Wednesday, 29 December 2010

All mines?

Here's a brief list of fictional mines and other mining-related resources, hopefully useful to someone at some point for settings, scenarios or terrain, in whatever kind of game or fiction. I'll update as I find or remember more, with your suggestions too if you have any.

Have a look at the original post for a few thoughts on how these or similar places might fit into games. With the length of the list as it is, they do seem relatively underused.


Fictional mines and mining facilities:

Cloud City, Bespin (description) (process) (videos: 1, 2, 3 (Star Wars Ep. V: The Empire Strikes Back))
San Tomé, Sulaco, Costaguana (description, largely of context)
The Mines of Moria, Middle-earth (description)
The Pyramid Mine, Mars (description, largely of context)
The Spice Mines of Kessel (description)


Mining in fictional settings:

Dune
Star Trek
Star Wars
Warhammer 40,000 - The Imperium

A list of fictional elements, materials, isotopes and atomic particles


Mining as we know it, more or less:

Mining and mining equipment, of which photos
Gold mining
Asteroid mining

Information on real minerals, with a full list
_

10 comments:

joe said...

I'm guessing you're a miner.. I think.....

Porky said...

Not a miner, but dwarvish in many ways.

A good guess though, on the evidence of the past three or four posts. I did have a lot of fun writing them, especially looking up the places in the list. There are some very interesting ideas and plenty of atmosphere, and watching the videos was a highlight. There's just so much out there and it keeps expanding.

The Spice Mines of Kessel for example span out of a single line in a single movie as far as I can tell, and it's funny to see how much mileage there is in such a simple idea. Even the inspiration for these posts was really only a brief discussion at someone else's blog about D&D in a mine setting.

The first Star Wars came out in your specialist subject of course. Another gift of the decade.

thekelvingreen said...

Final Fantasy XII is full of mines. at least half of the dungeons in that game must be mining facilities.

Porky said...

Thanks - Henne and Lhusu are now in the list.

To anyone here picking up ideas, I recommend watching the vids, especially of the games, to get a sense of how the space might feel to an explorer and how decor, fixtures and fittings can look.

Blighty Waaagh Boys said...

How about the Pyramid Mine from the film 'Total Recall', inspired by ‘We Can Remember It For You Wholesale’ by Philip K. Dick.
Some fantastic art and model work in the film. The canals of mars look great too, lots of inspiration me thinks.

Porky said...

I've added what I can find, which is not very much, although it does give a context. Most importantly I haven't been able to find a clip which shows the actual mine works. If anyone comes across one, just let me know.

I agree about the design and effects. The film may not be everyone's idea of good cinema, but it's a strong pulp take on a near-future world, the Martian colony in particular.

EastwoodDC said...

There is plenty of modern day mining equipment that is pretty fantastic too. I've always wanted to set up a Battletech scenario set in a big open pit mine: 100-ton Battlemech meets 150-ton ore hauler loaded with 250-tons of ore.

Porky said...

Good point - that was overlooked. You're right about how evocative some of the machinery can be, and how easily it could be used, whether directly or in elements borrowed. The link is broken so for now I've added a list and a search of images.

Dave Garbe said...

Can't think of a mine to add (what a random topic)

However, here is the mining equipment from Total Recall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kujd9IbAbIo

Porky said...

Good job. I spent a fair bit of time looking for a clip with the technology. I always forget how brutal a movie this is, but also how comic book the mood.