Sites

Sites are interesting places that the PCs can explore. They might be the destination of an expedition, a point of interest along the way, or just an incidental discovery. They are places where adventure happens!

Sites vary greatly in size and scope. Some are very small, discrete places like a stone altar on a lonely hilltop. Some are made up of distinct rooms, areas, or zones—like a cave system, or a barrow mound, or a crumbling manor from the age of the Makers. Some are sprawling complexes made up of multiple smaller sites.

Most sites are out in the wilderness, but you can think of a settlement (like Marshedge or Gordin's Delve or a farming valley up in the Whitefang Mountains) as a site as well. You can even find sites within settlements: the Judge's Chronicle (if there is one), the cistern in Stonetop (if there's more down there than water), the mill in Marshedge, the titular delves of Gordin's Delve—these are all sites!

Not every place where you frame a scene needs to be a "site" per se. Many locations are merely the backdrop to a scene, a place where you present a danger or a discovery or where the PCs interact with someone. The creek that the PCs need to cross isn't a site, it's just a hazard. The wayside on the road is just a landmark, or a place where the PCs meet some travelers.

So, what distinguishes a site from just "a place where you frame a scene?"

A site should tell a story, even if you're making that story up on the fly. You want your players asking, "What happened here?" and, "Why is this like this?" and it should feel like there's an answer, even if it's beyond their reach. When your site tells a story, you're portraying a rich and mysterious world.

Sites should be exciting places to explore: mysterious, wonderous, often dangerous. They should stir your players' curiosity and keep everyone a little on edge. They should contrast with the safe and familiar places back home, and thus punctuate the PCs' lives with adventure.

Finally, sites should present players with meaningful decisions. Not just "do we go left or right?" but "do we follow the footprints down this tunnel, or check out this side passage that smells of ozone?"

Meaningful decisions are about more than just navigation. Even a simple, linear site can be full of choices! Do the PCs try to talk to the ghost who haunts this place, or avoid it, or bind it, or what? Do they futz with the magic runes or leave them be?

When they fall into the icy water, do they press further into the cave, wet and shivery and risking hypothermia? Or do they spend time and torches drying their clothes?

Create sites that are dynamic and unstable, full of potential energy like a coiled spring. Then see what the PCs decide to do, and play to find out what happens.