Welcome to Rasmussen’s Guide, a tool for those wanting more science in their science fiction.
It is for GMs running campaigns who need an alternate world with a logical ecology. Admit it, game worlds need internal logic, after all. Living animals do not spontaneously generate from nonliving matter, nor do they magically appear out of thin air. All living things metabolize, reproduce, grow, and adapt. They do not do these things in a vacuum. This planetary guide is a concise look at these lifeforms as they might evolve on a variety of planets, moons and celestial objects, using each world’s surface gravity to define its primary vertebrate Superclass and maximums.
Radiosynthetic Geiger
Something is occluding starlight as it moves across the star field. Bright stars dim before the object itself passes in front of it, as the atmosphere of the object slowly blocks their light. The stars brighten after the object itself, and then its atmosphere passes by.
From space at a distance, Geiger is dark due to the lack of a nearby star. Three bright orange-yellow dots pinpoint volcanic activity on the surface of the dark land. One bright red dot pinpoints volcanic activity under the sea.