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Post by captainjapan on Feb 16, 2021 0:06:44 GMT -6
What's your personal favorite subterranean setting to explore? Limit two choices.
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yesmar
Level 4 Theurgist
Fool, my spell book is written in Erlang!
Posts: 197
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Post by yesmar on Feb 16, 2021 9:12:19 GMT -6
I like vast, natural cave settings. Think Mammoth and Lechuguilla caves. Add to that The Descent (the novel by Jeff Long, not the British horror movie of the same name, although I did quite enjoy it) and you’ve got a setting that keeps on giving.
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Post by hamurai on Feb 16, 2021 9:32:48 GMT -6
I voted Sunken City and Catacombs.
Sunken (I use a broad definition of "sunken": into the earth/water/wilderness, to name the common ones) Cities spark my imagination: What happened to the city? What happened to the people who lived there? Was it doomed by chance or internal or external forces? who or what remains? Who or what remembers? Edit: One of my earliest and still favourite settings is Earthdawn's Parlainth, a huge abandoned city which had fallen to demon hordes and is now being reclaimed by adventurers looking for riches and artefacts. I have the boxed set from th 90s and I've set many adventures there, in many game systems, including OD&D.
Catacombs have the aura of death and stillness that is broken by the adventurers and maybe others. I often get creepy feelings in RL when I enter churches or when I walk over someone's tomb, and that carries over.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2021 4:42:09 GMT -6
Derelict Spacecraft or ancient flying fortress settings hold a fascination for me. Sci fi and "high magic" appearing sporadically in an otherwise stock fantasy realm is very Gygaxian.
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yesmar
Level 4 Theurgist
Fool, my spell book is written in Erlang!
Posts: 197
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Post by yesmar on Feb 19, 2021 9:59:19 GMT -6
Sci fi and "high magic" appearing sporadically in an otherwise stock fantasy realm is very Gygaxian. This is also Arnsonian and Vancian, among others. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2021 18:53:31 GMT -6
Sci fi and "high magic" appearing sporadically in an otherwise stock fantasy realm is very Gygaxian. This is also Arnsonian and Vancian, among others. True. I tend to use "Gygaxian" as a catch-all term for gonzo, Greyhawk-style encounters and locations. The influences of Jack Vance and Dave Arneson are implied if not explicitly named there. |
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Post by tetramorph on Feb 20, 2021 9:23:58 GMT -6
I chose catacombs and "other." In other I would include tombs, cenotaphs, treasuries of ancient kings and civilizations of old.
Next would be the undercrofts of evil Temples, active or abandoned.
But all, at least conceptually, are openings to the mythic underworld.
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Post by Vile Traveller on Feb 20, 2021 13:49:08 GMT -6
I chose sunken city as I see the Underworld as a big interconnected system of deeper and more ancient layers rising to the more modern individual dungeons that most adventurers see near the surface.
My favourite description of a sunken city was in Eric Van Lustbader's Sunset Warrior.
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Post by simrion on Feb 20, 2021 18:28:08 GMT -6
I voted "Dungeon" as it's ubiquitous and, at least in my campaigns, an anything goes environment.
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Post by tdenmark on Feb 20, 2021 18:39:54 GMT -6
Sunken cities have always been the most evocative and intriguing settings to me.
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Post by derv on Feb 20, 2021 18:55:38 GMT -6
Lost Civilizations- Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, E.R. Burroughs, Theodore Sturgeon, Lin Carter
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Post by retrorob on Feb 21, 2021 5:02:49 GMT -6
I voted "abandoned mine" and "other". For me, raised on Tolkien & Howard, there are two iconic dungeons: Moria and Xuchotl.
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Post by howandwhy99 on Feb 21, 2021 10:46:41 GMT -6
Unpredictable super rich Superpower. It allows for the most variation of potential design.
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bobjester0e
Level 4 Theurgist
DDO, DCC, or more Lost City map work? Oh, the hardship of making adult decisions! ;)
Posts: 182 
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Post by bobjester0e on Feb 21, 2021 13:28:24 GMT -6
Catacombs and sunken city, if we allow sunken city to include any ruins, city or otherwise. Catacombs because of National Geographic's spread on Lecheguilla Cave a few decades ago.
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Post by captainjapan on Feb 22, 2021 5:56:27 GMT -6
Unpredictable super rich Superpower. It allows for the most variation of potential design. I'm not sure I understand your answer. Do you mean a huge scale sunken city? Like Atlantis, a ruined civilization? |
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Post by Starbeard on Feb 22, 2021 10:02:02 GMT -6
I don't think of them as favorites, but my eye does tend to gravitate toward ruined cities and wonders from the future. Maybe because those automatically have a distinct flavor already about them. You already have a stark visual and conceptual idea of what adventures a sunken city or crashed spaceship can hold. Also, when I'm playing a game they seem to come up a lot less often than any of the others, except maybe a hellmouth, so as dungeon ideas they still feel fresher despite being old as dirt.
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Post by clownboss on Feb 22, 2021 13:07:00 GMT -6
Descent into Hell. A favourite for everything from Dante to Diablo.
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Post by howandwhy99 on Feb 22, 2021 13:53:00 GMT -6
Unpredictable super rich Superpower. It allows for the most variation of potential design. I'm not sure I understand your answer. Do you mean a huge scale sunken city? Like Atlantis, a ruined civilization? Mad Demigod. But what you said works too... |
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jamiltron
Level 2 Seer
Always looking for games/player in West LA
Posts: 44
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Post by jamiltron on Feb 23, 2021 2:16:35 GMT -6
I definitely love ruins that give way to an ancient collapses city from a previous age, getting more arcane, bizarre, and unworldly the further down you do.
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