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Hiya Kirth.
So what my idea was and why I need to talk to a Geologist is this.
A world that is put together after The "heaven war" and it is the left overs over several different worlds that are slowly coming together. As such I want this very fantastic world with floating islands to have some sense of reality. Though I am a bit of a dabbler I don't know enough to do well with what I want. In fact I can't even speak to everything I do want because I am unsure of how to make it. Plus I want parts of it to be based in reality not just "FM"
Help me Kirth your my only hope :P
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I'm workin' on my own campaign setting at the moment too...
The way I started was to draw a random map that looked decent, not really trying to be too specific as to the terrain type (just water and not-water). I think added a couple areas to have an adventure and called it good until we played some in it, allowing whoever was DMing to add to the world as we played.
It's working so far as we have 6 primary nations, a couple of secondary ones and several interesting locations and events.
As for your setting, try just designing one floating island, maybe even make it a small one, and start a low level adventure there, adding to the island/world as you go as needed by the adventure and fits with the setting you have in mind.
Unless you have a really good idea which direction you want to go this is probably about the only productive method (other than darts).
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I have some ideas. The thing is Kirth, who is on the boards is a Geologist by trade and rules lawyer/house rule champion by trade. I want some things like specifics of certain types of rock. so if it is floating in the air for some reason, magic, how long would it take to deteriorate and crumble. and if say it has a castle on top would that cause it to fall faster.
Hmmmm... that's gonna be tricky. If the rock bits are just floating in space by themselves, the atmosphere will escape from them (barring magic). And they'll eventually accrete (collide/combine) if close enough, or else drift off from each other if not. If you had a large central body for them to orbit, though, they could do that with some stability, like Jupiter's rings.
If you want them floating in water, that's going to be trickier -- islands don't do that. The only rock that does that is pumice, which solidifies with a lot of escaping gas, so it's mostly air inside. But it would tend to roll around and dunk the "top," so that's probably not what you want.
If you want rock "islands" floating in the air through magical levitation, well, you've already invoked "they're magic," so realism is sort of already out the door with that, if you see what I mean -- anything goes in that case.
Maybe I need a better feel for what you're after, if I'm going to be of much help here?
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A large valley that has an abundant almost "shire" feel to it. Yet when you cross the demarkation between the valley and the ridge line you come into an area vastly different. Maybe it had a desert that is slowly greening due to a drastic climate change. Or it is an ice shelf that is quickly melting sending large amounts of water into said valley and slowly flooding it.
I guess I am really interested in what happens when two drastically different regions woudl be quickly collided.
My idea for the floating land was an island above the vally that is slowly corroding. Maybe the magic hung it in the air, but it has since been left for a logn time just hanging there and bits and chunks are falling off based on natural errosion processes. So one tower is on the ground a mile down but the rest of the castle is still in the air. for it to just hang there what type of material is it. whould it be very hard or would it be flaky and brittle? SHoudl it be differing types of materials ect..
Not sure if I am articulating it very well.
-Imagines what you just described-
O.O I worship your world.
Reminds me of WoW though >.> Outland or whatever the hell it's called.
They has floaty chunks all over the place >.>
I'd say it's made of regular materials, and that magic is the reason anything is suspended.
-Imagines bits and pieces of old building materials and earth falling off and floating around, while others fall to the ground.-
I don't play WoW either, though I did play it in the past.
lol, Hell, I played Runescape for like 8-9 years before moving to wow for 2, and then dropped MMORPG's all together.
Then I went on to just WarCraft 3 RTS Custom Scenarios (I.E. True Hero Wars / AoS - Not DoTa.)
Then I moved onto watching anime, and then was introduced to D&D recently.
Then I've gone into hyper D&D mode, collecting up a storm, and brewing and ruling stuff, creating my own world and such.
I'd say it's made of regular materials, and that magic is the reason anything is suspended.
-Imagines bits and pieces of old building materials and earth falling off and floating around, while others fall to the ground.-
Do you want something like THIS CASTTLE?
You could build the islands on Basalt, or any porous rock.
My idea for the floating land was an island above the vally that is slowly corroding. Maybe the magic hung it in the air, but it has since been left for a logn time just hanging there and bits and chunks are falling off based on natural errosion processes. So one tower is on the ground a mile down but the rest of the castle is still in the air. for it to just hang there what type of material is it. whould it be very hard or would it be flaky and brittle? SHoudl it be differing types of materials ect..
Natural limestone is relatively soft, and quite easily dissolved, leading to places in China that remind me of what you're describing.
EDIT: Another photo.Chinese landscape painting is full of cool imagery of that kind of karst topography.
I like this one, too -- just stick a castle, or half a castle, on top of that leaning hill.
And for D&D, the best thing about karst landscapes is that you're bound to find lots of caves and caverns in them.
A world that is put together after The "heaven war" and it is the left overs over several different worlds that are slowly coming together. As such I want this very fantastic world with floating islands to have some sense of reality. Though I am a bit of a dabbler I don't know enough to do well with what I want. In fact I can't even speak to everything I do want because I am unsure of how to make it. Plus I want parts of it to be based in reality not just "FM"
There are several (old) fiction series that deal with the whole floating world concept. Darned if I can remember the names of them though. I guess it depends if you want every piece of land to float, or just some sections, which would eventually fall apart and succumb (piece by piece) to 'normal' gravity.
Anyways, any chunk of rock that held together during the 'breakup' is going to be a big, single mass of rock that _should_ hold together for a long long time. Wind and water erosion would be the biggest worry, over the long term. Though now that I think of it, once the water table leaks out the sides you'd get a lot of settling and instability.
Oh, and water's going to be a real problem on those levitating islands, unless they're super huge, as it'll just run off the side. Residents are either at the mercy of rainfall or whatever clerics are available to cast Create Water. You can pretty much forget about having a well or a river.
A large valley that has an abundant almost "shire" feel to it. Yet when you cross the demarkation between the valley and the ridge line you come into an area vastly different. Maybe it had a desert that is slowly greening due to a drastic climate change.
Check out Washington and Oregon. When the winds blow from the west off the ocean they hit the mountains, the vapor condenses, and the rain gets dumped there. On the other side of the mountains is a "rain shadow desert." The taller the mountains, the more pronounced the effect. Imagine a wall of cliffs...
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cliffs running north to south with an east to west wind.
rain fall hits the west side of the cliffs but does not go to the east.
Could and would there ever be a reason for say a wetlands at the base of the cliffs before the much dryer lands further east? Would these lands be faily low lying? Could the be swampy? What about caves? what coudl the land be made of to allow large regions of inhabitable space underneath and would it have water resources?
cliffs running north to south with an east to west wind.
rain fall hits the west side of the cliffs but does not go to the east.
Could and would there ever be a reason for say a wetlands at the base of the cliffs before the much dryer lands further east? Would these lands be faily low lying? Could the be swampy? What about caves? what coudl the land be made of to allow large regions of inhabitable space underneath and would it have water resources?
Hmmm.... Again, make the cliffs limestone. This is unusual insofar as most real-world mountains running along the coast will be the result of tectonics and hence be igneous and/or metamorphic, but pretend there was an extinct species of reef-builders that for whatever reason grew along a narrow path and grew upward off the reefs of their forebears for millennia, and then a catastrophic drop in sea level to explain how it got so tall compared to current sea level (maybe half the ocean drained through a gate into another plane? ). The limestone cliffs will be weathered at the bottom, because water will dissolve sinkholes and such into it.
Now water can pass underground under the cliffs -- but it isn't going to be seen at the surface again unless the area on the far side of the cliffs is lower than the area on the ocean side -- VERY unlikely given the general shape of continents. So pretend the limestone is built up all along the coast, so that the coastal area is like thousands of feet above sea level. So you've got caves and caverns beneath those cliffs -- some of which are full of water -- and springs and swampy areas at the base of the cliffs on the other side, in an area that would otherwise be desert.
Wish I could draw you a picture to show you what I mean. Maybe I could email you one?
EDIT: * In a fantasy world, even cooler than limestone reefs would be if the entire mountain range is the petrified corpse of an immense dragon, a mile high and a hundred miles long, all turned to limestone and weathered mostly beyond recognition. If this happened within the last couple thousand years, you don't need the drop in sea level described above, either.
Another real world example of a rain shadow desert is Southwestern China.
When the Appalachians were formed about 300 million years ago (estimated...), they may have been the tallest mountain range the Earth ever saw - the rain shadow desert was vast in scope prior to the Permian extinction, and with the unzipping of the North Atlantic, lots of interesting fossil records show a sudden change.
If you look at the geological history of the Earth, you'll discover a lot of periods where Earth is more alien than any planet you've read about in science fiction.
Holy mother of deities, I'll give you my e-mail if ya wanna draw me a picture. lol.
I am like having a mindgasm just thinking about it, aside from the apparent fountain of knowledge you have which makes my mind splode on top of that.
-Desires knowledge of teh awesome-
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cliffs running north to south with an east to west wind.
rain fall hits the west side of the cliffs but does not go to the east.
Could and would there ever be a reason for say a wetlands at the base of the cliffs before the much dryer lands further east? Would these lands be faily low lying? Could the be swampy? What about caves? what coudl the land be made of to allow large regions of inhabitable space underneath and would it have water resources?
Hmmm.... Again, make the cliffs limestone. This is unusual insofar as most real-world mountains running along the coast will be the result of tectonics and hence be igneous and/or metamorphic, but pretend there was an extinct species of reef-builders that for whatever reason grew along a narrow path and grew upward off the reefs of their forebears for millennia, and then a catastrophic drop in sea level to explain how it got so tall compared to current sea level (maybe half the ocean drained through a gate into another plane? ). The limestone cliffs will be weathered at the bottom, because water will dissolve sinkholes and such into it.
Now water can pass underground under the cliffs -- but it isn't going to be seen at the surface again unless the area on the far side of the cliffs is lower than the area on the ocean side -- VERY unlikely given the general shape of continents. So pretend the limestone is built up all along the coast, so that the coastal area is like thousands of feet above sea level. So you've got caves and caverns beneath those cliffs -- some of which are full of water -- and springs and swampy areas at the base of the cliffs on the other side, in an area that would otherwise be desert.
Wish I could draw you a picture to show you what I mean. Maybe I could email you one?
EDIT: * In a fantasy world, even cooler than limestone reefs would be if the entire mountain range is the petrified corpse of an immense dragon, a mile high and a hundred miles long, all...
My email is under my Dm Jester Identity. Email me anytime and with anything you feel is useful. I think the pics up thread are great for the coastal region. I had heard of some sort of channels made by receding ice caps in the northern plains. I think I may have the southern portion of the area have these with the ice caps being in an area they would not normally reach and as such melted very quickly and created large areas where the ground was torn up.
I had heard of some sort of channels made by receding ice caps in the northern plains. I think I may have the southern portion of the area have these with the ice caps being in an area they would not normally reach and as such melted very quickly and created large areas where the ground was torn up.
Yeah, glacial landscapes are a wealth of possibilities.
I'll draw a sketch of the dragon-coast at some point this weekend and email it to you.
If you want to be able to have wildly different terrains/cultures but all within easy reach of each other (easy for the PC's and/or select others, but not everyone), I'd go for something like this :
Imagine that many worlds were caught in the Heaven War. In fact, the material plane was shattered. Small shards of reality got blasted into the ether of the outer planes when reality was destroyed.
These shards, made from thousands of worlds, were drawn together in the outer planes because they were so similar yet so different.
So, one shard might only be the size of a valley, still with gravity, air, animals, etc, but when you climb the mountains, you reach the edge of that shard and there's nothing but primal chaos. Entering it, or even touching it, is dangerous. Plants that grow at the edge are wild and mutated, animals that live near it the same.
However, there are 'tubes' of energy that connect shards, bits of the energy web that holds them together. They connect these shards, but it takes magic and skill to navigate those threads. So you get a guild of Wayfinders (or Webwalkers) who can travel the web, taking you from one shard to another.
The web is dangerous, of course, and any given Wayfinder only knows a small section, and there are always new sections being added (as new shards are attracted). Sometimes those shards connect to wierd worlds where the air is poison and monsters dwell, sometimes they lead to paradises, and sometimes to vast giant stone cities populated by the dead.
I want to thank everyone who has added ideas.
I am looking for practicle real world info for making and adjusting a realistic encounter.
Not to be difficult, but, the things you described (floating islands, etc) are just not conducive to scientific explanations. Realistically, those islands simply would break apart and have no atmosphere in a realistic setting.
If you're looking for 'What kind of stones make up mountains and what would a chunk of land look like if you teleported a chunk of the planet 10 square miles on a side, five sides, and 10 miles deep' look like, that's a bit of a different story.
I'm not sure which you are asking for. If the former, then nobody can answer that, because it's just not something anyone can say for sure. If the second, there may be some people here who could answer specific questions about specific types of planetary surface (For example, what would it look like if we ripped up Hawaii and the ocean around and kept hem as a big chunk or a big section of the Tibeten Mountains?).
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A large valley that has an abundant almost "shire" feel to it. Yet when you cross the demarkation between the valley and the ridge line you come into an area vastly different. Maybe it had a desert that is slowly greening due to a drastic climate change.Check out Washington and Oregon. When the winds blow from the west off the ocean they hit the mountains, the vapor condenses, and the rain gets dumped there. On the other side of the mountains is a "rain shadow desert." The taller the mountains, the more pronounced the effect. Imagine a wall of cliffs...
I believe the fiction your refering to was the "Smoke Ring" series. Pretty good if I remember.
Basically it was a zone or belt in space that kept air in it. Chunks of soil and vegatation grew in zero gravity and orbs of water scattered here and there.
CJ,
Email sent. Let me know if it fails to arrive.
Please forgive the crudeness of the drawing, but hopefully it illustrates what I was describing.
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I want to thank everyone who has added ideas.
I am looking for practicle real world info for making and adjusting a realistic encounter.
Not to be difficult, but, the things you described (floating islands, etc) are just not conducive to scientific explanations. Realistically, those islands simply would break apart and have no atmosphere in a realistic setting.
If you're looking for 'What kind of stones make up mountains and what would a chunk of land look like if you teleported a chunk of the planet 10 square miles on a side, five sides, and 10 miles deep' look like, that's a bit of a different story.
I'm not sure which you are asking for. If the former, then nobody can answer that, because it's just not something anyone can say for sure. If the second, there may be some people here who could answer specific questions about specific types of planetary surface (For example, what would it look like if we ripped up Hawaii and the ocean around and kept hem as a big chunk or a big section of the Tibeten Mountains?).
Part of the conversation started on another thread and as such any miscommunication is mine.
And yes mostly what I am looking for is soemthing along the lines of what would it look like if part of hawaii was ripped up and dumped in a kanses corn field with a tibetan moutains right beside it.
part of what I am asking is what would happen if the similar small island 'for what ever reason' was suspended in the air over the same region. and then you allow for normal weather and errosion to happen there. would it just fall apart in a few years? woudl parts of the island fall and yet others lay suspened, assuming the same magics..anti grav what ever affected it as a whole.
So, uh, did that email get through?
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
And now I want to watch that movie a little bit.
If you want to be able to have wildly different terrains/cultures but all within easy reach of each other (easy for the PC's and/or select others, but not everyone), I'd go for something like this :
Imagine that many worlds were caught in the Heaven War. In fact, the material plane was shattered. Small shards of reality got blasted into the ether of the outer planes when reality was destroyed.
These shards, made from thousands of worlds, were drawn together in the outer planes because they were so similar yet so different.
So, one shard might only be the size of a valley, still with gravity, air, animals, etc, but when you climb the mountains, you reach the edge of that shard and there's nothing but primal chaos. Entering it, or even touching it, is dangerous. Plants that grow at the edge are wild and mutated, animals that live near it the same.
However, there are 'tubes' of energy that connect shards, bits of the energy web that holds them together. They connect these shards, but it takes magic and skill to navigate those threads. So you get a guild of Wayfinders (or Webwalkers) who can travel the web, taking you from one shard to another.
The web is dangerous, of course, and any given Wayfinder only knows a small section, and there are always new sections being added (as new shards are attracted). Sometimes those shards connect to wierd worlds where the air is poison and monsters dwell, sometimes they lead to paradises, and sometimes to vast giant stone cities populated by the dead.
O.O -Mouth Drops-
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O.O -Mouth Drops-If you want to be able to have wildly different terrains/cultures but all within easy reach of each other (easy for the PC's and/or select others, but not everyone), I'd go for something like this :
Imagine that many worlds were caught in the Heaven War. In fact, the material plane was shattered. Small shards of reality got blasted into the ether of the outer planes when reality was destroyed.
These shards, made from thousands of worlds, were drawn together in the outer planes because they were so similar yet so different.
So, one shard might only be the size of a valley, still with gravity, air, animals, etc, but when you climb the mountains, you reach the edge of that shard and there's nothing but primal chaos. Entering it, or even touching it, is dangerous. Plants that grow at the edge are wild and mutated, animals that live near it the same.
However, there are 'tubes' of energy that connect shards, bits of the energy web that holds them together. They connect these shards, but it takes magic and skill to navigate those threads. So you get a guild of Wayfinders (or Webwalkers) who can travel the web, taking you from one shard to another.
The web is dangerous, of course, and any given Wayfinder only knows a small section, and there are always new sections being added (as new shards are attracted). Sometimes those shards connect to wierd worlds where the air is poison and monsters dwell, sometimes they lead to paradises, and sometimes to vast giant stone cities populated by the dead.
Rolemaster = shadowworld I have it.
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Thank you for the drawing Kirth I have it now. Sorry it was a long day and my wife had to stop for gas and groceries so it took even a little longer to get to my email.
I love it and the idea of the body of the dragon and the idea of the old castle on top of the body.
One of the things i liked in the old 3.0 modules was the one where the white horse is outlined on the hillside and everyone thinks it was a representation of the Old Paladin's horse but it is actually the bones of the dead great red worm.
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I want to thank everyone who has added ideas.
I am looking for practicle real world info for making and adjusting a realistic encounter.
Not to be difficult, but, the things you described (floating islands, etc) are just not conducive to scientific explanations. Realistically, those islands simply would break apart and have no atmosphere in a realistic setting.
If you're looking for 'What kind of stones make up mountains and what would a chunk of land look like if you teleported a chunk of the planet 10 square miles on a side, five sides, and 10 miles deep' look like, that's a bit of a different story.
I'm not sure which you are asking for. If the former, then nobody can answer that, because it's just not something anyone can say for sure. If the second, there may be some people here who could answer specific questions about specific types of planetary surface (For example, what would it look like if we ripped up Hawaii and the ocean around and kept them as a big chunk or a big section of the Tibetan Mountains?).
Yes this is what I was after.