Rivers and Roads

[MNBlockHead]

I would be interested in knowing if anyone creates topics for specific rivers.

None of the out-of-the-box topics are ideal for rivers as a single river can span many regions and geopolitical areas. At the same time, a river can have important strategic, political, and religious significant to a campaign. Is can represent a contested border, a location of religious pilgrimage, an important transportation route, etc. So, I would like to capture all that in topics for my more important rivers.

Roads are somewhat similar, though perhaps not as complex.

For "The Great Dwarven Road", a road of exceptional historic, political, and economic importance in my campaign, I used the out-of-the-box "location" topic. The Region topic is used for mountain ranges, but it just doesn't feel right for rivers and major roadways.

I'm thinking of making a custom topic for rivers would be more appropriate. A custom topic would allow me to have fields for the river's associated spirit/deity, political regions it crosses/borders, etc.

Anyway, I'm throwing this out their the forum and see how other people are handling important roads and rivers.

 

[rob]

Our thinking was that a road or a river is a geographic region. It may be short or it may be incredibly long. It may be of minor importance or it may be a centerpiece of the campaign. But it's still a geographic region, much like many other geographic regions in a world. Because of this, you'll find a "Travel Route" tag for the region type of a geographic region.

Our reasoning was that there are a variety of other geographic regions that will work just like roads and rivers in many instances, connecting an assortment of peoples across a range of races, cultures, etc. For example, a mountain pass, a coastline, a large forest or mountain range, a sea or ocean, etc.

In addition, none of the other region types felt right to us. An argument could be made that a river or road is a political region, but they are often the focus during a political conflict as strategic elements, which shifts the argument towards them being geographical objectives. Lastly, the notion of using a Location didn't appeal to us, simply because we envisioned a location to be a more specific place than a general region that could be incredibly large.

That was OUR reasoning. Since you asked, I thought I'd share it. But that certainly doesn't make it "right". Whatever makes the most sense to you is what you should use. Realm Works is a tool to model YOUR world, so all that really matters is that it makes sense to YOU.

 

[Dark Lord Galen]

Like Rob I use geographical for Rivers, Forests, Mountains, notable Roadways, etc. Then allow the Political Topic to define who controls what. This allows control of a forest for example to change hands as the political boundaries change.
Also in some cases (mainly certain Dwarves and Elves groupings) they actually overlap politically which is the opposite of their human neighbors.

My Demi-humans (elves, dwarves, etc) consider it quaint and shortsighted of humans to define the world by some line on a map that one cannot see. Where they define their borders by more tangible things, the foot of the mountain, the edge of the river, the edge of the forest, etc. As time changes these tangible borders it is deemed the will of the gods in some cases, or you can certainly see how the elves might be upset about human logging practices (no you are not simply taking a few trees, you are moving our border!)

In the case mentioned above, one group of elves and dwarves that co-exist in a region have agreed (mostly), that everything above ground belongs to the elves, and everything below ground belongs to the dwarves.

So to wind back to your question, Does anyone create specific topics about geographical areas, ABSOLUTELY.
Mostly because IMC the races that inhabit the world all don't define borders the same.

Just my 2cp
DLG

 

[MNBlockHead]

I missed the "travel route" tag for geographic region. Well, you've both convinced me. I'm using the geographic region topic for rivers and roads.

Galen, how would you handles a route the transverses and is maintained (perhaps by treaty) multiple political groups?

For example, The Great Dwarven Road spans the length of two Dwarven Kingdoms. So I wouldn't want it to be contained in either of the topics for those realms. I'm thinking of using the arbitrary relationship. I suppose I could use the belongs to/contains relationship with the idea that both realms "own" the road or their respective parts of it.

 

[Dark Lord Galen]

I missed the "travel route" tag for geographic region. Well, you've both convinced me. I'm using the geographic region topic for rivers and roads.

Glad to hear, you'll find it helpful in a number of ways.

Galen, how would you handles a route the transverses and is maintained (perhaps by treaty) multiple political groups?

For example, The Great Dwarven Road spans the length of two Dwarven Kingdoms. So I wouldn't want it to be contained in either of the topics for those realms. I'm thinking of using the arbitrary relationship. I suppose I could use the belongs to/contains relationship with the idea that both realms "own" the road or their respective parts of it.

Well depends, I know that's a grey answer so for clarification, I do as you suggest above, allowing the political province maintain control of some road or river ways if it fits the political structure.
For others I actually do the reverse. Sorta.... I define the geographical element as a political element based on controlling authority. This approach allows me to define the elements for the geography separate from the politics trying to maintain control if that makes sense.

For Example:
IMC,
There is a King's Highway" (isn't there always? hehe) that extends the length of the Kingdom of Furyondy, from East to West, roughly 700 miles. Even though its the "kings road" it is maintained and defended by the Dutchies that it travels through. (So your approach above works)

But Also along the Southern Border of Furyondy is the Great Velverdeva River (think Mississippi but flows more Southeast than South). While the Velverdeva borders the whole of the Southern side of the Kingdom, a group known as the Rhennee River Bargemen control it. The Rhennee control the majority of river and lake traffic along the southlands. While the Rhennee have no "kingdom per say, any wishing to travel or ship goods must deal with them. So I treat them as a separate political entity in the region and also define them in various other Lists such as

• Cast List- Covering the various families
• Vehicle List- defining various ships that are frequent users of the river
• Groups Ethnic- The Rhennee as a people (think a mix between gypsy and mafia)
• Groups Criminal- The various families complete for control of various trade towns and control... again think Mafia / Guild structure

So in this example its better to duplicate the river name since it has a political weight as well as geographical relevance.

The boon comes when the PCs start to frequent passage along the river and come to recognize which ship is piloted by what family and how their relations are with them.

Hope that helps
DLG