missed one
Dang. Forgot to post yesterday. Sorry. Judging by my comment on Joe's blog, I'm feeling rather longwinded, despite being as grumpy as a bloodhound with a rectally implanted DONTBARK shock collar. I could rant about how pissy I get when people don't respond to their emails, but I won't.
Instead I'll brainstorm on the flat world, campaignwise. See, here's my problem. The PC's are on a desert continent, in a fertile river valley, in an area colonated by a vast empire. The Ichian Empire owns every piece of livable land in the known world. Trouble is, they don't know much about the known world. I want two distinct cultures outside of the influence of the IE. My original thought was that sailing one way met with a series of islands and riptides that made further progress impossible, but sailing the other way meant a voyage that was so long it was highly improbably the expedition could carry enough food. That's a long way considering how much food a high level cleric can summon. That makes for a HUGE world, and realistically, a huge world modeled after our own means mega gravity.
So, instead, I'm gonna throw the whole "modeled after our own" part out the window. Besides making the world unique (well, at least not as common as other fantasy worlds), it gives me a little slack when it comes to world building. Bottom line is, I can ignore all of Nick's questions about tectonic plates. Not really, but sounded good.
Now, I'm not talking the Great A'tuin here. Just a world that looks like its map.
Geographically, the Ichian Empire spans a whole continent in the southern half of the map, controls the fertile river valley on the northern continent, and has colonized every island within sailing distance. Outside of that, they're nothing. Waaaaaaay East of the empire is the aptly named Cliffs of Despair. Why Despair? Halfway there, sailors despair that they'll never make it. And of course, any ship that sails into any gap in the cliffs never comes back. See, the Cliffs of Despair are really portals into other planes.
West of the Ichian Empire there's the aforementioned riptides/island chain, with submerged mountains poking their little peaks out, but these dangers are exacerbated by a world spanning fog cloud. Again, ships that sail in, don't come out. Mostly, though, that's just cause on the other side of the fog, the wind changes, the tides change, compasses change, the sky changes, and while finding your through the mists is difficult enough, once you lose sight of them, finding your way back to the mists without first learning the new navigational standards is pretty damn hard in its own right.
On the other side of the mists, it's a whole new ball game. I'm definitely thinking there's an Eastern influenced culture, possibly a little more advanced technologically than the IE. Of course, since I'm going all wacky anyway, I could just say there's also a series of cliffwalls protecting an area of the world that just turns out to be Eberron, too. But then I have to answer this question. If it's Eberron, and Eberron's so packed with magic, why haven't the people of that area ventured past the cliff walls and encountered the closer Eastern nations or the distant Ichian Empire? Maybe they're protected by the Cliffs of Not Teleporting Past Us.....
Nah, dumb idea. But, since I've mistyped the last three sentences, I think it's time for me to cut this short. Good thing, cause I think the brainstorm was going nowhere, and, cept for the Cliffs of Despair, I can't see the PCs giving two shakes about any of this anyway. Well, maybe Crenius if he spends a little time studying portals and gateways. Maybe Zeke if the other side of the mists is nothing but evil. *shrug*
Instead I'll brainstorm on the flat world, campaignwise. See, here's my problem. The PC's are on a desert continent, in a fertile river valley, in an area colonated by a vast empire. The Ichian Empire owns every piece of livable land in the known world. Trouble is, they don't know much about the known world. I want two distinct cultures outside of the influence of the IE. My original thought was that sailing one way met with a series of islands and riptides that made further progress impossible, but sailing the other way meant a voyage that was so long it was highly improbably the expedition could carry enough food. That's a long way considering how much food a high level cleric can summon. That makes for a HUGE world, and realistically, a huge world modeled after our own means mega gravity.
So, instead, I'm gonna throw the whole "modeled after our own" part out the window. Besides making the world unique (well, at least not as common as other fantasy worlds), it gives me a little slack when it comes to world building. Bottom line is, I can ignore all of Nick's questions about tectonic plates. Not really, but sounded good.
Now, I'm not talking the Great A'tuin here. Just a world that looks like its map.
Geographically, the Ichian Empire spans a whole continent in the southern half of the map, controls the fertile river valley on the northern continent, and has colonized every island within sailing distance. Outside of that, they're nothing. Waaaaaaay East of the empire is the aptly named Cliffs of Despair. Why Despair? Halfway there, sailors despair that they'll never make it. And of course, any ship that sails into any gap in the cliffs never comes back. See, the Cliffs of Despair are really portals into other planes.
West of the Ichian Empire there's the aforementioned riptides/island chain, with submerged mountains poking their little peaks out, but these dangers are exacerbated by a world spanning fog cloud. Again, ships that sail in, don't come out. Mostly, though, that's just cause on the other side of the fog, the wind changes, the tides change, compasses change, the sky changes, and while finding your through the mists is difficult enough, once you lose sight of them, finding your way back to the mists without first learning the new navigational standards is pretty damn hard in its own right.
On the other side of the mists, it's a whole new ball game. I'm definitely thinking there's an Eastern influenced culture, possibly a little more advanced technologically than the IE. Of course, since I'm going all wacky anyway, I could just say there's also a series of cliffwalls protecting an area of the world that just turns out to be Eberron, too. But then I have to answer this question. If it's Eberron, and Eberron's so packed with magic, why haven't the people of that area ventured past the cliff walls and encountered the closer Eastern nations or the distant Ichian Empire? Maybe they're protected by the Cliffs of Not Teleporting Past Us.....
Nah, dumb idea. But, since I've mistyped the last three sentences, I think it's time for me to cut this short. Good thing, cause I think the brainstorm was going nowhere, and, cept for the Cliffs of Despair, I can't see the PCs giving two shakes about any of this anyway. Well, maybe Crenius if he spends a little time studying portals and gateways. Maybe Zeke if the other side of the mists is nothing but evil. *shrug*
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 5:36 AM
1 Comments:
Ah, don't worry about it. Most of what you said was spot on anyway (outside of the last paragraph, which was a little dumb for some reason, I mean, I try to make it a point to remember the names of creative Asian folk), and stuff I was more or less thinking as well. I just get tired of the creative drought this country's going through.
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