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Michael Thayne · 10-12-2020, 10:38 PM

Reading published adventures, one thing I've noticed is that one thing that can really "make" an adventure is a location that is, itself, inherently magical. It's somewhat surprising that RPG sourcebooks don't give more attention to this—magical locations seem like something that should actually be just as fundamental to fantasy RPGs as magic items and magical creatures. In principle, they can even serve a similar function to magic items in terms of being rewards—bypass a dungeon's magical defenses and clear it out? Congratulations, you now have a very defensible base of operations!

Because of this, I really liked Dungeon Fantasy Encounters 2: The Room. Normally, a book like this would have way more page count devoted to what monsters and you can encounter in The Room, but the supplement only gives us about a page of that. Most of it is devoted to just explaining The Room's magical properties, which are sufficiently unique that they really do justify five or six pages of description.

I went through my Dungeon Fantasy books and looked for material that could be used similarly, much as one would drop a magic item into one's own campaign without necessarily letting the supplement dictate who ought to own the magic item. For example, Caverntown needn't be a friendly settlement—the magic lighting, springs, and protections against earth magic could be just as useful in a settlement of goblin-kin or shadow elves. Similarly, the Pagoda of Worlds needn't be crawling with monsters—it might be inhabited by an order of monks devoted to protecting it from misuse (and who are very suspicious of whatever reason the PCs have for traveling to the Pagoda). Mirror of the Fire Demon's Grotto of the Wind Spirit is a third example of something that could be dropped into a very different adventure.

In some ways, Cold Shard Mountains is the closest thing I've seen to a catalog of magical locations—most of the locations listed under "Natural Features" and "Legendary and Remote", as well as a few of the settlements, have interesting magical properties. Some of the locations might be hard to drop into another setting because they're so tied to the background of the Demon Wars, but others would fit just about any setting quite well.

Finally, Pyramid Dungeon Collection has a few such locations: Aulos, Caerceol, Saroo, and Amadan. Curious to hear about other magical locations people have noticed listed in various supplements, or used in their campaigns successfully.

10-12-2020, 10:38 PM	#1
Michael Thayne Join Date: May 2010	Magical real estate Reading published adventures, one thing I've noticed is that one thing that can really "make" an adventure is a location that is, itself, inherently magical. It's somewhat surprising that RPG sourcebooks don't give more attention to this—magical locations seem like something that should actually be just as fundamental to fantasy RPGs as magic items and magical creatures. In principle, they can even serve a similar function to magic items in terms of being rewards—bypass a dungeon's magical defenses and clear it out? Congratulations, you now have a very defensible base of operations! Because of this, I really liked *Dungeon Fantasy Encounters 2: The Room. Normally, a book like this would have way more page count devoted to what monsters and you can encounter in The Room, but the supplement only gives us about a page of that. Most of it is devoted to just explaining The Room's magical properties, which are sufficiently unique that they really do justify five or six pages of description. I went through my Dungeon Fantasy* books and looked for material that could be used similarly, much as one would drop a magic item into one's own campaign without necessarily letting the supplement dictate who ought to own the magic item. For example, Caverntown needn't be a friendly settlement—the magic lighting, springs, and protections against earth magic could be just as useful in a settlement of goblin-kin or shadow elves. Similarly, the Pagoda of Worlds needn't be crawling with monsters—it might be inhabited by an order of monks devoted to protecting it from misuse (and who are very suspicious of whatever reason the PCs have for traveling to the Pagoda). *Mirror of the Fire Demon's Grotto of the Wind Spirit is a third example of something that could be dropped into a very different adventure. In some ways, Cold Shard Mountains* is the closest thing I've seen to a catalog of magical locations—most of the locations listed under "Natural Features" and "Legendary and Remote", as well as a few of the settlements, have interesting magical properties. Some of the locations might be hard to drop into another setting because they're so tied to the background of the Demon Wars, but others would fit just about any setting quite well. Finally, *Pyramid Dungeon Collection* has a few such locations: Aulos, Caerceol, Saroo, and Amadan. Curious to hear about other magical locations people have noticed listed in various supplements, or used in their campaigns successfully.