Tamuul and the Other World.

[Skijarama]

So, I have the bare-bones basics for a setting in my head that I want to use for one purpose or another down the line. But I need to flesh it out more. I'll put the basics I've currently got into a spoiler tag. After that, I am assuming working together is the next step, right? Forgive me, I'm a bit of a recluse and a lurker. I rarely come onto these forums with the intent of actually posting.

The basics of what I've got for the setting is that there is a roughly earth-sized fantasy world called Tamuul. On it are humans and another, related race that I WAS calling elves but now wish to call something different. Anyways, the world has a moon. The thing is, the word 'moon' is almost unheard of on this world, because they know that their moon is simply another, albeit far smaller world, complete with life. The people of the big world have been warring with each other for a long time while the people of the other world, who we shall refer to as 'Moonlings', worked on a way to reach the world they revolved around. They eventually managed to arrive, broke up a brewing war and then proceeded to start investigating the world like crazy.

They are researching Tamuul on the grounds that it is so wildly different from their own world. The Other World is very alien to the people on Tamuul, so it stands to reason that the Moonlings view the standard setup of Tamuul as being remarkably alien. As far as the worlds main history goes, this is as far as I have.

FUN FACT: The Other World (The Moon) is always facing one direction, so it does in fact have a literal dark side. And said dark side is massively unpleasant. In what ways are only vaguely understood, as most Moonlings who go there never return.

So... any clues on where I should start to expand on this? Any and all ideas and thoughts are appreciated.

And if I am doing something wrong, do not hesitate to let me know. I will happily make any needed changes.

[Nobot]

Sounds like an interesting concept so far. I wouldn't necessarily say 'working together' is the next step, it really depends on what you want to do. If you want to host a campaign in this world, I'd start looking for a rules system that might suit it (or come up with your own).

Another thing I'd do is think about the theme and the feel of the world. Maybe you want to create adventures of epic fantasy: have players face mighty foes in a desperate bid to get the Magic Weapon and defeat the big bad Sauron? Or maybe it's more about cosmic horror, the vile things that lurk on the dark side of the moon hatch plots and pursue goals no mortal can understand, and prey on humanity for their own strange reasons. Or maybe you're focusing on the world of the 'Moonlings' instead, and have the game be a journey of exploration and wonder where you amaze players with the bizarre ecology and society you have come up with.

Once you've decided what the theme is, you'll find that things slowly start falling into place, because you'll know what ingredients the world needs. You can then think about how the humans and the other race live and what part the 'peace treaty' of the Moonlings plays in all this: is it imposed on the earthlings? Or does it serve to unite all the races against another threat? Or are people just sick of war and do they want to rebuild?

If you're building a world to host a campaign in, I'd say you're almost sorted to play your first sessions after this (at least setting- and rule-wise). I wouldn't worry too much about maps of the world, detailed family trees of monarchs, and the name of every kingdom, city, village, or river, but just prepare an adventure with the rules and the theme you prepared and watch your world grow as you play!

[Skijarama]

Sounds like an interesting concept so far. I wouldn't necessarily say 'working together' is the next step, it really depends on what you want to do. If you want to host a campaign in this world, I'd start looking for a rules system that might suit it (or come up with your own).

Another thing I'd do is think about the theme and the feel of the world. Maybe you want to create adventures of epic fantasy: have players face mighty foes in a desperate bid to get the Magic Weapon and defeat the big bad Sauron? Or maybe it's more about cosmic horror, the vile things that lurk on the dark side of the moon hatch plots and pursue goals no mortal can understand, and prey on humanity for their own strange reasons. Or maybe you're focusing on the world of the 'Moonlings' instead, and have the game be a journey of exploration and wonder where you amaze players with the bizarre ecology and society you have come up with.

Once you've decided what the theme is, you'll find that things slowly start falling into place, because you'll know what ingredients the world needs. You can then think about how the humans and the other race live and what part the 'peace treaty' of the Moonlings plays in all this: is it imposed on the earthlings? Or does it serve to unite all the races against another threat? Or are people just sick of war and do they want to rebuild?

If you're building a world to host a campaign in, I'd say you're almost sorted to play your first sessions after this (at least setting- and rule-wise). I wouldn't worry too much about maps of the world, detailed family trees of monarchs, and the name of every kingdom, city, village, or river, but just prepare an adventure with the rules and the theme you prepared and watch your world grow as you play!

I guess that is a logical next step. Hm... I'll look into what I can do with that advise. Thanks! :)

[jqavins]

I don't know if you care, you don't have to care, but I'm not so sure that the smaller world having a constant dark side works orbitally. There've been a number of threads here about settings in which the planet is tide locked to the star, the climatological effects being the main thing, and how such a world might work. Those would all apply to the smaller world here, but as I said I'm not so sure that such an arrangement is actually possible. But you are not required to give a fig for actual physics if you don't want to.

As for the name of the smaller world, why not "moon"? Think of the language development on the planet. They would surely have a name for this other world that they see in the sky. "Sky World" or "Sky Sister" or some deity's name like "Selene". Look at the word "moon" in English; where did it come from?

Old English mōna, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch maan and German Mond, also to month (https://www.google.com/search?q=define+month&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_oM3I7ePKAhUCXD4KHUWfDbcQgCsILjAA), from an Indo-European root shared by Latin mensis and Greek mēn ‘month,’ and also Latin metiri ‘to measure’ (the moon being used to measure time).
So why not just say that, whatever the origin in the native language, it translates to English as "moon."

Are the PCs from the larger planet or could they be moonlings? It could be an interesting theme, to have moonlings exploring what is, to us Earthlings, pretty familiar.

[AMFV]

I would say your best next step is to figure out what kind of stories you intend to tell, then flesh out those aspects most necessary for those stories. Do you want political intrigue between the Moonlings and the Tamuul folks? Do you want horror as people explore the Dark Side of the Moon? Both of those things? I'd figure out what you need to start telling stories, then start to develop things around those centralized hubs. The general concept could be really interesting.

[sktarq]

Also what kind of mood and feel do you want? Legendary epics? Issues of scale of change that PC's can create, issues of how you want the world to feel with regard to power and growth (for example Ravenloft's link of corruption to power, or Darksun's link of near necessary brutality as power grows),

Also what system do you want to use?

As for the "Dark Side" issue raised above. The "Dark Side" of our moon is no darker than the "Light Side". Those designations came from a pre -heliocentric time. Really you have and Earthward and an (Anti-Earthward, Spaceward) side. Now you can totally have the Anti-Tamuul-ward side still be horror filled etc but is would generally get daylight assuming a similar set up to Earth's because while the moon may be tidally locked to Tamuul the light comes from the sun.

[jqavins]

As for the "Dark Side" issue raised above. The "Dark Side" of our moon is no darker than the "Light Side". Those designations came from a pre -heliocentric time. Really you have and Earthward and an (Anti-Earthward, Spaceward) side. Now you can totally have the Anti-Tamuul-ward side still be horror filled etc but is would generally get daylight assuming a similar set up to Earth's because while the moon may be tidally locked to Tamuul the light comes from the sun.
All true, but since Skijarama stated

FUN FACT: The Other World (The Moon) is always facing one direction, so it does in fact have a literal dark side. And said dark side is massively unpleasant. In what ways are only vaguely understood, as most Moonlings who go there never return.(my underline) I have to think that he know that, and wants his moon to be different. And I'm not altogether convinced that it is not possible, but it just doesn't feel right. The Earth exerts a much greater tidal force on our moon than the sun does and, while I'm no expert in orbital mechanics, I just don't see how it can work. Of course, it could be not a matter of tide locking, but of the moon's rotational period coincidentally matching the planet's orbital period, but that strains credulity rather a lot. Maybe god's deliberately created such a condition, or maybe it just happened "and if you don't like it then too bad." The GM is entitled to do that, but shouldn't do it much.

The twilight and dawn regions of the moon would be interesting places. Now, what if the moon's day is not quite exactly one of the planet's years? What if the dark side moves around the moon once every 10,000 years or more? In other threads I've stated that world designers often use excessively long time lines, but in this case I'd even say that 10,000 or 50,000 years would be OK, so that in all of history the terminator has crept only a fraction of the way around. If the history of civilization is about 5000 years long, then with a 1000 year "day" it would have gone all the way around five times; probably too fast. With a 50,000 year "day" it would have gone 1/10 of the way around, or 36 degrees of longitude. That would be noticeable, but maybe too slow. At 10,000 years, it would have gone half way around, which is enough to be pretty damn scary for the people in the twilight region who stop to think about it, but not an immediate threat. (Well, no more than living in the twilight is anyway.)

[sktarq]

You are correct that he declared a literal dark side but I wanted to explain WHY is doesn't work in a standard heliocentric set up. And thus see what could be an interesting change from other settings. Or come up with a block to explain it that could be interesting.

[MrZJunior]

How did the loonies get down to the planet?

What was their motivation for ending the war? I can't imagine it was easy or cheap.

Did they observe the planet in any way before heading down there?

Can they breath each other's atmospheres?