OK I was too busy to do any blog posting for a week.
Coming across a picture of the Galaxy Soho in Beijing
I decided to seek inspiration by searching for more pics:
This complex reminds me a lot of “retro-future” things like Logan’s Run. Not D&D, but good for science-fiction or post-apocalypse settings.
Also I searched for more futuristic buildings:
Some of these other ones might be inspirational for wizard towers or weird temples?
While I am still thinking about my project of “World of Vikings & Mayans & Dinosaurs” I guess I will post a bit more old material.
This is a treasure map I created to go with the dungeon map I posted back during “30 Days of D&D” blog challenge for Day 12.
While rolling the random contents of the dungeon, I ended up rolling a treasure result of a Treasure Map, so I decided to have it lead to a big treasure inside the dungeon itself. The treasure is on a lower level, but the path sort of shows how to get there.
Here is the Dungeon Rumor Table I made for the dungeon as well:
Der Dungeon – Rumor Table
(roll 1d10 for each player to see what rumor they have heard about dungeon)
1. The ruins were once the base of an evil cult.
2. Recently, a shepherd reported spotting small figures moving about the ruins by the light of a full moon.
3. A mad wizard lives beneath the ruins.
4. The last group that set out for the ruins never returned.
5. There is supposedly a map showing the way to a great treasure under the ruins.
6. The ruins are the lair of powerful undead.
7. A seer once spoke of a powerful source of good trapped within the ruins.
8. There is a magical fountain within the ruins.
9. Anyone who sleeps within the ruins will suffer a curse.
10. A drunken farmer once entered the ruins and claimed to have seen a woman with glowing blue eyes.
Continuing on to the third core concept of the “World of Vikings & Mayans & Dinosaurs” brings us to “Dinosaurs.”
So what pops into my mind when I think “Dinosaurs?”
1) Landscapes full of strange vegetation. Giant ferns. Jungle-like underbrush. Teeming with small creatures like insects, lizards, and proto-mammals. Rivers full of giant crocodiles. Seas full of monsters.
2) Carnivores stalking their enormous prey. Giant carnivores like T-Rex, Allosaurus, as well as packs of smaller hunters like Velociraptor and Deinonychus. Huge sauropods like Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus (which was called Brontosaurus when I was a kid). Various armored herbivores like Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Ankylosaurus.
3) “Cavemen.” Lizardmen. The Sleestak from “Land of the Lost.” Strange, possibly alien cultures.
4) Extinction. Cataclysm. Volcanoes. Earthquakes. Fires. The fall of one order, paving the way for another to rise.
That’s what I’ve got with a few minutes thought.
The second core pillar of the setting of “Vikings & Mayans & Dinosaurs” is “Mayans.”
So, similar to yesterday’s post on “Vikings,” I will try to rattle off some things that come to my mind about the concept of “Mayans.”
1) Mysterious cities deep in the jungle. Pyramids. Temples. Over a long span of time, some cities are abandoned, while new ones periodically emerge.
2) Warring city-states. Ritualized warfare. Capture & sacrifice of rival nobles / royalty.
3) The Underworld. Passages to the Underworld via caves and tunnels. The 12 Lords / Death Gods. Mortal heroes being tested by the gods.
4) A cyclic sense of time, with each great cycle relating to the end of one era of the world and the start of another.
These are elements that should be incorporated into a game-setting with a Mayan-like culture. Obviously, I will need more research into “Mayans” than “Vikings” just by the nature of me being an American of European descent who went to school in the 1970s and 1980s. (I’m not even sure the Mayan system of writing had been deciphered yet back then.)
All I’m looking for at this stage is a high-level concept.
OK. Since “Vikings” is one of the three central pillars of the setting concept (“Vikings & Mayans & Dinosaurs”), what does “Vikings” bring to mind?
Just using my memory for now (I can do research later if needed to refresh my memory or get more details):
1) Longships voyaging to distant shores. Raiding and trading. Sometimes leading to settlements or conquest.
2) Fjords. Small isolated settlements. Jarls and petty kings. Rival clans. Feuds. Songs & tales of the ancestors.
3) Thor. Odin. Giants. Trolls. Ragnarok. A cyclic sense of time, culminating in the end of the world.
I think this pretty much covers the essentials of Vikings or a Viking-like culture in a fantasy game world.
more archeology than history - monotonous but becomes a bit more interesting in the last 1/3
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