Description
Book Synopsis Landscape science tells fascinating stories, whether in fiction or a role-playing game. Earth''s varied terrain provides many examples of scene-specific challenges and resources for story characters, with distinctive land features, compelling locations, and intriguing traits. Landslides, floods, coastal erosion, glacier movement, and volcanism can deliver fresh plot points and alter the social character of an imagined region. Characters traveling different river types encounter very different puzzles, opportunities, and combat environments and the same variety awaits within other classic settings, such as caves, mountains, deserts, shorelines, and volcanic zones. Atypical landscapes such as tundra, karst, and vast glacier surfaces can breathe fresh air into any stories.
This handbook is a reference source for creative writing and game world building. It delves deeply into many landscape characteristics that help set the tone, shape character behavior, and drive the plo
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Features of the Chapters
On Magic and Technology
1. Rivers
Stream Channels
Stream Valleys
Meandering Rivers
Braided Rivers
Other River Types
River Change
2. Deserts
Desert Terrain
Rain in the Desert
Streams in the Desert
Desert Hillslopes
Desert Rock Formations
Sand Dunes
3. Wooded Lowlands
Why Focus on the Woods?
Processes Shaping the Land
Navigating the Woods
Lasting Effects of Continental Ice Sheets
4. Mountains
The Shapes of Mountains
Active Mountain Landscapes
Where Glaciers Have Been
5. Glaciers
Glacier Types
Glacier Movement
On a Glacier's Surface
Beneath the Ice
At the Ice Margin
6. Tundra
Permafrost
Flowing Soil
Upheaving Stones
7. Karst Landscapes
Sinkholes
Karren
Tall Karst
Water Flow in Karst
8. Caves
Layouts of Cavern Systems
Passage Types
Floor, Wall, and Ceiling Features
Cave Entrances
Cave Weather
9. Volcanic Landscapes
Types of Eruption
Land Features Created by Volcanism
As Volcanic Landscapes Age
Hydrothermal Activity
10. Shorelines
Beaches
Bedrock Shorelines
Other Shoreline Settings
11. Continent-Scale World Building
Mountains
Rivers
Lowlands
Deserts
Volcanic Areas
Shorelines
Ocean Islands
Landscape Regions and Character Backgrounds
Index
