General discussion

Welcome to Arum, the RM Universe (RMU for short).
Arum is meant to be a unified setting, a game world where various developers can work in their projects, sharing the same background.

Since I know no one likes reading walls of text or the opening posts very much, I made a game version of the information. It will get updated with new maps and game info as needed, so I really recommend you simply play it (it’s a simple map with npcs who give out the info, nothing fancy.

-[We will update the tutorial game when we have the time. You can get the older version, which still has the general info but lacks an updated list of countries]-


Game tutorial information

Important Links:Arum Rules

Information and Details (Newbies start with this one)

Arum World Map
Country Reference Map (Submit your country here)

Frequently Asked Questions

Games and Developers in Arum (Games list)

Map Donations

Set the Setting Contest [Finished]
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Contact
If you have any questions that can’t be answered here or on the other topics of this subforum, you can send me a PM (Indrah)

Support
Lacking any sort of graphical skill, I made an exceedingly crappy support bar. If someone can do better, please have mercy on RMU by sending a less lame support bar for us to use OTL

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Latest Updates:

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More questions? Ask away, I’ll give as many details as I can.
I ask that you please don’t clutter this thread with your game ideas. That sort of thing can be discussed in your game pages or the feedback forums, please leave this forum for feedback on the RMU project itself.

I'm an adamant fan of this as you already know from my pestering you in IRC all day. Three thumbs up.

Wow, I might have to see if I can get Chronicles of Eric in this once I flesh it out a bit more. World creation has never been my strong point and I've tried to get a unified setting going once myself, but apathy from others prevented it from ever happening.

Looking forward to what everyone produces with this and this will most definitely boost community spirit a bunch!

That is a really good idea, Indrah! You have my full support.

So the world map... towards the extreme north and south, what's there? Uncharted world? The end of the world, falling into an endless abyss?

There is the north and south pole~ The world map has similar projection as this real world map here!

The map is supposed to wrap horizontally and the whole upper edge of the map is the very center of north pole (similar thing goes for south pole). I know it is a bit confusing, but I used that projection for the map to keep it simple shape to draw. While this projection would be more intuitive to view, such is harder to get right, so I went forward where the fence was lowest.

(The horizontal lines represent the Equator in the middle, the first lines up and down from there are the northern and southern Tropics and the northmost and southmost lines mark the polar circles. I hope that helps a bit in getting hang of the map, as well.) <3

Ahahaha... Though, it would be wonderful to have the superstitious grandpas believe there is fall into abyss. Whatever would work for the developer I presume? .o.

Aso the sun, moon, planets, universe revolve around the world right? ; ) and this is a massive collaboration I think, right now I only got vague idea how this would work on our fellow rpgmakerace users but concept looks good.

@scinaya:

Not good with world mapping but that certainly helps when I create my map.

It's likely that the universe is heliocentric like ours. As for other planets, I'm not sure... seeing as the whole point is to take place on Arum. Maybe when we have a lot more games and a defined history and stuff will the outer limits be considered. You'd have to ask Indrah on that one.

And yeah, I'm not good with mapping large worlds either, so this and the planned map packs will be a nice boon for me and many others.

Hah, I had really never thought about the whole sun/moon thing before. :I

There is a sun and moon, because damn, pretty much at some point in every game or novel or ANYTHING it would be mentioned, even in passing.

I'm...not too convinced on letting people actually add more sun/moons, as it's a very personal thing. I'd say to stick to one sun and one moon, that work similarly to our own.

For star constellations tho, do whatever you want XD I don't see how people could be aganist you coming up with your own, sicne they don't influence the actual planet that I can see :I

As for world mapping: let me be clear, YOU can do WHATEVER you want for your game. You don't have to use the reference map in your game to do a world map at all if that's not for you. Just don't put continents where they don't belong :I The reference map is simply that, reference. If youre touching on a very small area, you may not even want to comment on other countries, much less the whole world.

Unless they do affect the world somehow? I mean, giant holes in space-time can do strange things to a universe... but I do agree with one sun and moon, seeing as any more and it would be a nightmare of physics. I ruin sci-fi films for myself because as soon as something that defies the laws of physics crops up, I start criticising it like mad. (If all the Startroopers are clones, why are they all different sizes?!) More moons would cause havoc on the tides and... well, you get the gist.

Oh, I know that about the world mapping. It will still be a great help because I'll already have an idea where everything goes or the vague, general structure of something. That way I won't have to start completely from scratch.

The main thing about one/more astral bodies is that its a largely SPECIFIC thing. While some people may want 3 moons, others may want 7, and others will piss on the concept an until we have only 1. It's easier to simply keep it at 1. :I It's what EVERYONE knows, and has the highest compatibility. (Physics? Wazzat? I personally never once took that into cosnideration, magic makes the world go arouuund XD But jokes aside, yes. Better keep it simple.)

Oh man, an answer from the cartographer herself! I'll admit it was the north pole that threw me off, but that makes sense. Thanks for the clear answer!

Sounds exciting. I have a couple of stories that might fit in very well here.

Is there an established terminology for the days of the week, months, and seasons or is that country specific and also do they work the same as real life?

I suspect most people will stick to the real world time measures, but you could simpy change the perception of time in the country your game takes place in.

You could make it so different countries or cultures have different calendars, much like Julian, Gregorian and Jewish here in the boring place called reality. I know that's what I'll be doing because I like toying with the idea of cultural differences and thus cross-cultural interactions.

Good job porting over all the information, Indrah! You're always so on-the-ball.

Anyways, I'd just like to add that RMU will be officially operating out of this forum from now on. In keeping with the name change, we wanted to make sure that the world will be able to stay strong and be as accessible to as many people as possible now and way down the line.

This'll be awesome. Y'all should, y'know, hop on board.

This looks really neat, like a similar concept on my role-playing forum. If I ever get a game done I'll be sure to ask about including it here!

Is there a detailed codex of plants/ores/materials at this point? I'm working on a concept that plays heavily into crafting/alchemy/medicine.

Right now, seeing as no games are part of the universe yet, everything is still pretty much a blank slate. Seeing as you have varying regions, countries and times to work with, you should have free reign with something as inconsequential as plants. The ruleset isn't very strict anyway, so you should be free to come up with whatever you need to, unless some plants/ores etc. are extremely essential to the story or area it takes place in.