Recently, my wife and I were fortunate enough to travel to Italy. When I saw the Colosseum in Rome, it made me really start thinking about ruins and their age.
What Brought This On?
My wife and I went on a dream vacation to Italy in May. We visited Rome, Florence and Italy. While we were there, I could not help but see the ruins and other ancient buildings there. This included everything from Roman ruins to the Vatican, to the medieval buildings of the Medici and Venetians.
What I really noticed was a few things. One was that these ruins were scattered all throughout the modern city. Yes, they were concentrated in certain areas, but you had current, modern shops and buildings mixed with the Roman ruins or medieval buildings. I had not previously internalized that closeness when I think about fantasy cities and towns.
Another thing I found was that later cultures robbed building materials from previous buildings to create their own. I knew that could happen, but again, I had not really internalized that idea. At most I had thought about adding to or building on from old structures, but not wholesale reuse.
Finally, the thing I really had hit home to me was just how real these things are from the simple act of touching them. I can’t really express this very well, other than just to say that ruins would have to be very real to people and a constant reminder of previous cultures.
Ruins In the Middle Lands
In my home-brew setting of the Middle Lands, humans came to the land about 4,000 years before the current date. There are a number of layers of ruins from various cultures on top of that. Even below the layers of human ruins, there are those of a pre-human race that died out a few thousand years before that.
I have always known that you can use layers of history in a dungeon or setting to give the players a feeling of depth and immersion. What I had that in my mind’s eye as I visualized the world I was building. What I had not internalized was the fact that each culture can rob building materials from the previous ones, and use that to build their own structures and shelters.
Now, my starting point for gaming in the Middle Lands is in a smaller city in a backwater highlands area, not one of the city-states that are major population–and history–centers. I think that would be where there are more ruins built intermingled with more current buildings.
In my starting city, though, I can see that the newer structures were built around a smaller, original keep and town walls. As the city grew, newer structures were built beside, but not among, the original "old town." Now through the centuries, all of the brick and stone that built that "new town" could definitely be reused for different buildings.
This would all lead to a tapestry of history written through the city, and even the land surrounding the city proper. Even more, this would help me really see that history in my mind–and that will carry though to my gaming.
How Much Does This Matter?
In the end, that is where all of this plays out–when you game. All of this is background information (literally) that is supplemental to an actual adventure. But these details do help create the immersion in the game that is crucial to great roleplaying.
But is this more for the Referee, and less for the players? It is actually a good question. I think the answer depends on what kind of gaming table you have. If you are more interested in classic dungeon crawls and hack & slash games, these details might not matter that much. If you are not, and your players are more interested in these details, then the setting’s history and ruins may matter a bit more.
But regardless of what kind of table you have or form of roleplaying you actually play, these historical details do give one great benefit: hooks. All of these details of history, from the broad story of history to where and when buildings were built, leads to great opportunities to create adventures. Even more, they can be used to create backstories for magic artifacts, weapons, or even NPCs.
All of this came to me like a bold of lightening as we saw these wonderful sights in Italy. Growing up in Arkansas and living most of my life in Oklahoma, where "history" is 150 years ago, seeing these ruins and buildings was a once in a lifetime opportunity to really relate to things that have a HUGE connection to my gaming hobby.
Which brings me to say this: think about ruins in your setting, and how they can be brought out at the table. Think about the connection these ruins and structures have to the people of that setting, and how you can use them. You will not be disappointed!
So what real world ruins or ancient structures have you seen? What impact did they have on you? Were you able to bring them out in your gaming? Let me know in the comments below…
Marko ∞
As an historian, I’ve always kind of thought of ruins as a sort of natural consequence of civilization (no matter how primitive), and I’ve seen drawings of Rome during the 1700s that actually make what you are saying explicit in them. At the same time, seeing ruins — with no explanation for their purpose — is always kind of an awe-inspiring thing for players of RPGs, I think. Think of pictures of an old Roman aqueduct in the middle of nowhere in southern France. It’s just *there* without any context and completely amazing. Likewise, finding a ruined city standing alone in the desert (the “City in the Sands” or “Many-pillared Irem” from HP Lovecraft come immediately to mind) is a huge visual and visceral event for RPGers. But I agree, most people don’t think of ruins as being of any particular use or anything really other than a set-piece to evoke awe and wonder (and maybe fear too). On the other hand, one reason they ARE ruined is quite often because the locals begin scavenging them for materials, and over the course of centuries, even the most massive ruins can be turned into piles of mouldering rubble by locals using them to build everything from cow byres to roads. All in all, I think you’ve made a VERY important point here for both players and GMs, and have given the GMs especially a new way to embed hooks and rumors and evidence into something quite mundane such as the foundation stones of an inn, or a barn.
Ruins don’t have to be all that ancient either. I worked in Berlin during the Cold War and two of the places I worked, Teufelsburg and Marienfelde were both built on artificial hills created out of the rubble left over from World War II (both bombing and the subsequent street fighting when the Soviets took the city in 1945). (The third place I worked was Tempelhof Central Airport, and the sub-levels under that building (some of which were still flooded) were a remarkable analogue for a dungeon in many ways. I once stumbled on an “operations room” used during the Berlin Airlift and it looked like everyone had just put their headsets and equipment down and walked out when the airlift ended 40 years earlier. Amazing!) Ruins can be used in an incredible number of ways to enhance and add “flavor” to your campaign. Nice article!
Thank you! That is a very good point about ruins not needing to be ancient. That is another thing I had not fully thought through, but can be very important in setting development or coming up with story hooks for items or adventures.