Category: Uncharted Worlds: Inspiration: Images

Today we said goodbye to the Cassini spacecraft! Anybody else tune in to watch its final transmissions reach ground control? The feed was full of images taken on its flight, and images abstracted from what it had found, and it was gorgeous and amazing.

(Did you know Saturn has a hexagonal storm on one of its poles? Well, it was observed in the 80s, but Cassini confirmed its existence, and scientists are already constructing models to explain its traits.)

So, today seems like a good day to dig into what we know about Saturn, see what kind of footage we’ve got, and think about how to inject that into your own games of Uncharted Worlds!

(Did you know Titan has its own methane cycle that runs like our water cycle?? We learned that in 2005 — thanks to Cassini!)

https://www.nasa.gov/saturn

Some pretty fly art of spaceships, futuristic locales, and some other far out tech.

Originally shared by Erik Frankhouse

Found some fantastic sci fi styled art for a game called Quantum Rush. Their page is full of concept air you can use to inspire your stories in a tech advanced part of Numenera.

Website: http://conceptartworld.com/news/quantum-rush-concept-art/

Otherworldly scenery, right here on Earth… Imagine what weirdness might be out there waiting for your PCs!

http://www.boredpanda.com/city-sand-tufas/

Of interest to those seeking planetary inspiration.

Originally shared by Andrew “Incomitatum” Chason

==== Today’s [collab] Planet : Inias ====

Perspective is about where you find yourself. As a human you can breathe on Inias, but for 80% of the planet you are going to bake and crumble to dust. Save for the poles, and only as an artifact of the terrain, Inias is a nearly uninhabitable hell.

All around the globe Inias is inundated by high winds. These winds have eroded the deserts into a nearly flat grit, while evaporating the once prevalent lakes into salt flats. The peaks that are left have been sheered into long horizontal buttes. If you could stand on the flats for long you’d hear the gales singing through the canyons.

The partition between hot and cold, equatorial desert and polar tropics, is a near constant monsoon. The rains are welcomed but needs filtration: the acidic downpour a testament of a previous planetary catastrophe. While the polar regions bristle with lush vegetation they are home to a particular sort of Kapok, what would be tall trees if not for their proclivity to adapt and grow horizontally with the wind.

The northern and southern polar rainforests are home to two clans of a near identical species. They have proven to be sentient and their intelligence has led them through the centuries to an age of industry. Their diesel guzzling machinations have stripped whole valleys of timber, just as readily as they brave the heat beyond the monsoons to evacuate the deserts of their assets.

The natives seem to have developed independent of one another, but at a similar pace. While there would have been tales, It is likely they would not have learned of one another until they had developed radio. Now each is well into mastering flight, a discipline reinforced by a planet saturated in high winds. Thrillseekers have invented a coveted pastime: gliding on hot currents from the flat tops of the mesas just beyond the curtains of rain.

The northern and southern clans do NOT see eye-to-eye; the leaders of each spouting vitriol about how the other is a bastard race and the planet does not belong to them. It is only a matter of time before skirmishes between stubborn squads leads to all-out war. To outsiders placing bets, it is suspected whichever clan reaches the stars first, will annihilate the other completely.