Places That Feel D&D to You

[Woas]

Pretty much any pine forest that hasn't been touched by loggers in the North West United States/British Columbia, Canada region. Those are old growth forests. Not like back here in the North East. The ferns... huge. And all of the trees have this moss growing about 15 to 20 feet up the trunks. Makes them all look like they have beards which gives the forest that much more of an 'old' feel to it.

And those wonderful mountains. We don't have distant mountains on our horizon really out here east. When I would look out and see those snowy peaks of Mt. Rainer or St. Helens.. or the Cascade range. I really wanted to believe a dragon very well could be living on that peak.

 

[Wormwood]

Elwynn Forest, Strangletooth Vale, Blackrock Mountain...

...What?

Kidding or not, The landscape and a few instances in WoW capture the feeling of D&D for me more than most campaign settings.

 

[WayneLigon]

Chinese mountains. You see these shopped into the village scenes in Willow, and their shape, the sudden cliffs and towering stacks, seem to envoke a 'fantasy feel' to me.

Greek villages. They build these suckers right up to the edge of cliffs and they seem to climb and tumble all over each other. Makes me weep when I see the lazy cookie-cutter layout of most fantasy cities in gaming books.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

The Australian outback for a Dark Sun sort of feel.
The Home Counties for those damn hobbits.
Temperate rainforests of south east Queensland for dark forests full of wild elves.

Aren't those Chinese mountains going to mostly go under water with the damming of the Yellow River? I may have the wrong mountains in mind but I thought it was this area that was going to get drowned.

 

[Hussar]

Another vote for Angkor Wat. Spend a week there a few years ago. That place is freaking huge, never mind the Angkor temple, but the city that's behind it used to be one of the largest cities in the world. Amazing stuff. The Bayon, with it's hundred and a half carved faces of Jayavarman (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) looking down at you is stunning.

Always thought the Temagami area of Ontario Canada looked a lot like Keep on the Borderlands.

The lava tubes of Cheju Island in South Korea would make a fantastic Red Dragon's lair.

 

[Adlon]

Carcassonne is the spelling used at Wikipedia....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne

For good writeups and pics, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page is a wonderful place to start.

I think, mentally, we all have our mind's eye view of what a fantasy cut-scene would look like. The ideas in this thread are ALL great.

Just search the word 'Forest' and you go in a zillion directions based on type.

I see D&D everywhere

 

[Aeolius]

I live in the appalachian mountains in Virginia

How far is that from Luray Caverns ? There is a formation in there called Dream Lake, which is beyond breathtaking.

In the course of my life I have ascended the steps of the pyramids at Chitzen Itza, walked the grounds of the Parthenon, swam within a river deep within a rainforest in Belize, and scuba dived through vast undersea tunnels. All of these experiences have ended up in my games, over time.

Recently, I toured an exhibit of artifacts taken from Pompeii. The final room at the exhibit featured plaster molds made from the victims of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius - entirely surreal and inspirational. The final portion of the tour is in Charlotte, NC. I highly recommend attending the exhibit, which will be in Charlotte until January. MORE INFO

 

[Charwoman Gene]

How far is that from Luray Caverns ? There is a formation in there called Dream Lake, which is beyond breathtaking.

I saw your name and was convinced I'd find you mentioning an aquarium.

 

[ejja_1]

Just a few places that come to mind

The Everglades
The Mayan temples in Mexico specifically Telum
The Ozarks
And the olde abandoned farm house in my old neighborhood in Palatine Illinois, they have knocked it down in the last few years. But when we were kids it was creepy, and we played pretend D and D and guns there all the time.