Most Inspiring Locations for Role-Playing

[jimminy]

I was talking about travel in another thread in General Chatter and it reminded me that for a long time I've wanted to start a thread like this.

First of all, every place you go to can be inspiring for an RPG. You don't even have to leave home. 'Man, if someone fought the Incredible Hulk in this shopping mall, that'd be cool.' Anyone could list a million places that inspire them for games. Travelling is not a must, but for this thread I personally will focus on 'tourist sites'.

If you like running Roman or WWII campaigns, of course your focus will be different.

My experience is limited to Europe (and New Zealand and Australia) but everywhere must be great. Europe has a million castles and ALL are interesting. I'm just going to list the places that really, really grabbed me, my top ten or so, if you will, and say why. They're the places where I wanted to make immediate mental notes. 'This has to be in a game!' This will be in no particular order, though.

Including pics is maybe self indulgent but after starting this thread I realised I should have pics to show what I'm talking about.

Czech Republic: Even without the beauty of Prague you have some winners. The church in Kutna Hora decorated with human skeletons is instant D&D. Cesky Krumlov is a beautifully preserved medieval town and the castle there is truly majestic... and it still has bears in the moat! If I run a medieval game again, fantasy or otherwise, I'm looking on the net for floorplans of that castle.

Slovenia: Speaking of great castles, Bled in Slovenia has a nice one on a hilltop, and then in the lake beneath there is an island with a little church. I was already picturing the climbing rolls, swimming challenge, race against the clock to get to the church and ring the bell to stop the great evil...

Iceland: The Icelanders on these boards are pretty lucky. Besides having the crack in the tectonic plates between the continents of Europe and North America they have the Þingvellir, viewed here from a nearby rise, the great wall where a whisper could be heard from a distance where the Icelandic parliament met. Correct me if it's not true, but a friend said that back in the day, a man would not be sentenced to death but would instead be sent into the lava fields to eke out a living amongst the trolls and the fairies, and anyone who saw him was allowed to kill him. If that isn't RPG gold, I don't know what is. Plus, the have volcanoes, geysers, bubbling sulphur pits and glaciers, which should all feature in any self respecting 'man vs nature' RPG, not to mention the kind of waterfalls that Sherlock Holmes would happily battle any nemesis on.

Phew, with photos, this takes longer than I thought! More later, and be sure to share your cool and inspiring RPG locations!

[Jürgen Hubert]

This is part of the reason why I created the Arcana Wiki. The big list of noteworthy locations with their own entries can be found here. Admittedly, some of these locations are fictional - but hey, everything's fair in love and gaming, right?

[ciaran_skye]

Considering I have urban fantasies that take place in my home town, we just go places in the story.

[jimminy]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

This is part of the reason why I created the Arcana Wiki. The big list of noteworthy locations with their own entries can be found here. Admittedly, some of these locations are fictional - but hey, everything's fair in love and gaming, right?

Wow, well, that kinda says it all! And here I was just going to post random inspiring pictures and places that role-playing fiends might want to visit when they go on holiday. I think the supposed site of Troy is the only one of those I've been to. There are pics of that on my comp somewhere! It's just some exciting foundations now, of course, and a big cheesy Trojan horse reconstruction.

Istanbul, it goes without saying, would be a great rpg setting during any of its fascinating eras.

Oh, and under Paris there is a tunnel you can walk through for like fifteen minutes and either side of you are human bones, stacked as high as your shoulder. I think they were plague victims (weren't they always?) that had to be moved. Very spooky place, and very good for any undead themed Parisian fun!

In Poland there are salt mines that have tunnels spreading every which way for miles, and people have actually carved entire cathedrals out of salt. There are rivers where the water is so salty that you can't sink, and they used to have gondola rides on those subterranean rivers but stopped when a gondola overturned and all the tourists drowned because they couldn't swim away from under the boat. There are figures and gnomes and all kinds of things carved from the salt and the tunnels are just ridiculously labyrinthine. Also, they told that when people were digging the salt, every morning there were explosive and toxic gases in the mines that had to be removed. They would send condemned criminals in with torches at the start of each day to burn out the explosive pockets. Maybe they'd be ok, maybe they'd be singed, or maybe worse! That is perfect for an RPG. Add some scary salt elementals and you're set.

I actually have your site bookmarked, Jurgen, but I always forget to check it. Thanks for reminding me!

[jimminy]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

Considering I have urban fantasies that take place in my home town, we just go places in the story.

That's a great way to play. One of our most beloved and long running (though seldom played) GURPS games is a tongue in cheek campaign set in our home city (which is renowned for being boring). It's great when you can just describe a place in a few words and everyone already knows the layout and knows how they can interact with the background.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

I wrote a Pyramid article ("Caerceol") about a remote, mist-shrouded castle ruled by a powerful but tragic dynasty of warrior queens. It was directly inspired by a visit to Ashford Castle on my honeymoon. Of course, Ireland in general is inspirational.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by jimminy

That's a great way to play. One of our most beloved and long running (though seldom played) GURPS games is a tongue in cheek campaign set in our home city (which is renowned for being boring). It's great when you can just describe a place in a few words and everyone already knows the layout and knows how they can interact with the background.

My GM for In Nomine is doing the same thing with Madison, Wisc., her hometown. It's been a neat effect: we've all come to feel we know the city so well, even though only one other player out of six or seven has much experience with Wisconsin.

[William]

There is also an image thread in the In Nomine forums. Many of the photos are of places, some of real places that remind us of supernatural realms, others of places that have gaming potential in a themed fantasy game. (And some are not of places, too.)

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by jimminy

I actually have your site bookmarked, Jurgen, but I always forget to check it. Thanks for reminding me!

No problem.

And please feel free to add any or all of the sites you've brought up here to the wiki. I mean, we have a number of very dedicated contributors over there, but there's only so much we can do. ;)

[ClayDowling]

Most anything in Michigan. I love setting horror in the thumb area, and my current campaign is set in Detroit. Best correspondence of it was playing a game with a climactic scene involving monsters rising from the sea, while we were staying at family property on the mouth of Saginaw Bay.

For those not familiar with the midwest, Michigan is that part of the U.S. shaped like a mitten, and surrounded by large lakes. And by lakes I mean freshwater seas, complete with an active shipping industry and hurricanes in November strong enough to put the quietus to a 1000 foot ore freighter.

Detroit is a classic spot for weird supernatural stuff too. Over the last year Time has run a few photo essays about the city, and they're accurate. Get turned around downtime, by the stadium, and it's easy to find a burnt out hulk of a hotel or apartment building, or the kind of street where if somebody wasn't seen outside of their house for half a decade, nobody would notice.