The Return of the Metal-less Science Fiction Setting. Hopefully.

[O Senhor Leetz]

Ok, I've admittedly been less inspired with Arga lately due to me just not feeling it and away from the forums due to me being busy. That being said, when my brain does have free time to wander, it's been finding it's way back to a setting brainstorm I started for a science fiction/low-fantasy setting  (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?69406).

In short, the setting is somewhat of an alternate history (or future) setting in that it creates a human world that was not build upon iron or steel. While this is obviously hugely inspired by Tekumel, it is more so in idea than in execution (in all honesty I could never really get into that setting, even though I liked the concept).

While I would really like to avoid any clear references to our own history and cultures, it's going to happen. Even so, I think this would be a fun exercise in creating plausable (key word) cultures, societies, religions, etc. (that being said, I don't want to get too serious and academic here). So, as far as this post goes, here's a few things I have in mind for this setting.

1. Distant planet or moon. Maybe two suns? Or some other neat quirk.
2. A unique topography upon said world. I think extreme climates would be fun, whatever way they ended up (ice world, desert world, etc.)
3. An extremely scarce supply of malleable metals. Next to no iron, very little copper, very little tin, and on and on. Metal items would almost take the place of magic items in the setting.
4. A high-tech colonization back story. Once again, remnants of this period would serve as magic items as well.
5. Strange fauna and flora.
6. To us, an anachronistic mix of technologies, sciences, and education. On the one hand having advanced theories of things like gravity, astronomy, medicine, or mathematics while having no understanding of things like metallurgy, advanced engineering, to an extant chemistry, or even something like the wheel (maybe no beasts of burden in the setting?)

Anyhow, that's what's on my brain. I would really love some feedback or partners in crime as right now I have just enough motivation to post a single thread. I'd really like to get this rolling again as I think it's neat and something a little different.

[LD]

>>4. A high-tech colonization back story. Once again, remnants of this period would serve as magic items as well.

Like dragon-riders of Pern?
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For some reason hypertensile string comes to mind when I read your suggestion... useful for cutting and shaping things. Native fauna-grown-string takes the place of saws, for example.

Beyond that, I guess a lot of wood.

[CoyoteCamouflage]

I think it depends on how "unique" you want to try and be. I mean, there are only so many viable options to choose from, so I'm sure that if it could work, it's in a Sci-Fi book out there somewhere.

But, if you are less concerned with trying to find something unique and instead focusing on something plausible, I might be a little bit of sense. Having read a wide variety of Sci-Fi books, I occasionally adapt some of the more interesting planetary descriptions into environments for game settings-- if only because some of them are just fun. Deathworlds, like Catachan for example, can be devious fun to work out.

In this case, I have an interesting idea-- instead of playing with extremes in regard to temperatures, play with altitude. Have most 'civilization' function at the top of massive plateaus, some massively large (such as the sizes of states or countries), but where most topography would have oceans as a boundry, in this case you can feature massively deep valleys or chasms.

Specifically, this gives you two benefits. You can get 'Island Effects' on local species, making it possible to have widely varied plateaus/islands without needing to make them terribly far apart.

Also, it may help curb any ideas of mining, on the thought that if you mess with the ground too much, you could end up dropping your home into a miles-deep chasm.

Maybe you could even go so far as to indicate that metal is never found in any workable amount anywhere but the bottoms of these chasms, making its retrieval incredibly difficult (because impossible just isn't a fun way to look at something like that). Of course, you can have all kinds of domesticated/wild/highly fatal flora/fauna.

Namely, in this kind of geographic setting, I imagine that the apex predators would most likely be large avians, or other creatures that have natural means to traverse quickly along sheer rock walls or through air-space.

A lot of it comes down to designing your ecosystem from the ground up with how you want it-- especially how much conflict you want humanity to have in surviving in it, which is especially true of the predators you bring into mind.

1. Perhaps a satellite of a gas giant? That'd be one heck of a view.

2. As mentioned, I think you might have more fun with being able to use a wide assortment of biomes as opposed to simply making a range of extreme temperatures.

3. Lacking metals, that would make rocks and other minerals key components to much construction and building (If not living underground) you would most likely expect to see. There would probably also be a lot more advancment in regards to materials like blacktop and concrete-- mixes of numerous common ingredients to create something much more durable. I would also expect to see a lot more in regards to conservation efforts, as you would be able to see your home coming closer and closer to falling if much material is wasted in general.

4. This is purely up for creator fluff, I think. There are so many ways to come about handling it. I would most likely focus on old technology focusing on transportation methods, making it easier to travel to neighboring plateaus. It is also more likely to make the finds incredibly valuable, as transportation between islands is something I imagine would be incredibly dangerous with their level of technology.

5. Always fun to do. Pick a biome, then start small and keep asking yourself "What would eat this?".

6. As mentioned, I would expect to see an exhaustive knowledge of geology, and possibly even plate tectonics. Depending on how hard you intend the world to be to survive, specialist fields may arise concerning articles we would take for granted or simply not think of.




I'm not as familiar with DRoP-- I got the impression that it was more like the old Might and Magic games. You spend the entire game with fireballs and swords, then your last level is either in outer space fighting aliens or a crashed alien ship fighting robots, and you have laser guns. I hate Sheltem. >.<

[Stargate525]

So, is this setting a world which does not make use of the metal that is available, or that has a very low amount of metals actually present? Are we talking all metals, or just the transitions (which covers the majority of what the common term is, with the exception of zinc, aluminum, and tin)?

If the world is devoid of these metals, something odd has happened in solar formation. For some reason, there would be very little of the material from a supernova in the system. Planets would be very light, as their core wouldn't be the traditional iron-nickel of most rocky planets. Which means for a standard earth gravity, the planet could be massive.

Biologically, Iron is going to be very, very valuable. Blood relies on it, and I imagine that getting enough of it would be a major concern for diet.

[O Senhor Leetz]

So, is this setting a world which does not make use of the metal that is available, or that has a very low amount of metals actually present? Are we talking all metals, or just the transitions (which covers the majority of what the common term is, with the exception of zinc, aluminum, and tin)?

If the world is devoid of these metals, something odd has happened in solar formation. For some reason, there would be very little of the material from a supernova in the system. Planets would be very light, as their core wouldn't be the traditional iron-nickel of most rocky planets. Which means for a standard earth gravity, the planet could be massive.

Biologically, Iron is going to be very, very valuable. Blood relies on it, and I imagine that getting enough of it would be a major concern for diet.

Both. There would obviously have to be iron, however, that doesn't mean it's readily attainable or useful. Geography and topography could explain it. Dense steamy jungle, flood-prone lands, large soil deposits: they could all hinder or halt iron mining. The iron could also be of a poor quality, being brittle.

This world could have an iron core and probably will. However, I'm sure there are plausible (key word, once again) reasons that the iron isn't readily available on the surface. Unique tectonic features, strange seismic activity, etc.

That being said, if the cultures in this world don't especially need iron or see an utmost importance for it, they wouldn't really be looking that hard for it. If they are used to not having it, they won't feel a need for it. No one was looking for uranium until fission/fusion (whatever) was invented. Think Mesoamerica.

[Stargate525]

This world could have an iron core and probably will. However, I'm sure there are plausible (key word, once again) reasons that the iron isn't readily available on the surface. Unique tectonic features, strange seismic activity, etc.

Fair enough. In that case, I like the idea of there being a reason that large-scale mining is frowned-upon. Perhaps the ground is too hard to really mine effectively or, like you said, the veins are laced with impurities that are nigh-on-impossible to remove.

That being said, if the cultures in this world don't especially need iron or see an utmost importance for it, they wouldn't really be looking that hard for it. If they are used to not having it, they won't feel a need for it. No one was looking for uranium until fission/fusion (whatever) was invented. Think Mesoamerica.

The only problem with that is that it strains plausibility on period-lock. There's a reason that a the majority of cultures that has access to metal went to metal; it's just better. That said, there are precedents, though not paired with advanced technology. Your Mesoamerica, for example.

[O Senhor Leetz]

Hmm, i probably shouldn't have used the term advanced technology. I meant advanced compared to your average medieval-based setting. Modern (-ish) would probably be a more accurate term - things like medicine, chemistry, physics, mathematics. Something akin to the Islamic golden age of the 8th through 13th century.

[LD]

>>I'm not as familiar with DRoP-- I got the impression that it was more like the old Might and Magic games. You spend the entire game with fireballs and swords, then your last level is either in outer space fighting aliens or a crashed alien ship fighting robots, and you have laser guns. I hate Sheltem. >.<

Pern was a book series by Anne McCaffery before it was a game. If I remember correctly, Pern is not like Might and Magic; there are no fireballs in Pern (other than the dragons' own belched flame). :o

[Elemental_Elf]

I like the idea of an icy world, you can't get to the iron since its under a mile thick glacier.

[O Senhor Leetz]

I've also always thought ice world would be fun. Like Dune, but on the other side of the spectrum.

[O Senhor Leetz]

What about having the setting placed on the pole-end of a large, desert world? Maybe a large salt-flat could cover the direct area of the pole (dealing with the work of managing time-keeping and calendars in a place with minute-long days.) and having the known world be a ring of habitable land that encircles the salt-flat pole and eventually turns into uninhabitable desert further south (or north).

It would obviously be a harsh, hot world, but not necessarily desert throughout. I'm imagining hot, dry grasslands interspersed with warm, shallow, salty seas. Very few trees. The lands closer to the endless desert would obviously be much harsher and drier than lands closer to the great salt-flats. Terrible sandstorms, and maybe salt-storms?, would keep humanity from safely expanding beyond this ring of habitability. This would make a pretty cool world map to boot.

[Stargate525]

How do you mean, minute-long days?

[O Senhor Leetz]

Haha, I didn't. I was not thinking in proper physics at the point. disregard that.