Maybe this isn't anything, but I had the idea that the mixed terrain of woods and small fields of a bocage landscape could make for a fun and picturesque landscape-crawl.
According to Wikipedia:
In English, bocage refers to a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture, with fields and winding country lanes sunken between narrow low ridges and banks surmounted by tall thick hedgerows that break the wind but also limit visibility.
This differentiated topography is more interesting, both tactically and aesthetically, than the wide open farms that I (as an American) typically imagine. The restricted sight-lines and labyrinthine structure lend themselves naturally to a area-by-area crawling exploration style. The sunken lanes are analogous to corridors and the hedgerows break the fields into well-defined rooms.
If we exaggerate the features of bocage, shrinking & diversifying the fields, reinforcing the hedges with vorpal ferns, and dotting the landscape with ruins and eccentric dwellings we have an effective outdoor dungeon.
I'm not the first person to notice the gaming possibilities posed by this terrain:
 |
| Call of Duty. Looks like a dungeon map, right? |
 |
| Bocage kit for Bolt Action |
It feels like a good fit for both a late-medieval/early-renaissance game a la WFRP or a more fairy-tale folksy-fantasy.
If you want to invoke D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, I've posted some ideas inspired by those tactical challenges too.
What do you think? Would your group enjoy this?
As someone from the hinterlands of the old world I find it a shock to find landscape I find dull to be interesting to someone. Completely agree you can pack an awful lot in once sight-lines are broken up. I think I was born, went to school up til college and held all my first jobs within ~ 1 10 mile hex equivalent.
ReplyDeleteI live in Brooklyn and I hear a lot of stories about how 20-30 years ago, every block was controlled by some local gang and if you crossed the wrong street, wearing the wrong colors a group of young toughs would emerge from the alleys and beat the living hell out of you.
DeleteI imagine most of 14th century Europe being a version of this. If you cross the wrong hedgerow, a group of guys on horseback will ride down from the tower on the hill and, if you don't have a great response ready, hang you from the nearest tree.
The thing about the hedge & sunken-lane landscape that seems so gameable is the discrete bite-sized bits of land. Like a pre-made micro-hex crawl.