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TheThan
2008-09-10, 11:07 PM
MAJOR EDIT HERE
This is the situation. The posters in this thread, and I have been working on this campaign idea. first off I’m going to be using the D20 modern rule book for this (might have to look into getting D20 modern, past for this).

My original idea started with a flooded earth set some time in the future. However that quickly got more complicated than I though it would, so things have changed and I think I’m going to go with an alternate reality earth/planet in which the world has always been flooded. The world is made up a several large island chains that are scattered across the face of the waters.


That’s all world building. The style I’m shooting for is a lot like a 1930s adventure serial. With the characters taking on the role of an up and coming Freight Company that flies cargo from island to island.

This is an example (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PX6JSBDlm8&feature=related) of what I’m shooting for in this RPG (minus the animorphic animals).


What I have for a back-story is this:
20 years ago there was a war for living space and resources (including oil and iron). The war left the world in a state of economic depression, leading many pilots (former soldiers) to become pirates to get by. The pirates attack surface ships as well as airplanes and zeppelins. Did I mention the zeppelins? Anyway it’s been 20 years and despite the pirates, the world has mostly climbed out of its depression. Now it’s facing a new golden age of exploration, wealth and prosperity. It’s a great time to be an adventurer.
There is still a lot of political tension between the states that were formerly at war.

So what I want is help with fleshing out the rest of this world. Think of this as a brainstorming session. I’ve already got some good ideas for plot hooks and adventures.

Here are some (most I think) of the points we’ve hit on that I really like and will probably use.

Huge oil and steel companies with mines and oilrigs scattered across the world
The huge resource companies can influence the actions and policies of nations.
The empire of the sun is one of the island nations I’ve mentioned. I might base them off of Imperial Japan and china. Though I need at least three more (for a proper world war)
small group of nutzo Echo terrorists, dangerous but small, more of a nuisance than anything.
Helicopters and jet engines are highly experimental.
Submarines are also experimental; they rely on diesel engines, and cannot remain submerged longer than a few hours.
Ships: good for long haul trade and private transport. Militaries would use them for troop transport, convoy protectors, and inexpensive artillery. These can run on oil, coal, wood, and wind.
Planes: expensive and dangerous, these are the craft of adventurers. Light good transporters, messengers, and smugglers would use these when speed is needed. Militaries would use them defensively on Zeppelins (against other Zeppelins and planes), for Special Service missions, and maybe for coastal defense (though fixed gun emplacements would probably do better). They need refined fuels to run.
Zeppelins: they need fancy engines to move around (slowly), but are cheap to maintain and can carry a lot. The wealthy would use them for transport (no seasickness!), fancy heavy goods transports and private estates for the really well-to-do. These would be the mainstay of the military, serving as everything from patrol craft, to artillery spotters, to mobile heavy artillery. Really good militaries would have Zeppelin aircraft carriers to take out opposing fleets and enemy Zeppelin.
Sky pirates!
Pony express style courier service, famous and generally awesome.


I think that should about cover everything thus far.

monty
2008-09-10, 11:10 PM
I demand that you call your BBEG organization the Smokers.

Kaihaku
2008-09-10, 11:11 PM
Steel is easy, just mine the islands. Mountains would make for good sources of minerals and such.

Oil is a bit more challenging but you could use "bio-diesel" manufactured from plankton. It sounds more sci-fi but the technology currently exists and it would just need to be industrialized.

TheThan
2008-09-10, 11:41 PM
Steel is easy, just mine the islands. Mountains would make for good sources of minerals and such.

Oil is a bit more challenging but you could use "bio-diesel" manufactured from plankton. It sounds more sci-fi but the technology currently exists and it would just need to be industrialized.

Brilliant!

That works perfectly

I imagine floating “oil rigs” that move around mining the plankton in the oceans. Yeah, yeah… I’m thinking up a plot where the players are hired to fly some cargo to one of these rigs and they end up getting mixed up with some echo terrorists, sort of like green-peace on crack. You know “save the plankton, save the whales" sort of thing, only mean and violent.

Raum
2008-09-10, 11:50 PM
Another option is using alcohol (from plankton / seaweed) as fuel. Or even do away with fuel altogether and make them use zeppelins and gliders. Though that may not be the style you're looking for. How about mechanical ornithopters? Could use anything from fuel, to wind up mechanisms, or even muscle power then. Other options may be solar, electric batteries charged from tidal power plants or windmills, or even hydrogen fuel cells for a higher level of tech.

Just tossing out ideas... :smallsmile:

TheThan
2008-09-11, 12:12 AM
Another option is using alcohol (from plankton / seaweed) as fuel. Or even do away with fuel altogether and make them use zeppelins and gliders. Though that may not be the style you're looking for. How about mechanical ornithopters? Could use anything from fuel, to wind up mechanisms, or even muscle power then. Other options may be solar, electric batteries charged from tidal power plants or windmills, or even hydrogen fuel cells for a higher level of tech.

Just tossing out ideas... :smallsmile:


If people are using alcohol for fuel, then what are they drinking? What are they Drinking!? :smallbiggrin:

Naw seriously those are some good ideas. Zeppelins will be around, mostly as floating repair/fuel depots etc (one might get used as a flying fortress, though that might not be such a good idea as most gasses that are used are you know… flammable). The mechanical are a little too steampunk for what I’m shooting for, neat though.

revolver kobold
2008-09-11, 12:22 AM
What about some underwater oil rigs, sort of like an industrialized Rapture? Could make for interesting politics, as factions fight over not only the last remaining land-masses and shipping lanes, but also for parts of the sea floor.

Raum
2008-09-11, 12:26 AM
If people are using alcohol for fuel, then what are they drinking? What are they Drinking!? :smallbiggrin:Scotch of course. That's alcohol the way the gods intended! :smallwink:

Reinboom
2008-09-11, 12:53 AM
Other energies:
Nuclear
Man-power
Hydrogen


How does your world support food? Since you now require large groups of people in order to man plankton rigs/other energy sources, build vehicles, etc. mass production of food would still be required.
Especially if you have insane green-activists, since you can't just use ocean life. Otherwise those activists are going to have horrible health issues. :smalltongue:

Do the same altitude limitations hold true for raising crops here? As in, is air thinner because you are around mountain lines?
If so, what is your alternative to cotton clothing?


For manufacturing, would it make quite a bit of sense for scavengers to just scavenge the old world? I imagine there should still be data on submarines, or at least the idea thereof. If so, would the rather freaky creatures in our ocean depths "rise" to this new height discovery?

OneFamiliarFace
2008-09-11, 01:05 AM
What about some underwater oil rigs, sort of like an industrialized Rapture? Could make for interesting politics, as factions fight over not only the last remaining land-masses and shipping lanes, but also for parts of the sea floor.

If you don't mind stealing, I would just lift the whole dang city and plop into your campaign world. It is a great, great setting, and it fits right into the 1930's theme. Maybe there are only a few such places, but it would provide for some interesting Steam Punk add-ins. Of course, I have a soft-spot for that.

The iron is harder, but two "sufficiently advanced technologies" could take care of that:

1) Highly interchangeable parts. This is something currently being advocated among environmental circles. If a car is made, then when it is done being used, it would ideally be turned into another car (or something similar). This also fits with those games where you can build weapons and cars just by finding the right parts (though I'm not a fan of those). Either way, this means that metal and parts are worth fightin' for.

2) Techniques to drill through the islands, while shoring them up against incoming water with something absorbant or good restraints.

Good luck!

TheThan
2008-09-11, 01:30 AM
Hmm for the altitude problem, I was figuring on just handwaveing that little bit. Since I can’t seem to find out what would happen if the oceans really flooded. I think people would buy it without any complaints.
A percentage of the available land would have been set aside for farming and ranching. Also there is the possibility of floating greenhouses that are charged with producing food for islands. There’s also plenty of sea life around. I imagine that a lot of people would be eating seafood.

Also the echo terrorists would be a very small group. Though they might be a reoccurring villain. The possibility for submarines is always there, though without nuclear power I’m not sure how deep they can go (have to look into that). I don’t see why modern submarines couldn’t still exist. Though it doesn’t really fit with the theme, but one could make a great dooms day weapon.

I like the idea of a floating city, though I’m not sure how to implement it quite yet.

Oracle_Hunter
2008-09-11, 01:39 AM
Remnants of the Old Order are always good to have around. Make yourself a secret underwater military base powered by geothermal energy that maintains the descendants of the ruling class of a World Power, just waiting to take back the surface world.

They get to break out the nuclear submarines and futuristic weapons :smallamused:

As for the sea level - how about cranking down the flooding just a tad so that while sea level is up, you don't have folks living on the top of Mt. Everest. It'll help the food problem a bit (though kelp is tasty!) and be slightly more believable. Still pretty apocalyptic, and you'll have small island nations with vast tracts of ocean in between.

Reinboom
2008-09-11, 01:40 AM
The earth would be gaining a massive amount of mass (water) in order for the oceans to flood so much. Antarctica melting would be a start but still not enough.

What's more interesting, however, is what your world's people -believe- is the reason. Your players will probably ask. I would, at least.


Also, will your players get to sky skii, with weird fold out boomerang looking things like the cub in tailspin does? :smalltongue:


vast tracts of ocean in between.

in between small tracts of land.


What ever happened to good old scavenging, there wouldn’t be as many people around after the world was flooded so the amount being used would be fairly small. So treasure troves such as pre-flood oil tankers that may be floating around the ocean or be sitting like waiting gold mines on the ocean floor would be hot spots for scavengers and fortune seekers.

Firefly meets Tailspin!

Kaun
2008-09-11, 01:42 AM
What ever happened to good old scavenging, there wouldn’t be as many people around after the world was flooded so the amount being used would be fairly small. So treasure troves such as pre-flood oil tankers that may be floating around the ocean or be sitting like waiting gold mines on the ocean floor would be hot spots for scavengers and fortune seekers.

Ossian
2008-09-11, 02:32 AM
Mine ore through miles long shaftes that begin on mountain (island) tops. Have them like heavily fortified crowns on top of precious and well looked after islands.

Also, what about good old oil platforms? Look, they pump oil out of the sea bed today. If Kuwait becomes the future seabed after the flood, you can still place a platform of top of Kuwait City's ruins (like, 2000 feet below the water) and keep pumping the oil from where it is.

Also, what is the cause of the flood? Just to have an idea. Not all lands will have been leveled. What is now down? Everest still stands? How much inland did the water go? And, most importantly, is the Grand Canyon now full? ;)
Such a catastrophe might have very well re-booted the "Ring Of Fire" (chain of underwater volcanoes in the Oceania-Pacific region) tus creating tons of little and very fertile new islands.

(I don't think there is enough water on the Earth to go as far inland as the Caucasus, for example, but we are suspending disbelief, aren't we?)

Thrud
2008-09-11, 02:51 AM
Hmm for the altitude problem, I was figuring on just handwaveing that little bit. Since I can’t seem to find out what would happen if the oceans really flooded. I think people would buy it without any complaints.

Umm, altitude isn't going to matter here. It doesn't matter that people are now living at the tops of mountains, if the mountains are coverfed halfway to the top with water. That is the new Sea Level, and thus that is where the barometric pressure will be at a semi normal level. The total width of the atmosphere may be slightly less, which means there will be a slightly steeper pressure gradient, but not too much so. This is because as the water rises it is also going to push the air upwards. Sea level atmosphere is used as the base because that is the average level across the planet, there being so much water. With even more water that is not going to change. Air gets thinner as you get above the average level of the planet.

Of course, this does depend on how high you are intending to make the water level here. It is going to have to be pretty dang high if only the tallest mountains are islands now, though. Might I suggest some sort of failed comet mining? Set it far far in the future, much farther than any of the players realize. Humans went out and dragged comets back to the earth to use for various space related ventures, and something went wrong (or maybe sabotage, or alien attack, whatever) and multiple large icy comets hit the planet. Lots more water, and the massive impacts virtually destroy what little civilization is left. It has taken hundreds or thousands of years for people to claw their way back up to the level you want to set the game at.

Just a thought.

bosssmiley
2008-09-11, 04:15 AM
Other energies:
Nuclear
Man-power
Hydrogen

Wind
Tidal
Solar
Oceanic Thermal Gradient


How does your world support food? Since you now require large groups of people in order to man plankton rigs/other energy sources, build vehicles, etc. mass production of food would still be required.

Hydropolic farms of salt-water adapted crops built on floating mats?
Aquaculture?


Especially if you have insane green-activists, since you can't just use ocean life. Otherwise those activists are going to have horrible health issues. :smalltongue:

Farm and eat the militant greens. :smallwink:


Do the same altitude limitations hold true for raising crops here? As in, is air thinner because you are around mountain lines?
If so, what is your alternative to cotton clothing?

Kelpcloth? :smallbiggrin:


For manufacturing, would it make quite a bit of sense for scavengers to just scavenge the old world? I imagine there should still be data on submarines, or at least the idea thereof. If so, would the rather freaky creatures in our ocean depths "rise" to this new height discovery?

@OP: You need to read China Mieville's "The Scar" right now. Armada, Salkrikaltor, the Gengris and Machinery Beach are all right up your alley fjord.

Zen Master
2008-09-11, 04:37 AM
My idea would be to scrap the idea of large scale plankton farms.

See - in a world that has been flooded, there would be a horrible shortage of all sorts of things. Food, for a start (all provided enough people have survived). Less landmass means less arable land. So sure - people would need plankton, fish and what have you for food, and using the same (scarce) supply for fuel would cause lots of useful conflict.

So - when I say no large scale plankton farms, what I really mean is, they shouldn't be large enough. I like shortages.

Mining the islands would most likely not be an option. Mines take up a LOT of space, and what land there is would likely be farmed. Another cause for conflict - provided btw that there even is iron to mine.

Another option for optaining steel is scavenging. Great barges sailing from place to place, navigation by ancient charts to find submerged oilrigs to dismante and drag to the surface.

Also, tho on an entirely different note, in my post-apocalyptic worlds there is always some splinter-faction which has remained for all those long years on sattelites still in orbit, waiting for their chance to return to the surface, and forge a new world order of their liking. Usually, they will be very enlightened and advanced, having realised the full scale of wonderfulness to be gained from A) genetic modification B) cybernetic augmentation C) cerebral boosters (read: psychic powers) or D) all of the above.

Also please note that when I describe them as enlightened - that's primarily how they view themselves. You know, when they seed the world with a nanovirus to pave the way for turning everyone alive on the planet into an efficient worker drone to build their new Genemod Utopia.

Dode
2008-09-11, 04:41 AM
Also, what about good old oil platforms?
This is a good question.

daggaz
2008-09-11, 06:46 AM
Yeah, air pressure will re-equalize to almost the same amount at the new sea level after the flooding, as mentioned above. So that's not a problem really.

Where did you get the water from tho? For catastrophic flooding that completely innundates the earth, the icecaps melting is not enough. If its real world, you could steal an idea from a great Sci-Fi story I once read (think it was Piers Anthony but honestly cant remember) where scientists put a great ring of space ice in orbit around the earth to harness solar energy, but it melts and is drawn down to the planet, causing cataclysmic downpours and global flooding. Otherwise, hmm yeah giant unknown water deposits pushed up thru the crust for some wierd reason...

At any rate, you will have the problem that the new oceans will be significantly less salty than before, so umm...don't expect a whole lot of sea-life to survive. Actual fish would be a rarity.

As for oil, why not just have the survivors sucking it up out of the inevitable GIANT OIL SLICKS that would form when civilization buckles under the rising tides? Oil not only floats, it tends to clump together. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. You can also expect enourmous rafts of garbage, refuse, and debris. We already have one that is several hundred square kilometers in size, floating in the Pacific south of Hawaii in a point where the currents converge downwards.

daggaz
2008-09-11, 06:48 AM
This is a good question.

"Also, what about good old oil platforms?"

Well... all the old ones will be at least a thousand meters under water. And new ones? We are talking about A) a civilization on the brink of survival and B) deep-water oil platforms, one of the most technically demanding engineering projects of our current age.

Jayabalard
2008-09-11, 09:13 AM
On Verisimilitude: How much has the water risen? You could look for locations by height and get a pretty realistic map of the world post flood if you base it on a specific level of flooding. Hmm... wonder if there's a real worldwide GIS source you could use for that.


Scotch of course. That's alcohol the way the gods intended! :smallwink:If there's no peat, you can't make scotch, so that's of a rather finite supply. Similarly, you need oak barrels to age it, so with no oak trees you eventually won't be able to make it.

Though at least the scotch barrels are reusable; bourbon would just be gone since it can only be made in new charred oak barrels.

kjones
2008-09-11, 12:38 PM
Think about the population of your world (probably much less than 6 billion) with regards to how much available land space remains. You probably don't want "just the top of Mount Everest" as the only dry land, but where, exactly, do you draw the line? Note that this doesn't necessarily have to correspond perfectly with real-world elevations - the catastrophe that raised the sea level could have also destroyed some mountains, or shifted the plate tectonics or whatnot.

TheThan
2008-09-11, 01:09 PM
Ok well I’ve slept on the subject, and I’ve come up with a few conclusions.


While I like a lot of the suggestions that have been thrown out in this thread, I have to admit I’m starting to think this whole “flooded earth” situation is moving too far away from the look and feel I want.

So instead I’m going to scratch my original idea and go for an alternate one.

That this is really an alternate dimension and the world has always been flooded (or flooded so long ago that no one knows how it happened). Humans are a very adaptable race, so its safe to assume that people have adapted to a world covered in mostly water. However, the general population of any given place is going to be considerably smaller.
This keeps the headache down of “what about this old technology”, and a lot of the of the other stuff I don’t really need to keep track of (like the desalting of the oceans). It also keeps with the general 30s style adventure feel that I want to keep.

It also solves the fuel problem, as oilrigs will still be very viable. Anyway here’s what I brainstormed last night:


The world

The world is made up of vast oceans, with large archipelagos of islands running across the surface of the world
There are several countries (made up of groups of islands) that are competing for the available resources. Including oil, living space and arable land.
There is a social rift between “sailors” and “Flyer”. they don’t get along.
30 years prior there was a war, in which they first began putting weapons on planes.
The end of the war left a lot of flyers out of a job, they turned to piracy. Causing an increase in piracy, and creating a new form of pirate, the sky-pirate.


Technology

The development of oilrigs has lead to the rise of oil as a fuel source
The development of oil as a fuel source has done away with a lot of sailing ships, as most navies and private companies convert to oil. Though sailing still remains viable as it’s less expensive to maintain than powered boats, and therefore a good alternative for private citizens.
Airplanes first hit the scene 50 years prior.
Biplanes, flying boats and the occasional zeppelin now rule the skies.
Only the wealthiest of countries can afford to maintain a surface fleet.
Helicopters and jet engines are highly experimental.
Submarines are also experimental; they rely on diesel engines, and cannot remain submerged longer than a few hours.


please keep the ideas coming, this is really helping me flesh out this world.

snoopy13a
2008-09-11, 01:20 PM
I suppose quite a bit rests on how high the oceans have risen. For example, if they have risen 1000 meters, you're still going to have relatively flat land in places like Tibet and land around the Rocky Mountains (like Colorado).

Another possible energy source could be coal found towards the peak of mountains such as the Himlayas where it was previously impossible to mine because of the height. I really don't know if one can operate an airplane with coal power but your players probably won't know either.

Thiel
2008-09-11, 01:48 PM
You could get partly around the metal shortage by using ferro cement for shipbuilding. Most of the materials needed are easily available fom the seabed.


Another possible energy source could be coal found towards the peak of mountains such as the Himlayas where it was previously impossible to mine because of the height. I really don't know if one can operate an airplane with coal power but your players probably won't know either.

You cant. The lack of sufficient light-weight engines was the primary reason why we couldnt fly until the late 1800.

TheThan
2008-09-11, 02:06 PM
You could get partly around the metal shortage by using ferro cement for shipbuilding. Most of the materials needed are easily available fom the seabed.



You cant. The lack of sufficient light-weight engines was the primary reason why we couldnt fly until the late 1800.

Besides how would a PC like to be the guy who had to shovel coal all day just to keep their plane in the air. Not a job I would like to have, honestly.

Yakk
2008-09-11, 02:10 PM
Biotech.

Zepplins are far more fuel efficient than planes. So Zepplins with planes attached to them.

Various organisms survived the flood. They ... well, they make raw materials. You feed them organic sludge, and you get structural components, engineered fuel stock, or designed-for-human-consumption food.

These organisms form floating seas in the ocean.

Instead of using steel for the framework of your plane and the engine, you use a substance produced by the sea-mats.

Similarly, large quantities of hydrogen are produced by some sea-mats. Which is used to allow Zepplins to float in the air.

Zepplins, because they use Hydrogen to float, have problems when attacked (it isn't as bad as one might think, as the membranes that the gas-bags are made out of in the ship filter out oxygen and are highly heat resistant). Airplanes are used to defend them against such attacks.

Airplanes are, however, extremely inefficient at carrying cargo. So you transport goods in the air via Zepplin.

Possibly something else makes water-based shipping less tempting. Rogue waves? Ships that get lost for unknown reasons, that doesn't happen to Zepplins?

Lemur
2008-09-11, 02:17 PM
Zeppelins? How about some (http://nextbigfuture.com/2007/10/2010-blimp-plane.html) airplane-blimp (http://www.primidi.com/2006/03/29.html) hybrids (http://www.popsci.com/aeros/article/2006-02/flying-luxury-hotel) as well?

TheThan
2008-09-11, 02:30 PM
The advantages of amphibious seaplanes are that they can land nearly anywhere and are much faster than zeppelins. So they rely on faster cargo delivery of high value goods. It’s the difference between quality and quantity. Zeppelins and boats would be used for long haul freight, where endurance is more important than sprinting.

WWII taught us how vulnerable boats are to air attack. Even with anti-air batteries, many boats were destroyed and outright sunk by planes. Zeppelins are also very vulnerable to attack by planes. While they might not be as explodey as people think, they are big slow targets, and perfect for fast moving fighters to attack. So sky pirates would not be restricted to just attacking airplanes, but ships and zeppelins as well. making the world a dangerous place for everyone.

However I have always loved the idea of flying aircraft carriers, and I’m so going to use it.

Oracle_Hunter
2008-09-11, 03:07 PM
Another thing about Zeppelins: they have enormous lift capacity.

This makes them very good as airborne aircraft carriers, ore haulers, aerial heavy artillery, and mobile command (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030630) posts (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20030702).

Additionally, they cost effectively zero energy to remain stationary, so they're good for listening posts and patrol craft. Their relative weakness against AA guns are mitigated by having fighter-bombers for defense, and being really hard to sneak up on when the terrain is flat for miles around.

So, vehicles:
- Ships: good for long haul trade and private transport. Militaries would use them for troop transport, convoy protectors, and inexpensive artillery. These can run on oil, coal, wood, and wind.

- Planes: expensive and dangerous, these are the craft of adventurers. Light good transporters, messengers, and smugglers would use these when speed is needed. Militaries would use them defensively on Zeppelins (against other Zeppelins and planes), for Special Service missions, and maybe for coastal defense (though fixed gun emplacements would probably do better). They need refined fuels to run.

- Zeppelins: they need fancy engines to move around (slowly), but are cheap to maintain and can carry a lot. The wealthy would use them for transport (no seasickness!), fancy heavy goods transports and private estates for the really well-to-do. These would be the mainstay of the military, serving as everything from patrol craft, to artillery spotters, to mobile heavy artillery. Really good militaries would have Zeppelin aircraft carriers to take out opposing fleets and enemy Zeppelin.

Thiel
2008-09-11, 05:32 PM
Youll definantly need some kind of highly renowned courier service. Think the pony express with airplanes.
Another good idea would be to have some of the islands separated by so large a distance that planes need to refuel halfway. This could be done on a Tailspin-esque flying fuel-station (Two giant blimps with a runway in between.) or more realistically by a oil tanker

Randel
2008-09-11, 05:54 PM
Ideas for a world covered in water:

Seawood- A type of woody plant that grows in seawater, possibly related to bamboo. It is buoyant and is a common sight along beaches or other shallow water since it must dig its roots into the ground to get nutrients to grow. It spreads across the globe since if its woody stalk breaks off then it can float for ages until it washes up on shore again. Some humans have been able to cultivate it, even going so far as to build rafts of Seawood, fishing while on the raft, piling the fish guts into a pot and then using the guts as fertilizer to grow more Seawood. Some tribes have been known to create huge boats of this and going for months or even years without setting foot on land... though it requires specially bred seawood to pull this off and its still pretty risky.

Rainwater collectors and solar purifiers- basically, fresh water is acquired by collecting rainwater or having metal containers of seawater put in solar ovens (a big reflective dish that focuses sunlight into one point like a magnifying glass.) that boils out the water and leaves the salt.

kjones
2008-09-11, 06:15 PM
Sky pirates - **** yeah!

Jayabalard
2008-09-11, 08:58 PM
Ok well I’ve slept on the subject, and I’ve come up with a few conclusions.


While I like a lot of the suggestions that have been thrown out in this thread, I have to admit I’m starting to think this whole “flooded earth” situation is moving too far away from the look and feel I want.

So instead I’m going to scratch my original idea and go for an alternate one.

That this is really an alternate dimension and the world has always been flooded (or flooded so long ago that no one knows how it happened). Humans are a very adaptable race, so its safe to assume that people have adapted to a world covered in mostly water. However, the general population of any given place is going to be considerably smaller.
This keeps the headache down of “what about this old technology”, and a lot of the of the other stuff I don’t really need to keep track of (like the desalting of the oceans). It also keeps with the general 30s style adventure feel that I want to keep.
You might want to reference this change in your OP; otherwise you're going to keep getting responses to original flooded earth world.

Something to think about: what caused the war, who was involved in it? Thinking about this could really help shape the rest of your world because you'll have to do some thinking about the nations involved and their motivations.

Was it just territorial aggression? That seems unlikely, since it's going to be VERY expensive to wage war on someone that far away, so the end result is not going to net you much benefit unless you can win really quickly. It's still a possibility.

Much more likely would be a resource; oil is too politically charge in the real world, so I'd suggest something else, either another natural resource related to steel production, or something else trade related that's related to standard of living (spices, gemstones, precursor artifacts, whatever). Whatever it is, it's scarce, and it will probably wind up an adventure hook more than once since people want it enough to go to war over it.

The cause for the rift between the sailors and the flyers: probably caused by the flyers snapping up all of the most valuable trading, since it's much faster and in many ways safer to transport stuff by air. Also could be related to the air vulnerability of sea vessels

TheThan
2008-09-13, 12:16 AM
Been thinking about this game world I’m working on here and I’ve come up with another idea that should work.

Freeports- these are places that have been taken over by pirates and outlaws. Typically avoided by most of polite society. They are however a good place to find potential jobs. Usually found in poorer areas of the world, off the beaten track as it were.

Independent islands- these are islands that are either under despite by two (or more nations) or have become independent of larger countries. Most likely they gained their freedom during the war. Most of the successful ones have heavy naval and air defends (probably build by a larger country). These islands have developed into more of a city-state, with a brisk trade business and thriving economy. Naturally they’re right in the middle of the trade lanes, and that doesn’t sit well with the larger countries around. But theirs not much they can do without provoking another war.


There's also a massive edit on the front page.

Thiel
2008-09-13, 03:55 PM
Been thinking about this game world I’m working on here and I’ve come up with another idea that should work.

Freeports- these are places that have been taken over by pirates and outlaws. Typically avoided by most of polite society. They are however a good place to find potential jobs. Usually found in poorer areas of the world, off the beaten track as it were.
Since you're going for a proper 30'ies feel this would be an ideal place to have somekind of mafia.
Also, you should most definantly have air racing as a major sport. Air racing was the big thing in the twenties and thirties and a race provides an exellent backdrop for plot hooks.

Prometheus
2008-09-13, 08:11 PM
You mentioned sky pirates- people who use planes to loot zeppelins (and maybe boats). How exactly does this work? Do they hope to board a zeppelin without destroying it (and either commandeer it or take off) or do they shoot it down? If they shoot it down do they have someone on a boat timed to salvage or do they just let it sink and dive for it later? Great idea, but I don't know which logistics are being referred to.

If adventurers are going to be spending a lot of time in the air, maybe there should be the equivalent of an air-craft carrier somewhere in the setting. It is probably a boat, but it could be a large zeppelin. Seaplanes are good and all, but there is no fuel or food to restock in the open water.

Here's an idea. Some island feature extended mining work that goes beneath the sea level. The idea is not only to go after minerals, but to provide extra land-mass for housing and fungal farms. Of course, it's always a tension because if they dig too much they spring a leak and the whole mountain is suddenly flooded on the inside (until they collapse something over the leak and undergo a massive project to bail out the water). Of course, this strategy would supplement the existing ideas of boat houses, underwater houses, man-made floating islands, and flying mansions.

You might put some detailed thinking into the combat mechanics of dogfights and the special evasive maneuvers.

TheThan
2008-09-13, 08:59 PM
Since you're going for a proper 30'ies feel this would be an ideal place to have somekind of mafia.
Also, you should most definantly have air racing as a major sport. Air racing was the big thing in the twenties and thirties and a race provides an exellent backdrop for plot hooks.



I had planned on doing at least one air race.
I figure either a short race where you zip around obstacles, or an endurance race where the fastest time wins. Heck there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do both.

I was shooting for less of a Mafia filled roaring 20s feel but you did give me an idea. Some of the air pirates are a wing (no pun intended) of a larger Mafia style organization. The pirates steal the loot, while the others fence it.





You mentioned sky pirates- people who use planes to loot zeppelins (and maybe boats). How exactly does this work? Do they hope to board a zeppelin without destroying it (and either commandeer it or take off) or do they shoot it down? If they shoot it down do they have someone on a boat timed to salvage or do they just let it sink and dive for it later? Great idea, but I don't know which logistics are being referred to.

If adventurers are going to be spending a lot of time in the air, maybe there should be the equivalent of an air-craft carrier somewhere in the setting. It is probably a boat, but it could be a large zeppelin. Seaplanes are good and all, but there is no fuel or food to restock in the open water.

Here's an idea. Some island feature extended mining work that goes beneath the sea level. The idea is not only to go after minerals, but to provide extra land-mass for housing and fungal farms. Of course, it's always a tension because if they dig too much they spring a leak and the whole mountain is suddenly flooded on the inside (until they collapse something over the leak and undergo a massive project to bail out the water). Of course, this strategy would supplement the existing ideas of boat houses, underwater houses, man-made floating islands, and flying mansions.

You might put some detailed thinking into the combat mechanics of dogfights and the special evasive maneuvers.



Its easier to shoot down the zeppelins but its bad for business. If you destroy the things you raid eventually your going to run out. So it’s safe to assume they try to board them without destroying them (possibly disabling them or deflating it enough for the zeppelin to surrender.

I figured on there being some surface tankers around, as well as some zeppelin tankers too.


I like the idea of underground (and submerged) houses. I can see a rich person living in a house hollowed out of the summit of a tall mountain, so he can overlook all those beneath him.

As for aerial combat mechanics I’m giving the Star Wars D20 Revised Rulebook serous consideration. The space combat in that game feels more like a minis game, but it’s really good and gives you great feel for 3d combat. It’s much more in depth than the D20 modern rules, (which is mostly for cars).

daggaz
2008-09-14, 10:02 AM
Hmm... you are going to want a team of talking bears to fly the seaplanes and run the company, as well as a low IQ flight mechanic, preferably a mountain lion of some sort, for comic relief, and umm.... yeah, an orangutang named Louie to run the local island bar for whenever the flight crew needs to tie one on after one of their many zany adventures...

TheThan
2008-09-14, 01:19 PM
Hmm... you are going to want a team of talking bears to fly the seaplanes and run the company, as well as a low IQ flight mechanic, preferably a mountain lion of some sort, for comic relief, and umm.... yeah, an orangutang named Louie to run the local island bar for whenever the flight crew needs to tie one on after one of their many zany adventures...

No, I don't...

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Thiel
2008-09-20, 11:00 AM
Have you ever played the PC game Crimson Skies? Except for the flooded world thing it's almost the same as what you're looking for/making up/inventing.

The Glyphstone
2008-09-20, 02:12 PM
Hmm... you are going to want a team of talking bears to fly the seaplanes and run the company, as well as a low IQ flight mechanic, preferably a mountain lion of some sort, for comic relief, and umm.... yeah, an orangutang named Louie to run the local island bar for whenever the flight crew needs to tie one on after one of their many zany adventures...

And don't forget the talking warthogs with thick Russian accents...