Wonder often plays an important part in a fantasy world. Discovering
alien environments, monstrosities beyond imagination and items of
nearly unbelievable power are common parts of many campaigns and
contribute to the wonder. However, there is quite a lot you can play
with in these areas. And as you run more and more campaigns with the
same group, you'll need to come up with new ways to make the world
full of wonder.
The Value of Rareness
Rareness by its own has a large impact on what fills players with a
sense of wonder. A while ago I played in a campaign where the first
large part was spent out in the wilderness. It was nice, but the
contrast of the big city when we finally got there was something
special. The fact that we hadn't been to one and experienced the
difference made it something that created a sense of wonder.
Similarly, I ran a campaign a while ago that was heavy on political
intrigue and so was largely set in cities. However, due to a series
of events that involved assassins and a political overthrow, they
were forced into the wilderness. That the players hadn't experienced
much wilderness exploration and features made it interesting, a
welcome change, and gave the new environment a sense of wonder. These
same kinds of ideas extend to creatures, magic items, etc.
The Impossible
Impossible situations or locations are a common method I've seen to
create wonder. This is similar to the above, however, it's one step
further. Instead of playing with rareness in terms of physical
things, impossible situations play with the rules themselves. Rare
exceptions to the rules can themselves create a sense of wonder.
Again, the trick is to not break the rules too often. If you do, it
really is more like a new rule instead of being an exception to a
rule. How much such a rule is broken is very situational. For some,
having a situation where falling is greatly slowed down will be
enough to inspire wonder. For others, it might take full
weightlessness to be wowed.
What Kinds of Things?
Big, impressive things tend to be best remembered from my experience.
Incredibly large pieces of architecture, giant forest fires, large
armies clashing, tall waterfalls, the vast open oceans (ship based
campaigns are a bit tough to run but a one-shot on the open seas
tends to go over well after a classic campaign) and kilometer long
cliff drops are all examples of such big things. However, when I say
big things, I don't mean just in terms of physical size. Big and
impressive effects are enough. There was a very low magic
mini-campaign I was a part of where one of the magic items we got was
an old music box that seemed to be impervious to damage and time. In
such a situation, even such a seemingly small and non-useful effect
seemed wondrous. It also helped that the party was offered a lot of
money on multiple occasions for it.
Over Description
We of course want to occasionally inspire wonder, but the line
between that and tedious can be very thin. In these kinds of cases
it's better to just cut your losses and move forward. An interesting
location that doesn't quite inspire wonder is better than a situation
that bores players by running too long. Careful choice of words and
situation are far more effective. Choosing at least one sense when
possible is also a good idea. When close to the tall waterfall, maybe
describe the sound or the feeling of the mist. Architecture is
usually more difficult in this situation because you mostly have
appearance to go on. Complicated architecture is also hard to get
across in a succinct way. However, I'll usually try to identify at
least one architectural feature to focus on and describe. You don't
have to describe all of it at once either. If they are far away, you
can leave out the fine carving detail on the door.
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