[TML] "Dies the Fire"

[shadow at shadowgard.com]

On 10 Dec 2007 at 19:29, traveller at dhimaging.com.au wrote:

> From a GM point of view, I think you'd have to:
> * have the true background story on the place
> * Have MAJOR landmarks (major oceans, major landmasses, unusual features
> (Giant Mountains, anyone?), major roads, major people & species), thoroughly
> detailed
> * have some kind of encounter table, based on what you might be 'near' - 
>   i.e. players are in an Tracked ATV going 30km/hr near a minor ancient
> city.  Roll 2D6 and consult table
> 
> While it would be fun, it would take a GM years to set it up, unless you can
> confine your players to a particular area.

Unless they have something that can fly at a decent rate of speed and 
doesn't need to be refueled, they *are* limited. 

Just how far could *you* get with an ATV with no roads? And if your 
party won't all fit, you can only use an ATV or even an air raft or G-
carrier for scouting or for hauling supplies. The rest of the party 
gets to *walk*.

For that matter, you can always cheat. The area I set my old D&D 
campaign in was an area several hundred miles from here that I'd 
visited many summers (I grew up only an hours drive from it). 

I even bought one of those plastic relief maps that a company makes 
by printing a copy of a USGS topo map on a sheet of plastic and then 
vacuforming it.

That was great because they could *see* the hills and ridges. As well 
as how big the lake was.

On a trip back to the area about 10 years back, I found a fisherman's 
map of the lake with depth contours. I knew it was deep, but I hadn't 
realized it was over 300 feet deep!

So if I ever open up another campaign, I have that for extra detail. 

And heck, if you ignore the cities and some other things, you can use 
a lot of maps of the real world. Just don't let the players know 
where they are.




--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com