Setting a d&d game in Washington

Submitted by Zealousideal-Iron-51 t3_y9yjvg in Washington

Maybe this is a bit of a goofier post than would usually be in here but I thought I might as well post it.

I’ve just started running a d&d game that I decided to set in the real world in the eastern puget sound area (mostly around northern pierce county and southern king county.). I’ve done a fair bit of research on the area (geography, some indigenous history as well as that of early European settlers and late 1800s U.S. migration, some of the effects of Mt St Helens erupting) but since I’m from a small town in the Midwest I know there’s going to be details about the area I won’t know regardless.

Any aspects of the area you think would be good to know if I’m telling a story based in the area? The game will for the most part probably be in the wilderness/backroads and small towns. Also, being a game of d&d, it’s a version of our world where magic and the supernatural exist but most humans don’t believe in it/aren’t aware, so if there’s any local folklore or urban legends you’d want to share that could be cool too.

EDIT: looked back at google earth and had forgotten that I was also looking at central/southern Pierce County as well. From what I can tell that looks more rural than the other parts I mentioned but obviously I don’t know for sure

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DerekL1963 t1_it87oun wrote

>The game will for the most part probably be in the wilderness/backroads and small towns.

The small towns won't necessarily really be "small towns" though... Pretty much everything in that area is to some degree or another a bedroom community. Northern Pierce/Southern King isn't some isolated area, it's right on the edge of the extended Seattle-Tacoma conurbation.

So they aren't "country communities".

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Zealousideal-Iron-51 OP t1_it8amaw wrote

Ah that makes sense. I knew Seattle was nearby obviously but largely chose that area because the geography matched up pretty well with a d&d fantasy map I was going off of (positions of mountains and forests and whatnot).

I guess I could probably move the setting to a slightly more rural part of the region, in which case the questions I have in the post still stand. Plus since it’s just a game with my friends it’s probably not too big a deal if I’m a little hand wavey/vague about exactly where in the rural parts of the state it is beyond just the general region of the state. But if I can be at least somewhat accurate in my depiction of the area I’m gonna try to be

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DangerousMusic14 t1_it8w6gl wrote

I recommend looking for a big park. Rural doesn’t mean unoccupied and most folks are not going to be happy about strangers wandering around.

It’s further north but somewhere like Fort Ebey State Park might be a good option. Maybe someone here can make a suggestion of Pierce County.

Keep in mind that even the parks and forests often require reservations/permits for camping or use. And, random stomping in forests is hard on them, you’re generally asked, if not required, to stay on trails.

It’s also worth mentioning if you haven’t visited WA before, it’s a huge place. It’s not Texas but the large parks should definitely be able to serve your purpose.

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Zealousideal-Iron-51 OP t1_it8zvc2 wrote

I may be wrong but it kind of sounds like you’re confusing dungeons and dragons for LARPing? An understandable confusion if you’re maybe not super familiar with either. But with d&d being a table top game we aren’t going to be actually traveling there and holding big outdoor events. Just using the area as the setting for the story I create for the game at the table. Regardless I appreciate the insight

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DangerousMusic14 t1_it9doup wrote

I’m definitely knowledgeable but thanks for the explanation anyway. It isn’t clear if you’re trying to document a game or LARP or???

I’m any case, it’s a very large area. If you’re looking to document to plan, I’m sure folks here would be happy to help with maps and photos or where to align specific features. Comments about private property and small towns still apply though.

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juiceboxzero t1_it9zfjd wrote

How is it not clear what OP is doing? The post literally says they're running a d&d game with this area as the setting.

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doberdevil t1_it9wpvm wrote

Good comments here.

Are you looking for general ideas to make the story realistic based on the setting or some very specific details?

General - you may be able to weave some of this into the story just to provide some feeling of the area:

  • As stated, trees and moss. It's very green here, year round. Then you also have real mountains, so you'll have higher altitudes with lots of snow.
  • Wet. Not much hard rain like in the midwest, mostly drizzle and always damp (Generally. This will depend on the season)
  • The evergreen trees and moss and dampness combine to give a pretty distinct forest smell if you want to add that into your story. Sorry, not good at describing it, maybe someone else can help here. It's pleasant though.
  • In the summer, we have very long daylight hours. In the fall and winter, we have very few daylight hours.
  • The light here is different. Yes, when it's cloudy it's gray, but we have times where it looks like you're wearing blue tinted glasses. Best captured in photos, but when you see it, it's pretty striking.
  • Visuals that give that PNW feeling is neon lights reflected in puddles at night. So, maybe if we're talking about magic or magical items, they could look the same way as neon light reflections.
  • Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Drive through espresso stands, even in the middle of nowhere.
  • The forests are very quiet, it can be spooky.
  • King county is huge. Not sure how precise you're looking for regarding location, but there are plenty of very isolated places in King County.

Maybe if you give some prompts about the story we can help with some details. Or, if you see a specific location on google earth and point it out, maybe someone is familiar with it.

It's before your timeline, but check out some episodes of the old show Twin Peaks to get an idea of the rainy season and some of the gloominess.

Edit: Check out the Dumb and the Restless podcast. I haven't listened to them, but the description says they discuss strange and apocalyptic things in Washington State. Last episode was a few years ago, but the episode descriptions look like they may interest you.

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doberdevil t1_it9xruc wrote

And lots of crows. I'm more in the Seattle area, but where I live we have 10s of thousands of crows living nearby. Crows are magical, right? ;)

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Zealousideal-Iron-51 OP t1_ita1g29 wrote

Really appreciate these details. Especially the environmental/visual descriptions. And yeah I was thinking this morning about checking out twin peaks.

To give specifics on the game I’m running, I’ve taken the starter set adventure module (Lost Mine of Phandelver) and rewrote parts of it to make sense in a relatively modern day world.

If for some reason one of my players is hear stop reading lol. But some of the important areas include: a cave in the wilderness that a branch of a goblin gang is operating out of.

a small town abandoned in the late 1800s (after an earthquake that I might have slightly changed the epicenter of to make it work for the story) that people have just started to reuse in recent years, so it’s a small unincorporated town.

A human gang’s HQ in the cellar/connecting cave of an abandoned manor in said town from its original inhabitants.

An abandoned very small town (technically a village) that was abandoned shortly after the eruption of Mt St Helens in 1980. The ash that covered much of the village was infused with some sort of dark magic, causing a small infestation of zombies that led to the town being abandoned and a government cover up with only some knowing of the incident as a vague biological contaminant in the area. Since then other dangerous creatures (invasive plant monsters, invasive giant spiders, a young dragon + cultists that tracked it there) have claimed the fenced off area as their own

An old forgotten dilapidated British fort in the forest from the early 1800s that the goblin gang uses as their main HQ

An old 1800s mine that was lost after said earthquake (a large scale magical battle in the mine actually caused said earthquake)

Also if you’d like to know the characters the players are playing as:

Dirk Hoffman, Hobgoblin Fighter: he’s an agent of CMOB (Chicago Magical Observance Board) which keeps magic from becoming public knowledge in the Midwest. He’s tracked a wizard from the Midwest to this area and is after him for selling illegal and dangerous magical items to humans who are unaware of magic. Is also doing a job for a dwarf friend in the area (Gregory Rockseeker) which brings him into the story

Raven Brawen, Fairy Druid: she’s a fairy that used to live in an old Irish forest before moving to the new world. Nowadays she runs a sort of oculty bookstore in Seattle but also works as a witch for hire (was hired by Rockseeker)

Soleil, Changeling Bard: a twitch streamer that goes hiking in their free time. Was planning a hiking/camping trip at Mt Rainier when they came across a Craigslist ad for this aforementioned job, so decided to take it since it’s on their way there

Cheese, Warforged Ranger: (was unnamed until the first session when Soleil named him Cheese). A highly secretive early prototype of Amazon’s Alexa. Their original design was a full on humanoid robot, but they used a power source that, unbeknownst to them, was drawing on powerful nature magic. Because of a magical glitch in the robot’s reasoning, he broke out of the Amazon building he was in and escaped to the forest, where his power source got him to full charge. Afterwards he stumbled across Rockseeker, and mistook him for one of his creators, and with his first priority being to assist, he ended up on the same job as the other player characters

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doberdevil t1_itaavf1 wrote

Wow, I don't do D&D, but if this was a book or series of books I wouldn't be able to give you money fast enough. Absolutely love what you've got going on here!

If you can be hand-wavy about location there should be some good places to riff on. As far as I know, caves aren't a big thing here. They exist, but aren't as common as they are in places like Missouri where I grew up.

However, check out the Ape Caves near Mt. St. Helens for a good example of the types of caves we have. I think it's a pretty popular hiking destination, but I think it's called Ape Caves because a tribe of Sasquatch used to live there.

You could also check out the Big Four Ice Caves. But that's a pretty popular hike and having been there, doesn't lend itself very well to anything spooky or magical, especially circa 2014.

But there are plenty of old mines and towns that grew and died around them. Check out Monte Cristo Ghost Town for an example. Mines leave behind toxic waste - this is documented on government geological surveys (or whatever official documents track this kind of thing). But who's to say these government documents haven't been falsified to cover up something more sinister?

The Snoqualmie Tunnel is a 2.3 mile tunnel through a mountain. It was used by the railroad in the old days, but now it's on a popular "Rails to Trails" type of hike. The tunnel is completely dark. Pretty easy to hide a secret portal that leads somewhere else.

I don't know about British Forts, but I'd bet they existed based on some other things I know about like the Pig War - which reminds me about something else - huge bodies of water and islands, and big things that live in large bodies of water.

Check out Highway 2 in google maps/earth. There are a few smaller towns along it, and I'm sure you could find something that could fit. I'm more familiar with that area than south King County, but there are quite a few smaller logging towns all over.

The aforementioned Sasquatch is the most popular cryptid around these parts, but the lesser known Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus shouldn't be forgotten. They're pretty tame though, and relatively harmless. They are a favorite snack for Sasquatch.

Finally, you could check out Native American legends for ideas about other types of animals and stories about them. Speaking of which, the true name for the big volcano near Seattle is Tahoma. Some people call it Mt. Rainier, but IMO that's just the name of a local beer.

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Zealousideal-Iron-51 OP t1_itadzrs wrote

Oh wow thank you. There’s a lot to work with here so I appreciate it.

I especially love the idea of a Tree Octopus. Might end up using that if I need to come up with something strange for them to encounter while they’re in the woods

And yeah I saw that about Mt Tahoma while I was looking up info about it as well as indigenous history of the area (since even though it’s just a game amongst friends I wanted to avoid being somehow accidentally insensitive or otherwise dumb about using the areas they’re from/live in for the game). But yeah after finding out about the the name and the push from natives to get the name changed I thought I might as well just retcon all that so that it’s always been known as Tahoma in-game, but used Rainier here just in case it wouldn’t be clear.

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doberdevil t1_it9zdwi wrote

Depending on how far down this rabbit hole you want to go: /r/DumbRestlessPod

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Zealousideal-Iron-51 OP t1_ita3li7 wrote

Ooh this sounds cool. Even if I wasn’t running this game I listen to a lot of podcasts while at work so will definitely be giving this a listen

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[deleted] t1_it8clo3 wrote

Is this set in the 1800s? That's basically Oregon Trail with ogres.

Also, sasquatch.

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Zealousideal-Iron-51 OP t1_it8d320 wrote

It’s set in 2014. But I do like the idea of Oregon Trail but fantasy.

Also I was gonna include the bugbear species and was thinking that if someone not clued into the supernatural saw one they might think they’re Bigfoot or something like that. The art for them in the monster manual certainly looks similar to Bigfoot

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[deleted] t1_it8lfa7 wrote

That's cool - also don't forget to emphasize mushrooms. And possibly, if you are allowed, we have a lot of very beautiful lichen around here, lichen are a special symbiotic species and they add a lot of that ethereal magical green to our forests. https://lichens.twinferntech.net/pnw/index.shtml

Just dropping some names (to give it a colorful feel would bring a lot to your world building. The soft, pearly green lichen on the trees is one of my favorite things.

And don't forget to fill your landscape with trees:

https://www.wildernesscollege.com/pacific-northwest-trees.html

We don't realize it ourselves, but trees are an unusually important part of our landscape, especially in the suburbs you refer to. Children wait by trees for the bus, we walk and ride through trails, people have trees in their yards, etc. Many large trees are subconscious landmarks for people. Using trees as locational markers and descriptors will really make it very northwesty.

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ardesofmiche t1_it8k3eu wrote

An interesting change of scenery potential could be to have the characters venture over to the east side of the state and enjoy the many agricultural rewards of the area. Washington is the largest producer of apples, cherries, and hops in the US, not to mention has a healthy wine grape industry

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kevbayer t1_itadw03 wrote

In addition to what others have said about the area: blackberry bushes everywhere.

Even in the larger cities there's green everywhere. Lots of parks big and small. Lots of lakes large and small.

The sound is salt water, and when you're near it you can smell the sea. Lots of islands inhabited and not.

The cascade mountains are a "short" drive from the larger cities. You can sometimes go from summer weather to the higher elevations and see snow in just a couple hours. And the desert on the other side of the mountains.

From the description of your setting, it sounds like the Olympic peninsula might better match your needs. Just a day trip from the Seattle area by car and ferry.

I'm also from the Midwest. If you can ever make it out here, you won't want to go back to the Midwest.

There's also a podcast called paraNW that discusses paranormal things in the pnw.

You can go to tourism websites and they'll send you brochures of the area for free. Those could give you lots of info, pics, etc for reference.

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Zealousideal-Iron-51 OP t1_itafqgq wrote

Thanks a lot!

Not entirely why I decided to set this game there (but definitely contributed to it) but from how I’d seen it depicted in various media, I’d always thought the pacific north west might be a nice place to live someday. My family is thinking of taking a vacation/road trip along some of the west coast someday so who knows, maybe that’ll be what convinces me to move out to this area

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Masculine_Teacup t1_itexe87 wrote

You might want to check out the KCTS9 Youtube channel. They cover a lot of the Pacific Northwest's geologic features.

From a sociological perspective, there is an increasing division in Washington. We have a lot of wealth coming in from outside of the area and that is raising the cost of everything. This is a group built on industries like finance and technology. A lot of the older generations built their wealth on things like natural resource extraction, coal, fishing, logging and those jobs aren't as profitable anymore and its especially hitting the older generation pretty hard since they don't have the age and the time to adapt.

Poverty is getting up there and there is a lot of drug overdoses. Also quite a bit of petty theft.

There is some organized crime in the region and that's usually tied to gangs that travel the I5 corridor.

Its also worth noting that Seattle is a major port of entry for immigration, and those immigrants tend to bring with them different religions. A lot of religious buildings I see in South King County include a lot of churches, Mormon temples, Buddhist Temples, there has been a Sikh community out here for good while.

There are quite a few different indigenous tribes here. I can't do justice to their spirits and ancient beliefs, so I won't, but it is worth recognizing that there is a long tradition that is thousands of generations old out here.

We also have a weird tradition of serial killers out here for some reason.

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