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. In the real world, the Pacific is well known for its archipelagi, with some particularly fine examples in the area of South-East Asia (or the bottom left of a Pacific-centred map).

List of Noteworthy Archipelagos

Real World Archipelagos

• The Antilles - the archipelago which dominates the Caribbean Sea
• The Ionian Sea contains several archipelagi that collectively extend down into the Mediterranean Sea.
• Indonesia - today a nation, historically a region.
• Spratley Islands - possibly the most politically contested archipelago on Earth
• The Philippines - again, a modern archipelagic nation.
• 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.