10-11-2013, 04:44 PM | #1 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Reptilian World [IW]
For an upcoming game world-jumping characters will discover a world free of mammals. Not the age of the dinosaurs, as the forms are fairly modern, and not something fantasy driven, but a world where all the niches are filled with modern birds and reptiles or larger versions of them.
Yes, I'm aware there are some islands that historically had this sort of thing going on, but I want it on a big scale. You have the entire great plains to work with. Questions:
Thanks!
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10-11-2013, 05:36 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Chelyabinsk, Russia
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Re: Reptilian World [IW]
There's actually official United States of Lizardia example even in Campaigns. Though I don't know if it's covered more extensively somewhere, but it should be/
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10-11-2013, 06:08 PM | #3 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Reptilian World [IW]
Theory for why: Mammal like reptiles were doing rather well until the Permian extinction event. With how close everything came to dying off, you could easily have all therapsids not hanging on leaving the world to other groups.
Really cool to have: There's some evidence that ancient crocodilians were "warm blooded". With some small fully bipedal forms staring to evolve before getting outcompeted by dinosaurs and squeezed into their more modern niche. Be funny to see them and try to explain to PCs that they are not dinosaurs. Economically: same as all other human-free ones most likely. Ornithologist and herpetologist tourism?
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10-11-2013, 06:50 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Reptilian World [IW]
A lot of this depends on what you mean by 'reptile'. Also where you start.
If we look at the total body of dinosaurs, it's probably evolutionarily feasible to go from there to forms essentially indistinguishable from modern mammals (sure, any evolutionary biologist could tell they were weird, but not the casual person) -- 66 million years is a long time. If you're limited to just the things that actually survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, you're more limited -- it's apparently evolutionarily hard to restore features that have been lost (so it's hard to turn wings back into hands, or add teeth to beaks), and it might be tough to go from the reptiles that actually survived to large quadrupeds (it requires some improvements in the skeletal design, lizards hip and shoulder structure isn't well suited to truly large animals). |
10-11-2013, 06:51 PM | #6 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Reptilian World [IW]
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Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
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10-11-2013, 07:17 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Reptilian World [IW]
Actually, a point about feathers: they seem to support considerably greater ranges of colors than hair. This might result in creatures that looked quite colorful compared to what we're used to.
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10-11-2013, 07:49 PM | #8 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Reptilian World [IW]
Interesting. I was not expecting such an overwhelming chorus of "crocs!"
I was actually thinking less of a long term "mammals were never here" and more of a "mammals seem to have been here, but aren't here anymore."
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
10-11-2013, 08:36 PM | #9 | ||||
Join Date: Oct 2009
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Re: Reptilian World [IW]
I'm going to approach this from a dinosaur-focused angle. I know that you're looking at reptilians more broadly, but dinosaur descendants are going to feature prominently in a world like this and I actually know a couple of interesting dinosaur facts.
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If you wanted to throw the players for a loop, include furry reptiles. In this case the "fur" would actually be a thick pelt of down, without the quill and stem of of typical featers. Another thing to consider is whether you want ridiculously over-sized animals. That's going to require an explanation for why the oxygen content is higher than today, and means that wildfires are going to be much more common. |
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10-11-2013, 08:55 PM | #10 |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Athens, GA
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Re: Reptilian World [IW]
There's a book about it: the New Dinosaurs.
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infinite worlds |
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