Where does the sun set?

[psymann]

I'm used to the sun setting in the west and rising in the east.

Is that true in the lands of Battlemaster (Atamara specifically on this occasion)?  Or does the Battlemaster world not mimic Earth in that respect?

[Anaris]

I think that's practically the definition of "west" and "east", so yes, the sun rises and sets in the same place in the BattleMaster world as it does on Earth.

Do you have some particular reason to think otherwise?

[Chenier]

If you are trying to correlate turn change order with geographic positioning of the continents, though, I'd advise not to.

[Shizzle]

Pian en Luries roleplays the meaning of their crest as the sun rising in the East ... So I guess they decided that for you

[psymann]

At the time, I was in the middle of writing a roleplay about my character looking to the west, just after sunset.  I was therefore considering whether it would have been correct for him to have seen silhouettes of things, since they'd have had the sun behind them.

Then I remembered the fact that this isn't Earth, and places like Dwilight have their bloodstars and all sorts, of non-earth constellations, and had a sudden wondering whether the sun setting in the west was as ridiculous in Battlemaster as wanting to explore the north pole or board a boat heading for the West Indies.

I always have the same worry about animals... does battlemaster have rabbits?  Sheep?  Deer?  Lions?  Kangaroos?  Polar bears?  Dinosaurs?  Dragons?  Unicorns?  Which animals are appropriate to copy from Earth and put into Battlemaster, and which are not?  (First person to mention Atamaran badgers buys us all a round of drinks in apology!)

Similarly other nature - are trees in Battlemaster Oak, Ash, Pine, Elm and Beech?  Or are they Eucalyptus, Mahogony, Teak?  Or battlemaster-unique - the sturdy Lub tree, the tall and leafy Yerth, and the Jukluk with its poisonous berries and brittle bark?

I'm not really into the long, descriptive, narrative roleplays, but even with my rather less artistic and atmospheric stuff, I do sometimes want to refer to 'some animal' frightening a horse, or 'some tree' being climbed to get away from 'some animal' that was frightening my character.  And I always struggle a bit to know which ones to use.  Any precedent for any of these?

[Bedwyr]

I believe the standard thing is to default to Middle Ages Europe, and you'll be fine.  However, on Dwilight at least, there's a large amount of work being done talking about what regions are like what real-world analogues if you want to get more interesting.

[Fleugs]

If I'm not mistaken, there were stars in the middle ages too.

[JPierreD]

I am no authority on the matter, but my opinion is simple: collective world-building.

So the question would not be "are there rabbits in Battle Master", but more "would you like them to be rabbits?"

[Anaris]

The general feeling seems to be that there are whatever species people need there to be—from Earth or otherwise.

[Chenier]

The general feeling seems to be that there are whatever species people need there to be—from Earth or otherwise.

If you had them in Europe, you have them in BM. If you had them elsewhere in the world, you may also have them in BM. That'S the way I see it.

[Shizzle]

If you had them in Europe, you have them in BM. If you had them elsewhere in the world, you may also have them in BM. That'S the way I see it.

I think my char will be riding a Llama, tomorrow

[psymann]

I am no authority on the matter, but my opinion is simple: collective world-building.

So the question would not be "are there rabbits in Battle Master", but more "would you like them to be rabbits?"

I think actually the question would be "would I like them to be rabbits and would anyone else mind if they were rabbits?"

Because I might want to have some llamas to ride, and some kangaroos to hunt.  But other players might find that daft and annoying and not introduce them.


I guess common sense can generaly prevail - I'll just stick to usually using European stuff with the odd fantasy whatsit, but avoid tropical exotic earth thingies.

[Shizzle]

Anything that's outside of the European context can be just put under 'monsters'

[psymann]

It does get a little more confusing in the Morek area of Dwilight, though (Huanghai, Linhai, Zhongyuan, Caiyun, Cailyn, Shomrak, Taishan, Bohai, Donghaiwei), where the regions have very Eastern sounding names, that make me think far more of China than of France.  Are those regions just as European as the rest?

[vonGenf]

My take on this is that you can invent fauna and flora to suit your purpose. If you want to talk about the particular type of tree, you are welcome to name it a Jubjub tree.

Similarly, as long as you go with established roleplay, you can pick up different fauna in different regions. The description of Huanghai says it is a rice-producing region, for example, so it wouldn't make much sense to have camels there as it's not dry, but I wouldn't mind if you RPed tomatoes, even though tomatoes are from Peru. It doesn't matter as Morek is not actually China; it's just an inspiration coming from the name.

It would only be a problem if it broke the serious part of SMA, e.g. unicorns or llama-riding knights. Morek has Chinese names and some chinese elements, but the nobles are still european-type knights.