I've been in a couple fights and I've been out at night in the wilderness. It is super dark. Like, you really cannot see at all when away from the city lights. So for characters keeping watch, you'll want that fireplace smoldering some. Hardwoods are good because the fire will still burn but it has less of a light and smoke pollution so people can't find you as easy.
I hope this becomes a list
I realize Pathfinder is fantasy, and is pure imagination.But I feel having a few REAL life experiences better helps one understand the medieval feel of fantasy adventures.
For example
1. Spend time in a Cave
Role Players (and Game masters) should spend a little time in caves. A tourist public cave is ok, but the less busy the better.
Walking (or even crawling) in caves gives GREAT ideas about how a "real" dungeon crawl would be. If possible go to a quiet area of cave and turn off ALL lighting sources.> This is DARKNESS that underground dwellers live in and are used to. It has been years since I have been in a cave, (also many years since I actually played Pathfinder , or D&D). But when in a cave, I would so actively imagine being an adventurer on some quest.2. Visit a castle
Europe has many castles, but I realize not so easy for Americans to just make a trip to Europe. But when in a castle, I think about a seige and "castle" life. How it would be to defend the castle. Makes for great imagination. I like to be on the castle and look out to the hillside, of course I am imagining a group of orcs/giants/goblins/etc and how I could defend my castle in Pathfinder games
1. Most caves don't have intelligent monsters that consider you dinner in real life.
2. Visit a "real castle" and you'll find that "standard" corriders are way too wide. You'll also see that they are entirely indefensible against folks with even mid level magic. It means that you don't have month long sieges that end when everyone inside either starves to death or the walls are broken down by trebuchets, or relief comes.
Pathfinder and it's ancestors did not get their inspiration from real life. They got it from reading heroic fantasy. Later generations also got inspiration from heroic fantasy TV. Hercules and the other Action Pack shows. And that's pretty much most of us want.. chances to be heroic, dramatic, and creative.
If you really want to be inspired... grab a copy of the original AD+D Players Handbook and turn to the section marked Bibliography. (some of you younger folks may need to Google that word.) See what inspired the original crew, read some of it and you'll know why .
While true on the monster part, real life caves really add a sort of claustiphobic element to dungeon crawling that I feel is missing in a lot of cases. Plus, there's the 3d element to caves, where the entrance to the next cavern could be on a different section on a xyz plane. I really like cave dungeons that take some cues from spelunking.
There is a lot in the real world that can take your D&D game to the next level. Tons of inspiration in the real world has made my games much better.
I hope this becomes a list
I realize Pathfinder is fantasy, and is pure imagination.But I feel having a few REAL life experiences better helps one understand the medieval feel of fantasy adventures.
For example
1. Spend time in a Cave
Role Players (and Game masters) should spend a little time in caves. A tourist public cave is ok, but the less busy the better.
Walking (or even crawling) in caves gives GREAT ideas about how a "real" dungeon crawl would be. If possible go to a quiet area of cave and turn off ALL lighting sources.> This is DARKNESS that underground dwellers live in and are used to. It has been years since I have been in a cave, (also many years since I actually played Pathfinder , or D&D). But when in a cave, I would so actively imagine being an adventurer on some quest.2. Visit a castle
Europe has many castles, but I realize not so easy for Americans to just make a trip to Europe. But when in a castle, I think about a seige and "castle" life. How it would be to defend the castle. Makes for great imagination. I like to be on the castle and look out to the hillside, of course I am imagining a group of orcs/giants/goblins/etc and how I could defend my castle in Pathfinder gamesPlease help add to this list
What have you done in real life, that really fuels the pathfinder fantasy imagination........
3.4..
5..
3. Attend a Ren Faire in medieval costume/armor.
4. Try archery.
5. Go camping.
6. Go canoeing.
7. Go hunting.
8. Go hiking.
Walk a few miles with a loaded backpack.
Be in a room where you don't understand the language most of those present are speaking.
A mine might be better inspiration for a dungeon crawl than a cave as they tend to have wider and straighter corridors than caves, they also have the occasional room with dim lighting like you might expect from a light spell. The big thing I have noticed about being underground is you quickly lose all sense of time and direction.
I recall camping in the mouth of a cave, once. Backpacking is even better. There is a castle, sort of, in Pueblo, Colorado, that I should visit (30 miles from me).
Read through the recommended reading appendix that was published with the ?1st edition? DnD game, to get a good grounding on where some of the staples of DnD come from.
*shrugs*
done most of that. Living in an area where castles and caves are pretty common, LARPing, camping and LARP-fighting in those enviroments is a fun thing to do. I'm not sure it made me better at RPGing, though
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- Lead a team of people. It could be anything, from a workplace group to a military exercise or a sporting event.
- Haggle over the price of something. Flea markets and garage sales are great for this in a low-risk setting.
- Ask an older person to tell you the story of their life. It's going to take a while, so get comfortable. You're going to hear some crazy stuff, too, things you can't even imagine happening today. Not having the right to vote, living through a world war, life before the Internet, TV, airplanes, and modern medicine. Sure, grandpa's life wasn't exactly Lord of the Rings, but hearing about what it was like to live in another era can really help you weave better stories.
- Lead a team of people. It could be anything, from a workplace group to a military exercise or a sporting event.
- Haggle over the price of something. Flea markets and garage sales are great for this in a low-risk setting.
- Ask an older person to tell you the story of their life. It's going to take a while, so get comfortable. You're going to hear some crazy stuff, too, things you can't even imagine happening today. Not having the right to vote, living through a world war, life before the Internet, TV, airplanes, and modern medicine. Sure, grandpa's life wasn't exactly Lord of the Rings, but hearing about what it was like to live in another era can really help you weave better stories.
That last part is the truth. My grandfather grew up in Jim Crow South and my father grew up in a Westies owned Hell's Kitchen. The stories from that have shaped a lot of how I run a game.
The thing with castles is they're built based on assumptions about the kind of attacks they're going to face. For example, many castles aren't set up to deal with cavalry landing on their roof, which would be a real concern in a fantasy world.
Kind of depends on the set up of the fantasy set-up though. Their doesn't seem to be much in the way of organized airborne troops for most of the Inner sea, so "normal" castle might be sufficient, outside of areas near the Worldwound and a few other specific circumstances.