Random Terrain Generation for HexCrawl type games

Sorry it's been a while. I was distracted by 5th Edition D&D and tinkering with Miss Peregrine's game in Cypher system.

One of my pet projects since I started playing the game. Has been random terrain generation. The tables in the 1e DMG, are ok. Not exactly what I was looking for, but they do exist. There are tons of random map generators online, most of them are for dungeons. The few that exist for terrain generation are sortaokmaybenotsomuch. They are missing something vital to outdoor exploration. Most of them, that I have found, lack any sort of table that will give you terrain features or items of note. Northing for an intrepid band of adventures (or a random generation crazy DM/GM) would find out in the wild.

Hence my latest project…

First task was to define all the different terrain types that I would be using. I did a basic google search that yielded the usual grunchtun of results, and after perusing a few of the lists I settled on 20 items for terrain types.

Terrain Type Table

1 Arctic

2 Tundra

3 Scrub Forest

4 Conifer/Evergreen Forest

5 Boreal Forest

6 Mixed Forest

7 Broadleaf/Deciduous Forest

8 Grasslands

9 Plains

10 Prairie

11 Marsh

12 Swamp

13 Wetland Forest

14 Tropical Forest

15 Jungle

16 Savanna

17 Desert

18 Rift/Crevasse or River

19 Sink Hole or Lake

20 Hills or Mountains or Ocean

The original plan was to just roll a 20 sider and generate terrain…. Yeah ok, stop laughing. I probably rolled 10 to 15 times. Had I used that map, one would have thought Mother Nature was smoking an elicit substance… For the life of me, I’ve never heard of an arctic swamp.

So I sat down and tried to figure out some way to even out the results. What I finally came up seemed to work a bit better.

D12 roll         Effect

1                                 Water Feature

2                                 Transition Up

3                                 Stays the same (feature)

4-9            Stays the same (empty)

10              Stays the same (feature)

11              Transition Down

12              Terrain Feature

You start off by picking a starting terrain type. Then roll a d12. These are prompts so the aspiring cartographer can create a basic framework for overland terrain. Water feature means there is something of note in that hex. Same terrain, just add a water feature. River, stream, lake, pond, just something. Transition Up/Down means you a roll a d20 note that terrain from the terrain type table, and work your way to that new terrain type. If you roll an 18,19, or 20 just add that particular feature to the hex you a currently in like a rift. Or add some cliffs or a beach and start and ocean. Keep in mind this whole thing is to give you prompts, not do the work for you. If a result doesn’t make sense, reroll it. I only start off a map using this method, eventually as I get some of the hexes laid out, I will abandon these tables and just lay out what I think makes for an interesting area of the world.

For the “Stays the same (Feature)” entries on the table I came up with a list of features.

Items                                                              Descriptors

Well                                                                Abandoned

Sm Tower                                                     Forest

Sm Keep                                                        Arctic

Lg Tower                                                       Desert

Fortress                                                         Ruined

Castle

Village

Walled Town

City

Shrine

Cairn

Tomb

Graveyard

Necropolis

Dungeon

Sm Church/Temple

Lg Church/Temple

Stone Circle

Fairy Ring

This is where Google image search is your friend. Take an item, add one or two descriptors in the search bar, and Bob’s yer uncle, you got a feature now. Again, and I can’t stress this enough… These tables are meant as prompts only. If you get it into your head that you’ll be able to roll up a complete wilderness map with these tables, you’d be wrong. It’s merely meant to make it a little easier. Feel free to alter them to suit your own style of world building.

 

Happy Gaming!

EDIT:  A MUCH IMPROVED LIGHTER FLUFFIER SYSTEM HERE.

New Career path for 1st edition Mongoose Traveller

Because the TCS is not a Feudal society, but a massive star spanning bureaucracy, I've had to make a few adjustments to the career paths. This is one of them.

Replace Nobility with Bureaucrat. Keep the Administrator and Diplomat paths, but replace the Dilettante with Politician.

Politician
Career progress: Survival: Edu +4
                           Advancement: Int +8

    Rank                    Benefit
0  Attache                Admin
1  Selectman            Advocate
2  Assemblyman
3  Councilor            Persuade
4  Provost                Advocate
5  Prefect
6  Prelate                 Advocate

Skills and Training
Roll                  Personal Development                    Service Skills
  1                     Carouse                                           Leadership
  2                     +1 Edu                                            Persuade
  3                     Deception                                       Admin
  4                     +1 Soc                                            Advocate
  5                     Gambling                                       Diplomat
  6                     Streetwise                                      Social Sciences

                        Advanced Education                      Specialist
  1                    Diplomat                                        Carouse
  2                    Deception                                       Diplomat
  3                    Advocate                                        Admin
  4                    Language                                       Advocate
  5                    Investigate                                     Gambler
  6                    Persuade                                        Deception

Muster out Benefits
  1           d3 Contacts
  2           +1 Soc
  3           100,000 cr
  4           Ship Shares
  5           100,000 cr
  6           Ships Boat
  7           Yacht

So there it is, as soon as find the list of departments within the TCS, I'll be posting it  so there will be a use for the new positions.

Happy Gaming!

SN 1054

For approximately 2 Terran Standard years starting in 1054, the populace of the small blue world, in an orbit 93 million miles around the star called Sol, were witness to a stellar event. From the surface of their world, the inhabitants would have seen one of the pinpoints of light in their night sky grow very bright. A few of the humans noted the event. Several hundred years later the descendants of those humans developed the technology to see beyond the confines of their planet's immediate vicinity, and they discovered that the source of increased brightness of that particular pinpoint of light, that which now called stars, was a star gone supernova. Several hundred years after that, the humans of Terra had discovered the secrets of interstellar travel. As a species humans have an unparalleled curiosity. This curiosity drove them to the location of the supernova. Many years before they had named the cloud of gas left by it the Crab nebula.

What the humans discovered was what was left behind. Since it's discovery so many years ago, Terran scientists have been unable to determine what turned an entire star system with numerous planets,  into an asteroid field. The star at center, the source of stability had been crystallized. A star, an enormous ball of burning gas, crystallized. Current science cannot fathom how this was accomplished. Measurements approximate the span of the star system at 400 billion kilometers. What remains is a field of rocks spanning that distance. The humans that discovered it named it Alghumud, the mystery.

Important locales of the Alghumud asteroid field

Fortuna Refinery: Hollowed out of the Rhombus asteroid, one of the largest in the field, this is a high capacity refinery and smelting facility. Taking in raw material from the independent miners across the field, this facility produces some of the purest metals and gemstones in the TCS.

Spaceport Gloria: Located on the coreward edge of the field, the spaceport handles all commercial and private traffic for the Field. Gloria is a Class A spaceport capable of refueling and repair of any space craft manufactured with the TCS.

Crystal Core: At 1500 kilometers across, Crystal Core is the largest crystal structure in the known universe. Currently TCS PhySCI is the only department allowed to have facilities on the massive crystal. This is a purely scientific station run by the TCS authority.

Fortuna Refinery - No Hex reference - C000435-11
Spaceport Gloria - No Hex reference - A000513-13
Crystal Core - No Hex reference - ??00?9?-??


As with all things in the TCS, this is a work in progress. I'll be adding to it the farther I get into building the TCS setting.

Happy Gaming!

New Traveller Equipment

   I am still working on the finer points of Close Aboard Combat repeaters, but I got the rest of my special additions done.

   I don't use standard jump drive or gravity plating in my Traveller setting.


                                                Keflen Tachyon Tunnel Drives

Keflen Tachyon Tunnel Drives are bought on externally fastened pods. The pods weigh 20% of the ship’s tonnage.

Keflen drive pods expend Lorentzium with every jump. After travelling 100 light years the drive must be refueled. Refuelling can be done at any Class C or better spaceport.
Private/Consumer drive pods can only be used on ships of less than 10,000 tons.

Commercial drive pods can only be used on ships of less than 50,000 tons

Military drive pod weight capabilities are unknown.

Super heavy ships cannot use KT drive pods, they must use conventional drives and the crew must hibernate during transit.

Super heavy transport modules include: Automated refinery modules, Gas hauling tankers, terraforming modules, Navigation buoy construction/placement/repair modules, Automated Space station construction modules.

Due to the nature of how a KTT drive works, a “Spin Up” and “Spin Down” cycle is required for correct operation. Before FTL travel, the booms of the KTT drive must be spinning. This process takes 3 hours for the Lorentzium booms reach the correct speed. Spin Down procedure only takes 1 hour. All space ports require spin down to be complete before docking or landing. In order to replenish the Lorentzium slugs, a cool off period of 1 hour must also be allowed. This process cannot be combined with the Spin Down period.

 

Graviton Dam

A Titanium Osmium alloy surrounds a Promethium Oxide plasma field that runs the length of ship’s keel. The reaction between the casing and the plasma field generates gravitons. By varying the density of the casing to allow a less dense alloy along a line across the bottom of the casing, the escaping gravitons create artificial gravity in a ship equipped with such a device.

Gravity plating does not exist in my universe. Just in case there are any rules lawyers out there thinking they could exploit that loophole.

A graviton dam weighs 2% of the total ship’s weight.

Ion Cannon

One of the most devastating weapons ever developed is the Ion Cannon. Not only can disable an enemy’s screens, if used in double fire mode, it can temporarily disable a ships’ drive field.

An Ion Cannon works by overloading the electrical control systems of an opposing ship’s screens, thereby shutting them down and allowing weapons that would normally be reduced by screens to be more effective.

All Ion Cannons are only available in spinal mounts. All ion cannons must have their own power source. The single shot version requires a K size power plant a double fire version requires a Q size power plant.

A single shot ion cannon weighs 50 tons and uses 3 hard points, a double shot ion cannon also uses 3 hard points and weighs 70 tons. A single shot can only disable a ship’s active screens, the double shot version takes out screens first, a ship’s drive fails on a successful second hit. An ion cannon has a range of very long.

Attack rolls for each shot of a double shot ion cannon must be made separately. Only M drive fields are effected by an ion cannon, and on a successful hit the ships drive is inoperative for 1d6/2 rounds. For a maximum of 18 minutes.

Origins of the TCS (Terran Combine States)

   Late in the year 2068, in what was to become the last mission for the United States program called NASA, the U.S.S. Mongol remote space probes were launched from the Space Station Gateway to conduct an extremely detailed gravitational survey of the solar system. The NASA researchers were beginning an intensive study of the Sol star system, in hopes of refining the technology of interstellar travel. Due to an upcoming planetary and gravitational alignment of the planets in the Sol system, and an increase in X class solar flares, this allowed for the detection of lanes or channels of never before detected particles radiating out from the sun. A scant four months of research revealed these lanes revealed them to be composed of Tachyons. Scientists had been unable to prove their existence up until then.
   In 2070 Dr. Emille Keflen made the breakthrough. He had found the lanes of tachyons radiating out from the sun acted like focused channels. If an energy infused frame were introduced into one of the lanes it was accelerated to near light speed. This breakthrough open up the solar system to commercial exploitation, and soon after that, extra-solar exploration.
   The United States ended their government space program in 2073. The Euro-Asian compact formed in 2069, reorganized itself and renamed itself the Terran Combine Nation states, or The Terran Combine for short. The Combine would pick up exploration where The United States had left off. In 2075 it christened the TCS Mobius, it's first exploration survey ship capable of interstellar travel using the newly developed Keflen tachyon drive.
   Rampant overpopulation and advancements in medical life extension technologies fueled the next 150 years of colonization. Now, 393 years after Dr. Keflen's breakthrough, the Combine has colonized nearly 40 star systems.  It now takes a mere eight days to reach the farthest settled system from Sol. Trade between star systems is commonplace, lucrative, and quite frequently a dangerous enterprise.

Edit: Apparently, no one was interested. Whatev.

Happy Gaming!

Ode to Pat's CoC game.

Due to a description of some mysterious events relayed by a Twitter friend this morning. I feel compelled to tell you of a great game and great CoC Keeper.

Sherman, set the Wayback machine for the mid eighties.

   Gathered around a dining room table, lights turned low, Wagner player low on the stereo. 3 adolescent boys huddled over one of the earliest editions of Call of Cthulhu. One keeper and 2 players. Now, being the adolescents we were back then, we had wild flights of fantasy. The two players, One Mr. Steve Martin (NO not that Steve Martin) and yours truly, Temmogen Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse and all around good guy. Of course I went by a different name back then. A name that wasn't so grandiose. The keeper was an older guy by about 6 or 7 years. That's a testament to his patience that he would actually play with us lunatics. Pat was probably my oldest friend. I knew him since I first started high school. Pat died a few years back from complications due to diabetes, and I do miss him. But I digress...
   Anyway... We two boneheads had decided we wanted to play ourselves in the game. Yes yes, this shows a stunning lack of maturity and imagination, but we were young and we had a plan. If we played ourselves, we could take all of "so called" knowledge from current day and defeat any threat thrown at us. Remember I did say we were young. Among the entertainments Steve and myself pursued irl, was shooting out streetlights with his bb gun. Just. Don't. Ask. Idiocy runs in in the age group. Anyway, Pat knew of this and had a little surprise for us.
   There we were, sitting is Steve's Camaro down at the Castle Pines exit of the highway. Loading the bb gun in preparation of some prime glass shattering. We pulled up stealthily under our intended victim, when all of a sudden the streetlight sprouted arms and a pair of baleful red eye stalks. Panic ensued. At the table and in the game. We started looking frantically for anything to kill off the newly dubbed "Lamploths". Steve blew one drive skill check, and that was all our devious keeper needed. We ended up driving into a ginormous propane tank and getting blown back through time. We awoke to the face of a very befuddled looking professor from one Miskatonic University. He was about to start dissection procedure on the two strangely dressed humanoids that had been discovered at the site of an oil well explosion in New Jersey.
   We had to revise our plan. In case anyone is wondering, it is considerably harder to steal dynamite in the present day world. Back in the 20's and 30's, they weren't so strict with it. During the course of that game, Steve and I managed to blow up 5 cars and at least 2 multi story domiciles. Much to the chagrin of our NPC handlers. We never did get those Byakhee.
   Yes we died in a construction site explosion while attempting to steal more dynamite (The Arkham police had started locking it up because of our antics) but for 3 months, we had a blast. Very few games have been that much fun since. I miss Pat. But he did give me the gift of many pleasant gaming memories. Remind to tell you about Alastair Carstai's adventures in Algeria one day...

Happy Gaming!

More questions for Return to the Barrier peaks

Trite: (of a remark, opinion, or idea) overused and consequently of little import; lacking originality or freshness.

This is what I'm trying to avoid. I don't want the PCs t have to work their way up the Valley of the Mage, that's an exercise in attrition. Allowing them to start at the lair of the BBEG, might not prepare them for the fight. I don't think anyone really enjoys a tpk...

Do we have the BBEG's army march on some unsuspecting victim, thereby removing the majority of them as an obstacle?
Are they just apathetic?
Maybe there is a resistance among the population of the valley?

or maybe...

How about this?
   The Laird of the valley, has indeed made an army from the technology he discovered on the ship. However, when he abandoned the ship thinking he had unlocked all it's secrets, he didn't dispatch the Mind Flayer. The Mind Flayer phoned home, and now he has to contend with an Illithid conclave. He calls for those stout of heart to vanquish the illithid menace.
Will the players figure out the Laird is neutral evil?
Will they turn on him when they're done with the flayers?

Plans within plans... This could get very convoluted.

OK, so how about... The Laird hires the PCs thru a proxy, and wing it from there? I hate to say it, but this might have to be an improv game. Lay out the Laird's plan and his army, lay out the Mind Flayers conclave, and then turn the players loose.

Rode that one right off the rails, didn't I?

Existential designers crisis...

Hey, happy gaming anyway!