What Makes an Extraordinary Location? – RPG Blog Carnival –

January’s RPG Blog Carnival: Fantasy Locations! is being hosted by Hipsters and Dragons

What is a location?

• location – noun
  lo·​ca·​tion /lō-ˈkā-shən/
  : a position or site occupied or available for occupancy or marked by some distinguishing feature : situation
• : a tract of land designated for a purpose
• : a place other than a movie or television studio where a scene is filmed —usually used in the phrase on location
  Parts of the movie were filmed on location in the desert. – Merriam Webster

The famous quote is “Location, location, location,” emphasizing its paramount importance in real estate, is often attributed to British tycoon Lord Harold Samuel. Since Lord Samuel stressed it three times, I will provide three parts of what makes an extraordinary location across three locations that I’ve either used or built for TTRPG.

In your game location, location, location is where all the action takes place. Your location should have a REASON for being there. There should be enough to keep your PCs ENGAGED. An even if it starts off in your head as a “Just a cool place I wanted to run my players through”, it should TIE-IN with the backstory lore that you have set in motion. With enough thought, you can even add a one-shot module to your overall campaign. Unexpected twists and surprises make for a good campaign. Otherwise, it becomes just another kill the monster, level-up, and fight over who gets what loot.

The three locations I’ll be looking at are: Ballard, OK for Car Wars, the Haunted Mansion from my Tuesday game that I Co-DM, and the Town Square from a Necessary Evil campaign I ran for my boys and their friends about ten years back. Ballard and the Haunted Mansion are ones that I have created. The Town Square got a one-paragraph description in the Necessary Evil module book.

Ballard, Oklahoma (Car Wars)

Ballard, OK is a fictional town just south of I-44 in rural Oklahoma. Set in the RPG Universe of Car Wars, the town was commissioned as a complete module with 14 21″x32″ maps, counters and DM information for every building in town. Requirements for the town as given by my client were that the town was the home-base for a Motorcycle Gang, it had to have an Oil Well, it needed a reason for folks to WANT to try an visit, and it had to involve Crazy Mary and her trucking crew in some manner. Tall order, but I took the commission.

I needed a good back story why a semi-neglected, back-water, had-its-heyday-during-the-Route66-era, town would still attract visitors and why said town would allow a motorcycle gang to take over. The attraction to visitors came in the form of a “haunted?” motel, made famous by a popular cable TV show. The other why is the oldest reason in any world, survival. Live as serfs in a benevolent kingdom and you need not fear less-than-benevolent raiders who mean you harm. Once I had that backstory, I could begin building and laying out the town.

The TIE-IN is obviously the world of autodueling as set forth by Steve Jackson Games’ “Car Wars“. The town had to feel like it belonged in that universe. A town clinging to its heyday from being a Tourist Stop on Old Route 66 would welcome anyone who could promise protection from marauding raiders. I envisioned a post-apocalyptic serfdom, wherein in exchange for protecting the remaining citizens of the dying town, the Maurader’s Motorcycle gang is given a place to “hide in plain sight”. Defenses could be made less obvious and only the truly important areas need to be fortified.

I added NPCs that would be needed to keep a town up and running. There is a town doctor, town plumber, town electrician, mechanic, weaponsmith, food and ammo supply. Each of the NPCs needed a place to live. I needed a valid reason for a successful courier service in the world of Car Wars to set up their base of operations in this forgotten town. Once I had that valid reason for Crazy Mary and her trucking crew to have their base of operations in town, supply chain problems for the rest of the town were no longer an issue.

“Car Wars: Excerpts from the AADA Guide: Ballard, OK” presents a fictional AADA Road Atlas entry for the post-apocalyptic town of Ballard, Oklahoma, describing it as a once-quaint Route 66 stop now largely forgotten after highway realignments, with a tiny population and a reputation centered on the notoriously haunted Motel Monte Vista, where unexplained phenomena and disappearances have been reported. It outlines local facilities such as a 24-hour fueling/recharge station, general store, gun dealer, and other businesses, notes an abandoned railroad depot and fortified bunkers, and mentions rumors of biker gang activity and danger on nearby roads.

The REASONS for the existence of the community dictated what buildings are still there and how and why they are used. The plot hooks generated to keep the PCs ENGAGED, necessitated other buildings and NPCs. This was a labor of love and what I charged for the commission in no way covered the six months it took to write everything up, layout and detail the maps, hand process damage onto each people generated counter. Did it work? The last time I talked with my client, he and his friends are still playing in Ballard, three years later.

The Haunted Mansion (DnD 5e)

The second location was suggested by my Co-DM (He’s the DM, I bring life to his ideas) as a minor dungeon stopping point for my Tuesday / Thursday DND 5e group. DM Dan wanted a haunted mansion filled with monsters that the PCs would NEVER see coming. The REASON for the mansion is my DM wanted it. Simple as that. But he wanted unexpected monsters. I got to looking at the second floor. One of the things that I like about Dungeon Alchemist is that it will populate the room with furniture based on your specifications. Suddenly in my minds eye I saw the climatic scene of Beauty and the Beast.

I statted out; a Baby Grand Piano Mimic, a living Bearskin Rug, the Candle Fiend (a 6′ Tall Candelabra), a Comforter Creeper, a wall-mounted Demon H’Elk Trophy, Feather Duster Maids, a sentient Grandfather Clock, and an entire Haunted Library. Suddenly the Monsters are hiding in plain sight. Did it ENGAGE the party? Well, we entered the mansion real time back in September (2025) and as of this writing are still inside (In-game time, numerous battles and one long rest). So, yes it qualifies as engaging.

Does it TIE-IN?, well in the beginning it was just a Haunted Mansion (TM (C) Pat. Pending) located in the middle of the completely spooky “Totally Not a Haunted Forest” that the party has to pass through to get from Ericcson’s Ford to the Sword Coast (our campaign objective). AS my DM has been reading over and editing some of the things he’s asked me stat out, he “Discovered” THE BIG BAD of the whole campaign, Dai’Lekh the Soul-Forger (He’s got a secret that is REALLY going to upset at least one member of our party) and the DM revealed two sessions ago that all along it’s been HIS mansion that we’ve been ransacking / pillaging. This TIE-IN is inspired by a mental connection made by the DM months after the NPC was statted out and long after the party took refuge inside his mansion.

Tie-ins may not always be obvious to begin with. But with a little thought, ingenuity, and DM elbow-grease, even a one-shot location can turn into a memorable location for your world or campaign.

Town Square (Necessary Evil)

The third and final location was a spur of the moment, additional, “I have 15 minutes to prep” session for the Savage World’s Necessary Evil campaign I was running for PIT II (Paladin in training #2, my oldest son) and PIT III (youngest son) and four of their friends. PIT III informs me that school is out for the day and everyone decided to come over for a gaming session. I have fifteen minutes to throw something together. I was still working on the next session and decided to pull a side quest from the DM section of the Necessary Evil Guide for our impromptu session.

Side Note: Necessary Evil: Invasion (revised).  Four-color pulp, super-powered villains (Power Level III) fight to save Earth from the clutches of the evil v’sori invaders. You might be a bad guy, but it’s still your planet these pesky aliens are tearing up. This book features the first appearance of the outrageous Outsider and the deadly Dr. Destruction. (from the Pinnacle Games website)

Everyone arrived, I began the description of the mission and the building ACROSS the street from the Central Park that contained the McGuffin. I described how the WWII tank memorial was reflected in the plate glass windows of the location my PCs needed to enter. (Describing the tank and it’s reflection was supposed to be a clue as to how to get inside the heavily fortified building).

Jay (who is playing a NAZI-version of Captain America and is obsessed with ANYTHING WWII) grins deeply and states, “Forget the mission, I’m stealing the tank.” Doing the What? was my reply.

We determine that this particular WWII memorial tank has a special significance to Captain Nazi. It (the tank) was present the first time he met “American Hero” and Captain Nazi has tried to steal it before. It has been fortified against Captain Nazi’s attempts to steal it in the past. Long story short….

Before long all the PCs except one, have focused on Jay’s mission instead of what they were supposed to be doing. Crowds have gathered. The local news has interrupted programming. It’s a fight between the PCs anti-heroes and the military all over a WWII relic. It was an epic battle, worthy of being the climatic scene of an Avengers movie.

Was it planned? No. It was a classic “The Party does what the Party wants” session. I’m furiously statting out a WWII relic tank and National Guard NPCs on the fly. One member of the party realizes that the hullabaloo being caused by his teammates is the perfect distraction. He uses his super powers to achieve the original objective, stealthily and without anyone realizing the actual MacGuffin has been liberated by the vigilante super villains.

Was it engaging? Absolutely! That session was nearly a decade ago when my boys were still in high school. They still talk about. It was a fill-in session made memorable by the actions of the party. The tie-in was already there, this was not one of the months in development locations central to the campaign, it’s description was a few sentences on a single-page side quest. The bulk of the quest was supposed to take place in the building.

Location, location, location… It’s what your PCs DO in the location that make it engaging. It’s up to you as the DM to be engaging even if it’s not what you had planned for the day.

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Ballard, OK streetview started as a Google Maps image with Alien Graphics providing the tweeks. Ballard, OK map is by Alien Graphics
Haunted Mansion dungeon maps built by Alien Graphics using Dungeon Alchemist
Haunted Mansion exterior base image and Necessary Evil scenes were built using ChatGPT with prompts by Alien Graphics.
Map of Honalee started life as an Adobe Stock image, modifications by Alien Graphics

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