Tome of Worldbuilding Session 3 - Broken Worlds
article, world building, tome of world building, mythmere games
Previously
Earlier posts documenting my process of building a world with the Tome of Worldbuilding:
- Genre & Theme - Heavy metal gonzo sword & planet in an asteroid belt
- The Cosmic Machine - The universe is a self-replicating machine intelligence composed of the forces of Law, Neutrality, and Chaos
This World
Asteroids, Planetoids, and Dwarves
When the book refers to a continent, for the purposes of this build, it will actually translate to asteroids, planetoids, and dwarf planets. Asteroid and planetoid mean the same thing but they'll be Interchangeable based on the vibe.
Dwarf planets are asteroids large enough - from 540-600 mile diameter - to be spherical and should not be the norm. Use one for a "mini-earth" to anchor this sector of the asteroid field and be used as the starting continent for the book processes. To be decided if there is another dwarf planet close enough to be mapped.
Asteroid References
Sources used mostly for figuring out sizes of our asteroids.
- https://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/projects/vss/docs/space-environment/1-asteroid-planetiod-meteoroid.html
- https://www.britannica.com/science/asteroid
- https://www.britannica.com/science/small-body
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet
Planetoid Sizes
For the main continent, we'll use the maximum size of an asteroid that's considered a dwarf planet, which is a 600 mile diameter. This is 1,130,973 square miles, which is 1,063.47 miles horizontal by 1,063.47 miles vertical for a map. If we use 30 mile hexes like the book, we'll get 35.5 by 35.5 hexes. Round it up to 36 by 36.
Other planetoids in this sector should be smaller than the dwarf planet. They'll likely be mono- or dual-biome environments.
Earth's Size
For comparison, the Earth is 197,000,000 square miles which comes to 503 by 503 thirty-mile hexes. Australia, according to the book, is 3 million square miles, which would be 62 by 62 hexes. This makes the dwarf planet around half the size of Australia.
Number of Planetoids
For the main grouping, roll 1d10. A result of 4 gives us three planetoids in close proximity. The book's result says the continents should be interconnected around a sea like the Mediterranean. Converting that idea to our setting, maybe the three major planetoids could have a relatively easy way to traverse from one to the other. This could be distance or a technology enabling fast travel among the three.
One of these should be the dwarf planet, which would be the the starting continent. The other two could have a smaller randomized diameter.
The second grouping of "continents" gets a result of 2 on 1d3+1. This means there are two other planetoids further out from the tri-body grouping. These may be smaller or include the second dwarf planet.
Since we have five planetoids, they need to be named! Using the Nomicon's "Names for Continents" table:
- Dwarf Planet 1 (main): 44, 82; "Nu" + "tiri" = Nutiri
- Planetoid 2: 10, 16; "Choä" + "chiri" = Choächiri
- Planetoid 3: 45, 90; "Nua" + "vria" = Nuavria
- Planetoid 4: 75, 17; "U" + "cia" = Ucia
- Dwarf Planet 2: 86, 84; "Y" + "vea" = Yvea
Weirder Planetoids
We're already "getting weird" with the underlying physics of a habitable asteroid field so didn't need to use this table. Maybe useful for ideas later for asteroids outside the current sector.
World Mapping
The author talks about different map projections, including use of the Traveller hex maps. This seemed appealing and maybe even have the right vibe for the pseudo-sci-fantastical theme but in the end it wouldn't be necessary and no one would care. I can't remember ever using an accurately-projected map in an RPG.
On the question of mapping linearly vs using squares vs hexes, hexes are the obvious answer. They're the standard, feel natural, and matches the book's default. The book does give a strange justification for using hexes: their tactical nature. I'm not sure how that's relevant to for continental maps.
To recap, 30 mile hexes, because it's the book standard and a good all-around size for continents (or planetoids!).
Zones
Equator
To start, this is at the scale of the dwarf planet Nutiri. Smaller planetoids may not have equators. A dwarf being 36 hexes high gives a middle row of 13 with the equator being on the south edge for a northern hemisphere. The opposite for the southern hemisphere.
Life Zones
The book lists out Holdridge Life Zones for use in mapping the climate on a planet. These are polar, sub-polar, boreal, cool temperate, warm temperate, subtropical, and tropical.
Those life zones are probably too many on even the largest - the dwarf planet. Will probably be scaled back. On smaller asteroids, reduce the number of zones. Possibly randomizes a central or dominant zone type for small planetoids. Some asteroids may be mono-zoned. For the sake of randomization, add a "Desolate" biome to represent an area with no atmosphere or otherwise hazardous environment.
Using the biomes from the standard zones, each one would occupy 2 hex rows in a band around the dwarf Nutiri - except one zone in each hemisphere would only have 1 hex row. That's pretty tight and might make changing of the weather a focus of the game. Some weather impacts add challenge and fun but let's not go overboard with it. Switching to the shortened biome list of arctic, subarctic, cool, warm, sub/tropical, each biome occupies 7 hex rows except one in each hemisphere that takes 8. That's a lot more breathing room.
I tried randomizing how many hex rows a biome strip occupies with the long and short lists. Nothing I rolled was very satisfying and resulted in a narrow climate on the dwarf planet. The even distribution of a 7/8 shortened list made the most sense and the most fun. This gives enough variety without making multiple changes in temperature too common with ground travel.
Nutiri's northern hemisphere is slightly warmer than the southern.
The climate bands now look like this for the dwarf planet:
- N Arctic = 7 hex rows
- N Subarctic = 7 hex rows
- N Cool = 7 hex rows
- N Warm = 7 hex rows
- N Sub/Tropical = 8 hex rows
- Equator
- S Sub/Tropical = 7 hex rows
- S Warm = 7 hex rows
- S Cool = 7 hex rows
- S Subarctic = 7 hex rows
- S Arctic = 8 hex rows
Catastrophic Change
As a means to explaining the physicality of the world, the setting's magic and tech levels, and the factions we can use the standard trope of a past catastrophe being at the root of current affairs.
On the Catastrophe table, a 4 is rolled with a d8. This gives the result of a "divine or unholy action". Not something I would choose and definitely not expected. That cuts off a few possibilities going through my mind already.
Moving on... It was established earlier that some gods directly interact with the mortal world so this could make sense.
The book suggests an evil group or individual being responsible for nullifying the power of the good-aligned deity faction. That nullification enabled the evil deities the freedom to cause wanton destruction. This evil group or being is still around, lurking. Always threatening to come back.
First, we'll change the dichotomy of good vs evil to law vs chaos because of the Cosmic Machine and the Primordials.
Maybe it can be both a group and an individual. A chaos cult dedicated to reviving the dormant god... using Nomicon's "Eldritch god names", two d100 rolls give 49 for "Haru" and 7 for "gawa"... Harugawa. This god of raging entropy waged war against the Titans of Law, resulting in the shattering of reality that resulted in the endless asteroid field. Harugawa's Wrath, Vengeance, Folly - it's depends on who you ask.
Using our hex maps
Based on the info from this session, there's a requirement to print out some 36x36 hex paper. I used a tool linked to from a post on Spriggans Den to make a 36x36+ hex grid on 8.5x11 paper.
Next
That was more effort than I was expecting compared to an earlier test run of this early process that just used continents on one world. Things are taking shape! The next step is to get a zoomed-out look at the other planetoids and leave the starting dwarf planet, Nutiri, for later.