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Sometimes I feel like I just can't quite put into words the scene that is before the PCs, be it a vast underground cavern, a thick redwood forest, a long narrow crevasse or cave, a mountain of volcanic rock amidst a sea of sand, and sometimes I feel like the description I give is the same or similar description of a similar environment, over and over again.
Perhaps someone at Paizo would like to provide us with a brief description of various environmental settings, so as to give us perhaps a kick in a different direction or inspiration about a new twist on an old environment.
It's harder to do this than, say, random teleport locations, because it makes no sense to roll 1d100 to pick whether or not you've walked into a forest or arctic tundra.
I'd say it's feasible if you cut the number down and did one-paragraph descriptions of each typical terrain.
I agree that this would be easier said than done but I do think it merits consideration. Maybe the article could just contain descriptive phrases that could then be cut and pasted into a DM's monolog.
Under swamp could be something like "an eerie mist creeps over the fetid waters as if with a life and purpose of its own, relentlessly approaching you but scattering without obvious effect whenever it meets a solid object"
Under forest setting could be an entry like "the smell of pine is somehow tainted with the ominous telltale odor of death and decay" or "rustling noises distract you along the way. Sounds of twigs snapping and small objects clacking their way down through branches to land with soft thuds along the path you just traveled keep your senses alert"
I myself am always looking for any snippet I can steal from almost any source (movies, books, magazines, tv). If someone could provide a collection of these or invent some cool descriptions of their own devise, that would be a great tool for the rest of us. It's like in Throw Momma from the Train when Billy Crystal's author character is searching throughout the movie for the proper adjective to insert in his introductory sentence and then Momma finally provides it - "the night was ..." "sultry", she says.
If someone out there can provide the "sultry" for the rest of us - that'd be pretty cool (no pun intended!).
One of the very first Campaign Workbooks had such an article. . . though there are only about 25 2-3 sentence descriptions. It may be helpful to you.
It's in issue #114, by Travis Stout.
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It's harder to do this than, say, random teleport locations, because it makes no sense to roll 1d100 to pick whether or not you've walked into a forest or arctic tundra.
I'd say it's feasible if you cut the number down and did one-paragraph descriptions of each typical terrain.
Actually, I wasn't proposed it be a random dice roll. One hundred simply sounded like a nice round, and useful number. Better that "3 Environment Descriptions."
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One of the very first Campaign Workbooks had such an article. . . though there are only about 25 2-3 sentence descriptions. It may be helpful to you.
It's in issue #114, by Travis Stout.
Actually, I have this one and forgot all about it. Perhaps we could simply see sequels to this article with either expanded desccriptions of the same environs, or better yet, new settings. (I'd love varied descriptions of the underdark and caves!)
Not sure where you live and/or how much you travel or spend time in the great outdoors but another thought is to "explore" some similar places yourself. For instance, I was born & raised in the Adirondack mountains of New York (my parents own about 300 acres) but I've spent lots of time in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine in the woods (also Washington state, Canada, and a handful of western states but these forests are distinctly different). All the forests I've traveled through in these areas are very similar but if I focus on what is different about them - it helps me come up with some different descriptions when narrating a DnD scene. Same thing with jungles - I've been in the southern US, the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, Japan, Philippines, and about a dozen Southeast Asia countries. Though many of the jungles are similar - they each have unique features. When focusing on those differences, I can come up with some various descriptions for game use.
If you can't travel yourself - surf the web or flip through some National Geographics (if you own your own and don't consider it heresy - you can even cut out some great pics from the Nat. Geo. magazine).
All these are just ideas while we're waiting for some great descriptive writer to compose your article proposal!
If you're still looking for great environmental sources I can recommend no better than Bastion Press' Into the Blue, Into the Green and Into the Black books.
Cheers
Llowellen