a long forgotten land.....

[deathray]

woh thats actually quite creepy,i love hearing stoires of ships found without any crew really gets me wondering where they got to  :freak:

[DAWGIE]

WHAT i did with my "monster island" minicampaign was to make the determination up front that this island (a rather large island, approximately the size of CALIFORNIA) was the nexus of a naturally occurring, random, inter-dimensional shift between parallel "EARTHS".  each "shift" effects the geographic area where the island  appears, including airspace up to EARTH orbit and the sea, around  the island for up to 100 nautical miles and to a depth that reaches to the actual ocean bottom. it also effects "time flow" inside this zone.  the island always appears after or just before a storm (caused by the dimensional shift); storm effects are lightning, high wind, rain, sometimes snow,  psychodelic colored skies, etc. high tech (ie, anything more sophiscated than  visual signals or wind/oar/steam power) communications, navigation, and propusion systems is rendered useless by the "shift". thus any vessels, aircraft, or spacecraft entering the  area of the shift, is effected.



 i decided the event that always co-incided with the appearance of the island on "our EARTH" was a solar eclipse - in the other dimension! and the island would remain a stable part of "our EARTH" for roughly 72 hours at a pop, then "shift" back into its dimension.


sometimes it is "Here and Now", but most of the time it is not.  i placed it in the vast PACIFIC OCEAN (sometimes!) or in the ATLANTIC OCEAN (sometimes!) of our EARTH, in the middle of nowhere. this naturally occuring phenomena  provides me with an island mass large enough to place just about anything i want to on it; with variable, naturally occuring CALIFORNIA style terrain features and since it shifts between our EARTH and "other EARTHs", i can plonk down just about anything i or others own on it for a game.


(EVIL MANIACAL LAUGHTER ECHOS ACROSS  CYBERSPACE)


and i can "pop it"on the unsuspecting gamer, ambush style, anytime i want to do so!


DAWGIE

[dbsubashi]

As for a "shipwreck", what if the players were "eco-guerrillas", trying to save whales or some such. After a long day of doing "good", they see one last "whale boat", coming out of a fog. They try to put their boat between the whales and the larger craft, when WHAM, it runs them over/damages the boat, and they drift into the fog. As they drift through they fog, they take stock of what is in the boat. I doubt they would be armed to the teeth, as the players would prefer...As the tide draws them toward the island, they can see lights and flames, and paddle ashore. Exhausted, what do they do now?

[argsilverson]

As for a "shipwreck", what if the players were "eco-guerrillas", trying to save whales or some such. After a long day of doing "good", they see one last "whale boat", coming out of a fog. They try to put their boat between the whales and the larger craft, when WHAM, it runs them over/damages the boat, and they drift into the fog. As they drift through they fog, they take stock of what is in the boat. I doubt they would be armed to the teeth, as the players would prefer...As the tide draws them toward the island, they can see lights and flames, and paddle ashore. Exhausted, what do they do now?

interesting scenario. of course prior to WWII there was no eco-guerillas as known today. but you can substitute them with a small group of scientists, hydrographers/biologists trying to  study whales/sea life etc. with a little bad weather the rest is above.
then in the new found island they have to improvise for survival.
this option has a small benefit. their mother vessel could also be a navy vessel, so they could carry a couple of rifles and pistols with very limited ammo, at the beginning. the rest is improvised. but they have a bonus: science! so, they can "boil"/make some modern equipment and weaponry [like black powder -with sulfur,coal,guano, or gas bombs from the lake shores/moors]

and the rest is improvised.

[argsilverson]

Ah I forgot!

If setting is round Pacific, you may also use those lovely melanesians from Pulp

[dadlamassu]

The fog grew thicker.  For an hour Captain Fartworthy had flown without instruments.  They were telling him something different every time he looked, that was when they showed anything.  All he knew was that the fuel situation was critical.  Everyone on board the "Ancient Mariner" amphibian was peering through the canopy or windows.  All they could see was the fog, a billowing, swirling greyness.  Nobody spoke now.  Only the drone of the engines could be heard.

Suddenly the engine noise changed.  The port engine spluttered and picked up again.  The "Ancient Mariner" lost height.  The fog thinned as the aircraft neared the surface.  Suddenly, a glasslike surface appeared below.  Water.  Too close.  With a mighty thump the "Ancient Mariner" hit the water and bounced.  Simultaneously both engines died and the sound of air rushing over the wings was all that broke the silence of concentration. 

Captain Fartworthy, using all his skill and strength, managed a passable landing.  The "Ancient Mariner" lost speed on the still water and slowed to a halt.

The fog was thinning.  Out of the greyness a dark shape loomed.  Fartworthy shouted, "For goodness sake - drop the anchor." 

The fog gradually cleared revealing an almost land locked lagoon but most remarkable of all were the wrecks that wlittered the beaches, rusting steel ships and rotting wooden hulks, even a battered warship from the late war.  From the jungle came the sound of a huge animal roaring.  Deploying the dinghy they towed the amphibian ashore and moored it at a safe distance from the beach.

Goodness only knew where they were.  The compass and charts were useless. 

The search for water and fuel began...

[Gluteus Maximus]

[edit] Plot summary
In March 1912, in the event some people called the "Miracle", Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, including its inhabitants, disappear suddenly overnight, and are replaced with a slice of an alien Earth, a land mass of roughly equal outlines and terrain features, but a strange new flora and fauna which seems to have followed a different path in evolution."

That sounds like a good excuse to use for my Africa being infested with Dinos, Trolls, Orcs, creatures that look suspiciously like OoP and therefore cheap GW 40K figures and magic that works. Simply say the whole continent was somehow exchanged with another Africa in an alternative dimension and Bob's your uncle.

Completely ludicrous, of course, but at least it gives a (rickety) framework on which to build a campaign setting.

Simple but brilliant idea. I must track down a copy 

[Herr Direktor]

Another idea is that the area the island is in has now come under the authority of (insert favourite colonial power here). An official scouting/surveying party, replete with hunters or colonial troops as protection, has been sent out. Insert rest of story and you are  good to go. Note that I always like to throw in a few civilians to get in the way of things- you know, damsel that gets in distress, pompous governor-general, that sort of thing. Could be lots of fun!

[Gluteus Maximus]

Another idea is that the area the island is in has now come under the authority of (insert favourite colonial power here). An official scouting/surveying party, replete with hunters or colonial troops as protection, has been sent out. Insert rest of story and you are  good to go. Note that I always like to throw in a few civilians to get in the way of things- you know, damsel that gets in distress, pompous governor-general, that sort of thing. Could be lots of fun!

Civilians are always fun to add to games. Someone to rescue, protect, or get in the way of your troops. Maybe someone to annoy the enemy and make them attack you. Journalists to stir up trouble, spies to chase into the bush, gun-runners to arm the natives, Missionaries to turn your fierce native allies into pacifists. Maybe a mad professor opens a rift in space and time, or an eccentric lepidopterist stumbles on an ancient city, releasing demons/intelligent gorillas/animated skeletons etc etc.

So many possibilities 

[fastolfrus]

Dinotopia (the book at least) features a large island surrounded by impenetrable coral reefs populated by large numbers of intelligent dinosaurs and a human population made up of shipwreck victims and their descendents.

Because of the reefs new survivors can arrive, but no-one leaves.
There's all sorts of advanced technology stashed on/under the island, and many of the dinosaurs speak reasonable English, although not the carnivores which are just primitive animals.