laws of the land

you seriously thought i was gonna be able to resist Kilian-Eng-posting?

<3 Phlox killin it with some examples of meaningful terrain; ie, terrain that is mechanically distinct in some way that leads to player choice. <3

their method leans mostly on encounter tables and incremental modifiers. latter is not so much my speed

i've been really digging diegetic/in-fiction conditional mechanics that force players to make hard choices / or work around limits that affect their characters agency in the game world. 

these ideas have been naked mud wrestling in my brain. watched until i got hot n bothered. crammed my looney toons spring-eyeballs back into my skull, went home, made this this. 

my man Shaun Tan

Laws of the Land

Update 1: Super Clark took it on themselves to automate the whole thing!!

Update 2: I've created an Indoor Terrain Generator based on the same principles!!

 

For each realm the heroes might wander, roll twice or more on the following table and combine to determine the terrain and tone of this region. 

 

Nature's Natures

1. forested
2. stony
3. marshy
4. humid
5. foggy
6. arid
7. freezing
8. volcanic
9. windswept
10. flowering
11. steep
12. riverside
13. grassy
14. fungal
15. hilly
16. flat
17. oceanic
18. freshwater
19. sunken
20. fruited

Then, roll twice on the table below: in my opinion, 2 laws per realm or region give it character and make travel a meaningful puzzle to solve without becoming prohibitively difficult; here and there I'd reccomend creating a region with only 1 law to act as a respite or sanctuary, and a few treasure-rich regions with 3+ laws can act as fun challenge zones. 

make sure that your description of the region details the consequences of breaking one of these laws; these consequences tend to follow pretty easily from thinking about the ramifications of the laws combined with the nature of the region. The laws, if not the consequences (and probably them too) should ABSOLUTELY be forecasted to the players, either by NPCs, easy observation, or a low-stakes encounter early on in their exploration. 

Following this table, I've included 6 lands of my own creation to give you an idea of how I've been using this stuff in my own games. 

haven't seen much Thomke Meyer before but this balls

Natural Laws: in this Land, You Must Not...

1. bring...
1. animals or livestock
2. food
3. liquid
2. kill
1. plants
2. animals
3. people
4. anything
3. be quiet
4. create...
1. noise
2. light
3. fire
5. look at anything
6. listen to anything
7. stand...
1. close to one another
2. on the ground
8. go off on your own
9. stop traveling
10. leave the trail
11. travel...
1. quickly
2. slowly
12. make sudden movements
13. leave a trail
14. stand upright
15. fall
16. speak
1. about the past
2. about the future
17. sleep
18. breathe the unfiltered air
19. drink water from here
20. expose...
1. skin
2. metal
3. leather
4. wood
5. blood
6. paper

I ONLY RECENTLY FOUND OUT ABOUT BOSSCHART AND IM FUCKIN LOSING IT

the scatterhills 

hilly + riverside

must not stand close to one another

must not travel quickly

river carving its way through soft hills of sand and gravel, barely held together by wiry grass. Too many people in one place or too rapid a pace will quickly break the thin roots and send you skittering and sliding down the slopes towards the river with a rockslide of loose earth and stone in your wake.

the smog flats

foggy + flat

must not create fire

must not expose skin

flat stretch of clay, puckered holes releasing foul clouds of smog into the air that burns exposed skin and erupts into flame at the slightest spark, creating fireballs at best and flash-firestorms at worst.

witch-star crater

flat + sunken

must not make sudden movements

must not drink water from here

the bone-white bed of a crater, pockmarked with pools exposing the putrid aquafer below, long ago poisoned by the cursed star that fell here. the ground is unsteady, and while rhythmic walking or running is possible, sudden shifts in weight and movement are liable to punch through the thin shell of compacted dust and send you plunging into the vile waters. 

the prowlmarsh

marshy + fungal

must not bring food

must not leave a trail

wetland, clusters of pale, fragile mushrooms growing on every dead and dying plant and animal. careful not to leave a trail; huge, thin worms will follow your footsteps, waiting till you sleep to slip into your nostrils and weave themselves through the grooves and crevices of your brain. the air here is thick with spores that will settle on any food and grow rapidly, mushrooms bursting through the seams of bags and bundles, their caps and stems leaking luminescent ooze onto the ground when broken. 

the flowerpaths

oceanic + flowering

must not leave the trail

must not create light

deceptively calm waters. at night, flowering algae blooms, thick enough to walk on. bring no light; even the full moon is bright enough to wither the blooms and leave you to the mercy of the vicious currents that pulse and ripple through the depths. 

the fields of sleep

foggy + grassy

must not sleep

must not create noise

the air is still. the fog is gentle on your face. the grass is soft. to sleep here is to sleep without dreams, without interruption or disturbance; indeed, without natural wakefulness at all. even the scrape of thirst and the gnaw of an empty belly will not rouse you, and the bones of the dead lie alongside the living sleepers, man and beast, whose bodies loom from the mist. make no noise to rouse them; waking to the ravages of their stomachs, most are mad with a desperate hunger.