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Old 06-17-2022, 05:55 PM   #11
Lothar_t
 
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Default Re: Kibitzing Cidri: Calendar And Climate

I know this is an old thread but I'm wondering if, ~4 years on now, people have other Cidri-esque thoughts.

This discussion reminded me of when I was 14-15 playing TFT ('82-'83) with a buddy of mine. We'd take turns playing in each other's versions of Cidri. We both had Bendwyn, Elyntia, and the city of Ardonirane (although mine and his were very different other than the Death Tests), other than that the worlds were vastly different.

One late Friday night we had a "deep thought" of, "What if my characters in your Cidri suddenly found themselves in mine or vice versa?"

We mused about the characters freaking out, losing sanity (we had recently discovered Call of Cthulhu), and then exploring the weird paradoxes.

It never went anywhere but now it is making me think more "metaphysically" about Cidri. Overlapping multiversal layers? Simulation? Are there still Mnoren working as Sethian Gnosticism-type "Archons"? Or are they really deus otiosus as described in ITL? Is Cidri a "world", a zoo, or is it actually a petri dish?

And how does it all tie into the strange experiments in Philip Rennert's "Master's Thesis" article in The Fantasy Trip Companion pp.27-28?

For people who like the "meta" side of all this, this could be as creepy, surreal, funny, or bizarro as people want.

EDITED TO ADD: I've also read the Cidri Genesis thread, which is awesome, and I guess my musings above are less about the "what" and the "how" so much as the potentially creepy "why."

Last edited by Lothar_t; 06-17-2022 at 05:58 PM. Reason: Clarity of intent.
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Old 06-18-2022, 06:16 AM   #12
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Default Re: Kibitzing Cidri: Calendar And Climate

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lothar_t View Post
I know this is an old thread but I'm wondering if, ~4 years on now, people have other Cidri-esque thoughts.

This discussion reminded me of when I was 14-15 playing TFT ('82-'83) with a buddy of mine. We'd take turns playing in each other's versions of Cidri. We both had Bendwyn, Elyntia, and the city of Ardonirane (although mine and his were very different other than the Death Tests), other than that the worlds were vastly different.

One late Friday night we had a "deep thought" of, "What if my characters in your Cidri suddenly found themselves in mine or vice versa?"

We mused about the characters freaking out, losing sanity (we had recently discovered Call of Cthulhu), and then exploring the weird paradoxes.

It never went anywhere but now it is making me think more "metaphysically" about Cidri. Overlapping multiversal layers? Simulation? Are there still Mnoren working as Sethian Gnosticism-type "Archons"? Or are they really deus otiosus as described in ITL? Is Cidri a "world", a zoo, or is it actually a petri dish?

And how does it all tie into the strange experiments in Philip Rennert's "Master's Thesis" article in The Fantasy Trip Companion pp.27-28?

For people who like the "meta" side of all this, this could be as creepy, surreal, funny, or bizarro as people want.

EDITED TO ADD: I've also read the Cidri Genesis thread, which is awesome, and I guess my musings above are less about the "what" and the "how" so much as the potentially creepy "why."

I have no issue with GMs making their own versions of Cidri as it is described in ITL. It's the nature of the game as written as different groups develop their game world. The world of Cidri, as described in the original TFT, was so large that there is no map of the entire world.

I'm taking the track of creating a completely different area of Cidri that's so far away from the area described in ITL that it will take a gate to link them in play. Of course, that means that I have to map it all out.

I want to create an area of Cidri that can be play compatible without having to take the alternate universe angle to explain 1,000 different areas that are the same as in ITL. If interested, other GMs could link to my area of Cidri via gate. If our house rules aren't too different, it could work. Characters could play in either area provided that time being absent for one or the other is tracked. Of course, that would be each GM's call as to how to pull that off or if they will allow it at all.

Last edited by Bill_in_IN; 06-18-2022 at 10:43 AM.
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Old 06-19-2022, 07:05 AM   #13
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Default Re: Kibitzing Cidri: Calendar And Climate

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Originally Posted by ColBosch View Post
Cidri mapping software: Minecraft.
Yes, but a new seed every time you think about Cidri.
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Old 07-25-2022, 08:26 PM   #14
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Default Re: Kibitzing Cidri: Calendar And Climate

Yes, let us continue kibitzing Cidri. It is an endless subject!
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Old 08-09-2022, 05:23 PM   #15
Ferretman
 
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Default Re: Kibitzing Cidri: Calendar And Climate

In our version of Cidri we believed it to be a Dyson Sphere, with the "world" living on the outside and Mnoren living on the inside. This allowed us to have a the Moon and the Sun and all the planets, and we had a normal 24 hour day and such.

Calendars of course all depended on the species in question.

Three of our group added maps from time to time to extend out from the Dranning, in a roughly circular fashion. The total map area we laid out was roughly around the size of modern day Iran I think (as a geek I of course had to calculate it out). I've got them all in an old Starfire box; I was just looking at them the other day.


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Old 09-02-2022, 06:03 PM   #16
David L Pulver
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Default Re: Kibitzing Cidri: Calendar And Climate

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In our version of Cidri we believed it to be a Dyson Sphere, with the "world" living on the outside and Mnoren living on the inside. This allowed us to have a the Moon and the Sun and all the planets, and we had a normal 24 hour day and such.

Ferret
An interesting concept. Regarding Cidri size in general, presumably the locals have some idea of the distance to the horizon, but also, presumably, never developed a theory that would let them estimate the world's size based on it, or Cidri's shape is such that this effort does not give usable results. On a dyson sphere several AU across, the world would seem essentially flat (whether on the inside or outside), the horizon being thousands of km away.

The main problem with this theory is that a long horizon, whether due to a flat planet, diskworld, ringworld, or dyson sphere, does have many implications for things like what adventurers can see when on a ship, flat plain, hill, etc.
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Old 09-02-2022, 06:31 PM   #17
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Default Re: Kibitzing Cidri: Calendar And Climate

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Originally Posted by David L Pulver View Post
An interesting concept. Regarding Cidri size in general, presumably the locals have some idea of the distance to the horizon, but also, presumably, never developed a theory that would let them estimate the world's size based on it, or Cidri's shape is such that this effort does not give usable results. On a dyson sphere several AU across, the world would seem essentially flat (whether on the inside or outside), the horizon being thousands of km away.

The main problem with this theory is that a long horizon, whether due to a flat planet, diskworld, ringworld, or dyson sphere, does have many implications for things like what adventurers can see when on a ship, flat plain, hill, etc.
We discussed some of these implications here too...

https://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=160488
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Old 09-03-2022, 07:48 PM   #18
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Default Re: Kibitzing Cidri: Calendar And Climate

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Originally Posted by David L Pulver View Post
An interesting concept. Regarding Cidri size in general, presumably the locals have some idea of the distance to the horizon, but also, presumably, never developed a theory that would let them estimate the world's size based on it, or Cidri's shape is such that this effort does not give usable results. On a dyson sphere several AU across, the world would seem essentially flat (whether on the inside or outside), the horizon being thousands of km away..
Doesn't take much math to estimate the size of the world using the method of Eratosthenes. I wonder if it's plausible that one could build large structures without being able to use this method. I'd guess even the Egyptians could have done the math needed for Eratosthenes calculation.
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Old 09-04-2022, 06:48 AM   #19
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Default Re: Kibitzing Cidri: Calendar And Climate

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Originally Posted by Ferretman View Post
In our version of Cidri we believed it to be a Dyson Sphere, with the "world" living on the outside and Mnoren living on the inside. This allowed us to have a the Moon and the Sun and all the planets, and we had a normal 24 hour day and such.
I don't see how that works. The Sun is on the inside of a Dyson sphere.
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Old 09-04-2022, 03:03 PM   #20
David L Pulver
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Default Re: Kibitzing Cidri: Calendar And Climate

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Originally Posted by phiwum View Post
Doesn't take much math to estimate the size of the world using the method of Eratosthenes. I wonder if it's plausible that one could build large structures without being able to use this method. I'd guess even the Egyptians could have done the math needed for Eratosthenes calculation.
Indeed. We know people on Cidri are clever, with mathematical knowledge, yet they don't know how big Cidri is from calculating the horizon. Yet it would be difficult to avoid the knowledge of the horizon: even "Cidri is flat" or "Cidri extends infinitely due to strange Gate-like effects" should give some sort of result.So...

Back in the Days of the Mnoren empire:

Human mathematician: "So, I've worked out this clever formula. It works great for all sorts of things, I mean you can work out the horizon for an ant standing on an watermelon and then calculate its diameter. And according to my calculation, this says Cidri is..." (does math). "Uh, wait, that can't be right?"

A Helpful Mnoren: "Yes. Good try, but no. There are subtleties you are not aware of, mortal, but it's not that size. Perhaps someday you will understand."


(Off topic: Not very useful for the horizon problem, but perhaps Cidri is not large. Instead, all the humanoid races on it are, say, 1/3 the size they think they are. Except giants. They're just normal humans.)
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