In addition to the elemental affinities of the various locations depicted, and the potential treasures that might be gained from exploring them, I've been thinking of two other ways to differentiate the areas.
Actions: The next method (the third in total) revolves around the types of actions that might be more effective. These actions aren't necessarily easier, but visitors who engage in such actions tend to produce more significant results.
Violent: Engaging in acts designed to threaten, intimidate, or outright harm any adversaries who might be present.
Sneaky: Engaging in acts designed to avoid any adversaries or potential problems that might be causing a threat.
Impressive: Engaging in acts designed to impress any adversaries, causing them to submit through a show of force.
Financial: Engaging in acts that appeal to an adversaries greed, or simply throwing resources at a problem until they go away.
Mystical: Engaging in acts that tap into the underlying forces of reality and the metaphysical loopholes that exploit them.
Social: Engaging in acts that require conversation and discussion with any adversaries who might be present.
Experimental: Engaging in acts designed to test the environment and learn something about it before the opportunity to pass presents itself.
Threats: The final method of differentiation involves the typical threats inherent in each location. These are the types of risk a group is likely to face when they engage in actions here. Like the other differentiation symbols, a specifically indicated threat isn't the only way the characters will be in danger, it's just more common for that type of threat to be significant.
Spectral/Spiritual: This threat comes in the form of a supernatural entity which cannot be confronted by conventional means. The characters will need to find the specific weakness of the entity (typically using the location's action type) before any treasures become available.
Vicious: This threat comes in the form of a natural predator or violent being. The characters will have the best chance of overcoming this threat by using the location's commonly associated action type before any treasures become available.
Environmental: This threat comes in the form of exposure, or natural phenomena capable of dealing harm over the long term. The characters will need to find ways to avoid the exposure, or build up a resistance to it (often by using the location's commonly associated action type) before any treasures become available.
Psychic: This threat comes in the form of mental attack, or dream manipulation which renders a character mentally unstable or even comatose. The characters will need to explore the dreamscape of their own minds (and possible the minds of those around them) using the actions of the location to discover any potential rewards.
Status: This threat potentially reduces the esteem of the characters in the eyes of those around them, it may not be a physical threat but may impede the work achieved to reach this point. The characters will have the best chance of overcoming this threat using the actions associated with the location, and if they prove successful enough they might expose the threat and gain something in the process.
Time: This threat simply eats away at any temporal advantage that the characters might have, or it allows an adversary to gain a temporal advantage. This might be most noticeable in a chase, or in limited time events where things need to be accomplished within a specific period. The characters will typically waste less time (and have a better chance of obtaining the location's treasure) if they use the associated actions.
Theft: This threat sees valuable possessions stolen or simply consumed. The characters will need to engage in specific actions to minimise the risk of this loss, but in many cases there will be a choice of which item is lost rather than preventing a loss completely. If a potential thief is neutralised, other treasures they ave stolen might become available as treasure.
Capture: This threat simply prevents further progress, it may be a literal capture or imprisonment, but it could just as easily be a captured train of thought (preventing innovative ideas that could lead to new solutions). The characters will need to consider the nature of the capturing force and possibly address it using the location's actions before they are able to progress.
????: I had an idea for this one, but as I type this I can't remember it. Maybe it was a threat of amnesia???
Metaphysical: This threat endangers the immortal souls of the characters, it is quite a rare threat and will not appear very often. It is typically reserved for the most dangerous places. This is not so much a "save versus death", it's more of a threat that potentially causes characters to question their very existence, perhaps dramatically shifting the flow of the story and the context of everything that has come before.
Variant Format
I'm also thinking of shifting the symbols to a more 3d style.
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