>>81597519
It shouldn't be a star, it should be a gigantic light-radiating construct that everyone believes is a star since they don't know better.

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>>81597553
And so we begin, not with a star, but with a Great Solar Orary.

>>81597617
>>81597519
Even if it is an Orary, we must know if it produces more light than Sol, or less, and how bright it is.

>>81597617
If there's no dust cloud that the star formed out of, good luck forming any planets. How do we solve this? We steal them. The solar construct flies through the interstellar space of the galaxy, doing gravitational drive-bys on other solar systems and stealing their outer planets.

>>81597672
How many planets has it stolen? If it steals them then the normal ordering does not matter, it could have a close gas giant that is quickly offgassing and dying from the heat. They're called Puffy Saturns.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Jupiter

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>>81597700

>>81597700
Rolling for stolen planets.

>>81597667
The Great Solar Orrery is slightly brighter than Sol. Due to the manner in which the stolen planets became part of the system, their orbits are eccentric, so the brightness of the Orrery on each planet depends on the time of year. Also, for the same reason, the orbits don't fall on the solar plane.

>>81597771
Fuck, I don't know how to use the roller. What field is that supposed to go in? I've never tried to use it before.

>>81597771
Also there's at least one planet in the shape of a cube and at least one other planet in the shape of a triangular prism. Sphere-planets, too, are unoriginal.

The solar construct has stolen planets for a reason: there exists nothing outside of the Orrery's light. Something used to be there, but its gone now. The Orrery, and the planets that it has saved, are all that remains of the universe.

Rolled 9 (1d10)

>>81597831
>The Orrery, and the planets that it has saved, are all that remains of the universe.
Where does it steal them from, then? Or did it steal them in the distant past, and after that everything else disappeared?

>>81597863
Perhaps they were stolen from futures that could have been.

>>81597863
I imagined it as it has gone around and collected everything it can find that has survived the end, which is precious little. So its current collection is all it has, but its theoretically possible it might find a remaining, lost world in the dark. Just extremely unlikely.

Might make for a good hook for the setting, though: after countless millennia, the construct has finally added a new world to the collection. No one knows what is on it, or how it survived alone all this time. But its appearance brings new opportunities... and new dangers.

Nice recent shakeup to explain why the 'present day' setting is interesting enough to focus on.

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>>81597801

Needs more astroid belts

>>81597976
Also also, the void of space isn't black, since that's not original. It's a very very very dark green.

>>81597976
Why do the planets necessarily orbit a star? They could all have fixed positions. Hell, planets could be flat planes.

>>81597801
I want a flat one. not a circle though. make it hexagonal. and everything on it is hexagonal, in a hex grid. it is the planet of heroscape. fighting wars on this planet is very precise.

>Einstein's concept of spherical space, furthermore, suffers from the same defect as the concept of a smoothly or perfectly spherical earth: it rests upon the use of the irrational number, pi. This number has no operational definition; there is no place on any engineer's scale to which one can point and say "This is exactly pi," although these scales are misleadingly marked with such a spot. pi, in fact, can never be found in the real world, and there are historical and archeological reasons to believe it was created by a Greek mathematician under the influence of the mind-warping hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria. It is pure surrealism. You cannot write pi as a real number; you can only approximate it, as 3.1417 . . . etc. Chemistry knows no such units: three atoms of an element may combine with four atoms of another element, but you will never find pi atoms combining with anything. Quantum physics reveals that an electron may jump three units or four units, but it will not jump pi units. Nor is pi necessary to geometry, as is sometimes claimed; R. Buckminster Fuller has created an entire geometric system, at least as reliable as that of the ancient Greek dope fiends, in which pi does not appear at all. Space, then, may be slanted or kiltered in various ways, but it cannot be smoothly spherical...

>>81598068
Flat planets are unoriginal. The OP is striving for as much originality as possible. We must bear this in mind with what we're making.

I will however allow a hexagonal-prism celestial body.

>>81598064
Fixed positions around the orary, or perhaps on celestial tracks?

>>81598064
They're tied to it, physically, with a massive cord.

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>>81598119
>>81598068

>>81598119
>>81598213
NO. It is flat, with topography undulating in discrete elevation levels. furthermore, its orbit is also hexagonal.

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>>81598153
tethers

>>81598153
>>81598263

Travel between worlds is long, difficult and dangerous... but you CAN walk along the tethers to reach other planets. Though a railroad would probably be the best way to do it...

>>81598237
I'm only going to reiterate this one more time.

OP desires complete originality.

Spherical planets are maximally unoriginal since that's what all planets, as far as we know, are. Therefore they must be discarded.

Flat planets, while more original than spherical planets, are still unoriginal because someone else has thought of them before. Therefore they, too, must be discarded.

Planets in the shape of prisms and cubes and so on are more original. They're not maximally original because they're still using concepts that have been thought of before (that is, shapes).

Just so this post isn't a waste responding to a simpleminded goon, one of the planets is the coiled-up corpse of an ancient, long-dead world-devouring creature named Chrint.

>>81598263
The solary orary is connected to a even bigger solar orary which is againt connected to a even bigger solar orary

>>81598213
fukkin square orbit is 10/10

>>81598263
not as huge a fan of the tethers because the Orrery steals planets with gravitation according to >>81597672, and also because tethers means no square orbit

captcha 0R2RY

>>81598444
The tethers don't necessarily mean the planets have to have a spherical orbit. They could be winches, pulling the planets in and out at regular intervals.

Then again, the concept of planets orbiting anything is maximally unoriginal since that's what they already do.

>>81598520
You don't need to be "maximally original" to not be "the same 10 ideas regurgitated over and over again". It's okay for planets to be spheres because that's what gravity does to large bodies, or for them to orbit in the ways that gravity predicts. Original doesn't imply good, and originality shines best when it's a few important elements that are original, not literally everything. We're not writing this in a conlang.

>>81598622
Each planet is a 1,024-sided polygon and tethers attach to one face on that polygon to connect them to the Orrerry.

Let there be Humans, Elves, Dwarves and hell let's get really far out and add Halflings as well.

>>81598331
How would the rail flex with the tethers? Tethers are inherently flexible and you'd either need some kind of expansion joint for every rail or make the rail little more than another tether. There's no need for rails, but there could be cablecars riding from the most advanced and secretive world to the orrery while the rest of the planets are unaware of the tethers and the fact the orrery isn't a star.

>>81597863
If there's an orrery, someone built it. That someone collects planets the same way people collect marbles. Occasionally planets are taken out of the orrery and wagered against other cosmic beings, and thus new planets are added to the system.

>>81598622
I didn't say that original things were implicitly good. I am willing to concede my 'maximally original' point though, rereading the OP.

That being said, we can't have anything from >>81598714. We need some dricks in this setting.

>>81598444
Fuck gravity, the Orrery steals planets using hooks and the ends of the tethers.

>>81598816
Do we have humanoids in general? I get the concept, but having all living creatures be abstract polygonal masses seems less fun than strange humanoids.

>>81599314
Nah, we can have some humanoid things, but they can't be frequently-seen things.

I will champion lobsterfolk.

>>81599314
Fuck tethers, there's no way planetary creatures wouldn't figure out something was up if the Orrery was attached to it by a big rope. I'll offer you this compromise: whoever gets dubs gets to decide how the Orrery steals planets.

>>81599349
I will second lobsterfolk and suggest that one stolen planet is infested with giant spiders. If the Orrery uses tethers, it's a major problem in the setting that the spiders are trying to climb back up their planet's tether, because they can web up the Orrery and cut off the light.

>>81599314
Perhaps a race of fluid sentience whose bodies are crafted and the liquid brains are poured in and sealed.

>>81599372
The planets themselves are sapient bodies who are all fascinated by the Orrery and are there by choice.

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>>81599408
pic related

dubs for tether if and only if the spider thing is also true, else gravity

>>81599534
Seems good, but we gotta roll with something that isn't humanshape.

>>81599372
>Fuck tethers, there's no way planetary creatures wouldn't figure out something was up if the Orrery was attached to it by a big rope.

So? Who cares if they know about the tether. To them, thats just how the world works. They've never seen anything different. Its just the way things are, and if you described to them a world that orbits a star without a tether they would laugh you out of the room. "No tether? You'd just get left behind and fall away from the star, DUMBASS."

>>81599534

You see, this is brilliant in another way. THE SOUL EXISTS. Sure, this is another, different universe, but we know a few things about souls. They are the sum total of a person's actions in life. But also, because of the behavior of ghosts we know that souls can see, think, feel and even move objects! Souls require no fuel. No calories are needed to sustain souls.

All intelligent life is a dense ball of organic matter. A nucleus that exists only to attach a soul to. The soul does the thinking, the sensing and the moving! Think of all the saved calories! But more than that! These souls have nowhere to pass on to because Heaven does not exist. The Celestial Orrery steals worlds from their own afterlives!

As a side effect, the Orrery is very haunted. So long as we are counting calories, it only makes sense that all organic life has evolved to take into account a near limitless pool of the ghosts of ancient ancestors to do the child rearing in place of parents. Leaving parents to live their lives without caring about children and thus using R-Type reproductive strategies.

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>>81598263
I am not one for absolute originality, but this is turning up interesting.

Not sure what to add though. I do have some stuff that could be suitable, but I'm not sure what. If I post a link to a pastebin with all the possible material, would someone be willing to browse it?

>>81599834
One of the planets has a fungal ecosystem. It is starting to grow up the tether as a giant wall of mold, and there are concerns that given enough time it will reach other worlds with disastrous results.

>>81599685
>They've never seen anything different.
They did before the Orrery swooped by and stole them from their previous star system, unless it only steals unpopulated planets. But according to >>81597955 it's searching for worlds at the end of the universe, so it's likely grabbing already-populated planets. The memory of an entire planet's civilization isn't going to forget something like a tether coming out of the sky and pulling them away from their sun. You've got to explain that away before the tethers are consistent with previously established facts.

>>81599880
Combine this with the spiders, the spiders are fungus farmers like that one species of ant.

>>81597519
>We are starting with the formation of the solar system and moving up from there until we have enough life to do magic.
This implies that the presence of life is necessary to do magic, which implies that life generates a kind of background magic field. What if the different biospheres on the different planets generate a different kind of background magic, and some of them are incompatible with others? Then the fungus in >>81599880 could be something that's incompatible with basically every other form of magic.

>>81599925
>You've got to explain that away before the tethers are consistent with previously established facts.

Easy. Its been so long that modern civilization has forgotten there was ever a time before the tether. Any record of that time that they DO have is relegated to myth and legend. In the same way that we have a story about Noah's Ark, but nobody actually believes that there was a global flood as some kind of historical fact.

>>81598379
>one of the planets is the coiled-up corpse of an ancient, long-dead world-devouring creature named Chrint.
another one is a huge washing machine

>>81598622
>gravity
not really original imho

>>81600297
>another one is a huge washing machine
it's the cube, it's covered with a layer of dirt and detritus but if you dig far enough down it's a washing machine

>>81599998
magic comes from fungi

>>81599534
this is like those creatures from hellboy

>>81600493
But it wasn't designed to wash clothes. It was designed to wash other planets.

>>81601404
And it was designed by the same being that designed the Great Solar Orrery. It's the only "planet" native to the system.

niggas, what the fuck are you doing in this thread

okay but will the players give a shit about this in play

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>>81599555
so... Tholian Centaurs?

>>81597519
I'd like to introduce my character now. I'm the fucking sun but my skin color is purple unlike the red color that most others of my race have. It makes me unique and you'll get to find out why im purple later in the campaign.

>>81598729
maglev construct centipede trains powered by the energy of the twisting and whirling tethers
like callapitters wriggling down solitary threads

>>81600831
would there be different gaseous and liquid versions?

>>81597519
>We are starting with the formation of the solar system and moving up from there until we have enough life to do magic.
>>81600793
>magic comes from fungi
>>81599880
>One of the planets has a fungal ecosystem.
I think that means we're done, we formed the solar system and added enough life to do magic.

>>81597519
You will never run a game in this setting
You are too lazy to put in the work yourself
You don't care about gameability
You just want to be different and unique
It's wankery

>>81605781
your mum must be real proud anon

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>>81608766
He is however correct.

>>81598263
what are the dark bits hanging off of the flat green one?
also we need ideas for the other 4 planets

>>81612363

One of the planets is inhabited solely by intelligent mathematical equations. They exist in a hierarchy based on simplicity, with the most basic at the top, and the most complex, and therefore numerous, at the bottom. These people were originally working towards solving one single problem, but when the Great Solar Orrery nabbed them from wherever they were, their society splintered. Now it's a pseudo-feudal society, with conflict driven by disagreements over what the original equation they were working to solve was, and therefore how their society should be structured.

>>81597519
So how does your own feces taste, Anon? Like the same shit you spew here, or do you imagine it's wholesome and delicious?

>>81600793
I'd prefer the opposite desu. The magical signature of the fungi is asynchronous with the signature of every other planet, which is why it climbing up to the orrery is so bad. The magic that is fundamental to all other beings civilizations would falter should a fungal infection claim them.

This also makes infections scarier since if you have a fungal infection in a wound healing magic wouldnt work on you. This fact could be well utilized by natives, who make weapons out of seared mushroom to create living brick covered in spores, perfect to cause infection while in combat. For this reason the natives of the mushroom planet are viewed as savages.

>>81612363
One is a hole that opens up into an infinite expanse of cavern. It's inhabitants are winged worm-snake creatures capable of redirecting their personal gravity in order to glide in any direction. This ability vanishes outside of the hole, however.
As there is a theoretically infinite amount of them (all the known sections of the cavern is populated by the exact same species) they constantly emerge from the hole and travel towards other planets in huge swarms. It takes them thousands of years to make this journey, and they will collectively refuse to tell anyone why they did it. The worm-snakes live in little migrant communities here and there on planets whose inhabitants don't slaughter them, preferring to dig large burrows to inhabit. They don't seem to reproduce, and usually fade away as the population dies to accidents or violence.

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>>81621751
what, like these?

What are the fundamental forces of the universe. PLEASE no mudcore gravity and electronuclear, please.

Also what is matter composed of. Better the hell not be Games Workshop shill baryons.

>>81621751
>One is a hole
that doesn't make sense with the illustration. the dark circles under the disk aren't on something, they're hanging below it.

here's my input: snakes.

has anyone added snakes yet? there should be snakes.

>>81604885
We hit that point once the afterlife system was established...there is very literally enough life for magic to exist, in the form of using your ancestral spirit field to accomplish tasks.

>>81599709
>As a side effect, the Orrery is very haunted. So long as we are counting calories, it only makes sense that all organic life has evolved to take into account a near limitless pool of the ghosts of ancient ancestors to do the child rearing in place of parents. Leaving parents to live their lives without caring about children and thus using R-Type reproductive strategies.
>>81599408
>Perhaps a race of fluid sentience whose bodies are crafted and the liquid brains are poured in and sealed.
This is the consequence of ancestral-spirit-fields, a species that's purpose bred to have just enough psychic complexity to continue contributing to the ASF. The mechanized variants are sent out to fight ASF-resistant psychic or magical threats.
>>81599555
>Seems good, but we gotta roll with something that isn't humanshape.
The humanoid shape is a bad idea because magical/psychic threats are evolved to counter other complex thinking beings. What doesn't look like a complex thinking being? An ugly asymmetrical rock (what a coincidence that an amorphous liquid chooses to look equally amorphous as a solid). Ignorant foreigners believe that they are a species of rocks.

>>81629451
Sorry, but I think the afterlife thing is dumb, and I won't be including it when I crib this setting for a game later.

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>>81630532
Go do that, I'm not very big on settings where the afterlife is a part of the game world, but I try to avoid contradicting people in these threads.

we need some fucking snakes

>>81629451
>>81630532
There's no afterlife. There's a black hole in the system that doesn't affect matter but instead sucks in all the souls of the dead. There's no "cycle" of life, instead new souls just spontaneously appear out of nowhere and then get sucked into the Soul Hole after they're done living.

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>>81597519