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  1. - Top - End - #61
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    A world that is essentially a children's playspace like they have in some fast food restaurants, only without any way out and stretching on seemingly infinitely in every direction. Mysterious magical terminals dispense food, drinks, and supplies in exchange for the colored tokens that appear randomly throughout the maze. Small tribes battle each other with crude weapons (or often just fists), to secure enough tokens to support themselves.
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Valefor Rathan View Post
    Read a sci-fi book where the "world" was a giant double helix. The different regions were able to see the curves but getting to them was such a massive undertaking that the residents didn't bother. A group of humans crash-landed their space ship and then tried to fly around/between regions.
    What if it was a double helix (with nothing to connect the two spirals) moving in opposite directions along the central axis (and rotating so its like a screwing motion). The catch is that the ends of the strands connect back so that if you walked "up" the spiral (so in the same direction as the movement) you would eventually reach the same point. Corresponding points on each of the spirals would be adjacent once every 5 years. Maybe in the future a track running along each spiral with a moving bridge attaching the two?
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by the_david View Post
    What I came up with was a solar system (technically not a planet.) with the celestial bodies as the elemental planes.

    The sun would be the plane of fire, with the planes of air (Gas giant), earth (Solid planet) and water (Liquid planet)

    Easy enough right? Well, until you have to start figuring out all the orbital mechanics and the other stuff.
    Things to consider:
    All of the planets would be pretty inhospitable if they where made up purely of their elements. All the planes would need an atmosphere. Gravity is another one, I'd prefer to have gravity equal to Earth on all planes, but that would result in really wonky orbital mechanics. How big would each of the planes be if that was the case?
    The liquid planet would benefit from polar ice caps. That means it has an axial tilt, which doesn't seem right for a ball of liquid. It could be tidally locked though, leaving one side as a massive ice cap. Big enough to have some adventures on.
    The solid planet would need a body of water to sustain lifeforms on the surface. It would be more like Earth and less like Mars. It might even need a molten core if you want to do vulcanoes, and use all the other benefits the Earths molten core gives to us.
    The sun would need oxygen if you'd want to put a City of Brass there, otherwise it would be just a hot ball of plasma.

    Okay you got me. I don't know enough about solar systems to make this plausible.
    That's actually how they handled it in the old 2nd edition setting Spelljammer, which is basically "D&D in space". Well, they didn't tie the actual elemental planes to specific planets, but the main characteristic of each planet was the predominant element - earth, air, fire or water. Fire "planets" were usually suns, and "air" planets were pretty close to gas giants. Earth planets were regular, Earth-like (as in Terra) ones, and water planets were fictional liquid planets close to what you're describing. Each major campaign setting was given a solar system, which didn't necessarily conform to modern physics, since Spelljammer worked under a paradigm of "fantasy astrophysics" whose laws are quite different from the real world but close to mythical conceptions of cosmology. For example, some systems had the campaign setting's planet at the center and the sun orbiting it.

  4. - Top - End - #64
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    You know, I'm on board with that. Normally, I'm pretty instantly turned off when either "airships" or "flying islands" are mentioned, as I find both very overused and generic by this point. Step into a forum and yell "Creative Setting!" and in the first five replies, someone will say "flying islands".

    But here? This is actually pretty damn cool. What would people do for food, I wonder?
    Flying islands are a good set up for a world, though. I once slowly built an entire metropolis complete with fields for the horses and such, and then... The DM eventually had the world "destroyed". We tallied how much work I'd done, and realized there were several floating continents and also a vast, intercontinental city made of freestanding, abandoned gothic architecture. The fun wasn't the islands but the mystery though. What else was out there?


    Back on track, food basis would probably be lichens and misses and algae. Where the water struck the plinths of stone would kick up great clouds of mist, and some are large enough to either collect rainfall instead of mists or to have small rivers. Bits and pieces of scattered ecosystems would abound, but nothing static. It also gives room for culture, too; misty green stone works carved with elegant knots on a wide, rocky area land populated by pale, red haired Caucasians. A jutting spike of stone with ridges and rings blocking most of the flow, leaving only pressurized springs bursting through the ground-down sand and silt, leaving a desert populated by oases where everyone sees the vast stretches of water just beyond the mountains.

    Fish, fish provide the basis. The infinite waterfall is a cosmic falling sea, eroding salts from the earth and having a saline core. The fish, they sometimes fall onto the land or into the rivers or the seas or ponds. Someone's, deep things, frightening things, beyond comprehension. Demons, chthonic beasts from the deeps, dragons maybe. Who knows?

    You've got the individual world plinths, you have the brigades of ships struggling to stay supplied enough to survive, you have an infinite and hostile sea, and you have the unfathomable rocks beneath. This is fertile ground; the air ships, the individual shelves with no idea other shelves exist, this is a straight up parallel to scifi space adventure. Maybe you even get "space stations", entire civilizations adapted to platforms that are falling.

    Neat.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tragak View Post
    How about a Hollow Earth with several layers… each larger than the one on top of it?

    The outermost layer is a sphere whose surface corresponds to a radius of 5 miles (area 314 sq. miles), but then digging through 1 mile of earth and falling through 1 mile of atmosphere takes you to a second surface corresponding to a radius of 25 miles (area 7850 sq. miles).

    2 miles of earth + 2 miles of atmosphere beneath that: surface with radius 125 miles (area 196,000 sq. miles)

    3 miles of earth + 3 miles of atmosphere beneath that: surface with radius 625 miles (4,910,000 sq. miles)



    The "Mobius planet's" star only directly warms the outermost layer of earth, while each layer beneath is only warmed indirectly by the earth directly above. The uppermost layers are inhospitably warm, and there are a finite number of hospitable layers further down, but all layers beneath are believed to be completely frozen.

    Do to the distortions in apparent distances between non-adjacent layers, the gravity of this planet cannot be calculated as reliably as can that of any other planet, so it is not even known whether the frozen layers are finite in number, let alone what that number might be if indeed it is finite.
    Ow my brain >_<

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    they same thing they do for any setting! some of the waterfall waters flow through rivers on the shelves that they divert into farms for irrigation. they don't know what rain is though. some probably make little mobile farms that go back and forth between the sunny zones of the shelf, and the more "rainy" zones near the waterfall itself, but not actually in the waterfall.

    the sun, it eternally shines in the sky, the inhabitants don't know what a cloudy day is, they never had one, when they look down, they just see this big fluffy expanse far beneath them they call the Fog, and a big blue expanse opposite from the waterfall that they have no idea about, so they just call it The Big Blue.

    as a result their directions are: Sunwards (up), Fogwards (Down), Bluewards (Away From The Water Fall), Fallwards (Towards the Waterfall) and Left and Right.
    Heh.

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    I like that. Access to soil and especially fertilizer could be a problem, but they could practise hydroponics fertilized with dung, I guess.

    Alternatively, periodic floods à la the nile floods. Once a year, the waterfall swells and turns a muddy brown, depositing valuable silt on the fields.
    Or aquaponics!

    Quote Originally Posted by the_david View Post
    What I came up with was a solar system (technically not a planet.) with the celestial bodies as the elemental planes.

    The sun would be the plane of fire, with the planes of air (Gas giant), earth (Solid planet) and water (Liquid planet)

    Easy enough right? Well, until you have to start figuring out all the orbital mechanics and the other stuff.
    Things to consider:
    All of the planets would be pretty inhospitable if they where made up purely of their elements. All the planes would need an atmosphere. Gravity is another one, I'd prefer to have gravity equal to Earth on all planes, but that would result in really wonky orbital mechanics. How big would each of the planes be if that was the case?
    The liquid planet would benefit from polar ice caps. That means it has an axial tilt, which doesn't seem right for a ball of liquid. It could be tidally locked though, leaving one side as a massive ice cap. Big enough to have some adventures on.
    The solid planet would need a body of water to sustain lifeforms on the surface. It would be more like Earth and less like Mars. It might even need a molten core if you want to do vulcanoes, and use all the other benefits the Earths molten core gives to us.
    The sun would need oxygen if you'd want to put a City of Brass there, otherwise it would be just a hot ball of plasma.

    Okay you got me. I don't know enough about solar systems to make this plausible.
    That's how classic D&D worked. A planet is a small plane, after all. Hospitability isn't necessary from a human perspective. The elemental plane of earth had solid earth for "land", seas of granular dust, air of silt. The whole "cave system" thing came much later.

  5. - Top - End - #65
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    You know, I'm on board with that. Normally, I'm pretty instantly turned off when either "airships" or "flying islands" are mentioned, as I find both very overused and generic by this point. Step into a forum and yell "Creative Setting!" and in the first five replies, someone will say "flying islands".

    But here? This is actually pretty damn cool. What would people do for food, I wonder?
    Flying islands are a good set up for a world, though. I once slowly built an entire metropolis complete with fields for the horses and such, and then... The DM eventually had the world "destroyed". We tallied how much work I'd done, and realized there were several floating continents and also a vast, intercontinental city made of freestanding, abandoned gothic architecture. The fun wasn't the islands but the mystery though. What else was out there?


    Back on track, food basis would probably be lichens and misses and algae. Where the water struck the plinths of stone would kick up great clouds of mist, and some are large enough to either collect rainfall instead of mists or to have small rivers. Bits and pieces of scattered ecosystems would abound, but nothing static. It also gives room for culture, too; misty green stone works carved with elegant knots on a wide, rocky area land populated by pale, red haired Caucasians. A jutting spike of stone with ridges and rings blocking most of the flow, leaving only pressurized springs bursting through the ground-down sand and silt, leaving a desert populated by oases where everyone sees the vast stretches of water just beyond the mountains.

    Fish, fish provide the basis. The infinite waterfall is a cosmic falling sea, eroding salts from the earth and having a saline core. The fish, they sometimes fall onto the land or into the rivers or the seas or ponds. Someone's, deep things, frightening things, beyond comprehension. Demons, chthonic beasts from the deeps, dragons maybe. Who knows?

    You've got the individual world plinths, you have the brigades of ships struggling to stay supplied enough to survive, you have an infinite and hostile sea, and you have the unfathomable rocks beneath. This is fertile ground; the air ships, the individual shelves with no idea other shelves exist, this is a straight up parallel to scifi space adventure. Maybe you even get "space stations", entire civilizations adapted to platforms that are falling.

    Neat.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tragak View Post
    How about a Hollow Earth with several layers… each larger than the one on top of it?

    The outermost layer is a sphere whose surface corresponds to a radius of 5 miles (area 314 sq. miles), but then digging through 1 mile of earth and falling through 1 mile of atmosphere takes you to a second surface corresponding to a radius of 25 miles (area 7850 sq. miles).

    2 miles of earth + 2 miles of atmosphere beneath that: surface with radius 125 miles (area 196,000 sq. miles)

    3 miles of earth + 3 miles of atmosphere beneath that: surface with radius 625 miles (4,910,000 sq. miles)



    The "Mobius planet's" star only directly warms the outermost layer of earth, while each layer beneath is only warmed indirectly by the earth directly above. The uppermost layers are inhospitably warm, and there are a finite number of hospitable layers further down, but all layers beneath are believed to be completely frozen.

    Do to the distortions in apparent distances between non-adjacent layers, the gravity of this planet cannot be calculated as reliably as can that of any other planet, so it is not even known whether the frozen layers are finite in number, let alone what that number might be if indeed it is finite.
    Ow my brain >_<

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    they same thing they do for any setting! some of the waterfall waters flow through rivers on the shelves that they divert into farms for irrigation. they don't know what rain is though. some probably make little mobile farms that go back and forth between the sunny zones of the shelf, and the more "rainy" zones near the waterfall itself, but not actually in the waterfall.

    the sun, it eternally shines in the sky, the inhabitants don't know what a cloudy day is, they never had one, when they look down, they just see this big fluffy expanse far beneath them they call the Fog, and a big blue expanse opposite from the waterfall that they have no idea about, so they just call it The Big Blue.

    as a result their directions are: Sunwards (up), Fogwards (Down), Bluewards (Away From The Water Fall), Fallwards (Towards the Waterfall) and Left and Right.
    Heh.

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    I like that. Access to soil and especially fertilizer could be a problem, but they could practise hydroponics fertilized with dung, I guess.

    Alternatively, periodic floods à la the nile floods. Once a year, the waterfall swells and turns a muddy brown, depositing valuable silt on the fields.
    Or aquaponics!

    Quote Originally Posted by the_david View Post
    What I came up with was a solar system (technically not a planet.) with the celestial bodies as the elemental planes.

    The sun would be the plane of fire, with the planes of air (Gas giant), earth (Solid planet) and water (Liquid planet)

    Easy enough right? Well, until you have to start figuring out all the orbital mechanics and the other stuff.
    Things to consider:
    All of the planets would be pretty inhospitable if they where made up purely of their elements. All the planes would need an atmosphere. Gravity is another one, I'd prefer to have gravity equal to Earth on all planes, but that would result in really wonky orbital mechanics. How big would each of the planes be if that was the case?
    The liquid planet would benefit from polar ice caps. That means it has an axial tilt, which doesn't seem right for a ball of liquid. It could be tidally locked though, leaving one side as a massive ice cap. Big enough to have some adventures on.
    The solid planet would need a body of water to sustain lifeforms on the surface. It would be more like Earth and less like Mars. It might even need a molten core if you want to do vulcanoes, and use all the other benefits the Earths molten core gives to us.
    The sun would need oxygen if you'd want to put a City of Brass there, otherwise it would be just a hot ball of plasma.

    Okay you got me. I don't know enough about solar systems to make this plausible.
    That's how classic D&D worked. A planet is a small plane, after all. Hospitability isn't necessary from a human perspective. The elemental plane of earth had solid earth for "land", seas of granular dust, air of silt. The whole "cave system" thing came much later.

  6. - Top - End - #66
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    You know, as overused as flying islands are, I've always wanted to play a D&D game set in a Skies of Arcadia-esque world.

    Here's an idea: The only landmass in the world is found on the backs of giant elemental turtles. I'm talking GIANT, like, maybe even one turtle the size of Australia. The islands move relatively slowly, but they are constantly in motion, and there's no set pattern, though some might have general trends. So, while each island is internally static, their relative position to each other and on the globe is constantly in flux. An island could go years without experiencing a winter, if the turtle sticks to the equator, or you might get two winters in a year, or your turtle might decide to park on the north pole and you're screwed. Sailing away from home is a terrifying prospect, as you might never find it again. And then there's inter-island relations. Everything would be very temporary, as you never know how long the islands will stay close. Or maybe you start raiding them, expecting them to be unable to retaliate before the distance makes it implausible, only for the turtles to swim parallel for the next year.
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Admiral Squish View Post
    You know, as overused as flying islands are, I've always wanted to play a D&D game set in a Skies of Arcadia-esque world.

    Here's an idea: The only landmass in the world is found on the backs of giant elemental turtles. I'm talking GIANT, like, maybe even one turtle the size of Australia. The islands move relatively slowly, but they are constantly in motion, and there's no set pattern, though some might have general trends. So, while each island is internally static, their relative position to each other and on the globe is constantly in flux. An island could go years without experiencing a winter, if the turtle sticks to the equator, or you might get two winters in a year, or your turtle might decide to park on the north pole and you're screwed. Sailing away from home is a terrifying prospect, as you might never find it again. And then there's inter-island relations. Everything would be very temporary, as you never know how long the islands will stay close. Or maybe you start raiding them, expecting them to be unable to retaliate before the distance makes it implausible, only for the turtles to swim parallel for the next year.
    Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive actually has something very similar to that in the Reshi Isles.
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Admiral Squish View Post
    I keep having an idea for a sub-setting region that I really wanna write up a some point.

    I call it 'The Flame Sea'. The basic idea is some deep-underdark mining race breaches into some sort of deep underground cavern. It turns out it's an area the size of Australia, a massive cavern formed by a dome of heat-resistant rock that floats on the planet's mantle. Floating islands made of rock-bergs drift in the molten stone below, some large enough to hold massive cities of lava-sailing peoples. Mining races bore into the sides of their home in search of the minerals they eat. Tribes of barbaric races crawl on the sides and ceiling and glide on the ever-present updrafts. There are 'aquatic' races that swim in the magma itself, and a plethora of monsters, both native to this plane and refugees from the plane of fire that found a home close to their own.

    I haven't worked out the specifics, but I really think the area has some potential to develop.
    Mind if I steal that for part of a setting I'm working on?

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Reminds me of when I put a group on an island in an open ocean of magma in Ysgard, once. (They were on a really quite tall, towerlike island). They were attacked by fire giant pirates rowing obsidian canoes.
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Admiral Squish View Post
    I keep having an idea for a sub-setting region that I really wanna write up a some point.

    I call it 'The Flame Sea'.
    ...
    There are 'aquatic' races that swim in the magma itself, and a plethora of monsters, both native to this plane and refugees from the plane of fire that found a home close to their own.
    Or refugees from the paraelemental plane of lava, the Earth/Fire hybrid plane. Or, perhaps, the reason this place exists is an as yet undiscovered gateway to said paraelemental plane that allows in not only material but also the natural properties of the plane.
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Sure thing, you wanna use it, go ahead!
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    While still with planets, the Saga of the seven suns from Kevin J. Anderson comes to mind that could be adapted.

    Or some of the worlds from Warhammer 40K, specifically Fenris and some of the Maiden worlds lost to the Eye of Terror. Fenris would be great for a long term campaign with the time of Fire and time of Ice. For your vertical Land you could also use Fenris with the one stable mountain continent of Asaheim and the Fang, the tallest mountain in the Galaxy, so tall that its top pierces the Atmosphere and is a docking station for Spacecraft. Have the players be part of a out on the ocean and the time of fire nears, so they must forge a path towards Asaheim before all turns to oceans of boiling water and magma, with other tribes in the way. Sort of a RHoD scenario, but rather than the defenders you are the attackers this time round. With some effort and time you could add some elements form games such as FTL and this war of mine, making hard choices of maybe looting other tribes that are innocent or were once allies to try and make sure your own tribe survives.
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Admiral Squish View Post
    Sure thing, you wanna use it, go ahead!
    Awesome, thanks man.

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    I read a story once that had two planets that had been twisted through higher dimensions, so that each was inside of the other.
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    A setting I've been mulling over for a bit for possible future Dungeon World games is a literal dungeon world. That is, the entire world is an old-school style dungeon of twisting corridors both artificial and natural, connecting a network of larger caverns and such that form the habitable locations. It's a closed space - if you travel far enough in a straight line in any direction, including up and down, you'll eventually get back to where you started. Further, the layout of the corridors and tunnels changes when nobody's looking and distances between places appear to be fluid, though the general direction of travel from point A to point B remain unchanged. Puzzles, monsters, and traps might even appear along the way.

    Of course, a dungeon implies prisoners, and part of the setting is the mystery - are the inhabitants the prisoners, and if not... what is?

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Illogictree View Post
    A setting I've been mulling over for a bit for possible future Dungeon World games is a literal dungeon world. That is, the entire world is an old-school style dungeon of twisting corridors both artificial and natural, connecting a network of larger caverns and such that form the habitable locations. It's a closed space - if you travel far enough in a straight line in any direction, including up and down, you'll eventually get back to where you started. Further, the layout of the corridors and tunnels changes when nobody's looking and distances between places appear to be fluid, though the general direction of travel from point A to point B remain unchanged. Puzzles, monsters, and traps might even appear along the way.

    Of course, a dungeon implies prisoners, and part of the setting is the mystery - are the inhabitants the prisoners, and if not... what is?
    One idea that came to me while browsing OD&D (the very first books that started D&D back in 1976) is that dungeons are kind of like a disease, an infection of the world. That they grow of their own accord, new tunnels and rooms sprout like the branches of a fungal infection, and even monsters are spontaneously generated by it (similar to the old discredited theory that flies sponteneously sprout out of garbage left unattended). That if you do something like remove a brick from an existing dungeon and bury it in a (currently) dungeonless place, it will "sprout" a new dungeon there after a while, like a seed. So I guess this "dungeon world" thing ties well into this. Maybe the "ordinary" world's dungeons have portals into it, or you end up in Dungeon World if you explore long enough. Or maybe not, but the regular world's dungeons were created when seed material was brought back from Dungeon World by planar travelers.

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Illogictree View Post
    A setting I've been mulling over for a bit for possible future Dungeon World games is a literal dungeon world. That is, the entire world is an old-school style dungeon of twisting corridors both artificial and natural, connecting a network of larger caverns and such that form the habitable locations. It's a closed space - if you travel far enough in a straight line in any direction, including up and down, you'll eventually get back to where you started. Further, the layout of the corridors and tunnels changes when nobody's looking and distances between places appear to be fluid, though the general direction of travel from point A to point B remain unchanged. Puzzles, monsters, and traps might even appear along the way.

    Of course, a dungeon implies prisoners, and part of the setting is the mystery - are the inhabitants the prisoners, and if not... what is?
    If you look threw the World Building section of this forum long enough, you'd actually find a setting that is pretty much like that and a lot more bonkers. I don't currently remember what it was called.

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by SirKazum View Post
    One idea that came to me while browsing OD&D (the very first books that started D&D back in 1976) is that dungeons are kind of like a disease, an infection of the world. That they grow of their own accord, new tunnels and rooms sprout like the branches of a fungal infection, and even monsters are spontaneously generated by it (similar to the old discredited theory that flies sponteneously sprout out of garbage left unattended). That if you do something like remove a brick from an existing dungeon and bury it in a (currently) dungeonless place, it will "sprout" a new dungeon there after a while, like a seed. So I guess this "dungeon world" thing ties well into this. Maybe the "ordinary" world's dungeons have portals into it, or you end up in Dungeon World if you explore long enough. Or maybe not, but the regular world's dungeons were created when seed material was brought back from Dungeon World by planar travelers.
    My immediate thought was "earth elements". Maybe this is how they grow. It's late and I'm tired, but I'm certain I can take this somewhere interesting.

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by SirKazum View Post
    One idea that came to me while browsing OD&D (the very first books that started D&D back in 1976) is that dungeons are kind of like a disease, an infection of the world. That they grow of their own accord, new tunnels and rooms sprout like the branches of a fungal infection, and even monsters are spontaneously generated by it (similar to the old discredited theory that flies sponteneously sprout out of garbage left unattended). That if you do something like remove a brick from an existing dungeon and bury it in a (currently) dungeonless place, it will "sprout" a new dungeon there after a while, like a seed. So I guess this "dungeon world" thing ties well into this. Maybe the "ordinary" world's dungeons have portals into it, or you end up in Dungeon World if you explore long enough. Or maybe not, but the regular world's dungeons were created when seed material was brought back from Dungeon World by planar travelers.
    I like the idea a lot. I'd maybe tie it to ideas of corruption. Older fantasy is full of races who turned from morality/god/the gods/the light/righteousness/etc. and became twisted, ugly and evil. Dungeons might be something similar, but for places. Wherever evil happens, nature becomes more dangerous. Darker, at first, with bad weather, dangerous or rotting vegetation and hostile animals, then eventually, the landscape twists and dungeons begin to form.
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    I like the idea a lot. I'd maybe tie it to ideas of corruption. Older fantasy is full of races who turned from morality/god/the gods/the light/righteousness/etc. and became twisted, ugly and evil. Dungeons might be something similar, but for places. Wherever evil happens, nature becomes more dangerous. Darker, at first, with bad weather, dangerous or rotting vegetation and hostile animals, then eventually, the landscape twists and dungeons begin to form.
    I had that idea in the first place because OD&D treats dungeons (which it generally assumes are connected into a huge maze called "The Underworld, in the third rulebook, "The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures") as not just underground tunnels with monsters, but more than that. The Underworld is a mysterious, twisted place, whose layout can change (secret doors and even the layout of the tunnels and rooms can change if you visit it again after a while), and whose darkness cannot be penetrated by regular characters with infravision like dwarves and elves, but its monsters can see just fine in dungeon darkness as they are creatures of the dark. So I guess that has everything to do with your idea of corruption, of an unnatural place twisted by wickedness.

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Nice. That was long before my time, too bad they dropped such an interesting idea.

    One would have to rewrite the planes and cosmology quite a lot, but I like the idea of dungeons as a semi-intelligent, malevolent force that can actively be fought with light and virtue. It would play into the idea of righteous heroes, like paladins, who go out to not just slay monsters, but slay the entire concept of dungeons.
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    Nice. That was long before my time, too bad they dropped such an interesting idea.

    One would have to rewrite the planes and cosmology quite a lot, but I like the idea of dungeons as a semi-intelligent, malevolent force that can actively be fought with light and virtue. It would play into the idea of righteous heroes, like paladins, who go out to not just slay monsters, but slay the entire concept of dungeons.
    Then... casting Magic Missile at the darkness might actually do some good?

    EDIT: Actually, thinking about that idea... that makes some of the original D&D assumptions make sense. Like why there are these hero types who risk their lives delving into dungeons and the rest of the world seems to exist to support their endeavors. Why dungeons are the basic 'adventure unit'. Why dungeons themselves frequently ignore logistical concerns.

    IT EXPLAINS SO MUCH
    Last edited by Illogictree; 2015-02-23 at 07:19 PM.

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    Nice. That was long before my time, too bad they dropped such an interesting idea.

    One would have to rewrite the planes and cosmology quite a lot, but I like the idea of dungeons as a semi-intelligent, malevolent force that can actively be fought with light and virtue. It would play into the idea of righteous heroes, like paladins, who go out to not just slay monsters, but slay the entire concept of dungeons.
    D&D plus Silent Hill?

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    they same thing they do for any setting! some of the waterfall waters flow through rivers on the shelves that they divert into farms for irrigation. they don't know what rain is though. some probably make little mobile farms that go back and forth between the sunny zones of the shelf, and the more "rainy" zones near the waterfall itself, but not actually in the waterfall.

    the sun, it eternally shines in the sky, the inhabitants don't know what a cloudy day is, they never had one, when they look down, they just see this big fluffy expanse far beneath them they call the Fog, and a big blue expanse opposite from the waterfall that they have no idea about, so they just call it The Big Blue.

    as a result their directions are: Sunwards (up), Fogwards (Down), Bluewards (Away From The Water Fall), Fallwards (Towards the Waterfall) and Left and Right.
    There might be food in the waterfall too -- algae, plants, and fish-like organisms that eat them, all of whom spend their entire lives in freefall. Catching them might be as simple as extending a net into the flow. There also might be flying insects that lay their eggs in pools on the exposed shelves.

    Maybe there are kelp analogs too, plants that anchor their roots in the rock wall and grow downward in the flowing water. Over time they grow hundreds of feet and provide a micro-ecosystem for a host of tiny animals. Eventually their base erodes and they go tumbling down, getting torn apart. Some of the fragments latch on somewhere far below and form the anchor for a new plant, starting the cycle again. The dried stalks might be the most readily available source of combustible materials the people have (though maybe there are minerals they can mine that also burn).

    One question I have of this world, though, is why don't the inhabitants just burrow deep into the rock for their homes? If they have the means to dig tunnels, they could use those tunnels as living space.

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Maglubiyet View Post
    There might be food in the waterfall too -- algae, plants, and fish-like organisms that eat them, all of whom spend their entire lives in freefall. Catching them might be as simple as extending a net into the flow. There also might be flying insects that lay their eggs in pools on the exposed shelves.

    Maybe there are kelp analogs too, plants that anchor their roots in the rock wall and grow downward in the flowing water. Over time they grow hundreds of feet and provide a micro-ecosystem for a host of tiny animals. Eventually their base erodes and they go tumbling down, getting torn apart. Some of the fragments latch on somewhere far below and form the anchor for a new plant, starting the cycle again. The dried stalks might be the most readily available source of combustible materials the people have (though maybe there are minerals they can mine that also burn).

    One question I have of this world, though, is why don't the inhabitants just burrow deep into the rock for their homes? If they have the means to dig tunnels, they could use those tunnels as living space.
    you misunderstand. the shelves are as big as continents, the waterfall being infinite is bigger. to try to burrow into the rock behind the waterfall is well....you'd have to get through a very thick and powerful waterfall, where water is pounding down upon you in amounts greater than any hurricane or waterfall on our Earth, slamming you to the ground and probably drowning you as soon as you step in. even if you could get behind that waterfall, the rock under it is eroding as well, slowly but surely and you'd eventually find yourself tunneling deeper and deeper just to stay ahead of it as the years pass...

    but if your referring to tunneling the shelves themselves, why not? there could be people who tunnel underground on the shelves themselves. they not better dig TOO deep though- the shelves depth is not infinite and if they dig too much, they could find themselves digging a hole to the bottom and having some people just plain falling to their doom.
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    you misunderstand. the shelves are as big as continents, the waterfall being infinite is bigger. to try to burrow into the rock behind the waterfall is well....you'd have to get through a very thick and powerful waterfall, where water is pounding down upon you in amounts greater than any hurricane or waterfall on our Earth, slamming you to the ground and probably drowning you as soon as you step in.
    Ah. I thought there was talk of airships and mining behind the waterfall. Maybe that was a separate idea.

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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Maglubiyet View Post
    Ah. I thought there was talk of airships and mining behind the waterfall. Maybe that was a separate idea.
    oh yes, those are both me, airships still exist and as for mining behind the waterfall, you probably need some powerful enchanted suit for that, not just go in normal y'know?
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    Default Re: Interesting Geographies - Worlds that are not planets

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Raziere View Post
    oh yes, those are both me, airships still exist and as for mining behind the waterfall, you probably need some powerful enchanted suit for that, not just go in normal y'know?
    You could reach the rock behind the water with either a magical or high tech structure that can stand up to the water and deflect it around a work area. Build basically a deep arch and push it, open in front of you and with walls to the left and right, into the falling stream until the forward edge reaches the rock face. Getting a tight fit to the face would be a challenge if the face isn't uniform and smooth (and why should it be?) but not insurmountable.
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