Traveling

Source of Inspiration
Eighteen days on the road can give one a lot of new experiences. When playing a role-playing game, one is constantly drawing on experiences, memories and imagination, especially as a referee inclined to improvise. we all have seen, read and heard a lot of details in our lives, accessing those and turning them into fodder for the game is a skill that gets better with practice. Travel exposes us to new surroundings, people and maybe cultures if we travel far enough.
Travel is intensive living and our senses and memories likely respond by taking it all in vivid detail. Use those details, perhaps with minor changes to fit the situation at the game table. A city built on canals can be the inspiration for a similar place in our fictional game world. The sights, smells and details can be re-skinned and combined with other details from other real life experiences to create someplace original and highly memorable for the players. By thinking it through and jotting down some details, the referee can make use of seemingly unrelated experiences from our real lives while constructing our fantasies.
Some of the most entertaining game sessions I have experienced have been the result of a referee who is able to draw extensively from their experiences and weave a detailed tapestry of fantastic fiction from various sources and players who enthusiastically embrace such creativity by drawing from their own experience and adding what they can to the collective imaginings through which our stories develop. By taking time to wonder how this-n-that could be used in the game, we can double the value of travel.