Exploring new lands - Island or continent?

[Helldog]

Which is better for a game about exploration of new lands - a big island or a whole continent?
To clarify: I'm thinking about a game where the players are part of a colonization/explorer group that sailed out to the big sea and found a new, unknown land. The group established a port settlement on the shore. The players would be part of the team that's exploring more of the land.
I'm not interested in creating entire kingdoms or civilizations just yet. On an island it wouldn't be that unusual to encounter only a few exotic tribes, but on the other hand on a continent there could be some more-or-less primitive tribes near the coast, but more civilized people could live deeper into the land and come into contact with the players once they got through the savages. Of course, depending on what the players could do (mainly what magic they had at their disposal), they could simply bypass the tribes. Or the new civilization could get to know about the visitors much earlier then it's needed (because I know that they would have at least a few competent casters).

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

I dunno, I would probably run a "Lost" like situation of I were going to DM a colonizing party. Make the island mysterious, focus on character development, have a few, but very fleshed out NPC's. the advantage to exploring a smaller setting like an island is that you as a DM have less to do. you don't need info on 20 different countries and nations. you can focus on making a really interesting, character driven storyline.

[Helldog]

Yes, but when the party is low enough level and/or doesn't have any fancy magic, they won't run into the 20 countries or nations. and when they finally run into a country, it will be just one of them. I don't have to make them all at once, before the game even starts, they can be created later. On an island I don't have to create them at all, but on the other hand I won't have the option to create them when I would need them. both options have their pros and cons, that's why it's hard to decide.

[Kenneth]

I would think that further inland on a contient is where the more primative soceities would be. but that is only a real world analogy.


and your expectations of what an island holds is really only what I would consider a very small island to be, You have to realize that (going to real world anology again here) that the Minoan civilization was island based and the ilse of crete was ~800-1K square miles. not really that big at all and they were a very advanced civilization.

I myself would go for just an island or a series of islands for exploration if as you put it
I'm not interested in creating entire kingdoms or civilizations just yet. SO an island at a time allows you to pace yourself better for creating those kingdoms and civilizations.

[Flickerdart]

An expy of the Galapagos islands will let you have lots of fun sub-races for all your monsters.

[Tokuhara]

Island-Hopping Campaigns are a blast, unless you have a sick evil DM who you have reason to belive is an Aspect of Vecna in disguise :smallamused:

[Palanan]

Well, try an island continent. ;)

Seriously. I'm thinking something like Madagascar, which is small compared to a full continent, but colossal on its own terms: a thousand miles long, room enough for a whole range of nations and peoples.

Let geography work in your favor: let your colonizers find a good, deep harbor at the base of steep mountains, ideal for a seaport but difficult to surmount--a barrier that works to isolate the seaport from the rest of the island continent, perhaps a jumbled region of tough terrain that the dominant nations haven't spent the resources to fully pacify, leaving it to a patchwork of clans and tribes, fractious and widely scattered.

For the dominant nations, that hinterland is their blind spot, facing out to a wild open ocean which, to them, has always been their defense. Your adventurers will only gradually become aware of these nations--but they, in turn, may not be aware of the seaport at all, their energies and ambitions directed entirely at one another.

As DM, you can focus on creating the hinterland clans for a start, and as you develop them, keep in mind the other nations, which you can flesh out at your own pace while the PCs deal first with the clans. And let the terrain be a challenge, too: let the players struggle with the landscape itself, with the tribes and clans the rarely-glimpsed presence that calls the mountains home.

And, as Flickerdart suggested, this gives you the opportunity to use creatures the explorers have never seen before--and the benefit of an island continent is you have room enough for entire lineages of new creatures, if you like. They don't all need to be predators; most of them should be outré but relatively benign. Get your PCs used to strange, peculiar life forms: let them soak in the sheer wonder of a strange new world: then hit them with something unreal.

And the mountain tribes--will be watching, estimating, calculating the potential for easy prey or new alliances; they may feel secure enough to open trade, and eventually they may try to play the seaport colonizers against their traditional antagonists from the lowland nations. By that time, you'll have the dominant nations worked out and ready to introduce--perhaps with a bit of foreshadowing, perhaps a finely worked item on a chieftain's belt which seems too sophisticated for local manufacture.

The possibilities are outstanding, both for wilderness adventure and eventually factional intrigue. Have fun with it.

[Synvallius]

I would suggest setting it up like how it was for Columbus when he arrived in the Americas. They first land on a couple of islands that are away from the mainland, and then over time they make their way towards the mainland. The islands could be full of natives that are not associated with any of the civilizations on the mainland, but could have similar traits to the other nations.
The explorers could also set up a base on one of the islands and then use that as a base of operations for scouring the other islands and eventually finding the mainland. Maybe the mainland civilizations could even attack their base at one point while the explorers are gone, before they have discovered the mainland, and that is what prompts the explorers to discover the mainland. (I'm getting a little sick of that word).

[jackattack]

I don't think that islands will restrict your ability to introduce kingdoms or empires as the game progresses, especially if you keep the number of islands large and/or uncertain.

Unless your players are using magic or flying steeds, then they only know about the islands they've seen from their ship, and counting islands on the horizon can be tricky. It's easy to mistake multiple islands for one land mass, or mountains on a single land mass for multiple islands.

The locals on an island might not identify themselves as belonging to a kingdom or empire for many reasons. They might have a stronger sense of local identity than national identity. Maybe they are an autonomous member of a larger political entity, and don't have the authority to speak for it. Maybe everyone has orders not to reveal their allegiance, but to report newcomers to the empire. Maybe the kingdom only maintains a presence during insurrections and tax season, and the locals don't acknowledge them when they aren't actually around.

It's also possible for the geopolitical landscape to change. An island that wasn't part of a kingdom when the party first encounters it might be the next time they visit. Maybe the locals felt threatened by the party (justified or not) and joined the kingdom voluntarily. Maybe the kingdom conquered the island, or offered them so much in trade and advancement that the locals signed themselves up.

I like the idea of lots of islands, as it allows you to make the campaign very episodic. What happens on any one island can easily stay on that island, especially in terms of monster encounters and natural events.

The point about the island continent is a good one. I'd suggest an archipelago with a few very large islands, a dozen large islands, a hundred mid-size islands, and a thousand small islands. You don't have to map or write all of them at once, but you'll have plenty of room to add new locations and societies when you are ready for them.

[Jack_Simth]

Which is better for a game about exploration of new lands - a big island or a whole continent?
To clarify: I'm thinking about a game where the players are part of a colonization/explorer group that sailed out to the big sea and found a new, unknown land. The group established a port settlement on the shore. The players would be part of the team that's exploring more of the land.
I'm not interested in creating entire kingdoms or civilizations just yet. On an island it wouldn't be that unusual to encounter only a few exotic tribes, but on the other hand on a continent there could be some more-or-less primitive tribes near the coast, but more civilized people could live deeper into the land and come into contact with the players once they got through the savages. Of course, depending on what the players could do (mainly what magic they had at their disposal), they could simply bypass the tribes. Or the new civilization could get to know about the visitors much earlier then it's needed (because I know that they would have at least a few competent casters).

There's a problem with putting civilization in the middle of a continent and 'savages' at the edges: Civilization usually grows up around bodies of water. Although magic can change this, rivers & lakes are pretty much a necessity of a low-tech culture, as it's MUCH easier to find a river or lake than it is to dig a well. Add to that the little bit that large bodies of water make transporting goods - and thus, trade - much easier, and without good reason otherwise (e.g., people settling down around a Wizard tower that was built to take advantage of a ley-line intersection that can be used to make life significantly easier in some manner), you'd have civilization at the coast, not the savages.

I'd be inclined to say "Don't tell them what it is". The line between "large island" and "small continent" is a little blurry to begin with. Map out about twice what you think they'll want to explore, and just expand the map in whatever direction the party goes. Alternately, make it a chain of sizable islands.

[Palanan]

While we're on the topic of seafaring, does anyone know of a worthy set of deck plans that might be available, drawn up on a five-foot grid? It would be great to find something that depicts the layout of an actual sailing vessel with some realism.