

Suppose the world is a water planet, huge enough that it is impossible to find out it's round without the help of precise instruments that aren't available. Huge enough that the air itself prevents you from seeing the curve of the horizon, even on a very clear day. Suppose that all islands are on a very small area of this planet, with the rest being water. Then everyone on the planet will believe that it's an infinite plane, and they'll probably have all sorts of legends and theories about the sun and the moon, but they can't suspect the truth because locally the world is effectively flat. You've got a situation that's functionally equivalent to an infinite plane, but with a somewhat more plausible explanation.

 

[blargney the second]

Expeditious Retreat Press recently put out a preview of A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture. I read it a couple of weeks ago, and it sounds exactly like what you're looking for! It's all about world building, mapping, day/night cycles, seasons, winds, continental drift... it's really comprehensive!

You can download it from RPGNow for free:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2444&

-blarg

 

[blargney the second]

For an example of a finite flat world, try the Narnia chronicles. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, they travel to the western edge of the world. As they go further and further west, the cultures become increasingly strange, and the sun gets bigger and warmer every time it sets. Eventually they reach the farthest point that the NPCs can reach, so the PCs have to continue alone.

-blarg