Greetings!

Throughout many world mythologies, enchanted islands feature prominently in many stories. In ancient Greek, Roman, Celtic, Germanic, Norse, and Slavic myths, enchanted islands are frequently encountered. Enchanted islands often have unusual inhabitants living on the island or islands, whether such creatures are righteous and benevolent, or wicked and evil. Similarly, the islands themselves are typically hosted with unusual landscape, enchanted castles, and magical animals, fruits, trees, fish, or crops. Also, many such enchanted islands possess magical waterfalls, magical lakes, or sacred, magical wells, pools, or grottos.

Enchanted islands are excellent additions to almost any campaign, and I think they also provide a limited, "isolated" arena for example, in which the DM can also include some unusual element, experiment with previously unknown magic, unknown magical spells, or races, so as to sort of test them out without causing the larger campaign unforeseen problems. Then, of course, there is all the drama and excitement involved in exploring an enchanted island, or a group of enchanted islands, making maps, and discovering the secrets that the island possesses. All very good stuff!

Have you used enchanted islands in your campaigns? What kind of creatures live there? What kind of unusual, mythical features do these enchanted islands have?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Greetings!

An additional thought are enchanted islands that float about in the air. That's some pretty fantastic stuff.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I have a few in my world.   One of them is a jungle island that has a ground hog day problem but only for the island and its original inhabitants.   So if/when the players ever do go there and they kill the village of giants guarding the only safe harbor for the island, the next day it "respawns" at sun rise, starting the cycle all over again.   The players can leave if they want or they can try to figure out why this is happening.   If they park their ship in the safe harbor and leave they will come back to a destroyed ship    The inhabitants don't remember anything from the day before once the sun rises and they never age but some of them die all the time

In a nautical campaign I ran, the ship happened upon a small isle that housed a group of huts made from flotsam and jetsam on a beach, and atop a hill was an outdoor temple.  The people on the beach spent their waking hours drinking and reveling with food and wine provided by an old priest who tended the temple of The God Of Wine. 

The players landed their boat ashore and commanded their sailors not to lartake kf the food and wine.  And proceeded to check out the temple.

The old priest appeared to be an aged human who was in great physical shape.  He invited the party to stay as long as they wanted and join the revelry on the beach. 

Player characters being the mistrustful creatures that they are cast a few detection spells and uncovered the priests's identity as a Grey Slaad.

After killing the creature, they descended into a well and found an underground complex.  The God Of Wine (A Death Slaad) was there with his Slaad minions.  He was using the food and wine to implant the humans on the beach with Slaad eggs. 

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on May 18, 2021, 11:19:15 PM
In a nautical campaign I ran, the ship happened upon a small isle that housed a group of huts made from flotsam and jetsam on a beach, and atop a hill was an outdoor temple.  The people on the beach spent their waking hours drinking and reveling with food and wine provided by an old priest who tended the temple of The God Of Wine. 

The players landed their boat ashore and commanded their sailors not to lartake kf the food and wine.  And proceeded to check out the temple.

The old priest appeared to be an aged human who was in great physical shape.  He invited the party to stay as long as they wanted and join the revelry on the beach. 

Player characters being the mistrustful creatures that they are cast a few detection spells and uncovered the priests's identity as a Grey Slaad.

After killing the creature, they descended into a well and found an underground complex.  The God Of Wine (A Death Slaad) was there with his Slaad minions.  He was using the food and wine to implant the humans on the beach with Slaad eggs.

Greetings!

WICKED! That sounds very cool, Svenhelgrim!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Krugus on May 18, 2021, 10:08:38 PM
I have a few in my world.   One of them is a jungle island that has a ground hog day problem but only for the island and its original inhabitants.   So if/when the players ever do go there and they kill the village of giants guarding the only safe harbor for the island, the next day it "respawns" at sun rise, starting the cycle all over again.   The players can leave if they want or they can try to figure out why this is happening.   If they park their ship in the safe harbor and leave they will come back to a destroyed ship    The inhabitants don't remember anything from the day before once the sun rises and they never age but some of them die all the time

Greetings!

Having giants on islands is fantastic, Krugus! I also love giants, so I also use them a lot in my campaigns. In my campaign, the different giants don't rule the world, but at the same time, there are a lot of them running around, and whenever they gather enough clans together under a united leadership, they pose an enormous and immediate threat to civilization, and to entire kingdoms.

Meanwhile, most of the time, encountering bands of giants out in the wilderness, in the forests, the mountains, and on islands, is pretty common. Giants are always a very tough enemy to face. Top notch fighting abilities, plus toss in a few higher-level shamans, and yeah, real trouble presents itself fast!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: SHARK on May 18, 2021, 09:54:51 PM
Greetings!

An additional thought are enchanted islands that float about in the air. That's some pretty fantastic stuff.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

That was where the enchanted island in my homebrew D&D setting was, in the air. Alorian was the place where magic was studied, an enchanted land set apart from the rest of the world.

In my longest-lived campaign, there were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of floating islands, ranging from the size of a house to the size of a middling-big mountain.  Each of them orbited the world on it's own unique path, speed, and altitude.  None was high enough to be out of the atmosphere, and most of the fast-moving islands had a magical wind-shield in place to keep the surface habitable.  Since the world was Jupiter-sized, sometimes the only practical means of traveling to a distant location was to hop a few fast-moving island going in the right direction.  At one time there was a thriving, advanced society inhabiting the islands, but for reasons unknown, it collapsed.  An island could be a means of travel, or it could be an adventure in its own right.  Sometimes, it was both.  And since the only modern society capable of building and maintaining airships capable of reaching the islands was hostile (and evil), getting to the islands was never simple.

Quote from: Mishihari on May 19, 2021, 03:02:59 PM
In my longest-lived campaign, there were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of floating islands, ranging from the size of a house to the size of a middling-big mountain.  Each of them orbited the world on it's own unique path, speed, and altitude.  None was high enough to be out of the atmosphere, and most of the fast-moving islands had a magical wind-shield in place to keep the surface habitable.  Since the world was Jupiter-sized, sometimes the only practical means of traveling to a distant location was to hop a few fast-moving island going in the right direction.  At one time there was a thriving, advanced society inhabiting the islands, but for reasons unknown, it collapsed.  An island could be a means of travel, or it could be an adventure in its own right.  Sometimes, it was both.  And since the only modern society capable of building and maintaining airships capable of reaching the islands was hostile (and evil), getting to the islands was never simple.

Greetings!

My friend, did using *airships* work well in your campaign? How did your players deal with airships?

I'm always a bit apprehensive about bringing gonzo technology into my campaign. Part of me of course, really enjoys "Gonzo", but I am always cautious with such Gonzo elements.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: SHARK on May 27, 2021, 04:52:08 AM

Quote from: Mishihari on May 19, 2021, 03:02:59 PM
In my longest-lived campaign, there were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of floating islands, ranging from the size of a house to the size of a middling-big mountain.  Each of them orbited the world on it's own unique path, speed, and altitude.  None was high enough to be out of the atmosphere, and most of the fast-moving islands had a magical wind-shield in place to keep the surface habitable.  Since the world was Jupiter-sized, sometimes the only practical means of traveling to a distant location was to hop a few fast-moving island going in the right direction.  At one time there was a thriving, advanced society inhabiting the islands, but for reasons unknown, it collapsed.  An island could be a means of travel, or it could be an adventure in its own right.  Sometimes, it was both.  And since the only modern society capable of building and maintaining airships capable of reaching the islands was hostile (and evil), getting to the islands was never simple.

Greetings!

My friend, did using *airships* work well in your campaign? How did your players deal with airships?

I'm always a bit apprehensive about bringing gonzo technology into my campaign. Part of me of course, really enjoys "Gonzo", but I am always cautious with such Gonzo elements.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

There weren't any problems because it was more of a plot device than a tool the players could use.  There were only a couple hundred in the whole world, and all of the known ones were under the control of an evil magocracy that was a tier-2 political power.  One of the PCs joined the ruling class of the magocracy, so the PCs got occasional access to an airship, but it was pretty much always for point-to-point trips.  The airships are generality not used in combat because they're expensive and fragile, and because rival powers do have effective means of dealing with them.

And a note on the visuals, this wasn't modern dirigible, more like a sailing ships with 4 major sails going up, down, left, and right.  When they set down, they do it only on water so as not to damage the masts and sails.