The Aniga Project

Senkennomei · May 25, 2006, 07:44:02 PM

...am I talking to myself? Why don't we just have every individual player make a land mass first?!

Hibou · May 25, 2006, 07:46:16 PM

I've answered it a few times. It's a possibility but I don't think all the races should be on separate islands. Unless you're talking about just land masses, and not the racial whereabouts.

Once again though, majority rules.

Senkennomei · May 25, 2006, 07:58:15 PM

Yes, I'm talking about just masses. I think the races should have stemmed from "home" land masses, but then traveled to other areas through cultural diffusion. That way every player's race has a "home land", but the actual members of the race may be located throughout the world

Hibou · May 25, 2006, 07:59:30 PM

Sounds good to me, though I may have to use a generator because I don't have a scanner and am bad with computer drawing.

Xathan · May 25, 2006, 08:04:03 PM

I'll try to whip some stuff up, though my scanner is currently in storage.

Hibou · May 25, 2006, 08:23:27 PM

How does one put a picture in their post? The pic of my continent will go in this one.

EDIT: Oh, here's an idea.

Do we want to place a dot on our maps showing where the first major center will be constructed? Even though we'll probably not start from there.

Hibou · May 25, 2006, 09:01:42 PM

QuoteCan someone write me up something, like guidelines, for how to do the gods when we get there? And when do we want the wworld to be created? Just a bunch of naked people running around to start with?

I need more information, and a lot of things need to be cleared up before we start...

-Initial deities will probably be very basic and represent simple needs and elements of primitive civilization (hunting, agriculture, trade, war, health, afterlife, the sun & moon, etc.)
-Stick with general descriptions at first (what role the deity plays, what position in the divine hierarchy [if any] he/she holds, holy symbol, methods of worship and common offerings, etc.)
-What type of religion it is

That's all I can think of for gods to start with.

My guess is that the world should have 100,000-500,000 years (that will eventually be traceable, at least) of prehistory assuming we have PC races that are quite long-lived. That gives them plenty of time to go through enough generations to have an 'evolution' of sorts. Science may eventually say more, religion may say less. But that seems like a good start to me.

Seems plausible to have very undeveloped lifestyles to begin with. The stereotypical fur-wearing spear-wielding cave-dwelling hunters. Unless there's a problem with who invents what first (I don't see why there would be though), I don't think we'd have to do any rolling or anything for first to invent etc.

Did anyone else want to do humans?

Captain Obvious · May 25, 2006, 10:11:55 PM

Okay, whole buncha stuff. I think a bunch of my thoughts got misunderstood.

first off, the extinct species.
I'm not saying that the people have to know about them (at least until later), but if they evolved to get there, then something had to come first.

next, the magic system.
I am saying that we should stick to the basic system. What my point was, is that if the races all have lower average mental stats than the 10 base used in standard d&d (and it should be since they don't have as much understanding about the world around them yet), then the higher level spells will limit themselves. If the pc races have lower base mental stats, then they have to be way above average to cast mid to high level spells (as opposed to just being a bit above average).

third, the name.
I liked the Genesis Project. The problem with Aniga, is it's way too similar to Angina for me to not think of one when i think of the other.

Races.
Having lots of races would be cool, it's just the fact that the chance of several differant humanoid races acheiving a civilization level of sentience at once, is way out there. I know it's a fantasy setting and it could just be that a god made them like that, but i just don't like using the "A wizard did it excuse" to justify stuff. But that's just me and i am a atheistic science nerd.
I also have some cool ideas for races to throw in there so i could work with it either way, i'd just prefer to make up some explanation.

the map.
that's the same fractal map generator i was talking about.

QuoteYes, I'm talking about just masses. I think the races should have stemmed from "home" land masses, but then traveled to other areas through cultural diffusion. That way every player's race has a "home land", but the actual members of the race may be located throughout the world

The thing with having a homeland and being spread throughout the world, is that they have no way to get there, and at a low level of societal developement, there isn't large en mas population movements across the globe.

dieties.
Other than the watcher/creator go (if we end up using it) i think gods should be made on a culture by culture basis, and then they gradually spread out as nations are interacted with/conquered.

start time.
I'm perfectly okay with the fur-wearing spear-wielding cave-dwelling hunters starting point. not everyone would start at exactly the same civilization level, but they should mostly be close.

Senkennomei · May 26, 2006, 02:34:01 AM

Quote from: SupadupamanRaces.
Having lots of races would be cool, it's just the fact that the chance of several differant humanoid races acheiving a civilization level of sentience at once, is way out there. I know it's a fantasy setting and it could just be that a god made them like that, but i just don't like using the "A wizard did it excuse" to justify stuff. But that's just me and i am a atheistic science nerd.
I also have some cool ideas for races to throw in there so i could work with it either way, i'd just prefer to make up some explanation.

Well no one said that they would achieve the same degree of sentience all at once, but you also have to realize the effect one's races would have on another's. If two races on differing levels of sentience encountered one another, they would teach each customs, actions, languages, how to use technology, etc. It's simply cultural diffusion. We've seen it happen in our world many times. Just because two races may look different does not mean that they are handicapped to different learning capacities.

Oh, and I have no idea what Angina is.

Hibou · May 26, 2006, 06:06:38 AM

I don't know what Angina is either. I think that if we do do the separate continents thing, they should at least be fairly accessible to one another. There is a problem with having them all develop separately, as there's a more diverse technology level as someone already said. If they all develop separately they could all get into boats a few thousand years down the road and as they travel it might become a case of "greeks vs native americans vs 18th century" or something like that.

My original preference was to have some races develop in some places together but keep them separate enough to not have the project become a crowded room. I'd be more than willing to pair up with someone else who wants to have a race evolve right alongside another, but I can also do the individual thing. The map I generated and edited for my area is definitely capable of either.
It could still be very distant; I just think that it would be better for us to have a Europe & Middle East or Mediterranean & Far East relation between some races instead of a Europe & Americas one. Some people would certainly still develop on their own, outside the boundaries.

That said, I'd like my humans to develop water travel before they come up with the wheel. Just a random thought.

Túrin · May 26, 2006, 08:51:42 AM

As far as the (im)possibility of separate development is concerned, how about the real-world example? Didn't native Americans develop at roughly the same pace as other societies around the globe that they didn't have any contact with at all (that is, until someone came up with firearms)? Perhaps if this world makes it a bit harder to get from place to place, we could (scientifically) explain the existence of different humanoid races at the same time with the same level of development by stating "at one point a humanoid race came into existence, spread out across the world, then groups became isolated and developed into the various humanoid races we know now, but they all started their societal development at roughly (very roughly) the same time (as in the real world)".

As for magic, supadupaman gives a plausible suggestion for how they would figure out higher levels of it, using the "generally increasing mental stats" rationale. Note that this implies that after medieval-ish times, the mental stats will rise above the average of ten, meaning that such things as tenth or eleventh level spells become available.

My earlier point was that it would be interesting to have the extent of what magic can do itself actually increase through time, though perhaps I'm setting stakes too high here. I once read an article about the way working magic would interact with society developing through time, but I can't seem to find it anymore.

Senkennomei · May 26, 2006, 02:04:38 PM

That, too, is essentially what I was trying to say. However, I do not think it is entirely necessary to have human-specific races. Homebrews are always more fun when you have humanoid options, too.

Either way, I have begun to further produce a race, I have the basis of an island in development (All I have to do is draw it with my tablet), and I have a good idea for their own civilization and advancement.

Hibou · May 26, 2006, 02:24:11 PM

I think the prehistory should involve some sort of separation as Turin has mentioned. Perhaps the humanoids originated on a continent in the center of the world that is now dominated by nothing but one single, unwelcoming terrain type (desert, mountains, swamp, or thick untamed jungle), and because of some unknown catastrophe or conflict the primitive races divided and migrated to their own lands. If these other lands were then to be separated, it would seem more reasonable for the world to have a much longer prehistory in this case, since the land bridge (if that's how they traveled) has to be gone.

I don't think the assumption that primitive races would have lower mental stats is reasonable. Just because they haven't come up with an idea yet or haven't been exposed to a possibility doesn't mean they have a low IQ.

I think it's also important to note that we might have two parts to our timeline: one that the inhabitants of the world know of, and one that we know as how the world came to be and how things happened prior to the point where the first civilization begins.

Hibou · May 26, 2006, 08:31:59 PM

Renaming this thread to the Aniga Project, unless someone has a better idea (Genesis is too cliche).

My map of the continent I created is almost complete. Anyone have any ideas for guidelines we should follow when designing? The only one I can think of is placing a black dot where the first city or trade center will develop.

Numinous · May 26, 2006, 08:53:35 PM

Civiliztion always develops in a river valley at it's earliest point. The one thing I learned from my global teacher...

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