Help with campaing fleshing!

[lrojas]

Hi all,
After getting my FH book about a week ago, i was struck by so much freedom that i finally decided to flesh a world that its been bugging my head since forever. As i am no expert game designer and have been for the most part constrained in a system where everything was distilled for me, my creative juices are, to say the least, rusty. So i will be posting in this thread how i think my world could work, any help/sugestion/correction is welcome.

I have include a rough sketch of the world, it represents the terrain available for further development as well as to mark where the playing field is in relation of the world in general.
The Space betwen the 2 yellow lines represent the ecuatorial region with a weather similar to that found in the caribbean. The white circle represents where the "Playing field" is, the known lands and where civilization exists.

The world is about as big as Jupiter and has a Halo/Ring surrounding ( kind of how saturn has it ), there is also 9 moons/asteroids circling the planet inside the halo/ring in an arrengement that causes the natives to refer to them as "The Pearl String". Obviously this makes stargazing dificult because the night sky is too bright for the other stars to shine througt and they are also blocked by the ring that is beyond the moons.

I would apreciate any help in asigning names to geographic features, regions, cities. Later on, perhaps some could help with some fiction for the world.

Thanks in advance

Luis R. Rojas.

[gauss]

I am sorry that this is not exactly what you asked for, but this is what jumped out at me: Something that might affect the way cities are built/placed and sea trade in general for your world might be tides. With 9 moons of varying size and distance from the planet they could be quite fickle or complex. Being a navigator on a ship might be a VERY highly paid position (with the dangerous tides revealing hidden reefs AND the lack of visable stars), and in cities there could be mages whose exclusive responsibility is to prevent the city from flooding and harness the power of the tides for other purposes. Another possibility is that the tides are as predictable as they are on Earth, but with a much wider range (think 100 meters as opposed to 2-4 or whatever). Floating cities perhaps, that move with the tides?

[lrojas]

hi, back again.

First, i forgot to put in the previous post. Dhar'maray is the sole surviving word from a long forgotten language. It's original meaning was "Where the heart is", is comon use in the world is when refering fondly/lovingly to one's home.

The first people i wish to discuss i have yet to name, they hail from the island ( as yet to be named also ) marked in the attached map by a lilttle circle. to give a sense of scale, that tiny island in the map is rougly 800 miles wide and around 1,300 miles tall, wich, if you turn the united states 90 degrees to the right should be pretty close.

The following is some flavor text i am doing for the race, please be kind but stern if i need something pointed out.

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Living in the chain of islands located on the southernmost part of the main continent, they enjoy a tropical weather all year round, Even tho their islan has impressive terrain extensions they are basically a coastal civilixation. prefering the jois of living by and off the sea. The interior is largely unexplored, prefering them to populate the coastal region.

they usually stand from 4' 5" to 5' 5" ( 5 foot, 5 inches ), they sport a permanent tanned hue to their skin, and usually have curly hair that varies from Purplish-Black, Bluish-Black and Jet-Black, the eyes are round and open usually blue, sometimes green. They resemble humans but for their hair color and pointy ears.

There are 2 things they love more than anything, Sailing and cooking. You can picture them as a "Laid Back" society, giving them that islander feel to them, peace loving and comerce oriented, they will still fight fiercely to protect what is theirs and their loved ones.

Their usual ocupations are : Sailor, navigator, Merchant, Weather Mage, Shipwright, Fisherman, Tinkerer, Alchemist.
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ok, some notes regarding that text. the world is magical but i would put it as a High-Low fantasy or a Low-High fantasy setting. The gods do not mess too much with the land, so the D&D cleric is no where in sight. wich brings me to the point of magic. I am not sure how to do it, but i want it to be flavorfull, for instance, the Weather Mage, is a magic user that focuses on weather control and prediction. but nothing over the top. No flying, no teleport, etc. Still, an experienced weather mage could be a fearsome figure to opose.

One other thing, these guys i just described could very well be humans, so i am not sure if making them into a race is worth it.

Waiting to hear your thougts,

Luis R. Rojas.

[lrojas]

I am sorry that this is not exactly what you asked for, but this is what jumped out at me: Something that might affect the way cities are built/placed and sea trade in general for your world might be tides. With 9 moons of varying size and distance from the planet they could be quite fickle or complex. Being a navigator on a ship might be a VERY highly paid position (with the dangerous tides revealing hidden reefs AND the lack of visable stars), and in cities there could be mages whose exclusive responsibility is to prevent the city from flooding and harness the power of the tides for other purposes. Another possibility is that the tides are as predictable as they are on Earth, but with a much wider range (think 100 meters as opposed to 2-4 or whatever). Floating cities perhaps, that move with the tides?

hi gauss,

thanks for replying, yes indeed, i have thought along the same lines as you, but you brought up a couple of neat ideas that are worth thinking about. Floating cities ( or cities build on huge Pilons ) could be workable in the setting.

[arcady]

A world the size of jupiter?

I presume magic keeps them all from being crusshed like little bugs beneath a semi's wheels...

I would suggest more diversity of land - put in more continents on such a vast globe.

Also, I strongly recommend this book before you go one step further:
A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture

You can learn more here:
http://www.exp.citymax.com/page/page/960851.htm

And, read this website:
Demographics made easy

[lrojas]

thanks, impressive resources to say the least. I am afraid i cant shell the 20 bucks that the pdf document cost right now... ( for me is more akin to 800 bucks with the exchange rate ), i am saving to get turakian age, and the grimoires.

Other than that, jave you any avice about my islander race?

[Old Man]

A world the size of jupiter?

I presume magic keeps them all from being crusshed like little bugs beneath a semi's wheels...

That's because the planet is hollow so it only has enough mass to produce earth normal gravity

[lrojas]

so, what do you guys think? how best to make the Package Deal for that race.. or just make it a Cultural Package Deal?

[Trencher]

Whenever I make a race I always go for the less is more aproach, since your race here is not descriped as beeing any stronger/weaker/smarter/dumber than ordenary people then I figure you do not need any racial package deals.

[CourtFool]

A world the size of jupiter?

I presume magic keeps them all from being crusshed like little bugs beneath a semi's wheels...

Beat me to it! I am wondering why he wants the world so large.

[lrojas]

*sigh* well i could say is to compensate for my wants at being born in an island... when you can go from one extreme of the island to the other i less than a day...

but overall, i wanted it to be big so there was no way to have the whole world explored. this way i can introduce something later on and i could just say that it was always there, ppl just didnt saw it before...

[CourtFool]

but overall, i wanted it to be big so there was no way to have the whole world explored. this way i can introduce something later on and i could just say that it was always there, ppl just didnt saw it before...

That could still be easily accomplished with an earth-sized world. Just do not allow mega-scaled movement powers.

[Markdoc]

But why does the world have to be earth sized?

Why not make it very large and hollow? There's no practical disadvantage that I can see, and it allows plenty of space to sprawl.

Also there's the questions: why is it hollow - and who lives inside, which could lead to interesting questions.

Silverberg's Majipoor is a huge world and that doesn't seem to have harmed the stories any....

cheers, Mark

[Trencher]

Go for a big world if you want to in a setting where giants walk the earth and gargantuan ants prowl the wastelands gravity is a relative factor anyway.

[lrojas]

thanks guys.. i was planning to have a secret in my world and with markdoc idea of a hollow world it makes more sense....

the name Dhar'maray, steeming from the ancient phrase Dharma Maray wich means "Where the heart is", well i planned to have this thing in the world that was refered by the name, now i think i will just make it a Huge Magic Jewl that floats in the center of this hollow world, the whole planet is a cover for it. Hidding it.... but from whom?