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More RPG inspirations from the real world
Over on the Vice blog there is a very cool article, including photos of a place called Hashima Island. Nicknamed Gunkanjima or Battleship Island.
Basically it was a very densely populated town built on an island that was essentially a coal mine. It was vacated almost overnight and left to rot when the mines shut down. If you need a desolate location full of urban decay this is some great source material. And the photos are damn cool as well.
Here is an excerpt from the article, giving a good atmospheric description of the place:
In some areas the entire façades of buildings had fallen to the ground, revealing grids of homes, each exposed with their 70s television sets smashed after the TV stands had eroded away. It was difficult to gauge exactly what it might have been like to live here, although with the complete lack of outdoors space and the prison-like seawall keeping you in, I can’t imagine it to have been anything other than claustrophobic, uncomfortable, and a bit like living in an ant farm.
Read the full article, written by Alex Hoban, here.
More real life RPG inspiration
While reading the font of much geeky knowledge, io9.com, I came across mentions of the Cold War International History Project. They’ve translated a number of diaries kept by KBG spies on their work and the people they tried to turn informer.
This seemed to me to be a veritable font of potential story hooks and idea for any game involving international or idealogical espionage. At the very least the orignal russian notes would make great game props. Check it out.
Inbred – a real life RPG inspiration
This is a fairly technical article about the effect of inter-family marriage on the Hapsburg Dynasty in Spain. The point of it is this: inbreeding by royalty wasn’t just a myth. It was a real and hugely damaging part of keeping the bloodlines ‘pure’.
The last king of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty was Charles II. He was physically disabled, mentally retarded and disfigured. He proved impotent since no children were born from his two marriages.
This seems like it could have some pretty rich ideas for RPG settings. Perhaps demihumans don’t suffer from the same effect, leading to elvish rulers marrying their siblings and cousins? What do other cultures think about this and how does it affect their relations with the elves? Perhaps the ruler of a local kingdom is suffering from the same problem as the Spanish Hapsburgs. Is this an opportunity for the PCs to take the throne?
What other RPG plots could come from inbreeding?