Comfy Cave Setting

>The underfolk live in eternal fear of the sound of drums

The main steeds and pack animals of the setting are giant ants

Dig up

The primary source of food is a bio-illuminant fungus which has a soft, golden glow to it. It has a slightly spicy taste to it and it's a good source of fibre, making it a staple food in households throughout the underground. They can be eaten raw, prepared with lavish dishes or used in a similar fashion to bread, since they grow in flat, disc-like formations.

Oops, looks like the world is just an air-pocket inside a giant asteroid. Now you've opened up a hole to the vacuum of space and your world is quickly dying.

Oh no. Seal it up and dig down instead.

You probably would just hit another air pocket, how big is the asteroid?

*Vacuum of space

Wouldn't everybody die anyways due to carbon dioxide poisoning, or maybe some kind of fumes? If the asteroid is large enough to support an incredibly expansive cave system with a gravity similar to Earth's, would it matter? I would presume that the caves would slowly depressurize and then the air from the caves would form a thin atmosphere around the asteroid, eventually reaching equilibrium. Does this asteroid have a molten metal core like Earth?

I can ask questions all day my friend.

The rocks all have their own spirits - and they hate each other. A war between a properly riled seam of granite and a sandstone barren can be remarkably destructive. All the more because nobody ever sees them move, only the results.

>MFW I'm currently in a campaign that is set in a massive network of artificial tunnels, corridors and rooms
>MFW my tribe's main source of food is a fungus we grow on mats of isolation material, corpses and human waste

Our entire tribe should be dead from malnutrition. GM fiat is all that's keeping us alive.

>We've punched a hole through to hard vacuum and are losing all of our atmosphere at the speed of fuck
>Just patch it up

u wot m8

Autotrophs that use magic instead of sunlight to synthesize glucose or something produce oxygen, the outside of the asteroid is covered in a mysterious metal substance covered with carvings that seems to be airtight

I would guess that the mysterious metal substance would be iron, given that that's the predominant element that makes up asteroids. What do you mean by airtight, of course a solid sheet of metal is going to be airtight. I just put a hole in it though.

There are few thing as comfy as stopping in a dwarven riad after travelling in the dark and uncomfortable tunnels.
Finally relaxing as the suddenly radiant sun pierce through the rock to reflect on a quiet and fresh pool.

A long dead precursor race created the coating, assuming that magic exists in the setting the coating is supernaturally fortified by magic

>Heavens status: [x] pierced

Perfect

You don't know

>Airtight exterior
>there are things constantly producing gases inside
... this is the perfect recipe for either a) extremely heavy atmosphere density inside or b) exploding spectacularly (or maybe both)

Why are we going the complicated route, rather than just saying:
>no one could ever dig up to the surface, the stone just gets tougher until it's impossible to even scratch it
or
>the world above is the world of the gods, it's a fuzzily warm wasteland in which you can see grand beautiful cities in the distance, but walking in any direction only seems to lead you back to the hole you dug to get outside in first place

Wouldn't matter be conserved in the production of oxygen? The flora are just using magic to get the energy necessary to facilitate the reaction

Ah you're right, I assumed that magic was creating oxygen out of nothing. I think there shouldn't be a problem in that case

Wait then are plants antimagic? Are there season based off the concentration of magic?

Based on how the sun-fish and moon-fish are doing in their chase. Makes seasons random, and stockpiles important.

So in "winter" why do the fauna start growing less? Is the ambient magic they feed on a product of the sun and moon angler? Does magic not work in "winter"?

>Comfy Cave Game
So... youtube.com/watch?v=N53BaKKRcoU ?

*flora

Sure, why not? Ambient magic field that provides the energy normally given by the sun. The Sun and the Moon fish could produce the field or just warp it. Call it entirely unknown, though there would be a number of churches about it. And probably saviour prophecies about the first one to kill the fish restoring an eternal magic summer. And another one about how it'll doom the underground forever.

Call regular magic a bit more difficult the further you get from the fish.

>Exile
>Avernum
>0 results
you've failed me for the last time Veeky Forums

>In the Xth Century of Y race, a spaceship was sent to colonize a distant planet, its hull made completely out of a new fibrous mold that, when left unattended, would send out its spores, then dry out and harden untill it was hard as a rock

>The setting is inside what used to be a spaceship, where the ship itself has grown into its own asteroid.
>The ship still works, mostly due to a secretive tribe called the Mechanics

The sun and moon anglers are the result of both mundane and magical genetic engineering by the alien race, the aliens were killed off by spacefaring magical grey goo, that now surrounds the asteroid looking for a way in, bad things happen when there is a leak

>The few windows in what used to be the dining hall of the ancient aliums are all covered in a grey film where light is very vaguely filtered through so that it's not total darkness
>Sometimes, due to disturbance somewhere on the ships surface, the grey goo pulls away, revealing the cosmos. The innumerable lights are said to drive its' viewers insane.

The dining hall becomes a location of religious importance as starlight is so rare, members of the religion will often stare at the window for days without sleeping eating or drinking in the hopes of gaining enlightenment through starlight

In areas where this light doesn't reach light sources are a precious commodity and those who run out in the wilderness often go mad from sensory deprivation

There are three different kinds of 'rock'. The most common is the hull of the cave, the dried moss itself. Then there's soil, a mix of almost every biodegradable thing in the cave. Dead animals, feces, spoiled food, and mashed fresh 'moss' blended together, suitable for growing nutritious fungus, the staple food of the setting. And then there's the rarest of all; Pristine, stainless metallic surfaces.

What do they make tools out of?

They gather and cut fresh moss into a shape that it retains when it dries and goes hard.

Bone, fungus rock, and occasionally metal that isn't used for the outside hull

>metal that isn't used for the outside hull
But, how'd they get that into a useable form in the first place?

How tough can this fungus be that you can break starship-grade metal with it?

they tell storys of monsters and great riches on the surface for those brave enough to go and find it.

>the surface is essentially a giant dungeon.

The metal not used for the hull is less powerful than that used in the hull as it doesn't have to protect the ship, alternatively a specialized form of acid is used to dissolve the metal which is then retrieved by filtering out the acid

Chemotrophic bacteria and yeasts that live near underground lakes and thermal springs provide soil with nutrients, while higher plants use it, the heat and the wealth of mineral solutions to grow. Some of them produce fruits, while others grow a complex and robust root system, along with tubers, all around those underground oasises. Each supports a diverse ecosystem and is extremely valuable.

Hrm, fair enough.

Also, you'd think that acid that strong would be a serious danger aboard a spaceship, even if they don't understand it to be so.

Acid is produced by the moss' spores when it germinates.

Then, wouldn't it eat through whatever the moss is on?

The moss is already on dried, rock hard moss.

The acid when first produced by the moss spores is a low concentration mix of enzymes and acid designed to protect from parasites, the acid used on the metal has been filtered to a much higher concentration

Yes. But the acid-producing stage is relatively quick and is needed for the moss to both entrench itself and procure some nutrients.

That's basically how it is in my setting.

...

The humanoids were the pets of the alien race, different races are the product of artificial selection, most religions consider the alien race to be holy

Not quite like that, but okay.

Magic is heavily regulated as over use has a catostrophic effect on the ecosystem as the flora are reliant on ambient magic for growth

I am stealing the fuck out this.

Good shit, user.

This impassable growth marks the border of a forgotten kingdom, sealed off by a great calamity. The kingdom's ancient magic-wielders were rumored to have messed around with twisted longevity spells.

Hidden paths still exist between the crystals, which resonate with low-pitched screamlike sound.

Giant reptilian worm like creatures tunnel throughout the earth far away from civilized lands and occasionally terrorize towns on the edge of the wilderness

planet is hollow and is encased in infinite rocks
it's caves and rocks and nightmarish creatures all the way up
or down
or anywhere

>CREATE a setting

It is you that has failed user

We could shamelessly steal from Exile, and Avernum

Those are fucking great games. Good taste m8.

"It's all true! They didn't look too wierd to be quiet honest. Although both their and our groups both got scared and ran when we stumbled ... upon ... uhm, upon each other, we got clear view for some moments. A bit like us humanfolk, but smaller. Red hair and dark skin. I think as ... high as a man's leg. And very very thin, like starving children, except they looked healthy, and mature! And they were dressed quite well, one even had some leather looking armor and a spear.

But well... I'm sure you already heard from the others that that all doesn't even seem worth a mention considering ... that we saw them walking in front of us. From above! I mean... they were walking! On the wall across the chasm! Not climbing, straight walking on two legs, like that general direction was their ground, and our ground is their ... um wall? I get nauseous when I try to think too much about it.
But rumor has it that one of the mine-cleaners from onyx-corner has a tiny pickaxe hanging above his stove. Except it's not hanging! It's lying! Ough, I got the pukies again...

So anything these creatures make falls sideways?

The lowest reaches of the world contains a large underground ocean in which strange and horrible creatures swim

It's not what they make, it's what they bring. They seem to come from beyond a largely unexplored region. Contact hasnt been established yet.

Except someone from Mosspoint who once stood ... across a group of them, face to umm face... well he had to look up. Look, it was a tunnel, and to the ...sidelings it probably was a ... shaft? Anyway they called to each other before all had to scurry away because of wormsign. At least this seems to be the same between us and them. When they called, he didn't understood their language, but he said trying to hear their voices made him dizzy. When he later traced back to where the side ones ...um stood, they were gone, but he found loose pebbles of quartz sand, loose, but sidelined to the wall! He brought half a handful home.

I should be scared to death, but I hear forgers and minesmiths everywhere buzzing like children about this! Many have send level-runners or traveled themselves from as low as Boulderbin up to ol' Mosspoint just to witness tiny heaps of misaligned dirt! Most are extatic about it, and they wonder if there might exist a strange realm, misaligned to ours. With misaligned people, stone, water, ore. They hope to find and trade with the side folk, to work with misaligned material, to create some truly outrageous things...

How do I speed up combat without changing the difficulty of the encounter?

Roll less dice. Ideas:

1) If your stat block provides it, use average damage for your monsters. If not, calculate and then use it for your monsters.

2) Don't re-roll crits, just double the value of the dice.

3) Rolling a single die and then multiplying it is faster than rolling multiple dice and then adding them. Especially when coupled with suggestion 2.

4) Have your players roll both the attack and the damage at the same time rather than it two steps.

My group does 1-3 but didn't like 4. Good luck.

It's weird that the automatic assumption is 5e

Yes, especially since none of that is 5e specific.

I've never run into using average damage for monster until 5E although it probably existed before hand, but more importantly caves

...

Animals are specialized for the absence of light, most either have echolocation, incredibly long whiskers that use touch to feel around the caves, or an incredible sense