Relatively. They're great shipbuilders for sure, and they have walls around their city, so they're a few steps ahead of some of the other nations. They're not exactly great scientists or philosophers, but building things is something they're good at. (And they've got slaves to use as builders, so there's that.)
I'm actually writing a part in my post right now where the saurians are building temples to the Divine and such with the wealth they've captured over the years of raiding.
For reference, I'll say that the Panama Canal is 48 or 49 miles long (I forget), and apparently the Grand Canal in China exists and is over 1,000 miles long. Historically, however, it was a bunch of smaller canals that eventually got merged into one. The earliest parts of that canal date back to 500 BC.
Also: @Frengo How big is that strip of land by Zaqir that separates the two seas? The strip of land that Zaqir sits on? I was wondering if it'd be feasible as a great undertaking before these 500 years are over for Zaqir to dig a canal through there, something like an ancient version of the modern Panama Canal.
@SavOrhchid Warring with your nation will probably have to wait until next century since the saurians are already involved in a war in this one (two, sort of), but we'll see how things go. Zaqir definitely ain't used to being raided in return, and they discounted the soun'yei as being too meek and weak to fight anyone before, so they weren't expecting this.
^ Solo post is coming. I just finished my exams earlier today. Between now and me going to sleep = post time.
I've decided not to do a collab because... Frankly, I'm just too pooped. Normally, I'd prefer to do a collaborative post, but this week was my midterm exam week. Very tired. Much headache.
I should emphasize: We DO want to use as much of Theo's system as we can. Right now, though, all the information about his system isn't on the table / available to us, so we're going to work with what we know for now.
A rough idea. I'm going to make a rough draft this Friday or Saturday and present it to the other co-GMs.
Essentially, we're going to be using a mixture of Theo's system and our interpretation of it. We don't have all the information we need to copy Theo's system completely, though I may see if there was just a communication error going on there. I won't go into more detail on what's happened exactly, but suffice it to say that we're looking at having to build a lot of our own stuff for this.
We're also toying with the idea of using a new point-based trait system rather than the old one. I'm going to give you an example of what I mean, but please know the point values involved are NOT set in stone. Someone's sheet may have a trait section that looks like this:
Traits
Fighters - Whether due to planetary conditions (high gravity) or an arduous lifestyle, your species breeds fighters who are highly capable in boarding battles and land battles. +1 Tough - Your species has a habit of not dying. You take less casualties as a result of combat. +2 Mineral Rich Homeworld - Your species lives on a planet that has surprisingly mineral wealth. Your homeworld has increased Labor and produces space-faring vessels much cheaper (Homeworld has 75% production costs for ships and +6 labor). +3 Underground - Your species is used to living underground and has techniques to create huge subterranean cities. This increases their max population on non-Aquatic, non-Gas Giant planets (150% max population) and gives your species a defensive advantage when being invaded. +3 Unique Biology - Your species is formed from somewhat different base elements than other species and breathes a different kind of air. Your species can live on Radioactive planets without penalty, but Terran and Tropical planets are toxic to them and cannot be settled without appropriate research. Your starting planet is considered Radioactive. -2
Note: these traits are just examples. We haven't looked at the possibilities of a trait system like this at length yet, nor have we discussed balancing. I hope to start doing that within the week.
Also note that the total number of points is +7. I'm basing this trait system off of one I saw in another roleplay where you had 7 points to spend to get traits you wanted. However, you're able to take negative traits (designated in red) to gain points for spending.
It's likely that certain traits will bar the purchase of others. Using a trait system like this also means we can consider having traits be something you can gain through the course of the roleplay... or potentially through gene-modifying research.
You think 20's kill? Wait until you hear about exploding dice.
So, Savage Worlds operates on the idea of exploding dice. Namely: if you roll the max number on a given die, you roll it again. You can do this indefinitely.
So, once upon a happy time I rolled a d6 for damage. And it exploded. And it exploded. And it exploded...
I did 45 damage with a dinky little rapier that day. Translated, that deals enough wounds to auto-kill a lot of mean things.
