Lop Nor, the Wandering Lake
Lop Nor was a salt lake in the Taklamakan Desert in remote western China. The lake no longer exists; damming the Tarim River to create an agricultural reservoir doomed it. But while Lop Nor existed, it was a terrible puzzle, because every time outsiders visited the lake it seemed to be in a different place. […]
Imhotep
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs. This post is one of eighty entries in Archive, each more gameable than the last! This post is brought to you by beloved Patreon backer Arthur Brown. Thanks for helping keep […]
Xuanzang and the Five Border Towers
In the chaotic years of the early 7th century, China’s new Tang dynasty closed the western border with Central Asia. But that didn’t deter Xuanzang, a Buddhist monk, from leaving China in search of knowledge and religious truth. In order to do that, though, he first had to sneak across the border. Xuanzang’s trek through […]
Hoskinini’s Fugitives
This story does not begin happily. In 1863, U.S. troops under Kit Carson rounded up the Navajo people by force. The federals burned homes, shot resisters, and marched the 9,000 survivors three hundred miles to an internment camp at Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. There, 2,000 Navajo died of starvation and disease. In 1868, the U.S. […]
Taboos as Plot: Navajo Taboos
Back in July, I did a piece about how giving your PCs personal taboos can generate adventures. I’d like to return to the idea of taboos driving plot, this time with a regional focus. Virtually all human cultures have taboos. Americans, for example, have a weak (but real) taboo against discussing imminent death, disease, or […]
The Bryce Blood Bowl
Bryce Canyon is one of the gems of the U.S. national parks system. Its strange geologic formations, breathtaking vistas, and twisting mazes make it an experience visitors don’t soon forget. Those same features, though, make one spot in the park an amazing template for a gladiatorial arena. The bowl between Liberty Castle and Wall Street […]
The Agate House
In the remote desert of Arizona, in Petrified Forest National Park, there sits an odd structure. It looks like a Native American pueblo. But instead of being made of adobe or stone, its walls are made from chunks of quartz the size of your head. This is the Agate House. It’s an archaeological marvel, and […]
Tall Tales of the West African Gold Trade
From the 8th century to the late Middle Ages, the West African savanna was a gold-producing region for the distant Mediterranean. Vast sums of metal flowed along sinuous trade routes into the Islamic world and Europe. As the gold traveled, the merchants carrying it knew less and less about the source of this wealth. By […]
Balochistan
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs. This post is one of eighty entries in Archive, each more gameable than the last! BalochistanLand of Remote Villages Balochistan is Pakistan’s westernmost province, and its largest and most sparsely inhabited […]
Antelope Canyon
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs. This post, about Antelope Canyon, is one of eighty entries in Archive, each more gameable than the last! Antelope CanyonCorridors of Flowing Stone Water and time have carved deep into the […]
The Wreck of the Ma’adin Ijafen
Caravans are the ships of the desert, and they can wreck just as surely as an ocean liner. Not every camel train that went into the Sahara came back out. The discovery of a caravan wreck is a great jumping-off point for an adventure! Let’s piece together some cool bits of history to flesh out […]
Dallol Hydrothermal Fields
Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs. This post, about the Dallol hydrothermal fields in Ethiopia, is one of eighty entries in Archive, each more gameable than the last! Dallol Hydrothermal FieldA Neon Hell The Dallol Hydrothermal Field […]
The Dunhuang Manuscripts and the Mogao Caves
In the early 20th century, an itinerant Daoist priest in the deserts of western China discovered a treasure trove of medieval documents, hidden for a thousand years behind a false door in an abandoned Buddhist temple. The discovery would give historians a corpus of documents they still use to this day – and the discovery and […]