#RPGaDAY2020 19: TOWER

#RPGaDAY2020

19: TOWER

Having asked what a forest means, what about a Tower?

A tower shows (and rhymes with) power, both practical and symbolic.

A high and commanding view. Security and isolation. Pride and hubris. Compensating for something.

(TVTropes alert!)

Wizards have them, as demonstrated by Sauron and Saruman in, hey, The Two Towers.

Princesses get locked in them.

They might be at the centre of all things, like The Dark Tower.

Children’s ITV encouraged reading from 1979 to 1989 with The Book Tower, first presented by Tom Baker at the height of his Whovian power. So towers being vaguely ominous and magical has been a thing since I was a kid.

And they provide an obvious route for an attack, unlike a more spread out fortification.

Modern settings have skyscrapers for all your centralised ominous height needs.

Non-flying superheroes often need something to swing on or brood on top of.

The cover for the first major sourcebook for Vampire: The Masquerade, Chicago By Night, has a vampire being thrown off the top of a skyscraper, starting a glorious tradition continued through this shot in the first World Of Darkness MMO trailer and a direct homage in an internal art page for the new Chicago By Night. And we see the Prince looking out over the city in the Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 trailer, like the Prince in Bloodlines 1.

Put your Dark Lord in a turret and nobody will be impressed.

See also Dread.