MichaelSomething
Legend
Wouldn't Floridia be a great source for crazy NPCs???
Real Life Places That Inspire You As A DM
I have family there...so ABSOLUTELY!
aco175
Legend
I go to Walmart. No offense to Walmart, but they seem to collect
wingsandsword
Legend
A place I've drawn inspiration for in DM'ing would be Mammoth Cave National Park.
The largest cave complex in the world. Huge caverns, many passages and tunnels. On the various tours, they point out sites where, historically, fugitive slaves were known to hide, or illicit underground schools for teaching slaves to read and write, or caverns that had been used as underground churches, and at one place there's even a small (long abandoned) village of a few stone huts (before antibiotics, the cool, dry cave air was thought good for tuberculosis, so there was a colony of TB patients in there at one point), as well as underground lakes and a waterfall that falls for what would be 3 stories aboveground.
A vast underground complex full of side passages, with occasional churches/temples, an underground settlement in one place, hiding spots for fugitive slaves, secret schools. . .the whole place very much drives my perception of the Underdark and how I DM the Underdark is flavored by my trips there.
The largest cave complex in the world. Huge caverns, many passages and tunnels. On the various tours, they point out sites where, historically, fugitive slaves were known to hide, or illicit underground schools for teaching slaves to read and write, or caverns that had been used as underground churches, and at one place there's even a small (long abandoned) village of a few stone huts (before antibiotics, the cool, dry cave air was thought good for tuberculosis, so there was a colony of TB patients in there at one point), as well as underground lakes and a waterfall that falls for what would be 3 stories aboveground.
A vast underground complex full of side passages, with occasional churches/temples, an underground settlement in one place, hiding spots for fugitive slaves, secret schools. . .the whole place very much drives my perception of the Underdark and how I DM the Underdark is flavored by my trips there.
3catcircus
Adventurer
I think the most inspiring thing for me when I was younger (and had just played the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan) was a high school trip to the Yucatan, visiting Chichen Itza and Dzibilchaltun, swimming cenote xlakah, and seeing literally ruined pyramids overgrown by rain forest when driving from one town to another. Seeing descendants of the Maya living in open-air huts (with television!) Seeing the Jaguar Throne, ball court, observatory at Chichen Itza. Imagining religious sacrifices whose remains are still in the sacred cenote.
aramis erak
Legend
Never been but visual resources have impressed.
Derinkuyu, Cappadocia.
Wieliczka Salt Mine, Krakow, Poland
Paris Underground
Lascaux caves
Pompeii
The digs in South Africa revealing H. Naledi and A. Sediba
Have been, been impressed
USS Enterprise, CVN 65
Two USN Submarines (don't recall which; one was Ohio class)
Indian Creek Mine.
St Herman's Monastery (original site; it is an Alaska state park)
NAS Tillamook air museum. Has the last surviving USN airships
Kilauea, Hawaii - nothing like knowing you're standing on the edge of the crater of an active volcano... especially not seeing a group hiking across the caldera. (this was christmastime 1976...)
The lava tubes on the Na Pali coast of Hawaii. Swimming with the dolphins en route, too.
Theo R Cwithin
I cast "Baconstorm!"
The Basilica Cistern in Istanbul. Dark, wet, cavernous. There are also a number of weird carvings on the pillars, including a few medusa heads.
Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The complex itself is impressive; and with its displays of arms, armor, objetss d'art, and jewels, the museum of the Imperial Treasury has a proper treasure hoard.
Istanbul's Grand Bazaar is also interesting, but I prefer the old town Medina in Tunis, with its narrow shadowy streets, old homes with intricately decorated doors, and little cramped shops of all sorts.
Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The complex itself is impressive; and with its displays of arms, armor, objetss d'art, and jewels, the museum of the Imperial Treasury has a proper treasure hoard.
Istanbul's Grand Bazaar is also interesting, but I prefer the old town Medina in Tunis, with its narrow shadowy streets, old homes with intricately decorated doors, and little cramped shops of all sorts.
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