prokopetz:

Fact: if you’re creating a CRPG with an ambiguously Middle Eastern setting – either as a primary milieu or as someplace the party visits – you must take care to frequently remind the player that there’s sand, or else they might forget.

The landscape? Sand. The town? Sand dune right down the middle of the main street. People’s houses? Big piles of sand all over ‘em. Piles of sand in them, too, no need to explain why. The locals employ sand-related metaphors in everyday conversation. The prophecy – and there’s always a prophecy – somehow involves sand, of course. Did I mention that there’s sand?

Because there’s sand.