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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jeffh" data-source="post: 6173777" data-attributes="member: 2642"> Default Setting (and a general update)    I've been very busy this past week educating myself on the business side of starting a company. For example, I've secured the name "Philosoraptor Game Studio" as well as learning a LOT about marketing, taxes, and other business necessities and approaching someone who may do some of the graphic design.    This is not to say I've been idle on the creative side. I've done two main things this week - write up most of the nodes for the Dan (Shaolin-type martial artist) class, and brainstorm a bit about the setting.    I think I am going to go with the name Fantasy Infinity. I'm only about 90% happy with that but trade dress and a logo will be needed in time to launch a Kickstarter in November, so there's only so long I can wait. Thinking about a logo for that name got me thinking about the infinity sign and other things that it might resemble - specifically the Mobius strip.    What would a world shaped like one of those be like?    First of all, the art possibilities are pretty awesome, what with being able to look up into the sky and see bits of planet above you. I've got a bit of a concept for the box cover based on that.    It also means different bits of the planet relate to each other physically in unusual ways. You can, with some difficulty, get to the other side of the strip from the edges - in most places, it involves rappelling downward for miles (and dealing with gravity flipping on you halfway down), but it's possible. If there are airships - and this was inspired by the Final Fantasy series so of course there are airships - they can not only follow the land, but in some places, can go up as well to reach entirely different areas of the strip. This is how most commerce happens between the biggest city and the independent city-states near where the "driftwood" needed for the airships grows.    The "driftwood" trees float lazily in the air by their own power. Mostly they stay tethered to the ground by their roots, but every so often one floats away and wanders through the sky until, deprived of the nutrients it needs, it loses its power and you get this tree falling from the sky into some farmer's field. This property is exploited to make airships, though those have the same problem with running out of juice and dropping to earth. Usually they have the decency to do it gradually rather than just crashing. Usually. But this does mean you have to keep replacing bits of them just to maintain a fleet of a constant size, let alone expand. Thus, massive industrial scale cutting of the driftwood forest, widespread desertification, and a perceived need on the part of those independent city-states to expand their reach and ability to extract resources. If a leader strong enough to stop them squabbling amongst themselves appeared, these guys could be trouble.    It's not like the main city above their heads is going to stop them. Ostensibly led by a hereditary emperor who fancies himself a benevolent dictator but is neither, real power lies in the hands of whoever has the money or muscle to exercise it and anarchy is just barely kept in check by an unspoken mutual desire to maintain a veneer of civilization. It's a good place for adventurers to find adventures and and an equally good place for them to be running the hell away from. It's openly corrupt and decadent and just waiting for a horde of near-barbarians and a fleet of airships to show up and conquer it just as soon as the GM decides that would make a good background for whatever adventures he or she would be running anyway.    Terrain on opposite sides of the strip tends to be opposites (if there's a mountain chain in one place, there might be a big crater on the reverse side), though not always - some features, like the main ocean, extend over the edge of the planet and onto the other side. A more or less stable blob of water has formed just off the edge of the Mobius strip in that particular spot, which it's possible to sail a ship over. This has resulted in an uneasy friendship between cultures roughly analogous to Japan and Norway from opposite sides of the strip.    That's just the stuff I'm reasonably sure I'll keep from a couple of days of brainstorming, and will no doubt develop a lot more over time. I do need to be a bit careful here, though. One thing I don't want is too much of a metaplot - I've hated those ever since TSR released the Dark Sun setting only to pretty much wreck the entire works inside of a year - but it's evident that the situation I've just described isn't stable. I hope to have other GMs write their own stories about it, though, not to do one myself and then impose it on them.</blockquote>

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