When I added the little bit of "flavor" to the Greater Denethix Area map, I stuck in some "tomb" symbols, and figured I'd name them the Lanthanide Tombs. Didn't really roll off the tongue, so I googled the periodic table, stabbed directly in the middle of it with my finger, and landed on Ir. Iridium! That really does roll off the tongue nicely, so in it went. Then I had a nagging suspicion I had heard it somewhere before... eventually it hit me, the Iridium Plateau on Planet Algol. Gah. So I'll have to come up with a different element, I feel very plagiaristic using iridium. Rubidium? Cesium? Strontium? Polonium? It'll be somethingium.
I like the sparseness of symbols on the area map. The symbols themselves are bland, stock CC2 symbols, except for the Denethix tower which is hand-crafted. I don't mind the look, but then again I haven't been exposed to CC2-maps in published material. Maybe it strikes people as incredibly fugly, if it does let me know, I don't want to produce crap.
I also just went ahead and ordered a fistful of d30's. The ugliest will become the d30 of shame, for those of my players too cheap to buy their own.
The Iridium Throne was in Traveller, and probably the inspiration for the Iridium Plateau, so i say go for it...underexposed elements need love too!
ReplyDeleteHaha, well if it's second-hand copying, then all is well!
ReplyDeleteI'm still going to look over the periodic table this weekend and pick out a bunch of elements with appropriately super-sciencey names. Whether the Iridium Tombs survive in their present form is still up for debate.