Questions tagged [travel]
For questions about the movement of people between locations, includes migration.
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How to appease the Goddess of Traffic Lights
Disclaimer: The following question is an in-Universe question for a wip project called "The gods of ordinariness"
My friends, I am in a spot of trouble. On my daily drive to work, I have to ...
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To what extent would bad conditions slow down medieval travel?
I'm writing a story set in the medieval era, and it wouldn't be a real medieval story without dealing with the nightmare of the logistics of medieval travel, nor would it be a medieval story without ...
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What are some reasons for the population of a small, relatively unremarkable area to suddenly boom?
In the semi-democratic Empire known as the Aurean Dominate, the small peninsula of Sparteia has seen a population explosion over the past two centuries or so. Located in Argentolia, the most populous (...
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How long will it take for my medieval army to travel?
This question is complicated, so hang on. A medieval army made up mostly of foot soldiers wearing plate armor (although there are cavalry, they're going at the speed of the foot soldiers) with enough ...
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How advanced and/or important would aircraft be for a species capable naturally of decent to good flight? [closed]
I am wondering how a species capable naturally/supernaturally(with limits) of decent to good flight, i.e capable of flying for hours and possibly can hover, would treat aircraft like passenger jets ...
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What should be the "golden ratio" for lifting on a land glider?
Following the comment suggestions, I changed the question from directly asking for real world examples to this.
Context:
In this setting, some decades after the 2020's, earth had some climatic ...
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Out of what type of cargo plane and at what altitude would the MC jump? [closed]
The main character needs to get from England to Norway, fast, and without anyone (Beyond a smuggler) finding out.
He’ll be jumping out of a cargo plane that is flying from England to Norway in the ...
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Need habitable barge/river boat - think British canal narrowboats but faster. Engine, build, real life inspiration ideas needed
So I have a boat which is meant for river travel, so built like a barge, flat hull etc but it's not just for cargo, think of one of those fancy modern British narrowboats with cosy furnishings etc. ...
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Eject the horses, animal safety first! How would a coachman arrange for a quick release mechanism to free the beasts?
An 18th century coachman, who really loves their horses and won't allow any harm to come to them, needs a mechanism to instantly disengage their four-wheeled carriage from the horses midride, setting ...
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'Cargo Management' on a ship transporting dragon slaves; in what position should the slavers bind the dragons up in to maximize space?
In a story I'm working on, a nation of humans with WW1-level tech and some concerningly fascist leanings encounter a late-medieval society of dragon-like creatures on a distant continent. They are ...
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Is it geologically feasible for a mountain cave system to allow passage from one side of a mountain range to another?
I have a mountain range that separates two places that certain people will want to go between fairly regularly. Right now they have to travel around or over a mountain range to do that.
I've been ...
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How long would it take for a Roman farmer to learn about Julius Caesars assassination? [closed]
I'm writing a story that follows the life of a poor plebeian farmer in the late republic. While I was working on the plot, I realized a potential plot hole: such a person would not learn about the ...
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Clothing against the wind
My people live in a tidally locked planet with very strong winds from the night side to the day side. Normally these winds are 50-70 km/h (around 30-45 mph) but they can easily reach 100-120 km/h (...
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What kind of horseshoes work best on a molten lead track?
There is a horse race happening in Hell. Hell is very rocky and prone to earthquakes, so the best place for the racetrack is on a river of molten lead. This makes for a flat course with obvious ...
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Shantungosaurus chase, mad max style
I have a scene where there's a Shantungosaurus chase in Mad Max style, except there's no such thing as motor technology and the closest thing to guns are portable repeating polybolos (scoprion ...
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How fast might technical knowledge & culture spread in the pre-colonial Americas?
Unbeknownst to the majority of the continent, there is an alien invasion in progress. Finger-sized and not particularly threatening, they've been confined to the coasts of North America by the unique ...
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Vehicles vs work animals in a desert planet
Would animals like camels and horses be more useful/practical in the deep desert than vehicles like dune buggies and sandrails?
Basically, I have a planet that's mostly desert surrounded with rock ...
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What kind of magic would aid sailing the most?
Magic is extremely common, it is essentially part of the dna of each race. Each race has magical power that allows them to better dominate their native environment. One race can shapeshift, other can ...
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How would a kangaroo-drawn chariot work?
I'm building basically Australian Wakanda, if you'll forgive the pop culture reference.
Australian aboriginal culture never made their own wheeled vehicles, but what if they had?
The closest thing to ...
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What would be some ways to balance energy/mass from a parallel universe to another when someone - or something - travels through a wormhole into it?
Conservation of energy is a "universal" law, and would be counterintuitive to have someone travelling from a universe like ours - with our physics framework - into another universe that ...
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Is there a way to cross my volcanic ocean?
In my world there is an ocean that separates the two main continents. The problem is that I think it's impossible to navigate these waters as there are active volcanoes on the bottom of the ocean that ...
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Why do military only use consumable portal scrolls to rather than reusable ones? [closed]
There are 2 kinds of portal scrolls which are equally reliable and can handle similar traffic regardless of distance, the consumable or one time use only and the reusable or can be used more than 2 ...
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How would arctic travelers, in a medieval setting, keep water from freezing?
The setting is extremely cold all the time, and traveling around takes days. How would travelers bring water rations with them and keep it from freezing? There are almost no un-frozen bodies of water ...
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How would people in Medieval times react to the clothes worn by a time traveler coming from the present day?
My heroine (accidentally) travels through time and finds herself in a medieval setting (a forest in e.g. 1100). The only things that time traveled with her, are her clothes. At first she gets lost in ...
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Non-falling world
My goal is make a world where you cannot fall. So in my world (or at least city) you slow down as you fall so you wouldn’t be going fast enough to get hurt when you land. Im thinking the air is like ...
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Minimum tech level required to outrun a terminator?
In the Terminator movies, a nigh-unstoppable cyborg travels back in time from the future to the present day to relentlessly hunt down and kill the human protagonists. They primarily manage to evade it ...
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Horseback Travel in an Unpopulated Pacific Northwest
I'm writing a novel that takes place in a very sparsely settled coastal PNW, and the MCs have two horses that they use for transportation and as their carrier animals (Bedrolls, tent, some rations). ...
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Travel for fairies
My fairies need to travel very far as they are nomadic, however they can only fly for around five minutes without getting tired. They most likely couldn't tame creatures due to their size and the fact ...
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Why does my character have such a good sense of direction?
After asking this question (Why would a compass not work in my world?), I've been spending too much time thinking about navigation and direction - specifically, what innate sense of direction might my ...
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Why would a compass not work in my world?
I’m trying to build a world with steampunk-level technology, but would like it if compasses didn’t work/exist (or, failing that, if they were prohibitively expensive or difficult to get hold of). The ...
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At what speed would my modified WW-I biplane break apart?
I'm upgrading the propulsion of a standard WW-I biplane with new technology. It can generate nearly limitless power for the same weight and dimensions of the original power plant. The propeller, shaft,...
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Putting 700 mph engines on WWI era biplanes?
Civilization 546 has discovered an old space engine after the ship crash-landed on their planet and killed the crew. Their aircraft are rather primitive, mainly WWI biplanes. Now that they have ...
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How can travel between pocket realms only be possible through an inner plane?
The world of Lannisteria is is broken down into separate realms known as the 7 kingdoms. These inner planes exist in separate dimensions called realms, and are separated from each other. Along with ...
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How can I build an inter-dimentional transportation system between pocket realms?
The world is broken down into 5 continents: North America, South America, Eurasia, Africa, and Austrailiartica. These landmasses exist in separate dimensions called realms, and are separated from each ...
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How do slime supports their weight and reach higher places?
Unlike typical slime that flows and drip from a height, there is a new species of slime that is capable of scaling height in search of food. I am wondering how does a gloopy and slow moving slime ...
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A Semi-Complex, yet fictional explanation for the possibility of portals or wormholes
I am working on a Young Adult fictional story that is based upon the ability for humans to travel through portals. I have done a little research about portals, an idea that has always been interesting ...
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What Point(s) of Departure Would the Native Americans Need to Sail Across the Atlantic and Colonize Europe?
Just a few days ago on DeviantArt, I found this map by MoshiDungo:
The title of the map is What if the Americas colonised Europe? As the title explicitly implies, it shows a pre-Columbian Europe ...
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Could the first human/alien on Mars declare itself as the owner of Mars? And prevent others to land? [closed]
If a human, using his own spacecraft (built with private funding no government money) lands on Mars, could he declare to be his property and prevent future humans to land on Mars? Would we be ...
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How can caravans safely move between towns despite threat of monster attacks?
I have a traditional quasi-medieval fantasy realm where a few generations back improper use of magic lead to creation of monsters throughout the land. Our main countries have had to figure out how to ...
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Best Animal for traveling through post-apocalyptic Colorado Mountains?
You are a part of a tribe called the Twin Sisters.
You need to travel for about 3 weeks worth of travel, but there all no cars: You live in post-Nuclear Colorado. You need some type of animal to ...
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How many crewmen and what type of ship are needed for medieval arctic travel?
The fantasy world is set in medieval times (1100 A.D - 1400 A.D).
The mission is to travel from the mainland to an ice continent using a ship, a distance of say from England to the North Pole. The sea ...
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How could people travel from England to France with 17th century technology without using a boat?
This is a continuation of my last question about how long it would take the tunnel between the two countries to fall apart. So let's say that there's a group of people who have no more than 17th ...
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Can bringing 2 extra horses while traveling be considered realistic?
In the novel "The Emperor" by R.D. Villam there is a scene where 6 people are traveling somewhere riding horses but each of them also brings 2 extra horses, with a horse running at either side of each ...
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"Where are you going dragon, don't you dare leave your rider behind!" How can a rider keep up with their dragon?
So, let's suppose I finally made it. A creature that's very agile, able to resist most small-arms fire and has a whale-oil breath weapon. Flight is solved with bones, as strong as carbon fiber, (...
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Iron Age: Feasibility of maritime travel without timepiece or star navigation?
Having fled under haste, from a near assassination in Crete, a storm catches up with my naval crew.
The sky is overcast, meaning no stars and an accident results in the loss of their compass. Is my ...
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Traveling in a world with ever-changing landscapes
I am trying to build a fantasy world which is not made of matter, but of raw imaginative power. This world has an overall fixed shape, bound to the memories of a sleeping godlike being, but everything ...
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Pre industrial form of rapid mass transit over land
I have a world that isn't an exact analogue to medieval technology, closer to the late 1700s in terms of culture and agriculture/metallurgy, only without gunpowder. I have them ahead of real history ...
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A feasible and efficient method of fast global travel?
What would be an efficient method of global travel that can take you from, let's say, London to Hong Kong in about an hour? It would preferably be made quickly, but money is no object. I don't want ...
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Would it be realistic for horses (whether naturally or from man) to make their way south to post apocalyptic New Orleans?
I want the majority of the population of New Orleans to ride on horseback instead of cars or gasoline-fueled land vehicles, but would it make sense for traders from the North to breed horses and bring ...
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What could an alternative human-powered transportation method look like?
When I came across this hilarious and awesome way of transportation I thought "why is no one rollerblading through the woods anymore?". I am pretty sure there are more fantastic but forgotten ...
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