Not even half-jelled whalefall idea

[james_davis_nicoll]

TTFRPG setting where from time to time the corpses of vast, incomprehensible beings float down to the surface. These and the irreplaceable resources they contain form the basis of thriving communities... until they're used up. At that point, the communities better hope for another godfall within migration distance because there is no way to sustain the communities as they are accustomed on the mundane resources of the land around them.

Comments

[metahacker]

Hmm, could be cool. Feels very Max Gladstone to me.

[armiphlage]

Maybe civilization hibernates in periods of scarcity, somewhat like "A Deepness In The Sky", with a few caretakers tending to their sleeping relatives while peering upwards waiting for riches to fall.

[ba_munronoe]

Also makes me think of deep sea thermal vent communities, which flourish and eventually die out as the crustal currents shift, with often extensive stretches of inhospitable sea floor between them.

[jessie_c]

Maybe they'll start thinking of hunting the next one...

[matgb]

Have you been reading the science reports about whalefall again?

[james_davis_nicoll]

Someone mentioned it in passing.

[dragoness_e]

If those corpses were nickel-iron meteors, this might describe Sudbury.

[roseembolism]

I am seriously imagining something along the lines of Kill Six Billion Demons for this, at least as far visuals.

[scott_sanford]

Every moderately prudent civilization would send out long range scouts in hopes of finding a newer, fresher Godfall before the current one is exhausted. (Reality demonstrates how few societies are prudent about things more than a few years in the future, but still.) It's an obvious job for player characters to go out as far as possible and poke their noses into everything.

"If there's something exciting and adventurous out there, definitely poke it with a stick and see what happens! After that, at least some of you should come home alive and tell us about it."

[andrewducker]

What kind of parasites do these corpses carry? The fun kind, I hope!

[badger]

_Distantly_ reminiscent of the graphic novel We Only Find Them When They're Dead.

[ffutures]

Could work as a slightly less grimdark version of Worm - instead of triggering, you get powers by eating bits of a godwhale. You would need other food sources though or everyone would be a cape.

V

[(Anonymous)]

Cauldron capes get powers in Worm by eating bits of a space whale.

[rwpikul]

The easy fix is that it has to be the right bits. Depending on how those bits are distributed, you could get various patterns of empowerment and ability of the powers that be to control who gets it.

[(Anonymous)]

I believe in the MCU's Guardians of the Galaxy series there is a community living in, and scavenging, the corpse of an Eternal. I think it's called Knowhere.

-Awesome Aud

[patrick_morris_miller]

Just its head.

[(Anonymous)]

I guess that makes it okay, then. 😉

-Awesome Aud

[patrick_morris_miller]

Besides, from what little I've seen of them it seems like the Eternals are all dicks.

[(Anonymous)]

Massive dicks. 😝

-Awesome Aud

[patrick_morris_miller]

You might even say... colossal dicks.

(Tip your waitress!)

[just_jim]

Kind of like the children's story 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs?'

[cofax7]

reminds me a little bit of Fran Wilde's trilogy about the bone cities in the sky...