[note=Got an Topic Idea?]Send me a PM. Remember, we are discussing any topic relating to world design (but not system design), so fire away.[/note]
[ic=Philosophy Archive]
Week 1 - The Cost of Magic (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?70759)
Week 2 - Villains (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?71232)
Week 3 - Genre Conventions (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?71697)
Week 4 - Design Method (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?72101)
Week 5 - Characters (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?72445)
Week 6 - Theme (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?72962)
Week 7 - PCs in the World (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73123)
Week 8 - Politics (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73352)
Week 9 - Government (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73505.last)
Week 10 - Alignment (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73709.last)
Week 11 - Magic Items (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73886.last)
Week 12 - Philosophy (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?74200.last)
Week 13 - Races & Ethnicity (http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?74353.0)
Week 14 - Tone (http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?74586.0)
Week 15 - Content (http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?74876.last)
Week 16 - War & Crime (http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?75008.last)
Week 17 - Names and Language (http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?75220.last)
Week 18 - Cosmology (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?75504.last)
Week 19 - Transportation (http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?75681.last)
[/ic]
Transportation
How much time do you spend detailing transportation in your setting? Is it something that might be interesting to read about in another's setting? Necessary for GMs to run a game?
Do you allow teleportation or does it disrupt the atmosphere? Do you like airships? Lightning rails? Spaceships? Steam power?
Do people ride horses, or something more exotic?
Quote from: PhoenixHow much time do you spend detailing transportation in your setting? Is it something that might be interesting to read about in another's setting? Necessary for GMs to run a game?
Transportation usually isn't very exciting to read about, but it's necessary to write down something about it. At the very minimum one should figure out what forms of transportation are available (and to whom) in each geographic area, how fast they can take you from place to place, and what kind of restrictions apply to them. That information will be needed when characters travel from place to place - unless you want to skip and gloss over the whole process.
Quote from: PhoenixDo you allow teleportation or does it disrupt the atmosphere? Do you like airships? Lightning rails? Spaceships? Steam power?
I dislike teleportation. I think instant travel over distance (or between worlds) should be rare, if it should happen at all. Something like a Stargate would be tolerable, though I'd prefer more subtle means for fantasy settings. Not sure what lightning rails are supposed to be. Spaceships of corse are good for SF and space operas, not so for other types of settings. Steam power belongs in steampunk and historical fiction, it'd be difficult to make it fit the feel of any other environment.
Savage Age, being low tech/low fantasy, won't have any of these. They just wouldn't fit the setting's style.
Quote from: PhoenixDo people ride horses, or something more exotic?
SA won't see much in the way of exotic beasts used by people. There may be tamed mammoths and mastodons. Perhaps also some unique animals/monsters of fantastic nature kept as curiosities in princes' courts or something. Isolated places such as lost valleys, remote islands and oasis towns in the middle of deadly desert might be the exceptions where more bizzarre mounts and beasts of burden may be found.
Quote from: PheonixIs it something that might be interesting to read about in another's setting?
Do you allow teleportation or does it disrupt the atmosphere? [/quote]
Teleportation is tricky... It's always been a kind of 'easy button' for me. But (and I know it's been done before) if you have them teleport and end up somewhere bizarre...Like a mindflayers crib..then it gets really interesting.
Quote from: Sarisasomewhere bizarre...Like a mindflayers crib..
Pimp My Mind"Yo dawg, we heard you like brains, so we put in a chapter of MENSA up in heah, right nex' to da wet bar. Now get us down a coupla dem electrum-plated highball glasses, cause I'm fixin' ta pour us some brain-an'-tonics. AW YISSS"
Quote from: Luminous CrayonQuote from: Sarisasomewhere bizarre...Like a mindflayers crib..
Pimp My Mind
"Yo dawg, we heard you like brains, so we put in a chapter of MENSA up in heah, right nex' to da wet bar. Now get us down a coupla dem electrum-plated highball glasses, cause I'm fixin' ta pour us some brain-an'-tonics. AW YISSS"
:wtf:
I so rarely get to use that smiley.
Quote from: PhoenixHow much time do you spend detailing transportation in your setting?
When I first started to refine my world, I resorted to Patricia Wrede's Worldbuilding Questions, so not to slip anything from my creation. That's why I HAD to explain transportation system for some of the kingdoms.
Quote from: PhoenixIs it something that might be interesting to read about in another's setting?
Interesting? I'd go with what Ghostman said, it's usually NOT. That said, IMO there's not such thing as an "interesting" subject
per sè, but rather good settings & writers that know how to make it work.
Quote from: PhoenixNecessary for GMs to run a game?
Most probably. I'd expand the idea, but Ghostman has explained it quite clearly.
Quote from: PhoenixDo you allow teleportation or does it disrupt the atmosphere? Do you like airships? Lightning rails? Spaceships? Steam power?
Though I've allowed teleportation, it's true that it makes travelling something trivial and takes away all the excitement that a long journey should give. As for steam power, I've used it in some places, like underground gnome facilities or places like that.
Quote from: PhoenixDo people ride horses, or something more exotic?
Typically horses, but Arabian-themed/African-themed countries ride things more "exotic" (from an "european" point of view) like camels, elephants, etc.
The strangest thing I have in my setting are the Flying Fortresses; huge, flying land-masses, controlled by a crew as if they were a ship. This fortresses, however, tend to lose altitude as they get further from the island (Karhallas), so are unable to travel long distances.
LAWL @ LC.
The development of advanced transportation is actually the one element that makes it possible that Vibrant can be written, where it's galactic-scale sci-fi. Traveling vast distances quickly and often is a normal part of life for most individuals people would play in a Vibrant game. There are a few different technologies that all allow travel "faster" than the speed of light that different species and factions use, and at some point I intend to explain all of them in more detail.
I find reading about transportation in anyone's setting very interesting. It defines on what kind of scale a setting operates. If teleportation were readily and easily available for example, then it puts a lot more of the world in one's range. On the other hand, if the horse is still the fastest means of travel it changes the way you think about the setting and locales other than the one the characters are in.
Quote from: PhoenixTransportation
How much time do you spend detailing transportation in your setting? Is it something that might be interesting to read about in another's setting? Necessary for GMs to run a game?
If the mode of Transportation is not simply limited to 'rivers, roads and seas' then yes it would probably be interesting. Rivers, Roads and Seas are always important but they need very little explanation compared to more exotic means of transport (lightening rails, dirigibles, floating cities, etc.).
Quote from: PhoenixTransportationDo you allow teleportation or does it disrupt the atmosphere? Do you like airships? Lightning rails? Spaceships? Steam power?
I have to ask, what's with the Eco-Hate on Teleporation? :?:
In Aeolond there is a very large river network, which allows for large cargo to be traveled via boat. There are also many roads, the most of which are maintained by the Imperial Road Company. Since Aeolond is an island-continent, travel via sea is also easy and efficient. Along with these basic forms of transport, Aeolond possesses a large network of Teleport hubs, maintained by the Wizard's Guild. These hubs connect all of the capitals and major cities, as well as facilitate the easy transport of supplies to Arfesta and the Crusade in the north (thereby bypassing many of the Seladonan Ice Pirates that haunt the northern ocean). Further, the Imperial Hippogryph Company maintains a large network across the continent and guarantees safe passage for personal or small group transit to any where on the continent. In addition, there are three large floating cities, 2 of which traverse the continent at regular intervals (which many people use as a de facto means of free, albeit slow, transport). Finally, every major town and city in Aeolond possesses a network of Trams that facilitate intra-city movement.
Quote from: PhoenixDo people ride horses, or something more exotic?
Horses are common as are Hyppogryphs (due to the company) as are Fyrmares (Horses from the Fyrlands (a fiery viking realm) which are stronger and faster than normal horses and can also breath fire).
QuoteHow much time do you spend detailing transportation in your setting? Is it something that might be interesting to read about in another's setting? Necessary for GMs to run a game?
Do you allow teleportation or does it disrupt the atmosphere? Do you like airships? Lightning rails? Spaceships? Steam power?[/quote]Think It Through[/b]. This is very very very important. You have to think about the ramifications of people/things people able to be transported instant across possibly cast distances.
I *love* airships. I love flying beasts. I live flying islands. These are things I like.
Lightning Rails work I guess, though I prefer someones version (posted on the CBG iirc) where the train systems were run by giant golems (Gog and Magog) pulling trains on chains.
Spaceships work, but it will affect tone.
Steam is always something I've avoided a lot, not too sure why. I guess it's just not something that really appeals to me.
QuoteDo people ride horses, or something more exotic?
I tend to do more exotic mounts (they always show up) because I know almost nothing about horses. That way I get to make stuff up.
BOY DO I LOVE TRANSPORTATION!
Or at least it seems that way, since somehow it always seems to show up, whether it's chariots in bronze age settings or balloons in CJ. New ways of getting places are always fun, but they're best when they have greater cultural implications. Everything is better when you really consider what effects it has on everything else in the game world. I added balloons in early on in my development of CJ, and I'm glad I did, because when you tack those things on later it's a lot harder to make it feel like an organic part of the setting.
I don't like teleportation and never have because I've always been one of those hardcore survivalist DMs who makes players wander through the terrain and bring rations and/or hunt things and whatnot. In any case, teleportation is totally incompatible with my current setting, both in terms of practical effect (it would destroy the idea of many isolated communities in a deep, wild forest) and in magical theory (the Breath doesn't work that way). I don't deny what Llum says - that teleportation can work if you think it through - but just because it works doesn't mean I like it.
Exotic mounts is something I'm really delving into now with CJ, since the setting has no horses. Elephants are really the only "mundane" mount I'm retaining, while the rest are either fantasy-altered versions of real creatures or ones I just made up. Riding awesome mounts is one of the best parts of roleplaying fantasy in my own personal opinion.
Eschaton is basically the historical 1st c BC, so it has what transport you'd expect.
Eclipse has giant war tortoises, though.
Echoes of Dreams has some exotic mounts, such as lizards. It also has a system of teleportation gates, but only in Ancient ruins. They won't function for everyday people or for commerce (you need the key stone).
In a campaign-related question, how do you keep players interested during travel? Hunting, surviving and such all seems good on paper, but it's difficult to make it interesting for the players...
Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowIn a campaign-related question, how do you keep players interested during travel? Hunting, surviving and such all seems good on paper, but it's difficult to make it interesting for the players...
I believe this is where the "random encounter" comes in.
Actually, I don't find random encounters all that interesting, either.
Quote from: Luminous CrayonQuote from: Sarisasomewhere bizarre...Like a mindflayers crib..
Pimp My Mind
"Yo dawg, we heard you like brains, so we put in a chapter of MENSA up in heah, right nex' to da wet bar. Now get us down a coupla dem electrum-plated highball glasses, cause I'm fixin' ta pour us some brain-an'-tonics. AW YISSS"
rofl.
I have written about transportation (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?75347) in the Argyrian Empire of Savage Age. Not that I expect anyone to find it interesting. I should say that I liked the process of producing that wall of text, though. It forced me to take the time to come up with answers to questions that would be relevant in attempting describe how people go from place A to place B. There'll be no need to wing it now that I have this stuff written down :)