Stealing Inspiration from Real Life

[Nifft]

National Geographic is running a story on a cave expedition which had to rapidly evacuate due to flooding last month: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/2018/10/flood-escape-deepest-cave-veryovkina-abkhazia/

The images are stunning, and frankly I wish I had ever run a game half that exciting (and in which nobody died, which is significantly more important IRL).


Anyone have good spelunking stories and/or imaes?

[Arbane]

Anyone have good spelunking stories and/or imaes?

Not mine, but:

The world's biggest caves (https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/vietnam-hang-son-doong-cave/index.html), in Han Doon Song, Vietnam.
https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_900,c_fill,g_auto,h_506,ar_16:9/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets% 2F160824165257-hang-son-doong-1watch-out-for-dinosaurs-sunbeam.jpg

Cave full of giant crystals (https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/nature-travel/cave-mexico-largest-collection-crystals), Naica Mountain, Mexico.
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/52/b5/28/52b528123978d37807fafa9fd715ae44.jpg

[Yora]

Stealing inspirations is called "being inspired".

[Telok]

I'm currently building a spaceship deckplan from copy/paste chunks of a battleship. I never would have considered putting in a dentist, legal office, and bakery. They make sense though.

[Jay R]

From Tom Sawyer, I once stole the idea ...

...of a well-known cave complex with lots of offshoots that haven't been explored, including one that's a thieves' den.

[Silver_madeym]

Currently working on a cave/dungeon inspired by Movile cave. A cave in Romania that has been disconnected from the surface for several millions of years yet sustained life all that time. Some whacky creatures evolved there. Creepy blind creatures combined with slightly poisonous air that you can't breath for too long without issues can make for some interesting exploring.

[Saintheart]

EDIT: Never mind...

[Knaight]

These aren't natural caves per se, but the Wieliczka salt mines are an essential source here - it's a massive cave system containing salt that was mined for literally centuries, where these mines grew huge and complex, and people started doing things like building cathedrals into the mines.
http://www.seekrakow.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/aktualne-kaplica_sw_Kingi.jpg
https://images.musement.com/cover/0001/26/wieliczka-salt-mine_header-25136.jpeg?&q=60&fit=crop&lossless=true&auto=format&w=412&h=250http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8002151-wieliczka-salt-mine-record-breaking-tourists/image/secondary-salt-crystalization-art-of-nature-in-the-wieliczka-salt-mine-12-HR.jpg

[Arbane]

Fingal's Cave.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/1aecfa3bd183bff362689ac12b69043d/tumblr_pcagvvjOrS1qhlo5zo1_1280.jpg


Not a cave, but how about a church richly decorated with the bones of the faithful?

http://realunexplainedmysteries.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/sedlec-ossuary-chandelier.jpg