AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Hey guys, your friendly neighborhood Dan de Board here with a challenge.

My challenge to all of you is to work together to design a world, any kind of world really. It could be a fantasy world, modern, futuristic, anything as long as it's a collaborative effort. I figure that everyone here is creative, either through drawing, writing, or some other means. But the real question is can you all work together? There are two requirements to this challenge:

1. The world must be earth-like: spherical, covered in around 70% water with an oxygen-hydrogen atmosphere and carbon-based life-forms.
2. You must work from the ground up using what I call the Pizza Method, outlined below.

The Pizza Method is probably one of the easier ways to build a world when you don't have a story to it. You start with the bottom, or the crust, by planning the continents and then the mountains. After that, you can start spreading the sauce by placing more specific topography like valleys, canyons, forests, lakes, rivers, deserts and the like. Then you spread out the toppings: add cities, towns, villages, relics of the past and other cool things. Finally, you bake it and make up stories for the world. Why is it the way it is? What's the history? Who are the people that inhabit it?

As much as I would love too, I won't be collaborating with you all. I'll be acting as an adviser during design problems, a mediator during disputes, a secretary keeping track of your ideas in this post and a fair judge of your work. At the end of this, I'm hoping that we all have something that we are proud and that we could use in an RP or to set stories in. It would be a shame to have all this work go to waste.

Some things to help you get started:

1. Look at Earth, both our past and our present and see what things you'd like to emulate and find out how they got to be the way they are.
2. Look in some of your favorite games and books and see what's cool about their worlds.
3. Think about how you can add fantasy/sci-fi elements to the world and explain them. How could you build a thriving city within a few miles of an active volcano? Why would a village need to be in the tree-tops and not on the ground? How come that island moves?
4. Map things out, maybe have a designated artist who updates a map with new ideas as they are agreed upon.
5. Be willing to concede to others. You may want something that others do not, be willing to make a concession or two. Maybe they'll like your next idea.

Anyways, I think that's all I have to say. I hope you guys like the idea and have fun doing it! I'll do my best to keep this post updated with your ideas.

I always thought it would be kind of cool to have a whole bunch of large islands with medium/smaller islands interspersed between them

archipelago

Aren't archipelagos, like, trails of islands coming off a bigger landmass?

I propose that this new world be pear shaped!

Make it a relatively small world!
That way the inhabitants can do slo-mo jumps and stuff!

So, an archipelago. How about 6 medium/large islands as the continents?

Congratulations AZ, you've created a planet

And wouldn't you know, you're lucky enough to have a habitable and healthy Class M on your hands. Just look at those fine minor continents and that dominant northern landmass. Unfortunately, it is currently completely sterile, of both life AND a name.



Rectify its lack of life and identity. Feel free to name Continents and Island groups as well!

The Continent on the N panel shall be called...
Biggus Dickus

Oh lord I used to play SimEarth. Most complicated game ever.

Don't even talk to me about trying to colonize Venus or Mars in that game.

Edit: relevant because you know making planets

Sorry, I just had to point this out.

I think it would be pretty cool if a mountain range ran the entire equator of the planet.

I'm going to point out you need carbon dioxide as well then. Unless one of you can figure out a way to maintain oxygen levels without plant-life.

AIR:
Nitrogen (N2) 780,840 ppmv (78.084%)
Oxygen (O2) 209,460 ppmv (20.946%)
Argon (Ar) 9,340 ppmv (0.9340%)
Carbon dioxide (CO2) 390 ppmv (0.039%)
Neon (Ne) 18.18 ppmv (0.001818%)
Helium (He) 5.24 ppmv (0.000524%)
Methane (CH4) 1.79 ppmv (0.000179%)
Krypton (Kr) 114 ppmv (0.000114%)
Hydrogen (H2) 0.55 ppmv (0.000055%)
Nitrous oxide (N2O) 0.3 ppmv (0.00003%)
Carbon monoxide (CO) 0.1 ppmv (0.00001%)
Xenon (Xe) 0.09 ppmv (9×10−6%) (0.000009%)
Ozone (O3) 0.0 to 0.07 ppmv (0 to 7×10−6%)
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) 0.02 ppmv (2×10−6%) (0.000002%)
Iodine (I2) 0.01 ppmv (1×10−6%) (0.000001%)
Ammonia (NH3) trace
Not included in above dry atmosphere:
Water vapor (H2O) ~0.40% over full atmosphere, typically 1%-4% at surface


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air

Since we have an atmosphere of N and O, we know that this planet is at least inhabited by some cyanobacteria, algae, or some similar microscopic photosynthetic life. Plus true plants, marine and land-based. (Without them our atmosphere would be hydrogen and helium and volcanic gases and we don't want that)

The logical next step I think would be to design any "complex" plant life, what eats the plant life, and go in order of trophic levels.
producers -> consumers -> consumers

And then maybe start over for different biomes and climates. The oceans would probably be easiest to figure out, or it would at least make sense since life tends to start there.