Day 12 – Nature Survives as it Always Does
There are so many different dungeon types in fantasy. So many places to explore, conquer and bring the towering light of good into that trying to pick just one type is astonishingly hard. However after long thought (not really that long and honestly what else should I do while driving home from work?) I have to say that some of my favorite places to put my players and my most fond memories as a player come from the ruins of ancient and long gone people.
Whether it is Myth Drannor. Xak Tsroth or Ruined Lemuria the ruins beat home to the players just how old the world is. Ruins show the players that in the end the metropolises and centers of civilization they know will be the picking grounds of future adventures. Add to this that even in a multiracial party most ruins are familiar – if even a little – while still remaining alien and profound. Characters will still find clothing that reminds them of the clothing worn in their times or little stuffed dolls, some how perserved through the long years … ruins are the place of not just loot and battle but for lore and world building, for bringing forth emotion of loss and the resolve to not let “it” happen again.
I love ruins, I love how nature overtakes them, topples them and changes the landscape of the ruins into something even more alien … there is nothing like sleeping on the head of a toppled statue with a giant tree growing out of it.
Day 13 – Let There Be Light!
My favorite puzzle is also my favorite trap and I am not embarrassed to say I lifted it from Dungeons & Dragons: Wraith of the Dragon God … I cannot seem to find a clip.
Anyway you have a tiled floor that is alive with magic, you have to look at a mirror BEHIND you to see which titles to walk on.
