So essentially with this game I'm trying to model a region I've made. It's very hostile, and fairly alien, sort of a mashup of a lot of works of media I'm familiar with; notably ES3 Morrowind's Vvardenfel and Dune's Arrakis- there's probably more influences than that, but I'm at a loss right now.

The place is called Shre'capa, a crater blasted out of an enormous ridge with a sun in its center (Suns in this world work rather differently than suns in our world, but consider it around the same in terms of thermal dynamics and force, just no major gravitational forces at work here given all the mass).

There are three sub-regions inside Shre'capa:
- The Ridgewall, a steep rock ridge at the edge of the crater. This is where most sapients (high-functioning creatures like humans etc- more on this later) live. There's a lot of sand here, sloped up against the wall like the edge of a bowl. Cities here are generally built on the ridge, though there are some settlements in the bowl.
- The Capa, or the desert, is mostly rolling dunes of glass and sand and huge hunks of granite shards from the ridge's effective disintergration when the sun hit. These shards are called Teeth and are a big part of the Capa's ecosystem. Nomads live here, using creatures called "Leatherbacks" to pull "Saltsleds" from tooth to tooth and living off the land. What few settlements there are are built around (or in) teeth, or around entrances to Shre'capa's extensive cavern systems (more on this below).
- The Wastes, heading closer to the crater where the sun is, now- this area is nothing but pockmarked rock, blown clean by nuclear storms cast off by the storm that surrounds Cornisk, the Tombed Sun. Nothing can live here for very long outside of "Sunwalkers," creatures twisted into horrifying shapes and filled with rage by the Sun's psychic energy. This place is bad news.
- Corniska, the crater where the sun lies. Literally nothing here, but underneath the sun is a strange temple where an artifact holds the sun in place. I could fill a book about the interactions and history of this temple, and the artifact, and why they're both here. This area is nuclear, insanely hot, and would vaporize anyone instantly. The sun itself has gone entirely mad with anger and desperation from being trapped here (suns in this world are sentient and highly intelligent), and there's an enormous nuclear storm that slings solar energy out across all of the crater, occasionally even reaching outside Ridgewall.

Now, Shre'capa is mostly desert, craggy rock- but that's on the surface. underneath, there are many huge caverns honeycombed together, many filled with vast stores of water. The air down here is humid owing to the sun at the center of the crater- it's sort of an underground swamp, with lake monsters and glowing plants galore. The natives of this area worship a kind of intelligent sea monster species that usually takes up residence in larger caves, and they pay for the water they take with either sacrifice or valuable objects.

So, where's the game in all of this? You are a trader, or whatever you want to be, really- you'd choose your starting profession, and either have to earn enough to leave the starting area by working a menial job (if you're poor), sell off some assets for vehicles (if you're rich), or simply wander into the wastes (if you're crazy). You'll be able to recruit allies with either charisma or coin, and buy a caravan of vehicles to survive the wastes and store valuables or trade goods to sell between settlements.

You'd travel from settlement to settlement by picking a destination, and travelling there- Oregon Trail style. On the way, you may see objects or places in the distance; in this situation you can decide to approach them and investigate, or continue on-course. There will be turn-based combat, resource management (food, morale of your men, and repairs of your vehicles), and dungeon exploration in my "final vision" of this game. It'll be a simulation of "life in Shre'capa" first and foremost, in an attempt to sell this setting; sort of like how OT was meant to teach you about how absolutely impossible a trip to Oregon in 1844 was.