Do you build geologically/geographically plausible landscapes?

[veven]

When building a world do you just say, "A mountain range would be cool here", or do you actually consider where things like that would actually be placed. My first world was fairly similar to earth so i tried to make the geographical features as logically placed as possible. My current one is a flat world though, so for starters there is no plate tectonics which makes things pretty interesting.


What do you prefer? what have you done in the past?

[Kobold Esq]

When you have things like crystal spheres, whatever the heck the Spelljammers flew through, etc, basic things like geophysics can be thrown out the window.

[zorba1994]

When building a world do you just say, "A mountain range would be cool here", or do you actually consider where things like that would actually be placed. My first world was fairly similar to earth so i tried to make the geographical features as logically placed as possible. My current one is a flat world though, so for starters there is no plate tectonics which makes things pretty interesting.


What do you prefer? what have you done in the past?

My geography is fairly logical as far as location of hot/cold arid/wet areas.

Then we get to magic-scarred battlegrounds and geography flies out the window.

[PersonMan]

I usually mix normal-ish geography with "epic magic happened".

For example, in a few maps I made recently, most of the world has normal-ish mountains, rivers, etc. while a continent inhabited by mostly epic dragons and turned into their plaything has a ring of mountains at the coast, and absurdly varied climates for testing of their experiments.

[Cogidubnus]

There is a bit of my brain telling me part of South America does have a whole mountain range on the coast anyway...

Besides that, I tend to go with what feels right. None of my players have any geology qualifications, usually, so it's alright.

However, in the campaign I'm about to run, it's entirely set in a city that suffered an as-yet-unexplained magical apocalypse. So some bits of it appear pristine, while others were mostly flattened. Again, that's mostly down to how I want it to look.

[noiadodh]

There is a bit of my brain telling me part of South America does have a whole mountain range on the coast anyway...

correct: the Andes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andes

[shadow_archmagi]

Is your world even vaguely sane?

AH HA HA HA HA HA

No.

[dsmiles]

When designing the maps for my campaign worlds, I use the 2e World Builder's Guidebook. It allows for various magical/logical things going on with geography/geology. I prefer to make it as realistic as possible, but sometimes it's not in the dice.

[Mastikator]

This is how I do it basically.

First I consider the tectonic plates, which direction are they moving? The collision is where either mountains exist or where extreme depths exist.
Then I make a few hills and planes and whatever, fill with water. Make up my mind of which way the winds will blow and where hurricanes will most likely exist.
From there I can get where most rain will occur based on water and wind. I can now place water in high ground and make it flow to the ocean, and I got myself rivers.
I place plant life wherever there's water, i.e rivers and rainy places. I also place animals accordingly.

Then I consider what kind of natural resources there are, minerals, rocks, trees, freshwater and animals. Villages, cities and the like will pop up wherever there are natural resources, or if it's a really good spot (for trade or some such).
I divide the cities into countries and races, make them fight over natural resources (i.e territory), and sometimes other political reasons (like racism or religion).

BAM, I have an intricate and plausible world.
Granted, anyone with a degree in geology or meteorology or whatever will be able to tell that it's complete humbug since I don't really know anything and just run on common sense.
They'd probably be like "umm that doesn't make any sense, wouldn't the wind come from this direction and thus drying up the whole area and making it very inhospitable for people?" and I'd be like "your character has a stroke" and then we'd take a break and eat pizza.

I like pizza.

[Vknight]

I look at some paper.
Then I doodle on it. I decide is this a complete continet or do I expand it.
If not expanding it is this the entire world.
If it is then that one sheet of paper is going to look messy after the next 5hours.

It I expand it 3 more sheets of paper hello! If thats not enough I can add 2 or 5 more sheets.
I finish that doodling now I can go into detail for any map.

I say this is here this is here this is there that is there and so on and so forth until I complete the map.
Next borders towns, villages, cities, capitals, and other stuff.

My method as a artist.

[gbprime]

The map tells a story just as much as the cities on it do. Invent stuff as you go.

For my campaign world, I envisoned a continent bisected by a mighty mountain range, and ancient empires were at war across it. The mountains made the war drag on for decades. one side was winning due to attrition, though, so the other nation commissioned an epic work from it's priests. Obelisks were raised and enchanted with mighty spells, and the weather pattern across the continent was changed forever.

The empire on the eastern side got no more rain. Ever. The weather spells forced the moisture to hug the mountains and go around said empire to it's north, so it literally dried up and blew away in under a decade, and it's outlying provinces went rogue. Today the center of that side of the continent is a harsh, haunted desert, and the few states remaining are well north of it where all the rain patterns were concentrated.

[Ormur]

I just make up some plausible geology without bothering about plate tectonics, I presume it's not to hard handwaving basic features like mountain ranges with normal tectonics. After that however I stark thinking about how the geology affects the climate, where ocean currents lie, rain-shadow and latitude. It's not very thorough but I know better than to place a jungle smack next to a desert.

[starwoof]

I guess my world is kinda plausible, but I don't really know jack about rivers and rain patterns and stuff. I try anyway. If anyone calls me on something I just remind them that this world was created from a war between ancient elemental.

And if the personification of earth wants a mountain range right there then by the gods, he shall have it.

[Cealocanth]

I try to get realistic geography when it's not being overran by enormous magical nexus's like the Elemental Chaos which change the geography of the world around it.

[Yahzi]

I randomly generate a series of mountain peaks. Then I raise the elevation of the surrounding terrain around those peaks, decaying at a log rate, and randomize the elevation of every map hex a bit. Next I randomly pick some points between peaks to be the starting point for rivers, which flow down hill to either the sea coast or a lake. I add vegetation (forest, swamp, desert, plains) based on elevation and closeness to water.

Then I randomly generate civilizations, marking off the territory they control and list the ranks & classes of the nobility, and generate the random encounters for every single hex on the map (CR is based on how far they are from the borders of a civilization).

Or more to the point, I write a program to do it for me. :D

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=185078

[Kallisti]

I try to keep things somewhat realistic, but overall realism is secondary to it being an enjoyable world to play in.

[Serpentine]

I try to. I'm sure it wouldn't stand up to deep scrutiny, but I try to at least have it make superficial sense.
My world started with an idea*: A double-sided disc. Also, the outside edge should be cold. At some point I determined that the water falls off the edge, then sucks in the middle where the two sides meet. It goes through the inside of the planet getting hotter and hotter - between the water and the thin crust that supports the surface and the Underdark there is a molten core - before emerging again in the middle of the disks (sometimes an item from one side will be washed to the other with the water). The warm water effects the weather where it emerges, creating a tropical region around the centre. It cools down as it heads to the edges, eventually getting to arctic conditions at the edge.
Continents roughly conform to plate tectonics, moving very slowly from the centre to the outside.


*Technically, it started with a single city, but whatever.

[Tetsubo 57]

I normally try and base my worlds on ours in basic structure. So yes, vaguely realistic.

I've been playing with the idea of an infinite flat plane for setting though. It would have major effects on the world's politics. Don't like your neighbors? Just keep walking until you don't have any more...

This is one of the reasons I like the Uresia setting for BESM. Small island/continents that are all separated by water. You can pretty much just plunk down whatever you want without a lot of fuss.

[Eldan]

I study ecology, so I try to at least make the basic weather patterns make sense. Then I mix in the four classical elements, crystal spheres, luminiferous aether, phlogiston, philosophic quicksilver/mercury and magical creatures.