Canals

After my post about making the sandbox accessible I've been thinking more about ways you might do that.  I realized that it works in Morrowind because the assumption of an empire and civilization.  Knowing there will be an Imperial Cult shrine in the next town is the benefit of empire.  And soldiers keep the roads safe.  But empire is usually the opposite of wilderness.  And I want wilderness.

Well one way to do it is to make these routes the remnants of an empire, like a lot of post-apocalyptic D&D settings.  You have nice Roman-like roads with bridges.  These could be patrolled by locals.  This would allow for safe travel between close towns and, at least a faster route through the wilderness.

Then I started thinking about canals.  Has a D&D setting ever used them?  They would be perfect for a Western Marches style game.  You discover an oddly straight waterway, even though over grown, banks crumbling, and you know it will lead to something interesting.  Probably both ways. 

Canal going into a tunnel

Some canals will lead right underground.  Maybe through some rough, hilly territory. Or maybe into an underground city ruin.  I can't think of anything more D&D than finding one of those, loading up a narrowboat, and setting off into the dark.

Canals and locks leading over a mountain seem a perfect way to get over a mountain with horses and gear in a much safer way.  And a perfect reason to go into the mountain ruins: to try and get the locks and reservoirs working again.

Towpath cut into stone

Even if a canal functions pretty much as a river in the present of your setting it could have interesting features left over like tow paths and ruins along it.

Rocky Landmarks

I started systematically going back through my old files trying organize and see if I missed any silhouettes opportunities.  I found these pictures from an old book on rock climbing in Great Britain that I never did anything with.  I thought they might be useful if you are doing a point crawl and want to give layers a visual sense of a lair or just a local landmark.  Like these map insets.

Update: Found another one somewhere else.  I guess I like pictures of rocks.  Also, a picture of Fingal's Cave which is more a dungeon entrance than landmark, but could be both:

These are all public domain, use them as you wish.

Sandbox Accessories - Empire Ruins

Your Romans, or Thulians, or Atlanteans left traces didn't they? The idea that much knowledge was lost in the dark ages combined with mythical places of strange magical arcana like Atlantis or Lemuria can be hinted at in ruined structures. I like the idea of roads most. What better way for an adventuring party to find the lost ruined cities of those cultures than to stumble across a road and follow it to its origin?


Just the existence of such things lends an air of age and history to a sandbox. It also triggers the inquisitive part of my brain, starting me thinking about what trade travelled on these roads and where is all the wealth generated by said trade. In addition to road fragments I think it would be cool to run across an ancient bridge:





Watchtowers:



And tunnels:


Not tunnels leading to a dungeon, but tunnels as a fragment of civilization. Maybe they serve as a safer way to travel through dangerous territory. The Romans made some very long aqueducts. Read here about one over 100 kilometers long that took more than a century to excavate.

But what about the element of the fantastic? I like the idea of remnants of building that are difficult to discern what they were for. Perhaps they were a hippogriff stable. Perhaps a great summoning circle. Perhaps a cage to keep the tentacled demi-god imprisoned, long since broken. Bat in the Attic has a nice post on lists of kings evoking history in a sandbox. I like the idea of statues or great stone heads of these emperors scattered through the wilderness. Or how about a stone stelae somewhere listing the roll of rulers that must be referenced at various times in the campaign, and each time requires a dangerous journey to the stela.

Sandbox Accessories - Shaped Trees

Odd trees will always make for interesting landmarks. For example, a tree growing from another tree:


In the backyard of my childhood home was a single tree onto which my father had grafted plums, nectarines, and peaches. The oddness and wonder of how humans could manipulate plants has stuck with me. And if you've been on the internet long, you've most likely seen posts of trees shaped by people into chairs or woven patterns. These fascinate me as well. A braided tree could make for a memorable feature in your sandbox:


These trees always seemed very elf-like to me. And just think, what elves, living for centuries, could coax from nature with patience. Bridges:


That is in Bangladesh. Or this:


Of course those are crude in comparison to what elves would be able to craft. I'll leave the elf-bridges to your imagination. How about roadways lined by trees for miles, even across plains where trees are scarce. Or, within, forests, avenues of trees still discernible to the observant:



But, the truly fantastic would be whole buildings shaped from trees:


And even that is just the barest idea, crude in comparison to my imagined elf cathedrals. Even whole elvish cities shaped from trees only to be abandoned.

The last few pics came from here, look there for more interesting landart ideas.

Sandbox Accessories - Balancing Rock

I've been thinking about things players might encounter in the wilderness that are interesting, memorable, but not necessarily hazardous. Basically, the cool things that make you want to be a tourist, but kicked up a fantasy notch. So I thought I'd pick something I'd love seeing from the real world and then give some fantasy idea that is similar. So, for the first installment, that old standby, the balancing rock.

This one is from Garden of the Gods, Colorado (cool name, huh?). Your lost, hungry characters, on seeing this, will know exactly where they are and how to get home. In a fantasy world, what if there was a cave or lair in a balancing rock? A nest on top of it? Or, better yet, the balancing rock is so big, a forgotten city is carved right in the side of it and that is where the adventure will take place!


Walk very carefully and don't poke too hard with that 10' pole! :)