Fantastic Locations Thread!

Fantastic Locations Thread!

Fantastic Locations Thread!

How much do you do to make the places the players visit fantastic? I try to include things that aren’t monsters, like a self-sweeping broom in a witch’s hut or a candelabra with glowing crystals instead of candles.

Most notably, I think the landscape is pretty important, but I must admit that “inventing” fantasy terrain can be a bit hard. The tenth flying isle isn’t as fantastic as the first one, if you know what I mean.

What are the most magnificent and marvelous locations you have had in a game?

14 thoughts on “Fantastic Locations Thread!”

  6. Recently I’ve been approaching locations with the idea “what here is giving the players a bad vibe?” IE they’ve been to plenty of floating islands, but what’s not quite right about this particular one?

    I think that’s helped me make my games more dramatic, but not necessarily more fantastic. For example, most of my last game was a really exciting battle… in the middle of a pig pen.

    I think paying attention to the little things (the crystal candleabra, the broom familiar) goes a long way to making a place fantastic in your own unique way.

  10. I think the best location I have done yet was the three story house of a wizard called Orsimus (Tim Franzke pointed out that it sounded like “Awesomus”, which isn’t actually that bad ;))

    They entered the scene and poked around. They stood outside, and the first thing they see is a tall house which had a huuuuge telescope affixed to the roof. They go inside the battered door. They get into a kitchen and walk upstairs.

    Upstairs is the hearth which burns with a fire warm enough to warm the house, but not hot enough to burn anything. Besides it was the flying broom.

    They walk upstairs where they see the business end of the telescope, along some notes on observations (he was an astronomer too). There was also a study with weird books with some titles.

    The place was weird enough to stand out, but not so weird that it seemed alien. Actually, these first 15 minutes of poking around were some of the best in that setting. The rest of the dungeon was actually pretty mundane, except it was below ground.

  12. Using the Perilous Journey move to describe a couple of key landmarks is fun too. Have the players complete their rolls and then (barring any complications) describe a couple of fantastic locations.

    “High in the mountains you cross the Guildcrafter’s Bridge; a mile-long stone bridge spanning a vastly deep valley. A marvel of architecture, it is held aloft by thirteen impossibly large statues of dwarf engineers.”

  13. A train robbery on a sky rail held aloft by hot air balloons fuelled by a magical coal that weighs nearly nothing and is highly combustible. The situation escalates when a cote salamander is revealed to be trapped in the stoking chamber of the boiler – if it makes it to the huge pile of cote used to stroke the fire, the explosion will bring rail, train, and all tumbling out of the sky. Cote salamanders breed by explosion, so the dry forest below will become an inferno within minutes if disaster is not averted!

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