I'm not sure how relevant this is to the question, but: Any planet that was frozen, all year round, at the equator, would be very very cold at the poles. I frankly don't know the answers, but in layman's terms it feels like a pretty narrow niche - where you have a frozen equator, but still enough heat to retain an atmosphere. Oxygen doesn't freeze until minus 218 degrees celcius, but still, if the temperature at the equator never goes above freezing, winter at the poles would be quite cold indeed. It wouldn't take much of a nudge to bring the atmosphere down, removing any chance of recovery.
In game terms, this might be a good thing. That is, after all, a very real end of the world scenario.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
I'm not sure how relevant this is to the question, but: Any planet that was frozen, all year round, at the equator, would be very very cold at the poles. I frankly don't know the answers, but in layman's terms it feels like a pretty narrow niche - where you have a frozen equator, but still enough heat to retain an atmosphere. Oxygen doesn't freeze until minus 218 degrees celcius, but still, if the temperature at the equator never goes above freezing, winter at the poles would be quite cold indeed. It wouldn't take much of a nudge to bring the atmosphere down, removing any chance of recovery.
In game terms, this might be a good thing. That is, after all, a very real end of the world scenario.
This depends on the fantasy world, naturally. There's no reason why a D&D world couldn't have deserts at the poles and an icy ring around the equator. Unlearn the astrophysics you have learned!
This depends on the fantasy world, naturally. There's no reason why a D&D world couldn't have deserts at the poles and an icy ring around the equator. Unlearn the astrophysics you have learned!
There's no reason a D&D world needs to have poles or an equator at all; it doesn't need to be a sphere.
This depends on the fantasy world, naturally. There's no reason why a D&D world couldn't have deserts at the poles and an icy ring around the equator. Unlearn the astrophysics you have learned!
There's no reason a D&D world needs to have poles or an equator at all; it doesn't need to be a sphere.
Though if it *was* a sphere, you could have magic stop the planet from turning - it still orbits, but one side is permanently facing the sun, and one side is in darkness, rapidly getting colder.
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Currently homebrewing the Mistveil Rogue, an elusive infiltrator that can vanish into thin air.
Its just easier for both players and DM's to work as close possible to known mechanics.
Unless you like making and or reading 50 page backgrounds to explain the geography of the world.
Just saying that the world is in an ice age( or is just a world of mostly cold and snow for the illiterate peasants) is much shorter than doing something special and different and then needing a huge hand out to explain it.
to the lay person they do not care how long its been this way or even why. They just care that its only got a good 4 month growing season in their area and 4 months of being snowbound inside their homes.
This depends on the fantasy world, naturally. There's no reason why a D&D world couldn't have deserts at the poles and an icy ring around the equator. Unlearn the astrophysics you have learned!
No thanks - I'm perfectly content with having real world physics so I don't have to come up with some silly explanation for why the thermodynamics are different for how the world is heated by the sun, but you still cook food over fire.
Though if it *was* a sphere, you could have magic stop the planet from turning - it still orbits, but one side is permanently facing the sun, and one side is in darkness, rapidly getting colder.
Such a world would have the same problem: The cold side of the planet would freeze the atmosphere, all the nice breathable air falling as snow. This would create a high pressure low pressure situation, and more and more of the atmosphere would be sucked to the empty, dark side - to fall as snow. And life ends.
Unless you - again - want to explain to your players why this isn't the case, but all the rest of thermodynamics still applies for some reason.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Addendum: One of my homebrew worlds is actually literally endless, and not a sphere. But thermodynamics are still a thing.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Unless you - again - want to explain to your players why this isn't the case, but all the rest of thermodynamics still applies for some reason.
Why would the rest of thermodynamics apply? There's so much stuff in D&D that violates physics as we know it that it's kind of silly to assume the physics is remotely the same.
Why would the rest of thermodynamics apply? There's so much stuff in D&D that violates physics as we know it that it's kind of silly to assume the physics is remotely the same.
Because the more weird exceptions you have to explain, the less believable your worldbuilding.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Though if it *was* a sphere, you could have magic stop the planet from turning - it still orbits, but one side is permanently facing the sun, and one side is in darkness, rapidly getting colder.
This was how the planet of Twi-Leks was in Star Wars. There was only a thin habitable zone in the region where the sunny region transitioned to the dark region. Very neat IMO.
No thanks - I'm perfectly content with having real world physics so I don't have to come up with some silly explanation for why the thermodynamics are different for how the world is heated by the sun, but you still cook food over fire.
If your players are anything lke mine, they will not at all care. I can't think of a single time where I brought up thermodynamics in a game for any reason other than to troll the DM. But to play ball, so to speak, consider a world like Trisolaria in Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem, which orbits a system of three stars that chaotically interact with each other. I was going to mention this concept to address the OP as well. One could easily see that as producing "strange" geography. Alternatively... and hear me out... magic!
Edit: Or even another. One could consider a world in which the main source of heat is geothermal. There's maybe a titanic lava monster at the core, or something fun like that. In that case the regions of the world could look very different.
Compromise where you can. Where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say, "No. You move."
The easiest way to turn an entire world cold is to move it further out. Everybody moves underground or dies. Welcome to the underdark!
The BEST way to turn half the planet cold is to stop the rotation of the planet. Have it become tidally locked to the sun with one 'day' side facing the sun 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 50 weeks a year, while the 'night' side faces away. You get 1) a boiling side - no oceans, 2) a thin ring around the planet with MASSIVE wind storms and pleasant temperatures, and 3) a frozen side of the planet
Volcanos and meteors can put enough aerosol particles into the upper atmosphere that the world ends up like Snowpiercer or frost punk and magic can control volcanos and meteors.
A single volcano being forced to continuously erupt with magic would eventually become a world ending event if it's not stopped in time. I suggest reading up on volcanic winter. It would make a good high level campaign setting that would force the players to quickly fix what is causing a volcano to unnaturally erupt.
If you want to go super grim dark after that it could take the world years to recover as the particles will stay in the air for a long time and if the volcanic winter goes on for too long eventually for the surface dwellers dependent on plants the only thing that would be available to eat without magical intervention is each other.
In a magical world, there would be more food than each other, even without magical intervention. The entire underdark subsists on food grown using magical energy sources.
Would there be famine? Yes. But smart leaders would easily foresee this and take steps before hand. Namely attacking neighboring countries, killing them and taking their stored food, and using magic themselves to create food. A quick short war or four would both seriously reduce the population and therefore the number of mouths to feed while giving the casters time to create magic items that would more permanently solve the problem. 1st level spell Goodberry feeds 10 people. Create Food and water at 3rd level feeds 15. If the Cantrip Light does not 'count' then the 3rd level spell Daylight should definitely count enough to grow plants for 1 hour. Magic Item using these spells would solve the problem, particularly if the spell Plant Growth is thrown in.
I would bet that the population would cut in half, maybe even one quarter. Might wipe out some species, even. But the world would mostly recover in 100 years back to full population levels.
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I'm not sure how relevant this is to the question, but: Any planet that was frozen, all year round, at the equator, would be very very cold at the poles. I frankly don't know the answers, but in layman's terms it feels like a pretty narrow niche - where you have a frozen equator, but still enough heat to retain an atmosphere. Oxygen doesn't freeze until minus 218 degrees celcius, but still, if the temperature at the equator never goes above freezing, winter at the poles would be quite cold indeed. It wouldn't take much of a nudge to bring the atmosphere down, removing any chance of recovery.
In game terms, this might be a good thing. That is, after all, a very real end of the world scenario.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
This depends on the fantasy world, naturally. There's no reason why a D&D world couldn't have deserts at the poles and an icy ring around the equator. Unlearn the astrophysics you have learned!
There's no reason a D&D world needs to have poles or an equator at all; it doesn't need to be a sphere.
Bingo.
Though if it *was* a sphere, you could have magic stop the planet from turning - it still orbits, but one side is permanently facing the sun, and one side is in darkness, rapidly getting colder.
Currently homebrewing the Mistveil Rogue, an elusive infiltrator that can vanish into thin air.
Its just easier for both players and DM's to work as close possible to known mechanics.
Unless you like making and or reading 50 page backgrounds to explain the geography of the world.
Just saying that the world is in an ice age( or is just a world of mostly cold and snow for the illiterate peasants) is much shorter than doing something special and different and then needing a huge hand out to explain it.
to the lay person they do not care how long its been this way or even why. They just care that its only got a good 4 month growing season in their area and 4 months of being snowbound inside their homes.
No thanks - I'm perfectly content with having real world physics so I don't have to come up with some silly explanation for why the thermodynamics are different for how the world is heated by the sun, but you still cook food over fire.
There are countless reasons for D&D world to have poles and an equator - but no, technically is doesn't need to be a sphere.
Bongo.
Such a world would have the same problem: The cold side of the planet would freeze the atmosphere, all the nice breathable air falling as snow. This would create a high pressure low pressure situation, and more and more of the atmosphere would be sucked to the empty, dark side - to fall as snow. And life ends.
Unless you - again - want to explain to your players why this isn't the case, but all the rest of thermodynamics still applies for some reason.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Addendum: One of my homebrew worlds is actually literally endless, and not a sphere. But thermodynamics are still a thing.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Why would the rest of thermodynamics apply? There's so much stuff in D&D that violates physics as we know it that it's kind of silly to assume the physics is remotely the same.
Because the more weird exceptions you have to explain, the less believable your worldbuilding.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
This was how the planet of Twi-Leks was in Star Wars. There was only a thin habitable zone in the region where the sunny region transitioned to the dark region. Very neat IMO.
If your players are anything lke mine, they will not at all care. I can't think of a single time where I brought up thermodynamics in a game for any reason other than to troll the DM. But to play ball, so to speak, consider a world like Trisolaria in Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem, which orbits a system of three stars that chaotically interact with each other. I was going to mention this concept to address the OP as well. One could easily see that as producing "strange" geography. Alternatively... and hear me out... magic!
Edit: Or even another. One could consider a world in which the main source of heat is geothermal. There's maybe a titanic lava monster at the core, or something fun like that. In that case the regions of the world could look very different.
If you want a truly massive world that is not a sphere try a ring world.
Look up Ring World and larry niven
Wow! That's a lot of excellent replies.
What about a Wish spell?
Compromise where you can. Where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say, "No. You move."
The %e wish spell is not the wish spell of old.
It is not world changing.
The easiest way to turn an entire world cold is to move it further out. Everybody moves underground or dies. Welcome to the underdark!
The BEST way to turn half the planet cold is to stop the rotation of the planet. Have it become tidally locked to the sun with one 'day' side facing the sun 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 50 weeks a year, while the 'night' side faces away. You get 1) a boiling side - no oceans, 2) a thin ring around the planet with MASSIVE wind storms and pleasant temperatures, and 3) a frozen side of the planet
A spaceship appears from a galaxy far, far away and destroys the sun.
Well thats rather final.
No more so than Sköll eating the sun.
Volcanos and meteors can put enough aerosol particles into the upper atmosphere that the world ends up like Snowpiercer or frost punk and magic can control volcanos and meteors.
A single volcano being forced to continuously erupt with magic would eventually become a world ending event if it's not stopped in time. I suggest reading up on volcanic winter. It would make a good high level campaign setting that would force the players to quickly fix what is causing a volcano to unnaturally erupt.
If you want to go super grim dark after that it could take the world years to recover as the particles will stay in the air for a long time and if the volcanic winter goes on for too long eventually for the surface dwellers dependent on plants the only thing that would be available to eat without magical intervention is each other.
In a magical world, there would be more food than each other, even without magical intervention. The entire underdark subsists on food grown using magical energy sources.
Would there be famine? Yes. But smart leaders would easily foresee this and take steps before hand. Namely attacking neighboring countries, killing them and taking their stored food, and using magic themselves to create food. A quick short war or four would both seriously reduce the population and therefore the number of mouths to feed while giving the casters time to create magic items that would more permanently solve the problem. 1st level spell Goodberry feeds 10 people. Create Food and water at 3rd level feeds 15. If the Cantrip Light does not 'count' then the 3rd level spell Daylight should definitely count enough to grow plants for 1 hour. Magic Item using these spells would solve the problem, particularly if the spell Plant Growth is thrown in.
I would bet that the population would cut in half, maybe even one quarter. Might wipe out some species, even. But the world would mostly recover in 100 years back to full population levels.