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[EnigmaticHat]

Yup.  Its always funny how so many fantasy maps have a desert that starts to the southeast and goes past the edge of the map.

[Descan]

Because of that I want to create a fantasy world with an arctic equator and tropical polar regions, and a vast plains, dotted with lakes, instead of oceans.

[SealyStar]

Yup.  Its always funny how so many fantasy maps have a desert that starts to the southeast and goes past the edge of the map.

I actually saw a thing on r/worldbuilding kind of about how the home of a worldbuilder impacts their fictional worlds. Something about how realistically a medieval society would be really spaced out over a large area, and a British guy pointed out that in Britain a lot of important places really were within a days' travel of each other way back then, so it would be realistic to have an absurdly tight fantasy world. Whereas my fictional universe has giant continents with distributions of geographical features curiously similar to North America and big distances between anything important. The main continent of interest has a culture that can be best described as "medieval American", maybe as if the Romans had somehow settled the west coast. But, of course, not literally, because it's all in a fictional universe.

Also, 'scan, gonna point out that geographically that makes no sense, because the geographic poles (not to be confused with magnetic poles) are the coldest points on a planet because they receive the most variable levels of sunlight at the lowest angle, and the equator, by definition, receives a constant amount of directly-overhead sunlight year round. Of course, with fantasy you could say a wizard did it, but that nomenclature would then be backwards from the perspective of someone in the world.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Someone here in Bwahston asked where I was from. Michigan, I said.

"Oh, that state that's in the middle of those lakes"

It occurred to me that where you live, not even the culture there, can seriously impact your perception of the world. To most "outsiders", Michigan is two peninsulas sticking out into those lakes. To people there, Michigan is a place and those lakes happen to be all around it.

That also explains how in trying to invent fantasy worlds I invariably stick a few big lakes right in the middle of continents, and they invariably have big peninsulas in them. And in one case I even named the bordering fictional province after one, a la Michigan.

Mandatory.

Because of that I want to create a fantasy world with an arctic equator and tropical polar regions, and a vast plains, dotted with lakes, instead of oceans.

I want to create a fantasy world with a large nearly-uninhabitable area, due to being filled with some of the most horrific monstrosities possible, that goes on for a long while and gets worse and worse. Ideally for a video game, so you can have someone going through the thinning strands of civilization until it goes away completely, trying to get deeper and deeper into the Deathland than anybody before to claim indescribable wealth and make it back alive.

The Divide in New Vegas came pretty close, but it was too linear.

[SealyStar]

Someone here in Bwahston asked where I was from. Michigan, I said.

"Oh, that state that's in the middle of those lakes"

It occurred to me that where you live, not even the culture there, can seriously impact your perception of the world. To most "outsiders", Michigan is two peninsulas sticking out into those lakes. To people there, Michigan is a place and those lakes happen to be all around it.

That also explains how in trying to invent fantasy worlds I invariably stick a few big lakes right in the middle of continents, and they invariably have big peninsulas in them. And in one case I even named the bordering fictional province after one, a la Michigan.

Mandatory.

That's... actually a good article as far as wiki hoaxes go.

Also, today I learned that Michigan had a governor named Epaphroditus Ransom. The name was so ridiculous that I actually thought that that was part of the hoaxiness of the article until I clicked on it.

Well, I have a new screen name for when I want something funny yet mysterious.

[Descan]

Yeah, I know. Figured I ought to have to said "Because magic, I don't gotta explain shit." but

But I like the idea of a vast desert in a land without night for half the year, and then eternal darkness as thousands of lamps and flames dot the shifting dunes. :3

[ShoesandHats]

I want to create a fantasy world with a large nearly-uninhabitable area, due to being filled with some of the most horrific monstrosities possible, that goes on for a long while and gets worse and worse. Ideally for a video game, so you can have someone going through the thinning strands of civilization until it goes away completely, trying to get deeper and deeper into the Deathland than anybody before to claim indescribable wealth and make it back alive.

The Divide in New Vegas came pretty close, but it was too linear.

The entire S.T.A.L.K.E.R series is basically that, except instead of it being fantasy, it's all about Chernobyl turning everything in the surrounding area into monsters.

[alway]

Someone here in Bwahston asked where I was from. Michigan, I said.

"Oh, that state that's in the middle of those lakes"

It occurred to me that where you live, not even the culture there, can seriously impact your perception of the world. To most "outsiders", Michigan is two peninsulas sticking out into those lakes. To people there, Michigan is a place and those lakes happen to be all around it.

That also explains how in trying to invent fantasy worlds I invariably stick a few big lakes right in the middle of continents, and they invariably have big peninsulas in them. And in one case I even named the bordering fictional province after one, a la Michigan.

Mandatory.

Because of that I want to create a fantasy world with an arctic equator and tropical polar regions, and a vast plains, dotted with lakes, instead of oceans.

I want to create a fantasy world with a large nearly-uninhabitable area, due to being filled with some of the most horrific monstrosities possible, that goes on for a long while and gets worse and worse. Ideally for a video game, so you can have someone going through the thinning strands of civilization until it goes away completely, trying to get deeper and deeper into the Deathland than anybody before to claim indescribable wealth and make it back alive.

The Divide in New Vegas came pretty close, but it was too linear.

Use this as your fantasy map. https://xkcd.com/1389/
Complete with atmospheric conditions; possibly with a transition gradient around the edges, but generally contained via some sort of magics. It might actually work out well if you have players who tend to go nuts with minmaxing their abilities/equipment/possessions. Sail a galleon beyond the (literal) edges of the earth, then unload their magical moving habitat for Mars exploration...

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The entire S.T.A.L.K.E.R series is basically that, except instead of it being fantasy, it's all about Chernobyl turning everything in the surrounding area into monsters.

Again, close but no cigar. S.T.A.L.K.E.R has too much civilization, and besides, I want the Deathland to be more of an area in a larger world. Not just a high-level zone, but a constant hell that even the most powerful characters (or groups thereof) are essentially on a time limit after entering. The actual high-level zone would be the End Of The Line, the last permanent settlement connected to anything before it goes totally savage.

Complete with atmospheric conditions; possibly with a transition gradient around the edges, but generally contained via some sort of magics. It might actually work out well if you have players who tend to go nuts with minmaxing their abilities/equipment/possessions. Sail a galleon beyond the (literal) edges of the earth, then unload their magical moving habitat for Mars exploration...

That doesn't work because there's nothing much out there but raw resources and terrible quality living space. There has to be a very good reason for diving into these suicidal places. Things you aren't going to easily get otherwise. One thought I've had is the ruins of a Sufficiently Advanced civilization that went too far and suffered a total but mostly contained collapse. Most of what they made is incomprehensible, some of it is valuable, a lot of it will try to kill you, a few scant things are all three.

[Truean]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/11/us/oklahoma-lesbian-student-expelled/index.html

....

I love the unequal treatment. You know other students "violate" that clause all day long: alcohol, drugs, premarital sex, whatever. But because she's gay, they're going to selectively enforce it....

O god, I made the mistake of reading the comments. There are a ton of people who are outraged that she signed this thing and broke it by being gay.... So basically you can enshrine bigotry in law if you want? I'm just gonna calm down and not think about this anymore. It's sad for me.

[EnigmaticHat]

When there are enough rules, you can punish anyone you want.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

To be fair, if it's anything like most of those clauses it probably is used to get rid of straight students violating it....ones the administration doesn't like, for any number of reasons. But the favored sons? They've just had "moments of weakness" in their "quest for Jesus" and only need to "sincerely repent".

[EnigmaticHat]

Yeah, I know. Figured I ought to have to said "Because magic, I don't gotta explain shit." but

But I like the idea of a vast desert in a land without night for half the year, and then eternal darkness as thousands of lamps and flames dot the shifting dunes. :3

That can still be the cold part at the poles, provided the rest of the planet is even warmer

Or, yeah, just magic A is magic A.  That explanation always works.

[Descan]

Probably, but I also like this idea of a band of glaciers and snow splitting a planet in half until they get the ability to cross it.

[Elephant Parade]

ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ raise your dongers ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ

You're supposed to capitalize that.