Natural Hazards: Geothermal

Since I just finished a great vacation in Yellowstone National Park, here is a brief section on natural hazards associated with geothermal areas.  You often see signs in Yellowstone that say “stay on the path”, and for good reason.  The ground surface may look solid, but areas are less than an inch think before you crunch into scalding hot water.  This water may be inches deep or tens of feet deep.  If you are lucky, you get severe burns on a limb.  Less lucky…being burnt to death is a pretty painful way to kill off a character.  Areas like Yellowstone with geysers and hot springs are rare around the world (about half the known geysers are in Yellowstone), and they are great for games because of that uniqueness.  

Natural Hazards: An Overview

Think about all the great disasters that your characters have had to overcome or learn to cope with over the course of your gaming career.  Odds are, if it wasn’t caused by the bad guys (and even some that were), it was based on a natural hazard.  If thinking back over your gaming career you can’t think of natural disasters that occurred, now may be the time to change it up a bit.  Natural hazards can infuse complexity into situations, add drama, or force characters to deal with situations where there aren’t any ‘bad guys’ to be caught.

This series of articles is intended to provide information on types of natural hazards, locating them from a storyteller perspective, how characters can identify that there is a potential hazard, how evildoers may utilize them, ways human activity can intensify hazards, and general damage information.