Continents for a small world

[Robbie]

So I've been working on building a new world, and I'm going for smaller. I was thinking of having two or three major factions and of course many minor factions. The dilemma I've run into is generating land masses in FT3...I'm unsure whether I want one big continent that's spaced over the whole of the rowld, or several continents? My current favorite is two medium size continents, but I also like the ones that consist of long strips of land that spread along the whole equator like a ring around the planet...

Anyone want to give me some arguments one way or the other? I'm looking for scientific/geologic reasons as well as world planning reasons...Aesthetic reasons are good too.

[tilt]

I would think that 2-3 major landmasses and lots of smaller islands would please the eye as that would be a little like what we're used too from our own planet. I like the "ring" idea though, but maybe it would be a bit strange geologically for a planet to evolve like that. (not a geologist though, so what do i know)

[Diamond]

I think it really depends on what kind of setting it's meant to be. More and more I've come to think that the ideas for the setting/novel/RPG should dictate how the landmasses and world in general look, not the other way around. (Although sometimes it IS fun just to generate a random world and then try to fill in the blanks. )

[waldronate]

iapetus ridge - Google Search has some nice examples of a small world with a ridge running around the middle. Sure, it's not quite open-sky habitable by humanlike critters, but it's out there...

[tilt]

Cool Waldronate.. as you say a bit barren... but nothing like a little fantasy to change that

[bartmoss]

The strips of land sound cool, and since that is possible (see waldronates link), you can get away with it. Kinda doubt it would work on an earthlike world in a hard-scifi setting, but hey...

As for number and size of continents, if the planet is geologically active (i.e. plate tectonics) then it will change over time. Or in other words, pick whatever you like and see if you can explain the layout with plates. If yes, you are golden. If not, you can still use them and just fudge the facts...

[Hai-Etlik]

The strips of land sound cool, and since that is possible (see waldronates link), you can get away with it. Kinda doubt it would work on an earthlike world in a hard-scifi setting, but hey...

As for number and size of continents, if the planet is geologically active (i.e. plate tectonics) then it will change over time. Or in other words, pick whatever you like and see if you can explain the layout with plates. If yes, you are golden. If not, you can still use them and just fudge the facts...

The best theory for the origin of Iapetus's ridge does pretty much preclude habitability for terrestrial life. The world has to have tide locked relatively late, after having a chance to develop rings. When it tide locks, the rings are tidally braked out of orbit and land on the equator. Tide lock is not conducive to habitability, and it's probably going to have to be a distant moon of a gas giant with, which means it's probably outside the habitable zone, and quite likely to be subjected to nasty radiation from the giant's magnetosphere. The degree of magic needed to make all of that habitable probably isn't any more than to just make a ring of land around the equator by fiat. Still, it might make for an interesting creation myth about a great ring of cloud falling into the sea to form the land.

[aquarits]

the inclination of the axis and the numbers of moons affect the amount of lands. I have a annotation saying about the inclination , 1~10° - 1 land. 10~30° - 2 lands, 30~50° - 3 lands. After 50° the axis get some kind of colapse giving in some time 3 lands and in other period 1 land. More moons will make the water cover some lands all the time or in certain time of the year, and with more moon s you will get a tons of isolated islands. Like saturn getting the water in atmosphere coz of moons

Resolvido um mistério antigo: o vapor d'água de Saturno provém de uma de suas luas - Terra Brasil

[Robbie]

That iapetus ridge is pretty interesting...I'll read more about it...but my plan was for something a little more irregular that was typically confied to the equatorial zone...some areas woudl have mor eland above the equator and some more below the equator, but the point would be the poles would be water (or frozen water) I'll try and post up an example later.