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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 17, 2015 22:09:55 GMT -5
I design worlds from both the top down and bottom up at the same time. The bottom up portion is created as the player move about and explore. The top down part is mainly for the ref and most of it the players are not privy to.
World (Setting) Building and the world/setting of The Ruins of Murkhill campaign.
I approach world building from two directions at the same time. The part of the world that the PCs see is created from the bottom up approach as they move about the world and explore it and at the same time I also do some top down world building to a limited extent. The top down portion the PCs for the most part do not see and is done by determining how large the world is, how many moons it has, the percentage of land to ocean, does it have an ice cap or two and many of the macro details.
I do the top down portion for myself so that things can be somewhat consistent about the things that the PCs will notice such as weather, climate, how many moons they see in the sky and etc.
The world of The Ruins of Murkhill campaign is very large and has two other campaigns (at the present time) on the same planet although they are widely separated. The planet will eventually have at least 30 or more unique campaign settings
This planet is considerably larger than Earth and is approximately 20,000 miles in diameter instead of 7926 miles. The ratio of land to ocean is 35% to 65% and it is more geologically active than earth. Gravity, atmospheric pressure, axial tilt and many other factors are the same as or very similar to the values for earth. The length of the day is 30 hours and mean temperature is the same. There are three major moons in the sky and they range from the size of Venus to the size of Earth and all are habitable. There are an additional 30 moons in the sky that range from twice the size of the earth's moon to half that size and they are not habitable.
Now if I had the time and were so inclined I could do calculations to establish at any given moment how many moons would be in the sky at the same time and many other things. While it would be fun to have complete statistics for the planet and the moons, I do not have the time or the inclination to do the calculations myself. But the above gives me enough information to add some color to descriptions I give the players PCs from time to time.
In addition, it allows me to calculate the surface area of the planet - 1,256,637,061.436 square miles—giving 439,822,971.503 square miles of land and 816,814,089.933 square miles of ocean. The land area of earth is 57,308,738 square miles and this means I have 7.7 times the land area to play with and areas can be separated such that many completely different campaign areas that are highly unlikely to ever meet.
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 19, 2015 0:04:02 GMT -5
The next part of the top down behind the curtain portion of the world building is to determine the land masses it will have. I started with earth and then extrapolated from there.
First we will at the major land masses of earth:
Here are the seven continents of the world ordered by size.
Rank-------Continent-------Square Miles
1-----------Asia------------17,139,445
2-----------Africa----------11,677,239
3-----------North America---9,361,791
4-----------South America---6,880,706
5-----------Antarctica ------5,500,000
6-----------Europe----------3,997,929
7-----------Australia--------2,967,124
The Largest Islands
Rank--Island’s name Area
---------------- (sq mi)
1 -Greenland ------822,706
2- New Guinea------303,381
3 -Borneo ------288,869
4- Madagascar------226,917
5 -Baffin Island 195,928
6 -Sumatra ------187,831
The next largest group of islands
Rank Island's name ------Area
------------------(sq mi)
7 -Great Britain ------89,784
8- -Honshu ------------89,048
9 -Victoria Island ------75,767
11-Sulawesi ------------69,761
12 -South Island ------56,308
13-Java ------------------53,589
14 -North Island ------43,082
15 -Luzon-----------------42,458
16- Newfoundland ------42,031
17- Cuba (main island) 40,369
18- Iceland (main island) 39,315
There are 30 islands ranging from 7,700–38,600 sq miles
There are 29 islands ranging from 3,900–7,700 sq miles
There are 40 islands ranging from 1,900–3,900 sq miles
There are 70 islands ranging from 970–1,930 sq miles
There are 150 islands ranging from 390-970 sq miles
There are 190 islands ranging from 190-390 sq miles
There are about 180,000 islands of less than 190 square miles.
********************************************************************************************
I used this as a basis (with some tweaking and extrapolation ) to create continents and islands for the campaign world setting. Only a portion of this has any mapping down as yet.
4 continents averaging 23,000,000 square miles
6 continents averaging 16,000,000 square miles
6 continents averaging 10,000,000 square miles
6 continents averaging 9,000,000 square miles
6 continents averaging 6,000,000 square miles
6 continents averaging 5,500,000 square miles
6 continents averaging 4,000,000 square miles
6 continents averaging 3,000,000 square miles
for 47 total continents.
This totals 427,000,000 square miles for continents leaving 26,822,871.503 square miles for islands.
There are 60 islands ranging from 80,000 square miles up to 800,000 square miles(Avg. =100,000 square miles)
There are 120 islands ranging from 40,000 square miles up to 79,000 square miles(Avg. =50,000 square miles)
There are 462 islands ranging from 7,000–39,000 sq miles(Avg. =10,000 square miles)
There are 471 islands ranging from 3,900–6,900 sq miles(Avg. =4500 square miles)
There are 612 islands ranging from 1,000–3,800 sq miles(Avg. =1300 square miles)
There are 1063 islands ranging from 500– 999 sq miles(Avg. =700 square miles)
There are 2310 islands ranging from 350-499 sq miles(Avg. =400 square miles)
There are 3080 islands ranging from 170-349 sq miles(Avg. =250 square miles)
There are about 3,080,000 islands of less than 169 square miles(Avg. =1.57457 square miles)
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Post by tetramorph on Jan 19, 2015 13:46:47 GMT -5
Admin Pete, this is exactly the kind of stuff I want this kind of forum to be around for. Really inspirational to my own thinking for campaign generation!
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 19, 2015 14:26:57 GMT -5
Admin Pete, this is exactly the kind of stuff I want this kind of forum to be around for. Really inspirational to my own thinking for campaign generation! Cool, I am glad it is firing you up. Let me know when/if you want to put your campaign on here. I know some people think it should be all bottom up and book writers are generally all top down types. I think a judicious mix of the two is a good way to go. Big picture for the ref and local picture for the players. You can go overkill with top down; however, I think I strike a happy balance, since overkill would interfere with the way I run the campaign. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 19, 2015 21:57:38 GMT -5
This is good stuff all around! I must second the sentiment of this info being "exactly the type of stuff" I am looking for also. Post up,some more!
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 19, 2015 22:40:04 GMT -5
This is good stuff all around! I must second the sentiment of this info being "exactly the type of stuff" I am looking for also. Post up,some more! Never fear, I will be!  I will be putting a lot of setting information into this thread, not just for the area around Murkhill but also for other areas and other campaigns. There will eventually be some other campaigns detailed in their own forums. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 19, 2015 23:14:11 GMT -5
Contrary to what most believe, the universe in which Murkhill lies is not the only universe, but only one infinitesimally tiny part of the infinitely vast highly complex interlocking woven web of existence that results in an infinite conglomeration of parallel universes, alternative universes, quantum universes, infinite dimensions, interpenetrating dimensions, parallel dimensions, parallel worlds, alternative realities, alternative timelines, dimensional planes, long worlds and fictional universes that make up the infinite number of multiverses, metaverses, xenoverses, hyperverses and omniverses that make up all possible and impossible realities.
Therefore, when you go through a magical portal it can take you literally anywhere, anywhen and anywhat. This does not even include the theological complexities that can alter any and all of the above in an infinite number of impossible to foresee ways.
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Post by tetramorph on Jan 21, 2015 14:16:57 GMT -5
Contrary to what most believe, the universe in which Murkhill lies is not the only universe, but only one infinitesimally tiny part of the infinitely vast highly complex interlocking woven web of existence that results in an infinite conglomeration of parallel universes, alternative universes, quantum universes, infinite dimensions, interpenetrating dimensions, parallel dimensions, parallel worlds, alternative realities, alternative timelines, dimensional planes, long worlds and fictional universes that make up the infinite number of multiverses, metaverses, xenoverses, hyperverses and omniverses that make up all possible and impossible realities. Therefore, when you go through a magical portal it can take you literally anywhere, anywhen and anywhat. This does not even include the theological complexities that can alter any and all of the above in an infinite number of impossible to foresee ways. Wow, Admin Pete, your campaign setting just seems totally vast to me! How can you keep track of it all? Or is it more like undefined "vibe" and "feel"? |
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Post by Admin Pete on Jan 21, 2015 23:41:50 GMT -5
Contrary to what most believe, the universe in which Murkhill lies is not the only universe, but only one infinitesimally tiny part of the infinitely vast highly complex interlocking woven web of existence that results in an infinite conglomeration of parallel universes, alternative universes, quantum universes, infinite dimensions, interpenetrating dimensions, parallel dimensions, parallel worlds, alternative realities, alternative timelines, dimensional planes, long worlds and fictional universes that make up the infinite number of multiverses, metaverses, xenoverses, hyperverses and omniverses that make up all possible and impossible realities. Therefore, when you go through a magical portal it can take you literally anywhere, anywhen and anywhat. This does not even include the theological complexities that can alter any and all of the above in an infinite number of impossible to foresee ways. Wow, Admin Pete, your campaign setting just seems totally vast to me! How can you keep track of it all? Or is it more like undefined "vibe" and "feel"? Part of it is not trying to go too far with the top down part. You only go so far with the top down part and it intersects with the bottom up part where the PCs are, so you have a lot to keep track of but the bulk is off screen in the vast unknown and that is the undefined "vibe" and "feel". It is amazing to me that my players will still send their PCs through portals with no clue as to where they will end up, but they do. Although my one player who used to dirink from anything, after over 50 strange things happened to him, learned caution in that area.  |
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Post by DFL_GM on Aug 9, 2022 12:25:11 GMT -5
Wow, PD this is great stuff. Would love to see you post more here in your campaign forum. Oh and have an exalt.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Aug 9, 2022 13:16:28 GMT -5
Wow, PD this is great stuff. Would love to see you post more here in your campaign forum. Oh and have an exalt. Thank you and, yes, I would like to do that. |
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Post by DFL_GM on Aug 10, 2022 11:22:33 GMT -5
Wow, PD this is great stuff. Would love to see you post more here in your campaign forum. Oh and have an exalt. Thank you and, yes, I would like to do that. Awesome |
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