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Old 07-05-2018, 07:39 PM   #21
tomc
 
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Default Re: Modular Cidri

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Changing focus a bit: Experience suggests that MOST of you want background material to build into your own adventures, as much as you might enjoy adventures that happen to have good background.
If I parse that correctly, then yes. The easier it is to integrate into an existing campaign, the more useful it is.
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Old 07-05-2018, 07:41 PM   #22
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Default Re: A really, really big Cidri. Big enough for all GM's campaigns to fit.

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While an interesting sidelight, that has nothing to do with "explaining how Cidri came to be." Which is what I was talking about. Maybe you meant to quote someone else?
I just wanted to reuse your phrase "One word:" :)

(and of course to point out there are low-tech ways of estimating the size of the planet you're on, barring big Mnoren magic/tech that may invalidate the calculations)
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Last edited by tomc; 07-05-2018 at 07:43 PM. Reason: added the parenthetical
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Old 07-05-2018, 07:54 PM   #23
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Default Background of adventures.

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Originally Posted by Steve Jackson View Post
...

Changing focus a bit: Experience suggests that MOST of you want background material to build into your own adventures, as much as you might enjoy adventures that happen to have good background.
Hi Steve, everyone.
These are the sorts of adventure supplements that I like...

-- Adventures like Tegal Manor or Death Test. These can be dropped into pretty much any existing campaign, since they do not have any detailed relationship to things near by.

-- An island or isolated region developed in great detail. I have a much easier job putting an island down into my campaign, than some kingdom with rivers, mountains, etc. (My world already has all of its rivers, mountains, etc. mapped.)

-- A continent size campaign supplement. It gives lots of details on trade, politics, important groups, etc. Basically, the trade has to be worked out in enough detail that it saves me the effort of doing it myself. The area has to be pretty interesting to draw me in. Generic fantasy area would be a tough sell.

***

Adventures that give a great deal of background of surrounding regions, are fine, but... But the more the surrounding areas are fleshed out, the more I have to adopt them as is, or struggle to figure out how they would fit into my campaign.

Let us say that SJG made a map of a subcontinent sized area. Then you say, "all of our normal adventures are going to fit in this area". I could say, "OK, this big island is going to be important, and put its off on the edge of my campaign. As time goes by, that area progressively gets more detailed as you produce more and more adventures.

That could be quite workable for me.

Warm regards, Rick
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Old 07-05-2018, 08:22 PM   #24
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Default Re: A really, really big Cidri. Big enough for all GM's campaigns to fit.

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Originally Posted by tomc View Post
I just wanted to reuse your phrase "One word:" :)

(and of course to point out there are low-tech ways of estimating the size of the planet you're on, barring big Mnoren magic/tech that may invalidate the calculations)
Ah! Understood! ;-)

(And I totally agree with your point on low-tech methodologies; let's face it, Pythagoras came up with his theorems on a beach using a stick (and if memory serves, someone else did the same thing a few centuries earlier, but didn't get credit for it); not a Cray to be found anywhere!)
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Old 07-05-2018, 08:38 PM   #25
Wayne
 
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Default Re: Modular Cidri

Hi,

Our team back in the 80s (which admittedly contained 4 physicists) assumed Cidri was a Dyson sphere or ring.

This would have a huge surface area!

5.11×10^8 square km vs 2.81×10^17 square km. That's 9 extra zeros!!

Cheers,

Wayne
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Old 07-05-2018, 08:43 PM   #26
Jim Kane
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Default Re: Modular Cidri

Okay guys, here you go. Cidri as viewed from space, this is how I have always pictured Cidri, so that it was *one big world*, yet made up of many alternate, yet connected, individual, smaller, alternate-reality GM-worlds.

Again, rightly or wrongly, that is the mental image that has served me so very well.

Your mileage may vary.

JK
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Old 07-05-2018, 08:48 PM   #27
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Default Re: Modular Cidri

And here's the Enterprise (sticking to the Star Trek theme) inside a Dyson Sphere.
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Old 07-06-2018, 03:34 AM   #28
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Default Re: Modular Cidri

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Originally Posted by larsdangly View Post
Based on the ITL description, Cidri has a minimum size of about twice earth's radius; that would give it a surface area of around 2 billion square km, half of which is land, mostly distributed among close to 50 continental land masses of averaging 20 million square km each. At least, that is a plausible match with the description. If such a planet had a density like the terrestrial planets, the surface gravity would be very close to 2 g's. If it were a full sphere with a density similar to granite (so, no core and not considering compression of rock at high pressure), the surface gravity would be about 1 g.
Cidri has to be more than 10 times the earth's radius:

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Originally Posted by In The Labyrinth, page 5
Cidri is big enough to hold thousands of Earths; it has room for the world of every Game Master who'll ever put pencil to hex-paper
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Old 07-06-2018, 03:39 AM   #29
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Default Re: A really, really big Cidri. Big enough for all GM's campaigns to fit.

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And it doesn't have to be technical details on how to build a Dyson sphere or anything -- it merely needs to provide an impetus to our imaginations by offering ideas. To go back to an old-skool product that did something similar, the original Wilderlands stuff from Judges' Guild provided brief background on the areas of the Wilderlands, which was enough to launch us down various paths, and without going into punishing detail (especially if you exclude the individual hex write-ups and just focus on the "background" material). For example, there were a few paragraphs about Barbarian Altanis which gave you a feel for what the region was like and some of the outstanding features, but didn't go into exhaustive detail about every little thing. That's more or less what I personally am hoping for -- a springboard for our imaginations, not a crutch to hobble them with.
The Dictionary of Mu was fantastic for that!
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Old 07-06-2018, 03:47 AM   #30
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Default Re: Background of adventures.

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Originally Posted by Rick_Smith View Post
Adventures that give a great deal of background of surrounding regions, are fine, but... But the more the surrounding areas are fleshed out, the more I have to adopt them as is, or struggle to figure out how they would fit into my campaign.

Let us say that SJG made a map of a subcontinent sized area. Then you say, "all of our normal adventures are going to fit in this area". I could say, "OK, this big island is going to be important, and put its off on the edge of my campaign. As time goes by, that area progressively gets more detailed as you produce more and more adventures.
I think it's a good idea to publish an adventure along with a campaign setting as a sort of demo that highlights important or unique parts of the setting.
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