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[Glass]

What I know for sure is that orbit eccentricity increases steadily as the number of relatively-large satellites increases. If our own system is any indication, even a Super-Earth with five moons is going to have some wild orbital systems.

I believe that the assumption is that more moons = smaller moons.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Sure, but to even be a moon instead of a temporally-captured asteroid for a terrestrial planet there's going to be a higher relative degree of mass between the planet and moons than for a gas giant. More eccentricity is inevitable.

[Ardent Debater]

What I know for sure is that orbit eccentricity increases steadily as the number of relatively-large satellites increases. If our own system is any indication, even a Super-Earth with five moons is going to have some wild orbital systems.

Spoiler:  GM Note (click to show/hide)

Correct, but the more moons there are, the smaller each one will be. Think more Jupiter in relation to its satellites, not so much five Charon-to-Pluto, or Luna-to-Terra equivalents. At a certain point a number of moons does have an impact on orbit, but the planet's movement is stable enough that it won't be spiraling into the sun or out of sun, though it could be brought closer or farther if an extinction-grade event occurs. Likewise, having that many moons could cause one of the smallest's orbit to grow unstable and impact the surface, similar to a conventional meteorite. If the species goes extinct, you'll change perspective to its closest surviving relative. The life-forms will be starting at an extremely primitive macroscopic scale.

What I know for sure is that orbit eccentricity increases steadily as the number of relatively-large satellites increases. If our own system is any indication, even a Super-Earth with five moons is going to have some wild orbital systems.

I believe that the assumption is that more moons = smaller moons.

Spoiler:  GM Note (click to show/hide)

Also correct.

Sure, but to even be a moon instead of a temporally-captured asteroid for a terrestrial planet there's going to be a higher relative degree of mass between the planet and moons than for a gas giant. More eccentricity is inevitable.

Spoiler:  GM Note (click to show/hide)

It effects what kinds of disasters are likely to occur, over many hundreds of millions of years. Terra itself went through five extinction events and this planet will likely undergo one or two. Every turn, I'll be rolling a 1d10 to see if anything occurs, a 1 being a negative and a 10 being a positive change. Each time I land on a 1 or 10, I'll roll again, and if it's another 1 or 10, respectively, the extent of the change increases exponentially, for or against your favor. Bacteria learning to produce oxygen and driving their competitors extinct is an example that could go either way, depending on which broad side you're supporting.

[Glass]

I'll note that I'm willing to support any quantity of moons in the range of... let's say 2-4. I'm not terribly interested in having the amount of moons we're likely to get from (2d3)d3, especially if they're largely going to be smaller. Multiple moons is fun, but they need to be sufficiently large to be worth much.

EDIT: Here's the probability table and graph:

[Tyrant Leviathan]

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (1) MetalSlimeHunt
One (3)  KJP, Lidku, TL
Two (1) Glass
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (3?) IFM, Rockeater, NG

[Madman198237]

The astrophysicist perspective, because of course I have to bring that it

Many moons will force the moons to be spread out over a large range of distances from the planet (or they'll be unstable), and will act to either eject some of them (a phenomenon that progresses fast enough that no life would be around to see it happen) or reduce the eccentricity of the orbits until they all lie roughly in the same plane, the same thing that creates rings out of chaotic debris fields.

We would definitely NOT be making nighttime bright enough to harm anything, that's just...honestly kind of a silly extreme that is physically impossible to reach. Our Moon is an aberration in that it's absolutely huge compared to the size of our planet, most moons would be substantially smaller. Especially if you want many of them in a dynamically unstable system, which would basically consist of a constant stream of moons being tossed out and new asteroids being captured. One fun possibility could be a combination---one large moon comparable to Earth's (or larger, why can't we have a double planet? ) combined with a constant stream of large rocks from space to make life both extremely hazardous and interesting.

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (1) MetalSlimeHunt
One (3)  KJP, Lidku, TL
Two (1) Glass
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (4?) IFM, Rockeater, NG, Madman

Why not !!FUN!!?

[Shadowclaw777]

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (1) MetalSlimeHunt
One (4) KJP, Lidku, TL, SC777
Two (1) Glass
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (4?) IFM, Rockeater, NG, Madman
Please don’t put your vote in more than a single area IFM, as all it does is confuses things

[chaotick21]

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (1) MetalSlimeHunt
One (5) KJP, Lidku, TL, SC777, Chaoskl21
Two (1) Glass
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (4?) IFM, Rockeater, NG, Madman

[Nirur Torir]

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (1) MetalSlimeHunt
One (5) KJP, Lidku, TL, SC777, Chaoskl21
Two (1) Glass
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (5) IFM, Rockeater, NG, Madman, Nirur

[Glass]

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (1) MetalSlimeHunt
One (6) KJP, Lidku, TL, SC777, Chaoskl21, Glass
Two (0)
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (5) IFM, Rockeater, NG, Madman, NirurI'd prefer one large moon to a bunch of small ones.

[IncompetentFortressMaker]

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (1) MetalSlimeHunt
One (6) KJP, Lidku, TL, SC777, Chaoskl21, Glass
Two (0)
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (4) Rockeater, NG, Madman, NirurOn the request of Shadowclaw777, I'm posting here to clarify my vote in case of potential confusion. The only reason I had my vote on "Many" in the first place was in case "Three" didn't work out; thus, I have retracted my vote for Many in favor of Three, on the assumption that's even possible, as that was my original intention. Apologies for any problems caused.

Please don’t put your vote in more than a single area IFM, as all it does is confuses things

[mightymushroom]

I passed on this earlier because I wasn't sure how much connection to Warhammer 40K there would be. Reading the thread now, I've got to say I'm sorry I missed out.

I have to express my own skepticism that more moons makes the sky bright enough to harm vision. If familiar Luna and Sol are our measuring stick: Sol is more than 150,000 times brighter! (Apparent magnitude -13 vs. apparent magnitude -26.7 works out to a factor of about 2.512^13.) Anything that can process daylight safely isn't likely to be bothered by plausible amounts of moonlight. Maybe very bright moons (more reflective and/or refractive than ours) will not be viewed directly just as the primary star is not, but ambient light levels will not reverse the definitions of "day" and "night".

That said, one strategy to mitigate all that radiation could be to use the planet itself as a shield and become aggressively nocturnal. Our future native species may indeed be light sensitive, but I don't know that any hypothetical visiting humans would be discomfited.

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (2) MetalSlimeHunt, mightymushroom
One (6) KJP, Lidku, TL, SC777, Chaoskl21, Glass
Two (0)
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (4) Rockeater, NG, Madman, Nirur

[Ardent Debater]

I'll note that I'm willing to support any quantity of moons in the range of... let's say 2-4. I'm not terribly interested in having the amount of moons we're likely to get from (2d3)d3, especially if they're largely going to be smaller. Multiple moons is fun, but they need to be sufficiently large to be worth much.

EDIT: Here's the probability table and graph:

Spoiler:  GM Note (click to show/hide)

Thanks for the graph, that's about the probability spread I had in mind, trending toward an abundance of moons because the planet is Large and of course, the 40k setting trends toward extremes. Number of moons notwithstanding, there's an equivalent amount of material between 2-4 large moons and 8-10 much smaller moons. Their light gravity wells would make traveling to and from their surfaces marginally more efficient with low-tech means, as well.

The astrophysicist perspective, because of course I have to bring that it

Many moons will force the moons to be spread out over a large range of distances from the planet (or they'll be unstable), and will act to either eject some of them (a phenomenon that progresses fast enough that no life would be around to see it happen) or reduce the eccentricity of the orbits until they all lie roughly in the same plane, the same thing that creates rings out of chaotic debris fields.

We would definitely NOT be making nighttime bright enough to harm anything, that's just...honestly kind of a silly extreme that is physically impossible to reach. Our Moon is an aberration in that it's absolutely huge compared to the size of our planet, most moons would be substantially smaller. Especially if you want many of them in a dynamically unstable system, which would basically consist of a constant stream of moons being tossed out and new asteroids being captured. One fun possibility could be a combination---one large moon comparable to Earth's (or larger, why can't we have a double planet? ) combined with a constant stream of large rocks from space to make life both extremely hazardous and interesting.

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (1) MetalSlimeHunt
One (3)  KJP, Lidku, TL
Two (1) Glass
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (4?) IFM, Rockeater, NG, Madman

Why not !!FUN!!?

Spoiler:  GM Note (click to show/hide)

I have to confess, I myself am not an astrophysicist, nor do I profess to have any more than an amateur with a computer's understanding of astronomy. I vaguely remembered seeing a documentary mentioning that numerous moons could cause optical damage to the human eye but after reading the thread and fact-checking, I see I was misinformed and/or mis-remembering the specifics, which were that the constant light would decimate someone's sleep cycle, which is completely unrelated to the intensity of the light they're reflecting. I'm glad I can say I knew that much about the orbital mechanics and that would've been on-point. I appreciate the patience and apologize for any gaps in your immersion.

If nothing else, 40k has no shortage of !!FUN!! regardless of what you choose. Though depending on the specifics of evolution, your species could be a serious part of that on the fringes of known space.

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (1) MetalSlimeHunt
One (6) KJP, Lidku, TL, SC777, Chaoskl21, Glass
Two (0)
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (4) Rockeater, NG, Madman, NirurOn the request of Shadowclaw777, I'm posting here to clarify my vote in case of potential confusion. The only reason I had my vote on "Many" in the first place was in case "Three" didn't work out; thus, I have retracted my vote for Many in favor of Three, on the assumption that's even possible, as that was my original intention. Apologies for any problems caused.

Spoiler:  GM Note (click to show/hide)

That's no problem, write-in options are always acceptable, if not preferable.

I passed on this earlier because I wasn't sure how much connection to Warhammer 40K there would be. Reading the thread now, I've got to say I'm sorry I missed out.

I have to express my own skepticism that more moons makes the sky bright enough to harm vision. If familiar Luna and Sol are our measuring stick: Sol is more than 150,000 times brighter! (Apparent magnitude -13 vs. apparent magnitude -26.7 works out to a factor of about 2.512^13.) Anything that can process daylight safely isn't likely to be bothered by plausible amounts of moonlight. Maybe very bright moons (more reflective and/or refractive than ours) will not be viewed directly just as the primary star is not, but ambient light levels will not reverse the definitions of "day" and "night".

That said, one strategy to mitigate all that radiation could be to use the planet itself as a shield and become aggressively nocturnal. Our future native species may indeed be light sensitive, but I don't know that any hypothetical visiting humans would be discomfited.

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (2) MetalSlimeHunt, mightymushroom
One (6) KJP, Lidku, TL, SC777, Chaoskl21, Glass
Two (0)
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (4) Rockeater, NG, Madman, Nirur

Spoiler:  GM Note (click to show/hide)

You're the third to mention the light-discrepancy and likely the eighth to notice, I appreciate that you have the patience to take the time to explain why and how the flavour-text and evolutionary impact was off-kilter, with statistics, no less! I'm glad you decided to join-in, your evolutionary journey will begin long before the War in Heaven but the species itself won't achieve sapience for some time. What era of the timeline it emerges into the broader galaxy is up to how quickly you progress technologically and get a cohesive or loosely functional society off-planet.

Becoming nocturnal to avoid the brunt of radiation is possible, but your crust is still bombarded with it, necessitating further adaptions than what we're familiar with, possibly excepting the radiotrophic mushrooms growing in Chernobyl.

[Ardent Debater]

Spoiler:  GM Note (click to show/hide)

On an unrelated note, I'm stunned at how much activity this thread is getting. This is an important vote and it's close, so I'll let it sit for another hour or two before we move onto the last stage of the Home-System and then get into the nitty gritty of what life is on the planet, how it works differently (or similarly) to our own, and what place the distant ancestors of the species have in the ecosystem. That'll be a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to seeing what course the evolutionary process takes.

[Blood_Librarian]

Code: (Moon(s) vote) [Select]

None (2) MetalSlimeHunt, mightymushroom
One (7) KJP, Lidku, TL, SC777, Chaoskl21, Glass, BL
Two (0)
[Three] (1) IFM
Many (4) Rockeater, NG, Madman, Nirur[/quote]