But we sure as heck can redivert fertilizer, plants, and water resources! Golden Gate Park is completely artificial, and larger than Central Park, NYC.

Your island needs a native peoples who are rapidly building nets along the edge of the floating island, a la Discworld.

Quote from: Ravenswing;1005638As may be, but Christ on a crutch, I don't think 21st century industrial man has yet come up with the technology en masse to craft a sea anchor or keel sufficient to check the rotation of a hundred and fifty square mile island.

We can't lift it off the ground and send it sailing through the sky either.  Clearly the island is the source of high quality Unobtainium.  They just need to find some of that.  Or stabilize and alinign the islands natural lay lines with the terrestrial ones to stop the spinning.  Or for a purely scientific sky anchor 5 or 6 miles of iron chian, maginitized and running north to provide drag on the earths magnetic field.

Quote from: Headless;1005573Wait.  Step back a bit.  You are saying this 9 by 16 mile floating land mass is big enough to generate its own weather.  Instead of just getting what ever weather it floats through?  And ypu are saying that the difference in hight between zero level ( basicly grpund level if it was still attached to the ground) and the average hight of the mountain is more important than the size of the island (total mass and hight) and the distance off the ground?

No I am not. This floating land mass is floating. In the winds. These winds effectively no longer come from the same direction. The same tropical trade winds are now hitting the land mass form various directions, not because the wind is varying but because the land is turning. Also, the land is higher off the ground, and the wind is somewhat colder and drier. So the rain forest which had formed where the flanks of the central mountain were hit by the hot, wet trades is not going to get enough rain to sustain itself, and it therefore must become something else.

Quote from: AsenRG;1005605You're a GM, alright:D!

Me, I made up a tragic story about an Exalted NPC who is currently serving the Yozi, and whose previous incarnation is connected to the PCs' previous incarnation. Because of this, I assumed they might want to know it, and figured I'd better be prepared.
The player who met her first knocked her out and is currently keeping her sedated until they come up with a way to remove the Yozi's influence from her;). They were considering slaying her outright, but decided against it, because they know her Exaltation was changed in some way, and want to change her back at first.

I see you, too, are a GM!

Quote from: Ravenswing;1005638As may be, but Christ on a crutch, I don't think 21st century industrial man has yet come up with the technology en masse to craft a sea anchor or keel sufficient to check the rotation of a hundred and fifty square mile island.

Indeed that is a problem! That's a lot of mass.

Quote from: Opaopajr;1005641But we sure as heck can redivert fertilizer, plants, and water resources! Golden Gate Park is completely artificial, and larger than Central Park, NYC.

Your island needs a native peoples who are rapidly building nets along the edge of the floating island, a la Discworld.

The first step is to get a native people. four 21st century Californians can't do much alone.

Quote from: Headless;1005648We can't lift it off the ground and send it sailing through the sky either.  Clearly the island is the source of high quality Unobtainium.  They just need to find some of that.  Or stabilize and alinign the islands natural lay lines with the terrestrial ones to stop the spinning.  Or for a purely scientific sky anchor 5 or 6 miles of iron chian, maginitized and running north to provide drag on the earths magnetic field.

A solution most likely does lie with working with the natural properties of this world. A very good thought!

I would have just guessed. Unless there was a very good reason not to.  Because I'm a GM.

I love settings like this.

In one of the longer lasting Earthdawn games I ran with a co-GM, the setting was 3 sky islands chained together with MASSIVE chains. The Theran nobility has ripped a mountain apart (& into 3 pieces), and had turned the largest piece upside-down to serve as the sky-anchor and the flat farmlands. The Therans are using bronze age farming techniques, so this needed to be a large space (hence the flat underside of the previous peak), and they scooped out a large shallow basin to serve as the system water supply. Middle sized island was where a local town had been (most of the non slave population lived here -- Therans are slavers), small elite island was the local fortified keep and surrounding hunting lands and domain of the Theran nobility and the local nobles who had aligned with them. This system weathered the Scourge fairly well high above the devastation. During the games, the ruins on the underside of the mountain became infested by Horrors, there was an upside-down dungeon crwal through most of them, and eventually the PCs caught the attention of the Dragons when they dealt with the Horrors and decided how/when/where to land "their new domain" (well, most of the nobles were dead by that point and the PCs had joined the rebellion).

That sounds like a cool game.

Quote from: Telarus;1006911I love settings like this.

In one of the longer lasting Earthdawn games I ran with a co-GM, the setting was 3 sky islands chained together with MASSIVE chains. The Theran nobility has ripped a mountain apart (& into 3 pieces), and had turned the largest piece upside-down to serve as the sky-anchor and the flat farmlands. The Therans are using bronze age farming techniques, so this needed to be a large space (hence the flat underside of the previous peak), and they scooped out a large shallow basin to serve as the system water supply. Middle sized island was where a local town had been (most of the non slave population lived here -- Therans are slavers), small elite island was the local fortified keep and surrounding hunting lands and domain of the Theran nobility and the local nobles who had aligned with them. This system weathered the Scourge fairly well high above the devastation. During the games, the ruins on the underside of the mountain became infested by Horrors, there was an upside-down dungeon crwal through most of them, and eventually the PCs caught the attention of the Dragons when they dealt with the Horrors and decided how/when/where to land "their new domain" (well, most of the nobles were dead by that point and the PCs had joined the rebellion).

This sounds wicked, Telarus! You must have had a great deal of fun there!

I love the 'modern people go back in time and build empires' genera.  1632 Eric flint.  Against the tide of years SM stirling (haven't read any of the change I can never find the dirst one).  I want to read a book about these sky cast time lost Californians.

Quote from: flyingmice;1007035This sounds wicked, Telarus! You must have had a great deal of fun there!

Not to sidetrack the thread, but it really was one of the best Earthdawn campaigns I've ran. One of the primary rebel NPCs was a headless undead Troll Nethermancer adept (who had been beheaded by the nobles, resurrected by his spirit allies, and then started the rebellion by hiding in the caves in the lower island), who tended to carry around his head in the crook of his arm.

The other really awesome moment was when one of the PC Adepts actually chose to accept one of the Horror's deals. It was during the final climactic fight on an airship hovering just underneath the main ruin on the underside of the mountain, over a large open volcano caldera (the islands had drifted over the volcanic region of Iceland). One of the large winged master-level Horrors was finally flushed out and it started attacking the ship and decimating the airship crew. The Elf Swordsmaster PC had found a strange stone/organic looking sword at the start of the campaign (actually an intelligent Horror), and my co-GM had been running it's conversations with the player. As his team and crew were dying all around him, the elf decided that he would take up his sword's offer of power (which had been whispered to the player through the whole campaign). With a peals of cackling laughter from the elf and his sword, the Swordsmaster mutated and changed into a chitinous-armored warrior (a la "the Guyver" movie from the 90s), threw himself off the ship at the winged Horror and plunged with it into the lava field below (all Balrog+Galdalf style) and the player got to use his sword-Horror's Karma Dice as bonus dice for all his attacks that round.

I was seriously impressed that a self-sacrifice like that emerged out of the gameplay... it was Epic.

Quote from: Headless;1007036I love the 'modern people go back in time and build empires' genera.  1632 Eric flint.  Against the tide of years SM stirling (haven't read any of the change I can never find the dirst one).  I want to read a book about these sky cast time lost Californians.

Indeed, great situation for conflicts to evolve.

Quote from: Headless;1007036I love the 'modern people go back in time and build empires' genera.  1632 Eric flint.  Against the tide of years SM stirling (haven't read any of the change I can never find the dirst one).  I want to read a book about these sky cast time lost Californians.

Thanks, Headless!

Quote from: Telarus;1007054I was seriously impressed that a self-sacrifice like that emerged out of the gameplay... it was Epic.

Sometimes games can have these amazing moments that were all unlooked for, but make perfect sense when you look back.

QuoteIndeed, great situation for conflicts to evolve.

That's what I'm hoping!