Populations that use their surroundings!

[dave_o]

So, in a lot of games, the populations of towns/villages/communes/hamlets/cults/etc. have all kinds of nifty things around them, like mines full of gold, or naturally migrating flocks of perfect, air-pack animals, and the thing is - they don't use a damn one of them. It's like they live in a vaccum.

In my game, like many others, I try to get away from this to create a truly reactive and realistic world. I've recently been working on developing some costal dudes and dudettes in my homebrew, Eldram, and today I sat down for a weekly chat with a local biology professor.

She and I were talking about how much jellyfish stings, well, SUCK. So, I asks her: "Could the end of a tentacle survive without the jellyfish? Maybe just the last inch or so?"

To which she says: "Definately. The stinging is a pure reflex action."

Muhahahahahahaha.

So my coastal dudes and dudettes tip their spears/tridents/arrows/bolts/darts/etc. with the last inch or so of jellyfish tentacles - very carefully, of course. In a word: OUCHDEARSWEETLORDTHEAGONYARRGGGHHH.

What sorts of cool things like this have cropped up in YOUR campaign world?

 

[CCamfield]

I believe that some peoples in the southern Pacific did exactly that! Cool stuff.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Except that I imagine getting wounded by a spear or arrow is a lot more alarming than any save the most deadly jellyfish sting.

Still I agree that most villages don't make enough use of their environment.

But that's true today too. I look out over a plain in which all the native stuff has been rooted out for now barren Cotton fields, all the lawns built in the local grassland are built of some stuff that looks as alien as pink in the arctic, and the local herd animals come from some place several continents over.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

There are a few things like this in Urbis.

For example, there's a mountain range called the Star Mountains from which it is pretty easy to reach other planets - while interplanetary travel would require Epic Level Spells elsewhere, here a simple teleportation spell will do.

So naturally, this mountain range boasts a sizeable colony of wizards and other people interested in interplanetary exploration and colonisation...

Speaking of other planets, one of those has gargantuan "world trees" whose tops float at cloud level thanks to massive gas bags. EventuallyI'll write up a city on the main world which has used a seed of one of these trees to create a floating city...

Then there's the Eternal Storm, a region where several gates to the elemental planes collapsed. Now the region is dotted with mining towns where prospectors search for rare elements...

And then there are the Nexus Towers in most major cities that treat people as a natural resource... but I don't know if that counts.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I read a great Ian M. Banks novel that featured a planet that had a hemisphere dominated by one giant plant. The thing was practically an atmoshperic layer. With its own weather systems and many many many human nations nestled amid its branches.

Was very cool. Can't remember the name of the book. Was about a bunch of very competent dillettante thieves trying to score a nasty WMD.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Except that I imagine getting wounded by a spear or arrow is a lot more alarming than any save the most deadly jellyfish sting.

heh, considering I've had cuts that I was able to completely ignore and finish work - until I went to put peroxide in them and started uncontrollably hopping around and cursing... I think you underestimate the effect of a serious stinging agent.

Kahuna Burger

 

[Hand of Evil]

Plant and animal dye - The dwarf/goblins mash fungus and molds to make dyes. Also use animal skins for clothing, Kobolt leather for example.