The Campaign Builder's Guild

Just a question/thought thing:

 Why do these city-states battle each other?

 Then I thought, overcrowding, resources dwindling.
 
 Obviously this is a world that has few natural resources.

 I have just skimmed most of this thread, but it is very interesting.

 And I still think there should be no wheels.

 Keep it up.

Quote from: SurvivormanI just had an idea. Since you are going with an alien planet theme, and since the planet has gone some sort of terraforming after the humans crashed/landed, perhaps there could be some sort of conflict between the natural plants and animals versus alien plants and animals. Does this make any sense?

  Picture a valley full of strange, giant lilly-pad like plants, and blue moss carpeting the forest floor, with a small stream running through. A few hundred yards away, another forest, tall pines and ferns, compete with the alien forest in a slow battle for nutrition and sunlight. This is just an idea. I could expand if you would like.

that sounds neat, and I actually never thought of that. but instead of competition, what about coexistence, given that literally 10s of thousands of years have passed since humans made planetfall I would imagine that the environment would have found some kind of equilibrium.  Actually, your post reminded me of the old 4x game "Alpha Centauri", where humans had to deal with each other in addition to alien ecology.

Actually, what if humans never got the chance to terraform this world? Instead, they were forced to adapt to using these alien lifeforms as food and materials, but instead of trees and grasses being the dominant forms, what if the world was covered in fungal or algae life? take a more "scientific" route in developing these new forms of life, not just using purple trees. maybe there were not large organism, only smaller ones developed.

Or maybe terrestrial life was dominated by a single fungal organism (like Alpha Centauri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri#Native_Life) but sea life developed somewhat faster, making humans dependent on the seas for food? The more I think about it, the cooler it would be to have none or little Earth-based life forms.

Quote from: SarisaJust a question/thought thing:

 Why do these city-states battle each other?

 Then I thought, overcrowding, resources dwindling.
 
 Obviously this is a world that has few natural resources.

 I have just skimmed most of this thread, but it is very interesting.

 And I still think there should be no wheels.

 Keep it up.

Well, first just for the conflict element to give excitement to the world. But resources would be a great reason, as would religion, ideology, politics, or even wars that were meant to obtain human sacrifices, depending how much different this world would be.

Hmm, for us late to the game, could you post a list of what you've arrived at as of yet and what still needs doing?

Quote from: Leetz

Quote from: SurvivormanI just had an idea. Since you are going with an alien planet theme, and since the planet has gone some sort of terraforming after the humans crashed/landed, perhaps there could be some sort of conflict between the natural plants and animals versus alien plants and animals. Does this make any sense?

  Picture a valley full of strange, giant lilly-pad like plants, and blue moss carpeting the forest floor, with a small stream running through. A few hundred yards away, another forest, tall pines and ferns, compete with the alien forest in a slow battle for nutrition and sunlight. This is just an idea. I could expand if you would like.

that sounds neat, and I actually never thought of that. but instead of competition, what about coexistence, given that literally 10s of thousands of years have passed since humans made planetfall I would imagine that the environment would have found some kind of equilibrium.  Actually, your post reminded me of the old 4x game "Alpha Centauri", where humans had to deal with each other in addition to alien ecology.

Actually, what if humans never got the chance to terraform this world? Instead, they were forced to adapt to using these alien lifeforms as food and materials, but instead of trees and grasses being the dominant forms, what if the world was covered in fungal or algae life? take a more "scientific" route in developing these new forms of life, not just using purple trees. maybe there were not large organism, only smaller ones developed.

Or maybe terrestrial life was dominated by a single fungal organism (like Alpha Centauri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri#Native_Life) but sea life developed somewhat faster, making humans dependent on the seas for food? The more I think about it, the cooler it would be to have none or little Earth-based life forms.

 Co-existence sounds cool. The problem with there being no trees or plants is that you are using wood in alot of your weapons and armor. Where does that come from if there are no trees? Maybe some type of fungus that hardens when it dies? Still, I like the idea that humans made a huge impact on this worlds evolution. But I think the idea of earth life and alien life co-existing sounds awesome, and i'm supporting that fully. Like a herd of deer being stalked by some alien predator. Its not that far fetched. Afterall, many creatures introduced to enviroments that they didn't already live in flourish. Examples include pigeons, rats, and pigs, and even humans adapting to america (either way we got there, whether it be the land bridge theory or primitive rafts or one of the other theories). And coniferous forests and decidious forests co-exist well.

  So I can picture forests of pine trees and (insert alien plantlike life form) and deer and (insert alien predator) living together in one enviroment. I would be glad to help you brainstorm ideas for alien life forms (not really alien, as the deer and trees are actually alien to this planet, but both have been living together for so long their both considered natural).

Hmm, the lack of lumber would be a large hurdle - good point.

Jungles with giant, horse-size insect-like creatures, large lizards, or house size-mushrooms. Vast grasslands with huge, lumbering herbivores 10x the size of an elephant or some kind of chitinous lion-like creature.

The oceans and seas would really allow huge amounts of creative space, as even on Earth, half the creatures in the sea are pretty alien - like all those abyssal fish. Just picturing a harbor in this world filled with all these alien looking fish is pretty exciting.

Another huge plus with having alien lifeforms is having a reason for the existence of certain materials that may be hard to make without metal - like having some kind of quills replace surgical IVs. Also, having alien vegetation allows us to "make up" special drugs and chemicals (like the Spice in the Dune series) that have special effects on humans and would replace magic to a certain extent. Having special spices and herbs that would do things like speed up metabolism, neural synapses, mental calculating abilities, etc. would, like mentioned, take the place of effects usually reserved for "magic", all while keeping this theme of plausible science fiction.

@ CC

this is basically a brainstorm for a science fiction setting with "low" technology, primarily because of a lack of heavy metals and fossil fuels on this speculative world. influences would be works like Dune for the sci-fi feel, but heavily based on history - kinda like a "how would humans develop without heavy metals?" scenario.

How about a big mushroom that gets up and hunts you?  Tracks using vibration and the like.  It hunts you so that it can break your spine and set itself over you, making you rot and turn into food.

Or a cactus like plant that fires spines at you, so that after a while your DNA mutates and you become another spike shooting cactus like thing?

Huge crystalline spires that refine gasses into oxygen and more crystal?

Crab-like creatures that consume various things to give itself a shell made of literal iron or some other mineral?

M.

I have always thought that crustaceans are used far too little. Land lobsters perhaps? or mounts/livestock even ^^
Perhaps some kind of giant acidic slug.

Or some kind of airborne barnacle critter that will get all over your stuff and mess it up.

M.

I like the crustacean idea. Instead of fish, like you mentioned, crustaceans could be the main creatures in the ocean. Picture buoyant crab-like creatures floating around the ocean with wing like flaps. Its not to far fetched to have an ocean full of crustaceans, since you mentioned you would have shallow warm seas. Think like early earth, with giant sea scorpions crawling across the ocean floor.

  Land crustaceans would be cool to. Giant lobster like creatures being ridden for mounts sounds intruiging, and would make alot of sense in the world like your describing with marshes and jungles that would be nearly impossible for horses to traverse.

I know this threads been stagnant for a while, but hopefully this will get it going again. Anyhow, the other day I thought of a great origin story for the world and the reasons why it is the way it is (low tech, high culture, "magic" technology)

So here it is. The planet that this setting would take place on would be located in our solar system. This world would have been Earth II - a constructed planet built from matter drawn from Mars, Venus, and the Asteroid Belt as a new planet for mankind after Earth I becomes an irreparable and infertile wasteland. But before this Earth II could be finished, a catastrophe befell Earth I, shattering it into an cluster of dust and asteroids.

Whatever interplanetary structure collapsed after the fall of Earth I, as it would have contained computer cores, information network hubs - basically everything was dependent on it.

But Earth II still orbits the sun with a stable atmosphere, terraformed and arable land, and the remnants of human workers and settlers. But as mentioned, Earth II was never finished, framework would be exposed at certain point, so there would be a literal "Edge of the World." From space, Earth II would look something like the Death Star II from Return of the Jedi. Large electromagnetic generators deep in the core would duplicate Earth's electromagnetic fields and keep the atmosphere intact around a not-quite spherical world.

Now, I know this is isn't a bullet proof story, but does make a lot of other things more plausible. Namely of how humans are on this planet and why Earth-based life would also be on this planet. Engineered organisms allow room for imagination. This also would explain old technology and how it got there - left over excavation machines, armories, AI-automatons, crashed ships, etc. This would also explain why there would be few if any heavy metals and fossil fuels, as this world was designed for agriculture and sustaining populations, humans just figured they would import metals and fuels from other places.

On another note, the description and explanation of the solar system is done for me. As are star maps for the most part.

How does this all sound?

[EDIT] and yes SM, crustaceans would be sweet - I immediately thought of the silt striders from Morrowind.

Quote from: LeetzBut Earth II still orbits the sun with a stable atmosphere, terraformed and arable land, and the remnants of human workers and settlers. But as mentioned, Earth II was never finished, framework would be exposed at certain point, so there would be a literal "Edge of the World." From space, Earth II would look something like the Death Star II from Return of the Jedi. Large electromagnetic generators deep in the core would duplicate Earth's electromagnetic fields and keep the atmosphere intact around a not-quite spherical world.

My only main issue is that anything with a significant mass will be pulled into a sphere shape (so no gaping deathstar unfinished sections) by the force of gravity. Now to couter-act this, maybe the world is hollow? Otherwise your going to get a sphere shape wether you like it or not (if you have gravity)

@ Llum - Oh I wholeheartedly agree. Maybe the same EM fields that keep the atmosphere intact counteract some if not all of the gravity, so even if it was being pulled into a sphere, it would be at an very very slow pace. I'm no physicist either, but I would think that it would take a long time for something to be shaped into a circle wouldn't it?

I also think the next big step would be to put limits on what would be possible with "magic" (read - ancient technology) and what wouldn't be possible. I'd like to keep closer to vaguely plausible than to vaguely impossible.

Quote from: Leetz@ Llum - Oh I wholeheartedly agree. Maybe the same EM fields that keep the atmosphere intact counteract some if not all of the gravity, so even if it was being pulled into a sphere, it would be at an very very slow pace. I'm no physicist either, but I would think that it would take a long time for something to be shaped into a circle wouldn't it?

I don't see how EM fields could counteract gravity. And even if they did, would that mean there would be no gravity on the surface of the world? The most logical way is a hollow world (that I can think of at least) if your dead set on having some kind of half-finished sphere shape.

That being said, everything would accelerated to the center of the mass of gravity at a rate depending on the amount of mass, so it wouldn't be all that slow.

Also, how do EM fields keep the atmosphere intact? Normally gravity keeps an atmosphere, hence why Mars doesn't have one, it doesn't have enough mass.