Terrain

Basic Information

Terrain refers to the local geography and its physical qualities.

List of Natural terrain

• Canyon
• Cave
• Desert
  • Dune
  • Salt Flat
• Forest
  • Jungle
  • Miombo
  • Seasonal Dry Forest
  • Taiga
    • Tree Well
  • Temperate Forest
  • Temperate Rainforest
  • Tree-Top Fern Mats
• Geyser
• Glacier
  • Moraine
  • Tree Well
• Hill
  • Butte
  • Mesa
  • Mima Mounds
• Lake
• Lava Field
• Mountain
  • Escarpment
  • Monadnock
  • Pass
  • Volcano
    • Caldera
    • Lava Field
    • Lava Flow
    • Lava Haze
    • Lava Tube
    • Pyroclastic Bomb
• Plain
  • Game jump (typically found on plains because that's where the herd animals are)
  • Prairie
  • Savanna
  • Steppe-Tundra
• Ocean
  • Archipelago
  • Blue Hole
  • Hydrothermal Vent
  • Iceberg
  • Island
  • Shore
  • Reef
  • Rogue Wave
  • Whalefall
  • Whirlpool
• River
  • Delta
  • Ford (crossing)
  • Portage
  • Rapids
• Sinkhole
• Stack (geology)
• Stone run
• Tundra
  • Pingo
• Wetland
  • Bog
  • Mangrove
  • Marsh
  • Saltmarsh
  • Swamp

• Unique Natural Terrain

List of Non-natural terrain

• Air-Raid Shelter
• Architecture
• Bridge
  • Tridge
• Canal
• Hamlet
• Village
• Town
• City
  • Slum
    • Flophouse
    • Jungle Yard
    • Rookery
    • Squat
  • Gated Community
  • Hospital
  • Library
  • Marketplace
  • Shopping Mall
  • Suburb
  • Thermae or Leisure Centre
  • Urban Prairie
• Dungeon
  • Dungeon-Forest
• Farm
  • Vertical Farming
  • Terrace (agriculture)
  • Crannog
• Garbage Dump
  • Plastic Continent
• Liminal Space
• Power Plant
• Prison
• Ruins
• Tunnel
• Mine
  • Open Pit Mine

See Also:

• Interstellar Terrain
• Archaeoastronomical Sites
• Megastructure
• Weather and Climate
• Biome and Ecosystem
• Designer Notes

Sources

Bibliography

1. The Rocky State of Your Campaign: An Introduction to Geology @ RPG.Net by Jennifer Schoonover

2. Wikipedia entry

3. Sci-Show video on 5 unusual ecosystems - they would make really cool terrain for fight scenes or explorations

Game and Story Use

• Terrain is vital for setting a scene, especially if there is going to be a fight scene.
• Certain kinds of terrain can be macguffins: a defensible military target, a valuable natural resource, a lost city full of ancient secrets, and so on.