Let's talk about the joys and opportunities of role-playing in the "real world". As has been well advertised on this site, I've been running a Torg Eternity game for the past three years, and though large swatches of the planet have been taken over and transformed into parallel worlds, it's still our Earth and I can take advantage of its riches. This would be even more true if this were simply a contemporary or near-contemporary horror investigation game, or a pulpy cliffhanger game, or even a near-future 'punk game. See, if you do a little research, you can find adventure hooks and amazing locations for your set pieces right here on Earth.
Take the picture above. That's the Hand in the Desert, a strange sculpture in the Chilean desert. Land art on a massive scale and immediately evocative of some stone giant coming out of the ground and facing your Player Characters. It was sculpted in 1982, but there's no reason you can't use the image in earlier periods and in more mysterious ways. But we don't have to lean on relatively recent human activity to do this. I was recently shocked to discover that Tallinn, Estonia's capital, looked like this:
It's like a fantasy town! Many places around the world have historical heritage on show that, unless you live there or have been, will be exotic enough for role-playing games, and would make good alternatives to the usual exotic locations you routinely send your Indiana Joneses and James Bonds to (like the Pyramids or Red Square). GoogleMaps/GoogleEarth is a good resource. Need an exotic city? Pick one that you know nothing about and drop a pin to see what it looks like. You might just find a cool location for a set piece and a wealth of imagery to show your players to make the session more memorable.
The flip side of man-made locations is Nature, and there are some INSANE sights out there. A quick googling using "Strange World Locations" brings up lots of sites loaded with images of the planet's oddest and most dramatic natural sights. The Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, that hellish sulphur swamp in Ethiopia (the Danakil Depression), and the white terraces of Turkey's Cotton Palace:
These are the kinds of locations you can drop even in your sword & sorcery and space opera games. These places are so alien they COULD be on an alien (or fantasy) world. I'm also seeing such habitats as Japan's Cat Island, colonized by orange tabbies and spawning cat shrines serviced by the few people who live there (dogs not allowed). I'm also reminded of Sable Island, a thin strip of sand that's part of Atlantic Canada, and is just inhabited by hardy horses running along it. Imagine your PCs coming upon this during a sea voyage. How strange. And do you, as GameMaster, have an explanation that will lead to adventure?
Role-playing games are full of world-building, but our own world comes pre-built with a lot of wild places (and cultures, and animals, and histories), so why not dip your toe in Thor's Well or Spotted Lake? (I'll let you search for those yourself. Start your quest through the wide weird world!)
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