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Old 09-19-2018, 08:56 PM   #31
Refplace
 
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Default Re: World Building - Very Shallow Sea?

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Originally Posted by dcarson View Post
Two good books for inspiration

Demon Breed by James Schmitz
collected in The Hub: Dangerous Territory which is on the Windriders Oath free Baen CD


Blue World by Jack Vance
I'll second both those.
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Old 09-19-2018, 09:05 PM   #32
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Default Re: World Building - Very Shallow Sea?

A geological feature doesn't have to last very long (in geological time) for civilizations that think it is an eternal feature to rise and fall multiple times around it. So even if your extremely shallow sea might be realistically eroded away or filled by sediment in 10 thousand years, so what? It will have been around since "before civilization" and will be around thousands of years after the PCs have had their adventure before it's gone.

Edit: What I'm getting at is that this means it could easily be brought about by a singular event or series of events, even if that means the feature won't be stable in the long term. A series of earthquakes dropping a once dry plain down a dozen feet until it is now a shallow sea, for instance. Even if earthquakes occasionally drop it another few inches every few centuries, no one will notice.
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Old 09-19-2018, 09:22 PM   #33
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Default Re: World Building - Very Shallow Sea?

Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarson View Post
Two good books for inspiration

Demon Breed by James Schmitz
collected in The Hub: Dangerous Territory which is on the Windriders Oath free Baen CD


Blue World by Jack Vance
Sweet. Both are now on my To Read list. Thank you!
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Old 09-19-2018, 10:50 PM   #34
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Default Re: World Building - Very Shallow Sea?

What if the sea is not as much shallow as it is hollow. Underneath what is on plain sight lies fissures and holes that lead to the true dephs, a big enough chamber (or collection of interconnected chambers) filled with many times the volume of water that lies on the surface.
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Old 09-20-2018, 01:19 PM   #35
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Default Re: World Building - Very Shallow Sea?

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Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
Something I saw in a dream and thought might be an interesting bit of worldbuilding...
Oh okay. I was suspecting you had envisioned some kind of dramatic, epic battle that required the terrain or adaptive machines to evoke a theme, and then you had to justify the world building. Fair enough.

It would be cool to investigate the impact such terrain would have on the tactics, combatants, and technology of a strategic battle upon the sea.

I'm immediately reminded of Hollywood war movies where the battlefield is shrouded in a very low lying fog except your state of matter is one step more coalesced.
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Old 09-21-2018, 10:33 PM   #36
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Default Re: World Building - Very Shallow Sea?

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Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
Something I saw in a dream and thought might be an interesting bit of worldbuilding...
I've done that. Mine was horror scenario, though.

It was a bad dream.
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Old 09-21-2018, 10:36 PM   #37
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Default Re: World Building - Very Shallow Sea?

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Alternatively, you could have vast networks of vegation that comes together to create marshy 'land' (actually their intertwined root system) on top of much deeper oceans. The shallow 'sea' would only be the water that the plants allow above their roots, and their roots could extend hundreds of meters below the surface in order to access nutrients and to provide more buoyancy with them sprouting 'trees' to improve wind resistance and photosynthesis. The resulting 'sea' could cover thousands of square kilometers and support thriving ecosystems on multiple levels (below the roots, among the roots, within the shallow 'sea', and among the 'trees').
I find your ideas fascinating and would like to subscribe to your newsletter!
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Old 09-22-2018, 02:34 PM   #38
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Default Re: World Building - Very Shallow Sea?

Unfortunately, I do not have a newsletter, but thank you for the complement. The floating islands could easily be used in a horror scenario, imagine being trapped in air filled vegetative tunnels only lit by bioluminescence five hundred meters below the 'surface'?
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Old 09-23-2018, 11:40 AM   #39
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Default Re: World Building - Very Shallow Sea?

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Unfortunately, I do not have a newsletter, but thank you for the complement. The floating islands could easily be used in a horror scenario, imagine being trapped in air filled vegetative tunnels only lit by bioluminescence five hundred meters below the 'surface'?
Off topic. But you should really check out the pc game subnautica. :)
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Old 09-25-2018, 11:02 PM   #40
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Default Re: World Building - Very Shallow Sea?

A very shallow sea could lead to wheeled vehicles with very big wheels, able to traverse uneven terrain and then drive right onto the shore.
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