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1500 questions
51
votes
6 answers
What does a medieval army cost?
Something I was wondering about recently. My world has a medieval/fantasy setting. Most of the factions are either empires or kingdoms and they all have some sort of standing army. In time of war, they recruit extra peasants and mercenary bands. My…
Robin
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51
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25 answers
The magical map - how to stop it being too powerful
In a Middle Earth type world, there exists a magical map. It has the property that anything that happens to the map also happens in the real world.
The map can be 'zoomed' in or out to get the right level of detail. The best resolution would be as…
chasly - supports Monica
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51
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12 answers
How many Santas are required?
Since it's that time of year again, we need to look further into Santa's delivery mechanisms.
We've discovered over the years that Santa is breaking a few laws, ignoring minor matters like IP laws and air traffic control. We have greater issues with…
Separatrix
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51
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6 answers
Could Cobalt bind to nitrogen the same way iron would to oxygen in an alien respiratory system?
I'm making this whole other alien world and I made it an ammonia world, so there is a lot of nitrogen in the atmosphere. Would nitrogen be a good gas to breathe in an ammonia world and would Cobalt be a good transporter element in the blood?
Randy Smith
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51
votes
14 answers
Why does gold matter so much in a matter of life and death?
We've all played fantasy RTS (real-time strategy) games, like WarCraft or DOTA, where you're in a battle and you need to spend gold to upgrade. Maybe you're buying troops or gear or whatever. But if the orcs are smashing down the walls of your…
corsiKa
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15 answers
How could a group of 6 people destroy an army?
One of my wow moments when playing Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal happened when the three most powerful Bhaalspawn siblings (Imoen, Sarevok and the Player Character), together with just three more allies, are confronted by an entire Tethyrian army…
Serban Tanasa
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50
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16 answers
Could a sedentary organism develop intelligence, or even sentience?
Similar to Could Plants Develop Sentience? but slightly more general: I'm not interested in plants in particular, but want a more general understanding of the effect of motion on intelligence and vice versa.
In general intelligent lifeforms on…
Ash
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50
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23 answers
What would be best way to re-melt Mars' mantle and core to revive its magnetosphere
Missing magnetosphere on Mars keeps popping up. Most likely caused by Mars core being cold, mantle not bubbly enough. Mars mantle is dormant, core does not move.
What would be good way to get it going? So future martians don't have to spend all the…
Peter M. - stands for Monica
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50
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20 answers
Kingdom with helpful bands of mercenaries; avoiding devolving into bandits
Fantasy, vaguely European middle ages. Humans are the only friendly intelligent species. Other species (and magic) exist but they're almost always things you work (or fight) against rather than forces on your side. Both the other species and magic…
Ranger
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50
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21 answers
In an era of instantaneous travel, would more mundane methods still be used?
Let's say that teleportation (magical or technological, it matters not) is perfected to such a great degree that you can go anywhere from a few dozen yards, to the other side of the planet (basically) instantly, would people still use their own two…
Jesse Cohoon
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50
votes
13 answers
How to explain centuries of cultural/intellectual stagnation?
I'm moving a ton of people (asteroid miners and affiliated personnel living in the Asteroid Belt) onto a generation ship which will take years to reach its cruising speed of .1c, and which is part of a fleet numbering hundreds of ships that's…
Z.Schroeder
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50
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11 answers
How long could the sun be turned off without overly damaging planet Earth + humanity?
Background story:
Current Earth, in the close future. Astronomers have found first signs of extraterrestrial life: huge sheet-like objects (with surfaces easily as large as the surface of the Earth) appear all around the sun. They do not approach…
subrunner
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50
votes
14 answers
How would they learn astronomy, those who don't see the stars?
I imagine a planet similar to ours, except for two details:
The presence of everlasting clouds
No yearly seasons
Explanation: In this world clouds are very high and thick, so that sunlight (or starlight, for that matter) only comes through like…
Daniel
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50
votes
8 answers
Stopping time, by speeding it up inside a bubble
Imagine I have a device that can stop time for the person who holds it (similar to Bernard's Watch). This device works in a very specific way - it creates a bubble around the user (just large enough to hold the user) in which time flows much faster…
Drgabble
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50
votes
12 answers
How would a Martian colony be able to celebrate Christmas?
Accept that we had a reason to go to Mars, managed to build a colony there, and what we found on Mars is valuable enough to ship back to Earth. There is now a self sustainable colony living under the domes, all made possible because we found out how…
Pavel Janicek
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