Interesting Fantasy Locales

[5lippers]

Lets be honest, it’s a good job GMs love what they do because they have a hard time of it, constantly having to come up new and interesting locations, diversions, NPCs, creatures and loot for their players. So let’s help them out a bit…

I thought I’d start a thread where people can add their interesting fantasy locations: maybe it’s a small location that could serve as a quick diversion during a larger quest, a single room in a dungeon or something that’s going to take a few play sessions to get through. They don’t have to be really weird or outlandish, just something a bit different from the norm.

If you want to add your idea as an outline or a few paragraphs, that’s fine; if you want to go all out, creating maps and stats for things, that’s fine too!

Don’t forget your plot hooks!

I’ve added a suggested layout below to help our industrious GMs scan for things that’ll work for them.

Location:

One Line Desc:

Themes:

Description:

Hooks:

Here’s a few to get things started…

Location: Barfink’s Doll Emporium

One Line Desc: Sinister doll shop

Themes: dark, mystery

Description: Barfink has been making dolls for the wealthy for a very long time. In fact, no one is exactly sure how long since the shop seems to have been there for as long as people can remember. Barfink is considered a master craftsman and his dolls are incredibly lifelike. He stubbornly refuses to share his crafting methods when asked, usually replying, “Sorry, trade secrets.”

Barfink owns an elegant shop situated in a back street of one of the more wealthy districts. The shop has two downstairs rooms. The front room is the main part of the shop and includes a counter and an eclectic mix of furniture displaying all manner of dolls and marionettes. Most of the dolls are imported but a special section at the back of the room showcases the dolls that were made by Barfink. Behind the counter is a door that leads to Barfink’s workshop. Barfink lives upstairs and there’s also a cellar where he keeps his materials (apparently).

Hooks:

Hollow Man:

You overhear a street urchin telling his peers that he heard the daughter of a minor noble has been in some sort of coma since the day after her birthday. They say it’s like she’s not there anymore and reckon that the ‘Hollow Man’ got her. It’s not until sometime later that you realise that this is the nickname the street kids use for Barfink. What happened to the girl and why is Barfink called 'Hollow Man' by the street kids?

Old Ma Vickers’ Latest Hallucination:

Old Ma Vickers can regularly be found wandering the streets near Barfink’s shop talking to herself. She rarely acknowledges people although, when she does, she makes little sense. One day she stops the PCs in the street, claming to have seen one of Barfink’s dolls get up and walk right out the shop. Before the PCs know it, Old Ma’s chasing after a noblewoman walking hand-in-hand with her daughter and screaming back at you, “look see! Another walking one!”

Break in:

Gentle Dete, the local crime boss and hard-nut has decided that he wants one of Barfink’s dolls for his daughter. The things is, he’s got 'his principles to think about' and refuses to pay for a doll (even though he could easily afford one). Dete needs someone to break into Barfink’s shop and steal a doll for him.

Possible complication: Dete wants a particular doll and it’s not in the shop when the PCs get there.

Location: Crossed Roads

One Line Desc: Strange Crossorads

Themes: wilderness, puzzle

Description: You come to a crossroads with a sign in the middle. The sign indicates each of the four roads leads to a single destination. The shaft of the sign is densely inscribed with a forgotten, symbolic language.

Hook: The PCs haven’t heard of any of the destinations on the sign. No matter what road or route they choose, the PCs always end up back at the crossroads. What is the crossroads and why are the PCs trapped here? Maybe if they could decipher the old language there’d be a clue?

Location: Gambler’s Dell

One Line Desc: Strange tournament

Themes: gambling, forest, risk

Description: In the middle of a forest there is an area where the trees have been felled. The stumps have been used to create tables the trunks stools that surround each table. Once a year all manner of beings gather around these tables to play a game of luck and skill. They always play for something, but it’s never money.

Hook: A slave (or some other trapped/enchanted entity) approaches you and tells you about the tournament in the forest. The slave wants the PCs to play against its master, with the prize for winning being its freedom. The slave tells the players that it’ll be worth it if they win and promises to reward them. For some reason the slave is forbidden from playing the game. The slave may, or may not, be trustworthy.

Possible complication: the players win the game and the slave’s freedom, but the slave immediately challenges its old master to a game stating that, should it win, it will enslave its old master in some particularly unpleasant, evil or degrading way. Should the PCs quit whilst they’re ahead or do the moral thing and join the game again to stop the slave?

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

There was a thread sort of like this some time ago. Search for "Seven Wonders of the World". People wrote a bit about the "seven wonders" of their respective fantasy worlds. Not quite the same as you've done here.

 

I'll go ahead and contribute one, not based on one of my seven wonders:

 

Location: The Nine Peaks

One Line Desc: Small cluster of mountains just north of the city of Telnanshire.

Themes: ominous, mystery, phenomenon

Description: Every midwinter, fog completely covers the nine peaks until mid-spring. When the fog finally lifts, the city of Telnanshire has its annual local holiday. This year, something wierd happened. During the festival, one of the young girls of the town stared up at the peaks through the clear air and suddenly screamed in horror, "There are ten of them!" Sure enough, there are now ten peaks where there used to be nine. And no one can seem to identify which mountain is the one that wasn't there before.

Hooks: Mountains don't just appear out of nowhere. What's going on? The Baron Telna XVII wants to send an expedition of explorers to investigate and figure out what happened. Things are not as they should be. There's something evil in these mountains. The new "interloper mountain," whichever one it is, bodes ill.

[phookz]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

Cool idea, I'll play.

 

Location: Whisper Mountain

One Line Desc: A small mountain, really just a large hill, and the only location in the world where Whisper Weed grows.

Themes: wilderness, phenomenon

Description: Whisper Mountain is really just a large hill, and home to two things: Whisper Keep and the only location where Whisper Weed grows. When a gentle breeze blows across a field of Whisper Weed, you can hear what sounds like whispered voices from the weeds themselves. Legend has it that the weed has the mystical property to reveal untold secrets. Listening carefully to the weeds it sounds like muted voices, but it's difficult (if not impossible) to make out any actual words). Is it really secrets that are told, or just a trick of the wind through the fluted cones of the weeds? The weeds won't grow when removed from Whisper Mountain; there's something special about the soil that is required for them.

Hooks: Multiple potential hooks. Some or all may be appropriate for your campaign, they are not necessarily compatible with each other:

Voices at Night

The PCs make camp near the base of Whisper Mountain. During the evening a gentle breeze kicks up. The weeds begin to make their whispering sounds, one of the players is able to clearly hear a secret. This can be used to introduce any plot hook you like.

 

Pilgrimage

Every year near midsummer a pilgrimage is made by a group of people who believe that they can absolve themselves of sin by whispering their secrets to the weeds. The PCs have been asked to escort a group of pilgrims led by a priestess. When they arrive at the location, they find that the Whisper Weed has burned to the ground. The priestess is quite distressed about this. Upon investigation, it is discovered that this was by order of the lord of the keep. Why would he want the Whisper Weed destroyed? What secrets, if any, is he hiding? Did any of the Weed survive?

 

Bring me a shrubbery!

The PCs have been hired by a wizard to obtain some Whisper Weed; it is needed for study or a spell/ritual the wizard must perform. However, the wizard wants the weed alive, so the players are tasked with digging it up and transplanting it into bags/pots to bring it to the wizard. When the players attempt to dig up the Whisper Weed they discover that the whispering is really the voices of fey creatures that live in the weed, and that removing the weed will surely mean the imprisonment of they fey, and possibly the ending of their lives.

[shadowmage87]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

Location: Kalin's Freezer

OLD: a giant's freezer, waiting for dinner...wait...

Themes: cold-resistant monsters, flying monsters, 3D puzzles and trap doors

Description: Kalin's freezer is actually a demi-plane where every surface has its own gravitational pull. So if you jump with enough momentum from the floor on one side, you'll fall on what was your ceiling. Add to this an intricate system of trap doors leading through caves of ice that keep the freezer cold.

 

Hooks: You're captured by a giant as you're going about your current quest. Or maybe you intended for yourself to be captured, so you could rescue someone or something from the giant's clutches.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

The Tangle

Desc: Outside dungeon crawl.

It's a forest. There's a sinuous, multi-branched stream running through it, creating a system of gullies, and the obligatory interlocking tree branches above, creating a three-level dungeon. The trails through the woods are walled with impenetrable undergrowth, but in places you can pull back a branch and expose a [secret passage] game trail through the brambles. Some trees can be climbed to canopy level, and there are places where the brambles thin out and you can descend the banks of the gullies and get down to the bottom.

Good Monsters: carnivorous trees, evil druids, monstrous birds, fish in the gullies. Don't overlook something like boars, though. (Imagine that you're pushing your way through the dense woods, branches in your face, when a 400lb animal that comes up to your waist comes running through the space underneath the foliage and rips your stomach with its razor-sharp tusks.)

This might be the first setting where the ability to pass through undergrowth is a game-unbalancing feat instead of near-useless chrome.

[Ragnarok]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

Good stuff here

 

When I get some time I'll post a few. Marking this for further access

[5lippers]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

Hi All,

 

Great stuff here so far - think I need to up my game and add a few more! ;-)

 

s.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

Not my idea, but a truly original concept that received a lot of discussion and input over on RPGnet. For those familiar with the official Dungeons and Dragons game universe(s), consider the wonder of The city built around the Tarrasque.

[Curufea]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

Reminds me of an episode of Farscape - about a mining colony that lives on the body of a space going leviathan.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

I always enjoyed this creation by Bob Hall, a detailed settlement you can literally drop into just about any fantasy setting: the dimension-wandering town of Adelfarn.

[5lippers]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

I always enjoyed this creation by Bob Hall' date=' a detailed settlement you can literally drop into just about any fantasy setting: the dimension-wandering town of Adelfarn.

 

I'd completely forgotten about Adelfarn - nice reminder. You can't beat a good old fashioned travelling city!

 

Anyway, another location for our herophile friends...

 

Location: Coldside

OLD: abandoned city area, warped by forgotten event

Themes: Urban, roleplay, negotiation, social

Description:

Coldside is a nightmarish, rundown area of the city covering several streets and alleys. The buildings in the area are crumbling, misshapen remnants of their former glory. Some look like they've melted whilst others look like they were taken apart and reassembled by a madman. No one can really remember what happened to area and all sorts of rumours exist (usually involving dark magic and rogue spell-casters). Unsurprisingly, very few people inhabit the area, having been scared off by the usual rumours of people who spent the night in coldview, re-emerging as horribly changed monstrosities or not emerging at all.

Recently, the city has seen an influx of people belonging to a certain ethnic group or race who are starting to settle in Coldview. This group doesn't seem perturbed by the areas evil reputation, or perhaps they just haven't heard about it yet.

Hook:

New Kids on the Block: The PCs are sent to investigate rumours or disturbing activities at Coldview. If sources are to be believed, the City’s newest community is kidnapping people from neighbouring communities and using them for some unknown purpose. The problem is that the sources in question can’t be trusted (maybe they’re a faction from another ethnic group with an axe to grind or some other disreputable source). However, people are disappearing and the City wants to know why. Who’s telling the truth and if the rumours are untrue, who’s behind the kidnappings and why?

Complication: certain hard-line groups from the neighbouring communities are deliberately stirring up trouble – can the PCs mediate or resolve the mystery before things really kick off?

Highly Unoriginal Evil Artefact Plot: Rumour has it that the misshapen, warped nature of coldview is a result of magical forces exerted by a powerful artefact rumoured to be buried somewhere under the area. Unfortunately, Evil-GM has decided the artefact's existence is a lie and nothing more than an excuse to lure the PCs into a place where an old nemesis can get some serious payback.

 

Enjoy!

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

Based on an entry in The Book of Weird by Barbara Ninde Byfield:

 

Location: A Modest Town House

One Line Desc: A three-story house with people of different professions

Themes: NPC Support Characters, citizenry

Description: This small town house has been successfully adapted for use by three compatible professions. On the ground floor is an alchemist's shop. The alchemist is a cheerful, friendly man how can probably find just what you need. The top floor is claimed by an astrologer. He's got a big telescope and other equipment. Since none of the residents are married or have families, the middle floor is occupied by a bookbinder. Located at the end of a narrow and winding street, within the sound of churchbells.

Hooks: The Basement. The alchemist on the ground floor is not really an alchemist - he really doesn't know anything about alchemy. He's just the front man for the real alchemist who prefers not to have to deal with customers. The real alchemist occupies the basement, but he never comes up into the house. He uses an entrance from a building next door.

 

Granted, this isn't really an "adventure site" but you might consider it an Interesting Fantasy Locale anyway.

[5lippers]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

Granted, this isn't really an "adventure site" but you might consider it an Interesting Fantasy Locale anyway.

 

Hi Phil,

Any and all locales are welcome! I like the shop and, to be honest, I can’t actually think of a time when I’ve been in a game where the actual shop building and tenants has been described (rather than the odd shopkeeper and/or cool things-for-sale).

The evil Evil-GM in me is envisaging the ground floor alchemist as a well-meaning but incompetent bumbler, determined to prove their worth as a alchemist. Secretly, they mix their own potions in with those of the ‘real’ alchemists. The potions work, just not in the way intended (or perhaps they have minor side effects). For example: perhaps a potion of flight causes the drinker to grow wings which shrink, but do not entirely disappear, when the potion wears off (leaving the drinker with some useless vestigial wings that they need to cure).

[5lippers]

Re: Interesting Fantasy Locales

 

This locale is one that might provide an interesting diversion during a larger quest. It may also help the GM (briefly) satisfy those players that always seem want to play dragons, demon-spawn, giants or something equally game-breaking (yes, you know who you are...).

Location: Channah’s Stone

OLD: magical stone of divine origin designed for personal growth

Themes: transformation, diversion, fresh take on old tactics

Description:

Legend tells that Channah’s Stone was created by a greater goddess to teach a minor trickster god some sort of lesson. No one can remember what that lesson was, but most people assume that, since it was of divine origin, it was probably a good one.

The Stone is pink granite, cubic and measures approximately three foot to a side. The sides are all equal but no measurement, no matter how refined, seems able to come up with an exact value. The exact location of the Stone varies but it is always surrounded by three pillar-like objects. The nature of these ‘pillars’ varies by setting: for example, witnesses have reported that the pillars were tree trunks when they came across Channah’s Stone in a woodland glade. Others have reported pillars, statues, etc. Regardless of what they look like, there are always three ‘pillars’ and they are always twice as high as the Stone itself.

The PCs somehow come across the stone (perhaps they are led to it or encounter it accidentally) and, as soon as someone in the party, including NPCs, touches the stone, it activates. The range of the stone is whatever it needs to be to zap all PCs in the party (or whatever the GM determines it to be).

When zapped by the stone, each PC is transformed into Something Else. The Something Else retains vague memories or what it used to be but has different traits, powers, skills, etc. The Something Else can be anything the GM wants but some general rules should be followed:

- It should be playable.

- It should force the player to play differently and rethink standard tactics.

- Different players should be transformed differently.

Maybe the form is more powerful (satisfying those dragon wannabes), less powerful, or perhaps it’s just different. Whatever it is, it should be appropriate to the challenges that the players will meet.

Upon transforming the PCs, the stone teleports to a new location. The PCs remain in their new form for a set period of time (whatever the GM wants, maybe a couple of sessions). When the time runs out, the PCs revert to their original forms.

Upon reverting to their original forms, and in keeping with the theme, I would suggest the GM should reward each PC with a specific ability/power rather than handing out XP. Since the players will have less choice than normal, the reward should probably be of slightly higher value than normal. The GM could just assign each player a new ability or could ask each player what they think their character learnt during their transformation. The GM and players could then jointly design a new ability using a set value of points (and perhaps any spare XP the player might have).

Hooks:

Freaky Friday: Maybe the PCs need to complete some sort of quest to transform back. Possible quests could be:

- The PCs need to relocate the Stone and perform a rite (perhaps one that proves they’ve learnt from the experience) to return to their original forms.

- The only way for the PCs to return to their original form is to lure someone else to the Stone and have them touch it. As soon as the victim is transformed, the PCs turn back.

PeThe GM might need to be a bit careful with this one as the PCs might decide they prefer their new form (especially if more powerful).

Evil-GM suggestion: perhaps the effects of the stone aren’t immediate. Nothing happens for a certain period of time and, just when the PCs have stopped fretting about whatever the stone did to them, the transformation happens.