Terrain, its impact on description and its role in campaigns, often gets forgotten. This post is part of a series on how different kinds of shoreline can be used in adventures, encounters and campaigns. Shorelines are often overlooked as interesting locations for fictional encounters and events. I'll be updating this post a shoreline at a time.
Shorelines can be classified either by their physical features or by the processes that formed them.
By Physical Characteristic:
Rocky Shores. Large rocks and cliffs where waves hit the hard stuff.
On rocky shores, landing a water craft of any kind would be perilous. Sailing boats are likely to want to steer clear of rocky shores, as even further out to sea, large, submerged rocks are a threat to the hull. Rowing in to shore is more practical, at least in calm seas, but actually getting ashore might still be tricky, as the water could still be fairly deep at the point you can't bring a rowing boat any closer.
This is the environment in which you are most likel;y to find sea caves, which will be inaccessible from dry land, as will be hidden coves where pirates, smugglers, raiders or explorers might seek refuge from storms hostile eyes. Some might have deep water harbours, too: a boon to sailing ships, and to large predators.
Rocky shores are a favourite place for Wreckers, who set false beacons alight, to guide ships onto the rocks, so that they can salvage the wreckage. This would be a great basis for an Early Modern campaign, a cthulu-inspired campaign or any naval campaign. Its also a great strategy for goblins in a fantasy campaign, as it involved minimum risk and potentially massive payback.
Cliffs are home to sea birds and other winged predators.
moving along rocky shores on foot is a slow, preilous, usually wet experience. You cannot possibly move quickly. Once your feet are wet, you slip on moss and seaweed and you can break an ankle or a leg very easily if you try to hurry. Fighting would be awkward and treacherous (but a lot of fun for players!) and have unpredictable outcomes. Bullets richochet off rocks, arrows get caught by gusts of wind and snap when they hit rocks, big, swingy weapons are very difficult to use and people can hide. Especially small people.
Sandy Shores. Formed from depositied sand. These often include beaches and sand ridges.
Sandy shores provide enormous visibility and also large, convenient landing points for mutiple, shallow-hulled vessels. such as viking longships or the long rowing boats (longboats) of large sailing ships. Here, it is unlikely you will get ashore in secret unless it is at night, which is exactly what smugglers will do. Sandy shores with long beaches are great places to set impressive 'visuals' through vivid descripion: the viking-themed orc hordelanding in their longships, the giant eraiding party wading along the shore, the approaching dragon.
Sandy shores often start shallow and steady but suddenly drop off. That's where the sharks get you.
Running along a sandy shore is much more difficult than on firm terrain. Dry sand is the hardest, but very wet sand brings its own challenges. There is no way you can run at top speed unless you are on the perfect consistency of sand. Also tides come in and go out and litereally change that consistency beneath your feet and you can sometimes discover that the tide has come in around you, laving your feet dry but you cut off from the rest of the shore.
Shingle Shores. Covered in pebbles and small rocks. No sand.
These shorelines are often adjacent to the rocky shorelines described above but they are very different. Open, often, but also sometimes hidden, they often form in tiers, rather than a steady incline, due to the action of the tides. You can beach a craft with relative ease, but walking across shingle beaches is hard work and slow. Extremely difficult to hurry.
Muddy Shores. Made of mud. Usually found in sheltered areas, such as estuaries.
Anywhere with a wide, flat expanse of mud can also easily become inundated, and usually quickly. The mud here can be dangerous - deep enough to trap feet while the waters rise, deep enough for strange predatory creatures to submerge, and deep enough for ancient ruins to be mostly submerged, only exposed at low tide, when hidden features become visible.
Going anywhere quickly on foot, or even at normal walking speed, is usuallu completely impossible, though sometimes a causeway of firmer ground becomes usable at low tide, making access to that island, or forgotten ruin or ancient temple possible. Briefly.
Tidal Marsh. Wetlands that are regularly inundated. Rich in nutrients.
Similar to the above but with a lot more vegetation. Low troughs between drier ground provide channels for boats, low, flat islands, perhaps with a stand of trees, provide shelter for outlaws or remote chaurches or monasteries or hermitages. These areas are rich in food and foraging is easier here but there are sometimes strange creatures hiding in the dark, still pools, such as trolls. Will O' Wisp can also be found here, as can occultists seeking rare and powerful herbs or other ingredients. Many such sites once held religious significance, in the real world, and drew cultic practices and the construction of rings of wood or stone, or causeways to remote spots where sacrifices were made to unnamed powers.
The tidal marsh should be rich in wildlife and magic and should alter significantly when the tide comes in, with different routes needed to traverse it and different animals encountered.
By Formation Process:
Erosional Shorelines. Shaped by the force of waves and wind.
Fjords. Deep, steep-sided valleys cut by glaciers and filled with seawater later.
Rias. Coastal valleys, flooded by the sea. They get shallower as they go inland.
Depositional Shorelines. Formed by the accumulation of sediment.
Deltas. Large deposits of sediment at the mouths of rivers.
Barrier Islands. Long, narrow ridges that form parallel to the coast.
Spits and Bars. Sandbanks that build up from the shore due to wave action.
Artificial Shorelines.
Hardened shorelines. Made by humans or other sentient creatures.
Seawalls, Bulkheads and Groins. Walls and structures built to prevent erosion.
Random Shoreline Table (d12)
1. Rocky
2. Sandy
3. Shingle
4. Muddy
5. Tidal
6. Fjord
7. Ria
8. Delta
9. Barrier island
10. Spits or bars
11. Reef (not included above)
12. Artificial
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