RPGaDay2021 in August - August 13th: Flood
We continue on today with #RPGaDay2021 in August.
Day 13 - Flood.
A lot of folks today are going to post about this word topic in terms of the sheer amount of gaming material on the market and the big company vs. the indie publishers out there, but I'm not...
One of the things that happens to me as a Gamesmaster is that I sometimes get an idea for an aquatic monster or creature, or for using an aquatic creature. And then I realize that I'm running a land-based campaign and the aquatic monster that I'm thinking of using or have the idea for needs an aquatic adventure around it.
Most of the time, one thinks of aquatic adventures as taking place at sea, whether in an ocean or in a land-locked sea. But there are other ways to handle this sort of situation. With a bit of forethought and reasoning out why such a terrain situation exists, one can have the adventure take place in flooded ruins, flooded caverns, or even a flooded building or dungeon of some sort. That's not to say that it doesn't take planning to create aquatic/underwater adventures in land-locked settings, because it does. The environment itself changes when it is rendered underwater, and a somewhat new and different ecology rises up in said environments. There has to be a logic, an internal consistency, in how the aquatic/underwater environment functions, and creature encounters have to be modified to fit the underwater environment and terrain. Fortunately, various mythologies of the world have all sorts of aquatic and water-based creatures that can be used for such watery adventures! :)
My favourite water-based adventure that I've run to this point in my life? It was set up for the Universe SF RPG once published by the old Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) company, and involved the player characters waking up with no memory of how they'd got there on a Copernicus-class transport vessel. The ship had no power, and the characters could see that it was pitch black outside through the ports they had access to. They spent hours trying to get the ship's energy systems and power plant back on-line, but couldn't do so. Eventually, they decided to focus on the airlock, and open it, which they did - only to discover that they were 75 metres deep in a body of water (which turned out to be a lake)! Fortunately, the player characters were able to swim...well, most of them! Just..great stuff. :)
Once more, given that I'm still concussed, I hope these words have made some sense and that they offer a bit of perspective on the gaming experience from the GM's point of view. :)
And there you have it, my thoughts on this thirteenth day of #RPGaDay for August, 2021.
Comments, thoughts, questions, etc. are all welcome, of course. :)
Day 13 - Flood.
A lot of folks today are going to post about this word topic in terms of the sheer amount of gaming material on the market and the big company vs. the indie publishers out there, but I'm not...
One of the things that happens to me as a Gamesmaster is that I sometimes get an idea for an aquatic monster or creature, or for using an aquatic creature. And then I realize that I'm running a land-based campaign and the aquatic monster that I'm thinking of using or have the idea for needs an aquatic adventure around it.
Most of the time, one thinks of aquatic adventures as taking place at sea, whether in an ocean or in a land-locked sea. But there are other ways to handle this sort of situation. With a bit of forethought and reasoning out why such a terrain situation exists, one can have the adventure take place in flooded ruins, flooded caverns, or even a flooded building or dungeon of some sort. That's not to say that it doesn't take planning to create aquatic/underwater adventures in land-locked settings, because it does. The environment itself changes when it is rendered underwater, and a somewhat new and different ecology rises up in said environments. There has to be a logic, an internal consistency, in how the aquatic/underwater environment functions, and creature encounters have to be modified to fit the underwater environment and terrain. Fortunately, various mythologies of the world have all sorts of aquatic and water-based creatures that can be used for such watery adventures! :)
My favourite water-based adventure that I've run to this point in my life? It was set up for the Universe SF RPG once published by the old Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) company, and involved the player characters waking up with no memory of how they'd got there on a Copernicus-class transport vessel. The ship had no power, and the characters could see that it was pitch black outside through the ports they had access to. They spent hours trying to get the ship's energy systems and power plant back on-line, but couldn't do so. Eventually, they decided to focus on the airlock, and open it, which they did - only to discover that they were 75 metres deep in a body of water (which turned out to be a lake)! Fortunately, the player characters were able to swim...well, most of them! Just..great stuff. :)
Once more, given that I'm still concussed, I hope these words have made some sense and that they offer a bit of perspective on the gaming experience from the GM's point of view. :)
And there you have it, my thoughts on this thirteenth day of #RPGaDay for August, 2021.
Comments, thoughts, questions, etc. are all welcome, of course. :)