The folks behind the DragonLance Nexus website do an incredible job of keeping everyone up to date on one of fantasy’s most dynamic worlds.  Ever since the first novels and RPG games in 1984 the series has added several novels each year and even more game books.

The site won a well-deserved  award for best game-related fan site last year.   The site’s design is beautiful.  Simple, yet there’s so much information easily accessible.  News items are prominent, but irreverent things that set the right tone (Quote of the Day, Weather Forecast including a look at the phases of Krynn’s three moons) are also included.

Key features include: fan-submitted game rules for things unique to the DragonLance setting, updates and previews of new products and books, and a wiki devoted to everything about the setting.

“Great Walls” are a regular element of ancient and fantasy times.  The first one that anyone thinks of is the Great Wall of China.  The Great Wall that we see today was conceptualized in 1449, but earlier versions existed going back to the 5th century BC, according to Wikipedia.

Other examples of Great Walls include:

• Hadrian’s Wall in the United Kingdom that marked the northern edge the Roman Empire and was constructed to prevent Pictish tribes from raiding the Romans.
• The Great Wall of Gorgan in Iran was built to protect the Caspien Gates.
• The Wall in the north of Westeros, guarded by the Night’s Watch in George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire fantasy book series.

In your constructed world, think about why, when and how a Great Wall would be created.  Due to magic in fantasy or technology in science fiction, a great wall may be built quickly and/or in a novel way.  Because the wall might have been built long ago, is it still in good repair?  Has it been destroyed in places? Has it been reused for something else such as an aqueduct?  Was it built for protection against a certain group (as with most walls) or was there some other more amazing purpose?

I first remember seeing the name Wolfgang Baur in Dungeon magazine, maybe around issues 30 or 40, but my memory is hazy and the magazine issues are not nearby right now.  I then remember seeing him doing some interesting articles for Dragon before he went on to do more work for Wizards of the Coast.

Currently he has a very interesting project called “Open Design.”  He pitches several ideas that he has to the RPG community.  Then anyone can pledge to fund the different ideas, depending on each person’s interest.  The first project that is fully funded is the next project he pursues.  Those people who fund the project (called “patrons”) are invited to comment on the ideas behind the project and to influence the final design.  Patrons are also given amazing behind the scenes access to Wolfgang’s design process.

Check it out at his site “The Free City.”

The RPG Inspirational Place of the Day is another new regular feature here. I’ll be selecting a new place every couple of days that will hopefully help you generate some game or worldbuilding ideas.

Everyone has some familiarity with Stonehenge. But does your fantasy world have something like it? Is it still used for its original purpose? What was that purpose? Did it simply record the time or was it a temple to a Sun god or something else? Who built it? How? If your world’s Stonehenge is no longer in use, will it manifest its powers at some key point in the game or campaign? Will some foe learn what the powers are and use them? What superstitions may be related to it? Does the local lord gain anything from it? Is it in excellent condition or is it in ruins like our Stonehenge?

Look at the picture and read more about Stonehenge to design and describe your game world’s Stonehenge.

(Stonehenge picture licensing and details.)

This is the beginning of a regular feature here: The RPG Site of the Day.  This feature will rotate with a few other features to provide something new here on a daily basis.  (In other words, there probably won’t be a new “RPG Site of the Day” every day, but there will be one every couple of days.)

I’ve had some good interactions and constructive criticism with the forum members at Dragonsfoot.  The site is worth visiting just for the intelligent discussion in the forums, but it offers much more.  It has many resources for your games such as maps, magic items, game modules, and a spell library.  It seems to have an AD&D first edition focus (in fact one of the site’s tag lines is “Welcome to the home of first edition of AD&D!”)  but it does have sections for other versions such as Second Edition and Original D&D as well as places for related fantasy games like Savage Worlds and Lejendary Journeys. Furthermore the community seems very open and I haven’t detected any D&D version or game system snobbery.

Check out Dragonsfoot at http://www.dragonsfoot.org.