DESERT ADVENTURE MOVIE

Let’s take a plot element from the movie The Mummy Returns (2001). What secrets does the oasis hide? Has anyone ever seen this place before? Is there something else living here, the only place with water for miles? I could be cruel and play the whole “it’s a mirage” gimmick, but I think an actual oasis would be far more interesting. Then, introduce their salvation-a tropical oasis in the middle of nowhere. Certain wizards and druids can create food and water on the fly, but it would still use up precious spell slots.Ī fun hook to use in an adventure is to throw the party off course, forcing them to play the survival game. Finding water alone should be at the top of everyone’s mind as they set off into the unknown with a camel and a few canteens. Guide to Building a Cowboy Campaign: DnD 5eīecause this ecosystem is harsh and unfriendly to life, survival should come into play somewhere in the campaign. Related Posts: Guide to Building an Underground Adventure: DnD 5e For that matter, we could do the same thing with the Jackalwere and give it a coyote form for an American Western. What I’ll do is use the stat block for a werewolf in the Monster Manuel, then simply repaint the monster to resemble a desert-friendly canine. For example, I mention werewolves above in African dog form. We can be creative when it comes to using monsters outside of their normal context.

Jackalwere, werewolves (African dog appearance), gnolls.Giant hyenas, lions and savanna predators.Bug-like monsters, chuul, giant scorpions.Basilisks, naga, lizard folk, giant poisonous snakes and desert reptiles.Therefore, consider arid desert monsters that lurk in the wild. This first encounter can set the stage for the journey’s inherent dangers. We should try to have at least one encounter in the wild, even if we plan on running a temple adventure. With my environment in mind, I’ll choose monsters that fit the natural surroundings.

How does the arid environment affect monster selection? We’ll likely know our setting off the bat, but it’s important to understand how these ecosystems work and what kind of civilizations may pop up there. Perhaps my evil lich mummy will have a cone-shaped head and a magical crystal skull.Ĭonsider these real deserts as templates: On the other hand, I could make the pyramid an Aztec design and place it somewhere resembling Mexico. For example, if I make a classic dungeon crawl using a pyramid temple and a mummy lich, my desert surroundings will likely be similar to North Africa or the Middle East. However, we need to understand the aesthetics of the stories we pull from. This adventure is all about the classic, sun-in-your eyes sand crawl.Īs far as worldbuilding goes, we can be as creative as we want. Is this desert like the sandy Sahara or is it rocky like the American West? And no, we’re not technically counting cold-weather steppes or taigas that are technically deserts. Click here or below for more information.įirst, we need to consider the layout of our desert environment. If you’re interested in a premade adventure, my original Dead Man’s Tale is available for download. Or we could pull from New World mythology-the stories and pictographs of America’s western tribes. We can pull from mythological sources of ancient history that centered around North Africa and the Middle East: Egypt, Persia, Rome. To create a compelling desert adventure, let’s pull inspiration from the best sources. A monster encounter could mean anything from a cold-blooded reptile of abnormal size to a necromancer mummy lord to a genie from an alternate dimension.

Run temples using a McGuffin-including traps, puzzles and temple monstersĭesert campaigns for RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons 5e and Pathfinder often include ancient temple runs, unique survival situations and cosmic wonders of an unobscured sky.Celestial encounters-pull inspiration from ancient mythology.How does the arid environment affect monster selection?.Consider environmental elements, classic genre tropes and ancient mythology when building a desert campaign:

Desert adventure