20 Desert Terrain Features
As we learned in a previous post, caravan masters make the big bucks because they can successfully navigate the desert and its numerous hazards. If you think that a desert is nothing but a bunch of shifting sand, then prepare to be enlightened. Deserts are complex places, often with multiple types of terrain. Truly, the desert is the "first step" of a desert-based campaign. While no desert may contain all of the geographic features listed below, all deserts have more than one of them. Enjoy creating your own deserts however you choose. Hopefully you will find the table below useful in that process.
Rolling Sand Dunes
Rocky Plateaus
Mountainous Regions
Salt Marshes
Broken and Cracked Plains
Dry Riverbeds
Lakes of Soft Silt (effectively quicksand)
Maze-Like Canyons
Sudden Cliffs
Geological Fault Lines
Narrow Ravines
Massive Buttes
Tabletop Mesas
Mysterious Hoodoos
Flat Sandy Plains
Rock-Strewn Hills
A Mirage of an Oasis
A Strange Landmark
A Dried-Up Oasis or Well
A Real Oasis
When creating your own desert, I recommend drawing a simple map and placing the geographic terrain features first, followed by cities, unique structures, dungeons, lairs or whatever other evils your mind can conceive. That simple map you created first, with maybe a few cities on it, is what the caravan master knows. Compared to what everyone else knows, that is a vast wealth of knowledge. That must be why they get the big bucks. :D