Campaign Setting in progress, INPUT WANTED.

[kentma57]

I am building a campaign setting and there are three main environment: A tropical ring around the planet (running North to South), An ever-dark arctic environment, and a ever-bright desert. Basicly the planet dosen't rotate, one side is constantly dark one is always bright; this leads to two extream emvironment and one balanced one.

So what classes do you think would like in each area, and what books would you recomend I use.

[expirement10K14]

For books- Frostburn and Sandstorm are a must. One is about arctic environments, and the other deserts, looking like exactly what you need.

[tyckspoon]

Sounds like just about the best possible situation to use the environment splatbooks, particularly It's Hot Outside and It's Cold Outside (er, Frostburn and Sandstorm.) The desert and arctic zones would probably spawn mostly nature-y and survivalist-type classes, like rangers, druids, scouts, barbarians, and clerics with wild/elemental/strength-type domains. I would imagine the tropical belt will have most of the civilization (as defined at the most simple level as the presence of cities), so most of the game's more studious and sheltered classes are likely to come from there- your wizards, archivists, cloistered cleric variants and the like. Fighters are crazy generic by default, so a basic 'experienced fightin' dude' concept can come from just about anywhere.

[Frosty]

Umm...I'm trying to picture the ecology and the climate repurcussions and I just can't. A ring of tropics going north to south? huhhh? No light on one side and total light on the other. So the artic is basically all on the dark side and the desert on the light side? And the tropical forest-ring is in border?

One side will be like 400F and the other side will be below zero constantly. You should definitely use Sandstorm and Frostburn.

[AslanCross]

If the desert side is indeed that hot, most races on that side will tend to live underground to escape the surface heat. It would be more practical than building houses, in any case. That said, classes that would do well in extreme environments would be barbarians, druids and rangers.

Also, a question: If half the planet is frozen and the other half is dry, where is all the water? Frozen on the cold half? Underground? I'd think the lack of oceans would prevent tropical zones from forming.

[Frosty]

Aslan: The ecology would never work in real life. But maybe this planet is magic?

[Azerian Kelimon]

Question: Is this world, by chance, partially inspired by Kahani from Slaman Rushdie's Haroun and the sea of stories?

No longer a question, but suggestion: Make wilderness classes tropical only, barbs from the desert, possibly Martial Adepts unique to one ecosystem each (Swordsages are from the tropical side, Crusaders from the icelands, Warblades from the desert). Possibly make psionicists unique to one ecosystem, and the same with incarnum users. Consider making Chameleons unique to an ecosystem too.

[Gaiwecoor]

As people have previously stated: Sandstorm and Frostburn should work for many of the things you're looking for.

If you don't want to get into those too much (I don't actually know what's in there - I've never looked into it), there's always the Environmental Racial Variants from Unearthed Arcana. They have Arctic, Desert and Jungle variants of all the core races in there.

[kentma57]

I though people would sugest Sandstorm and Frostburn. There are some other good sugestions too. As for how the ecology works... it does .

Does anyone have sugestions for what the different groups should be?

[Uncle Festy]

I though people would sugest Sandstorm and Frostburn. There are some other good sugestions too. As for how the ecology works... it does .

Because I said so, ok?!?

[Azerian Kelimon]

I'd prepare a justification for the existence of the ecosystems, just in case. I recommend something like this:


A long, long, loooooooooooooooooooong time ago, there was a great war between world spanning empires. Eventually, the incredible magical energies channeled by the war seeped into the planet. It then awoke. And, angry at the empires, it rearranged itself, causing millions of casualties, and went to sleep. The survivors were forced to band together, creating the original groups that would become the founders of most great civilizations and major cities.

[kentma57]

Well the back story I have is that...
Once there was a great planet, with many people as time progresed so did they until one day thier sun begain to die. The people of this planet gathered all their resources to reignite the sun, creating a system to feed the sun forever.

Trillions of years later the planet has begun slowing, the days become longer and longer. The people knowing what will come go back to ancient magic, praying to nature and their gods in hopes for some life to survive. Others resorted to harsh training, building underground strong holds to keep out the heat and cold.

As the ecological shifts became worse wars broke out trillions died leaving it's old technology behind and civilization started anew. Those who are left are strong, some flee to the new tropic band; others survive in their ancient fortresses hidden away from the world.

More latter...

PS: If you haden't guessed this is a post apocolipse earth.

[Prometheus]

I'd try to have the mentality of the desert folk and the tundra folk completely alien from each other. This would be hard, because they both have the same large problem of survival against the environment, but here's some ideas:
Individualism vs. Collectivism: In the former, the only way to survive is to look out for yourself and don't expect anything from anyone else. In the latter, the only way to survive is to band together
Optimism vs. Pessimism: Self explanatory
Good Diety vs. Bad Diety: The former praises their gods for letting them survive the terrors of the land, the other curses them for causing the terrors of the land
Nomadic vs. Urban: Two different survival strategies, one for foraging, the other for climate control and protection.
Magic vs. Nonmagic vs. Psionics: Maybe that's just the way it is
Presence of Fey, Undead, Constructs, or Outsiders etc: Maybe one has a connection to the exotic that the other doesn't.

Another Idea: If climate really does shape your world, than perhaps it can become dynamic in the time of the adventurers. Perhaps the tropical area is shrinking at both ends or that one or both of the poles are getting more intense. This is quite a problem for the characters to solve and quite a dramatic sign as the climax of the plot is reached. Moreover, there is lots of subplots that can be generated as a result (civilization A is pushed out of their territory and intrude on civilization B, the loss of life in the commoners allowed a corrupt gang to take control etc)

[kentma57]

Some good ideas Prometheus, I'll post more later I am late for my bus...

[lothofkalroth]

might i suggest some sort of a pirate culture for the middle tropical ring? i know it's been a tad played out as of late, but it could still be fun...

also consider possibly having a dune like scenario with the people on either side having tames some sort of beast i.i. : frost worm for arctic side, maybe some sort of modified dragon on the other. I might suggest the draconomicon for ideas. you might even be able to work in something with dragon eggs being a sought after commodity.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Why wouldn't the ecosystem work? Who says it's powered by a titanic ball of burning gas millions of miles away? That's kind of narrow for a fantasy game...

[hewhosaysfish]

One consequence no-one has mentioned yet: no day-night cycle.
How do people measure time?
Years will still exist, as will cycles of the moon(s).
With enough moons in the sky, it could be possible to have some fairly fine-grained natural measure of time... but it would be kinda complicated (both for your players and for the imaginary populace).
If you don't go that route, people will most likely break the month into arbitrary divisions (like breaking the day into 24 hours. What's that based on?) and different cultures may argue about different calendars.

might i suggest some sort of a pirate culture for the middle tropical ring? i know it's been a tad played out as of late, but it could still be fun...

Arr! Everything's better with pirates! Or is that monkeys?

[hamlet]

For the record, time on earth is (currently and, for the most part, historically) measured by astronomical cycles that are virtually unchanging.

A day is 24 hours because that is how long it takes the Earth to spin once on its axis. Hours, minutes and seconds are, I think, arbitrary, but they've worked out pretty well for us so far. It is linked, though, to the whole 12 month thing.

A year is 365.25 days because that is how long it takes this planet to go round the sun. We only count 365 days, and add one day every 4th year to keep things even (Leap Years you know) and so that Spring doesn't slowly slide into Winter.

Our current calendar is, largely, an artifact of the Roman calendar, but corrected to even it all out and make sure that things stay in their proper place.

Without all of that, i.e., without natural cycles of rotation and revolution that are observable to the general populace, the measure of time will have to be based on something else entirely. By the way, humans are psychologically addicted to 24 hours days. Even robbed of the observable cycle of light and dark, we will typically fall into a 24 hour pattern, or close abouts.

Where am I going with all of this? If you're going to have your world rotate at the same speed it revolves (i.e., the day and year are the same length and so one side of the planet always faces the sun and one side always away), then your people are going to have to come up with some method to measure time that doesn't involve observing the cycle of light and dark. A stellar calendar could work out, but would be very difficult to keep. Water clocks are your best bet, actually. Or cycles based on the lifecycles of local flora and fauna (i.e. "Bloom time, Harvest Time" etc.). Anybody from a foreign world with a normal time scheme will be swiftly driven mad (it actually happens on this world, people not used to far northern climes go a little loopy when they experience 24 hours of light and dark).

Between the frozen side and the burned side would not be a jungle if we're talking straight up planetology. Nor would it run from the north pole to the south. Jungles require lots of light and lots of moisture, both of which your middle zone will lack. In fact, big plants will struggle in your twilight zone since they require lots of these resources. Add on top of that the fact that Jungles are not really good about supporting large scale human populations (the soil in a jungle stinks, frankly), and you're gonna have a problem. Most likely, small sized trees and shrubs (no more than 10 feet tall) are going to make up the forests, grasses and scrub will fill in the rest. The closer to the poles that you get, the move lichens and mosses there are going to be, until your temperate zone too will become frozen and uninhabitable.

Of course, if "a wizard did it," then you have pretty much anything you want.

My favorite hook for a world like this would be that the world itself is actually still turning faster than its year, but almost imperceptably so. The temperate zone in the middle is slowly getting warmer and warmer and nobody knows why, while anybody who ventures out into the desert will notice that there are ruined buildings all along the edge. The further out into "day" that you go, the older the buildings . . . Meanwhile, new, virgin territory is opening up on the other side, but without the trees. Until somebody discovers a ruin coming in out of the frozen wastes where a man made building has no earthly business being . . .

[Baxbart]

I have a question/thought:

Plant-life. Obviously it will thrive in the central zone, and will probably produce some mediocre shrivelled shrubs and the ilk on the light-side... but what about the dark-side? Without sunlight, plants don't really grow (unless you want to go with the underdark-style fungus-eating society). No light and arctic temperatures are even more unfriendly towards crops than too much heat. Do the people simply live off meat and underground roots/vegetables? Wouldn't the animals there migrate without any food source?

I knows its easy to just slap the 'Its magic' sign on everything, but I thought it might be a good one to consider for a more feasible campaign world.

Bax

EDIT: Damn, semi-ninja'd

[Rendel Nep]

Darn if I can remember when and where but I saw an article in the New Scientist about a tidal locked earth where the air had frozen on one side and and it was raining sodium and potassium on the other. I think it was looking to some point in the distant future where the sun was in a red giant stage.

Edit:I had idea where there might be some sort of symbiotic relationship between a plant and a fungus that would span the daytime desert side and the twilight zone where water would still be liquid. There would be issues with vaporisation and the scale of such organisms but there is your plant life.

[hamlet]

I have a question/thought:

Plant-life. Obviously it will thrive in the central zone, and will probably produce some mediocre shrivelled shrubs and the ilk on the light-side... but what about the dark-side? Without sunlight, plants don't really grow (unless you want to go with the underdark-style fungus-eating society). No light and arctic temperatures are even more unfriendly towards crops than too much heat. Do the people simply live off meat and underground roots/vegetables? Wouldn't the animals there migrate without any food source?

I knows its easy to just slap the 'Its magic' sign on everything, but I thought it might be a good one to consider for a more feasible campaign world.

Bax

EDIT: Damn, semi-ninja'd

Actually, another point is that many plants (not all) require a light and dark cycle as well, or they whither up and die. Many plants will only bloom at night or in the day. Some will only bloom where strong sunlight has touched them (the lilac springs to mind). At the same time, some food plants require lots of sun, but also lots of water (the tomato, zuchini, etc.).

[kentma57]

You have to remember the time scales involved, the plants have had billions of years to adapt. Some can live in complete dark, others live in constant light, non find this hard. Maybe the plants in the tropical band send miles of roots out into the arctic for water, and into the desert for warmth.

[hamlet]

You have to remember the time scales involved, the plants have had billions of years to adapt. Some can live in complete dark, others live in constant light, non find this hard. Maybe the plants in the tropical band send miles of roots out into the arctic for water, and into the desert for warmth.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not nixing the whole thing, I'm just pointing out things that will cause issues in the little part of my brain that still functions on logic.

Yes, after billions of years, you could probably say that plants could evolve on such lines (though getting warmth via roots will stretch my imagination's neck a bit).

Now, the real fun is what happened to humans after billions of years?

[Adumbration]

Use those whatcha-call-it sandpeople that can swim in sand and glow in the light side desert, I'd imagine they would do pretty well. Make them farm mushrooms or something, deep in the more moist sand areas.

Hey, you could actually give the more primitive sides to more primitive people - like the glowie-people and neanderthals - and get the majority of civilized population live in the jungle area.

Jeah, use Sandstorm and Frostburn a lot.

[kentma57]

Now, the real fun is what happened to humans after billions of years?

That is where it gets fun; to start even commoners get 36point buy or 4d6b3.

People on the dark side all get dark vision, but get ensitivity to light. They also can resist cold, survive on little food, but can't take much heat.

People on the light side lose all lowlight vision, but have incredible vission never having trouble with the light and being able to see twice as far as the average person. They also can resist the heat, while surviving on little food/water.

[Subotei]

Have you read Hothouse by Brian Aldiss? Very good sci-fi about a similar situation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hothouse_%28novel%29

It goes into a lot of detail on the environmental effects. I also recommend his Helliconia novels for a similar reason, though they wouldn't help you with this one.

[DementedFellow]

Use those whatcha-call-it sandpeople that can swim in sand and glow in the light side desert, I'd imagine they would do pretty well. Make them farm mushrooms or something, deep in the more moist sand areas.

Hey, you could actually give the more primitive sides to more primitive people - like the glowie-people and neanderthals - and get the majority of civilized population live in the jungle area.

Jeah, use Sandstorm and Frostburn a lot.

The Asherati. They also have the ability to bring up their natural body light and dazzle people. Awesome ability for a +0 LA class.

[Talic]

Ooooh, ever-bright dessert! I want mine to be pudding.

[kentma57]

Ooooh, ever-bright dessert! I want mine to be pudding.

Grrr......

[Yahzi]

A book you might look into (although it's Sci-Fi instead of Fantasy) is West of January.