"It's not just what you know, but who you know!"

Everybody knows this proverb, and in recent times I've come to appreciate the truth in this statement more and more.

However, it would be mistaken to assume that this proverb merely applies to base nepotism - far from it. Instead, knowing "the right people" is vital for gaining inspiration. If you are constantly in contact with bright, intelligent people from a variety of backgrounds and with a large range of different knowledge bases, then any discussions with them will be far more inspiring and insightful than discussions with people who know the same things you do - or less.

I am currently in the fortunate situation where the former is the case. If that's not the case for you, I recommend trying to change that.

Inspired by a recent RPGNet thread (login required to read), I started working on an entry for Arcologies on the Arcana Wiki. I thought a bit about possible adventure and campaign ideas, and then wondered how to use them in different genres.

Take fantasy, for instance. Sure, you could just use some giant building chiseled out of a mountain by a legion of dwarves. But that's been done before. So how about making the whole arcology into a gigantic, living creature - either artificial or natural? The human inhabitants could be seen as either parasites or symbionts - the creature would be able to provide them with food from its bodily fluids, and also recycle their waste.

Furthermore, these creatures might be migratory. Given how much energy they would require to move, they would likely move very slowly - possibly slower than human walking speed. Using legs as locomotion would not be a very smooth ride for the inhabitants. But maybe they move similar to slugs - they travel on a single, massive "foot" and crush the vegetation - including entire trees - below them and eating them - leaving a massive slime trail behind them which serves as compost for new plant growth.

Now imagine a herd of such creatures traveling through a vast forest into the direction of the sunset, each inhabited by thousands of people...



I really need to use that imagery...






Note: If you have any other good ideas for using them in games, please add them to the Arcana Wiki!

What kind of images do you associate with the words "memory" or "memorize"?

What is the coolest image of a squid you know of?