because I want to build a campaign around one.

But one thing I was thinking of, a ringworld on the scale of Larry Niven's, would almost by default have to have some enormous storms.  There's two deep (how deep I don't recall as we were told in either Ringworld or Ringworld Engineers) oceans that are a million miles from rim to rim and millions of miles long.  Given that the entirety of the ringworld seems to be very temperate, gargantuan hypercanes would form under such conditions.  The inner landscape of the ringworld doesn't seem to have much in the way of mountains built in (except in the world-map islands that are copies of Earth, Mars. etc.), just untold thousands of miles of plains.

That being the case, and if the whole ring is constantly in a spring or summer state, wouldn't that give rise to storm systems that could literally be ten or twenty thousand miles across, and last for decades?  Think something like Jupiter's Great Red Spot...

Of course, there may well have been a consideration for this in the builders' design, and it's all automatically dissipated before it can seriously manifest; e.g.,

if storm > 'earth-category-5-hurricane' then
         do
   activate_weather_control
endif

Quote from: thedungeondelver;688022because I want to build a campaign around one.


Of course, there may well have been a consideration for this in the builders' design, and it's all automatically dissipated before it can seriously manifest; e.g.,

if storm > 'earth-category-5-hurricane' then
         do
   activate_weather_control
endif

Doesn't mention weather systems but some interesting infomation - http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/5151b9b79834e

this does have some weather info - http://johnsonm.com/garden-universe/encyclopedia/articles/e/eeyocli_ringworld.html

Now you've got me thinking about a campaign setting that takes place in a constant hurricane. That sounds kind of cool. Maybe people live underground.

But yes, I get that this isn't what you want your game to be about.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;688022Of course, there may well have been a consideration for this in the builders' design, and it's all automatically dissipated before it can seriously manifest;

Weren't automated controls part of the Pak's original Ringworld design? Big engines at various locations around the outer shell to keep the thing stable and orbiting the star, rather than toppling off into space? I'm thinking on any such huge structure you'd need all sorts of dampening mechanisms to keep small effects becoming tsunami somewhere else. Unless it's part of the plot, assume them and move on. You've got a lot of ground to cover.

Weather/Climate are probably the least of your worries when designing a Ringworld that could actually work.

Best to assume things:
1. Weather control is managed by the internals of the Ringworld
2. Terrain features serve to control climate and keep it in certain zones
3. A Ringworld can actually be built and made to function

Actually 3 is the biggest assumption you need to make and probably the least accurate

Yes I would assume as (not) written that there are mountain ranges every few hundred miles to break up weather fronts like they do on Earth. I would think that atmospheric dynamics on the inside of a ribbon as opposed to the outside of a sphere would be different. I think Niven addressed this somewhat in the section about the Eye of the World storm.

Also, the counterweight oceans weren't the only ones, they were just the largest - there were probably "normal" size oceans all over the place, and maybe even some bigger ones as well.

The thing about Ringworld is that "it worked" - that means whatever you need/want it to.