Landscapes for Writers and Game Masters: Building Authentic Natural Terrain into Imagined Worlds

Landscape science provides a wealth of examples and challenges for story characters, from landslides to floods, coastal erosion to glacier movement, and volcanism. Characters traveling through different river types encounter unique puzzles, opportunities, and combat environments, while atypical landscapes such as tundra, karst, and vast glacier surfaces can add fresh air to any story. This handbook is a valuable resource for creative writing and game world building, showing how knowledge of the terrain can deliver plot points, add veracity, pose key problems, establish conflict, and lead into the next scene.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 277 pages
Publication date: 30 May 2022
Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc

Landscape science is a captivating realm that weaves fascinating stories, whether found in fiction or role-playing games. Earth's diverse terrain presents a wealth of examples of scene-specific challenges and resources for story characters, with unique land features, captivating locations, and intriguing traits. Landslides, floods, coastal erosion, glacier movement, and volcanism can introduce fresh plot points and alter the social character of an imagined region. Characters traversing different river types encounter diverse puzzles, opportunities, and combat environments, while the same variety awaits within classic settings such as caves, mountains, deserts, shorelines, and volcanic zones. Atypical landscapes like tundra, karst, and vast glacier surfaces can infuse stories with fresh air and uniqueness.

This handbook serves as a valuable resource for creative writing and game world building. It delves deeply into numerous landscape characteristics that shape the tone, influence character behavior, and drive the plot. Chapters are organized into diverse geographic environments, ranging from rivers and shorelines to caves and volcanoes, showcasing how knowledge of the terrain can provide plot points, enhance veracity, pose key problems, establish conflict, and seamlessly lead into the next scene. Discover how authors and game masters effectively weave land and terrain into their stories, creating immersive and captivating narratives.

Weight: 472g
Dimension: 178 x 256 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781476683577