Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

[Supreme]

One of the things I always liked about Star Wars was the planets with mono-climates. That always added a great bit of flavor to the movies. So these are the ones I remember:

 

Desert: Tatooine

Swamp: Dagobah

Urban: Coruscant

Forest: the Ewok Moon of Endor, Yavin

Arctic: Hoth

Air/Cloud: the Cloud City of Bespin (? - Lando's place, it's been a long time)

Oceanic: Naboo

 

So what's missing? I can think of a few. What about you guys?

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

One of the things I always liked about Star Wars was the planets with mono-climates. That always added a great bit of flavor to the movies. So these are the ones I remember:

 

Oceanic: Naboo

 

So what's missing? I can think of a few. What about you guys?

But not all of Naboo is ocean, so does it qualify?

 

What about the planet where the clone army was created...the one missing from the star maps? Isn't it a candidate for "storms" mono-climate?

[Supreme]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

But not all of Naboo is ocean, so does it qualify?

 

What about the planet where the clone army was created...the one missing from the star maps? Isn't it a candidate for "storms" mono-climate?

That's a good one. I was thinking that the Cloud City of Bespin wasn't "sky" enough. I'm thinking of whole communities made up of sail-driven air-ships and what-not.

 

And I'm thinking no-one has done an all-volcanic planet, though a planet with virtually all CO2 in its atmosphere would be poisonous, so everyone would have to bring their O2 tanks.

[Ternaugh]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

That's a good one. I was thinking that the Cloud City of Bespin wasn't "sky" enough. I'm thinking of whole communities made up of sail-driven air-ships and what-not.

 

And I'm thinking no-one has done an all-volcanic planet, though a planet with virtually all CO2 in its atmosphere would be poisonous, so everyone would have to bring their O2 tanks.

 

Not in Star Wars. All you really need is one of those little oxygen mask dealies with a little box (like what Han, Leia and Chewie wear inside the "worm" in Empire). And anyway, what does a Mynokk breathe?

 

JoeG

[BlackSword]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

The Ocean mono-climate is Calamari (or something to that effect) where Quarrans and Calamarians (like Admiral Ackbar) are from.

 

Kasshyyk is another forest mono-climate.

[Supreme]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

The Ocean mono-climate is Calamari (or something to that effect) where Quarrans and Calamarians (like Admiral Ackbar) are from.

 

Kasshyyk is another forest mono-climate.

Right. But they've not had a rain-forest mono-climate, which is very different. I'm thinking a rain-forest monoclimate would be difficult to live on because so little of the bio-material would actually be edible. Plus there'd be all the little poisonous critters, and the occassional tree-clearing mastadon types who would trample you if you didn't see them coming.

[paigeoliver]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

I always though mono-climates seemed to be the rule in SF and not the exception.

[John T]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

Had a volcanic world in my SW game. Picture a blackened, jagged, ash covered landscape with occasional lakes of molten rock, kilometer-deep fissures that glow orange-red in the depths, more-or-less continuous tremors of varying magnitude, and the occasional ash flow to obliterate everything within 50km, just to keep complacent players on their toes.

 

The planet was heavily mined, or more accurately surface-vacuumed, for the abundant minerals. Lotsa hazard pay for jobs like that.

 

The planet had one "city", a high-altitude anti-grav affair similar to Cloud City, but dirtier.

 

John T

[Supreme]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

Had a volcanic world in my SW game. Picture a blackened, jagged, ash covered landscape with occasional lakes of molten rock, kilometer-deep fissures that glow orange-red in the depths, more-or-less continuous tremors of varying magnitude, and the occasional ash flow to obliterate everything within 50km, just to keep complacent players on their toes.

 

The planet was heavily mined, or more accurately surface-vacuumed, for the abundant minerals. Lotsa hazard pay for jobs like that.

 

The planet had one "city", a high-altitude anti-grav affair similar to Cloud City, but dirtier.

 

John T

I bet it smelled lovely too, what with all that sulphur and CO2.

[John T]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

I bet it smelled lovely too' date=' what with all that sulphur and CO2.[/quote']The native fauna (such as it was) was very entertaining, too, but I leave that to other GMs imaginations for their own games.

 

John T

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

To quote Doug Berry at one point on the Traveller Mailing List when asked about the Denebian Tree Oxen

 

"I'm not so much worried about oxen living in trees, as whatever drove them there in the first place"

[Supreme]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

To quote Doug Berry at one point on the Traveller Mailing List when asked about the Denebian Tree Oxen

 

"I'm not so much worried about oxen living in trees, as whatever drove them there in the first place"

Just like the bit in FoTR when the goblins first have the Fellowship surrounded then run off. Gandalf has to ask, "What made them run?"

[Nyrath]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

I always though mono-climates seemed to be the rule in SF and not the exception.

Absolutely. Larry Niven summed it up in a somewhat sarcastic fashion:

 

"It was raining on Mongo that day..."

[Inu]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

The Ocean mono-climate is Calamari (or something to that effect) where Quarrans and Calamarians (like Admiral Ackbar) are from.

 

Kasshyyk is another forest mono-climate.

Yes.

 

Because Chewbacca does not live on Endor.

[Inu]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

That's a good one. I was thinking that the Cloud City of Bespin wasn't "sky" enough. I'm thinking of whole communities made up of sail-driven air-ships and what-not.

 

And I'm thinking no-one has done an all-volcanic planet, though a planet with virtually all CO2 in its atmosphere would be poisonous, so everyone would have to bring their O2 tanks.

I've heard Bespin explained as not so much a purely residential city, as a mining operation (with families of miners, etc) floating in a gas giant. They're mining gas - has been explained, usually, as tibanna gas, the stuff that fuels blasters.

 

But all of that is non-canon, except for the fact that mining operations are mentioned, and the place seems to have a mercantile flavour to it. Lando's language also seems to indicate that it's focussed around that mining.

 

But yes, I'd love to see some more sky-based cultures/civilisations. I'm thinkin' an expansion on the dudes from the Flash Gordon film.

[Inu]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

One of the things I always liked about Star Wars was the planets with mono-climates. That always added a great bit of flavor to the movies. So these are the ones I remember:

 

Desert: Tatooine

Swamp: Dagobah

Urban: Coruscant

Forest: the Ewok Moon of Endor, Yavin

Arctic: Hoth

Air/Cloud: the Cloud City of Bespin (? - Lando's place, it's been a long time)

Oceanic: Naboo

 

So what's missing? I can think of a few. What about you guys?

Heh, just remembered. Stargate SG-1did a nice riff on this - one ep, two of the leads end up coming through the gate at random, landing in the middle of this giant ice cave. They're badly banged up, but scout around some. Nothing but ice for miles around. They decide they're on an ice planet.

 

(SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2, highlight to read)

 

They turn out to be in Antarctica.

[Nyrath]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

But yes' date=' I'd love to see some more sky-based cultures/civilisations. I'm thinkin' an expansion on the dudes from the Flash Gordon film.[/quote']

You should read The Clouds of Saturn by Michael McCollum. You can get the eBook for $4.50 here:

http://www.scifi-az.com/sfaz-04i.htm

[Agemegos]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

Atoll world.

 

Marsh world (as opposed to swamp world).

 

Bog world.

 

Wheatfield world.

 

Grassland world.

 

Dry woodland world.

 

Mulga scrub world.

 

Rocky mountainous world.

 

Hawkesbury Formation sandstone gorge-country world.

 

Bristol quarry wolrd.

 

Suburb world.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

Is a mono-climate world even possible? I know we're dealing wtih space-fanatsy here, rather than science fiction, but it still strains credibility a bit. A planet with as little plant life as Tatonie has wouldn't have an oxygen atmosphere for very long, would it, without many plants to photosymthesize the CO2 and exhale O2?

 

I'm reminded of the time in Doctor Who when the Docotr landed somewhere, started speculating on what planet they were on based on all the gravel-quarry-like terrain, and then discovered that he really had landed in a gravel quarry on Earth.

[Lightray]

A planet with as little plant life as Tatonie has wouldn't have an oxygen atmosphere for very long' date=' would it, without many plants to photosymthesize the CO2 and exhale O2?[/quote']

I refer you to Dune, which has very little plant life, is definately a dry desert planet, yet has abundant oxygen -- because it's an abundant byproduct of the sandworms' metabolism.

 

And I thought the planet of the CGI cloners was a water-world? Their cities were certainly built on the seas. And the storms can be explained by it being a water-world as well, since a planetwide ocean would impart tremendous energy into the atmosphere.

[keithcurtis]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

Vast amounts of oxygen could be produced by bacteria as well. Or you could just say, "Eh. It's Star Wars". And then go fight the Evil Empire.

 

Keith "Question not the ways of the franchise" Curtis

[Agemegos]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

Is a mono-climate world even possible?

 

I doubt it. If nothing else, there ought to be a gradient of some sort from the equator to the poles, and also with altitude. A small planet with deep oceans to provide efficient poleward transport of heat might get you a narrow range of climates, but even so….

 

Star Wars's peculiar notions of planets (and of galaxies, for that matter) are one of the things that makes me find it hard to manage that universe.

[Agemegos]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

Or you could just say' date=' "Eh. It's Star Wars". And then go fight the Evil Empire.[/quote']

 

My problem (and I emphasise very definitely that it is my problem) with that approach is that when I go to fight the evil Empire I start thinking about what its strength depends on, what its weak points are, what elements of the environment can be turned away from its sources of strength and brought to bear against its weaknesses, that sort of thing.

 

If nothing about the setting makes sense, or if the setting it not detailed enough, or if it has inconsistencies taht make it resistant to analysis and extrapolation, I just get a powerful sense of cognitive dissonance.

 

IME. YMMV. A lot of people find that theirs does.

 

DMM. YDWYDWP. DLMPYO.

[Agemegos]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

Vast amounts of oxygen could be produced by bacteria as well.

 

Indeed, most of the oxygen going in to Earth's atmosphere is produced by bacterial photosynthesis, is it not?

 

But I think that they would need water.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates

 

But I think that they would need water.

Not really. Even in Death Valley, cut out a brick-sized and -shaped section of the surface, and pull it up. You'll find layers of green, red, and black bacterial colonies, in that order, top to bottom.