Progress Was Made

Today saw a lot of progress with the hex map. I've created a new map that is based on 5-mile hexes, places dots for each of the 25-mile hexes from the previous map, and have begun fleshing out the region on a 5-mi-hex scale.

So far, I have the terrain for the main starting kingdom done, but I still need to place rivers and start placing settlements. I also want to build out the area surrounding that kingdom a little, since that may impact where people choose to live.

I am also already getting some inspiration from how the map is shaping up. Using Welsh Piper's terrain assignment scheme, with a little randomization in number of hexes for a terrain time tossed in for good measure, I'm getting something pretty reasonable so far. Once I get a bit more done, I'll post a picture, but I'd rather not toss up something that, frankly, still looks half-assed. I whole-ass my work, dammit.

Some Hex Mapping

I've been tinkering with hex mapping lately, and thought I'd post what I did in the order I've done it. The scale is 25 mi = 1 hex, and the map spans roughly the 35th parallel to the 60th parallel.

The climate information was developed using the Climate Cookbook, and the software used is primarily Hexographer and GIMP, with Koppen climates added in Inkscape.

Now that I have big hex map made, I'm going to pick an area that looks interesting to me and make a 5-mile-hex map of it. Then it'll be time to start building details on that map. Rinse and repeat until the entire 2.25 million square mile area is done!

1. Landmass

2. Landforms

3. Climate - Precipitation

Summer

Winter

4. Climate - Temperature

Summer

Winter

5. Koppen Climates (WIP)

6. Landform Updates & Major Rivers

7. Vegetation

Mapping around the Abbey

Today I worked on an overland map for the 60-mile area surrounding the abbey, largely to see how it connects to the outside world. Now I can definitively say that the abbey sits on a forested hill at the end of what would be generous to called a wooded road. Even trail might be generous. The nearest village is a day's hike away, and the trail ever got used to bring the monastics at the abbey food and supplies.

Mapping Update: Placing Locations - not Encounters

I have been working to place interesting locations on my hex map, and I've come to a conclusion. I am placing locations, not encounters. Why make that distinction? Because "encounters" has a specific connotation that revolves around conflict and implies a degree of railroading. If you enter this hex, the GM rolls and if the dice come up Encounter, the players have to deal with something predetermined by the GM. That isn't good GMing, in my view.

So instead of placing encounters that unfold a predetermined way, I place locations where something might be happening. I will roll to see if the players stumble on the location, and if so, give them information based on what they witness. What happens from there is 100% up to them. It might be a dungeon entrance. It might be a gnarled tree with a rope tied about its trunk. It might be a pile of rotting corpses. Whatever.

That doesn't mean there aren't random encounters rolled for hexes. These represent stumbling on an event that potentially provokes action. These could be combat-oriented like a dozen orcs charging a wagon with drawn swords, or they could just be creepiness like catching a glimpse of fish-men playing pipes in the distant fog. Again, these provide the opportunity for the players to make decisions. They don't exist to force players into a specific course of action...unless they really mess up a Perception check and get ambushed by a hostile encounter. But even then, there is a string of rolls that create that situation - Reaction rolls by the hostile party that indicate it will attack, opposed Stealth checks to see if they can sneak up and waylay the party, failed Perception rolls by the party, etc. The players get their chance to avoid it, dice gods willing.

So that's a whole lot of ranting about a concept, but how has it been implemented in the hex map? I have placed several locales in the uncivilized parts of the map so far. These are, for the most part, stationary (with one fun exception that might move once per week). I'm generally picking locations that scream out for something initially and then going back to fill in other ideas afterward. So far, Alnwich is pretty well covered, so I'm starting to expand the adventure bubble outward.  This method seems to be working well, so far.

Mapping Update: Alnwich

I have finished filling in terrain and towns for the entire northeast corner of my hex map. I started out going this direction because it provides natural barriers to PC exploration. To the north are the Skaldafjoll, which as subarctic to arctic mountains, present something few prepared high level PCs will easily cross, let alone starting PCs. Of course, the foothills and forests to their south are definitely good adventuring sites.

Mapping this corner first also gives me some ideas about how Alnwich relates back to Northmarch and Usk. It has already become apparent that there is a main road that leads back southeast toward civilization, and there is a full-blown town town around a week or two away.

I'm also starting to see what the edge of civilization looks like in Usk. There are a string of fortified villages that run along the wilderlands' edge in the north and the west. These are largely supported by market villages one to two day's ride away, depending on the sparsity of the local forest. Trails connect these village-forts to each other, and roads connect them to their supporting market villages. this suggests that they can shift resources to support each other as needed, but not very quickly.

We also see that where the forest has been cleared or grows thin, dirt roads tend to replace footpaths and trails and villages tend to be about five miles apart, instead of ten or more. Furthermore, the land tends to be cultivated with small patches of woodland still presenting physical barriers to travel.

I suspect that as one travels deeper into Usk, villages tend to reach their maximum packing density and the map becomes far less interesting from an adventuring standpoint. This also provides a barrier to PCs. If you move into Usk, there are fewer opportunities to get rich, achieve glory, etc. because there just aren't many monsters sitting on hordes of treasure left. So if players want a game of intrigue and cunning, head to Usk. If they want game of exploration, violence, and adventure, head to the wilderlands. And that's exactly the point!

Monster Lists & Mapping

As everyone who has read this blog for any time knows, my system of choice is GURPS, mostly out of laziness. Yes laziness. GURPS can handle any play style and genre pretty well, even if specialized systems might potentially outshine it on a case-by-case scenario. So what that means for me is that, while I might not get optimal performance for each genre I enjoy, I only need to know one system. That is valuable to me. It doesn't hurt that GURPS handles my two favorite genres pretty well, too!

This post isn't a plug for GURPS, though, so I'll get to the point. I use GURPS. I am lazy. These are sometimes at odds. GURPS does not have a dedicated bestiary in the way that Dungeons & Dragons does. There's no single book I can open and get my hands on hundreds of premade monsters. Sure, Dungeon Fantasy has four books of monsters, now, and I use them, but two are toolkits for making specific types of monsters - oozes and dragons, and the other two have 60 monsters combined, at most. My point here is that as a GM, if I want monsters, I very regularly have to make them myself.

Of course, I've been doing this for a while and have my own repository of monsters at this point. I've even posted some of them on this blog. So that helps, but that doesn't mean I always have the monsters I need on hand when I start placing them on maps. So this is what I do.

As I map, I jot down notes of what goes where and keep a running list of every monster I've placed. This includes different flavors - e.g., Goblin Archer, Goblin Mook, Goblin Priest, Goblin Fighter, Goblin Kamikaze (don't ask), etc. I also jot down monsters with affix combinations - e.g., Possessed Berserk Killer Minotaur of the Juggernaut and such. Some of these will eventually turn into monsters in and of themselves. Lastly, I jot down any monsters that might be traps or traps that might be monsters. Sometimes there are gray areas.

This list becomes my To Do List for monster creation. Anything that doesn't come in flavors or with affixes are just base monsters. Those that have flavors get a base monster and then flavors built on those base monsters. The same goes for monsters with affixes. Finally, those that blur the lines with traps get a final sorting at this stage, and those that make the monster cut get statted. Usually, inspiration or tangents grab me during this process and spawn a few other monsters for the ever-growing folder of That-Which-Paper-Men-Were-Not-Meant-to-Survive.

So if you're mapping and have an idea for a monster, jot it down on a list. Keep that list handy. It's nice to know what's in your dungeon or wilderness area. It's also nice to have a ready-made list of stuff to do when you find some down time.

Map of the Region around Alnwich

As promised here is a hex map of the area around Alnwich. It uses 5-mile hexes and has all of the major geographic features and points of interest mentioned so far. I'll start dropping interesting locations, next, and cataloging those in a database. After that, it will be time to start rolling randomly.

It's worth noting that I will likely steal profusely from my favorite published material for "interesting locations". So expect Caverns of Thracia and the Dark Tower to make an appearance somewhere., and I'll probably do my own spin on the Demonweb Pits and Tomb of Horrors, too. That said, this map will likely be lair-heavy, owning to the extensive wilderness areas.

And on one last side note, I haven't really placed any rivers yet because the Trollenmere specifically lacks any inflows or outflows. As I map out more of the Skaldafoll or other elevated regions, I'll start drawing them. After all, rivers flow downhill, and until I know where that is, there's no point in starting!

Hex Mapping and Resources

I have begun creating a hex map of Alnwich and the surrounding land. I am largely following the advice of The Welsh Piper and The Alexandrian for my process, not to mention all of the work Rob Conley has done over at Bat in the Attic. I am also going through a lot of the resources Charles has already posted on his blog, Nature Kills: A Hexcrawl for GURPS.

What do I know so far? Well, I am using 5-mile hexes because they mesh well with the average Joe's Basic Move in GURPS. I have also mapped out the bits of around Alnwich I have already described or mentioned. I figure that is the first place to start - putting down what I already know. Once I have that looking good, I'll start expanding outward. That way, I can keep an appropriate level of detail without getting too bogged down in stuff.

I will need a few things for this, though. First, and probably second, third, fourth, fifth, etc., are a good set of tables. These will be extremely helpful in generating hex contents and placing features and encounters. Next, I will need a database to serve as my key. If this grows to a large size, having that information neatly organized will be critical. Better to start now than to have to do data entry later. Lastly, I need more free time. But I think every hobbyist needs that.

I'll try to post the fruits of my labor in the coming days.

Sandboxes and Broadening the Scope of Alnwich

I've been speaking a lot with a couple of friends - one a fantasy sandbox addict who loves hexcrawls and the other a big science fiction fan - about the types of games they like to run and play in, and that has gotten me thinking about the sorts of games I really enjoy running and playing in.

I started roleplaying with Alternity, an old TSR game from the early 90s for science fiction gaming, and from there moved to d6 Space - specifically Star Wars RPG 1e from West End Games. See, I had grown up reading science fiction from the Big Three and loved every minute of it. The chance to be a part of the story instead of merely a spectator was too much to resist.

As it seems often happens in the gaming community, I eventually discovered the current edition of Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D in my case). Now I got to play in one of my other favorite genres, and that was downright magical. I was exploring a world, interacting with it, and helping create it through play. It was a blast.

Fast forward to now, I find myself mostly running games, and those tend to be either science fiction or fantasy. Who would have guessed? But beyond that, I have always been about providing enough of a world for players to run amok in. I love it when players mess with the setting through their PCs' actions. It's great when the party topples a major government or kills a god or whatever. That drives the world to new growth and develops the setting even further. This love for worldbuilding and setting the pieces up for the players to knock down has been a driving factor behind developing the town of Alnwich these past months.

So where am I going with all of this? Well, mostly that I think I'm going to shift away from the development of a megadungeon and more toward an open sandbox. That isn't to say megadungeons aren't sandboxes or that there isn't a megadungeon under Siedrborg. Instead, I'm going to veer away from standard Dungeon Fantasy tropes. Town won't be a collection of dice rolls unless that is what the game calls for that session. Players can go into Alnwich and machinate to their hearts' content. Players can do things in town that will make it an unsafe place to be for them; they will also have to live with the consequences of that. They can explore the countryside or the wilderlands, if they want. Basically, I'm opening up the entire world.

So where does that leave this blog? Well, I'll continue to develop the setting details, but I'll also start working on a regional hex map and placing other points of interest. It will no longer be just about getting in the dungeon to kill things and take their stuff. It will also be about exploration, establishing settlements (if desired), fighting invading hordes (always fun), overthrowing despots, etc. It will be oldschool gaming with a focus on going from zero to hero and seeing how many paper bodies pile up along the way.