Archipelago

Basic Information

An archipelago is a cluster of islands. They are commonly found on the open ocean, though sometimes they are located near large land masses.

List of Noteworthy Archipelagos

Real World Archipelagos

• Spratley Islands - possibly the most politically contested archipelago on Earth
• The World (Archipelago) - an artificial archipelago created by Dubai

Mythological Archipelagos

Fictional Archipelagos

See Also

• Terrain

• News: Squatters in paradise say it's job from hell

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia entry

Game and Story Use

• Archipelagos make great settings because traveling between individual islands is relatively fast, allowing the PCs to visit a new island in every adventure - yet the islands are often sufficiently isolated from each other that each can form its own, isolated community.
  • Archipelago-based campaigns are thus the nautical equivalents of Adventure Towns.
• Consider throwing some underwater civilizations into the mix - this will make an archipelago setting even more diverse, complex, and fascinating.
• The setting of Blue Planet has an archipelago on a water world as the main focus.