TG June Chat Thread: Bruce Willis' Bonus Feats

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG June Chat Thread: Bruce Willis' Bonus Feats

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

First RPG played- Star Wars D6. Didn't do so well with it, as I was like ten.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2015 14:01

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 21:36

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

paradoxGentleman posted:

Is anyone here any good with geography and/or MS Paint?

Here is a map of my WIP fantasy setting. It pretty much sucks; I need at the very least to put give some cool names to the various geographical elements so that it might at least hope to spark the immagination. But I want this to be detailed and sensible, which means I need to develop the cultures that named those elements before extrapolating what those names might be.

That being said: does this make sense from a geographical standpoint? There's supposed to be a warm current that hits the southern part of the two northernmost continents; that's why there's so much chaparral so far north. Apart from that, there should be no more weird climatic features.

I would also like to make more detailed maps of the single continents, but I do not trust myself to precisely redraw them again. I did save a precedent version of this map, without the colors, and tried just enlarging them from there: but the end result is a blurry, pixelated mess. Is there a better way?

No, not really. You have too many mountain ranges that act as convenient barriers and extend to the coasts. A quick primer on mountain formation- all mountains are formed by the joining of plates. High mountains, usually geologically young, coincide directly with plate boundaries- the Rockies, the Himalayas, the Andes, the mountain ranges that run from Turkey to Afghanistan, while older mountains like the Appalachians or Scandinavian Mountains or Urals are the remnants of earlier collisions, and they are generally eroded (In fact, the Scottish Highlands, Atlas and Scandinavian Mountains, and the Appalachians are all part of the same mountain range). These plates in turn are generally aligned with the shape of the continent itself, so mountain ranges tend to run along the continent rather than crossways to it- the main exception being the Urals. Most importantly, the coasts erode away the quickest, so you never see coastal mountains.

That being said, don't worry too much about it.

You can use magic wand tools to clear away a lot of the artifacting, from pretty much any free graphics editor.

Here's one that's four times the size of the original, with blank continents, and here's one with some prospective mountain ranges. EDIT: Dark brown is for young ranges, light brown for old ones.

Effectronica fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Jun 1, 2015

# ¿ Jun 1, 2015 17:39

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

drrockso20 posted:

while we're on the topic of maps, how many people here would play in and/or run a game in this world;

where's bookworld

# ¿ Jun 2, 2015 00:10

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

unseenlibrarian posted:

Sorry, all my fantasy gaming map needs are handled by

One day I'll get players who want to visit Kanga-Rat Murder Society. One. Day.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Then once they get used to that, you can expand it out to the real map.

Fuego Fish posted:

I prefer to make my own

*bangs fist on table* where's bookworld

# ¿ Jun 2, 2015 00:26

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

TheLovablePlutonis posted:

There are, they just patrol around in police cars.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2015 02:06

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

I'm willing to bet that the reason OSR materials are more descended from Keep on the Borderlands/Against the Giants/Tomb of Horrors than Expedition to the Barrier Peaks/White Plume Mountain/Island of the Ape is because the former have and had greater mindshare, rather than revisionism of the conscious or unconscious variety.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2015 03:32

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

paradoxGentleman posted:

I have sort of an odd question but bear with me for a second.

Imagine a fantasy race that, upon giving birth, produces four to six younglings at a time.
How would inheritance work? It doesn't make sense for there to be primogeniture, since the firstborn pretty much came up at the same time of his brothers and sisters. But on the other hand it's not feasible to split it amongst the brood, especially for the poorer classes.

At a more basic level, is such a thing even possible? Would it strain the mother's body too much to generate so many children? There are animals that produce much more offspring but I am not sure if the same concept can be applied to humanoid races.

Hey, this is about as many pups as wolves give birth to at a time. So let's look at wolf social structures. Wolf packs generally consist of a breeding pair, the latest litter of pups, and a couple yearlings. When the pups grow old enough to compete with mom and dad for food, they generally disperse, find a mate, and start their own pack. Male wolves unable to find a mate will sometimes reproduce with female wolves that haven't dispersed yet, but without the pair-bonding that normally occurs. Orphaned pups and the occasional yearling are often adopted by other packs.

So one way of doing things might be that 1. inheritance is conducted at the level of birthings rather that of individuals and 2. ultimogeniture is the norm- the last birthing gets mom and dad's stuff to divide among themselves. Of course, wolves don't experience menopause, and so if your fantasy race does, this will be somewhat different and so will the social structure. In addition, they would presumably control their fertility and have less children than wolves do.

Of course, this has some broader implications for social structures, since extended households would be rare and the commonality of those is an important part of how human societies developed in the fashion they did historically.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2015 15:18

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

If this species lives as long as humans do (say 70 years for those that make it to maturity and have decent nutrition), then in order to avoid overpopulation, either they abandon newborns or they have a very limited fertility cycle, such that they can reproduce, say, once every four or five years, or we could make them purely Secondary World (in Tolkien terms) and ignore natural evolution and just have them practice extreme contraception. Or they live five-six years like wolves do.

Interesting, mice appear to have an inverse correlation between lifespan and litter sizes, such that long-lived strains of mice produce fewer children.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2015 18:10

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

Len posted:

Is there a RPG system that accurately portrays the world of a police procedural?

Note that GUMSHOE would require a fairly hefty amount of hacking to turn it into a mundane police procedural.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2015 04:02

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

Sionak posted:

You could use the Esoterrorists and leave out the monsters. I think it wouldn't take a whole lot of hacking.

Eh, not so much on the mechanical end (although the Esoterrorist skill list probably should be altered somewhat) but on the end of providing all the fluff details for the justice system and so on.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2015 15:01

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

TheLovablePlutonis posted:

Well, D&D 4e lets you play as a good amount of monster races without level adjustment crap...

About 25 or so when we count things that are classically D&D monsters.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2015 15:23

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 21:36

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

TheLovablePlutonis posted:

If you are to nominate a fangame that wasn't authorized by copyright owners at least nominate Pokémon Tabletop United because it wasn't on DTRPG, has an actual system that evolved nicely the last few years and is inspired by a better loving franchise than ME.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2015 16:57

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG June Chat Thread: Bruce Willis' Bonus Feats