meta
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Post by meta on Feb 29, 2020 14:00:37 GMT
Hi there, and glad to see this welcoming place where we can discuss about such a wonderful world and game ! I'm looking forward the new edition, and while I would personally prefer some new backgrounds, I understand the next books will have to describe what ancient players like us already now ; so, I have no problem with the repetition of previous materials.
Nevertheless, while I find the pages dedicated to the Pacifica Archipelago really impressive, I often need information about other islands.
However, I can't find any pages on the subject, and I don't know what to answer to my players while they ask me about the political situation and cultural development on Darwin's archipelago, for example.
Of course, this lack of information can be very exciting, since the Gamemaster will have a lot of latitude for his own developments (if future books don't describe those islands). However, I would at least need some descriptions about the populations. Are there some adventurers ? Or strictly nobody ? Or some corporate institutions ? Some general directions would be welcome for helping us develop our own settings ! If I missed some informations in the books concerning these places, could someone say to me where I could find what I am looking for ?
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Post by Pawel on Feb 29, 2020 20:00:38 GMT
Welcome to the forums!!  Yeah, you're quite right, the books do focus on the Pacifica, with vast majority of Poseidon's approx 2 million population scattered there. But you're right, it would be neat to get some more info on the other regions of the world, even if just to help Game Moderators come up with some more informed ideas of their own. I believe other oceans and archipelagos feature a good few times in chapter 2 of Natural Selection (BPv2), in the meteorology section. Climate doesn't care about population sizes, after all, so when it comes to describing weather systems and the like, one needs to have a proper big scope. I think it's fair to say that your average (non-Incorporate) human Newcomer won't really show up that much outside of Pacifica Archipelago. There is so much empty (so: available for colonization and exploitation, huzzah!) space even within Haven Cluster, that no matter how hungry you are for peace & quiet and the hardships of the frontier, vast swathes of the Pacifica will deliver generously. And, logistically, life can very quickly become an absolute nightmare for Newcomers anywhere outside the established (so: affordable, long-term) trade routes. I imagine that settlers on, for example, Neptune's Cluster (Pacifica far north-west) have to be almost completely self-reliant, so what would make them migrate another ten thousand kilometers to a different archipelago, to be even more, or perhaps completely self-reliant? Of course there will be plenty of exceptions with unique reasons - just nothing big or very permanent, I imagine. Now, the Natives and the Incorporate are another matter, I think. During the Abandonment decentralization period, Native settlers sailed away just about anywhere on the planet, to ensure their communities' sustainable survival (on population size-locked tech level). So there are definitely Native settlements on the other archipelagos, just not as many as in the Pacifica. And Long John is also to be found around the whole wide world, which means the Incorporate will be setting up their nasty, despoiling efforts just about anywhere on the planet. Such facilities will be strictly dedicated to their primary function, I imagine, but other than that there's nothing (certainly not money) stopping Biogene from shipping 1000 freshly unfrozen personnel to some insane depths at the Challenger Deeps. I don't think we've ever been given a complete list of spaceports on Poseidon - Haven has one, Kingston (Harmony in Blue Planet: Recontact) and Al-Mamlakah... there must be others too. But I very much doubt there's a need or feasibility for a spaceport to exist beyond the Pacifica (at least in year 2199). But yeah, all those vast oceans outside of what the books cover are pretty much cartes blanches for us to fill in.  And, if the timeline gets pushes a bit forward in Blue Planet: Recontact, we might see some more activity in - and therefore info on - the other archipelagos. Here's hoping! |
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Post by grinnenbaeritt on Mar 1, 2020 8:25:18 GMT
Yes, welcome to the boards (and our merry little band of survivors)... Sometimes, a campaign worlds just NEEDS blanks... so that we GMs have somewhere for our imaginations to go crazy. To be honest it's rare I use a campaign setting exactly as written.. so those "un-written" areas are yours for the taking! There could be reasons WHY these areas haven't been explored/populated... or perhaps it's just that the areas detailed so far are those worth mentioning.
The thing is, that the availability of information about such things, to the population (and therefore the players) is likely to a bit better than, say, what WE might know about other areas on Earth... mainly because the landmasses are smaller, both in size and in number, and that technology basically makes it more so.
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meta
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Post by meta on Mar 1, 2020 16:23:30 GMT
Thank you for your answers ! I was wondering what the population of the others islands would be ; around 10 000 or about 1 million ? According to the count per island or city, there would be around 1 million, but the other million would be on the others archipelagos or scattered in the pacifica (since there are about 2 million population on Poseidon) ? I don't know. You're right, it's up to us, and that's a good thing. Nevertheless, if future books say the other islands have only hundreds of people while I put cities, or on the contrary say the other islands have one million people while I chose to describe a deserted place, I wouldn't be able to use these future publications. If I stay on the official line about the population count, more or less, even if I create a lot of content, there will be some compatibility. Obviously, that's not a big deal !
Grinnebaeritt, I agree, since we know the first pioneers chose the pacifica archipelago because there was better condition, so, it's certain we have far more people here ; so, there is a reason, yes, why these areas haven't been explored or populated.
Thank you for your reply, Pawel, some of your ideas, here, are inspiring, like the native migration !
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Post by doublea on Mar 2, 2020 2:33:27 GMT
You know, given that we have a pretty good framework of how the climate systems on the planet operate, I bet you could build a sort of 'settlement generator' where you construct a few random tables to roll on when your game requires a new island or settlement shows up; So you'd have different tables for the different climate zones and you'd proceed to roll through a couple - Size, geographical features, flora, fauna, populated yes/no, then maybe some tables for population and type of settlement. Just a thought, maybe I'll tinker with it!
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meta
New Member
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Post by meta on Mar 2, 2020 6:32:22 GMT
You know, given that we have a pretty good framework of how the climate systems on the planet operate, I bet you could build a sort of 'settlement generator' where you construct a few random tables to roll on when your game requires a new island or settlement shows up; So you'd have different tables for the different climate zones and you'd proceed to roll through a couple - Size, geographical features, flora, fauna, populated yes/no, then maybe some tables for population and type of settlement. Just a thought, maybe I'll tinker with it! Yes, it would be a very good idea. "natural selection" will help, and we could use information about flora and fauna. However, Blue Planet being a realistic environment, we should make that with caution, since random tables, in D&D and others fantasy settings, often produce good aesthetics but not always a comprehensive and logical structure when we look at relations between geographics, fauna and flora. The more we have precisions about biological aspects on the planet, the more tables would have to be thought cautiously. But the idea of some mechanical framework sounds interesting to me ; I will try something like that, perhaps. |
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Post by Pawel on Mar 2, 2020 13:45:55 GMT
Hmm, I've always assumed that populations on the other archipelagoes are tiny simply because they're not mentioned. But yeah, there's nothing stopping you from assigning population 1 million to the other side of the globe, if you choose so - make it your Lambda Serpentis II, mate! Canonically though, Haven has the population of at least 500.000 and the second biggest settlement on the planet is Kingston/Harmony at approx 100.000. Then you get Cliffside at 50.000 and at the northern tip of the Archipelago, which tells you how rich and self-sufficient Biogene is.  Then you get all the other Incorporate company towns - Santa Elena, Simushir, Al-Mamlakah, Lebensraum, New Frymantle and Caernafon (plus Prosperity Station, Colonial Station and Haven's little brother Second Try) at between 15.000 and 30.000. There are loads of smaller settlements and facilities - colonial, Incorporate, native, GEO military - scattered around Pacifica with population at 5000 or less. But I guess it still leaves you with some tens of thousands for the other archipelagoes if you choose so. Plus, as a Game Moderator you can easily make a decision that Arc of Fire deserves a frontier capital with population of ten or twenty thousands. Nothing's stopping you. The beauty (one of so very many) of Blue Planet is, we don't have to follow urban hierarchy models of population spread in order to keep the setting realistic. Long John rush means you can have a boom town show up at the end of the world and explode to a huge size in just a couple years. |
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Post by lostmanabroad on Mar 20, 2020 7:42:17 GMT
The vague-ness of this game is one of the things I love best about this game. It is always nice when a developer gives new content that helps generate new campaign ideas but I like being able to create the world outside of the Pacifica Archipelago myself. One resource I like to use is Google Earth. I start by searching the tiny islands of the Pacific until I find an island that is the size and shape I am looking for. I then trace it with paper, make my own map and then write a background. I flesh out its history, population and give it some story.
I think there are so many games out there where the world has been so fully fleshed out that creative GMs can struggle to write their own material without some dedicated player of that game world pointing out the inconsistencies between what the GM has created and what the books say. AD&D - Forgotten Realms setting springs to mind. That is my favorite setting for running an AD&D campaign but there is very little of the vast world that hasn't got a complete history written about it somewhere.
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And, if the timeline gets pushes a bit forward in Blue Planet: Recontact, we might see some more activity in - and therefore info on - the other archipelagos. Here's hoping!
Then you get all the other Incorporate company towns - Santa Elena, Simushir, Al-Mamlakah, Lebensraum, New Frymantle and Caernafon (plus Prosperity Station, Colonial Station and Haven's little brother Second Try) at between 15.000 and 30.000. 