Planetology

Part Two

Planetology

This is where we first start getting into the meat of world creation, and where I’m going to start having some difficulties.  It’s the mapping, see.  I’m not a terribly good drawer, and I’ve never been terribly happy with the maps I’ve drawn.  I have a few programs I’ve gotten over the years, and I may try those out later.  For now, alas, we’ll have to rely on drawings by hand. 

All right, the first thing I need to determine is the shape and size of the world.  The tables are weighted towards making an Earth like world, which makes sense.  At first I was going to go with that, or at least throw some dice and see what I come up with.  But, then I read about the “plane” idea.  I don’t know why, but the concept of a Flat Earth struck me, hard.  I suddenly had an image of a group of adventurers standing on top of a glacier at the top of the world, gazing into a fathomless void as the world just...ends.  Maybe, far off in the distance, the see things writhing and flying about--monsters beyond the ken of man. 

I think it’s a cool image, so I’m going to go with a flat world.  What’s it floating on?  I don’t know.  A turtle?  Maybe its turtles all the way down?  I don’t know how this will affect the climate or the terrain or anything else about the world.  I suppose it would make navigation a tad easier, but otherwise I have no idea.  For now, I’ll try to keep weather and the environment as close to Earth-normal as possible, with the simple explanation that it’s the Will of the Gods!  Heck, maybe there really are Wind Gods responsible for their particular winds, and maybe the seasons are the results of a particularly creepy divine melodrama.  In any case, I’m going to try and keep things as seemingly normal as possible.

Next up, is world size.  There’s a chart listing Planetary Diameter, which is meaningless to me, as my planet is flat.  But, it’ll also tell me the hex size of my world map.  I have no particular feelings on the world size, so let’s roll some dice! 

Ok, I get a 49—this tells me my diameter is would be 8,000 miles, which is about the size of the Earth.  Good enough for me.  This also tells me that my World Map Hexes are 500 miles, and the Regional Maps have 100 mile Hexes.  Seems rather large, but I’ll go with it.

Next there’s a brief aside about the System—the Sun, Moons, and the Stars.  Definitely some things to think about, esp. with a flat world; but for now we’ll table this and worry about it later.

Aaaand, I run into my first issue.  The next section is all about hydrography, with some very nice systems and charts.  Of course, I can’t use them, since they assume a spherical world.  I could free draw it, but frankly, I want to see what I come up with using the WBG’s system.  I’m going to need to do a little tweaking of the map.