Places and Phenomena

[Bill]

What are some real world places and phenomena that you think would lend themselves well to use in your favorite Palladium RPG?

I think Venezuala's Catatumbo lightning would be a great feature for Rifts. In the marshlands of Venezuela, where the Catatumbo river empties into lake Maricaibo, thunderstorms occur up to 160 days a year for up to ten hours per day. Canonically, this area is part of the Colombian Republic (see Rifts South America). It would be easy to explain the phenomena as a mystical connection to a dimension elementally biased toward electricity. Perhaps a permanent Rift has opened and now the storm rages 24 hours a day. Even if there is no clear supernatural link, Lake Maricaibo would become a perfect habitat for creatures with a taste for lightning; elementals, cyclopes, thunder-lizard dragons, etc. Or maybe Zeus keeps a retreat there.

[SpiritInterface]

Judge C. R. Magney State Park is a state park of Minnesota, USA, on the North Shore of Lake Superior. More specifically The Devil's Kettle, the park is best known for an unusual waterfall located on the Brule River 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from its mouth. The river splits in two to flow around a mass of rhyolite rock. The eastern flow goes over a two-step, 50 foot waterfall and continues downstream. The western flow surges into a pothole, falling at least 10 feet (3.0 m), and disappears underground. It is believed the water rejoins the main channel of the river or has a separate outlet into Lake Superior, but it has never been located. Researchers have dropped brightly colored dyes, ping pong balls, and other objects into the Devil's Kettle without result.

I can see so much potential for BtS, Heroes, or Rifts. Is it a open Rift? or some other dimensional anomaly?

[Bill]

Definitely a cool hole in the ground.
Looks like current theories point to a huge subterranean network of caverns. For BtS they could be inhabited by ghouls or some other degenerate monster descended from people who fell, jumped, or were thrown in over the last several centuries. Or maybe an ancient creature once worshipped with human sacrifices dwells in the caverns and researchers seeking the outlet awaken it!

[glitterboy2098]

[url=en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Gurgur]the eternal fire at Baba Gurgur.[/url] a naturally occurring firey pit in the middle of a natural gas field. has been burning for thousands of years (and believed to be the inspiration for several mythological places)
sounds like a good place for fire elementals or at least Warlocks to gather.

similar sites exist elsewhere: The 'Door to hell' pit, for example, a more recent one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Chimaera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Flame_Falls
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_Geyser_State_Park
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanziling_Hot_Spring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanar_Dag
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrapen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jwala_Ji (a hindu goddess with shrines built on natural eternal flames)

there are also ones that have different sources.. like coal:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Mountain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennender_Berg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_Hills
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_mine_fire ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania )

[Scott Gibbons]

Judge C. R. Magney State Park is a state park of Minnesota, USA, on the North Shore of Lake Superior. More specifically The Devil's Kettle, the park is best known for an unusual waterfall located on the Brule River 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from its mouth. The river splits in two to flow around a mass of rhyolite rock. The eastern flow goes over a two-step, 50 foot waterfall and continues downstream. The western flow surges into a pothole, falling at least 10 feet (3.0 m), and disappears underground. It is believed the water rejoins the main channel of the river or has a separate outlet into Lake Superior, but it has never been located. Researchers have dropped brightly colored dyes, ping pong balls, and other objects into the Devil's Kettle without result.

I can see so much potential for BtS, Heroes, or Rifts. Is it a open Rift? or some other dimensional anomaly?

Thanks - this is definitely going into a game in the near future!