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These are just some questions I have regarding certain changes I'm thinking of making to my new campaign world. I'm trying to figure out what impact (if any) these changes would have on the physics and civilizations of the world.

What if the world were flat? This was once a commonly held belief, but what if it were true. In this case my intention was to sink the world into a sort of basin, where reaching the "edge" of the world would find one confronted by an impossibly tall cliff. Scaling the cliff would result in a shift to the astral sea.

What if the compass had more points? I'm really not even sure how this might work, but I had a brief idea for a six point compass. Though I'm really not sure what purpose it might serve or what kind of impact it would have of world physics.

What if arcane magic flowed from the world's core? A massive orb of residuum sits at the bottom of the "basin" in which the world rests radiating waves of arcane energy up into the world. Residuum ore deposites can be found ONLY and RARELY at the ends of the world or near the core, but owning even a small piece can grant enourmous magical powers.

What if the world's ocean's were acid? Actual acid that eats away at everything but stone, meaning not sandy beanches or wooden docks. Only rocky shores and cliffs...and ofcourse some nasty monsters. The rivers and lakes would still be normal water, but the oceans rather than just being salty, would be acidic.

What if gnomes were tinkers? Instead of sly, magical tricksters, gnomes are industrious workers and tinkers, constantly experimenting with new ways of doing things. They still use magic, but tend to focus more on alchemy and rituals than overt spellwork. They are also native to the material world and second only to humans and halflings in population.

Well your basin world idea creates a sort of thimble structure for the plane, but the only major impact is that a sufficiently adept flier and/or climber can shift to the astral sea via geographic travel instead of magic, furthermore that stuff from the astral sea that is sufficiently adept can get into the place the same way. That means that you'll have a lot more interplanar travel to deal with.

The number of points on a compass is based on the nature of 2-d, there are four cardinal directions in a 2-d system. A 3-d system adds a 5th and a 6th, but those generally don't add much to surface travel.

Using residuum means taking into account the disenchant item ritual since it produces residuum.

Acidic oceans = more glass bottomed boats.

Tinker gnomes? Watch out for Kender you're in Ansalon.

Oct 2, 2012 -- 9:17AM, Chirp wrote:

These are just some questions I have regarding certain changes I'm thinking of making to my new campaign world. I'm trying to figure out what impact (if any) these changes would have on the physics and civilizations of the world.

What if the world were flat? This was once a commonly held belief, but what if it were true. In this case my intention was to sink the world into a sort of basin, where reaching the "edge" of the world would find one confronted by an impossibly tall cliff. Scaling the cliff would result in a shift to the astral sea.

What if the compass had more points? I'm really not even sure how this might work, but I had a brief idea for a six point compass. Though I'm really not sure what purpose it might serve or what kind of impact it would have of world physics.

What if arcane magic flowed from the world's core? A massive orb of residuum sits at the bottom of the "basin" in which the world rests radiating waves of arcane energy up into the world. Residuum ore deposites can be found ONLY and RARELY at the ends of the world or near the core, but owning even a small piece can grant enourmous magical powers.

What if the world's ocean's were acid? Actual acid that eats away at everything but stone, meaning not sandy beanches or wooden docks. Only rocky shores and cliffs...and ofcourse some nasty monsters. The rivers and lakes would still be normal water, but the oceans rather than just being salty, would be acidic.

What if gnomes were tinkers? Instead of sly, magical tricksters, gnomes are industrious workers and tinkers, constantly experimenting with new ways of doing things. They still use magic, but tend to focus more on alchemy and rituals than overt spellwork. They are also native to the material world and second only to humans and halflings in population.

I did a flat-world campaign and didn't change the physics at all. I tried not to think too much about where the sun came and went, and had several explanations... the sun god rides through a gate and then goes underground to get back home; the archer god fires a flaming arrow every morning and it flies across the sky. Players never asked, so it never really made a diff.

Starry waterfalls at the edge of the world would be neat. Some of them could flow upward...

If magic were stronger at the world's center, you could do a number of things to indicate that this is so...add some spell-warped creatures, allow wizards to metamagic their spells easier, give them an extra spell a day, add 1hp per dice to any spell cast within a certain area. You could make creating items in strong areas cost half as much XP. In weaker magic areas, they might not be able to access all their spells sometimes, or might require Crystals of Power that keep the source strong.

Acid oceans would likely mean more inland-dwelling folks, and maybe some acid-resistant monsters on the shores - black dragons, oozes, maybe varieties of crabs and critters. The air near such could be noxious. The plant life might be sparse... or of unusual color... the wood might be valuable, though. Acid ocean monsters... wierd tentacled beasts? Can they be crossed? Glass bottom-boats? Cliffs of obsidian and other types of glass. Supervolcanoes can cause the oceans to have such acidic qualities. Would the waters be kelp-soaked? Perhaps some of these kelps are valuable as dyes, inks, textiles, specially made armors.

Just some ideas...

If you want some psuedo-science for your flat-earth, here's a website (actually a full on wiki) you might want to check out for some insights on how a flat-earth might function.

theflatearthsociety.org/wiki/index.php?t...

The one question I have about this proposed world is "How do the inhabitants get fresh water?"

Oct 5, 2012 -- 4:29PM, Chris24601 wrote:

If you want some psuedo-science for your flat-earth, here's a website (actually a full on wiki) you might want to check out for some insights on how a flat-earth might function.

theflatearthsociety.org/wiki/index.php?t...

The one question I have about this proposed world is "How do the inhabitants get fresh water?"

Water on a flat earth has slightly more cohesive properties, and slightly less adhesive properties due to the gravitational differences of a flat earth and the centrifugal properties of the spin being created at the center nexus of the longitudinal and the latitudinal coordinates as opposed to the z coordinates of a spherical earth. This quality, enhanced by the fact that flat-earth water has one charm quark more atomic weight when the temperature is over 100 celcius and one less neutron when below 0 celsius creates fluctuating portals within the aquatic plane causing rain and hyper-accelerated evaporation.

Lol. nahhh... just kiddin'... it's magic.