The Underwater Bits of the Iceberg

When I am designing a setting, an enormous amount of research goes into things that are not actually in the game book. An example - I have a spreadsheet here from my co-writer, Albert Bailey, for the Necklace. It looks at the amount of sunlight which actually gets through the vegetation of the gas torus based on various densities of vegetation, treating vegetative clumping as oases in an effectual desert of air. This in turn determines the productivity of these regions, and the carrying capacity of people and animals. Now this will never actually be in the game book. It's Too Much Information. But we do the research for ourselves, and the results of the research colors the rules in the book. It is abstracted and integrated into the game without the gaming group having to think of it. This is the part of the iceberg that is under the water. Thought this might be interesting to some of you out there. :D