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Post by dmsam on Feb 20, 2016 7:11:27 GMT
Seeing that your campaign is mostly aquatic, we can also talk about the implications of having a luminescent moon on your ships, etc. . .your people do live on ships, right?
The increased algae growth would promote the numbers of filter feeders, such as barnacles. Your ships will need regular debulking of barnacles, as they will lose quite a bit of speed as the drag increases. In a world where land is abundant, ships are regularly dry-docked for cleaning and maintenance. In a world where land is scarce, the situation would give merfolk significant job opportunities. Scraping barnacles for some form of payment could be very lucrative for your marine civilizations. As for what terrestrial races and aquatic races can do in exchange of services:
1. Metallic objects are likely of lower value for aquatic civilizations as they readily corrode. Meanwhile, ceramics, glass and magical items may be of great value. 2. Food is seldom an issue in an aquatic world, even today. A 15 ton whale can survive by just swimming around with its mouth open. In fact, merfolk may trade regularly with surface dwellers as food vendors or farmers. 3. Contrary to the world above, light in the ocean will remain scarce regardless of how many suns you have. Artificial lighting (likely magical in this case) may play significant roles in marine civilizations. Imagine all the fish you can lure with something that glows in the dark! 4. Piracy might be an interesting aspect of your world. However, I have a difficult time coming up with lucrative loot for pillaging, especially from a marine civilization's standpoint. Most terrestrial foods spoil readily in the ocean. Most spices, salt, sugar, etc would do the same. Gold may be of some value, and as listed above, things such as ceramic and glass.
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Post by catcharlie on Feb 20, 2016 7:42:50 GMT
Wow, just Wow...
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Post by dmsam on Feb 20, 2016 8:33:09 GMT
Heh.
While it can be limiting, I love using Earth as a template for my worlds. Many things work well in our system and most players can identify with the details without much of an explanation. If I named Tuesday the Day of Second Dawn, then return to referencing our own calendar every time it is mentioned, it sort of defeats the purpose.
Of course, you can also argue that having such strong connections to our own world may also break immersion.
Back to project luminescent moon.
Some more cultural ideas: 1. The medial side of large bivalve shells can serve as decent underwater writing surfaces. I would imagine that books of merfolks are garlands of large clam shells with words engraved on one side. 2. Can you imagine how dangerous dispel magic could be in an underwater city of terrestrial humanoids? 3. Make sure you have a healthy source of vitamin c. Wait, can you heal diseases due to nutrition deficiencies? 4. Many marine animals are highly poisonous or venomous. A sting from a jellyfish, cone snail, octopus, etc, can kill in minutes. If you are into that kind of thing, there is quite a lot of potential for unheroic deaths in an aquatic campaign.
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Post by dmzeke on Feb 21, 2016 16:31:25 GMT
If the moon was lit up and created by a deity, then an LED moon could revolve at just the right speed to always be opposite the sun on the planet. This would bathe the planet in light 24/7 with short periods of dimming between sun and moon light.
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Post by dmsam on Feb 21, 2016 16:54:21 GMT
Oh my. . .that would be interesting.
If your moon is somewhat stationary (relatively, meaning it orbits your sun in 1 year. Is that a thing? Wouldn't that make it another planet?), then your tides will also occur at the same time every day!
On second thought, if your moon is orbiting your sun at the same speed as your planet, then the gravitational forces between your planet and the moon would be relatively unopposed, causing your moon to fall into your planet! I think this happens quite a lot, actually. In order for something to orbit through gravitational forces, it most move forward and "fall". Many potential satellites either move forward too much, in which case they'll fly off into space, or they fall too much, thus crashing into the planet.
My physics is probably off at this point, so please correct me if I am wrong. It's been a few years.
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dmdave
Commoner
Posts: 15
Favorite D&D Class: Monk
Favorite D&D Race: Minotaur
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Post by dmdave on Feb 21, 2016 17:43:30 GMT
Zeke hit what I was envisioning, a luminescent moon that basically stays on the other side of the planet. Causing days to stay the same, and nights are still cold, but illuminated with the blue light of the Moon.
I don't think anyone would question the gravity mechanics of it, but I'm just nitpicky of myself, so like to address it.
I imagine it could work like our moon even, with a generally stationary orbit with divided days, but the occasional eclipse of the sun. Could provide interesting story opportunities
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Post by dmsam on Feb 21, 2016 18:04:51 GMT
Heh, you could always make it another planet somewhere far away, rather than a moon. Still, I think they will still slowly move towards each other, just very slowly.
I just can't quite get calculations right. I think in order for it to work, the moon is either mass-less (ghost moon? holographic moon?), or is equipped with thrusters, or there is an angel or moon-goddess constantly keeping it in orbit. Sorry I am going crazy over this.
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Post by dmzeke on Feb 21, 2016 18:38:43 GMT
Or since it is a manifestation of a god it could be a massive illusion and would have no mass, still give off light and do whatever suits your needs as a story teller.
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Post by blakeryan on Mar 12, 2016 23:01:32 GMT
If you are going to have alot more daylight, maybe towns are like iceburgs, a small village at the top, and multiple streets 3-5 levels deep beneath the surface. The other races learned from the Dwarves how to construct these village-dungeon citadels.
For a twist, maybe there are more and more of a new type of Lycanthropes since the 2nd sun appeared. These new lycans change with a sun cycle, and not the moon.
Along the same lines maybe new variants of Oozes/Fungi evolve and are attuned to the new sun. Slightly different abilities, perhaps even a humanoid race is over taken by these new fungus things.
Creatures who hate the light such as Illithid, Vampires etc, may team up, since they have a common enemy that is really making their lives difficult. This could be the Coven of Midnight, Shadow Ascension, whatever you want to call it.
Perhaps there has been a huge increase in the birthrate of intelligent plants such as Dryads, Treants and Shambling Mounds, and these guys have their own goals and enemies.
For something very odd maybe the 2nd sun does not project heat, but instead wild magic, for it is a huge portal to Limbo.
Later on in your timeline, perhaps things get so bad on the surface most pc races grow up in the underdark (the collection of subterranean allied PC race towns) and 'adventure' onto the surface to get lore/items etc.
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