The Rocky State of Your Campaign
Terrain
Like plants, the best way to start is with what most people expect to see in one place or another. This is an overview of typical geologic landscapes seen in adventuring and what to expect from them in gaming. More specific articles later on will delve deeper.
Note: Forests occur everywhere, dependant more on moisture and sustainable soil than landforms.
Lowland Geology
Deserts
Deserts are harsh areas of little water and extreme conditions. They can be hot or cold (Gobi, Antarctica). Little vegetation grows and what animals survive are generally nocturnal, small, and capable of sustaining themselves on little food and water. Some deserts have periods where rain falls and all the dried-up vegetation seems to bloom. Others get less than a centimeter of rain, in the form of condensed fog.
Deserts are formed by the rain shadow effect; essentially taller mountains scoop the moisture out of the winds as they pass, so that they are dry when they reach the other side of the mountain. Deserts can also be formed by a combination of cold oceans and warm lands, which also dry the air as it continues. The third reason for deserts is interior basins, where a region is too far from any water.
Deserts are usually low in latitude, and what water does accumulate turns into flashfloods. When desert lakes form, they generally shallow, salty, and wide-spreading. They leave mineral deposits behind as they evaporate. Only some deserts are sandy; other types include rock pavement deserts (regs) or rocky plateaus with little sand. In sandy deserts, dunes sometimes form and create patterns caused by the wind.
Most human life in the deserts is nomadic, depending on finding water for survival. Permanent settlements need permanent water and food sources, responsible shelter, and/ or energy or technology necessary to obtain these essentials. This is a poor environment for civilization, and those communities that live there must be adapted.
GM Uses. Most desert regions are featureless or have repeating landmarks, therefore the chances of getting loss are increased. Sandstorms in hot deserts and blizzards in cold deserts can all reduce visibility.
The deserts are useful for mineral deposits, especially in more primitive games. Playas contain gypsum, salts, and borates. Numerous other minerals, as well as petroleum, can be found within various deserts.
Caves
Caves are usually natural underground spaces big enough for a human to enter. Caves have a very important history in human civilization, and are often seen in roleplaying game adventures.
Most caves are formed in limestone but can also be formed by chalk, dolomite, marble, granite, salt, sandstone, fossilized coral, and gypsum. Limestone caves are typically formed by dissolution, the process of chemicals leeching down from the surface and eating away at the limestone interior. Some more spectacular-looking caves are formed by the same process except gases rise from below.
Some caves are formed through volcanic activity, such as lava tubes and blister caves.
Sea caves are formed through wave action, and some rise higher than sea level due to uplift. Glacier caves occur in ice and under glaciers and are formed by melting. Fracture caves are formed from blocks of softer material, such as gypsum, dissolve out and fall away from less-soluble rock. Talus caves are those created by rocks that fell in a pile, leaving openings between. Anchihaline caves are sea caves containing a mix of fresh and saltwater often seen along coasts.
Sustenance is limited, therefore it is rare to find creatures that live solely within caves; most—including humans—used caves as a shelter but forage for food outside. Throughout history, primitive peoples use caves as shelter, burial, or religious sites. Many caves have been used as storage areas for wine and cheese. What few races live permanently within caves will be adapted to the environment, although once adapted, they could create large communities.
GM Uses. In gaming, caves are used to descend into deeper realms where underworld races reside.
Caves are convenient shelters and have been used as storage for precious valuables and equipment people do not wish to leave in the open.
Caves formed by people (i.e. mines) are more likely to hold precious gemstones. In alternative worlds, other races, such as dwarves, could create massive underground mines that humans or travelers assume are caves.
Seasonal Flatlands
The seasonal flatlands are the most likely to be populated by nomadic humans, with an increase in population and permament civilization next to fresh waterways. Flatlands include grasslands, steppes, and wetlands of various sorts, to be discussed more in a moment.
Grasslands and steppes are often found around the fringes of the desert, along western coasts, and in regions of little precipitation. No trees except near rivers, and mostly short grass and some small, brittle shrubs with high amounts of essential oils.
Humans have largely influenced the regions of grasslands with fires that ensure tree seedlings do not grow. These are grazing lands and the humans that settled in these regions followed the herds and eventually became shepherds. Temperate steppes (including praries) have long cold periods and snow covering the landscape.
Chaparrals are dry for much of the year but do have a rainy, mild winter season. Also called Mediterranean forests, they occur on nearly every continent except Asia and Antarctica. This is where most highly scented herbs occur. Savannahs are typically the transition zones between deserts and prairies and characterized by one period of rain, the rest of the remaining dry.
GM Uses. Much of the cereal agriculture and livestock are found in the grasslands. Large grazing animals as well as their predators make up the wildlife of the region.
Fast-moving wildfires are frequent and frightening, causing stampedes and flash floods are equally dangerous. Large flat regions can receive freezing storms as well as tornadoes.
These are geologic formations that can help a GM figure out what the land looks like around his or her goal.
The terrain of a region largely determines the likelihood of human (or other) settlements—flatter alluvial regions are more hospitable than rocky inclined regions. It also helps indicate agriculture, military operations, and weather patterns.
Coasts
Coasts are the most heavily populated areas of civilization, regardless of whether the body of water is an ocean or a sea. The highest populations occur on the coasts along fresh waters, such as the deltas of rivers. The deposits from the delta are rich for agriculture, while the sea provides sustenance and travel options.
The movement of the waters of an ocean or sea creates dramatic effects on the land, causing it to constantly change. Many of these developments are beneficial to sustaining human life, including headlands, bays, capes, gulfs, reefs, and peninsulas. The biodiversity of these regions attracts humans and ensures their survival.
GM Uses. The largest cities will be built in and around coastal regions. Not only do local inhabitants take advantage of the large amount of food from the sea, but coastal civilizations can take advantage of seaborne trade with other communities. Coastal towns usually have the most trade and the most diversity.
Larger cities have military navies, because coasts are often targets for military invaders, smugglers, and immigrants.
Unbeknownst to more primitive civilizations, reefs can form just off the mainlands, usually through deposits of sand and the erosion of the shore. These reefs can be a hazard to ships. Other hazards include hurricanes, typhoons, nor’easters, and tsunamis.
Highland geology
Mountains
Generally mountains extend above the surrounding terrain and have peaks. Most rivers begin in mountains and the terrain and difficulty in sustaining agriculture at higher elevations ensure few people live there except in key locations. There is less oxygen at higher levels, harsher weather, and little protection from radiation. Acute mountain sickness affects over half the low-altitude travelers who spend more than a few hours over 3,500 meters (11,483 feet).
Some mountains are leftover volcanoes, other mountains are shaped by glacial processes. Some, like the Himalayas, were formed by plate tectonics and the collision of these plates. Once formed, the mountains start to erode, creating many different styles of prominences over the landscape.
What few humans do live on mountains typically settle around water sources. Harsh weather, strong winds, and lack of agricultural stability make this a poor environment for larger civilizations, and those that live in the mountains permanently must be adapted.
Mountain ranges (chains of mountains) influence climate and weather—the side facing the wind currants is wetter and colder and the side facing away is drier and warmer. This causes the deserts seen in the lowland category.
GM Uses. Any mountain over 3,500 meters and, unless your characters have stated they come from high-altitude regions, they run a 50-50 risk of altitude sickness. Other races may or may not have more severe effects, depending on whether they live above or below ground, or need oxygen more or less than humans.
Eroded elevated terrain can be used as landmarks in an adventure, including strange rock formations, tall peaks, and ridges.
Most travelers passing through the mountain ranges must use pre-made trails or aim for the gaps between the mountains. In cases of solitary mountains, most travelers would only go there with a particular destination in mind (i.e. a temple, a hermit, a specific animal, etc.)
Hills and Valleys
Hills are formed by faulting, erosion of larger landforms, or glacier movement, their rounded tops caused by the downward creep of soil erosion. Hills are very important for humans. Many settlements were built on hills to avoid floods and provide defense from invaders. Many religious sites are on hills.
Valleys are also seen in and around mountains and other elevated areas. There are river valleys and glacial valleys and both are filled with enriched sediment perfect for agricultural use. At the lowest stretch of the river is the flood plain, a predominantly wetland area. Glacial valleys are wide and often littled with boulders left behind from the glacier’s passage. With the exception of canyons, the broader the valley, the lower its shoulders and human settlements pop up here on the sunny sides because the weather is milder.
GM Uses. Hill and valley settlements along waterways are generally concerned with floods and droughts. Because of this, the river valleys are also where to find mineral deposits from further up the mountain.
Hill and valley residents are more like to use the barter system—food and shelter for work—since stuff always needs doing. These are generally traveler towns that people pass through to go further up or beyond the mountain and rarely have any strangers stay longer than necessary. This does mean that there’s probably an inn.
A water gap is an opening or notch in a mountain range through which water flows.
Benefits: For travelers, these notches indicate water. Also, roads and railroads generally use water gaps to get around mountains. Settlements are built above the flood plains before and after water gaps. Therefore a water gap indicates water and possibly civilization. A wind gap is essentially the same but streams no longer flow.
Next Month: Surface Mining: for your primitive needs!
