Eyes Unclouded - Where Do They Find You?
Kawase Hasui. Urabandai. 1950.
I've been running Joel Hines' Desert Moon of Karth for the last couple of months. There's a lot to like about the book but one table that has been really useful, time and time again is entitled "Where Do They Find You?" It's a 1d10 table of thinly sketched locations that you roll on to situate a travel encounter - "bottom of a dry arroyo" or "flat expanse of exposed desert pavement."
The trick seems to be getting just enough detail that it feels like a specific place, while not so much that it would stand out if you repeat one. I need a line of text that I can repeat almost verbatim while I roll the rest of the dice for a random encounter.
Karth, infamously, has only one biome, but I plan to run a Ghibli inspired fantasy campaign soon that will be set in two: the rolling alpine hillscapes of Howl's Moving Castle and The Castle of Cagliostro and the deep, spirit-infested forest of My Neighbor Totoro and Princess Mononoke. Both environments will be coastal, but I want the emphasis to be on greenery and the vast temporal scope of nature. I also want to keep some recognizable motifs, but I want to avoid direct appropriation.
Rolling Hills
| d10 | Locations |
|---|---|
| 1 | Field of gently swaying wildflowers. |
| 2 | Half-buried marble statue, face down in a carpet of forget-me-nots. |
| 3 | Bank of a narrow stream lined with mossy stones and ferns. |
| 4 | Muddy cow pasture enclosed by rustic wooden fences. |
| 5 | Lone shepherds hut, long abandoned. |
| 6 | The middle of a sea of tall grass, rippling in the wind. |
| 7 | Mirror-smooth tarn reflecting the clouds. |
| 8 | Trio of ancient standing stones, each carved roughly like a cat. |
| 9 | Small, but steep cliff of jagged white stone. |
| 10 | Beneath a lone ash tree nestled atop a low hill. |
Blue Wood
| d10 | Locations |
|---|---|
| 1 | Moss-carpeted clearing where the light filters green through the trees. |
| 2 | Hollow at the base of an ancient cedar, just big enough to crawl inside. |
| 3 | Overgrown shrine with a faded rope and tiny offerings, immaculately intact. |
| 4 | Shallow pond covered in lily pads. |
| 5 | Narrow path lined with low stone lanterns, all unlit. |
| 6 | Small waterfall pouring into a fern-choked ravine. |
| 7 | Rotting log teeming with fungi in unnatural colors. |
| 8 | Canopy break. The sky feels huge overhead. |
| 9 | Ruins of an old hunter's lodge, overgrown by a twisted tree. |
| 10 | Vine-snarled stone cupola emerges from the ground. |