Tuesday 2 August 2011

Misty Temple Scenery

I'm not sure where this is, or what those conical structures are, but it has a south-east Asian look to me. I could be completely wrong though.

Mist and fog are great for atmospherics, but they work more easily in film (or real life) than in DMing. You really have to work your descriptive muscles to accentuate the claustrophobic creepiness, and stretch your players' paranoia levels until their nerves are really twanging, and then...... maybe nothing happens. What a let-down. Pffft. Then, BOO! The running, and the screaming...

4 comments:

  1. I recently discovered your blog. I love this series you do of evocative images. It is, in the original sense of the word, wonderful. Thank you.

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  2. Why, you're very welcome. Thanks for the kind words :)

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  3. I think emphasizing the low vision distance helps. When they encounter something, describe it as looming forth from the fog. Let them roll suprise checks against suspicious upright logs and big piles of bones in between encounters. Especially, if PCs run through fog roll for tripping and describe the shapes of things around them so they have to figure out which path to thread through them without knowing which are waiting monsters.

    If someone flies above the fog, they can't see the ground but might spot rises in the land which can be used as landmarks or destinations. If the flier can scout, perhaps deter such by having encounters with blind fog-dwelling creatures that fly upward toward the PC prey in flocks or else snap out from crevices in the cliffs or below the fog-line.

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  4. =D Wonderful indeed! You need to post more often, then. Or might wake up to the sound of numbers of peasants holding torches and pitchforks. In front of your house. Yes yes. :)

    ___
    call Nepal

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