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View Full Version : DM Help Environments and Scenery to Have Fantasy Adventures In



Comet
2015-03-16, 07:49 AM
I've been thinking about running a 5th edition D&D game in the distant future. Really back to basic high fantasy action adventure stuff with as much of the monster manual making an appearance as I can manage.

So I've been thinking about the kind of world I'd like to set this campaign in. I feel the world you choose has a huge impact on the way the players perceive the game and the kind of mood you're trying to create. Some traditional examples I came up with off the top of my head:

The grand open plains dotted with forests. This is my 'standard' fantasy setting. Empty highways, rocky hills, occasional castles and the Lord of the Rings.

The frozen north. Another standard. Biting cold, imposing mountain ranges and angry men in furs.

The foreboding, dark swampland. Grim stories told around campfires, old cottages and ruined castles.

The savage jungle. Serpent cults, ancient temples, dangerous ropebridges.

And so on, I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting.

With the traditional stuff out of the way, what kinds of worlds have you set your game in that weren't perhaps as obvious? Or have you used the above to create something with some kind of twist to it?

At the moment I'm thinking about setting the campaign on a series of tropical islands. Not grim pulp action jungles, necessarily, but bright blue lagoons contrasted against lush green mountains. Could be a world with lots of magic and different races all living side by side in coastal or underwater settlements. These coasts might be relatively safe while the inland areas would be where you'd have your adventures and monster slaying action. I feel this kind of colourful frontier would be a pretty good fit to ease my players into a more overtly magical and exotic world after the gritty dungeon crawling we've been doing for a couple of years now. Just need to be careful not to stray too far into alien territory.

Yora
2015-03-16, 09:29 AM
My setting is almost entirely either forest or water. All noteworthy civilization is on the coast and the big rivers. These civilizations are also pretty young and small, having evolved past the stone age only a thousand years ago or less. The forests are just massive, similar to Siberia, Canada, or the Amazon and there aren't any real roads. And of course it's all full of monsters and spirits. Most ruins are abandoned villages and fallen forts, but a few are much much older and used to be castles of the fey, which is where magical treasures can be found that mortal sorcerers don't know how to make.

AceOfFools
2015-03-16, 08:47 PM
Hm...

So for this Dresden Files based urban fantasy game I run, I created a Faerie based heavily on the Wyld of Exalted.

Reality runs more on metaphor than on physics there; the whole thing is basically a series of demi-planes. It allows for some really sweet fantasy scenery. In no particular order:

The Opium Dream: a series of disjoint and rundown piers over smoke rather than water. Smoke obscured everything in the distances and fortitude saves were needed to avoid getting high. There were sickly sea serpents in the smoke, and occasions where the PCs had to jump on boats floating on the smoke to get from point A to point B (no, they couldn't walk or swim in the smoke).

The Forest with 8 Eyes: A forest on the back of a giant spider that the PC's had to escape by making sucide jumps through space onto the massive webs the forest walked on.

Changing Memories: A forest filled with placards with misquotes (e.g. "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" -Voltaire (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire)) that messes with peoples minds. It literally changes their memories if they aren't careful (on PC ended up remember that they agreed to one of the plans floated and quietly walked off to do his part in it).

The Hall of Games: The combat took place on a massive, magic Snakes and Ladder's board. I rolled dice to determine at the end of the initiative order to see if the "ladders" would teleport people standing in those squares up, the "snakes" would teleport people down, or if everyone would be moved a random distance forward (as if a round of snakes and ladders had taken place).

The Castle In the Stars: A literal castle floating in low-earth orbit (of course they can breath), where the rock troll lord has a minor obsession with throwing people that anger him off the castle as punishment.

The Well Trapped Road: A winding mountain road that seems perfectly safe (for a road), but that punished sudden movements (e.g. running) with excessive magical traps. It had the aspects: "Looks perfectly safe" and "Don't run," which only became more appropriate/hilarious after the Internet Court took it over and it became "The Trojan Road".

The Vale of Fangs: A realm in the Spider Court filled with trees whose branches end in large, venomless fangs. The trees are hungry as they say.

Liar's Hall: Any resemblance to the Capital Building or legislature of any actual, real-world government is purely intentional. Everyone, even the talking mice, will claim to be it's monarch, if you ask.

The Birthplace of Monsters: A cave in the Spider Court that is decorated library with thousands of millions of spider eggs. It is heavily advised not to linger (although the PCs have so far had no problem with that).

The River of Roses: A giant river of petals and thorns that are navigated by magic boats that sail them. One PC got thrown in and scratched up pretty nasty.

On the whole, wildly fantastic sights like this make WONDERFUL adventure locations (and great at mixing things up), but I think having a more mundane baseline greatly helps PCs get grounded.