Re: Sphere Guides

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Adam Miller" <night_druid3000@?????.com>
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Sphere Guides


>> > Wow. Mr. Shepherd described excellently how space
>> > feels small to me, and great ideas about what to
>> > do about it.
>
> Yeah, gave me lots of ideas, too, to work with :)

Thanks.

<snip>

>> I think that wilderness areas are as important to SJ
>> as civilised ports like Bral. Worlds in SJ seem to
>> be classed as "spacefaring" or "groundling" worlds.
>> I'd like to see "semi-spacefaring" worlds where NPC
>> spelljamming ships are only interested in trading
>> with big towns (maybe port towns) as they collect
>> together all the goods that they are interested in.
>
> I think you're bumping into mixing an SJ setting with
> that of "groundling" worlds, who(se gamers) are only
> mildly interested in SJ.  With a purely SJ setting,
> this problem can go away easily :)

I wasn't actually proposing a way to deal with groundling worlds from 
existing campaign settings. I was actually proposing that we create new 
groundling worlds in new crystal spheres and put a few SJ friendly ports 
onto them. This would allow us to put a size D (or greater) earthworld into 
a crystal sphere and have a built in excuse to only document a few landing 
sites.

>> I know it is a bit of a fudge, but I think that we
>> should copy settings like Forgotten Realms and
>> Dragonlance and developspecific geographical areas
>> on most of our larger SJ planets. As we add in other
>> areas they can sometimes have similar cultures to
>> the existing areas, but single-world governments
>> (like that on Thesalys) should be rare.
>
> I've tried this; it can get overwhelming.  Its a
> daunting task creating a setting as broad and
> appealing as FR/DL/GH.

That is why I think it is something that has to be done in small chunks. You 
can start of with a broad overview of a planet on the first pass and develop 
one port/village or city that functions as an example of a particular 
civilisation found on that planet. When you have moved around the rest of 
the sphere you can come back and add another culture on the same planet. If 
a little location is added to each world on each pass the effort should be 
closer to your Moon of the Month projects.

I think that if the rest practice enough we should be able to create small 
locations over a period between 1 and 4 months. If we don't try to create an 
*entire* crystal sphere in one go the material should be usable from the 
first pass.

David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/links/d20_system_001071937434/Spelljammer_001071430476
http://www32.brinkster.com/virtualeclipse/